Can any older Standardistas help me? If my increasingly more unrealiable memory is not playing tricks, I recall a friend of mine telling me about how Desmond Tutu visited New Zealand and stayed in her house in Pt Chev. This would have been between 1981 and 1985, before he was really famous. Can anyone confirm that? Thanks.
I’ve only had time for a very limited search, but found a brief reference to: “It was Bishop Desmond Tutu’s testimony at the Auckland trial of Hone Harawira in 1983 that saw the 96 charges against Hone dropped…” (The rest of it’s entirely about Hone / no more mention of Tutu. But, I assume he gave the testimony in person in The City of Sales).
Tutu came in 1983 at the invitation of the Anglican Church / provides testimony for Harawira / as a result, all 10 defendents acquitted of charges surrounding 81 Tour protests.
The site doesn’t entirely get things right, mind. For example: “Harawira is a seasoned activist, one of the few members of Parliament with a long arrest record for protesting – for land rights of Maori, environmental rights, and in support of South African Apartheid.” Hone, you bloody turncoat !!!
(Hope the above link works. If so, my first ever !!! – cheers, Anne. From Swordship)
Yeah I’ve heard Hone tell the story of Bishop Desmond Tutu wondering in late into court as his witness.
The judge was annoyed initially as Hone wouldn’t say who the witness he was calling was going to be, but the court room was electric when Tutu shuffled in. And started speaking on all manner of things almost completely unrelated to the facts of the case. However, the judge on the bench gave the good Bishop all the lattitude (and time) in the world to continue speaking and yes, all charges were subsequently dismissed.
Thank you for this information. Bishop Tutu testifying testimony at Hone Harawira’s trial would have been a great story to rerun on the anniversary of the trial. I might look it up in the old newspapers at the Hocken. Cheers you all.
I certainly recall Tutu in the late 70s being considered on a par with Mandela in his importance to the anti-apartheid movement. Long regarded as “South Africa’s moral conscience”. I suspect he was already becoming well known internationally during the early-mid 70s, but particularly so from 1978 – when he became Sec-Gen of South African Council of Churches.
Nellie Hunt has found a new home for her and her three children! It’s sad though that she had to end up on TV for something to be done, seems to be the only way these days because the government agencies which are supposed to do their job are actually useless.
But the sad fact is, there are thousands of Nellies out there who’s story won’t be heard.
On the same subject,(from the Christchurch Press via Stuff), this is what Nellie was paying 220 dollars a week for, and the Landlord(an A/hole rack-renter was demanding another 40 bucks a week from Nellie for),
”When the ,(Housing Tribunal),Adjudicator saw the state of Hunt’s (rental)house, including the ‘yellow stickered’ lounge with holes in the roof, the case was sent back to mediation”,unquote,
Did the Landlord put up His hands and say OK i am being a A/hole here trying to rack up the rent on what appears to have been to all extents and purposes a ‘wreck’ of a house,
Like hell, in what is obviously a fit of pique, looking like the tables having been severely turned on Him complaining that Nellie was refusing to pay the rent, our rack-renting Landlord then reached for that other ‘tool’ more and more of these Landlords are using against their tenants, the 90 day provision allowed to evict a tenant when a property is to be ‘sold’,
This time, it didn’t come off for the Landlord, trying to circumvent the actions of a tenant or the Tenancy Tribunal it’self by using the ‘tool’ of the 90 day eviction notice, a full hearing of Nellie Hunt’s case, caused by the Landlords own application for eviction , awarded Nellie Hunt $4000 less the $700 She had withheld in rent from the Landlord,(and the Tribunal has no choice in Law other than to grant the Landlord his 90 day eviction notice),
My admiration for Nellie Hunt, a working mother of 3 kids, who has continued in Her employment while at the same time fighting this PRICK of a Landlord through the Tenancy Tribunal and looking for alternative accommodation is Huge,
Yesterday the Christchurch City Council stepped into the fray offering Nellie a City house and the Press reports that on the verge of taking this property Nellie’s current Landlord approached Her with the offer of Her current rental which better suited Nellie’s kids as it’s just around the corner from the previous house and allows the kids to keep the same friends and not have to change schools,
We all should give Nellie Hunt a big ups for showing such steel in a fight where the odds were all stacked against Her,(specially when we think that She and Her whanau have lived there through the earthquakes), and thanks to all those who offered and did help,
As Nellie was quoted saying during the darkest hours of this struggle,(and such a struggle is being repeated daily up and down the country), ”this is not New Zealand”, in the end tho, the real New Zealand, the one with Heart where everyone gets a fair go stood up an i thank them all for doing so…
“We all should give Nellie Hunt a big ups for showing such steel in a fight where the odds were all stacked against Her,(specially when we think that She and Her whanau have lived there through the earthquakes), and thanks to all those who offered and did help,”
And hugs too. Nellie must have a core of tenacity to still stand tall after what she and her kids have been put through with this on top of living in a quake zone and still carry on and go to work!
Like amirite says there are 1000’s of Nellie’s out there whose story won’t be heard. What an inconvenient truth it would be for our PM and housing Minister if they were.
The Press can reveal Hunt was taken to the tenancy tribunal by her previous landlord when her rent increased by $40 a week and she missed $700 of rent payments.
When the adjudicator saw the state of Hunt’s house, including the yellow-stickered lounge with holes in the roof, the case was sent back to mediation.
A few days later, Hunt was served with a 90-day notice to vacate because the landlord was planning to sell the property. Her rent was reduced to the original $220 a week until she left.
Hunt fought her eviction in the tribunal and was awarded $4000 against the landlord, $700 of which was returned to the landlord.
So fuck you all the commenters on yesterdays Stuff article who thought there was something wrong with Hunt and that’s why she couldn’t find somewhere to live.
As for the council offering her a house, what about the person that was about to get the house they decided to give to Hunt? And the person in the queue after that?
“So fuck you all the commenters on yesterdays Stuff article who thought there was something wrong with Hunt and that’s why she couldn’t find somewhere to live.”
Hi weka. the stuffed.co.nz comments section is a constant seething, writhing mass of hatred and ignorance. If theres sport to be had in kicking someone when they’re down they will.
I gave it up some time ago. It was a downer.
Excellent; just been processing the feeble tr01ing attempts of ‘Garbageman’; good to be back on track
“That old wheel is gonna roll around once more
When it does it will even up the score (Mob rules Garbageman)
Turn the other cheek and don’t give in That Old Wheel
will roll around again”. 😀
That was a mighty fine and wise song, and completely relevant to those who would be most uncharitable, such as that “Garbageman” was towards to you on “Smile & Wave” by Bunji.
You can stand tall with your mana in tact though. You’re not the one to belittle others, as garbageman is, and he’s the one that diminishes his own mana by doing so. Those folks like him and dumarse etc are a waste of time, when all they can do is be spiteful and insulting. THEY are like the folks on the stuffed site that weka was referring to. I see “rich the other one” never came back to face his critics. Must have known he couldn’t win.
The other RWNJ’s that pop up here at least try to put an argument forward and attempt to stand by it. Mind you I don’t bother with them (I have enough of them in real life!) either usually, (with rich as a rare exception) and leave it to those with the sharps and the energy to have fun with.
But why do they come here, when they know it makes things hard for them?
I know Moz says “hard for me” but we can play with it. It was the first thing that popped into my head.
Absolutely Beautiful and profoundly moving A’little death’ in the afternoon ; There was a Rose, never attempted to ‘lay’ her, out of respect.
Her photograph survived the tearing required by a less secure partner. (yes, we have regrets) Still, no errors, no learning.
I’ve said this elsewhere. I’m no fan of the Tories but they’ve learnt from the past. Time to go through the Party and clean out the old wood, the dead wood, and the ones who just don’t understand that ideologically their ideas belong in the ark.
Other stuff we have been stupid enough to do for the USA .. from the Daily Telegraph this morning quoting reewarch by Ray Waru .. I haven’t seen this anywhere here at home so far …
Yep, let’s use bombs to create tsunamis off our coast for the US govt .. years ago, but WTF ??
Pretty amazing woman. Not everyone hits the headlines and is made into a public hero. Her Mum is one of the quiet honorable people with the strength to live her beliefs against the tide.
Didn’t read the article but it reminds me of the 81 springbok tour times and troubles – as a young rugby-mad boy the springboks were exciting. Off to a couple of the matches I trundled, not really able to understand the commotion and being upset that the protestors were trying to interfere with what I saw as my right to play rugby with whoever I wanted.
I recall the most influencing protest, passed by on the way to the infamous third test at Eden Park….. it was the very quiet protests where older mums and dads stood quietly and grimly, each of us looking at the other. They left the impression and got the mind to working and thinking.
Post-test the mess in the streets was not so influencing and even today it was those quiet staunch people that made the mark.
What is it with the Labour strategists? Cunliffe not only joined the Mandela Road Show to stroke Key’s ego but compounded the compromise by taking the seat at the funeral that should have been refused, leaving it open for one of the other ’81 pro-tour racists or for Suck-up Pete. That would have at least demonstrated the hollowness of the Government on the world stage. It is understandable that Cunliffe might lose perspective and indulge in big-noting but his minders should have had more sense. Add in TTP Goff’s latest utterances and it is hard to see Labour as anything other than National-Lite – still! So much for the 800 000 who are still waiting for a principled party that represents the tenuously employed and the displaced who languish in unemployed poverty.
Until Labour come out and apologise for the 1980s unreservedly and admit the damage the neoliberal policies they unleashed in New Zealand did and promise to undo this, then most of those 800 000 will rightly continue to mistrust them.
The leader of the opposition was right to accept the initial invitation, and right again when he offered his place to Pita Sharples, when it was thought that only 2 could attend.
And I don’t think that decision was – or should be – taken by “minders” or “strategists”.
A wandering sportsman out at 4 am is being searched for. Often there will be an expensive search for, mostly, lost men. Things that men want will be done for them. Compare this to the actual needs, not just wants, of women who have children. Less than the basic needs is reluctantly provided for these vital people renewing the population.
What a contrast, showing the lack of respect for women, their unique role in the renewal of the population, and their important task in caring and teaching their children as they grow from helpless babies to youth, vulnerable and needing support, guidance and develop their own strength of character and life purpose. Big tasks, so poorly respected and celebrated.
Greywarbler didn’t say they shouldn’t search for him. Nor did they say they shouldn’t search for him because he is a man. If you don’t understand what Greywarbler said, better to ask for clarification.
I read it a couple of times and the comment was in extreme bad taste, people have lost a loved one and there is no gender equity issues involved. Clarification not required.
The inference is that the search is only because of gender, I call bullshit.
I’m talking Kevin W about the way that society is skewed. What men want to do will be provided for. What women with children need is not provided for.
Look at the Photo, no one deserves this. People get searched for all the time, gender is not at issue.
Andy …
If you have a bad taste in your mouth, why not just clean your teeth and giving your tongue a slight scrub can help.
Don’t worry your pretty head about what I’m saying and meaning. It’s over your head. And you won’t get the point with your knee jerk reaction.
I’m actually not talking about whether people should be searched for at all. Not whether it should be by gender, by one or two legs, red hair or brown, town or country. So if you can’t get it then let it rest. FFS.
The economist with the tongue twister name from IER criticises the Reserve Bank for being open to receiving information and considering it. Unlike bible-bound economists. The Reserve Bank has cut the LVR on new houses. It’s a good move, and contrary to what our King Economist spokesperson says, it will further their plan. New houses will increase the stock of houses and so mean a small relief on demand and the rising prices that are so problematic.
We don’t need a buddha figure for head of the Reserve Bank, sitting and looking enigmatic, pondering who knows what in the realms of life experience, separate from the seething world around him. We need thinking man, doing the best thing to cope with the problems plainly before us. So let us try things out, after due consideration, and monitor the effects, present and future, against the computer generated scenarios of expectations, and there will always be possibly three different scenarios and variables.
I respectfully disagree. We do need more Buddha figures in the Reserve Bank and in Government. The Buddha’s rules for Good Government, known as ‘Dasa Raja Dharma’.
1) be liberal and avoid selfishness,
2) maintain a high moral character,
3) be prepared to sacrifice one’s own pleasure for the well-being of the subjects,
4) be honest and maintain absolute integrity,
5) be kind and gentle,
6) lead a simple life for the subjects to emulate,
7) be free from hatred of any kind,
8) exercise non-violence,
9) practise patience, and
10) respect public opinion to promote peace and harmony.
Linz
The problem is that Buddha doesn’t move. He leads by spiritual power and goodness. Key is on a different planet. None of Buddha’s good precepts and needs to move to get some.
May be a testing time for Mr Banks:
“Beleaguered MP John Banks will face a judge-alone trial next year.
His trial was fixed for May 2014, and was set down for 10 days.”
If Banks is convicted it’ll be within six months of the election therefore there won’t be a by-election in Epsom. So Banks would no longer be a MP which means Epsom is left without an MP until the election? If convicted is this the scenario we’re looking at?
Everyone routinely forgets, National has a confidence and supply agreement with the Maori Party. They don’t need Banks’ vote to stay in power. All they need is his vote to pass right-wing policy that the MP won’t vote for.
That may or may not be a particular sticking point, come May.
I think so, Mary, but could be wrong. It would also mean that National have one less supporting vote in Parliament for six months.
The timing is also interesting as IIRC the possible date for Dotcom’s extradition hearing is now April, although this could be delayed yet again – especially as he will no doubt be a major witness in the Banks trial!
The 10 days set down for the Banks’ trial also seems long, considering to date the only known witnesses have been Dotcom, Wayne ? his security chief, the Skycity CEO, and the ACT person who prepared the return – and presumably Banks himself. So maybe other unknown people are also to be called?
Actually no.
There doesn’t need to be a by-election if
a) It is within 6 months of the date on which Parliament would expire (actually 24 July 2014 is the cut-off for that)
OR
b) The PM nominates in writing that the election will be held within 6 months
AND 75% of MPs vote not to hold it. Please take the OR before the AND.
It doesn’t mean that there won’t be a by-election. It allows the possibility that there doesn’t need to be one.
Dunno about that. The left here were pretty fired up about Gillard’s crying “misogyny”. Would you support the political side doing the coverup or the real unionists trying to expose the scam?
Bit of a conundrum – eh?
The preliminary referendum result will be announced after 7.00pm Friday 13 December.
The final result will be declared on 17 December after all votes received in time have been processed.
The result will be available from electionresults.govt.nz and elections.org.nz.
The results of Citizens Initiated Referenda indicate the views held by voters on specific questions and are not binding on the Government.
I wonder if the results so far are being fed to the Cabinet so that they can prepare reaction.
If the vote works out 50/50 Mr Key can rubbish the result.
If it is 70/30 in favour of asset sales then Mr Key can laugh all the way to the next election.
If it is 70/30 against asset sales (NO) then Mr Key will ummm…
What do you think?
I think you’ve been listening to Colin Craig too much! “Fed to the Cabinet” is a conspiracy he’d be proud of.
If the Cabinet need to “prepare reaction”, given that the number of results is limited, and only one result is likely, then they are even more stupid than they appear. So, no.
What was that ..results are not blinding on the Government?
Doesn’t compute. They are already blind.
Oh, not -binding- on the Government.
Must be government unbridled then. Whoa shonkey! Catch that nag.
That soon. Good. It’ll be a good day for Grumpy cat, if at best we did get a 70/30 NO vote as ianmac is suggesting, as a possibility along side other less desirable ones. Tie that in with a conviction for Banks, some interesting skeletons about Key in Dotcom’s hearing next year, combined with the awakening of the voting public and an effective and well organised Opposition and we may, just may have some hope.
Pardon my ignorance but when will the results of the E&Y inquiry into Len Brown be released? Len’s had it since Friday, how much more time does he need?
I think everyone has been, The Herald, Councillors, radio, TV etc. On Monday he claimed on radio to have not seen it but he had it on Friday.
Bit tough banging on about Banksie while giving Len a free ride.
Bit tough your banging on about dopey Len’s banging and trying to draw a comparison with Banks. Banksie’s another tosser whose tossing was for another completely different matter.
He might let it out at 7.30 pm on 13 December. Then he will hope that the MSM will be so busy salivating over the referendum result they are expecting that they will ignore it.
The alternative will be at 11.00 pm on 24 December
From RadioNZ news at 10, the Wellington City Council will vote today on whether to extend the ‘Living Wage’ to all Council employees at an estimated cost of 700 odd thousand dollars a year,
If you know a City Councillor i urge you to email them this morning and tell them YES is the only vote you want to see come out of this Council meeting, or email Celia the Mayor with the same message,
Wellington City Council need only look to it’s management structure, top heavy in over-paid managers, to find the 700 thousand in annual savings to pass on as the ‘Living Wage’ to all it’s employees,
One major saving would be to split the CEO’s role into 2 positions paying 200 thousand annually each,just that would save $100,000 a year and using such a template across the whole management structure would provide a far wider range of management skills across all areas of Council effectively doubling the size of the management team while saving millions annually in the Council’s budget,
It is the grandiose employment of ‘top tier’ managers for grandiose salary packages that provide little accept to cripple the Council financially that Council should be concentrating it’s efforts upon…
Going back to our conversation about the patriarchy, for people that want a quick overview of matrifocal culture, see this article (HT: QoT)
About eight years ago, early in my new phase of research, I sat in the kitchen of Alice Papineau-Dewasenta, an Onondaga clan mother. Over iced tea, Alice described to me the unbroken custom by which traditional Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) clan mothers nominate the male chiefs who go on to represent their clans in the Grand Council. She listed the qualifications: “First, they cannot have committed a theft. Second, they cannot have committed a murder. Third, they cannot have sexually assaulted a woman.”
There goes Congress! I thought to myself. Then a wishful fantasy occurred: What if only women in the United States chose governmental representatives and, like Haudenosaunee women, alone had the right “to knock the horns off the head,” as Stanton marveled — to oust officials if they failed to represent the needs of the people unto the seventh generation?
Among the Haudenosaunee, family lineage was reckoned through mothers; no child was born a “bastard” (the concept didn’t exist); every child found a loving and welcome place in a mother’s world, surrounded by a mother’s sisters, her mother, and the men whom they married. Unmarried sons and brothers lived in this large extended family, too, until they left home to marry into another matrilocal clan. Stanton envied how American Indian women “ruled the house” and how “descent of property and children were in the female line.” Gage, while serving as president of the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1875, penned a series of admiring articles about the Iroquois for the New York Evening Post in which she wrote that the “division of power between the sexes in its Indian republic was nearly equal” while the Iroquois family structure “demonstrated woman’s superiority in power.” For these white women living in a world where marital rape was commonplace and forbidden by neither church nor state (although the Comstock Laws of the 1870’s outlawed discussion of it), Indian women’s violence-free and empowered home life must have looked like heaven.
At the 1888 International Council of Women, they listened as Alice Fletcher, a noted white ethnographer, spoke about the greater rights of American Indian women. Fletcher made clear that these Indian women were well aware that when they became United States citizens, they would lose their rights. Fletcher quoted one woman who told her:
As an Indian woman I was free. I owned by home, my person, the work of my own hands, and my children should never forget me. I was better as an Indian woman than under white law.
The Americans destroyed most indigenous Indian culture and alternative systems of governance with it. However, over the last 50-60 years American culture and governance has been systematically destroyed and replaced by corporate consumer culture and corporate rule. And it’s spreading.
So you can see how some of us think that the current dominating structures are just yet another manifestation of something that has been going on for some time now.
“However, over the last 50-60 years American culture and governance has been systematically destroyed and replaced by corporate consumer culture and corporate rule.”
Kind of like evil eating itself. In the rules of the game, anyone and anything is game. The strongest can do whatever they like to everything else. It’s a pretty stupid game though, because in the end everything dies.
Kind of like evil eating itself. In the rules of the game, anyone and anything is game. The strongest can do whatever they like to everything else. It’s a pretty stupid game though, because in the end everything dies.
Sure. But that’s not a masculine or gendered quality. It’s the quality of Thanatos, and it is embodied in every person and in every civilisation.
I think you still don’t get what the patriarchy is. It’s not that men ‘made’ it. It’s that the system of domination favours men. I challenge you to find a system run by women on the same scale that favours women and suppresses men. Think about why that is so hard. There are very good reasons why men are favoured and why men don’t want to give up power. Likewise, there are reasons why women never developed such systems. This doesn’t make men bad and women good, but it doesn’t serve us to be gender blind when talking about systems of domination.
You might as well tell me that the systems of domination are run on Windows and Linux (they are), for all the good that does to solving the prime problem.
Which is that our civilisation is stuck in a self destructive spiral with perhaps only 10 years to go before we cross the event horizon. If we haven’t already. Climate change of 3-4 deg C is virtually baked in now. Unlivable sacrifice zones are spreading across the world as we commodifiy and financialise everything in our quest for maximum paper profits.
In my analysis, this spiralling downwards is being driven by completely irrational forces. These are forces which gendered and patriarchy analyses can only scratch, because the energies of Thanatos, of greed, of avarice, of consumerism, of elitism are in the final analysis psychic energies which are in their essence not gendered.
You want men to give up power fine. But even if that happened we have seen that there are plenty of ambitious and power hungry Thatchers, Richardsons, Clintons, Rices, Legardes, Bennetts, Collins, Paratas and Tolleys ready to step in and take the place of the men. Yes, it’s so nice to see all these empowered, educated, authoritative women in the modern age. We should all be pleased with this evidence of success and equality, no?
At least I agree with you that acting against existing systems of domination is crucial to our ongoing survival and humanity. I know that 80%-90% of men AND women are going to be considered disposable proles by the system. In this context whether our new neo-feudal leader is male or female is completely irrelevant to me. As is the incidental observation that feudalism is a highly gendered, hierarchical, patriarchal construct.
So in these transformations in North America and New Zealand the indigenous women lost power and the men gained power. To revert to something like that….. then surely that means men will lose power and women will gain power.
Gain loss loss gain win lose gain gain lose lose…….
You have described a situation but I don’t know that it leads us anywhere…. does it? For example, the North American Indian men were on the powerless side. Was that right? Or was it similar to the situation now but just with the genders reversed?
vto, there is a huge difference between sharing power, and having power vested with one group over the others. Yes men need to give up power that has been afforded them under the patriarchy, but that doesn’t mean they become subjugated, it just means that they become equal with everything else.
The impression I constantly get from you is that you don’t want to share power because it means you have to give some things up. That you would prefer to keep your priviledges at the expense of other people, even those close to you. Why is power so important to you?
btw, in NZ and the US, indigenous women lost power to the pakeha cultures, so it wasn’t just a male/female thing. It was because the Euro colonisers enforced a grossly sexist society upon the native peoples, because that was the norm for the colonisers.
The point of my comment? That patriarchal societies are cultural constructs not human nature, and we have choices. Also, we don’t have to look that far for other, more fair models of how to organise ourselves.
” It was because the Euro colonisers enforced a grossly sexist society upon the native peoples,”
But you have just described other previously grossly sexist societies. Not equal ones.
” patriarchal societies are cultural constructs not human nature, and we have choices. Also, we don’t have to look that far for other, more fair models of how to organise ourselves.”
So too are matriarchal societies cultural constructs not human nature, so this point is redundant. As for “more fair” societies, your original post stated nothing about how such strongly matriarchal societies could be seen as “fair”, all you did was describe how women held the power, and that is just as unfair as when men hold the power. What you described is as bad as patriarchy in terms of the imbalance between the genders. That is why your post is difficult to understand.
” there is a huge difference between sharing power, and having power vested with one group over the others.”
But again, you have said nothing about sharing power. You have described other societies equally sexist with one group having power over the other.
Where do you see the Iroqouois as being sexist and giving more power to one gender than the other? What I linked to describes egalitarian society, not matriarchy (as in women rule). Stop misuing terminologies.
Do you understand the difference between the words ‘equal’ and ‘equitable’ esp with regards to politics?
“Your paragraph 2 is assumption rubbish.”
No, it’s considered observation over time. As per usual you don’t actually answer the question or clarify where you do stand.
You need to stop reading into the written word whatever your mindset has as its well-worn settings and prejudices.
As for this “Where do you see the Iroqouois as being sexist and giving more power to one gender than the other? What I linked to describes egalitarian society, not matriarchy (as in women rule). Stop misuing terminologies.”
.. how about here for just one example …. ” the Iroquois family structure “demonstrated woman’s superiority in power.””
And you still haven’t explained how this alternative gender-based society is somehow better or fairer or utopian or whatever it is you are trying to say. Where is the measure? Where is the scale? Where is the objective assessment? Rose-tinted glasses is what I see.
God you are a dick sometimes. Did you even read what I linked to? The snippet you quote is what a white US woman said in the 1800s comparing her own position within her own culture compared to Iroquois culture. Why would you sum up all of Iroquois society on the basis of what one white woman said? Are you really incapable of understanding things in context, or are you just being disingenuous.
“And you still haven’t explained how this alternative gender-based society is somehow better or fairer or utopian or whatever it is you are trying to say.”
yes, I have. I’ve pointed to a culture that treats women and men equitably, and compared it to my own which doesn’t. Many other people have made this same observation, but I suppose the fact that those people are largely not men and not white makes our assessments invalid in your view. Or are you saying that treating men and women equitably is not a sign of fairness?
You still completely and utterly fail to address the substance of the conversation, so I can only assume I am right when I say that you want to keep your power irrespective of how that impacts on others.
“yes, I have. I’ve pointed to a culture that treats women and men equitably, and compared it to my own which doesn’t”
ha ha ha ah ha ha sah ha ha ahaha ha ha ah ha ha sah ha ha ahaha ha ha ah ha ha sah ha ha ahaha ha ha ah ha ha sah ha ha ahaha ha ha ah ha ha sah ha ha ahaha ha ha ah ha ha sah ha ha ahaha ha ha ah ha ha sah ha ha aha
Sounds about right, and the height of your intellectual powers being expressed there. Seriously, I’m not just being rude. You repeatedly fail to do anything other than say ‘you are wrong, I am right’, without any kind of explanation or communication of meaning.
you cannot handle your assumptions being challenged.
you made the original post, so back yourself and the assumptions and implications that you make. where is the evidence for those other societies being non-gender based, egalitarian, fairer, better…..
“So too are matriarchal societies cultural constructs not human nature, so this point is redundant.”
No it’s not. The point is that we have choices about how we arrange our affairs, so why not choose the ones that are fairer to all? Maybe we are really getting to the nub of it here with you, that you really don’t believe in the egalitarian princple. Perhaps you feel that some people are more deserving than others.
Enlightening. Shows patriarchy just so happens to be our cultural heritage (western society) and is not universally so. Patriarchy is in the majority of peoples cultural heritage globally though. I’d hope we’ve moved beyond patriarchies or for that matter matriarchies by now and focus on the quality of leadership not the sex.
“I’d hope we’ve moved beyond patriarchies or for that matter matriarchies by now and focus on the quality of leadership not the sex.”
There is no such thing as a matriarchy in the sense of compared to the patriarchy.
Myself, I find the way that some indigenous peoples organise interesting. The idea of gender equality is quite a Western thing in the sense of gender being irrelevant. What I see in indigenous cultures is that gender difference is valued, but it is valued in equitable ways. I can see why it works for the Iroquois to have women choosing the men who lead the men’s council. Likewise, talk to Maori women about their actual roles and how power is shared on Marae esp during powhiri and other protocol, and you will see something quite different than how their roles are viewed via Pakeha eyes (‘oh, women are denied speaking rights’ etc).
To our Western eyes, this seems odd, why not just have men and women ‘equal’ and in the same decision making or political/speaking/power roles interchangebly? But women work differently when in women-only groups than they do in mixed groups, and I suspect that men likewise have times when it’s better for them to work together. I’m not sure how white women would manage using the Iroquois model, and I’m probably not even suggesting that they do, but I do think it is healthy and useful to consider that gender ‘equality’ is also a cultural construct and that Western feminism (let alone Western culture in general) doesn’t necessarily have the best take on this.
I think that Hilary Clinton and Michelle Obama, to name just two examples, had a lot of power over the direction of their respective husbands presidencies.
You see it often in the West, at many levels, where the female partner is the, “power behind the throne” so to speak.
I agree, and it’s good to see that being acknowledged (many women historically have been written out of history despite their significant influence). Individual women have always had varying degrees of power within the patriachal cultures. In the case of women like Obama and Clinton, they are being allowed a certain kind of power. It is certainly not something granted to all women (or all people for that matter). You want to look at how women fare as a class, not the individual examples.
Also, the classic feminist response would be that Obama and CLinton should be allowed to rule like their husbands and equality will be achieved when the US has a woman president. I would say that is unambitious, and an egalitarian society will exist when women like Obama and Clinton are able to change how politics are done, not merely be allowed the play the boys’ game.
“It resonates with a wider cultural trend in which feminist empowerment has been conflated with individual gain within a patriarchal system, not a collective effort to end patriarchy once and for all.”
I don’t have any issue with the Iroquois set up…you should meet my mother!
It goes a little further too, I heard on a Ecoshock Radio interview an Indian woman claim that at the behest of women the decisions made by the Grand Council had to take into account 7 generations (i.e what would the impact be to the 7th generation). Will try and find URL. Eminently sensible.
Visitor from Hawke’s Bay trying to impress Auckland Racing Club president. President “polite”. President’s assistant betrays president’s true feelings. “Oh God…….not this fuck again !”
KEY: “…….And then I told them ‘I’m very, very sorry everyone but I just can’t remember how I felt about the Tour !'” (Cameron laughs loudly) KEY: “You ?”
CAMERON: “Campaigned to have the bugger lynched in my Young Conservative days !” (Both laugh uproariously).
So, Fonterra cuts dividends to investors “sharply” by 2/3 down to 10c a share;
Investors react and share price drops 10%.
According to Fonterra, while milk-powder returns are high, hence the record payout per kilo of milk solids at the farm gate, cheese and other processed products not doing so well.
on a side issue that is, dependant upon your perspective a little odd or a lot obvious, observant folk will notice that on the Herald page there are numerous comments (currently 15) yet the comments link on the herald page seems to be completely inactive. Interesting though that every other article with comments is working absolutely fine. 😎
Key said the American leader was the “stand-out”, and told him so when they had a little catch-up.
“You’ve just got to give the guy 10 out of 10 for being a brilliant orator,” Key said.
“He really, I think, knocked it out of the park … he had some very strong messages.
” I kind of think in a way he made the day.”
Shanks was a non-performer, although not in the same disastrous implosion vein as Gilmour.
And your Gilmour example is perfect. National moved that guy on very quickly and smoothly.
Make no mistake. National are currently putting together a very fresh faced and able line up for 2014. (Or at least that’s how it will be portrayed to the electorate).
It is something that Labour SHOULD consider but it is certainly not something they WANT to consider. The real deadwood, people like Mallard, Fenton,Curran et al, will only be prised out of there with a crowbar, or a couple of sticks of gelignite.
They might have to get jobs if they get the boot and they have long since been incapable of doing anything useful.
Is there a single Labour MP, apart from Ross Robertson, who has announced they are standing down at the election? I suppose for some of them the feel that if they get through to the election they are safe when Cunliffe is rolled.
Puckish Rogue, you’re good at what you do, eh? Good attempt at diversion away from another Nat jumping ship along with the others including English jumping onto the List life-raft.
My comments stands- another National MP, for ‘family reasons’, stands down from losing at the next election. They’ve read the entrails, sniffed the wind and seen the tsunami on the horizon.
Sadly as a Clutha-Southland constituent I have to agree with that sentiment. By going list only English is clearly signaling that whatever happens at the next election he is preparing for retirement from politics. Personally I hope it comes quickly in the wake of an election defeat for National.
Agreed, ScottGN. If English stayed as an electorate MP it would be more difficult to do a runner from Parliament than as a list MP who no doubt would find family reasons within a decent interval to resign from Parliament after a National electoral defeat.
Our local MP resigned in 1999 to go onto the list in anticipation of nine long years in opposition, and perhaps, Colonial Viper, could have been beaten in a seat similar to Clutha-Southland where you stood, with the baggage he carried, for his seat had he stayed. In the event he resigned before the 2002 election.
Like you, Scott GN, I see going onto the list as a preparation for leaving parliamentary politics. Leaving the list for retirement, as Katrina Shanks is doing, is an indicator of seeing a political career about to be lost or curtailed in opposition. Locally, one MP resigned after six years in parliamentary opposition- no chance for her of a ministerial career and her replacement hangs on, with a challenge from the local electorate organisation.
If he announced his resignation from Parliament shortly, before the electorate nomination process which is due mid this month, then I might consider, as Puckish Rogue did in his diversion, that National is trimming its dead wood. Our local MP is certainly fallen timber, in that regard.
Thats been the craic around here in the Ohariu electorate for a bit now. Question is who will replace Charles Chauvel? He’s been gone a while and I haven’t heard a peep. C’mon Labour members, what’s the goss? Got a real feisty one that will put down a real challenge to ol’ Dunney boy?
“What makes Obama the greatest speaker of our times, Ashley?”
Another dismal, irony-free edition of The Panel
Radio NZ National, Wednesday 11 December 2013
Jim Mora, Stephen Franks, Lisa Scott
Two days ago, nasty right winger Jock Anderson was allowed to run free in the studio, slinging off at the poor, sounding off at activists like Charles Waldegrave, and scoffing at the very idea that there was poverty in this country; his ranting was amplified by fellow guest Mark Inglis who was similarly impatient with namby-pamby charity workers: “I’ve been to India,” he intoned in high seriousness, “where I can show you REAL poverty.” All through this ideological rampage, host Jim Mora sat quietly.
If you were unwise, unlucky or bored enough to end up listening to the Panel this afternoon, you will have been subjected to more of this indignant, self-righteous fury from the extreme right wing. The offender this time was a regular Panel guest, the former ACT MP and S.S. “legal counsel” Stephen Franks.
After a few opening pleasantries about the tribulations of pre-Christmas office parties, Franks got down to business. First up, he railed against the Resource Management Act, which in simple-minded ACT Party fashion, he blames for the housing shortage in Auckland. A little later, when the expert guest was Roger Levy from HOBANZ, Franks frothed about “the economic dunces on the left who tell us that every house must have a certificate of regulation”.
After both outbursts, there was nothing but silence from his fellow Panelist Lisa Scott. And, worse, there was complete silence from host Jim Mora. It is worth noting that Roger Levy also chose to say nothing, but in his case the refusal to engage with Franks was probably a sign of contempt, or an inability to comprehend that someone, especially a lawyer, could be so extraordinarily mulish and obtuse.
Jim Mora’s failure to control, or to argue with these right wingers is instructive. It is a sharp contrast to the way he treats liberal commentators: if someone like Gordon McLauchlan, or Mai Chen or Gary McCormick says something even mildly critical of government policy, Mora almost invariably jumps in with an objection, insisting on construing government statements in the most indulgent manner. Earlier this week, a guest criticized a cruel and dismissive Twitter quip aimed at John Minto by the Minister of Justice, Judith Collins. Mora immediately chipped in, and insisted that Collins would not have actually meant what she had actually written. And that, he made it perfectly clear, was the end of that discussion. If any guest does persist in a way that displeases him, his affable mask slips and he shouts petulantly: “No but hang on!” and insists that the last word is the government line.
But let’s get back to today’s debacle. Worse, far worse, was to come from the mouth of Stephen Franks: in his “Soapbox” segment, he began by inappropriately quoting Orwell, which is a ruse common to extreme right wing commentators—and one which would have appalled Orwell, who utterly detested people like Franks. He warned Jim that he might want to stop him, because he had “something to say about the New Zealand judiciary”. Of course, Jim did not so much as demur as Franks launched into his tirade, which was simply another of his trademark rants against the legal system, during which he had the unmitigated gall to invoke the S.S. Trust, that discredited, deregistered, bloodthirsty knife-enthusiasts’ organization for which he acts as “legal counsel”.
Finally, mercifully, the rant petered out….
MORA:[contemplative sigh] All right. Stephen Franks on the Panel. Keep us up to date with it, will you? STEPHEN FRANKS: I will. MORA: Ahhh, there’s a bit of a hold-up on State Highway No. 1, by Huntly, due to roadworks. ….[pause]…. Now, Nelson Mandela’s funeral. The stand-out speech by all accounts was by President Obama. STEPHEN FRANKS: It had that cadence which comes from someone who has been steeped in Southern evangelical traditions. It produces great rhetoric. LISA SCOTT: Yes. MORA: Where are the great orators? You were quoting Churchill before, Stephen, so it’s not only the Southern evangelical tradition. Eisenhower, Clinton, De Gaulle and Kennedy—all great speakers! STEPHEN FRANKS:[Quietly and intensely, to indicate great depth of thought] I wonder if it’s because we’ve turned our backs on rote learning. LISA SCOTT: Yes. MORA: Ashley Campbell joins us. How are you? ASHLEY CAMPBELL: I’m good! MORA: Ashley is a speech expert. What makes Obama the greatest speaker of our times, Ashley? ASHLEY CAMPBELL: Obama is an orator. The reason he is so effective is he gets intensely personal. He brings absolutely everybody in. He spoke to everybody in that stadium, in that country, and in the world. And he spoke of “we” and “us”, like when he said: “He tells us what’s possible not just in the pages of dusty history books, but in our own lives as well. Mandela taught us the power of action, but also ideas.” [2] MORA: Yeah, Churchill used to do that didn’t he, and Kennedy! ASHLEY CAMPBELL: Yep, yep, “We will fight them on the beaches”, blah blah blah. MORA: That is what Obama is a master of! We NEED great speeches don’t we! FRANKS:[gravely] It would be a fortunate New Zealand politician who would not be mocked if he tried delivering an American style inspirational speech. ASHLEY: That’s what Lange did. LISA SCOTT: Yes. FRANKS: Blair had flights of oratory. He was known for it at the beginning, but he ended up being mocked for it. That toxic tribalism makes oratory pretty much impossible. For all his rhetoric, Obama has a very low approval rating. MORA: Even if you’re an Obama opponent, you probably forgave him after that Madiba speech.
….[Music wells up]….
MORA: We haven’t got time to talk about impostors now. Maybe tomorrow!
Morrissey, couldn’t agree with you more.
Mora always is the contrarian to the mildest left wing opinion, yet is silent while extreme right wing ideas are raved on about.
Is he intimidated or does he quietly agree?
Roy Morgan:
Today’s New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows John Key’s National Party (45%, up 0.5%) level with a potential Labour/ Greens Alliance (45%, unchanged). Support for Key’s Coalition partners is down slightly: Maori Party 1.5% (unchanged), United Future 0% (down 0.5%), ACT NZ 0% (down 0.5%).
Support for the Labour Party has fallen to 30.5% (down 3.5%), while the Greens have risen to 14.5% (up 3.5%), New Zealand First 5% (up 1.5%), Mana Party 1% (unchanged), Conservative Party of NZ 2% (unchanged) and Others 0.5% (down 1%).
Roy Morgan’s polling is about as trustworthy as an Obama speech is sincere. This “poll” defies credibility. How was it conducted? Who did they “poll”? The sheep of Epsom?
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
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 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
If sprinter Zoe Hobbs lines up in the 100m final in Paris this year, her Olympic campaign will have been a success. Even if she doesn’t climb the podium, her presence will be as good as gold. But if Dame Lisa Carrington comes fourth, the country will record it as ...
Can any older Standardistas help me? If my increasingly more unrealiable memory is not playing tricks, I recall a friend of mine telling me about how Desmond Tutu visited New Zealand and stayed in her house in Pt Chev. This would have been between 1981 and 1985, before he was really famous. Can anyone confirm that? Thanks.
Sorry, can’t confirm it. But, I’m pretty sure Tutu was very high-profile well before the 81 Tour.
I meant before he was seen as a “celebrity”.
@ Linz
I’ve only had time for a very limited search, but found a brief reference to: “It was Bishop Desmond Tutu’s testimony at the Auckland trial of Hone Harawira in 1983 that saw the 96 charges against Hone dropped…” (The rest of it’s entirely about Hone / no more mention of Tutu. But, I assume he gave the testimony in person in The City of Sales).
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU1107/S00291/30th-anniversary-commemorative-event-of-the-springbok-team.htm
Would like to see some confirmation of that though.
Thanks, Weka.
Here’s another http://www.honorearth.org/blog/%5Buser%5D/hone-harawira-and-maori-politic
Tutu came in 1983 at the invitation of the Anglican Church / provides testimony for Harawira / as a result, all 10 defendents acquitted of charges surrounding 81 Tour protests.
The site doesn’t entirely get things right, mind. For example: “Harawira is a seasoned activist, one of the few members of Parliament with a long arrest record for protesting – for land rights of Maori, environmental rights, and in support of South African Apartheid.” Hone, you bloody turncoat !!!
(Hope the above link works. If so, my first ever !!! – cheers, Anne. From Swordship)
thanks 🙂
Yeah I’ve heard Hone tell the story of Bishop Desmond Tutu wondering in late into court as his witness.
The judge was annoyed initially as Hone wouldn’t say who the witness he was calling was going to be, but the court room was electric when Tutu shuffled in. And started speaking on all manner of things almost completely unrelated to the facts of the case. However, the judge on the bench gave the good Bishop all the lattitude (and time) in the world to continue speaking and yes, all charges were subsequently dismissed.
the ‘good judge’.
Thank you for this information. Bishop Tutu testifying testimony at Hone Harawira’s trial would have been a great story to rerun on the anniversary of the trial. I might look it up in the old newspapers at the Hocken. Cheers you all.
Yes he was.
Cheers, grumps.
I certainly recall Tutu in the late 70s being considered on a par with Mandela in his importance to the anti-apartheid movement. Long regarded as “South Africa’s moral conscience”. I suspect he was already becoming well known internationally during the early-mid 70s, but particularly so from 1978 – when he became Sec-Gen of South African Council of Churches.
Nellie Hunt has found a new home for her and her three children! It’s sad though that she had to end up on TV for something to be done, seems to be the only way these days because the government agencies which are supposed to do their job are actually useless.
But the sad fact is, there are thousands of Nellies out there who’s story won’t be heard.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9501385/Hunt-family-get-home
On the same subject,(from the Christchurch Press via Stuff), this is what Nellie was paying 220 dollars a week for, and the Landlord(an A/hole rack-renter was demanding another 40 bucks a week from Nellie for),
”When the ,(Housing Tribunal),Adjudicator saw the state of Hunt’s (rental)house, including the ‘yellow stickered’ lounge with holes in the roof, the case was sent back to mediation”,unquote,
Did the Landlord put up His hands and say OK i am being a A/hole here trying to rack up the rent on what appears to have been to all extents and purposes a ‘wreck’ of a house,
Like hell, in what is obviously a fit of pique, looking like the tables having been severely turned on Him complaining that Nellie was refusing to pay the rent, our rack-renting Landlord then reached for that other ‘tool’ more and more of these Landlords are using against their tenants, the 90 day provision allowed to evict a tenant when a property is to be ‘sold’,
This time, it didn’t come off for the Landlord, trying to circumvent the actions of a tenant or the Tenancy Tribunal it’self by using the ‘tool’ of the 90 day eviction notice, a full hearing of Nellie Hunt’s case, caused by the Landlords own application for eviction , awarded Nellie Hunt $4000 less the $700 She had withheld in rent from the Landlord,(and the Tribunal has no choice in Law other than to grant the Landlord his 90 day eviction notice),
My admiration for Nellie Hunt, a working mother of 3 kids, who has continued in Her employment while at the same time fighting this PRICK of a Landlord through the Tenancy Tribunal and looking for alternative accommodation is Huge,
Yesterday the Christchurch City Council stepped into the fray offering Nellie a City house and the Press reports that on the verge of taking this property Nellie’s current Landlord approached Her with the offer of Her current rental which better suited Nellie’s kids as it’s just around the corner from the previous house and allows the kids to keep the same friends and not have to change schools,
We all should give Nellie Hunt a big ups for showing such steel in a fight where the odds were all stacked against Her,(specially when we think that She and Her whanau have lived there through the earthquakes), and thanks to all those who offered and did help,
As Nellie was quoted saying during the darkest hours of this struggle,(and such a struggle is being repeated daily up and down the country), ”this is not New Zealand”, in the end tho, the real New Zealand, the one with Heart where everyone gets a fair go stood up an i thank them all for doing so…
“We all should give Nellie Hunt a big ups for showing such steel in a fight where the odds were all stacked against Her,(specially when we think that She and Her whanau have lived there through the earthquakes), and thanks to all those who offered and did help,”
And hugs too. Nellie must have a core of tenacity to still stand tall after what she and her kids have been put through with this on top of living in a quake zone and still carry on and go to work!
Like amirite says there are 1000’s of Nellie’s out there whose story won’t be heard. What an inconvenient truth it would be for our PM and housing Minister if they were.
+1, good on her for staying strong.
The Press can reveal Hunt was taken to the tenancy tribunal by her previous landlord when her rent increased by $40 a week and she missed $700 of rent payments.
When the adjudicator saw the state of Hunt’s house, including the yellow-stickered lounge with holes in the roof, the case was sent back to mediation.
A few days later, Hunt was served with a 90-day notice to vacate because the landlord was planning to sell the property. Her rent was reduced to the original $220 a week until she left.
Hunt fought her eviction in the tribunal and was awarded $4000 against the landlord, $700 of which was returned to the landlord.
So fuck you all the commenters on yesterdays Stuff article who thought there was something wrong with Hunt and that’s why she couldn’t find somewhere to live.
As for the council offering her a house, what about the person that was about to get the house they decided to give to Hunt? And the person in the queue after that?
“So fuck you all the commenters on yesterdays Stuff article who thought there was something wrong with Hunt and that’s why she couldn’t find somewhere to live.”
Hi weka. the stuffed.co.nz comments section is a constant seething, writhing mass of hatred and ignorance. If theres sport to be had in kicking someone when they’re down they will.
I gave it up some time ago. It was a downer.
“and don’t forget to give our love to Rosie 😉
Gratefully and humbly received, thank you comrade 🙂
and btw, there have been moments when the sorrow in Cash’s songs have bought a dampness to the eye. What a man.
Excellent; just been processing the feeble tr01ing attempts of ‘Garbageman’; good to be back on track
“That old wheel is gonna roll around once more
When it does it will even up the score (Mob rules Garbageman)
Turn the other cheek and don’t give in
That Old Wheel
will roll around again”. 😀
That was a mighty fine and wise song, and completely relevant to those who would be most uncharitable, such as that “Garbageman” was towards to you on “Smile & Wave” by Bunji.
You can stand tall with your mana in tact though. You’re not the one to belittle others, as garbageman is, and he’s the one that diminishes his own mana by doing so. Those folks like him and dumarse etc are a waste of time, when all they can do is be spiteful and insulting. THEY are like the folks on the stuffed site that weka was referring to. I see “rich the other one” never came back to face his critics. Must have known he couldn’t win.
The other RWNJ’s that pop up here at least try to put an argument forward and attempt to stand by it. Mind you I don’t bother with them (I have enough of them in real life!) either usually, (with rich as a rare exception) and leave it to those with the sharps and the energy to have fun with.
But why do they come here, when they know it makes things hard for them?
I know Moz says “hard for me” but we can play with it. It was the first thing that popped into my head.
Here’s Suedehead
Absolutely Beautiful and profoundly moving A’little death’ in the afternoon ; There was a Rose, never attempted to ‘lay’ her, out of respect.
Her photograph survived the tearing required by a less secure partner. (yes, we have regrets) Still, no errors, no learning.
bloody hell..!..first parker/pension-age..labours’ refusal to ‘talk beneficiaries-poverty’..
..and now this..?
..goff a tpp-pimp..?
..is this the official labour party stance on this isssue..?
..was that authorised by cunnliffe..?
..or are the neo-libs in labour just undermining cunnliffe..?
http://whoar.co.nz/2013/goff-comes-out-pimping-for-the-tpp-ed-first-parker-with-his-t-i-n-a-threat-to-raise-the-pension-age-and-now-this-is-anyone-else-having-a-rogernomics-flashback/
phillip ure..
Agreed. Time to go, Phil.
Phil Goff
“We have the least barriers and therefore we have the least we have to give away,” he said. “Other countries have to give away much more.”
Of course we do. We’ve already given it away. Others were not so stupid. Duh.
Think it was Phil and has mates who initiated all that giving away in the 1980s.
Neoliberal shill Phil
I’ve said this elsewhere. I’m no fan of the Tories but they’ve learnt from the past. Time to go through the Party and clean out the old wood, the dead wood, and the ones who just don’t understand that ideologically their ideas belong in the ark.
“Neoliberal shill Phil”
Or traitorous wretch. He’s had time to learn from his mistakes.
http://thestandard.org.nz/labour-shoots-themselves-in-the-foot-again/#comment-740900
I rest my case.
a vote winning link!
Other stuff we have been stupid enough to do for the USA .. from the Daily Telegraph this morning quoting reewarch by Ray Waru .. I haven’t seen this anywhere here at home so far …
Yep, let’s use bombs to create tsunamis off our coast for the US govt .. years ago, but WTF ??
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/newzealand/9774217/Tsunami-bomb-tested-off-New-Zealand-coast.html
Yeshe – this was in the Dominion Post at the start of the year. On mobile so cbf hunting for the link, if its even online anymore that is.
Deborah Hill Cone’s mother.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11169116
Pretty amazing woman. Not everyone hits the headlines and is made into a public hero. Her Mum is one of the quiet honorable people with the strength to live her beliefs against the tide.
Didn’t read the article but it reminds me of the 81 springbok tour times and troubles – as a young rugby-mad boy the springboks were exciting. Off to a couple of the matches I trundled, not really able to understand the commotion and being upset that the protestors were trying to interfere with what I saw as my right to play rugby with whoever I wanted.
I recall the most influencing protest, passed by on the way to the infamous third test at Eden Park….. it was the very quiet protests where older mums and dads stood quietly and grimly, each of us looking at the other. They left the impression and got the mind to working and thinking.
Post-test the mess in the streets was not so influencing and even today it was those quiet staunch people that made the mark.
Good for them.
Great article
staunch national party member yesterday, conversation about john key and his lies, deathly quiet……
the evil man is heading for total oblivion next year……..
What is it with the Labour strategists? Cunliffe not only joined the Mandela Road Show to stroke Key’s ego but compounded the compromise by taking the seat at the funeral that should have been refused, leaving it open for one of the other ’81 pro-tour racists or for Suck-up Pete. That would have at least demonstrated the hollowness of the Government on the world stage. It is understandable that Cunliffe might lose perspective and indulge in big-noting but his minders should have had more sense. Add in TTP Goff’s latest utterances and it is hard to see Labour as anything other than National-Lite – still! So much for the 800 000 who are still waiting for a principled party that represents the tenuously employed and the displaced who languish in unemployed poverty.
Until Labour come out and apologise for the 1980s unreservedly and admit the damage the neoliberal policies they unleashed in New Zealand did and promise to undo this, then most of those 800 000 will rightly continue to mistrust them.
That’s a silly comment, CC.
The leader of the opposition was right to accept the initial invitation, and right again when he offered his place to Pita Sharples, when it was thought that only 2 could attend.
And I don’t think that decision was – or should be – taken by “minders” or “strategists”.
CC, grab a coffee and try to regain perspective.
Cunliffe has the statutory and constitutional role of “Leader of the Opposition”.
It would have been stupid to make a scene at the funeral overs Key’s choice of representatives.
Bill – had the coffee while reading about mourners having no qualms about showing up hypocrisy – no form before substance there!
A wandering sportsman out at 4 am is being searched for. Often there will be an expensive search for, mostly, lost men. Things that men want will be done for them. Compare this to the actual needs, not just wants, of women who have children. Less than the basic needs is reluctantly provided for these vital people renewing the population.
What a contrast, showing the lack of respect for women, their unique role in the renewal of the population, and their important task in caring and teaching their children as they grow from helpless babies to youth, vulnerable and needing support, guidance and develop their own strength of character and life purpose. Big tasks, so poorly respected and celebrated.
What are you on about?
Do you think there is a search on for this man, because he is a man?
I’m talking Kevin W about the way that society is skewed. What men want to do will be provided for. What women with children need is not provided for.
You sound somewhat bitter – any reason?
You better go ask Bennett, Collins, Parata or Tolley to stuff the childrens’ stockings full then.
A wandering sportsman out at 4 am is being searched for
Classy.
Try this “A tourist is missing in Hamilton, Police searching river for Body, Parents fear the worst”, sounds a lot different.
Add to your last sentence – A vegan, non-drinker who appears to have been acting totally out of character.
To put it politely, Greywarbler appears to be drawing a very, very long bow with her comments re gender. And I tick the F box ,not the M.
Look at the photo on this article and tell me again why NZ police should not have searched for him because he was a man.
Look at the sorrow on that those poor peoples faces.
Stay classy.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11170910
Greywarbler didn’t say they shouldn’t search for him. Nor did they say they shouldn’t search for him because he is a man. If you don’t understand what Greywarbler said, better to ask for clarification.
I read it a couple of times and the comment was in extreme bad taste, people have lost a loved one and there is no gender equity issues involved. Clarification not required.
The inference is that the search is only because of gender, I call bullshit.
I’m talking Kevin W about the way that society is skewed. What men want to do will be provided for. What women with children need is not provided for.
Look at the Photo, no one deserves this. People get searched for all the time, gender is not at issue.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11170910
Andy …
If you have a bad taste in your mouth, why not just clean your teeth and giving your tongue a slight scrub can help.
Don’t worry your pretty head about what I’m saying and meaning. It’s over your head. And you won’t get the point with your knee jerk reaction.
I’m actually not talking about whether people should be searched for at all. Not whether it should be by gender, by one or two legs, red hair or brown, town or country. So if you can’t get it then let it rest. FFS.
The economist with the tongue twister name from IER criticises the Reserve Bank for being open to receiving information and considering it. Unlike bible-bound economists. The Reserve Bank has cut the LVR on new houses. It’s a good move, and contrary to what our King Economist spokesperson says, it will further their plan. New houses will increase the stock of houses and so mean a small relief on demand and the rising prices that are so problematic.
We don’t need a buddha figure for head of the Reserve Bank, sitting and looking enigmatic, pondering who knows what in the realms of life experience, separate from the seething world around him. We need thinking man, doing the best thing to cope with the problems plainly before us. So let us try things out, after due consideration, and monitor the effects, present and future, against the computer generated scenarios of expectations, and there will always be possibly three different scenarios and variables.
I respectfully disagree. We do need more Buddha figures in the Reserve Bank and in Government. The Buddha’s rules for Good Government, known as ‘Dasa Raja Dharma’.
1) be liberal and avoid selfishness,
2) maintain a high moral character,
3) be prepared to sacrifice one’s own pleasure for the well-being of the subjects,
4) be honest and maintain absolute integrity,
5) be kind and gentle,
6) lead a simple life for the subjects to emulate,
7) be free from hatred of any kind,
8) exercise non-violence,
9) practise patience, and
10) respect public opinion to promote peace and harmony.
Linz, 😀
Not bad at all 🙂
Linz, thank you 🙂
Linz
The problem is that Buddha doesn’t move. He leads by spiritual power and goodness. Key is on a different planet. None of Buddha’s good precepts and needs to move to get some.
May be a testing time for Mr Banks:
“Beleaguered MP John Banks will face a judge-alone trial next year.
His trial was fixed for May 2014, and was set down for 10 days.”
Good
http://media.tumblr.com/faf838594a6f9bdb6b2f9e00b3fc2a0c/tumblr_inline_mrqh76Q4mv1qz4rgp.jpg
If Banks is convicted it’ll be within six months of the election therefore there won’t be a by-election in Epsom. So Banks would no longer be a MP which means Epsom is left without an MP until the election? If convicted is this the scenario we’re looking at?
Probably not. We’ll have an early election instead.
I really don’t think that’s a given.
Everyone routinely forgets, National has a confidence and supply agreement with the Maori Party. They don’t need Banks’ vote to stay in power. All they need is his vote to pass right-wing policy that the MP won’t vote for.
That may or may not be a particular sticking point, come May.
Plus National are not intending to go further right in an election year anyway. Expect some lollies.
I think so, Mary, but could be wrong. It would also mean that National have one less supporting vote in Parliament for six months.
The timing is also interesting as IIRC the possible date for Dotcom’s extradition hearing is now April, although this could be delayed yet again – especially as he will no doubt be a major witness in the Banks trial!
The 10 days set down for the Banks’ trial also seems long, considering to date the only known witnesses have been Dotcom, Wayne ? his security chief, the Skycity CEO, and the ACT person who prepared the return – and presumably Banks himself. So maybe other unknown people are also to be called?
Actually no.
There doesn’t need to be a by-election if
a) It is within 6 months of the date on which Parliament would expire (actually 24 July 2014 is the cut-off for that)
OR
b) The PM nominates in writing that the election will be held within 6 months
AND 75% of MPs vote not to hold it. Please take the OR before the AND.
It doesn’t mean that there won’t be a by-election. It allows the possibility that there doesn’t need to be one.
Serious question here, and one that will no doubt strain the loyalty of a few contributors.
Who do you support, the battler looking for justice for his union member mates who were ripped off – or the higher level political corrupt ratbags?
http://pickeringpost.com/story/relief-for-gillard-accusers/2463
Serious answer here. Who gives a shit about what happens in Oz? This is Nz. It’s a different country. Do you realise that?
Dunno about that. The left here were pretty fired up about Gillard’s crying “misogyny”. Would you support the political side doing the coverup or the real unionists trying to expose the scam?
Bit of a conundrum – eh?
Only for you. It’s another country, is Oz. Who cares. It’s almost another universe over there. And don’t be such a grump.
Larry Pickering huh, racist anti-semite still pushing the tripe that The Australian was forced to apologise for.
Folks, pardon my ignorance but when will the results of the referendum be announced?
http://www.elections.org.nz/sites/default/files/bulk-upload/documents/2013_cir_english.pdf
The preliminary referendum result will be announced after 7.00pm Friday 13 December.
The final result will be declared on 17 December after all votes received in time have been processed.
The result will be available from electionresults.govt.nz and elections.org.nz.
The results of Citizens Initiated Referenda indicate the views held by voters on specific questions and are not binding on the Government.
I wonder if the results so far are being fed to the Cabinet so that they can prepare reaction.
If the vote works out 50/50 Mr Key can rubbish the result.
If it is 70/30 in favour of asset sales then Mr Key can laugh all the way to the next election.
If it is 70/30 against asset sales (NO) then Mr Key will ummm…
What do you think?
I think you’ve been listening to Colin Craig too much! “Fed to the Cabinet” is a conspiracy he’d be proud of.
If the Cabinet need to “prepare reaction”, given that the number of results is limited, and only one result is likely, then they are even more stupid than they appear. So, no.
Yes, this sort of conspirational thinking is easy to get caught up in, but ultimately it’s not the thought of thing one should make a habit of.
What was that ..results are not blinding on the Government?
Doesn’t compute. They are already blind.
Oh, not -binding- on the Government.
Must be government unbridled then. Whoa shonkey! Catch that nag.
That soon. Good. It’ll be a good day for Grumpy cat, if at best we did get a 70/30 NO vote as ianmac is suggesting, as a possibility along side other less desirable ones. Tie that in with a conviction for Banks, some interesting skeletons about Key in Dotcom’s hearing next year, combined with the awakening of the voting public and an effective and well organised Opposition and we may, just may have some hope.
Prepare your dancing shoes people.
Arfamo beat me to it!
But the total number of votes now received, is 1,206,381. This includes yesterday’s total of 45,110.
Someone had to step up to the plate pretty damn quickly. 🙂 I figured I had what it takes.
LOL. I had also been wondering when the results would be announced, so should have just waited for your reply to Rosie. Well done 10/10,
Pardon my ignorance but when will the results of the E&Y inquiry into Len Brown be released? Len’s had it since Friday, how much more time does he need?
Why not email Len? Go straight to the horse’s arse for your answer.
I think everyone has been, The Herald, Councillors, radio, TV etc. On Monday he claimed on radio to have not seen it but he had it on Friday.
Bit tough banging on about Banksie while giving Len a free ride.
Bit tough your banging on about dopey Len’s banging and trying to draw a comparison with Banks. Banksie’s another tosser whose tossing was for another completely different matter.
Even if he’s done wrong, all Len has to do is say “I will not resign, but continue until the next election”.
That’s all Banks has done.
He might let it out at 7.30 pm on 13 December. Then he will hope that the MSM will be so busy salivating over the referendum result they are expecting that they will ignore it.
The alternative will be at 11.00 pm on 24 December
From RadioNZ news at 10, the Wellington City Council will vote today on whether to extend the ‘Living Wage’ to all Council employees at an estimated cost of 700 odd thousand dollars a year,
If you know a City Councillor i urge you to email them this morning and tell them YES is the only vote you want to see come out of this Council meeting, or email Celia the Mayor with the same message,
Wellington City Council need only look to it’s management structure, top heavy in over-paid managers, to find the 700 thousand in annual savings to pass on as the ‘Living Wage’ to all it’s employees,
One major saving would be to split the CEO’s role into 2 positions paying 200 thousand annually each,just that would save $100,000 a year and using such a template across the whole management structure would provide a far wider range of management skills across all areas of Council effectively doubling the size of the management team while saving millions annually in the Council’s budget,
It is the grandiose employment of ‘top tier’ managers for grandiose salary packages that provide little accept to cripple the Council financially that Council should be concentrating it’s efforts upon…
Yep It doesn’t have to be a budget breaker and we’d get more stuff done not talked about
I just like the sound of the West Indies skipper.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11170316
Get this sick mongrel:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/12/09/katie-hopkins-x-factor-tweets_n_4412362.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
But really, isn’t that just part of the British gladiatorial culture now?
Going back to our conversation about the patriarchy, for people that want a quick overview of matrifocal culture, see this article (HT: QoT)
http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/genwom/iroquoisinfluence.html
That last quote is particularly pertinent for NZ, because Maori women lost substantial power and independence by becoming NZ citizens.
The Americans destroyed most indigenous Indian culture and alternative systems of governance with it. However, over the last 50-60 years American culture and governance has been systematically destroyed and replaced by corporate consumer culture and corporate rule. And it’s spreading.
So you can see how some of us think that the current dominating structures are just yet another manifestation of something that has been going on for some time now.
“However, over the last 50-60 years American culture and governance has been systematically destroyed and replaced by corporate consumer culture and corporate rule.”
Kind of like evil eating itself. In the rules of the game, anyone and anything is game. The strongest can do whatever they like to everything else. It’s a pretty stupid game though, because in the end everything dies.
Sure. But that’s not a masculine or gendered quality. It’s the quality of Thanatos, and it is embodied in every person and in every civilisation.
I think you still don’t get what the patriarchy is. It’s not that men ‘made’ it. It’s that the system of domination favours men. I challenge you to find a system run by women on the same scale that favours women and suppresses men. Think about why that is so hard. There are very good reasons why men are favoured and why men don’t want to give up power. Likewise, there are reasons why women never developed such systems. This doesn’t make men bad and women good, but it doesn’t serve us to be gender blind when talking about systems of domination.
You might as well tell me that the systems of domination are run on Windows and Linux (they are), for all the good that does to solving the prime problem.
Which is that our civilisation is stuck in a self destructive spiral with perhaps only 10 years to go before we cross the event horizon. If we haven’t already. Climate change of 3-4 deg C is virtually baked in now. Unlivable sacrifice zones are spreading across the world as we commodifiy and financialise everything in our quest for maximum paper profits.
In my analysis, this spiralling downwards is being driven by completely irrational forces. These are forces which gendered and patriarchy analyses can only scratch, because the energies of Thanatos, of greed, of avarice, of consumerism, of elitism are in the final analysis psychic energies which are in their essence not gendered.
You want men to give up power fine. But even if that happened we have seen that there are plenty of ambitious and power hungry Thatchers, Richardsons, Clintons, Rices, Legardes, Bennetts, Collins, Paratas and Tolleys ready to step in and take the place of the men. Yes, it’s so nice to see all these empowered, educated, authoritative women in the modern age. We should all be pleased with this evidence of success and equality, no?
At least I agree with you that acting against existing systems of domination is crucial to our ongoing survival and humanity. I know that 80%-90% of men AND women are going to be considered disposable proles by the system. In this context whether our new neo-feudal leader is male or female is completely irrelevant to me. As is the incidental observation that feudalism is a highly gendered, hierarchical, patriarchal construct.
some of your best recent work my friend
Gracious.
This.
http://matikawilbur.com/blog/
So in these transformations in North America and New Zealand the indigenous women lost power and the men gained power. To revert to something like that….. then surely that means men will lose power and women will gain power.
Gain loss loss gain win lose gain gain lose lose…….
You have described a situation but I don’t know that it leads us anywhere…. does it? For example, the North American Indian men were on the powerless side. Was that right? Or was it similar to the situation now but just with the genders reversed?
Not quite sure the point of your point…..
vto, there is a huge difference between sharing power, and having power vested with one group over the others. Yes men need to give up power that has been afforded them under the patriarchy, but that doesn’t mean they become subjugated, it just means that they become equal with everything else.
The impression I constantly get from you is that you don’t want to share power because it means you have to give some things up. That you would prefer to keep your priviledges at the expense of other people, even those close to you. Why is power so important to you?
btw, in NZ and the US, indigenous women lost power to the pakeha cultures, so it wasn’t just a male/female thing. It was because the Euro colonisers enforced a grossly sexist society upon the native peoples, because that was the norm for the colonisers.
The point of my comment? That patriarchal societies are cultural constructs not human nature, and we have choices. Also, we don’t have to look that far for other, more fair models of how to organise ourselves.
” It was because the Euro colonisers enforced a grossly sexist society upon the native peoples,”
But you have just described other previously grossly sexist societies. Not equal ones.
” patriarchal societies are cultural constructs not human nature, and we have choices. Also, we don’t have to look that far for other, more fair models of how to organise ourselves.”
So too are matriarchal societies cultural constructs not human nature, so this point is redundant. As for “more fair” societies, your original post stated nothing about how such strongly matriarchal societies could be seen as “fair”, all you did was describe how women held the power, and that is just as unfair as when men hold the power. What you described is as bad as patriarchy in terms of the imbalance between the genders. That is why your post is difficult to understand.
” there is a huge difference between sharing power, and having power vested with one group over the others.”
But again, you have said nothing about sharing power. You have described other societies equally sexist with one group having power over the other.
Your paragraph 2 is assumption rubbish.
You seem all at sea on this post.
Where do you see the Iroqouois as being sexist and giving more power to one gender than the other? What I linked to describes egalitarian society, not matriarchy (as in women rule). Stop misuing terminologies.
Do you understand the difference between the words ‘equal’ and ‘equitable’ esp with regards to politics?
“Your paragraph 2 is assumption rubbish.”
No, it’s considered observation over time. As per usual you don’t actually answer the question or clarify where you do stand.
You need to stop reading into the written word whatever your mindset has as its well-worn settings and prejudices.
As for this “Where do you see the Iroqouois as being sexist and giving more power to one gender than the other? What I linked to describes egalitarian society, not matriarchy (as in women rule). Stop misuing terminologies.”
.. how about here for just one example …. ” the Iroquois family structure “demonstrated woman’s superiority in power.””
And you still haven’t explained how this alternative gender-based society is somehow better or fairer or utopian or whatever it is you are trying to say. Where is the measure? Where is the scale? Where is the objective assessment? Rose-tinted glasses is what I see.
God you are a dick sometimes. Did you even read what I linked to? The snippet you quote is what a white US woman said in the 1800s comparing her own position within her own culture compared to Iroquois culture. Why would you sum up all of Iroquois society on the basis of what one white woman said? Are you really incapable of understanding things in context, or are you just being disingenuous.
“And you still haven’t explained how this alternative gender-based society is somehow better or fairer or utopian or whatever it is you are trying to say.”
yes, I have. I’ve pointed to a culture that treats women and men equitably, and compared it to my own which doesn’t. Many other people have made this same observation, but I suppose the fact that those people are largely not men and not white makes our assessments invalid in your view. Or are you saying that treating men and women equitably is not a sign of fairness?
You still completely and utterly fail to address the substance of the conversation, so I can only assume I am right when I say that you want to keep your power irrespective of how that impacts on others.
why is the race of the US woman relevant?
dick
It’s not. But culture and ethnicity are. Different cultures value people differently. Why not learn from that?
“yes, I have. I’ve pointed to a culture that treats women and men equitably, and compared it to my own which doesn’t”
ha ha ha ah ha ha sah ha ha ahaha ha ha ah ha ha sah ha ha ahaha ha ha ah ha ha sah ha ha ahaha ha ha ah ha ha sah ha ha ahaha ha ha ah ha ha sah ha ha ahaha ha ha ah ha ha sah ha ha ahaha ha ha ah ha ha sah ha ha aha
Sounds about right, and the height of your intellectual powers being expressed there. Seriously, I’m not just being rude. You repeatedly fail to do anything other than say ‘you are wrong, I am right’, without any kind of explanation or communication of meaning.
you cannot handle your assumptions being challenged.
you made the original post, so back yourself and the assumptions and implications that you make. where is the evidence for those other societies being non-gender based, egalitarian, fairer, better…..
cos there aint nothing there weka
Did you read the article? Thought not. Time waster.
By all means challenge what I say. I look forward to you actually doing that with substance instead of “you’re wrong”.
“So too are matriarchal societies cultural constructs not human nature, so this point is redundant.”
No it’s not. The point is that we have choices about how we arrange our affairs, so why not choose the ones that are fairer to all? Maybe we are really getting to the nub of it here with you, that you really don’t believe in the egalitarian princple. Perhaps you feel that some people are more deserving than others.
weka who cares what I believe?
it is facts that count
Enlightening. Shows patriarchy just so happens to be our cultural heritage (western society) and is not universally so. Patriarchy is in the majority of peoples cultural heritage globally though. I’d hope we’ve moved beyond patriarchies or for that matter matriarchies by now and focus on the quality of leadership not the sex.
“I’d hope we’ve moved beyond patriarchies or for that matter matriarchies by now and focus on the quality of leadership not the sex.”
There is no such thing as a matriarchy in the sense of compared to the patriarchy.
Myself, I find the way that some indigenous peoples organise interesting. The idea of gender equality is quite a Western thing in the sense of gender being irrelevant. What I see in indigenous cultures is that gender difference is valued, but it is valued in equitable ways. I can see why it works for the Iroquois to have women choosing the men who lead the men’s council. Likewise, talk to Maori women about their actual roles and how power is shared on Marae esp during powhiri and other protocol, and you will see something quite different than how their roles are viewed via Pakeha eyes (‘oh, women are denied speaking rights’ etc).
To our Western eyes, this seems odd, why not just have men and women ‘equal’ and in the same decision making or political/speaking/power roles interchangebly? But women work differently when in women-only groups than they do in mixed groups, and I suspect that men likewise have times when it’s better for them to work together. I’m not sure how white women would manage using the Iroquois model, and I’m probably not even suggesting that they do, but I do think it is healthy and useful to consider that gender ‘equality’ is also a cultural construct and that Western feminism (let alone Western culture in general) doesn’t necessarily have the best take on this.
Not sure that is entirely correct.
I think that Hilary Clinton and Michelle Obama, to name just two examples, had a lot of power over the direction of their respective husbands presidencies.
You see it often in the West, at many levels, where the female partner is the, “power behind the throne” so to speak.
I agree, and it’s good to see that being acknowledged (many women historically have been written out of history despite their significant influence). Individual women have always had varying degrees of power within the patriachal cultures. In the case of women like Obama and Clinton, they are being allowed a certain kind of power. It is certainly not something granted to all women (or all people for that matter). You want to look at how women fare as a class, not the individual examples.
Also, the classic feminist response would be that Obama and CLinton should be allowed to rule like their husbands and equality will be achieved when the US has a woman president. I would say that is unambitious, and an egalitarian society will exist when women like Obama and Clinton are able to change how politics are done, not merely be allowed the play the boys’ game.
Thought you might like this link weta
“It resonates with a wider cultural trend in which feminist empowerment has been conflated with individual gain within a patriarchal system, not a collective effort to end patriarchy once and for all.”
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/12/10/the-solution-to-patriarchy-pantene-says-shine/
I don’t have any issue with the Iroquois set up…you should meet my mother!
It goes a little further too, I heard on a Ecoshock Radio interview an Indian woman claim that at the behest of women the decisions made by the Grand Council had to take into account 7 generations (i.e what would the impact be to the 7th generation). Will try and find URL. Eminently sensible.
Would be interested in the link if you find it.
Good on Michelle who has a grounded sense of the occasion, and looks resolutely ahead while the so-called leaders take a selfie.
And Obama was certainly in trouble. Who needs the might of US armed forces when The Stare can halt a thousand naval ships!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BbH0Q9GCYAA7S01.jpg
And here is Part 3 (note the change in seating arrangements).
Guess who might be sleeping in the doghouse at the Whitehouse?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BbIsT9ZIQAAsXRj.jpg
apparently some Conservative US numpty suggested Obama “sanitize his hands” after the hand-shake with Raul Castro- oh “the innocent blood on Castro’s hands”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/10/obama-shakes-hands-raul-castro-mandela-memorial
Yep, just a little irony
Michelle: “Who the fuck are you Martha Stewart lady ? ……… this ain’t Vaudeville !
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BbH0Q9GCYAA7S01.jpg
No pics yet of ShonKey Python topping infamous triple hand shake with a needy quadruple ?
This really shouldn’t be a spectator sport 🙁
Indeed weka – no context either, the Obamas’ are talking to Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt.
http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Billedserier/2013/12/10133713.htm
Ake ake. Well. Some leaders do have aphrodisiac attractions but watch out if important leader’s wives find out! Sizzle!
This is how Cameron and an ‘unindentified guest’ paid their respects to Nelson Mandela: (BTW this pic screams for a good meme!)
http://postimg.org/image/exovfy221/
Time to get rid of these psychopathic, disrespectful, worthless douchebags.
Yes I saw that and I think key will be beside himself with rage.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/africa/9504109/Keys-forgettable-moment-at-Mandela-event
Who is he? Just an interchangeable cog in the big machine that’s grinding up people left, right and centre.
and key hopes having his own taxpayer-paid photographer will make a difference!
ouch…
I feel a little sick.
Really? Then this photo of Key should make you really vomit. (Trigger warning)
https://twitter.com/johnkeypm/status/410332701057499136/photo/1
M8! fine dining out on the proletariat
(ps, I personally savour this comment). 😀
Thanks for the warning – made it to the bathroom in time
Harper huh.
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/03/26/Harper-Evangelical-Mission/
Holy Shamoly joe90
Three Eyes.
Visitor from Hawke’s Bay trying to impress Auckland Racing Club president. President “polite”. President’s assistant betrays president’s true feelings. “Oh God…….not this fuck again !”
that is interesting
KEY: “…….And then I told them ‘I’m very, very sorry everyone but I just can’t remember how I felt about the Tour !'” (Cameron laughs loudly) KEY: “You ?”
CAMERON: “Campaigned to have the bugger lynched in my Young Conservative days !” (Both laugh uproariously).
@ ‘unidentified guest’..
..surely that cameron/key pic is screaming for a caption contest..?
i’ll kick it off:..
key to cameron:
‘isn’t it hilarious when the peasants scream like stuck pigs..?’..
cameron:..’i know..!..i know..!..’
phillip ure..
So, Fonterra cuts dividends to investors “sharply” by 2/3 down to 10c a share;
Investors react and share price drops 10%.
According to Fonterra, while milk-powder returns are high, hence the record payout per kilo of milk solids at the farm gate, cheese and other processed products not doing so well.
Hows that for a baiting headline?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11170653
Taxpayers pay for Harawira’s trip to Mandela
Good ol’ boy Southern Hospitality with clean white sheets.
What, and John Key is paying for his own ticket himself?
donated the price of his fare to charity.
The Sky City or Warner Bros charity?
charity of his choosing; gotta make those ‘quick trades’.
on a side issue that is, dependant upon your perspective a little odd or a lot obvious, observant folk will notice that on the Herald page there are numerous comments (currently 15) yet the comments link on the herald page seems to be completely inactive. Interesting though that every other article with comments is working absolutely fine. 😎
To John Key: You, sir, are an idiot!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/national-news/9501567/Sky-weeps-for-Madiba
Key said the American leader was the “stand-out”, and told him so when they had a little catch-up.
“You’ve just got to give the guy 10 out of 10 for being a brilliant orator,” Key said.
“He really, I think, knocked it out of the park … he had some very strong messages.
” I kind of think in a way he made the day.”
!!!!!!!
I know. 😀
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9373334/Shanks-to-leave-politic
Katrina Shanks is on her pony, as another Nat rides off into the West.
They just roll out the next glove puppet.
Its called rejuvanation, something Labour might like to consider…
Yep. Aaron Gilmore was their best rejuvenation ever.
Shanks was a non-performer, although not in the same disastrous implosion vein as Gilmour.
And your Gilmour example is perfect. National moved that guy on very quickly and smoothly.
Make no mistake. National are currently putting together a very fresh faced and able line up for 2014. (Or at least that’s how it will be portrayed to the electorate).
Almost as good as Philip Field
Lol. Nope. Aaron was much better. His Parliamentary arrival and departure was positively rocket-boosted.
I prefer Fisiani’s characterisation “Nats quaking in their boots, leaving the sinking ship in droves.”
Admittedly, quoted out of context, but a good mixed metaphor is a still a metaphor not to be missed.
It is something that Labour SHOULD consider but it is certainly not something they WANT to consider. The real deadwood, people like Mallard, Fenton,Curran et al, will only be prised out of there with a crowbar, or a couple of sticks of gelignite.
They might have to get jobs if they get the boot and they have long since been incapable of doing anything useful.
Is there a single Labour MP, apart from Ross Robertson, who has announced they are standing down at the election? I suppose for some of them the feel that if they get through to the election they are safe when Cunliffe is rolled.
Puckish Rogue, you’re good at what you do, eh? Good attempt at diversion away from another Nat jumping ship along with the others including English jumping onto the List life-raft.
My comments stands- another National MP, for ‘family reasons’, stands down from losing at the next election. They’ve read the entrails, sniffed the wind and seen the tsunami on the horizon.
And are running.
huh? English didn’t need any kind of life raft. He could be 80 in that seat and they would still vote him in.
Sadly as a Clutha-Southland constituent I have to agree with that sentiment. By going list only English is clearly signaling that whatever happens at the next election he is preparing for retirement from politics. Personally I hope it comes quickly in the wake of an election defeat for National.
Agreed, ScottGN. If English stayed as an electorate MP it would be more difficult to do a runner from Parliament than as a list MP who no doubt would find family reasons within a decent interval to resign from Parliament after a National electoral defeat.
Our local MP resigned in 1999 to go onto the list in anticipation of nine long years in opposition, and perhaps, Colonial Viper, could have been beaten in a seat similar to Clutha-Southland where you stood, with the baggage he carried, for his seat had he stayed. In the event he resigned before the 2002 election.
Like you, Scott GN, I see going onto the list as a preparation for leaving parliamentary politics. Leaving the list for retirement, as Katrina Shanks is doing, is an indicator of seeing a political career about to be lost or curtailed in opposition. Locally, one MP resigned after six years in parliamentary opposition- no chance for her of a ministerial career and her replacement hangs on, with a challenge from the local electorate organisation.
If he announced his resignation from Parliament shortly, before the electorate nomination process which is due mid this month, then I might consider, as Puckish Rogue did in his diversion, that National is trimming its dead wood. Our local MP is certainly fallen timber, in that regard.
Thats been the craic around here in the Ohariu electorate for a bit now. Question is who will replace Charles Chauvel? He’s been gone a while and I haven’t heard a peep. C’mon Labour members, what’s the goss? Got a real feisty one that will put down a real challenge to ol’ Dunney boy?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/9504034/Uruguay-legalises-marijuana-trade
– Now this is something I’d like to see here
Send a tweet to the Justice Minister telling her that. Her tweet in reply would probably be worth a read.
Oh I’d tweet her all right
would she tweet in response is the question
Oh I’d tweet her all right
Cool. Ronya dude. Post the link here when you’ve done it. Will you be long? Or are you all mouth and no trousers?
thanks for that; motivation to renew passport.
No good soz; you have to be a citizen of Uruguay. Anyways…NZ ‘horticultural output’ is hard to beat…
one could patiently await citizenship (this wonderful thought ushered me into my afternoon nap 🙂 )
40 grams a month? Smoking!
How can it be a “social experiment” when humanity has been smoking the stuff for thousands of years?
“What makes Obama the greatest speaker of our times, Ashley?”
Another dismal, irony-free edition of The Panel
Radio NZ National, Wednesday 11 December 2013
Jim Mora, Stephen Franks, Lisa Scott
Two days ago, nasty right winger Jock Anderson was allowed to run free in the studio, slinging off at the poor, sounding off at activists like Charles Waldegrave, and scoffing at the very idea that there was poverty in this country; his ranting was amplified by fellow guest Mark Inglis who was similarly impatient with namby-pamby charity workers: “I’ve been to India,” he intoned in high seriousness, “where I can show you REAL poverty.” All through this ideological rampage, host Jim Mora sat quietly.
If you were unwise, unlucky or bored enough to end up listening to the Panel this afternoon, you will have been subjected to more of this indignant, self-righteous fury from the extreme right wing. The offender this time was a regular Panel guest, the former ACT MP and S.S. “legal counsel” Stephen Franks.
After a few opening pleasantries about the tribulations of pre-Christmas office parties, Franks got down to business. First up, he railed against the Resource Management Act, which in simple-minded ACT Party fashion, he blames for the housing shortage in Auckland. A little later, when the expert guest was Roger Levy from HOBANZ, Franks frothed about “the economic dunces on the left who tell us that every house must have a certificate of regulation”.
After both outbursts, there was nothing but silence from his fellow Panelist Lisa Scott. And, worse, there was complete silence from host Jim Mora. It is worth noting that Roger Levy also chose to say nothing, but in his case the refusal to engage with Franks was probably a sign of contempt, or an inability to comprehend that someone, especially a lawyer, could be so extraordinarily mulish and obtuse.
Jim Mora’s failure to control, or to argue with these right wingers is instructive. It is a sharp contrast to the way he treats liberal commentators: if someone like Gordon McLauchlan, or Mai Chen or Gary McCormick says something even mildly critical of government policy, Mora almost invariably jumps in with an objection, insisting on construing government statements in the most indulgent manner. Earlier this week, a guest criticized a cruel and dismissive Twitter quip aimed at John Minto by the Minister of Justice, Judith Collins. Mora immediately chipped in, and insisted that Collins would not have actually meant what she had actually written. And that, he made it perfectly clear, was the end of that discussion. If any guest does persist in a way that displeases him, his affable mask slips and he shouts petulantly: “No but hang on!” and insists that the last word is the government line.
But let’s get back to today’s debacle. Worse, far worse, was to come from the mouth of Stephen Franks: in his “Soapbox” segment, he began by inappropriately quoting Orwell, which is a ruse common to extreme right wing commentators—and one which would have appalled Orwell, who utterly detested people like Franks. He warned Jim that he might want to stop him, because he had “something to say about the New Zealand judiciary”. Of course, Jim did not so much as demur as Franks launched into his tirade, which was simply another of his trademark rants against the legal system, during which he had the unmitigated gall to invoke the S.S. Trust, that discredited, deregistered, bloodthirsty knife-enthusiasts’ organization for which he acts as “legal counsel”.
Finally, mercifully, the rant petered out….
MORA: [contemplative sigh] All right. Stephen Franks on the Panel. Keep us up to date with it, will you?
STEPHEN FRANKS: I will.
MORA: Ahhh, there’s a bit of a hold-up on State Highway No. 1, by Huntly, due to roadworks. ….[pause]…. Now, Nelson Mandela’s funeral. The stand-out speech by all accounts was by President Obama.
STEPHEN FRANKS: It had that cadence which comes from someone who has been steeped in Southern evangelical traditions. It produces great rhetoric.
LISA SCOTT: Yes.
MORA: Where are the great orators? You were quoting Churchill before, Stephen, so it’s not only the Southern evangelical tradition. Eisenhower, Clinton, De Gaulle and Kennedy—all great speakers!
STEPHEN FRANKS: [Quietly and intensely, to indicate great depth of thought] I wonder if it’s because we’ve turned our backs on rote learning.
LISA SCOTT: Yes.
MORA: Ashley Campbell joins us. How are you?
ASHLEY CAMPBELL: I’m good!
MORA: Ashley is a speech expert. What makes Obama the greatest speaker of our times, Ashley?
ASHLEY CAMPBELL: Obama is an orator. The reason he is so effective is he gets intensely personal. He brings absolutely everybody in. He spoke to everybody in that stadium, in that country, and in the world. And he spoke of “we” and “us”, like when he said: “He tells us what’s possible not just in the pages of dusty history books, but in our own lives as well. Mandela taught us the power of action, but also ideas.” [2]
MORA: Yeah, Churchill used to do that didn’t he, and Kennedy!
ASHLEY CAMPBELL: Yep, yep, “We will fight them on the beaches”, blah blah blah.
MORA: That is what Obama is a master of! We NEED great speeches don’t we!
FRANKS: [gravely] It would be a fortunate New Zealand politician who would not be mocked if he tried delivering an American style inspirational speech.
ASHLEY: That’s what Lange did.
LISA SCOTT: Yes.
FRANKS: Blair had flights of oratory. He was known for it at the beginning, but he ended up being mocked for it. That toxic tribalism makes oratory pretty much impossible. For all his rhetoric, Obama has a very low approval rating.
MORA: Even if you’re an Obama opponent, you probably forgave him after that Madiba speech.
….[Music wells up]….
MORA: We haven’t got time to talk about impostors now. Maybe tomorrow!
[1] http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-09122013/#comment-741884
[2] http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/transcript-remarks-president-barack-obama-nelson-mandela-service-article-1.1542986#ixzz2n8lz6vsW
Morrissey, couldn’t agree with you more.
Mora always is the contrarian to the mildest left wing opinion, yet is silent while extreme right wing ideas are raved on about.
Is he intimidated or does he quietly agree?
Roy Morgan:
Today’s New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows John Key’s National Party (45%, up 0.5%) level with a potential Labour/ Greens Alliance (45%, unchanged). Support for Key’s Coalition partners is down slightly: Maori Party 1.5% (unchanged), United Future 0% (down 0.5%), ACT NZ 0% (down 0.5%).
Support for the Labour Party has fallen to 30.5% (down 3.5%), while the Greens have risen to 14.5% (up 3.5%), New Zealand First 5% (up 1.5%), Mana Party 1% (unchanged), Conservative Party of NZ 2% (unchanged) and Others 0.5% (down 1%).
Trendy Stuff!
Roy Morgan’s polling is about as trustworthy as an Obama speech is sincere. This “poll” defies credibility. How was it conducted? Who did they “poll”? The sheep of Epsom?
http://www.3news.co.nz/Banks-trial-date-set/tabid/423/articleID/324693/Default.aspx
Not surprising that John Banks has chosen trial by Judge, rather than trial by jury?
It probably wouldn’t be easy to find a jury of his ‘peers’?
How many ex-Ministers with chronic amnesia are there out there?
Penny Bright