Bernard Hickey in the Herald.
‘There’ll be only yuan winner’
Key parts of the article…..
“We ain’t seen nothin’ yet. The revelation that Shanghai Pengxin is buying Lochinver Station should not be a surprise to anyone watching the capital flows out of China in the past few years.
It is only the beginning, and the scale of the flows will dwarf the $300 million-plus that Shanghai Pengxin’s property development billionaire owner Jiang Zhaobai has spent over the past three years building a portfolio of dairy and dairy-support farms in New Zealand.
New Zealanders debating their foreign ownership laws should understand the scale of the capital flows that are coming, and where they come from.
The first thing to know is that there is a wall of cash about to break out from inside China.
This is the key point. China’s new leadership under President Xi Jingping wants to relax those capital controls to remove some of the distortions in China’s economy and impose market disciplines. This will make it easier for some of that US$14t to get out and buy assets beyond China’s borders.
China’s state-owned banks are in the vanguard of facilitating these flows. State-owned China Construction Bank, chaired in New Zealand by Jenny Shipley, was registered as a New Zealand bank this year and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, chaired here by Don Brash, was registered as a New Zealand bank last year.
Bank of China has taken out a lease in Queen St, and is expected to also gain a licence here.”
Sobering stuff.
And note how ex members of the National and ACT parties are facilitating this.
Add to that the Herald story on most common last names of new borns in Auckland – nearly all Asian with a school photo of 10 kids with only 1 white face. Apparently that = ‘diversity’, it is more like ethnic cleansing.
Nothing. There is no connection to ethnicity and I have not made one.
I would have highlighted an article about US or UK corporates as well.
It’s the global elite that is the problem and our economic system, not any particular race, obviously.
It’s one thing to think that there’s nothing wrong with foreign immigration per se. That’s compatible with allowing a mix immigrants from diverse backgrounds. Allowing mass immigration from one source has different results.
The Maori woke up one morning and discovered that they now lived in a European country with European culture, laws and social mores. Would you like to wake up in a country that has moved towards the culture, laws and social mores of the PRC?
It is not about being “for” or “against” immigration. It is the un-had discussion regarding the amount and rate of immigration that is beneficial and that does not result in adverse effects on our physical infrastructure, environment, delivery of public services and social networks.
We simplify the discussion – to a “for” or “against” – for all the wrong reasons. Supposed economic benefit, fear of discussions becoming xenophobic or racist, refusal to consider that growth is no longer a prime motivator for policy.
If it could ever be discussed fully and impartially by all NZers – including recent immigrants who will have quality information about the difficulties they have faced and barriers to NZ lifestyle benefits – our immigration laws and quotas could be drafted to benefit all – both existing NZers and newcomers.
Wealth solves our social ills said Whyte. Then quickly added to his bait, the switch. So all economic growth was good for social ills.
The ignorance of the man!
The widening wealth gap is bad for the economy, bad for social problems, and we all ignore this at our peril, whether the poor, and more important the rich who have further to fall.
Growth can rise in N.Korea but it has no effect on its social backwardness.
Growth can rise in China and has everything to do with its widening of wealth to more people, and not because a few are staggeringly rich.
Growth can fall in the UK and social ills magnified.
Where on Earth does there exist a society where growth created greater social wealth, better environments, well where government is mindful to spread wealth like in the Scandinavian countries, or Singapore.
But Whyte thinks less government and more growth will heal social malaise magically. The guy is a complete fool.
It’s not like it’s confined to Western countries either. I know that concern about Chinese immigration also exists in other Asian countries.
But from my point of view, we should kick out all the saffers and poms. Rugby traitors the lot of them! Send ’em back! Noo Zillund for the Noo Zillunders!
Norman is a Australian. Norman is against, I believe, land sales to non-resident foreigners. So I’m guessing there are other foreign residents from China, UK, US, etc all who agree that selling land to non-resident foreigners is a bad idea. Worse, now we know in other countries they are not called xenophobic for introducing patriotic limits on land sales. Even National admitted to have tightened the rules.
So why did Dunne have just one thing to say about land sales, that we’re all racists xenophobics? Is he moronic? Is he stupid? Does he just like calling most of NZ racists? Yes, all of the above?
Norman Russel is a NZ Citizen (though he was born in Australia), as is his wife and child. But otherwise, I do agree with your point that; having a policy not selling land to non-resident foreigners is not necessarily xenophobic.
The weird thing is they don’t exactly vote left wing, the Asian people I hang out with tend to like National, love property investment, and think the country should be run like a business.
(Also I have observed people aren’t voting for policy, they are voting for JK, and against beneficiaries)
“The weird thing is they don’t exactly vote left wing, the Asian people I hang out with tend to like National, love property investment, and think the country should be run like a business.”
Anything to do with the fact that our immigration policy promotes business people/rich people over others? It’s not like they’re letting the Asian hippies in is it.
“The Maori woke up one morning and discovered that they now lived in a European country.”
That does rather discount the decades of both; peaceful & armed resistance, from; individual iwi, iwi alliances, and the Kingitangi movement which led to the development of Māori identity as a people. Similarly, it was what changed the “Ingarani” of Te Tiriti into the Pākehā of today: A sometimes contentious term; the best definition I’ve heard is that Pākehā are the descendants of settlers who have shed blood for the country (not necessarily their own), whereas Tauiwi are more recent arrivals. Though, I would include having an ancestor; who’d made a significant contribution, or even just being buried, in Aotearoa as enough to identify as Pākehā (regarding commitment to the country as metaphorical “blood”). Drifting a fair way off topic here…
Māori didn’t just wake “up one morning” to discover their Rangatiratanga usurped by settler Kāwanatanga, it was a gradual and sporadic process. The central nexus in my view was; the guesstimate census presented to the settler government in 1860, which indicated that settlers then outnumbered (the Tangata Whenua who were becoming) Māori. The next year, the Taranaki land wars started; heralding the influx of thousands of British Empire soldiers to enforce Settler authority.
Your point (or at least, concluding line) seemed to be:
Allowing mass immigration from one source has different results… Would you like to wake up in a country that has moved towards the culture, laws and social mores of the PRC?
My counterpoint was that such a cultural shift is not something that just happens overnight, and that one can struggle against it (though not necessarily prevail). However, change is the only constant, and our culture will change over time regardless.
Also, if you going to cite the colonial experience of Māori; then you should have some inkling of what you refer to.
In response to OAB’s; “Then what has their ethnicity got to do with it?”; TJ replied “Ask a Maori… [who] woke up one morning and discovered that they now lived in a European country “.
My argument against that is the historical record; where the tangata whenua did not have a pan-Māori identity until it was forged in the fires of resistance. I felt that TJs depiction of; Māori as uniform ignorami who didn’t realise their disposession until it was an accomplished fact, was disingenuous. Or:
“a cultural shift is not something that just happens overnight, and that one can struggle against it”
Which wasn’t mean to be read as advice to surrender to inevitable landsales to nonresident foreigners. However, we are always being re-colonised and it is the struggle against (and accommodations with) that process that determines our national character.
If you don’t find that useful, then my apologies; I tend to be more interested in truth than utility. Perhaps you should read another’s comments.
Apparently that = ‘diversity’, it is more like ethnic cleansing.
You’re sorta stupid, aren’t you. If you want coloured people to have a lower fertility rate, you have to give them more chances at higher education and higher incomes. Are you willing to do that.
“You’re sorta stupid, aren’t you. If you want coloured people to have a lower fertility rate, you have to give them more chances at higher education and higher incomes. Are you willing to do that.”
If you want people to have a lower fertility rate, you have to give them more chances at higher education and higher incomes. Are you willing to do that. FIFY
Good article from Bernanrd. Lets hope some of the more Nact inclined members of the nation understand the economic wake up call from this. China is artificially keeping it’s exchange rate down and attempting to buy real assets the world over. Colonisation in other words. Gives a good idea of how maori felt doesn’t it.
Yes unfortunately our Nact tribal leaders do want to sell the “iwi”out. Still we should think positive and look at how we can stop overseas land ownership and then make life uncomfortable with a lotta taxes (overseas domiciled get to pay a CGT each year -no clawbacks- but domestic CGT based on realisation only) until sale takes place.
Let’s turn this into an “iwi” gold mine.
Brash and Shipley don’t believe in society or community.
There are devoted followers of the Ayn Rand cult….listen to Jamie Whyte and you hear this vile doctrine.
If the Chinese really wanted to purchase assets offshore in the way you are suggesting they would be much better to inflate the value of their currency rather than keep it low.
What Rubbish goose you haven’t managed to get one economic fact right yet goose .
If China the great democratic country sorry dictatorship increased the value of its currency its surpluses would disappear and exports dry up!
China’s dictators have a longterm plan for their economy !
New Zealanders like your dumb arse selfish short term thinker only can see a 3 month reporting period!
Rod Oram points out that these companies take the commodities out of our country with out adding value even Fonterra hand over most of their milk powder for the likes of Nestle’ to add all the value!
Gooseman racial fermenter!
You need to take a good look at yourself and your silly snipes.
Travel like we have the globe and then tell the truth, unfortunately Bernard is correct Chinese money is now drowning the world in debt from your speculator mates who use cheap Chinese money.
This global economic crash is all down to you and your mates fast and easy flash in the pan speculations and you now are planning this continued policy will destroy our NZ economy?
best you look up the business registry of the top icon companies we had that now have been taken mostly over by Chinese, just for one is Fisher & paykel.
Policies you promote are dangerous. They call that a crime against the state, and the people you loathe as Kiwis..
Goose we are 58th on the list of countries adding value to our primary industry !
Until that changes we will continue to become closer to the bottom of the developed world!
build some more motorways so our commodity based economy can help all the overseas commodity value adders keep us poor!
3rd world thinking from a goose.
That’s a fascinating conclusion to draw from a single comment, in which the only point I made was that it’s gross for a man to push his personal political issues using women’s bodies.
Phillp ure.
if you cant contribute with constructive comments to help the country out of this spiralling drowning in debt and takeovers shut the fuck up you corrosive NatZ.
Err LK, phillip is very very far from being a nat. Please read many of his comments on many wide range of pages here at the standard. Also the left is about robust diverse voices, well maybe not the authoritarian left, but the rest of us. So please, if you don’t like Philips humour, don’t read his posts, self censorship is fine.
From yesterdays Herald, Franny O’Sullivan gives an elongated Tsk Tsk Tsk to all those young people for indulging in the recent InternetMana Party Party rave,
Little of it is worth repeating, pretty much akin to reading something printed off on an old Gestetner circa 1960’s and then comparing it with today’s zooo–ooom of internet communications,
Risible from O’Sullivan as She put forward Her ‘thoughts’ of what the Youf of today should be occupying their minds with in ‘election season’, Freedom didn’t get a look in from Fran, Party Party’s apparently are definitely a No No according to the gospel of O’Sullivan,
i think i can safely say to O’Sullivan that the young people attending InternetMana Party Party’s up and down our little islands would only have Two words, very descriptive, involving both sex and travel, in reply to Grannies Granny telling them to get a mortgage,
This attitude, epitomized in a recent debate on ‘decriminalizing abortion’ where you proposed that ”abortion might be a solution to child poverty” to me reeks of an attitude where eugenics would be the next step toward the slippery slope,
I have had a look at recent discussions of abortion at The Standard and surprisingly enough cannot find any comment I made which even vaguely correlates to your claim.
It’s a bit puzzling that you’d even raise the topic in the middle of a discussion about Ohariu, but since you’ve basically accused me of supporting eugenics, I insist you back it up or retract it.
Stephanie, how easily you forget, you made the comment in ‘Open Mike’ i do believe, about the same day, give or take a day or two either side, that the last actual Post discussing abortion appeared here a the Standard,(the discussion about the actual Green’s policy),
i have other things to do this morning, and, will hunt it out later, i will also comment later on why i raised such a comment vis a vis your obviously placed in some position within Labour’s Ohariu electorate campaign later…
i will amend the above, the original discussion occurred in ‘Open Mike’ on 09/06/2014, this was followed in the next couple of days by an actual ‘Post’ on the Green’s ‘new policy’,(the ‘Post’ may have even been the same day),
i have to be somewhere starting in 15 minutes, the comment you made Stephanie, was i now believe made within that specific ‘Post’ discussing the actual policy, i will hunt it out later…
It’s very easy to forget saying things which I have never said.
And I’m breathless with anticipation to know just how my (alleged and unproven) feelings about abortion decriminalisation are applicable to my statements about the strategic voting situation in Ohariu (none of which you’ve actually managed to rebut.)
Edited to add: it’s also interesting how in the 25 minutes between your two comments above you managed to remember the exact date of the post but not actually find the quote you have attributed to me.
Ah so smug Stephanie, you shouldn’t be, but, yes i will withdraw unreservedly my allegation that you used the word ‘Poverty’ in ‘Open Mike’ on 6 June 2014,
You will tho be getting no apology as the words you did use, and i quote:
”it seems fairly obvious that an early abortion of an unaware clump of cells is a heck of a lot better fate than being born into abuse and neglect” unquote,
Is in fact a direct reference to poverty, any fool, well perhaps in your case i may have to create a special category, would know that in the vast majority of cases where abuse and/or neglect is reported it is also evident in the family concerned an ongoing situation of Poverty,
So while your glib excuse making and outright smugness may come from not actually having used the word Poverty in your above quote it is obvious to anyone who has worked for any amount of time, large or small, in the area of the care of children, as i have, that Poverty, Neglect and/or Abuse in the family situation are inseparably intertwined,
IF Stephanie, you had a shred of concern for such children, born into Poverty and thus ‘at risk’ of suffering the myriad negative effects that are part and parcel of such Poverty, including Abuse and Neglect, you would be advocating the raising of the income of ALL such families instead of claiming as you do that their unborn children be ripped from their mothers wombs and effectively flushed down the sink as some form of ‘solution’ which smacks at the least of a gross lack of humanity on your part,
Your comment above is a massive step in the direction of Eugenics and thus abhorrent…
[lprent: Stephanie is always very precise in her choice of words. However she is also an author, so it is inadvisable to continue to attack her on the basis of what she did not say, or what you choose to place as the meaning on those words.
After all, I could start trolling through you comments and taking meanings from what you have said in the past. ]
Ropata, i did not say that, you have as i have just been ‘spanked’ for, read into my comment something that simply is not there,
As i point out, Neglect and/or Abuse is accompanied in the overwhelming majority of such cases by Poverty,
Therefor, and as the Moderator has pointed out, the commenter may have not intended to convey this, the opinion those words have formed in my psyche at least is that abortion has been proposed as a means to lower the obviously high amounts of abuse and neglect that occur within families,
Much the same as your link makes an assertion that abortion may reduce crime, i could, perhaps mistakenly, construe that by linking to such an assertion you support the point the link makes,
It’s a tough question. I abhor the picture you have described (late term abortion), but on balance I think the sum of human happiness is improved by reproductive choice. Just look at the impact of contraception on third world countries.
Ropata, i fail to understand your reference to ”late term abortion” has the inclusion of such a term in the discussion any relevance and if so can you elucidate that relevance,
Crime, by conviction, not necessarily by value, also has attached to it another demographic, exactly the same as the demographic attached to families where reported abuse and neglect is rife,
Poverty is that linkage, and, while there my be some small truth in claims that abortion would alleviate/lower rates of both crime and abuse/neglect this could not be achieved by ‘choice’,
In other words to achieve such aims through the use of abortion of the tool someone else would be doing the choosing,
Families where crime, and/or abuse/neglect occur still choose to have babies so while those proposing such ‘solutions’ are not at the same time proposing that someone other than ‘the mother’ exercise ‘choice’ to achieve a lowering of the statistics alluded to in this discussion would involve ‘choice’ at some stage being replaced by ‘force’,
Think tho wont you, why do we have poor people, poor workers especially are seen as a necessity of our economy,
If the unborn babies of such poor people where to be ‘knocked off’ in a generational manner so as to make a difference in the statistical areas we are discussing who will then be left to do the labour of the poor,
Now perhaps do you see the linkage i postulate between such ‘ideas’ and Eugenics, while no-one is overtly proposing Eugenics for such proposals as using abortion as a tool to say lower crime rates such proposals are one very large step in that direction…
LPrent, while i take on board your point that Stephanie is an author, this conversation as you can see is the result not of a ‘Post’ that Stephanie wrote but as a result of comments between the two of us in a previous ‘Open Mike’,
Everybody commenting here at the Standard continually ”reads into” comments from anywhere and everywhere, on-site and off-site ”meanings” into what is said by those commenting, those in the media, and, those involved in politics,
So really, i have to ask here what is the point of your moderation except to stifle my ability to debate,
i see no overt abuse in my comment to Stephanie and simply point out the facts vis a vis Poverty and such poverty’s connections to child Abuse and Neglect,
i do not usually bother to respond to ‘moderation’s comments’ as there is obviously little point to doing so as it appears to have only one inescapable conclusion in doing so…
That’s utterly pathetic, bad. Now you’re pretending that this is just about whether I used the word ‘poverty’ or not – when anyone can see by clicking on the links I have provided that you accused me very specifically of saying “abortion might be a solution to child poverty” – and then got really smarmy about “how easily I forget” saying such things.
Now you’ve accused me of not supporting moves to raise people’s incomes and get them out of situations where they feel abortion is the best option for them, which is a complete lie, and you’ve once again linked my opinions about abortion to eugenics.
And you still haven’t explained exactly what the hell this has to do with strategic voting!
I’m going to have to insist once again that you retract your accusations about what I said – not some sneaky, weaselly “did I use the word ‘poverty'” spin – apologise for saying I support eugenics, and explain your choice to introduce these lies in a completely different conversation.
Because right now the “opinion your words have formed in my psyche” is that you’re a sad little liar who can’t handle women disagreeing with him or making choices he doesn’t like.
My thinking was just to mill about outside with left party signage before candidates mtg and then have a rally depending on numbers afteward (and welcome anyone evicted from the hall by security).
Are you serious?
“Laila Harre and Hone Harawira will be missing”.
I understand why Hone won’t be there, as he isn’t a candidate in the electorate, but I didn’t think that Laila would run away. It certainly shows how Dotcom rules the roost doesn’t it.
I suppose she is scared that she is going to look like a complete prat and is looking for an excuse not to have to be there and be shown up by Key of course.
I did read the sentence in full.
Is being one of a group forming Kim Dotcom’s court in Invercargill really more important than attending the only candidate meeting in the electorate in which she is standing?
She is the one after all who claimed that she would be chasing John Key to hold him to account.
Instead when KDC tells her to follow him, as if he was the Pied Piper and she was one of the original followers in the story, she follows his orders.
I stand by my words. KDC is totally in charge isn’t he?
Whoops. Sorry. I mentally put a colon in the sentence as I read it.
I read it as being a statement that they would be missing and an explanation why.
I take it Laila will be present after all.
Yes. It was the fact that the word “missing” was at the end of the line in T.M’s original post and the next line started with the capital letter in “IMPs” that fooled me into thinking it was two statements. Can I blame TM for carefully arranging the length and construction of his sentences deliberately to trick me? No?
I thought that it could be taken as read. It was based on a false premise from misreading one sentence as two. On that basis any conclusions based on a misinterpretation of the facts are clearly not justified.
I still think Laila has been bought by someone who would appear to hold values that are completely different from anything that she has supported in the past of course.
Is the Herald once again leaving behind the impression that Liu gave lotsa money to labour. Why doesn’t he mention any donations the Nacts got? I seem to remmeber a court case some time back where a judge had some scathing remarks to make about a magazine that printed rumours about a public figure so it could also print a denial.
“A Herald investigation revealed that Maurice Williamson contacted police about the domestic violence inquiry on Liu’s behalf. He resigned his ministerial portfolios in May.
There was further political controversy in June over donations Liu said he had made to the Labour Party.”
Watching the Comedy that is the Epsom. On Q+A TV1. There’s Goldsmith denying that he wants to be a sitting MP only a List MP. And the Clown for ACT? What a train wreck. And now Goldsmith is sounding like the one to elect. And the Labour Guy Michael Wood well he is sounding really good too. Julie Anne Genter accepts that most speak to her over Transport. And Rankin? Well nice Earings
Labour, and hopefully Green voters in Epsom are bright enough to work it out for themselves. It is the Nats who have to be unsubtly reminded where their class interests lie.
Have another look at the Q+A program without the blinkers on Philip, the Green’s Julie Ann Genter, as much as i like Her, was saying much the same thing,
Blah Blah, Democracy, Democracy, seeking Party vote only, but, the people of Epsom must be left to choose their own electorate MP,
If Julie Ann wakes up the morning after with a healthy vote in both categories, party and electorate, with the ACT candidate still firmly ensconced in the Seat of Epsom allowing a 1 seat majority for the right to govern shall we all thank Her for the effort,
Reckon you’d have smelt it and seen it seeping across the floor if you’d been in that studio. Isn’t their some incontinence pad they advertise on the tele’ ? Send the poor thing a comp’ carton of same.
Ha ! Apparently the 2011 result was down to one ACT seat in parliament. What happened to the most magnificent electoral endorsement ever seeen in the history of New Zealand politics ?
Like you we are unimpressed by TV1 adaptation of Rachael Smalley.
She used to be a giant investigative journo, so objective by asking the Hard questions.
But now she sadly looks like another of the many natz clones at TV1, wasn’t TV1 a public TV channel not a Government election tool?
Almost all are Natz moles, and Mike Hosking’s????.
What have they done to Rachael?
Has she gotten to close to the spin doctor Joyce?
Something has taken her over at the Joyce/Goebells propaganda channel TV1? taken out her brain or brainwashed her?
Please wake up Rachael, we need you to be your real former balanced investigative journo type, smart, witty, and just what we need to dig under the pile of crap called “National”.
RNZ’s Monday morning political spot starting around 1110am will be well worth a listen. A word of warning: batten down your cerebral hatches because Matthew Hooton will be spinning like a Force 10 hurricane.
And wearing the royal purple again. On the very odd occasions I have seen her on the TV she always seems to have a lot of purple clothes on. Channeling a desire to be royalty perhaps?? -Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown…
She likes bright colours. Pinks, purples and blues. Maybe she thinks of herself as the Queen Mum’s NZ successor. She also went in for pinks, purples and blues.
How much marijuana did Arthur Baysting smoke before the Kim Hill interview? Saturday Morning, Radio New Zealand National, 9 August 2014
Anybody else listen to Kim Hill interviewing Arthur Baysting (AKA Neville Purvis) about the need for marijuana legalization? Much of what he said was perfectly sensible and reasonable, until right near the end, when he saw fit to praise President Barack “Bomber” Obama for his liberal attitude towards cannabis law reform.
So far, so good.
But then Baysting, in his blissed out zeal, went a little bit further than was sensible. Because it is now legal in several states, the jail population is going down dramatically, he claimed, and would mean Obama’s legacy would be “up there with Nelson Mandela’s”. That’s a stupid and ignorant and inflammatory thing to say, and is unforgivable, even for an old hippy musician who has obviously been toking daily for the last half-century.
If Arthur Baysting wants to be taken seriously, he needs to learn to speak with a degree of moderation and proportion. Comparing a smooth-talking, cynical product of the rotten, vicious Chicago Democrat Party machine to a revolutionary, principled peace activist that he would have defamed mercilessly if he had been president while the apartheid state was—like Pinochet’s Chile, Duvalier’s Haiti, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq—an American protégé, is utterly preposterous. It’s the kind of thing a stoned old stupid old muso would say during a session. A dope-smoking session, that is. Like the thirteenth gong of a cuckoo clock, it casts doubt on all that went before.
Meanwhile, now that the Nobel Peace Prize-winning peacemaker Barack Mandela has committed to another attack on Iraq, in contravention of his election promises, we can only speculate on how the U.S. soldiers will behave. Sadly, judging by their behaviour in Afghanistan, it’s not entirely promising….
US soldier pleads guilty to urinating on Afghan bodies
AFP DECEMBER 22, 2012 2:48AM
A US Marine was jailed for 30 days, fined and demoted after pleading guilty to participating in a video that showed soldiers urinating on the dead bodies of three Afghans.
Staff Sergeant Joseph Chamblin was charged with “alleged involvement in desecration and posing for unofficial photographs with human casualties,” a statement said.
He pleaded guilty to the charges, which included “wrongfully urinating on the body of a deceased enemy combatant,” as well as failing to supervise the young soldiers in his unit who also took part in the incident.
Chamblin’s rank will be bumped down to lance corporal, he will serve 30 days confinement, his pay will be docked $US500 ($477) a month for the next six months, and he was ordered to pay a $US2000 fine, the judge in the special court martial ruled.
Another soldier, Edward Deptola, is also facing military prosecution, while three others involved in the case have faced administrative sanctions. All five belong to an elite unit of snipers.
The incident came to public attention in January, when a video surfaced online that showed four US soldiers urinating on three bloodied corpses. One of the men, apparently aware he was being filmed, says: “Have a great day, buddy,” referring to one of the dead.
I agree with you, Phillip, and I share your—and Arthur Baysting’s—desire to see the absurd and cruel drug laws abolished. However, judging from what I’ve seen of your posts over the years, I don’t think you would ever be so foolish as to compare Barack Obama to Nelson Mandela.
My problem with Baysting is not his pro-marijuana views, it’s his addled comparison of a war criminal to a heroic peace activist.
You do know that Mandela was a convicted criminal, Moz? He co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. Presumably he was a supporter of MK’s activities right through to democracy. I sincerely doubt he ever considered himself a peace activist, rather, he was a soldier in an armed struggle.
Meanwhile, now that the Nobel Peace Prize-winning peacemaker Barack Mandela has committed to another attack on Iraq, in contravention of his election promises
Its a response to the UN call,of which the Unanimous statement of the security council is that a response to ethnic cleansing in northern iraq and syria by isis is required.
Quite a few of us are left wondering @Morissey – what ya sed with the opening lines.
ooops – sincere apologies! Can I shove an additional ‘r’ up ya?
Kim needed coaching on how it was he was attempting to connect dots too.
She should have had Rik B and some other strugglers waiting in the wings – not that its all about Kim.
Get back to you’re gardening woman will ya!
Colmar Brunton Epsom poll results: [On Q and A this morning]
Who would you vote for with your electorate vote?
National Paul Goldsmith 44%
Act David Seymour 32%
Labour Michael Woold 10%
Green Julie Anne Genter 9%
Conservative Christine Rankin 4%
Internet Mana Pat O’Dea .08%
Independent Grace Haden 0.3%
Don’t know 8%
Were you aware John key is encouraging National Party supporters to give their electorate vote to the Act Party candidate?
Yes 70%
No 28%
Don’t know 2%
With this in mind, who would you now vote for with your electorate vote?
National Paul Goldsmith 31%
Act David Seymour 45%
Labour Michael Woold 9%
Green Julie Anne Genter 10%
Conservative Christine Rankin 4%
Internet Mana Pat O’Dea .08%
Independent Grace Haden 0.1%
Don’t know 13%
Do you support or oppose arrangements like the one John Key has made with the Act Party in Epsom?
Support 47%
Oppose 37%
Don’t know 16%
Which political party would you vote for?
National 60%
Green 16%
Labour 14%
NZ First 3.3%
Act 2.7%
Conservative 2.1%
Internet Mana 1.5%
Maori 0.6%
Don’t know 6%
Stunning numbers for the Green Party in what is obviously a right wing stronghold, InternetMana cannot be too disappointed with having 1.5% Party Vote support there,
Poor old Labour take yet another hit in a ‘poll’, perhaps the peeps in Epsom, or those ‘counting’ the numbers are taking the piss, trying to rain on Labour’s parade…
May be so. But on the other hand, it could also be that the traditional Nat supporters torn about the Key’s directive but reluctant to vote for ACT or Labour, are taking the mischievous option of giving their vote to the Greens knowing or hoping that the Greens will be or could be a pain in the arse for a Labour led coalition government with their exaggerated demands and sense of over entitlement for cabinet positions, uneconomic unemployment inducing policies and stuff or hoping that the Greens may go into a defacto relationship with the Nats after the election if the supposed ‘murmurs’ alluded to by Mike Sabin and as yet undenied by the Greens are correct! Who knows! Your guess is as good as mine!
And here we have the Labour Tribalist in its natural habitat. If you observe closely, you can see when threatened by a younger, more confident contender, the Tribalist will rear back and sprout out complete bullshit in the hope of defending itself.
Materia’s statement as quoted by Bad12 ‘with an underlying vein of sharpened and hardened steel in Her voice’ that
“IF Labour were forming the next Government the Green Party would be at the Cabinet Table In Numbers AND there would be a Comprehensive Coalition Agreement which covered ALL of the Green Parties policies”
Panelist Sabin on The Nation debate stated that ‘there have been murmurs’ within the Greens of going into coalition arrangement with National after the election if Labour is unable to support some of the Green policies such as the free transport for tertiary students etc! He also said that the Greens would deny this in public if asked.
I doubt he would make such claims unless there was some truth to that.
Neither Materia nor Norman have pulled up Sabin on this not categorically denied such talks took place within the Greens.
So, what are you on about about ‘tribalist’ and ‘bullshit’?
So, spit it out. What ‘tribal’ bullshit and spin are you now going to spout about those statements from/about the greens and the completely valid points I have made?
If you are this wide of the mark, Clem, then “bullshit” is a very good call.
You refer to Sabin’s very skewed version of something he heard from someone in The Greens, then spin it through your own misinterpretation.
You are supporting right wing wedge politics, aimed at fragmenting the left. We need more cross party support than all the smears you are dishing out.
You keep on repeating the same misinformation even after people keep pointing out how wrong you are – hands over your ears.
Firstly, if you are going to quote someone as a source, try to get their name right – it’s BROOK Sabin. Looks like you are not paying very much attention to the source.
The statements of Sabin’s that you keep referring to, are actually focused on how weak Labour is looking in terms of leading a government – and that the Greens must be disappointed because they need a stronger Labour if they want a Lab-green coalition.
LISA OWEN: We asked Metiria about whether she goes home and has a wee cry about how Labour is doing, she was dodging that one.
BROOK SABIN: Yeh, and I’ve got a fascinating insight actually, the Greens – there’s murmurs- policy concessions with National. In the Greens now about, if Labour don’t get through. Looking forward to the next term and what they may be able to get through. Things like that Green Card: free public transport – off-peak public transport for tertiary students. Solar – doing some deals – get the policy concessions with National. We’re starting to see that kind of thinking in the Greens. They’ll never admit it. But that’s what they’re thinking.
This would be in the realms of Memorandum of Understanding, and has nothing to do with contemplating forming a coalition with National.
You seem totally unaware that the Greens (under the Leadership of Jeanette Fitzsimons and Russel Norman) signed a MoU with the Nat government in 2009. They tried to extend this after the 2011 election, but there wasn’t enough common ground between the parties.
It’s part of the Greens approach that they will aim to work with any party on policies that they agree on.
“This has been our position since before the election. Our differences ruled out a confidence and supply arrangement, but we are committed to work co-operatively with National where possible. Pragmatism and principle are both important to our voters.”
“It is disappointing but it is probably a reflection of what happened after the election where National has taken more of a right-wing turn.
“I think that has made it harder to find common ground.”
The Greens had provided National with a list of projects it believed the two parties could work together on, he said.
[…]
“Our position was if you can find common ground and work together, you should.”
So, Brook Sabin’s comments are just about the Greens fall back position. They have strongly stated they want to play a significant role in a Lab-Green government. Sabin’s comments are spinning about Labour being too weak to govern, and the Greens starting to look at policies they could put to the Nats as an MoU. It’s not about a coalition or confidence and supply, but about selected policies. And, for all we know, it was just some idle chatter amongst a couple of Greens.
That is something the Greens have always been up front about doing – so nothing for Turei and Norman to deny.
Clem, do you really want to continue supporting Sabin’s comments about a Labour Party too weak to govern?
“Clem, do you really want to continue supporting Sabin’s comments about a Labour Party too weak to govern?”
Labour will be a strong party with a strong leader and a strong caucus. It will be a party with very strong well thought out economic, social and environmental policies for the good of all the people for the long term good of the country. While the smaller progressive parties like the Greens are welcome, I do not want to see these smaller parties to be too arrogant or cocky or too greedy and put their boot into the coalition’s political interest by exaggerated claims and demands far and above their limited party support from the voters. If that happens, I have no doubt that the voters will punish Labour and the coalition parties in 2017. I am sure no thinking progressive voter will want such an outcome. Slow and steady is the smart way to go for everyone’s long term success.
Nevertheless, a more reasoned comment from you, Clem, and more positive sounding.
It’s up to the voters to decide which parties they prefer. That’s what the election is for.
I’m happy if there’s a strong left coalition in government, and parties that will work for a return to truly left wing policies. It’s good we have a choice.
Not at all. Sure, they can get a little more than what their party support proportion says, just a little more, but not too much over and above that. Because, that will be unfair, resented and harmful to the main party, Labour in this case, its own policies, its own standing, the aspirations of its own voters and IT’S own caucus members many of whom are senior MPs with vast experience in administration of the country for much longer than the entire lot of green list members that the Greens will bring in.
I was and I am still very annoyed at Materia Turei’s over the top cocky statement quoted by bad 12.
Labour leadership and MPs have been very tolerant, decent, courteous, controlled and silent about the anti Labour rhetoric, snide remarks, cunning tactics, telling off, put downs, damaging criticisms from the left, right and centre. I don’t have to. I am just an ordinary Labour supporter. I like to express my opinion as I see it and as best as I can, hoping that REAL sanity and FAIR dealing prevails all around.
There is nothing over the top or cocky about Metiria’s statement aired on ‘the Nation’ Clem,
Metiria said that the Greens will be at the Cabinet table in numbers, you yourself postulated yesterday that you would see only 3 green Cabinet Ministers and maybe a number of Associate Ministers,(my later comment pointed at 4 Green Ministers and a number of Associate Ministers),
That Is Numbers Clem, there is nothing arrogant about it,
The Green party policy Platform, again i pointed out yesterday that the Greens in a coalition negotiation will want to go through their whole policy program with Labour, some of which both Parties will immediately agree on, some of which both Parties will somewhat agree on which can be safely left for later discussion and a few policies which might or might not be deal breakers,
i see nothing ‘over the top’ or ‘cocky’ about Metiria publicly pointing out how coalitions are hammered together and fail to see your point at continuing to rail against the Green Party in such a fashion…
Labour Green leadership and MPs have been very tolerant, decent, courteous, controlled and silent about the anti Labour Green rhetoric, snide remarks, cunning tactics, telling off, put downs, damaging criticisms from the left, right and centre.
It is a reasonably well known fact that many soft RW Nats do support the Greens.
Did you think that the Greens get their support only from the traditional Labour voters?
You would be wrong there I think.
They’d be the ones who are a bit like my neighborus. Into reccycling and cleaning up rivers right up until the time it becomes the slightest inconvenience – such as having to clean up their own shit after themselves.
Every little bit counts though eh? (as the old lady said as she spat into the Ocean)
Interesting numbers, fortunately Epsom voters won’t be getting that hint immediately before they cast their actual ballot. WTF is up with Epsom GP & LP voters though – your candidates have no hope of winning; persisting in voting for them would only ensure an ACT victory!
Yes, I agree, but early days yet. Key can let the cat among the pigeons by withdrawing Goldsmith out of the race altogether. He has till the 26th (or so) to do that! Will he or won’t he is the question!
Michelle Boag was certainly of the opinion that National should withdraw Goldsmith and I think that and her rather agitated performance on Q & A today is a further sign that National thinks this election is on a knife edge.
Yes, if Goldsmith does a premature withdrawal, lots of NATS vote may shift to Rankin rather than ACT, in which case the Nats vote may be divided between ACT and Rankin and some scattered to Labour and the Greens candidates. The strategic voting for Labour and Green voters will then become tricky and will depend upon what the local polls are saying around the first and second week of Sept, I think.
Quite. According to this, only 28% of Labour voters in Epsom are voting tactically, while 56% of Green supporters are.
Labour voters in Epsom seem to be asleep at the wheel. When told that National wants people to vote David Seymour, the National voters switch their votes, with Goldsmith losing 13% and Seymour gaining them.
But the Labour voters? They either don’t change their vote or give it to the Green candidate Julie Ann Genter, who rises by 1%. WTF difference do they think this is going to make?
My analysis is oversimplified and it’s impossible to tell what’s really happening without all the data. But that’s generally what it looks like.
When told that National want people to vote for Seymour, Goldsmith’s vote drops 13, Seymour’s rises 13. That looks like a straight transfer – National voters switching their votes from Goldsmith to Seymour in accordance with Key’s instructions.
Meanwhile, Labour’s Wood drops 1% and Julie Ann Genter from the Greens picks up 1%. But the don’t knows go from 8% to 13%, so it’s hard to tell what is actually going on.
lol I noticed that too – the Green vote is higher the second time the question is asked. Just realised what it probably is: Nat voters who can’t bare the thought of voting for Act have chosen Green instead – such behaviour provides the same outcome, because it takes a vote away from the most likely contender to win after Act, with out having to vote for Act.
I don’t know either – I assume Blue was making a comparison between the shift in voting and the party vote – but can’t be arsed working out if that is where they are derived from – it was the shift in the Green vote that I had noticed.
The party vote numbers show 14% support for Labour and 16% for the Greens.
The first round of candidate votes (before being told Key wants Seymour to win) show Labour’s Wood on 10% and Julie Ann Genter on 9%. I’m assuming that people usually give their candidate vote to the candidate from their party.
If the poll had 100 voters, that means 14 Labour people and 4 would vote for a candidate other than Wood. That’s a percentage of 28.57.
Similarly, there are 16 Green people, and 7 of them would vote for a candidate other than Genter. I have made an error here – the percentage for that is 43.75.
So more Green voters acting tactically and (hopefully) voting for Goldsmith.
Ok, Thanks. I get your maths. Makes sense. Very good! Your conclusion may be correct. (though it just shows that the diminished votes (between party vote Vs candidate vote) went elsewhere, not necessarily to Goldsmith. Any other assumption is just that)
However, these are early days and the voters haven’t yet made their firm decisions. I think a similar poll done about a week or so before the election will be more revealing.
Pasupial, I understand that it’s frustrating that Labour and Green voters won’t do what’s tactically and strategically the best option, I wish they would too. But you know what, I like even more that it seems there are around 30% of voters in Epsom who believe enough in Labour and the Greens to get out and vote for them on Election Day and in all honesty who can deny them the pleasure of ticking that box.
I can. This is too important to let go. If Act lose Epsom they are out of Parliament and they will likely implode, destroying the party completely. National will be without an important support partner and they can no longer blame Act for their choice to sneak in uncampaigned-for policy (e.g. charter schools).
If Labour and the Greens win the election (which is balanced on a knife edge and the seat of Epsom could be the difference between winning and losing) then we can get rid of coat-tailing altogether. That means Epsom can go back to being a normal electorate.
There’s too much at stake to have Labour and Green supporters blow this by voting for their own candidate. They need to vote for Goldsmith.
“WTF is up with Epsom GP & LP voters though – your candidates have no hope of winning; persisting in voting for them would only ensure an ACT victory!”
Some people don’t understand how MMP works. Others do but are unaware of the current issue. Others still will not vote on the right no matter what. Some people don’t believe in tactical voting. If the GP and/or Labour wanted their voters to vote National, they would have not stood a candidate in the electorate. Lots of people are probably confused too.
“The Greens always say they are campaigning for the party vote”
The party vote is CRUCIAL for EVERY party. Not just for the Greens.
It is even MORE crucial for LABOUR because they have strong National candidates fighting for their electorate seats against Labour candidates. The potential Labour PARTY votes get scattered among so many of the smaller parties on the left.
But in all but one or two electorates, the electorate vote doesn’t decide the number of MPs a party gets.
For a small or medium sized party, it’s a better use of their resources to focus on the party vote.
Clem, you really are showing a sense of entitlement by Labour to left wing votes. And you are the one that’s been using the “arrogant” word against others.
It’s up to voters to decide who and what party to vote for. A left party needs to earn the left wing votes.
No party can rest on its laurels. I was once a Labour voter. I will be more likely to vote Labour again if the return to strong left wing values. Right now, I see a couple of other parties having stronger left values, policies and processes. Cunliffe has made some very promising noises, but he has yet to show he will be able to follow through if in government. It will require strong left wing coalition parties to hold them to account.
Labour wasn’t always the main left wing party in NZ. They achieved that position by taking a strong left wing position. They lost ground when they moved away from that.
I don’t really care which party leads left wing politics. I will vote for which ever one does.
I am amazed that the Labour Party candidate does as well as this poll says.
After all even interested left-leaning commenters on this blog don’t seem to know who he is.
As a question for Clemgeopin and Tangled_up at 14.3.2 can you pleas tell me who this person Michael Woold you are talking about is? I thought the Labour candidate was named Michael Wood.
I am amazed that the Labour Party candidate does as well as this poll says.
What do you mean? I know Michael Wood well.
I believe that your problem is that you probably aren’t particularly close to the Epsom electorate. Michael is. He has been campaigning across the border from Epsom in Mt Roskill. Just as I have been while campaigning across the border in Mt Albert. It may be hard to understand, but neighbours who know the electorate especially the poorer parts will do well.
Given that the other parties have put complete nutty fuckwits up as candidates – Seymour, Rankin, and even Goldsmith (let me bend over to help..), I’m not surprised Michael is doing pretty well. Given that he knows the area from the local politics side, he will make sense.
This is the same Michael Wood who was presented as Labours candidate in the botany election?
If so he did well in leading a crap performance from labour in their display of contempt towards an electorate. He almost was a sole effort. I hope after botany now epsom Michael will be better treated by the labour hierarchy in future… But no, at 39 after standing for pakuranga,botany and now epson, talk about be dealt a bad hand and being under appreciated!!! Sometimes people deserve better and this is how labour looks after their own mmmmm
You may know Michael Wood very well, and he may in fact be a reasonable candidate.
The other people who are commenting obviously don’t though as they don’t even know what his name is. As I have said in the last two sentences, they seem to think his name is WOOLD, not WOOD. Did you get that far in what I wrote?
All you need to know about the Maori seats: Tai Hauauru.
So you’re on the Maori Roll? We’ll presume u R voting 4 a party that supports the Maori seats (this cuts out Act, National, NZ First).
Party vote
Your most powerful vote is your party vote. If you love the current govt, give your party vote to the Maori Party (John Key supports this 2).
To change the govt, give your Party vote to Labour, Green, or Internet Mana. You decide who has the korero that support your goals, and who’s more principled/organised.
Electorate vote
The electorate vote is important too. Tai Hauauru has some hard case things going on there:
Mana – do they have anyone’s name up yet? By now they should have a name up, out of respect for voters, and to show that they are organized.
Maori Party – like most Maori people in most parties, Chris is probably a nice guy. But his position says a lot about where te ao Maori is right now. Maori are getting poorer under the govt, under the system, but hey its fine, as ‘Maori are at the table’. There’s a disconnect here – people with skills r standing 4 a party that’s in cahoots with people doing [insert word to describe what National is doing here] things. There must b a psychological term for this level of disconnect.
Who on the hikoi in 2004 could imagine than four years later Tariana would be standing beside a bunch of greedy, dishonest mongrels?
Labour – crack up, this guy used to be the chairman for Tariana. This is the story of the Maori Party though. 90% of their door knockers from 2004 are now door knocking for someone else. Adrian is also a nice fulla with nice skills. His main point made so far: ‘we’re not the same Labour Party that stole the foreshores’ doesn’t really inspire.
Green – nice young rangatahi, again, the Green problem is they don’t have the relationship in the Maori seats that others have. Noone thinks ‘oh the greens have a chance of winning Maori seats.’ This doesn’t mean that Jack isn’t on to it though.
Where should the vote go?
If you want the current govt to continue, vote 4 Chris. If you want to change the govt, vote for Jack or Adrian, but like the other seats, you probably won’t feel inspired.
BUT you can inspire yourself in the knowledge that your party vote will swing this election. When the election will be won by a 1 or 2 percent of the vote, then guess what? The Maori seats hold the balance of power! Get excited about that please.
Post script: we’re annoyed with commentators that fail to make the connection between a Maori Party vote and the way that Maori communities have been hurt over the last 6 years. Our hunch is the commentators are doing OK thanks, winning the Whanau Ora contracts and setting up charter schools. The politics of the 1%.
Shame on the Maori party for having propped up a right wing Government dominated by NATIONAL, ACT and DUNNE of all people! What a complete disgrace to score some baubles and bull shit.
Kia Mattara!
Kia mataara me te inoi, kei uru ki te whakamatautauranga. He hihiko te wairua, ko te kikokiko ia he ngoikore.
you ARE correct. The Maori party and that cheap fool Dunne should have walked out against the asset sales issue, against the Charter school rort and the GCSB issue.
We paddle back ashore and as I leave, the one that got away is mentioned again. The former fisheries-spokesman-in-punishment asks how a 25cm snapper fished from a commercial boat is fine to sell, but a 28cm snapper off a recreational boat can’t be eaten. He mentions National heavyweight Peter Goodfellow’s links to the fishing industry. Cunliffe the Outdoorsman weighs his verdict: “It’s not fair”.
How can someone who was fisheries spokesperson not know that net fishing is going to get some smaller catch and that there’s nothing that you can do about it? Yes, you can make nets that allow smaller fish through but some will always get caught up with the rest of the fish. Once it’s caught and dead there’s only two choices – sell it or throw it away.
Thankfully, there’s been some government funded research going on that will help prevent smaller by catch while also making the fishing better.
Oh, and my families boats already require the fish caught to be 30cm. Some people remember that 50 years ago fishing brought in more and bigger catches than today and think that the government should be doing more to protect our fisheries both for the ‘recreational’ fishers and for commercial.
FYI – apologies for the length of this post, but think there will be quite some public interest ….
Penny Bright – Independent candidate for the Helensville electorate will now be attending the Helensville candidates meeting to be held at the Kumeu Baptist Church Monday 11 August 2014
REPLY RECEIVED 3.35pm SUNDAY 10 AUGUST 2014
Holly Ryan via yahoo.com 3:35 PM (2 hours ago)
to me
Penny,
As Kumeu Baptist Church prefers to avoid being embroiled in media or Court disputes, you may attend as a candidate tomorrow evening.
As sole organizer, I personally would stand against your bullying tactics and stick to my original and, until now, unaltered plan for the event.
You will need to seek me out when you arrive tomorrow evening. As all publicity material has been completed, nothing other than your attendance can be changed.
Holly Ryan
FYI – I sent this email first to Holly Ryan and to Samuel Schuurman, and rang both to try and ensure that they had received this email before sending it out widely to media and politicians at local and central government.
From the beginning – I have tried to deal with my (unlawful) exclusion from this one and only Helensville candidates meeting in a proper way, and have the ‘paper trail’ to prove this – in the hopefully unlikely event that it ends up in the Auckland High Court tomorrow, in the form of an application for an injunction ……
I look forward to my rights as an Independent candidate for Helensville being respected, and being able to address members of the voting public, on the same basis as candidates representing political parties, which thus respects the right of the voting public public to ‘cast an informed vote’.
Please remember that I have stood as an Independent candidate at both local and national government levels on a number of occasions, and know how to conduct myself at public electoral meetings.
Cheers!
Penny Bright
10 August 2014
‘Open Letter’ to the Organiser of the Helensville candidates meeting Holly Ryan and Senior Pastor of the Kumeu Baptist Church, Samuel Schuurman:
Dear Holly Ryan and Senior Pastor Samuel Schuurman of the Kumeu Baptist Church
Please be advised that I am now in possession of a recorded telephone conversation taken Wednesday 6 August 2014 at 12.15pm between Holly Ryan and an unidentified woman, regarding candidates who had been invited to speak at the upcoming Helensville meeting, and the reasons given for excluding myself, Penny Bright, as an Independent candidate.
(I was advised of this recording on Friday 8 August 2014, and received a copy on Saturday 9 August 2014. I had no prior knowledge of this recording beforehand.)
In this recording Holly Ryan states that I, Penny Bright am ‘a major activist’ and ‘will cause trouble one way or the other’, and it is clear that political bias against me, because of my political activist background that is the real reason for my exclusion from this meeting.
However, this was NOT the reason given by Holly Ryan, one day later, in response to my complaint to the Human Rights Commission about my exclusion from the Helensville candidates meeting being unlawful discrimination on the grounds of political opinion:
From: Lesley Ashworth-Lawson
Date: 7 August 2014 4:43:03 pm NZST
To: “‘waterpressure@gmail.com'”
Hello Penny
As per your request I confirm that you approached the Human Rights Commission complaining that you felt you had been discriminated against by Holly Ryan, organisor of a meeting of political party candidates.
You felt that in not being included in that meeting, you were being discriminated against on the basis of your political opinion.
Within the context of the Commission’s confidential dispute resolution process, I rang Holly to notify her of your complaint and to obtain a response to your complaint, in particular to request the basis on which you had not been included in the meeting.
Holly told me that she had wanted to arrange a meeting so that people could hear from candidates affiliated to parties who she considered had a possibility of gaining a seat in Parliament, from whom she considered the public may wish to hear.
She has organised the meeting on her own initiative.
Holly agreed for me to relay this information to you, as part of our process of assisting to resolve complaints.
She did wish to enter into mediation.
Kind regards,
Lesley Ashworth-Lawson
Mediator/Kaihohourongo
Human Rights Commission| Te Kahui Tika Tangata
T: +473 9981 Ext 720 | F: +64 4 471 6759
Toll free 0800 496 877
PO Box 12411, Thorndon, Wellington 6144
Level 1 – 44 The Terrace, Wellington 6011
New Zealand | http://www.hrc.co.nz
Please be reminded of s.11 of the Constitution of the Kumeu Baptist Church:
It should be noted that churches are subject to Acts of Parliament such as the Race Relations Act, Employment Relations Act, Privacy Act and Human Rights Act.
HUMAN RIGHTS AMENDMENT ACT 2001:
Prohibited grounds of discrimination
Heading: inserted, on 1 January 2002, by section 7 of the Human Rights Amendment Act 2001 (2001 No 96).
21Prohibited grounds of discrimination
(1)For the purposes of this Act, the prohibited grounds of discrimination are—
(j)political opinion, which includes the lack of a particular political opinion or any political opinion:
Please be advised that I have had discussions this morning with Graham McCready from the NZ Private Prosecution Service about this matter.
Graham McCready will assist me with the preparation of a High Court injunction to prevent the use of the Kumeu Baptist Church being used for this Helensville candidates meeting, if I Penny Bright, as an Independent candidate, am not given an equal opportunity to speak, as are other candidates standing for the above-mentioned political parties.
A full transcript of this above-mentioned telephone conversation will be made available, if required, for both the High Court and the media.
(FYI – I worked very closely with Graham McCready in the successful prosecution of former ACT Leader and MP for Epsom John Banks, for electoral fraud.
In fact – I was the ‘process server’ who hand-delivered the witness summonses that resulted in Kim Dotcom, his lawyer (Greg Towers), former bodyguard (Wayne Tempero) and the CEO of Sky City Casino (Nigel Morrison) appearing in the Auckland District Court to give pre-trial oral evidence.
Watchdogs claim biggest scalp as Banks found guilty
11:45 AM Friday Jun 6, 2014
Self-styled public watchdogs Penny Bright and Graham McCready claimed their biggest scalp yesterday as Act MP John Banks was found guilty of filing a false electoral return.
But police reluctance to pursue the affair has fuelled calls by Ms Bright and David Bain’s champion Joe Karam for an independent commission against corruption.
I sincerely hope that this will NOT be necessary, and the basic principles of natural justice, democracy, the ‘rule of law’ and commonsense will prevail, particularly given that this meeting, as I understand it, will the only one which Prime Minister John Key will be attending, and will continue to be the focus of significant election publicity.
Please be reminded that this was the original notice advertising this Helensville candidates meeting:
HELENSVILLE ELECTORATE / TE TAI TOKERAU CROSS PARTY CANDIDATES MEETING
MONDAY 11TH AUGUST at KUMEU BAPTIST CHURCH, Access Rd, Kumeu
8 political parties – National, Labour, Greens, Maori, Act, NZ First, Conservative, Internet Mana are invited to be represented by their candidates and up to 2 other party policy speakers.
Parties will have opportunity to set up stands in the church hall, with public welcome to attend from 6pm to chat casually.
The main meeting will commence in the church at 7pm. Seating for 230, with sound system. Each candidate will have 5 minutes to present themselves, followed by written questions from the public, drawn for order. At 9pm the meeting will end, with opportunity for everyone to return to the hall for informal discussion and refreshments.
The meeting will be tightly managed, with any interjectors removed after one warning.
Questions may be answered by the party policy supporters, seated behind the candidates.
RSVP to Holly Ryan, Convenor
…………………….
Please be further advised that there is significant and growing media and public interest in this matter.
I look forward to your confirmation by email, by 5pm today, Sunday 10 August 2014, that I have the same opportunity to address the public at this Helensville candidates meeting, as the other above-mentioned candidates.
Yours sincerely,
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption /anti-privatisation Public Watchdog’
I sympathise with Holly Ryan, you have engaged in bullying tactics. Just like a blog, freedom of speech doesn’t give you the right to gatecrash someone’s party and hector their guests.
Actually it the the standard’s mobile version that prevents replying to specific comments in-thread. You can switch the the desktop version on your phone and the reply buttons are there. Bit tedious though.
It is a pain. I have tried to get that problem fixed several times. Each time not quite succeeded before running out of time. The upgrades on that particular theme are pretty fast and quite extensive. So I usually have to restart each time.
Yeah I know. I got caught with some SQL that I had to get done (and still have bugs in). Lyn has a bug as well which has been minimising my work time with hacking coughs and obsessive TV watching.
You always sound like you are working too hard anyway, so there’s no hurry. It’s interesting that it’s taking me so long to remember to check the boxes each time. What tv are you obsessively watching?
As a political scientist, what a terrible bit of research by Colmar Brunton and then for TVNZ to publish it. So, they do one poll on electoral vote (which shows National candidate leading) and then remind/discuss voters John Key’s request for National supporters to vote for Act candidate and guess what? The poll results are very different (Act is now leading) – well of course! That’s not a poll…that’s a way to influence the outcome. Dumb, dumb, dumb!!!!!
I would have called it ‘corrupt’ or ‘bought’ rather than dumb – unless you mean it was dumb of them to come out and admit that is what they have been up to….
Saturday, August 30, 6pm, the Garden Room, Grey Lynn Community Centre, 510 Richmond Rd
Book Launch Invitation: Beyond the Free Market: Rebuilding a Just Society in New Zealand. Contributors include Nicky Hager, Sue Bradford, Peter Conway, Tim Hazledine, Mike Joy, Kevin Hague, Helen Kelly, John Minto, Bill Rosenberg, The Rt Hon Sir Edmund Thomas, Manuka Henare, Jane Kelsey, John O’Neill – what a wonderful cast! Edited by David Cooke, Claire Hill, Pat Baskett and Ruth Irwin; supported by funding from the Council for Trade Unions and the Tertiary Education Union; published by Dunmore http://www.dunmore.co.nz
“RNZ’s Monday morning political spot starting around 1110am will be well worth a listen.
A word of warning: batten down your cerebral hatches because Matthew Hooton will be spinning like a Force 10 hurricane”
Thanks for the tip, will watch. and record on my VCR that GCSB Key cant download or spy on.
I am an electronic engineer, and have discovered why they took us all rapidly off analogue and into the digital era,.
This was the only way we can be spied on with mass surveillance.
So now I keep taping video and audio only into the old magnetic tapes and store in a library outside a commuter on line source.
Another day, another IPCA report on criminal conduct by policy. This time they kicked a child in the head when he was handcuffed:Police chased him and yelled out for him to stop. When he turned to face the police, he threatened them with a hammer. That's when the officers tasered ...
The investigation of two of the five parties in Parliament for fraud around their election donations has pushed the issue of party funding back into the spotlight. And while there are obvious things we can do to tighten up the donations regime - a much lower declaration threshold, realtime disclosure ...
Former National Party MP Jami-Lee RossIt comes as no surprise that Jami-Lee Ross has been named as one of the defendants in the X2 $100,000 National Party donations case currently before the courts. Click bait journalists who were chaffing at the bit to discredit the former senior whip had already ...
Stand Clear! Winston Peters is encouraging voters to think of RNZ as belonging to “The Media Party”. He wants them to see it as a politically partisan institution with its own, vicious attack-dogs in the electoral fight. If he succeeds, it will be, and probably should be, the end of ...
"You're going to need a longer runway" Gratton et al explore the ongoing effects of upward-creeping temperatures on aviation in Greece in the period since 1955 at a range of airports in that country. For longer runways impacts are measurable but with little impact on operations. For airports with shorter runways, ...
In mid-December the Israeli secret police, the Shin Beit, revealed it had arrested dozens of Palestinian left-wing activists, including members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in the previous few months. Among those arrested was one of the central leaders of the PFLP, Khalida Jarrar. As ...
Former National Party chief whip Jami-Lee Ross is one of the four people charged over National's multiple fraudulent donations. How unsurprising. Meanwhile, just days ago National leader Simon Bridges was trying to pretend the charges were nothing to do with his party. Yeah, right. When your chief whip effectively publicly ...
If you've been watching FYI for a while, you'll have noticed that the police have a bad habit of demanding ID from requesters. They have apparently been repeatedly told to stop doing this by the Ombudsman, but we all know what law enforcement thinks of the law, so thye keep ...
Collateral Damage: For the Green Phoenix to be reborn, the funeral pyre so patiently assembled by its identity politicians over the course of many fractious years – but with growing intensity over the past three – first has to be ignited. The terrible probability, of course, is that, in setting ...
If you follow politics in New Zealand you've likely noticed that the right wing have been going on and on about the Coalition Government failing to reduce poverty. In fact they’ve been incessantly claiming, in the absence of any conclusive data, that poverty has been getting worse.Yesterday, NewstalkZB reported:Mike Hosking: ...
The Herald reported over the weekend that an Auckland business owner is being targeted with asset forfeiture laws over a workplace death:A workplace fatality has seen police use a law usually associated with drugs and organised crime to seize millions of dollars in assets from a business owner because of ...
Just days after talking about how people feel "squeezed" and promising tax and service cuts as a "solution", National is talking about cancelling a rise in the minimum wage if elected: National is considering scrapping the Government's planned minimum wage increase if it wins this year's election, the party's finance ...
Nobody thinks about the next century anymore. That at least is Sci-Fi writer William Gibson’s observation (in this BBC 4 short interview, starting at 1:43:50 ). He calls it “Futures Fatigue”, but isn’t judgemental about it. Gibson notes that in the 20th century speculation about the 21st (and beyond) was common. Now ...
A Labour government desperate for the numbers crawls into bed with Winston Peters. Winston ignores the law and secretly takes money under the table from someone. When it is exposed just months out from an election, he is investigated by the Serious Fraud Office. That's what happened back in 2008. ...
So the Serious Fraud Office has another secret $100,050 National Party donation before the Courts in a major scandal that looks set to quash any chances Simon Bridges had of winning the 2020 election.Yesterday, Newsroom reported:The Serious Fraud Office prosecution of four people over donations to the National Party involves ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Iceberg twice the size of Washington, D.C., breaks off Pine Island glacier in Antarctica Story Highlights: The Pine Island ...
Prof Philippa Howden-ChapmanHousing policy is building up to be the key election issue again. In this blog I reflect on the importance of the role of the New Zealand Government in improving access to affordable housing. I look at what the Government has been doing to increase quality public housing ...
Writing on The Spinoff, Danyl Mclauchlan argues that we have a vacuum in our political system, in that there is no longer an anti-establishment party anymore:I think there’s a vacuum in our political system. There are obvious problems with the status quo but no real critics offering reform. It’s a ...
Stuff today has a piece about the government discovering it has been oversubsidising polluters for a decade under the Emissions Trading scheme:The Government is pledging to urgently fix an issue within the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), after it emerged some polluters are likely being over-compensated with taxpayer-funded carbon credits. [...] ...
The Marlborough District Council, tired of public scrutiny, wants to increase the amount it charges for LGOIMA requests:The cost of requesting official information from Marlborough's government agency could almost double after a jump in "fishing expeditions". Charges could be raised from $60 to $100 an hour for information supplied by ...
When Winston Peters was caught money laundering donations and stalking journalists, the Greens were conspicuous by their silence. It was another example of how getting along with their government partners was eroding their values and their own reputation. It was obviously unsustainable, and so now James Shaw has finally spoken ...
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...
With over 69,000 confirmed cases and 1,600 deaths, here’s your round-up of the latest coronavirus news. New disease and virus have now officially been named On the 11th February, the WHO Director General announced a new name for the disease: COVID-19 which is short for coronavirus disease 2019. The naming ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 9, 2020 through Sat, Feb 15, 2020 Editor's Pick ANALYSIS-Climate change opens up 'frontier' farmland, but at what cost to the planet?Climate change could expand farmland globally by ...
After cross-examination Jones knew he would lose the defamation case he took against film maker Renae Maihi. That’s why he threw in the towel. The weight of evidence was clearly against the old tycoon with the defense presenting fifty articles to confirm Jones’ racist views.Being unable to harass somebody into ...
Sprung! Former NZ First president, Lester Gray, chats with RNZ's Guyon Espiner in the carpark of a Tauranga shopping centre.(Photo supplied anonymously to NZ First and The BFD.)IT’S CLEAR THAT an important aspect of Jacinda Ardern’s political success is her willingness to seek – and take – advice. This ...
Ruth Cunningham, Charlotte Paul, Andrew MoorePublic health responses to infectious diseases such as COVID-19 require us to draw on our common humanity and be explicit about our values. Recognising this will help us make good decisions in difficult situations so that, for example, the need to impose restrictive measures ...
The Helen Clark Foundation has released its report on the housing crisis, and found that house-hoarders are to blame for it:Property investors are to blame for New Zealand's high house prices, a new research paper published by the Helen Clark Foundation says. [...] McArthur said previous attempts to address housing ...
The Abortion Legislation Committee has reported back on the Abortion Legislation Bill and recommended that it be passed with some amendments. Unfortunately, the latter include even more hoops to jump through for those seeking abortions after 20 weeks, including a time-wasting requirement to consult a second doctor. No-one casually seeks ...
Brexit is likely to be a disaster for the UK (how sad, never mind). But now that they're out of the EU, the latter has finaly taken the opportunity to blacklist one of their key tax havens:The Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory, is to be put on an EU ...
I’m not quite sure of what to make of the new figures for COVID-19 (as we must now call the novel coronavirus – though I’m not sure the capitalisation is correct) from Hubei province:Image from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51495484The spike yesterday is a consequence of a using a different way of ...
Bob Jones has dropped his defamation case against Renae Maihi. Good. But at the same time, it perfectly exposes what the case was all about: not protecting Jones' reputation, but punishing someone who had dared to criticise him, and deterring others from doing the same. This rich pompous asshat dragged ...
As I've done for the past few years, I'm curating and presenting The Listening Lounge, the talk programme at Splore. On the morning of Saturday the 22nd at the Living Lounge stage, the korero goes like this.Yes, we're talking about drugs again, not just because I'm professionally interested in drug ...
What Were They Thinking? RNZ's CEO Paul Thompson (left) and Jim Mather, Chairman of the RNZ Board of Governors, attempt to justify the debacle arising out of their attempt to downgrade RNZ Concert to the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Select Committee at Parliament on Thursday, 13 February 2020.WHAT IS ...
Dame Tariana Turia with former PM John KeyWhat is it about Tariana Turia’s grudge against the Labour Party? Not content with attacking the Government over Whānau Ora funding, which was increased by $80 million in 2019, she has now made it personal by saying that Jacinda Ardern is out of her ...
Back in 2017, right after being elected, Jacinda Ardern promised that there would be no new mines on conservation land. Since then, her government has done nothing to make that happen, and now the policy has been officially "parked" for the election:West Coast-Tasman MP Damien O'Connor says the "no new ...
So the guy who advocated for public burning and beheading feels offended because someone called him a racist!Perhaps Bob Jones hasn't heard of the very old saying; Live by the sword, die by the sword?I mean for someone who often writes opinionated nonsense about Maori; this is a ridiculous case ...
The government today announced a major support package aimed at reducing homelessness. A thousand new transitional housing places, more support for people to find homes (or not lose them in the first place), all good stuff. The one problem with it is that they're going to start charging people in ...
Courtroom Drama: There is no off-switch in a courtroom. Neither is it possible to turn the page in disgust. Ill-formed and ill-defended opinions will be exposed ruthlessly and unapologetically. As Shakespeare put it: “Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.” Sometimes the ...
As of today, the novel coronavirus spreading in China is called COVID-19. Why does it matter? Around the office, we’ve had several conversations over the past few weeks about how 2019-nCoV needed its own name. First, it was getting annoying calling it by the above designation, and ‘novel coronavirus’ doesn’t ...
by Philip Ferguson Last month B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reported: “In 2019, Israeli security forces killed 133 Palestinians, including 28 minors. Of the casualties, 104 were killed in the Gaza Strip, 26 in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and three within ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Arms (Firearms Prohibition Orders) Amendment Bill (No 2) (Brett Hudson)Its basicly more "tough on crime" nonsense (its already illegal for unlicensed people to own guns) designed to wedge NZ First against its arsehole base. ...
In 2015 the world agreed to the Paris Agreement to fight climate change. Each country would offer a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) "that it intends to achieve", and "pursue domestic mitigation measures, with the aim of achieving [it]". And every five years, they'd improve on it, ratcheting up ambition until ...
In theory, the emissions trading scheme should reduce emissions. Making polluters pay for permits to pollute lets them save money by reducing pollution, giving them a financial incentive to do the right thing. But right from the start the ETS was broken with a system of free allocation, so polluters ...
Irish voters went to the polls on Saturday in parliamentary elections, and perhaps delivered a political revolution. Since independence, Irish politics has been dominated by two parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Basicly patronage networks with indistinguishable policies, their cleavage isn't ideology, but who killed whose father or grandfather in ...
Once again the Aotearoa Bike Challenge is on us, and once again I’m participating. In principle this is not hard because it does not represent a significant switch in behavior for me. I already bike nearly every day. The Bicycle The fascinating thing about cycling is the realisation that this ...
Lately there has been a great deal of misinformation regarding the origins and purpose of Skeptical Science. As John Cook wrote nearly a decade ago, Skeptical Science is primarily a website that debunks climate misinformation with peer-reviewed science. Despite the ever-worsening impacts from climate change, with record after record being broken in ...
Under Attack: By sacking not only RNZ Concert’s presenters, but also its producers and librarians, and reducing the station to an automated purveyor of classical music in-between parliamentary broadcasts, RNZ’s CEO, Paul Thompson, wasn’t simply announcing an operational shake-up, he was declaring war on one of the most important guardians of ...
Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Reviews... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... Australian smoke plume sets recordsThe recent wildfires in Australia sent one of ...
The Global Protest to #FightInequality was powerful – thankyou and what next? Dear allies, We started the decade with a huge protest to #FightInequality that was heard around the world, including the 1% at Davos. Watch and share the highlights on facebook and twitter. A huge thank you. Together we ...
The Ministry of Health have announced a package that might ensure NZ will never experience another measles epidemic. While at the time of writing the details are still limited it appears that the important limitations in our current programme have been acknowledged and the intent is to address them. Great ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Prof Michael BakerIn this blog we briefly summarise our assessment of the highly uncertain new coronavirus threat. Given its potential to become a severe and prolonged global pandemic, a precautionary response now means activating all components of our pandemic plan, with a particular focus on ‘keep ...
When Labour was running for election, Jacinda Ardern famously said that climate change was "my generation's nuclear free moment". The implication was that her government would take the problem seriously, and act swiftly to reduce emissions. The reality:New Zealand will emit a million more tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2020 ...
James Renwick is Professor of Physical Geography at Victoria University of Wellington. He studied at Canterbury and the University of Washington and has worked on diverse aspects of climate science, including global atmospheric circulation and Antarctic sea ice. In December 2019 he was appointed to the New Zealand Climate Change ...
by Philip Ferguson Exit polls are showing a three-way virtual tie between the main parties in the south of Ireland. Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are all on just over 22%. FG on 22.4, SF on 22.3, FF on 22.2. Exit polls indicate that over 30% of 18-24 ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 2, 2020 through Sat, Feb 8, 2020 Editor's Pick New Report Details How Fossil Fuel Industry's Climate Destruction Also Exacerbates Human Rights Abuses"Even in the face of the ...
In a previous post I described briefly when and how the Starlink satellite chains – recent launches by Space-X in a scheme to bring 5G internet connectivity to the whole globe – could be seen from New Zealand with the naked eye. Here I provide an update and predictions for ...
Keeping The Faith: This Government’s broad, new, heavily moderated, progressive faith does not require a prime minister with the powers of a medieval pope. Jacinda’s regime has no need of subterranean torture chambers to ensure compliance. A gift for diplomacy and the ability to inspire her fellow human-beings is all ...
Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian has penned a column which chastises the left wing of the Labour party for daring to retain principles and ideals, qualities - it seems - that should be jettisoned in pursuit of power.Never mind that Freedland was an ardent Remainer, that is to say, one ...
Tonight’s news suggests the coronavirus outbreak may have originated from pangolins. Details are very sketchy, almost nothing at all beyond a claim of high similarity. My impression is this claim comes from a press release by South China Agricultural University. Initial discussion online suggests this is a more likely candidate ...
by Susanne Kemp The Fire and Emergency service (FENZ) has recently asked firefighters in Auckland Areas 3, 4 and 5 to take on an additional duty that has rather ominous implications. Namely, to collect names and addresses of everyone on the premises of fires they attend. The firefighters’ union, the ...
Part of the story of the Nazis' rise to power in Germany was the willingness of mainstream right-wing parties to work with them to keep out the left. Because of this, one of the fundamental rules of postwar German politics has been "do not work with Nazis". As a result, ...
There has long been a truism in public broadcasting: don't mess with Concert FM. The theory was that although the station has been in a long-term audience decline, and that audience is steadily ageing out, it has powerful establishment support – and any threat to it would provoke a fury.As ...
This is a re-post from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists The heat absorbed in Earth’s oceans reached a new record in 2019, found a recent study published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. Despite the fact that this has been the case for almost every year over the past decade, this information ...
We are confronted with the spectre of Simon Bridges making clear he cannot, will not, trust Winston Peters – the oft-cited “King Maker” in New Zealand politics.Supporters are lauding it as a master stroke, naturally, because in their eyes, it prevents him being the tail that wags the dog. ...
by Don Franks Under a government claiming empathy with the fine arts, Radio New Zealand ( RNZ) is poised to cut back its classical music station, RNZ Concert. The plan is replacing it on FM radio with music “for a younger audience” as part of a new multimedia music brand. ...
More Thwaites This past week we heard disturbing news about Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier. Helping to fill in the longer term history of Thwaites' behavior and especially helpful in interpreting results of the recent drilling project and what it may say about the future of this unstable mass of ice is Revealing the ...
While the Provincial Growth Fund has provided $2 million to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia, Regional Economic Minister Shane Jones said he is greatly concerned that there are “issues” in implementing the projects. The Minister said the immediate solution was to pipe water from a bore ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP for Clutha-Southland NZ First is calling on Rio Tinto to accept its responsibilities to the Southland community and enable the immediate removal of the toxic Aluminium Dross from the Mataura Paper Mill site. New Zealand First List MP for Clutha-Southland, Mark Patterson ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones was on RNZ’s Morning Report talking about the recent droughts in the Northland region and what the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is doing to alleviate its impact. The PGF recently announced a funding of $2 million for temporary water supplies to Kaikohe and Kaitaia, ...
Speaking to The Country’s Jamie Mackay, New Zealand First MP and Cabinet Minister Shane Jones talks water storage, plant-based meat imitation, and superstar Hollywood director James Cameron. While water storage may have its critics, Minister Jones defended the scheme by saying: “unless we invest and continue to invest” in this ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones is accusing northern iwi leaders of selling out Māori by voting for ideologically-driven court cases rather than practical steps to increase water supply. “I just think that iwi leaders who think that water issues are going to be solved by perpetually fighting in the ...
A dairy owner in St Kilda, Dunedin was delighted to hear that an attempted robbery of his establishment was foiled by a government-funded security system. Sean Lee was delighted at how well the anti-theft smoke system worked. When a knife-wielding man entered the store, the shop assistant immediately pressed a ...
Customs says it stopped more than three tonnes of illegal drugs coming into New Zealand last year. This includes 1,180kg of methamphetamine, 329kg of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine precursors, which could have been converted into 246kg of methamphetamine, 739kg and 6469 pills of MDMA or Ecstasy and 60kg of cocaine. Offshore, ...
Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Up to $2 million will be allocated from the Provincial Growth Fund to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia where drought is biting hard, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Drought conditions in Northland have led to ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Law and Order New Zealand First welcomes the deployment of an Eagle Police helicopter in Christchurch in what is a step towards fulfilling its long-standing goal to increase the use of police helicopters for the front line, particularly in addressing the scourge of fleeing drivers. Christchurch leads ...
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...
In a heated debate in Parliament, National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett claimed that “nearly 1600 patched gang members have been added” since the Coalition Government took power. To illustrate her point, she altered a chart used by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to show her government’s progress in housing to instead ...
Speech by the Rt Hon Winston Peters at Parliament’s Opening 2020 "We all need insurance" This year New Zealanders are going to have a clear choice to make That choice is between: Optimism versus pessimism; More progress versus back to the future; Investment versus divestment; Unity versus division. New Zealand ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has slammed the Board of Auckland Airport following the airport's runway closing twice within two weeks due to maintenance. Around 2,000 passengers were affected by last week’s runway closures, according to 1NEWS. Another maintenance closure on January 24 saw two international flights and three domestic flights ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Broadcasting New Zealand First supports the commissioning of a business case to assess the viability of a new public media entity. “A strong media environment is critical for a healthy democracy. New Zealand First is a strong supporter of a diverse, independent media,” New Zealand First broadcasting spokesperson ...
Pounamou and technology industries in the West Coast region are set to receive more than $2 million in Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) funding. This was announced by the Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau during Waitangi Day commemorations in Hokitika. He said $800,000 would be given to Development West ...
Clayton Mitchell MP, New Zealand First spokesperson for Labour and Industrial Relations Unemployment and wage growth numbers released by Stats NZ today demonstrate a labour market in good shape with unemployment falling to 4.0%, the underutilisation rate falling to an 11 year low, and wage growth at a 10-year high ...
Hon. Ron Mark, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence Ron Mark, welcomes the official opening of Te Rau Aroha, a new museum at Waitangi Treaty Grounds as part of our Coalition Agreement. “It is a great honour to be part of an effective Government ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime MinisterGood morning,Let us start with important acknowledgements.First, this special day, in remembrance of the 28th Maori Battalion, is also to honour all those men and women who have risked their lives in the service of our country.Second, special guest Robert ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand will look to build on its relationship with the United Kingdom and recommit to the European Union, after the country officially left the continental union recently. The Minister said New Zealand already cooperates closely with Britain on defence and security issues and has ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs The Government has agreed with Air New Zealand to charter an aircraft to assist New Zealanders leaving Wuhan, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. The aircraft will have capacity for around 300 passengers and will fly from Wuhan to ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime MinisterHon. Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic DevelopmentThe Provincial Growth Fund will invest $4 million for Kaipara District Council to upgrade the Dargaville pontoon, the first in its plan to improve wharves on Kaipara Harbour, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Regional ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime MinisterHon. Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic DevelopmentThe Government will provide up to $12.7 million to make Northland more resilient in the face of extreme weather, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today.“Water is ...
Thousands of children have begun receiving a free lunch on every day of the school week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. The Government’s free and healthy school lunch programme is under way for 7,000 students at 31 schools in Hawke’s Bay / Tairāwhiti and Bay of Plenty / Waiariki, extending ...
The Government is strengthening the Protected Disclosures Act to provide better protection for whistle blowers, Minister of State Services Chris Hipkins said today. “The Protected Disclosures Act is meant to encourage people to speak up about serious wrongdoing in the workplace and protect them from losing their jobs or being ...
Nǐn hǎo (Hello in Mandarin). Xīn Nián Kuài Lè (Happy New Year in Mandarin) Néi Hóu (Hello in Cantonese). Sun Nin Fai Lok (Happy New Year in Cantonese) Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Thank you for your invitation to attend this celebration today. I would like to acknowledge ...
Tougher penalties for gun crime are a step closer with the passage of firearms reform legislation through another stage in Parliament. The Arms Legislation Bill has tonight passed its Second Reading. “The changes have one objective - to prevent firearms falling into the wrong hands,” said Police Minister Stuart Nash. ...
Introduction Mr Speaker We all know why we are here today. It has been a long journey. The journey did not actually begin on 15 March 2019. It began on 30 June 1997. Almost 23 years ago, Justice Sir Thomas Thorp told us what was wrong with our firearms legislation. ...
The Government’s work to put trades and vocational education back on the agenda took another major step forward today with the passing of the Education (Vocational Education and Training Reform) Amendment Bill, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said. “This is a watershed day for trades and vocational education. These law changes formalise ...
Speeding up the return of Christchurch regeneration activities to local leadership is behind the Greater Christchurch Regeneration Amendment Bill introduced to Parliament today by Minister Megan Woods. “As we approach nine years since the February 2011 earthquake in Canterbury, and with the transition to local leadership well underway, the time ...
Hundreds of New Zealanders and international visitors will be able to get back out into nature with the Milford Track partially reopening next week, after extensive assessments and repairs, the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. The popular Great Walk has been closed since 3 February after an extreme ...
Up to 110 new EV chargers nationwide in cities and regions 50 electric vehicles for ride-sharing The Government is helping deliver more infrastructure and options for low emissions transport through new projects, Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods says. Tauranga, Nelson, Levin, New Plymouth and Oamaru are just some ...
New Zealanders are increasingly better off under this Government as wages rise and families have more disposable income, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. Stats NZ reported today that average household disposable incomes after housing costs rose 4.9% in 2019. This was the highest rise in four years and came as ...
All New Zealanders need to have their voices heard at work to ensure we have an inclusive and productive economy. Today we introduce a Bill to do this for workers in the New Zealand screen industry, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “The Screen Industry Workers Bill will ...
The Government has announced further help for the Southland and Otago regions to speed up recovery efforts from the floods. “I’ve approved Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG), making $500,000 available to help with the clean-up in Fiordland, Southland, and the Clutha district in Otago,” Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni said. ...
Following the announcement that more than 340 schools will be funded to run events promoting vocational education, the Government has announced it will fund a further 257 events to be run by employers and industry. “These industry-run events will allow more than 30,000 students to connect with more than 2,000 ...
Today the Government is making progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the introduction of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill in Parliament. “This Bill includes a series of reforms to improve the wellbeing of the 609,700 households that live in rented homes, and ...
A Government programme to wipe out pea weevil has achieved a world first, with Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor today announcing the successful eradication of the noxious pest from Wairarapa. This means the nearly four-year ban on pea plants and pea straw was lifted today. Commercial and home gardeners can again grow ...
Southland residents hit by flooding caused by heavy rainfall can now access help finding temporary accommodation with the Government activating the Temporary Accommodation Service, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare announced today. “The Temporary Accommodation Service (TAS) has been activated by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to help ...
“Is that it?” That’s Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s response to Simon Bridges’ much-hyped economic speech today. “Simon Bridges just gave the most over-hyped and under-delivered speech that I can remember during my time in politics,” Grant Robertson said. “It’s not surprising. Simon Bridges literally said on the radio this morning ...
A trial deployment of the Police Eagle helicopter in Christchurch will test whether the aircraft would make a significant difference to crime prevention and community safety. “The Bell 429 helicopter will be based in Christchurch for five weeks, from 17 February to 20 March,” said Police Minister Stuart Nash. “The ...
The Government has kept up the pace of its work to promote New Zealand’s trade interests and diversify our export markets, with visits to Fiji and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker. Building momentum to bring the PACER Plus trade and development agreement ...
The Coalition Government’s investment in a strong border and disrupting transnational organised crime produced record results for stopping drugs in 2019, says Minister of Customs Jenny Salesa. The illegal drugs were seized at the New Zealand border by Customs, and overseas by Customs’ international border partners before the drugs could ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today kicked off construction of a separated cycleway alongside Tamaki Drive. A two-way separated cycleway will be built along the northern side of Tamaki Drive, between the Quay Street Cycleway extension and Ngapipi Road. There will be a separate walking path alongside. Phil Twyford said giving ...
Owner-occupiers of unit and apartments living in earthquake-prone buildings will have certainty about the financial support they’ll be eligible for with the release of criteria for an upcoming assistance scheme, Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa says. The Residential Earthquake-Prone Building Financial Assistance Scheme will help unit owners facing ...
Temporary restrictions on travel from China will remain in place as a precautionary measure to protect against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The restrictions which prevent foreign nationals travelling from, or transiting through, mainland China from entering New Zealand have been extended for a further 8 days. This position ...
Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today that Tairāwhiti rangatahi will benefit from an investment made by the Government’s He Poutama Rangatahi (HPR) scheme. The funding will go to the Tautua Village, Kauneke programme and the Matapuna Supported Employment Programme which will fund 120 rangatahi over two years. “Both programmes work ...
All parents and caregivers need to ensure that their children go to school unless they are sick, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin said today. “The school attendance results for 2019 show, across the board, a drop in the number of students going to school regularly,” the Minister says. “Apart from ...
A Deed of Settlement agreeing redress for historical Treaty claims has been signed by the Crown and Moriori at Kōpinga Marae on Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) today, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little has announced. Moriori have a tradition of peace that extends back over 600 years. This settlement ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today with Māori King Tuheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII officially opened the country’s newest road, the $384 million Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway. The 15km four-lane highway with side and central safety barriers takes State Highway 1 east of Huntly town, across lowlands and streams ...
The rapid uptake of life-saving new hepatitis C medicine Maviret since it was funded by PHARMAC a year ago means the elimination of the deadly disease from this country is a realistic goal, Health Minister David Clark says. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus which attacks the liver, proving fatal ...
Kaupapa Māori will underpin the Government’s new plan to deal with homelessness announced by the Prime Minister in Auckland this morning. “Māori are massively overrepresented among people experiencing homelessness, so, to achieve different outcomes for Māori, we have to do things very differently,” says the Minister of Māori Development ...
1000 new transitional housing places delivered by end of year to reduce demand for emergency motel accommodation. Introduce 25% of income payment, after 7 days, for those in emergency motel accommodation to bring in line with other forms of accommodation support. Over $70m extra to programmes that prevents those at ...
Clear requirements for ensuring customers are treated fairly by banks, insurers and other financial service providers are included in new financial conduct legislation that passed its first reading today. “The recent reviews, by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) and Reserve Bank of New Zealand, into the conduct of banks and ...
Applications are now open for the fifth round of the Regional Culture and Heritage Fund Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Grant Robertson announced today. “I am delighted to open this year’s fund which has some $7 million available to support performing arts venues, galleries, museums and whare ...
The Minister of Māori Development, Hon Nanaia Mahuta today congratulated Associate Professor Amokura Kawharu on her appointment as the next President of the Law Commission. “Amokura Kawharu will be a standout in her new role, leading in an innovative and forward looking approach to the law reform process. She will ...
Auckland University legal academic Amokura Kawharu has been appointed as the next President of the Law Commission, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Associate Professor Kawharu will take up her new appointment on 11 May 2020. “I would like to congratulate Associate Professor Kawharu on her appointment,” Andrew ...
A programme for employers to help them engage effectively with younger employees was launched today by Minister of Employment, Willie Jackson. The Youth Ready Employer Programme contains a range of on-line templates that employers can easily access to help with employing and retaining young people in their businesses. The programme ...
Budget 2020 will be delivered on Thursday 14 May, Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “This year’s Budget will continue the Coalition Government’s focus on tackling the long-term challenges facing New Zealand while also preparing the economy for the future. “Those challenges and opportunities cannot be resolved in one budget, ...
I move, That this House place on record its appreciation and thanks for the devoted and distinguished service to New Zealand by the late Rt Hon Michael Kenneth Moore, member of the Order of New Zealand, a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, an Honorary Member of the ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has today classified the drought conditions in Northland as an adverse event for the primary sector, unlocking $80,000 in Government support. “This is recognition that the extreme and prolonged nature of this dry spell is taking its toll on our farmers and growers and additional support ...
The Minister of Police says an operation to smash a trans national drug smuggling ring today will make a significant impact on the methamphetamine trade fuelling harm in our communities. Police have announced 10 arrests and the seizure of up to five million dollars’ worth of illicit drugs after an ...
The Government’s books are in a strong position to withstand global headwinds, with the accounts in surplus and expenses close to forecast, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown accounts for the six months to December. The operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL) was above ...
By Rambo Talabong in Manila The top lawyer of the Philippine Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) who was a controversial witness in Senate hearings on the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) controversy has been shot dead. According to the police report, lawyer Fredric Santos was gunned down yesterday afternoon by ...
Shane Jones was back in his Northland home patch during the week to announce the serving of another dollop of public money from the Provincial Growth Fund. It was not the first allocation of PGF funding to benefit the region this year. This time the PGF will allocate up to ...
We need to challenge those who minimise the actions of rapists based on the gender or ages of their victims, argues Emily Writes.Content warning: this article contains descriptions of sexual assault.News out of Australia of another college supporting a sexual predator is as unsurprising as it is horrific. Victims of ...
The two recent donations investigations show political party funding rules are not fit for purpose, and politicians cannot be trusted to fix them, Cat MacLennan writes. ...
The legislation setting up a firearms register and introducing tougher licensing controls is a step closer to becoming law, but negotiations with New Zealand First are still ongoing. ...
A year after they went carbon neutral, The Warehouse Group’s chief sustainability officer reflects on the journey so far and the work that is still to be done. It was a year ago that the red shed made its biggest commitment to going green in its 38 year history. The Warehouse ...
Fresh on the heels of this morning’s news about the prime minister handing someone a bottle opener, The Spinoff can reveal that Jacinda Ardern once offered a man a banana. Jacinda Ardern once offered an Auckland man a banana, according to a tweet viewed by The Spinoff.The MP who would go ...
Auckland Airport has reported a flat first-half result, and plans to bring forward the billion-dollar redevelopment of its domestic terminal, and upgrade the international arrivals hall. The company's net profit for the six months to December was unchanged from the year earlier's $147.2 million, reflecting a drop in passenger growth ...
How voters react to the headlines generated by NZ First’s latest financial shenanigans may (or may not) determine the outcome on September 19. The most recent Colmar Brunton poll had NZ First down at 3%, so some commentators are already writing off the party’s chances of survival. But the real ...
Since 2017 New Conservative has been calling for net zero immigration until our housing stocks meet demand. Immigrants must prove they are financially independent so they have the means to pay higher rents which forces those at the ...
Despite more than 40 years of law reform aimed at improving the experience of giving evidence for adult rape complainants, Ministry of Justice research in 2018 re-confirmed that the process remains distressing and re-traumatising. According to experts, more ...
Just like donations to political parties, the justice system should be open and transparent. That is what I believe and have sought. Until now, however, I have been unable to make a public statement regarding these allegations, despite wanting to ...
Himali McInnes looks past the fact that the first black woman to win the Booker had to bloody share it and focuses on the book – in itself a treasure. Girl, Woman, Other is the smart, urbane eighth novel by Bernadine Evaristo. Born in London of Nigerian, German and Irish descent, ...
The Prime Minister clearly hasn’t read the draft bill to legalise recreational cannabis, Road Transport Forum (RTF) chief executive Nick Leggett says. "That was clear after watching her answer a question at Parliament yesterday, on the bill ...
Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire inhale the stench of donation scandal enveloping NZ First and National. Can the prime minister avoid the pong?Winston Peters, his New Zealand First Party, and whatever the New Zealand First Foundation is are just part of a wider donations controversy that seems set ...
20 February 2020: Steve Abel was selected last night as the Green Party candidate for the New Lynn electorate in West Auckland. The Long time environmental activist and Greenpeace’s former Senior Campaign and Political Adviser stepped down from ...
Jami-Lee Ross is once again proclaiming his innocence, as he heads off to court next week - along with three others - to face Serious Fraud Office charges. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rowan Callick, Industry Fellow, Griffith University Brand “People’s Republic of China” is wobbling, as if the massive picture of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square was swaying with an earthquake tremor. But it can only actually fall if pushed from inside. The handling ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Waling, Research fellow, La Trobe University Older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI+) people fear discrimination, exclusion and isolation in Australia’s aged care services, we found in our research. With an ageing cohort of LGBTI+ people needing to access, and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin Tolhurst, Hon. Assoc. Prof., Fire Ecology and Management, University of Melbourne When it comes to reducing the extent of bushfires, scientists disagree on the best way to do it. Hazard-reduction burning (also known as “prescribed burning” or “controlled burning”) is controversial ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Stanley, Adjunct Professor, Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, University of Sydney Business School, University of Sydney We were heavily involved in the consultation program for Melbourne’s long-term land-use plan, Plan Melbourne. The idea that resonated most with many participants was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Michael X. Savvas, Senior Lecturer in the Transition Office (PhD in Creative Writing), Flinders University A recent project to encourage South Australian prisoners to write provides insights into how prisoners may benefit from written expression. The project, Life Sentences, gave more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wallace Boone Law, PhD Candidate, University of Adelaide On the night of January 9 2020, my wife and I secured our Kangaroo Island home and anxiously monitored the South Australian Country Fire Service (CFS) website for bushfire advice. After many horrific weeks ...
In today’s edition: Jami-Lee Ross is confirmed as one of four charged by SFO, a damning international report on the NZ housing crisis, and SkyCity cancels a booking for Peter Singer event.SFO–JLR is not just an unlikely long-haul flight from California to India, but the latest instalment in the ...
The author of a novel set in racy, racist Hawke’s Bay writes about the experiences and stories that make up his book. Ten years old and I’m walking with my grandfather to the Farmers Tearooms in Hastings. At the entrance we meet a man whose house has recently burnt down. ...
A major report by the Auditor-General on how councils manage drinking, storm and waste waters found an incoherent, disorganised and stagnant system unprepared for climate change Auditor-General John Ryan found so much lacking in our water management systems he chose to start his final report on it by listing the ...
Child victims of a notorious North Island psychiatric hospital are still doubtful charges will be laid. David Williams reports Police are reviewing their file on Lake Alice psychiatrist Selwyn Leeks in the wake of a landmark decision by a United Nations committee. In December, the Committee against Torture issued a ...
When New Zealand hosts the Rugby World Cup - for the first time in this hemisphere – in 2021, it will mean so much to the Black Ferns, both present and past. To outsiders, it may have been surprising to watch Kendra Cocksedge taking a moment to hold back her ...
Climate change and carbon footprints, political unrest, global epidemics – what does it all mean for the future of tourism? While the crystal ball is murky, futurologist Associate Professor Ian Yeoman from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Management has some ideas about how the sector may change ...
The amount of methane emissions for which humans are responsible could be as much as 40% higher than thought. What does that mean for the fight against climate change? New international research suggests that the volume of methane emissions humans are producing is dramatically higher than previously thought. The findings, which ...
SkyCity yesterday pulled the plug on hosting philosopher and academic Peter Singer’s event after disability rights advocates expressed strong objections to his views. They’re right to be angry with him, but he nevertheless deserves to be heard, argues Danyl Mclauchlan.Athoughtful piece on The Spinoff yesterday explored the disabled community’s ...
There's nearly 10,000 tonnes of potentially toxic waste causing anger and anxiety in a tiny Southland town. We look at the secret deal that put it there, and the battle against a faceless entity to get rid of it. Mataura used to be a paper mill town. Nowadays the old ...
The Prime Minister has tried to relieve mounting pressure on China and New Zealand's bilateral relationship at a Chinese New Year Celebration at Parliament. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Larissa Christensen, Lecturer in Criminology & Justice | Co-leader of the Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit (SVRPU), University of the Sunshine Coast This week’s ABC’s Four Corners exposed an elite Melbourne school for failing to adequately respond to the grooming of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trish Luker, Senior lecturer, University of Technology Sydney Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains the names and voices of deceased people. When was the last time you signed your name? Perhaps you are more familiar with the ...
“Oranga Tamariki have remained silent on their role in this horrific situation,” a Māori leader tells Melanie Reid and Bonnie Sumner. A respected Hawke’s Bay kaumatua, who has been supporting the whānau whānui of a four-year-old boy being treated in hospital for brain injuries, says Oranga Tamariki needs to take responsibility ...
*Watch Melanie Reid's full interview in the video player above* Oranga Tamariki stands accused of returning a four-year-old who had been previously badly injured within a Flaxmere household to the same home, where he has since been severely injured again. It allegedly did so without full consultation with the wider whānau, some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roy Green, Emeritus Professor & UTS innovation adviser, University of Technology Sydney The only surprise about the termination of the Holden brand in Australia was that it caused such surprise. This was the final nail in an already empty coffin, given local ...
The owners of the disputed land at Ihumātao say for seven months they've halted development at the request of the Prime Minister, but that can't continue indefinitely. ...
Big Tech companies like Microsoft have raised the spectre of geo-blocking NZ if the Government proceeds with a bill for classifying streamed content. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Williamson, Research Fellow in Environmental Science, University of Tasmania As bushfires in New South Wales are finally contained, attention is turning to nature’s recovery. Green shoots are sprouting and animals are returning. But we must accept that in some cases, the ...
Are you a time-poor urban apartment-dweller who’s put composting in the too-hard basket? Read on…About half of what Aucklanders chuck in their rubbish bins is actually compostable material. That means a whopping 90,000 tonnes of Auckland households’ food waste ends up in landfill each year. Why is that a problem? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, Associate Professor, Psychology, Deakin University Snapchat has announced a new feature called “Here For You” that promises to “provide proactive in-app support to Snapchatters who may be experiencing a mental health or emotional crisis”. The popular youth-oriented app is the ...
Dr Bryce Edwards.A very concerning element of the current NZ First donations scandal is the role of lobbying and lobbyists close to the Government. The most recent story from RNZ’s Guyon Espiner and Kate Newton, revealed that lobbyist Doug Woolerton, who is also a trustee of the NZ First ...
“The visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing has reinforced the need to view good, affordable homes as a fundamental human right – and highlighted what needs to happen to ensure all New Zealanders are well-housed,” says Scott ...
The government has announced a ban on electricity retailers using promotions to lure back customers who’ve changed companies. Flick Electric’s Nikki Cockburn explains why this is a victory for consumers and competition. Progress on the Electricity Price Review (EPR) might be slow – especially when it comes to putting recommendations into ...
Acculturation – the cultural modification of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture or a merging of cultures – is increasingly evident in this country’s public agencies. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has not escaped the process. In July 2018, soon after ...
Pacific Media Watch The Philippines top state lawyer has filed a lawsuit against the country’s key television broadcaster with “guns blazing” but he ought to be devoting more effort on governance, says Rappler co-founder and managing editor Glenda M. Gloria. Gloria, who has been announced as a keynote speaker ...
The Electricity Authority says the ban on power companies offering better deals to customers who want to switch should bring down power prices. From 21 March the authority will ban the so-called win-backs offered to customers within 180 days of leaving their original supplier. Figures show 435,000 consumers switched suppliers ...
This is a press statement from UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing at the end of her 10-day visit to New Zealand. The Government of New Zealand has recognized that the country is facing a housing crisis, said Leilani Farha, UN Special Rapporteur ...
Fletcher Building is hopeful the Ihumātao land dispute can be resolved soon but says it cannot hold off indefinitely. Presenting the construction company's half-year results to the end of December 2019 chief executive Ross Taylor said it has been a complex situation. But the company said in a presentation that ...
The telecommunications company Spark has made a larger profit off a big boost in mobile sales, with the company's bottom line rising 9.2 percent to $167 million in the six months ended December. Revenue rose 4 percent to $1.82 billion with increased margins in the mobile, broadband and cloud divisions. ...
Chief Human Rights Commissioner, Paul Hunt, welcomes the release of the preliminary findings of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Leilani Farha, today, and looks forward to giving her recommendations careful consideration. “Ms ...
Former National MP Jami-Lee Ross, has been named today as one of the four people facing Serious Fraud Office charges in relation to two $100,000 donations made to the National Party. ...
Former National MP Jami-Lee Ross is one of the four men charged by the Serious Fraud Office in the National Party donations case - alongside a Chinese community leader who reportedly gave $100,000 to the party, and two others. Name suppression for Ross and his co-accused Zhang Yikun, Zheng Shijia, ...
Almost a third of middle-aged New Zealanders have tried methamphetamine at least once, according to a new University of Otago, Christchurch study looking at the link between using the drug and violence in the general population. The study found those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Theresa Larkin, Lecturer Medical Sciences, University of Wollongong Why don’t burns bleed? – from the year three and four students at Islington Public School in NSW Hello year three and four students – thanks for your excellent question! To ...
The report details an unannounced follow-up inspection, the first in a new phase of inspections of all 18 New Zealand prisons by the Office of the Inspectorate. This follows the first phase of inspections, where all prisons were inspected in a process ...
Netflix’s new release Horse Girl promised a quirky indie dramedy from its trailer. In reality, it’s a nightmarish time-warped look into the mind of a mental illness sufferer, writes Alice Webb-Liddall.There was a horse girl in every primary school classroom. The one with ballet flats and low ponytails and books ...
You may not be punching strangers’ seats, but there’s plenty of other behaviour that is guaranteed to make your fellow passengers seethe with rage. Here’s how to travel by plane without making people hate you.You’ve probably seen the video: a woman leans back in her reclined seat as a man ...
Earmarked for big things since she left high school, the ‘Nothing to Regret’ singer has been dealing with the weight of expectations for a while now. With her debut EP just released, she’s OK with where she’s at.Given the circumstances, Robinson is surprisingly relaxed. It’s early afternoon on a swelteringly ...
By Meriba Tulo in Port Moresby Over the past month, the Autonomous Bougainville Government has made known its intention to put forward several proposed amendments to the Bougainville House of Representatives. These amendments include a provision to allow for a president to serve for more than two terms – ...
New Zealand’s Catholic bishops are concerned that unborn babies will lose their existing tenuous legal rights if Parliament passes the Abortion Legislation Bill in the form proposed by a select committee. And unborn babies with a fetal disability ...
Younger voters are being encouraged to take time now to make sure they are enrolled and ready to vote in this year’s election and referendums. The Electoral Commission’s enrolment teams will be at orientation events at universities, polytechnics and wānanga ...
Open mike 10/08/2014 
Open mike is your post.
Another day, another IPCA report on criminal conduct by policy. This time they kicked a child in the head when he was handcuffed:Police chased him and yelled out for him to stop. When he turned to face the police, he threatened them with a hammer. That's when the officers tasered ...24 mins ago
Former National Party MP Jami-Lee RossIt comes as no surprise that Jami-Lee Ross has been named as one of the defendants in the X2 $100,000 National Party donations case currently before the courts. Click bait journalists who were chaffing at the bit to discredit the former senior whip had already ...3 hours ago
6 hours ago
"You're going to need a longer runway" Gratton et al explore the ongoing effects of upward-creeping temperatures on aviation in Greece in the period since 1955 at a range of airports in that country. For longer runways impacts are measurable but with little impact on operations. For airports with shorter runways, ...19 hours ago
In mid-December the Israeli secret police, the Shin Beit, revealed it had arrested dozens of Palestinian left-wing activists, including members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in the previous few months. Among those arrested was one of the central leaders of the PFLP, Khalida Jarrar. As ...21 hours ago
Nobody thinks about the next century anymore. That at least is Sci-Fi writer William Gibson’s observation (in this BBC 4 short interview, starting at 1:43:50 ). He calls it “Futures Fatigue”, but isn’t judgemental about it. Gibson notes that in the 20th century speculation about the 21st (and beyond) was common. Now ...2 days ago
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...3 days ago
...1 week ago
Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian has penned a column which chastises the left wing of the Labour party for daring to retain principles and ideals, qualities - it seems - that should be jettisoned in pursuit of power.Never mind that Freedland was an ardent Remainer, that is to say, one ...2 weeks ago
We are confronted with the spectre of Simon Bridges making clear he cannot, will not, trust Winston Peters – the oft-cited “King Maker” in New Zealand politics. Supporters are lauding it as a master stroke, naturally, because in their eyes, it prevents him being the tail that wags the dog. ...2 weeks ago
While the Provincial Growth Fund has provided $2 million to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia, Regional Economic Minister Shane Jones said he is greatly concerned that there are “issues” in implementing the projects. The Minister said the immediate solution was to pipe water from a bore ...1 hour ago
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...6 days ago
Thousands of children have begun receiving a free lunch on every day of the school week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. The Government’s free and healthy school lunch programme is under way for 7,000 students at 31 schools in Hawke’s Bay / Tairāwhiti and Bay of Plenty / Waiariki, extending ...14 mins ago
By Rambo Talabong in Manila The top lawyer of the Philippine Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) who was a controversial witness in Senate hearings on the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) controversy has been shot dead. According to the police report, lawyer Fredric Santos was gunned down yesterday afternoon by ...20 mins ago
Shane Jones was back in his Northland home patch during the week to announce the serving of another dollop of public money from the Provincial Growth Fund. It was not the first allocation of PGF funding to benefit the region this year. This time the PGF will allocate up to ...48 mins ago
We need to challenge those who minimise the actions of rapists based on the gender or ages of their victims, argues Emily Writes.Content warning: this article contains descriptions of sexual assault.News out of Australia of another college supporting a sexual predator is as unsurprising as it is horrific. Victims of ...1 hour ago
The two recent donations investigations show political party funding rules are not fit for purpose, and politicians cannot be trusted to fix them, Cat MacLennan writes. ...2 hours ago
The legislation setting up a firearm’s register and introducing tougher licensing controls is a step closer to becoming law. ...2 hours ago
Auckland Airport has reported a flat first-half result, and plans to bring forward the billion-dollar redevelopment of its domestic terminal, and upgrade the international arrivals hall. The company's net profit for the six months to December was unchanged from the year earlier's $147.2 million, reflecting a drop in passenger growth ...3 hours ago
How voters react to the headlines generated by NZ First’s latest financial shenanigans may (or may not) determine the outcome on September 19. The most recent Colmar Brunton poll had NZ First down at 3%, so some commentators are already writing off the party’s chances of survival. But the real ...4 hours ago
Since 2017 New Conservative has been calling for net zero immigration until our housing stocks meet demand. Immigrants must prove they are financially independent so they have the means to pay higher rents which forces those at the ...4 hours ago
Jami-Lee Ross is once again proclaiming his innocence, as he heads off to court next week - along with three others - to face Serious Fraud Office charges. ...5 hours ago
Motorists are now able to offset their carbon emissions when they fuel up at Z Energy stations. ...5 hours ago
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters will remain Foreign Minister amid SFO investigation; ...5 hours ago
The author of a novel set in racy, racist Hawke’s Bay writes about the experiences and stories that make up his book. Ten years old and I’m walking with my grandfather to the Farmers Tearooms in Hastings. At the entrance we meet a man whose house has recently burnt down. ...9 hours ago
A major report by the Auditor-General on how councils manage drinking, storm and waste waters found an incoherent, disorganised and stagnant system unprepared for climate change Auditor-General John Ryan found so much lacking in our water management systems he chose to start his final report on it by listing the ...9 hours ago
Child victims of a notorious North Island psychiatric hospital are still doubtful charges will be laid. David Williams reports Police are reviewing their file on Lake Alice psychiatrist Selwyn Leeks in the wake of a landmark decision by a United Nations committee. In December, the Committee against Torture issued a ...9 hours ago
When New Zealand hosts the Rugby World Cup - for the first time in this hemisphere – in 2021, it will mean so much to the Black Ferns, both present and past. To outsiders, it may have been surprising to watch Kendra Cocksedge taking a moment to hold back her ...9 hours ago
Climate change and carbon footprints, political unrest, global epidemics – what does it all mean for the future of tourism? While the crystal ball is murky, futurologist Associate Professor Ian Yeoman from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Management has some ideas about how the sector may change ...9 hours ago
There's nearly 10,000 tonnes of potentially toxic waste causing anger and anxiety in a tiny Southland town. We look at the secret deal that put it there, and the battle against a faceless entity to get rid of it. Mataura used to be a paper mill town. Nowadays the old ...10 hours ago
Ratings agency S&P has confidence in our councils and their ability to repay debt. ...17 hours ago
“Oranga Tamariki have remained silent on their role in this horrific situation,” a Māori leader tells Melanie Reid and Bonnie Sumner. A respected Hawke’s Bay kaumatua, who has been supporting the whānau whānui of a four-year-old boy being treated in hospital for brain injuries, says Oranga Tamariki needs to take responsibility ...21 hours ago
*Watch Melanie Reid's full interview in the video player above* Oranga Tamariki stands accused of returning a four-year-old who had been previously badly injured within a Flaxmere household to the same home, where he has since been severely injured again. It allegedly did so without full consultation with the wider whānau, some ...21 hours ago
A media vs media defamation case will go on, after the District Court decides the issues involved should be argued in court. ...21 hours ago
Big Tech companies like Microsoft have raised the spectre of geo-blocking NZ if the Government proceeds with a bill for classifying streamed content. ...22 hours ago
The Electricity Authority says the ban on power companies offering better deals to customers who want to switch should bring down power prices. From 21 March the authority will ban the so-called win-backs offered to customers within 180 days of leaving their original supplier. Figures show 435,000 consumers switched suppliers ...24 hours ago
Fletcher Building is hopeful the Ihumātao land dispute can be resolved soon but says it cannot hold off indefinitely. Presenting the construction company's half-year results to the end of December 2019 chief executive Ross Taylor said it has been a complex situation. But the company said in a presentation that ...24 hours ago
The telecommunications company Spark has made a larger profit off a big boost in mobile sales, with the company's bottom line rising 9.2 percent to $167 million in the six months ended December. Revenue rose 4 percent to $1.82 billion with increased margins in the mobile, broadband and cloud divisions. ...24 hours ago
Former National MP Jami-Lee Ross is one of the four men charged by the Serious Fraud Office in the National Party donations case - alongside a Chinese community leader who reportedly gave $100,000 to the party, and two others. Name suppression for Ross and his co-accused Zhang Yikun, Zheng Shijia, ...1 day ago
Fletcher Building says it hopeful the Ihumatao land dispute can be resolved soon. ...1 day ago
In the interests of her party, let alone her Government, it is surely time for the PM to cut the Gordian knot, and cast aside New Zealand First. ...1 day ago
Bernard Hickey in the Herald.
‘There’ll be only yuan winner’
Key parts of the article…..
“We ain’t seen nothin’ yet. The revelation that Shanghai Pengxin is buying Lochinver Station should not be a surprise to anyone watching the capital flows out of China in the past few years.
It is only the beginning, and the scale of the flows will dwarf the $300 million-plus that Shanghai Pengxin’s property development billionaire owner Jiang Zhaobai has spent over the past three years building a portfolio of dairy and dairy-support farms in New Zealand.
New Zealanders debating their foreign ownership laws should understand the scale of the capital flows that are coming, and where they come from.
The first thing to know is that there is a wall of cash about to break out from inside China.
This is the key point. China’s new leadership under President Xi Jingping wants to relax those capital controls to remove some of the distortions in China’s economy and impose market disciplines. This will make it easier for some of that US$14t to get out and buy assets beyond China’s borders.
China’s state-owned banks are in the vanguard of facilitating these flows. State-owned China Construction Bank, chaired in New Zealand by Jenny Shipley, was registered as a New Zealand bank this year and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, chaired here by Don Brash, was registered as a New Zealand bank last year.
Bank of China has taken out a lease in Queen St, and is expected to also gain a licence here.”
Sobering stuff.
And note how ex members of the National and ACT parties are facilitating this.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11306580
Add to that the Herald story on most common last names of new borns in Auckland – nearly all Asian with a school photo of 10 kids with only 1 white face. Apparently that = ‘diversity’, it is more like ethnic cleansing.
Remind me, which country is “Asia”? What do they speak there? “Asian”?
The New Zealand Herald encourages bigotry. Why join in?
It is not bigotry to be opposed to wealthy corporates buying up land in countries across the world.
Then what has their ethnicity got to do with it?
Nothing. There is no connection to ethnicity and I have not made one.
I would have highlighted an article about US or UK corporates as well.
It’s the global elite that is the problem and our economic system, not any particular race, obviously.
Worth a read…
The Landgrabbers
http://www.randomhouse.com/book/216574/the-land-grabbers-by-fred-pearce
And this worth watching
My initial response was to Silverbullet. I agree that land is a daft thing to sell to overseas residents.
Ask a Maori.
It’s one thing to think that there’s nothing wrong with foreign immigration per se. That’s compatible with allowing a mix immigrants from diverse backgrounds. Allowing mass immigration from one source has different results.
The Maori woke up one morning and discovered that they now lived in a European country with European culture, laws and social mores. Would you like to wake up in a country that has moved towards the culture, laws and social mores of the PRC?
Agree, Tom.
It is not about being “for” or “against” immigration. It is the un-had discussion regarding the amount and rate of immigration that is beneficial and that does not result in adverse effects on our physical infrastructure, environment, delivery of public services and social networks.
We simplify the discussion – to a “for” or “against” – for all the wrong reasons. Supposed economic benefit, fear of discussions becoming xenophobic or racist, refusal to consider that growth is no longer a prime motivator for policy.
If it could ever be discussed fully and impartially by all NZers – including recent immigrants who will have quality information about the difficulties they have faced and barriers to NZ lifestyle benefits – our immigration laws and quotas could be drafted to benefit all – both existing NZers and newcomers.
+111111
Wealth solves our social ills said Whyte. Then quickly added to his bait, the switch. So all economic growth was good for social ills.
The ignorance of the man!
The widening wealth gap is bad for the economy, bad for social problems, and we all ignore this at our peril, whether the poor, and more important the rich who have further to fall.
Growth can rise in N.Korea but it has no effect on its social backwardness.
Growth can rise in China and has everything to do with its widening of wealth to more people, and not because a few are staggeringly rich.
Growth can fall in the UK and social ills magnified.
Where on Earth does there exist a society where growth created greater social wealth, better environments, well where government is mindful to spread wealth like in the Scandinavian countries, or Singapore.
But Whyte thinks less government and more growth will heal social malaise magically. The guy is a complete fool.
Agreed, GDP growth is a lie.
Why doesn’t the financial news report on HEWI, ISEW, or Gini coefficient ?
Well because its not in the interests of the people who are their audience and their owners.
Yup, the sponsors prefer the neoliberal narrative, mustn’t rock the boat.
Real journalism desperately needed: http://www.brucejesson.com/?p=402
Quite. Don’t rock the boat.
And there is no alternative.
So must put up and shut up.
/sarc
Is that what demographic trends are suggesting or the xenophobia the right is looking for? That’s a rhetorical question.
Well, it’s noticeable in Auckland.
It’s not like it’s confined to Western countries either. I know that concern about Chinese immigration also exists in other Asian countries.
But from my point of view, we should kick out all the saffers and poms. Rugby traitors the lot of them! Send ’em back! Noo Zillund for the Noo Zillunders!
“we should kick out all the poms”
Good luck with that.
don’t forget the seppos. lowering the IQ of both countries when they come here 😛
Norman is a Australian. Norman is against, I believe, land sales to non-resident foreigners. So I’m guessing there are other foreign residents from China, UK, US, etc all who agree that selling land to non-resident foreigners is a bad idea. Worse, now we know in other countries they are not called xenophobic for introducing patriotic limits on land sales. Even National admitted to have tightened the rules.
So why did Dunne have just one thing to say about land sales, that we’re all racists xenophobics? Is he moronic? Is he stupid? Does he just like calling most of NZ racists? Yes, all of the above?
Norman Russel is a NZ Citizen (though he was born in Australia), as is his wife and child. But otherwise, I do agree with your point that; having a policy not selling land to non-resident foreigners is not necessarily xenophobic.
aerobubblie, I think Dunne is just trying to justify the unjustifiable………….like Joyce………but its not a credible argument at all.
+1 Tom Jackson
The weird thing is they don’t exactly vote left wing, the Asian people I hang out with tend to like National, love property investment, and think the country should be run like a business.
(Also I have observed people aren’t voting for policy, they are voting for JK, and against beneficiaries)
“The weird thing is they don’t exactly vote left wing, the Asian people I hang out with tend to like National, love property investment, and think the country should be run like a business.”
Anything to do with the fact that our immigration policy promotes business people/rich people over others? It’s not like they’re letting the Asian hippies in is it.
It is ironic that a purportedly communist country exports so many randian capitalists and has worse inequality than neoliberal NZ
Tom J
“The Maori woke up one morning and discovered that they now lived in a European country.”
That does rather discount the decades of both; peaceful & armed resistance, from; individual iwi, iwi alliances, and the Kingitangi movement which led to the development of Māori identity as a people. Similarly, it was what changed the “Ingarani” of Te Tiriti into the Pākehā of today: A sometimes contentious term; the best definition I’ve heard is that Pākehā are the descendants of settlers who have shed blood for the country (not necessarily their own), whereas Tauiwi are more recent arrivals. Though, I would include having an ancestor; who’d made a significant contribution, or even just being buried, in Aotearoa as enough to identify as Pākehā (regarding commitment to the country as metaphorical “blood”). Drifting a fair way off topic here…
Māori didn’t just wake “up one morning” to discover their Rangatiratanga usurped by settler Kāwanatanga, it was a gradual and sporadic process. The central nexus in my view was; the guesstimate census presented to the settler government in 1860, which indicated that settlers then outnumbered (the Tangata Whenua who were becoming) Māori. The next year, the Taranaki land wars started; heralding the influx of thousands of British Empire soldiers to enforce Settler authority.
Sigh… that’s sort of irrelevant to the point I was making.
TJ
Your point (or at least, concluding line) seemed to be:
My counterpoint was that such a cultural shift is not something that just happens overnight, and that one can struggle against it (though not necessarily prevail). However, change is the only constant, and our culture will change over time regardless.
Also, if you going to cite the colonial experience of Māori; then you should have some inkling of what you refer to.
The point was, we are being re-colonised right now, so your history lesson isn’t much use.
As to your mad implication that we should surrender ourselves to some inevitable “cultural shift” … what a load of useless bollocks
ropata
In response to OAB’s; “Then what has their ethnicity got to do with it?”; TJ replied “Ask a Maori… [who] woke up one morning and discovered that they now lived in a European country “.
My argument against that is the historical record; where the tangata whenua did not have a pan-Māori identity until it was forged in the fires of resistance. I felt that TJs depiction of; Māori as uniform ignorami who didn’t realise their disposession until it was an accomplished fact, was disingenuous. Or:
“a cultural shift is not something that just happens overnight, and that one can struggle against it”
Which wasn’t mean to be read as advice to surrender to inevitable landsales to nonresident foreigners. However, we are always being re-colonised and it is the struggle against (and accommodations with) that process that determines our national character.
If you don’t find that useful, then my apologies; I tend to be more interested in truth than utility. Perhaps you should read another’s comments.
And you’re still off in the land of abstraction, but apology accepted 🙂
OAB you are very akin to nats’ who have no long term visions.
Try extending your self to a long term plan for this land for heaven sakes.
God help us with your short bursts of live snapshots of the money changing dynamics of this land.
With the most liberal open border Neo Liberal policies in the world don’t you know.
Wake up before the whole country is sold from under our feet..
You’re sorta stupid, aren’t you. If you want coloured people to have a lower fertility rate, you have to give them more chances at higher education and higher incomes. Are you willing to do that.
“You’re sorta stupid, aren’t you. If you want coloured people to have a lower fertility rate, you have to give them more chances at higher education and higher incomes. Are you willing to do that.”
If you want people to have a lower fertility rate, you have to give them more chances at higher education and higher incomes. Are you willing to do that. FIFY
Vile bigoted rubbish.
🙄
Good article from Bernanrd. Lets hope some of the more Nact inclined members of the nation understand the economic wake up call from this. China is artificially keeping it’s exchange rate down and attempting to buy real assets the world over. Colonisation in other words. Gives a good idea of how maori felt doesn’t it.
Economic colonisation of our nation, yes. And our ‘tribal leaders’ in Government seem to be all for selling their iwi (us) out.
Yes unfortunately our Nact tribal leaders do want to sell the “iwi”out. Still we should think positive and look at how we can stop overseas land ownership and then make life uncomfortable with a lotta taxes (overseas domiciled get to pay a CGT each year -no clawbacks- but domestic CGT based on realisation only) until sale takes place.
Let’s turn this into an “iwi” gold mine.
Brash and Shipley don’t believe in society or community.
There are devoted followers of the Ayn Rand cult….listen to Jamie Whyte and you hear this vile doctrine.
If the Chinese really wanted to purchase assets offshore in the way you are suggesting they would be much better to inflate the value of their currency rather than keep it low.
For these purposes, its own exchange rate is less relevant as China is divesting itself of its massive holdings of USD.
What Rubbish goose you haven’t managed to get one economic fact right yet goose .
If China the great democratic country sorry dictatorship increased the value of its currency its surpluses would disappear and exports dry up!
China’s dictators have a longterm plan for their economy !
New Zealanders like your dumb arse selfish short term thinker only can see a 3 month reporting period!
Rod Oram points out that these companies take the commodities out of our country with out adding value even Fonterra hand over most of their milk powder for the likes of Nestle’ to add all the value!
Gooseman racial fermenter!
Oh no the dreaded Chinese are coming!
Now where have seen that before?
Shanghai Pengxin are here.
Jiang Zhaobai is here.
China Construction Bank is here.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is here.
Who are these “the Chinese” you keep going on about and when are they coming?
Gosman, the chameleon .
You need to take a good look at yourself and your silly snipes.
Travel like we have the globe and then tell the truth, unfortunately Bernard is correct Chinese money is now drowning the world in debt from your speculator mates who use cheap Chinese money.
This global economic crash is all down to you and your mates fast and easy flash in the pan speculations and you now are planning this continued policy will destroy our NZ economy?
best you look up the business registry of the top icon companies we had that now have been taken mostly over by Chinese, just for one is Fisher & paykel.
Policies you promote are dangerous. They call that a crime against the state, and the people you loathe as Kiwis..
Goose we are 58th on the list of countries adding value to our primary industry !
Until that changes we will continue to become closer to the bottom of the developed world!
build some more motorways so our commodity based economy can help all the overseas commodity value adders keep us poor!
3rd world thinking from a goose.
New Zealand.. the country of the the haves and have nots.
The NZ Herald’s editor seems to celebrate that fact by detailing the obscene amounts of wealth NZ’s wealthy have.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11306605
“..I Tried Cannabis Lube – and This is What My Vagina Felt Like..
..Oh what a feeling!
My journalistic investigation would be to see if my vagina could actually get high..”
(cont..)
(reason number 53 to legalise/regulate/tax the magic herb..eh..?
..new zealand women should be free to get their vaginas high..
..don’tchareckon..?..)
http://www.alternet.org/sex-amp-relationships/i-tried-cannabis-lube-and-what-my-vagina-felt
It’s kind of grotty for a man to exploit women’s sexual pleasure to push a political issue.
(And not everyone who has a vagina is a woman, and not every woman has a vagina.)
Kind of grotty, but not as insincere and fake as using the sick and medical mj as a back door to pot legalisation for personal gratification.
we’ll need more (vegan) kit-kats..!
Or shame guards.
good grief..!
..and not everyone has a sense of humour..clearly..!
..(but maybe a special p.c-vigilance-award for you..?..should be in the offing..?)
..and i dunno about you..but ‘grotty’ isn’t a word-association that comes to mind..
..when the word ‘vagina’ comes up..
..and would the story be ok if it was about a pot-lube for men..?
..seriously..!
..get a grip!/have a kit-kat!..do something..!
🙄
He’s right. You’re coming across as a po faced puritan.
From you that could be considered a compliment.
That’s a fascinating conclusion to draw from a single comment, in which the only point I made was that it’s gross for a man to push his personal political issues using women’s bodies.
and the good news is that it works..!
“..As soon as the licking started – it hit me. There are the drugs.
It was an all-over buzzy tingly feeling that spreads the pleasure much further than wherever you’re being directly stimulated.
It pulsated like there was a delicate vibrator inside of me – but better.
Cloudier.
I hadn’t felt anything like it before – and I’ve had my share of sex after some hits from a J..”
whoar..!..eh..?
..’holy high vagina..!..batman..!’..
Slightly better than using sick kids as an excuse for personal gain… But not by much.
i..i can’t help myself..i’m having to script the infomercial:
“..are you lying in bed..looking at each other and going..’yeah..!..nah..!..eh..?..’
..have you done it every which way more times than you can count..?
..are the costumes/accessories mouldering away in a forgotten drawer..?
..even watching porn together doesn’t ‘do it’ for you both anymore..?
..introducing vag-hi..!..the new miracle marital aid for women..!
..(here’s a happy customer.:..
‘It pulsated like there was a delicate vibrator inside of me – but better..!’..)
..and of course..with vag-high..
..you just have to spray and walk away..!..’
..and vag-high is guaranteed to kick start yr love-life..
..but wait..!..there’s more..!..
..vag-hi will make your orgasms..’cloudier’…
..call 08001wantsome!..
..and today i’ll give you not one vag-hi..but two..!
..that’s 400 orgasms for only $39.99..!
….call 0800iwantsome!..now..!
..remember..!..pleasure is only a spritzer away..!
I think your post is very nice Phil………..great research.
chrs..i see it as almost a public service announcement.
..there will be a lot of women reading that and going..’cloudier..eh..?’…
Phillp ure.
if you cant contribute with constructive comments to help the country out of this spiralling drowning in debt and takeovers shut the fuck up you corrosive NatZ.
Err LK, phillip is very very far from being a nat. Please read many of his comments on many wide range of pages here at the standard. Also the left is about robust diverse voices, well maybe not the authoritarian left, but the rest of us. So please, if you don’t like Philips humour, don’t read his posts, self censorship is fine.
Did you mean nut or nat? This fool is embarrassing. Where are the men in white coats when we need them?
From yesterdays Herald, Franny O’Sullivan gives an elongated Tsk Tsk Tsk to all those young people for indulging in the recent InternetMana Party Party rave,
Little of it is worth repeating, pretty much akin to reading something printed off on an old Gestetner circa 1960’s and then comparing it with today’s zooo–ooom of internet communications,
Risible from O’Sullivan as She put forward Her ‘thoughts’ of what the Youf of today should be occupying their minds with in ‘election season’, Freedom didn’t get a look in from Fran, Party Party’s apparently are definitely a No No according to the gospel of O’Sullivan,
i think i can safely say to O’Sullivan that the young people attending InternetMana Party Party’s up and down our little islands would only have Two words, very descriptive, involving both sex and travel, in reply to Grannies Granny telling them to get a mortgage,
You can guess the rest…
FJK…FJK…FJK!
bad, I would like you to back up a quote you attributed to me on yesterday’s Open Mike.
Specifically where you said:
This attitude, epitomized in a recent debate on ‘decriminalizing abortion’ where you proposed that ”abortion might be a solution to child poverty” to me reeks of an attitude where eugenics would be the next step toward the slippery slope,
I have had a look at recent discussions of abortion at The Standard and surprisingly enough cannot find any comment I made which even vaguely correlates to your claim.
It’s a bit puzzling that you’d even raise the topic in the middle of a discussion about Ohariu, but since you’ve basically accused me of supporting eugenics, I insist you back it up or retract it.
Stephanie, how easily you forget, you made the comment in ‘Open Mike’ i do believe, about the same day, give or take a day or two either side, that the last actual Post discussing abortion appeared here a the Standard,(the discussion about the actual Green’s policy),
i have other things to do this morning, and, will hunt it out later, i will also comment later on why i raised such a comment vis a vis your obviously placed in some position within Labour’s Ohariu electorate campaign later…
i will amend the above, the original discussion occurred in ‘Open Mike’ on 09/06/2014, this was followed in the next couple of days by an actual ‘Post’ on the Green’s ‘new policy’,(the ‘Post’ may have even been the same day),
i have to be somewhere starting in 15 minutes, the comment you made Stephanie, was i now believe made within that specific ‘Post’ discussing the actual policy, i will hunt it out later…
It’s very easy to forget saying things which I have never said.
And I’m breathless with anticipation to know just how my (alleged and unproven) feelings about abortion decriminalisation are applicable to my statements about the strategic voting situation in Ohariu (none of which you’ve actually managed to rebut.)
Edited to add: it’s also interesting how in the 25 minutes between your two comments above you managed to remember the exact date of the post but not actually find the quote you have attributed to me.
Ah so smug Stephanie, you shouldn’t be, but, yes i will withdraw unreservedly my allegation that you used the word ‘Poverty’ in ‘Open Mike’ on 6 June 2014,
You will tho be getting no apology as the words you did use, and i quote:
”it seems fairly obvious that an early abortion of an unaware clump of cells is a heck of a lot better fate than being born into abuse and neglect” unquote,
Is in fact a direct reference to poverty, any fool, well perhaps in your case i may have to create a special category, would know that in the vast majority of cases where abuse and/or neglect is reported it is also evident in the family concerned an ongoing situation of Poverty,
So while your glib excuse making and outright smugness may come from not actually having used the word Poverty in your above quote it is obvious to anyone who has worked for any amount of time, large or small, in the area of the care of children, as i have, that Poverty, Neglect and/or Abuse in the family situation are inseparably intertwined,
IF Stephanie, you had a shred of concern for such children, born into Poverty and thus ‘at risk’ of suffering the myriad negative effects that are part and parcel of such Poverty, including Abuse and Neglect, you would be advocating the raising of the income of ALL such families instead of claiming as you do that their unborn children be ripped from their mothers wombs and effectively flushed down the sink as some form of ‘solution’ which smacks at the least of a gross lack of humanity on your part,
Your comment above is a massive step in the direction of Eugenics and thus abhorrent…
[lprent: Stephanie is always very precise in her choice of words. However she is also an author, so it is inadvisable to continue to attack her on the basis of what she did not say, or what you choose to place as the meaning on those words.
After all, I could start trolling through you comments and taking meanings from what you have said in the past. ]
I don’t particularly like or approve of it, but legalised abortion != eugenics. Nor does your slippery slope argument hold water.
Aside from the women’s rights argument, abortion may actually reduce crime
http://freakonomics.com/2005/05/15/abortion-and-crime-who-should-you-believe/
Ropata, i did not say that, you have as i have just been ‘spanked’ for, read into my comment something that simply is not there,
As i point out, Neglect and/or Abuse is accompanied in the overwhelming majority of such cases by Poverty,
Therefor, and as the Moderator has pointed out, the commenter may have not intended to convey this, the opinion those words have formed in my psyche at least is that abortion has been proposed as a means to lower the obviously high amounts of abuse and neglect that occur within families,
Much the same as your link makes an assertion that abortion may reduce crime, i could, perhaps mistakenly, construe that by linking to such an assertion you support the point the link makes,
Do you…
It’s a tough question. I abhor the picture you have described (late term abortion), but on balance I think the sum of human happiness is improved by reproductive choice. Just look at the impact of contraception on third world countries.
Ropata, i fail to understand your reference to ”late term abortion” has the inclusion of such a term in the discussion any relevance and if so can you elucidate that relevance,
Crime, by conviction, not necessarily by value, also has attached to it another demographic, exactly the same as the demographic attached to families where reported abuse and neglect is rife,
Poverty is that linkage, and, while there my be some small truth in claims that abortion would alleviate/lower rates of both crime and abuse/neglect this could not be achieved by ‘choice’,
In other words to achieve such aims through the use of abortion of the tool someone else would be doing the choosing,
Families where crime, and/or abuse/neglect occur still choose to have babies so while those proposing such ‘solutions’ are not at the same time proposing that someone other than ‘the mother’ exercise ‘choice’ to achieve a lowering of the statistics alluded to in this discussion would involve ‘choice’ at some stage being replaced by ‘force’,
Think tho wont you, why do we have poor people, poor workers especially are seen as a necessity of our economy,
If the unborn babies of such poor people where to be ‘knocked off’ in a generational manner so as to make a difference in the statistical areas we are discussing who will then be left to do the labour of the poor,
Now perhaps do you see the linkage i postulate between such ‘ideas’ and Eugenics, while no-one is overtly proposing Eugenics for such proposals as using abortion as a tool to say lower crime rates such proposals are one very large step in that direction…
arguing with a jellyfish would be more productive. can’t be bothered following your jumbled thoughts and reminding you what you already wrote ffs
LPrent, while i take on board your point that Stephanie is an author, this conversation as you can see is the result not of a ‘Post’ that Stephanie wrote but as a result of comments between the two of us in a previous ‘Open Mike’,
Everybody commenting here at the Standard continually ”reads into” comments from anywhere and everywhere, on-site and off-site ”meanings” into what is said by those commenting, those in the media, and, those involved in politics,
So really, i have to ask here what is the point of your moderation except to stifle my ability to debate,
i see no overt abuse in my comment to Stephanie and simply point out the facts vis a vis Poverty and such poverty’s connections to child Abuse and Neglect,
i do not usually bother to respond to ‘moderation’s comments’ as there is obviously little point to doing so as it appears to have only one inescapable conclusion in doing so…
That’s utterly pathetic, bad. Now you’re pretending that this is just about whether I used the word ‘poverty’ or not – when anyone can see by clicking on the links I have provided that you accused me very specifically of saying “abortion might be a solution to child poverty” – and then got really smarmy about “how easily I forget” saying such things.
Now you’ve accused me of not supporting moves to raise people’s incomes and get them out of situations where they feel abortion is the best option for them, which is a complete lie, and you’ve once again linked my opinions about abortion to eugenics.
And you still haven’t explained exactly what the hell this has to do with strategic voting!
I’m going to have to insist once again that you retract your accusations about what I said – not some sneaky, weaselly “did I use the word ‘poverty'” spin – apologise for saying I support eugenics, and explain your choice to introduce these lies in a completely different conversation.
Because right now the “opinion your words have formed in my psyche” is that you’re a sad little liar who can’t handle women disagreeing with him or making choices he doesn’t like.
Don’t forget “you know who’s” Kumeu Baptist Church Candidates Meeting 6pm tomorrow night (Mon Aug 11)–21 Access Rd. just off H16 before Huapai, lots of parking.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kumeu-Baptist-Church/747234255305216
https://www.google.com/maps/search/Kumeu+Baptist+Church+NZ/@-36.8057749,174.5491671,13z
Well worth going imo to keep the heat on Slippery the PM. Laila Harre´and Hone Harawira will be missing IMPs Invercargill Roadtrip mtg. to attend.
They reported that there was only room for about240 people at Kumeu I think. About 239 National supporters and one tame other?
My thinking was just to mill about outside with left party signage before candidates mtg and then have a rally depending on numbers afteward (and welcome anyone evicted from the hall by security).
Are you serious?
“Laila Harre and Hone Harawira will be missing”.
I understand why Hone won’t be there, as he isn’t a candidate in the electorate, but I didn’t think that Laila would run away. It certainly shows how Dotcom rules the roost doesn’t it.
I suppose she is scared that she is going to look like a complete prat and is looking for an excuse not to have to be there and be shown up by Key of course.
Fuck John Key.
And try reading this sentence slowly and in full:
“Laila Harre´and Hone Harawira will be missing IMPs Invercargill Roadtrip mtg. to attend”.
Better trools needed.
I did read the sentence in full.
Is being one of a group forming Kim Dotcom’s court in Invercargill really more important than attending the only candidate meeting in the electorate in which she is standing?
She is the one after all who claimed that she would be chasing John Key to hold him to account.
Instead when KDC tells her to follow him, as if he was the Pied Piper and she was one of the original followers in the story, she follows his orders.
I stand by my words. KDC is totally in charge isn’t he?
o dear 🙄
the stupid is strong in this one
Whoops. Sorry. I mentally put a colon in the sentence as I read it.
I read it as being a statement that they would be missing and an explanation why.
I take it Laila will be present after all.
lol .. you got it this time 🙂
Yes. It was the fact that the word “missing” was at the end of the line in T.M’s original post and the next line started with the capital letter in “IMPs” that fooled me into thinking it was two statements. Can I blame TM for carefully arranging the length and construction of his sentences deliberately to trick me? No?
Hi alwyn. An apology for being stupid is welcome but are you going to withdraw the rest of your self assured diatribe at 5.2?
I thought that it could be taken as read. It was based on a false premise from misreading one sentence as two. On that basis any conclusions based on a misinterpretation of the facts are clearly not justified.
I still think Laila has been bought by someone who would appear to hold values that are completely different from anything that she has supported in the past of course.
Thanks for that great look into the mirror mind of a denizen of Planet Key. Are you really that thick to completely misunderstand what was written?
Is the Herald once again leaving behind the impression that Liu gave lotsa money to labour. Why doesn’t he mention any donations the Nacts got? I seem to remmeber a court case some time back where a judge had some scathing remarks to make about a magazine that printed rumours about a public figure so it could also print a denial.
“A Herald investigation revealed that Maurice Williamson contacted police about the domestic violence inquiry on Liu’s behalf. He resigned his ministerial portfolios in May.
There was further political controversy in June over donations Liu said he had made to the Labour Party.”
what is it with far-right politicians and their weird staring politron 3 eyes..?
..both ‘moon-landing-denier’ craig..and ‘dweeb’ seymour..(he’s from act..)
..they both have that going on..
Watching the Comedy that is the Epsom. On Q+A TV1. There’s Goldsmith denying that he wants to be a sitting MP only a List MP. And the Clown for ACT? What a train wreck. And now Goldsmith is sounding like the one to elect. And the Labour Guy Michael Wood well he is sounding really good too. Julie Anne Genter accepts that most speak to her over Transport. And Rankin? Well nice Earings
I think we need a Reform Act – get rid of these Rotten Boroughs.
Not quite the same as those in Britian but they behave in almost the same way.
epsom candidates’ debate on q & a..
genter took it out..by a country-mile..
..wood from labour was (surprisingly) good..
..’dweeb’ seymour from act was a rude/arrogant prick..
..goldsmith was ever-unctuous..
..and rankin was reduced to babbling inanities from the sideline..
..all in all a good showing for the progressive-camp..
tim barnett..fucken braindead..’no..no..we won’t tell our supporters to vote tactically in epsom’..(!)
..w.t.f..!
..as boag pointed out..if banks had not won epsom by 2,500 last time..key wd not have even got a second term..
..w.t.f. is wrong with labour..?
..hell-bent on this antipodean/modern charge of the fucken light brigade..
..’we were defeated..but we flew our flag high..we died honourable men..!’
..fucken idiots..!
Labour, and hopefully Green voters in Epsom are bright enough to work it out for themselves. It is the Nats who have to be unsubtly reminded where their class interests lie.
the voting numbers from last time show that labour/green voters in epsom were not..
..’bright enough to work it out for themselves’..
..were they ‘bright enough’..act would not exist..
..key wd have been a one-term prime minister..
..and all those assets would not have been sold..
..what..the..fuck…is..so..hard..to..understand..about..that..?
..(should i say it again..?..slowly..?..
..and this is all why barnetts’ ignoring of this political-reality/history..
..has me grinding my forehead into the keyboard..)
and on this..genter was no better..
Have another look at the Q+A program without the blinkers on Philip, the Green’s Julie Ann Genter, as much as i like Her, was saying much the same thing,
Blah Blah, Democracy, Democracy, seeking Party vote only, but, the people of Epsom must be left to choose their own electorate MP,
If Julie Ann wakes up the morning after with a healthy vote in both categories, party and electorate, with the ACT candidate still firmly ensconced in the Seat of Epsom allowing a 1 seat majority for the right to govern shall we all thank Her for the effort,
i know i wont be…
Ain’t old Michelle shrill on Q + A ?
Reckon you’d have smelt it and seen it seeping across the floor if you’d been in that studio. Isn’t their some incontinence pad they advertise on the tele’ ? Send the poor thing a comp’ carton of same.
Ha ! Apparently the 2011 result was down to one ACT seat in parliament. What happened to the most magnificent electoral endorsement ever seeen in the history of New Zealand politics ?
Did Susan Wood host the show?
If so, was she her usual biased self?
smalley hosted the debate..
..and confirmed her previously-over-rated status..
..without an auto-cue..the glitter fades..
Phillip ure,.
Like you we are unimpressed by TV1 adaptation of Rachael Smalley.
She used to be a giant investigative journo, so objective by asking the Hard questions.
But now she sadly looks like another of the many natz clones at TV1, wasn’t TV1 a public TV channel not a Government election tool?
Almost all are Natz moles, and Mike Hosking’s????.
What have they done to Rachael?
Has she gotten to close to the spin doctor Joyce?
Something has taken her over at the Joyce/Goebells propaganda channel TV1? taken out her brain or brainwashed her?
Please wake up Rachael, we need you to be your real former balanced investigative journo type, smart, witty, and just what we need to dig under the pile of crap called “National”.
“..What have they done to Rachael?..”
i think she was upgraded from the mediatron3 to the mediatron4..
..the latter is a much more compliant tron..
..the awkward-question ‘faults’ ironed out of it..
..(it says as much in the manufacturers’-upgrade-guarantee..)
I hope Act is gone on 20 September. I do not like manipulative bossy candidates/parties.
In case you hadn’t noticed @ North – Michelle is ALWAYS shrill. She just drips with shrill
Nah… she was worse than ever on Q&A this morning. She’s panicking big time. It was funny to watch.
Talking of panicking…
RNZ’s Monday morning political spot starting around 1110am will be well worth a listen. A word of warning: batten down your cerebral hatches because Matthew Hooton will be spinning like a Force 10 hurricane.
And wearing the royal purple again. On the very odd occasions I have seen her on the TV she always seems to have a lot of purple clothes on. Channeling a desire to be royalty perhaps?? -Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown…
She likes bright colours. Pinks, purples and blues. Maybe she thinks of herself as the Queen Mum’s NZ successor. She also went in for pinks, purples and blues.
Calling the Queen of Thorns…
Are you coming back to the interwebs for the election campaign?
Kinda miss your input.
Quite understand if you have better ways of spending your time.
How much marijuana did Arthur Baysting smoke before the Kim Hill interview?
Saturday Morning, Radio New Zealand National, 9 August 2014
Anybody else listen to Kim Hill interviewing Arthur Baysting (AKA Neville Purvis) about the need for marijuana legalization? Much of what he said was perfectly sensible and reasonable, until right near the end, when he saw fit to praise President Barack “Bomber” Obama for his liberal attitude towards cannabis law reform.
So far, so good.
But then Baysting, in his blissed out zeal, went a little bit further than was sensible. Because it is now legal in several states, the jail population is going down dramatically, he claimed, and would mean Obama’s legacy would be “up there with Nelson Mandela’s”. That’s a stupid and ignorant and inflammatory thing to say, and is unforgivable, even for an old hippy musician who has obviously been toking daily for the last half-century.
If Arthur Baysting wants to be taken seriously, he needs to learn to speak with a degree of moderation and proportion. Comparing a smooth-talking, cynical product of the rotten, vicious Chicago Democrat Party machine to a revolutionary, principled peace activist that he would have defamed mercilessly if he had been president while the apartheid state was—like Pinochet’s Chile, Duvalier’s Haiti, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq—an American protégé, is utterly preposterous. It’s the kind of thing a stoned old stupid old muso would say during a session. A dope-smoking session, that is. Like the thirteenth gong of a cuckoo clock, it casts doubt on all that went before.
Meanwhile, now that the Nobel Peace Prize-winning peacemaker Barack Mandela has committed to another attack on Iraq, in contravention of his election promises, we can only speculate on how the U.S. soldiers will behave. Sadly, judging by their behaviour in Afghanistan, it’s not entirely promising….
US soldier pleads guilty to urinating on Afghan bodies
AFP DECEMBER 22, 2012 2:48AM
A US Marine was jailed for 30 days, fined and demoted after pleading guilty to participating in a video that showed soldiers urinating on the dead bodies of three Afghans.
Staff Sergeant Joseph Chamblin was charged with “alleged involvement in desecration and posing for unofficial photographs with human casualties,” a statement said.
He pleaded guilty to the charges, which included “wrongfully urinating on the body of a deceased enemy combatant,” as well as failing to supervise the young soldiers in his unit who also took part in the incident.
Chamblin’s rank will be bumped down to lance corporal, he will serve 30 days confinement, his pay will be docked $US500 ($477) a month for the next six months, and he was ordered to pay a $US2000 fine, the judge in the special court martial ruled.
Another soldier, Edward Deptola, is also facing military prosecution, while three others involved in the case have faced administrative sanctions. All five belong to an elite unit of snipers.
The incident came to public attention in January, when a video surfaced online that showed four US soldiers urinating on three bloodied corpses. One of the men, apparently aware he was being filmed, says: “Have a great day, buddy,” referring to one of the dead.
The incident had apparently occurred six months….
Read more….
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/us-soldier-pleads-guilty-to-urinating-on-afghan-bodies/story-e6freoo6-1226542198975?nk=a8ce7cecc5ade34f5bdba1b9378543f4
“..the jail population is going down dramatically, he claimed..”
the facts of the matter morrissey..are that in colorado..
..legalisation/regulation/taxation has led to both a drop in the consumption of the killer drug alcohol..
..and a marked drop in crime..
..coincidence..?..or cause/effect..?
I agree with you, Phillip, and I share your—and Arthur Baysting’s—desire to see the absurd and cruel drug laws abolished. However, judging from what I’ve seen of your posts over the years, I don’t think you would ever be so foolish as to compare Barack Obama to Nelson Mandela.
My problem with Baysting is not his pro-marijuana views, it’s his addled comparison of a war criminal to a heroic peace activist.
You do know that Mandela was a convicted criminal, Moz? He co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. Presumably he was a supporter of MK’s activities right through to democracy. I sincerely doubt he ever considered himself a peace activist, rather, he was a soldier in an armed struggle.
He was a terrorist who was very very lucky that he wasn’t droned decades ago. Today, he would be, and we would never ever even know his name.
🙄
i agree it was a trainwreck of an interview..(and said so yesterday..)
..and an obama/mandela comparison/equivalence..?
..yeah..nah..eh..?
..but..he has ordered his attorney-general to order the national sentencing commission (?)
..to allow prisoners serving non-violent long sentences for cannabis..
..to be allowed to apply to the courts for a reduced sentence..
..(which is a major breakthrough..)
..i presume it is this that baysting is speaking of..
“..legalisation/regulation/taxation has led to – a marked drop in crime.”
Using your logic, puff heads are responsible for said quoted criminal activity?
And you want to reward them?
Armed bank robbers should just be given bundles of cash when they need it. Problem solved then lol.
How much dope have you smoked this morning, Al1en? Your message is as logical as an Arthur Baysting argument.
I couldn’t afford to even if I wanted a session.
And it’s not my logic, it’s pu’s.
No it’s not Phillip Ure’s “logic”, its your deliberate misconstruing of his argument.
Lolz, Phillip thinks at times erratically, He has a somewhat legitimate excuse for doing so,
What’s yours Alien, being to straight leads to brain damage translated through comment???..
So I take it from the personal insult your axe still grinds? Good show lol.
Like your commentary on radio programs?
you certainly sound like you need a joint !
or maybe a dab, much stronger mellowing effects !
Meanwhile, now that the Nobel Peace Prize-winning peacemaker Barack Mandela has committed to another attack on Iraq, in contravention of his election promises
Its a response to the UN call,of which the Unanimous statement of the security council is that a response to ethnic cleansing in northern iraq and syria by isis is required.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48439#.U-a6S6MymXU
Pissing on a corpse of an enemy combatant,is insignificant in comparison of beheading,crucifixion and stoning to death.
Quite a few of us are left wondering @Morissey – what ya sed with the opening lines.
ooops – sincere apologies! Can I shove an additional ‘r’ up ya?
Kim needed coaching on how it was he was attempting to connect dots too.
She should have had Rik B and some other strugglers waiting in the wings – not that its all about Kim.
Get back to you’re gardening woman will ya!
But then what’s a dot or two between friends eh?
Colmar Brunton Epsom poll results: [On Q and A this morning]
Who would you vote for with your electorate vote?
National Paul Goldsmith 44%
Act David Seymour 32%
Labour Michael Woold 10%
Green Julie Anne Genter 9%
Conservative Christine Rankin 4%
Internet Mana Pat O’Dea .08%
Independent Grace Haden 0.3%
Don’t know 8%
Were you aware John key is encouraging National Party supporters to give their electorate vote to the Act Party candidate?
Yes 70%
No 28%
Don’t know 2%
With this in mind, who would you now vote for with your electorate vote?
National Paul Goldsmith 31%
Act David Seymour 45%
Labour Michael Woold 9%
Green Julie Anne Genter 10%
Conservative Christine Rankin 4%
Internet Mana Pat O’Dea .08%
Independent Grace Haden 0.1%
Don’t know 13%
Do you support or oppose arrangements like the one John Key has made with the Act Party in Epsom?
Support 47%
Oppose 37%
Don’t know 16%
Which political party would you vote for?
National 60%
Green 16%
Labour 14%
NZ First 3.3%
Act 2.7%
Conservative 2.1%
Internet Mana 1.5%
Maori 0.6%
Don’t know 6%
Stunning numbers for the Green Party in what is obviously a right wing stronghold, InternetMana cannot be too disappointed with having 1.5% Party Vote support there,
Poor old Labour take yet another hit in a ‘poll’, perhaps the peeps in Epsom, or those ‘counting’ the numbers are taking the piss, trying to rain on Labour’s parade…
The Greens are standing Genter there? Too much electoral candidate firepower IMO; at 9% her Green supporters need to turn more to Goldsmith.
May be so. But on the other hand, it could also be that the traditional Nat supporters torn about the Key’s directive but reluctant to vote for ACT or Labour, are taking the mischievous option of giving their vote to the Greens knowing or hoping that the Greens will be or could be a pain in the arse for a Labour led coalition government with their exaggerated demands and sense of over entitlement for cabinet positions, uneconomic unemployment inducing policies and stuff or hoping that the Greens may go into a defacto relationship with the Nats after the election if the supposed ‘murmurs’ alluded to by Mike Sabin and as yet undenied by the Greens are correct! Who knows! Your guess is as good as mine!
And here we have the Labour Tribalist in its natural habitat. If you observe closely, you can see when threatened by a younger, more confident contender, the Tribalist will rear back and sprout out complete bullshit in the hope of defending itself.
“Labour Tribalist” “sprout out complete bullshit’
Wrong on both counts. Doubly wrong.
Materia’s statement as quoted by Bad12 ‘with an underlying vein of sharpened and hardened steel in Her voice’ that
“IF Labour were forming the next Government the Green Party would be at the Cabinet Table In Numbers AND there would be a Comprehensive Coalition Agreement which covered ALL of the Green Parties policies”
Panelist Sabin on The Nation debate stated that ‘there have been murmurs’ within the Greens of going into coalition arrangement with National after the election if Labour is unable to support some of the Green policies such as the free transport for tertiary students etc! He also said that the Greens would deny this in public if asked.
I doubt he would make such claims unless there was some truth to that.
Neither Materia nor Norman have pulled up Sabin on this not categorically denied such talks took place within the Greens.
So, what are you on about about ‘tribalist’ and ‘bullshit’?
So, spit it out. What ‘tribal’ bullshit and spin are you now going to spout about those statements from/about the greens and the completely valid points I have made?
If you are this wide of the mark, Clem, then “bullshit” is a very good call.
You refer to Sabin’s very skewed version of something he heard from someone in The Greens, then spin it through your own misinterpretation.
You are supporting right wing wedge politics, aimed at fragmenting the left. We need more cross party support than all the smears you are dishing out.
You keep on repeating the same misinformation even after people keep pointing out how wrong you are – hands over your ears.
Firstly, if you are going to quote someone as a source, try to get their name right – it’s BROOK Sabin. Looks like you are not paying very much attention to the source.
The statements of Sabin’s that you keep referring to, are actually focused on how weak Labour is looking in terms of leading a government – and that the Greens must be disappointed because they need a stronger Labour if they want a Lab-green coalition.
At about 4.35 mins into the video.
This would be in the realms of Memorandum of Understanding, and has nothing to do with contemplating forming a coalition with National.
You seem totally unaware that the Greens (under the Leadership of Jeanette Fitzsimons and Russel Norman) signed a MoU with the Nat government in 2009. They tried to extend this after the 2011 election, but there wasn’t enough common ground between the parties.
It’s part of the Greens approach that they will aim to work with any party on policies that they agree on.
The 2009 MoU- insulation for homes; energy efficiency; health products.
Green Party Press Release on it said,
The news reports on the failure to expand the MoU in 2012, said this:
So, Brook Sabin’s comments are just about the Greens fall back position. They have strongly stated they want to play a significant role in a Lab-Green government. Sabin’s comments are spinning about Labour being too weak to govern, and the Greens starting to look at policies they could put to the Nats as an MoU. It’s not about a coalition or confidence and supply, but about selected policies. And, for all we know, it was just some idle chatter amongst a couple of Greens.
That is something the Greens have always been up front about doing – so nothing for Turei and Norman to deny.
Clem, do you really want to continue supporting Sabin’s comments about a Labour Party too weak to govern?
“Clem, do you really want to continue supporting Sabin’s comments about a Labour Party too weak to govern?”
Labour will be a strong party with a strong leader and a strong caucus. It will be a party with very strong well thought out economic, social and environmental policies for the good of all the people for the long term good of the country. While the smaller progressive parties like the Greens are welcome, I do not want to see these smaller parties to be too arrogant or cocky or too greedy and put their boot into the coalition’s political interest by exaggerated claims and demands far and above their limited party support from the voters. If that happens, I have no doubt that the voters will punish Labour and the coalition parties in 2017. I am sure no thinking progressive voter will want such an outcome. Slow and steady is the smart way to go for everyone’s long term success.
ie – small parties should know their place.
Nevertheless, a more reasoned comment from you, Clem, and more positive sounding.
It’s up to the voters to decide which parties they prefer. That’s what the election is for.
I’m happy if there’s a strong left coalition in government, and parties that will work for a return to truly left wing policies. It’s good we have a choice.
“ie – small parties should know their place.”
Not at all. Sure, they can get a little more than what their party support proportion says, just a little more, but not too much over and above that. Because, that will be unfair, resented and harmful to the main party, Labour in this case, its own policies, its own standing, the aspirations of its own voters and IT’S own caucus members many of whom are senior MPs with vast experience in administration of the country for much longer than the entire lot of green list members that the Greens will bring in.
I was and I am still very annoyed at Materia Turei’s over the top cocky statement quoted by bad 12.
Labour leadership and MPs have been very tolerant, decent, courteous, controlled and silent about the anti Labour rhetoric, snide remarks, cunning tactics, telling off, put downs, damaging criticisms from the left, right and centre. I don’t have to. I am just an ordinary Labour supporter. I like to express my opinion as I see it and as best as I can, hoping that REAL sanity and FAIR dealing prevails all around.
The choice is everyone’s.
There is nothing over the top or cocky about Metiria’s statement aired on ‘the Nation’ Clem,
Metiria said that the Greens will be at the Cabinet table in numbers, you yourself postulated yesterday that you would see only 3 green Cabinet Ministers and maybe a number of Associate Ministers,(my later comment pointed at 4 Green Ministers and a number of Associate Ministers),
That Is Numbers Clem, there is nothing arrogant about it,
The Green party policy Platform, again i pointed out yesterday that the Greens in a coalition negotiation will want to go through their whole policy program with Labour, some of which both Parties will immediately agree on, some of which both Parties will somewhat agree on which can be safely left for later discussion and a few policies which might or might not be deal breakers,
i see nothing ‘over the top’ or ‘cocky’ about Metiria publicly pointing out how coalitions are hammered together and fail to see your point at continuing to rail against the Green Party in such a fashion…
Where did you acquire the skill of polishing a turd?
Clem, not long after you started regurgitating said turds into the comments here at ‘Open Mike’…
LabourGreen leadership and MPs have been very tolerant, decent, courteous, controlled and silent about the antiLabourGreen rhetoric, snide remarks, cunning tactics, telling off, put downs, damaging criticisms from the left, right and centre.FIFY.
It is a reasonably well known fact that many soft RW Nats do support the Greens.
Did you think that the Greens get their support only from the traditional Labour voters?
You would be wrong there I think.
They’d be the ones who are a bit like my neighborus. Into reccycling and cleaning up rivers right up until the time it becomes the slightest inconvenience – such as having to clean up their own shit after themselves.
Every little bit counts though eh? (as the old lady said as she spat into the Ocean)
QED.
trust the good villagers of epsom to vote for entrenching their wealth and privilege at the expense of true democracy
Clemgeopin
Interesting numbers, fortunately Epsom voters won’t be getting that hint immediately before they cast their actual ballot. WTF is up with Epsom GP & LP voters though – your candidates have no hope of winning; persisting in voting for them would only ensure an ACT victory!
Yes, I agree, but early days yet. Key can let the cat among the pigeons by withdrawing Goldsmith out of the race altogether. He has till the 26th (or so) to do that! Will he or won’t he is the question!
Michelle Boag was certainly of the opinion that National should withdraw Goldsmith and I think that and her rather agitated performance on Q & A today is a further sign that National thinks this election is on a knife edge.
Yes, if Goldsmith does a premature withdrawal, lots of NATS vote may shift to Rankin rather than ACT, in which case the Nats vote may be divided between ACT and Rankin and some scattered to Labour and the Greens candidates. The strategic voting for Labour and Green voters will then become tricky and will depend upon what the local polls are saying around the first and second week of Sept, I think.
Add the Labour (Woold) + Green (Genter) 19% to the National (Goldsmith) 31% and ACT loses.
There will be some other close electorate contests which National beat Labour but wouldn’t if Green voters tactically voted for the Labour candidate.
Quite. According to this, only 28% of Labour voters in Epsom are voting tactically, while 56% of Green supporters are.
Labour voters in Epsom seem to be asleep at the wheel. When told that National wants people to vote David Seymour, the National voters switch their votes, with Goldsmith losing 13% and Seymour gaining them.
But the Labour voters? They either don’t change their vote or give it to the Green candidate Julie Ann Genter, who rises by 1%. WTF difference do they think this is going to make?
Not sure how you came to that mathematical conclusion? Can you explain how you did that calculation?
My analysis is oversimplified and it’s impossible to tell what’s really happening without all the data. But that’s generally what it looks like.
When told that National want people to vote for Seymour, Goldsmith’s vote drops 13, Seymour’s rises 13. That looks like a straight transfer – National voters switching their votes from Goldsmith to Seymour in accordance with Key’s instructions.
Meanwhile, Labour’s Wood drops 1% and Julie Ann Genter from the Greens picks up 1%. But the don’t knows go from 8% to 13%, so it’s hard to tell what is actually going on.
lol I noticed that too – the Green vote is higher the second time the question is asked. Just realised what it probably is: Nat voters who can’t bare the thought of voting for Act have chosen Green instead – such behaviour provides the same outcome, because it takes a vote away from the most likely contender to win after Act, with out having to vote for Act.
Where did the numbers, 28% and 56% come from in the calculation?
The vote only had 1% shift between 1st and 2nd poll between Labour and greens.
That can’t translate to 28% and 56% strategic voting as claimed, as far as I can see.
I don’t know either – I assume Blue was making a comparison between the shift in voting and the party vote – but can’t be arsed working out if that is where they are derived from – it was the shift in the Green vote that I had noticed.
The party vote numbers show 14% support for Labour and 16% for the Greens.
The first round of candidate votes (before being told Key wants Seymour to win) show Labour’s Wood on 10% and Julie Ann Genter on 9%. I’m assuming that people usually give their candidate vote to the candidate from their party.
If the poll had 100 voters, that means 14 Labour people and 4 would vote for a candidate other than Wood. That’s a percentage of 28.57.
Similarly, there are 16 Green people, and 7 of them would vote for a candidate other than Genter. I have made an error here – the percentage for that is 43.75.
So more Green voters acting tactically and (hopefully) voting for Goldsmith.
Ok, Thanks. I get your maths. Makes sense. Very good! Your conclusion may be correct. (though it just shows that the diminished votes (between party vote Vs candidate vote) went elsewhere, not necessarily to Goldsmith. Any other assumption is just that)
However, these are early days and the voters haven’t yet made their firm decisions. I think a similar poll done about a week or so before the election will be more revealing.
Pasupial, I understand that it’s frustrating that Labour and Green voters won’t do what’s tactically and strategically the best option, I wish they would too. But you know what, I like even more that it seems there are around 30% of voters in Epsom who believe enough in Labour and the Greens to get out and vote for them on Election Day and in all honesty who can deny them the pleasure of ticking that box.
I can. This is too important to let go. If Act lose Epsom they are out of Parliament and they will likely implode, destroying the party completely. National will be without an important support partner and they can no longer blame Act for their choice to sneak in uncampaigned-for policy (e.g. charter schools).
If Labour and the Greens win the election (which is balanced on a knife edge and the seat of Epsom could be the difference between winning and losing) then we can get rid of coat-tailing altogether. That means Epsom can go back to being a normal electorate.
There’s too much at stake to have Labour and Green supporters blow this by voting for their own candidate. They need to vote for Goldsmith.
I found the NAT and CONS candidates quite irritating. Am I prejudiced?
“WTF is up with Epsom GP & LP voters though – your candidates have no hope of winning; persisting in voting for them would only ensure an ACT victory!”
Some people don’t understand how MMP works. Others do but are unaware of the current issue. Others still will not vote on the right no matter what. Some people don’t believe in tactical voting. If the GP and/or Labour wanted their voters to vote National, they would have not stood a candidate in the electorate. Lots of people are probably confused too.
Parties stand candidates in the election because it helps get party votes. Every party vote counts, and they are too important.
The Greens always say they are campaigning for the party vote.
“The Greens always say they are campaigning for the party vote”
The party vote is CRUCIAL for EVERY party. Not just for the Greens.
It is even MORE crucial for LABOUR because they have strong National candidates fighting for their electorate seats against Labour candidates. The potential Labour PARTY votes get scattered among so many of the smaller parties on the left.
So, Labour voters should really give BOTH their votes to Labour.
But in all but one or two electorates, the electorate vote doesn’t decide the number of MPs a party gets.
For a small or medium sized party, it’s a better use of their resources to focus on the party vote.
Clem, you really are showing a sense of entitlement by Labour to left wing votes. And you are the one that’s been using the “arrogant” word against others.
It’s up to voters to decide who and what party to vote for. A left party needs to earn the left wing votes.
No party can rest on its laurels. I was once a Labour voter. I will be more likely to vote Labour again if the return to strong left wing values. Right now, I see a couple of other parties having stronger left values, policies and processes. Cunliffe has made some very promising noises, but he has yet to show he will be able to follow through if in government. It will require strong left wing coalition parties to hold them to account.
Labour wasn’t always the main left wing party in NZ. They achieved that position by taking a strong left wing position. They lost ground when they moved away from that.
I don’t really care which party leads left wing politics. I will vote for which ever one does.
You seem stuck in a FPtP mode.
Yep.
Despite JK’s efforts it seems 2/3 of National’s supporters would still vote for Goldsmith.
I am amazed that the Labour Party candidate does as well as this poll says.
After all even interested left-leaning commenters on this blog don’t seem to know who he is.
As a question for Clemgeopin and Tangled_up at 14.3.2 can you pleas tell me who this person Michael Woold you are talking about is? I thought the Labour candidate was named Michael Wood.
What do you mean? I know Michael Wood well.
I believe that your problem is that you probably aren’t particularly close to the Epsom electorate. Michael is. He has been campaigning across the border from Epsom in Mt Roskill. Just as I have been while campaigning across the border in Mt Albert. It may be hard to understand, but neighbours who know the electorate especially the poorer parts will do well.
Given that the other parties have put complete nutty fuckwits up as candidates – Seymour, Rankin, and even Goldsmith (let me bend over to help..), I’m not surprised Michael is doing pretty well. Given that he knows the area from the local politics side, he will make sense.
This is the same Michael Wood who was presented as Labours candidate in the botany election?
If so he did well in leading a crap performance from labour in their display of contempt towards an electorate. He almost was a sole effort. I hope after botany now epsom Michael will be better treated by the labour hierarchy in future… But no, at 39 after standing for pakuranga,botany and now epson, talk about be dealt a bad hand and being under appreciated!!! Sometimes people deserve better and this is how labour looks after their own mmmmm
You may know Michael Wood very well, and he may in fact be a reasonable candidate.
The other people who are commenting obviously don’t though as they don’t even know what his name is. As I have said in the last two sentences, they seem to think his name is WOOLD, not WOOD. Did you get that far in what I wrote?
“Colmar Brunton Epsom poll results: [On Q and A this morning]”
“Who would you vote for with your electorate vote?…
Were you aware John key is encouraging National Party supporters to give their electorate vote to the Act Party candidate?…
With this in mind, who would you now vote for with your electorate vote?”
How lovely of TVNZ to run a National Party voting tutorial for people who live in Epsom.
I was gobsmacked by that tutorial. I wonder if the coaching fees are totaled into the National campaign expenses as they should be?
My thoughts too.
All you need to know about the Maori seats: Tai Hauauru.
So you’re on the Maori Roll? We’ll presume u R voting 4 a party that supports the Maori seats (this cuts out Act, National, NZ First).
Party vote
Your most powerful vote is your party vote. If you love the current govt, give your party vote to the Maori Party (John Key supports this 2).
To change the govt, give your Party vote to Labour, Green, or Internet Mana. You decide who has the korero that support your goals, and who’s more principled/organised.
Electorate vote
The electorate vote is important too. Tai Hauauru has some hard case things going on there:
Mana – do they have anyone’s name up yet? By now they should have a name up, out of respect for voters, and to show that they are organized.
Maori Party – like most Maori people in most parties, Chris is probably a nice guy. But his position says a lot about where te ao Maori is right now. Maori are getting poorer under the govt, under the system, but hey its fine, as ‘Maori are at the table’. There’s a disconnect here – people with skills r standing 4 a party that’s in cahoots with people doing [insert word to describe what National is doing here] things. There must b a psychological term for this level of disconnect.
Who on the hikoi in 2004 could imagine than four years later Tariana would be standing beside a bunch of greedy, dishonest mongrels?
Labour – crack up, this guy used to be the chairman for Tariana. This is the story of the Maori Party though. 90% of their door knockers from 2004 are now door knocking for someone else. Adrian is also a nice fulla with nice skills. His main point made so far: ‘we’re not the same Labour Party that stole the foreshores’ doesn’t really inspire.
Green – nice young rangatahi, again, the Green problem is they don’t have the relationship in the Maori seats that others have. Noone thinks ‘oh the greens have a chance of winning Maori seats.’ This doesn’t mean that Jack isn’t on to it though.
Where should the vote go?
If you want the current govt to continue, vote 4 Chris. If you want to change the govt, vote for Jack or Adrian, but like the other seats, you probably won’t feel inspired.
BUT you can inspire yourself in the knowledge that your party vote will swing this election. When the election will be won by a 1 or 2 percent of the vote, then guess what? The Maori seats hold the balance of power! Get excited about that please.
Post script: we’re annoyed with commentators that fail to make the connection between a Maori Party vote and the way that Maori communities have been hurt over the last 6 years. Our hunch is the commentators are doing OK thanks, winning the Whanau Ora contracts and setting up charter schools. The politics of the 1%.
+100
“Who on the hikoi in 2004 could imagine than four years later Tariana would be standing beside a bunch of greedy, dishonest mongrels?”
Yeah, that’s freakin unbelievable bro.
Shame on the Maori party for having propped up a right wing Government dominated by NATIONAL, ACT and DUNNE of all people! What a complete disgrace to score some baubles and bull shit.
Kia Mattara!
Kia mataara me te inoi, kei uru ki te whakamatautauranga. He hihiko te wairua, ko te kikokiko ia he ngoikore.
Asset sales should have been the deal breaker… but I guess the $$$ were too good to pass up
you ARE correct. The Maori party and that cheap fool Dunne should have walked out against the asset sales issue, against the Charter school rort and the GCSB issue.
Fishing for votes with David Cunliffe
How can someone who was fisheries spokesperson not know that net fishing is going to get some smaller catch and that there’s nothing that you can do about it? Yes, you can make nets that allow smaller fish through but some will always get caught up with the rest of the fish. Once it’s caught and dead there’s only two choices – sell it or throw it away.
Thankfully, there’s been some government funded research going on that will help prevent smaller by catch while also making the fishing better.
Oh, and my families boats already require the fish caught to be 30cm. Some people remember that 50 years ago fishing brought in more and bigger catches than today and think that the government should be doing more to protect our fisheries both for the ‘recreational’ fishers and for commercial.
Epson poll??
Coleman Brunton is always a rigged right wing phoney rigged poll.
Especially now the NATZis have storm trooper Joyce/Geobbels who is running the Propaganda show there.
He is a liability on screen so he has the job of rigging polls now beginning with Epsom,
Then next Colman Bruton Political poll wait and see.
Since he looked so stupid on camera against David Parker he’s now behind the scenes pulling phoney polls to prop up the Fuehrer.
FYI – apologies for the length of this post, but think there will be quite some public interest ….
Penny Bright – Independent candidate for the Helensville electorate will now be attending the Helensville candidates meeting to be held at the Kumeu Baptist Church Monday 11 August 2014
REPLY RECEIVED 3.35pm SUNDAY 10 AUGUST 2014
Holly Ryan via yahoo.com 3:35 PM (2 hours ago)
to me
Penny,
As Kumeu Baptist Church prefers to avoid being embroiled in media or Court disputes, you may attend as a candidate tomorrow evening.
As sole organizer, I personally would stand against your bullying tactics and stick to my original and, until now, unaltered plan for the event.
You will need to seek me out when you arrive tomorrow evening. As all publicity material has been completed, nothing other than your attendance can be changed.
Holly Ryan
FYI – I sent this email first to Holly Ryan and to Samuel Schuurman, and rang both to try and ensure that they had received this email before sending it out widely to media and politicians at local and central government.
From the beginning – I have tried to deal with my (unlawful) exclusion from this one and only Helensville candidates meeting in a proper way, and have the ‘paper trail’ to prove this – in the hopefully unlikely event that it ends up in the Auckland High Court tomorrow, in the form of an application for an injunction ……
I look forward to my rights as an Independent candidate for Helensville being respected, and being able to address members of the voting public, on the same basis as candidates representing political parties, which thus respects the right of the voting public public to ‘cast an informed vote’.
Please remember that I have stood as an Independent candidate at both local and national government levels on a number of occasions, and know how to conduct myself at public electoral meetings.
Cheers!
Penny Bright
10 August 2014
‘Open Letter’ to the Organiser of the Helensville candidates meeting Holly Ryan and Senior Pastor of the Kumeu Baptist Church, Samuel Schuurman:
Dear Holly Ryan and Senior Pastor Samuel Schuurman of the Kumeu Baptist Church
Please be advised that I am now in possession of a recorded telephone conversation taken Wednesday 6 August 2014 at 12.15pm between Holly Ryan and an unidentified woman, regarding candidates who had been invited to speak at the upcoming Helensville meeting, and the reasons given for excluding myself, Penny Bright, as an Independent candidate.
(I was advised of this recording on Friday 8 August 2014, and received a copy on Saturday 9 August 2014. I had no prior knowledge of this recording beforehand.)
In this recording Holly Ryan states that I, Penny Bright am ‘a major activist’ and ‘will cause trouble one way or the other’, and it is clear that political bias against me, because of my political activist background that is the real reason for my exclusion from this meeting.
However, this was NOT the reason given by Holly Ryan, one day later, in response to my complaint to the Human Rights Commission about my exclusion from the Helensville candidates meeting being unlawful discrimination on the grounds of political opinion:
From: Lesley Ashworth-Lawson
Date: 7 August 2014 4:43:03 pm NZST
To: “‘waterpressure@gmail.com'”
Hello Penny
As per your request I confirm that you approached the Human Rights Commission complaining that you felt you had been discriminated against by Holly Ryan, organisor of a meeting of political party candidates.
You felt that in not being included in that meeting, you were being discriminated against on the basis of your political opinion.
Within the context of the Commission’s confidential dispute resolution process, I rang Holly to notify her of your complaint and to obtain a response to your complaint, in particular to request the basis on which you had not been included in the meeting.
Holly told me that she had wanted to arrange a meeting so that people could hear from candidates affiliated to parties who she considered had a possibility of gaining a seat in Parliament, from whom she considered the public may wish to hear.
She has organised the meeting on her own initiative.
Holly agreed for me to relay this information to you, as part of our process of assisting to resolve complaints.
She did wish to enter into mediation.
Kind regards,
Lesley Ashworth-Lawson
Mediator/Kaihohourongo
Human Rights Commission| Te Kahui Tika Tangata
T: +473 9981 Ext 720 | F: +64 4 471 6759
Toll free 0800 496 877
PO Box 12411, Thorndon, Wellington 6144
Level 1 – 44 The Terrace, Wellington 6011
New Zealand | http://www.hrc.co.nz
Please be reminded of s.11 of the Constitution of the Kumeu Baptist Church:
http://www.kumeubaptist.org.nz/assets/downloads/Baptist-Constitution.doc
It should be noted that churches are subject to Acts of Parliament such as the Race Relations Act, Employment Relations Act, Privacy Act and Human Rights Act.
THE BILL OF RIGHTS ACT 1990:
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0109/latest/DLM225516.html
Non-discrimination and minority rights
19Freedom from discrimination
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0109/latest/DLM225519.html
HUMAN RIGHTS AMENDMENT ACT 2001:
Prohibited grounds of discrimination
Heading: inserted, on 1 January 2002, by section 7 of the Human Rights Amendment Act 2001 (2001 No 96).
21Prohibited grounds of discrimination
(1)For the purposes of this Act, the prohibited grounds of discrimination are—
(j)political opinion, which includes the lack of a particular political opinion or any political opinion:
Please be advised that I have had discussions this morning with Graham McCready from the NZ Private Prosecution Service about this matter.
Graham McCready will assist me with the preparation of a High Court injunction to prevent the use of the Kumeu Baptist Church being used for this Helensville candidates meeting, if I Penny Bright, as an Independent candidate, am not given an equal opportunity to speak, as are other candidates standing for the above-mentioned political parties.
A full transcript of this above-mentioned telephone conversation will be made available, if required, for both the High Court and the media.
(FYI – I worked very closely with Graham McCready in the successful prosecution of former ACT Leader and MP for Epsom John Banks, for electoral fraud.
In fact – I was the ‘process server’ who hand-delivered the witness summonses that resulted in Kim Dotcom, his lawyer (Greg Towers), former bodyguard (Wayne Tempero) and the CEO of Sky City Casino (Nigel Morrison) appearing in the Auckland District Court to give pre-trial oral evidence.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/adam-bennett/news/article.cfm?a_id=263&objectid=11268946
Watchdogs claim biggest scalp as Banks found guilty
11:45 AM Friday Jun 6, 2014
Self-styled public watchdogs Penny Bright and Graham McCready claimed their biggest scalp yesterday as Act MP John Banks was found guilty of filing a false electoral return.
But police reluctance to pursue the affair has fuelled calls by Ms Bright and David Bain’s champion Joe Karam for an independent commission against corruption.
I sincerely hope that this will NOT be necessary, and the basic principles of natural justice, democracy, the ‘rule of law’ and commonsense will prevail, particularly given that this meeting, as I understand it, will the only one which Prime Minister John Key will be attending, and will continue to be the focus of significant election publicity.
Please be reminded that this was the original notice advertising this Helensville candidates meeting:
eventsworkshopsforums/10351-helensville-electorate–te-tai-tokerau-cross-party-candidates-meeting
HELENSVILLE ELECTORATE / TE TAI TOKERAU CROSS PARTY CANDIDATES MEETING
MONDAY 11TH AUGUST at KUMEU BAPTIST CHURCH, Access Rd, Kumeu
8 political parties – National, Labour, Greens, Maori, Act, NZ First, Conservative, Internet Mana are invited to be represented by their candidates and up to 2 other party policy speakers.
Parties will have opportunity to set up stands in the church hall, with public welcome to attend from 6pm to chat casually.
The main meeting will commence in the church at 7pm. Seating for 230, with sound system. Each candidate will have 5 minutes to present themselves, followed by written questions from the public, drawn for order. At 9pm the meeting will end, with opportunity for everyone to return to the hall for informal discussion and refreshments.
The meeting will be tightly managed, with any interjectors removed after one warning.
Questions may be answered by the party policy supporters, seated behind the candidates.
RSVP to Holly Ryan, Convenor
…………………….
Please be further advised that there is significant and growing media and public interest in this matter.
I look forward to your confirmation by email, by 5pm today, Sunday 10 August 2014, that I have the same opportunity to address the public at this Helensville candidates meeting, as the other above-mentioned candidates.
Yours sincerely,
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption /anti-privatisation Public Watchdog’
2014 Independent Candidate for Helensville
2013 Independent Auckland Mayoral Candidate (polled 4th 11,723 votes)
2009 Attendee: Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference
2010 Attendee: Transparency International Anti-Corruption Conference
2013 Attendee: Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference
2014 Attendee: G20 Anti-Corruption Conference
I sympathise with Holly Ryan, you have engaged in bullying tactics. Just like a blog, freedom of speech doesn’t give you the right to gatecrash someone’s party and hector their guests.
I am glad that you have been invited, being a candidate in that electorate. It is a shame that democracy is not served fairly or well in our country!
i am just relieved that phil isnt detailing his personal habits. now that would truly be gross
aarrgh stupid nokia phone, can’t reply properly to the thread …
Actually it the the standard’s mobile version that prevents replying to specific comments in-thread. You can switch the the desktop version on your phone and the reply buttons are there. Bit tedious though.
It is a pain. I have tried to get that problem fixed several times. Each time not quite succeeded before running out of time. The upgrades on that particular theme are pretty fast and quite extensive. So I usually have to restart each time.
Thanks. Minor bug, low impact, won’t chuck my phone out the window this time 🙂
the loss of name and email in the text boxes is probably more of a pain 😉
Yeah I know. I got caught with some SQL that I had to get done (and still have bugs in). Lyn has a bug as well which has been minimising my work time with hacking coughs and obsessive TV watching.
You always sound like you are working too hard anyway, so there’s no hurry. It’s interesting that it’s taking me so long to remember to check the boxes each time. What tv are you obsessively watching?
As a political scientist, what a terrible bit of research by Colmar Brunton and then for TVNZ to publish it. So, they do one poll on electoral vote (which shows National candidate leading) and then remind/discuss voters John Key’s request for National supporters to vote for Act candidate and guess what? The poll results are very different (Act is now leading) – well of course! That’s not a poll…that’s a way to influence the outcome. Dumb, dumb, dumb!!!!!
I would have called it ‘corrupt’ or ‘bought’ rather than dumb – unless you mean it was dumb of them to come out and admit that is what they have been up to….
It’s the Key effect. Do what you want and with a smile and pretend that it’s normal and no-one will bat an eyelid.
Intriguing tweet from Bryce Edwards – Nicky Hager launching a book on Wednesday – title unknown? Edwards wonders if it’s on surveillance:
I searched and couldn’t find any Hager book in the pipeline – only this compilation with a chapter by Hager:
Anne,
“RNZ’s Monday morning political spot starting around 1110am will be well worth a listen.
A word of warning: batten down your cerebral hatches because Matthew Hooton will be spinning like a Force 10 hurricane”
Thanks for the tip, will watch. and record on my VCR that GCSB Key cant download or spy on.
I am an electronic engineer, and have discovered why they took us all rapidly off analogue and into the digital era,.
This was the only way we can be spied on with mass surveillance.
So now I keep taping video and audio only into the old magnetic tapes and store in a library outside a commuter on line source.
Five eyes Key & co go f….ck off.
Do you wear a tinfoil hat as well?
I started my career in electronics too (these days I work in a closely related field) – and Local kiwi is perfectly correct.
Analogue could be always be snooped on – but mass surveillance was impossibly slow and cumbersome to implement.
By contrast digital communications is an open book.
No tinfoil hats needed Gosman.