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.’
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
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A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan resistance leader has condemned the United Nations role in allowing Indonesia to “integrate” the Melanesian Pacific region in what is claimed to be an “egregious act of inhumanity” on 1 May 1963. In an open letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A key part of the Albanese government’s political strategy is to fill the news cycle with its presence and messaging. Ministers are deployed to the maximum, even when they’ve little to say. This week ...
Recent extreme weather events showed the importance of a well-functioning insurance system, says Commerce and Consumer Affairs minister Andrew Bayly. ...
By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Brakenridge, Postdoctoral research fellow at Swinburne University, Centre for Urban Transitions, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute The Conversation, Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock People have a pretty intuitive sense of what is healthy – standing is better than sitting, exercise is great for overall ...
The Wellington-based Reserve Force soldier is now almost three years into his New Zealand Army career with 5th/7th Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. ...
"The Government needs to release the review immediately as this reckless approach to change risks disjointed decision making and creates more distress and uncertainty for staff," Fitzsimons said. ...
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