National is today set to seal a new deal with the Maori Party giving Prime Minister John Key the support he’s after to embark on a more aggressive second term reform agenda.
[…]
He yesterday formally advised Governor General Sir Jerry Mateparae of his intention to form the Government.
A further three votes from the Maori Party are likely to be announced today after late night talks on Friday suggested the party was headed for another term backing a National-led Government.
The last of the Maori Party hui canvassing the views of members on a deal wrapped up yesterday and Key said he was ”very optimistic” of announcing a deal as early as this afternoon.
“I would be absolutely stunned if they don’t do a deal with us,” Key said.
Really? What a sorry shell of their former aspirations the Maori Party have become. About to sign a deal to support National’s “more aggressive second term reform agenda”? For what? Some baubles of office and a sweet asset sales deal for some of the Iwi elite?
SHAME!
And how will this sit with the large amount of Maori on low incomes, the working poor and the unemployed?
“I would be absolutely stunned if they don’t do a deal with us,”. from a man who gives used car sales people a good name. Its so bloody obvious, name your price and let us do what the f**k we want.
Right wing governments need high unemployment and voter apathy to thrive. In NZ ,oxygen from the Maori Party can also be added to Grinch Key’s wish list.
It’s now time to stop being nice to the Maori Party. Their stupidity can’t be tolerated now because the stakes are too high. We now need to subject the Maori Party to total derision and disdain. They’ve had long enough to shape up. They will never learn, therefore they must be removed from the landscape. See the irony in the advice finally going to Sir Jerry Mateparaea a government’s being formed: Maori advising Maori that they’re preparing to shaft Maori.
For three years we’ve given them the benefit of the doubt and tried to believe that they’re not really right-wingers, they’re supporting National for now but really they’re a left wing party that’s lost and wants to come home.
Well fuck that, they’ve had their chance. If they support National, that means they fucking support National.
They’re no more a friend of the left that Banks or Dunne is.
What about all that palaver with her taking Carmel’s signs down? Maybe someone should get her charged for doing that? Talk about vandalism, Trev? Be great to see this criminal in court, eh what?
And how will this sit with the large amount of Maori on low incomes, the working poor and the unemployed?
Turia and Sharples basically don’t care! They’re resigning anyway but even if they weren’t, they’ve shown their true colours. Turia is all about getting her own way, as I was told in 2008 by a family member who said to me that “Aunty” scares the living donuts out of her friends and family.
Places to go, people to see…the travelling Labour Road Show! Looking forward to hearing all the candidates and being amongst likeminded people.
Matt McCarten seems to have slightly toned down his previous opinion heavily endorsing Shearer, with this column titled ‘A battle between popularity and experience’
And what better issue to unite and mobilise the Labour Party than that highlighted in the recent landmark OECD report, Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising, as discussed in this article, titled ”Rich-poor gap is NZ’s shame’
“In the space of a generation, New Zealand has become a country that many New Zealanders do not recognise or like much. If the OECD report tells us anything, it tells us that it is not enough to carry on doing what we have been doing and hope for a different outcome.”
Cunliffe has a lot of enemies in his caucus. His self-confidence and ambition annoys some. Frankly, I would have thought his colleagues understood these attributes are needed in spades for any leader trying to win.
But still ends up supporting Shearer because he is easy to like and popular like John Key. Does he not realise key is about to become less popular because of his policies (and the recent election result doesn’t show THAT much support for his party), and we are facing very difficult times, requiring a very gutsy kind of leader…. not someone the guys want to chat to over a beer at the barbie!?… as highlighted by the article on the extreme inequalities in NZ.
The Herald on Sunday has changed its opinion to ‘it doesn’t matter whichever David wins on Tuesday, Labour are still losers’. This is what we have to look forward to from the HoS for the next 3 years.
Maybe not in the Herald but in todays Sunday Star Times Anthony Hubbard writes a full pager attacking Key and “his dull grey men” in particular Bill English for their attacks on the poor and contribution to the latest OECD report into our terrible, widening inequality gap. Titled “Smugness will be the Killer”, it contains seething paragraphs such as “Key, John Banks and Peter Dunne more than ever lean together like three drunks who would all collapse without each others suppport.. “
Yep. Get the soft option, knock him down, paint the replacement as a hater & wrecker.
They’ll have a harder time taking out Cunliffe and if they do then Brand Shearer will only face a year or so’s scrutiny and he may have a chance of out-nicing that nice Mr Key.
It’s time to get combative, it’s time for Cunliffe.
Mallard is Labour’s Haig and a good chunk of the shadow cavalry should be put out to pasture.
This should ring warning bells about placing too much trust in the traction to be gained from David Shearer’s back story and his instant popularity, having been the focus of the public eye for about two weeks. John Key’s “popularity” is backed by powerful people with a vested interest in its being maintained. As many have noted here,he is treated by the media like a protected species: the myth must be maintained and counterexamples either ignored or explained away.
No Labour leader is going to get that treatment, and I have even wondered if the endorsements that come from Farrar, Slater etc, may be contingent on the belief that they have already got the material they need to burst the Shearer myth before it takes hold. It does not take much – a decontextualised employment dispute, a prudent decision that can be recast as cowardly, a brave decision recast as reckless…the possibilities are endless. But even if this is not true, there has to be more than popularity to a Labour leader. The ability to rise to the challenge and withstand criticism is probably a more valuable asset at this stage.
Or the ability to actually change the ways voters understand their world, instead of just giving up and playing to a superficial populism.
Most people know something isn’t quite right, and certain things aren’t working as the evidence is all around them at the moment – they are actually experiencing it. a Labour leader needs to articulate clearly and simply why this is and how we can change it instead of treating them like stupid drones.
There must be something occurring in the public mind if even Obama is risking channeling it.
People automatically like Shearer, but I think Cunliffe has something deeper, the ability to actually win and convince people because he speaks with conviction and passion.
It does not take much – a decontextualised employment dispute, a prudent decision that can be recast as cowardly, a brave decision recast as reckless…the possibilities are endless.
An example where lives were lost due to a communications problem or misunderstanding at the UN would be classic.
Will they risk being that overt? Will they just go for the long game of painting him as a nice guy but ineffectual and bureaucratic?
It doesn’t work with John Key because he has the concrete result of his wealth which is fairly convincing proof of being effective to many, but for humanitarian work the results are way more ambiguous.
It doesn’t work for Key, not because of his wealth, but because his mythical popularity serves various powerful interests, who need him for things to go a certain way, and whose noses will be out of joint if they do not. He is on the side of the fence where a hollow popularity works, because those that could undermine it know which side of the bread has butter on it.
The people whose noses are out of joint when things do not go well for Labour are not that powerful, except where their numbers are large enough to pose a threat. Cuddly popularity does not get you to that position, but commitment, conviction and resilience just might. It is true that Len Brown managed to get he mayoralty through personal popularity, but it was at a time when Rodney Hide’s supercity was hated, and came largely from his natural ability to connect with people, rather than his life being turned into a grand narrative.
I agree completely, but while the money=worth thing is the dominant ideology he’s fairly bullet-proof on that front.
Len also benefited by the real fear of South and West that they would be left in the dust of any Supercity so he managed to unite a plurality of outsider interests under a single idea.
It was surprising to see how public the leadership contest was made and thought it might’ve been detrimental to Labour by highlighting factions present in any caucus but which are normally hidden under the shroud that is caucus. But it’s been a blessing in disguise because we’ve realised that Emperor Shearer’s got no clothes. Bloody lucky, let’s hope enough people have realised in time.
how do you think the left especially Labour needs to deal with the media to get a fairer and less judgemental hearing? It’s apparently extremely difficult by all counts
Matthew Hooton said something significant on Citizen A a couple of nights ago. He said that Cunliffe must not be given the finance portfolio (in the event, presumably, of Shearer becoming PM). The right seem terrified Cunliffe will take the country too far to the left.
David Cunliffe has the ability to communicate to people how economies work and how they work within it – and also what they should expect from it. They would be totally terrified of him doing it, half their power rests on people being ignorant/indifferent.
I too thought, “McCarten seems to have slightly toned down his previous opinion heavily endorsing Shearer,”….but found this was not so.
In fact he subtly undermined at David Cunliffe, and Nanaia, throughout his article. while continuing to spreading his ‘support Shearer’ propaganda.
I have often thought that McCarten has ‘failed politician syndrome’ whose symptoms display as undermining the Labour party and anything that maybe good for it at every possible opportunity. He is intelligent enough to know that Cunliffe is the better man to lead Labour at this present point in time, but he is also clever enough to know that by pushing Shearer, he is shafting Labour.
Funny and interesting how both left and right fear Cunliffe. Matt McCarten this morning did the odd thing of continuing to support a Labour right candidate, even though most of that candidate’s credibility as an upfront leader has been catastrophically undermined for anyone who has seen him in action this week. McCarten of course wants to push Labour to the right to give his party breathing space. What is interesting about Cunliffe is how, he as a genuine left candidate, appeals to people who are looking for business sense and a bit of the mongrel when it comes to the attack. No wonder the Nats and the Left Left are pulling the kitchen sink off the wall!
Carol quotes McCarten – “Cunliffe has a lot of enemies in his caucus. His self-confidence and ambition annoys some. Frankly, I would have thought his colleagues understood these attributes are needed in spades for any leader trying to win.”
Reminds me of an interesting assessment of NZs by a NZ living in Berlin. She says that NZs don’t speak up assertively. She gave a simple example of herself being offered a ride home which she turned down for no good reason until finally was assured it was OK and accepted. Says that NZ find Germans seem aggressive but are really just being straightforward.
I have also read that Israelis find that we are reluctant to say it like it is. So perhaps the Labourites like the soft-spoken approach that Goff adopted. The trouble is I think that lost us the election. So let Cunliffe shine for pete’s sake. By the way did anyone see Steve Braunias column on David Shearer. Bit much, but perhaps he has hit a tender spot.
The more I look at Shearer’s eyes the more I think he’s Key’s long lost brother. Shearer will deliberately take Labour down the road of right-wingers and nasty bastards. I just can’t trust him.
And so it continues…. more high paid jobs handed out to the well-off by the government in order to organise the many on struggle street. And what does Gerry the Hut say?…
Figures obtained by the Sunday Star-Times show the Earthquake Commission spent $144,528,907 on contracted assessors to inspect damage from September 4, 2010, until September 30 this year. The commission said it contracted 814 assessors in that time, 95 from Australia, meaning the $145.5m bill averaged out to more than $177,000 per assessor in just over a year.
Although the amount includes food, flights and accommodation costs for out-of-town assessors, it was much larger than the standard salary expectation.
[…]
Reverend Mike Coleman from the Wider Earthquake Communities Action Network, WeCan, is disgusted by the figure.
“I think it’s appalling but I’m not surprised. We’ve been battling for little, small amounts for people and here we’ve got the commission spending vast amounts. It just seems unbelievable, really,” he said.
Coleman said the assessors knew they were on to a good thing. “I’ve talked to two contractors and one was very concerned. He said he was getting $5000 clear in his bank account every week. He said if that ever comes out the whole thing’s going to be quite a major story.
“But no one who is getting that kind of money is going to blow the whistle. Why would you if you’re getting $5000 every week? $144m is phenomenal.”
To the barracades!
There is going to be soooo much to protest about with this government, milking everything on the back of a slim minority, and slithering away from responsibility and accountability.
+10 again!
I felt exactly the same disgust when I read that article, just couldn’t put it into words. You have done so beautifully. To the barricades indeed! How absolutely out of touch this man is! Have the people earning that money no conscience either? Look forward to the inquiry.
Double dipping on posted voting forms to old address at one booth and last minute special vote on the back of a new address at a different booth type thing?
Gerry Brownlie’s response to this is in line wiht previous utterings such as the one regarding Jenny Shipley et al getting $1,000/day because Brownlie “thought that was appropriate”.
EQC assessor pay rates are widely regarded as the biggest rort in town.
Perhaps someone could explain why a dipstick assessor (and trust me they aint nobody special – they are very average people doing a job they have never done before. Anyone can do it) gets paid $75 per hour and the people will actually do the important work of repairs (fully qualified trades, with multi-year apprenticeships and the like, plus years of experience) get $45 per hour??????????????
Anyone? Brownlie? How does that work?
Typical governmental arrogance and bullshit. It goes on under every single government.
to be or not to be that is the question – whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of struggles and by opposing end them….
…people will actually do the important work of repairs (fully qualified trades, with multi-year apprenticeships and the like, plus years of experience) get $45 per hour?
They don’t get $45/hour though. They’d be lucky to get $25/hour. The $45 is what the contractor (usually a labour hire firm that knows nothing about building) gets.
Typical governmental arrogance and bullshit.
It’s typical of capitalism and the skewed values that it produces. The administrators and owners are viewed as being worth more than the people who actually create the wealth.
Nikki Wagener on the radio explained her win by the shifting of so many Labour supporters and looks forward to further election wins which will probably happen as many low income people won’t have a place or a job in Christchurch.
$145.5m bill maybe be okey dokey and ‘is what it is ” for Gerry but for Peter Dunney ‘it is what it is is too much’ when it is $10,000 dollars and could save thousands in health bills as well as lives.
“The Government is tonight being accused of a cover-up – burying major research that shows overwhelming public support for alcohol reform.
The research, which was most comprehensive ever conducted of New Zealanders’ attitudes towards alcohol, was undertaken to inform the review of liquor laws but it was never made available to the politicians involved in that process because Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne put a stop to it……..
The Ministry of Health sent the draft results to Peter Dunne saying it would cost $10,000 for the report to be finalised and peer reviewed.
But the associate minister’s office put a stop to it — saying the $10,000 could be better spent elsewhere – and so the report was never published.”
Suppressing an important report like this should be a sackable offence. It will definitely have affected the select committee’s law making decisions, which in turn could detrimentally affect lives.
So there is a bit of a movement toward a petition to stop asset sales – over at http://www.averagekiwi.com/?p=674 some interesting discussions – Firstly Jeanette Fitsimmons weighs in with:
Great initiative, but why not use the process that forces them legally to hold such a referendum? there is legislation setting this up. You have to have the text approved by the clerk of the House of Parliament. I don’t think there is any provision for signatures to be electronic. You have to get the signatures of 10% of eligible voters (from memory – check this – it’s around 300,000.) They check random batches against the electoral roll and if people can’t be found there they are struck off. then a similar proportion of all signatures are struck off. So it’s an arduous and meticulous process but the benefit is that legally they then HAVE to hold that referendum. This process would hold things up for a term of parliament. I’m willing to help if people want to do this.
But also in the comments section I found this…
As someone who was approached by a trader at Craigs Investement Group (the company who have been given the right to set the value of, and sell the assets) and offered undervalued shares in the first round of sales, which I could then sell in the subsequent rounds for approximately 100% profit (this estimate came directly from John Key himself, according to the trader) to overseas interests, I think the title probably hits the mark.
As he said on several occasions in the speech, until you change the way money works you change nothing
He also highliighted something else many of us have been saying for a long time: so-called Chrisitans have adopted the biblical concept of dominion over the Earth to mean the right to plunder and destroy it (rather than be good custodians of it).
What MR omitted to say is that until you change the energy system, i.e. corporations looting fossil fuel resources and selling them to society for society to burn, you change nothing.
Nothing will change for the better until those three fundamental issues are tackled.
Whether the Maori Party sell out to corporate greed again or not will determine how much contempt the leaders of the Maori Party will attract, and perhaps whether they will be known for posterity as traitors, along with all the other peddlers of neo-liberal ‘shock doctrine’ economics.
It seems a red herring to me that Iwi should have first option to buy shares in our power companies they are still in private hands and when the going gets tough they will sell, surely, unless there is some clause which will put controls around their purchase and that is highly unlikely
Key wants to keep the bridge so he can give his permission to the Maori Party to fly the Maori flag from it on Waitangi Day in return for support for asset sales – although he’ll also want to charge them rent. Still a good deal for Pita, though, and his “small gains for Maori” claptrap. Good to see Pita’s got such high aspirations for Maori. Complete sell-out. Off with his head.
The Most Important News Story of the Day/Millennium
‘The most important piece of news yesterday, this week, this month, and this year was a new set of statistics released yesterday by the Global Carbon Project. It showed that carbon emissions from our planet had increased 5.9 percent between 2009 and 2010. In fact, it was arguably among the most important pieces of data in the last, oh, three centuries, since according to the New York Times it represented “almost certainly the largest absolute jump in any year since the Industrial Revolution.”
‘The CEO of Exxon gets up every morning and goes to work changing the chemical composition of the atmosphere. No one has ever done anything as radical as that, not in all of human history. And he and his ilk spend heavily on campaigns to make sure no one stops them–the US Chamber of Commerce gave more money than the DNC and the RNC last cycle, and 94% of it went to climate deniers.
I am a bit torn between some conflicting viewpoints on global warming and resource depletion:
* the lets tax things/ send market signals so things will come right…..standard neo lib bollock speak for the market knows best and people will do what is “right” as seen by price discovery.
* the “resources are not accounted for” properly viewpoint that says if a true and fair price had to be paid to exploit them it would not happen…yeah right, maybe more slowly.
Ultimately what we are doing to the planet cannot be enumerated in money and its corollaries (market price discovery, actual value etc etc )) as they are human constructs that ignore some absolutes imposed by the planet. Stopping global warming and resource depletion is ultimately down to doing the right thing, making individual moral judgements. In this we have singularly failed as a species.
I know this is not technically correct but it does seem to me that humanity has divided into three distinct species:
1. a tiny minority who only see resources and people as things to exploit for their own benefit/pleasure and don’t give a damn about anyone else (not even their own progeny)
2. a tiny minority who want to live within the Earth’s ecological limits
3. the vast majority who don’t want to think about any of the things that actually matter.
‘human constructs that ignore some absolutes imposed by the planet’ Yes, that sums up the present economic system and the present parliamentary process.
Are you saying that a chimpanzee which is trained to perform tricks in a circus is responsible for its own actions?
People living in western societies are trained by society from a very young age to behave in a particular manner and have particular opnions:
Key componenets of the training system include the belief that:
1. industrialism is normal (it is not; it is a gross abberration)
2, consumption is good (it is not; it is a major source of problems)
4. those in authority know best (they don’t; most of them are poorly educated and are self-serving)
5. the system is benevolent and is taking humanity toward some kind of nirvana (it is not: it is rapidly detroying the habitability of the planet we live on)
From the comments you have made over recent months it is very clear that you have been brainwashed very effectively and don’t know that the cage you are living in has a door which is unlocked.
Don’t forget that the CEO of Exxon (or Shell or BP or dozens of other corporations, including many in NZ) ensure that a large portion of the corporations profits are funnelled into keeping the general public misinformed and consuming. Of course, he/she is just doing what the board of directors require him/her to do, i.e. lie continuously.
Central government is culpable, since it promulgates misinformation designed to keep the general populace consuming the future.
By the same token, the CEOs of city and district councils are highly culpable in the destruction of the future, since they generate and sign off community plans which are full of misinformation designed to keep the general populace dumbed-down and consuming. City and district councillors are culpable because they endorse the bullshit churned out by council CEOs.
The whole system is utterly corrupt and utterly inept, and will bring about absolute catastrophe for coming generations, commencing around 2015 in most places.
There is something very wrong about announcing a major policy just after the election. People weren’t given a chance to make a decision based on proposed policy, which in some ways is even worse than a broken election promise.
[…]
Act is claiming that legislation already exists that has given the government a mandate to set up a trial charter school system. Let’s have a look at exactly what the legislation states…
Remember Roger and his “lets keep them off balance and just do it” theory that followed Leninist revolutionary practices to the letter. These people dont give a toss for democratic process, Key and his crew knew if they did this term one they would be thrown out, they know they will be next time so get ready for a lot of corporatist and extreme right wing nasties to just appear, and keep appearing.
I am against Charter Schools. But around the late 80s when the Education Act was being written, that was a feature. That is that a group of likeminded people could set up a special nature school which would be at least partly state funded. It was also said that where State Schools were lying empty the rooms would be available for their use. It did get written in and I wonder if some of those religious schools currently running did so under that setup. I heard some teachers wondering if they could set up a breakaway school to avoid the worst aspects of the Ministry of Education, but they didn’t do it.
But the suspicion around so-called “Charter” schools may be because of the lack of trust developed over the craziness of National Standards, Anne Tolley, and suspicion of John Banks. If he says its good, then you can bet it is bad for most people.
That’s an interesting point concerning existing legislation regarding charter schools taking over empty schools. Perhaps this is a reason for National going against the wishes of many communities and closing down schools… so that they’re available for the charter regime.
John Banks will have Ronald McDonald teaching kids about the benefits of processed food before we know it or perhaps Destiny Church ensuring kids learn of the god like status of Brian Tamaki. They will be chaffing at the bit to get their hands on more government funding.
It seems to me that the reporting of the collapse of capitalism has reached a new low which even the Middle East cannot surpass for sheer unadulterated obedience to the very institutions and Harvard “experts” who have helped to bring about the whole criminal disaster.
The real comparison, needless to say, has been dodged by Western reporters, so keen to extol the anti-dictator rebellions of the Arabs, so anxious to ignore protests against “democratic” Western governments, so desperate to disparage these demonstrations, to suggest that they are merely picking up on the latest fad in the Arab world. The truth is somewhat different. What drove the Arabs in their tens of thousands and then their millions on to the streets of Middle East capitals was a demand for dignity and a refusal to accept that the local family-ruled dictators actually owned their countries.
And that is the true parallel in the West. The protest movements are indeed against Big Business – a perfectly justified cause – and against “governments”. What they have really divined, however, albeit a bit late in the day, is that they have for decades bought into a fraudulent democracy: they dutifully vote for political parties – which then hand their democratic mandate and people’s power to the banks and the derivative traders and the rating agencies, all three backed up by the slovenly and dishonest coterie of “experts” from America’s top universities and “think tanks”, who maintain the fiction that this is a crisis of globalisation rather than a massive financial con trick foisted on the voters.
Time to get rid of the elected dictators and turn to real democracy. A democracy where the people have the say rather than the corporations and the greedy few.
Following on from my previous comment, we now see that the so-called safe target level of a 2 Celsius rise in average temperature is actually not safe at all and that we are so far off course we are bound to miss the target anyway, whatever the outcome of the talkfest in Durban.
Indeed, we are well on track for the 4 Celsius rise in average temperature I have been alluding to for several years.
‘For today’s inconvenient truths (ahem), we turn to Kevin Anderson, a professor of energy and climate change who was, until recently, director of the U.K.’s leading climate research institution, the Tyndall Energy Program.’
‘Sadly, even that cold comfort is not available to us. The thing is, if 2 degrees C is extremely dangerous, 4 degrees C is absolutely catastrophic. In fact, according to the latest science, says Anderson, “a 4 degrees C future is incompatible with an organized global community, is likely to be beyond ‘adaptation’, is devastating to the majority of ecosystems, and has a high probability of not being stable.” [leads to positive feedbacks that take the temperature even higher]
Of course, the current climate chaos will not become an utter catastrophe for another couple of decades, so there is plenty of time for global corporations to loot and destroy what remains of the natural world so that a few greedy ‘apes’ can live beyond the ecological limits of the planet for a little while longer.
Right AFKTT
Us baby boomers perhaps the greediest generation ever to have lived on this Planet will be long dead when the Climate really TSHTF big time. This is a form of maximising profits in the short term and socialising losses down the pipeline onto future generations!
I’m not smug I actually find the implications frightening to the extreme.
I personally don’t think climate change is going to be a big deal for another 50+ years.
Energy depletion on the other hand is likely to massively disrupt ‘present economic arrangements’ (to steal a phrase from AFKTT) in the next 10 years. Or 5 years.
“I personally don’t think climate change is going to be a big deal for another 50+ years.’
That is a very odd thing to write in view of the fact that climate change is already a big deal and the linked article -from one of the world’s top climate researchers- indicates a severe problems within in a couple of decades.
Yes, oil depletion will hit hard soon, But abrupt climate change trumps everything else (except all-out nuclear war or an asteroid impact).
Personally I think that the industrial and economic collapse you predict to reach a crescendo in the next 3-4 years (and which I believe is driven by peak debt and peak oil) will sort out our population concerns, energy/resource usage and GHG emissions fairly rapidly.
Pure flight of fantasy this one.
Once the funds for charter schools are known (and they may be generous) how about setting up a “trust or cooperative” that includes teacher’s unions, boards of trustee representatives etc etc. among others and bases itself on the current rules and standards in the state sector..
It offers to act as the umbrella group for “charter schools” that wish to preserve the status quo [without national standards as that will free up some money] throughout the country. All the current primary schools are invited to join it and the relevant bits of the Ministry move over to administer it. This preserves the national state school structure until this lot go. Of course any such nationwide co-operative will measure all the children together, not school by school, so it would be hard to deny funding to some sections and not others so long as overall performance remains at the high OECD standards, and indeed the “contract” could have this as one of the performance markers.
So we would then have privatisation, non profit making, cooperation, democracy, something for everyone.
It offers to act as the umbrella group for “charter schools” that wish to preserve the status quo [without national standards as that will free up some money] throughout the country.
Great idea Red Baron. And all the 6 State schools in our town could become Charter Schools with all that autonomy promised by Key Banks.
What a hoot and must be possible on the basis of information so far.
As it is almost the holiday season I was thinking of those who had made my life more enjoyable over the last year.
I would like to say a great big personal thank you to all the people who run and maintain this site where I can hang out to keep up with all the news the papers won’t print, gives me a chance to voice my opinions and just keep up with a like minded community. A little island of brightness.
So the best of the season to you all and may the coming year be a happy and positive time.
LINKS: Commemorative and Historic Site Non – Violent Women – v – The Crown Prerogative
On the 5th September 1981, the Welsh group “Women for Life on Earth” arrived on Greenham Common, Berkshire, England. They marched from Cardiff with the intention of challenging, by debate, the decision to site 96 Cruise nuclear missiles there. On arrival they delivered a letter to the Base Commander which among other things stated ‘We fear for the future of all our children and for the future of the living world which is the basis of all life’.
When their request for a debate was ignored they set up a Peace Camp just outside the fence surrounding RAF Greenham Common Airbase. They took the authorities by surprise and set the tone for a most audacious and lengthy protest that lasted 19years.
Within 6 months the camp became known as the Women’s Peace Camp and gained recognition both nationally and internationally by drawing attention to the base with well publicised imaginitive gatherings.
This unique initiative threw a spotlight on ‘Cruise’ making it a national and international political issue throughout the 80s and early 90s.
The presence of women living outside an operational nuclear base 24 hours a day, brought a new perspective to the peace movement – giving it leadership and a continuous focus. At a time when the USA and the USSR were competing for nuclear superiority in Europe, the Women’s Peace Camp on Greenham Common was seen as an edifying influence.
The commitment to non-violence and non-alignment gave the protest an authority that was difficult to dismiss – journalists from almost every corner of the globe found their way to the camp and reported on the happenings and events taking place there. ………….”
” Bylaws Case
Dates of Creation 1985-1990
Reference Number(s) GB 106 5GCW/A/02
Physical Description 2 folders
Scope and Content
Correspondence, court papers and related notes regarding litigation begun in 1986 by Jean Hutchinson and Georgina Smith, (both GCW protestors) as a challenge to Bylaws introduced by the Ministry of Defence, 25 Apr 1985.
This legislation, introduced under the 1892 Military Lands Act, restricted movement in and around Greenham Common in an attempt to curb GCW protests, thus criminalising many protestors. The legal challenge was based on the grounds that the 1892 Act made provision for Bylaws on common land, provided that no rights of Common existed on the land, which was not the case with Greenham Common.
Over the course of four years, this case progressed from Magistrate’s to Crown to High Courts, eventually reaching the House of Lords. The Bylaws were pronounced invalid by the House of Lords on 12 Jul 1990. ”
Hi Renderer – new here are you? Haven’t seen you on other blogs either; but perhaps you inhabit ones that I choose not to.
In terms of Penny, i do not necessarily agree with some of what Penny stands for – BUT I have come to have tremendous respect for Penny in terms of her strength of belief in what she believes in, her ability to research and present information to support that, her willingness to continue to stand up for her beliefs etcs against opposition and disappointment. So go Penny!
In terms of you, Renderer – who are you and what do you stand for?
You twit; that woman has and is doing more than most New Zealanders in safeguarding our precious resources.
Penny – Monsanto, 10 years ago, was aiming to control the global water supply through the same lobbying that got it so much power over the seeds futures. Any updates on them?
Well discovered Penny. The women of Greenham Common were remarkable. In those days there were many ignorant and childish chauvinistic insults hurled at the women. It is amazing to find a left over remnant from that time in Renderer, who would be termed in those days, as I am doing now, a male chauvinist pig and told to return to his sty.
I dunno. But they give a superficially softer face to a government, that already has the coalition deal to pass asset sales and other anti-worker, anti-poor nasties.
And it gives the government certainty of office if one of their NactUFnumbers falls by the wayside for some reason. Not worth the ability for the Maori Party to oppose stuff, and to have nice committees, which will be held in check by Blinglish.
Yeah, but seeing as they’re providing three times as many C&S votes as ACT, I’d expect them to get significantly more than ACT in terms of policy concessions.
If not, they’re suckers and doormats.
Shit, with the mP on board Key could tell Banks to feck off if he wanted to, then he wouldn’t have to put up with all that nasty right-wing MMP-enabled policy that he really, really doesn’t want to enact.
Maori Party has signed up to pander to the John Key Party. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10772529
“Developing Whanau Ora, a Ministerial Committee on Poverty and a new focus for Te Puni Kokiri are the centre-pieces of the National Party-Maori Party confidence and supply agreement.
It also allows the Maori Party to vote for legislation on a policy-by-policy basis, meaning it is free to oppose National’s policy to partially sell state assets.”
Well. Be interesting to see the degree of support for the MP continuing.
Funny and interesting how both left and right fear Cunliffe. Matt McCarten this morning did the odd thing of continuing to support a Labour right candidate, even though most of that candidate’s credibility as an upfront leader has been undermined by anyone who has seen him in action this week. McCarten of course wants to push Labour to the right to give his party breathing space. What is interesting about Cunliffe is how, he as a genuine left candidate, appeals to people who are looking for business sense and a bit of the mongrel when it comes to the attack. No wonder the Nats and the Left Left are pulling the kitchen sink off the wall!
Both Cunliffe and Robertson look to me like centre left to just plain left candidates with a good reach to the further left in a serious number of policy areas (which makes it odd Robertson is lined up with Shearer, who is by my estimation centre, or Labour right faction). Does any of this count, just saying? Stretch, it’s worth it!! 🙂
It appears that the right wingers didn’t like the documentary Inside Child Poverty all that much. There has even been a formal complaint to the Electoral Commission about the program. They’re obviously a bit ticked off that the excellent doco told the truth so close to an election…
Karl Du Fresne is small fry compared to Arshole of the Decade, Chris De Freitas, who when at the University of Auckland School of Environment was promoting the digging up and burning of coal.
When I challenged the Vice Chancellors Office over insanity of what de Freitas was teaching there was the expected closing of the ranks.
A fairly typical response from someone who is scientifically illiterate and dosn’t understand the first thing about any of it. We go over this same ground, week after week and month after month and still the same old nonsense about the Earth entering an ice age gets promulgated. (Of course the global coporations that sponsor this gartbage are laughing their heads off at the gullibility of the average climate change denier.)
More snow is an indication of warming not of cooling. Warmer oceans increase the rate of evaporation and therefore of precipitation -higher vapour pressure and all that- which is exactly whet we have witnessed over recent years.
The warmer the Earth becomes the greater the energy in the system and the more energy there is to be disipated via high winds and storms etc. (as I wrote over a decade ago).
The thing about misinformation is that is posesses the character of the mythological Hydra. It make no difference how many times it’s ‘head’ is chopped off, it sprouts another one very quickly.
People believe what they want to believe and disregard the facts, as I wrote a few days ago (Simon and Garfunkel).
The world will never cool. Instead it’ll just keep getting warmer and warmer and flood us all. Nek minnut Kevin Costner will be pushing Waterworld on us again saying ‘told you so’
What a pity you cannot distinguish between ‘collapse of current economic arrangements’ (over the period 2011-2014) and ‘absolute catastrophe for coming generations’ (commencing around 2015).
Just think, if you could undertand basic English we could have an intelligent discussion.
No, collapse and catastrophe are not necessarilty synonymous. In fact the collapse of present economic arrangements could well be very liberating for most people on this planet. However, the collapse of the environment will be catastrophic.
As I said, if you understood basic English we could have an intelligent discussion.
Unfortunately, you have a great tendency to include emotive catchphrases in your comments. I suppose, if you had been around in the late 1930s you would have decribed Winston Churchill’s timely warnings about the coming war as ‘scaremongering’.
People who understand what underway and what is on the horizon realise that really is little hope for uniformed fuckwits.
It has always been that way throughout history.
I guess you understand what you mean by the latter portion of your comment: ‘wouldn’t need to index your prophecies by synonym.’
Here’s a thought – be specific when you talk about a “collapse”, or a “catatrophe”, or any of the other predictions you make, given that they are all apparently seperate events with different due dates.
Assuming the catastrophe you refer to is environmental collapse and it’s due to start in 2015, what do you mean by “environmental collapse”? Zero crop yields in some local regions, or a new ice age? Or something in between?
Stop talking about a nebulous big bad. Without specifics you’re just wasting electrons – which is not the sustainable, idyllic lifestyle that the noble savage lived in 10,000BC.
First you need to understand the exponenetial function. If you don’t understand that you will never fully understand our present predicament.
Al Bartlett’s lecture, Arithmentic Population and Energy, (which I have referenced a dozen times on TS) is the best place to start, followed by Chris Martenson’s Crash Course.
Economic collapse of the US commenced around 1970, when US oil extraction peaked. Decoupling the dollar from gold, deregulation of ‘the markets’ (repeal of Glass-Steagal etc) and exploitation of oil in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexicao, plus overseas oil reserves via ‘petrodollars’ allowed the printing of US dollars to stave off collapse for around 40 years. The oil game is now coming to a climax, witha huge fight over the last reamining reserves in the Middle East on the cards. US debt has now ‘gone exponential’. Europe is in a similar boat. Nobody can predict exactly when the debt bomb will implode because the elites will do whatever they can to defer the day of reckoning for as long as possible. Few informed analysts see the ‘kicking of the can down the road’ continuing for more than another 12 months.
The financial unravelling which has commenced will accelerate over the period 2011 to 2013 and will almost certainly be complete around 2015.
Peak oil was around 2005-6. The system is increasingly dependent on unconventional oil of poor EROEI. The best analysis indicates a severe crisis in liquid fuels will occur between the end of 2011 and 2015. Geopolitical factors (such as an attack on Iran) would precipitate a fairly immediate panic in the oil markets, which I why I believe there will not be an attack on Iran in the immdiate future. However, I could be wring on that point.
Environmental degradation has been occuring since around 8,000 BC, but went into ‘overdrive’ during the Industrial Revolution. The use of oil to chop down forests, engage in factory farming, strip the oceas of fish, and mine minerals etc. has put environmental degradation into ‘hyper-drive’ in recent decades. Add to the mix runaway CO2 emissions which are causing increassing climate instability and ocean acidification. The point at which global collapse will occur is open to debate simce it is an incremental condition: for people living in many regions of the world, e.g. Haiti, collapse is here now. NZ will be less impacted than many other places in the short erm because of accidents of geography.
If you genuinely wnat to know the specifics I suggest you read this:
No specifics on your linked pages – a bit like saying “Key promised to dowhateverit takes” and using thestandard.org as your source.
Though you get points for poetic language, e.g. “financial unravelling”.
Doesn’t say a damned thing. Are you predicting NZ or US inflation at, say, more than 300% by 2015? Reduction in international goods exchange by 30% in the same period? Will we no longer be using money? What?
You’ve been saying the same stuff here for a couple of years or so and the dates keep changing. Be a bit more specific so your predictions are testable.
What about the report on TV3 News this evening about Peter Dunne’s blocking of the report on alcohol abuse being made public. This is absolutely disgusting – the footage shown with the news clip was spot on, though hard to watch. I’m no wowser and enjoy a glass or two or two of wine with dinner in the evenings, but. . . . . . . . . And this guy’s been sucked back into John Key’s bosom with all his baubles of office [along with the Maori Party – didn’t Pita Sharples look ragged]. Oh happy days.
The Ministry of Health requested the Health Sponsorship Council launch a major survey on New Zealanders attitudes to alcohol. This survey could have assisted MPs during the Select Committee consideration of the Alcohol Reform Bill. However the Health Sponsorship Council report and its findings were never made public.
“Minister Dunne’s explanations for burying the report – that publishing the report would cost too much and the results didn’t add value – are simply not credible,” said Mr Hague.
The young reporter is Brooke Sabin Hilary. And yes he is doing some excellent investigative work, long may he do so. I hope he doesn’t end up in the gallery with all the other glazed over ‘gone to the dark side’ Right Winged Stepford Wives of the journalist fraternity, or should that be sorority?
Give him marks for consistency. At least ‘the Hairdo’ is consistent in his sabotaging of NZ society. I cannot think of one positive contribution he has made since entering parliament.
Poor Pete, how are you going to feel when we start targeting Dunne over asset sales? Him and any National MPs with slim majorities. You see, Key needs every vote to sell our assets so we’re going to make it as hard as possible for him.
Mike Moore – helped bring down Labour – a few choice articles.
Mike Moore – revenged himself upon Helen Clark – helped by NAct advisers
Really weird Honours and Awards – with NAct’s reward still to come – priceless.
‘Mike Moore, New Zealand Ambassador to The United States and former Director General of the World Trade Organisation and New Zealand Prime Minister said he was appreciative that he has been honoured by the Australian Government. It has been announced he has been awarded the Order of Australia. Mr Moore has been recognised by a number of Governments. Details listed.
Honours and Awards
• The Order of New Zealand
• Commemoration Medal 1990
• Commander of the Order of the Equatorial Star (Commandeur de l’Ordre de Laetrile Equatoriale) – Government of Gabon
• National Order of Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) (l’Ordre National de Cote d’Ivoire en Qualite de Commandeur)
• Order of the Golden Heart of Kenya
• Order of Duke Branimir with Ribbon – Republic of Croatia
• National Honour of Georgia – Government of Georgia
• The Medal of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay – Government of Uruguay – highest national honour
• Pope John Paul II Annual Medal – The Holy See’
(Still waiting for the NAct rewards to roll in for Chris Trotter).
Well we do know that as a general rule, the more damage to society and the environment a person does, the more the system awards and rewards them.
Promoting globalisation, the money-lender system, corporate control of society and enslavement of the general populace usually attracts the highest honours.
Someone needs to start up a page on facebook called “The let’s ditch the filthy sell-out Maori Party who’ve done nothing but flushed their own people down Key’s bog-pit”. We need to put the pressure on the Maori Party to leave asset sales alone. They mightn’t have to support asset sales, and they’ve even said they’re not really into them, but Sharples is so fickle he’d probably change his mind with an offer from Key to reduce loans of Maori students by 0.5%, because “that’s a real gain for Maori”, eh Pita? Or perhaps Key might agree to using a Maori greeting at the Waitangi Day celebrations in exchange for asset sales and agreeing to Aaron Gilmore’s suggestion of settling all land clams…by 1999 – another big hit for Maori, Pita. Shit man, you’re such a heavyweight for your people.
The maori Nationals lapdogparty we delivered higher unemployment 18% +up from 8% higher poverty rates and you suckers voted for us ! wolf in sheeps clothing.
Sharples just wants to hang around till 2014 to claim the pension. He says going with National will mean “small gains” for Maori. The only Maori who’ll make a “small gain” is him – the extra he’ll be getting for playing poodle in Maori Affairs. In fact, I think he’s too dumb to understand he doesn’t need to go with Key to claim his pension, and probably thinks he’d lose his MP’s salary, too. Dumb-arse. Aren’t your people important to you any more, Mr Richprick Sell-out Sharples?
And in any case, Whanau Ora is precisely what the nats want and fits in nicely with their desire to shift all welfare provision over to community organisations. The Maori Party would get Whanau Ora if they asked for it or not so isn’t really something Tariana can rightly claim credit for, and in fact is again selling her people down Key’s dunny becuase it’ll mean more poverty as more groups taking control also means the gradual demise of our hardship extra add-on system of assistance designed for the really really poor, many of whom are Maori.
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
The PSA have released a survey of 4000 public service workers showing that budget cuts are taking a toll on the wellbeing of public servants and risking the delivery of essential services to New Zealanders. Economists predict that figures released this week will show continued increases in unemployment, potentially reaching ...
The Prime Minister’s speech 10 days or so ago kicked off a flurry of commentary. No one much anywhere near the mainstream (ie excluding Greens supporters) questioned the rhetoric. New Zealand has done woefully poorly on productivity for a long time and we really need better outcomes, and the sorts ...
President Trump on the day he announced tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, unleashing a shock to supply chains globally that is expected to slow economic growth and increase inflation for most large economies. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 9 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 3Politics: New Zealand Government cabinet meeting usually held early afternoon with post-cabinet news conference possible at 4 pm, although they have not been ...
Trump being Trump, it won’t come as a shock to find that he regards a strong US currency (bolstered by high tariffs on everything made by foreigners) as a sign of America’s virility, and its ability to kick sand in the face of the world. Reality is a tad more ...
A listing of 24 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 26, 2025 thru Sat, February 1, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
What seems to be the common theme in the US, NZ, Argentina and places like Italy under their respective rightwing governments is what I think of as “the politics of cruelty.” Hate-mongering, callous indifference in social policy-making, corporate toadying, political bullying, intimidation and punching down on the most vulnerable with ...
If you are confused, check with the sunCarry a compass to help you alongYour feet are going to be on the groundYour head is there to move you aroundSo, stand in the place where you liveSongwriters: Bill Berry / Michael Mills / Michael Stipe / Peter Buck.Hot in the CityYesterday, ...
Shane Jones announced today he would be contracting out his thinking to a smarter younger person.Reclining on his chaise longue with a mouth full of oysters and Kina he told reporters:Clearly I have become a has-been, a palimpsest, an epigone, a bloviating fossil. I find myself saying such things as: ...
Warning: This post contains references to sexual assaultOn Saturday, I spent far too long editing a video on Tim Jago, the ACT Party President and criminal, who has given up his fight for name suppression after 2 years. He voluntarily gave up just in time for what will be a ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is global warming ...
Our low-investment, low-wage, migration-led and housing-market-driven political economy has delivered poorer productivity growth than the rest of the OECD, and our performance since Covid has been particularly poor. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty this ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.As far as major government announcements go, a Three Ministers Event is Big. It can signify a major policy development or something has gone Very Well, or an absolute Clusterf**k. When Three Ministers assemble ...
One of those blasts from the past. Peter Dunne – originally neoliberal Labour, then leader of various parties that sought to work with both big parties (generally National) – has taken to calling ...
Completed reads for January: I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson The Black Spider, by Jeremias Gotthelf The Spider and the Fly (poem), by Mary Howitt A Noiseless Patient Spider (poem), by Walt Whitman August Heat, by W.F. Harvey Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White The Shrinking Man, by Richard Matheson ...
Do its Property Right Provisions Make Sense?Last week I pointed out that it is uninformed to argue that the New Zealand’s apparently poor economic performance can be traced only to poor regulations. Even were there evidence they had some impact, there are other factors. Of course, we should seek to ...
Richard Wagstaff It was incredibly jarring to hear the hubris from the Prime Minister during his recent state of the nation address. I had just spent close to a week working though the stories and thoughts shared with us by nearly 2000 working people as part of our annual Mood ...
Odd fact about the Broadcasting Standards Authority: for the last few years, they’ve only been upholding about 5% of complaints. Why? I think there’s a range of reasons. Generally responsible broadcasters. Dumb complaints. Complaints brought under the wrong standard. Greater adherence to broadcasters’ rights to freedom of expression in the ...
And I said, "Mama, mama, mama, why am I so alone"'Cause I can't go outside, I'm scared I might not make it homeWell I'm alive, I'm alive, but I'm sinking inIf there's anyone at home at your place, darlingWhy don't you invite me in?Don't try to feed me'Cause I've been ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ star is on the rise, having just added the Energy, Local Government and Revenue portfolios to his responsibilities - but there is nothing ambitious about the Government’s new climate targets. Photo: SuppliedLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
It may have been a short week but there’s been no shortage of things that caught our attention. Here is some of the most interesting. This week in Greater Auckland On Tuesday Matt took a look at public transport ridership in 2024 On Thursday Connor asked some questions ...
The East Is Red: Journalists and commentators are referring to the sudden and disruptive arrival of DeepSeek as a second “Sputnik moment”. (Sputnik being the name given by the godless communists of the Soviet Union to the world’s first artificial satellite which, to the consternation and dismay of the Americans, ...
Hi,Back on inauguration day we launched a ridiculous RFK Jr. “brain worms” tee on the Webworm store, and I told you I’d be throwing my profits over to Mutual Aid LA and Rainbow Youth New Zealand. Just to show I am not full of shit, here are the receipts. I ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump over Gaza and Ukraine.Health expert and author David Galler ...
In an uncompromising paper Treasury has basically told the Government that its plan for a third medical school at Waikato University is a waste of money. Furthermore, the country cannot afford it. That advice was released this week by the Treasury under the Official Information Act. And it comes as ...
Back in November, He Pou a Rangi provided the government with formal advice on the domestic contribution to our next Paris target. Not what the target should be, but what we could realistically achieve, by domestic action alone, without resorting to offshore mitigation. Their answer was startling: depending on exactly ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guest David Patman and ...
I don't like to spend all my time complaining about our government, so let me complain about the media first.Senior journalistic Herald person Thomas Coughlan reported that Treasury replied yeah nah, wrong bro to Luxon's claim that our benighted little country has been in recession for three years.His excitement rose ...
Back in 2022, when the government was consulting internally about proactive release of cabinet papers, the SIS opposed it. The basis of their opposition was the "mosaic effect" - people being able to piece together individual pieces of innocuous public information in a way which supposedly harms "national security" (effectively: ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to stand firm and work with allies to progress climate action as Donald Trump signals his intent to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords once again. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
The Government’s welfare reforms are delivering results with the number of people moving off benefits into work increasing year-on-year for six straight months. “There are positive signs that our welfare reset and the return consequences for job seekers who don't fulfil their obligations to prepare for or find a job ...
Jon Kroll and Aimee McCammon have been appointed to the New Zealand Film Commission Board, Arts Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “I am delighted to appoint these two new board members who will bring a wealth of industry, governance, and commercial experience to the Film Commission. “Jon Kroll has been an ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has hailed a drop in the domestic component of inflation, saying it increases the prospect of mortgage rate reductions and a lower cost of living for Kiwi households. Stats NZ reported today that inflation was 2.2 per cent in the year to December, the second consecutive ...
Two new appointed members and one reappointed member of the Employment Relations Authority have been announced by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden today. “I’m pleased to announce the new appointed members Helen van Druten and Matthew Piper to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) and welcome them to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Coates, Program Director, Housing and Economic Security, Grattan Institute Marlinde/Shutterstock Most Australians can look forward to a comfortable retirement. More than three in four retirees own their own home, most report feeling comfortable financially, and few suffer financial stress. But ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The weekend byelection in the outer suburban seat of Werribee saw the widely-anticipated slap-in-the-face to Victorian Labor, which is absolutely on the nose. The question is: to what degree were electors venting against federal Labor ...
Mediawatch -Trump's alarmed the world with trade tariffs, turning off aid and proposing to take over Gaza. But New Zealand's had diplomatic drama in the news too - with the media in the middle of it. ...
By Rachel Helyer Donaldson, RNZ News journalist New Zealand should be robust in its response to the “unacceptable” situation in Gaza but it must also back its allies against threats by the US President, says an international relations academic. Otago University professor of international relations Robert Patman said the rest ...
A Christchurch man who lost 55 relatives in three Israeli airstrikes on Gaza says his remaining family will never leave, despite a US proposal to remove them. ...
Asia Pacific Report A national Palestine advocacy group has hit back at critics of its “genocide hotline” campaign against soldiers involved in Israel’s war against Gaza, saying New Zealand should be actively following international law. The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) dismissed a “predictable lineup of apologists for Israel” for ...
ACT Party leader David Seymour said he wrote to police about the treatment of Philip Polkinghorne because it's an electorate MP's job to pass on the concerns of their constituents. ...
MEDIAWATCH:By Colin Peacock, RNZ Mediawatch presenter By the time US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on China and Canada last Monday which could kickstart a trade war, New Zealand’s diplomats in Washington, DC, had already been deployed on another diplomatic drama. Republican Senator Ted Cruz had said on social ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown says New Zealand is asking for too much oversight over its deal with China, which is expected to be penned in Beijing next week. Brown told RNZ Pacific the Cook Islands-New Zealand relationship was reciprocal. “They certainly did ...
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 Byelections occurred on Saturday in the Victorian state seats of Prahran and Werribee. The Liberals gained Prahran from the Greens by a ...
A long time ago, Brian Turner wrote a poem in which, among the mountains, as he slept on a river flat … My speechless ancestors played like mice among my dreamsand he woke to the river running over my bed of stone. I have come to know that where a ...
Pacific Media Watch President Donald Trump has frozen billions of dollars around the world in aid projects, including more than $268 million allocated by Congress to support independent media and the free flow of information. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has denounced this decision, which has plunged NGOs, media outlets, and ...
Otago University professor of international relations Robert Patman says New Zealand should provide a robust response to Donald Trump's Gaza plan, and also "should stop tip-toeing" around Trump. ...
The new minister of transport has opened the door for public consultation on at least some of the speed limit changes the government said would be automatic. ...
Officially, they’re called ‘memecoins,’ but Kōura Wealth founder Rupert Carlyon says the crypto world has another name for them: ‘shitcoins’.In digital finance, that phrase is used for tokens that have no true value – in essence, a money-grab.A few days before his inauguration, US President Donald Trump launched his own ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. Guy Williams has made a whole show off the joke that he is a “volunteer” journalist. So getting publicly owned by David Seymour while trying to act as a journalist is a good and timely reminder not to underestimate the nuance and ...
Many of Sāmoa’s beloved dishes are the result of cultural collaboration, writes Madeleine Chapman. All photos by Jin FelletIf you ever find yourself at a barbecue in a Sāmoan home, there’s 99% chance that sapasui (chop suey) will be on the table. For the past century, sapasui has ...
The funnyman takes us through his life in television, including Jono and Ben mayhem, live Telethon flubs, and funnelling all those experiences into his new comedy Vince. There’s an inciting incident in Three’s new comedy Vince where morning television presenter Vince Walters (Jono Pryor) is visiting sick kids in hospital ...
People often claim they just want Waitangi Day to be a celebration. At Waitangi, away from the headlined political acrimony and the marae ātea, celebrating is what most people are doing. The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous ...
Is there anything more fashionable than a Māori get together? One of the best things about Northland is that nobody cares what they look like — probably because they’re all naturally more stylish than the rest of us, famously. Māori from the Far North, especially. In 27 degree heat, wearing ...
I’ve been in love with him since last July, but it’s only now in this tepid hotel room that I find myself wondering why. The first thing he does when we arrive is smoke a cone in the bathroom – he emerges, hacking up a lung, fists thrust into his ...
MONDAY“Name,” barked a representative of the lower orders.I regarded him with a look of stern disapproval, and told him from up high, “May I remind you that I have name suppression. I shall also thank you to ask with more respect as befits a former president of the Act Party, ...
Books of Mana: 180 Māori-Authored Books of Significance, edited by Jacinta Ruru, Angela Wanhalla and Jeanette Wikaira has just been released by Otago University Press. In this essay, Books are Taonga, Jeanette Wikaira explores her personal relationship to books and their value.For me, books are taonga. The knowledge ...
Get to know Tara, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Tara’s human for their support! Dog name: Tara Age: Two Breed: Mostly Border Collie and a little bit Catahoula Leopard dog If dog ...
Health NZ's CEO has resigned, but frontline healthworkers are sceptical that installing new leadership will make any difference to a system grappling with problems. ...
Health NZ's CEO has resigned, but frontline healthworkers are sceptical that installing new leadership will make any difference to a system grappling with problems. ...
Gail Duncan, Chairperson of the St Peter’s on Willis Social Justice Group, one of the organisations invited to submit on the Bill, says the Government’s actions are unprecedented. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amani Kasherwa, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, The University of Queensland In late January, a rebel group that has long caused mayhem in the sprawling African nation of Democratic Republic of Congo took control of Goma, a major city of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yee-Fui Ng, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University An ad falsely depicting independent candidate Alex Dyson as a Greens member.ABC News/Supplied The highly pertinent case of a little-known independent candidate in the Victorian seat of Wannon has exposed a gaping ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland Nik/Unsplash You might have heard that eating too many eggs will cause high cholesterol levels, leading to poor health. Researchers have examined the science behind this myth again, and ...
Everything you missed from the third day of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard four hours of oral submission. Read our recaps of day one of the hearings here, and day two here. Parliament was quiet on Friday for the third day of hearings on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas Jeffries, Senior Lecturer in Microbiology, Western Sydney University Tijana Simic/Shutterstock The news last week that three people in Sydney were hospitalised with botulism after receiving botox injections has raised questions about the regulation of the cosmetic injectables industry. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jens Blotevogel, Principal Research Scientist and Team Leader for Remediation Technologies, CSIRO Mino Surkala, Shutterstock Lithium-ion batteries are part of everyday life. They power small rechargeable devices such as mobile phones and laptops. They enable electric vehicles. And larger versions store ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edith Jennifer Hill, Associate Lecturer, Learning & Teaching Innovation, Flinders University Netflix Netflix’s new limited series, Apple Cider Vinegar, tells the story of the elaborate cancer con orchestrated by Australian blogger Annabelle (Belle) Gibson. The first episode opens with Gibson’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dee Ninis, Earthquake Scientist, Monash University Greece’s government has just declared a state of emergency on the island of Santorini, as earthquakes shake the island multiple times a day and sometimes only minutes apart. The “earthquake swarm” is also affecting other ...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6121341/Maori-Party-deal-expected
Really? What a sorry shell of their former aspirations the Maori Party have become. About to sign a deal to support National’s “more aggressive second term reform agenda”? For what? Some baubles of office and a sweet asset sales deal for some of the Iwi elite?
SHAME!
And how will this sit with the large amount of Maori on low incomes, the working poor and the unemployed?
+10
Presumably if the large amount of Maori on low incomes cared, they would have voted for the left.
According to iPredict, the voter turnout in the Maori electorates was about 56%.
Well, it certainly doesn’t show a lot of confidence in the Maori Party.
Well, they could always have voted for mana, labour, greens etc.”………..
Expect an even lower turnout in 2014 because of further policy that entrenches inequality.
“Presumably if the large amount of Maori on low incomes cared, they would have voted for the left.”
Or maybe they felt they wouldn’t get a good deal from the left either.
$15 minimum wage and WFF extended to beneficiaries has to be better than the shit the right are serving up.
First $5000 tax free to all, including beneficiaries, workers and those on super is also better than a kick in the nuts.
“I would be absolutely stunned if they don’t do a deal with us,”. from a man who gives used car sales people a good name. Its so bloody obvious, name your price and let us do what the f**k we want.
Right wing governments need high unemployment and voter apathy to thrive. In NZ ,oxygen from the Maori Party can also be added to Grinch Key’s wish list.
It’s now time to stop being nice to the Maori Party. Their stupidity can’t be tolerated now because the stakes are too high. We now need to subject the Maori Party to total derision and disdain. They’ve had long enough to shape up. They will never learn, therefore they must be removed from the landscape. See the irony in the advice finally going to Sir Jerry Mateparaea a government’s being formed: Maori advising Maori that they’re preparing to shaft Maori.
Totally agree drongo.
For three years we’ve given them the benefit of the doubt and tried to believe that they’re not really right-wingers, they’re supporting National for now but really they’re a left wing party that’s lost and wants to come home.
Well fuck that, they’ve had their chance. If they support National, that means they fucking support National.
They’re no more a friend of the left that Banks or Dunne is.
Yes, we must now subject the Maori Party to total derision and ridicule.
This picture of Bennett looks like she’s standing in the dock on a fraud charge:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6122067/Bennett-accused-of-beneficiary-bashing
What about all that palaver with her taking Carmel’s signs down? Maybe someone should get her charged for doing that? Talk about vandalism, Trev? Be great to see this criminal in court, eh what?
Turia and Sharples basically don’t care! They’re resigning anyway but even if they weren’t, they’ve shown their true colours. Turia is all about getting her own way, as I was told in 2008 by a family member who said to me that “Aunty” scares the living donuts out of her friends and family.
Places to go, people to see…the travelling Labour Road Show! Looking forward to hearing all the candidates and being amongst likeminded people.
Matt McCarten seems to have slightly toned down his previous opinion heavily endorsing Shearer, with this column titled ‘A battle between popularity and experience’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10772324
And what better issue to unite and mobilise the Labour Party than that highlighted in the recent landmark OECD report, Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising, as discussed in this article, titled ”Rich-poor gap is NZ’s shame’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10772328
“In the space of a generation, New Zealand has become a country that many New Zealanders do not recognise or like much. If the OECD report tells us anything, it tells us that it is not enough to carry on doing what we have been doing and hope for a different outcome.”
Thanks for the links. Mc Carten says this:
But still ends up supporting Shearer because he is easy to like and popular like John Key. Does he not realise key is about to become less popular because of his policies (and the recent election result doesn’t show THAT much support for his party), and we are facing very difficult times, requiring a very gutsy kind of leader…. not someone the guys want to chat to over a beer at the barbie!?… as highlighted by the article on the extreme inequalities in NZ.
totally…. agree
Cunliffe all the way
Shearer speaks well but I dont think he has that bulldog attitude
Bulldog is wot this government needs to give it a bitch slap
The Herald on Sunday has changed its opinion to ‘it doesn’t matter whichever David wins on Tuesday, Labour are still losers’. This is what we have to look forward to from the HoS for the next 3 years.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10772325
And yet, they are not calling English and Brownlee “old and stale”.
Or Ryall, McCully…
Or how about Smith (both of them), Williamson, Carter.
Dunne, Banks…
Maybe not in the Herald but in todays Sunday Star Times Anthony Hubbard writes a full pager attacking Key and “his dull grey men” in particular Bill English for their attacks on the poor and contribution to the latest OECD report into our terrible, widening inequality gap. Titled “Smugness will be the Killer”, it contains seething paragraphs such as “Key, John Banks and Peter Dunne more than ever lean together like three drunks who would all collapse without each others suppport.. “
It must be in the print paper as I cannot find it. Or do you have a link?
Yes it was in the print paper but I have not seen it on line.
Who couldn’t see that coming, build up Shearer over Cunliffe then smack them both down.
Yep. Get the soft option, knock him down, paint the replacement as a hater & wrecker.
They’ll have a harder time taking out Cunliffe and if they do then Brand Shearer will only face a year or so’s scrutiny and he may have a chance of out-nicing that nice Mr Key.
It’s time to get combative, it’s time for Cunliffe.
Mallard is Labour’s Haig and a good chunk of the shadow cavalry should be put out to pasture.
This should ring warning bells about placing too much trust in the traction to be gained from David Shearer’s back story and his instant popularity, having been the focus of the public eye for about two weeks. John Key’s “popularity” is backed by powerful people with a vested interest in its being maintained. As many have noted here,he is treated by the media like a protected species: the myth must be maintained and counterexamples either ignored or explained away.
No Labour leader is going to get that treatment, and I have even wondered if the endorsements that come from Farrar, Slater etc, may be contingent on the belief that they have already got the material they need to burst the Shearer myth before it takes hold. It does not take much – a decontextualised employment dispute, a prudent decision that can be recast as cowardly, a brave decision recast as reckless…the possibilities are endless. But even if this is not true, there has to be more than popularity to a Labour leader. The ability to rise to the challenge and withstand criticism is probably a more valuable asset at this stage.
Or the ability to actually change the ways voters understand their world, instead of just giving up and playing to a superficial populism.
Most people know something isn’t quite right, and certain things aren’t working as the evidence is all around them at the moment – they are actually experiencing it. a Labour leader needs to articulate clearly and simply why this is and how we can change it instead of treating them like stupid drones.
There must be something occurring in the public mind if even Obama is risking channeling it.
People automatically like Shearer, but I think Cunliffe has something deeper, the ability to actually win and convince people because he speaks with conviction and passion.
An example where lives were lost due to a communications problem or misunderstanding at the UN would be classic.
A replay of John Kerry being ‘swift-boated’.
Will they risk being that overt? Will they just go for the long game of painting him as a nice guy but ineffectual and bureaucratic?
It doesn’t work with John Key because he has the concrete result of his wealth which is fairly convincing proof of being effective to many, but for humanitarian work the results are way more ambiguous.
It doesn’t work for Key, not because of his wealth, but because his mythical popularity serves various powerful interests, who need him for things to go a certain way, and whose noses will be out of joint if they do not. He is on the side of the fence where a hollow popularity works, because those that could undermine it know which side of the bread has butter on it.
The people whose noses are out of joint when things do not go well for Labour are not that powerful, except where their numbers are large enough to pose a threat. Cuddly popularity does not get you to that position, but commitment, conviction and resilience just might. It is true that Len Brown managed to get he mayoralty through personal popularity, but it was at a time when Rodney Hide’s supercity was hated, and came largely from his natural ability to connect with people, rather than his life being turned into a grand narrative.
I agree completely, but while the money=worth thing is the dominant ideology he’s fairly bullet-proof on that front.
Len also benefited by the real fear of South and West that they would be left in the dust of any Supercity so he managed to unite a plurality of outsider interests under a single idea.
It was surprising to see how public the leadership contest was made and thought it might’ve been detrimental to Labour by highlighting factions present in any caucus but which are normally hidden under the shroud that is caucus. But it’s been a blessing in disguise because we’ve realised that Emperor Shearer’s got no clothes. Bloody lucky, let’s hope enough people have realised in time.
So, no difference from what we’ve had for the last 3+ years then.
how do you think the left especially Labour needs to deal with the media to get a fairer and less judgemental hearing? It’s apparently extremely difficult by all counts
Matthew Hooton said something significant on Citizen A a couple of nights ago. He said that Cunliffe must not be given the finance portfolio (in the event, presumably, of Shearer becoming PM). The right seem terrified Cunliffe will take the country too far to the left.
David Cunliffe has the ability to communicate to people how economies work and how they work within it – and also what they should expect from it. They would be totally terrified of him doing it, half their power rests on people being ignorant/indifferent.
LynW. thanks for the link and comment@ 7.32am
I too thought, “McCarten seems to have slightly toned down his previous opinion heavily endorsing Shearer,”….but found this was not so.
In fact he subtly undermined at David Cunliffe, and Nanaia, throughout his article. while continuing to spreading his ‘support Shearer’ propaganda.
I have often thought that McCarten has ‘failed politician syndrome’ whose symptoms display as undermining the Labour party and anything that maybe good for it at every possible opportunity. He is intelligent enough to know that Cunliffe is the better man to lead Labour at this present point in time, but he is also clever enough to know that by pushing Shearer, he is shafting Labour.
Funny and interesting how both left and right fear Cunliffe. Matt McCarten this morning did the odd thing of continuing to support a Labour right candidate, even though most of that candidate’s credibility as an upfront leader has been catastrophically undermined for anyone who has seen him in action this week. McCarten of course wants to push Labour to the right to give his party breathing space. What is interesting about Cunliffe is how, he as a genuine left candidate, appeals to people who are looking for business sense and a bit of the mongrel when it comes to the attack. No wonder the Nats and the Left Left are pulling the kitchen sink off the wall!
what was in the sausages at that barbecue?
Carol quotes McCarten –
“Cunliffe has a lot of enemies in his caucus. His self-confidence and ambition annoys some. Frankly, I would have thought his colleagues understood these attributes are needed in spades for any leader trying to win.”
Reminds me of an interesting assessment of NZs by a NZ living in Berlin. She says that NZs don’t speak up assertively. She gave a simple example of herself being offered a ride home which she turned down for no good reason until finally was assured it was OK and accepted. Says that NZ find Germans seem aggressive but are really just being straightforward.
I have also read that Israelis find that we are reluctant to say it like it is. So perhaps the Labourites like the soft-spoken approach that Goff adopted. The trouble is I think that lost us the election. So let Cunliffe shine for pete’s sake. By the way did anyone see Steve Braunias column on David Shearer. Bit much, but perhaps he has hit a tender spot.
The more I look at Shearer’s eyes the more I think he’s Key’s long lost brother. Shearer will deliberately take Labour down the road of right-wingers and nasty bastards. I just can’t trust him.
And so it continues…. more high paid jobs handed out to the well-off by the government in order to organise the many on struggle street. And what does Gerry the Hut say?…
“It is what it is…”!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/6121245/Quake-assessors-wage-bill-144m
To the barracades!
There is going to be soooo much to protest about with this government, milking everything on the back of a slim minority, and slithering away from responsibility and accountability.
“It is what it is”!!!!!!!
+10 again!
I felt exactly the same disgust when I read that article, just couldn’t put it into words. You have done so beautifully. To the barricades indeed! How absolutely out of touch this man is! Have the people earning that money no conscience either? Look forward to the inquiry.
And yet the people of Christchurch didn’t return Brendon Burns to office. Gratitude eh.
Something fishy going on there.
Double dipping on posted voting forms to old address at one booth and last minute special vote on the back of a new address at a different booth type thing?
Gerry Brownlie’s response to this is in line wiht previous utterings such as the one regarding Jenny Shipley et al getting $1,000/day because Brownlie “thought that was appropriate”.
EQC assessor pay rates are widely regarded as the biggest rort in town.
Perhaps someone could explain why a dipstick assessor (and trust me they aint nobody special – they are very average people doing a job they have never done before. Anyone can do it) gets paid $75 per hour and the people will actually do the important work of repairs (fully qualified trades, with multi-year apprenticeships and the like, plus years of experience) get $45 per hour??????????????
Anyone? Brownlie? How does that work?
Typical governmental arrogance and bullshit. It goes on under every single government.
to be or not to be that is the question – whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of struggles and by opposing end them….
They don’t get $45/hour though. They’d be lucky to get $25/hour. The $45 is what the contractor (usually a labour hire firm that knows nothing about building) gets.
It’s typical of capitalism and the skewed values that it produces. The administrators and owners are viewed as being worth more than the people who actually create the wealth.
Nikki Wagener on the radio explained her win by the shifting of so many Labour supporters and looks forward to further election wins which will probably happen as many low income people won’t have a place or a job in Christchurch.
@ Carol 7.58am
$145.5m bill maybe be okey dokey and ‘is what it is ” for Gerry but for Peter Dunney ‘it is what it is is too much’ when it is $10,000 dollars and could save thousands in health bills as well as lives.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Government-accused-of-alcohol-review-cover-up/tabid/419/articleID/236136/Default.aspx
“The Government is tonight being accused of a cover-up – burying major research that shows overwhelming public support for alcohol reform.
The research, which was most comprehensive ever conducted of New Zealanders’ attitudes towards alcohol, was undertaken to inform the review of liquor laws but it was never made available to the politicians involved in that process because Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne put a stop to it……..
The Ministry of Health sent the draft results to Peter Dunne saying it would cost $10,000 for the report to be finalised and peer reviewed.
But the associate minister’s office put a stop to it — saying the $10,000 could be better spent elsewhere – and so the report was never published.”
Suppressing an important report like this should be a sackable offence. It will definitely have affected the select committee’s law making decisions, which in turn could detrimentally affect lives.
So there is a bit of a movement toward a petition to stop asset sales – over at http://www.averagekiwi.com/?p=674 some interesting discussions – Firstly Jeanette Fitsimmons weighs in with:
But also in the comments section I found this…
Sounds like a good idea.
Anyone know who Mathew Brown is?
Jeanette Fitsimmons is right there – we need to be getting organised and starting a proper petition.
I have rewatched Mike Ruppert’s Portland 9/11 2011 speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbiyCldxG8s
As he said on several occasions in the speech, until you change the way money works you change nothing
He also highliighted something else many of us have been saying for a long time: so-called Chrisitans have adopted the biblical concept of dominion over the Earth to mean the right to plunder and destroy it (rather than be good custodians of it).
What MR omitted to say is that until you change the energy system, i.e. corporations looting fossil fuel resources and selling them to society for society to burn, you change nothing.
Nothing will change for the better until those three fundamental issues are tackled.
Whether the Maori Party sell out to corporate greed again or not will determine how much contempt the leaders of the Maori Party will attract, and perhaps whether they will be known for posterity as traitors, along with all the other peddlers of neo-liberal ‘shock doctrine’ economics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg
.
.
It seems a red herring to me that Iwi should have first option to buy shares in our power companies they are still in private hands and when the going gets tough they will sell, surely, unless there is some clause which will put controls around their purchase and that is highly unlikely
Selling to iwi seems to me just a similar ploy as paying your workers low wages so you can get the wages back by being a landlord or a lender.
Payout treaty money and then get it back by selling a power company they already own as taxpayers.
I’ve got a bridge in Auckland I can sell if you are interested.
Key wants to keep the bridge so he can give his permission to the Maori Party to fly the Maori flag from it on Waitangi Day in return for support for asset sales – although he’ll also want to charge them rent. Still a good deal for Pita, though, and his “small gains for Maori” claptrap. Good to see Pita’s got such high aspirations for Maori. Complete sell-out. Off with his head.
The Most Important News Story of the Day/Millennium
‘The most important piece of news yesterday, this week, this month, and this year was a new set of statistics released yesterday by the Global Carbon Project. It showed that carbon emissions from our planet had increased 5.9 percent between 2009 and 2010. In fact, it was arguably among the most important pieces of data in the last, oh, three centuries, since according to the New York Times it represented “almost certainly the largest absolute jump in any year since the Industrial Revolution.”
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/05-8
‘The CEO of Exxon gets up every morning and goes to work changing the chemical composition of the atmosphere. No one has ever done anything as radical as that, not in all of human history. And he and his ilk spend heavily on campaigns to make sure no one stops them–the US Chamber of Commerce gave more money than the DNC and the RNC last cycle, and 94% of it went to climate deniers.
Corporate power has occupied the atmosphere.’
I am a bit torn between some conflicting viewpoints on global warming and resource depletion:
* the lets tax things/ send market signals so things will come right…..standard neo lib bollock speak for the market knows best and people will do what is “right” as seen by price discovery.
* the “resources are not accounted for” properly viewpoint that says if a true and fair price had to be paid to exploit them it would not happen…yeah right, maybe more slowly.
Ultimately what we are doing to the planet cannot be enumerated in money and its corollaries (market price discovery, actual value etc etc )) as they are human constructs that ignore some absolutes imposed by the planet. Stopping global warming and resource depletion is ultimately down to doing the right thing, making individual moral judgements. In this we have singularly failed as a species.
Bored.
‘In this we have singularly failed as a species.’
I know this is not technically correct but it does seem to me that humanity has divided into three distinct species:
1. a tiny minority who only see resources and people as things to exploit for their own benefit/pleasure and don’t give a damn about anyone else (not even their own progeny)
2. a tiny minority who want to live within the Earth’s ecological limits
3. the vast majority who don’t want to think about any of the things that actually matter.
‘human constructs that ignore some absolutes imposed by the planet’ Yes, that sums up the present economic system and the present parliamentary process.
Yes, lets blame the CEO of Exxon because it’s all entirely his fault that he enables us to pollute the atmosphere.
That’s the problem with global warming: until the average person takes responsibility for their actions, nothing will change.
Same with everything related to consumerism, it’s the consumers that keep things going as they are.
Consumerism is a symptom of societal and corporate emphasis, not a primary cause.
PG
Are you saying that a chimpanzee which is trained to perform tricks in a circus is responsible for its own actions?
People living in western societies are trained by society from a very young age to behave in a particular manner and have particular opnions:
Key componenets of the training system include the belief that:
1. industrialism is normal (it is not; it is a gross abberration)
2, consumption is good (it is not; it is a major source of problems)
4. those in authority know best (they don’t; most of them are poorly educated and are self-serving)
5. the system is benevolent and is taking humanity toward some kind of nirvana (it is not: it is rapidly detroying the habitability of the planet we live on)
From the comments you have made over recent months it is very clear that you have been brainwashed very effectively and don’t know that the cage you are living in has a door which is unlocked.
Its the capitalist system of maximising shareholder returns (even at maximum cost to other parts of society) which is the issue.
Individuals “taking responsibility” is one part, but a largely ineffective part unless focus is turned on to the bigger system as well.
Lanth.
Don’t forget that the CEO of Exxon (or Shell or BP or dozens of other corporations, including many in NZ) ensure that a large portion of the corporations profits are funnelled into keeping the general public misinformed and consuming. Of course, he/she is just doing what the board of directors require him/her to do, i.e. lie continuously.
Central government is culpable, since it promulgates misinformation designed to keep the general populace consuming the future.
By the same token, the CEOs of city and district councils are highly culpable in the destruction of the future, since they generate and sign off community plans which are full of misinformation designed to keep the general populace dumbed-down and consuming. City and district councillors are culpable because they endorse the bullshit churned out by council CEOs.
The whole system is utterly corrupt and utterly inept, and will bring about absolute catastrophe for coming generations, commencing around 2015 in most places.
it’s 2015 now, is it? A few months ago we weren’t going to last until 2014.
Charter school surprise
There is something very wrong about announcing a major policy just after the election. People weren’t given a chance to make a decision based on proposed policy, which in some ways is even worse than a broken election promise.
[…]
Act is claiming that legislation already exists that has given the government a mandate to set up a trial charter school system. Let’s have a look at exactly what the legislation states…
Remember Roger and his “lets keep them off balance and just do it” theory that followed Leninist revolutionary practices to the letter. These people dont give a toss for democratic process, Key and his crew knew if they did this term one they would be thrown out, they know they will be next time so get ready for a lot of corporatist and extreme right wing nasties to just appear, and keep appearing.
I am against Charter Schools. But around the late 80s when the Education Act was being written, that was a feature. That is that a group of likeminded people could set up a special nature school which would be at least partly state funded. It was also said that where State Schools were lying empty the rooms would be available for their use. It did get written in and I wonder if some of those religious schools currently running did so under that setup. I heard some teachers wondering if they could set up a breakaway school to avoid the worst aspects of the Ministry of Education, but they didn’t do it.
But the suspicion around so-called “Charter” schools may be because of the lack of trust developed over the craziness of National Standards, Anne Tolley, and suspicion of John Banks. If he says its good, then you can bet it is bad for most people.
That’s an interesting point concerning existing legislation regarding charter schools taking over empty schools. Perhaps this is a reason for National going against the wishes of many communities and closing down schools… so that they’re available for the charter regime.
John Banks will have Ronald McDonald teaching kids about the benefits of processed food before we know it or perhaps Destiny Church ensuring kids learn of the god like status of Brian Tamaki. They will be chaffing at the bit to get their hands on more government funding.
The Euro debate is confusing for an economic pleb like myself but ‘The slog’ generally clarifies aspects. I wonder what we should be taking on board from this post re the issue of debt? http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2011/12/10/fiscal-analysis-why-money-no-longer-just-talks/
Robert Fisk: Bankers are the dictators of the West
Time to get rid of the elected dictators and turn to real democracy. A democracy where the people have the say rather than the corporations and the greedy few.
Following on from my previous comment, we now see that the so-called safe target level of a 2 Celsius rise in average temperature is actually not safe at all and that we are so far off course we are bound to miss the target anyway, whatever the outcome of the talkfest in Durban.
Indeed, we are well on track for the 4 Celsius rise in average temperature I have been alluding to for several years.
‘For today’s inconvenient truths (ahem), we turn to Kevin Anderson, a professor of energy and climate change who was, until recently, director of the U.K.’s leading climate research institution, the Tyndall Energy Program.’
‘Sadly, even that cold comfort is not available to us. The thing is, if 2 degrees C is extremely dangerous, 4 degrees C is absolutely catastrophic. In fact, according to the latest science, says Anderson, “a 4 degrees C future is incompatible with an organized global community, is likely to be beyond ‘adaptation’, is devastating to the majority of ecosystems, and has a high probability of not being stable.” [leads to positive feedbacks that take the temperature even higher]
http://www.grist.org/climate-change/2011-12-05-the-brutal-logic-of-climate-change
Of course, the current climate chaos will not become an utter catastrophe for another couple of decades, so there is plenty of time for global corporations to loot and destroy what remains of the natural world so that a few greedy ‘apes’ can live beyond the ecological limits of the planet for a little while longer.
Right AFKTT
Us baby boomers perhaps the greediest generation ever to have lived on this Planet will be long dead when the Climate really TSHTF big time. This is a form of maximising profits in the short term and socialising losses down the pipeline onto future generations!
I’m not smug I actually find the implications frightening to the extreme.
I personally don’t think climate change is going to be a big deal for another 50+ years.
Energy depletion on the other hand is likely to massively disrupt ‘present economic arrangements’ (to steal a phrase from AFKTT) in the next 10 years. Or 5 years.
CV
“I personally don’t think climate change is going to be a big deal for another 50+ years.’
That is a very odd thing to write in view of the fact that climate change is already a big deal and the linked article -from one of the world’s top climate researchers- indicates a severe problems within in a couple of decades.
Yes, oil depletion will hit hard soon, But abrupt climate change trumps everything else (except all-out nuclear war or an asteroid impact).
So its a matter of timing.
Personally I think that the industrial and economic collapse you predict to reach a crescendo in the next 3-4 years (and which I believe is driven by peak debt and peak oil) will sort out our population concerns, energy/resource usage and GHG emissions fairly rapidly.
Pure flight of fantasy this one.
Once the funds for charter schools are known (and they may be generous) how about setting up a “trust or cooperative” that includes teacher’s unions, boards of trustee representatives etc etc. among others and bases itself on the current rules and standards in the state sector..
It offers to act as the umbrella group for “charter schools” that wish to preserve the status quo [without national standards as that will free up some money] throughout the country. All the current primary schools are invited to join it and the relevant bits of the Ministry move over to administer it. This preserves the national state school structure until this lot go. Of course any such nationwide co-operative will measure all the children together, not school by school, so it would be hard to deny funding to some sections and not others so long as overall performance remains at the high OECD standards, and indeed the “contract” could have this as one of the performance markers.
So we would then have privatisation, non profit making, cooperation, democracy, something for everyone.
It offers to act as the umbrella group for “charter schools” that wish to preserve the status quo [without national standards as that will free up some money] throughout the country.
Great idea Red Baron. And all the 6 State schools in our town could become Charter Schools with all that autonomy promised by Key Banks.
What a hoot and must be possible on the basis of information so far.
Really pleased that the NATS have a coherent educational policy!!
And Thank You.
As it is almost the holiday season I was thinking of those who had made my life more enjoyable over the last year.
I would like to say a great big personal thank you to all the people who run and maintain this site where I can hang out to keep up with all the news the papers won’t print, gives me a chance to voice my opinions and just keep up with a like minded community. A little island of brightness.
So the best of the season to you all and may the coming year be a happy and positive time.
+1000!
Absolutely! +1
yes the standard is excellent.
An oasis of sanity in NZ . The only evolving and revolving ‘news and views’ site where high standards are set, met and maintained. +1+1+1
Seen this?
Protest ‘CAMPS’ have an arguably long and internationally significant history.
eg: The Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, lasted for 19 years – from 1981 – 2000.
http://www.greenhamwpc.org.uk/
“Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp
1981 – 2000
LINKS: Commemorative and Historic Site Non – Violent Women – v – The Crown Prerogative
On the 5th September 1981, the Welsh group “Women for Life on Earth” arrived on Greenham Common, Berkshire, England. They marched from Cardiff with the intention of challenging, by debate, the decision to site 96 Cruise nuclear missiles there. On arrival they delivered a letter to the Base Commander which among other things stated ‘We fear for the future of all our children and for the future of the living world which is the basis of all life’.
When their request for a debate was ignored they set up a Peace Camp just outside the fence surrounding RAF Greenham Common Airbase. They took the authorities by surprise and set the tone for a most audacious and lengthy protest that lasted 19years.
Within 6 months the camp became known as the Women’s Peace Camp and gained recognition both nationally and internationally by drawing attention to the base with well publicised imaginitive gatherings.
This unique initiative threw a spotlight on ‘Cruise’ making it a national and international political issue throughout the 80s and early 90s.
The presence of women living outside an operational nuclear base 24 hours a day, brought a new perspective to the peace movement – giving it leadership and a continuous focus. At a time when the USA and the USSR were competing for nuclear superiority in Europe, the Women’s Peace Camp on Greenham Common was seen as an edifying influence.
The commitment to non-violence and non-alignment gave the protest an authority that was difficult to dismiss – journalists from almost every corner of the globe found their way to the camp and reported on the happenings and events taking place there. ………….”
_____________________________________________________
” Bylaws Case
Dates of Creation 1985-1990
Reference Number(s) GB 106 5GCW/A/02
Physical Description 2 folders
Scope and Content
Correspondence, court papers and related notes regarding litigation begun in 1986 by Jean Hutchinson and Georgina Smith, (both GCW protestors) as a challenge to Bylaws introduced by the Ministry of Defence, 25 Apr 1985.
This legislation, introduced under the 1892 Military Lands Act, restricted movement in and around Greenham Common in an attempt to curb GCW protests, thus criminalising many protestors. The legal challenge was based on the grounds that the 1892 Act made provision for Bylaws on common land, provided that no rights of Common existed on the land, which was not the case with Greenham Common.
Over the course of four years, this case progressed from Magistrate’s to Crown to High Courts, eventually reaching the House of Lords. The Bylaws were pronounced invalid by the House of Lords on 12 Jul 1990. ”
Penny Bright
[email deleted]
Hey Penny do ya prostitute the same rubbish on every blog is the country?
The country is a blog? Who would have thunk it.
Hi Renderer – new here are you? Haven’t seen you on other blogs either; but perhaps you inhabit ones that I choose not to.
In terms of Penny, i do not necessarily agree with some of what Penny stands for – BUT I have come to have tremendous respect for Penny in terms of her strength of belief in what she believes in, her ability to research and present information to support that, her willingness to continue to stand up for her beliefs etcs against opposition and disappointment. So go Penny!
In terms of you, Renderer – who are you and what do you stand for?
Renderer,
You twit; that woman has and is doing more than most New Zealanders in safeguarding our precious resources.
Penny – Monsanto, 10 years ago, was aiming to control the global water supply through the same lobbying that got it so much power over the seeds futures. Any updates on them?
Well discovered Penny. The women of Greenham Common were remarkable. In those days there were many ignorant and childish chauvinistic insults hurled at the women. It is amazing to find a left over remnant from that time in Renderer, who would be termed in those days, as I am doing now, a male chauvinist pig and told to return to his sty.
Hey the maori Party have three votes and ACT has one, right?
So the maori Party would be expecting to get three times as much as ACT got out of National, right?
Well, they have an agreement on confidence and supply, with no need to support any government laws.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6122505/Key-to-announce-Maori-Party-deal
They get a committee on poverty…. chaired by Blinglish? And some baubles of office.
I thought Sharples was getting rolled by Te Ururoa Flavell?
C & S but no requirement to vote for other govt bills – isn’t that exactly what ACT gave too?
I dunno. But they give a superficially softer face to a government, that already has the coalition deal to pass asset sales and other anti-worker, anti-poor nasties.
And it gives the government certainty of office if one of their NactUFnumbers falls by the wayside for some reason. Not worth the ability for the Maori Party to oppose stuff, and to have nice committees, which will be held in check by Blinglish.
Yeah, but seeing as they’re providing three times as many C&S votes as ACT, I’d expect them to get significantly more than ACT in terms of policy concessions.
If not, they’re suckers and doormats.
Shit, with the mP on board Key could tell Banks to feck off if he wanted to, then he wouldn’t have to put up with all that nasty right-wing MMP-enabled policy that he really, really doesn’t want to enact.
Every body should get $900 a week to pay of their mortgage so they can use their own income to convert their farm to a dairy farm.
Maori Party has signed up to pander to the John Key Party.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10772529
“Developing Whanau Ora, a Ministerial Committee on Poverty and a new focus for Te Puni Kokiri are the centre-pieces of the National Party-Maori Party confidence and supply agreement.
It also allows the Maori Party to vote for legislation on a policy-by-policy basis, meaning it is free to oppose National’s policy to partially sell state assets.”
Well. Be interesting to see the degree of support for the MP continuing.
Sounds to me like they want to enhance value-added infomediaries and synergize scalable partnerships. http://www.atrixnet.com/bs-generator.html
How apt Felix. Had me thinking for a minute. 🙂
seamlessly deliver multifunctional partnerships
The really scary thing about that is that it’s probably spot on 🙁
distinctively deliver collaborative deliverables
That one probably is too.
You don’t mean they want to completely syndicate client-centric metrics?
Funny and interesting how both left and right fear Cunliffe. Matt McCarten this morning did the odd thing of continuing to support a Labour right candidate, even though most of that candidate’s credibility as an upfront leader has been undermined by anyone who has seen him in action this week. McCarten of course wants to push Labour to the right to give his party breathing space. What is interesting about Cunliffe is how, he as a genuine left candidate, appeals to people who are looking for business sense and a bit of the mongrel when it comes to the attack. No wonder the Nats and the Left Left are pulling the kitchen sink off the wall!
“McCarten of course wants to push Labour to the right to give his party breathing space”
Yeah, that’s what he wants, more space on the left – cos it’s soooo crowded over here.
Dont quite get your point Just saying: sorry: explain??
Labour’s not left enough to count as left.
Both Cunliffe and Robertson look to me like centre left to just plain left candidates with a good reach to the further left in a serious number of policy areas (which makes it odd Robertson is lined up with Shearer, who is by my estimation centre, or Labour right faction). Does any of this count, just saying? Stretch, it’s worth it!! 🙂
Here it is, the bad news…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10772529
(I suspect I am not the first to post this, but I haven’t finished reading the thread yet).
Karl Du Fresne – Asshole of the Week Award
It appears that the right wingers didn’t like the documentary Inside Child Poverty all that much. There has even been a formal complaint to the Electoral Commission about the program. They’re obviously a bit ticked off that the excellent doco told the truth so close to an election…
Jackal
Karl Du Fresne is small fry compared to Arshole of the Decade, Chris De Freitas, who when at the University of Auckland School of Environment was promoting the digging up and burning of coal.
When I challenged the Vice Chancellors Office over insanity of what de Freitas was teaching there was the expected closing of the ranks.
http://www.desmogblog.com/chris-de-freitas
Gotta keep looting and polluting to pay the salaries climate change denialist academics.
http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=International_Climate_Science_Coalition
NZ society is riddled with corruption and lies.
You should take a look here and learn with facts
Jasper
A fairly typical response from someone who is scientifically illiterate and dosn’t understand the first thing about any of it. We go over this same ground, week after week and month after month and still the same old nonsense about the Earth entering an ice age gets promulgated. (Of course the global coporations that sponsor this gartbage are laughing their heads off at the gullibility of the average climate change denier.)
More snow is an indication of warming not of cooling. Warmer oceans increase the rate of evaporation and therefore of precipitation -higher vapour pressure and all that- which is exactly whet we have witnessed over recent years.
The warmer the Earth becomes the greater the energy in the system and the more energy there is to be disipated via high winds and storms etc. (as I wrote over a decade ago).
The thing about misinformation is that is posesses the character of the mythological Hydra. It make no difference how many times it’s ‘head’ is chopped off, it sprouts another one very quickly.
People believe what they want to believe and disregard the facts, as I wrote a few days ago (Simon and Garfunkel).
So you say..
The world will never cool. Instead it’ll just keep getting warmer and warmer and flood us all. Nek minnut Kevin Costner will be pushing Waterworld on us again saying ‘told you so’
Right.
Next.
McFlock
What a pity you cannot distinguish between ‘collapse of current economic arrangements’ (over the period 2011-2014) and ‘absolute catastrophe for coming generations’ (commencing around 2015).
Just think, if you could undertand basic English we could have an intelligent discussion.
so the catastrophe doesn’t start with a collapse, and the collapse isn’t a catastrophe?
Maybe if you were a bit more specific about your scaremongering, you wouldn’t need to index your prophecies by synonym.
McFlock
No, collapse and catastrophe are not necessarilty synonymous. In fact the collapse of present economic arrangements could well be very liberating for most people on this planet. However, the collapse of the environment will be catastrophic.
As I said, if you understood basic English we could have an intelligent discussion.
Unfortunately, you have a great tendency to include emotive catchphrases in your comments. I suppose, if you had been around in the late 1930s you would have decribed Winston Churchill’s timely warnings about the coming war as ‘scaremongering’.
People who understand what underway and what is on the horizon realise that really is little hope for uniformed fuckwits.
It has always been that way throughout history.
I guess you understand what you mean by the latter portion of your comment: ‘wouldn’t need to index your prophecies by synonym.’
It makes no sense to me.
Here’s a thought – be specific when you talk about a “collapse”, or a “catatrophe”, or any of the other predictions you make, given that they are all apparently seperate events with different due dates.
Assuming the catastrophe you refer to is environmental collapse and it’s due to start in 2015, what do you mean by “environmental collapse”? Zero crop yields in some local regions, or a new ice age? Or something in between?
Stop talking about a nebulous big bad. Without specifics you’re just wasting electrons – which is not the sustainable, idyllic lifestyle that the noble savage lived in 10,000BC.
McFlock
First you need to understand the exponenetial function. If you don’t understand that you will never fully understand our present predicament.
Al Bartlett’s lecture, Arithmentic Population and Energy, (which I have referenced a dozen times on TS) is the best place to start, followed by Chris Martenson’s Crash Course.
Economic collapse of the US commenced around 1970, when US oil extraction peaked. Decoupling the dollar from gold, deregulation of ‘the markets’ (repeal of Glass-Steagal etc) and exploitation of oil in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexicao, plus overseas oil reserves via ‘petrodollars’ allowed the printing of US dollars to stave off collapse for around 40 years. The oil game is now coming to a climax, witha huge fight over the last reamining reserves in the Middle East on the cards. US debt has now ‘gone exponential’. Europe is in a similar boat. Nobody can predict exactly when the debt bomb will implode because the elites will do whatever they can to defer the day of reckoning for as long as possible. Few informed analysts see the ‘kicking of the can down the road’ continuing for more than another 12 months.
The financial unravelling which has commenced will accelerate over the period 2011 to 2013 and will almost certainly be complete around 2015.
Peak oil was around 2005-6. The system is increasingly dependent on unconventional oil of poor EROEI. The best analysis indicates a severe crisis in liquid fuels will occur between the end of 2011 and 2015. Geopolitical factors (such as an attack on Iran) would precipitate a fairly immediate panic in the oil markets, which I why I believe there will not be an attack on Iran in the immdiate future. However, I could be wring on that point.
Environmental degradation has been occuring since around 8,000 BC, but went into ‘overdrive’ during the Industrial Revolution. The use of oil to chop down forests, engage in factory farming, strip the oceas of fish, and mine minerals etc. has put environmental degradation into ‘hyper-drive’ in recent decades. Add to the mix runaway CO2 emissions which are causing increassing climate instability and ocean acidification. The point at which global collapse will occur is open to debate simce it is an incremental condition: for people living in many regions of the world, e.g. Haiti, collapse is here now. NZ will be less impacted than many other places in the short erm because of accidents of geography.
If you genuinely wnat to know the specifics I suggest you read this:
http://www.publishme.co.nz/shop/theeasyway-p-684.html
or some other book which covers it all.
If you are too ‘tight’ to buy a book you can get up to speed by reading
Energy Bulletin
http://www.energybulletin.net/
and Nature Bats Last
http://guymcpherson.com/
regularly.
It will make little difference to me what you do but it will make a huge difference for you if you become informed.
No specifics on your linked pages – a bit like saying “Key promised to dowhateverit takes” and using thestandard.org as your source.
Though you get points for poetic language, e.g. “financial unravelling”.
Doesn’t say a damned thing. Are you predicting NZ or US inflation at, say, more than 300% by 2015? Reduction in international goods exchange by 30% in the same period? Will we no longer be using money? What?
You’ve been saying the same stuff here for a couple of years or so and the dates keep changing. Be a bit more specific so your predictions are testable.
The collapse of current economic arrangements has been going on full speed for a year or two now so it seems to be a safe bet…
What about the report on TV3 News this evening about Peter Dunne’s blocking of the report on alcohol abuse being made public. This is absolutely disgusting – the footage shown with the news clip was spot on, though hard to watch. I’m no wowser and enjoy a glass or two or two of wine with dinner in the evenings, but. . . . . . . . . And this guy’s been sucked back into John Key’s bosom with all his baubles of office [along with the Maori Party – didn’t Pita Sharples look ragged]. Oh happy days.
Dunne must answer questions over supressed alcohol report
So much for integrity from the Hairdo.
That young TV3 reporter is doing some good investigative journalism and clearly knows his way around the Official Information Act.
The young reporter is Brooke Sabin Hilary. And yes he is doing some excellent investigative work, long may he do so. I hope he doesn’t end up in the gallery with all the other glazed over ‘gone to the dark side’ Right Winged Stepford Wives of the journalist fraternity, or should that be sorority?
DTB
Give him marks for consistency. At least ‘the Hairdo’ is consistent in his sabotaging of NZ society. I cannot think of one positive contribution he has made since entering parliament.
Pete George will forward you a long list shortly.
Oh good. I’m feeling peckisk and need something for supper.
My memory fails me at times. Wasn’t Dunne in favour of lowering the drinking age and opposed to smoke-free legislation?
Come on Pete G – let’s have a comment – at least.
Yes – Peter George, I am also waiting.
Damm – just broke my promise to myself to never respond to or acknowledge PG.
Where does Dunne get his political donations from?
Dunno, but Pete George has assured us it’s definitely not the alcohol and tobacco lobbies.
Poor Pete, how are you going to feel when we start targeting Dunne over asset sales? Him and any National MPs with slim majorities. You see, Key needs every vote to sell our assets so we’re going to make it as hard as possible for him.
Mike Moore – helped bring down Labour – a few choice articles.
Mike Moore – revenged himself upon Helen Clark – helped by NAct advisers
Really weird Honours and Awards – with NAct’s reward still to come – priceless.
‘Mike Moore, New Zealand Ambassador to The United States and former Director General of the World Trade Organisation and New Zealand Prime Minister said he was appreciative that he has been honoured by the Australian Government. It has been announced he has been awarded the Order of Australia. Mr Moore has been recognised by a number of Governments. Details listed.
Honours and Awards
• The Order of New Zealand
• Commemoration Medal 1990
• Commander of the Order of the Equatorial Star (Commandeur de l’Ordre de Laetrile Equatoriale) – Government of Gabon
• National Order of Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) (l’Ordre National de Cote d’Ivoire en Qualite de Commandeur)
• Order of the Golden Heart of Kenya
• Order of Duke Branimir with Ribbon – Republic of Croatia
• National Honour of Georgia – Government of Georgia
• The Medal of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay – Government of Uruguay – highest national honour
• Pope John Paul II Annual Medal – The Holy See’
(Still waiting for the NAct rewards to roll in for Chris Trotter).
Two more scalps for John Key and his friends.
Jum
Well we do know that as a general rule, the more damage to society and the environment a person does, the more the system awards and rewards them.
Promoting globalisation, the money-lender system, corporate control of society and enslavement of the general populace usually attracts the highest honours.
Someone needs to start up a page on facebook called “The let’s ditch the filthy sell-out Maori Party who’ve done nothing but flushed their own people down Key’s bog-pit”. We need to put the pressure on the Maori Party to leave asset sales alone. They mightn’t have to support asset sales, and they’ve even said they’re not really into them, but Sharples is so fickle he’d probably change his mind with an offer from Key to reduce loans of Maori students by 0.5%, because “that’s a real gain for Maori”, eh Pita? Or perhaps Key might agree to using a Maori greeting at the Waitangi Day celebrations in exchange for asset sales and agreeing to Aaron Gilmore’s suggestion of settling all land clams…by 1999 – another big hit for Maori, Pita. Shit man, you’re such a heavyweight for your people.
The maori Nationals lapdogparty we delivered higher unemployment 18% +up from 8% higher poverty rates and you suckers voted for us ! wolf in sheeps clothing.
Sharples just wants to hang around till 2014 to claim the pension. He says going with National will mean “small gains” for Maori. The only Maori who’ll make a “small gain” is him – the extra he’ll be getting for playing poodle in Maori Affairs. In fact, I think he’s too dumb to understand he doesn’t need to go with Key to claim his pension, and probably thinks he’d lose his MP’s salary, too. Dumb-arse. Aren’t your people important to you any more, Mr Richprick Sell-out Sharples?
And in any case, Whanau Ora is precisely what the nats want and fits in nicely with their desire to shift all welfare provision over to community organisations. The Maori Party would get Whanau Ora if they asked for it or not so isn’t really something Tariana can rightly claim credit for, and in fact is again selling her people down Key’s dunny becuase it’ll mean more poverty as more groups taking control also means the gradual demise of our hardship extra add-on system of assistance designed for the really really poor, many of whom are Maori.
2011-2014 The Maori Party retirement tour. Lapping it up for someone else to clean up.