Open mike 11/11/2011

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, November 11th, 2011 - 90 comments
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

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Step right up to the mike…

90 comments on “Open mike 11/11/2011 ”

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  1. Tiger Mountain 1
    11 November 2011 at 6:25 am

    Keep putting the slipper in Phil, the righties may taunt ‘rogue poll’ today but it is getting interesting. ShonKey and Banksie will likely be spending more time together. Vote Banksie get Brash too. Another poll in this direction and Nat candidate withdrawal orders will be issued.
    http://tiny.cc/3v61b

    • mickysavage 1.1
      11 November 2011 at 6:37 am

      Aye Tiger.  That cuppa between Key and Banks looks a certainty now.

      And on the subject of polls can I express my own theory on their accuracy.  There is an inherent bias in them.  For instance out west I know far too many poor people without landlines who are never asked for their opinion.

      The results tend to be close to the poll results because Labour people unfortunately are less inclined to vote.  But a good turnout will change this around.

      Labour has a very effective turnout capability.  For instance in the Botany by election the turnout in the Labour area was 83% of the turnout at the previous general election.  In the National area it was only 53%.

      But it is going to take a lot of work.  So onward brothers and sisters!

      • Lazy Susan 1.1.1
        11 November 2011 at 6:54 am

        Looks like NZ’s about to get it’s very own “Tea Party”.

        No doubt the Mad Hatter Don will be kept well away from the cameras – don’t want to scare the horses.

      • Bored 1.1.2
        11 November 2011 at 8:51 am

        Mickey, you must remember a few elections ago Mike Williams was asked at 9.30 on election night (by the trained performing seals who call themselves political commentators) “was he ready to concede a National victory”?

        Williams reply was that “the South and West Auckland returns would come in later, and that Labour would win…”.

        He was spot on, Labour squeaked it. If Manukau, Henderson, Porirua, East Christchurch etc turn out Labour will have enough this time. That is the challenge.

        • mickysavage 1.1.2.1
          11 November 2011 at 12:54 pm

          I remember it like it was yesterday Bored.

          I was initially confident but became quite despondent when the nats were 10 points ahead at about 9:10 pm. I was with David Cunliffe and suggested that he start to give a concession speech for assembled activists. He started talking and thankfully it was a long speech. Part way through I can recall the sudden bump as the big urban booths. Managed through hand signals to stop David from conceding the election!

          Last election I again waited for the bump but it never came. Looking at the booth results afterwards the causes were clear. In the three South Auckland Labour strongholds 15,000 Labour voters just did not turn up. If they turn up this time then Labour will have a chance.

          • The Voice of Reason 1.1.2.1.1
            11 November 2011 at 1:12 pm

            ’05? I was at the Chch combined electorates do that night. At 9pm it was pretty downbeat, around 9.30 the MP’s started to arrive, all happy that they had retained their seats, but still a bit down. Sometime after 10, the party vote for Labour crept passed the Nat’s total and we started to understand that Peter Dunne’s foolish boast that he would back the majority party meant we were in with a chance. By 11, the joint was rocking!

    • The Voice of Reason 1.2
      11 November 2011 at 7:00 am

      Rogue poll, indeed, TM. The cuppa will be today, on the back of this poll result. Key now knows he needs mates for sure. The interesting thing will be the response in Epsom; do the locals take the hint or do they tell Banksie to do one instead. And isn’t it nice to see ACT totally reliant on the rich man’s charity? Apt or what?

      • Sookie 1.2.1
        11 November 2011 at 7:29 am

        Time for that nice little story about Banks to come out methinks, just after this cup of tea con job. Every Labour/Green voter in Epsom should be voting for Goldsmith as well. Democratic principles obviously don’t matter squat in that ‘rotten borough’.

      • Galeandra 1.2.2
        11 November 2011 at 8:09 am

        Perhaps Parker should announce that he’d like to have a beer and a chat with Goldsmith?

    • aerobubble 1.3
      11 November 2011 at 10:51 am

      Polls will become clearer nearer election day… …yeah right.

      Look I don’t believe for one moment that everyone has made
      up their mind, and so we know that those who have are
      favoring Key, what’s the puzzle, people who are ideologically
      delude do that as a rule. People who however are open minded
      are likely to be progressive and leave it to the last moment.

      Also money talks, so polls are brought by the rich to give
      the voter block that sees election as a game, that they just
      want to vote for the winner the nudge to vote National.

      But when middle class affluent people like a CGT, they
      are hurting form the debt crisis, they know asset sales
      are stupid, then we have to wonder about why the polls
      are so out of wack, well if more people are undecided
      then polls will obvious pick up core supporter not
      swing voters.

      And remember Key polls dropped 8%?? on election day.

      So get the vote out, remind people to vote Green on
      the party and Labour in the constituency.

  2. tc 2
    11 November 2011 at 6:40 am

    Streuth cobbers if we had a real MSM shonkey and blinglish would still be getting hammered over the dodgiest budget ever produced on top of double dipton, those transrail eyes, beemers, mirror mirror trusts have it all, let alone all the deliberate lies back in 08 to get elected as the hollowmen has shown.

    The arrogance and deception may just cost him more than the back room have calculated already….time will tell.

  4. logie97 4
    11 November 2011 at 7:22 am

    And if you needed further proof of the bullshit that on-line instant polls are, then this is it, and the Herald of all papers has exposed it. AT LAST. MULTI voting exposed.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10765210

    Strange though that the Herald cannot miss a chance to reveal that some votes (2) came from within parliament, and guess which party is identified as having received them. Clue, it is not their beloved National.

    Time these on-line polls were outlawed.

    • Carol 4.1
      11 November 2011 at 7:43 am

      Aha! Interesting! While the NZH couldn’t resist a swipe at Labour/Goff, surely the more interesting revelation is the number of repeat votes for Paula Benefit & Nikki Kaye, from outside parliament. This indicates how the astroturfers roll with such polls. PB had the highest number of repeat votes and Ardern had many more “genuine” votes than Kaye.

      But more interesting, I think Deborah Coddington and DF have been… what’s the Interwebz jargon? p*ned?

      http://www.pundit.co.nz/content/what-did-you-do-in-the-2011-campaign-grandad

      They were outraged that a journalism school would be producing such a tabloidish poll:

      So is this what they teach aspiring political journalists in our state-run institutions? Rating the sex appeal – or not – of our Members of Parliament? It’s tasteless, obnoxious, and demeaning.

      But it turns out the poll was set up:
      http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10765210

      so that the class could see the origin of the votes. Results were announced yesterday.

      Great info for those of us who have always been suspicious of such polls on news websites, especially has they mostly seem to lean to the right.

    • Ianupnorth 4.2
      11 November 2011 at 9:06 am

      Or at least put on a bloody big disclaimer saying “this is just for fun and can be sabotaged by idiots”

  5. lprent 5
    11 November 2011 at 8:30 am

    Testing new cache system on the live system.

    Biggest problem appears to be the Comment/Opinion tab area when people are not logged in.. Why didn’t I see that while testing..

    Only happens on some pages depending on how they got cached. I really just need to get rid of the JQuery for that.

    Turned off the page caching for the moment which will fix that issue. Weekend job.

  6. Ianupnorth 6
    11 November 2011 at 9:09 am

    Sue Moroney spoke very well re. education on the Breakfast show, and even Corrin Dann made a point of saying ‘yet again the government have not fronted up’.

    This, to me, says two things

    1) They have no faith in any of their policies (if they actually have any), their Ministers, or they are scared of being shown up, and

    2) They are totally reliant on their figurehead getting them home.

    The more that can be made of their refusal to discuss issues and the more that actual, sound policy can be communicated, the better.

  7. Blue 7
    11 November 2011 at 9:10 am

    Shaking my head over this article on Stuff this morning: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/5947120/Whos-taking-the-gloss-off-the-campaign

    I love how political journalists can moan about this stuff without a hint of self-awareness. It’s their fault that the campaign is boring and that John Key doesn’t need to bother trying.

    They’re the ones who have allowed him to sleepwalk to victory for three fucking years.

    If Andrea wants to make her job more interesting, all she has to do is start DOING her job.

    • Draco T Bastard 7.1
      11 November 2011 at 9:44 am

      I’m not sure if the journos know what their job is never mind knowing how to do it.

    • William Joyce 7.2
      11 November 2011 at 12:32 pm

      To be fair, I think she did a fair call on National
      – announcing already announced policy (i.e. they’ve got nothing new)
      – announcing policy that is mundane and will not address recommendations
      – policy announcements that only announce the obvious

      Then she called National on it’s plan to do nothing that will rock the boat and rely on riding Key’s popularity back into office.

      However, she then goes on to criticise Labour for “focus(ing) on top-10 lists, Mr Key’s integrity and his Hawaiian getaways. What happened to talking about the hard choices?”

      But didn’t she just say that National where using Key as their substitute for flagship policy? So wouldn’t you expect the opposition to spend sometime showing that Key is wearing no clothes?

      “Despite the pretence that this election is all about austerity and chunky policy, really this campaign has been nothing more than a series of orchestrated and unnatural photo-ops. ”
      This is demonstrates the lack of self-awareness that Blue points out. Labour tried to talk about chunky policy and all the media concentrated on was who called who a liar and showing the money.

      So Labour presents a list of Key’s failures and what does Patrick Gower do? He ignored the list and concentrated on Goff’s use of the word smug. Seesh!
      Is it any wonder that journos are ranked among the bottom-feeder occupations.

  8. Deuto 8
    11 November 2011 at 9:19 am

    It’s Friday and we need a laugh – it may be my weird sense of humour but I like the photo from the Herald this morning. Bith Key and Banks have RED hair!

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10765220#

    • rosy 8.1
      11 November 2011 at 10:00 am

      And they’re blushing… as they should.

    • chris73 8.2
      11 November 2011 at 10:06 am

      Gingas have no soul, I may have to change my vote

      [lprent: grummphhhh…. I was just thinking that I don’t think that simple bigotry is really a reason to change your vote. Then I remembered Brash’s simple moron level bigotry in Owera One was pretty much the reason for winning an election in 2005. But didn’t you read my post yesterday – the undead have no souls.. So no votes for… ]

      • chris73 8.2.1
        11 November 2011 at 10:25 am

        Gingas can be turned by a high-level cleric or Paladin though I would class them more of an imp than undead

      • Deuto 8.2.2
        11 November 2011 at 10:45 am

        The red hair amused me in terms of political colours and was not intended to be derogatory to redheads – have several in my family as well as a brilliant ginga cat who is the most laid back, non-physcho cat I have ever had.

      • William Joyce 8.2.3
        11 November 2011 at 12:41 pm

        Speaking on behalf of me and my people, when the RWJNs have been through the political re-education camps, we are coming after all who disparage the golden ones.
        Chris73 – look over your shoulder – we know were you live 😉

  9. g says 9
    11 November 2011 at 9:48 am

    please help. i am a honky and live in the manawatu, rangitikei electorate. i was wandering if i was able to vote for mana party or is that option only for voters on the maori role?

    [lprent: I’d suggest that you badly need a civics lesson because you appear to be ignorant of the simple basics of electoral system.

    But yes – you can on the party list, and if Mana stand a electorate candidate you can vote for them as well. ]

    • idlegus 9.1
      11 November 2011 at 10:05 am

      nope, mana & for everyone, they have my party vote (im pakeha etc) down here in south dunedin.

      • g says 9.1.1
        11 November 2011 at 10:13 am

        thanx idlegus, its refreshing to hear a politician articulate what you want heard and its even more surprising to hear it from “a hater and wrecker” from the far north: financial transaction tax, feed the poor children from the defence budget, $15 minimum wage, first $27, 000 tax free.
        sounds like stuff you expect from the left.

    • The Voice of Reason 9.2
      11 November 2011 at 11:01 am

      Two ticks for you, g says. Josie Pagani for the electorate vote, Labour for the party vote. Ok, Mana for the party vote, if you really must! There is a candidates meeting in Feilding on Monday night at the St Johns Ambo Hall, Bowen St. It would be great to have an extra lefty or two there, so please turn up and bring a friend if you can.

      More details here (and a photo of a candidate who likes to horse around!):

      http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/feilding-herald/5943277/Candidates-hit-election-trail/

  10. coolas 10
    11 November 2011 at 10:04 am

    Seems I’ve hit on Farrar’s soft point. This exchange from yesterday.

    “The health consequences of eating junk food are well known – diabetes etc – with massive costs to future health budgets, loss of productivity etc.

    Surely it’s a good thing to promote healthy food choices in schools so I don’t understand DPF’s objection. Just doesn’t make sense. Unless of course it’s some sort of projection. Is DPF overweight by any chance?”

    [DPF: If you do not know the difference between promote and ban, go get a dictionary. And any more personal swipes at me will get you banned]

    • Hilary 10.1
      11 November 2011 at 10:27 am

      Several National and Maori Party MPs have had expensive private bariatric (stomach reduction) surgery that they are lucky enough to be able to afford (on their large MP salaries) because it costs $20,000 -$30,000. This option is only available to a very small number of people in the public system so you have to have private means to get it (ie rich). Being overweight is a genetic, metabolic and pyschological condition, as well as socio- economic as cheaper food tends to be poorer quality, sweeter and fattier – it is not a personal failing.

      So it would be sensible to do the preventive thing and make it hard for people with the risk factors to access the triggers such as advertising, cheap junk food etc. So healthy regulations in school canteens is an ideal policy. Why the right are so against such regulations and also against funding bariatric surgery in the public system shows how mean minded and almost vindictive their policies re obesity are.

      (And if David F did ever want bariatric surgery it would be no problem for a rich person like him to get it , as there are no waiting lists in NZ for this private surgery).

  11. Jenny 11
    11 November 2011 at 10:19 am

    John Banks has a meltdown, Tim Watkin does the Hokey Pokey

    Earlier this week John Key claimed that ACT is “a stable party”.

    But as the saying goes, “A picture paints a thousand words”.

    Here is a Three Thousand Word Photo Essay from the Epsom meet the candidates debate hosted in the Somervell Presbyterian Church, Wednesday night.

    John Banks and the other candidates will be having a rematch at the Parnell Farmers Market tomorrow, Saturday. Come along with all your friends bring a camera and you may capture some Action Shots of your own from the Epsom campaign trail.

    1/ The Awful Truth:
    MANA Epsom candidate Pat O’Dea shows the people of Epsom who they are really voting for.

    file:///private/var/tmp/folders.501/TemporaryItems/com.apple.mail.drag-T0x230a510.tmp.O80r2S/P1080285BanksBrash.JPG

    2/ She’s Gonna Blow:
    O’Dea leaves Brash’s picture propped against the lectern. The MANA and the Greens Candidate look on grimly as John Banks lays out ACT’s right wing agenda. (National’s Paul Goldsmith can be seen peering around the lectern. Behind Banks, Labour candidate David Parker reclines looking relaxed.)

    file:///private/var/tmp/folders.501/TemporaryItems/com.apple.mail.drag-
    T0x230a510.tmp.Ff7z9S/P1080311BanksBrash.JPG

    3/ All Hell breaks loose!
    Labour’s David Parker suddenly sits bolt upright in his chair, looking on amazed, as Tim Watkin, pushed aside by Banks in a frenzied attack on the sign, tries to recover his balance.
    Behind them John Banks blind with rage bumps into a table as he staggers around the stage frustratedly trying to tear up his leader’s image.

    file:///private/var/tmp/folders.501/TemporaryItems/com.apple.mail.drag-T0x230a510.tmp.8bGFTa/P1080325BanksHidingBrash.JPG

    Fortunately, the Don Brash picture had been laminated against such attacks.

    But who knew John Banks would be the one to try?

    You have to wonder whether Banks had one too many pre event whiskys to calm his nerves?

  12. randal 12
    11 November 2011 at 10:24 am

    hah the worm has turned and not a sight of the cheeky little chappy telling us which way to vote.
    ipredict that national is on the skids.
    nik smif should have stuck to analysing landslides instead of nwo becoming one.
    hahahahahahaha.

  13. AAMC 13
    11 November 2011 at 10:29 am

    Tar Sands pipeline to go back for reassessment in Congress, Bill MiKibben, Naiomi Klein et al, thank you!

    http://www.tarsandsaction.org/big-news-won-won/

  14. thejackal 14
    11 November 2011 at 10:55 am

    Oil and Gas Spin

    Campbell Live ran a story last night concerning the oil and gas industry in Taranaki. During the show there was a number of industry types talking it up…

  15. Tiger Mountain 15
    11 November 2011 at 11:19 am

    Jeez, one poll (Herald Digi this a.m.) and the Gargoyle from Curia Blog hits the big clunky “ooh..scary co-alition!” panic button. Not so long ago Hone Harawira was an acceptable partner for ShonKey in co-alition. Heh. So Farrar is scaremongering, the piece (with suitable late additions) reads like it was ‘prepared earlier’ months ago even.
    http://tiny.cc/zsubv

    • Ianupnorth 15.1
      11 November 2011 at 2:11 pm

      Not half mate – and reading the comments all them poor oppressed small businessmen, none of whom ever fiddle taxes or reclaim the GST for everything, will all be rushing off to Australia at the thought of a left sided government.

      I’ll happily give them a lift to the airport if we DON’T have a national government.

  16. The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 16
    11 November 2011 at 2:17 pm

    Just had a chat with Sam Lotu-iiga in the kebab shop. What a nice man.

    • McFlock 17.1
      11 November 2011 at 2:59 pm

      Not really.

      Nice to see what toryboys think will terrify voters, though. Says more about them than it does NZ.

    • Draco T Bastard 17.2
      11 November 2011 at 3:35 pm

      Proves the maths incompetency of RWNJs. 2×12=$24 not $32.

      • McFlock 17.2.1
        11 November 2011 at 4:02 pm

        “Standard Drink” not “can”.

        I figured that a large can at 4/5% could equal 1.3 std drnks, so that math is okay, but I have no idea what beer they’re looking at – per doz it’s probably a loss-leader.

        • Draco T Bastard 17.2.1.1
          11 November 2011 at 4:19 pm

          I thought the 330ml @4% alcohol, as pictured, was the standard drink.

          • McFlock 17.2.1.1.1
            11 November 2011 at 4:27 pm

            lol you’re right!
            I saw the cans and they looked like the 440ml. Didn’t even see the alc/vol.

            So that’s 16 cans for $32. And the current price is less than 90c ea.
            Does anyone sell beer at $10/doz any more? Even the shite stuff?

            • Colonial Viper 17.2.1.1.1.1
              11 November 2011 at 10:21 pm

              Dunno how much is Ranfurly going for these days lol

              If you’re serious, crates of DB are the way to go.

  18. newsense 18
    11 November 2011 at 3:04 pm

    Fuck I hate this lying prick:

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10765329

    Concerned about private sector debt. Won’t do a thing to seriously try to increase savings or direct investment out of property speculation funded by international loans and into productive investment.

    “Labour has spent $16 billion of money they don’t have on the campaign trail.” Key says

    Hasn’t this been clearly shown to be a falsehood? How are they still getting away with saying it? Magic numbers. I thought the big headline was $100 million, or $4 Billion or or or and in any case it is all based on a Prefu that doesn’t factor in Italy going belly up…so!!

    Well I’ve had three bankers tell me how to vote.

    One was Irish and reckoned a nod for the Nats or Act.

    Two were Kiwis and they have been solid Green supporters for a long time. Hmmm….

  19. tc 19
    11 November 2011 at 3:07 pm

    Key’s just ensorsed Banks….release the hounds, let’s see who got fleas.

  20. newsense 20
    11 November 2011 at 3:08 pm

    Can we have a lie ometer?

    Here’s an even bigger porky debunked: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5950736/Key-sat-on-wage-report

    they’re gunna keep coming. Might as well keep them handily reported for people…

    hows that business cred John? The lady working at McDs (I think it was) on TV3 last night had more knowledge about how the economics of the minimum wage works that you unless you were deliberately lying to the country to try to scare them into voting your way…

    as Brian Fallow says : ” fatuous and self serving”

    • ianmac 20.1
      11 November 2011 at 4:10 pm

      By telling the McDonalds lady that there would be a bump for the minimum wage next year is meant to show the voters that perhaps there will be $15 because Mr Key said so, sort of. Hooray says the nice lady.
      But the bump might be upwards to $13.25 or downwards to say $12. Next year that nice Mr Key could say that he didn’t promise anything. And he didn’t.

      • newsense 20.1.1
        11 November 2011 at 4:49 pm

        Not sure what you watched- I caught a clip of what I thought was her pawning Key and now backed up with an inconvenient report. Will see if the vid is around to link to.@

        Right here Mary of McDonalds pawns Key in the Patrick Gower piece:http://www.3news.co.nz/Raising-minimum-wage-wont-cost-jobs—Treasury/tabid/419/articleID/232338/Default.aspx

        Apologies about the cut and paste but I like this article very very much:

        Currently minimum wage is $13 an hour.National would like to lower it – for some workers to as little as $10.90.

        It says putting the minimum wage up, as other parties would, would mean employers would simply shed jobs.

        But 3 News has obtained Treasury documents that dispute that.Workers at McDonald’s wanted to place a simple order this election; ‘Do something about our McWages’. If they could have anything, staff say it would be for minimum wage to go up to $15.

        Given the chance, McDonald’s employee Mary Liddicoat took her order right to the top.She asked Prime Minister John Key, “Will the minimum wage go up to $15 an hour soon?”.

        “It will go up, but it won’t go up straight away,” he responded.That’s a polite ‘no’.

        Key has no intention of super-sizing their pay anytime soon. He says it will cost 6000 jobs.

        Mary wasn’t buying that.“I can’t see how you would lose that many jobs by taking it up that much,” she said.

        The Government’s own officials agree with her.The Department of Labour says the rise will cost 6000 jobs.

        But Treasury has a counter view; “This has not been true in the past. The balance of probabilities is that a higher minimum wage does not cost jobs.”

        Not all employers are worried about a hike either. Andy Martin runs a pub, employing 26 people in Oamaru.He says put the wage up and people just spend more money – everyone wins.

        “$15 is fair,” he says.

        So Mary had another request for Key:“Try and live on $450 a week.”

        “Look, I think it would be very difficult for anyone to do that,” he said.
        ______________________________________________________________________________

        • Colonial Viper 20.1.1.1
          11 November 2011 at 5:02 pm

          for some workers to as little as $10.90.

          I thought 16 and 17 year olds were going to $10.40/hr under National.

  21. newsense 21
    11 November 2011 at 4:03 pm

    And another dose of sheesh for inciting racial bluster goes to the Penguin:

    in his Herald column/blog thing:

    [Harawira] would not trust any Department headed up and/or staffed by Pakeha mofos.”

    I thought Goff had ruled out working with Harawira point 1.

    Point 2- seemed Hone worked fine in the Maori party arrangement with National.

    Point 3- errr…He seems happy with plenty of Pakeha mofos in his party- you know the kind that can remember where they were during the Springbok tour and the kind who are into seriously doing something about the underclass.

    It’s a laugh inducing piece that makes you think that the Nats must actually be taking this lot seriously to let their pr guy do this weak a hatchett job.

    really? you think Len Brown is more worried about Andy Williams than John Banks or Steve Joyce? And would be worried about a Labour-led government committed to making the Auckland rail work? The possibility of the new savvy Greens with bright young Labour talent such as Jacinda is making me cross my fingers and go out looking for shooting stars. Would be bloody nice.

    still at least the political satire exists in NZ. was concerned it was a goner!

    Nice try buddy!

  22. newsense 22
    11 November 2011 at 4:05 pm

    and Darien Fenton is the Labour shadow cabinet minister for Labour. Worth ten of Wilkinson, and a really nice woman.

    Actually the whole thing just needs a fact check, it’s full of baloney.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10765272

    Ohhh and you are worried about Tourism- well I’m sure we can find someone- well actually anyone who would front the BBC and not say ” we’re more 100% pure than other countries”
    and would be screaming blue murder to get the oil off a tanker before it got anywhere near any of our beaches. Someone who might be able to argue for our 100% campaign from the
    basis of a polluter pays ETS.

    • Rob 22.1
      11 November 2011 at 4:10 pm

      “Darien Fenton, a real nice women” , wow, really.

      • ianmac 22.1.1
        11 November 2011 at 4:12 pm

        Yes and very competent Rob.

      • Colonial Viper 22.1.2
        11 November 2011 at 4:58 pm

        Talked to Darien earlier this week, she’s really got her finger on the pulse of labour and industrial relations priorities. $15/hr minimum wage is simply a starting point to give ordinary workers a hope at having economic jobs.

        Labour is lucky to have her.

        • newsense 22.1.2.1
          11 November 2011 at 5:08 pm

          I haven’t decided my vote, but calibre MPs like her throughout the team and new blood like Jacinda Ardern certainly are attractions of the party.

      • Lyall 22.1.3
        11 November 2011 at 5:52 pm

        Yes really, A fantastic women, competent and really hard working in my experience.

  23. ianmac 23
    11 November 2011 at 4:50 pm

    Pike River boss Peter Peter Whittall has revealed he’s among those charged in relation to the blast which killed 29 people at the Pike River mine

  24. Draco T Bastard 24
    11 November 2011 at 5:25 pm

    Legends of the Fail

    First, if you look around the world you see that the big determining factor for interest rates isn’t the level of government debt but whether a government borrows in its own currency. Japan is much more deeply in debt than Italy, but the interest rate on long-term Japanese bonds is only about 1 percent to Italy’s 7 percent. Britain’s fiscal prospects look worse than Spain’s, but Britain can borrow at just a bit over 2 percent, while Spain is paying almost 6 percent.

    What has happened, it turns out, is that by going on the euro, Spain and Italy in effect reduced themselves to the status of third-world countries that have to borrow in someone else’s currency, with all the loss of flexibility that implies. In particular, since euro-area countries can’t print money even in an emergency, they’re subject to funding disruptions in a way that nations that kept their own currencies aren’t — and the result is what you see right now.

    Of course, if countries were being rational and keeping their own currency they’d be able to just print the money and not pay any interest at all.

  25. Tiger Mountain 25
    11 November 2011 at 6:31 pm

    No wonder Paula Benefit has been looking rougher than usual lately, TV3 turned up the progress on the Fuller privacy case mediation that had been stalled for about a year. It seems a case against the Minister by the Human Rights Tribunal may proceed. Mr Hesketh from the tribunal did not want the matter reported apparently and Bennett is whinging about the matter being made public.

    Hmmm. Not fun is it being outed in public guilty, or innocent.

  26. RedLogix 26
    11 November 2011 at 6:57 pm

    Who writes these headlines? And could they get any more biased?

    The entire article is a carefully crafted to engage sympathy for Whittall, along with a nice sympathetic picture. Can’t have people remembering how Key so closely associated himself with him … not this close to an election.

  27. Jenny 27
    11 November 2011 at 7:15 pm

    MANA MEDIA RELEASE
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    11 NOVEMBER 2011

    STREET SURVEY WOULD SEE MANA WITH 4 MPs

    “The results of a street survey conducted by the NZ Herald confirm what we’ve been hearing on the ground” said MANA Leader Hone Harawira.

    “With just over 3% of the party vote, me, Annette Sykes, John Minto and Sue Bradford would become Members of Parliament for MANA.”

    Harawira said that was an exciting prospect and showed that MANA was a growing political force in New Zealand politics.

    “The NZ Herald survey also highlighted the fact that MANA is being embraced by Pasifika, Pakeha and others struggling to make ends meet” said Harawira

    “That reflects the broad base of high quality candidates that we are putting forward (Samoan James Papali’i is ranked sixth) and is clearly appealing to a wide cross-section of society.”

    Harawira said that the survey also confirmed another matter that MANA had been pointing out “and that is that landline polls no longer accurately reflect the way people are going to vote – particularly Maori, Pasifika and those on low incomes who overwhelmingly use cell phones these days”

    Harawira said that MANA’s key messages were clearly connecting with voters – eradicate poverty, full employment, decent wages, and free education and health.

    “And I think people believe in what we say because they know our candidates have dedicated their lives to improving the lives of others.”

    “Annette has an unparalleled record of fighting for Maori rights in the courts, John is a national icon for his stands against apartheid and racism and Sue has long been a champion for the unemployed” said Harawira.

    “I can’t wait for election day” said Harawira.
    “The country will be pleasantly surprised when MANA gets into parliament – certainly the poor will be happy to see that they have strong representation from people like Annette, John, and Sue, although I doubt that those parties representing the interests of the rich will be too pleased.

    Hone Harawira

    Media Liaison: Peter Verschaffelt

    Email media@mana.net.nz Web http://mana.net.nz

  28. randal 28
    11 November 2011 at 8:26 pm

    who saw kwee wee and binky having a cup of tea in epsom. looked more like horse pee to me.

  29. rosy 29
    11 November 2011 at 8:26 pm

    I’m finding this whole ‘regime change’ in Europe more and more distasteful. Economists installed as leaders in Italy and Greece, instead of democratic elections because the ‘markets’ won’t tolerate a delay in changing the government. And how do markets make that happen? By pricing loans at such a level that they’ll take down the countries. The markets lent the money at a price that accounted for risk – they should be taking a haircut but instead are now in complete control.

    And for those who think lazy, feckless workers are in part responsible for this mess…

    Alas, one would be disappointed, … In 1997 unit labor costs in Italy stood at about eighty percent of those in Germany, and ten years later, they were, well, about eighty percent. Through the late 1990s and early 2000s the ratio actually declined, before returning to slightly above four-fifths.
    But, of course, even if Italians were not paid more, they should not have been because they were “doing less work”. Again, the statistics disappoint, because Eurostat (the EU database) reports that in 2009-2011 Italians in full time employment, public and private, worked a lazy average of 38 hours per week, compared to a robust 35.7 for the industrious Germans

    … but they’ll be the ones paying the price.

    • Colonial Viper 29.1
      11 November 2011 at 9:43 pm

      Such is the end game of the Global Bankster Occupation of Formerly Democratic Sovereign Nations.

    • Olwyn 29.2
      11 November 2011 at 9:45 pm

      @ Rosy: I find the “regime change” business terrifying, along with the hollow rhetoric that serves as justifications: nations “living beyond their means” etc, when the truth is exactly as you say – loans are used to take down countries. The weird thing is these crises are all about how a certain game is played – the world contains roughly the same amount of actual resources after the crisis as it did before. Another weird thing – the crises are largely created by people who do not command armies, just numbers on screens. The loan thing seems to go: we give you lots of nice numbers and in return we take your actual resources and enslave you.

      • Draco T Bastard 29.2.1
        11 November 2011 at 11:40 pm

        The loan thing seems to go: we give you lots of nice numbers and in return we take your actual resources and enslave you.

        QFT

        Capitalism is nothing but legalised theft.

    • rosy 29.3
      11 November 2011 at 10:04 pm

      The link for the quote:
      http://www.social-europe.eu/2011/11/breaking-news-the-working-class-caused-the-italian-crisis/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+social-europe%2FwmyH+%28Social+Europe+Journal%29

      I think the question now is ‘what is the circuit-breaker going to be?’ … and the absolute hypocrisy of the US position on Europe just does my head in. Yeah CV it really does feel like the endgame (sadly, of democracy, not the money men, methinks).

    • Vicky32 29.4
      12 November 2011 at 12:17 am

      “I’m finding this whole ‘regime change’ in Europe more and more distasteful. Economists installed as leaders in Italy and Greece, instead of democratic elections”

      Almost all of my Italian friends are over the moon at the prospect of Berlusconi’s going, but even so, they and I, find the reason disconcerting!

      The ousting of Papandreou (sp?) is an order of magnitude dodgier!

  30. Ianupnorth 30
    11 November 2011 at 9:12 pm

    Spot the similarities
    (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/10/berlusconi-exit-italy)

    For most Italians, the party ended a very long time ago: growth over the past 15 years has been a slovenly 0.75%; unemployment currently stands at 8.3%; the influential Catholic charity Caritas estimates that 8 million Italians are now living in poverty. If the country isn’t yet at rock bottom, it’s hard to think there’s much further to go.

    and

    Everyone knows that it’s almost impossible to get a job in Italy on merit alone. One needs a raccomandazione, a recommendation or referral. You have to be a figlio di…, a son, or daughter, of some big wig. All of which means there has been an incredible brain-drain from Italy in recent decades: bright youngsters have fled the country looking for a job and a salary that match their skills. If, in tight economic times, performance suddenly becomes more important than who your relations are, some of those emigre brains might book a return ticket.

    Brain drain, jobs for siblings and the conected (Shipley, Mervyn English, etc…)

    • Vicky32 30.1
      12 November 2011 at 12:20 am

      “All of which means there has been an incredible brain-drain from Italy in recent decades: bright youngsters have fled the country looking for a job and a salary that match their skills.”

      My first Italian friend in NZ (I met him in 2005) came into this category… (he was my English student). Now he has his own business and considers himself a New Zealander, and has started a family here, to the unhappiness of his parents and parents-in-law, they won’t return.

  31. Vicky32 31
    11 November 2011 at 11:49 pm

    I just read a Herald column by Farrar (oh, what a nasty man!). I thought he was a Nact official. Why does he have a column in the Herald?

    He says “The reason for this is that the level of a benefit is calculated on an after-tax basis. ” – and I have to say, that’s news to me! Why then do we pay taxes on our benefits? (Be assurred that we do.)

  32. Colonial Viper 32
    11 November 2011 at 11:59 pm

    British Government invests £500M to bomb Libya back to the stone age; British corporates to get £300B in contracts to rebuild the country

    Excellent investment all round lads. Great way to indebt the people and suck Libya’s oil wealth dry.