Good morning all. If you have burning questions about keeping your garden soil warm over winter, I’m talking about how that’s done with Tony Murrell on RadioLive at 7:20 am. Given that no one’s commented here at TS yet, I’m guessing most of you will sleep through our garden chat 🙂
OMG the Auditor General is going to investigate the whole of access to drinking water, how irrigators are regulated, drinking water access and climate change, and drinking water access and changing demographics.
Doubt something this big will be reported to Parliament before the election.
But the report i guarantee will lead to major regional council reform, including a pricing regime that’s consistent. It’ll go a long way to forcing central govt conversation about dams and resource rental as well I bet.
I think it is the one who ignores staff who raise issues of serious fraud, then does nothing when said whistleblowers are made obsolete..
that sort of auditor General.
Thanks gsays
But WTF, how can the public have confidence in the government and the public service which is supposed to be stalwart NZs that help pollies keep honest? We need to look at this closely, as the article says, if it can happen with little shock and fanfare, should we be despairing of our wonderful honesty that the loose tongued have been raving on about to Transparency International!
Harrison was a known fraudster whom the Australian police were actively talking to the NZ police about in 2011. She had multiple names. She paid herself over $700,000 on invoices that a trainee accountant would recognise as fraudulent, and which were not supported by either proper contracts or purchase orders. Multiple senior staff warned Matthews about the fraud from 2013 and he did nothing until 2016. Some of those senior staff then lost their jobs, within two months….
Today two former ministry employees have told RNZ News of the “incredible day” their jobs were axed. The whistle-blowers say they alerted senior managers to the fake invoices and dubious travel Harrison was involved with but then were targeted in restructuring she helped lead. They had found, among other things, that Harrison travelled to London to a conference that was cancelled long before she left.
Where was human resources? The Public Service Association? The police? The SFO? The auditor general? The chief executive?
This all happened in a modern New Zealand government ministry. In the full light of day.
Clearly, it’s not Harrison’s fault that the Ministry of Transport did not check her background. It’s not her fault that the NZ police somehow did not do anything effective after being contacted by the Australian police in 2011. It’s not Harrison’s fault that the Ministry pays invoices that are not supported by contracts or purchase orders, it’s not her fault that she can get rid of whistle-blowers by just having them moved or sacked. It’s not her fault she can just fix jobs for her family or fly around the world on a taxpayer ticket. It’s not her fault that the chief executive, and his successor, have consistently refused to properly investigate either what she got away with or the further systemic failings behind the scenes.
In fact if you think about all the middle and senior managers in Wellington and beyond who somehow have the confidence of their chief executive and who might be bullying or conniving their way up the slippery pole – it gets a bit scary.
It’s hard not to talk about workers’ rights without sounding like a socialist but just look at what Harrison did. It’s disgusting. Where does the buck stop and who gets the whistle-blowers their jobs back?
Should Martin Matthews be our auditor general? His mission according to the government website is “Independent Reporting on how your taxes and rates are spent.”
i know i shouldn’t but…
this is in the same basket as mataparae being moved on quickly from head of gcsb to gg. making room for … a close friend of the prime minister.
Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster 3
I have been working for the Labour Party here in ChCh – and will continue to do so – I want to underscore that: anything (well, mostly anything) will be better than this National government.
But – and it’s a big but, the last pamphlet I put in letterboxes said something like:
Fresh faces, Fresh ideas, Fresh policies – so memorable I can’t quite remember if that is exactly what it said, even though I delivered hundreds of them. Frankly, what the fuck does that mean?
Contrast that with the UK Labour slogan – For the Many, Not the Few! It screams class division, it shouts a better deal for the underclass – it says something important and relevant!
We’ve still got a ‘Blairite New Labour in this country – neoliberalism with a smiling face.
The rich have nothing to fear from a NZ Labour government – and I want them to!
I have had 2 in my letterbox. That was one, the other one was Fresh team Fresh ideas Fresh approach. Both leaflets had the message strong plan for New Zealand’s future
Pithily summed-up, OAB and that’s the nub, “talking about themselves”.
Once they start focusing on and talking about us, the voting public, things will change.
@Tony Veitch. If you understand Corbyn’s campaign it was not about class or division. In fact Labour got Kensington one of the richest electorates. It was about fairness and someone trying to make a difference against the odds.
I agree Labour’s messaging could be a lot better and is currently fairly meaningless but their actions are very hopeful from co operation with Greens and getting rid of many Labour Neoliberal MP’s, to being against the TPPA. The fact Little is being sued to try to ruin him shows the lengths being gone too.
People who think that divisive campaigning will work – rich against poor, young against boomers, working class against middle class or rich – it won’t. 65% ok Kiwis are home owners for a start and that put’s them into middle class or wealthy territory straight off.
Labour and Greens need to get the middle class to vote for them as well as the working class and non working or they will not win the election. Since there are so many job losses for example the ‘working’ class are shrinking and shrinking each year.
It does not help if those that benefit the most from a Labour/Green government are the ones denouncing them and telling people not to vote as there is nobody worth voting for. Those ‘lefties’ might as well be campaigning for the Natz – if that is their message – which of course gives them A LOT of MSM attention as it’s the leftie view reinforcing the right messaging to help get the Natz back in. I’m thinking of an interview with Sue Bradford where she said she did not bother voting last election. Yay, now we get the Natz in! Hope beneficiaries are happy with the last three years!
While Labour has been disappointing in the past, the alternative is another 3 years of Natz privatisation, running down of services, basket case of social services, destruction of democracy, destruction of environment, 1% Tory Maori getting control to collaborate with the Natz sell offs, mass surveillance, corruption and sign up of very dubious ‘trade’ agreements that will destroy NZ sovereignty. My guess Natz will have Nukes here, if they get another term, that is, if they have not already, by lying about it to the public. They lie about everything else and get away with it, it’s not stopping, it’s increasing.
Natz will be going for a Trump style anti regulation, removal of the welfare system. Unlike Trump who uses race and terrorism to get his shock through, our government just makes up stuff, changes statistics, gets rid of media that shows real news like Campbell Live, smears opponents and uses propaganda to keep Kiwis thinking all is well and you are alone if you think that something is not quite right.
@SaveNZ – totally agree – and I made the point quite emphatically that I will continue to work to get rid of the bloody Nats!
But I would like to see a genuine appeal by Labour to engage with the million who didn’t vote, by talking equality and fairness, by targeting the fat rich cats who have done so well out of neoliberalism – and I’m not talking about the paper millionaires who are sitting on rising house prices.
A real appeal to socialist principles of a redistribution of the wealth of this country so that everyone gets a fair share!
National are going to propose to run an even more Labour government than they already are.
They will pump-prime the economy with infrastructure spend.
They will continue to shift the lower-end tax brackets.
They will support all parts of NZSuper, Kiwisaver, ACC, EQC, etc.
They will continue New Zealand’s long-settled and consistent direction.
They will accuse the Opposition of division, and having no compelling reasons to change.
@AD – hope that was sarcasm… Natz…
They will pump-prime the economy with infrastructure spend using offshore labour and companies who plan to bring in low wage workers so the profits go offshore, the jobs are not for Kiwis and the imports take up housing, transport and so forth in the middle of major crisis.
They will continue to shift the lower-end tax brackets – Yep beneficiaries got little, low paid workers $1 per week? Wow that will get them out of poverty!
They will support all parts of NZSuper, Kiwisaver, ACC, EQC, – So ACC is more an investment company now, rather than paying out to injured people, EQC again not paying out insurance in a timely manner for many in CHCH, Kiwisaver worth less than before, Natz stopped the Cullen fund leaving super for many in jeopardy.
They will continue New Zealand’s long-settled and consistent direction – yep rising pollution, inequality, climate change denial and low productivity, housing, transport, health and crime crisis…
Hi Tony….
The front cover message reads: Fresh team. Fresh ideas. Fresh approach. Compared to UK Labour nothing like as good. It has a negative… “oh yeah but what kind of fresh? What ideas? What approach? If I were Labour, I would steal UK Labour’s brilliant slogan.
NOTE FOR LABOUR: YOU STAND FOR THE MANY AND NOT THE FEW.
It took us years to cull Labour’s advertising material from four A4 size pages down to one A4 size page. Even that wasn’t good enough. If we can get their slogan down to three words we will have achieved a miracle. 😯
Once again got to agree with you. Apart from catchy slogans, I would like to see Labour address this issue. One of the things that really annoys me is the lack of balance on our media which is beyond their control. It is controlled by the likes of Hoskings Gower and now Garner giving their biased opinions and never do we have an opposing opinion, and the right to answer. The Labour party wants to study what happened in Britain as one of the things I think and I could be wrong that brought out the younger generation to vote was the use of social media like Twitter. Corbyn was not going to get a fair go in the media and the younger generation twittering got him that support. The NZ Labour party has to use this type of medium more and any time there is an adverse comment broadcasted they answer not through the media, but through the likes of Twitter because apart from not getting much chance to answer, when they do, it is twisted around to suit the right wing agenda. Recently on the morning programme Garner and that prat Gower together with that other odious prat Mark whatever giving his tuppence worth was making a lot out of Littles statement on housing, not once did they suggest asking the Double Dipping Dickhead from Dipton why after 8 years we were so short of houses it was all about negative spin against Little. In these such cases, the Labour party must have a large counter argument on the likes of Twitter to reach a wider audience.
The media and their commentators after the UK election have lost all its credibility. And any opinions given should be ignored.
There was a good example of this on Q&A this morning which I turned off. They had some female don’t know her name don’t want to know, another “political” commentator “ who was on Garner’s morning programme the other day waxing lyrically how May was going to win by a large majority, and Corbyn this, and Corbyn that. She was so fucking wrong it wasn’t funny, AND YET THIS MORNING THEY STILL HAD HER ON Q&A FOR ANOTHER OPINION. Do we really want to hear her opinions when they are not credible and politically biased? I don’t and of course, they wheeled out and dusted off our Q&A mascot Frankfurter O sullivan. Hence the turn-off.
Labour to get your message out there and across to the younger generation and the not so young, you have got to use social media outlets more ignore the MSM AND the pollsters as they all have lost the little credibility they had after the UK election.
Presented in a rather negative way but pretty colourful just the same. Not everyone enjoys the bright lights. Some of us would be just as full after a packet of fish and chips as with an expensive 3 course dinner.
The MSM are sore losers. This morning on RNZ sports news there wasn’t one mention (in the sports news I heard) of the Lion’s win over the Crusaders. There was plenty on the Tennis Double’s win and the Team NZ win over Artemis but I waited in vain for the results of the Lions/Crusaders win – what a mean attitude to have – we do not have any maturity and mana when we are defeated in this country.
We don’t have Sky and hadn’t heard the result last night so was looking forward to hearing it – hubby found it for us – shame on RNZ.
It’s just “science” – no calling on the assistance of loa is involved. You’re right though that some of the world seems to be turning its back on science, not to mention rationalism in general. However, that’s not a good thing.
Tell that to Indian farmers. I am still sitting on the fence regarding GM. For me the science is far too young . And many studies are financed by GM corporations. No doubt it offers great benefits if proven safe, especially in medicine.
Y’know, on controversial topics it’s a good idea to check back in every now and then for updated info, rather than relying on a nine year old article as the last word.
For example, here’s just one article that’s checked those claims and found them lacking.
I read that and all I can think is that it’s possible to have done that with non-GMO crops.
As an example:
Crop biotechnology has reduced agriculture’s environmental impact
• Crop biotechnology has significantly reduced agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions by helping farmers adopt more sustainable practices such as reduced tillage, which decreases the burning of fossil fuels and retains more carbon in the soil. Had biotech crops not been grown in 2015, for example, an additional 26.7 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide would have been emitted into the atmosphere, which is the equivalent of adding 11.9 million cars to the roads.
• From 1996 to 2015, crop biotechnology reduced the spraying of crop protection products by 619 million kilograms, a global reduction of 8.1 per cent. This is equal to more than China’s total crop protection product use each year (3). As a result, farmers who grow biotech crops have reduced the environmental impact associated with their crop protection practices by 18.6 per cent (4).
The first certainly seems like a stretch. Simply cropping and then leaving the fields fallow would achieve the same ends.
The second needs to be compared with non-GMO crops that had no ‘crop protection products’ sprayed on them. The point is that farmers may be using these products because they believe that they need them rather than them actually needing them or simply using more than they have to because of a belief that they need to use more.
The actual link to the study is here. And I’d love to know what “desk research and analysis” is.
Sure, leaving fields fallow also reduces environmental impact. So, you could get the same environmental benefits from non-GMO crops simply by accepting much lower yields. Can you see how that approach might run into problems getting traction?
As for comparing with crops that had no “crop protection products” used on them, what crops would those be? Organic farmers also use pesticides, just not the same ones as non-organic.
So, you could get the same environmental benefits from non-GMO crops simply by accepting much lower yields.
Do they though?
An interesting point was made in an article I read a few years back (may even be linked on this site) that to get those higher yields that GMO producers say that they can get you needed far higher inputs. After all, higher level of growth doesn’t suddenly appear magically.
Can you see how that approach might run into problems getting traction?
Yes I can but considering the higher inputs needed and that those higher inputs are the result of fossil fuel use can you see that it may not be sustainable?
As I say, we need to live in reality but a lot of what we do is delusional as they don’t take into account the entire process and the full physical inputs needed.
As for comparing with crops that had no “crop protection products” used on them, what crops would those be?
The same ones that had “crop protection products” to, you know, compare results.
Organic farmers also use pesticides, just not the same ones as non-organic.
And do they get the same results?
Better results?
What?
We need an actual side by side comparison that takes into account the entire process including recycling.
Squashing a caterpillar between your thumb and forefinger is “applying a pesticide”. The argument goes on and on (and on and on and on). There must be (as is) an approach a person can take to counter/by-pass the problem that Key perfectly described when he said, “I can find another scientist who will counter your scientist…”or whatever it was he slurred out. He was correct. There’s no end to the parsing and countering and often it’s genuinely meant. A person must apply a different measure to all of these issues (GMO, organics, industrial dairying) in order to pick a path they can be sure of. Batting claims back and forward will not do it, imo. Look deeper, listen to the plinking of the waters, feel the ebb and flow in your deepest chambers, the aquifers of your self, to know what it is you believe.
Squashing a caterpillar between your thumb and forefinger is “applying a pesticide”.
And allowing the birds to munch to their hearts content is as well 😈
A person must apply a different measure to all of these issues (GMO, organics, industrial dairying) in order to pick a path they can be sure of.
I like the idea of being sustainable while providing what we need and allowing the environment to prosper evolve. If those were part of the study then we could at least have some confidence in it.
Look deeper, listen to the plinking of the waters, feel the ebb and flow in your deepest chambers, the aquifers of your self, to know what it is you believe.
Belief is what you have when don’t have the facts and we need the facts to make informed decisions.
Thanks, One Two. I believe we can learn to make decisions well and I think there’s a need to mix un-sciency stuff in there in order to give ourselves the best chance of recognising a good path to take when we stumble upon one.
Robert G
Gut instinct when it comes from the heart even – it isn’t enough to formulate a doable plan that is good for people and environment.
But leave heart feeling out, and we have a clear path to AI and the frozen heartland of laissez faire capitalism, which we have now creeping into our lives and numbing our feelings and brain.
But my suggestion is to adopt a style that can be labelled
pragmatic idealism. Each word modulates the other, but in unison they would take us into the future with hope for a decent society surviving. It has be worked at though, what I see is not encouraging and I appreciate much those still who work for practical good outcomes for people plus environment, those two entwined.
Hey, Grey. Good comment. Hearts and minds, eh! Good combo, imo. Did you see the article today about the screeds of plastic flotsam washed up on the beaches of Pitcairn Island? The “ocean is a dumping ground” effect has become too obvious to ignore and while we should be appalled by what’s resulted, I noted a couple of positive aspects; it was reported on. Much of what is happening never sees the light of the media spotlight, or even makes it into our conversations, but this was right there in front of breakfasting New Zealanders. And the island woman in the photograph looked totally p*ssed off. Fishing communities have for a long time now, accepted flotsam and jetsam as a necessary evil, contributing a fair bit of it themselves, but not now. I think the ubiquitousness of the harm we do, the interconnectivity between here and there, us and them, is becoming apparent in a way that it wasn’t till now. In summing up, I’m encouraged, though my brain says, “what on earth have we done?” my heart sings a little song of hope and the cadence is swelling 🙂
I would go with ‘gut’ and the humanistic traits, 9/10…
Gut instinct tells you that the world is flat, the sun moves across the sky and people who are different from you are not to be trusted. As a means of assessing reality, it’s shit. As for “humanistic traits,” a lot of them are definitely not pretty…
Gut? There are more trustworthy sites in the human body than the gut; I’m voting heart. The brain’s a great option-finder, but the heart’s the decision-maker 🙂
Not sure what you’re talking about, Draco but I’ve noticed you repeating comments regarding ‘common sense’..
I made no such reference, so what you’ve proved is that you couldn’t comprehend my comment…
While you’re searching for answers to questions you don’t understand, using methods which are unnecessary, I’m living life using my innate human traits, honed over many, many years. …
While you’re searching for answers to questions you don’t understand, using methods which are unnecessary, I’m living life using my innate human traits, honed over many, many years. …
And getting it badly wrong.
And, no, I didn’t misunderstand what you said. You seriously misunderstood what I said.
Keep repeating your links and mantras…isn’t likely to help, because what I’m referring to went right by you…and you’ve convinced yourself ‘science and tech stuff’ is the path to follow…
Good luck with that..and making decisions on a humanistic level
We each have our level, and are on diffrrent journey’s…
Well, yes. How could leaving your fields fallow not result in a lower yield than using crops that don’t require leaving your fields fallow? Not producing stuff tends to result in lower production than producing stuff does.
We need an actual side by side comparison that takes into account the entire process including recycling.
The question “what would be the least-unsustainable form of agriculture” is a bit broader than the scope of the post.
How could leaving your fields fallow not result in a lower yield than using crops that don’t require leaving your fields fallow?
They still leave the fields fallow – they just do other stuff to them as well like burn them.
The question “what would be the least-unsustainable form of agriculture” is a bit broader than the scope of the post.
No it’s not. In fact, I’d say that it was most definitely within the scope of the post because an unsustainable yield, by definition, cannot be sustained and so making plans on it is an exercise in futility.
Sustainable agriculture is yet to be developed. All the current arguments relating to environmental impacts of different approaches are about more vs less unsustainable – which is a bummer but doesn’t make the arguments an exercise in futility.
Sustainable agriculture has existed well,it is change that disrupted process (self organized criticality)
The Balinese rice fields could serve as an example that under certain conditions it is possible to reach sustainable situations that lead to maximum payoff for all parties, wherein every individual makes free and independent decisions
Sure, agriculture is “sustainable” on a timescale of centuries, even millennia. That’s as true of GMO cropping as it is of Balinese rice farmers. However, humans have been around for hundreds of thousands of years and no agriculture has yet been developed that’s sustainable on those kind of timescales. When it comes to GMOs, all we’re arguing is to what extent different methods reduce the problem of unsustainability.
I agree with Psycho Milt where he says;
“Sustainable agriculture is yet to be developed” and I’d go further and say that I believe it never will. Just because we are using the system doesn’t mean it fits with the “laws” of the natural world and is able to be sustained. Agriculture is not the answer to the question, “How should humans live”.
No explanation of who the four charities are. You have to choose one of the charities and then supply name, address, email address, and post code. Then you get sent a confirmation email. Once you confirm Morgan donates $3 to your charity of choice. You also get an email from TOP with TOP policy aimed at the charity you chose. No unsubscribe option in the email 😉
You can only vote once per email address. Fair enough, but $1million divided by 3 is 333,333. Chances of that many NZers voting on a charity? Will he still donate the full $1million?
Looks like a way to buy an email list. I will be interested to see how it goes and whether NZers will shy away from the whole buying support thing. The difference between political advertising and this is that political advertising at least has the potential to inform people of policies and positions.
I guess this way people get some bang for their taxpayer paid advertising buck. They get to donate to a good cause but have to view a video/email in return.
Morgan has the advantage of being able to bank roll the donations though which isn’t fair. But neither is National getting over $1 million and the largest share from the taxpayer for advertising.
They don’t have to view a video or email in return (or at least I didn’t). They just have to sign up and hand over their email address and postcode. It looks like email harvesting to me and a way to get people through their website. And sure, Morgan has a conscience so he’s good with donating to charity too (although I will be interested to see if he donates the full million). It’s his money, he can spend it however. But I do think it’s another example of his approach. He’s saying on the one hand that the election rules are biased against small parties with no money, then he uses his fortune to garner support for TOP.
So what. Does any political party turn down a donation because it comes from a high net worth individual? Morgan has made no secret of how he is spending his money right from the outset. It’s how our political system works.
Morgan’s strategy has been slammed by Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei as a “gratuitous and cynical way to buy votes”
Donating to well known charities is scarcely cynical or gratuitous. Besides it’s your email address TOP is obtaining … not your vote. Turei should be an experienced enough politician to tell the difference.
1. will the full million be donated? Because that’s the way it’s being promoted.
2. yes, they’re buying emails for $3 a pop. Sure, there is no problem with that, but it’s also up for criticism. That’s how our political system works.
Morgan’s done this sort of thing before. My first encounter with him was well over a decade ago when the Morgan Foundation teamed up with UNICEF to fund village water supply projects in various countries. Essentially he matched dollar for dollar contributions to UNICEF up to a cap of some millions. It worked really well and to this day my automatic payment to UNICEF continues to trickle away, long after Morgan’s cap was exceeded.
Obviously this arrangement is different, but donating to important charities is something Morgan really likes to do with his money. Based on his track record I would argue for his good faith motives in this respect. Whether the $1m cap is reached is entirely up to how many people respond.
Equally he’s pointing out that between them National/Labour/Greens are receiving something in the order of $7m of public funding to have their voices heard in this election. TOP as a newcomer was allocated just 0.5% of this, which is a risible fraction. So he’s come up with this innovative win-win solution that counters this massive imbalance to some degree.
Besides if you really don’t like it, don’t click. That’s how the internet works.
How do you defend yourself against Big Brother saying he’s defending somebody, he doesn’t know who or against what but will think of something, and he wants to know that you aren’t proposing something that will break a law that hasn’t yet been defined, or some protocol that guards against something yet to be decided,
and he/she wants to know what you are saying and, through scrambled, unhealthy synapses in Big Brothers brain, chooses to consider your thoughts to be against security or a law emerging out of Big Brother’s head like an Alien baby?
Simple, they were watching before 911 and it still happened. They were watching in Britain, and it still happened. It does not work, terrorism only ends when you address why it happens, not trying to watch and stop it from happening.
Military intelligence is just that – a military event, virtually useless when put into the civilian sphere.
It was the last Blairight strong hold left in the UK, it is no surprise they did this. None at all, I’d have been more shocked if these wolf had changed to sheep clothing.
Don’t know if you’ve caught any of the links I’ve put up over the past couple of days Adam, but yes, surprised at the sheer brass neck of running an anti-Scottish Government election campaign instead of a Westminster one.
Here’s the witless wonder laying out who she and her party are campaigning against 3 weeks out from election day.
Cool story, bro, but a bit of a shame, for you anyway, to find out the biggest leeching of votes to the conservatives in Scotland came from the SNP itself and not from Scottish Labour.
In fact, out of the seats the conservatives gained from the nationalists, only in three did Labour not increase it’s share of the vote, and even then, their negative percentage was lower than that lost from the SNP itself.
I guess a sound bite makes easier listening than the cold wind of change. Heh.
Gordon
C +29%
SNP -11.8
L +5.9
LD -21.1
Aberdeenshire West & Kincardine
C +19%
SNP -9.1
L +6.5
LD -12.8
Angus
C +16.2%
SNP -15.7
L +4.2
LD +0.5
Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk
C +17.9%
SNP -3.8
L +3.7
LD -14
Dumfries & Galloway
C +13.4%
SNP -9
L -3.8
LD +0.7
Ochil & South Perthshire *
C +20.8%
SNP -10.7
L -8.4
LD +0.7
Stirling *
C +13.9%
SNP -8.9
L -3.4
LD +0.7
Renfrewshire East *
C +18%
SNP -9.3
L -7.3
LD +0.2
Ayr, Carrick & Cumnock *
C +20.3%
SNP -14.7
L -3.4
LD +0.2
These are simply net percentage point changes – they tell us little about the actual swings happening beneath the surface
The final Scots Polling I’ve seen (YouGov, Survation) as well as the Election day Lord Ashcroft polling of the UK as a whole – all suggest the Tories benefited most from Labour defections, followed by swings from the SNP, with Lib Dem-to-Tory swings close behind
A far greater chunk of 2015 Lib Dems swung Tory in Scotland (41% LDs –
compared to 21% of 2015 Labour voters and just 7% of the 2015 SNP constituency – (YouGov) / 29%, 16%, 6% respectively (Survation)) but, of course, Lib Dems made up a much smaller % of the Scots electorate, so their contribution to the Tory surge wasn’t quite as decisive as first appears
Labour’s own surge came courtesy, first and foremost, of SNP defections (SNP voters were almost twice as likely to swing Labour than they were to swing Tory)
Which isn’t necessarily to deny the possibility that SNP-to-Tory swings were the key feature in some individual seats – but that appears not to have been the case across Scotland as a whole
Ad. If you want to read some half decent commentary and analysis, as opposed to just dropping asinine comments into a thread, then try this. (Plenty of links to back up arguments/observations).
Don’t disrespect my heritage because I’ve used the vernacular of the street, so to speak. When in Rome, etc. Bro. 😉
As for the numbers, you can deny them if you want, if that’s what you’re doing, but they’re real and not going to go away.
No talking head can trump cold hard numbers. just look at Banf. That’s cold.
Nobody’s denying that Kezia Dugdale ran against the Scottish Government and not the Westminster one.
Nobody’s denying that suited Ruth Davidson down to the ground (wedge politics).
Nobody’s denying the turnout was down all across Scotland.
Nobody’s denying that Scotland was the only place the Tories made over-all gains.
Nobody’s denying the SNP were going to lose seats no matter what.
Nobody’s denying Kezia Dugdale effectively handed the keys of number 10 to May with her witless bullshit. (Some besides yourself may be)
Some do deny it’s something in the water at SLab HQ that’s produced both “glue head” Kelly as a leader and and now *this* equally weird and hopeless case (both Blairites).
France is offering grants of up to 1.5 million Euro for climate scientists to move there.
To all responsible citizens:
On the 1st of June, President Donald Trump decided to withdraw the United States from the Paris agreement, which gathered more than 190 countries united against climate change.
This decision is unfortunate but it only reinforced our determination. Don’t let it weaken yours.
We are ONE planet and Together, we can make a difference.
France has always led fights for human rights. Today, more than ever, we are determined to lead (and win!) this battle on climate change.
Emmanuel Macron, President of France.
That is so damned cool. The 1.5m Euro is smart thinking, but the “Make our planet great again” meme is absolutely the perfect comeback … and more.
It goes right to the sense of global citizenship I’ve always argued for … and way more importantly … resonates very strongly with so many younger people.
Only a month ago UK Labour did badly in the local elections. The turn around started with the leaking of the manifesto. It had bold and old left policies that were very popular and showed neo liberalism was dead. We are not at that point in our election campaign yet. Let’s hope there is a courageous NZ LP manifesto in production.
While most of this site is having a global wet dream on labours loss in the Uk, labour gains where more about how bad may was not how good labour was. U.K. Electoral boundaries are about to be changed removing 30 labour electorates that no longer have population to support as electorates , Torys Learn fast, the next tory pm won’t be may nor will next Tory campaign beamateur hour, so enjoy your loss my lefty pumpkins while you can, yes you still loss to the most incompetent election campaign ever
[lprent: Since we are talking about incompetents, then please look at yourself in a mirror. You are currently the second biggest timewaster around for moderators.
Select ONE handle and ’email’ address and stick to it. Normally I tend to view people maintaining multiple commenting logins are probably trying to spoof the system here. Which I don’t like. In your case I suspect simple incompetence – which annoys me.
While moderators don’t mind occasionally fixing or releasing typos, you appear to do it every few messages. So to save moderator effort, I’ll give you a day or so to select a combination between handle and email. Then I will select that one as being your only combination. I will change the existing comments to that combo, and consign all emails to autospam.
If I see new ones coming through, then I will just permanently ban you for wasting moderator time. This is your warning and chance to show that as a tory – you can learn very fast. ]
For anyone ignorant of the history of climate science, it had already been understood since 1824 that something in the atmosphere was trapping heat making Earth warmer than it “should be”. It’s been understood since 1861 that CO2 is a big part of that something.
Watch this debate hit our shores very fast.
For all of you activist types with dodgy opinions, and have Facebook or Gmail or Apple accounts:
“Australia will seek cooperation from social media companies such as Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. to decrypt communication between terrorist groups.
Attorney General George Brandis told Sky News on Sunday the government would consider changes to Australia’s laws to ensure telecommunications and technology firms help authorities decipher suspect messages.
“My concern is the existing laws don’t go far enough in imposing obligations of cooperation upon the corporates,” Brandis said.
I’m just slightly betting that the definition of terrorism gets to expand a wee bit.
Why employ the best fishermen with the best and biggest nets if you’re not going to fish, after all?
If you have good equipment and are paid to do something and find something well sooner rather than later someone will ask if you have been successful. If you haven’t then you’ll hear that you haven’t been trying hard enough, the equipment can’t be up to scratch etc.
There might be a career in inventing things for them to find.
(It should be known that I am a junior in the computing world, but I have learned how people think who sit tapping rather than get outside with those of humanity who do actual physical work. Sorry to lprent and others, but I think we will live to regret the lovely machines that 0 and 1 developed.)
Time for non-parliamentary politics – ie, socialism. Personally, I’ll take social democracy, but only by way of a very short term stepping stone.
Seriously (and I don’t care if a person calls themselves a Marxist or an anarchist, autonomous communist or whatever), it’s time to look through the arguments and thoughts of radicals/progressives/socialists from the late 19th and early 20th century, pick up the wheels they already invented, put a 21st Century body on the chassis, and get a move on.
It’s Sanders last few para’s that put socialism into a global context which truly inspire me. That’s where the wheels will get the 21st century traction you’re looking for.
Well, yeah. He essentially expressed the moral and intellectual core or imperatives of socialism without the using the word socialism 🙂
My sticking point with Sanders (and this applies to Corbyn too), is that he seems to view some some overhauled configuration of current nation state institutions as the way to achieve socialism. And it’s not the way – can’t be the way.
It’s an old argument I know, but early socialists split on that same notion of whether a parliament could deliver socialism. Well, the history is there to look at now.
Besides. Socialism is, and always was, about process not outcomes. So, y’know, my eyes roll when I hear people suggest that some government policy or other is “socialist”. That’s simply not possible.
People getting all enthusiastic about the supposed socialist underpinnings of (say) some government’s housing policy is ardent nonsense that merely indicates they’re willing to throw the terms “socialism” or “socialist” about, without having the faintest idea about what those things are.
‘Labour AHEAD of Tories by six points in stunning new poll as public say Theresa May should resign.
Jeremy Corbyn would be Prime Minister if an election was held tomorrow, according to the pollster which most accurately predicted Thursday’s election result.
A new poll by Survation puts Labour six points ahead of the Tories on 45% of the vote.
The Tories, meanwhile, polled 39% – almost four points below their result in the general election.
It is the first time since Theresa May took power that any poll has put Labour ahead of the Conservatives.’
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 15, 2024 thru Sat, December 21, 2024. Based on feedback we received, this week's roundup is the first one published soleley by category. We are still interested in ...
Well, I've been there, sitting in that same chairWhispering that same prayer half a million timesIt's a lie, though buried in disciplesOne page of the Bible isn't worth a lifeThere's nothing wrong with youIt's true, it's trueThere's something wrong with the villageWith the villageSomething wrong with the villageSongwriters: Andrew Jackson ...
ACT would like to dictate what universities can and can’t say. We knew it was coming. It was outlined in the coalition agreement and has become part of Seymour’s strategy of “emphasising public funding” to prevent people from opposing him and his views—something he also uses to try and de-platform ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Are we heading ...
So the Solstice has arrived – Summer in this part of the world, Winter for the Northern Hemisphere. And with it, the publication my new Norse dark-fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens at Eternal Haunted Summer: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2024/as-our-power-lessens/ As previously noted, this one is very ‘wyrd’, and Northern Theory of Courage. ...
The Natural Choice: As a starter for ten percent of the Party Vote, “saving the planet” is a very respectable objective. Young voters, in particular, raised on the dire (if unheeded) warnings of climate scientists, and the irrefutable evidence of devastating weather events linked to global warming, vote Green. After ...
The Government cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political ...
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashEvery morning I get up at 3am to go around the traps of news sites in Aotearoa and globally. I pick out the top ones from my point of view and have been putting them into my Dawn Chorus email, which goes out with a podcast. ...
Over on Kikorangi Newsroom's Marc Daalder has published his annual OIA stats. So I thought I'd do mine: 82 OIA requests sent in 2024 7 posts based on those requests 20 average working days to receive a response Ministry of Justice was my most-requested entity, ...
Welcome to the December 2024 Economic Bulletin. We have two monthly features in this edition. In the first, we discuss what the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury and the Budget Policy Statement from the Minister of Finance tell us about the fiscal position and what to ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...
Hi,“What I love about New Zealanders is that sometimes you use these expressions that as Americans we have no idea what those things mean!"I am watching a 30-something year old American ramble on about how different New Zealanders are to Americans. It’s his podcast, and this man is doing a ...
What Chris Penk has granted holocaust-denier and equal-opportunity-bigot Candace Owens is not “freedom of speech”. It’s not even really freedom of movement, though that technically is the right she has been granted. What he has given her is permission to perform. Freedom of SpeechIn New Zealand, the right to freedom ...
All those tears on your cheeksJust like deja vu flow nowWhen grandmother speaksSo tell me a story (I'll tell you a story)Spell it out, I can't hear (What do you want to hear?)Why you wear black in the morning?Why there's smoke in the air? Songwriter: Greg Johnson.Mōrena all ☀️Something a ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
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Good morning all. If you have burning questions about keeping your garden soil warm over winter, I’m talking about how that’s done with Tony Murrell on RadioLive at 7:20 am. Given that no one’s commented here at TS yet, I’m guessing most of you will sleep through our garden chat 🙂
I missed it, I was listening to the bug man on the other channel 🙂 Found the link though if people missed it.
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/home/audio/2017/06/soil-insulation-for-winter-ahead–other-than-composting.html
OMG the Auditor General is going to investigate the whole of access to drinking water, how irrigators are regulated, drinking water access and climate change, and drinking water access and changing demographics.
Doubt something this big will be reported to Parliament before the election.
But the report i guarantee will lead to major regional council reform, including a pricing regime that’s consistent. It’ll go a long way to forcing central govt conversation about dams and resource rental as well I bet.
Forecasting future demand for drinking water – or any resource – is a pretty fundamental part of the AG’s role.
If they weren’t monitoring it (see their 2010 report for example) they wouldn’t be doing their job.
Not sure it’s wise to make guarantees of future change, but 🙂
Agreed, but the R N Z report outlined a much broader brief.
The 2011 report specifically focused on the performance of 4 regional councils around their management of point source pollution of waterways.
Link?
Lancelot.
http://www.oag.govt.nz/2011/freshwater
Thanks Robert: I meant the RNZ article Ad referred to 🙂
Which Auditor General will that be? Has there been a break in the Musical Seats circling yet?
I think it is the one who ignores staff who raise issues of serious fraud, then does nothing when said whistleblowers are made obsolete..
that sort of auditor General.
This man, Peter Newport, says it far better:
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/22-05-2017/is-fraudster-joanne-harrisons-old-boss-really-fit-to-lead-nzs-top-public-watchdog/
Thanks gsays
But WTF, how can the public have confidence in the government and the public service which is supposed to be stalwart NZs that help pollies keep honest? We need to look at this closely, as the article says, if it can happen with little shock and fanfare, should we be despairing of our wonderful honesty that the loose tongued have been raving on about to Transparency International!
Harrison was a known fraudster whom the Australian police were actively talking to the NZ police about in 2011. She had multiple names. She paid herself over $700,000 on invoices that a trainee accountant would recognise as fraudulent, and which were not supported by either proper contracts or purchase orders. Multiple senior staff warned Matthews about the fraud from 2013 and he did nothing until 2016. Some of those senior staff then lost their jobs, within two months….
Today two former ministry employees have told RNZ News of the “incredible day” their jobs were axed. The whistle-blowers say they alerted senior managers to the fake invoices and dubious travel Harrison was involved with but then were targeted in restructuring she helped lead. They had found, among other things, that Harrison travelled to London to a conference that was cancelled long before she left.
Where was human resources? The Public Service Association? The police? The SFO? The auditor general? The chief executive?
This all happened in a modern New Zealand government ministry. In the full light of day.
Clearly, it’s not Harrison’s fault that the Ministry of Transport did not check her background. It’s not her fault that the NZ police somehow did not do anything effective after being contacted by the Australian police in 2011. It’s not Harrison’s fault that the Ministry pays invoices that are not supported by contracts or purchase orders, it’s not her fault that she can get rid of whistle-blowers by just having them moved or sacked. It’s not her fault she can just fix jobs for her family or fly around the world on a taxpayer ticket. It’s not her fault that the chief executive, and his successor, have consistently refused to properly investigate either what she got away with or the further systemic failings behind the scenes.
In fact if you think about all the middle and senior managers in Wellington and beyond who somehow have the confidence of their chief executive and who might be bullying or conniving their way up the slippery pole – it gets a bit scary.
It’s hard not to talk about workers’ rights without sounding like a socialist but just look at what Harrison did. It’s disgusting. Where does the buck stop and who gets the whistle-blowers their jobs back?
Should Martin Matthews be our auditor general? His mission according to the government website is “Independent Reporting on how your taxes and rates are spent.”
i know i shouldn’t but…
this is in the same basket as mataparae being moved on quickly from head of gcsb to gg. making room for … a close friend of the prime minister.
I have been working for the Labour Party here in ChCh – and will continue to do so – I want to underscore that: anything (well, mostly anything) will be better than this National government.
But – and it’s a big but, the last pamphlet I put in letterboxes said something like:
Fresh faces, Fresh ideas, Fresh policies – so memorable I can’t quite remember if that is exactly what it said, even though I delivered hundreds of them. Frankly, what the fuck does that mean?
Contrast that with the UK Labour slogan – For the Many, Not the Few! It screams class division, it shouts a better deal for the underclass – it says something important and relevant!
We’ve still got a ‘Blairite New Labour in this country – neoliberalism with a smiling face.
The rich have nothing to fear from a NZ Labour government – and I want them to!
It’s a pretty slack leaflet, eh. Labour talking about themselves.
Maybe they have a housing one planned: “New builders, new concepts, new architects”.
Or a homelessness pamphlet saying. “New benches, new blankets, new sprinklers”.
It’s important that they connect with the things that affect their constituents, after all 😈
I thought it was “better housing, better health, better education”
Or something.
I have had 2 in my letterbox. That was one, the other one was Fresh team Fresh ideas Fresh approach. Both leaflets had the message strong plan for New Zealand’s future
“Labour talking about themselves.”
Pithily summed-up, OAB and that’s the nub, “talking about themselves”.
Once they start focusing on and talking about us, the voting public, things will change.
Yeah, we already had one “New Labour” and look how that turned out.
@Tony Veitch. If you understand Corbyn’s campaign it was not about class or division. In fact Labour got Kensington one of the richest electorates. It was about fairness and someone trying to make a difference against the odds.
I agree Labour’s messaging could be a lot better and is currently fairly meaningless but their actions are very hopeful from co operation with Greens and getting rid of many Labour Neoliberal MP’s, to being against the TPPA. The fact Little is being sued to try to ruin him shows the lengths being gone too.
People who think that divisive campaigning will work – rich against poor, young against boomers, working class against middle class or rich – it won’t. 65% ok Kiwis are home owners for a start and that put’s them into middle class or wealthy territory straight off.
Labour and Greens need to get the middle class to vote for them as well as the working class and non working or they will not win the election. Since there are so many job losses for example the ‘working’ class are shrinking and shrinking each year.
It does not help if those that benefit the most from a Labour/Green government are the ones denouncing them and telling people not to vote as there is nobody worth voting for. Those ‘lefties’ might as well be campaigning for the Natz – if that is their message – which of course gives them A LOT of MSM attention as it’s the leftie view reinforcing the right messaging to help get the Natz back in. I’m thinking of an interview with Sue Bradford where she said she did not bother voting last election. Yay, now we get the Natz in! Hope beneficiaries are happy with the last three years!
While Labour has been disappointing in the past, the alternative is another 3 years of Natz privatisation, running down of services, basket case of social services, destruction of democracy, destruction of environment, 1% Tory Maori getting control to collaborate with the Natz sell offs, mass surveillance, corruption and sign up of very dubious ‘trade’ agreements that will destroy NZ sovereignty. My guess Natz will have Nukes here, if they get another term, that is, if they have not already, by lying about it to the public. They lie about everything else and get away with it, it’s not stopping, it’s increasing.
Natz will be going for a Trump style anti regulation, removal of the welfare system. Unlike Trump who uses race and terrorism to get his shock through, our government just makes up stuff, changes statistics, gets rid of media that shows real news like Campbell Live, smears opponents and uses propaganda to keep Kiwis thinking all is well and you are alone if you think that something is not quite right.
Here’s an interesting article. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/10/naomi-klein-now-fight-back-against-politics-fear-shock-doctrine-trump
@SaveNZ – totally agree – and I made the point quite emphatically that I will continue to work to get rid of the bloody Nats!
But I would like to see a genuine appeal by Labour to engage with the million who didn’t vote, by talking equality and fairness, by targeting the fat rich cats who have done so well out of neoliberalism – and I’m not talking about the paper millionaires who are sitting on rising house prices.
A real appeal to socialist principles of a redistribution of the wealth of this country so that everyone gets a fair share!
National will do nothing of the kind.
National are going to propose to run an even more Labour government than they already are.
They will pump-prime the economy with infrastructure spend.
They will continue to shift the lower-end tax brackets.
They will support all parts of NZSuper, Kiwisaver, ACC, EQC, etc.
They will continue New Zealand’s long-settled and consistent direction.
They will accuse the Opposition of division, and having no compelling reasons to change.
@AD – hope that was sarcasm… Natz…
They will pump-prime the economy with infrastructure spend using offshore labour and companies who plan to bring in low wage workers so the profits go offshore, the jobs are not for Kiwis and the imports take up housing, transport and so forth in the middle of major crisis.
They will continue to shift the lower-end tax brackets – Yep beneficiaries got little, low paid workers $1 per week? Wow that will get them out of poverty!
They will support all parts of NZSuper, Kiwisaver, ACC, EQC, – So ACC is more an investment company now, rather than paying out to injured people, EQC again not paying out insurance in a timely manner for many in CHCH, Kiwisaver worth less than before, Natz stopped the Cullen fund leaving super for many in jeopardy.
They will continue New Zealand’s long-settled and consistent direction – yep rising pollution, inequality, climate change denial and low productivity, housing, transport, health and crime crisis…
Hi Tony….
The front cover message reads: Fresh team. Fresh ideas. Fresh approach. Compared to UK Labour nothing like as good. It has a negative… “oh yeah but what kind of fresh? What ideas? What approach? If I were Labour, I would steal UK Labour’s brilliant slogan.
NOTE FOR LABOUR: YOU STAND FOR THE MANY AND NOT THE FEW.
true but that’s still a strong slogan indicating a break with Labour of the recent past and an intention to do things differently.
Thanks Anne – at least I got the ‘Fresh’ part right. But you are correct – Fresh – compared to what?
You realise that slogan was used by Goff in the 2011 election? And before that by Tony Blair?
which slogan? (there’s two in Anne’s comment).
“Standing for the many, not the few” was used by BLP when it was led by Tony Blair and by Phil Goff in the 2011 election.
I don’t think it was the slogan that made people vote for Corbyn and Labour.
Labour – Just Better
Would probably work far better than the overly complicated stuff that they seem to come out with.
Only Just Better.
All improvements gratefully received.
[Im not sure why but all your comments go into moderation GWS. We clear them as quickly as we can … MS]
Agree with DTB.
It took us years to cull Labour’s advertising material from four A4 size pages down to one A4 size page. Even that wasn’t good enough. If we can get their slogan down to three words we will have achieved a miracle. 😯
Better housing better health better education is no good? But it targets what Labour is focusing on for this election.
Answer to Tony @ 7.42 am
Once again got to agree with you. Apart from catchy slogans, I would like to see Labour address this issue. One of the things that really annoys me is the lack of balance on our media which is beyond their control. It is controlled by the likes of Hoskings Gower and now Garner giving their biased opinions and never do we have an opposing opinion, and the right to answer. The Labour party wants to study what happened in Britain as one of the things I think and I could be wrong that brought out the younger generation to vote was the use of social media like Twitter. Corbyn was not going to get a fair go in the media and the younger generation twittering got him that support. The NZ Labour party has to use this type of medium more and any time there is an adverse comment broadcasted they answer not through the media, but through the likes of Twitter because apart from not getting much chance to answer, when they do, it is twisted around to suit the right wing agenda. Recently on the morning programme Garner and that prat Gower together with that other odious prat Mark whatever giving his tuppence worth was making a lot out of Littles statement on housing, not once did they suggest asking the Double Dipping Dickhead from Dipton why after 8 years we were so short of houses it was all about negative spin against Little. In these such cases, the Labour party must have a large counter argument on the likes of Twitter to reach a wider audience.
The media and their commentators after the UK election have lost all its credibility. And any opinions given should be ignored.
There was a good example of this on Q&A this morning which I turned off. They had some female don’t know her name don’t want to know, another “political” commentator “ who was on Garner’s morning programme the other day waxing lyrically how May was going to win by a large majority, and Corbyn this, and Corbyn that. She was so fucking wrong it wasn’t funny, AND YET THIS MORNING THEY STILL HAD HER ON Q&A FOR ANOTHER OPINION. Do we really want to hear her opinions when they are not credible and politically biased? I don’t and of course, they wheeled out and dusted off our Q&A mascot Frankfurter O sullivan. Hence the turn-off.
Labour to get your message out there and across to the younger generation and the not so young, you have got to use social media outlets more ignore the MSM AND the pollsters as they all have lost the little credibility they had after the UK election.
Corbyn’s secrets…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3199550/Take-No-Jeremy-liked-night-eating-cold-beans-cat-called-Harold-Wilson-Corbyn-s-wife-reveals.html
Presented in a rather negative way but pretty colourful just the same. Not everyone enjoys the bright lights. Some of us would be just as full after a packet of fish and chips as with an expensive 3 course dinner.
The MSM are sore losers. This morning on RNZ sports news there wasn’t one mention (in the sports news I heard) of the Lion’s win over the Crusaders. There was plenty on the Tennis Double’s win and the Team NZ win over Artemis but I waited in vain for the results of the Lions/Crusaders win – what a mean attitude to have – we do not have any maturity and mana when we are defeated in this country.
We don’t have Sky and hadn’t heard the result last night so was looking forward to hearing it – hubby found it for us – shame on RNZ.
I suspected the claims GM hadn’t increased crop yields were bullshit – turns out they were: 20-year GMO report card: Biotech shrinks ag’s ecological impact, increased farm income $167 billion.
Confirmation bias!
‘Genetic Literacy Project: Science not ideology’…
Not that you can help the genes interhited..can you?
The world is turning its back on ‘voodoo science’, and will continue to do so..
It’s just “science” – no calling on the assistance of loa is involved. You’re right though that some of the world seems to be turning its back on science, not to mention rationalism in general. However, that’s not a good thing.
Tell that to Indian farmers. I am still sitting on the fence regarding GM. For me the science is far too young . And many studies are financed by GM corporations. No doubt it offers great benefits if proven safe, especially in medicine.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082559/The-GM-genocide-Thousands-Indian-farmers-committing-suicide-using-genetically-modified-crops.html
In the mean time, I will continue with my link to Erzulie.
Y’know, on controversial topics it’s a good idea to check back in every now and then for updated info, rather than relying on a nine year old article as the last word.
For example, here’s just one article that’s checked those claims and found them lacking.
http://www.acsh.org/news/2017/01/07/vandana-shivas-myth-busted-monsanto-didnt-cause-farmer-suicides-india-10696
You are right. I was more interested in the crop failures, not the toppings. I will use a better article.
I read that and all I can think is that it’s possible to have done that with non-GMO crops.
As an example:
The first certainly seems like a stretch. Simply cropping and then leaving the fields fallow would achieve the same ends.
The second needs to be compared with non-GMO crops that had no ‘crop protection products’ sprayed on them. The point is that farmers may be using these products because they believe that they need them rather than them actually needing them or simply using more than they have to because of a belief that they need to use more.
The actual link to the study is here. And I’d love to know what “desk research and analysis” is.
Sure, leaving fields fallow also reduces environmental impact. So, you could get the same environmental benefits from non-GMO crops simply by accepting much lower yields. Can you see how that approach might run into problems getting traction?
As for comparing with crops that had no “crop protection products” used on them, what crops would those be? Organic farmers also use pesticides, just not the same ones as non-organic.
Do they though?
An interesting point was made in an article I read a few years back (may even be linked on this site) that to get those higher yields that GMO producers say that they can get you needed far higher inputs. After all, higher level of growth doesn’t suddenly appear magically.
Yes I can but considering the higher inputs needed and that those higher inputs are the result of fossil fuel use can you see that it may not be sustainable?
As I say, we need to live in reality but a lot of what we do is delusional as they don’t take into account the entire process and the full physical inputs needed.
The same ones that had “crop protection products” to, you know, compare results.
And do they get the same results?
Better results?
What?
We need an actual side by side comparison that takes into account the entire process including recycling.
Squashing a caterpillar between your thumb and forefinger is “applying a pesticide”. The argument goes on and on (and on and on and on). There must be (as is) an approach a person can take to counter/by-pass the problem that Key perfectly described when he said, “I can find another scientist who will counter your scientist…”or whatever it was he slurred out. He was correct. There’s no end to the parsing and countering and often it’s genuinely meant. A person must apply a different measure to all of these issues (GMO, organics, industrial dairying) in order to pick a path they can be sure of. Batting claims back and forward will not do it, imo. Look deeper, listen to the plinking of the waters, feel the ebb and flow in your deepest chambers, the aquifers of your self, to know what it is you believe.
And allowing the birds to munch to their hearts content is as well 😈
I like the idea of being sustainable while providing what we need and allowing the environment to prosper evolve. If those were part of the study then we could at least have some confidence in it.
Belief is what you have when don’t have the facts and we need the facts to make informed decisions.
Belief can be what you choose when you realise that collecting facts from all corners doesn’t answer your questions.
Aptly put, Robert
As an observation, the belief in ‘science’ or the ability to answer ‘questions’ using ‘evidence’ or ‘facts’, is taken too literally…
The irony is, in itself, that is an ideological belief system of its own…
I would go with ‘gut’ and the humanistic traits, 9/10…
Thanks, One Two. I believe we can learn to make decisions well and I think there’s a need to mix un-sciency stuff in there in order to give ourselves the best chance of recognising a good path to take when we stumble upon one.
Robert G
Gut instinct when it comes from the heart even – it isn’t enough to formulate a doable plan that is good for people and environment.
But leave heart feeling out, and we have a clear path to AI and the frozen heartland of laissez faire capitalism, which we have now creeping into our lives and numbing our feelings and brain.
But my suggestion is to adopt a style that can be labelled
pragmatic idealism. Each word modulates the other, but in unison they would take us into the future with hope for a decent society surviving. It has be worked at though, what I see is not encouraging and I appreciate much those still who work for practical good outcomes for people plus environment, those two entwined.
Hey, Grey. Good comment. Hearts and minds, eh! Good combo, imo. Did you see the article today about the screeds of plastic flotsam washed up on the beaches of Pitcairn Island? The “ocean is a dumping ground” effect has become too obvious to ignore and while we should be appalled by what’s resulted, I noted a couple of positive aspects; it was reported on. Much of what is happening never sees the light of the media spotlight, or even makes it into our conversations, but this was right there in front of breakfasting New Zealanders. And the island woman in the photograph looked totally p*ssed off. Fishing communities have for a long time now, accepted flotsam and jetsam as a necessary evil, contributing a fair bit of it themselves, but not now. I think the ubiquitousness of the harm we do, the interconnectivity between here and there, us and them, is becoming apparent in a way that it wasn’t till now. In summing up, I’m encouraged, though my brain says, “what on earth have we done?” my heart sings a little song of hope and the cadence is swelling 🙂
I would go with ‘gut’ and the humanistic traits, 9/10…
Gut instinct tells you that the world is flat, the sun moves across the sky and people who are different from you are not to be trusted. As a means of assessing reality, it’s shit. As for “humanistic traits,” a lot of them are definitely not pretty…
Yeah, but the gut has more nerve endings than the brain 😉
Gut? There are more trustworthy sites in the human body than the gut; I’m voting heart. The brain’s a great option-finder, but the heart’s the decision-maker 🙂
Absolutely agree, Robert…
Heart is the purest form of directional information..
When it’s understood, and regularly exercised…
Most do not understand, because it’s been ‘schooled’ out of them…
Regular re-connection can soon re-tune the conductors…
That, One Two, or ask your wife for advice 🙂
Indeed Robert, indeed!
Common sense isn’t
Which you’ve just proved again.
9/10 going with ‘gut’ instinct is just wrong.
Not sure what you’re talking about, Draco but I’ve noticed you repeating comments regarding ‘common sense’..
I made no such reference, so what you’ve proved is that you couldn’t comprehend my comment…
While you’re searching for answers to questions you don’t understand, using methods which are unnecessary, I’m living life using my innate human traits, honed over many, many years. …
And loving it!
And getting it badly wrong.
And, no, I didn’t misunderstand what you said. You seriously misunderstood what I said.
Gut instinct is generally wrong:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/4-reasons-you-should-never-listen-to-your-gut-a6713931.html
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/shadow-boxing/201303/trust-your-gut-not-so-fast
https://hbr.org/2003/05/dont-trust-your-gut (tossing coins is more effective at getting financial returns from the ‘market’ than going finance trader like Key)
http://maryellenotoole.com/2011/09/top-10-reasons-not-to-go-with-your-gut/
Common sense isn’t.
“ And getting it badly wrong”…
Am I, Draco…really..
How would you know?
Keep repeating your links and mantras…isn’t likely to help, because what I’m referring to went right by you…and you’ve convinced yourself ‘science and tech stuff’ is the path to follow…
Good luck with that..and making decisions on a humanistic level
We each have our level, and are on diffrrent journey’s…
Do they though?
Well, yes. How could leaving your fields fallow not result in a lower yield than using crops that don’t require leaving your fields fallow? Not producing stuff tends to result in lower production than producing stuff does.
We need an actual side by side comparison that takes into account the entire process including recycling.
The question “what would be the least-unsustainable form of agriculture” is a bit broader than the scope of the post.
They still leave the fields fallow – they just do other stuff to them as well like burn them.
No it’s not. In fact, I’d say that it was most definitely within the scope of the post because an unsustainable yield, by definition, cannot be sustained and so making plans on it is an exercise in futility.
Sustainable agriculture is yet to be developed. All the current arguments relating to environmental impacts of different approaches are about more vs less unsustainable – which is a bummer but doesn’t make the arguments an exercise in futility.
Sustainable agriculture has existed well,it is change that disrupted process (self organized criticality)
The Balinese rice fields could serve as an example that under certain conditions it is possible to reach sustainable situations that lead to maximum payoff for all parties, wherein every individual makes free and independent decisions
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-06-fractal-patterns-yeild-optimal-harvests.html#jCp
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/05/31/1605369114
Baks paper here on SOC.
http://www.johnboccio.com/courses/Physics120_2008/docs/btw.pdf
Thanks for playing
Sure, agriculture is “sustainable” on a timescale of centuries, even millennia. That’s as true of GMO cropping as it is of Balinese rice farmers. However, humans have been around for hundreds of thousands of years and no agriculture has yet been developed that’s sustainable on those kind of timescales. When it comes to GMOs, all we’re arguing is to what extent different methods reduce the problem of unsustainability.
I agree with Psycho Milt where he says;
“Sustainable agriculture is yet to be developed” and I’d go further and say that I believe it never will. Just because we are using the system doesn’t mean it fits with the “laws” of the natural world and is able to be sustained. Agriculture is not the answer to the question, “How should humans live”.
+111
Another reason I feel uncomfortable with TOP, and Morgan as politician,
Morgan tweets,
“Gareth Morgan @garethmorgannz 35m35 minutes ago
Gareth Morgan donates $1 million to charity to protest political ad allowances | http://Stuff.co.nz
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/93506706/gareth-morgan-donates-1-million-to-charity-to-protest-political-ad-allowances”
https://twitter.com/garethmorgannz/status/873683301013356544
Sounds great right?
Here’s the link https://vote.top.org.nz/
No explanation of who the four charities are. You have to choose one of the charities and then supply name, address, email address, and post code. Then you get sent a confirmation email. Once you confirm Morgan donates $3 to your charity of choice. You also get an email from TOP with TOP policy aimed at the charity you chose. No unsubscribe option in the email 😉
You can only vote once per email address. Fair enough, but $1million divided by 3 is 333,333. Chances of that many NZers voting on a charity? Will he still donate the full $1million?
Looks like a way to buy an email list. I will be interested to see how it goes and whether NZers will shy away from the whole buying support thing. The difference between political advertising and this is that political advertising at least has the potential to inform people of policies and positions.
The four charities that have been selected are Women’s Refuge, Conservation Volunteers, KidsCan and Lifeline
From your first link.
Obviously. But there is no explanation of what those are on the voting page.
They are all very high profile charities.
I guess this way people get some bang for their taxpayer paid advertising buck. They get to donate to a good cause but have to view a video/email in return.
Morgan has the advantage of being able to bank roll the donations though which isn’t fair. But neither is National getting over $1 million and the largest share from the taxpayer for advertising.
They don’t have to view a video or email in return (or at least I didn’t). They just have to sign up and hand over their email address and postcode. It looks like email harvesting to me and a way to get people through their website. And sure, Morgan has a conscience so he’s good with donating to charity too (although I will be interested to see if he donates the full million). It’s his money, he can spend it however. But I do think it’s another example of his approach. He’s saying on the one hand that the election rules are biased against small parties with no money, then he uses his fortune to garner support for TOP.
So what. Does any political party turn down a donation because it comes from a high net worth individual? Morgan has made no secret of how he is spending his money right from the outset. It’s how our political system works.
Morgan’s strategy has been slammed by Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei as a “gratuitous and cynical way to buy votes”
Donating to well known charities is scarcely cynical or gratuitous. Besides it’s your email address TOP is obtaining … not your vote. Turei should be an experienced enough politician to tell the difference.
1. will the full million be donated? Because that’s the way it’s being promoted.
2. yes, they’re buying emails for $3 a pop. Sure, there is no problem with that, but it’s also up for criticism. That’s how our political system works.
Morgan’s done this sort of thing before. My first encounter with him was well over a decade ago when the Morgan Foundation teamed up with UNICEF to fund village water supply projects in various countries. Essentially he matched dollar for dollar contributions to UNICEF up to a cap of some millions. It worked really well and to this day my automatic payment to UNICEF continues to trickle away, long after Morgan’s cap was exceeded.
Obviously this arrangement is different, but donating to important charities is something Morgan really likes to do with his money. Based on his track record I would argue for his good faith motives in this respect. Whether the $1m cap is reached is entirely up to how many people respond.
Equally he’s pointing out that between them National/Labour/Greens are receiving something in the order of $7m of public funding to have their voices heard in this election. TOP as a newcomer was allocated just 0.5% of this, which is a risible fraction. So he’s come up with this innovative win-win solution that counters this massive imbalance to some degree.
Besides if you really don’t like it, don’t click. That’s how the internet works.
Wow, so the time is coming when you can’t even talk to Yanks now.
How do you defend yourself against Big Brother saying he’s defending somebody, he doesn’t know who or against what but will think of something, and he wants to know that you aren’t proposing something that will break a law that hasn’t yet been defined, or some protocol that guards against something yet to be decided,
and he/she wants to know what you are saying and, through scrambled, unhealthy synapses in Big Brothers brain, chooses to consider your thoughts to be against security or a law emerging out of Big Brother’s head like an Alien baby?
Simple, they were watching before 911 and it still happened. They were watching in Britain, and it still happened. It does not work, terrorism only ends when you address why it happens, not trying to watch and stop it from happening.
Military intelligence is just that – a military event, virtually useless when put into the civilian sphere.
Military “intelligence” is a well known oxymoron.
Was reading a pretty poor analysis on the UK election and this just jumped out like the proverbial dog’s bollocks.
This is Kezia Dugdale (Scottish Labour) on Ruth Davidson (Tory)
“I’m sure she’ll be slightly concerned this Tory resurgence in Scotland is partly down to the borrowed vote from the pro-unionists.”
You getting that? The leader of the Scottish Labour Party is reiterating that Scottish Labour punted for the Tories.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/10/alex-salmond-nicola-sturgeon-snp-conservatives-scottish-independence
You sound surprised Bill.
It was the last Blairight strong hold left in the UK, it is no surprise they did this. None at all, I’d have been more shocked if these wolf had changed to sheep clothing.
Don’t know if you’ve caught any of the links I’ve put up over the past couple of days Adam, but yes, surprised at the sheer brass neck of running an anti-Scottish Government election campaign instead of a Westminster one.
Here’s the witless wonder laying out who she and her party are campaigning against 3 weeks out from election day.
Cool story, bro, but a bit of a shame, for you anyway, to find out the biggest leeching of votes to the conservatives in Scotland came from the SNP itself and not from Scottish Labour.
In fact, out of the seats the conservatives gained from the nationalists, only in three did Labour not increase it’s share of the vote, and even then, their negative percentage was lower than that lost from the SNP itself.
I guess a sound bite makes easier listening than the cold wind of change. Heh.
Gordon
C +29%
SNP -11.8
L +5.9
LD -21.1
Aberdeenshire West & Kincardine
C +19%
SNP -9.1
L +6.5
LD -12.8
Angus
C +16.2%
SNP -15.7
L +4.2
LD +0.5
Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk
C +17.9%
SNP -3.8
L +3.7
LD -14
Dumfries & Galloway
C +13.4%
SNP -9
L -3.8
LD +0.7
Ochil & South Perthshire *
C +20.8%
SNP -10.7
L -8.4
LD +0.7
Stirling *
C +13.9%
SNP -8.9
L -3.4
LD +0.7
Renfrewshire East *
C +18%
SNP -9.3
L -7.3
LD +0.2
Ayr, Carrick & Cumnock *
C +20.3%
SNP -14.7
L -3.4
LD +0.2
No edit, but it’s five seats, though the point is still made.
Moray
C +16%
SNP -10.7
L +1
LD -0.6
Banff & Buchan
C +19.2%
SNP -21.1
L +3.7
LD -1.7
These are simply net percentage point changes – they tell us little about the actual swings happening beneath the surface
The final Scots Polling I’ve seen (YouGov, Survation) as well as the Election day Lord Ashcroft polling of the UK as a whole – all suggest the Tories benefited most from Labour defections, followed by swings from the SNP, with Lib Dem-to-Tory swings close behind
A far greater chunk of 2015 Lib Dems swung Tory in Scotland (41% LDs –
compared to 21% of 2015 Labour voters and just 7% of the 2015 SNP constituency – (YouGov) / 29%, 16%, 6% respectively (Survation)) but, of course, Lib Dems made up a much smaller % of the Scots electorate, so their contribution to the Tory surge wasn’t quite as decisive as first appears
Labour’s own surge came courtesy, first and foremost, of SNP defections (SNP voters were almost twice as likely to swing Labour than they were to swing Tory)
Which isn’t necessarily to deny the possibility that SNP-to-Tory swings were the key feature in some individual seats – but that appears not to have been the case across Scotland as a whole
Great to see a Scottish specialist thank you.
Scottish, Labour and a Unionist. Can’t be all bad then.
Scottish he says? Using the term ‘bro’?! Uh-huh.
Ad. If you want to read some half decent commentary and analysis, as opposed to just dropping asinine comments into a thread, then try this. (Plenty of links to back up arguments/observations).
Otherwise, carry on.
Don’t disrespect my heritage because I’ve used the vernacular of the street, so to speak. When in Rome, etc. Bro. 😉
As for the numbers, you can deny them if you want, if that’s what you’re doing, but they’re real and not going to go away.
No talking head can trump cold hard numbers. just look at Banf. That’s cold.
Nobody’s denying the numbers.
Nobody’s denying that Kezia Dugdale ran against the Scottish Government and not the Westminster one.
Nobody’s denying that suited Ruth Davidson down to the ground (wedge politics).
Nobody’s denying the turnout was down all across Scotland.
Nobody’s denying that Scotland was the only place the Tories made over-all gains.
Nobody’s denying the SNP were going to lose seats no matter what.
Nobody’s denying Kezia Dugdale effectively handed the keys of number 10 to May with her witless bullshit. (Some besides yourself may be)
Some do deny it’s something in the water at SLab HQ that’s produced both “glue head” Kelly as a leader and and now *this* equally weird and hopeless case (both Blairites).
Russian, Israel, Arab hip-hop. It just works…
Oh, just another all girl Indonesian metal band doing a SlipKnot cover. Hijabs included.
And an acoustic Chilis cover, too.
In other election news,the French get to decide if Macron is a Macron or a Micron.
8,000 candidates for 577 jobs.
https://www.thelocal.fr/20170609/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-french-parliamentary-elections
heh
https://twitter.com/jimwaterson/status/873294357264297985
France is offering grants of up to 1.5 million Euro for climate scientists to move there.
To all responsible citizens:
On the 1st of June, President Donald Trump decided to withdraw the United States from the Paris agreement, which gathered more than 190 countries united against climate change.
This decision is unfortunate but it only reinforced our determination. Don’t let it weaken yours.
We are ONE planet and Together, we can make a difference.
France has always led fights for human rights. Today, more than ever, we are determined to lead (and win!) this battle on climate change.
Emmanuel Macron, President of France.
https://www.makeourplanetgreatagain.fr/home
https://www.makeourplanetgreatagain.fr/
That is so damned cool. The 1.5m Euro is smart thinking, but the “Make our planet great again” meme is absolutely the perfect comeback … and more.
It goes right to the sense of global citizenship I’ve always argued for … and way more importantly … resonates very strongly with so many younger people.
Only a month ago UK Labour did badly in the local elections. The turn around started with the leaking of the manifesto. It had bold and old left policies that were very popular and showed neo liberalism was dead. We are not at that point in our election campaign yet. Let’s hope there is a courageous NZ LP manifesto in production.
While most of this site is having a global wet dream on labours loss in the Uk, labour gains where more about how bad may was not how good labour was. U.K. Electoral boundaries are about to be changed removing 30 labour electorates that no longer have population to support as electorates , Torys Learn fast, the next tory pm won’t be may nor will next Tory campaign beamateur hour, so enjoy your loss my lefty pumpkins while you can, yes you still loss to the most incompetent election campaign ever
[lprent: Since we are talking about incompetents, then please look at yourself in a mirror. You are currently the second biggest timewaster around for moderators.
Select ONE handle and ’email’ address and stick to it. Normally I tend to view people maintaining multiple commenting logins are probably trying to spoof the system here. Which I don’t like. In your case I suspect simple incompetence – which annoys me.
While moderators don’t mind occasionally fixing or releasing typos, you appear to do it every few messages. So to save moderator effort, I’ll give you a day or so to select a combination between handle and email. Then I will select that one as being your only combination. I will change the existing comments to that combo, and consign all emails to autospam.
If I see new ones coming through, then I will just permanently ban you for wasting moderator time. This is your warning and chance to show that as a tory – you can learn very fast. ]
105 years ago.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ROTWKG19120814.2.56.5?query=coal%20consumption
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/rodney-and-otamatea-times-waitemata-and-kaipara-gazette/1912/8/14/7
edit: Snopes has the backstory
http://www.snopes.com/1912-article-global-warming/
For anyone ignorant of the history of climate science, it had already been understood since 1824 that something in the atmosphere was trapping heat making Earth warmer than it “should be”. It’s been understood since 1861 that CO2 is a big part of that something.
https://skepticalscience.com/cshistory.php
May’s post election poll headache.
http://mailchi.mp/survation/post-election-poll-for-the-mail-on-sunday-1118541
Very interesting thanks
Watch this debate hit our shores very fast.
For all of you activist types with dodgy opinions, and have Facebook or Gmail or Apple accounts:
“Australia will seek cooperation from social media companies such as Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. to decrypt communication between terrorist groups.
Attorney General George Brandis told Sky News on Sunday the government would consider changes to Australia’s laws to ensure telecommunications and technology firms help authorities decipher suspect messages.
“My concern is the existing laws don’t go far enough in imposing obligations of cooperation upon the corporates,” Brandis said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-06-09/trump-can-accept-payments-from-foreign-governments-u-s-argues
I’m just slightly betting that the definition of terrorism gets to expand a wee bit.
Why employ the best fishermen with the best and biggest nets if you’re not going to fish, after all?
If you have good equipment and are paid to do something and find something well sooner rather than later someone will ask if you have been successful. If you haven’t then you’ll hear that you haven’t been trying hard enough, the equipment can’t be up to scratch etc.
There might be a career in inventing things for them to find.
(It should be known that I am a junior in the computing world, but I have learned how people think who sit tapping rather than get outside with those of humanity who do actual physical work. Sorry to lprent and others, but I think we will live to regret the lovely machines that 0 and 1 developed.)
Get right to the end … a powerful message.
Time for non-parliamentary politics – ie, socialism. Personally, I’ll take social democracy, but only by way of a very short term stepping stone.
Seriously (and I don’t care if a person calls themselves a Marxist or an anarchist, autonomous communist or whatever), it’s time to look through the arguments and thoughts of radicals/progressives/socialists from the late 19th and early 20th century, pick up the wheels they already invented, put a 21st Century body on the chassis, and get a move on.
It’s Sanders last few para’s that put socialism into a global context which truly inspire me. That’s where the wheels will get the 21st century traction you’re looking for.
Well, yeah. He essentially expressed the moral and intellectual core or imperatives of socialism without the using the word socialism 🙂
My sticking point with Sanders (and this applies to Corbyn too), is that he seems to view some some overhauled configuration of current nation state institutions as the way to achieve socialism. And it’s not the way – can’t be the way.
It’s an old argument I know, but early socialists split on that same notion of whether a parliament could deliver socialism. Well, the history is there to look at now.
Besides. Socialism is, and always was, about process not outcomes. So, y’know, my eyes roll when I hear people suggest that some government policy or other is “socialist”. That’s simply not possible.
People getting all enthusiastic about the supposed socialist underpinnings of (say) some government’s housing policy is ardent nonsense that merely indicates they’re willing to throw the terms “socialism” or “socialist” about, without having the faintest idea about what those things are.
‘Labour AHEAD of Tories by six points in stunning new poll as public say Theresa May should resign.
Jeremy Corbyn would be Prime Minister if an election was held tomorrow, according to the pollster which most accurately predicted Thursday’s election result.
A new poll by Survation puts Labour six points ahead of the Tories on 45% of the vote.
The Tories, meanwhile, polled 39% – almost four points below their result in the general election.
It is the first time since Theresa May took power that any poll has put Labour ahead of the Conservatives.’
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/most-accurate-pollster-suggests-labour-10602762