—Weatherman Sam Wallace, TV1 Breakfast, 7:40 a.m., Wednesday 10 July 2013
See also….
No. 25 Margaret Thatcher: “…no British government involvement of any kind…with Khmer Rouge…”
No.24 John Key: “…at the end of the day I, like most New Zealanders, value the role of the fourth estate…”
No. 23 Jay Carney: “…expel Mr Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice…”
No. 22 Mike Bush: “Bruce Hutton had integrity beyond reproach.”
No. 21 Tim Groser: “I think the relationship is genuinely in outstanding form.”
No. 20 John Key: “But if the question is do we use the United States or one of our other partners to circumvent New Zealand law then the answer is categorically no.”
No. 19 Matthew Hooton: “It is ridiculous to say that unions deliver higher wages! They DON’T!” No. 18 Ant Strachan: “The All Blacks won the RWC 2011 because of outstanding defence!”
No. 17 Stephen Franks: “Peter has been such a level-headed, safe pair of hands.”
No. 16 Phil Kafcaloudes: “Tony Abbott…hasn’t made any mistakes over the past eighteen months.”
No. 15 Donald Rumsfeld: “I did not lie… Colin Powell did not lie.”
No. 14 Colin Powell: “a post-9/11 nexus between Iraq and terrorist organizations…connections are now emerging…”
No.13 Barack Obama: “Simply put, these strikes have saved lives.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-27052013/#comment-638881
No. 12 U.K. Ministry of Defence: “Protecting the Afghan civilian population is one of ISAF and the UK’s top priorities.”
No. 11 Brendan O’Connor: “Australia’s approach to refugees is compassionate and generous.”
No. 10 Boris Johnson: “Londoners have… the best police in the world to look after us and keep us safe.”
No. 9 NewstalkZB PR dept: “News you NEED! Fast, fair, accurate!”
No. 8 Simon Bridges: “I don’t mean to duck the question….”
No. 7 Nigel Morrison: “Quite frankly, they’ve been VERY tough.” http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15052013/#comment-633295
No. 6 Herald PR dept: “Congratulations—you’re reading New Zealand’s best newspaper.” No. 5 Rawdon Christie: “…a FORMIDABLE replacement, it seems, is Claudette Hauiti.” http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-13052013/#comment-632594
No. 4 Willie and J.T.: “The X-Factor. Nah, nah, there’s some GREAT talent there!”
No. 3 John Key: “Yeah we hold MPs to a higher standard.”
No. 2 Colin Craig: “Oh, I have a GREAT sense of humour.”
No. 1 Barack Obama: “Margaret Thatcher was one of the great champions of freedom and liberty.”
Humbug Corner is dedicated to gathering, and highlighting, the most striking examples of faux solicitude, insincere apologies, and particularly stupid recycling of official canards. It is produced by the Insincerity Project®, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
More disgusting humbugs….
No. 15 John Key: “They know this is an issue of national security.”
No. 14 Charles Saatchi: “I abhor violence of any kind against women…”
No. 13 Toyota NZ: “The more Kiwis that lean, the more motivated our ETNZ crew will be to win.”
No. 12 Pem Bird: “We’re there to do the business of advancing our people.”
No.11 Whenua Patuwai: “They’re my brothers and to see one of them goes [sic]—it’s tough.”
No. 10 [REMOVED]
No. 9 [REMOVED]
No. 8 Barack Obama: “…people standing up for what’s right…yearning for justice and dignity…” No. 7 Barack Obama: “Nelson Mandela is my personal hero…”
No. 6 John Key: “Yeah well the Greens’ answer to everything is rail, isn’t it.”
No.5 Dr. Rodney Syme: “If you want good, open, honest practice, you have to make it transparent.”
No. 4 Mike Bush: “Bruce Hutton’s… integrity beyond reproach…such great character…”
No. 3 Dean Lonergan: “Y’ know what? The only people who will mock them are people who are dwarfists.”
No. 2 Peter Dunne: “What a load of drivel and sanctimonious humbug…”
No. 1 Dominic Bowden: “It’s okay to be speechless.”
I see the guys over at Scoop have posted the latest Maori Party response to Labour colluding with National to further entrench police brutality as a means of quashing dissent.
Labour/National shut down inquiry
The Māori Party is reeling at the decision of both Labour and National parties, to shut down the proposed Māori Affairs Select Committee inquiry into the impact of Operation Eight.
“The concern for the Māori Party has always been how the events of 15 October 2007 impacted on the affected whānau, and the official responses made to them,” said Te Ururoa Flavell, MP for Waiariki.
“We had hoped that members of parliament from all parties would care about the human cost of Operation Eight; – that they would want to understand how ordinary New Zealanders felt about the initial actions of the Police and subsequent findings that many of those actions were contrary to law, unjustified and unreasonable.”
Not surprising really when considering it was a Labour regime that oversaw the paramilitary raid carried out against Tuhoe. Does anyone know what Meka Whaitiri has been instructed to say by Shearer and his little cartel?
Atrocious but not surprising behaviour from Labour. Silver lining might be greater support for Mana. Maori Party’s already irreparably damaged so hopefully Mana will now pick up the support Labour’s kicking in the guts.
Santi is a known right wing troll who posts obsessively in favour of David Shearer because the longer Shearer keeps his job the better it is for the right.
But no. Santi is trying to emulate INTELLIGENCE – however he picked windows CE running basica as the platform. Makes him look like an early generation virus.
I don’t normally listen to Radiolive but Duncan Garner was interesting last night. He went head to head with Labour bovver boy Clayton Cosgrove and outed him as the head of ABC. Garner was the person who reported on ABC last year and is the best one to say who the leaker of the comments was.
Presuming this is true Cosgrove is guilty of breaching caucus solidarity, undermining a colleague by spinning crap and harming the interests of the Labour Party. He is a disgrace.
Duncan Garner gets a phone-call from a Labour MP on Tuesday night. Did he ring the MP back to check the call was from him? Could he have been hoaxed? In other words it wasn’t the MP but someone else.
And what about the letter Gower is said to have received from a Labour MP. Did Gower check with the writer that it was indeed from him?
Between 1975 and 1985 I knew two individuals – male and female – who did the same kind of thing. The male in particular had a talent for mimicking people’s voices. They caused no end of trouble and included among their victims were high profile politicians. Their motivation was political and designed to create trouble for the persons they targeted. One of them fessed up to being the culprits years later but it was way to late for me to do anything about it.
Duncan Garner gets a phone-call from a Labour MP on Tuesday night. Did he ring the MP back to check the call was from him?
Good question. I’d have never thought of the scenario you posited. In the days of caller ID it should make it harder to do what you described, but you never know.
The story is that garner got a text from an MP. and he rang the MP to talk about it. The MP told him Gower had the letter. Garner’s mistake was not checking in with Gower before running the story.
The only other checking he did was to call a non-mp Labour connected person who only gave him hearsay that the coup was on. they said they had heard it might be, and that they had hears rumours of the letter. garner figured that was enough.
Basically he got owned by his mp source, and remains so.
Basically he got owned by his mp source, and remains so.
This sounds like a Labour MP, but not Cosgrove, pushing the agenda of destabilisation. An interesting question: was the MP who Garner rang the same MP who wrote the “putting Shearer on notice” email of a fortnight ago. Its all very murky and unpleasant in that caucus.
And a lot of MPs are pissed off with Shearer over his handling of the “manban”. If his stock was low two weeks ago, it took another plummet in caucus this week.
Re: And a lot of MPs are pissed off with Shearer over his handling of the “manban”.
Speaking for myself, I was less than happy and I am trying not to be disillusioned with Shearer.
In my eyes, he has been incompetent at brokering, managing and showing leadership abilities in holding, fostering and, indeed, wisely managing, the interface between the caucus/parliamentary and the sectoral/membership/wider party wings.
I am determined not to stay at home on polling day next year. However, I will personally find it quite hard to feel positive about giving Labour a tick, let alone two ticks.
The story is that garner got a text from an MP. and he rang the MP to talk about it.
You could be right Pb. I may have misheard Garner on that link. I thought he said he got a text from an MP and that was followed by a phone-call. I presumed it was from the MP.
I got the impression that he had talked to this mp before (that this texting was not unusual) and so he rang the mp to find out more. What I wondered is given Duncan declared Clayton as a main ‘leaker’ on Cunliffe are there grounds for a complaint to the party council? I seem to remember last year Shearer said there wasn’t enough evidence, but maybe that should be revisited?
Hi Pascals bookie. Had a chance to listen to that link again. Garner did say he received a text AND a phone call from a Labour MP. He also spoke of an ‘outside source’ but he doesn’t elaborate. If my conjecture that he might have been hoaxed has any substance then it may well have been someone other than a Lab. caucus member.
Keep on whistling in the dark James. It’s coming, the cold light of dawn. Whadya gonna say then ?
No “empire” lasts forever James. Strangely, as more and more evidence of advised joint action comes out, ‘sus’ enough for it to have been heavily concealed, you whistle louder, like a frantic thrush.
Anyone else notice the other side of Mr Nice-guy? Turned on the real assassin type tone in the corridors of the Beehive yesterday when asked his stance on the conscience vote – “They can vote against it if they like, but they won’t because they campaigned on the convention centre…”
He did not look a happy chappy. Looked incredibly nasty actually. And after the Campbell Live lead last night I think he will be even less smiling.
But when it comes to an opposition voice that should be making hay – what do we get?
Yeah – Framu – I thought that was a bit odd too because I couldn’t recall the convention centre being a part of the last campaign either ! I reckon it was code for “you’ll lose your seat if you don’t vote for the convention centre” .
As to the would-be Labour coup, all the “would be leaders” named in the media so far – Jones, Little, Cosgrove, Robertson – NONE of them are in an electorate seat. They are all List MPs – – seemingly unable to make a sufficient dent in the Labour vote to get themselves voted in properly.
This tells you heaps of their (non) ability to become a leader !
They are all List MPs – – seemingly unable to make a sufficient dent in the Labour vote to get themselves voted in properly.
I really do wish people would stop this BS. They did get voted in properly. The fact that they’re on the list would also tend to indicate that they have the necessary skills and ambition.
Nope, they’ve proven themselves somehow else they wouldn’t be on the list.
That is the most ridiculous, stupid non-logic I’ve heard. It ignores the politics, horse trading, personal sponsorship, etc. which goes into putting the party list together. It further assumes that merit is the major element for placement on the party list. And finally, it fails to recognise that getting on to the list proves fuck all about performance and ability as an MP, as demonstrated by a good third of the MPs in Parliament today.
The illogic was in thinking that getting an electorate seat was any different. People don’t vote for candidates in the electorate, they still vote for the party. This may change over time but I’m not really expecting it to as it’s easier to track the parties than all the individual candidates.
as demonstrated by a good third of the MPs in Parliament today.
I suspect the same could have been said 30+ years ago.
Some great listener comments on Morning Report with regards to the failed GST tax law.
My Fav (paraphrased): “Maurice Williamson says the new law is impractical to implement. Why doesn’t the government just use the GCSB to make sure NZers comply with the law?”
I wasn’t sure about the Canadian train staffing but guessed that the firm would have a minimum crew, and possibly the one. I was right. Now the top cheese is blaming him, all the expensive, dangerous freight was one man’s responsibility.
There was presumably some emergency system that would operate if he had collapsed at his job, and probably most of it was automatic and he just monitored everything. But while it is okay to run a burger bar in a caravan at a fairground with one person, when there is flammable dangerous freight, having back up staff is important. Especially if the train would be left standing while the guy had a much needed meal, and bed and shower etc. Someone should be with the train in a state of alert at all times, sleeping out would have to be on shift.
I wonder why the highly paid managers at this freight company didn’t accept that as an undeniable truth. Maybe that lack of foresight and care is an example of the low level of effectiveness and practicality of modern management altogether. I hear of other things elsewhere, cuts to staff, pressures on the remainder, acceptance of tenders made with unreasonably optimistic deadlines and costs etc. Corners cut to meet competition yet allow enough profit cream to be skimmed at the top. Right here in NZ of course, as well as overseas. One of the reasons we will never ‘match Australia’s wages’ blah blah blah, or indeed balance our current account.
Erebus! A plane put at risk because of head office fiddling with no respect for the precious cargo. Who got blamed – the pilot. And thereby hangs a tale.
Yes Rosetint I was ‘surprised’ that the driver was able to leave the train with the brake off. Surely there at least there should have been back up systems.
73 rail cars, the hand brakes need to be set car by car manually, a worker set some handbrakes in case the air brakes failed, but not enough to stop the train.
WORKING ALONE
In this case, the train was manned by a single worker, the engineer. There are no rules against one-person crews, Luc Bourdon, Transport Canada’s director general for rail safety, said this week. Montreal, Maine & Atlantic, the train’s owner, successfully applied last year to have just a single operator on the line. Bourdon also said it is rare — but not against the rules — to leave a train unattended on a main line.
In my view: the company saving CA$50,000 per year may have helped contribute to the killing of dozens of people.
Latest news is that the corporation is going to hang out to dry the single employee present, an engineer. Its all his fault for not following company handbrakes procedure, you see.
The rail car tankers involved in the crash have been known in Canada since the 1990’s to be too thin skinned to survive a crash and immediate rupture on impact spilling contents was predictable.
Extra things not mentioned here … there was no limit to the number of this type of carriage that could make up any one individual train .. but possibly most troubling is there was nothing to monitor it or alert anyone to the fact there was a runaway train crashing downhill towards them .. once the train started its 11 km downhill run, steadily increasing speed to more than 100kms it was doing so for a full 18 minutes before derailing .. time at least to have emptied the centre of town and save dozens of lives with a better saafety system in place.
The mighty dollar and profit-talking rules over people every single time.
I have copied Draco T Bastard 6.1.2 from 10/7 – No one was there to meet them –
as it seems to match what I have been saying.
This was one company.
Don’t kid yourself – there’s other businesses out there that are purposefully disregarding safety because it costs money. I know this from listening to my family that happen to be working in fairly dangerous jobs (usually construction).
The real challenge is how do you manage for that through regulations without making it much, much harder for other good companies to operate.
You stop whinging about it being too hard and do the bloody job properly.
My, how you, supreme know not what you say dolt, how you put your stupid foot in your stupid mouth !
“People shouldn’t be able to avoid tax by purchasing offshore”. Very well.
What then was the quid pro quo promised to and taken by the movers and shakers of the National Party when they “purchased” ShonKey Python from offshore back ’round ’02 ?
Good luck policing this, a large number of offshore sales get labelled gift or with a false value on the customs decleration now, they even have space on the order form where you can intruct them what to write. Many of these are large legit companies that don’t large VAT and will post for free from the UK so even if they do hit you with a few dollars gst it will still be way cheaper than nz retail.
Also they will need a small army to open and check the volume of packages coming in many will yield just a few dollars of gst, not even close to covering the costs involved with closing them back up etc…
Funny thing – the main reason why people buy stuff overseas and ship it here is not due to GST costs, it’s because even after you strip off GST and shipping, it’s usually cheaper to buy quite a few things online from overseas. Games, computer hardware, tramping equipment, books etc all are usually much, much cheaper overseas due to sellers meeting the local market, whereas NZ retailers oft run into issues with importers/suppliers charging a premium or they have a monopoly on a particular brand and thus can get away with higher prices.
Though I’ve noticed with tramping gear that some of the importers/suppliers and retailers have much more saner costings while the presence of pricespy.co.nz has lead to huge reductions in computer hardware costs, that occasionally match overseas prices.
If National wanted to keep online purchases in check, they’d push for a lower NZ dollar, something the manufacturing enquiry recommended a little hole back.
Good point Pete. I also thought National was in favour of free trade, which this tax would inhibit. Most bulk importers are already exempt from paying GST on imported goods and the price difference is simply because they’re ripping us off. There is also taxes payable on imported goods to the governments where these items are manufactured, so you would effectively be getting taxed twice.
If National wants to increase their tax take they should help local manufacturers to compete through limiting free trade agreements, lowering the NZ dollar and promoting local businesses. They should also ensure that people have enough money to buy the New Zealand made products they require. Making the consumer pay for a completely failed globalization agenda, which should have raised wages in developing countries instead of lowering ours, is typical of the Natz. Bunch of bloody morons!
Even if the policy could be implemented by making overseas owned companies charge GST at point of sale (not likely) or checking every package that enters New Zealand and wasting time trying to extort more money from already struggling Kiwis, the costs involved in such a logistical nightmare are prohibitive.
There will be no benefit for consumers, which is probably why this proposal is going down like a cold cup of sick even on right wing blogs.
Making the consumer pay for a completely failed globalization agenda, which should have raised wages in developing countries instead of lowering ours,
When at Uni the economics professor put up a chart that showed that wages in developed countries would go down to meet the (supposedly increasing) developing countries. The problem is that there’s actually far too much labour in the world (and there always will be) so wages must always go down in a “free-market” situation. This is the direct result of increasing productivity which we’ve seen ever since we started agriculture.
I see there is a Gay Ski Week on down south. How nice if another group that receives much disapprobation – the single parents group – could afford to have something similar that they could afford to go to, and take their children, and have some fun like the gays. Then everybody would be gay.
Really, this bothers you somehow? A group of people are being marketed at because of a perceived disposable income. Newsflash for you pinktinted, not all “The Gays” will be in any better position to afford a ski week any more than you. Some will. Get over it.
In 2010, Auckland Council became the largest non-bank borrower in domestic capital markets after the New Zealand Government. Award judges said the treasury team overcame many challenges to transform council into a world-class borrower using innovative solutions.
Yes, one the innovative solutions, is Interest Rates Swaps, for starters, another being that AKL has become the default underwriter, not only of its own debt, but that of other regions debt, also!
World Class borrower, is one of the most ridiculous oxy-morons I’ve ever heard.
No doubt, high five’s, back slapping and cigars all round, at the heist!
Assuming the judges panel consisted of the debt holders, and or their representatives!!!
Varoa mite.
P.S.A.
Super white butterfly in Malborough.
Dont worry about that mate.
The most important thing is shifting your arse in a car down a motorway and shaving 5 minutes off your time to work.
Didn’t make the Herald comments again, despite the article only having six comments at the time. I thought it was quite lightweight really, and was surprised it didn’t go up.
Robyn Pearce’s article What my daughter learnt about Mandela’s leadership style was pretty innocuous and inoffensive (if you ignore the description of “sea of ebony-black faces”) and a somewhat self-congratulatory tribute to Mandela.
My response picked up the following from the article” “One of the things Lenora and I had quickly noticed was the (to us) unnatural subservience accorded their leaders. It wasn’t hard to see how such societies are easy targets for corrupt leaders who seek power in order to suck the system dry.”
The gist of my comment : the original of which now only exists on Prism
Africa is not the only place where unquestioning subservience is given to their leaders.
Here in NZ we have a PM that is often flippant, arrogant and inconsistent. It seems our general public and MSM do not have a problem with this, but many would expect our premier statesman to show dignity, integrity and have accountability.
Corruption occurs when leaders and their processes lack integrity, transparency, accountability and consequences. This can occur in a democracy as well as in a tribal society. Corruption is a misuse of power, not a result of an alternative system of government
JMG is really pulling some good stuff together on his blog – required reading for anyone interested in reality and what the hell to do about it.
Look around, dear reader, and you’ll see a civilization in decline, struggling ineffectually with the ecological overshoot, the social disintegration, the institutional paralysis, and the accelerating decay of infrastructure that are part and parcel of the normal process by which civilizations die. This is what the decline and fall of a civilization looks like in its early-to-middle stages—and it’s also what I’ve been talking about, very often in so many words, since not long after this blog got under way seven years ago. Back then, as I’ve already mentioned, it was reasonable to propose that something else might happen, that we’d get the fast crash or the green-energy breakthrough or all the new petroleum that the law of supply and demand was supposed to provide us, but none of those things happened. (Of course, neither did the mass landing of UFOs or any of the other more colorful fantasies, but then that was never really in question.) It’s time to recognize that the repetition of emotionally appealing but failed predictions is not a helpful response to the crisis of our time, and in fact has done a great deal to back us into the corner we’re now in.
The Standard – blog publication originating from early West Coast paper publication also called The Standard, I understand…
This day, today Thursday 11th July, the Greymouth Star an evening publication of similar heritage, opinion page, offers us ….
West Coast Yesteryear column 1963 – complaints about the Council’s “Bailies black budget”, and congratulations for the nation’s highest producing pedgree Jersey herd from Harihari..
Chris Trotter’s column – commanding a solid space to tell us that David Shearer isn’t a Labour leader’s arse..
Fran O’Sullivan’s column – slamming the corporates and their people over Pike River..
and the Faith column – “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a watchtower; then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.” – Mark 12:1″
Just saw the Campbell Live segment on WINZ making pensioners claim for overseas pensions, or they’ll get their pension cut. And the paper work to apply for an Aussie one is apparently horrendous.
And the woman interviewed only spent a few years in Aussie, probably isn’t entitled to one, but still has to claim for it …. pages and pages of the form to work through.
I’m a little confused also. I have a small amount in an Aussie super scheme which was compulsory to pay into, in the few short years I was there. But it seems there’s another Aussie state pension that anyone who spent time in Aussie, needs to apply for. And if they are elligible for it, they also need to open an Aussie bank accoutn.
I’m thankful that I’ve already sorted out my UK state (and an occupational pension) schemes. WINZ and the IRD know all about them.
But, now I need to fill in an NZ tax return each year, and that’s a horrendous exercise too. Thankfully I also have a trusted accountant acquaintance that does it for me. Apparently it’s not that easy for an accountant to work it out the first time they encounter it.
How in the hell is your average pensioner, especially the less well off ones, meant to sort all this out, if they don’t have some sort of middle-class networks they can draw on?
And quite a few Kiwis have spent some time in Aussie in their lifetimes, some of them on fairly average incomes.
Geezzzz…the government needs to work out a better way to get WINZ to balance their books,
A new name for the national party is needed because the good that was in that partys is history
Maybe the Mamby Pamby Party cos thats the way they all sound to an ordinary person
The latest abuse of power Bennett gone to Malta to look up five Kiwis AND HAVE A BLOODY GOOD HOLIDAY ON OUR MONEY
I hope the old mans ghost makes a mistake and bombs her cruiser when shes sight seeing around the Mediterranean
I suppose they might have been mailed yesterday, so the one to the French would have been sent on the anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior. Curious combination though – but who knows the logic of idiots…
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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 ...
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. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
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 ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
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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 ...
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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. ...
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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 ...
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LIARS OF OUR TIME
No. 26: Sam Wallace
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“So here we are—Otahuhu. It’s just a great place to be, really.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
—Weatherman Sam Wallace, TV1 Breakfast, 7:40 a.m., Wednesday 10 July 2013
See also….
No. 25 Margaret Thatcher: “…no British government involvement of any kind…with Khmer Rouge…”
No.24 John Key: “…at the end of the day I, like most New Zealanders, value the role of the fourth estate…”
No. 23 Jay Carney: “…expel Mr Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice…”
No. 22 Mike Bush: “Bruce Hutton had integrity beyond reproach.”
No. 21 Tim Groser: “I think the relationship is genuinely in outstanding form.”
No. 20 John Key: “But if the question is do we use the United States or one of our other partners to circumvent New Zealand law then the answer is categorically no.”
No. 19 Matthew Hooton: “It is ridiculous to say that unions deliver higher wages! They DON’T!” No. 18 Ant Strachan: “The All Blacks won the RWC 2011 because of outstanding defence!”
No. 17 Stephen Franks: “Peter has been such a level-headed, safe pair of hands.”
No. 16 Phil Kafcaloudes: “Tony Abbott…hasn’t made any mistakes over the past eighteen months.”
No. 15 Donald Rumsfeld: “I did not lie… Colin Powell did not lie.”
No. 14 Colin Powell: “a post-9/11 nexus between Iraq and terrorist organizations…connections are now emerging…”
No.13 Barack Obama: “Simply put, these strikes have saved lives.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-27052013/#comment-638881
No. 12 U.K. Ministry of Defence: “Protecting the Afghan civilian population is one of ISAF and the UK’s top priorities.”
No. 11 Brendan O’Connor: “Australia’s approach to refugees is compassionate and generous.”
No. 10 Boris Johnson: “Londoners have… the best police in the world to look after us and keep us safe.”
No. 9 NewstalkZB PR dept: “News you NEED! Fast, fair, accurate!”
No. 8 Simon Bridges: “I don’t mean to duck the question….”
No. 7 Nigel Morrison: “Quite frankly, they’ve been VERY tough.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15052013/#comment-633295
No. 6 Herald PR dept: “Congratulations—you’re reading New Zealand’s best newspaper.” No. 5 Rawdon Christie: “…a FORMIDABLE replacement, it seems, is Claudette Hauiti.” http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-13052013/#comment-632594
No. 4 Willie and J.T.: “The X-Factor. Nah, nah, there’s some GREAT talent there!”
No. 3 John Key: “Yeah we hold MPs to a higher standard.”
No. 2 Colin Craig: “Oh, I have a GREAT sense of humour.”
No. 1 Barack Obama: “Margaret Thatcher was one of the great champions of freedom and liberty.”
Humbug Corner
No. 16: BARACK OBAMA
“I wish Muslims across America & around the world a month blessed with the joys of family, peace & understanding.”
—tweet by President Barack Obama at start of Ramadan, 10 July 2013
Check out Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle’s perfect response….
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1373471691.html
Humbug Corner is dedicated to gathering, and highlighting, the most striking examples of faux solicitude, insincere apologies, and particularly stupid recycling of official canards. It is produced by the Insincerity Project®, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
More disgusting humbugs….
No. 15 John Key: “They know this is an issue of national security.”
No. 14 Charles Saatchi: “I abhor violence of any kind against women…”
No. 13 Toyota NZ: “The more Kiwis that lean, the more motivated our ETNZ crew will be to win.”
No. 12 Pem Bird: “We’re there to do the business of advancing our people.”
No.11 Whenua Patuwai: “They’re my brothers and to see one of them goes [sic]—it’s tough.”
No. 10 [REMOVED]
No. 9 [REMOVED]
No. 8 Barack Obama: “…people standing up for what’s right…yearning for justice and dignity…” No. 7 Barack Obama: “Nelson Mandela is my personal hero…”
No. 6 John Key: “Yeah well the Greens’ answer to everything is rail, isn’t it.”
No.5 Dr. Rodney Syme: “If you want good, open, honest practice, you have to make it transparent.”
No. 4 Mike Bush: “Bruce Hutton’s… integrity beyond reproach…such great character…”
No. 3 Dean Lonergan: “Y’ know what? The only people who will mock them are people who are dwarfists.”
No. 2 Peter Dunne: “What a load of drivel and sanctimonious humbug…”
No. 1 Dominic Bowden: “It’s okay to be speechless.”
Good piece here on some of the dynamics in Syria:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/10/syria-al-nusra-front-jihadi?CMP=twt_gu
And here is evidence that there is popular resistance to al Qaeda type groups taking over the revolution against Bashar al-Assad.
http://syriafreedomforever.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/syria-the-people-will-not-kneel-and-will-accept-no-injustice/
I see the guys over at Scoop have posted the latest Maori Party response to Labour colluding with National to further entrench police brutality as a means of quashing dissent.
Not surprising really when considering it was a Labour regime that oversaw the paramilitary raid carried out against Tuhoe. Does anyone know what Meka Whaitiri has been instructed to say by Shearer and his little cartel?
It might help if the Maori Party had not accepted the role of National’s poodle. Anything they say automatically is dismissed as humbug.
Exactly the response expected from right-wing parties.
Labour also colluded with National to quickly shut down any enquiry into the military’s lying and deceit exposed in Nicky Hager’s Other People’s Wars
Atrocious but not surprising behaviour from Labour. Silver lining might be greater support for Mana. Maori Party’s already irreparably damaged so hopefully Mana will now pick up the support Labour’s kicking in the guts.
He deserves to be praised. Well done David Shearer, strong leader.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10896517
You’r a comedian, right?
Santi is a known right wing troll who posts obsessively in favour of David Shearer because the longer Shearer keeps his job the better it is for the right.
That is correct, National want Shearer to remain as leader for as long as possible. Can you imagine Shearer vs Key in an election debate?
Shearer will win hands down, don’t you think?
Are you umm serious because ahhh if you err are then maybe you umm haven’t seen mumblefuck in umm action
Winston, Santi is on your side.
Yes I know, I was using the opportunity to reiterate why Shearer (and by default the Labour party) is useless
Shearer is not useless. He will lead the Labour Party to victory. Guaranteed.
For that reason he must remain leader.
Even Matthew Hooton has stopped peddling his disingenuous support for Shearer.
Stupidity rulz side..
But no. Santi is trying to emulate INTELLIGENCE – however he picked windows CE running basica as the platform. Makes him look like an early generation virus.
Winston however is the real deal.
Tryin to b a funny guy???
But I see that TV3 is still trying to go on about the Gower coup when it’s all a TV3 made up story.
I don’t normally listen to Radiolive but Duncan Garner was interesting last night. He went head to head with Labour bovver boy Clayton Cosgrove and outed him as the head of ABC. Garner was the person who reported on ABC last year and is the best one to say who the leaker of the comments was.
Presuming this is true Cosgrove is guilty of breaching caucus solidarity, undermining a colleague by spinning crap and harming the interests of the Labour Party. He is a disgrace.
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Clayton-Cosgrove-and-Duncan-Garner-go-head-to-head-over-Shearer-and-coup/tabid/506/articleID/36641/Default.aspx
Yeah, what a complete cock.
Cunliffe should kick his arse, the backstabbing mofo.
Hey BM Bro’Mine at 6.1:
You’ve come a helluva long way mine brother.
First thing (never seen before), we agree.
Second thing, “mofo”. Hone H is genuinely chuffed by the endorsement !
Back to Earth: “bromine” – a dark red toxic liquid halogen with a choking, irritating smell.
Hone aplogised to women for using the word mofo. Just saying.
Haha, very entertaining. What a couple of fools.
SP @ 6 above: Garner and Cosgrove – equally disgraceful blowhard cocks.
Coupla rednecks well past their (self-claimed) seniors days, down the rugby club late on any winter Saturday afternoon. Excruciating !
Couldn’t handle listening to it past the spewy mutual-respect shit. Any resort to “munter” after I switched off ?
Pair of nonces.
Both lying.
Duncan Garner gets a phone-call from a Labour MP on Tuesday night. Did he ring the MP back to check the call was from him? Could he have been hoaxed? In other words it wasn’t the MP but someone else.
And what about the letter Gower is said to have received from a Labour MP. Did Gower check with the writer that it was indeed from him?
Between 1975 and 1985 I knew two individuals – male and female – who did the same kind of thing. The male in particular had a talent for mimicking people’s voices. They caused no end of trouble and included among their victims were high profile politicians. Their motivation was political and designed to create trouble for the persons they targeted. One of them fessed up to being the culprits years later but it was way to late for me to do anything about it.
Good question. I’d have never thought of the scenario you posited. In the days of caller ID it should make it harder to do what you described, but you never know.
The story is that garner got a text from an MP. and he rang the MP to talk about it. The MP told him Gower had the letter. Garner’s mistake was not checking in with Gower before running the story.
The only other checking he did was to call a non-mp Labour connected person who only gave him hearsay that the coup was on. they said they had heard it might be, and that they had hears rumours of the letter. garner figured that was enough.
Basically he got owned by his mp source, and remains so.
This sounds like a Labour MP, but not Cosgrove, pushing the agenda of destabilisation. An interesting question: was the MP who Garner rang the same MP who wrote the “putting Shearer on notice” email of a fortnight ago. Its all very murky and unpleasant in that caucus.
And a lot of MPs are pissed off with Shearer over his handling of the “manban”. If his stock was low two weeks ago, it took another plummet in caucus this week.
Re: And a lot of MPs are pissed off with Shearer over his handling of the “manban”.
Speaking for myself, I was less than happy and I am trying not to be disillusioned with Shearer.
In my eyes, he has been incompetent at brokering, managing and showing leadership abilities in holding, fostering and, indeed, wisely managing, the interface between the caucus/parliamentary and the sectoral/membership/wider party wings.
I am determined not to stay at home on polling day next year. However, I will personally find it quite hard to feel positive about giving Labour a tick, let alone two ticks.
Fortunately you have some alternate choices 🙂
You could be right Pb. I may have misheard Garner on that link. I thought he said he got a text from an MP and that was followed by a phone-call. I presumed it was from the MP.
I got the impression that he had talked to this mp before (that this texting was not unusual) and so he rang the mp to find out more. What I wondered is given Duncan declared Clayton as a main ‘leaker’ on Cunliffe are there grounds for a complaint to the party council? I seem to remember last year Shearer said there wasn’t enough evidence, but maybe that should be revisited?
Hi Pascals bookie. Had a chance to listen to that link again. Garner did say he received a text AND a phone call from a Labour MP. He also spoke of an ‘outside source’ but he doesn’t elaborate. If my conjecture that he might have been hoaxed has any substance then it may well have been someone other than a Lab. caucus member.
There are a lot of very clever geeks out there who know how to circumvent most systems.
conspiracy theorist unite.
Keep on whistling in the dark James. It’s coming, the cold light of dawn. Whadya gonna say then ?
No “empire” lasts forever James. Strangely, as more and more evidence of advised joint action comes out, ‘sus’ enough for it to have been heavily concealed, you whistle louder, like a frantic thrush.
Perhaps James hasn’t understood an iota of the Snowden files over the last month and should renew his membership to “Ostriches Unite”.
Anyone else notice the other side of Mr Nice-guy? Turned on the real assassin type tone in the corridors of the Beehive yesterday when asked his stance on the conscience vote – “They can vote against it if they like, but they won’t because they campaigned on the convention centre…”
He did not look a happy chappy. Looked incredibly nasty actually. And after the Campbell Live lead last night I think he will be even less smiling.
But when it comes to an opposition voice that should be making hay – what do we get?
Yeah the sub-text there from key was pretty blatant
“because they campaigned on the convention centre” – maybe i missed it – but i cant recall any mention of a conference center during the last election
Yeah – Framu – I thought that was a bit odd too because I couldn’t recall the convention centre being a part of the last campaign either ! I reckon it was code for “you’ll lose your seat if you don’t vote for the convention centre” .
As to the would-be Labour coup, all the “would be leaders” named in the media so far – Jones, Little, Cosgrove, Robertson – NONE of them are in an electorate seat. They are all List MPs – – seemingly unable to make a sufficient dent in the Labour vote to get themselves voted in properly.
This tells you heaps of their (non) ability to become a leader !
Robertson is MP for Wellington Central, though he may want to thank Marian Hobbs for that. Unless you mean Ross Robertson, who’s MP for Manukau East.
Sorry – my mistake re Grant Robertson not having a seat.
I really do wish people would stop this BS. They did get voted in properly. The fact that they’re on the list would also tend to indicate that they have the necessary skills and ambition.
You simply have to be kidding me.
Nope, they’ve proven themselves somehow else they wouldn’t be on the list. Of course, the selection process for the list may be less than desirable.
That is the most ridiculous, stupid non-logic I’ve heard. It ignores the politics, horse trading, personal sponsorship, etc. which goes into putting the party list together. It further assumes that merit is the major element for placement on the party list. And finally, it fails to recognise that getting on to the list proves fuck all about performance and ability as an MP, as demonstrated by a good third of the MPs in Parliament today.
The illogic was in thinking that getting an electorate seat was any different. People don’t vote for candidates in the electorate, they still vote for the party. This may change over time but I’m not really expecting it to as it’s easier to track the parties than all the individual candidates.
I suspect the same could have been said 30+ years ago.
And I agree with you.
Which is why I’m mystified you said that getting on to a party list “proves” ability and competence at the job.
True Framu. There was absolutely nothing about any convention centre in my recollection, let alone a SkyCity convention centre.
More ShonKey Python “say whatever suits in the moment” bullshit. To wit……”I voted blah blah blah………the liquour law”.
An infantile pathology going on there methinks.
I think he also said in reply in the house yesterday that they campaigned on it …
Some great listener comments on Morning Report with regards to the failed GST tax law.
My Fav (paraphrased): “Maurice Williamson says the new law is impractical to implement. Why doesn’t the government just use the GCSB to make sure NZers comply with the law?”
geoff
+1
I wasn’t sure about the Canadian train staffing but guessed that the firm would have a minimum crew, and possibly the one. I was right. Now the top cheese is blaming him, all the expensive, dangerous freight was one man’s responsibility.
There was presumably some emergency system that would operate if he had collapsed at his job, and probably most of it was automatic and he just monitored everything. But while it is okay to run a burger bar in a caravan at a fairground with one person, when there is flammable dangerous freight, having back up staff is important. Especially if the train would be left standing while the guy had a much needed meal, and bed and shower etc. Someone should be with the train in a state of alert at all times, sleeping out would have to be on shift.
I wonder why the highly paid managers at this freight company didn’t accept that as an undeniable truth. Maybe that lack of foresight and care is an example of the low level of effectiveness and practicality of modern management altogether. I hear of other things elsewhere, cuts to staff, pressures on the remainder, acceptance of tenders made with unreasonably optimistic deadlines and costs etc. Corners cut to meet competition yet allow enough profit cream to be skimmed at the top. Right here in NZ of course, as well as overseas. One of the reasons we will never ‘match Australia’s wages’ blah blah blah, or indeed balance our current account.
Erebus! A plane put at risk because of head office fiddling with no respect for the precious cargo. Who got blamed – the pilot. And thereby hangs a tale.
Yes Rosetint I was ‘surprised’ that the driver was able to leave the train with the brake off. Surely there at least there should have been back up systems.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/canada-train-derailment-puts-brakes-spotlight-19631805#.Ud3gaNhU1d0
73 rail cars, the hand brakes need to be set car by car manually, a worker set some handbrakes in case the air brakes failed, but not enough to stop the train.
In my view: the company saving CA$50,000 per year may have helped contribute to the killing of dozens of people.
Latest news is that the corporation is going to hang out to dry the single employee present, an engineer. Its all his fault for not following company handbrakes procedure, you see.
The rail car tankers involved in the crash have been known in Canada since the 1990’s to be too thin skinned to survive a crash and immediate rupture on impact spilling contents was predictable.
Extra things not mentioned here … there was no limit to the number of this type of carriage that could make up any one individual train .. but possibly most troubling is there was nothing to monitor it or alert anyone to the fact there was a runaway train crashing downhill towards them .. once the train started its 11 km downhill run, steadily increasing speed to more than 100kms it was doing so for a full 18 minutes before derailing .. time at least to have emptied the centre of town and save dozens of lives with a better saafety system in place.
The mighty dollar and profit-talking rules over people every single time.
I have copied Draco T Bastard 6.1.2 from 10/7 – No one was there to meet them –
as it seems to match what I have been saying.
This was one company.
Don’t kid yourself – there’s other businesses out there that are purposefully disregarding safety because it costs money. I know this from listening to my family that happen to be working in fairly dangerous jobs (usually construction).
The real challenge is how do you manage for that through regulations without making it much, much harder for other good companies to operate.
You stop whinging about it being too hard and do the bloody job properly.
Once again the National govt is preparing to raise taxes, this time it’s GST on anything you buy overseas worth less than $400.
Is there a tax, levy, or fee that these bastards haven’t increased or expanded?
Oh that’s right, income tax on the rich.
People shouldn’t be able to avoid tax by purchasing offshore
Did you see me arguing the rightness or wrongness of that?
What I’m saying is that John Key and National, in spite of all their sloganeering, are a very very tax-happy government.
OR avoid tax by having offshore accounts.
Hahaha !………Sir TFH @ 10.1 above:
My, how you, supreme know not what you say dolt, how you put your stupid foot in your stupid mouth !
“People shouldn’t be able to avoid tax by purchasing offshore”. Very well.
What then was the quid pro quo promised to and taken by the movers and shakers of the National Party when they “purchased” ShonKey Python from offshore back ’round ’02 ?
Avoidance of tax, no ?
The solution to that is to drop GST altogether as it’s just not working and that’s beside the fact that it’s massively regressive.
BTW, do you think National are going to hire the thousands of people necessary to go through everyone’s mail?
Job for the GCSB…
also – that idea is riddled with loopholes and compliance issues
so it would yet again, be rather easy to avoid if youve got the skills or means
Good luck policing this, a large number of offshore sales get labelled gift or with a false value on the customs decleration now, they even have space on the order form where you can intruct them what to write. Many of these are large legit companies that don’t large VAT and will post for free from the UK so even if they do hit you with a few dollars gst it will still be way cheaper than nz retail.
Also they will need a small army to open and check the volume of packages coming in many will yield just a few dollars of gst, not even close to covering the costs involved with closing them back up etc…
Funny thing – the main reason why people buy stuff overseas and ship it here is not due to GST costs, it’s because even after you strip off GST and shipping, it’s usually cheaper to buy quite a few things online from overseas. Games, computer hardware, tramping equipment, books etc all are usually much, much cheaper overseas due to sellers meeting the local market, whereas NZ retailers oft run into issues with importers/suppliers charging a premium or they have a monopoly on a particular brand and thus can get away with higher prices.
Though I’ve noticed with tramping gear that some of the importers/suppliers and retailers have much more saner costings while the presence of pricespy.co.nz has lead to huge reductions in computer hardware costs, that occasionally match overseas prices.
If National wanted to keep online purchases in check, they’d push for a lower NZ dollar, something the manufacturing enquiry recommended a little hole back.
Good point Pete. I also thought National was in favour of free trade, which this tax would inhibit. Most bulk importers are already exempt from paying GST on imported goods and the price difference is simply because they’re ripping us off. There is also taxes payable on imported goods to the governments where these items are manufactured, so you would effectively be getting taxed twice.
If National wants to increase their tax take they should help local manufacturers to compete through limiting free trade agreements, lowering the NZ dollar and promoting local businesses. They should also ensure that people have enough money to buy the New Zealand made products they require. Making the consumer pay for a completely failed globalization agenda, which should have raised wages in developing countries instead of lowering ours, is typical of the Natz. Bunch of bloody morons!
Even if the policy could be implemented by making overseas owned companies charge GST at point of sale (not likely) or checking every package that enters New Zealand and wasting time trying to extort more money from already struggling Kiwis, the costs involved in such a logistical nightmare are prohibitive.
There will be no benefit for consumers, which is probably why this proposal is going down like a cold cup of sick even on right wing blogs.
When at Uni the economics professor put up a chart that showed that wages in developed countries would go down to meet the (supposedly increasing) developing countries. The problem is that there’s actually far too much labour in the world (and there always will be) so wages must always go down in a “free-market” situation. This is the direct result of increasing productivity which we’ve seen ever since we started agriculture.
I see there is a Gay Ski Week on down south. How nice if another group that receives much disapprobation – the single parents group – could afford to have something similar that they could afford to go to, and take their children, and have some fun like the gays. Then everybody would be gay.
Not sure if you noticed all the “child” and “family” pricing deals offered by restaurants, pools, cinemas, zoos, water parks etc.
Single parents and families don’t need a special week to recognize that they exist, because society already does that pervasively.
All families are not equal Lanthanide. Have you started one?
Do you know of any kids or families denied concession rates because they were sole-parent households?
Really, this bothers you somehow? A group of people are being marketed at because of a perceived disposable income. Newsflash for you pinktinted, not all “The Gays” will be in any better position to afford a ski week any more than you. Some will. Get over it.
This is pretty odd…
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1307/S00408/auckland-council-treasury-team-takes-out-top-global-awards.htm
World Class Borrower
Innovative Solutions
Oh, that’s ok then, nothing to see here!
Just what Auckland needs. Financial engineering in the debt markets. Ridiculous.
Yes, one the innovative solutions, is Interest Rates Swaps, for starters, another being that AKL has become the default underwriter, not only of its own debt, but that of other regions debt, also!
World Class borrower, is one of the most ridiculous oxy-morons I’ve ever heard.
No doubt, high five’s, back slapping and cigars all round, at the heist!
Assuming the judges panel consisted of the debt holders, and or their representatives!!!
Oh, that’s nice, the people in Auckland’s treasury got an award for helping rip off the people of Auckland.
Well, it certainly didn’t consist of Aucklanders.
Straight up, B. Its been a pretty much a clean sweep of available awards, by the treasury/financial management teams/individuals, fancy that!
It needs to be seen like the rating agencies, and the lies they tell using AAA etc
Obama’s nobel prize, also comes to mind!
Use your illusion!
Foreign Jihadists bringing money, organisation and sharia law to Syria
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/10/syria-al-nusra-front-jihadi
Varoa mite.
P.S.A.
Super white butterfly in Malborough.
Dont worry about that mate.
The most important thing is shifting your arse in a car down a motorway and shaving 5 minutes off your time to work.
http://www.transparency.org/gcb2013/country/?country=new_zealand
Can’t believe not many people are talking about this:
“According to the survey, 79% of New Zealanders believe the country to be run by ‘a few big entities acting in their own best interests’.”
http://liberation.typepad.com/liberation/2013/07/corruption-in-new-zealand-survey-.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Fliberationbybryceedwards+%28liberation%29
Didn’t make the Herald comments again, despite the article only having six comments at the time. I thought it was quite lightweight really, and was surprised it didn’t go up.
Robyn Pearce’s article What my daughter learnt about Mandela’s leadership style was pretty innocuous and inoffensive (if you ignore the description of “sea of ebony-black faces”) and a somewhat self-congratulatory tribute to Mandela.
My response picked up the following from the article”
“One of the things Lenora and I had quickly noticed was the (to us) unnatural subservience accorded their leaders. It wasn’t hard to see how such societies are easy targets for corrupt leaders who seek power in order to suck the system dry.”
The gist of my comment : the original of which now only exists on Prism
Africa is not the only place where unquestioning subservience is given to their leaders.
Here in NZ we have a PM that is often flippant, arrogant and inconsistent. It seems our general public and MSM do not have a problem with this, but many would expect our premier statesman to show dignity, integrity and have accountability.
Corruption occurs when leaders and their processes lack integrity, transparency, accountability and consequences. This can occur in a democracy as well as in a tribal society. Corruption is a misuse of power, not a result of an alternative system of government
JMG is really pulling some good stuff together on his blog – required reading for anyone interested in reality and what the hell to do about it.
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.nz/2013/07/asking-hard-questions.html
Yep its good stuff.
The Standard – blog publication originating from early West Coast paper publication also called The Standard, I understand…
This day, today Thursday 11th July, the Greymouth Star an evening publication of similar heritage, opinion page, offers us ….
West Coast Yesteryear column 1963 – complaints about the Council’s “Bailies black budget”, and congratulations for the nation’s highest producing pedgree Jersey herd from Harihari..
Chris Trotter’s column – commanding a solid space to tell us that David Shearer isn’t a Labour leader’s arse..
Fran O’Sullivan’s column – slamming the corporates and their people over Pike River..
and the Faith column – “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a watchtower; then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.” – Mark 12:1″
gotta love it
Crap. This is WINZ madness!
Just saw the Campbell Live segment on WINZ making pensioners claim for overseas pensions, or they’ll get their pension cut. And the paper work to apply for an Aussie one is apparently horrendous.
And the woman interviewed only spent a few years in Aussie, probably isn’t entitled to one, but still has to claim for it …. pages and pages of the form to work through.
I’m a little confused also. I have a small amount in an Aussie super scheme which was compulsory to pay into, in the few short years I was there. But it seems there’s another Aussie state pension that anyone who spent time in Aussie, needs to apply for. And if they are elligible for it, they also need to open an Aussie bank accoutn.
I’m thankful that I’ve already sorted out my UK state (and an occupational pension) schemes. WINZ and the IRD know all about them.
But, now I need to fill in an NZ tax return each year, and that’s a horrendous exercise too. Thankfully I also have a trusted accountant acquaintance that does it for me. Apparently it’s not that easy for an accountant to work it out the first time they encounter it.
How in the hell is your average pensioner, especially the less well off ones, meant to sort all this out, if they don’t have some sort of middle-class networks they can draw on?
And quite a few Kiwis have spent some time in Aussie in their lifetimes, some of them on fairly average incomes.
Geezzzz…the government needs to work out a better way to get WINZ to balance their books,
A new name for the national party is needed because the good that was in that partys is history
Maybe the Mamby Pamby Party cos thats the way they all sound to an ordinary person
The latest abuse of power Bennett gone to Malta to look up five Kiwis AND HAVE A BLOODY GOOD HOLIDAY ON OUR MONEY
I hope the old mans ghost makes a mistake and bombs her cruiser when shes sight seeing around the Mediterranean
Envelopes with baking soda sent to Dunne, Brownlee and the French embassy.
I suppose they might have been mailed yesterday, so the one to the French would have been sent on the anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior. Curious combination though – but who knows the logic of idiots…