That’s what politicians and parties are supposed to do, debate important issues, not just shout from oner side of the argument and whisper from the other.
Dunne calls for a debate now? When he’s already had the benefit of a ministerial salary for 3 years at the whim of the privatisers and is now facing unemployment in a few short weeks. Wow, what a hero. What courage!
Saying no to the proposed programme of asset sales is not nuts. Selling assets that return profits well above the Crown’s cost of capital, that’s nuts.
Rather than pointlessly talking about opposing selling assets that neither major party is proposing to sell, tell us this: Why does Dunne support the nutty policy of selling Meridian, Genesis, Mighty River, Solid Energy, and Air NZ.
Wishful thinking, if only we could release all that wealth tied up in state assets,
if only credit agencies said downgrade would have happened under Labour,
if only we could have a debate, geez, where have they been, well its clear
where Nat/Maori/ACT and United have been, in LALA land.
Normally yes, but we just don’t know what the price of oil will be
in three years time.
Policy Labour should commit too is taking old cars off the road,
and putting heavy fees on ‘historical’ and boy racer type cars,
with removal order if they fall behind in payment.
Petrol is now food, and we should not waste it on displays of
oil waste. In fact government should pretty much wake up to
the reality that testostrone wastes resources and direct the
testorstrone to less economically precious resources.
A little insomnia had me reflecting the vitriol in which we hold Key at this site. I realised in the reaches of the night that I did not hold Key responsible for any of the crap going on: to do so was to accept the whole damned edifice of our current political / economic construct. Key is a mere cypher, a non entity, ableit a lying manipulating nasty little nothingness.
So, to conclude: get with the Owsers, the 99%ers who are out there denying the validity of the whole construct. Criticise the whole thing, its not about a “personality”, its about a rotten system, not who “drives” it.
Pete, you just dont get it do you: rotten edifices dont require votes to prop up. They require removal from the outside. Go inside and you get wood worm.
What did Charles do? Involve the public in formulating submissions by releasing the text of the bill and thereby improving it tremendously? And you call this getting into trouble?
Surely you know what he did Micky. You know a bit about legal stuff don’t you? You read other blogs like Lanthanide don’t you?
So the narrative from Charles is the brave Labour Party setting down their four bottom lines, holding fast to them, and forcing the Government to agree to them.
There are two issues here. The first is that the first press release from Chauvel was done after deliberations had started on the bill. It is a clear breach of privilege. The House has risen so it is not possible to have a complaint considered by this Parliament and anyway amazingly Chauvel is actually Chair of the Privileges Committee.
But undermining the integrity of the select committee process is only part of Chauvel’s efforts to promote himself. The actual truth is even more incredible.
I understand the press release from Chauvel setting out Labour’s four bottom lines was done around 60 minutes after Chauvel had been briefed on what changes the Government had agreed to. He already knew the Government’s position when he wrote that press release.
It would be good to hear Charles’ side of the story, maybe he can put the record straight.
So the tories attempt to trample over the rule of law and all sorts of Parliamentary customs and Charles is in the gun for putting out a press release?
It’s already happening Pete, it just hasn’t made it here yet and the media is complicit in hiding it. But you can watch it, in many many cities around the world, live, here… #99percent #occupywallstreet #globalchange
Here is an article which nicely sums up your lack of understanding of this movement..
“To be fair, the reason why some mainstream news journalists and many of the audiences they serve see the Occupy Wall Street protests as incoherent is because the press and the public are themselves. It is difficult to comprehend a 21st century movement from the perspective of the 20th century politics, media, and economics in which we are still steeped.” http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/05/opinion/rushkoff-occupy-wall-street/index.html
Here is a very inspirational and somewhat depressing talk by Vandana Shiva on the “lunacy of economic growth”
I agree that the media is complicit. But it has made it here although it is early days. There are different ways of going about it. One way is what I’ve started to do, only just getting going. The election is a means, not an end.
No, Bored is right, there needs to be a total paradigm shift, tinkering with a failed system doesn’t cut it anymore, nature won’t allow it. Ignore that at your children’s peril!
I’ll vote, but for the first time in my voting life, I’ll only do it out of contempt for the Authoritarian Regime we currently have in power, not because I believe it will change society’s trajectory.
Listen carefully and openly to Vandana’s speech, then tell me the current system works. 250,000 Indian farmers dead at their own hands because of Monsanto, the success of GDP growth!
Thanks AAMC, it seems pretty hard for people to accept that the current regime is F****D. The question of what to do is very vexing but when you are heading towards the cliff at full tilt it pays to take notice. Vadana Shiva is a great advocate of doing the right thing, and gives us some leads here, and she certainly has no trust for the system doing the right thing.
My thinking is that to try and reform from the inside invariably ends up with compromise and acceptance of the principles you fought….look at the grandchildren of the voters of 1935. The Savage / Fraser government reformed from the inside and the grandchildren of those voters who benefited most then destroyed it by voting for the likes of Douglas and Key. The insider principle corrodes and corrupts, often very quickly. Compromise dilutes.
In our case we might look toward the past for examples..St Francis set the example from outside the establishment, Gandhi, King, Mandela stating the obvious and refusing to bend, to sell out.
As a conservationist I have learned that if you give away 30% in negotiations you are left to defend 70%…then the bastards come back and get another 30% so you are left with less again. And they will keep coming…the only answer is total commitment to a realistic position, no compromise.
And so, although I’m nervous about the timing around the RWC and how it’ll be received, it’s essential that all of us encourage all we know, to participate in the #OccupyNZD events, so they are not a farce like the 350 march I walked with and observed the other day. We’re a bit behind the rest of the world – again – in our awareness in NZ, I fear it will look like a lunatic fringe if it isn’t significant.
I’ll vote, but for the first time in my voting life, I’ll only do it out of contempt for the Authoritarian Regime we currently have in power, not because I believe it will change society’s trajectory.
AAMC
I am curious AAMC, who are you casting your vote for?
Change the way we think: coercive revolution is too ineffective as it only replaces a power elite with another. Its like Tolkeins “rings of power”, you cant wield them constructively. Doing the right things and rejecting the wrong things that authority demands is the best tactic. In the case of the OWSers they have deliberately rejected the MSM, they know it is a corrupt and hollow vessel.
and they’ve rejected demands or negotiations with the establishment, they want to network their way to real change rather than to tinker with what has so plainly failed.
Key is a formidable PM because he is the perfect PR construct. The Nats have learned, they no longer use authoritarian male figures for leaders, they use leaders that smile and wave and are cheerful and who at a superficial level resonate with traditional Labour supporters. Then below them the carnage happens but they divert attention from what is really happening.
Key needs to be called out on this. The past week has seen his credibility severely shaken and we need to keep doing this.
Now you know why that particular Eagles song has been humming in your head??
“You can’t hide your lyin’ eyes
and your smile is a thin disguise.
I thought by now you’d realize
there ain’t no way to hide your lyin’ eyes.”
Perhaps a competition on The Standard to personalise the lyrics to suit our Pinocc-key-o? The winner gets to be in the front row to smile and wave him off to Hawaii.
You’re right but is there an appetite for such a radical change?
This tinkering at the edges and having no new solutions is highlighted when we consider killing the poor
You’re right but is there an appetite for such a radical change?
Well, we can do the change pro-actively or we can wait to have the change forced upon us…
Oh, wait, we went with the latter option back in the 1950s when some fuckwit thought everyone having a car was a Good Idea because it made a few people a lot of profit.
That’s a bit confusing, I guess you mean that National and Key are responsible for their poxie pixies and Labour and Goff are responsible for their own poxie pixies.
It’s just so embarrassing when bigots get their epithets confused. One never knows where to look – does one criticise them for the opinion they meant to express, or just let the entire episode slide by in a wave of incomprehensibility?
I like the Iranian Government’s description of the protests as ‘the American Spring’. Very droll, even if it’s not seasonally accurate. D’ya think Nato will enforce a No Fly zone over the Pacific Northwest? Or perhaps Blair will be sent in to start a dialogue …
Its quite predictable that there will be protests fromausterity. So makes total sense that
states need to vent the anger. Maybe like using social media to agitate youth to riot,
or starting up sit ins just as the northern hemisphere goes into winter. Glad we
pay big bucks to the state to distract us even by choosing how protest manifests itself.
Personally the best vote anyone can give is to shut their wallets on the big end of town.
Use building societies, buy at the farmers market… etc. This will be more chilling that
any bunch of well meaning sit in protests.
I felt pretty disgusted that authorities failed to stop children playing with the toxic oil that washed up on Bay of Plenty beaches early yesterday morning. It was simply outrageous that concerned citizens had to mount a cleanup, while authorities were conspicuous by their absence…
The letter was written as if it came from Auckland lawyers and attacked a political column by Fairfax journalist Andrea Vance about the Criminal Procedure (Reform and Modernisation) Bill that appeared in the Dominion Post.
“It’s pretty nasty stuff actually, I mean it’s one thing to promote yourself . . . but I think having a swipe at, or in fact calling for a journalist to be pushed aside just because you feel you didn’t get enough credit, I thought is not a nice insight on character.”
There has been a lot said here about supposed political coercion of media. This is not a good look either.
“A weak diversionary evasive attack is a poor defence.”
Never a truer word said, Pete. You can defend your leader by weak diversions all day long, but you are never going to be an MP. You’ve Dunne your dash, I’m afraid.
I saw dear leader Key on TV3 this morning proudly claiming that “for the first time ever, New Zealanders are saving more than they earn” !!!! I’m not sure what is more disturbing… that a PM can spout such stupidity, or that an interviewer can hear such nonsense and not say “John, that doesn’t really make sense…” Idiots being held to account by incompetents….. I despair for this country.
I saw dear leader Key on TV3 this morning proudly claiming that “for the first time ever, New Zealanders are saving more than they earn” !!!!
I guess that would be a first, since that hasn’t happened anywhere at any time. Save more than they earn? Huh? Dear Leader either has mad math skillz not seen in this dimension, or he is just pulling any old statement from his backside. I suspect the latter.
Reporting the expected, but no Prime Minister on National Radio this morning as per usual. He was invited apparently. The house has risen, so what is ShonKey doing, seemingly not even up to Geoff Robinson’s once over lightly ‘interrogation’.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 12
For a while there it looked as though the Mana Party just might turn into something worthwhile – a second chance for all those who were dismayed to see the Alliance crash and burn over Afghanistan back in 2001-2002.
But, no. Mana’s announcement that Kereama Pene, a minister of the Ratana Church, is to contest the Tamaki Makaurau seat has put an end to all that.
Mr Pene is a flamboyant character who has, at one time or another, been a supporter of the Mana Motuhake, Labour, Destiny and Maori parties. He is also on record as saying the Prime Minister, John Key, is “ a person who should be admired”.
Not content with singing the Prime Minister’s praises, Mr Pene has also publicly declared that: “National is actually the group that have done most of the great things for Maoridom over the past 20 years.” Identifying (erroneously) the Treaty Settlements Process, the Waitangi Tribunal and the Kohanga Reo Movement as National Party achievements, Mana’s Tamaki Makaurau candidate told the NZ Herald: “You’ve got to give praise where its due.”
In the media, several times now, its been emphasised that you can discriminate.
Yes, you can fire someone because they are ugly, or give you the hebbees,
does not matter about the toll to the bottom line, to rehire, like when have
managers lost jobs when they are also the small business owner. Yes,
you can fire someone who isn’t related to you!! to free up the position for
someone who is. But its worse, what it amounts to is the MSM basically
saying if you can get away with it, sure discriminate, but what’s really
stinks is that to prove discrimination you have to show that intent in the
mind of the discriminator, as long as they don’t let on, that its because your
small, or large, or have big hands, disabled, or just politically or ethically
different. But of course this is a awful way to lead a country, to provide
consent to discriminate.
But wait its worse. Because discrimination is rife in NZ, you can’t even
phone government departments on the free phone number from a mobile.
Those second class citizens who don’t have access to landlines now have
to pay through the nose to get access to their tax dollar paid for services
because mobile technology COST too much. And wait I’m not thinking
about bennies, I talking bottom line, for want of a horse the battle
was lost, and the kingdom fell. When someone resorts back to writin
letters, the whole efficiency gain from technology advance goes out the
window. But hey its worse than that, it forces even more off the grid,
and now they are pushing web access to government services, like
everyone can line up at the local library to do their business in half an
hour.
We are losing touch with fiscal discipline when government thinks
penny pinching, a product of cutting bureaucrats, is sensible.
Save Our Rail Northland are holding a public meeting at Forum North, Whangarei on Tuesday the 11th of October 2011 from 7 p.m.
Save our Rail Northland are a group of citizens concerned that KiwiRail is planning to close down the North Auckland and Dargaville Branch Railway Lines. The aim of the Save Our Rail Northland campaign is to: Prevent the mothballing of the North Auckland Line and the Dargaville Branch Line…
“This is empirical evidence of what’s been understood anecdotally for years,” says information theorist Brandy Aven of the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh.
The analysis is a first effort to document the international web of relationships among companies and to examine who owns shares — and how many — in whom. Tapping into the financial information database Orbis, scientists from ETH Zurich in Switzerland examined transnational companies, which they defined as having at least 10 percent of their holdings in more than one country. Then the team looked at upstream and downstream connections, yielding a network of 600,508 economic actors connected through more than a million ownership ties.
The campaign to marginalize and destroy the growing 99 Percent Movement is in full swing, with many in the media attempting to smear the people participating in the “occupation” protests across the country. However, several of the so-called journalists deriding, and in some cases sabotaging the movement, have paychecks thanks to a billionaire whose business practices have been scorned as among the worst of the financial elite.
#occupywallstreet as the reclaiming of popularism by the Left for the first time since the 30’s.
Hmm… coincidence that this coincides with the new Depression? Sure, the 60’s was about casting away a lot of social conservatism, was anti war & corporation, was for a less blighted future, love and peace and all that. But it wasn’t driven by inequality. If the sense of inequality could coalesce with the desire to build a more realistic future…
BREAKING NEWS….
John Key has just announced that Gerry Brownlee is in charge of the Rena disaster…”The good people of Christchurch were suprisingly happy with Gerry’s postquake leadership, despite doing nothing, eating their food and clogging their sewers, the response to Gerry has somehow been positive. Gerry has the added advantage that he resembles a whale and smells like grease, we hope he can do as little for the good people of Tauranga as he has for the good people of Christchurch.”
doesn’t King Gerry already have a very important job to do? There are still people without toilets, there are tens of thousands without new homes, new jobs, or new futures!
Reply from RNZ, John Barr re my email about Bomber Bradbury. Good that they replied but of course a “softening” of the story as expected. PR in full swing. Para 6 &7: ……Participants on The Panel on Afternoons with Jim Mora are given plenty of latitude to express personal opinions but it is expected that these will be presented for engagement and discussion and that panellists will conform to Radio New Zealand’s editorial policies and broadcast standards. A relationship of trust and confidence between the programme presenter, producers, and panellists is essential for the programme to be effective.
Mr Bradbury’s comments on The Panel on Afternoons last Thursday were inconsistent with information he had provided to programme producers before going on air and Mr Bradbury later apologised to the programme’s Executive Producer.
It was made clear to him that while his invitation to appear as an occasional guest on The Panel was being withdrawn, it was not a ‘lifelong ban’.
Future law changes will mean that there are no problems in future. Really. Seriously. Obviously because current laws allow ships to get holed but with a slight change, oil rigs and tankers won’t.
As a kid I remember the Tory Canyon up on the Cornish coast leaking huge amounts of oil. The Harold Wilson government asked the RAF to set fire to it by bombing it…a spectacular failure, hardly enough to appear effective Cold War warriors…pathetic really. The oil fires went out as the weather set in breaking the tanker up. Oil everywhere. Mess.
Only thing I can say, Wilson at least did something, Jokey Hen???????????
Today, the so-called Hon Kate Wilkinson, wrote a blog called Greens wrong on Food Bill. It’s an open attack on the Green party and more specifically Sue Kedgley, who has been tireless in her quest for food standards and labeling to ensure safe and healthy food…
Steven Joyce caught lying over Rena accusations
Source : Scoop
The Green Party has released email correspondence showing that Steven Joyce lied on TVNZ’s Close Up show last night when he said, “I have not had a single request of my office or of the Ministry for any briefing from any opposition politician whatsoever.”
“The Green Party did seek a briefing on the Rena situations directly from Steven Joyce. He lied when he said we hadn’t,” said Green Party oceans spokesperson Gareth Hughes.
“We even received a response from Steven Joyce’s office saying they had referred our briefing request to Maritime New Zealand.
“Our attempts to receive a briefing started on Friday when we unsuccessful tried to get hold of Maritime New Zealand to request a briefing for when I was in Tauranga on Saturday.
The Green Party is concerned that Steven Joyce may also be lying about other aspects of the salvage and clean-up operation.
“Locals have raised serious concerns about the lack of communication. It would be worrying if the little information they are getting is inaccurate,” said Mr Hughes.
“Now is not the time to mislead the public. There is a serious ecological matter that needs dealing with that requires honesty and transparency from the Minister.”
Copies of email correspondence are here: http://blog.greens.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/20111010joyceofficeemails.pdf
Don’t you love it when you get such authorities as The Penguin on programmes like “Afternoons”. One, they push the party line and then, when they talk about general topics, they show what empty vessels they are.
Today, the Penguin advised us that there is a typed page of “correct pronounciation” in the RNZ studio. FFS Farrar, it’s pronunciation… “Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt”
Notice how the Penguin promoted the National Party policy to cut benefits such as Interest Free Loans, and Working for Families, and State Services etc? If these cuts are not made we will face a serious crash. (Funny that Key is upbeat about prospects?) Not as bombastic in his opinions but certainly a slippery election promotion and so well received as fair comment by Jim without a dissenting opinion.
Hmmm … bright young rising star leaves prior to his political prime, to pursue a lucrative position with a bank. All under the watchful eye of a well-‘finance and banking sector connected and networked’ PM.
Obviously even political ambition has its price.
I wonder who’s in line [now] once Key departs?
Of course, it would be complete conspiracy theory-land to think that conveniently timed ‘jobs for the boys’ buy-offs happen in politics so I suppose we just note and then move on.
I’ve received a ‘bounce’ for my email to Peter Cavanagh at RNZ – which I thought I sent yesterday. No such email address, yet I used the link provided (here).
Maybe that address has been shut down because of overload? Or, maybe, the link didn’t work??
It’s called “human microphone”. It allows people at the back to hear what the speaker is saying when you’ve got limited (or no) amplification equipment.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 31.1.1.1.1.1
Did you see the look on John Lewis’ face when he was told that he could not speak (by someone who was speaking) because doing so carried on implication that he was better than everyone else?
Who in NZ has even HEARD of ‘post-separation employment’?
It’s an internationally recognised form of ‘corrupt practice’ in those countries which actually have a domestic legislative ‘anti-corruption’ framewok in place – UNLIKE NEW ZEALAND!
As the new head of Westpac private bank – is National Government Minister of Commerce and Justice, Simon Power, going to be involved in lobbying, advocating or having business meetings with members of the future government, parliament, public service or the defence force on any matters on which he has had official dealings as Minister in his last eighteen months in office?
If so, and if National Government Minister of Commerce and Justice, Simon Power was an Australian Federal Government Minister – this would be seen as a form of ‘corrupt practice’ and a breach of their Standards of Ministerial Ethics, as a breach of ‘Post-Ministerial Employment’ requirements:
“Post-ministerial employment
2.19. Ministers are required to undertake that, for an eighteen month period after ceasing to be a Minister, they will not lobby, advocate or have business meetings with members of the government, parliament, public service or defence force on any matters on which they have had official dealings as Minister in their last eighteen months in office.
Ministers are also required to undertake that, on leaving office, they will not take personal advantage of information to which they have had access as a Minister, where that information is not generally available to the public.”
In my considered opinion, the ‘revolving door’ between public office and the private sector is on permanent rotation at both central and local government level in NZ.
What did Simon Power do to help ensure, as Minister of Justice, that our domestic legislative framework was sufficiently in place to enable NZ, ‘perceived’ to be ‘the least corrupt country in the world’ (along with Denmark and Singapore – according to Transparency International’s 2010 ‘Corruption Perception Index’) to ratify the UN Convention Against Corruption?
Or would such an anti-corruption domestic legislative framework effectively be a ‘conflict of interest’ for those vested interests who work in the commerce, finance and banking fields?
As Simon Power is going to be – once he takes up his appointment as the Head of Westpac Private Bank?
That’s a fair question – isn’t it?
Penny Bright
Independent ‘Public Watchdog’
Candidate for Epsom
Campaigning against ‘white collar’ CRIME, CORPORATE WELFARE, CORRUPTION (and its root cause) PRIVATISATION.
For a “law and order” party, ACT are being very naughty by parking a billboard trailer for Banks in the Epsom electorate with an expired licence and no WOF displayed.
And the trailer was parked by a National Party supporter. What does that mean?
See it currently in the Shore Road carpark. It also wasn’t licenced a month ago when it was seen in the area. Are ACT immune to laws or something?
Plate L641Y TRAILER BILLBOARD 2008 in Silver
Valid on: 11 October 2011 at 7:44pm today
* Licence expiry: 2011, June 16th (expired 3 months 3 weeks 5 days ago)
* Latest licence issued on: 2010, December 17th at 10:49
* Subject to WOF inspection?: Yes
* WOF expiry: 2012, September 2nd (in 10 months 3 weeks 1 day)
* Last inspection: 2011, September 2nd (Pass)
***** WOF NOT DISPLAYED *****
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Simon Bridges must be the unluckiest person in New Zealand politics. When he was elected as leader of the National party, he also became Leader of the Opposition – a position, he was entitled to assume, that would require him to “oppose”. But the government he set out to oppose ...
This is a re-post from The Guardian by Damian Carrington Spreading rock dust on farmland could suck billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the air every year, according to the first detailed global analysis of the technique. The chemical reactions that degrade the rock particles lock the greenhouse gas into ...
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Sacrificial Lamb: If the stories about Mr Taogaga and the unauthorised release of confidential medical data had been deliberately orchestrated by Labour’s political opponents, their deflection of the news media’s attention away from the Prime Minister’s address to the Labour Party Congress could hardly have been more successful.THE LABOUR PARTY ...
The East is Rent: The consequences of unleashing the young against the old; of elevating ideological rigor above reasoned debate; and of setting the present against the past; was a decade of unprecedented social stress and tension, interspersed with explosions of murderous mob violence and tragic material destruction. More than ...
The Green Party of Aotearoa-New Zealand could go from helping Jacinda Ardern run the country, to being turfed out of Parliament altogether in ten weeks. And that could see the end of Labour in government. Without them, Labour would likely have to do what no party has done since the ...
Remember the government's tyrannicalTerrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill? Remember how it was rammed through Parliament, with a four-day submission period and a select committee process that was a democratic fraud? At the time, the government gave the impression that there was an urgent need for this legislation, that a ...
Attack journalist - Tova O'BrienWe all know that much of the mainstream media in New Zealand is terribly biased. They are in effect another branch of the National Party, and can often be even more prejudiced than their right wing bosses.In fact many right wing politicians moonlight as journalists and ...
Former National Party President - Michelle BoagAfter the complete botch job Hamish Walker made of leaking the private details of COVID-19 patients to the mainstream media last week, the best-case scenario for Todd Muller and the National Party would be if the news cycle went quiet about their involvement.But unfortunately ...
One of the challenges of working on illegal wildlife markets, is you don’t really have scope to talk about your research into illegal wildlife markets. There is some stuff though that willbe coming out on Asiatic black bears in China, and before Covid19, I was delving more into rhinos. Which ...
Some are surprised at this sudden brain implosion on the part of both Michelle Boag, former National Party President, and the National Party in general, in exposing the private, confidential details of COVID patients. Others…? Let’s be blunt: not so much. Too many of that Party have long operated with ...
Michelle Boag - Former National Party PresidentWhen Todd Muller decided not to discipline Hamish Walker for his horribly racist press release last week, you had to wonder if his lack of proper leadership had something to do with a shared belief system? After all, the whiteness of the blue “team” ...
On Twitter today, lawyer Felix Geiringer asked a good question: why are MP's exempt from the Privacy Act? The Act imposes its obligations on "agencies", and s8 of the 2020 Act states that this term does not include... a member of Parliament in their official capacity The 1993 Act, ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhat was the climate and sea level like at times ...
So now we know, beyond all doubt. The National party has no interest in joining the “team of five million” in our fight against the pandemic but its priority is to take every opportunity it can to damage the government. The cynicism is breathtaking. It was prepared to leak the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters The massive dust storm that formed over the Sahara Desert in mid-June invaded the southeastern U.S. June 25-28, bringing dangerous levels of air pollution, low visibility, and colorful sunsets. The air pollution event over parts of Texas and the Gulf ...
In 1987, as a British Labour MP, I was elected to the Shadow Cabinet by my colleagues and was asked by the party leader to direct Labour’s campaign in the general election of that year. The election was to take place at the height of Mrs Thatcher’s dominance and we ...
National MP Nicola WillisHousing, which I would argue is a fundamental human right, has long been a problem in New Zealand. Not only do we have some of the most overpriced houses in the entire world, much of the housing stock is substandard and therefore affects not just people’s health ...
If the government has not lined up behind a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum the way some reformers would have liked, one entirely laudable thing it did do was commission some science around the public's choice.That science landed today, in the form of the report from an expert ...
Associate Professor Sara WaltonAt the heart of the discussion on opening up our borders is the dichotomy of health and the economy – both of which are actually intertwined, like many things with our economy, as this epidemic has shown.If we think about our country as a system, ...
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Josh Gabbatiss This year will see the largest ever drop globally in both investment and consumer spending on energy as the coronavirus pandemic hits every major sector, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The crisis is accelerating the shutdown of older fossil-fuelled ...
A short opinion piece – Friday 26th June 2020 Whilst our Government has treated many financial victims of the current Covid-19 virus with appropriate generosity, the same cannot be said for those of the two earlier “epidemics” in NZ. The “Covid-84” virus (also called “Rogernomics”) spread systemic greed, with the ...
Everyone deserves a a decent life. We know this is possible with a fairer approach to income support and tax Read the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Poverty Action Plan here ...
After a long break, the government is back inserting secrecy clauses in legislation. This time its the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill (No 3), which in its clause allowing Ministers to exempt purchasers of farm land from the usual rules also allows them to exempt an exemption from the publication requirement: ...
Over the past two years the government has repeatedly delayed a scheme to put cameras on boats to monitor Mew Zealand's pervasively criminal fishing industry. But it turns out that the industry actually wants cameras: Three of the country's biggest seafood companies have broken ranks with the rest of the ...
Louise Delany (public health lawyer)Health and emergency laws have played a critical role in this country’s successful elimination of community transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic. This blog details key aspects of the legislation and comments on issues around testing, payments by incoming travellers for quarantine costs, and mask use. ...
I like Andrew Curry’s succinct and insightful futures blog The Next Wave. His most recent post is about social change. In particular, the decadal-long periods usually required for changes in values. He highlights a 2016 paper by Inglehart and Norris, who examined whether economic insecurity or a “cultural backlash” ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Stop making sense: why it's time to get emotional about climate changeThe science has been settled to the highest degree, so now ...
MONDAY JULY 6Washington (History, Sky 073, 7.30pm). The brilliant Doris Kearns Goodwin is the executive producer of this six-part series about America's first president. It combines interviews with live action and is narrated by Jeff Daniels. It's engaging, said Salon.TUESDAY JULY 7The ABC Murders (Prime, 8.30pm). Sarah Phelps has done incredible things with ...
I think we can all agree that the mainstream media in New Zealand has a very different set of rules for the right wing compared to the left. While Labour and Green Party politicians don’t seem to be able to fart without it becoming a sackable offence, National and Act ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 28 through Sat, July 4, 2020Editor's Choice'2040': A funny, entertaining, upbeat climate documentaryA timely Australian documentary takes a 'solutions' approach, with the filmmaker inspired by visions of ...
Racist National MP Hamish WalkerEven before Todd Muller's coup ousted Simon Bridges by a single vote, it was patently obvious that the National Party promotes and stands for white privilege. In fact they’ve always worked to ensure the discriminatory status quo in New Zealand doesn’t change.So it’s no surprise that ...
Dave HeatleyZero community transmission. Just a handful of active cases, all in quarantine. New Zealand is in an attractive situation, at least compared to much of the world. The situation could be robust and enduring – or it might be fragile, just one border incursion away from a “second ...
Is the consequence of the Simpson Report proposals for restructuring the health system poorer accountability to people? When in doubt, centralise‘ has been a persistent theme in New Zealand public policy throughout our history. The current government is no exception. Here are some examples. - The regional polytechs have been ...
I wrote earlier in the week about the Scientology front organisations Drug Free World and Drug Free Ambassadors and their quite prominent role in anti-cannabis reform "coalition" assembled by Family First and a newloca branch of the American prohibitionist organisation SAM.It turns out Family First aren't the only ones helping ...
Nik GreenMuch of the public debate about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has focused on the extent to which government regulations have restricted personal and business activity.Oxford University Blavatnik School of Government Here in New Zealand, the question of when to change Alert Levels dominated the ...
James Higham, University of OtagoUnprecedented border closures and the domestic lockdown have paralysed New Zealand’s $40.9 billion a year tourism industry. In the process, the vulnerability of the sector to external shocks and the tenuous nature of tourism employment have been exposed. While New Zealand’s handling of the pandemic ...
Raising The Bar: Would that the Prime Minister and her colleagues would listen as intently to what the people – as opposed to the power elites – are saying as the Greens. Were they so disposed, the popular clamour for a transformational post-Covid reset would be loud in their ears. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters acknowledged today the heavy price of trying to lead the National Party today. ‘One’s sympathy goes out to Todd Muller and his family. Todd is a good man, unlike most of his colleagues he does ...
We're keeping New Zealand moving, one progress-packed week at a time. Read below to find out how we're creating jobs, protecting the environment, looking out for the health of New Zealanders', and upgrading our critical infrastructure - and that's only this week. ...
We're keeping New Zealand moving, one progress-packed week at a time. Read below to find out how we're creating jobs, protecting the environment, looking out for the health of New Zealanders', and upgrading our critical infrastructure - and that's only this week. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund is providing up to $19.5 million to boost innovative primary sector businesses and create training and job opportunities for Northland locals through the construction of an innovation and enterprise park at Ngawha, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones ...
The Green Party is today unveiling part one of its plan for a fossil-fuel free Aotearoa, including an immediate ban on new industrial coal boilers. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industry New Zealand First is supporting calls by hunters and the New Zealand Tahr Foundation (NZTF) to halt a large scale cull of Himalayan Tahr by the Department of Conservation in National Parks. The calls are supported by a 40,000 strong petition and the ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First leader Winston Peters today scoffed at suggestions that a team of six political operatives have been dispatched to New Zealand to assist his campaign. ‘As President Ronald Reagan once said, ‘there they go again.’ ‘The clickbait journos can’t ...
New Zealand First is pleased to announce Jenny Marcroft as the party’s election 2020 candidate for the Auckland Central electorate. Jenny spent years working in Auckland Central, having spent a vast proportion of her broadcasting career there. She says she, "knows the place and knows the people." Ms Marcroft says ...
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...
This week we moved into the second half of 2020 - and our Government delivered another week of big changes and major progress for New Zealanders. Read below for a wrap of the key things moments from the week - from extending paid parental leave, to making major investments in ...
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Regional Economic Development A regional freight hub for the lower North Island will be built just northeast of Palmerston North, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Government is investing $40 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to designate and buy land and design ...
Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson is calling for the introduction of a Guaranteed Minimum Income to lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty and prevent more families entering into further debt with the Ministry of Social Development. ...
There has been renewed focus on New Zealand First acting as a handbrake on the Government after our decision to not support Auckland light rail. We are a handbrake for bad ideas, that istrue, but our track record since 2017 has seen New Zealand First constructively also serve as an ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP New Zealand First’s Fair Residency for Superannuation Bill passed its First Reading in Parliament today. The Bill makes a significant change to NZ Super by raising the minimum residency requirement from 10 to 20 years, after age 20. “Currently, a migrant of ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order A New Zealand First member’s bill in the name of Darroch Ball introducing a six-month minimum prison sentence for assaults on first responders has passed its second reading in Parliament. The new offence of "injuring a first responder or corrections officer with ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Deputy Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First welcomes the launch of the new Criminal Cases Review Commission, gifted with the name from Waikato-Tainui - Te Kāhui Tātari Ture, announced in Hamilton today by Justice Minister Andrew Little. “New Zealand First has long believed in and ...
The Green Party is celebrating over $800m in new funding for green projects, which will get people into jobs while solving New Zealand’s long-term challenges. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is appalled that Meridian seems to have been unnecessarily spilling water from its dams to drive up its profits."While New Zealanders have been coming together in some of our darkest hours, we don’t expect power gentailers to waste water and ...
We wrapped up the first half of 2020 with a busy month, taking additional steps to support New Zealanders as we continue with our economic recovery. We rolled out targeted packages to support key industries like tourism and construction, helped create jobs in the environmental and agriculture sectors, and set ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Infrastructure Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has welcomed the appointment of Maurice Davis and his deep infrastructure and construction experience to the board of the Infrastructure Commission. Mr Davis (Ngāti Maniapoto), is the seventh and final appointment to the board led by former Reserve Bank Governor ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand’s click bait journalism is taking a turn for the worse, with yet another example of sensationalist, wilful-misrepresentation of the facts. “New Zealand First has worked constructively with its Coalition partner on hundreds of pieces of legislation and policy, and ...
The Green Party is today unveiling its Poverty Action Plan, which includes a Guaranteed Minimum Income to ensure people have enough to live with dignity. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Rotorua Museum redevelopment and Whakarewarewa and Tokorangi Forest projects will be accelerated thanks to a $2.09 million Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) boost, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
This week, we rolled out the next steps of our recovery plan, with new infrastructure investment, extra support for tourism operators, and a new programme to get Kiwis into agriculture careers. The global economic consequences of COVID-19 will continue to be a challenge, but we have a detailed plan to ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its final reading in Parliament today fulfilling a coalition agreement commitment. “This is an important step in saving the lives of New Zealanders and delivers a key coalition commitment ...
Whakatāne has been given a $2.5 million boost to speed up previously funded projects and create more than 450 jobs in the next decade. Of those, the equivalent of 160 full-time jobs could be delivered in the next six weeks. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is in town to make ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $2.5 million to accelerate three infrastructure projects in Whakatāne, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “This package is about ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones is throwing his weight behind a bid by the Auckland Council to fast-track the more than doubling of the city's water allowance from the Waikato River. And he's coming out strongly against anyone who plans on getting in the way of this campaign. "It is my ...
The Green Party is thrilled to see changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that mean consents for large projects can be declined if they will have significant climate change implications that are inconsistent with the Zero Carbon Act and Aotearoa New Zealand’s Paris Agreement obligations. ...
Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence The Royal New Zealand Navy’s new ship, Aotearoa, set sail for New Zealand on 10 June from the Republic of Korea, and is due to arrive in Auckland tomorrow, announced Minister of Defence Ron Mark. “Aotearoa is the Royal New Zealand Navy’s new fleet ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Racing Racing Minister Winston Peters has today welcomed the Racing Industry Bill passing its third reading, creating the legislative framework for revitalising the racing industry while limiting the need for future government intervention. “For too long our domestic racing industry has ...
The Green Party has today put forward an amendment to the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill to ensure all people in prisons can vote in general elections. ...
A package of wellbeing infrastructure investments in Kaipara which focuses on improving the lives of the elderly and upgrading the iconic Kauri Museum has been announced by Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones today. “These shovel-ready projects will have significant benefits for their respective communities and I’m pleased this funding ...
More support is rolling out for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the COVID Response and Recovery Fund, to help them adapt and innovate to deal with the impact of the virus. The Ministers for Economic Development and Small Business have announced a further $40 million for the Regional Business ...
Stephen Clark, Māori Land Court Judge of Hamilton has been appointed as a District Court Judge with jury jurisdiction to be based in Hamilton, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. Judge Clark graduated with an LLB from Auckland University in 1988 and was admitted to the Bar in the same year. ...
The Crown will provide a loan to Hawke’s Bay Airport to ensure it can trade through COVID-19 economic impacts, support the region’s recovery and protect up to 200 jobs. The Crown has a 50 percent shareholding in Hawke’s Bay Airport Limited (HBAL), with Napier City Council holding 26 percent and ...
Four celebrated Māori and Pasifika events will receive up to $100,000 each in funding from the new Creative and Cultural Events Incubator fund, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. The four events that were successful in the inaugural funding round are: Kia Mau Festival, Wellington Māoriland Film Festival, Otaki ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio is pleased to announce the inaugural launch of Kiribati Language Week as part of the 2020 Pacific language Weeks programme. “I am so pleased that this year we are able to provide resourcing support to the Kiribati community in Aotearoa which will ...
Wildlife institutions affected by a loss of visitor revenue during the COVID-19 lockdown are set to receive government support with nearly $15 million of funding available announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. “Eco-sanctuaries, zoos, aquariums, wildlife parks, and wildlife rescue, hospital and rehabilitation facilities provide crucial support for the recovery ...
The Government is expanding and accelerating frontline mental health and wellbeing services at tertiary education institutes (TEI) to help students manage ongoing stresses related to COVID-19. “The lockdown has been hugely disruptive for students. Many of them have had to relocate and move to online learning, isolating them from their ...
The Minister of Police says a major operation against the Mongrel Mob in Waikato will make a big dent in drug harm and violent offending linked to organised crime networks. “Senior leadership of the Waikato Mongrel Mob has been taken out as a result of Operation Kingsville, which resulted in ...
The Government is extending the border exception criteria to enable some offshore victims and support people of the Christchurch mosque attacks to attend the sentencing of the accused beginning on 24 August2020, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. “We want to support our valued Muslim brothers and sisters who were directly ...
A project to support volunteer efforts to look after streams and rivers is getting a boost thanks to support from DOC’s Community Conservation Fund announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today. “The government is backing efforts to look after waterways with $199,400 for the Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust from ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter today announced that funding for the COVID-19 Community Fund for women and girls will be doubled, as the first successful funding applications for the initial $1million were revealed. “Women and girls across the country have suffered because of the effects of COVID-19, and I ...
The Government’s books were better than forecast with a higher GST take as the economy got moving again after lockdown, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Crown Accounts for the 11 months to the end of May indicate the year end results for tax revenue will be stronger than forecast. ...
A plan to revitalise New Zealand’s strong wool sector and set it on a new, more sustainable and profitable path was unveiled today by Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. The newly-released report - Vision and Action for New Zealand’s Wool Sector - was developed by the Wool Industry Project Action Group ...
Community efforts to create a Predator Free Whangārei will receive a $6 million boost, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced today. The new funding, through Government company Predator Free 2050 Ltd, will create around 12 jobs while enabling the complete removal of possums over ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced that the New Zealand Government is reviewing the settings of its relationship with Hong Kong. “China’s decision to pass a new national security law for Hong Kong has fundamentally changed the environment for international engagement there,” Mr Peters said. “New Zealand remains deeply ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced details of a multimillion-dollar investment in Whangārei for infrastructure projects that will help it recover from the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 200 jobs are expected to be created through the $26 million investment from the Government’s rejuvenation package ...
Following a second incident in which a person escaped from a managed isolation facility, security is being enhanced, including more police presence onsite, Minister Megan Woods said. “The actions of some individuals who choose to break the very clear rules to stay within the facilities means that more resourcing is ...
Waste reduction and recycling programmes in Kaipara are set to get a boost with Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage today announcing a $361,447 grant from the Ministry for the Environment’s Waste Minimisation Fund (WMF) Sustainable Kaipara. “The new funding will allow Sustainable Kaipara to partner with local schools, kura, community ...
The Government will support the Southland economy in the wake of multinational mining company Rio Tinto’s decision to follow through with its long signalled closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. “This day has unfortunately been on the cards for some time now, but nevertheless the final decision is a ...
New tools being developed to help boost Aotearoa’s Predator Free 2050 effort were unveiled today by Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau. A new rat poison, a camera with predator recognition software to detect and report predators, a new predator lure and a ...
The Coalition Government has approved the purchase of a fleet of Bushmaster vehicles to replace the New Zealand Army’s armoured Pinzgauers, Defence Minister Ron Mark has announced today. The new fleet of 43 Australian-designed and built Bushmaster NZ5.5 will provide better protection for personnel and improved carrying capacity. “The age ...
The Government’s three prevention frameworks to reduce family violence in Aotearoa were launched this week by Associate Minister for Social Development Poto Williams. The frameworks were developed in partnership with communities around New Zealand, and build on the work the Government has already begun with its new family violence prevention ...
The Government is pleased to confirm funding for improvements to radiology and surgical services at Hawke's Bay DHB, Health Minister Chris Hipkins says. "The Minister of Finance the Hon Grant Robertson and former Health Minister Dr David Clark approved funding for Hawke's Bay DHB’s redevelopment of their radiology facilities ...
• New funding for four beds at Napier’s Springhill Residential Addiction Centre • A new managed withdrawal home and community service, and peer support before and after residential care at Tairāwhiti DHB • A co-ordinated network of withdrawal management services throughout the South Island • Peer support in Rotorua and ...
Introduction, seafarers and POAL Good morning everyone, I am delighted to be online with you all today. Before I begin, I have to acknowledge that COVID-19 has disrupted the maritime sector on an unprecedented scale. The work of seafarers and the maritime industry is keeping many economies around the world ...
A $13 million investment from Government will create jobs and improve the resilience of the rail connection between Christchurch and the West Coast, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones and Regional Economic Development Under-Secretary Fletcher Tabuteau say. The funding comes from the tagged contingency set aside in Budget 2020 for infrastructure projects ...
The Government is investing $761 million to assist local government upgrade under-pressure water services across the country, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. The announcement was made at the site of the water bore that was found to be the source of the fatal ...
Recognised Seasonal Employers and migrant seasonal workers stranded in New Zealand will be able to continue working and supporting themselves with more flexible hours and roles, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. The time-limited visa changes are: Stranded RSE workers will be able to work part-time (a minimum of 15 hours ...
The Government is making immediate short-term changes to visa settings to support temporary migrants already onshore in New Zealand and their employers, while also ensuring New Zealanders needing work are prioritised, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. We are: Extending temporary work visas due to expire by the end of 2020 ...
Professor Peter Skelton CNZM has been appointed as Chief Freshwater Commissioner and Alternate Environment Court Judge Craig James Thompson as Deputy Chief Freshwater Commissioner for the newly established Freshwater Planning Process (FPP). Environment Minister David Parker today also announced the appointment of Chief Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook as the ...
Auckland Queen’s Counsel Neil Campbell has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Campbell graduated with a BCom and LLB (Hons) from the University of Auckland in 1992. He spent two years with Bell Gully Buddle Weir in Auckland before travelling to the United ...
The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to better enable the development and operation of commercial film and video facilities in Christchurch. The Proposal, developed by Regenerate Christchurch in response to a request from Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section ...
The Government has launched a bold plan to boost primary sector export earnings by $44 billion over the next decade, while protecting the environment and growing jobs. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today released Fit for a Better World – Accelerating our Economic Potential, a 10-year roadmap to unlock greater value ...
A new approach to prevent family harm that encourages greater collaboration across government and community groups is being celebrated at the opening of a new facility in Auckland. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today opened the Multi-Disciplinary Family Harm Prevention Hub Te Taanga Manawa in Lambie Road in Manukau. The facility ...
The Government has released a major new report on the options for relocating the Port of Auckland’s freight operations while deferring any decision on the issue. “That decision needs to be informed by policy analysis that is still to be completed. As a result it will be up to a ...
The history of Rāpaki is being restored through the inclusion of te reo in thirteen official place names on Te Pātaka-o-Rākaihautū / Banks Peninsula and around Lyttelton Harbour/Whakaraupō, the Minister for Land Information, Eugenie Sage, announced today. “I am pleased to approve the proposals from Te Hapū o Ngāti ...
Bookings for seats on Air New Zealand flights into New Zealand will be managed in the short term to ensure the Government is able to safely place New Zealanders arriving home into a managed isolation or quarantine facility, says Housing Minister Megan Woods. “Last week Air Commodore Darryn Webb and I ...
Grant Robertson has today announced the first major release of funding from the $265 million Sport Recovery Package announced at Budget 2020. “Today we’re setting out how $80 million will be invested, with $54 million of that over the 2020/2021 financial year for organisations from community level through to elite ...
The Government is maintaining current levy rates for the next 2 years, as part of a set of changes to help ease the financial pressures of COVID-19 providing certainty for businesses and New Zealanders, ACC Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “New Zealanders and businesses are facing unprecedented financial pressures as a ...
Analysis - The National Party has been thrown into utter confusion by Todd Muller's resignation and now the caucus has to find someone prepared to take a hospital pass, writes Peter Wilson. ...
“The Council has been using the water crisis as an excuse to prime Auckland ratepayers for a painful 3.5% increase in rates. Supposedly, the crisis has introduced $239 million in new costs.” “However, the Government has now announced $196 million ...
Todd Muller's resignation now puts Jacinda Ardern in the awkward position of having to say what she really, really wants to do with her second term. Bernard Hickey analyses her choices. Jacinda Ardern is reputed to have played a few Spice Girls tracks as a DJ at the Morrinsville College after-ball ...
Latest from the Beehive – While National’s Todd Muller was thinking hard about his future as leader, the government was getting on with the job of governing and redistributing taxpayers’ money. At least, we presume that’s what Muller was doing . He was also giving a highly instructive lesson in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Shaw, Professor of Politics, Massey University And then there was none. Early this morning the National Party caucus awoke to a nightmare. Todd Muller, their newly minted leader of some 53 days, had resigned his position. This is not just another ...
After Todd Muller’s shock resignation, a crushing electoral defeat for National looks all but assured. But is a historically weak opposition really something for the left to celebrate, asks Danyl Mclauchlan. It probably doesn’t matter who takes over as leader of the National Party. Todd Muller’s sudden resignation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Audrey Courty, PhD candidate, School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, Griffith University Amid claims of social media platforms stifling free speech, a new challenger called Parler is drawingattention for its anti-censorship stance. Last week, Harper’s Magazine published an open letter ...
So is the election now a foregone conclusion? With Jacindamania still raging, and the National Party shattered by its own shambolic performance, it looks like a walk in the park for the Labour Party and its coalition partners. Certainly NZ First leader Winston Peters wasn’t slow to rub salt into ...
Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas reel at the announcement that Todd Muller has resigned as leader of the opposition. At 7.30am, just 53 days after he replaced Simon Bridges as leader of the National Party, Todd Muller announced his immediate resignation from the job.How did it come to this, ...
The Minister of Immigration has dropped another bombshell today relating to temporary visa holders and their families, says Ms June Ranson, chair of the New Zealand Association of Migration and Investment (NZAMI). Having granted an automatic six-month extension ...
A success story of the New Zealand Made Products Facebook page, this Christchurch start-up has grown from a backyard workshop to a centre for sustainable architecture and building all in the space of a few months.Two Christchurch guys needed a table for their flat. So they built one out of ...
Power Play - Who will seize the day now National is a party looking for a leader? RNZ political editor Jane Patterson takes a look at a party that was supposed to be settling in to fight its election campaign. ...
An announcement today that three Police raids of firearm licence holders following the Christchurch Mosque shootings were illegal, raises questions about Police over-reacting to what people say on social media, according to the Council of Licenced Firearms ...
Just over seven weeks after he rolled Simon Bridges to become leader of the opposition, and with under 10 weeks to go to the election, Todd Muller has quit. Here’s a reminder of how it unfurled – and unravelled.May 21A Colmar Brunton poll for TVNZ puts National at 29%. It’s ...
Todd Muller's stint as National leader has been cut short by a commendable decision to put his own wellbeing first - but now the party must try to find a path forward to September 19 For all that National’s critics claimed to predict it, the news was a shock. Just ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found three searches conducted by Police following the 15 March Mosque attacks were unlawful. Following the attacks, Police identified people of interest to national security and set up an operation aimed ...
CEAC want Gov’t to protect communities using ‘OECD/WHO/EU standards traffic noise for residential traffic noise Confirmation of reports to urban residents both from NZTA/Transit-NZ acoustical consultants have since 2001 warned residents that ...
“What a mess” said Hannah Tamaki. “Todd Muller’s resignation this morning is a further indication of the insidious problems hidden in the belly of New Zealand politics. With all three major political parties under investigation by the Serious ...
A recent media story highlighting the fact that a convicted paedophile has worked on a popular New Zealand children’s tv show reveals the serious inadequacies of current legislation which is supposed to protect our children, according to Safeguarding ...
The country's electoral donation laws are being questioned with a third major political party now the subject of a Serious Fraud Office investigation. ...
Mistrust in the government and generational trauma mean Māori communities are more at risk of falling victim to conspiracies relating to the 5G spectrum. Alice Webb-Liddall finds out what needs to be done to combat this dangerous misinformation.The real danger of conspiracy theories can sometimes be hard to grasp. When ...
Nearly two months ago Todd Muller stepped up to wrestle the leadership of the National Party from Simon Bridges, he won. But after just 53 days, he has resigned. Here's a quick look at his background. ...
Greenpeace NZ is challenging Coca Cola to face up to its embarrassing contribution to ocean pollution for Plastic Free July. Coca Cola Amatil floods NZ with hundreds of millions of plastic bottles annually - the majority of which end up in landfill ...
With just over two months to go before the election, National suddenly, shockingly finds itself in need of a new leader. Who are the potential candidates?Late leadership changes before an election aren’t unheard of in politics. The current prime minister is living proof of that, taking over from Andrew Little ...
Source: Statement by Todd Muller – New Zealand National Party I have taken time over the weekend to reflect on my experience over the last several weeks as Leader of the Opposition. It has become clear to me that I am not the best person to be Leader of the Opposition ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Audrey Courty, PhD candidate, School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, Griffith University Amid claims of social media platforms stifling free speech, a new challenger called Parler is drawingattention for its anti-censorship stance. Last week, Harper’s Magazine published an open letter ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Hocking, Emeritus Professor, Monash University Forty-five years after they were written, hundreds of previously secret letters between the queen and the governor-general of Australia, Sir John Kerr, relating to the dismissal of the Whitlam government in 1975 will be released in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thea van de Mortel, Professor, Nursing and Deputy Head (Learn & Teaching), School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University The recent lockdown of nine social housing towers in Melbourne’s north to contain the spread of COVID-19 led to widespread concerns for residents’ ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Francesco Paolucci, Associate Professor of Health Economics, University of Bologna, and Professor of Health Economics, University of Newcastle Australia has fared better than most countries in reducing its COVID-19 cases to very low numbers. However, on June 15, new clusters of infection ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Burke, Associate Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Putting a price on carbon should reduce emissions, because it makes dirty production processes more expensive than clean ones, right? That’s the economic theory. Stated baldly, it’s obvious, but there ...
Politics editor Justin Giovannetti reports from Wellington.National Party leader Todd Muller has resigned citing health reasons, only 53 days after he rolled Simon Bridges to take over the largest party in New Zealand’s parliament. The next general election is in 66 days.Muller’s short leadership was marked by disarray within the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona David, Visiting Fellow, University of Western Australia In previous recessions in Australia, far larger numbers of men than women lost their jobs. This reflected realities at that time. Men had higher levels of workforce participation than women, and the construction and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon O’Connor, Associate Professor in American Politics at the United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney Curtis Sittenfeld has a knack of putting her readers in uncomfortable places in her fiction. In her short story Gender Studies she puts you in the ...
After just over a month in the job, National leader Todd Muller has stepped aside National leader Todd Muller has resigned from the role a little over a month after deposing Simon Bridges, citing the heavy toll the job has taken on him and his family. In a brief statement, ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level one – read about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. To support this ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Serious Fraud Office announces investigation into donations made to Labour, deportations from Australia to resume, and retail businesses up against it on rent.In a short statement released yesterday afternoon, the Serious Fraud Office made it clear that donations to the ...
The 2020 longlist for the APRA Silver Scroll Awards – New Zealand’s premiere songwriting awards – have just been announced. Here’s the full list of the 20 finalists, with the songs themselves to listen to.This morning saw the announcement of the longlist for the APRA Silver Scroll, New Zealand’s most ...
It was claimed as a win but last week’s court decision on tahr control was mostly legal shots thumping harmlessly into a wall. David Williams reports ANALYSIS: Last Friday, hunting groups welcomed a “landmark” High Court decision, “halting” a controversial plan to “exterminate” all tahr in national parks and sharply ...
Dr Neal Curtis explains why we shouldn't simply dismiss people trying to resist discrimination by calling them anti-democratic You may have heard a lot about ‘cancel culture’ recently, not least because of the 150 signatories to the Harper’s Magazine letter last week that supposedly cancelled cancel culture. ‘Cancelling’ is a ...
The closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter has left the door open for another electricity-intensive project to take its place at the south tip of the South Island. ...
A complaint has been made to the Department of Internal Affairs against a book of short stories How do you know you’ve “made it” as a writer? Is it, as one friend recently commented on a photo of me holding my new book, when Facebook refuses to allow you to ...
Terminally ill man Stuart Armstrong responds to a first-person piece on assisted dying Newsroom ran last week, arguing people should have the option to choose a death that reflects their life and beliefs This week Serena Jones wrote an article describing her position on the upcoming referendum on the End ...
What New Zealand must do to play virtual host to APEC next year is something perhaps never attempted before. The rewards could be big. Virtual hosting of 2021 APEC: a rewarding challenge for NZ New Zealand’s confirmation that it will proceed with hosting APEC in 2021, using virtual digital platforms, ...
A major infrastructure announcement by the National Party slated to take place today needs to defy stereotypes about what they are all about. COMMENT: It didn't take a genius to realise that a major infrastructure announcement down south by the National Party would turn out to be a road of ...
LISTEN: In our podcast, A Neesh Audience, Black Cap Jimmy Neesham talks to playmakers who'll be part of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2021 in New Zealand. In this episode, he chats with White Ferns captain Sophie Devine. Sophie Devine has been on a roll of late. Whether it be ...
There’s concern the Department of Conservation’s assessment of proposed changes to a yet-to-be-constructed hydro scheme underestimates their potential impact A West Coast small hydro scheme’s proposed new pipeline path could require over 1000 native trees be felled on public conservation land. What was supposed to be a thin pipe lying on top ...
If there’s any time for ambitious, agenda-setting policy ideas, it’s now, write Max Harris and Laura O’Connell Rapira. Here are seven suggestions that might just transform New Zealand for the better.In a pre-budget speech, finance minister Grant Robertson said it was time to “address long-term issues”, but then when the ...
The SpinoffBy Max Harris and Laura O'Connell Rapira
St John Ambulance is paying wages on borrowed money - and that can't keep happening. Most people would say there are three branches of emergency services in New Zealand: police, fire, and ambulance. Police are fully funded by the government. Fire and Emergency New Zealand is funded through an ...
By Jimmy Kalebe in Port Moresby Papua New Guinea police have intercepted and confiscated almost K200,000 (about NZ$90,000) in K2 and K5 notes hidden in a container on a ship which arrived at the Lae wharf in a suspected money laundering case. The cash, packed into three boxes inside the ...
National MP Amy Adams has apologised for wrongly claiming one of her party's candidates is Chinese. Catherine Chu was born and raised in Christchurch and her parents are from South Korea. ...
National MP Amy Adams has apologised for wrongly claiming one of her party's candidates is Chinese. Catherine Chu was born and raised in Christchurch and her parents are from South Korea. ...
Pacific Media Watch Host Oscar Perress talked to contributing editor of Pacific Media Watch Sri Krishnamurthi today about Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s government rejecting a licence for the country’s biggest radio and TV network ABS-CBN. Its 25-year-old franchise expired in May but the majority of legislators refused to renew in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Jensen, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, University of Canberra “Fake news” is not just a problem of misleading or false claims on fringe websites, it is increasingly filtering into the mainstream and has the potential to be ...
Around the world, western governments are re-calibrating their foreign policy, strategic and economic settings to China. Tomorrow the British Cabinet will review and probably revoke an earlier decision to allow Huawei Technologies Co into the next 5G network over security concerns. NZ and Australia have already taken this step. Over ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Becky Freeman, Senior Research Fellow, University of Sydney From next year, access to e-cigarettes and related products containing liquid nicotine will require a doctor’s prescription. This is to ensure liquid nicotine is handled like the poisonous, addictive substance it is and not ...
The new TVNZ On Demand political comedy relies on great performances to paper over a wafer-thin story, writes Jean Sergent.The set-up is simple: Darren Bellows (Tom Sainsbury), a Colin Craig-esque political loser, is being blackmailed by his dominatrix (Kathleen Burns). The stakes are high for Darren as the leader of ...
One in eight retail businesses are struggling to negotiate rent relief and want government-assisted arbitration to help them resolve their plight, a survey shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kris Gledhill, Professor of Law, Auckland University of Technology The sentencing of the Christchurch mosque killer was always going to be tense. Having admitted his guilt in March, his declaration that he would now represent himself at the hearing on August 24 ...
The Serious Fraud Office is investigating donations made to the Labour Party in 2017 Donations to the Labour Party in 2017 are now under the microscope of the Serious Fraud Office, the corruption watchdog said in a statement. The SFO declined to release any further details about the investigation. This ...
National Party stalwart Michelle Boag gave officials her private email address when asked where best to send a daily list of Covid-19 patients, the Director General of Health says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kerrie Davies, Lecturer, School of the Arts & Media, UNSW Review: A Room Made of Leaves, Text Publishing Some time ago, during the renovation of a historic house in Sydney, a tin box, sealed with wax and wrapped in oiled canvas, ...
Open mike 11/10/2011 
Todd Muller - National Party MPTodd Muller’s shock resignation today really only points to one possible conclusion; there’s further damning evidence linking him directly to National’s latest dirty political episode that will likely be unearthed during an official inquiry.Obviously Muller being directly involved in the leaking of COVID-19 patient’s private ...2 hours ago
Ten days ago we learned that the Australian government was attempting to prosecute Australian journalists for exposing Australian war crimes in Afghanisatan. Meanwhile, today we have news of another war crime - a massacre of civilians by Australian special forces: Australian special forces killed up to 10 unarmed Afghan civilians ...3 hours ago
. . The last 24 hours in Aotearoa’s New Zealand’s politics has provided more drama than a week’s worth of “Shortie Street” episodes combined and binge-watched. It began approximately around 5.30 last night (7 July) with a disclosure by Clutha-Southland MP, Hamish Walker that he had leaked a list of ...7 hours ago
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Dr Kim Handley, University of Auckland Just how do cyanobacteria live in their natural habitat, and how do they coexist with other bacteria and microbial life forms? And what difference will knowledge on this bacteria have on maintaining New Zealand’s water quality? One of the consequences of declining water quality ...1 day ago
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National has a problem. And it’s time they said it out loud. It can’t be dismissed as a one-off anymore or excused because ‘everyone does it’. No, it cuts deeper than that. National has an ethics problem. Especially when it comes to privacy and using ordinary people as pawns in ...2 days ago
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Simon Bridges must be the unluckiest person in New Zealand politics. When he was elected as leader of the National party, he also became Leader of the Opposition – a position, he was entitled to assume, that would require him to “oppose”. But the government he set out to oppose ...3 days ago
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Transcript: National Party policy announcement on roads – 8 July, 2020 Muller: Good afternoon everybody. Thank you for coming. Reporter 1: Is Hamish Walker a racist? Muller: Hang on… you haven’t even said good afternoon to me yet. Reporter 1: Good afternoon Mr Muller. Is Hamish Walker a racist? ...4 days ago
Today’s content Tiwai Point to close Hamish Rutherford (Herald): Government subsidising practically everything plays hardball with Rio Tinto (paywalled) Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Sudden closure of aluminium smelter worst outcome for jobs, consumers and the environment Brian Fallow (Herald): Tiwai closure sad news – and an opportunity for the environment (paywalled) Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Rio ...4 days ago
Reprehensible: There is much that could be said about Michael Woodhouse, but what would be the point? Any man who willingly involves himself in a situation as reprehensible as the one depicted in the above photograph has already vouchsafed all that decent people need to know about his character. That there have ...4 days ago
Some are surprised at this sudden brain implosion on the part of both Michelle Boag, former National Party President, and the National Party in general, in exposing the private, confidential details of COVID patients. Others…? Let’s be blunt: not so much. Too many of that Party have long operated with ...6 days ago
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters acknowledged today the heavy price of trying to lead the National Party today. ‘One’s sympathy goes out to Todd Muller and his family. Todd is a good man, unlike most of his colleagues he does ...6 hours ago
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The Green Party is today unveiling part one of its plan for a fossil-fuel free Aotearoa, including an immediate ban on new industrial coal boilers. ...2 days ago
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Analysis - The National Party has been thrown into utter confusion by Todd Muller's resignation and now the caucus has to find someone prepared to take a hospital pass, writes Peter Wilson. ...40 mins ago
“The Council has been using the water crisis as an excuse to prime Auckland ratepayers for a painful 3.5% increase in rates. Supposedly, the crisis has introduced $239 million in new costs.” “However, the Government has now announced $196 million ...52 mins ago
Todd Muller's resignation now puts Jacinda Ardern in the awkward position of having to say what she really, really wants to do with her second term. Bernard Hickey analyses her choices. Jacinda Ardern is reputed to have played a few Spice Girls tracks as a DJ at the Morrinsville College after-ball ...2 hours ago
Latest from the Beehive – While National’s Todd Muller was thinking hard about his future as leader, the government was getting on with the job of governing and redistributing taxpayers’ money. At least, we presume that’s what Muller was doing . He was also giving a highly instructive lesson in ...2 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Shaw, Professor of Politics, Massey University And then there was none. Early this morning the National Party caucus awoke to a nightmare. Todd Muller, their newly minted leader of some 53 days, had resigned his position. This is not just another ...2 hours ago
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Just saying NO to all asset sales is nuts. And allowing creeping sales by stealth is dishonest.
Dunne calls for debate over asset sales
That’s what politicians and parties are supposed to do, debate important issues, not just shout from oner side of the argument and whisper from the other.
But it’s an important stand to save Kiwibank, no to Aussiebank.
Dunne calls for a debate now? When he’s already had the benefit of a ministerial salary for 3 years at the whim of the privatisers and is now facing unemployment in a few short weeks. Wow, what a hero. What courage!
Dunne calls – nobody listens.
“Just saying NO to all asset sales is nuts”
Saying no to the proposed programme of asset sales is not nuts. Selling assets that return profits well above the Crown’s cost of capital, that’s nuts.
Rather than pointlessly talking about opposing selling assets that neither major party is proposing to sell, tell us this: Why does Dunne support the nutty policy of selling Meridian, Genesis, Mighty River, Solid Energy, and Air NZ.
Wishful thinking, if only we could release all that wealth tied up in state assets,
if only credit agencies said downgrade would have happened under Labour,
if only we could have a debate, geez, where have they been, well its clear
where Nat/Maori/ACT and United have been, in LALA land.
Perhaps somebody needs to be brave enough to say “you sell them we will take them back with no recompense”…what investor is going to take that chance?
Normally yes, but we just don’t know what the price of oil will be
in three years time.
Policy Labour should commit too is taking old cars off the road,
and putting heavy fees on ‘historical’ and boy racer type cars,
with removal order if they fall behind in payment.
Petrol is now food, and we should not waste it on displays of
oil waste. In fact government should pretty much wake up to
the reality that testostrone wastes resources and direct the
testorstrone to less economically precious resources.
A little insomnia had me reflecting the vitriol in which we hold Key at this site. I realised in the reaches of the night that I did not hold Key responsible for any of the crap going on: to do so was to accept the whole damned edifice of our current political / economic construct. Key is a mere cypher, a non entity, ableit a lying manipulating nasty little nothingness.
So, to conclude: get with the Owsers, the 99%ers who are out there denying the validity of the whole construct. Criticise the whole thing, its not about a “personality”, its about a rotten system, not who “drives” it.
The best way to change it is to get in and force change. The next best way to chnage it is to vote for those who are prepared to drive change.
One of the least effective things to do is to just keep criticising.
Pete, you just dont get it do you: rotten edifices dont require votes to prop up. They require removal from the outside. Go inside and you get wood worm.
How do you propse to do that? Revolution?
A start would be Charles Chauvel winning and putting your party out to pasture permanently.
Charles has got himself into a bit of trouble over his abuse of the select committee process in relation to the video surveillance bill.
What the?
What did Charles do? Involve the public in formulating submissions by releasing the text of the bill and thereby improving it tremendously? And you call this getting into trouble?
You live in a strange world Pete G …
He’ll be linking to kiwiblog soon about an email supposedly written by Charles Chauvel, or something.
Yep, he did.
Surely you know what he did Micky. You know a bit about legal stuff don’t you? You read other blogs like Lanthanide don’t you?
It would be good to hear Charles’ side of the story, maybe he can put the record straight.
Lantanide – this unfolded on Red Alert and the issue was first raised there.
http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2011/09/30/bottom-lines-on-search-and-surveillance/
It was that and press releases issued by Chauvel that suggest he has been at the very least deceitful about his self proclaimed importance.
Chauvel in. Dunne out.
And Goff twirling twirling twirling ?
So the tories attempt to trample over the rule of law and all sorts of Parliamentary customs and Charles is in the gun for putting out a press release?
He deserves a medal.
Really? Is that standard Labour practice – breaking the rules doesn’t matter if you are promoting yourself?
United First – led by Hanger On Dunne
PG – Hanger On of a Hanger On
Testing the boundaries ofthe rules are fine if you’re fighting unneeded draconian retrospective legislation.
Flogging a dead molehill to make it the mountain that got away won’t get UF back to 10%. How’s the view from Dunne’s coat-tails?
LOL
It’s already happening Pete, it just hasn’t made it here yet and the media is complicit in hiding it. But you can watch it, in many many cities around the world, live, here… #99percent #occupywallstreet #globalchange
Here is an article which nicely sums up your lack of understanding of this movement..
“To be fair, the reason why some mainstream news journalists and many of the audiences they serve see the Occupy Wall Street protests as incoherent is because the press and the public are themselves. It is difficult to comprehend a 21st century movement from the perspective of the 20th century politics, media, and economics in which we are still steeped.”
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/05/opinion/rushkoff-occupy-wall-street/index.html
Here is a very inspirational and somewhat depressing talk by Vandana Shiva on the “lunacy of economic growth”
+1 Bored, the whole system is in fact F$$KED!
I agree that the media is complicit. But it has made it here although it is early days. There are different ways of going about it. One way is what I’ve started to do, only just getting going. The election is a means, not an end.
No, Bored is right, there needs to be a total paradigm shift, tinkering with a failed system doesn’t cut it anymore, nature won’t allow it. Ignore that at your children’s peril!
I’ll vote, but for the first time in my voting life, I’ll only do it out of contempt for the Authoritarian Regime we currently have in power, not because I believe it will change society’s trajectory.
Listen carefully and openly to Vandana’s speech, then tell me the current system works. 250,000 Indian farmers dead at their own hands because of Monsanto, the success of GDP growth!
Carlos Latuff cartoon for #occupywallstreet
http://operamundi.uol.com.br/conteudo/opiniao/CHARGE+REACAO+CIDADA+++A+OCUPACAO+DE+WALL+STREET_1656.shtml
Thanks AAMC, it seems pretty hard for people to accept that the current regime is F****D. The question of what to do is very vexing but when you are heading towards the cliff at full tilt it pays to take notice. Vadana Shiva is a great advocate of doing the right thing, and gives us some leads here, and she certainly has no trust for the system doing the right thing.
My thinking is that to try and reform from the inside invariably ends up with compromise and acceptance of the principles you fought….look at the grandchildren of the voters of 1935. The Savage / Fraser government reformed from the inside and the grandchildren of those voters who benefited most then destroyed it by voting for the likes of Douglas and Key. The insider principle corrodes and corrupts, often very quickly. Compromise dilutes.
In our case we might look toward the past for examples..St Francis set the example from outside the establishment, Gandhi, King, Mandela stating the obvious and refusing to bend, to sell out.
As a conservationist I have learned that if you give away 30% in negotiations you are left to defend 70%…then the bastards come back and get another 30% so you are left with less again. And they will keep coming…the only answer is total commitment to a realistic position, no compromise.
And so, although I’m nervous about the timing around the RWC and how it’ll be received, it’s essential that all of us encourage all we know, to participate in the #OccupyNZD events, so they are not a farce like the 350 march I walked with and observed the other day. We’re a bit behind the rest of the world – again – in our awareness in NZ, I fear it will look like a lunatic fringe if it isn’t significant.
I am curious AAMC, who are you casting your vote for?
And why them?
Probably The Greens, because they are the closest – despite status quo mantra – to economic and ecological reality.
But they too seem to have been seduced by the system.
To clarify my earlier statement, it’s the first time I have felt my vote didn’t really matter, it’s not the first time I’ve voted.
Better than standing there Combing your hair!!! or if your like me Polishing the dome??
Change the way we think: coercive revolution is too ineffective as it only replaces a power elite with another. Its like Tolkeins “rings of power”, you cant wield them constructively. Doing the right things and rejecting the wrong things that authority demands is the best tactic. In the case of the OWSers they have deliberately rejected the MSM, they know it is a corrupt and hollow vessel.
and they’ve rejected demands or negotiations with the establishment, they want to network their way to real change rather than to tinker with what has so plainly failed.
And the really worst way is to get into Parliament and act like a lapdog poodle while grooming your coiffure and supporting the crap that is going on.
Be interesting to see next polls, can UF lift party vote from zero point zero (0.0)? or maybe as a first go into negative ranking.
How many years has dunne nothing been in parliament Dunne is as bad as key muddling through sits on the fence takes every photo op.
Agree with you Bored but …
Key is a formidable PM because he is the perfect PR construct. The Nats have learned, they no longer use authoritarian male figures for leaders, they use leaders that smile and wave and are cheerful and who at a superficial level resonate with traditional Labour supporters. Then below them the carnage happens but they divert attention from what is really happening.
Key needs to be called out on this. The past week has seen his credibility severely shaken and we need to keep doing this.
QFE
Hold the fucker in the light so that everyone can see what a manipulative, lying douche-bag he is.
Now you know why that particular Eagles song has been humming in your head??
“You can’t hide your lyin’ eyes
and your smile is a thin disguise.
I thought by now you’d realize
there ain’t no way to hide your lyin’ eyes.”
Perhaps a competition on The Standard to personalise the lyrics to suit our Pinocc-key-o? The winner gets to be in the front row to smile and wave him off to Hawaii.
You’re right but is there an appetite for such a radical change?
This tinkering at the edges and having no new solutions is highlighted when we consider killing the poor
Well, we can do the change pro-actively or we can wait to have the change forced upon us…
Oh, wait, we went with the latter option back in the 1950s when some fuckwit thought everyone having a car was a Good Idea because it made a few people a lot of profit.
Dear John Key
I thought that I should share something with you that you could use for political advantage.
There are pixies at the end of my garden and it is all Phil Goff’s and Labour’s fault.
Look forward to the question in Parliament.
Regards,
Trustworthy Source.
That’s a bit confusing, I guess you mean that National and Key are responsible for their poxie pixies and Labour and Goff are responsible for their own poxie pixies.
I thought Chris Carter was in Kabul ?
You do realize calling a gay man a pixie isn’t a slur, hs. Wrong mythological creature…
It’s just so embarrassing when bigots get their epithets confused. One never knows where to look – does one criticise them for the opinion they meant to express, or just let the entire episode slide by in a wave of incomprehensibility?
What’s bigoted about calling Chris a pixie ?
Yes
Occupy Seattle
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/gallery/Occupy-Seattle-protest-grows-31333/photo-1657248.php
I like the Iranian Government’s description of the protests as ‘the American Spring’. Very droll, even if it’s not seasonally accurate. D’ya think Nato will enforce a No Fly zone over the Pacific Northwest? Or perhaps Blair will be sent in to start a dialogue …
I like how the Iranian government have just sentenced a young woman to 90 lashes and a years jail for all intents and purposes starring in a film they didn’t like….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/5765195/Actress-to-be-lashed-over-Aussie-film
Its quite predictable that there will be protests fromausterity. So makes total sense that
states need to vent the anger. Maybe like using social media to agitate youth to riot,
or starting up sit ins just as the northern hemisphere goes into winter. Glad we
pay big bucks to the state to distract us even by choosing how protest manifests itself.
Personally the best vote anyone can give is to shut their wallets on the big end of town.
Use building societies, buy at the farmers market… etc. This will be more chilling that
any bunch of well meaning sit in protests.
Now John Armstrong.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10758128
I remember a campaign about trust – does the rest of New Zealand remember that?
Let’s see.
Tranzrail shares.
Visit of Lord Ashton.
Standard and Poors statements.
He has been caught bare faced LYING, about those.
What was the murkiness about his electoral registration – Helensville and Parnell addresses?
So what do we now make of his explanation about “throat cutting” in the house?
Makes you wonder about his honesty around involvement in events before he entered parliament, going back to the Elders issue.
Feel free to add to the litany.
Afghanistan and the S I S role for starters.
Reasons for setting up his blind trusts.
Apparently his former colleagues referred to him as the “Smiling Assassin” – what could they have meant by that?
John Key showing S&P eyes and body language?
Lowering standard and poor with the truth!
Tsk tsk.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10758125
Would probably make a good ‘caption here’ type post 🙂
Rena Cleanup Failures
I felt pretty disgusted that authorities failed to stop children playing with the toxic oil that washed up on Bay of Plenty beaches early yesterday morning. It was simply outrageous that concerned citizens had to mount a cleanup, while authorities were conspicuous by their absence…
A weak diversionary evasive attack is a poor defence.
There has been a lot said here about supposed political coercion of media. This is not a good look either.
“A weak diversionary evasive attack is a poor defence.”
Never a truer word said, Pete. You can defend your leader by weak diversions all day long, but you are never going to be an MP. You’ve Dunne your dash, I’m afraid.
That’ll teach him to jump in the Dunney.
Will the grounding of the Rena, become Nationals “Corngate”
I suggest it will if thios grounding turns in to a split and sunken ship.
I saw dear leader Key on TV3 this morning proudly claiming that “for the first time ever, New Zealanders are saving more than they earn” !!!! I’m not sure what is more disturbing… that a PM can spout such stupidity, or that an interviewer can hear such nonsense and not say “John, that doesn’t really make sense…” Idiots being held to account by incompetents….. I despair for this country.
I guess that would be a first, since that hasn’t happened anywhere at any time. Save more than they earn? Huh? Dear Leader either has mad math skillz not seen in this dimension, or he is just pulling any old statement from his backside. I suspect the latter.
YAYZ! We’re all taking money from the credit cards and putting it into kiwisaver!
Reporting the expected, but no Prime Minister on National Radio this morning as per usual. He was invited apparently. The house has risen, so what is ShonKey doing, seemingly not even up to Geoff Robinson’s once over lightly ‘interrogation’.
Trotter on Mana:
In the media, several times now, its been emphasised that you can discriminate.
Yes, you can fire someone because they are ugly, or give you the hebbees,
does not matter about the toll to the bottom line, to rehire, like when have
managers lost jobs when they are also the small business owner. Yes,
you can fire someone who isn’t related to you!! to free up the position for
someone who is. But its worse, what it amounts to is the MSM basically
saying if you can get away with it, sure discriminate, but what’s really
stinks is that to prove discrimination you have to show that intent in the
mind of the discriminator, as long as they don’t let on, that its because your
small, or large, or have big hands, disabled, or just politically or ethically
different. But of course this is a awful way to lead a country, to provide
consent to discriminate.
But wait its worse. Because discrimination is rife in NZ, you can’t even
phone government departments on the free phone number from a mobile.
Those second class citizens who don’t have access to landlines now have
to pay through the nose to get access to their tax dollar paid for services
because mobile technology COST too much. And wait I’m not thinking
about bennies, I talking bottom line, for want of a horse the battle
was lost, and the kingdom fell. When someone resorts back to writin
letters, the whole efficiency gain from technology advance goes out the
window. But hey its worse than that, it forces even more off the grid,
and now they are pushing web access to government services, like
everyone can line up at the local library to do their business in half an
hour.
We are losing touch with fiscal discipline when government thinks
penny pinching, a product of cutting bureaucrats, is sensible.
Save Our Rail Northland Public Meeting Tonight
Save Our Rail Northland are holding a public meeting at Forum North, Whangarei on Tuesday the 11th of October 2011 from 7 p.m.
Save our Rail Northland are a group of citizens concerned that KiwiRail is planning to close down the North Auckland and Dargaville Branch Railway Lines. The aim of the Save Our Rail Northland campaign is to: Prevent the mothballing of the North Auckland Line and the Dargaville Branch Line…
Financial world dominated by a few deep pockets.
“This is empirical evidence of what’s been understood anecdotally for years,” says information theorist Brandy Aven of the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh.
The analysis is a first effort to document the international web of relationships among companies and to examine who owns shares — and how many — in whom. Tapping into the financial information database Orbis, scientists from ETH Zurich in Switzerland examined transnational companies, which they defined as having at least 10 percent of their holdings in more than one country. Then the team looked at upstream and downstream connections, yielding a network of 600,508 economic actors connected through more than a million ownership ties.
The effect of capitalism is to move ownership into the hands of fewer and fewer people resulting, eventually, in a dictatorship.
Heck, let’s just restore titular honours, get myself dubbed and bingo!, I’s an Aristocrat.
here is a graphic that shows it clearly
http://capitalrelations.co.uk/2011/09/11/who-runs-the-world-network-analysis-reveals-%E2%80%98super-entity%E2%80%99-of-global-corporate-control/
Vulture capitalist Paul Singer funding the smearing of Wall Street protests.
The campaign to marginalize and destroy the growing 99 Percent Movement is in full swing, with many in the media attempting to smear the people participating in the “occupation” protests across the country. However, several of the so-called journalists deriding, and in some cases sabotaging the movement, have paychecks thanks to a billionaire whose business practices have been scorned as among the worst of the financial elite.
Previously
#occupywallstreet as the reclaiming of popularism by the Left for the first time since the 30’s.
Hmm… coincidence that this coincides with the new Depression? Sure, the 60’s was about casting away a lot of social conservatism, was anti war & corporation, was for a less blighted future, love and peace and all that. But it wasn’t driven by inequality. If the sense of inequality could coalesce with the desire to build a more realistic future…
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/10/occupy_wall_street_emerges_as_first
ties into what you’re saying Bored…
OWS anthem
An honest piece about the OWS movement in the NY Times, yes really
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/opinion/panic-of-the-plutocrats.html?_r=4&smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto
“This [tax payer funded free ride ] can’t bear close scrutiny — and therefore, as they see it, there must be no close scrutiny.”
Looks like the campaign is going to deliver some good material for the countercultural media
BREAKING NEWS….
John Key has just announced that Gerry Brownlee is in charge of the Rena disaster…”The good people of Christchurch were suprisingly happy with Gerry’s postquake leadership, despite doing nothing, eating their food and clogging their sewers, the response to Gerry has somehow been positive. Gerry has the added advantage that he resembles a whale and smells like grease, we hope he can do as little for the good people of Tauranga as he has for the good people of Christchurch.”
doesn’t King Gerry already have a very important job to do? There are still people without toilets, there are tens of thousands without new homes, new jobs, or new futures!
also on Rena, another National Party lie is exposed
http://blog.greens.org.nz/2011/10/11/joyce-caught-lying-about-rena/
Love the ad for the new BMW X6 on The Standard’s front page.
Will pop down to the showrooms Sat morning and pick one up in met black. Always good to support The Standard’s advertisers.
: )
🙂
Reply from RNZ, John Barr re my email about Bomber Bradbury. Good that they replied but of course a “softening” of the story as expected. PR in full swing. Para 6 &7:
……Participants on The Panel on Afternoons with Jim Mora are given plenty of latitude to express personal opinions but it is expected that these will be presented for engagement and discussion and that panellists will conform to Radio New Zealand’s editorial policies and broadcast standards. A relationship of trust and confidence between the programme presenter, producers, and panellists is essential for the programme to be effective.
Mr Bradbury’s comments on The Panel on Afternoons last Thursday were inconsistent with information he had provided to programme producers before going on air and Mr Bradbury later apologised to the programme’s Executive Producer.
It was made clear to him that while his invitation to appear as an occasional guest on The Panel was being withdrawn, it was not a ‘lifelong ban’.
“between 130 and 350 tonnes of oil leaked out of the Rena this morning.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10758195
But there is no reason for concern about our oil spill response, silly greenies, drill baby drill.
Future law changes will mean that there are no problems in future. Really. Seriously. Obviously because current laws allow ships to get holed but with a slight change, oil rigs and tankers won’t.
Seriously.
As a kid I remember the Tory Canyon up on the Cornish coast leaking huge amounts of oil. The Harold Wilson government asked the RAF to set fire to it by bombing it…a spectacular failure, hardly enough to appear effective Cold War warriors…pathetic really. The oil fires went out as the weather set in breaking the tanker up. Oil everywhere. Mess.
Only thing I can say, Wilson at least did something, Jokey Hen???????????
Correct Viper. And we have it on the PM’s authority that the Renal failure would have been much worse under Labour. Seriously. He has an email.
Hero of the Week Award – Sue Kedgley
Today, the so-called Hon Kate Wilkinson, wrote a blog called Greens wrong on Food Bill. It’s an open attack on the Green party and more specifically Sue Kedgley, who has been tireless in her quest for food standards and labeling to ensure safe and healthy food…
Steven Joyce caught lying over Rena accusations
Source : Scoop
The Green Party has released email correspondence showing that Steven Joyce lied on TVNZ’s Close Up show last night when he said, “I have not had a single request of my office or of the Ministry for any briefing from any opposition politician whatsoever.”
“The Green Party did seek a briefing on the Rena situations directly from Steven Joyce. He lied when he said we hadn’t,” said Green Party oceans spokesperson Gareth Hughes.
“We even received a response from Steven Joyce’s office saying they had referred our briefing request to Maritime New Zealand.
“Our attempts to receive a briefing started on Friday when we unsuccessful tried to get hold of Maritime New Zealand to request a briefing for when I was in Tauranga on Saturday.
The Green Party is concerned that Steven Joyce may also be lying about other aspects of the salvage and clean-up operation.
“Locals have raised serious concerns about the lack of communication. It would be worrying if the little information they are getting is inaccurate,” said Mr Hughes.
“Now is not the time to mislead the public. There is a serious ecological matter that needs dealing with that requires honesty and transparency from the Minister.”
Copies of email correspondence are here: http://blog.greens.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/20111010joyceofficeemails.pdf
http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2011/10/09/this-is-why-they-hate-you-and-want-you-to-die/
http://www.truth-out.org/bank-it-theyre-scared/1318020817
Don’t you love it when you get such authorities as The Penguin on programmes like “Afternoons”. One, they push the party line and then, when they talk about general topics, they show what empty vessels they are.
Today, the Penguin advised us that there is a typed page of “correct pronounciation” in the RNZ studio. FFS Farrar, it’s pronunciation… “Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt”
Notice how the Penguin promoted the National Party policy to cut benefits such as Interest Free Loans, and Working for Families, and State Services etc? If these cuts are not made we will face a serious crash. (Funny that Key is upbeat about prospects?) Not as bombastic in his opinions but certainly a slippery election promotion and so well received as fair comment by Jim without a dissenting opinion.
surely it’s not meant to be this obvious?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/87991/power-to-head-westpac-private-bank-division
The plutocrats really don’t care how obvious it is any more. They think that they’re untouchable.
Hmmm … bright young rising star leaves prior to his political prime, to pursue a lucrative position with a bank. All under the watchful eye of a well-‘finance and banking sector connected and networked’ PM.
Obviously even political ambition has its price.
I wonder who’s in line [now] once Key departs?
Of course, it would be complete conspiracy theory-land to think that conveniently timed ‘jobs for the boys’ buy-offs happen in politics so I suppose we just note and then move on.
Hey what fat cat corporate jobs are the exiting Labour MPs gonna get from the private sector I wonder.
I’ve received a ‘bounce’ for my email to Peter Cavanagh at RNZ – which I thought I sent yesterday. No such email address, yet I used the link provided (here).
Maybe that address has been shut down because of overload? Or, maybe, the link didn’t work??
a single quote about Occupy Wall Street that is all the motivation any free person should need
Yeah? Check out the stupid hippies:
So biccy you are quite happy with the status quo?
If the alternative is living like those looneys, I’ll take this thanks. [now repeat, please].
Do you know why they were repeating like that?
It’s called “human microphone”. It allows people at the back to hear what the speaker is saying when you’ve got limited (or no) amplification equipment.
Did you see the look on John Lewis’ face when he was told that he could not speak (by someone who was speaking) because doing so carried on implication that he was better than everyone else?
Hippies aren’t stupid you gross user of the worlds resources.
You talkin’ to me? You are really going to have to learn how to use the reply function, randy.
Seen this folks?
Who in NZ has even HEARD of ‘post-separation employment’?
It’s an internationally recognised form of ‘corrupt practice’ in those countries which actually have a domestic legislative ‘anti-corruption’ framewok in place – UNLIKE NEW ZEALAND!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10758292
As the new head of Westpac private bank – is National Government Minister of Commerce and Justice, Simon Power, going to be involved in lobbying, advocating or having business meetings with members of the future government, parliament, public service or the defence force on any matters on which he has had official dealings as Minister in his last eighteen months in office?
If so, and if National Government Minister of Commerce and Justice, Simon Power was an Australian Federal Government Minister – this would be seen as a form of ‘corrupt practice’ and a breach of their Standards of Ministerial Ethics, as a breach of ‘Post-Ministerial Employment’ requirements:
“Post-ministerial employment
2.19. Ministers are required to undertake that, for an eighteen month period after ceasing to be a Minister, they will not lobby, advocate or have business meetings with members of the government, parliament, public service or defence force on any matters on which they have had official dealings as Minister in their last eighteen months in office.
Ministers are also required to undertake that, on leaving office, they will not take personal advantage of information to which they have had access as a Minister, where that information is not generally available to the public.”
In my considered opinion, the ‘revolving door’ between public office and the private sector is on permanent rotation at both central and local government level in NZ.
What did Simon Power do to help ensure, as Minister of Justice, that our domestic legislative framework was sufficiently in place to enable NZ, ‘perceived’ to be ‘the least corrupt country in the world’ (along with Denmark and Singapore – according to Transparency International’s 2010 ‘Corruption Perception Index’) to ratify the UN Convention Against Corruption?
Or would such an anti-corruption domestic legislative framework effectively be a ‘conflict of interest’ for those vested interests who work in the commerce, finance and banking fields?
As Simon Power is going to be – once he takes up his appointment as the Head of Westpac Private Bank?
That’s a fair question – isn’t it?
Penny Bright
Independent ‘Public Watchdog’
Candidate for Epsom
Campaigning against ‘white collar’ CRIME, CORPORATE WELFARE, CORRUPTION (and its root cause) PRIVATISATION.
Didn’t Westpac re-tender for the government banking business? Was Power involved in this?
ANZ HEAD of wealthy account holders same job different organization
I heard a report on the radio it was anz it and i am wrong it is westpac head of wealthy individuals banking sector
I dont have to do anything. this is a free country.
Parp morganfield
For a “law and order” party, ACT are being very naughty by parking a billboard trailer for Banks in the Epsom electorate with an expired licence and no WOF displayed.
And the trailer was parked by a National Party supporter. What does that mean?
See it currently in the Shore Road carpark. It also wasn’t licenced a month ago when it was seen in the area. Are ACT immune to laws or something?
Plate L641Y TRAILER BILLBOARD 2008 in Silver
Valid on: 11 October 2011 at 7:44pm today
* Licence expiry: 2011, June 16th (expired 3 months 3 weeks 5 days ago)
* Latest licence issued on: 2010, December 17th at 10:49
* Subject to WOF inspection?: Yes
* WOF expiry: 2012, September 2nd (in 10 months 3 weeks 1 day)
* Last inspection: 2011, September 2nd (Pass)
***** WOF NOT DISPLAYED *****
One law for all (of you) and another law for NACToids.
Take a pic and give it to the police.
From here:
Someone be nice enough to embed the image please.
[Sorry – I can’t seem to make that happen in comments – Lynn? r0b]
[lprent: done. well it was there. Now it has disappeared from my iPad at the other side. ]