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!!!
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
“It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April to meet the Prime Minister’s ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
The unidentified foreign intelligence operation discussed in a scathing report by New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) last week appears to be a controversial United States intelligence system. The IGIS report said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) decision to host a foreign system from 2012-2020 was “improper” ...
As a young gymnast, Aimee Didierjean was always conscious of making sure her underwear wasn’t showing on the competition floor. A peek of a bra strap, or briefs if a leotard rode up, would cost a gymnast points in her routines. “When I was growing and going through puberty, it ...
Jubi/West Papua Daily Repeated cases of Indonesian military (TNI) soldiers torturing civilians in Papua have been evident, as seen in the viral video depicting the torture of civilians in the Puncak Regency allegedly done by soldiers of Raider 300/Brajawijaya Infantry Battalion. There is a pressing need for stringent law enforcement ...
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.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrahQpIWD08
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.youtube.com/watch?v=O8ZFi0MvGf0
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!