Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike…
It hasn’t taken long for the MSM to start their whisperings about David Cunliffe.
John Armstrong in the Herald yesterday about his speech to the CTU Conference “It seemed as if two David Cunliffes had turned up’….One passionate and stirring message for the workers; one politically sanitised version of the same message for everyone else'”.
Claire Trevett suggests Cunliffe gave himself “wiggle-room” in his commitments to the unionists.
No acknowledgement that a responsible Party Leader has to be careful in what they say before they’ve seen the state of the “books” the Nats leave behind.
Despite that, Cunliffe was very clear to the unions – an immediate rise to $15phr for the minimum wage, the first budget will have a living wage to people working in the core public service, scrapping the Nats unfair employment law changes, bringing in more parental leave.
He’s a numbers man, he knows his stuff, he will have worked out what Labour can afford to promise before the election. There’s nothing two-faced about what he is saying. But the MSM and the WhaleOils will search through everything he says to find ways to trip him up.
Makes me think of the old dressing table mirrors with one flat, and two wings. Stand in one place, turn your head and see three different visions or versions of whoever. Perhaps these jonolists need to move around a bit. It sounds as if they have been so rroted to their spot that they’ll start sprouting cutty grass and thorns soon.
Cunliffe is enjoying an honeymoon, however, I think it is becoming clear that we will almost certainly have a Labour-led government next year.
I listen to what you all say very carefully. So, I am interested in what it is you want this government to do.
Give me your dream list. Tax hikes? GST off fruit and vegetables? Buying back all of the shares in Meridian (and perhaps some other generators not already publicly-owned)? Employment law changes? Increase in benefits? Banning foreign ownership? Out of the TPPA? Nationalisation of Trade Me? Think Big? Government control of the exchange rate? Berm mowing?
Stating the contradiction within your kind invitation is not a smack down. It’s simply casting doubt on either your motive or your comprehension, a failure in either of which might lead to a waste of everyone’s time.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 5.1.1.1.1
I would be surprised if you believed that I felt compelled to answer your question.
Besides NZ being a free country (albeit for a given value of “free”), if you did indeed carefully listen to what each of us said, the information is already at your fingertips.
If you’re serious, and from that list:
Employment law changes – seriously detrimental to social cohesion and a decent life for the most vulnerable with NActs changes
Buying back all of the shares – should be on the table
Restricting foreign ownership – unless we have reciprocal rights
Out of the TPPA – as it stands now
1. Considerable Tax hikes at the higher levels – along the lines of the top tax rate in the UK or Australia.
2. Investment in green tech
3. Widening of land based and marine reserves and national parks
3. Restrictions on foreign ownership
4. Capital gains tax on property
5. Reversal of the Employment law changes
Lolz, Gormless, the third one of the wing-nuts that appear here at the Standard to admit this far out from November 2014 that National are going to lose,
Keep up the defeatism it will spread like swine flu through the ranks of National Party supporters, i am starting to firm up in my pick of 39% for National in 2014,
Besides what Labour leader David Cunliffe has already announced, my little wish list, dependent entirely in what state the incoming Labour/Green Government finds the Government accounts in would be sufficient for the first term,
(1), the reversal of ALL changes made to the benefit system by the current Government within the first 100 days,
(2), Subject to the 500 million dollar estimated cost being available the transition of the Working for Families tax credit scheme into a functional child benefit payment which is also paid to ALL benefit dependent children,(or a definite promise of a starting date for such a scheme),
(3), A State House building program focused mainly upon the cities of Auckland and Christchurch,
(4), At the direction of the relevant Ministers both the Superfund and the ACC fund tasked to buy back shares in recently sold State Owned Assets…
“dependent entirely in what state the incoming Labour/Green Government finds the Government accounts in ”
Probably an empty cupboard with a little bill n john wuz here.
[lprent: with connotations of “tool”? As in blind unthinking inanimate object doing someone else’s bidding. I suppose I could look at context but who has the time? ]
– savage any mono/duopoly/shonkey business practices.
– give the SFO/FMA the teeth required to deal effectively with serial shysters.
– dispute resolution with the onus on respondents to prove matters are indeed civil.
– a serious look at the limited liability scam
Housing:
– CGT on property transactions – no exceptions.
– all speculators are developers who will pay the relevant tax.
– initiate a capitalisation scheme to assist new builds for first home owners only.
– remove subsidies on rental accommodation state transfers to rental owners.
– increase social housing availability for low income CBD workers.
– increase social housing availability for the elderly/infirm.
– improve all existing housing stock using the healthy home model.
Education:
– follow the science – anec-data doesn’t count.
– 4 -16 compulsory attendance.
– expansion of special education services.
– 16-21 compulsory tertiary education/trade training fully funded
– funding continuing education – attendance – a priority.
Health:
– health care is universal.
– pre-natal – post-natal a priority.
– continuation and improvement of well child initiatives.
– universal dental care.
– expansion of public health initiatives – step away from that pie fella – image of cleaved sternum.
– elder care – stop the gaming of the taxpayer by those who hide or transfer resources.
Crime and punishment:
– remove the greatest barrier to our Peelian policing model – cannabis prohibition.
– criminal sanctions tied to education – community service is as either a student or an educator.
– prison is punishment – not a place to be punished.
– prison is punishment – not a place to be disenfranchised.
– prison is punishment – not a place where universal health care is denied.
– prison is a work place and education facility- literacy, numeracy, transferable skills are the goals.
– separate the bad from the mad.
– the truly mad are treated.
– the truly bad run out of chances.
Work to significantly lower energy prices for both domestic and commercial users.
Go all Keynesian on transport.
Go all Keynesian on employment.
Robust regional development policies.
Governance – start by cleaning up your own parliament – the collective lack of ethics on display daily is disgusting.
Wow joe 90 – a concise and exciting set of dynamic ideas, and we’ll need more than the Dynamic Duo to move them. But what a greatprospect it would be. rrection – it will be!
Thanks Rogue for that interesting link. It’s time to look at what China is doing – if it can only supply some quality thinking to sustainable futures for us all, it will be a worthy world leader unlike the rubber chicken we have at present. Unfortunately I heard a radio report recently saying that China is at present supplying subsidies for shipping to fishers to go out into the high seas and will smash the tuna stocks as part of their expansion in all directions plan. It apparently is the Great Cosmic Plan in space, but we can’t do that on earth. I thought China was smart enough to realise that.
1. Guaranteed real ice-cream made from milk
This would mean dissociation from the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Authority and the re-establishment of the NZ Food Standards Authority. Then we wouldn’t have to put up with the Australian definition of ice-cream which lets manufacturers use a proportion of animal fat from any source (eg rendered chicken fat), as well as milk fat in ice cream manufacture
2. Reworking of the Overseas Investment Office so that it’s default stance is that land sales should not be permitted to foreigners. This is a reverse of it’s current MO which is to permit land sales unless someone comes up with a damn good reason why a sale shouldn’t be permitted.
richard Australian definition of ice-cream which lets manufacturers use a proportion of animal fat from any source (eg rendered chicken fat), as well as milk fat in ice cream manufacture
I hadn’t caught up with that. I wondered why some of the ice cream didn’t taste good. I looked at the labels but reading through all the information in small print didn’t enlighten me. And I had a supermarket cream freeze and thought it was greasy rather than milky. The above could be the reason.
sorry GW didn’t see you right away.
In the first bowl beat 4 egg yolks with electric mixer whilst slowly adding 1 cup of castor sugar until thick and sugar has melted. Then beat in a quarter cup of your favourite liqueur (I use khalua mainly for the special occasions) (but a dash of vanilla essence or other flavouring does just as well.).
In the next bowl whip 750ml of cream adding another cup of castor sugar to this.
Fold the two mixtures together and freeze. I beat until the cream peaks are stiff as this helps the mixture not to separate whilst it is freezing. I usually wind up making a double quatity and I freeze it in an enamel roasting dish. Xmas day plus family means its gone by nightfall.
Prob not on the healthy heart list though, cookingnever seems to go wrongwhen loaded with fats, sugars and booze.
Nationalisation without compensation of strategic industries. Dismantling of the police force and its replacement by a neighbourhood militia, answerable to district soviets. Restarting of the Trekka factory, with engines run on methane gas from the dairy herds. Confiscation of anything beyond the family residence. Life sentence without parole for right wing bloggers. All businesses with more than 4 employees to be set up as worker cooperatives. Compulsory basket weaving classes. No TPPA, with its promoters to be tried for treason.
Or you could read what people have been writing for years and sort it out for yourself.
Your answer(s) more than likely lay in the history of posts that occur daily on this site.
I’m simply an intermittent visitor and occasional poster – but from what I can see, your expectation is that everyone should now kowtow, and do your work for you to satisfy an answer to your question posed – God’s gift to mankind and the Universe that you are.
No no – get off your arse and do it yourself.
“I listen to what you all say very carefully. So, I am interested in what it is you want this government to do.” Why that sudden iterest? Are you now all of a sudden coming to realise a tide is turning?
…. “give me” (gimme gimme gimee)
You probably have ‘people’ to do the work for you anyway.
Here’s a hint though Gormless, I wouldn’t begin by looking for the responses to the posts you’ve made in the past – since most of them are in response to your ideologically driven diversionary tactics.
I’m often not sure why people even give you the oxygen you seek by replying to half the crap you post – perhaps it’s just a response to their picking their jaws off the ground when striking utter idiocy.
Go have a look yourself – as I usually have to do.
Tim
And Others. When you put a reply in to someone in particular why don’t you put their name at top. Then they and everyone else knows who you refer to. It makes the remarks meaningful and worth reading. Otherwise it’s what’s this about?
Well for a start we need to have all irrigation and water storage taken schemes into public ownership. Fortunately this government has set up the Crown Irrigation Investment Company. This can be easily turned into a Petrobas for water with a few penstrokes. Water is a public resourse which should be managed by public entities.
The revenue earned from this national water company can then be ring fenced to clean our rivers, fund rainwater storage tanks for HNZ houses, schools, and other public buildings, and run water conservation education programmes and campaigns.
Its a smaller wishlist compared to the usual chestnuts, but control of water is a sleeper issue in this country, and Labour need to act accordingly — I would even suggest we sell Solid Energy to fund it. Control of water schemes is probably more important than the government owning a few coal mines.
I’m very pleased to hear that the great Canadian writer Alice Munro has ben awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Not that you would know it if you relied on the 4 main NZ news sites (stuff, nzherald, tvnz and tv3) for your news and information.
i would have preferred Te Wai Pounamu, (the name of one of my nieces), to have become Te Waka a Maui, so as to fit within the Maori creationist myth? from whence we get Te Ika a Maui,
I completely agree, Te Wai Pounamu is, and should remain the name for the West Coast (where the Pounamu was sourced) I would have preferred Te Waka a Maui also.
“i would have preferred Te Wai Pounamu, (the name of one of my nieces), to have become Te Waka a Maui, so as to fit within the Maori creationist myth? from whence we get Te Ika a Maui,”
I would like Aotearoa as an alternative name for New Zealand. I heard that the original guy putting forward these names thought it should be the name for the South Island.
And we can still call ourselves New Zealand as that is how we are known generally. Aotearoa could be our own private name that we people who are in the know about it and love the land use in our own special country. And these names must be protected names at every level of use.
Not just commercial fodder for some $-eyed entrepreneur.
And I don’t see why we should not be able to continue using North and South Island as well as having the Maori name as we wish, as in Mount Taranaki or Egmont. North and South are useful directional words, but for real names they have just been waiting for Maori to decide and agree on what is best and not too long for other language speakers.
Had the chance to meet and talk to David last night and I am so pleased that his speaking and answering questions is just spot on. It’s hard to separate the public figure from the private person when all we have to go on is MSM. So I am confident that we can look forward to a change for the better under a Labour Government. Finally after almost 30 years of playing with the far right and the so called centre right and the various other shades of right wing politics we are finally getting back to where the party should be.
Roll on election
In light of the US stalemate and the approaching default date I thought I’d dig up a Dutch Doco about what would happen if the dollar collapsed. The scenario given is that it happens withing 24 hours. It is an interesting “what if” doco and while most of it is in English some of the parts in Dutch are subtitled in English so enjoy!
Yeah sure there’s no housing crisis in Auckland Nick Smith, not while we have ‘private developers’ only too willing to provide right, bringing to the city of sails their version of a Mumbai Slum,
From the Herald online, a Auckland ‘property developer’ has been fined 60 grand and ordered to deconstruct 12 flats he had illegally constructed in 3 Auckland properties,
2 of the flats were constructed as part of existing garages already at the properties, one even featuring the existing roller door…
I remember an interesting Radionz doco on a Christchurch woman landlord/ developer back post WW2 I think. She used to get into trouble converting rooms into two etc. On the one hand she was creating sub-standard accommodation. On the other, housing was so tight that students and others were grateful to her, and reckoned that she was not too bad. Not much else was being done to deal with what was a tight housing market, or even a housing crisis. It depends what people are charged, and what is their alternative, and does it give some warmth, cleanliness and security and reasonable access to facilities.
Yes i suppose any four walls with a roof over them is a giant step up from the alternative, however, that hardly absolves a series of Governments from the failure to build up the required numbers of social housing at a time of high population growth,
The only reason a slum-lord can thrive and/or survive is if there is a unmet demand for low cost housing…
Agreed. But a port in the storm is better than being drenched. And just because the place wouldn’t feature in Home Design, doesn’t mean it’s no good. If it provides basic amenities and warm and secure and cheap, it shouldn’t be dismissed as disgraceful.
The accommodation this guy provided sounded dire when reported. Then I remembered the Christchurch woman landlord remembered kindly. It’s a matter of judging on reasonable criteria and price, and middle class people in homes better not make those criteria too high.
Actually the places sounded like the Ritz when described on RadioNZ National news tonight, washing and showering facilities in among the kitchen with apparently no separation,
Market rents apparently charged, yeah your right we all should become Slum-lords,
Apparently the particular individual/company we talk of here owns more property across Auckland, the City Council for all it’s billions of dollars of budgeted high salaries has a see no evil approach to Slum-lords and the housing they provide,
Asked whether any of the many other property’s owned were in the same state of illegal alteration the Spokesperson for the Auckland City Council said She didn’t know coz they apparently have better things to do with their time than track down Slum-lords Slum-housing,
Why would any of them, from Central Government to the Local variety they have all sat on their arse’s for 20 years while this ugly problem has developed, more than one or two having helped the problem along by playing ‘in the market’…
1. Stop all new motorway contracts and use the funding for rail and cycling public transport projects
2. All Crown super and investment funds including Kiwisaver providers required to have 50% nz ownership weighting, and are required to start immediate buy back of electricity utility shares. And Kiwibank becomes the Crown’s sole bank.
3. State and city governments all form property development companies to roll out Kiwibuild really fast.
4. Decrease income tax for the lowest quarter of income owners and impose Capital Gains Tax. Just as soon as I’ve offloaded one of the rentals. 😉
5. Complete Treaty of Waitangi settlements
6. Merge Maori Television and Radio NZ into a new Internet-based public broadcasting company
7. Roll out increased minimum wage to whole public sector, with contractors next
8. Establish a single national park the length of the South Island using existing DoC estate.
9. Pump money into the arts and other identity-drivers like sports. Gradual increase in patriotism and identity like Clark.
10. Establish a multi-billion research fund for job-rich innovation, where private business must partner with Crown Research Institutes, universities, and local government in joint ventures.
nothing new there really, just collectively would feel like reasonable and populist progress.
What price do we pay for ‘free trade’, from RadioNZ National News, 200 fish processing jobs are set to disappear from Christchurch’s Independent Fishery’s,
Citing competition from ‘cheap imports’ the company is set to close it’s fish crumbing plant in November with the loss of 200 jobs,
With Slippery the Prime Minister whipping along the TPPA where New Zealand’s access to the other signatory’s markets will be in a decade or longer, just how many more jobs in the New Zealand economy is the little Shyster prepared to give away…
To all the taxers above .
The smartest tax would be a land tax.
This would solve many of the problems NZ has.
As high value overcrowded areas with not enough infrastructure would pay higher taxes while under populated areas with underutilized infrastructure would pay lower taxes people would move to lower taxed areas or make better use of land in high taxed areas income tax would have to be lowered to make the idea work.
Just saying you want tax the well off and rich to much is feeding keys spin that the left are extreme!
We on the left don’t need to give Key and co a free ride to the next election.
Be reasonable the majority of New Zealands middle classes have aspirations of being rich one day that’s why they vote National,Even though most NZers will never get to the top tax rate.
We on the left need to cooperate
Just as those on the right all sing from the same song sheet .
Capital gains tax is good if it is broad spectrum.
If it only focuses on one area not so good.
But If Capital gains managef to get over the line the money brought in should gone into building affordable houses and that would have a double whammy reducing the risk of a housing bubble.
From my reading, it would pretty well destroy the pastoral farming industry in NZ as it adversely affects those with a variable income and those with a high land value to income generated from that land. A land tax would be a double whammy for farmers.
Youll have every cow-cocky in the country firing up their tractor and riding it down to Wellington. If I have learned something, it is never to take on the farmers. You will not win.
I thought that this BBC article on what would happen if America defaulted was a good introduction to the matter, namely because it is brief and easy to understand(!) and also interesting that they admitted to not knowing all the consequences a number of times throughout the article.
A small amount of historically similar occurrences are provided and also a good graph on the debt accumulation since 1980.
Tricldown. We already have a sort of Land Tax, I grow grapes and make wine , the Govt gets $2.82 a litre ( which I pay when I sell it locally ) I get $1.50 a litre and then I pay GST on the total. How much more tax should I pay ? I am not complaining, I think consumption taxes are a good idea but there is bugger all left for me.
Dasein must be considered as a ‘whole’, and this, my friends, requires an account of death. Dasein can only be genuinely authentic only in it’s ‘being towards death’, wherein it accepts it’s finitude. Dasein is individualized by death: for we all die alone, and no-one else can die in our place. Death, therefore, is a criterion of authenticity: We must recognize that we die, and not simply that ‘one’ dies. Heidegger suggests, along with others (Kierkegaard and Tolstoy for instance) that there is a pervasive tendency to conceal the inevitability of one’s own death: “All men are mortal, Caius is a man, so Caius is mortal” in the abstract, mused Ivan Ilyich, is perfectly correct, but we are not Caius, an abstract person, but creatures quite distinct from all others. Authentic being towards death (Feat, don’t fail me now) is related to ‘resoluteness’ ( Entschlossenheit ): it is only if we are aware of our finitude that we have reason to act now, rather than procrastinate, and it is the crucial decision, made with a view to the course of our future lives that gives them unity and shape.
The future becomes thus the primary aspect or ‘ecstasis’ of time, however, decisions are also constrained by situations inherited from the past; the more important decisions are, the more they will be considered in view of the past. The third ecstasis, the present (which many do not see 😉 ) is now the ‘moment’ of decision ( The Power of Now etc): “In resoluteness, the present is not only brought back from distraction with objects of one’s closest concern, but gets held in the future and in having been. That present which is held in authentic temporality and which thus is authentic itself, we call the ‘moment of vision’ ( der Augenblick ).
Several central features of time have been generally overlooked by traditional accounts deriving from Aristotle. Time is significant (just ask the White Rabbit 😉 ): It is time to do this and that. Time is datable by events, when , for example, David Cunliffe became Leader of the NZLP. Time is spanned; now is not an instant (the blinking of an eye) without duration, but now, during .Time is public: we can all indicate the same time by ‘now’ or ‘then’, even if we date it by different, relevent, events. Time is finite : (our) time will not continue forever, but is running out- “See how it runs”. History is to be understood in terms of these accounts of time and of the ‘historicality’ of Dasein . Dasein’s understanding of itself and the world depends on an interpretation inherited from the past. This interpretation regulates and disclose the possibilities open to it. Inauthentic Dasein accepts tradition unthinkingly (or lazily) and fulfils the possibilities shaped by it; authentic Dasein probes tradition (see neo-orthodoxy) and therefore opens up new and weightier possibilities. Heidegger, for example, does not simply contribute to contemporary philosophical controversy, but by ‘repeating’ and ‘de(con)structing’ crucial elements and episodes in the development of the philosophical tradition endeavours to change the whole course of philosophical enquiry.
Adrian I did say we should reduce income tax if their is to be a land tax..
Alcohol tax is what you are paying alcohol is the second most damaging drug thi country allows to be sold that’s why you pay so much.
What is Metaphysics (1929) expands upon the nothing , which made a brief, cameo, appearance in Being and Time , and which is disclosed in the Angst that reveals to Dasein , in it’s freedom and finitude, the ultimate groundlessness of itself, it’s world and it’s projects. (these are times when the terms existential and crisis are frequently uttered , together, by sane and sound people, yet on the denial goes). Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics (1929; tr. Bloomington, Ind. 1962) argues that the first Critique is not a theory of knowledge or of the sciences (as such neo-Kantians as Cohen, Natorp??? and Cassirer held) (made ya’ look ya’ dirty chook), but lays the foundation for meta-physics: Kant saw that reason, knowledge and man in general are finite, and thus, made the transcendental imagination the basis of synthetic a priori knowledge (hence Revelation, and, think of the fertility of memes) :-D. However, (could be a but) , since this threatens the primacy of reason and the foundations of ‘Western metaphysics’, Kant recoiled from the ‘abyss’ , unlike some we could mention, no names please, in the second edition of the Critique and made the imagination ‘a function of understanding’. Attacked by most Kant scholars, Heidegger implicitly retracted some of his interpretations in later essays on Kant.(sadly).
Despite Heidegger’s denials, being ( Sein resembles God. It is not at man’s disposal, rather, it disposes of man. Whatever happens comes from being. Man, the ‘shepherd of being’, must respond to it’s directions (like genes get throwing themselves forward, tended wisely).It is is above history, or before, but since the time of Plato it has been hidden, yet the ‘history of being’ can be reconstructed from the texts of philosophers,poets (and political pundits) :-D. Sadly, forgetfulness of being, or nihilism, has culminated in the domination of the world by technology. Whether or not man can return to genuine thinking of being will determine the future of the planet. “But where there is danger, the remedy grows too”. H_
The appropriate response to being is thinking. Thinking is our obedient answer to the call of being, yet some of it’s practice may have been forgotten.Thinking contrasts with assertion, logic, science (science does not think ), metaphysics, philosophy itself and especially technology, which is merely an instrument, a ‘strool’ for the calculation and domination of entities. Language, which, like thinking, played a subordinate role in Being and Time becomes central to Heidegger’s later philosophy, though not language as an instrument of manipulation- into which it has degenerated (under the sway of metaphysics) -but language as an ‘abode of being’. Language speaks, not man.Man only speaks when he fatefully responds to language. Gotta love fate, m8! 😀
Bain, Macdonald and Lundy apparantly not guilty of murder…there must be a really clever serial killer running around NZ. Must give hope to Tamihere and Watson to being freed.
Tamihere is already out, released with strict conditions in November 2010. Luckily we have a system however flawed that decides such things rather than what the idiocracy ‘finks’.
Partly it’s a problem with the “prime suspect” approach to policing: make your scenario based on gut instinct, then fit the data to that pattern. The problem is that unless you gather enough data (including data on the chain of custody of that data) it becomes easier for the defence to connect those same dots into another picture. Especially as time passes and it becomes easier to forget that common procedure now was disproportionately time-consuming and expensive then. Regardless of whether the “prime suspect” is innocent or whether the assumption of investigators led them to believe short-cuts hadn’t been taken, the model is flawed.
Couple that with juries that are only slowly coming out of a culture of believing everything a cop says (and the fact that almost everyone can be painted as either criminal or weird), it’s not particularly surprising that a number of high profile cases have been kicked back.
Funny you mention Tamihere – straight after the verdict TV1 played a documentary on how our brave police caught the man wot dun it. A comment made by the lead investigator has stuck with me ever since: “we had found our suspect, and we proceeded to build a case around him”.
I always had my doubts about both Tamiheres. In David’s case, I strongly suspect the evidence was found or fabricated to make a bad guy look guilty. In John’s case, hmmmm, what can you say? Incriminates himself and still gets votes.
Do you have evidence that all these murders were done by the same person? Not presenting it to the police makes you an accessory after the fact. Do your civic duty.
about time? – for what, you know BM money isn’t as important as, you know, fucken fresh air and water. These ‘millions’ of oil wells are a foul and suicidal legacy we leave for our grandchildren – what a disgusting stupid bunch of weaklings we have become!!!
Beaches are not necessarily the place to look. Didn’t they put something on the oil to make it sink to the seabed? Perhaps, that is where they should look before they start congratulating themselves.
Now I have a bone to pick about the local body elections. Went down this morning to drop my vote in- didn’t post it as I didn’t want it to get lost in the mail. The house only received two thirds of the voting papers it should have so it might be worth asking councils how many papers never made it and have been returned.
I knew where to go fortunately because the lack of signage was appalling and inside are all these great posters about voting, done by the wellington region’s councils but I have only seen all the drab ones up around town and not too many of those.I’m sure a lot of businesses etc would have been happy to have one to display.
But my main point is why don’t all the council places where you can drop off votes also have somebody that can issue replacement papers and even more importantly those orange pavement boards outside saying election stuff available here – just like general election polling booths are marked.
One size doesn’t fit all and visual reminders all over the “burbs at libraries etc might give people a bit more of a push.
I noticed how hard it was to find out information about candidates that wasn’t in the booklet that came with the voting papers. I’m pretty motivated, but the effort involved in finding out was too much. I can see why so many don’t bother voting.
No, it gives me what someone has chosen to put in there, often it’s just the blurb from the booklet. I want to know details about where the candidates stand on things, not generic blather that’s designed to make voters feel good but doesn’t tell them anything substantial.
I used to be a hide-bound Tory simply for traditional and antiquarian reasons—and because I had never done any real thinking on civics and industry and the future. The depression—and its concomitant publicisation of industrial, financial, and governmental problems—jolted me out of my lethargy and led me to reëxamine the facts of history in the light of unsentimental scientific analysis; and it was not long before I realised what an ass I had been. The liberals at whom I used to laugh were the ones who were right—for they were living in the present while I had been living in the past. They had been using science while I had been using romantic antiquarianism. At last I began to recognise something of the way in which capitalism works—always piling up concentrated wealth and impoverishing the bulk of the population until the strain becomes so intolerable as to force artificial reform.
[…]
As for the Republicans — how can one regard seriously a frightened, greedy, nostalgic huddle of tradesmen and lucky idlers who shut their eyes to history and science, steel their emotions against decent human sympathy, cling to sordid and provincial ideals exalting sheer acquisitiveness and condoning artificial hardship for the non-materially-shrewd, dwell smugly and sentimentally in a distorted dream-cosmos of outmoded phrases and principles and attitudes based on the bygone agricultural-handicraft world, and revel in (consciously or unconsciously) mendacious assumptions (such as the notion that real liberty is synonymous with the single detail of unrestricted economic license or that a rational planning of resource-distribution would contravene some vague and mystical ‘American heritage’…) utterly contrary to fact and without the slightest foundation in human experience? Intellectually, the Republican idea deserves the tolerance and respect one gives to the dead.
Cunliff!s 100 day promise is a easy given.The more costly and some would say radical idea!s of central control of the electricity and gas industry,the housing and rents issue,the cost of health and education will all be managed as he has said,given the fiscal situation.One thing is for certain, if he does get the treasury benches in 2014,he will be inheriting massive debt, and that will slow down his road to a more egalatarian N.Z.that all Labour Party supporters yearn for.
My picks for local elections tomorrow (As far as I am concerned my two week banned applies from when I made that post that got me banned):
Auckland: Len Brown to hold on. Palino will run him close with Minto in third. Centre-right to have control of council.
Wellington: John Morrison beats CWB. Celia kinda screwed up, completely out of her depth as mayor. Folding on spending cuts, and underestimating the pro-road rednecks didnt do her any good. Finding that keeping her promises on light rail would be impossible also counts against her.
Christchurch: Lianne Dalziel by a country mile, though Bob Parker may have given her a good run.
Dunedin: Cull all the way, given that there appears to be no challengers.
Meanwhile, New Plymouth looks set to elect a bunch of Tea Party slash and burn ACToids to its district council. We probably wont have a library for that long. Shame.
HATCHET DOCTORS – used by WINZ, this is a must read post and comment thread on ACC Forum, that exposes how they work and try to manipulate the system to “off load” sick and disabled off benefits. It is based on a true story:
I most strongly suggest others that have stories to share, to do so on that thread, and perhaps here also, if you wish to be discrete about your privacy, just make sure your true name and details are concealed.
But for the benefit of ALL others, please dare to NAME and SHAME those damned doctors that tried to kick you off benefits, while your own doctor and possibly other specialists said the opposite was needed!!!
Hitler and the Nazis learned in early years from the AMERICAN ADVERTISING INDUSTRY, how to manipulate the population. We have that mind bending power highly active in New Zealand right now!
That does of course not equate to advertising industry supporting NAZI idelogy, but they promote the neo liberal, right wing, capitalist ideology, and system. That is why in NZ we have NO true democracy, it is a total farce and LIE!
We are being manipulated at an immense scale to consume, to focus on nothing but consumerism, on fake freedom (largely individualistic) and on capitalist ideals, none else.
Now I am being corrupted and attacked by The Standard, I cannot believe this, NZ is truly Fucked, there is NO left and alternative force, you are traitors to the idea!
Sorry I sign off and will never be back you are EVIL!
In all honesty I am struggling to be convinced that suicide is not the best solution to persons like me, give present regimes and economic conditions. Why are people stigmatising us who want a decent “exit” from a SHIT SOCIETY and SHIT WORLD? Let us go, pleaase, I am totally sick off you all and your SHIT society, I hate living, I hate being, I rather be dead right now, that is me, in full confession!!!
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
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Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Asia Pacific Report Following an open letter by Auckland University academics speaking out in support of their students’ right to protest against the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, a group of academics at Otago University have today also called on New Zealand academic institutions to “repair colonial violence” and end ...
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PNG Post-Courier Bougainville Affairs Minister Manasseh Makiba has described the Post-Courier’s front page story yesterday regarding a meeting between Bougainville and national government leaders as “sensationalised” and without substance. The Autonomous Bougainville Government (AGB) had warned it might use “other avenues to gain its independence” should the PNG government “continue ...
Where some saw the worst press conference given by the government to date, Anna Rawhiti-Connell recognised girl maths game.Nicola Willis, recently exasperated by comparisons to Ruth Richardson, said she was “a bit sick of being compared with every female finance minister that’s ever been out there.”Some think that’s ...
The March results are reported against forecasts based on the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2023 (HYEFU 2023), published on 20 December 2023 and the results for the same period for the previous year. ...
Jamie Arbuckle, the district councillor who became an MP but decided to keep getting paid for both roles, will instead donate one salary to charity. ...
Adding gender to the Human Rights Act would simply make the implicit explicit. So why is it so controversial? Paul Thistoll explain. At present, Aotearoa’s 1993 Human Rights Act (HRA) includes sex, marital status, religious belief, ethical belief (meaning a lack of religious belief), colour, race, ethnicity or national origin, ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Kelsey, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Resources Minister Shane Jones has reportedly asked officials for advice on whether oil and gas companies could be offered “bonds” as compensation if drilling rights offered by ...
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The Corrections Minister admits he "muddied the water" after he and the Prime Minister repeatedly provided incorrect information about a $1.9 billion prison spend-up. ...
It took a post-post-cabinet statement to confirm that 810 new beds will be built at Waikeria, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
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Good morning!
http://postimg.org/image/kebq47won/
+1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7gzBoVh1rI
Please share this ^^^ re signing petition TPPA
And….good morning to you too!
It hasn’t taken long for the MSM to start their whisperings about David Cunliffe.
John Armstrong in the Herald yesterday about his speech to the CTU Conference “It seemed as if two David Cunliffes had turned up’….One passionate and stirring message for the workers; one politically sanitised version of the same message for everyone else'”.
Claire Trevett suggests Cunliffe gave himself “wiggle-room” in his commitments to the unionists.
No acknowledgement that a responsible Party Leader has to be careful in what they say before they’ve seen the state of the “books” the Nats leave behind.
Despite that, Cunliffe was very clear to the unions – an immediate rise to $15phr for the minimum wage, the first budget will have a living wage to people working in the core public service, scrapping the Nats unfair employment law changes, bringing in more parental leave.
He’s a numbers man, he knows his stuff, he will have worked out what Labour can afford to promise before the election. There’s nothing two-faced about what he is saying. But the MSM and the WhaleOils will search through everything he says to find ways to trip him up.
Labour : A Credible Government in Waiting
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11138194
-Bryan Gould
A very good synopsis, but then I’ve never known Bryan Gould produce anything that isn’t…
consistent
Makes me think of the old dressing table mirrors with one flat, and two wings. Stand in one place, turn your head and see three different visions or versions of whoever. Perhaps these jonolists need to move around a bit. It sounds as if they have been so rroted to their spot that they’ll start sprouting cutty grass and thorns soon.
Are all the pm’s reassurances to business interests done publically
Hey Standardistas,
Cunliffe is enjoying an honeymoon, however, I think it is becoming clear that we will almost certainly have a Labour-led government next year.
I listen to what you all say very carefully. So, I am interested in what it is you want this government to do.
Give me your dream list. Tax hikes? GST off fruit and vegetables? Buying back all of the shares in Meridian (and perhaps some other generators not already publicly-owned)? Employment law changes? Increase in benefits? Banning foreign ownership? Out of the TPPA? Nationalisation of Trade Me? Think Big? Government control of the exchange rate? Berm mowing?
if you listen very carefully then you surely already know
You are right. Inviting your views clearly called for me to be smacked down. Sorry.
Stating the contradiction within your kind invitation is not a smack down. It’s simply casting doubt on either your motive or your comprehension, a failure in either of which might lead to a waste of everyone’s time.
Feel free to not answer. It’s a free country.
I would be surprised if you believed that I felt compelled to answer your question.
Besides NZ being a free country (albeit for a given value of “free”), if you did indeed carefully listen to what each of us said, the information is already at your fingertips.
No, no, inviting our views isn’t what clearly calls for you to be smacked down, your very existence does that…
K.
I think he should campaign on “Gulags for Gormless”
*sigh* You are such a tiresome troll
If you’re serious, and from that list:
Employment law changes – seriously detrimental to social cohesion and a decent life for the most vulnerable with NActs changes
Buying back all of the shares – should be on the table
Restricting foreign ownership – unless we have reciprocal rights
Out of the TPPA – as it stands now
1. Considerable Tax hikes at the higher levels – along the lines of the top tax rate in the UK or Australia.
2. Investment in green tech
3. Widening of land based and marine reserves and national parks
3. Restrictions on foreign ownership
4. Capital gains tax on property
5. Reversal of the Employment law changes
…. for a start
Inheritance tax
Lolz, Gormless, the third one of the wing-nuts that appear here at the Standard to admit this far out from November 2014 that National are going to lose,
Keep up the defeatism it will spread like swine flu through the ranks of National Party supporters, i am starting to firm up in my pick of 39% for National in 2014,
Besides what Labour leader David Cunliffe has already announced, my little wish list, dependent entirely in what state the incoming Labour/Green Government finds the Government accounts in would be sufficient for the first term,
(1), the reversal of ALL changes made to the benefit system by the current Government within the first 100 days,
(2), Subject to the 500 million dollar estimated cost being available the transition of the Working for Families tax credit scheme into a functional child benefit payment which is also paid to ALL benefit dependent children,(or a definite promise of a starting date for such a scheme),
(3), A State House building program focused mainly upon the cities of Auckland and Christchurch,
(4), At the direction of the relevant Ministers both the Superfund and the ACC fund tasked to buy back shares in recently sold State Owned Assets…
“dependent entirely in what state the incoming Labour/Green Government finds the Government accounts in ”
Probably an empty cupboard with a little bill n john wuz here.
What goes arounf comes around or have you forgotten “a decade of deficits”
The “decade of deficits” that was pure imagination on the part of the RWNJs. In reality, it wasn’t going to happen.
Have we forgotten that treasury predictions can be out by 200% within a six month timeframe? Nope.
Your propagandist mates are pucking morons.
Top of my wishlist is sterilisation of obvious trools.
What is a “trool”?
Combination of “troll” and “fool”? Like it.
[lprent: with connotations of “tool”? As in blind unthinking inanimate object doing someone else’s bidding. I suppose I could look at context but who has the time? ]
that’s a ticking off 😀
yeah, I always use it as a portmanteau of “tro11” and “tool” (in any sense of the word).
Always pays to double-grok the queen’s, my droogs.
So you’ll be first in line?
There was once a rumour that Oscar Wilde coined the retort “I know you are, but what am I”.
You, sir, are no Oscar Wilde.
You speaking to a mirror?
that is funny. 😀
Dear Dave,
Commerce:
– savage any mono/duopoly/shonkey business practices.
– give the SFO/FMA the teeth required to deal effectively with serial shysters.
– dispute resolution with the onus on respondents to prove matters are indeed civil.
– a serious look at the limited liability scam
Housing:
– CGT on property transactions – no exceptions.
– all speculators are developers who will pay the relevant tax.
– initiate a capitalisation scheme to assist new builds for first home owners only.
– remove
subsidies on rental accommodationstate transfers to rental owners.– increase social housing availability for low income CBD workers.
– increase social housing availability for the elderly/infirm.
– improve all existing housing stock using the healthy home model.
Education:
– follow the science – anec-data doesn’t count.
– 4 -16 compulsory attendance.
– expansion of special education services.
– 16-21 compulsory tertiary education/trade training fully funded
– funding continuing education – attendance – a priority.
Health:
– health care is universal.
– pre-natal – post-natal a priority.
– continuation and improvement of well child initiatives.
– universal dental care.
– expansion of public health initiatives – step away from that pie fella – image of cleaved sternum.
– elder care – stop the gaming of the taxpayer by those who hide or transfer resources.
Crime and punishment:
– remove the greatest barrier to our Peelian policing model – cannabis prohibition.
– criminal sanctions tied to education – community service is as either a student or an educator.
– prison is punishment – not a place to be punished.
– prison is punishment – not a place to be disenfranchised.
– prison is punishment – not a place where universal health care is denied.
– prison is a work place and education facility- literacy, numeracy, transferable skills are the goals.
– separate the bad from the mad.
– the truly mad are treated.
– the truly bad run out of chances.
Work to significantly lower energy prices for both domestic and commercial users.
Go all Keynesian on transport.
Go all Keynesian on employment.
Robust regional development policies.
Governance – start by cleaning up your own parliament – the collective lack of ethics on display daily is disgusting.
Revenue:
– tax wealth – not work.
Lottsa love, Me.
well! Three represents (not the destroyer, frigate and supply ship arriving). 😀
Wow joe 90 – a concise and exciting set of dynamic ideas, and we’ll need more than the Dynamic Duo to move them. But what a greatprospect it would be. rrection – it will be!
Thanks Rogue for that interesting link. It’s time to look at what China is doing – if it can only supply some quality thinking to sustainable futures for us all, it will be a worthy world leader unlike the rubber chicken we have at present. Unfortunately I heard a radio report recently saying that China is at present supplying subsidies for shipping to fishers to go out into the high seas and will smash the tuna stocks as part of their expansion in all directions plan. It apparently is the Great Cosmic Plan in space, but we can’t do that on earth. I thought China was smart enough to realise that.
1. Guaranteed real ice-cream made from milk
This would mean dissociation from the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Authority and the re-establishment of the NZ Food Standards Authority. Then we wouldn’t have to put up with the Australian definition of ice-cream which lets manufacturers use a proportion of animal fat from any source (eg rendered chicken fat), as well as milk fat in ice cream manufacture
2. Reworking of the Overseas Investment Office so that it’s default stance is that land sales should not be permitted to foreigners. This is a reverse of it’s current MO which is to permit land sales unless someone comes up with a damn good reason why a sale shouldn’t be permitted.
Edit: 3. “Oh, and peace on earth, Jim”
richard
Australian definition of ice-cream which lets manufacturers use a proportion of animal fat from any source (eg rendered chicken fat), as well as milk fat in ice cream manufacture
I hadn’t caught up with that. I wondered why some of the ice cream didn’t taste good. I looked at the labels but reading through all the information in small print didn’t enlighten me. And I had a supermarket cream freeze and thought it was greasy rather than milky. The above could be the reason.
I’ve gotta good ice cream recipe if you need it. Trouble is the stuff doesn’t stay in the freezer
RedBaronCV
If you have time that ice cream recipe is right for this time of year. So it would be welcome.
sorry GW didn’t see you right away.
In the first bowl beat 4 egg yolks with electric mixer whilst slowly adding 1 cup of castor sugar until thick and sugar has melted. Then beat in a quarter cup of your favourite liqueur (I use khalua mainly for the special occasions) (but a dash of vanilla essence or other flavouring does just as well.).
In the next bowl whip 750ml of cream adding another cup of castor sugar to this.
Fold the two mixtures together and freeze. I beat until the cream peaks are stiff as this helps the mixture not to separate whilst it is freezing. I usually wind up making a double quatity and I freeze it in an enamel roasting dish. Xmas day plus family means its gone by nightfall.
Prob not on the healthy heart list though, cookingnever seems to go wrongwhen loaded with fats, sugars and booze.
Nationalisation without compensation of strategic industries. Dismantling of the police force and its replacement by a neighbourhood militia, answerable to district soviets. Restarting of the Trekka factory, with engines run on methane gas from the dairy herds. Confiscation of anything beyond the family residence. Life sentence without parole for right wing bloggers. All businesses with more than 4 employees to be set up as worker cooperatives. Compulsory basket weaving classes. No TPPA, with its promoters to be tried for treason.
Or you could read what people have been writing for years and sort it out for yourself.
Your answer(s) more than likely lay in the history of posts that occur daily on this site.
I’m simply an intermittent visitor and occasional poster – but from what I can see, your expectation is that everyone should now kowtow, and do your work for you to satisfy an answer to your question posed – God’s gift to mankind and the Universe that you are.
No no – get off your arse and do it yourself.
“I listen to what you all say very carefully. So, I am interested in what it is you want this government to do.” Why that sudden iterest? Are you now all of a sudden coming to realise a tide is turning?
…. “give me” (gimme gimme gimee)
You probably have ‘people’ to do the work for you anyway.
Here’s a hint though Gormless, I wouldn’t begin by looking for the responses to the posts you’ve made in the past – since most of them are in response to your ideologically driven diversionary tactics.
I’m often not sure why people even give you the oxygen you seek by replying to half the crap you post – perhaps it’s just a response to their picking their jaws off the ground when striking utter idiocy.
Go have a look yourself – as I usually have to do.
Tim
And Others. When you put a reply in to someone in particular why don’t you put their name at top. Then they and everyone else knows who you refer to. It makes the remarks meaningful and worth reading. Otherwise it’s what’s this about?
Well for a start we need to have all irrigation and water storage taken schemes into public ownership. Fortunately this government has set up the Crown Irrigation Investment Company. This can be easily turned into a Petrobas for water with a few penstrokes. Water is a public resourse which should be managed by public entities.
The revenue earned from this national water company can then be ring fenced to clean our rivers, fund rainwater storage tanks for HNZ houses, schools, and other public buildings, and run water conservation education programmes and campaigns.
Its a smaller wishlist compared to the usual chestnuts, but control of water is a sleeper issue in this country, and Labour need to act accordingly — I would even suggest we sell Solid Energy to fund it. Control of water schemes is probably more important than the government owning a few coal mines.
I’m very pleased to hear that the great Canadian writer Alice Munro has ben awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Not that you would know it if you relied on the 4 main NZ news sites (stuff, nzherald, tvnz and tv3) for your news and information.
The four official names for our two main islands announced yesterday are superb…
North Island (bland but part of us now)
South Island (same)
Te Ika-a-Maui (perfect)
Te Waipounamu (beautiful)
i would have preferred Te Wai Pounamu, (the name of one of my nieces), to have become Te Waka a Maui, so as to fit within the Maori creationist myth? from whence we get Te Ika a Maui,
Still,like the stone Pounamu is a beautiful name…
I completely agree, Te Wai Pounamu is, and should remain the name for the West Coast (where the Pounamu was sourced) I would have preferred Te Waka a Maui also.
Actually, the name for the west coast is Te Wahi Pounamu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te_Wahipounamu
“i would have preferred Te Wai Pounamu, (the name of one of my nieces), to have become Te Waka a Maui, so as to fit within the Maori creationist myth? from whence we get Te Ika a Maui,”
Cut the cable! 😉
I’m just disappointed I’ll have to stop saying THE North Island and THE South Island, seeing as the are officially North Island and South Island.
Otherwise, yeah.
Is it Te Waipounamu as one word?
I would like Aotearoa as an alternative name for New Zealand. I heard that the original guy putting forward these names thought it should be the name for the South Island.
And we can still call ourselves New Zealand as that is how we are known generally. Aotearoa could be our own private name that we people who are in the know about it and love the land use in our own special country. And these names must be protected names at every level of use.
Not just commercial fodder for some $-eyed entrepreneur.
And I don’t see why we should not be able to continue using North and South Island as well as having the Maori name as we wish, as in Mount Taranaki or Egmont. North and South are useful directional words, but for real names they have just been waiting for Maori to decide and agree on what is best and not too long for other language speakers.
I’ve had a passport officer admire our passport and I explained that it a history of Aotearoa – it’s beautiful
Had the chance to meet and talk to David last night and I am so pleased that his speaking and answering questions is just spot on. It’s hard to separate the public figure from the private person when all we have to go on is MSM. So I am confident that we can look forward to a change for the better under a Labour Government. Finally after almost 30 years of playing with the far right and the so called centre right and the various other shades of right wing politics we are finally getting back to where the party should be.
Roll on election
In light of the US stalemate and the approaching default date I thought I’d dig up a Dutch Doco about what would happen if the dollar collapsed. The scenario given is that it happens withing 24 hours. It is an interesting “what if” doco and while most of it is in English some of the parts in Dutch are subtitled in English so enjoy!
That should have been: Some of the parts are in Dutch but they have been subtitled in English
dont get yur hopes up Ev. Doncha know its always business as usual and humans are adventitious not necessary.
Great names for the north and south island.
why do you hate america so much brett? 🙂
lol
But the wonderful thing is we are all talking about Cunliffe as though he will be next PM-self fulfilling.
Yeah sure there’s no housing crisis in Auckland Nick Smith, not while we have ‘private developers’ only too willing to provide right, bringing to the city of sails their version of a Mumbai Slum,
From the Herald online, a Auckland ‘property developer’ has been fined 60 grand and ordered to deconstruct 12 flats he had illegally constructed in 3 Auckland properties,
2 of the flats were constructed as part of existing garages already at the properties, one even featuring the existing roller door…
I remember an interesting Radionz doco on a Christchurch woman landlord/ developer back post WW2 I think. She used to get into trouble converting rooms into two etc. On the one hand she was creating sub-standard accommodation. On the other, housing was so tight that students and others were grateful to her, and reckoned that she was not too bad. Not much else was being done to deal with what was a tight housing market, or even a housing crisis. It depends what people are charged, and what is their alternative, and does it give some warmth, cleanliness and security and reasonable access to facilities.
Yes i suppose any four walls with a roof over them is a giant step up from the alternative, however, that hardly absolves a series of Governments from the failure to build up the required numbers of social housing at a time of high population growth,
The only reason a slum-lord can thrive and/or survive is if there is a unmet demand for low cost housing…
Agreed. But a port in the storm is better than being drenched. And just because the place wouldn’t feature in Home Design, doesn’t mean it’s no good. If it provides basic amenities and warm and secure and cheap, it shouldn’t be dismissed as disgraceful.
The accommodation this guy provided sounded dire when reported. Then I remembered the Christchurch woman landlord remembered kindly. It’s a matter of judging on reasonable criteria and price, and middle class people in homes better not make those criteria too high.
Actually the places sounded like the Ritz when described on RadioNZ National news tonight, washing and showering facilities in among the kitchen with apparently no separation,
Market rents apparently charged, yeah your right we all should become Slum-lords,
Apparently the particular individual/company we talk of here owns more property across Auckland, the City Council for all it’s billions of dollars of budgeted high salaries has a see no evil approach to Slum-lords and the housing they provide,
Asked whether any of the many other property’s owned were in the same state of illegal alteration the Spokesperson for the Auckland City Council said She didn’t know coz they apparently have better things to do with their time than track down Slum-lords Slum-housing,
Why would any of them, from Central Government to the Local variety they have all sat on their arse’s for 20 years while this ugly problem has developed, more than one or two having helped the problem along by playing ‘in the market’…
This.
Photo at the link.
My place is a conversion of an extension – a bit of a step up from the ones reported on though. Quite reasonable, but a bit strange.
I noticed in the report yesterday about a car driving into a house that a working person can’t find an affordable safe home with a separate room for a 5-year-old.
New Zealand – building a brighter future
OK here’s my top ten wishlist, not ranked:
1. Stop all new motorway contracts and use the funding for rail and cycling public transport projects
2. All Crown super and investment funds including Kiwisaver providers required to have 50% nz ownership weighting, and are required to start immediate buy back of electricity utility shares. And Kiwibank becomes the Crown’s sole bank.
3. State and city governments all form property development companies to roll out Kiwibuild really fast.
4. Decrease income tax for the lowest quarter of income owners and impose Capital Gains Tax. Just as soon as I’ve offloaded one of the rentals. 😉
5. Complete Treaty of Waitangi settlements
6. Merge Maori Television and Radio NZ into a new Internet-based public broadcasting company
7. Roll out increased minimum wage to whole public sector, with contractors next
8. Establish a single national park the length of the South Island using existing DoC estate.
9. Pump money into the arts and other identity-drivers like sports. Gradual increase in patriotism and identity like Clark.
10. Establish a multi-billion research fund for job-rich innovation, where private business must partner with Crown Research Institutes, universities, and local government in joint ventures.
nothing new there really, just collectively would feel like reasonable and populist progress.
What price do we pay for ‘free trade’, from RadioNZ National News, 200 fish processing jobs are set to disappear from Christchurch’s Independent Fishery’s,
Citing competition from ‘cheap imports’ the company is set to close it’s fish crumbing plant in November with the loss of 200 jobs,
With Slippery the Prime Minister whipping along the TPPA where New Zealand’s access to the other signatory’s markets will be in a decade or longer, just how many more jobs in the New Zealand economy is the little Shyster prepared to give away…
Depends how much he’s offered, a bankster is as a bankster does.
To all the taxers above .
The smartest tax would be a land tax.
This would solve many of the problems NZ has.
As high value overcrowded areas with not enough infrastructure would pay higher taxes while under populated areas with underutilized infrastructure would pay lower taxes people would move to lower taxed areas or make better use of land in high taxed areas income tax would have to be lowered to make the idea work.
Just saying you want tax the well off and rich to much is feeding keys spin that the left are extreme!
We on the left don’t need to give Key and co a free ride to the next election.
Be reasonable the majority of New Zealands middle classes have aspirations of being rich one day that’s why they vote National,Even though most NZers will never get to the top tax rate.
We on the left need to cooperate
Just as those on the right all sing from the same song sheet .
Capital gains tax is good if it is broad spectrum.
If it only focuses on one area not so good.
But If Capital gains managef to get over the line the money brought in should gone into building affordable houses and that would have a double whammy reducing the risk of a housing bubble.
I really don’t think a land tax is an answer.
From my reading, it would pretty well destroy the pastoral farming industry in NZ as it adversely affects those with a variable income and those with a high land value to income generated from that land. A land tax would be a double whammy for farmers.
Land tax?
Youll have every cow-cocky in the country firing up their tractor and riding it down to Wellington. If I have learned something, it is never to take on the farmers. You will not win.
I thought that this BBC article on what would happen if America defaulted was a good introduction to the matter, namely because it is brief and easy to understand(!) and also interesting that they admitted to not knowing all the consequences a number of times throughout the article.
A small amount of historically similar occurrences are provided and also a good graph on the debt accumulation since 1980.
Tricldown. We already have a sort of Land Tax, I grow grapes and make wine , the Govt gets $2.82 a litre ( which I pay when I sell it locally ) I get $1.50 a litre and then I pay GST on the total. How much more tax should I pay ? I am not complaining, I think consumption taxes are a good idea but there is bugger all left for me.
Dasein must be considered as a ‘whole’, and this, my friends, requires an account of death. Dasein can only be genuinely authentic only in it’s ‘being towards death’, wherein it accepts it’s finitude. Dasein is individualized by death: for we all die alone, and no-one else can die in our place. Death, therefore, is a criterion of authenticity: We must recognize that we die, and not simply that ‘one’ dies. Heidegger suggests, along with others (Kierkegaard and Tolstoy for instance) that there is a pervasive tendency to conceal the inevitability of one’s own death: “All men are mortal, Caius is a man, so Caius is mortal” in the abstract, mused Ivan Ilyich, is perfectly correct, but we are not Caius, an abstract person, but creatures quite distinct from all others. Authentic being towards death (Feat, don’t fail me now) is related to ‘resoluteness’ ( Entschlossenheit ): it is only if we are aware of our finitude that we have reason to act now, rather than procrastinate, and it is the crucial decision, made with a view to the course of our future lives that gives them unity and shape.
The future becomes thus the primary aspect or ‘ecstasis’ of time, however, decisions are also constrained by situations inherited from the past; the more important decisions are, the more they will be considered in view of the past. The third ecstasis, the present (which many do not see 😉 ) is now the ‘moment’ of decision ( The Power of Now etc): “In resoluteness, the present is not only brought back from distraction with objects of one’s closest concern, but gets held in the future and in having been. That present which is held in authentic temporality and which thus is authentic itself, we call the ‘moment of vision’ ( der Augenblick ).
Several central features of time have been generally overlooked by traditional accounts deriving from Aristotle. Time is significant (just ask the White Rabbit 😉 ): It is time to do this and that. Time is datable by events, when , for example, David Cunliffe became Leader of the NZLP. Time is spanned; now is not an instant (the blinking of an eye) without duration, but now, during .Time is public: we can all indicate the same time by ‘now’ or ‘then’, even if we date it by different, relevent, events. Time is finite : (our) time will not continue forever, but is running out- “See how it runs”. History is to be understood in terms of these accounts of time and of the ‘historicality’ of Dasein . Dasein’s understanding of itself and the world depends on an interpretation inherited from the past. This interpretation regulates and disclose the possibilities open to it. Inauthentic Dasein accepts tradition unthinkingly (or lazily) and fulfils the possibilities shaped by it; authentic Dasein probes tradition (see neo-orthodoxy) and therefore opens up new and weightier possibilities. Heidegger, for example, does not simply contribute to contemporary philosophical controversy, but by ‘repeating’ and ‘de(con)structing’ crucial elements and episodes in the development of the philosophical tradition endeavours to change the whole course of philosophical enquiry.
Adrian I did say we should reduce income tax if their is to be a land tax..
Alcohol tax is what you are paying alcohol is the second most damaging drug thi country allows to be sold that’s why you pay so much.
What is Metaphysics (1929) expands upon the nothing , which made a brief, cameo, appearance in Being and Time , and which is disclosed in the Angst that reveals to Dasein , in it’s freedom and finitude, the ultimate groundlessness of itself, it’s world and it’s projects. (these are times when the terms existential and crisis are frequently uttered , together, by sane and sound people, yet on the denial goes).
Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics (1929; tr. Bloomington, Ind. 1962) argues that the first Critique is not a theory of knowledge or of the sciences (as such neo-Kantians as Cohen, Natorp??? and Cassirer held) (made ya’ look ya’ dirty chook), but lays the foundation for meta-physics: Kant saw that reason, knowledge and man in general are finite, and thus, made the transcendental imagination the basis of synthetic a priori knowledge (hence Revelation, and, think of the fertility of memes) :-D. However, (could be a but) , since this threatens the primacy of reason and the foundations of ‘Western metaphysics’, Kant recoiled from the ‘abyss’ , unlike some we could mention, no names please, in the second edition of the Critique and made the imagination ‘a function of understanding’. Attacked by most Kant scholars, Heidegger implicitly retracted some of his interpretations in later essays on Kant.(sadly).
Despite Heidegger’s denials, being ( Sein resembles God. It is not at man’s disposal, rather, it disposes of man. Whatever happens comes from being. Man, the ‘shepherd of being’, must respond to it’s directions (like genes get throwing themselves forward, tended wisely).It is is above history, or before, but since the time of Plato it has been hidden, yet the ‘history of being’ can be reconstructed from the texts of philosophers,poets (and political pundits) :-D. Sadly, forgetfulness of being, or nihilism, has culminated in the domination of the world by technology. Whether or not man can return to genuine thinking of being will determine the future of the planet. “But where there is danger, the remedy grows too”. H_
The appropriate response to being is thinking. Thinking is our obedient answer to the call of being, yet some of it’s practice may have been forgotten.Thinking contrasts with assertion, logic, science (science does not think ), metaphysics, philosophy itself and especially technology, which is merely an instrument, a ‘strool’ for the calculation and domination of entities. Language, which, like thinking, played a subordinate role in Being and Time becomes central to Heidegger’s later philosophy, though not language as an instrument of manipulation- into which it has degenerated (under the sway of metaphysics) -but language as an ‘abode of being’. Language speaks, not man.Man only speaks when he fatefully responds to language. Gotta love fate, m8! 😀
Richard rural land would attract a very small tax as well a reduced income tax would reward productivity.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/9272758/Mark-Lundy-free-after-12-years-behind-bars
– Bain, Macdonald and Lundy apparantly not guilty of murder…there must be a really clever serial killer running around NZ
– Must give hope to Tamihere and Watson to being freed
Bain, Macdonald and Lundy apparantly not guilty of murder…there must be a really clever serial killer running around NZ. Must give hope to Tamihere and Watson to being freed.
And O.J. Simpson?
Tamihere is already out, released with strict conditions in November 2010. Luckily we have a system however flawed that decides such things rather than what the idiocracy ‘finks’.
Nah.
Partly it’s a problem with the “prime suspect” approach to policing: make your scenario based on gut instinct, then fit the data to that pattern. The problem is that unless you gather enough data (including data on the chain of custody of that data) it becomes easier for the defence to connect those same dots into another picture. Especially as time passes and it becomes easier to forget that common procedure now was disproportionately time-consuming and expensive then. Regardless of whether the “prime suspect” is innocent or whether the assumption of investigators led them to believe short-cuts hadn’t been taken, the model is flawed.
Couple that with juries that are only slowly coming out of a culture of believing everything a cop says (and the fact that almost everyone can be painted as either criminal or weird), it’s not particularly surprising that a number of high profile cases have been kicked back.
Funny you mention Tamihere – straight after the verdict TV1 played a documentary on how our brave police caught the man wot dun it. A comment made by the lead investigator has stuck with me ever since: “we had found our suspect, and we proceeded to build a case around him”.
I always had my doubts about both Tamiheres. In David’s case, I strongly suspect the evidence was found or fabricated to make a bad guy look guilty. In John’s case, hmmmm, what can you say? Incriminates himself and still gets votes.
Do you have evidence that all these murders were done by the same person? Not presenting it to the police makes you an accessory after the fact. Do your civic duty.
there are some really clever thieves running NZ. (you’re welcome 😀 )
Or not so clever cops!
In Bains case they threw out the evidence after the privy council turned down bains first appeal.
Barlow is another one.
The Herald
“Two years since Rena: No signs of oil on beaches.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11138756
Are the Herald suggesting let’s go with oil drilling???
Wouldn’t be a bad idea to pay for Cunliffes promises
Absolutely.
There’s going to be millions of oil wells popping up every where.
And about time too.
millions? – settle down
about time? – for what, you know BM money isn’t as important as, you know, fucken fresh air and water. These ‘millions’ of oil wells are a foul and suicidal legacy we leave for our grandchildren – what a disgusting stupid bunch of weaklings we have become!!!
Civilization needs the black stuff.
Until something else comes along to take it’s place, it’s drill, baby, drill.
You guys are so cute how you keep on with the derp lines from the GOP. By this time next year you’ll be banging on ‘unskewing the polls’.
Nope, civilisation needs to be sustainable and using fossil oil prevents that.
Nothing’s going to come along. There is, quite literally, nothing with the energy density of oil and even that’s petering out as the EROEI drops.
+ 1 Very good point.
Big lols
Beaches are not necessarily the place to look. Didn’t they put something on the oil to make it sink to the seabed? Perhaps, that is where they should look before they start congratulating themselves.
” No signs of oil on beaches.
Out of sight so out of mind – but would you eat the shellfish?
Now I have a bone to pick about the local body elections. Went down this morning to drop my vote in- didn’t post it as I didn’t want it to get lost in the mail. The house only received two thirds of the voting papers it should have so it might be worth asking councils how many papers never made it and have been returned.
I knew where to go fortunately because the lack of signage was appalling and inside are all these great posters about voting, done by the wellington region’s councils but I have only seen all the drab ones up around town and not too many of those.I’m sure a lot of businesses etc would have been happy to have one to display.
But my main point is why don’t all the council places where you can drop off votes also have somebody that can issue replacement papers and even more importantly those orange pavement boards outside saying election stuff available here – just like general election polling booths are marked.
One size doesn’t fit all and visual reminders all over the “burbs at libraries etc might give people a bit more of a push.
I noticed how hard it was to find out information about candidates that wasn’t in the booklet that came with the voting papers. I’m pretty motivated, but the effort involved in finding out was too much. I can see why so many don’t bother voting.
Vote. Co.nz
Put your address in and it gives you all your voting choices with full details
No, it gives me what someone has chosen to put in there, often it’s just the blurb from the booklet. I want to know details about where the candidates stand on things, not generic blather that’s designed to make voters feel good but doesn’t tell them anything substantial.
H.P.was quite a guy.
I used to be a hide-bound Tory simply for traditional and antiquarian reasons—and because I had never done any real thinking on civics and industry and the future. The depression—and its concomitant publicisation of industrial, financial, and governmental problems—jolted me out of my lethargy and led me to reëxamine the facts of history in the light of unsentimental scientific analysis; and it was not long before I realised what an ass I had been. The liberals at whom I used to laugh were the ones who were right—for they were living in the present while I had been living in the past. They had been using science while I had been using romantic antiquarianism. At last I began to recognise something of the way in which capitalism works—always piling up concentrated wealth and impoverishing the bulk of the population until the strain becomes so intolerable as to force artificial reform.
[…]
As for the Republicans — how can one regard seriously a frightened, greedy, nostalgic huddle of tradesmen and lucky idlers who shut their eyes to history and science, steel their emotions against decent human sympathy, cling to sordid and provincial ideals exalting sheer acquisitiveness and condoning artificial hardship for the non-materially-shrewd, dwell smugly and sentimentally in a distorted dream-cosmos of outmoded phrases and principles and attitudes based on the bygone agricultural-handicraft world, and revel in (consciously or unconsciously) mendacious assumptions (such as the notion that real liberty is synonymous with the single detail of unrestricted economic license or that a rational planning of resource-distribution would contravene some vague and mystical ‘American heritage’…) utterly contrary to fact and without the slightest foundation in human experience? Intellectually, the Republican idea deserves the tolerance and respect one gives to the dead.
– H. P. Lovecraft
understandable
sauce for a gander
LBIAFC !
Cunliff!s 100 day promise is a easy given.The more costly and some would say radical idea!s of central control of the electricity and gas industry,the housing and rents issue,the cost of health and education will all be managed as he has said,given the fiscal situation.One thing is for certain, if he does get the treasury benches in 2014,he will be inheriting massive debt, and that will slow down his road to a more egalatarian N.Z.that all Labour Party supporters yearn for.
My picks for local elections tomorrow (As far as I am concerned my two week banned applies from when I made that post that got me banned):
Auckland: Len Brown to hold on. Palino will run him close with Minto in third. Centre-right to have control of council.
Wellington: John Morrison beats CWB. Celia kinda screwed up, completely out of her depth as mayor. Folding on spending cuts, and underestimating the pro-road rednecks didnt do her any good. Finding that keeping her promises on light rail would be impossible also counts against her.
Christchurch: Lianne Dalziel by a country mile, though Bob Parker may have given her a good run.
Dunedin: Cull all the way, given that there appears to be no challengers.
Meanwhile, New Plymouth looks set to elect a bunch of Tea Party slash and burn ACToids to its district council. We probably wont have a library for that long. Shame.
HATCHET DOCTORS – used by WINZ, this is a must read post and comment thread on ACC Forum, that exposes how they work and try to manipulate the system to “off load” sick and disabled off benefits. It is based on a true story:
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/15326-hatchet-doctor-exposed-winz-acc-alert-hdc-office-do-cop-out/
I most strongly suggest others that have stories to share, to do so on that thread, and perhaps here also, if you wish to be discrete about your privacy, just make sure your true name and details are concealed.
But for the benefit of ALL others, please dare to NAME and SHAME those damned doctors that tried to kick you off benefits, while your own doctor and possibly other specialists said the opposite was needed!!!
Hitler REVEALED:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlSb4KnxD7Q
This is most interesting historic revelation!
All%20records%20that%20exist%20are%3A%0A%0AHitler%20and%20the%20Nazis%20learned%20in%20early%20years%20from%20the%20AMERICAN%20ADVERTISING%20INDUSTRY%2C%20how%20to%20manipulate%20the%20population.%20We%20have%20that%20mind%20bending%20power%20highly%20active%20in%20New%20Zealand%20right%20now!%0A%0AThat%20does%20of%20course%20not%20equate%20to%20advertising%20industry%20supporting%20NAZI%20idelogy%2C%20but%20they%20promote%20the%20neo%20liberal%2C%20right%20wing%2C%20capitalist%20ideology%2C%20and%20system.%20That%20is%20why%20in%20NZ%20we%20have%20NO%20true%20democracy%2C%20it%20is%20a%20total%20farce%20and%20LIE!%0A%0AWe%20are%20being%20manipulated%20at%20an%20immense%20scale%20to%20consume%2C%20to%20focus%20on%20nothing%20but%20consumerism%2C%20on%20fake%20freedom%20(largely%20individualistic)%20and%20on%20capitalist%20ideals%2C%20none%20else.
[translated]
All records that exist are:
Hitler and the Nazis learned in early years from the AMERICAN ADVERTISING INDUSTRY, how to manipulate the population. We have that mind bending power highly active in New Zealand right now!
That does of course not equate to advertising industry supporting NAZI idelogy, but they promote the neo liberal, right wing, capitalist ideology, and system. That is why in NZ we have NO true democracy, it is a total farce and LIE!
We are being manipulated at an immense scale to consume, to focus on nothing but consumerism, on fake freedom (largely individualistic) and on capitalist ideals, none else.
Now I am being corrupted and attacked by The Standard, I cannot believe this, NZ is truly Fucked, there is NO left and alternative force, you are traitors to the idea!
Sorry I sign off and will never be back you are EVIL!
Settle down xtasy 🙂 There is a bug in the edit function, it’s happening to others randomly too.
In all honesty I am struggling to be convinced that suicide is not the best solution to persons like me, give present regimes and economic conditions. Why are people stigmatising us who want a decent “exit” from a SHIT SOCIETY and SHIT WORLD? Let us go, pleaase, I am totally sick off you all and your SHIT society, I hate living, I hate being, I rather be dead right now, that is me, in full confession!!!
Hey xtasy. Sorry last night, the early hours, was bad for you. Hope you are feeling a bit better today.
You still have much to offer, keeping us infomred about developments with social security/benefit issues.
Take care.
Yes, it is definitely time for a longer “mental health break”, away from the internet and computer. Take care and keep up the good work, karol.
Maybe I’ll be back some time further down the future time-line, when mind and body feel a bit better again.
I am going “insane” again, but Dr Bratt will think I am “fit for work”, the insanity lies in the system, and this song reveals more:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11138933
National is GONE, even their No1 cheerleader has swapped sides.
The best article I have red from Armstrong in living memory!