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.
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Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
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 The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
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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.