Josie Pagani stirring up trouble for the progressive side of politics as ever.
Why doesn’t she just go and join Peter Dunne’s gang or be really honest and ask for membership of the National Party?
Would love to know who’s funding her?
Doesn’t her husband work for New Zealand Oil and Gas?
It would be interesting to know her sources of finance and the networking she does with corporates.
‘Real Labour’.
She has no shame and is actually worse than Key, Joyce etc
I Do like Nike L from the little I’ve of him. Guess Pagani means well though the messaging can be a bit hit & miss. I didn’t like her admonishment of this blog site and the punters on here.
Be interested in seeing the development and what they achieve.
was she introduced as a voice of the Left? If so, it is nearly at the stage where RNZ could be done under the Fair Trading Act for misleading and deceptive conduct 😉
And they can join Pagani as a third party on the same basis.
I really wish they’d gone with ‘True Labour’ because then it would have been obvious what they are up to and how blind they are. Plus, better ridicule factor.
I’m a little confused is she an active member of labour ? And as she is causing more trouble then good why doesn’t Mr Little publicly cut her loose and labour cancel her membership.
probably also because in order to cancel a membership you’d have to do something pretty serious. Pagani is not doing anything overtly negative to the Labour party, it’s all covert.
It just leaves them so open to being sold as a party in a mess having loud mouths running around making there own news . I fully intend to join a political party before the next election and as a worker who believe s in a fair go for all it should be labour but at this stage the greens are winning.
Mr Little has been following in previous leaders footsteps in very publicly courting business. he doesn’t publicly court Unions by the way…
My guess is he is happy for her to do this if it means stealing voters from National… while he can try to appeal to “other” Labour potential voters and then somehow serve them all if elected to government benches.
While I agree with the general principle of what you have said, there is a critical issue here of power. We don’t have the kind of power that Pagani has. She has standing and influence and actual positions of power (eg her role as a left wing commentator) that most of us here don’t have. There is no level playing field, and because of that she can continue to do damage no matter how much we challenge her ideas.
She won’t come to a place like the standard to debate.
Micky has been pointing out that she isn’t saying what policy she wants to be changed. I take that as a sign that she will use covert methods to achieve her ends. So that’s another area where she can’t be defeated on her ideas.
‘Broad church’ does not simply mean ‘whatever you like.’The Labour Party describes itself as a democratic socialist party, and has a set of principles outlining its general position: http://campaign.labour.org.nz/our-vision
Ideas, positioning and such ought rightly to be able to be justified in relation to these general principles, although they may come from different perspectives. When I hear people saying such things as “Labour needs to take the tough decisions” without further explanation, I shudder. Historically, that sentence has tended to mean, you deserve to be screwed over, I deserve to be well-paid for contributing to your being screwed over – it is brave of me to do this and not fair if you hate me for it.
Are there any specific examples of Pagani doing damage to Labour? I admit this isn’t the best look for Labour having a group think idea that hasn’t come from your leader.
I don’t pay much attention to her commentaries either, but I do remember her being frustrated with Labour. Is that really a crime though in these times? It may be I just haven’t picked up on the subtleties of what she does.
Josie Pagani, a former Labour Party candidate, confirmed she was involved in setting up a “think-tank” called Progress targeting Labour’s right and centre.
“They have to realise if you’re talking about modernising the Labour Party, it is not a right- wing conspiracy.”
If it’s got Pagani and Nash supportive of it then yes it is. And it’s not modernising it but helping take NZ back to feudal times.
Nash, Pagani, Leggot, Quinn, Leyland – all on the right, neoliberal flank of Labour. Sounds like a right wing conspiracy to me.
This needs to be stomped on before it does some real damage. If these people have ideas they wish to promote they should do it the democratic way. Write a remit and take your idea to a regional conference to be debated.
What this so called think tank is designed to do is give this right wing cabal a way of not having to have their ideas debated by party members before promoting them in the media. They have been undermining any leftward movement in the Labour Party for years – in Quinn’s case it began in the 1990s. They can’t be expelled, but they must not be allowed to claim they are spokespeople for Labour.
the likes of this crowd were pivotal to the destruction of Labour as a political force in the 1980s, and the loss of 95% of its membership.
There is also significant support for the right wing think tank in the Labour Caucus. Little seems quite fine with giving the project a chance to stretch its legs and get established.
According to Josie P on RNZ, Little tried to talk her out of it, but eventually accepted he had no ability to stop the group forming. Which I suppose is Ok, really. Even if we think this project is pants, I don’t think the party should be stopping people talking. However, if it does real damage, then there are processes for that. Not that I’m comparing Josie to John A Lee, of course!
Spot on, Draco. The third way isn’t a gentle nudge to the centre, it’s a lopping off of anything that remotely looks like genuine Labour policy. It’s also a sneering middle class rejection of the very people Labour should be aiming to represent.
It isn’t only Little who is unhappy with the proposal. I have the impression many in caucus (including deputy Annette King) are totally opposed…
By all means have your think tank but you do NOT involve the Labour Party Madam Pagani and friends. If you want to be involved in policy decisions then do what everyone else has to do: take your ideas to the Policy Council.
This strikes me as an attempt to commandeer the policy making process of the Labour Party to suit their own agendas.
maybe Pagani, Nash, Leggot et al should start their own Party ?…the Pagani Big Mouth Party…I am sure Hoots Possum would help
…i am all for a Labour ‘think tank’ …(so politicians dont put their foot in their mouth eg super ….and the Labour /Left strategises to oust jonkey nact) ..but Pagani et al aint it imo
What this so called think tank is designed to do is give this right wing cabal a way of not having to have their ideas debated by party members before promoting them in the media.
I think your observation is spot-on Karen – it looks like an attempt to circumnavigate the party via the media and force caucus’s hand.
What I would like to know is who the hell said that J Pagani is the splokesperson for the Labour Party.? I have been a member for over 60 years and Life member for 30 years yet I have never met this lady or what is more important is in all the committe elections I have voted for, her name has never come up.These self styled spokespeople need to be silenced. Her continued presence on Q&A the Nation and other public media slots needs to be explained. And to finish Im sick to death of these outspoken so called Labour reps whom have no interest in the LP policies or philosophy whatsoever. Please somebody shut these smarmy slime bags up now!!.
‘Former Labour Candidate’ says it all. Pagani is not from the left. Andrew Little needs to have a quiet word in her ear, and if he has already, suggest she join Act et al.
Pagani backed Shearer, then when that didn’t work out she backed Shane Jones!
I would just like Labour to make it clear she does not represent the Party, she is just someone who paid her membership, and if she wants more influence she should go to regional conferences and argue for policies she likes.
Talking about sheep did anyone see TVNZ morning programme this morning? I could not believe it . I was watching Cross Talk on RT. The in depth discussion was on the Ukraine. I happened to turn in error to TVNZ and guess what the discussion was between that simpering blonde female and Christy? Humpty fucking Dumpty being egg shaped or something. Did not get it all as I immediately turned back to RT.
I want to know how involved the Arab gentleman is in this whole thing . apparently the stock were quarantined on his property in rakia .I’d be interested to know if he owns land in Mexico
I’m not against the of live export idea if its done right, and its not cutting our meat workers out of the loop,
But given national s carry on lately around this subject I am very curious to know if this is all above board and just business or are the nats doing a bit more” facilitating”
I did laugh at her look of befuddlement when John Key started going on about his mother speaking german, her ‘wtf are you talking about’ moment. He was hopeless, every sentence starts with ‘to the best of my knowledge’ or ‘or so I have been told’, I did wish she kept on asking ‘what do you know for sure’ lines, but time was short I guess.
I’m not on facebook so am not aware of that conversation.
I was also surprised that Grant Robertson didn’t mention Peter Conway on the scoop report on the radio this morning. Maybe he didn’t think it wasn’t the time or place.
I don’t have criticism for the MSM silence, it’s just an observation.
“… it’s nine oh six on Radio Standard, Thursday morning, hope you’re up and moving along nicely in that rainy Auckland traffic hmmmm yes mmmkay? ….and a special little song going out to all the National Party supporters, from a special dreamy-eyed boy all the way down, deep deep down, way down … in Nelson…”
The continuing tale of TPPA and Tim Groser.
Wikileaks have released “the Healthcare Annex to the secret draft “Transparency” Chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), along with each country’s negotiating position. The Healthcare Annex seeks to regulate state schemes for medicines and medical devices. It forces healthcare authorities to give big pharmaceutical companies more information about national decisions on public access to medicine, and grants corporations greater powers to challenge decisions they perceive as harmful to their interests.” https://wikileaks.org/tpp/healthcare/press.html
“The purported aim of the Annex is to facilitate ‘high-quality healthcare’ but the Annex does nothing to achieve this. It is clearly intended to cater to the interests of the pharmaceutical industry. Nor does this do anything to promote “free trade”: rather it tightly specifies the operation of countries’ schemes for subsidizing pharmaceuticals and medical devices with the aim of providing greater disclosure, more avenues for pharmaceutical industry influence and greater opportunities for industry contestation of pharmaceutical decision making.” http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/06/10/leaked-text-shows-big-pharma-bullies-using-tpp-undermine-global-health
2014. Open letter by Tim Groser in Dom Post 12 May 2014
Minister Ryall recently wrote about his perspectives as Minister of Health on the TPP
negotiations (nzdoctor.co.nz). I would urge practitioners in the New Zealand medical
community to read that article closely. It reaffirms the strong health focus we bring to areas like investment, intellectual property and Pharmac issues in the negotiation. The Ministry of Health, a core part of New Zealand’s negotiating team, works closely with my negotiators to ensure our health policy priorities are protected in TPP. On countless occasions, both in New Zealand and abroad, I have said that we will not negotiate on the fundamentals of the public health system, including Pharmac. http://www.mfat.govt.nz/downloads/trade agreement/transpacific/Response%20to%20open%20letter%20on%20health.pdf
For those who believe in the school voucher system and Free (Charter?) schools then Sweden has a cautionary tale for you. From the Guardian:
“Sweden’s decline follows a raft of changes in the late 1980s and early 1990s that transformed the educational landscape. A system that had been largely centralised was devolved to municipalities, teacher training was changed, exams and grades changed, and a voucher system was introduced giving parents the power to choose which school to send their child to. Each child was funded by the state, and if the child chose to go do a different school, the money would follow.
Since then, almost 800 publicly funded private schools – or free schools – have been set up across Sweden, many of them by companies who are allowed to make a profit. ….
Critics on the left in Sweden blame the voucher system for declining results, saying it has opened the door for schools more interested in making a profit than providing education. Conservatives who support free choice say students have been given too much influence in the classroom, undermining the authority of teachers…..” http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/10/sweden-schools-crisis-political-failure-education
Government-owned Landcorp is in the process of converting swathes of land in the Upper Waikato area to dairy farms, and introducing 29,500 extra cows to the environment. The impact of those cows and the waste they produce will undermine the good work farmers have been doing to revive the river downstream.
The Government and Landcorp should do the right thing by our environment and responsible farmers and support a moratorium on dairy conversions. There’s only so much the environment can take, and we – along with many Waikato farmers – believe we’re at the point where it can’t take anymore.
We’re asking you to help us back our great farmers and rivers by calling for a stop to massive unsustainable dairy conversions. You can sign using the form below or by returning a completed petition form to us.
Good luck with that. I seem to remember that in the past when farming got financially unsustainable, farmers just had their land sold our from under them i.e. I don’t think the banks care about sustainability (environmental or economic)
yeah, and then next, it will be like in Australia when banks such as ANZ began to foreclose on many farming properties and force famers off the land, e.g. drought-stricken ones who missed repayments
Yes – it is also one of the forces used to pressure ordinary people into giving their monies to Wall St fund managers to gamble with, in the desperate search for net positive returns.
The interest rate drop may offset the increase in rates, so, no, rents will not drop from the drop in interest rates.
Also landownerswill be hoarding any extra cash to improve heat and warmth later on. But only spending it when forced to by law tho.
Article in “The press” today shows rents dropping quite significantly (in the middle and upper price ranges) in Chch as supply starts to exceed demand.
rates increases are already embedded in many rents Haranger.
@landlords hoarding cash to improve heat and warmth later on…
Thanks for the chuckle. Some might but what about the ones who have had lots of interest rate cuts and still haven’t warmed up their homes?
it was inevitable that rents would drop in CHCHCH as labour left in the slow down of the rebuild. I wonder which parts of Auckland those folks are returning to cos not all of them are moving into repaired or new built home sin CHCHCH.?
There are some damn good landlords out there. The ones I rent my warehouse/offices from here in Chch havent raised the rent since 2008 when I took over the lease.
And on one of my commercial properties (not in Chch), my rental income has come back by $25,000pa as the property values have dropped in the provinces.
I read a year or two back (sorry cant give the reference) that there are more individuals receiving interest on investments in NZ, than there are borrowers who benefit from the lower rates.
So maybe we are more of a “nation of savers” than we thought we were.
well that is partly because the borrowing rules got changed remember that which moved a bunch of borrowers from the market.
There are still a few hundred thousand kiwis who can’t save because they are too busy working out which utility bill to delay paying this month without it getting cut off.
“1. Learning involves the active construction of meaning by the learner. This well-established principle involves the fact that students link new information with information that they already know. New and old information are assembled into mental models. If the old information is faulty, that compromises the learning of new information. “Learning can be thought about as a process of conceptual change in which faulty or incomplete models are repaired.” (p. 161) Fixing faulty mental models can be very difficult, as witnessed by research documenting that even after taking a course (physics is often used as an example), students still hold serious misconceptions. ”
Michael, J. (2006). Where’s the evidence that active learning works? Advances in Physiology Education, 30, 159-167.
5 months later, it is still very difficult, if almost impossible, to track down which mobile phone he was using, with which SIM card, in which capacity he bought/used it or deleted messages, and where the phones are now.
What about the 3.8% rise in rates one Council that I know of is imposing on its ratepayers for the next 10 years? Because these increases are cumulative this means that the rates will increase by a whopping 50% over that period without allowing for any additional “levies” they impose and without taking into account the three yearly review of property valuations.
What about the latest rort by the Power Companies where standing charges have risen an enormous amount over the last two years (around 80% by our power company) and power unit charges have reduced minimally by about 3%.
Insurance premiums on properties have also increased massively in recent times.
On top of all of this will be increased GST!
It makes you wonder what items are actually measured to arrive at annual inflation rates in this country because it doesn’t appear that everyday items such as power, rates and insurances are included.
world economies are under attack by price deflation at the moment – especially if you leave out the financial asset price bubbles which have been expanding last few years.
Consumers are ever poorer and tapping out, while the world is awash with production over capacity.
world economies are under attack by price deflation at the moment – especially if you leave out the financial asset price bubbles which have been expanding last few years.
Yep, without the financial bubbles the world would still be in the recession that started in 2k8 and with all the austerity for the poor going round it would have deepened into a depression.
Nah nah, You have got to get your priorities right smokes, Inflation is never measured on everyday unavoidable items like rates, power etc, it is based on more important things like the cost of Caviar, bottles of Moet, international travel or the price of the latest Merc. Get you thinking right.
FYI – just had confirmation from Transparency International Canada that Canada HAS passed legislation outlawing ‘facilitation payments’:
———————————————————————————————–
“Dear Penny: Thank you for your email.
Indeed, Canada has moved forward with regard to facilitation payments, with the amendments that were passed regarding the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, in 2013. If you visit: https://www.gowlings.com/KnowledgeCentre/article.asp?pubID=2940 you will see the comment re. facilitation payments (bullet #4). Unfortunately, we don’t yet know the date these will be phased out.
They’re in the first comment in this thread. I’ve never banned you for telling the truth. But if you want to try self martyrdom, keep writing in this vein.
[lprent: Based on your comments in the spam, I suspect that you didn’t actually address the issue that you got banned on in terms of the policy in this comment. You probably did it in terms of your outraged ego and by attacking the moderator. That was why the comment got deleted.
We would generally allow a single comment through that addresses the point that you got banned on. But continuing to attack a moderator who gave you a ban is not exactly the right idea. Take a further two months off from me.
If you want to argue that further in spam, then I’m perfectly happy to keep doubling up. But we are merely the poor buggers who spend a *lot* of time and effort working on it. We are not a famous critic like you seem to think you are. To me, you just appear to be a useless idiot having severe issue of having no brain in either head. ]
Fact! gets used a bit in comedic banter, but Aussies sports commentators HG and Roy used it most shows. That’s where I picked it up from. Can’t find any specific examples, but this will give you a sense of their comedic approach:
“1. Learning involves the active construction of meaning by the learner. This well-established principle involves the fact that students link new information with information that they already know. New and old information are assembled into mental models. If the old information is faulty, that compromises the learning of new information. “Learning can be thought about as a process of conceptual change in which faulty or incomplete models are repaired.” (p. 161) Fixing faulty mental models can be very difficult, as witnessed by research documenting that even after taking a course (physics is often used as an example), students still hold serious misconceptions. ”
Michael, J. (2006). Where’s the evidence that active learning works? Advances in Physiology Education, 30, 159-167.
That’s weird, your “modern economies” are crashing throughout the world and have required trillions of newly printed money to stay alive on life support all the while pushing 40M people in those developed nations into unemployment. (And probably twice that undermployed).
It’s odd that you would be so proud of that.
Mind you the 1% and especially the 0.1% have done very well out of it so maybe your pleasure is justified.
Last century saw the victory of capitalism over socialism, so your economic model is a third-way or what?
Let me quote Santayana: “Those who do not read history are doomed to repeat it.”
@Clean_power…urh …i think it is capitalism that is breaking down now …and this was forecast by Marxists ( agree with the quote by Santayana)…the third way is beginning to happen…but will it be Bankster technocratic fascism or revolutionary grassroots democracy?
Every week Max Keiser looks at the scandal behind the financial headlines.
In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss leaving the Troika to gloat over the devastation that is Europe. In the second half, Max interviews Ross Ashcroft of RenegadeInc.com about crowdfunding his own content in order to educate the population about the economic news that the BBC refuses to tell. They discuss the fact that there has already essentially been a “Grexit.” Greece is gone. What else can be done?
Last century saw the victory of capitalism over socialism, so your economic model is a third-way or what?
Huh? Corporate socialism, corporate welfare and broken markets are more rampant than ever. How do you see that as a “victory” of capitalism over socialism?
Let me quote Santayana: “Those who do not read history are doomed to repeat it.”
Then I suggest you read some history. I suggest is Debt: The first 5000 years (large pdf) by David Graeber as it clearly spells out how capitalism has failed for the last 5000 years.
Then I suggest looking at the Great Depression and how that started. HINT: It was capitalism
Then I suggest looking at the Great Recession and how that started. HINT: It was capitalism
History shows, quite conclusively, that capitalism always fails and that it takes societies with it when it does.
I am pleased to announce that the Medical Cannabis orientated organisation, United in Compassion NZ, now has the support of the NZ Drug Foundation, in Addition to the Hemp industry association and the Epilepsy Foundation of NZ.
Where do employees rank in a large company’s priorities?
Well at Fonterra, a wee way down
“Fonterra staff informed hundreds of jobs would go hours after comments made to media Fonterra only told staff about the potential for hundreds of jobs to go several hours after chief executive Theo Spierings told media.”
So, to be clear, some relatives may have text or email or phoned employees to ask about their jobs before the employee even knew there was a problem.
And how come Fonterra which is, I assume, supplying roughly the same volume of product but at lower prices suddenly discovers that it doesn’t need the work that all these people are doing?? Looks like they’d better get rid of the 17 overpaid executives who didn’t realise that they had so many people doing nothing for so long (sarc).
And my thoughts are with all those who were doing a good job only to find themselves out the door
Clean_power – what policies do you think Labour should drop or keep?
Do you support privatisation?
Do you support US style health care?
Do you want unions banned and employment law rolled back?
Do you support privatisation education?
Are power prices not high enough?
Would you can welfare?
Would you get rid of state housing?
Is it Ok for the air and water to be poisoned
My answers:
Do you support privatisation? Yes.
Do you support US style health care? No.
Do you want unions banned and employment law rolled back? No.
Do you support privatisation education? Yes.
Are power prices not high enough? Compared to what?
Would you can welfare? No. It should be given to the needy, old and infirm.
Would you get rid of state housing? Yes.
Is it Ok for the air and water to be poisoned? Absurd question.
I am very surprised that you do not support US style healthcare. The US health sector is highly profitable, brings consistent large returns to investors, and delivers the highest tech, most advanced, most clinically effective treatments known to mankind.
privatisation of education is a disaster…especially when taxpayers money is used to support private education and the state education system is run down as the jonkey nacts have been doing
….I suggest you look at the history and results of of the USA education privatisation vs state education in Finland
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I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
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Josie Pagani stirring up trouble for the progressive side of politics as ever.
Why doesn’t she just go and join Peter Dunne’s gang or be really honest and ask for membership of the National Party?
Would love to know who’s funding her?
Doesn’t her husband work for New Zealand Oil and Gas?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11463086
Pagani is the classic ‘rent a rant’ that fits very nicely into the divisive memes the DP machine has running.
Thats why she gets the soapboxes to peddle the message being a friendly lefty I.e. playing to the rights agenda of divide and rule.
she is using her power (to get press coverage) for evil, not good 😉
It would be interesting to know her sources of finance and the networking she does with corporates.
‘Real Labour’.
She has no shame and is actually worse than Key, Joyce etc
She was just on morning report being interviewed by Guyon Espiner. I am still waiting to hear from her one policy area which they are proposing.
I Do like Nike L from the little I’ve of him. Guess Pagani means well though the messaging can be a bit hit & miss. I didn’t like her admonishment of this blog site and the punters on here.
Be interested in seeing the development and what they achieve.
was she introduced as a voice of the Left? If so, it is nearly at the stage where RNZ could be done under the Fair Trading Act for misleading and deceptive conduct 😉
And they can join Pagani as a third party on the same basis.
😉
I really wish they’d gone with ‘True Labour’ because then it would have been obvious what they are up to and how blind they are. Plus, better ridicule factor.
I’m a little confused is she an active member of labour ? And as she is causing more trouble then good why doesn’t Mr Little publicly cut her loose and labour cancel her membership.
Because the Labour hierarchy contains plenty of people who sympathise with the Nash and Pagani wing
probably also because in order to cancel a membership you’d have to do something pretty serious. Pagani is not doing anything overtly negative to the Labour party, it’s all covert.
It just leaves them so open to being sold as a party in a mess having loud mouths running around making there own news . I fully intend to join a political party before the next election and as a worker who believe s in a fair go for all it should be labour but at this stage the greens are winning.
Mr Little has been following in previous leaders footsteps in very publicly courting business. he doesn’t publicly court Unions by the way…
My guess is he is happy for her to do this if it means stealing voters from National… while he can try to appeal to “other” Labour potential voters and then somehow serve them all if elected to government benches.
The problem with sitting on the fence is you run the risk of falling off.
or being impaled
Paul, you have a very original view of what “a broad church” Labour is? Let Pagani speak and defeat her on ideas, but let her speak.
While I agree with the general principle of what you have said, there is a critical issue here of power. We don’t have the kind of power that Pagani has. She has standing and influence and actual positions of power (eg her role as a left wing commentator) that most of us here don’t have. There is no level playing field, and because of that she can continue to do damage no matter how much we challenge her ideas.
She won’t come to a place like the standard to debate.
Micky has been pointing out that she isn’t saying what policy she wants to be changed. I take that as a sign that she will use covert methods to achieve her ends. So that’s another area where she can’t be defeated on her ideas.
‘Broad church’ does not simply mean ‘whatever you like.’The Labour Party describes itself as a democratic socialist party, and has a set of principles outlining its general position: http://campaign.labour.org.nz/our-vision
Ideas, positioning and such ought rightly to be able to be justified in relation to these general principles, although they may come from different perspectives. When I hear people saying such things as “Labour needs to take the tough decisions” without further explanation, I shudder. Historically, that sentence has tended to mean, you deserve to be screwed over, I deserve to be well-paid for contributing to your being screwed over – it is brave of me to do this and not fair if you hate me for it.
+1
Are there any specific examples of Pagani doing damage to Labour? I admit this isn’t the best look for Labour having a group think idea that hasn’t come from your leader.
I don’t pay much attention to her commentaries either, but I do remember her being frustrated with Labour. Is that really a crime though in these times? It may be I just haven’t picked up on the subtleties of what she does.
Put it this way. Everything she does indicates that she agrees more with National than with Labour.
If it’s got Pagani and Nash supportive of it then yes it is. And it’s not modernising it but helping take NZ back to feudal times.
Nash, Pagani, Leggot, Quinn, Leyland – all on the right, neoliberal flank of Labour. Sounds like a right wing conspiracy to me.
This needs to be stomped on before it does some real damage. If these people have ideas they wish to promote they should do it the democratic way. Write a remit and take your idea to a regional conference to be debated.
What this so called think tank is designed to do is give this right wing cabal a way of not having to have their ideas debated by party members before promoting them in the media. They have been undermining any leftward movement in the Labour Party for years – in Quinn’s case it began in the 1990s. They can’t be expelled, but they must not be allowed to claim they are spokespeople for Labour.
the likes of this crowd were pivotal to the destruction of Labour as a political force in the 1980s, and the loss of 95% of its membership.
There is also significant support for the right wing think tank in the Labour Caucus. Little seems quite fine with giving the project a chance to stretch its legs and get established.
This is 21st century Labour for you.
According to Josie P on RNZ, Little tried to talk her out of it, but eventually accepted he had no ability to stop the group forming. Which I suppose is Ok, really. Even if we think this project is pants, I don’t think the party should be stopping people talking. However, if it does real damage, then there are processes for that. Not that I’m comparing Josie to John A Lee, of course!
I have no problem with the think tank itself – just that it’s identifying itself with Labour and the Left when it isn’t either of those things.
Spot on, Draco. The third way isn’t a gentle nudge to the centre, it’s a lopping off of anything that remotely looks like genuine Labour policy. It’s also a sneering middle class rejection of the very people Labour should be aiming to represent.
Edit: The latest from Blair: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jun/11/tony-blair-warns-against-labour-move-to-the-left
Blair? Blair? Oh the guy who lied about WMD to get us all into a new war?
Exactly, some people want LP to be more like National = they are in the
wrong party
+100 DTB
I was more referring to involvement and support by members of caucus.
Ok, gotcha. That’s a tricky area for a leader who didn’t get many votes from his colleagues 😉
Yes indeed.
It isn’t only Little who is unhappy with the proposal. I have the impression many in caucus (including deputy Annette King) are totally opposed…
By all means have your think tank but you do NOT involve the Labour Party Madam Pagani and friends. If you want to be involved in policy decisions then do what everyone else has to do: take your ideas to the Policy Council.
This strikes me as an attempt to commandeer the policy making process of the Labour Party to suit their own agendas.
QFT
It’s just going to become another lobbying firm.
” If you want to be involved in policy decisions then do what everyone else has to do: take your ideas to the Policy Council.”
agree 100%
that was her reminding people how important she is, that she has direct access to Little or that he pursued her…
i still recall her sermon from the mount here two christmases ago…
🙄
maybe Pagani, Nash, Leggot et al should start their own Party ?…the Pagani Big Mouth Party…I am sure Hoots Possum would help
…i am all for a Labour ‘think tank’ …(so politicians dont put their foot in their mouth eg super ….and the Labour /Left strategises to oust jonkey nact) ..but Pagani et al aint it imo
What this so called think tank is designed to do is give this right wing cabal a way of not having to have their ideas debated by party members before promoting them in the media.
I think your observation is spot-on Karen – it looks like an attempt to circumnavigate the party via the media and force caucus’s hand.
What I would like to know is who the hell said that J Pagani is the splokesperson for the Labour Party.? I have been a member for over 60 years and Life member for 30 years yet I have never met this lady or what is more important is in all the committe elections I have voted for, her name has never come up.These self styled spokespeople need to be silenced. Her continued presence on Q&A the Nation and other public media slots needs to be explained. And to finish Im sick to death of these outspoken so called Labour reps whom have no interest in the LP policies or philosophy whatsoever. Please somebody shut these smarmy slime bags up now!!.
Well said Pink Postman.
‘Former Labour Candidate’ says it all. Pagani is not from the left. Andrew Little needs to have a quiet word in her ear, and if he has already, suggest she join Act et al.
Little seems fine with the project. Labour is a “broad church” after all.
isnt Pagani a supporter of Shearer?
Pagani backed Shearer, then when that didn’t work out she backed Shane Jones!
I would just like Labour to make it clear she does not represent the Party, she is just someone who paid her membership, and if she wants more influence she should go to regional conferences and argue for policies she likes.
The shipment of 50,000 sheep to Mexico is cruelty on an industrial level. Animal cruelty is illegal in this country. Call the cops!
Should ease the housing shortage though
“Should ease the housing shortage though”
Ha I like it,
Talking about sheep did anyone see TVNZ morning programme this morning? I could not believe it . I was watching Cross Talk on RT. The in depth discussion was on the Ukraine. I happened to turn in error to TVNZ and guess what the discussion was between that simpering blonde female and Christy? Humpty fucking Dumpty being egg shaped or something. Did not get it all as I immediately turned back to RT.
As I won’t watch henry I switched to tv one recently ,what a shit show it is ,fortunately my free view has nat radio so good bye morning TV for me.
I want to know how involved the Arab gentleman is in this whole thing . apparently the stock were quarantined on his property in rakia .I’d be interested to know if he owns land in Mexico
we have been exporting stock to Mexico for some time.
I’m not against the of live export idea if its done right, and its not cutting our meat workers out of the loop,
But given national s carry on lately around this subject I am very curious to know if this is all above board and just business or are the nats doing a bit more” facilitating”
Watched John Key being interviewed by Mahingarangi Forbes last eve on Maori TV. Key was bloody hopeless and could hardly string a sentence together.
Quite astounding really.
But there you go – nothing new in that. Apparently New Zealanders like having an incoherent leader.
Yes Vto. A dodgy looking Key. A must watch. Interview about 15min in.
http://www.maoritelevision.com/tv/shows/native-affairs/S09E014/native-affairs
I will miss Mahingarangi Forbes when she departs native affairs.
Is it my imagination, or does Key start speaking faster when he’s lying? And his hand movements look trained/measured when he’s doing it too?
duplicitous and slick I would describe him ….but Mahingarangi Forbes was insistent on the truth
I did laugh at her look of befuddlement when John Key started going on about his mother speaking german, her ‘wtf are you talking about’ moment. He was hopeless, every sentence starts with ‘to the best of my knowledge’ or ‘or so I have been told’, I did wish she kept on asking ‘what do you know for sure’ lines, but time was short I guess.
RIP Peter Conway. Chris Trotter posts a thoughtful tribute to this admirable man.
Perhaps a Standard author might do the same.
A few of us acknowledged Peter Conway’s death on Open Mike on Tuesday.
Apart from the notice from the family on stuffed.co.nz I haven’t seen much else in the media, which has surprised me.
It is quite possible however, the family’s preference is for privacy at this time.
There’s been quite a bit about Peter Conway and his untimely death on various Facebook sites plus comment from both Labour and Green Parties.
I’m not on facebook so am not aware of that conversation.
I was also surprised that Grant Robertson didn’t mention Peter Conway on the scoop report on the radio this morning. Maybe he didn’t think it wasn’t the time or place.
I don’t have criticism for the MSM silence, it’s just an observation.
if a top business person died it would be news…
Robertson not mentioning it is just more of LP embarassment around Unions.
You could write a Guest post and we would post it? I know TRP was deeply moved by Peter’s passing when he posted in response tot he news,.
“… it’s nine oh six on Radio Standard, Thursday morning, hope you’re up and moving along nicely in that rainy Auckland traffic hmmmm yes mmmkay? ….and a special little song going out to all the National Party supporters, from a special dreamy-eyed boy all the way down, deep deep down, way down … in Nelson…”
shows an error for me.
I will give credit where it is due. To Peter Dunne. His decision, imo, was good one.
The continuing tale of TPPA and Tim Groser.
Wikileaks have released “the Healthcare Annex to the secret draft “Transparency” Chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), along with each country’s negotiating position. The Healthcare Annex seeks to regulate state schemes for medicines and medical devices. It forces healthcare authorities to give big pharmaceutical companies more information about national decisions on public access to medicine, and grants corporations greater powers to challenge decisions they perceive as harmful to their interests.”
https://wikileaks.org/tpp/healthcare/press.html
“Pharmac under threat from TPP – Wikileaks”
The Annex on Transparency and Procedural Fairness for Pharmaceutical Products and Medical Devices was posted on Wikileaks last night.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/275928/pharmac-under-threat-from-tpp-wikileaks
“The purported aim of the Annex is to facilitate ‘high-quality healthcare’ but the Annex does nothing to achieve this. It is clearly intended to cater to the interests of the pharmaceutical industry. Nor does this do anything to promote “free trade”: rather it tightly specifies the operation of countries’ schemes for subsidizing pharmaceuticals and medical devices with the aim of providing greater disclosure, more avenues for pharmaceutical industry influence and greater opportunities for industry contestation of pharmaceutical decision making.”
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/06/10/leaked-text-shows-big-pharma-bullies-using-tpp-undermine-global-health
Meanwhile in 2013,”Tim Groser is confident the TPP will have a marginal impact on public institutions like Pharmac.”
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1309/S00247/tim-groser-adamant-trans-pacific-partnership-good-for-nz.htm
2014. Open letter by Tim Groser in Dom Post 12 May 2014
Minister Ryall recently wrote about his perspectives as Minister of Health on the TPP
negotiations (nzdoctor.co.nz). I would urge practitioners in the New Zealand medical
community to read that article closely. It reaffirms the strong health focus we bring to areas like investment, intellectual property and Pharmac issues in the negotiation. The Ministry of Health, a core part of New Zealand’s negotiating team, works closely with my negotiators to ensure our health policy priorities are protected in TPP. On countless occasions, both in New Zealand and abroad, I have said that we will not negotiate on the fundamentals of the public health system, including Pharmac.
http://www.mfat.govt.nz/downloads/trade agreement/transpacific/Response%20to%20open%20letter%20on%20health.pdf
2014 Tim Groser on RNZ “There will be no fundamental change in Pharmac’s operations as a result of the trade agreement.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/257457/medicines-%27won%27t-cost-more-under-tpp%27
Yeah right!
I think if its signed and he has clearly lied its rope and lamppost time.
not figuratively.
History shows that the elite of any given age will eventually push to such ludicrous and self serving extremes, that is what happens.
For those who believe in the school voucher system and Free (Charter?) schools then Sweden has a cautionary tale for you. From the Guardian:
“Sweden’s decline follows a raft of changes in the late 1980s and early 1990s that transformed the educational landscape. A system that had been largely centralised was devolved to municipalities, teacher training was changed, exams and grades changed, and a voucher system was introduced giving parents the power to choose which school to send their child to. Each child was funded by the state, and if the child chose to go do a different school, the money would follow.
Since then, almost 800 publicly funded private schools – or free schools – have been set up across Sweden, many of them by companies who are allowed to make a profit. ….
Critics on the left in Sweden blame the voucher system for declining results, saying it has opened the door for schools more interested in making a profit than providing education. Conservatives who support free choice say students have been given too much influence in the classroom, undermining the authority of teachers…..”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/10/sweden-schools-crisis-political-failure-education
Oh the educational model that the Nats are following now . Not what a father with a young bright mind to nurture and grow. Really wants to hear.
Sign the petition: Stop Unsustainable Dairy Farm Conversions
http://action.greens.org.nz/stop-unsustainable-dairy-conversions
via @NZGreens
Government-owned Landcorp is in the process of converting swathes of land in the Upper Waikato area to dairy farms, and introducing 29,500 extra cows to the environment. The impact of those cows and the waste they produce will undermine the good work farmers have been doing to revive the river downstream.
The Government and Landcorp should do the right thing by our environment and responsible farmers and support a moratorium on dairy conversions. There’s only so much the environment can take, and we – along with many Waikato farmers – believe we’re at the point where it can’t take anymore.
We’re asking you to help us back our great farmers and rivers by calling for a stop to massive unsustainable dairy conversions. You can sign using the form below or by returning a completed petition form to us.
convincing the banks that certain classes of dairy conversion are unsustainable will stop the activity in its tracks
Good luck with that. I seem to remember that in the past when farming got financially unsustainable, farmers just had their land sold our from under them i.e. I don’t think the banks care about sustainability (environmental or economic)
the banks are paying very close attention to dairy profitability and sustainability at the moment
in what way?
yeah, and then next, it will be like in Australia when banks such as ANZ began to foreclose on many farming properties and force famers off the land, e.g. drought-stricken ones who missed repayments
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/69283074/nz-reserve-bank-cuts-key-rate-to-325-per-cent-banks-cut-mortgage-rates
– Lower mortgage rates is what everyone wants see
Shame about those people who depend on interest rates to pay there way.
In this case it’ll be better for more people but I see your point
I was reacting to the word everyone.
Overseas zero interest rate policies have smashed savers and pensioners in favour of borrowers and speculators.
That is why people have there money in property and not the bank.
Yes – it is also one of the forces used to pressure ordinary people into giving their monies to Wall St fund managers to gamble with, in the desperate search for net positive returns.
rents will drop, right? To reflect the drop in cost for the Landlord?
The interest rate drop may offset the increase in rates, so, no, rents will not drop from the drop in interest rates.
Also landownerswill be hoarding any extra cash to improve heat and warmth later on. But only spending it when forced to by law tho.
Article in “The press” today shows rents dropping quite significantly (in the middle and upper price ranges) in Chch as supply starts to exceed demand.
rates increases are already embedded in many rents Haranger.
@landlords hoarding cash to improve heat and warmth later on…
Thanks for the chuckle. Some might but what about the ones who have had lots of interest rate cuts and still haven’t warmed up their homes?
it was inevitable that rents would drop in CHCHCH as labour left in the slow down of the rebuild. I wonder which parts of Auckland those folks are returning to cos not all of them are moving into repaired or new built home sin CHCHCH.?
I did say “only when forced to by law” tho.
There are some damn good landlords out there. The ones I rent my warehouse/offices from here in Chch havent raised the rent since 2008 when I took over the lease.
And on one of my commercial properties (not in Chch), my rental income has come back by $25,000pa as the property values have dropped in the provinces.
of course there are but the “good” ones aren’t the problem. We are focusing on housing rather than commercial.
Many will be on fixed rates (for predictable cashflow and returns) so no positive impact to them to pass on.
of course, palm/head… so the rents will drop when they come off the fixed rate and move to a lower fixed rate, right?
oh what genius the system creates, where flexible rates are involved, the rents will drop to be more competitive because the market really works.
ECON101: Lecturer to class – “Prices are sticky in a downward direction”
I read a year or two back (sorry cant give the reference) that there are more individuals receiving interest on investments in NZ, than there are borrowers who benefit from the lower rates.
So maybe we are more of a “nation of savers” than we thought we were.
well that is partly because the borrowing rules got changed remember that which moved a bunch of borrowers from the market.
There are still a few hundred thousand kiwis who can’t save because they are too busy working out which utility bill to delay paying this month without it getting cut off.
“1. Learning involves the active construction of meaning by the learner. This well-established principle involves the fact that students link new information with information that they already know. New and old information are assembled into mental models. If the old information is faulty, that compromises the learning of new information. “Learning can be thought about as a process of conceptual change in which faulty or incomplete models are repaired.” (p. 161) Fixing faulty mental models can be very difficult, as witnessed by research documenting that even after taking a course (physics is often used as an example), students still hold serious misconceptions. ”
Michael, J. (2006). Where’s the evidence that active learning works? Advances in Physiology Education, 30, 159-167.
Methinks CT know this only too well.
NZ Prime Minister lives by nothing to fear, nothing to hide:
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/key-s-spy-fears-pm-throws-away-cellphone-every-three-months-6336226
/sarc
It only proves that he is actually oblivious to most things that don’t involve himself.
It beggars belief how long an investigation takes don’t you think?
“An investigation by chief archivist Marilyn Little as to whether that amounts to destruction of public records is progressing.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/260477/advice-sought-on-pm-destroying-texts
Dec 22 2014 Ms Little agreed to investigate…
over 5 months later…
5 months later, it is still very difficult, if almost impossible, to track down which mobile phone he was using, with which SIM card, in which capacity he bought/used it or deleted messages, and where the phones are now.
So the Reserve Bank has cut the OCR to 3.25% due to low inflationary pressures. Yeah right!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11463007
What about the 3.8% rise in rates one Council that I know of is imposing on its ratepayers for the next 10 years? Because these increases are cumulative this means that the rates will increase by a whopping 50% over that period without allowing for any additional “levies” they impose and without taking into account the three yearly review of property valuations.
What about the latest rort by the Power Companies where standing charges have risen an enormous amount over the last two years (around 80% by our power company) and power unit charges have reduced minimally by about 3%.
Insurance premiums on properties have also increased massively in recent times.
On top of all of this will be increased GST!
It makes you wonder what items are actually measured to arrive at annual inflation rates in this country because it doesn’t appear that everyday items such as power, rates and insurances are included.
Inflation is, apparently, 0%, outside the RB range. I am sure it will be recalled when anyone asks for a wage increase 😉
world economies are under attack by price deflation at the moment – especially if you leave out the financial asset price bubbles which have been expanding last few years.
Consumers are ever poorer and tapping out, while the world is awash with production over capacity.
Yep, without the financial bubbles the world would still be in the recession that started in 2k8 and with all the austerity for the poor going round it would have deepened into a depression.
and the bottom 50% of people in the western world pretty much remain in the Great Recession
watch for barely a flicker in our news that inflation is below RB target (statutorily imposed) range, and as you say that deflation is a problem…
and absolutely expected as consumers become paupers and corporations limit capital investment to the lowest levels in history.
Nah nah, You have got to get your priorities right smokes, Inflation is never measured on everyday unavoidable items like rates, power etc, it is based on more important things like the cost of Caviar, bottles of Moet, international travel or the price of the latest Merc. Get you thinking right.
FYI – just had confirmation from Transparency International Canada that Canada HAS passed legislation outlawing ‘facilitation payments’:
———————————————————————————————–
“Dear Penny: Thank you for your email.
Indeed, Canada has moved forward with regard to facilitation payments, with the amendments that were passed regarding the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, in 2013. If you visit: https://www.gowlings.com/KnowledgeCentre/article.asp?pubID=2940 you will see the comment re. facilitation payments (bullet #4). Unfortunately, we don’t yet know the date these will be phased out.
Kind regards. Bronwyn
Bronwyn Best
Senior Advisor
TI-Canada”
————————————————————————————————
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
Shameful indeed
1. “Questioning my right to interpret language”
2. “Questioning my right to ban”
3. “Questioning my self esteem”
4. “Questioning my authority”
5. Deleting comments having stated “ I would never do that, fact ” while accusing BB of being ‘pompous’
Q. Do you realize the gravitas of your hypocrisy TRP ?
Awful
You do realise that Fact! is a joke, TM? Fact!
Q. So you were exhibiting some level of self awareness in that comment ?
Obviously. If you can’t laugh at yourself, then how can you laugh at anyone else?
Your made up examples aren’t at all funny, though, so please have a look at the policy: http://thestandard.org.nz/policy/
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-08062015/#comment-1026808
“What’s pompous is his constant deletion of comments that challenge his bullshit, so that he can always have the last word. I’d never do that. Fact!
Point out the examples I have made up ?
Q. Are you going to ban me for telling the truth again ?
They’re in the first comment in this thread. I’ve never banned you for telling the truth. But if you want to try self martyrdom, keep writing in this vein.
[Deleted. Take a month off. TRP]
[lprent: Based on your comments in the spam, I suspect that you didn’t actually address the issue that you got banned on in terms of the policy in this comment. You probably did it in terms of your outraged ego and by attacking the moderator. That was why the comment got deleted.
We would generally allow a single comment through that addresses the point that you got banned on. But continuing to attack a moderator who gave you a ban is not exactly the right idea. Take a further two months off from me.
If you want to argue that further in spam, then I’m perfectly happy to keep doubling up. But we are merely the poor buggers who spend a *lot* of time and effort working on it. We are not a famous critic like you seem to think you are. To me, you just appear to be a useless idiot having severe issue of having no brain in either head. ]
@ The Murphey….holiday at the Daily Blog ?
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/author/martyn-bradbury/
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/06/11/the-daily-blog-open-mic-thursday-11th-june-2015/
Thank you te reo putake – I’m so over having to look at these type of chains.
I just wish people would take five minutes – walk away from the keyboard and laugh at themselves.
Every heated exchange you get into online – does look a lot less important – if you give yourself time to reflect.
Cheers, adam, wise words.
[deleted]
[lprent: Fuck off – don’t return. Permanent ban for being an idiot ]
“You do realise that Fact! is a joke, TM? Fact!”
That’s confusing and I wouldn’t have picked that your comment in the other thread was a joke.
Crikey, how soon they forget!
http://thestandard.org.nz/milifandom-labour-are-going-to-win-the-uk-election-fact/
Fact! gets used a bit in comedic banter, but Aussies sports commentators HG and Roy used it most shows. That’s where I picked it up from. Can’t find any specific examples, but this will give you a sense of their comedic approach:
Yeah, I just wasn’t sure if you meant that you don’t remove comments or you do. But I guess that question has since been resolved.
“1. Learning involves the active construction of meaning by the learner. This well-established principle involves the fact that students link new information with information that they already know. New and old information are assembled into mental models. If the old information is faulty, that compromises the learning of new information. “Learning can be thought about as a process of conceptual change in which faulty or incomplete models are repaired.” (p. 161) Fixing faulty mental models can be very difficult, as witnessed by research documenting that even after taking a course (physics is often used as an example), students still hold serious misconceptions. ”
Michael, J. (2006). Where’s the evidence that active learning works? Advances in Physiology Education, 30, 159-167.
Methinks CT know this only too well.
Most Labour MPs have been educated into the thinking model of markets, financial systems and fiscal discipline now. Job done.
agree
Very good. That constitutes an excellent education on how to run a modern economy. Gone are the days of big, bloated, elephant-like socialist states.
That’s weird, your “modern economies” are crashing throughout the world and have required trillions of newly printed money to stay alive on life support all the while pushing 40M people in those developed nations into unemployment. (And probably twice that undermployed).
It’s odd that you would be so proud of that.
Mind you the 1% and especially the 0.1% have done very well out of it so maybe your pleasure is justified.
Last century saw the victory of capitalism over socialism, so your economic model is a third-way or what?
Let me quote Santayana: “Those who do not read history are doomed to repeat it.”
@Clean_power…urh …i think it is capitalism that is breaking down now …and this was forecast by Marxists ( agree with the quote by Santayana)…the third way is beginning to happen…but will it be Bankster technocratic fascism or revolutionary grassroots democracy?
http://rt.com/shows/keiser-report/265822-episode-max-keiser-768/
Every week Max Keiser looks at the scandal behind the financial headlines.
In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss leaving the Troika to gloat over the devastation that is Europe. In the second half, Max interviews Ross Ashcroft of RenegadeInc.com about crowdfunding his own content in order to educate the population about the economic news that the BBC refuses to tell. They discuss the fact that there has already essentially been a “Grexit.” Greece is gone. What else can be done?
“”Let me quote Santayana: “Those who do not read history are doomed to repeat it.”
I bet the irony is lost on you.
Huh? Corporate socialism, corporate welfare and broken markets are more rampant than ever. How do you see that as a “victory” of capitalism over socialism?
it’s the winning that matters, not the consequences of winning.
Then I suggest you read some history. I suggest is Debt: The first 5000 years (large pdf) by David Graeber as it clearly spells out how capitalism has failed for the last 5000 years.
Then I suggest looking at the Great Depression and how that started. HINT: It was capitalism
Then I suggest looking at the Great Recession and how that started. HINT: It was capitalism
History shows, quite conclusively, that capitalism always fails and that it takes societies with it when it does.
What system do you propose, Draco? Does it exist or has it ever existed?
What do you suggest? More of the same?
The gift economy, with government issue of debt free money at no interest, used for everything else.
And it’s all mostly wrong but they just don’t see it.
I am pleased to announce that the Medical Cannabis orientated organisation, United in Compassion NZ, now has the support of the NZ Drug Foundation, in Addition to the Hemp industry association and the Epilepsy Foundation of NZ.
http://unitedincompassion.org.nz/nz-drug-foundation-supporting-statement/
Great news. It’s been useful to hear some facts shine through the last few days and Dunne deserves credit for his decision.
Sanity may prevail.
What I’d give to be able to use Medical Cannabis, rather than Medical Opiates.
+100 Shane Le Brun
we need donations urgently, to fund things further while we formalise as a charitable trust, and to get people to our next meeting in wellington. 🙂
https://givealittle.co.nz/project/uicnzseedfunding#
Shane, maybe wait until you are through the moderation process… so people feel more comfortable before they donate?
Where do employees rank in a large company’s priorities?
Well at Fonterra, a wee way down
“Fonterra staff informed hundreds of jobs would go hours after comments made to media Fonterra only told staff about the potential for hundreds of jobs to go several hours after chief executive Theo Spierings told media.”
So, to be clear, some relatives may have text or email or phoned employees to ask about their jobs before the employee even knew there was a problem.
Hey with only 17 corporate executives earning over $1M each, you can’t expect for every detail to be properly managed.
And how come Fonterra which is, I assume, supplying roughly the same volume of product but at lower prices suddenly discovers that it doesn’t need the work that all these people are doing?? Looks like they’d better get rid of the 17 overpaid executives who didn’t realise that they had so many people doing nothing for so long (sarc).
And my thoughts are with all those who were doing a good job only to find themselves out the door
If those 1million dollar men took a 50% pay cut that would free up enough money to pay 85 people $100,000 each amazing A
Clean_power – what policies do you think Labour should drop or keep?
Do you support privatisation?
Do you support US style health care?
Do you want unions banned and employment law rolled back?
Do you support privatisation education?
Are power prices not high enough?
Would you can welfare?
Would you get rid of state housing?
Is it Ok for the air and water to be poisoned
etc?
My answers:
Do you support privatisation? Yes.
Do you support US style health care? No.
Do you want unions banned and employment law rolled back? No.
Do you support privatisation education? Yes.
Are power prices not high enough? Compared to what?
Would you can welfare? No. It should be given to the needy, old and infirm.
Would you get rid of state housing? Yes.
Is it Ok for the air and water to be poisoned? Absurd question.
I am very surprised that you do not support US style healthcare. The US health sector is highly profitable, brings consistent large returns to investors, and delivers the highest tech, most advanced, most clinically effective treatments known to mankind.
“The US health sector is” …. also the most expensive and least accessible healthcare system in the developed world, with some of the poorest population-based outcomes
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/interactives-and-data/us-compare-interactive#?ind=1
privatisation of education is a disaster…especially when taxpayers money is used to support private education and the state education system is run down as the jonkey nacts have been doing
….I suggest you look at the history and results of of the USA education privatisation vs state education in Finland
https://bertmaes.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/why-is-education-in-finland-that-good-10-reform-principles-behind-the-success/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Ravitch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Finland
http://www.educationaotearoa.org.nz/all-stories/2014/4/29/be-afraid-the-privatisation-of-public-education.html
http://azednews.com/2014/12/17/diane-ravitch-on-test-scores-equity-charter-schools-and-the-teaching-profession/
Looks like you are hard right.
And you are on record as opposing water quality standards.
You are mistaken, millsy.
Oppose water quality standard? No. I must say you phrased your question very badly.
So why do you hate the Greens?
And what privatisation do you support?
I do enjoy reading your leaps of logic
If that is logic, I must be Boole himself.
Im not the one who despises the public sector.
You seem to be confused or have misread what I wrote. Where did I say I despise the public sector?
Well you support privatisation .
You support multi-national corporations
More union hate:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/275984/meatworkers-punished-over-union-material
The Talleys will stop at nothing to purge their comapnies of union members. Such behaviour borders on human rights violations.
But it gets you knighted in planet key.
Sure does….
Well, now that blinglish has finally admitted he’s a wellingtonian, the crown limo with the heated seats is going to Auckland.
Poor little woodhouse and toddy-woddy don’t deserve it, I guess…
Lprent:
F U D G E Y O U , fantastic, fabulous fellow!
Now that I have your attention, ahem, … it seems like TS is very slow in showing the comment that I made and actually wanted to edit.
Erm, ok, it seems to working fine now. Strange.
lol