Under their Code of Ethics they have to be fair and balanced. If they do not offer comments on the scrutiny of the recent avalanche of spending from Bill English in the same article, their code says that is ok so long as they are doing a series.
Audrey Young owes us one on National on that basis from earlier in the week and now stuff owes us one. When do you reckon we will get it? Sept 24?
Of thes state of our health system.
Of the state of our Waterways
Of the numbers in our Prisons
Of the state of our Education system
Of the levels of our emissions
Of the levels of Child poverty
Of the levels of inequality
Of the levels of drug abuse including alcohol
Of the levels of obesity
Of the levels of homelessness
Of the levels of home ownership
Of the levels of foreign ownership of New Zealand
Of the levels of corporate lobbying in NZ
The comment “Young people have been clamouring for the superannuation age to be lifted” seems to a statement of fact as written but when asked for evidence of this “clamouring” – no response!
It is particularly risible considering that the two points she singles out for scrutiny, tax and the age of eligibility for superannuation, have been subjected to nothing but scrutiny since they first surfaced. The entire article could be reduced to “Heather du Plessis Allen opines that media coverage of the election campaign should continue until the election.”
Well said. The irony of an article lacking real scrutiny bemoaning the lack of scrutiny of Labour. Where is the scrutiny of the avalanche of money suddenly available from Bills cold dead hands? Taxpayer money on a Cathedral and NOW 30m for other random churches…
As for the “mean girl” nonsense. When women resort to sexist generalisations we are the worst for it.
Referencing the Smiling Assassin pisses me of cos most John Keyers saw it as a badge of honour. And no scrutiny there. Where were the journoes finding victims of the asassin and seeing how their lives have worked out?
John Key ran this country for 8 years on the back of his popularity and people like HDA and Soper worshipped at his feet. It looks like now it is a woman…
I agree with the tenet that Labour has deliberately sought to cannabalise Green votes. However I am not on the front page of Stuff. Scrutinise Act and NZF and so on as well. It is like HDA is suffering from Ardern ardour envy?
‘The smiling assassin’ was Sir John’s nickname and to use it in reference to Jacinda Ardern is infantile & unoriginal and expresses some kind of misplaced nostalgia for a political ‘chapter’ that should be turned over ASAP or, even better, written over with a completely new chapter.
I don’t think it’s quite that simple. Tame’s piece is relatively harmless, although it does peddle a couple of annoying right-wing memes unquestioningly (the electorate votes with its collective wallet; it isn’t the substance that counts, but the perception), and the editorial “Jacinda should reveal more” actually contains some analysis of what Labour’s thinking on tax might be, rather than the constant screeching about every conceivable tax under the sun. However, the presence of all three pieces all in one go certainly shows that someone is toeing the editorial line we all expect from the Herald.
Getting back to Tame’s piece, though, if one were to substitute “courageous” for “risky” in the title, and make a couple of minor tweaks to the article, such as replacing some references to “voters” with “National and the media”, it would actually be quite positive for Labour. Perhaps his framing’s deliberate, but perhaps it’s just symptomatic of political journalists’ being a rather closed chattering circle that constantly feeds off its own memes…
it is even less than ‘relatively harmless’…it is almost cleverly supportive (wonder how his masters let that one slip through)…..he rationalises Labours stance for those seeking reassurance…..remembering it is not the tribally opposed that will determine this election, they are beyond reassurance.
Nice analysis. Before your piece I had wondered if it was Soper and he and HDA wrote their pieces for Herald and Stuff respectively over eggs benedict yesterday.
I do not think Tame has it in for Labour. Quite the opposite.
For a former ACT leader, libertarian, promoter of choice and freedom, and an advocate of legalised suicide to want to restrict the ability of women to chose is utter hypocrisy.
And throwing in the suggestion that women will be able to terminate at full term is pathetic for someone of his standing and snatched straight from the Down’s Syndrome advocacy group’s Facebook page.
Hide’s also just a poorly constructed piece. He starts off arguing that Ardern’s stance is misguided because taking any firm stance at all risks alienating some voters, then segues into arguing that, although the current law is unfit for purpose, changing it is a bad idea because there are issues to be tackled.
He doesn’t even attempt to draw any conclusion from these two disparate arguments, nor does he offer any insight into the issues beyond what has already been put out there by Saving Downs, whose “information”, moreover, has already been highlighted as unconnected to Ardern’s undertaking to remove abortion from the Crimes Act. It almost goes without saying that he makes no attempt to refute that assessment.
Hide seems to be a perfect example of the Peter Principle: elevated to party leadership and political commentator on the basis of a formidable reputation as a “perkbuster”, but found to be woefully inadequate in any pursuit other than embodying that phenomenally stupid term.
On Q+A this morning at 9am, is a debate about the environment, “there are 7 parties in tomorrow’s debate: @winstonpeters @ScottSimpsonMP @DavidParkerMP @damianlight @FoxMarama @dbseymour @jamespeshaw”
Why isn’t Nick Smith there, he is the minister for the environment, but instead scott simpson is rolled out? I’m confused. He ran away from the nelson markets yesterday after the sculpture turned up next to his caravan, is he still running away?
Here are some facts for hdpa.
She could have read this before writing her puff article defending her rich mates interests.
‘Beneficiary groups have slammed Work and Income over a new report showing people missing out on $200 million a year in entitlements.
Beneficiary advocacy groups say figures released under the Official Information Act paint a damning picture of the government and Work and Income.
According to the figures, there could be $200 million or more in payments not being collected by beneficiaries.
Auckland Action Against Poverty spokesperson Alastair Russell said Work and Income case managers deliberately withhold information about benefit entitlements.’
If you don’t know what entitlements are available at WINZ then how can you possibly apply for them ? Advocates and financial mentors have a wealth of knowledge and can support their clients at WINZ appointments. Always wise to take along a witness (although it didn’t work out that well for Winston).
Bryan Bruce has documentary out on TV3 Tuesday at 8.30 p.m.
This is from his Facebook page on 7 September.
“I have to get my facts right. Politicians don’t. In documentaries like the one coming up next Tuesday on THREE I have to make every effort to get my facts right. If I don’t do my research and just make stuff up then I face the prospect that I and the broadcaster are fined for inaccuracy .(It’s never happened to me by the way).
Not so with National’s Cabinet members Steven Joyce or Anne Tolley When Finance Minister Joyce was asked by Guyon Espiner today to name one other person in New Zealand who agreed there was a $ 11.7 Billion hole in Labour’s fiscal policy he couldn’t do it
And here’s Minister of Social Development Anne Tolley quoted in a Newsroom article by Bernard Hickey “In addition, one in five beneficiaries tell us that drug use is a barrier to them getting a job ” 1 in 5 …. Really? According to her own Ministry – last year, there were 31,791 referrals for drug testable positions nationwide and just 55 sanctions for failing a drug test. (See Herald http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11639758 ) So which is it Minister? 1 in 5 beneficiaries on drugs.. or 1 in 576 according to your own actual tests?
The more National just makes stuff up , the less credibility they have. Just take a look at the poll released tonight . National is at the lowest level its been since 2005.
So … watch out for some inconvenient truths in my doco next Tuesday. Some politicians may squeal – but I can back up every fact I give with very credible resources.”
He’s a bit off target with the drug testing comments, one of the big problems at the moment are people turning down job offers because they are scared of failing a drug test and then getting sanctioned. Multiple agencies and NGOs are dealing with this problem.
Doesn’t just effect beneficiaries either but workers looking to move up into higher skill higher paying jobs.
Do you have any data on that? The problem with Tolley’s credibility here is that she is making a claim that just *happens* to support the long-standing policy and propaganda of her party, but providing no verifiable data to back it up, whereas the available data make her claims seem counter-intuitive at best.
But we townies are hypocrites for damaging our urban environment. We plan badly, use land wastefully, underinvest in homes, infrastructure, civic amenities and environmental systems, and devalue our landscapes, coasts and water – fresh and salt.
We criticise cockies for high nitrate levels in water. Well, our emissions of nitrogen oxides from vehicles are second only to Mexico’s in the OECD.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, we’re failing to reap the deeper economic benefit of fast-growing urban areas. Wages are higher than in rural areas but productivity and wage growth is equally sluggish.
Oram feeds the cockies arguments that the cities are big polluters so get off our backs. And at present it is the cockies chosen political party that keeps the pollution levels as high as they are, because of that political party, National, being kept in power by cockies and the indifferent classes.
So don’t blame we townies for being hypocrites Rod. You are spreading the muck around too widely. Don’t be like the back end of a hippopotamus with us thank you very much. I didn’t vote the Nationals in. I am working for and thinking about having a better NZ but my agency is small compared to the vast machine of National’s that bulldozes flat every practical thought that would improve NZ in any way.
We have all got to demand and meet higher standards of thinking, planning, resource use and dealing with the effects of our activities on the environment.
For urban planning, look to the ribbon development happening all over the country. The number of urban stormwater and sewerage systems that are effectively combined at high flows is staggering. The heavy metals and hydrocarbons in urban stormwater is a disgrace. We all have to do a lot better than we are.
Rural environmental performance won’t improve unless there’s a change in urban attitudes, and equally urban performance won’t change unless there’s a change in rural attitudes. It’s not a rural / urban thing, it’s a New Zealand thing and we won’t get any improvement unless we all change.
But the real thrust of Oram’s argument is economic. We’ve spent the last 30 years trying to get richer by seeking to reduce costs, rather than have the best , highest value products and living environment. And we’ve all got to think how we do that.
“But voters should also ask a question of themselves: how can each of us help create a distinctive New Zealand urbanism, one that matches our natural environment for capturing the imagination of people the world over?”
Graeme you are exactly right. But make your point to the self-satifsied that I meet every day. Not in the community help, the environmental concern places, but in the pubs where they drink their problems away, in the financial houses, the women’s garment shops and hairdressers where they buy the look of having made it (that’s in the world of Success), the real estate houses, the farmer offices where they plan their next buy-out and study the prices for future commodity markets.
How do you make your point to them? They probably won’t be found on this blog, if they do come they are armed with a brain that is packed with bubble wrap to prevent anything impacting its delicate and fragile substance.
Fed Farmers took Invercargill City to task recently regarding ICC’s stormwater / sewer discharges. Robert Guyton might be able to provide some background on what went on there. So they actually get it, but I’m not sure whether in a positive way. But Fed Farm won’t get anywhere getting their members to have greater environmental responsibility if they don’t demand other users / abusers are held to the same account. And good on them.
Farmers I know and do work for are really onto looking after and maintaining their farm and neighbouring environments. But I also see some shockers, and not just farmers. But generally these are activities that haven’t had a consent renewal in the last 20 years.
Ngai Tahu have made QLDC buck their ideas up regarding sewer discharges and have had a very active role in water take consents in Otago. Their values make a lot of sense.
Some one is using my email to open a discus
Account I think I no who it is as discus track how many hit you get and links to Twitter Facebook an other multi media!!!!,
Nice to see the jokey foxpeters interaction. Didn’t see the same lightheartedness between labour and the greens – why are we in such a mess? Watch everyone except Shaw to find out.
Same Marty, it was a goodie. David Parker owned scott simpson more than once, James Shaw has proven to be outstanding in all the debates, and Foxy cracks me up big time. Winnie and rimmer dang. Ryan Gosling barely got a look in.
Jessica Much did a fantastic job keeping that lot under control.
Here’s a link for any that missed the Debate on the Environment it’s entertainment plus lolz. Still wondering why nick no show couldn’t even come and front the ministry he is responsible for, useless. https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/q-and-a/episodes/s2017-e27
Maybes nick is a bit butt hurt post Saturday market.
The sculpture was at the Mot markets today, a truly impressive work of art, the detail and craftsmanship, really well done, right down to the towels wrapped around his ankles as socks and the undone shoe laces. Drew quite an audience, lots of laughter, and the kids ROFL, I asked some of them if they knew who it was, Donald Trump they reply, so I filled them in, cheeky boys asking me what was hanging between the legs of the ‘feral statue’, dang local kids crack me up. The artist was generous in that dept lolz.
The stall holder at nicks rear told me he had been put in the arseholes section of the market and should get a discount for the site, LMAO, he was soooo funny, some fella was getting his photo taken in between nicks legs, and the stall holder was like… ‘careful mate, you’ll be the biggest dick head in Motueka if you stay there too long” everyone laughing. Many came just to view the sculputure.
I wonder if nick will challenge the artist again, saying “nothing you make could offend me”, may not having been the wisest comment nick made when the artist was invited to dinner one night.
be good to see that sculpture over the hill for our sat market but wrong electorate so who knows – lots of lols from your report – nice, nick needs to go
Greens, Internet, Labour, Māori, do well on support for Industrial relations, while National, top, NZ First and ACT get a NO.
On all their criteria, the GP get a tick (Yes) of approval; Internet get all ticks except for an In Principle (IP) judgement on housing; Labour mostly ticks with a few IPs; TOP a mix of Nos, Yeses and IPs; Māori 1 No plus a mix of Ys and IPs; National and ACT responses dominated by red N(o)s
The PSA one says that National ‘supports’ raising benefits to a liveable rate. Which is news to me and such a mistake that it makes me question their whole chart.
Basically, on Social Security, the Nats said No to all these:
A rewrite of the Social Security Act to recognise that work is not always available and that people may have caring responsibilities, or physical and mental health needs that means work is neither possible nor desirable.
Review of the sanctions regime with a view to removing the most unfair and punitive sanctions.
Index benefits, including Working for Families payments, to the average wage.
Maintain the age of superannuation eligibility at 65 years.
And the only social security measure the Nats said Yes to was this one:
Increase basic benefit levels to ensure they are set at liveable levels.
Which seems somewhat contradictory, and open to what they mean by “liveable”, given they don’t want to index benefits to the “average wage”.
Confound the Science
Nice melodic parody on Trump! Peace to all…..and good luck to the Greens launching their climate change policy later today in Auckland.
If you go to a shelter for #Irma, be advised: sworn LEOs will be at every shelter, checking IDs. Sex offenders/predators will not be allowed— Polk County Sheriff (@PolkCoSheriff) September 6, 2017
the conservatives did something similar in the uk and it simply increased demand and so prices….also english is saying that this deposit will enable people to buy $600k houses but forgets they cannot make the repayments …..building cheap but quality state houses is the way to go
Einstein may or may not have said…”the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result” but there appears no dispute he said
‘Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters. ”
So the MAORI seat debate so I purposed abandoning them because in my view they were unfair on the left so for the MAORI
Seats to be fair there should be 15 seats and not seven. The seats should be based on population numbers to be fair to Maori.
How could Korako Nuk sit there and back national bull shit policy the only reason only Scotty Morrison cut him down was because the others were respecting his seniority in age if not they would have cut him down good on you Scotty.
Marana Davis is right to say that the people that were in the state care state and abused many of them end up in gangs are owed a investigation. And the people and state held accountable for there actions and the state to pay compensation to these people.
I have seen prefab house built on small pieces of land quiet fast.
So we need to come up with a simple efficient designs to build eco efficant house
And the workers need to build these house well we have plenty of people to train it doesn’t take long for someone to learn to be a hammer hand you need one qualified builder for 3 hammer hand so natianal DON’T go pissing in the wind about needing 50.000 immigrants to build more house’s . We just need the right plan And the will to build.
The council’s and high schools can help train builder’s and build good houses.
Clean green are we??
I don’t think so; watch this.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/
Polluted Paradise
People & Power investigates New Zealand’s water pollution problem as regional elections gear up.
31 Aug 2017 12:41 GMT | New Zealand, Water, Pollution
Unicef is looking for money to deal with Hurricane Irma, the Mexico earthquake, famine in the Yemen, floods in India and various other calamities occurring simultaneously – they say their “resources are stretched as never before” . You can donate at https://www.unicef.org.nz/.
Weekend thought from the utterances of Lao Tzu. (Before the weekly utterances of the combatting political parties.) The meanings are not clear, confusing even.
May be good for sharpening our minds to define the difference between truth, half-truth and ‘smoke gets in your eyes’.
Wu wei (無爲), literally “non-action” or “not acting”, is a central concept of the Daodejing. The concept of wu wei is multifaceted, and reflected in the words’ multiple meanings, even in English translation; it can mean “not doing anything”, “not forcing”, “not acting” in the theatrical sense, “creating nothingness”, “acting spontaneously”, and “flowing with the moment.”[44]
It is a concept used to explain ziran (自然), or harmony with the Dao. It includes the concepts that value distinctions are ideological and seeing ambition of all sorts as originating from the same source. Laozi used the term broadly with simplicity and humility as key virtues, often in contrast to selfish action. On a political level, it means avoiding such circumstances as war, harsh laws and heavy taxes. Some Taoists see a connection between wu wei and esoteric practices, such as zuowang “sitting in oblivion” (emptying the mind of bodily awareness and thought) found in the Zhuangzi.[43]
Some of Laozi’s famous sayings include:
“When goodness is lost, it is replaced by morality.”
“Without Darkness, there can be no Light.”
“The usefulness of a pot comes from its emptiness.”
“The best people are like water, which benefits all things and does not compete with them. It stays in lowly places that others reject. This is why it is so similar to the Way.”
“When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad.”
“Try to change it and you will ruin it. Try to hold it and you will lose it.”
“Those who know do not say. Those who say do not know.”
“When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.”
“Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.”
“A journey of a thousand miles starts under one’s feet.”
“The more that laws and regulations are given prominence, the more thieves and robbers there will be.”
— Laozi, Tao Te Ching
Looks like the Cyclone will have seriously trashed the coast of Cuba but looks as though it might now head to the Gulf of Mexico reducing the effect on Florida.
“”We’re the first generation that will feel the effects of climate change, and the last that can stop it. We have a responsibility to act, and the Green Party has a plan to do it,” Shaw said.”
Not so sure we can stop it and I like this talk from the Greens. We have a responsibility to give the Greens a chance to enact their policies and with Labour (hopefully) getting serious about the issue, real change could happen.
Shaw was serious as. Great to hear Fitzsimons saying that governments have to follow the people and that we need climate action not just climate policy.
re stopping it, I see it as a continuum. Best case scenario and worst case scenario and the gradations in between. We do have choices about stopping the worst case scenarios.
Yeah, I’m in the same situation. 69% Green, 64% Labour, 58% Maori, 50% Mana in my case, but when I read through the direct comparisons of my answers with the Mana Party, the main differences consist either in their not having provided an answer to that question, or in their having said “No”, whereas I answered “No, and…”. The fact is though, that I have generally found myself generally agreeing with Harawira’s statements, both on values and policy, over many years, whereas my agreement with Labour pronouncements has been much less consistent.
Having said that, I decided several months ago to give my party vote to the Greens, and I haven’t seen any reason to change that as yet, so the tool is not entirely without merit.
Today, Shaw said current polls – which “sometimes make my teeth grind” – showed the question now was not whether Labour will win, but who they will invite into government with them.
“If you…don’t want Winston Peters holding Labour over a barrel, I am asking you to give your party vote to the Greens…[for] the most environmentally friendly, most progressive government in generations.”
And Jacinda says, “Labour would ban sales of existing houses to non-resident, foreign buyers “by Christmas”, immediately stop any sales of any state houses, and pass legislation to introduce standards for heating and ventilation in rental property.
At the top end of the property market the restriction may not have much effect unless the buyer is a dodgy bastard. If you can stump up 20 million for a property you can probably arrange residency as well.
I have been told by a couple of people from different families that New Zealand citizens who work overseas cannot buy a home in New Zealand unless they come home and reside here. One lives in Adelaide and owned a home here previously which is now sold and wishes to purchase a home here to come home to and she was not allowed to, she was told to be able to purchase she had to be living here. Another couple live in Hongkong and have also at some time sold their home here and wish to buy another to return home to – again they were told they have to come home and reside here to purchase a home.
Is this correct – and why should whoever who bought Key’s home, be in China when he purchased it. What is going wrong here and am I hearing correct that NZ born citizens who work overseas cannot purchase a home here unless they return home and reside here.
Early voting starts tomorrow and probably most of you have already decided how you will vote. For me, it will be Labour as my candidate vote and Green as my party vote. I have been helping our local Labour candidate in various ways, including door-knocking, and I gave my party vote to Labour at the last election.
If you are on the Māori roll then remember the Māori Party have sided with National for 9 years and voted for the sell off of state houses.
There are a few reasons for me giving my party vote to the Green Party this time but the two main ones are that they will push for benefit reform and their polling is dangerously low. They need every vote they can get to ensure that they can be a effective voice in a new Labour led government. A coalition with the Greens will mean we get a better Labour government, so if you are tossing up between the Greens and Labour for your party vote then I’d urge you to choose the Greens this time. They need every vote they can get.
Some may be considering giving their party vote to Mana or TOP. Please do not do this. It will be a wasted vote. It is highly unlikely that Hone will win and even if he did manage to scrape in Mana will not get enough for another seat.
I like our local Labour candidate so the choice is easy for me. Mostly, the candidate vote doesn’t actually matter; the only seats that count for candidate votes are Epsom and the Māori seats. In Epsom give your candidate vote to the Nat Paul Goldsmith and it may be enough to get rid of Seymour and Act.
If you are on the Māori roll then remember the Māori Party have sided with National for 9 years and voted for the sell off of state houses.
I don’t see TOP getting anywhere this election, so agree that a party vote for them is essentially wasted this time.
If they keep going, however, I can see them siphoning the National votes away — particularly those people with a social conscience who skew right on economics. (Or just greedy people who nevertheless understand that climate change will render hoarding up ‘wealth’ in the form of numbers in accounts a pointless exercise, unless it is dealt with.)
Having spoken to some TOP people at some length last Sunday, it is interesting that they marry some Greens ideas with what I would consider ‘conventional’ neo-liberalism. I would prefer sensible Tories to take some political power away from the more extreme and unthinking variant.
Newshub has some more of those Reid Research polls of the Māori seats. Flavell beating Coffey in Waiariki, bad news for Fox if Howie wins Te Tai Hauāuru. Mahuta is also streets ahead in Hauraki-Waikato – take that Tuku!
Great to see Māori King’s political intervention in Hauraki-Waikato so dramatically thwarted by ordinary Māori voters.
Let’s hope he – and the Iwi Elite – learn an important lesson.
(I should have added a Trigger Warning for the middle-class Luvvie Culturalist wing of the Identitarian Left who tend to self-indulgently romanticise anyone with a dollop of Māori ethnic heritage, blind to the severe clash of class interests that have opened up within Māoridom. All power to the whistleblowers who have tried to keep a Neo-Liberal Iwi Elite honest over recent years)
National, ACT, UF and the Māori Party don’t say anything about charter schools on their websites. The other main parties oppose them. UF doesn’t have anything about school-level education policies.
I don’t understand you, Weka. You put up a moderator note at 8.6.1 and asked for a response. You said I needed to cite the links. So that’s what I did. And now I have another final warning – but don’t bother to reply. I can see you’re very busy. As I am doing campaigning stuff.
I just wanted to inform people that Labour has had its climate change and environment policies worked out for a very long time. By saying these were extracts from our Policy Platform, I thought that was quite enough for a citation. But now I understand it wasn’t.
[A general link to Labour’s policy means that me and anyone else who is interested has to go hunt for what you are referring to. As I just explained, yet here you arguing about it again and still not providing the actual links/cites. If you don’t want to link/cite then don’t cut and paste, it’s pretty simple.
And here you are still commenting under my post when I’ve asked you not to. You are now banned from my posts until the end of the year. The other moderation warning stands re OM. – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
ah ! I get the picture. Anne – you’d better not say anything in support of my comments about Labour also having environmental and climate change policies. Be warned !
As to The Standard moderators – I am now going to step outside of your self-imposed rules, and say I thought you wanted reasonable discussion on various Party policies – but maybe you only want discussion on Party policies you agree with, or know about. From a strong left (Labour) point of view, that’s more than a bit disappointing.
Cheerio.
[you didn’t get moderated for talking about Labour policy, you got moderated for repeatedly ignoring requests and warnings from a moderator about citing quotes and staying out of posts when you couldn’t do as an author asked. Making shit up about why you’ve been moderated is likely to get more moderator attention, as is wasting moderator time.
Anne, or anyone, is free to support what you said about Labour. She did and didn’t get moderated because she did so well within the site rules. Read the Policy, but the bottom line is that authors moderate on behaviour especially where their time is getting taken up with unnecessary back and forths like today. – weka]
Not sure I can be bothered, Anne. So much still to do to make sure Labour gets elected as a government this time. NZ cannot take any more of the shit dealt out by the neo-libs over the last three decades….. which I have spent the last 30 years or so fighting against ….. and petty little arguments about whether or not I should have cited things properly are just too time-consuming.
why not just put the cite in – you cut and pasted it anyway – it isn’t petty imo it is important especially with billshit and dildo joyce trying to muddy the waters
I think your approach of putting some facts up is good, you just have to put where you got the info from – let go of ego and just do it if you want Labour to win – that is more important than feeling hurt (and I can understand why you may feel that way I really can) – and I’m saying all the ego stuff to myself too. Kia kaha
Pat, thanks so much for posting, that is by far the most wonderfully written opinion piece I’ve read in quite some time. Brilliant, so funny, so good. Shakespearian almost, it’s going to make the best bed time story to read to the kids, epic.
Thanks, David Slack, most excellent
“And the men in the temple were sore troubled, saying: “How do we stop her, Bill?” And then the one known as Steven said: “Hold my myrrh”.
Now Steven was a wise man, according to his CV, and also he was not a wise man according to his academic record, for the grades saying “economics” did bear the words “Did not complete.”
In the wake of the March 15 mass-murder, the government moved swiftly to ban semi-automatic firearms, weapons for which there is really no case for being allowed to own in New Zealand. and now, it has announced phase two of ...
Local body politicians are concerned that the hostile online environment might deter people from running, and want British-style laws to prevent "online attacks". So what sorts of attacks are they concerned about? Death threats (illegal under the Crimes Act)? Sustained ...
When allegations emerged that civilians had been killed during an SAS raid in Afghanistan, NZDF was absolutely unequivocal in its denials, both the Ministers and the public. Since then, we've learned that they were well aware that there were reports ...
Over the past few months, we've seen a number of local authorities respond to public pressure over climate change by declaring a climate emergency. So what should they do next? Writing in The Spinoff, Sarah Thomson has some suggestions. Most ...
I have been unimpressed with Western corporate media coverage of the tensions involving Iran in the Straits of Hormuz. They repeat the line that Iran is the source of current tensions, that it is a major sponsor of terrorism, that ...
Victory, But Not Ours: Trump uses his deplorable words in exactly the same way as C.S. Lewis' wicked queen, Jadis, used her single 'Deplorable Word'. To win – no matter what the cost. He knows the power of words. He ...
Seeking Refuge: Were Jesus, Mary and Joseph fleeing persecution in Palestine or Judea? Were they Palestinians or Jews? Green MP, Golriz Ghahraman, in describing the Holy Family as Palestinian refugees, touched off a firestorm of controversy, demonstrating the sinister ease ...
Much like Tuvalu, the manmade climate change Cult love to tell people the Maldives is almost totally underwater. In fact the dishonest Maldives Govt d on the same bandwagon, believing they would receive billions of dollars aid from other Countries ...
According to every manmade climate change cultist on Earth, the pacific islands of Tuvalu are being flooded by rising sea levels. In fact, incredibly even a google search will bring up an immediate claim the islands are almost underwater! The ...
Firstly, it’s important you know that I am not paid by fossil fuel companies, nor do I have any association with them at all, and in fact I’m not a fan of any industry that doesn’t do it’s best to ...
As the entry on Wikipedia shows (and no, one doesn’t necessarily have to regard Wikipedia as the be-all and end-all of truth, because it isn’t on a great many things, to agree with the following): “…a fallacious argument that concludes ...
by Daphna Whitmore The story of how the world awoke to a big injustice is starting to be told. The Pacific Games held this month in Samoa is another chapter. On the podium was Laurel Hubbard, the giant transgender weightlifter, ...
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...
Why do so many people mistrust the police? Because they pull shit like this:The police are flouting the rules on breath testing, carrying out tests in people's homes to catch them out sometimes up to two hours after they were ...
I have been reading and listening to the aftermath of Trump’s comments about the four female first term Democratic representatives, all of whom are “people of color.” I found the US coverage interesting both as evidence of partisanship and the ...
The Herald reports that the housing shortage / bubble has hit a new level:New Zealand is short of 130,000 homes, the tally having risen lately by 30,000, two economists say. Jarrod Kerr and Jeremy Couchman, Kiwibank economists said: "This time ...
Milk producer Fonterra is one of New Zealand's biggest coal-users, using it to power all its South Island (and a few of its North Island) dairy factories. They'd previously "committed" to not building any new coal boilers after 2030. Now, ...
The proposed Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill treats biogenic methane emissions differently from all other carbon emissions. The latter are to be measured net so that emissions from fossil fuels can be offset by carbon stored in trees. ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...
Yesterday the government released its discussion document on action on agricultural emissions. As sadly usual, it proposed enormous subsidies for farm emissions, including for nitrogen-based fertiliser. This is a huge mistake. In addition to being one of the chief drivers ...
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act (this replaced their previous plans to hold a secret consultation with handpicked people). 285 people submitted on ...
Always Playing Catch-Up: Throughout the 1970s, the purchasing power of the ordinary worker’s pay packet – the only meaningful measure of his or her wealth – was being eaten away every passing year by seemingly inexorable rises in the cost-of-living. ...
The Interim Climate Change Committee's report on Action on agricultural emissions: Evidence, analysis and recommendations was finally released today, and as you might guess from the title, it is recommending that we actually act, rather than let farmers keep ...
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...
Agriculture is our biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for 48% of the total. It follows that meeting any credible emissions reduction target requires cutting agricultural emissions, most likely by having fewer cows. But National thinks people shouldn't be ...
How scummy is the UK Home Office? This scummy:The Home Office lied to EU member states to remove victims of human trafficking and modern slavery in breach of European law, according to whistleblowers. Legal experts have said the practice is ...
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...
“We wuz robbed!” is the classic cry of the disappointed losers of a closely contested sporting contest – it is very much to the credit of the Black Caps that we heard no such sentiment from them following the stunning ...
The Youth Parliament is being held this week, and some of the youth MPs are campaigning for a lower voting age:Molly Doyle, 17, is one Youth MP who wants this to change. She is part of a non-partisan campaign run ...
Up till now, Australia has made its living by digging up coal and exporting it to other countries, destroying the global climate in the process. But now they have a new option: exporting solar power:The desert outside Tennant Creek, deep ...
Later this month, thousands of people are expected to march to parliament as part of the #HandsOffOurTamaraki movement. At its heart, the movement is about preserving whānau and demanding that the state stop removing children from their whānau, hapū and iwi. ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh The recent statements made by the former FARC commander, Carlos Lozada (legal name Julian Gallo), where, from his seat in Congress, he praised the Colombian Army demonstrate how low the farianos have sunk. Lozada began by ...
A Woman’s Place is on the Podium was a public meeting in London on 10 July to discuss women’s sports and the impact of transwomen competing against women. The venue was sold out with a packed hall of 750 people. ...
Last month I talked about the no-fly movement: people who refuse to fly or limit it to absolute necessity to avoid destroying the climate. Now, that movement has a somewhat surprising new member: Dutch airline KLM:Dutch airline KLM has launched ...
In the 1960's, humanity faced a terrible threat: global thermonuclear war. Nuclear weapons were uniquely destructive and dangerous, and if more countries got them, the logic of MAD and the pre-emptive strike would put us on a hair-trigger to destruction. ...
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...
Matariki has been and gone, but this year we saw a couple of op-eds arguing that it should be a public holiday, replacing the foreign monarch's fake birthday. And now, New Zealand Republic - a group which campaigns for an ...
The discussion on the quality of economic advice, which we reported last week, has spilled over into a discussion about whether so many senior appointments should be of non-New Zealanders. Recall I discussed the failure to develop career paths within ...
When Nicky Hager revealed US footage of the Operation Burnham raid, obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act, one of the obvious questions was whether Ministers had seen it - and in particular, whether they'd been told that it ...
Northern Ireland is the Alabama of the UK: a backwards region where women and gay people are denied fundamental rights. But Westminster has just decided to fix that:MPs have voted resoundingly to extend same-sex marriage and access to abortion to ...
There's a problem with "synthetic cannabis", and not just the one you think. It's the name.We're in the midst of a wave of news stories that link synthetic drugs to serious harm, through deadly road accidents and accidental overdoses (which ...
Ranjit Kauri, The Dancing Maharani and Other Stories, Swansea, Head and Heart, 2019, £6.99; reviewed by Don Franks Working people are not the same country to country. Our struggles for a better life take place in surroundings of very different ...
Let's Do Them! All Jacinda Ardern has to do to clinch the 2020 General Election is frighten the bejesus out of the electorate by describing in the most graphic terms imaginable what will happen to all the positive beginnings her ...
It may be that we have all misinterpreted the somewhat surprising “bromance” between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. It has been all too easy to assume that it is Kim who is cosying up to Trump rather than the ...
by Michael Roberts So the full circle is completed. The corrupt pro-business conservative New Democracy party in Greece that was ousted by the anti-capitalist Syriza party in 2015 has been returned to office in yesterday’s general election, with an outright ...
When the Australian government passed a series of new spy laws over the last few years, they pinky-promised that they wouldn't use them to spy on journalists and subvert freedom of the press. They lied:The anti-encryption laws passed by the ...
From 1975 to 1989, the spy agencies of South America's right-wing military dictatorships cooperated in Operation Condor, a joint campaign of extermination against the continent's left. Roughly 400,000 people were imprisoned, 30,000 disappeared, and 60,000 murdered - kidnapped, tortured, executed, ...
When she was standing for office, Jacinda Ardern promised she would take abortion out of the Crimes Act. And to be fair, there was some early action on that, with an immediate referral of the issue to the Law Commission ...
When the government introduced the Zero Carbon Bill, people rightly asked what they planned to do to reduce transport emissions, which basicly had no policy at all other than the ETS. Today, they responded, announcing a "feebate" system which would ...
At almost every level, the problem with medicinal cannabis is a lack of good information. In the US, FDA regulations make it hard to research. Most doctors aren't familiar with what research there is and most patients don't know either. ...
Redline is critical of Corbyn for his political weaknesses, but he’s no anti-Semite. There is no substance to the McCarthyist witch-hunt being run by the right wing, and the pro-Israel lobby inside and outside the Labour Party in the UK. ...
The government's billion trees program is the sort of policy which could make a real difference to our emissions and the fight against climate change. But climate scientist Jim Salinger isn't convinced:The Forestry Minister Shane Jones' one billion trees won't ...
Last month the government was celebrating another surplus. Meanwhile, children are starving:One in five children are living in households where putting food on the table is a struggle, according to a new report from the Ministry of Health. It found ...
Show Me The Money! The alternative to state funding of infrastructure is, of course, to fund it by taking on massive amounts of private debt. On this issue, at least, Auckland mayoral challenger, Tamihere, has some solid points to make. ...
If we are to avoid making the earth uninhabitable, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to practically nothing over the next decade. But that will still leave us with the problem of the carbon we have already emitted, which ...
Former Waikato DHB CEO Nigel Murray allegedly misused public funds, spending more than $120,000 of public money on unjustified travel. He was forced to resign and the Serious Fraud Office began an investigation. But despite the SFO finding that the ...
Jeremy Corbyn, we are told, is being advised – not least by his deputy (as well as by some of his would-be successors) – that he must come “off the fence” on the Brexit issue if he wants to bolster ...
The End of Life bill has been read a second time and is now heading for the House for further debate. Personally, I support the proposal. I don't ever epect to take advantage of the Bill's provisions myself, but as ...
Before the substantive issue which this column is about – whether there has been a deterioration in the economic advice given to the government – a paragraph about the budget leaks.read more ...
Below is a translation of the editorial in the June 24 round of weekly workplace bulletins issued all over France by the revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvriere. Last Saturday, 8,000 people took to the streets of Belfort (eastern France) to ...
Why hasn't Parliament followed the lead set by our local authorities and declared a climate emergency? The answer is the National Party:The Prime Minister’s admission that she is open to the idea of declaring a climate change emergency is nothing ...
Back in May the government released its Zero Carbon Bill. While much of the bill was welcome, there was one big exception: it contained a secrecy clause, requiring the Climate Change Commission to maintain secrecy over practically everything it does. ...
by Phil Duncan This past week has marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Stonewall Inn riots in Christopher Street, New York, the event generally regarded as kicking off the gay liberation movement. Quite a few articles have ...
Southland - land of coal-burning dairy farmers - has become the first region in the country to explicitly vote against declaring a climate emergency. Their reason? They didn't want to "devalue" the word "emergency". Its an argument addressed powerfully in ...
New Zealand has a problem with police chases: officers going after fleeing drivers like rabid dogs, without any consideration for proportionality or public safety, often with fatal results. And according to an in-depth article in the Guardian today, the UK ...
The first full week of the firearms buy-back and amnesty has produced a strong turnout as events roll out nationwide for the first time. “Momentum is slowly starting to build as community collection events are held across the entire country, ...
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...
Million-dollar start to gun collection eventsPolice Minister Stuart Nash says a solid start has been made to the gun buyback and amnesty after the first weekend of community collection events. “Gun owners will walk away with more than ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash has praised Police and gun owners after the first firearms collection event saw a busy turnout at Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch. “Police officers and staff have put a tremendous effort into planning and logistics for the ...
Seventy-eight new Police constables are heading out to the regions following today’s graduation of a new recruit wing from the Royal New Zealand Police College. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the record high number of new Police officers being recruited, ...
Media statement on behalf of Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie and Donna Marie Tai Tokerau Hall: Māori Television has admitted publishing false allegations about former High Court justice, Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie, and his wife, Donna Hall, and it has ...
Announcement today by the Prime Minister of further gun law reform is being shrouded by fear, so that scrutiny of the law is seen as an affront to the victims of the horror attack in March. The Prime Minister acknowledged ...
Misgivings about the practicality and cost of a firearms register is likely to dominate feedback from rural areas on the second round of proposed Arms Act amendments, Federated Farmers says. ...
School Strike 4 Climate NZ organisers Sophie Handford and Raven Maeder delivered a clear message to over 600 local government mayors, chairs, chief executives and councillors at the recent LGNZ conference : make climate change a priority. ...
The Police Association, Te Aka Hāpai backs the government’s emphasis on public safety as the driver of its second tranche of amendments to New Zealand’s firearms law, announced today. ...
The growing housing shortage crisis about more than supply and demand- it is about inequity. Recently released analysis by Kiwibank shows that last year’s “severe” shortage of housing has worsened, with the shortfall growing from 100,000 to 130,0000 ...
One of the country’s largest district health boards has a severe shortage of hospital specialists, says the senior doctors’ union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is joining opposition to possible regulations on the strength of nicotine vaping liquid. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “The Government would certainly benefit from regulations on the strength ...
The Meat Industry Association (MIA) is calling for significant changes to the Zero Carbon Bill with a new analysis using the Government’s preferred modelling indicating that the proposed methane targets are excessive if all other gases go to net zero. ...
Victoria University Feminist Organisation and ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa, in conjunction with the VUW Feminist Law Students, Organise Aotearoa, Fem Force, and with the support of VUW Student Association announced they are sponsoring a march ...
With the Government's firearm buyback scheme starting to draw over 30,000 police man hours away from fighting crime, the safety of law abiding citizens is being compromised. ...
Social Credit Party leader Chris Leitch is calling on the sale of Westland Milk to Chinese company Yili to be put on hold pending an approach to the Government by Westland Milk for funding assistance. ...
Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa seems intent on ensuring the Government’s vaping legislation will heavily target flavours and nicotine levels – a move that would be completely counterproductive to helping Kiwis quit smoking and achieving ...
A new website has launched in response to recent RNZ reporting about Police in Dunedin unlawfully entering people’s homes and breath-testing them. “I was disgusted when I saw what they cops were doing in Dunedin. Their behaviour undermines all of ...
The Head of the New Zealand Maori Council has called for the Government to hold an immediate investigation into the global cosmetics company Sephora after they were caught dumping waste hundreds and thousands of waste paper products embedded with ...
Hundreds of whanau and Maori leaders gathered at a hui in Mangere last weekend where they voted unanimously for an inquiry into Oranga Tamariki. The historic meeting called for a child welfare framework to be developed by Maori, for Maori. ...
Simon Shepherd: The government says its agreement with farmers, that they should pay for agricultural emissions, is historic. But there's no agreement on how. One proposal says farmers should pay a 5 per cent emissions tax. Another suggests farmers ...
The O’Brien Institute for Public Health at Calgary University has just released their report on fluoridation. This institute has, up to now, been staunchly in favour of fluoridation. However, yesterday, with regards to fluoride’s effect on the brain, ...
July 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government is looking to tighten control and impose harsher penalties after the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed cracks in the country's stock management system. ...
Kia Anga Mua Ngā Hapū o Ngāpuhi (KAM) has reached a pivotal milestone following a hui yesterday at Waitangi with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the Government spent $133,530 on producing its ‘Wellbeing Budget’ document, a cost blowout largely driven by spending on graphic design and photography. The $133,530 price tag compares to $86,268 ...
Kahungunu Māori Language Awards. Nominations closed on 5 July 2019, and were judged by the Senior Management Team of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated. The judges wish to acknowledge the very high calibre of all nominations received making it a very ...
High Court of Australia Judge, Justice Stephen Gageler, will address recent criticism of court judgment delays in Australia, at the University of Canterbury (UC) on 23 July at 6.15pm. ...
This summary is provided to assist in the understanding of the Inquiry’s proceedings but does not constitute the official record. The full Minute is available at the link below. ...
The Tertiary Education Commission is laying charges under section 292A of the Education Act 1989 against three individuals for making a false representation for the purpose of receiving, or continuing to receive, free tertiary education from a tertiary education ...
New Zealand food businesses today welcomed a trio of new food safety tools, designed to make it faster, easier and more affordable to follow the rules and keep consumers safe. ...
AUT research shows that Māori children are almost four times more likely than those of European descent to be placed out of home by child protection services ...
The Government announced today that grants of up to $2,500 for energy efficient heaters are now available as part of the Government’s Warmer Kiwi Homes programme. ...
Fonterra’s use of coal has been the target of numerous grassroots campaigns in recent years. Last year 350 Aotearoa affiliated groups, Fossil Free Aoraki and 350 Nelson launched a petition dismissing the dairy giant’s initial target of no new ...
Information sessions on proposals for The Medicinal Cannabis Scheme take place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch over the next fortnight. The sessions are open to anyone with an interest in learning more about the proposed scheme. ...
“Our children are our most vulnerable, most innocent victims and we do not want to see any more children harmed by these ‘known sex offenders’. The safety of our community must be the paramount consideration.” ...
“The announcement that Fonterra will immediately stop installing any new coal boilers or increasing capacity to burn coal is the signal that the biomass fuel supply industry welcomes” said Brian Cox, Executive Officer of the Bioenergy Association. ...
18 July 2019-- Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA) today welcomed Fonterra’s commitment to build no new coal plants, a “no brainer” for the climate crisis the world faces. The group has been urging this transition for six years now and ...
The increase in demand for cage-free eggs is set to continue according to animal rights organisation SAFE, who says the egg industry should expect this and prepare. ...
Wellington, New Zealand – 350 Pacific made a formal submission to the New Zealand Government’s Environment Parliamentary Select Committee on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, led by the Pacific Climate Warriors (PCWs) based in ...
There used to be a school of thought on the centre right side of politics that the best way to neuter the Greens as a political force would be to let them have a spell in government. Then, according to ...
Today (18 July) is Nelson Mandela International Day when the United Nations highlights the importance of humane conditions of imprisonment. In New Zealand our prisons are overcrowded and understaffed. At 214 prisoners per 100,000 people, we have the fifth ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa will take legal action over the lengthy delay in implementing pay increases for teachers. Novopay announced yesterday that teachers would have to wait until 11 September to see pay increases that they won when they settled ...
EDS has filed its submission on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill. The Bill sets targets for greenhouse gas reductions, provides for the government to set a series of carbon budgets, and sets up a new, independent, Climate ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has identified an absurd case of mission creep at Wellington City Council: the decision to spend $21,750 on two Consumer NZ investigations into different brands of bike lights. ...
The Motor Trade Association is welcoming the release of the Government’s new draft road safety strategy. MTA Chief Executive Craig Pomare says the association is pleased to see vehicle safety has been made a priority in the Road to Zero ...
The Department of Conservation continue to repeat the same old story about attacks on staff and how it is affecting their role in protecting our precious wildlife. NZ herald https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12249704 ...
The government's silence on the fact that the country's second-largest milk processor is on the brink of becoming 25% Chinese Government owned has been deafening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Martin Parkinson, secretary of the Prime Minister’s department, has cleared Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop of breaching the government’s code of ministerial standards with their ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentForeign affairs – Australia Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Ardern in ...
Sam Brooks reviews the second season of Big Little Lies, which generated as much social media conversation as its first season did critical acclaim, for better and worse.Light spoilers for the second season of Big Little Lies.Big Little Lies felt like the ...
ANALYSIS:By David Robie Indonesia recently hosted a bold public relations window-dressing expo in Auckland presenting itself as a “Pacific” nation while attempting to provide an unconvincing impression of normality in the two Melanesian provinces known collectively as West ...
Taxing vacant land would be too complex to implement and achieve little - it would be better for the Government to push local councils to implement rates based on land value rather than capital value. ...
The Māori Affairs Select Committee has recommended that anyone wanting to use the word 'Parihaka' for commercial purposes must get permission from the Parihaka Papakainga Trust. ...
European politics is a strange business. Where voters can choose candidates, who disappear after the elections. Where right-wing governments nominate left-sounding candidates. ...
Ruby Porter’s debut novel, Attraction, is a lucid, layered story of three young women on a road trip across the North Island. It’s one of the best books we’ve read this year. Here, Ruby writes about her grandmother – who ...
ByRNZ Pacific West Papuan fighters have killed an Indonesian soldier in a renewed threat to Jakarta’s road project there. State news agency Antara reported the hit-and-run attack on Saturday took place in Nduga regency, where pro-independence forces are ...
In 2003 the Silver Ferns won the Netball World Cup, breaking the Australian Diamonds’ 16-year winning streak. In 2019, they’ve just done the same thing. Leana de Bruin was a rookie in that 2003 team, and talked to The Spinoff ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Associate Professor, Criminology and Justice Studies, RMIT University A Perth man who pleaded guilty to distributing an intimate image of his ex-girlfriend without her consent has been sentenced to a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Piero Moraro, Lecturer in Criminal Justice, Charles Sturt University The Morrison government has introduced new legislation responding to recent protests by animal rights activists in Australia. The bill –named The Criminal Code ...
One of the many unspoken rules of British life is that when one is drinking at the pub with others, one buys rounds. For the naive New Zealander, it’s stressful AF, says Elle Hunt.At the pub one Friday night in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David King, Senior Lecturer, The University of Queensland Dry, moist, productive, hacking, chesty, whooping, barking, throaty. These are just some of the terms people use to describe their cough. While we’re deep ...
What if you could grow a house from seed or 3D print a new subdivision in a week? The housing sector is ripe for disruption – could technology be the magic bullet we need?Jo Aitken sounds like she’s pitching an ...
The architect of the incredible turnaround the Silver Ferns have enjoyed is now off-contract. So now that the World Cup has been won, how can Netball NZ keep Noeline Taurua on the books? Radio NZ’s Ravinder Hunia recounts the journey ...
By RNZ Pacific Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape wants Australia to close the detention centre it has been running on PNG’s Manus island for six years. According to Australian media, Marape has asked Canberra to give him ...
More must be done to tackle critical skill shortages in project management and leadership, the head of the Registered Master Builders Association says. ...
Fifteen tracks, 22 guests, one album. The Spinoff Music listens to Ed Sheeran’s No. 6 Collaborations Project and considers why each track really shouldn’t work – and the sometimes surprising reasons why they do.1. Beautiful People – KhalidKhalid and Ed ...
Emily Writes on her journey from reasonable trepidation to sweet love for the video game Minecraft.It was barely a week after I said to my sister “I don’t let the boys play any games” that my children’s Minecraft obsession began. ...
New Zealanders with life-shortening congenital conditions will have early access to their KiwiSavers after a man with Down Syndrome convinced the government to change the rules. ...
Sephora store employees may have swept some confetti down Auckland city’s drains on Saturday, and people got angry… at an entire generation. On Saturday, French cosmetics giant Sephora opened its first New Zealand store on Auckland’s Queen Street. Excited makeup enthusiasts ...
More than 20,000 Aucklanders don’t have access to regular showers or the ability to wash their clothing. Alice Webb-Liddall tags along on a shift with Orange Sky, who are giving homeless people back these basic needs.On an overcast Friday morning ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Senior Fellow, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University If the first week of the 46th Parliament was heavily ceremonial – dominated by the new governor-general, a raft of first-time MPs ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Walker, Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe University In a world run ragged by multiple crises and an unravelling of American global leadership, military confrontation in the Gulf poses risks ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Dalton, Conjoint Senior Lecturer School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle Over recent months, the news has been saturated with headlines claiming we’re experiencing a “killer flu season”. Researchers ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Richard Braczkowski, PhD Candidate – Wildlife Cameraman, The University of Queensland Last week saw the release of the rebooted The Lion King, an attempt to capitalise on the billion-dollar success of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Fenner, Associate Professor at UNSW Art & Design, UNSW Over the past few weeks, artists from around Australia have been creating small artworks depicting the endangered black-throated finch and sending them ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Campbell, Associate Professor, University of Sydney New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian made a “captain’s call” in recent months that raised the ire of many parents, teachers and education groups. She ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Beer, Dean, Research and Innovation, University of South Australia Australia’s biggest city is abuzz with news of yet another housing development declared unsafe for human habitation. This time it is apartments ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Many claim leadership positions around farming emissions, concerns rise about deported gang members in small towns, and superyacht predictions panned.Now apologies if you feel like this is repetition – we did ...
Against all odds, the Silver Ferns have won netball's World Cup for the first time in 16 years. And fittingly, one of the legends of the game sealed their incredible victory. ...
What are you getting out of your daily commute? University of Auckland Associate Professor Kim Dirks considers the health implications for getting from A to B. ...
If Beijing’s actions have any bearing on what will happen when the agreement of ‘one country, two systems’ expires, the Hong Kong people are unlikely to succumb quietly. ...
Six things councils can do right now to make the ’emergency’ worth more than the paper it’s written on.Councils are declaring climate emergencies across the country, but with only a decade to cut carbon emissions in half, it’s time for ...
Newsroom literary editor Steve Braunias passes his verdict on the annual list of the 100 favourite books of New Zealanders who filled out a Whitcoulls form. ...
Orchestral music performance is an art form, but how do you engage with something you’ve never experienced before? Samiyah Alghamdi and Anna Knox attend NYO Celebrates in Wellington and unpack what they hear.The National Youth Orchestra and the National Youth ...
Open Mike 10/09/2017 
In the wake of the March 15 mass-murder, the government moved swiftly to ban semi-automatic firearms, weapons for which there is really no case for being allowed to own in New Zealand. and now, it has announced phase two of ...10 hours ago
I have been unimpressed with Western corporate media coverage of the tensions involving Iran in the Straits of Hormuz. They repeat the line that Iran is the source of current tensions, that it is a major sponsor of terrorism, that ...2 days ago
2 days ago
2 days ago
Much like Tuvalu, the manmade climate change Cult love to tell people the Maldives is almost totally underwater. In fact the dishonest Maldives Govt d on the same bandwagon, believing they would receive billions of dollars aid from other Countries ...2 days ago
As the entry on Wikipedia shows (and no, one doesn’t necessarily have to regard Wikipedia as the be-all and end-all of truth, because it isn’t on a great many things, to agree with the following): “…a fallacious argument that concludes ...2 days ago
by Daphna Whitmore The story of how the world awoke to a big injustice is starting to be told. The Pacific Games held this month in Samoa is another chapter. On the podium was Laurel Hubbard, the giant transgender weightlifter, ...3 days ago
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...3 days ago
Something I missed: not only did Youth MPs declare a climate emergency; they also launched a campaign to lower the voting age to 16:Youth Parliament week in Parliament has seen the establishment of Make it 16, a campaign to ...4 days ago
The proposed Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill treats biogenic methane emissions differently from all other carbon emissions. The latter are to be measured net so that emissions from fossil fuels can be offset by carbon stored in trees. ...5 days ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...5 days ago
6 days ago
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...7 days ago
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...7 days ago
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
The first full week of the firearms buy-back and amnesty has produced a strong turnout as events roll out nationwide for the first time. “Momentum is slowly starting to build as community collection events are held across the entire country, ...18 hours ago
Media statement on behalf of Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie and Donna Marie Tai Tokerau Hall: Māori Television has admitted publishing false allegations about former High Court justice, Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie, and his wife, Donna Hall, and it has ...7 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Martin Parkinson, secretary of the Prime Minister’s department, has cleared Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop of breaching the government’s code of ministerial standards with their ...1 hour ago
Sam Brooks reviews the second season of Big Little Lies, which generated as much social media conversation as its first season did critical acclaim, for better and worse.Light spoilers for the second season of Big Little Lies.Big Little Lies felt like the ...6 hours ago
Cross-party consensus on gun law reform was a one-time wonder. ...7 hours ago
ANALYSIS: By David Robie Indonesia recently hosted a bold public relations window-dressing expo in Auckland presenting itself as a “Pacific” nation while attempting to provide an unconvincing impression of normality in the two Melanesian provinces known collectively as West ...7 hours ago
Taxing vacant land would be too complex to implement and achieve little - it would be better for the Government to push local councils to implement rates based on land value rather than capital value. ...7 hours ago
The Māori Affairs Select Committee has recommended that anyone wanting to use the word 'Parihaka' for commercial purposes must get permission from the Parihaka Papakainga Trust. ...8 hours ago
European politics is a strange business. Where voters can choose candidates, who disappear after the elections. Where right-wing governments nominate left-sounding candidates. ...9 hours ago
A decade on from his darkest hour, can the NZ First leader again defy the odds and keep his political career alive? ...9 hours ago
Ruby Porter’s debut novel, Attraction, is a lucid, layered story of three young women on a road trip across the North Island. It’s one of the best books we’ve read this year. Here, Ruby writes about her grandmother – who ...9 hours ago
By RNZ Pacific West Papuan fighters have killed an Indonesian soldier in a renewed threat to Jakarta’s road project there. State news agency Antara reported the hit-and-run attack on Saturday took place in Nduga regency, where pro-independence forces are ...10 hours ago
In 2003 the Silver Ferns won the Netball World Cup, breaking the Australian Diamonds’ 16-year winning streak. In 2019, they’ve just done the same thing. Leana de Bruin was a rookie in that 2003 team, and talked to The Spinoff ...10 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Associate Professor, Criminology and Justice Studies, RMIT University A Perth man who pleaded guilty to distributing an intimate image of his ex-girlfriend without her consent has been sentenced to a ...10 hours ago
The second tranche of proposed far-reaching changes includes a gun register, tighter licensing rules, and five-year licences. ...11 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Piero Moraro, Lecturer in Criminal Justice, Charles Sturt University The Morrison government has introduced new legislation responding to recent protests by animal rights activists in Australia. The bill –named The Criminal Code ...11 hours ago
One of the many unspoken rules of British life is that when one is drinking at the pub with others, one buys rounds. For the naive New Zealander, it’s stressful AF, says Elle Hunt.At the pub one Friday night in ...11 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David King, Senior Lecturer, The University of Queensland Dry, moist, productive, hacking, chesty, whooping, barking, throaty. These are just some of the terms people use to describe their cough. While we’re deep ...12 hours ago
The government is planning an overhaul of biosecurity funding, but a lack of detail is making farming sectors nervous. ...12 hours ago
What if you could grow a house from seed or 3D print a new subdivision in a week? The housing sector is ripe for disruption – could technology be the magic bullet we need?Jo Aitken sounds like she’s pitching an ...13 hours ago
The architect of the incredible turnaround the Silver Ferns have enjoyed is now off-contract. So now that the World Cup has been won, how can Netball NZ keep Noeline Taurua on the books? Radio NZ’s Ravinder Hunia recounts the journey ...13 hours ago
By RNZ Pacific Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape wants Australia to close the detention centre it has been running on PNG’s Manus island for six years. According to Australian media, Marape has asked Canberra to give him ...14 hours ago
More must be done to tackle critical skill shortages in project management and leadership, the head of the Registered Master Builders Association says. ...14 hours ago
Emily Writes on her journey from reasonable trepidation to sweet love for the video game Minecraft.It was barely a week after I said to my sister “I don’t let the boys play any games” that my children’s Minecraft obsession began. ...16 hours ago
Sephora store employees may have swept some confetti down Auckland city’s drains on Saturday, and people got angry… at an entire generation. On Saturday, French cosmetics giant Sephora opened its first New Zealand store on Auckland’s Queen Street. Excited makeup enthusiasts ...17 hours ago
More than 20,000 Aucklanders don’t have access to regular showers or the ability to wash their clothing. Alice Webb-Liddall tags along on a shift with Orange Sky, who are giving homeless people back these basic needs.On an overcast Friday morning ...18 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ashlee Curtis, Research Fellow, School of Psychology, Deakin University The Victorian government introduced 24-hour public transport on Friday and Saturday nights in Melbourne from January 1 2016. Services mostly run every hour ...18 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Senior Fellow, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University If the first week of the 46th Parliament was heavily ceremonial – dominated by the new governor-general, a raft of first-time MPs ...19 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Richard Braczkowski, PhD Candidate – Wildlife Cameraman, The University of Queensland Last week saw the release of the rebooted The Lion King, an attempt to capitalise on the billion-dollar success of ...19 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Fenner, Associate Professor at UNSW Art & Design, UNSW Over the past few weeks, artists from around Australia have been creating small artworks depicting the endangered black-throated finch and sending them ...19 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Campbell, Associate Professor, University of Sydney New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian made a “captain’s call” in recent months that raised the ire of many parents, teachers and education groups. She ...19 hours ago
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Many claim leadership positions around farming emissions, concerns rise about deported gang members in small towns, and superyacht predictions panned.Now apologies if you feel like this is repetition – we did ...20 hours ago
Against all odds, the Silver Ferns have won netball's World Cup for the first time in 16 years. And fittingly, one of the legends of the game sealed their incredible victory. ...21 hours ago
Forestry NZ challenges several claims made in Dame Anne Salmond's commentary in Newsroom last week, ‘Billion Trees policy being rorted’. ...21 hours ago
What are you getting out of your daily commute? University of Auckland Associate Professor Kim Dirks considers the health implications for getting from A to B. ...21 hours ago
Democrats face a real conundrum in the candidate they pick to run against Donald Trump. Peter McKenzie explains why. ...21 hours ago
If Beijing’s actions have any bearing on what will happen when the agreement of ‘one country, two systems’ expires, the Hong Kong people are unlikely to succumb quietly. ...21 hours ago
Jerome Kaino deserves to sit alongside the greats who retired from test rugby at the 2015 World Cup. ...21 hours ago
Six things councils can do right now to make the ’emergency’ worth more than the paper it’s written on.Councils are declaring climate emergencies across the country, but with only a decade to cut carbon emissions in half, it’s time for ...22 hours ago
The construction industry has a multi-pronged attack plan to fill desperately needed gaps ...22 hours ago
Newsroom literary editor Steve Braunias passes his verdict on the annual list of the 100 favourite books of New Zealanders who filled out a Whitcoulls form. ...22 hours ago
Businesses of fewer than 20 employees make up 97 percent of NZ's enterprises. But on the flip side, 10 percent go into liquidation. ...22 hours ago
Orchestral music performance is an art form, but how do you engage with something you’ve never experienced before? Samiyah Alghamdi and Anna Knox attend NYO Celebrates in Wellington and unpack what they hear.The National Youth Orchestra and the National Youth ...1 day ago
HDPA doing her best for the National Party
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11919488
Tory puppet.
what part of her article is not factually correct?
See Hanswurst’s comment.
It’s an opinion piece, and contains no facts whatsoever. Glad I could help you try and grasp that.
Alan
Under their Code of Ethics they have to be fair and balanced. If they do not offer comments on the scrutiny of the recent avalanche of spending from Bill English in the same article, their code says that is ok so long as they are doing a series.
Audrey Young owes us one on National on that basis from earlier in the week and now stuff owes us one. When do you reckon we will get it? Sept 24?
Alan
Let’s have some election scrutiny.
Of thes state of our health system.
Of the state of our Waterways
Of the numbers in our Prisons
Of the state of our Education system
Of the levels of our emissions
Of the levels of Child poverty
Of the levels of inequality
Of the levels of drug abuse including alcohol
Of the levels of obesity
Of the levels of homelessness
Of the levels of home ownership
Of the levels of foreign ownership of New Zealand
Of the levels of corporate lobbying in NZ
I could go on.
The comment “Young people have been clamouring for the superannuation age to be lifted” seems to a statement of fact as written but when asked for evidence of this “clamouring” – no response!
It is particularly risible considering that the two points she singles out for scrutiny, tax and the age of eligibility for superannuation, have been subjected to nothing but scrutiny since they first surfaced. The entire article could be reduced to “Heather du Plessis Allen opines that media coverage of the election campaign should continue until the election.”
Well said. The irony of an article lacking real scrutiny bemoaning the lack of scrutiny of Labour. Where is the scrutiny of the avalanche of money suddenly available from Bills cold dead hands? Taxpayer money on a Cathedral and NOW 30m for other random churches…
As for the “mean girl” nonsense. When women resort to sexist generalisations we are the worst for it.
Referencing the Smiling Assassin pisses me of cos most John Keyers saw it as a badge of honour. And no scrutiny there. Where were the journoes finding victims of the asassin and seeing how their lives have worked out?
John Key ran this country for 8 years on the back of his popularity and people like HDA and Soper worshipped at his feet. It looks like now it is a woman…
I agree with the tenet that Labour has deliberately sought to cannabalise Green votes. However I am not on the front page of Stuff. Scrutinise Act and NZF and so on as well. It is like HDA is suffering from Ardern ardour envy?
I think I confused Stacey Kirk with HDA
The smiling assassin reference won’t do any harm. Middle NZ loves a bully.
‘The smiling assassin’ was Sir John’s nickname and to use it in reference to Jacinda Ardern is infantile & unoriginal and expresses some kind of misplaced nostalgia for a political ‘chapter’ that should be turned over ASAP or, even better, written over with a completely new chapter.
yes herald pulling out all the stops for nats today
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11918679
Looks like nat have finially settled on their brilliant plan……… scaremongering
And we find out the true colours of some in the media.
I don’t think it’s quite that simple. Tame’s piece is relatively harmless, although it does peddle a couple of annoying right-wing memes unquestioningly (the electorate votes with its collective wallet; it isn’t the substance that counts, but the perception), and the editorial “Jacinda should reveal more” actually contains some analysis of what Labour’s thinking on tax might be, rather than the constant screeching about every conceivable tax under the sun. However, the presence of all three pieces all in one go certainly shows that someone is toeing the editorial line we all expect from the Herald.
Getting back to Tame’s piece, though, if one were to substitute “courageous” for “risky” in the title, and make a couple of minor tweaks to the article, such as replacing some references to “voters” with “National and the media”, it would actually be quite positive for Labour. Perhaps his framing’s deliberate, but perhaps it’s just symptomatic of political journalists’ being a rather closed chattering circle that constantly feeds off its own memes…
it is even less than ‘relatively harmless’…it is almost cleverly supportive (wonder how his masters let that one slip through)…..he rationalises Labours stance for those seeking reassurance…..remembering it is not the tribally opposed that will determine this election, they are beyond reassurance.
Hanswurst
Your analysis of the Herald items – really good. Thanks – it’s easy to go to knee jerk reactions and miss the finer points.
Nice analysis. Before your piece I had wondered if it was Soper and he and HDA wrote their pieces for Herald and Stuff respectively over eggs benedict yesterday.
I do not think Tame has it in for Labour. Quite the opposite.
or perhaps interference from sub editor?
Agreed, and to accompany it they find the worst possible picture of Jacinda.
The editor writes the headline and adds the photo.
If I were Tame, I’d feel misrepresented by Roughan.
And then there is this….https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/96633168/stacey-kirk-move-over-john-key-jacinda-ardern-is-the-new-smiling-assassin.
Is the editor of the Sunday Herald different to normal editor?
Today there seems to be a whole heap of articles with an anti-Labour bias.
Hdpa
Hide
Tame
and an anonymous Editorial.
The Hide one was odious.
For a former ACT leader, libertarian, promoter of choice and freedom, and an advocate of legalised suicide to want to restrict the ability of women to chose is utter hypocrisy.
And throwing in the suggestion that women will be able to terminate at full term is pathetic for someone of his standing and snatched straight from the Down’s Syndrome advocacy group’s Facebook page.
What a horrible little man he is.
Hide’s also just a poorly constructed piece. He starts off arguing that Ardern’s stance is misguided because taking any firm stance at all risks alienating some voters, then segues into arguing that, although the current law is unfit for purpose, changing it is a bad idea because there are issues to be tackled.
He doesn’t even attempt to draw any conclusion from these two disparate arguments, nor does he offer any insight into the issues beyond what has already been put out there by Saving Downs, whose “information”, moreover, has already been highlighted as unconnected to Ardern’s undertaking to remove abortion from the Crimes Act. It almost goes without saying that he makes no attempt to refute that assessment.
Hide seems to be a perfect example of the Peter Principle: elevated to party leadership and political commentator on the basis of a formidable reputation as a “perkbuster”, but found to be woefully inadequate in any pursuit other than embodying that phenomenally stupid term.
On Q+A this morning at 9am, is a debate about the environment, “there are 7 parties in tomorrow’s debate: @winstonpeters @ScottSimpsonMP @DavidParkerMP @damianlight @FoxMarama @dbseymour @jamespeshaw”
Why isn’t Nick Smith there, he is the minister for the environment, but instead scott simpson is rolled out? I’m confused. He ran away from the nelson markets yesterday after the sculpture turned up next to his caravan, is he still running away?
Tweets by NZQandA
Hopefully the other parties will ask that question.
Here are some facts for hdpa.
She could have read this before writing her puff article defending her rich mates interests.
‘Beneficiary groups have slammed Work and Income over a new report showing people missing out on $200 million a year in entitlements.
Beneficiary advocacy groups say figures released under the Official Information Act paint a damning picture of the government and Work and Income.
According to the figures, there could be $200 million or more in payments not being collected by beneficiaries.
Auckland Action Against Poverty spokesperson Alastair Russell said Work and Income case managers deliberately withhold information about benefit entitlements.’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/election-2017/339084/beneficiary-advocates-slam-winz
I’ve heard from more than one beneficiary that they are not told what they are entitled to, they have to ask. The info is not volunteered.
In fact it is in their KPIs according to some in the know to NOT tell what the client doesnt know
If you don’t know what entitlements are available at WINZ then how can you possibly apply for them ? Advocates and financial mentors have a wealth of knowledge and can support their clients at WINZ appointments. Always wise to take along a witness (although it didn’t work out that well for Winston).
Sorry, “financial mentors”?
Bryan Bruce has documentary out on TV3 Tuesday at 8.30 p.m.
This is from his Facebook page on 7 September.
“I have to get my facts right. Politicians don’t. In documentaries like the one coming up next Tuesday on THREE I have to make every effort to get my facts right. If I don’t do my research and just make stuff up then I face the prospect that I and the broadcaster are fined for inaccuracy .(It’s never happened to me by the way).
Not so with National’s Cabinet members Steven Joyce or Anne Tolley When Finance Minister Joyce was asked by Guyon Espiner today to name one other person in New Zealand who agreed there was a $ 11.7 Billion hole in Labour’s fiscal policy he couldn’t do it
And here’s Minister of Social Development Anne Tolley quoted in a Newsroom article by Bernard Hickey “In addition, one in five beneficiaries tell us that drug use is a barrier to them getting a job ” 1 in 5 …. Really? According to her own Ministry – last year, there were 31,791 referrals for drug testable positions nationwide and just 55 sanctions for failing a drug test. (See Herald http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11639758 ) So which is it Minister? 1 in 5 beneficiaries on drugs.. or 1 in 576 according to your own actual tests?
The more National just makes stuff up , the less credibility they have. Just take a look at the poll released tonight . National is at the lowest level its been since 2005.
So … watch out for some inconvenient truths in my doco next Tuesday. Some politicians may squeal – but I can back up every fact I give with very credible resources.”
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1462834220465592&id=334536643295361&__tn__=%2As%2As-R
He’s a bit off target with the drug testing comments, one of the big problems at the moment are people turning down job offers because they are scared of failing a drug test and then getting sanctioned. Multiple agencies and NGOs are dealing with this problem.
Doesn’t just effect beneficiaries either but workers looking to move up into higher skill higher paying jobs.
I was gonna say, Hickey’s 1 in 576 is not necessarily incompatible with Tolleys 1 in 5.
A.
Do you have any data on that? The problem with Tolley’s credibility here is that she is making a claim that just *happens* to support the long-standing policy and propaganda of her party, but providing no verifiable data to back it up, whereas the available data make her claims seem counter-intuitive at best.
Rod Oram has a newsroom article about NZ’s failure to and need for plans for economically viable and environmentally sustainable cities and urban areas.
He destroys the government’s argument for the East/West corridor.
Oram feeds the cockies arguments that the cities are big polluters so get off our backs. And at present it is the cockies chosen political party that keeps the pollution levels as high as they are, because of that political party, National, being kept in power by cockies and the indifferent classes.
So don’t blame we townies for being hypocrites Rod. You are spreading the muck around too widely. Don’t be like the back end of a hippopotamus with us thank you very much. I didn’t vote the Nationals in. I am working for and thinking about having a better NZ but my agency is small compared to the vast machine of National’s that bulldozes flat every practical thought that would improve NZ in any way.
We have all got to demand and meet higher standards of thinking, planning, resource use and dealing with the effects of our activities on the environment.
For urban planning, look to the ribbon development happening all over the country. The number of urban stormwater and sewerage systems that are effectively combined at high flows is staggering. The heavy metals and hydrocarbons in urban stormwater is a disgrace. We all have to do a lot better than we are.
Rural environmental performance won’t improve unless there’s a change in urban attitudes, and equally urban performance won’t change unless there’s a change in rural attitudes. It’s not a rural / urban thing, it’s a New Zealand thing and we won’t get any improvement unless we all change.
But the real thrust of Oram’s argument is economic. We’ve spent the last 30 years trying to get richer by seeking to reduce costs, rather than have the best , highest value products and living environment. And we’ve all got to think how we do that.
“But voters should also ask a question of themselves: how can each of us help create a distinctive New Zealand urbanism, one that matches our natural environment for capturing the imagination of people the world over?”
Graeme you are exactly right. But make your point to the self-satifsied that I meet every day. Not in the community help, the environmental concern places, but in the pubs where they drink their problems away, in the financial houses, the women’s garment shops and hairdressers where they buy the look of having made it (that’s in the world of Success), the real estate houses, the farmer offices where they plan their next buy-out and study the prices for future commodity markets.
How do you make your point to them? They probably won’t be found on this blog, if they do come they are armed with a brain that is packed with bubble wrap to prevent anything impacting its delicate and fragile substance.
Fed Farmers took Invercargill City to task recently regarding ICC’s stormwater / sewer discharges. Robert Guyton might be able to provide some background on what went on there. So they actually get it, but I’m not sure whether in a positive way. But Fed Farm won’t get anywhere getting their members to have greater environmental responsibility if they don’t demand other users / abusers are held to the same account. And good on them.
Farmers I know and do work for are really onto looking after and maintaining their farm and neighbouring environments. But I also see some shockers, and not just farmers. But generally these are activities that haven’t had a consent renewal in the last 20 years.
Ngai Tahu have made QLDC buck their ideas up regarding sewer discharges and have had a very active role in water take consents in Otago. Their values make a lot of sense.
Some one is using my email to open a discus
Account I think I no who it is as discus track how many hit you get and links to Twitter Facebook an other multi media!!!!,
Q+A just started on tvnz, Environment Debate, link for live stream here if you are interested
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/content/tvnz/onenews/story/2017/08/31/live-stream-q-a.html
Thanks enjoyed that.
Nice to see the jokey foxpeters interaction. Didn’t see the same lightheartedness between labour and the greens – why are we in such a mess? Watch everyone except Shaw to find out.
Same Marty, it was a goodie. David Parker owned scott simpson more than once, James Shaw has proven to be outstanding in all the debates, and Foxy cracks me up big time. Winnie and rimmer dang. Ryan Gosling barely got a look in.
Jessica Much did a fantastic job keeping that lot under control.
Here’s a link for any that missed the Debate on the Environment it’s entertainment plus lolz. Still wondering why nick no show couldn’t even come and front the ministry he is responsible for, useless.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/q-and-a/episodes/s2017-e27
Maybes nick is a bit butt hurt post Saturday market.
The sculpture was at the Mot markets today, a truly impressive work of art, the detail and craftsmanship, really well done, right down to the towels wrapped around his ankles as socks and the undone shoe laces. Drew quite an audience, lots of laughter, and the kids ROFL, I asked some of them if they knew who it was, Donald Trump they reply, so I filled them in, cheeky boys asking me what was hanging between the legs of the ‘feral statue’, dang local kids crack me up. The artist was generous in that dept lolz.
The stall holder at nicks rear told me he had been put in the arseholes section of the market and should get a discount for the site, LMAO, he was soooo funny, some fella was getting his photo taken in between nicks legs, and the stall holder was like… ‘careful mate, you’ll be the biggest dick head in Motueka if you stay there too long” everyone laughing. Many came just to view the sculputure.
I wonder if nick will challenge the artist again, saying “nothing you make could offend me”, may not having been the wisest comment nick made when the artist was invited to dinner one night.
be good to see that sculpture over the hill for our sat market but wrong electorate so who knows – lots of lols from your report – nice, nick needs to go
It’s interesting to look at the ratings given to various political parties on various areas of interest.
Boots theory has links to some such ratings.
Of interest is that:
On climate change and health, (NZ climate and health council), The Greens by far the best, with TOP scoring quite badly – worse than Labour.
people’s agenda for Aotearoa, Greens, Māori and TOP score well, Labour slightly behind them.
PSA on various selected priorities, noticeably,
Greens, Internet, Labour, Māori, do well on support for Industrial relations, while National, top, NZ First and ACT get a NO.
On all their criteria, the GP get a tick (Yes) of approval; Internet get all ticks except for an In Principle (IP) judgement on housing; Labour mostly ticks with a few IPs; TOP a mix of Nos, Yeses and IPs; Māori 1 No plus a mix of Ys and IPs; National and ACT responses dominated by red N(o)s
The PSA one says that National ‘supports’ raising benefits to a liveable rate. Which is news to me and such a mistake that it makes me question their whole chart.
The PSA chart is based on the politcal partoes responses to their questions. So basically, it means that is what the Nats’ said.
The full list of responses to the PSA survey is here.
Basically, on Social Security, the Nats said No to all these:
And the only social security measure the Nats said Yes to was this one:
Which seems somewhat contradictory, and open to what they mean by “liveable”, given they don’t want to index benefits to the “average wage”.
“So basically, it means that is what the Nats’ said.”
Doesn’t that render it useless given we know National lies? I would have thought they would fact check.
Confound the Science
Nice melodic parody on Trump! Peace to all…..and good luck to the Greens launching their climate change policy later today in Auckland.
Nowhere in the Florida Keys is safe but the procession of people, their children and dogs, continues.
Cam location
https://www.google.co.nz/maps/place/Southernmost+Point/@24.5248648,-81.7632164,75094m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x88d1b6dc4e08c339:0xf94b45644a592e51!8m2!3d24.5465315!4d-81.7974323?dcr=0
Video,
Network error trying to use that cam. This is a shocking storm.
Looks like local cams are dropping out as they lose power.
btw, a list of twitter accounts to watch
https://twitter.com/mattdpearce/lists/hurricane-irma
edit: found a montage of cams
The worst of people.
its worse then you think if they cannot read or spell the ROE.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DJTSsKQXcAEAk44.jpg:large
Florida man strikes.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/florida-gun-owners-encouraged-apos-213111921.html?.tsrc=fauxdal
https://twitter.com/_floridaman/
More spending promises by the National Party. When will Audrey Young check their numbers?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/election-2017/339097/national-pledge-to-add-10k-to-homestart
More like, “idiot National use tax payer money to drive up house prices another 10k.”
What a clueless policy, demonstrating a total ignorance of basic economics, from the party that pretends it is good with finance
Bernard Hickey @bernardchickey 31m31 minutes ago
“National doubles 1st home buyers grants again. Treasury says they just push up prices & hand subsidies to the rich.”
the conservatives did something similar in the uk and it simply increased demand and so prices….also english is saying that this deposit will enable people to buy $600k houses but forgets they cannot make the repayments …..building cheap but quality state houses is the way to go
2014
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11313568
2016
http://i.stuff.co.nz/business/money/82657663/First-home-buyers-get-boost-with-KiwiSaver-changes-Nick-Smith
2017
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/09/10/47097/election2017live-15days
Einstein may or may not have said…”the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result” but there appears no dispute he said
‘Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters. ”
National…the epitome of both.
I thought it was illegal for Political Parties to offer bribes for votes?
If so, will English be charged?
Yep, it looks like Boring Bill is trying to buy votes with taxpayers money.
So the MAORI seat debate so I purposed abandoning them because in my view they were unfair on the left so for the MAORI
Seats to be fair there should be 15 seats and not seven. The seats should be based on population numbers to be fair to Maori.
How could Korako Nuk sit there and back national bull shit policy the only reason only Scotty Morrison cut him down was because the others were respecting his seniority in age if not they would have cut him down good on you Scotty.
Marana Davis is right to say that the people that were in the state care state and abused many of them end up in gangs are owed a investigation. And the people and state held accountable for there actions and the state to pay compensation to these people.
I have seen prefab house built on small pieces of land quiet fast.
So we need to come up with a simple efficient designs to build eco efficant house
And the workers need to build these house well we have plenty of people to train it doesn’t take long for someone to learn to be a hammer hand you need one qualified builder for 3 hammer hand so natianal DON’T go pissing in the wind about needing 50.000 immigrants to build more house’s . We just need the right plan And the will to build.
The council’s and high schools can help train builder’s and build good houses.
On election day, spare a thought for Lani Hagaman. 😈
Clean green are we??
I don’t think so; watch this.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/
Polluted Paradise
People & Power investigates New Zealand’s water pollution problem as regional elections gear up.
31 Aug 2017 12:41 GMT | New Zealand, Water, Pollution
Big upps to everyone in NZ and around the world for using social media to fight for changes to the fucked up systems that run our world and country.
Unicef is looking for money to deal with Hurricane Irma, the Mexico earthquake, famine in the Yemen, floods in India and various other calamities occurring simultaneously – they say their “resources are stretched as never before” . You can donate at https://www.unicef.org.nz/.
A.
Dr. Gerald Horne is the Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston talks to Abby Martin. Great interview, 33 minutes.
Weekend thought from the utterances of Lao Tzu. (Before the weekly utterances of the combatting political parties.) The meanings are not clear, confusing even.
May be good for sharpening our minds to define the difference between truth, half-truth and ‘smoke gets in your eyes’.
Wu wei (無爲), literally “non-action” or “not acting”, is a central concept of the Daodejing. The concept of wu wei is multifaceted, and reflected in the words’ multiple meanings, even in English translation; it can mean “not doing anything”, “not forcing”, “not acting” in the theatrical sense, “creating nothingness”, “acting spontaneously”, and “flowing with the moment.”[44]
It is a concept used to explain ziran (自然), or harmony with the Dao. It includes the concepts that value distinctions are ideological and seeing ambition of all sorts as originating from the same source. Laozi used the term broadly with simplicity and humility as key virtues, often in contrast to selfish action. On a political level, it means avoiding such circumstances as war, harsh laws and heavy taxes. Some Taoists see a connection between wu wei and esoteric practices, such as zuowang “sitting in oblivion” (emptying the mind of bodily awareness and thought) found in the Zhuangzi.[43]
Some of Laozi’s famous sayings include:
“When goodness is lost, it is replaced by morality.”
“Without Darkness, there can be no Light.”
“The usefulness of a pot comes from its emptiness.”
“The best people are like water, which benefits all things and does not compete with them. It stays in lowly places that others reject. This is why it is so similar to the Way.”
“When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad.”
“Try to change it and you will ruin it. Try to hold it and you will lose it.”
“Those who know do not say. Those who say do not know.”
“When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.”
“Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.”
“A journey of a thousand miles starts under one’s feet.”
“The more that laws and regulations are given prominence, the more thieves and robbers there will be.”
— Laozi, Tao Te Ching
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laozi
Greens livestream climate change policy announcement is about to start,
(should be able to see that without a login, just click past the prompts)
Am watching it currently – very interesting!
And talking of climate change the current wind map is here:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-81.97,24.57,1815
Looks like the Cyclone will have seriously trashed the coast of Cuba but looks as though it might now head to the Gulf of Mexico reducing the effect on Florida.
That’s some serious shit from the Greens.
“”We’re the first generation that will feel the effects of climate change, and the last that can stop it. We have a responsibility to act, and the Green Party has a plan to do it,” Shaw said.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/96690066/green-party-to-set-up-a-climate-commission-and-instate-universal-dividend-from-climate-fund
Not so sure we can stop it and I like this talk from the Greens. We have a responsibility to give the Greens a chance to enact their policies and with Labour (hopefully) getting serious about the issue, real change could happen.
Shaw was serious as. Great to hear Fitzsimons saying that governments have to follow the people and that we need climate action not just climate policy.
re stopping it, I see it as a continuum. Best case scenario and worst case scenario and the gradations in between. We do have choices about stopping the worst case scenarios.
One of those online voter quizzes and I was surprised to see how close Greens and TOP were in my results.
https://newzealand.isidewith.com/
Maybe because of the questions asked. Little on industrial relations, housing, social security,etc.
I got 73% GP
70%Labour
67%TOP
61% Maori
54% Mana
Basically, I’m more for Mana than Labour, so I say it’s nonsense.
Yeah, I’m in the same situation. 69% Green, 64% Labour, 58% Maori, 50% Mana in my case, but when I read through the direct comparisons of my answers with the Mana Party, the main differences consist either in their not having provided an answer to that question, or in their having said “No”, whereas I answered “No, and…”. The fact is though, that I have generally found myself generally agreeing with Harawira’s statements, both on values and policy, over many years, whereas my agreement with Labour pronouncements has been much less consistent.
Having said that, I decided several months ago to give my party vote to the Greens, and I haven’t seen any reason to change that as yet, so the tool is not entirely without merit.
“A Labour-led Government would ban foreign purchases of New Zealand property “by Christmas”, leader Jacinda Ardern told her supporters at a rally in Wellington this afternoon.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11920642
Today, Shaw said current polls – which “sometimes make my teeth grind” – showed the question now was not whether Labour will win, but who they will invite into government with them.
“If you…don’t want Winston Peters holding Labour over a barrel, I am asking you to give your party vote to the Greens…[for] the most environmentally friendly, most progressive government in generations.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11920649
And Jacinda says, “Labour would ban sales of existing houses to non-resident, foreign buyers “by Christmas”, immediately stop any sales of any state houses, and pass legislation to introduce standards for heating and ventilation in rental property.
So Key guessed that Labour would be in power so sold his house for $20million to a Chinese foreigner. After Christmas he would not be able to. 1500 people at her meeting in Wellington.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11920642
At the top end of the property market the restriction may not have much effect unless the buyer is a dodgy bastard. If you can stump up 20 million for a property you can probably arrange residency as well.
Twenty million buys quite a residence in my books.
I have been told by a couple of people from different families that New Zealand citizens who work overseas cannot buy a home in New Zealand unless they come home and reside here. One lives in Adelaide and owned a home here previously which is now sold and wishes to purchase a home here to come home to and she was not allowed to, she was told to be able to purchase she had to be living here. Another couple live in Hongkong and have also at some time sold their home here and wish to buy another to return home to – again they were told they have to come home and reside here to purchase a home.
Is this correct – and why should whoever who bought Key’s home, be in China when he purchased it. What is going wrong here and am I hearing correct that NZ born citizens who work overseas cannot purchase a home here unless they return home and reside here.
I hear the banks here generally won’t lend to non-residents anymore. So non-residents need to be cashed-up or able to borrow overseas to buy in NZ.
So it appears it’s the banks making it hard, not government regulation.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/those-shoes-quite-moving-see-jacinda-ardern-tears-up-speaking-youth-suicide-awareness-event
Totally agree with Jacinda – the only acceptable suicide figure is 0.
Early voting starts tomorrow and probably most of you have already decided how you will vote. For me, it will be Labour as my candidate vote and Green as my party vote. I have been helping our local Labour candidate in various ways, including door-knocking, and I gave my party vote to Labour at the last election.
If you are on the Māori roll then remember the Māori Party have sided with National for 9 years and voted for the sell off of state houses.
There are a few reasons for me giving my party vote to the Green Party this time but the two main ones are that they will push for benefit reform and their polling is dangerously low. They need every vote they can get to ensure that they can be a effective voice in a new Labour led government. A coalition with the Greens will mean we get a better Labour government, so if you are tossing up between the Greens and Labour for your party vote then I’d urge you to choose the Greens this time. They need every vote they can get.
Some may be considering giving their party vote to Mana or TOP. Please do not do this. It will be a wasted vote. It is highly unlikely that Hone will win and even if he did manage to scrape in Mana will not get enough for another seat.
I like our local Labour candidate so the choice is easy for me. Mostly, the candidate vote doesn’t actually matter; the only seats that count for candidate votes are Epsom and the Māori seats. In Epsom give your candidate vote to the Nat Paul Goldsmith and it may be enough to get rid of Seymour and Act.
If you are on the Māori roll then remember the Māori Party have sided with National for 9 years and voted for the sell off of state houses.
Thanks Karen.
Yep in Te Tai Tonga I am voting for the Greens with 2 ticks even though it is a major long shot for Metiria to get in.
For me – no vote is wasted.
Good luck to everyone – let’s kick these gnats out!!!
Big ups for giving Metiria Turei your electorate vote. I’d hate to see her out of Parliament.
Out of interest Karen which electorate are you in?
nice one karen…i have been helping labour but will vote green
The number of Lefties who have suggested they might just vote for the Blue-Green TOP is a shocker. Utterly Wasted vote – might as well vote Tory.
I don’t see TOP getting anywhere this election, so agree that a party vote for them is essentially wasted this time.
If they keep going, however, I can see them siphoning the National votes away — particularly those people with a social conscience who skew right on economics. (Or just greedy people who nevertheless understand that climate change will render hoarding up ‘wealth’ in the form of numbers in accounts a pointless exercise, unless it is dealt with.)
Having spoken to some TOP people at some length last Sunday, it is interesting that they marry some Greens ideas with what I would consider ‘conventional’ neo-liberalism. I would prefer sensible Tories to take some political power away from the more extreme and unthinking variant.
Newshub has some more of those Reid Research polls of the Māori seats. Flavell beating Coffey in Waiariki, bad news for Fox if Howie wins Te Tai Hauāuru. Mahuta is also streets ahead in Hauraki-Waikato – take that Tuku!
Great to see Māori King’s political intervention in Hauraki-Waikato so dramatically thwarted by ordinary Māori voters.
Let’s hope he – and the Iwi Elite – learn an important lesson.
(I should have added a Trigger Warning for the middle-class Luvvie Culturalist wing of the Identitarian Left who tend to self-indulgently romanticise anyone with a dollop of Māori ethnic heritage, blind to the severe clash of class interests that have opened up within Māoridom. All power to the whistleblowers who have tried to keep a Neo-Liberal Iwi Elite honest over recent years)
you are good with cutting and pasting the numbers – the other stuff not so much.
RESPECT MAH AUTHORITAH!, and babby Yeshua and my magic sceptre, and lower your millibars, you hurricane you!.
Interesting comparison of what parties say on their websites about charter schools.
National, ACT, UF and the Māori Party don’t say anything about charter schools on their websites. The other main parties oppose them. UF doesn’t have anything about school-level education policies.
I don’t understand you, Weka. You put up a moderator note at 8.6.1 and asked for a response. You said I needed to cite the links. So that’s what I did. And now I have another final warning – but don’t bother to reply. I can see you’re very busy. As I am doing campaigning stuff.
I just wanted to inform people that Labour has had its climate change and environment policies worked out for a very long time. By saying these were extracts from our Policy Platform, I thought that was quite enough for a citation. But now I understand it wasn’t.
[A general link to Labour’s policy means that me and anyone else who is interested has to go hunt for what you are referring to. As I just explained, yet here you arguing about it again and still not providing the actual links/cites. If you don’t want to link/cite then don’t cut and paste, it’s pretty simple.
And here you are still commenting under my post when I’ve asked you not to. You are now banned from my posts until the end of the year. The other moderation warning stands re OM. – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
.
Thanks Anne. Appreciated.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
ah ! I get the picture. Anne – you’d better not say anything in support of my comments about Labour also having environmental and climate change policies. Be warned !
As to The Standard moderators – I am now going to step outside of your self-imposed rules, and say I thought you wanted reasonable discussion on various Party policies – but maybe you only want discussion on Party policies you agree with, or know about. From a strong left (Labour) point of view, that’s more than a bit disappointing.
Cheerio.
[you didn’t get moderated for talking about Labour policy, you got moderated for repeatedly ignoring requests and warnings from a moderator about citing quotes and staying out of posts when you couldn’t do as an author asked. Making shit up about why you’ve been moderated is likely to get more moderator attention, as is wasting moderator time.
Anne, or anyone, is free to support what you said about Labour. She did and didn’t get moderated because she did so well within the site rules. Read the Policy, but the bottom line is that authors moderate on behaviour especially where their time is getting taken up with unnecessary back and forths like today. – weka]
It’s only the posts of one moderator Jenny. You can make comments on the other posts without fear of moderation.
Not sure I can be bothered, Anne. So much still to do to make sure Labour gets elected as a government this time. NZ cannot take any more of the shit dealt out by the neo-libs over the last three decades….. which I have spent the last 30 years or so fighting against ….. and petty little arguments about whether or not I should have cited things properly are just too time-consuming.
why not just put the cite in – you cut and pasted it anyway – it isn’t petty imo it is important especially with billshit and dildo joyce trying to muddy the waters
I think your approach of putting some facts up is good, you just have to put where you got the info from – let go of ego and just do it if you want Labour to win – that is more important than feeling hurt (and I can understand why you may feel that way I really can) – and I’m saying all the ego stuff to myself too. Kia kaha
I agree with marty’s comments.
.
Meanwhile, way across on the other side of the Atlantic, south of Cabo Verde, a tropical wave could well go full tropical depression within the week.
It’s going to be a long September for these folk.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gtwo.php?basin=atlc&fdays=2
need a laugh?
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/96633028/david-slack-not-quite-the-greatest-story-ever-told
Is Joyce a descendent of Moses then?
maybe he’s Aaron reincarnate?
Pat, thanks so much for posting, that is by far the most wonderfully written opinion piece I’ve read in quite some time. Brilliant, so funny, so good. Shakespearian almost, it’s going to make the best bed time story to read to the kids, epic.
Thanks, David Slack, most excellent
“And the men in the temple were sore troubled, saying: “How do we stop her, Bill?” And then the one known as Steven said: “Hold my myrrh”.
Now Steven was a wise man, according to his CV, and also he was not a wise man according to his academic record, for the grades saying “economics” did bear the words “Did not complete.”
This is very funny ! thanks Pat.