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:
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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Everyone was outraged yesterday to learn that the Christchurch shooting accused had been able to send mail from prison to his Nazi fans, apparently pushing more hate. "How could this possibly happen", people asked. Simple: because New Zealand is a civilised country, and so we let prisoners send and receive ...
If we are to avoid dangerous anthropogenic climate change, we need to rapidly decarbonise our transport fleet. The good news: its starting to happen:The number of electric vehicles on New Zealand's roads have nearly tripled in the past two years. There are currently 15,453 registered electric vehicles (EVs), up ...
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...
Most economists agree that a currently slowing economy could do with some stimulus – and they would also agree that there is no shortage of infrastructure projects which could be brought to productive fruition with help from that stimulus. In view of the current practice of sub-contracting economic policy decisions ...
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
AN OPEN LETTER FOR SIGN ON BY ORGANISATIONS AND MOVEMENTS ACROSS THE WORLD, ALLIED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST INEQUALITY. This letter was released at the UN Political Forum on 9 July, where the Sustainable Development Goal on inequality was reviewed. The purpose of the letter is to call out the ...
We asked a young gay science student and critic of trans ideology and the trans activists’ assault on women’s and gay rights to outline his views on Redline. Thanks to him for his article. by Cian Ó Catháin Gender identity ideology (Gender ID) is ripping through western society at full ...
The Environment Committee is currently hearing submissions on the Zero Carbon Bill, and Stuff is reporting on the submissions. Today, they're covering yesterday they heard from "NZ" Steel:NZ Steel has told MPs it may be forced to close with the loss of thousands of jobs if changes aren't made to ...
Students are striking against climate change on September 27. And this time, they're asking everyone to join them:Students are taking to the streets, beaches and parks on 27 September, and we're inviting everyone to join us. That's right, this is an intergenerational issue, and you're all invited to put pressure ...
Peter McKenzie has a piece on Newsroom this morning about how local body politics is awash with property developer cash. 70% of all the donations in the 2016 Wellington mayoral election came from property developers. And its pretty obvious what they want in exchange:That’s particularly important in local government, according ...
Source: Unknown, twitter user Recently, I wrote a (relatively) short paper titled as above, to explore what self-determination could like in a practical sense. Maybe I’m a bit of an international trade truther or something, but I absolutely believe trade is at the heart of achieving peace and self-determination. Since ...
In the 1960s, after I had graduated with a first-class Oxford postgraduate law degree, I joined the British Foreign Office as the top entrant of my year. There, I worked for a couple of years on European affairs and was eventually posted to the Embassy in Brussels. After this exposure ...
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...
I heard a 45 minute interview with Monica Lewinsky talking to TED’s Chris Anderson on BBC Radio 4 over the weekend, and have listened to it another two times out walking. I recommend it. Highly. Man, I am so impressed with how this woman has integrated her life experiences and ...
Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure, London, Penguin, 2019, 352pp; reviewed by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s book The Coddling of the American Mind is a timely book, whose ...
When the Justice Committee reported back on the Administration of Justice (Reform of Contempt of Court) Bill, free speech advocates breathed a sigh of relief. As originally introduced, the Bill reitered the ancient offence of "scandalising the court" - basicly, a special sedition law protecting judges from criticism. The select ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. Since then - crickets. Which raises the obvious question: are they actually going to do this, ...
Back in March, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act. 285 people submitted on it. Now, Stuff has trawled through those submissions, and the case for reform is strong:The Justice Ministry asked Kiwis what they thought was ...
National's prisoner voting ban has gone down as one of the worst laws in New Zealand history. Passed after a farcical debate (including this farcial speech from ACT MP Hilary Calvert), it has subsequently been found to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act by the High Court, Court ...
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...
by Daphna Whitmore US social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt spoke on 1 August in Auckland to a crowd of around one thousand people. He is best known for his bookThe Coddling of the American Mind which examines the new climate of trigger warnings and acute sensitivity of Gen Z. ...
What an extraordinarily depressing experience it is to be compelled to watch, at 12,000 miles distance, the contortions and machinations of the British political class as they set about their determined attempt to overturn the decision taken by the British people that they wish to leave the European Union. The ...
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...
by Don Franks Way back when British guitar virtuoso Joe Brown was a beginning session guy he got to back a visiting American artist. Young Joe was an able technician but had yet to learn some points of professionalism. Part way through “Five foot high and rising” Joe tired of ...
Since scientists started studying climate change, they have warned that it will reduce food production. And now, its happening:The climate crisis is damaging the ability of the land to sustain humanity, with cascading risks becoming increasingly severe as global temperatures rise, according to a landmark UN report compiled by some ...
The Abortion Legislation Bill just passed its first reading, 94-23. Its a far bigger margin than I expected, even allowing for the Winston factor, and it reflects the overwhelming support there is in this country for reform. but that support isn't a new thing - it has existed for literally ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Referendums Framework Bill. The Bill does what it says on the label - establishes a framework for referenda. Things you may want to address in your submission: Whether the bill should apply only at the 2020 election, or whether it should ...
The Thompson and Clark / MBIE spying scandal continues to result in fallout, this time in the form of a report on the implementation of MBIE's "Operation Exploration", its internal operation to enforce the infamous Anadarko Amendment which criminalised protests against the oil industry. MBIE's enforcement operation was tainted by ...
So, Winston Peters is defending his last-minute demand for a referendum on abortion by claiming he was "blindsided" by the bill. Really? The bill is a government bill. It has been working through the cabinet approval process since December last year. As part of that process, NZ First was consulted, ...
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...
National’s Election promises are similar to 2017 statements BUT…. • Recognises compliance is the number one issue for small medium business (SMEs); ...
Aug. 26 (BusinessDesk) - The National Party is floating a cut to New Zealand's 28 percent company tax rate among a suite of possible tax changes it would promise going into the 2020 election. ...
The New Zealand Maori Council has been provided with the soon to be released coronial data on suicide in New Zealand. The fact is the suicide rate has risen again and is out of control. The Executive Director of the New Zealand Maori Council (and former ...
Family First NZ is welcoming the Government’s intention to tackle the harms of pornography, and are also continuing to call for a truly independent Expert Panel to investigate and provide solutions for families. ...
"For too long central government has layered additional responsibilities onto local government with little consultation or acknowledgement of the essential work councils do. Combined with the lack of support and funding, this top down attitude ...
Joining local Green candidates at their campaign launch on Sunday at the Highbury Whanau Centre Green Party Co-Leader Marama Davidson will say, “I’m very proud to join Green candidates Teanau Tuiono, Renee Dingwall and Brent Barrett in calling ...
The Campaign for Better Transport ( CBT ) is pleased to hear the government has announced the start of train services from Hamilton to Papakura but is concerned about some of the features of the proposed service. ...
Family First NZ is supporting a call by the Police to raise the drinking age, which echoes previous calls by the NZ Medical Association, but says that other factors around price, availability, penalties and addiction services must be part of the ...
West Papua solidarity activists met yesterday and resolved to call on the Prime Minister to step up to help resolve the escalating crisis in West Papua. ...
Landmark Report Released into Maori Aging and Disabilities “Manaaki Pakeke” – New Zealand Maori Council calls for a policy shift and greater focus The New Zealand Maori Council has released a comprehensive policy statement challenging the ...
MANATŪ TAONGA MINISTRY FOR CULTURE AND HERITAGE MEDIA RELEASE 25 August 2019 Privacy breach identified with the Tuia 250 Voyage Trainee website Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage is investigating a serious digital privacy breach involving ...
‘Original Sin’ of Land Confiscation at Ihumātao is a wrong that can be put right by Government says Justice & Peace Commission of Catholic Diocese of Auckland ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a press conference on August 19 that her government is likely to impose new restrictions on prisoners’ rights to send letters. She said the law could be changed in “weeks.” ...
Heart-warming images of House Speaker Trevor Mallard cradling a baby in Parliament have been welcomed around New Zealand, but the Public Service Association warns most families can only dream of such support in the workplace. ...
Applying New Zealand’s international human rights commitments, particularly those in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, can help in resolving the situation at Ihumātao, Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt says. ...
Climate campaigners impersonating bank staff have taken to the streets this week to expose ANZ Bank’s sponsorship of the fossil fuel industry. In the series of satirical actions in Wellington, Dunedin, and Auckland, the ‘bank staff’ promoted ...
Auckland Action Against Poverty joins the Children’s Commissioner , The Green Party , The New Zealand Drugs Foundation , Child Poverty Action Group and other organisations in the calls for an immediate end to the drug testing benefit sanctions. ...
Negotiations between Port Otago workers represented by the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) and the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) and management failed today and the unions have issued notice of an overtime ban from Saturday 7th September. ...
Queenstown Lakes District Council’s comments that it has applied for a consent to pollute waterways to avoid 'prosecutions by the Otago Regional Council' are unacceptable,’ Fish & Game New Zealand Chief Executive Martin Taylor says. ...
On March 15, the real world impact of online hate became abundantly, horrifically clear. As a shooter opened fire at two Christchurch mosques, the online image board 8chan anticipated, celebrated and amplified his killing spree. ...
Friday, 23 August: Government delegates from around the world, including New Zealand, are meeting in New York for the third of four meetings at the United Nations to agree a Global Oceans Treaty that could help to protect 30% of our oceans by 2030. Greenpeace ...
The excuses about a reportedly unwanted $57,000 payrise for Dunedin City Council CEO Sue Bidrose are laughable, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. ...
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance has launched the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” committing to no more than 2% annual rate hikes over the next Council term, and has written to all Mayoral and Council candidates asking them to sign. The pledge will ...
This Saturday, Pakuranga Hunt Day at the Ellerslie Racecourse will see anti-horse racing protesters demonstrating at the corner of Ascot Avenue and Greenlane East. ...
Mayoral candidate John Tamihere will meet with Pacific Island leaders and community elders today at Puhunui Reserve in South Auckland to commit to a Pasefika Cultural Centre. ...
Cruel and invalid Forced Swim Tests carried out at Victoria University of Wellington, will be exposed at the University Open Day today, so prospective students can be warned about the flawed and unethical research being conducted at the institute. ...
The organiser of the annual YWCA Equal Pay Awards has expressed her disappointment with the latest Gender Pay Gap figure for New Zealand workers. The figure rose slightly from 9.2% in 2018 to 9.3% for the quarter ended 30 June 2019. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to pass on information to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques now that the period for submissions has been extended to 27 September. ...
An application was filed in the Employment Relations Authority in Wellington today, seeking an injunction to prevent the Board of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation from removing the President from office. ...
The Government’s commitment to support literacy and numeracy training in the workplace is a strong signal from Government on recognising the importance of upskilling, reskilling and increasing productivity alongside their commitment to address the challenges ...
“The infrastructure sector sees a major role for the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission/Te Waihanga in lifting the nation’s sagging infrastructure performance,” says Paul Blair, incoming CEO of Infrastructure NZ. ...
The AA is calling on the Government to bring forward critical highway projects while time is spent properly developing the plans for a rapid transit system in Auckland. ...
Between 2015/16 and 2017/18, DHBs spent $280 million treating patients due to adverse drug reactions, reveals the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union in its latest briefing paper on health productivity . ...
The Pay Equity Coalition Auckland (PECA) is pleased the gender pay gap has decreased slightly. Statistics released today show the gap is now 11.9%, nearly 2 percent less than last year. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to make sure they pass on any information they have to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques before submissions close tomorrow (Friday). ...
The big electricity companies consider solar energy “disruptive” and want pricing to suppress it. In contrast, advocates of local energy say that solar, energy efficiency, and other local energy solutions are the cheapest ways to reduce carbon emissions. ...
The Earthquake Commission and Shine Lawyers are delighted to announce that EQC has reached an agreement with the Gibling family, agreeing to cover the cost of repairs of remaining earthquake damage on their property. ...
Four months into the inquiry, the Royal Commission is gathering significant information and continues to receive valuable submissions from the public, from current and former State servants, experts and community groups. ...
While Fish & Game New Zealand is pleased to see Federated Farmers Environment Spokesperson Chris Allen say that 'we all want good, fresh water', he conveniently overlooks some key facts. ...
What: Wellington demo “Save the Amazon Forest/Salve a Amazônia!” When: Friday, 6 September 2019 from 12:30-13:30 Where: Embassy of Brazil in Wellingtona ...
Rt Hon Trevor Mallard, Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, welcomes the visit of His Excellency Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grahame Dowling, Honorary Professor, University of Technology Sydney One of my banks invited me to a customer lunch a few weeks back so that it could announce its commitment to the new Banking Code of Conduct. Here was a chance for it ...
In the space of days a waitress was racially abused in Auckland and a deaf student mocked by his peers in Canterbury. In both cases there were apologies. In both cases those apologies fall short, writes Christine AmmunsonWhat a stink week. Within days and in two different cities, we had ...
Record low borrowing costs are a precious opportunity for business owners who now need to make savvy decisions about what to do with the cash.The experts may have been caught off-guard when the Reserve Bank opened fire on interest rates earlier this month, but the fact of the matter is ...
For years, New Zealand has bemoaned the gap between much of our television drama and the cutting edge out in the world. That gap might finally be closing, writes Duncan Greive.He’s just a minor character, eating an ice cream. It doesn’t seem all that revolutionary, but in the context of ...
Ruby Porter on the first novel by acclaimed Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong. I came across Ocean Vuong’s poetry collection Night Sky With Exit Wounds last year. I read it twice in one day. I was staying outside of New York, at the time, and taking the train in each morning. I ...
A War Story is one more attempt in a long line of art to make sense of 9/11 – this time from a uniquely Kiwi perspective.The coordinated terrorist attacks on September 11 2001 cut a razor-sharp divide between the relatively carefree time before and everything after, bleeding into ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Privacy breach at Ministry for Culture and Heritage Audrey Young (Herald): How latest privacy breach ...
Auckland mayoral rival John Tamihere is pitching himself as a low-cost candidate but the incumbent Phil Goff says Mr Tamihere lacks a basic understanding of finances. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elyse Methven, Lecturer in Law, University of Technology Sydney As the state election loomed last year, the NSW government rushed through a new crime targeting drug suppliers. A person who supplies a prohibited drug for profit can now be prosecuted for homicide ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julia Talbot-Jones, Lecturer, Victoria University of Wellington Last week, voter enrolment for the 2019 local government elections closed in New Zealand and concerns about low voter turnout resurfaced. During a panel discussion run by Auckland Council, the idea was raised to pay ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Dunk, Research Fellow, University of Sydney Last week, one of the world’s leading medical journals declared the medical community must act now to limit the health effects of climate change. In a stark editorial, readers of the New England Journal of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Goss, School Education Program Director, Grattan Institute Australia’s young high achievers are turning their backs on teaching. They want to make a difference in their careers, and they are interested in teaching, but when it comes to the crunch they choose ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carl Grodach, Professor and Director of Urban Planning & Design, Monash University Since 2000, planning authorities in Australia have overseen a massive rezoning of inner-city industrial land to make way for mixed-use residential development. They claim central industrial space is obsolete in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lara Owen, PhD Candidate, Monash University Last week, menstrual pad brand Libra launched their Blood Normal commercial in Australia, running it during prime time television shows including The Bachelor, The Project, and Gogglebox. Australia is a little late to the party: Blood ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Govt rejects idea to ban petrol car imports in 2035, firefighters say they’re facing a workforce crisis, and Tamihere pledges rate freeze.A strange sort of stoush erupted at the end of last week around petrol and diesel car sales. On Friday, Newsroom reported ...
Kiwi boxer Troy Garton, who defied medical advice to produce one of the most remarkable performances in NZ sport, now has her sights set firmly on the Tokyo Olympics. ...
Victoria University of Wellington's Anne Goulding discusses the paradox of New Zealanders wanting to safeguard our personal data, while frequently and freely giving it away. ...
Lisa McMillan is an adrenaline junkie. Instead of skydiving or driving race cars, she collects rooms full of naked strangers. Josie Adams went along to the Naked Dinner and found it stimulated all the wrong hormones.In a tealight-lit lounge in a rented Symonds Street flat, I milled around with 23 ...
Brazil’s rainforests are ablaze, and even from the distance of New Zealand, many of us are losing sleep. For the climate and for humanity, we can do something profound and simple, writes Kena DuignanI’ve asked my dad to look after my kids yesterday so I could write this, after a ...
Meng Foon has been a fixture in Gisborne local government for more than two decades. Today he starts a new role, as race relations commissioner. Alice Webb-Lidall heads over to his Gisborne home for dinner, to find out what he’ll miss as mayor, and how he’ll approach his new jobThis ...
In the final of our series on the loss of faith in free market economics we ask New Zealand business leaders how they’re grappling with the almighty power of a technology that barely existed 20 years ago. Hands up who’s read the Financial Markets Authority’s website. Come on, be honest.No, of ...
Is New Zealand in danger of becoming a bio-tech backwater because of our strict GE rules, or should we retain them to sell our clean image overseas? ...
ANALYSIS:By David Robie Indonesia’s harsh policies towards West Papua ought to be scrapped. Whatever happened to the brief window of enlightenment ushered in by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in 2015 with promises of a more “open door” policy towards foreign journalists and human rights groups? They were supposed ...
The House - The grammar of being an MP is harder than you might think. MPs in Parliament choose their words with care, and it just got more complicated. ...
As a format it predates almost all reality TV, and that’s precisely why it works in 2019, writes Duncan Greive.There’s something deeply comforting about watching Celebrity Treasure Island. It is a very pure form of escapism, largely because it explicitly recalls a world without the internet, and before everything started ...
Residents in Los Angeles and Orange County warned to check for symptoms after an infected NZ teen visited theme parks including Disneyland and Universal Studios earlier this month.Californian health authorities have issued warnings to residents and visitors after a New Zealand teenager was found to have spent five days in ...
When you crave fresh, bright flavours but summer veges seem far away, throw together this simple salad.Growing up we often ate this salad, or one very similar to it. My mum is a fantastic cook and this dish is one she still makes to this day – though I must ...
Analysis of New Zealand media headlines reveals a lot of people slamming a lot of other people.Slamming is at epidemic levels in New Zealand news. Drawn from just the last month, we present a selection of slamming.On July 27A union boss slammed David ClarkOn July 29Police slammed a dangerous photographerOn ...
Vana Manasiadis wrote a collection of poetry in the wake of her mother’s death. In this essay, ahead of her appearance at the Going West festival, she argues that as a nation Aotearoa needs to learn to make space for mourning. When Mum died in Athens, I cried loudly and publicly ...
The giant hand that captivated, delighted and disgusted the nation is now settling into its new Wellington home. For City Gallery Wellington’s blog, Spinoff arts editor Megan Dunn talked to Ronnie van Hout, the man who made Quasi.“Quasi is in the wrong place,” wrote art critic Warren Feeney in 2016, ...
At school camp, the children are banned from having phones, laptops, lollies, chocolate, money, cotton clothing or independent thoughts. They, are, however, allowed home baking – but it’s gotta be hearty. How hearty are you? We are packing for a school camp. If you’re thinking that the middle of winter is ...
Phil Goff’s rival has already pledged an 0800-Jacinda homeless hotline and an 18-lane harbour bridge. What’s next? The two most important people in the 2019 campaign for the Auckland mayoralty faced each other down on Wednesday night across the desk in the NZME debate: Bernard Orsman and Simon Wilson. Correction: it ...
Split Level View Finder: Theo Schoon and New Zealand Art is the exhibition that sparked a protest over issues of cultural appropriation and institutional representation. Theo Schoon is a divisive historical figure. But is his art any good? Martin Patrick reviews.British novelist L.P. Hartley once wrote that “the past is ...
Ahead of debuting her solo show at New Zealand Fashion Week, Korean-NZ couture designer Cecilia Kang talks about growing up ‘feminine’, being influenced by the LGBTQ+ community, and why an ‘administrative error’ at Fashion Week left her so shaken up. ‘I like something big,” says Cecilia Kang, gesturing to the giant ...
The Labour Party is distancing itself from one of its members who is strongly pro-Beijing and has caused controversy in the Chinese community by standing for local office in Auckland. ...
Faced with staff shortages, equipment failures, cancer risks, and a jump in critical calls that can leave them traumatised, some firefighters are wondering if it’s time to hang up the hose. Gareth Shute reports on the dissatisfaction inside Fire and Emergency New Zealand.The state of our nation’s fire service is ...
“She comes over. You’re my mother, she says. Yes, I say. I don’t know you, she says”: a mother and child seaside story by Wellington author Jan Pryor. Photo by Peter Black. ...
Open mike 11/10/2011 
My wife and I have had dogs for the whole of our 52 years of married life – and that has meant sharing our lives with our little furry friends. Because we usually spend a good part of our evenings watching television, it also means that our dogs have learned ...1 day ago
. . Former Police, Corrections, and Justice Minister in the previous John Key government, Judith Collins, has been ridiculed on social media after posting a comment on Twitter that was patently untrue; . Wrong!! National did not remove Prisoners’ ability to vote. Parliament voted through a Private Member’s Bill ...2 days ago
Speaker Trevor Mallard was left to look after Jones, while his usual caretaker, Winston Peters, underwent surgery. A truly adorable scene from Parliament yesterday has gone viral, after Speaker Trevor Mallard cradled an extremely drunk Shane Jones in his arms while the House was in session. Loud “awwww”s could be ...3 days ago
Western media have defended their decision not to cover the fires so as not to give them any oxygen. Social media outrage continues to grow around the sentiment that mainstream western media is devoting too little coverage to an ongoing series of fires in the Amazon rainforest, and in doing ...3 days ago
A Long Time Ago, In A Parallel Universe Far, Far Away: The political journalist scratched his head in confusion. Only then did he notice the name of the building: ‘The Jacinda Ardern Presidential Library and Public Resource Centre’. Making his way inside to the information desk, he asked the librarian ...3 days ago
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Nothing from me tody - I'm off to Christchurch to pretend to be other people for a weekend. Normal bloggage should resume on Tuesday. ...3 days ago
Spark is bracing for a customer backlash as rugby fans all across the country struggle to get a picture on their wireless router. With the Rugby World Cup fast approaching, an elderly Taranaki couple are furious after being told that they still won’t be able to watch the tournament, even ...4 days ago
Several explosions have been reported across Auckland, as well-meaning environmentalists have already begun purchasing too much petrol Starting from next week, customers will no longer need a car to purchase petrol directly from the pump, a development that two major fuel providers are billing as an opportunity to help fight ...4 days ago
A new study claims to find that a mother’s exposure to fluoridated water during pregnancy may decrease the IQ of male children – but is it correct? (Photo: Getty Images) Anti-fluoride campaigners are promoting ... 4 days ago
by Jan Rivers More than 30 years ago a Commission of Inquiry was held in New Zealand to investigate, amongst other things, whether women with cervical cancer were aware that they had been part of a research project and whether they were properly informed of the treatment options ...6 days ago
Everyone Wants To Be Fuhrer: When fascist groups are discussed, the image conjured-up in the minds of most New Zealanders is one of pathetic misfits. This negative impression is reinforced by the latter’s idiotic embrace of the swastika. Even in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the baleful legacy ...6 days ago
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...1 week ago
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...1 week ago
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...1 week ago
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Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...1 week ago
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...2 weeks ago
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...2 weeks ago
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...2 weeks ago
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...2 weeks ago
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...2 weeks ago
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ... 2 weeks ago
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...2 weeks ago
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...2 weeks 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:
http://www.dpmc.gov.au/guidelines/docs/ministerial_ethics.pdf
“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. ]