Workers seek higher wages – National don’t agree.
Workers seek valued trusting relationships with employers – National don’t agree.
National want companies but not workers.
warner bros check
local workers……?
petrobras check
local users of the sea for kai……?
overseas train makers check
local engineers and unemployed citizens……?
g says – Heard someone talking about our local film project via Warner Bros. They are tending to keep things quiet about their progress. No doubt they recognise, and are wary of, the confused and naive attitudes to the connection between business and employment here in nz by many workers who are prepared to wreck others jobs in their pursuit of their own individual, unreasonable demands.
so now that the dole queue is growing, the flight to australia has continued and the economic outlook is grim, maybe now we can build the rail fleet that is needed for auckland, in new zealand. after all i hear the labour is relatively cheap here.
the idea that it will cost more than what overseas markets can do it for is an archaic and limited view.
who are the organizations that can raise awareness and put pressure on mr joyce and jonkey to change their stance?
new zealand first? the unions?
In case you haven’t noticed there have been Labour MPs in government, and I sort of thought they wanted to be there again eventually . I’d like to think that they won’t ignore everyone but their favourites. I’m a worker (employee) but I think they should also consider the interests of self employed, business people, and non-workers.
If not they should be up front about their intentions.
Labour MPs should commit themselves to “working tirelessly on behalf of all people”, not just working people or other select groups. Sure there is sometimes compromise needed between conflicting needs of different groups, but overall government should be “for the people”, not just “for whoever might vote for me”.
pb – they’re labouring a bit at the moment, that’s for sure.
You must have missed me saying “I expect any of our governments to represent my interests, as best they can in conjunction with everyone else’s” early in the exchange. This was generally about Labour MPs. But just to make sure you have it clear and don’t think I am implicitly excusing the pope too because I didn’t mention him:
All MP’s in our government of the day and all MPs in parliament should be working for all New Zealanders. They can’t presume any special interest group has specifically voted for them, they shouldn’t favour any group becasue they think it’s worth a few votes to them, once in parliament they are there to represent everyone.
c.v. hmmm… the silence is deafning.
now please do not get me wrong, i am not a fan, however, i was heartened to hear that mr peters was returning to politics as this was a chance of an at least vocal opposition.
i do feel for mr goff as it seems to be feast or famine when it comes to media exposure.
now that there is focus on labour (darren and damien) i would like to see mr goff include a concise message proposing an alternative to the nacts .(no more asset sales, $15 an hour minimum wage, no gst on fresh fruit and veges) a ‘la mr peters
It is the only opposition party likely to be capable of forming a government after the election and as the largest party in opposition with the most resources the onus is on them more than anyone else in parliament to hold the government to account.
Big ups to Green MP Kevin Hague in defending Damien O’Connor, or rather having a go at those who attacked O’Connor for referring to gays in the labour party. Hague says that he is sick and tired of the west coast stereotype as ‘redneck’ and said he has never encountered any trouble throug his being gay on the coast.
Spending a great deal of time there I have to agree completely. The coasters tend to call things pretty bluntly but they aint so-called rednecks. I would suspect that Hague would encounter more trouble east of the alps or north of the strait, where there really is more bigotry and hatred and spit.
Two other points – why on earth does Goff let hmself get dragged into these things? Bloody useless. And secondly, why on earth are the gaggle of gays in the labour party so upset that he refers to them as gays? It is they after all who hold themselves out as gay and representative of that sector. How is he meant to refer to them – a herd of gays? a bunch of gays? some gays? That is what they claim yet they don’t like it when people refer to them as gay??? Should no people other than themselves refer to their being gay? Something missing there..
And why aren’t the unionists similarly outraged that they were referred to as unionists?
sheesh, immaturity running around like headless chooks… get a life.
It’s the “gaggle” part that people have been particularly upset by, as well as implying gays have hi-jacked the selection process. People have been upset at referring to unionists as “self-serving.” As far as I’m aware, Hague didn’t so much support O’Connor’s claims about the “gaggle of gays”, or his use of that term, but defended West Coasters from the label of “rednecks”.
But isn’t the word gaggle commonly used within the gay community ?
Not in the way O’Connor used it to refer to gay people, in my experience anyway. And judging by the responses from the reporters & commenters on the gaynz site, they don’t think so either.
I appreciate that to an extent Carol and a careful reading of my post indicates that.
But and in addition.. At the risk of incurring the wrath of gay people by applying some generalisations…. they are overly sensitive. Chris Carter’s tanties being the last example. They do tend to support such generalisations given their more feminine nature and sensitivity. generally.
Though I guess many others suffer similarly. How many times on here have various been referred to as balding, or fat, or simply arrogantly dismissed as the great lost “white middle class male” like it is some unfortunate gene some are born with. Or what about Helen Clark and the femina*i brigade? Or perhaps we could search this website for instances of Family First generalisations? Or Garth McVicar and his disciples? or rugby players? Or, one of the most rude in recent times, Helen Clark’s own reference to inbreds on the Coast?? Ay ? Ay ?
But and in addition.. At the risk of incurring the wrath of gay people by applying some generalisations…. they are overly sensitive. Chris Carter’s tanties being the last example. They do tend to support such generalisations given their more feminine nature and sensitivity. generally.
Hmmm…. so are you saying that the “gays” O’Connor was referring to are all males? I thought it included Maryan Street? Or do you include her (and me) in having a “more feminine nature.”
Yep, you’re over-generalising.
I must at this point refer to the French and their peculiar manner of viewing the world upside down and backwards, which so often makes complete sense…
Given the performance of Chris Carter and Darren Hughes, its fairly understandable that people are uncomfortable with the gay MPs in Labour. Unfortunately, its all of their own doing – and stating the bleeding obvious is all O’Connor has done.
Given the hounding by the mainstream media of Chris Carter and their hysterical outbursts re Darren Hughes it’s no wonder gay MP’s get a bit touchy. Homophobia is still the name of the mainstream media’s game.
I’ll see Grumpy’s bullshit and raise you a couple of craps.
This lovely sentiment from Bipolar Bear speaks volumes for the contempt that we hold for Labour:
How can a party like Labour possibly have a skeleton like Darren Hughes in its closet? You had the country’s first transgender MP, for Christ’s sake – and she was a former hooker! In an election year, how could a party which has traded on its “rainbow” image not see that the press would have a field day with outing one of its less honest members…
‘Hounding’ by the MSM is a result of poor message management by Phil and co – end of story
1. All MPs realise they are the servants of the movement and their personal ranking and prestiege is, essentially, of no concern whatsoever. They should be there only as long as they are useful. And the movement does not owe them a career.
2. All Labour MPs should think about what they say. If it is not policy related, does not further an important debate or is going to be seized on by RWNJs who will then pollute comments with WAH WAH WAH WAH the aforesaid MP should STFU.
3. All debates on line are about things that really matter like poverty, environmental protection, inequality or crony capitalism and not the schoolyard crap like “but XYZ said Blah Blah Blah and this is conclusive evidence that Goff and Labour is fucked and isn’t John Key great”.
Alternative view from outside the committee…
1. All MPs realise they are the servants of the people and their personal party, ranking and prestige is, essentially, of little concern. They should be there only as long as they are useful to the country. And the country does not owe them a career.
The party rules philosphy may seem right from within the bubble, but it’s not what the people want.
The Westminster adversarial, party-based parliamentary system arose because there has been profound disagreement (even amongst the elite/establishment) about what amounts to being “useful to the country”. Party philosophies (to which you don’t want individual party members to be beholden) are a large part of the basis for the choices electors make.
Would you be equally sanguine about an employee not being publicly ‘loyal’ to a company (e.g., saying they make crap products on a blog?).
No-one is forcing people to join political parties. They can stand as independents if they wish. And, if enough people want a parliament of independents they can vote for them, can’t they? (Much like consumers in a market buying from corporates??- Sorry, but I do like using right-wing logic against right wingers.).
No-one is forcing people to join political parties. They can stand as independents if they wish.
No one forces, no. But to stand any reasonable chance of getting elected you need to be in a party. Even small parties struggle in our two major party favourable system that is not likley to be changed much by the two major parties.
Some adversarial aspect is healthy for sure. But I think the balance is wrong. Rather than 20/80 co-operative to adversarial I’d rather see more like 20/80. Mostly things should be done positively in the best possible way while allowing for some open scrutiny.
Others may know better than I do, but I also understand that a substantial amount of legislation IS processed ‘cooperatively’ or with little opposition. The focus areas of opposition, however, tends to dominate the political debate (naturally, since there isn’t much debate over more ‘mundane’ matters over which the parties tend to agree).
Who knows, you may have your 80/20 cooperative/adversarial split, in terms of legislation, currently.
I know that could be the case, but it’s largely unseen. And largely unreported.
What is seen by most people is a preponderance of deliberate negative attack politics. Not a good look. Not good for developing decent policy.
Cry wolf politics may have some parties some short term wins but I think the public get turned off by it all. It’s hard it differentiate bleating from valid criticism.
The Green Party seems to be managing to hold their numbers up with a modest lineup, in the absence of retired icons, and with minimal attack politics.
Agree Mickey, it might help if they espoused some pretty clear policies that submerged their individual interests. Song sheet of mantras required urgently.
Tend to agree that West Coasters have been unfairly labelled “rednecks” over recent years.
Having extensively researched demographic breakdowns from 1970s-1990s opinion polls on moral/social/foreign policy issues, I’ve found that provincial New Zealand is not quite the morally-conservative bastion so often implied by journalists, historians, politicians and various other commentators (nor is Big City New Zealand, for that matter, the great repository of liberal/progressive values).
To give just one example: of the 20 cities and towns polled on the Springbok Tour in 1981, Greymouth was consistently among the most strongly opposed (usually more opposed than at least 2 of the 4 main centres, and always in the top 5 (out of 20) communities in terms of depth of opposition).
I’d also suggest working-class/blue-collar voters are by no means as rigidly conservative (nor the middle classes as wonderfully liberal and tolerant) as so many of these (usually liberal, middle-class, Baby-Boomer) commentators would have us believe.
To back up your statistics with anecdotal evidence (which we all know is of much more value): My parents, living in Hokitika at the time, were staunch protestors of the tour and, from the way they describe it, certainly not the only ones around those parts.
However, much like John Key, I cannot remember which side I was on… namely because I was born in 1984.
If Damien O’Connor is punished by caucus, Labour may as well disband.
It’s true that the Labour list process is deeply flawed. I’ve been there, seen it happen. The Greens do it better.
Is the result of the selections of a committee of 36 more likely to be a diverse committee or a strong management team?
It’s not the List committee’s fault, but diversity seems to have too much prominence in Labour. In stark contrast to the Clark years the Labour caucus seems less a led team and looks more like a diverse bunch of leadership hopefuls, only one of which has been prepared to have a go right now.
Again you take a comment and put an extreme diss on it.
What’s most important to you, winning or being diverse?
Note – that doesn’t need to be an either/or question. It’s possible to be diverse but put an emphasis on being seen as electable, and it’s possible to have a chance of success with a very diverse list.
What’s better, having a very diverse group who have trouble agreeing on anything of substance? Or having a less diverse group who can work as a team and give reasonable consideration to diverse needs?
Diversity is good, too much diversity can be counter-productive.
G, fekk off to your side of the fence, its our fight and not yours. By the way what was Worth up to? Or Bill dipping into? Or Key lying about? You RWNJs wont even fight amongst yourselves over matters of principle, you just shut up and pretend all is good whilst the most corrupt and venal admin you have ever had gets away with shit.
Governance of New Zealand is our concern. We all have to put up with both National and Labour led governments, in turn.
If you want to frame it as a fight then you will always end up fighting. Listen to Clayton’ Cosgroves interview on NatRad this morning. He was focussed on working with the government to get the best legal structure in place for the good of his constituents. It’s a pity the Labour MPs with a grown up attitude to getting things done together are too busy on their home turf to help their hapless other MPs.
Funny thing Bored, I tend to comment on Labour stuff on a Labour orientated blog, and I comment more on National stuff on a National orientated blog. Do you think that’s unusual?
So what you are basically saying is “la la la la la, I can’t hear you, la la la”?
We don’t have a problem! Our voting base doesn’t matter, its what the party wants that is important! If someone questions us lets just throw mud at National to deflect the attention!
I found it quite interesting that the Stuff poll on the issue (the results of which show a reliably heavy right-wing bias) showed that nearly 70% of respondents thought that the list was not representative of the Labour Party as a whole… which confused me, because isn’t the standard RWNJ line that Labour is over-run by faggots and unionists? Yet somehow they maintain a base level of support of over 30% of the country…
Thanks Jaymam, thats where I stand. Made a comment yesterday basically pointing out that OConnors comments were in line with the public perception of Labour as being hijacked by sectoral interests.
Before anybody gives me shit, read the above again. Perception, perception, perception, not necessarily reality. My issue is how Labour are going to change that perception, or accomodate it because it is not electable. Prejudices whether we like them or not are real and drive voters. It is an issue thaat wont go away and requires a clear strategy.
Asking OConnor to apologise or to punish him will only send a signal to the electorate that their view of labour as captured by sectoral interests is correct. Or conversely to sectoral interests that they can wag the dog.
It is probable that the National Party will learn from this chatter about Labour’s List. They will be very careful to keep a tight lid and keep the discontenters silent. And discontent there will be on National’s List. Especially if their Far Right Wing (currently in Act) were asked about their right to high palcement.
So how is National’s List shaping up. We won’t see the old hands getting high listings, er um will we? MSM please be prepared to discuss.
We won’t see the old hands getting high listings, er um will we?
Er um yes, obviously there will be some, probably most. The important thing will be if we see enough replenishment with high enough rankings. Ideally it should be a mix of experience with fresh new talent.
The fresh new talent for Labour entered at the 2008 election. Once Labour have the benches those 2008 and current fresh blood will flourish. And balance the experienced team members.
I had a good look through the list and the new candidates. All seem reasonable; I don’t see any high flyers or “tactical” recruits with high profiles. That however is entirely up to the party to decide if they think it electable. As you say, last term some good new faces appeared, the question now is how Labour gets these people to the front bench which in my mind has too many timeservers, starting with numbers one and two.
And you are right, the lid needs to be kept on discontent very tightly, another reason why the factions need to be given a hymn sheet.
Yesterday, I heard the first coherent defence of the SCF extension. That was that, had they not rolled the guarantee over, SCF would have collapsed at the time of the refusal to roll, thereby invoking the existing guarantee. The roll over was simply an effort to buy more time for Sandy Meier to try to flog it off.
The extension gave more time for the Government’s mates to pile even more of their cash into a tax payer funded money making merry go round. And it worked brilliantly for them.
Of course it would have collapsed if the guarantee wasn’t extended. Everyone would know something was wrong and no one would invest in it anymore. The question is how much more did we have to fork out for guaranteeing all those new investors who invested after the guarantee was renewed?
oleoleole.. “That was that, had they not rolled the guarantee over, SCF would have collapsed at the time of the refusal to roll, thereby invoking the existing guarantee. The roll over was simply an effort to buy more time for Sandy Meier to try to flog it off.”
And the taxpayer has an obligation to do this why?
And the rules around the guarantee allowed them to be bent to allow this rollover?
Just more muddy murk at the taxpayers expense. Corruption and fraud. That is all there is to it.
And the taxpayer has an obligation to do this why?
Because, once a government has committed to do something, it should do it, right? Labour put the scheme in place (reluctantly) because it believed that the harm which would flow from forbearing to do it would be greater than doing it. Once it is in place, you live with the consequences, or no-one will believe you next time you do it.
Are we talking about governments keeping commitments? Excuse me while I barf in the petunias.
If I recall correctly, the scheme was to run for only a relatively short period of time. The national govt announced the extension and could at that point have announced new rules around acceptance into the extended scheme (and I think they did in some areas). There was no obligation at all to extend the scheme. In particular to SCF which Key knew was about to fail.
It is precisely at this point where the smell starts to arise.
And further, upon some braincell flurry.. if, at the point of termination of the original scheme it was left to terminate then surely SCF would have gone bust the day after the scheme was terminated and as such gone bust outside tof the scheme. The scheme surely only provided a guarantee during the term of the guarantee and not for a random collection of days outside the term?
…and this whole 5 point conversation started with me saying that the reason they extended it was because not extending it would have certainly caused a collapse covered by the existing guarantee put in place by Labour and the reason for the extension was a calculated gamble to avoid that.
I think you will find that being notified that the guarantee was being withdrawn would have compelled the directors to appoint a liquidator thus triggering the existing scheme. The government could hardly have said: “we’re not saying” until the scheme expired. Everyone would have known what that meant.
A refusal to extend the scheme would not have caused the collapse. The collapse was caused long before then, the scheme merely changed some of the timeframes around its collapse.
Also, it was not a withdrawal of the scheme, it was merely coming to its stated end.
The fundamental question remains unanswered… why was SCF allowed in the scheme when Key was told by Treasury on the day he became PM that SCF was going under?
The point is that you were stating the obvious. Now if you could show some evidence that the total liability to the taxpayer was less due to the scheme being extended, then you might have an argument. But something tells me that’s not the case, and extending the scheme increased our liability rather than decreased it. If this was a ‘calculated gamble’, the gamble did NOT pay off, so heads should roll.
As they were eligible under the criteria set by Labour, National had to accept SCF into the scheme.
While you are technically correct, the new government had to let SCF into the scheme under the criteria Labour had set, so I am not sure the basis on which you consider them to be free of culpability.
(BTW, I am not suggesting National balked at letting them in).
And even that was only because of some jiggery-pokery with the books that made no difference to those books that was allowed by Treasury. The whole damn thing stinks.
<i>Why did Standard & Poors give SCF any sort of credit ranking in 2010 when the New Zealand government knew SCF was going to go broke in 2008? </i>
Because treasury and the trustees approved a transfer of assets from southbury which made their bottom line look good, (but was otherwise of zero benifit to scf according to treasury), just in time to get that credit rating, which allowed the inclusion into the extended guarantee scheme?
YesP’s b, but as you pointed out that transfer was a zero sum game. i.e. SCF’s net position was the same.
What that means is that Standard & Poors standards are extremely poor. But why are we surprised? Aren’t they one of the organisation which gave superior credit ratings to each and every bank and finance company in the land right up until the GFC?
It is a clear manipulation of low standard finance requirements. Just like Hanover and Hotchin and Watson’s manipulation of dividend and accounting rules allowed them to pull over $90million in dividends prior to bust. (rules allowed a profit on a loan to be booked on advancing the loan, not repayment. head shaking).
These guys (S&P and their like) were also saying that Lehman Bros, AIG, Goldman Sach et al were safe companies.
Under President Ronald (I think) the rules were changed so that credit agencies ceased to be independent assessors and could write a report if you slipped them a few bucks.
Chris Trotter has a good piece of reflection on the slow grind of the right since FDR to undo all the safe guards and create a climate for cowboys to operate unhindered (they’re certainly unhindered by a conscience!)
I understood that some very rich savvy investors knew that SCF was dodgy, but invested heavily knowing that it was still guaranteed. If it survived they would get about 11% interest. Great return. If it failed they would get their money back. Like betting on a horse but if it loses the nice man will refund your bet. Or buy umpteen Lotto tickets but if they don’t win – refund.
If it survived they would get about 11% interest. Great return. If it failed they would get their money back.
It’s an even better deal than that, ianmac. The company fell over and we covered not just the invested capital, but the interest that would have hypothetically been made if the company survived as well.
That’s the real scandal. Key & English’s rich mates piled in and invested when they knew the company was falling over, but why would they unless they knew that they’d be compensated for the potential profits that they would never make? If they were only likely to get back their principal (and they knew the company was going down) then why bother?
Key & English should be investigated by the serious fraud office for their part in this mess.
Yup, they must have been pissing themselves at the prospect of easy money.
Some of them are our fellow NZdrs and sit at home at night and watch the news stories of other NZdrs anguishing over the cost to the country, knowing that they, themselves, made money by fleecing NZdrs.
I wonder if these people will also be the types to get involved in bene-bashing, and tut tuting when they see the great unwashed at KFC.
I can only hope that the SFO get making some prosecutions or at least someone starts naming names.
I wonder if the site of a similar finance business to SCF was in Northland, never a great National seat, what would have been the treatment then? Canterbury with well-heeled and entrenched aggro business (particularly over irrigation water), would have more leverage. And is Timaru a National electorate? People there loved this guy Alan Hubbard and were angry at attempts to measure his company’s health and make an informed diagnosis. Understandable – they didn’t want to take hard tack after having good fodder for so long.
I had a look at Wikipedia. Timaru is part of the parliamentary electorate of Rangitata, represented by Jo Goodhew of the New Zealand National Party.
DTB I wasn\’t thinking of it as an excuse but as a reason for why the SCF couldn\’t, early on, go into receivership or whatever. Would the NACTS have acted I ask, if the centre of the SCF financial vortex wasn\’t around Ashburton where so many fine farm-grown specimens of NACTS come from?
“Our data from the early Pliocene, when carbon dioxide levels remained close to modern levels for thousands of years, may indicate how warm the planet will eventually become if carbon dioxide levels are stabilized at the current value of 400 parts per million,” said Aradhna Tripati, a UCLA assistant professor in the department of Earth and space sciences and the department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences. The results of this study lend support to assertions made by climate modelers that summertime sea ice may be eliminated in the next 50 to 100 years, which would have far-reaching consequences for Earth’s climate, she said.
Seeing as AMI is effectlively a consumer co-operative, I wonder if various people on both sides of the political fence will use this to try to discredit this model.
As we all know, co-operatives have been a large part of the kiwi landscape (especially agriculture) for years, and our largest company, Fonterra, is a co-op.
The Labour party will do well in making generous room for co-operatives in its vision for NZ.
The NZ economy is a skeleton, the arguments that apply to deep balanced economies with broad tax regimes do not apply here. The reason why successful companies are so social, trade me, fonterra, AMI (yes), is they do the social costly part themselves that government (both sides) have ignored. If government does not deal to society fairly then of course the winners will be the social companies, the interest wins, the old oil processes lose. From the looks of AMI, AMI would have survived if there was a competent Earthquake specialist in NZ. In heinsight NZ is twisting, Southland moved toward Australia, so when the major Earthquake happened to the East of ChCh, it was obvious there would be a serious one less order magnitude under ChCh that would push existing buildings further into collpase. Now AMI was not insured enough for the reason that ChCh developers (you know the people who brought us the leaky homes crisis) push concil to open up land on the liquefaction soils. So it was a council that created the problem, and AMI who didn’t charge the going rate to those homes on sand water logged soils. If I were AMI I’d be suing Council and the Earthquake specialists who gave their advice and didn’t expose the hazard of liquefaction. But essential this problems comes back to central government who continue under mining of good professional expertise, the profit driven university model, leaves top scientists with little incentive to tell us of the risks and too much incentive to actively play the market themselves. NZ is a skeleton because government routinely go to the people telling them they can have government on the cheap, that no area of the economy should not be producing profit, that we don’t need no cake, and we don’t need to eat it either, we just need to make cake for others and never eat it and everything will be fine.
In an internet connected world there is no tyranny of distance, there is only poor governance.
ACT are most into the formula of no government, hands off the driving wheel, wee look how competent they are having no engagement with active policy making around facts.
My pick millsy is that AMI will be taken over by the govt, most likely in part and that it will be used as the ‘insurer’ that the Nat govt will use to begin its stated agenda of insurance rather than govt cover for things like unemployment, heathcare etc. By doing it thus the transfer from public to private cover looks less radical and they can still claim that we are being looked after by the Govt – right up to the point when the company is sold back into private hands. Just a guess but when it comes to the Nats and bail outs (or any type or assistance for that matter) they only help those that further thier agenda in some way.
millsy – A financial commentator recently said that AMI had a problem as a mutual company, with its shareholders being also policy holders, in obtaining capital. He thought that would have been a constraint. It was not in the interests of policy holders to pay higher premiums enabling bigger reserves.
Fonterra seems to have managed its capital needs though. I think it is too strong to easily be cut to pieces by predatory interests.
New Police Commissioner Peter Marshall has only one opportunity to show how much change he wants the Police to achieve.
He can choose to continue to follow the whims of oil barons and bankers or work within the law and support the legal rights of the New Zealand citizenry,
Two current events are going to show his hand. One is the Petobas protest, the second and far more discreet though no less vital to the role of the Police is the defense of a citizen’s right to free speech. I refer to the ridiculous arrest of Tiki Taane for an impromptu performance of a song that has been regularly performed throughout NZ for many years.
It is important to remember no violence occured, no Police were assaulted and all arrests occured long after the performance of the song.
There is no such thing as “freedom of speech”. There are legal constraints on what you can say.
For what freedom that remains there comes, as with all freedoms, an expectation of responsibility.
Saying “F*&^% the police” over the sound system, to a crowded bar of people drinking at 3 am, when the cops walk in, is a deliberately provocative act and the consequence is that it escalates the “mood” of the situation.
Not a smart thing to do and is in no way a test for the new police commissioner – it’s just a set to with a load mouth and can be handled by the rank and file.
As for comparing it to the use of the military to enforce an a police action against it’s own citizenry in favour of foreign commercial interests and on the high seas, is just plainly absurd!
i was not comparing anything. I plainly stated there are two current events that will show which interpretation of law the Police see themselves using.
Taane’s decision to sing this particular track when the Police entered the bar was not particularly smart but if ignorance is a crime this country is going to need more prisons. A performance, as with most Art, has certain allowances that differ from the public statements of daily life. I have been told that Tiki Taane’s ‘cover’ of the song was during a routine visit to the establishment by Police, that no violence occured and no Police were physically threatened. No arrests were made and the Police left unaccosted by the audience..
It was over an hour later, as the bar was closing that Police returned, with wagons, and the arrests happened. An hour where any events resulting from the alledged incitement to violence would certainly have eventuated.
if someone has details that differ from these reports please let people know
For those thinking about credit ratings as discussed above.
With the current agency policy in the US of issuer-pays i.e. the entity raising the debt pays for the assessment to be done. This has the advantage over the investor pays model because not all investors can afford to have the rating done and when it is completed it remains the property of the investor and no one else gets to see it.
With issuer-pays, every one gets to see it. But, there is a problem with this model – a conflict of interest of with the agency being paid to may give an assessment to suit, and the issuer can sit on an unfavourable assessment until they have shopped around until they find a favourable one (which is the only one made public)
Perhaps we need an independent agency (I suggest treasury have the expertise) that would require all issuers of debt (and similar institutions) to undergo regular assessments by Treasury.
The Treasury would be required by statute to make the assessments publicly available and the whole process would kept, by statue, free from any old boys interference from the politicians.
Damien O’Connor has apologised for the wording he used when criticising the Labour List process. Apology accepted (by me,as I have been strongly critical of his choice of words).
He reserves the right to criticise the Labour List. I’m not a Labour Party member, so I’ll leave that up to those who are. IMO, he has a right to be critical of stuff. However, I see no evidence of some sort of controlling gay power block in Labour.
The union issue is another matter. Again I didn’t like his choice of wording, but I thought there was a significant place for union leaders in labour, that is historical.
Damien O’Conner has apologised to caucus, but according to Stuff news he hasn’t resiled from his actual claims. In my view he should be suspended from caucus until such a time as he does…
Lets be clear why he made the claims in the first place. He was a mediocre minister in the Clark Labour govt., and he is a mediocre parliamentarian. That is why he was placed low on the list in 2008 and only scraped back into parliament after a resignation – either Clark or Cullen I think. He knew the same was going to happen this time around so he went looking for scapegoats – unionists and gays.
Interestingly, the Herald has produced a list of the number of unionists and gays in the Labour caucus. Out of 47 MPs, 8 have union backgrounds and 5 are gay. That speaks for itself!
Well, I don’t have views on what the Labour causus should do on this issue. But on looking at the evidence, i agree that the targeting of unionists & gays seems like a bit of dog-whistle scapegoating.
What the graphs show is that Labour’s caucus will look broadly similar to New Zealand, but will continue to moderately underrepresent women, Maori, and New Zealanders of Asian descent. The Rainbow community is either marginally overrepresented (by about one MP) or represented proportionally, depending on which population estimate [of proportion of gays in the population] you prefer. And Pasifika peoples are overrepresented in Labour’s caucus by 1-2 MPs.
So it would seem women have the greatest reason to criticise the list system.
“If you had your way, O’Connor would be ceremonially expelled from the Labour party, and maybe from the country. Shame on you!”
That’s not quite the same thing as being suspended from caucus, Deb. Which I think he should be, if he doesn’t understand it’s not his words that are the problem, it’s his prejudices. And it’s certainly not to late to de-select him as West Coast/Tasman candidate. That Tony Kokshoorn would make a fine replacement, IMHO
I notice, VoR, that your quote above is not what I said here, but what I said elsewhere. Why? Because you don’t have an answer to what I actually said?
Have you checked Tony Kokshoorn carefully for any signs of homophobia? 🙂 For goodness’ sake, you’re making his point for him! Why all the screaming about gay rights, and no moans about what he said about unionists?
Middleclass kiddies. On the other thread someone asked if there were working class gays. The only answer to that is “who knows’? If there are (and there well might be) they’re not in your social circle!
On the other thread someone asked if there were working class gays.
Yes, I saw that. It was in reply to a comment which implied – perhaps unwittingly – that “working class” and “gay” were mutually exclusive groups. It appeared to be phrased as a question to make the recipient rethink what they had written.
You’re developing quite a habit of referring to people’s statements out of context and suggestively superimposing a new meaning on them.
You’ve expressed a keen professional interest in the use of language before which makes it difficult to believe that you’re doing this accidentally.
Is that why you decided to call me ‘mental’? Wnat a prince, what a charming guy you are.
I didn’t think I’d used the quote out of context, but if you say so, you’re the boss! Clearly…
OK, there’s something idiotically wrong with the edit function. I tried to correct my typos, and I don’t know what went wrong. Whatever it is, it wants fixing.
I am a bit constrained about fixing anything right now. The CPU use is way way up (which appears to be causing the problem) and I’m waiting for a new server to go online. When that happens I am expecting the problem to largely disappear. But I also have a wee list of fixes to apply that I cannot right now (the test webpages are also affected so I can’t do the final tests).
I’m waiting for you to email the bank acct numba to me so that I can give my first monthly contribution. Sorry, won’t be heaps (not till I win lotto, haha) but every wee bit helps.
For which you provided no context at all. You then went on to imply that the questioner asked it as if they didn’t already know the answer.
I didn’t imply, you inferred. Believe it or not, I had forgotten the context, because I don’t devote myself to verbal battles at the Standard, I have other things to do and think about – such as the language teaching you’re busy belittling.
Goodnight sweet prince. I just want to say, your chances of getting a boyfriend go down considerably, if you’re in the habit of belittling people who don’t think exactly as you believe they ought to.
No, you did imply. You discussed the remark as if it meant something you had to know full well it didn’t.
And now you’re implying that I’m gay, which I guess you think I must be because I pointed out that you’re a homophobe. Which does kinda reinforce the impression that you’re a homophobe.
Vicky32, I’m not belittling your language teaching and I fail to see how you could draw that conclusion from anything I’ve said. On the contrary I’m pointing out that as a language teacher you don’t get to use the excuse that you don’t understand language.
They’re your words, Deb. From yesterday. Sorry if that wasn’t clear, but in your comment above you said you “predicted this demand” (suspension from caucus) and I thought I’d check, because that’s not what I remember you saying yesterday. So I quoted what you did say, which is not actually what you claimed today that you said. It’s not a big difference in tone, of course, however you went for hyperbole and overkill, not the reasonable suggestion from Carol that suspension from caucus might be an option.
not the reasonable suggestion from Carol that suspension from caucus might be an option.
Huh? Where did I ever suggest that? I have never thought that. In the interest of accuracy, check above. The suggestion came from Anne.
A month into Japan’s nuclear crisis, no robots have been put to work at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Instead, the plant’s operator is relying on a cheaper, expendable resource: humans.
An Egyptian blogger was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for criticizing the military in what human rights advocates called one of the more alarming violations of freedom of expression since a popular uprising led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubaraktwo months ago.
Samuel: Those National Trolls have been busy formenting their mischief.
Or else it is a signal that the general population couldn’t give a damn about the Hughes or O’Conner Kiwiblog fabricated distraction.
How many of those right wingers who screamed and screamed that the nasty actors (and possibly some of the crew members), should actually seek to be actual employees and have union coverage, will actually go and SEE this movie.
To be fair, I probably will, Jackson and his crew actually make half decent movies, with half decent special effects (which, by the way, are probably the largest cost in a movie)
Thanks,DTB. It’s a very comprehension coverage of the dispute. I followed the dispute as represented in the media, quite closely at the time, and this seems like an acurate account. I heard that RNZ interview by Ryan of Boyens & Walsh live, thought the interviewees were vicious in their smears of the CTU & Kelly (later shown to be misinformation), and wrote a few posts here mentioning it. As kelly says, it didn’t get much MSM news coverage.
If people don’t want to wade through all the detail, I suggest at least reading the Conclusion: eg this part:
But the response to the Hobbit dispute underlies a fundamental problem with the “jobs” narrative that is being driven up by the right wing in this country and used to hammer any worker who might want to have a voice in the economy or world of work. The narrative is largely unchallenged and is holding us back in many areas and is part of the growing corporate dominance over of our society and community.
Basically the story runs like this – and I am simplifying it. Work is a benefit, business is the benefactor and workers are merely the beneficiaries. Workers should be grateful for a job; a job is a privilege; employers should be lauded for the contribution they make to growing economic wealth. This narrative not only devalues the contribution of labour and fails to recognise the exchange of labour for wages that is taking place, but it also provides the justification for the removal of work rights, insufficient pay rates, government subsidies to business and the like. It paints anyone who joins or seeks to organise a union as disloyal, a wrecker or an ingrate, throwing charity back in the face of the giver.
It paints the union as an outsider, an interferer in a relationship based on charity. The employer is to be revered – deference is the name of the game.
Plus there’s an interesting comment on Pike River after that.
Dont know what Jones issue is but there is a fear that turbines will kill off the snapper fishery. I recall 95% of the snapper breed in the Kaipara, and if the turbines kill the youngsters the west coast snapper fishery would die out. I dont know how real the risk is.
I would believe it. My grandparents had a batch up at Pouto on the north head. It is the only place that I have ever been able to wander down to the beach in the morning, throw a line off the beach, and haul in a snapper breakfast for 7 or more people within an hour. I grew up thinking that was normal fishing.
But with the depth of the rip trench there, I wouldn’t be too worried about the snapper. They mostly stick to the upper areas of the rip areas from when I was diving there. But I’d like to see some impact reports.
But Kelvin Davis is also correct. Those massive dune hills would make a amazing windfarm area. I suspect the biggest issue would be finding a way to anchor them into something solid
It seems the answer is on his Labour.org personal page.
It will be impossible to construct 200 turbines the height of the Auckland Farmer’s Building in the Kaipara Harbour without undue impact on the marine environment. The sad thing is that there is an alternative solution, which is to construct a wind farm on the Poutu Peninsula, that people could live with,” Kelvin Davis said. If the environmental impact of these turbines is such that they kill off the west coast snapper, sharks and maui dolphin and silt up the harbour, who will take responsibility in the future for tearing the turbines out and restoring the harbour to its original state?
<p><a title=”The opening salvo in this year\’s Easter trading debate is fired.” href=”http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/4876868/Motueka-supermarket-plans-to-defy-Easter-Sunday-ban” target=”_blank”>The opening salvo in this year\’s Easter trading debate is fired</a></p>
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Personally I think that this supermarket boss is totally out of line here, but in saying that, I accept that the restrictions will eventually be lifted, and while supermarket owners will love it, the workers will find themselves losing yet another holiday (and one step close to getting the boot, what with the 90 trial, etc if they refuse), this policy of having the law dicate that certain shops must be closed over easter is getting harder to justify.
A simple solution would be to a) make Easter Sunday a public holiday, so workers are given full compensation for giving up their holiday (get fucked Cameron Brewer — I\’d love to see you come into work on your day off) and b) give workers the legal right to refuse to work over these days.</p>
by Deirdre O’Neill Under Thatcher and then Blair and continuing up until our contemporary moment, the working class has seen its culture slowly and progressively destroyed. The change from an industrial society to a service society produced a marked shift in focus from the working class as the backbone of ...
Since 2013, the Australian government has detained refugees without trial in Pacific gulags, where they are abused, tortured, and driven to suicide. The policy is not just an abuse of human rights and possible crime against humanity; it has also had a corrosive effect on the states Australia uses as ...
It seems fair to say that we currently live in a problematic political moment in world history. Democracies are in decline and dictatorships are on the rise. Primordial, sectarian and post-modern divisions have re-emerged, are on the rise or have been accentuated by political evolutions of the moment such as ...
Last month, Greenpeace head Russel Norman surrendered his speaking slot at an EPA conference to student climate activist Sorcha Carr, who told the EPA exactly what she thought of them. It was a bold move, which confronted both regulators and polluters (or, as the EPA calls them, "stakeholders") with the ...
The core principle supposedly underlying New Zealand's electoral finance regime is transparency: parties can accept large donations from rich people wanting to buy policy, but only if they tell the public they've been bought. Most parties abide by this, so we know that TOP was wholly-owned by Gareth Morgan, and ...
Today is a Member's Day, probably the second-to-last one of the year, and its a big one, with the Third Reading of David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill. last Member's Day it was reported back from committee, after MPs voted narrowly to make it subject to a (rules TBA) ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzThe growth of the human population over the last 70 ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women In her excellent oral submission to the Abortion reform select committee on 31st October on behalf of Otago University’s Department of Public Health, historian and public health researcher Hera Cook stated: “We would ask that the committee not use the term ‘pregnant persons’ and ...
by Don Franks In 1957, E M Forster wrote, of his greatest work: “The India described in ‘A Passage to India’ no longer exists either politically or socially. Change had begun even at the time the book was published ( 1924) and during the following quarter of a century it ...
The Referendums Framework Bill was due back from select committee today. But there's no report on it. Instead, the bill has been bounced back to the House under Standing order 29593) because the Committee didn't bother to produce one. They probably tried. But given the membership of the committee (which ...
Two years into New Zealand’s Labour-led government, the long-delayed Zero Carbon Bill became law on 7 November. Passed essentially unanimously, the lengthy public debates and political manoeuvring faded away until the final passage was even anticlimactic: Flipping through the @nzstuff@DomPost I was starting to wonder if I’d dreamt ...
Now the Zero Carbon Bill is law, what's next? Obviously, the ETS changes currently before select committee are going to be the next battleground. But we're also going to get a good idea of where we're going, and if the progress the Zero Carbon Act promises is good enough, during ...
Grant PearceThe effects of the current Australian bushfires in New South Wales and Queensland (and also again in California) are devastating and far-reaching. To date, the fires have resulted in several lives being lost and many homes and properties destroyed. Here in New Zealand, the impacts have been only ...
A passing comment in a post the other day about the labour force participation rates of older people prompted me to pull down the fuller data and see what we could see about various participation rates over the decades since the HLFS began in 1986. As it happens, the ...
Distract And Divert: The rise of what we have come to call “Identity Politics” represents the ideological manifestation of the ruling class’s objective need to destroy class politics, and of the middle-class’s subjective need to justify their participation in the process.THE RELIEF of the ruling class can only be imagined. ...
"I saw a newspaper picture,From the political campaignA woman was kissing a child,Who was obviously in pain.She spills with compassion,As that young child'sFace in her hands she gripsCan you imagine all that greed and avariceComing down on that child's lips?" ...
Dr Matt Boyd, Prof Michael Baker, Prof Nick WilsonThe Global Health Security Index which considers pandemic threats has just been published. Unfortunately, NZ scores approximately half marks (54/100), coming in 35th in the world rankings – far behind Australia. This poor result suggests that the NZ Government needs to ...
The Zero Carbon Act is inadequate, with a weak methane target designed to give farmers a free ride. But it turns out it could have been worse: Climate Change Minister James Shaw was so desperate to get National on board, he wanted to gut that target, and leave it in ...
The Herald reprints an Australian story on a couple of tragic deaths in Bali from drinking cocktails that had methanol in them. The story argues that methanol is likely the result of home distillation. But what the young tourists were experiencing was far from a hangover. They’d consumed a toxic cocktail ...
Last month, the police announced a trial of specialist roaming armed units, which would drive round (poor, brown) areas in armoured SUVs, armed to the teeth. When they announced the trial, they told us it was about having armed police "ready to attend major incidents at any time if needed". ...
Spain went to the polls today in the second elections this year, after the Socialists (who had come to power in a confidence vote, then gone to the polls in April) rejected the offer of a coalition with the left-wing PoDemos, and instead decided to gamble n a better outcome ...
A couple of days ago I attended (and spoke at) the University of Waikato’s “LearnFest” event. There were lots of talks and sessions on very diverse aspects of teaching, mostly at tertiary level. One was by Myra Williamson from Te Piringa Faculty of Law here at Waikato, on Contract Cheating ...
There will be a transit of Mercury – the planet Mercury will pass across the face of the Sun – taking place at sunrise in New Zealand on Tuesday, 12th November. It was by observing such an event 250 years ago that James Cook and his scientist colleagues were able ...
Since becoming the world’s first openly transexual mayor and member of parliament, Georgina Beyer has been recognised as a trailblazer for trans rights. Daphna Whitmore talks with her about where she sees the current trans movement We start out talking about legislation the government put on hold that would have ...
If FFNZ really put their faith in “Top Medical Journals” they would now be amending their billboards to recognise new research results. Image from FFNZ but updated to agree with the latest research. ...
National Messiah? Chris Luxon identifies himself as an evangelical Christian. If he is genuine in this self-characterisation, then he will take every opportunity his public office provides to proselytise on behalf of his faith. He will also feel obliged to bear witness against beliefs and practices he believes to be ...
I'm going to make a Reckless Prediction™ that the Tories have 'topped out' in the 'poll of polls' / Britain Elects multipoll tracker at about 38%, and in the next week we will start to see Labour creep up on them.In fact, we might just be seeing the start of ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Lizzie Marvelly: “I may have missed this… has @afterellen gone all terf-y? Or am I reading something incorrectly? “ https://twitter.com/LizzieMarvelly/status/1191840059105742849 After Ellen is a lesbian website that is unashamedly pro-lesbian, as you’d expect. So why is Ms Marvelly so bothered about lesbians having their ...
Did you know there once was a time when it was illegal to be a gypsy (aka Romani) in Britain?That was between 1530, when the Egyptians Act was passed, and 1856, when it was repealed.Amongst other things, the act forbade the entry of 'Egyptians' into England, ordered those already there ...
Some days I sit and think, “what will I write…?” What do you say when you get to 1000 posts? Maybe you just start where you are, diverge to where this all began, then offer a collection of reader’s favourite posts, and a few of your own? (And throw in ...
Counter-Puncher: The “activists” and “radicals” (his own words) from the Indian community who took such strong exception to Shane Jones’ remarks about Immigration NZ’s treatment of arranged marriages, may end up bitterly regretting their intervention. Jones is not the sort of person who turns the other cheek to his critics.SHANE ...
In the spirit of Remember, remember the fifth of November, let's keep this in mind FOREVER.
Oh dear. Extraordinary interview on PM with Andrew Bridgen and @EvanHD just now. Bridgen was defending Jacob Rees Mogg’s Grenfell comments. Evan asked him if JRM had meant to say he would have left ...
Collision Course? In conditions of ideological white-out, the international bankers’ “Woop-Woop! Pull Up!” warning may have come too late to save global capitalism.WHAT DOES IT MEAN when international bankers are more willing to embrace radical solutions than our politicians and their electors? At both the International Monetary Fund and the ...
Pertussis (whooping cough) is a conundrum. It is a disease that was described hundreds of years ago and the bacteria that causes it (Bordetella pertussis) isolated in 1906. We have had vaccines for about 80 years but this disease is defiant in the face of human immunity. I wanted to ...
The Zero Carbon Bill has just passed its third reading, uanimously. In the end, National supported it - but we all know they'll turn around and gut it the moment they regain power. Meanwhile, I guess ACT's David Seymour didn't even bother to show up. I am on record as ...
Dr Lindsay Robertson, Dr Jerram Bateman, Professor Janet HoekMembers of the public health community hold divergent views on how access to vaping products or electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) products should be arranged. Some believe ENDS should be as widely available as smoked tobacco and argue for liberal ...
When the Police were trying to cover up for the National Party over Dirty Politics, they went all-in with their abuses of power. They illegally search Nicky Hager's house, violating his journalistic privilege and invading his privacy. They unlawfully acquired Hager's bank records. They did the same to left-wing blogger ...
Last month, in response to a wave of protests by Extinction Rebellion, the British government purported to ban their protests from the whole of London. It was a significant interference with the freedoms of expression and assembly, and another sign of the country's decline into tyranny. But now, a court ...
Last year, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security reported on significant problems with the intelligence warrant system. While they were unwilling to declare any warrant "irregular" (meaning unlawful) due to the recent law change, they were also not willing to give the system a clean bill of health. Now, they've ...
The National Party has come out in support of encouraging greater vaccination uptake. But it sure isn’t the way I’d do it. National’s suggested docking the benefits of those on benefit whose kids aren’t keeping up with their vaccinations. Some in National have suggested extending that to payments under Working ...
Feeding The Flames: It is simply not enough to demand an end to “corruption”, or “inequality”, or the overbearing influence of the authorities in Beijing. These are just “lowest common denominator” demands: the sort of slogans that pull people onto the streets. They are not a plan.WHERE’S THE PLAN? Across ...
The labour market statistics have been released, and unemployment has risen to 4.2%. There are 115,000 unemployed - 11,000 fewer than when Labour took office. In that time the minimum wage has gone up by $2 an hour, which shows that the right's fears about increases causing unemployment are simply ...
The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee has called for submissions on Andrew Little's tyrannicalTerrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill. Normally I encourage participation in the democratic process. I am not doing so in this case. Instead, I encourage all of you to boycott this submissions process, and to post ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzIf tiny concentrations of carbon dioxide can hold enough heat ...
Aviation is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and within it, one of the fastest sources is elite travel: billionaires flitting around the world in their private jets, spewing excessive pollution into the atmosphere just so they can avoid mixing with us dirty peasants. But in ...
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by Phil Duncan Here’s just a few of the kind of threats issued day in and day out against gender-critical women – feminists, marxists, etc – overwhelmingly by MEN (albeit men identifying as women). “Kill all Terfs”. “Shoot a Terf today”. “All terfs deserve to be shot in the head”. ...
This is the third of the synopses of parts of the opening chapter of John Smith’s Imperialism in the 21st Century (New York, Monthly Review Press, 2016). The synopsis and commentary below is written by Phil Duncan. Unlike the humble cup of coffee and t-shirt that we looked at in ...
Tom MooreTraditionally a food source and cutting tool, freshwater mussels/kākahi are now widely valued as water filters that help clean our waterbodies and maintain ecosystem health throughout Aotearoa. The improvement they provide in water quality can make it easier for other animals to live in streams and rivers, as ...
And to think he gave all the potential goodwill away with that moronic, cult-like statement (repeated ad nauseam by many National hardliners) that Key is quite simply “the greatest PM we ever had”…Installation complete: this was nothing ...
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Winston Peters is in court today, suing a bunch of former Minister and civil servants over their pre-election leak of his superannuation repayment. He's characterised the leak as malicious, and said that it is repugnant that his information was passed on to Ministers to use for political advantage. And he's ...
Murray CoxDo I have to finish my favourite genome? That’s an often-asked question. Geneticists generally strive to produce high-quality genomes that sequence every last gene, making full use of the state-of-the-art technologies coming on stream. Sequencing DNA means determining the order of the four chemical building blocks – called ...
Transformative Politics: The idea is to turn each recipient into an unwitting accomplice in their own transformation. From interested observer to hyped-up activist, sharing our messages promiscuously with ‘friends’. You’ll be part of an ever-expanding circulatory system, Jennifer, for the ideas that will win us the election.”JENNIFER SKITTERED her chair ...
The boycott is a fundamental tool of protest. By choosing who we buy from, we can send a message, and hopefully change corporate behaviour. Historically, boycotts have been effective, for example over apartheid in South Africa and Israel, in forcing divestment from Myanmar, and in ending bus segregation in the ...
Jan Rivers spoke at the Abortion Legislation Select Committee in favour of the bill, but in opposition to calls from other submitters to exchange the word ‘woman’ for ‘person’ throughout the bill. Jan is a supporter of the feminist group Speak Up For Women and has recently written an excellent ...
I checked my traffic stats:I was intrigued by 'monica29' - who was this very dedicated individual? I clicked on the link, to be greeted with ...Ho, hum.Spreadin' the word, spreadin' the word. Doesn't matter who hears it, as long as it gets out there. ...
There have been three polls since the election was announced, and I will shamelessly steal YouGov / UK Polling Report's Anthony Wells' summary of them:Survation – CON 34%, LAB 26%, LDEM 19%, BREX 12%, GRN 1% Ipsos MORI – CON 41%, LAB 24%, LDEM 20%, BREX 7%, GRN 3% YouGov ...
The following article is translated from Lutte Ouvrière, the weekly newspaper of the organisation usually known by the same name in France. When, for the second time this year, Chilean President Piñera announced an increase in the price of Metro tickets from 800 to 830 pesos, students in the high ...
Today, a worker contacted me asking if she could go to the police over her employer stealing thousands of dollars from her in unpaid wages. The employer also did not pay this worker’s taxes or student loan which amounts to tax fraud. As a workers rights activist, who founded the ...
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, They're Yours: Is there any person more vulnerable than a jilted lover on the rebound? Or, anything more certain than that the charmer, the predator, the glib spinner of lies and promises will seek such broken people out? Yes, of course, he will love every one of ...
Though Jonathan Romain is a fairly high profile Rabbi, writing in several papers and popping up on TV and the radio, this story doesn't seem to have made it to the Guardian yet, so I'll take the unusual step of linking the Stephen Pollard edited Jewish Chronicle:Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain ...
There's an election afoot, and that is when noted opinion formers such as myself get to make wild fools of ourselves by pretending we have the faintest idea what will happen.So, here is my absurdly optimistic prediction:Labour - 285Conservative - 262SNP - 53Lib Dems - 20PC - 5Ireland - 18 ...
Image Credit:Increase Social Media Traffic & Website Traffic I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your ...
Belinda CridgeI was reading my son a story last night. A great tale of derring-do of five mountaineers scaling the Matterhorn for the first time. One in the party had tried six times previously and failed, this was the last attempt before winter closed another season. They tried a ...
As introduced, the Zero Carbon Bill included an expansive secrecy clause, which would have covered virtually all decisions by the Climate Change Commission over our most important policy area. The Ministry for the Environment admitted this was a mistake (or as they put it, an "oversight"), and the select committee ...
Rachael Shaw, Victoria University of WellingtonWhen we think about animals storing food, the image that usually comes to mind is a squirrel busily hiding nuts for the winter. We don’t usually think of a small songbird taking down an enormous invertebrate, tearing it into pieces and hiding these titbits ...
. . NZ First’s success in putting the euthenasia bill to a public referenda may not be the victory they believe it to be. They may even have sounded the death-knell for a second Labour-NZ First-Green coalition. On 23 July this year, NZ First MP, Jenny Marcroft, submitted a Supplementary ...
Interesting contrasting pictures in the Guardian:Corbyn gets the classic positive shot - low angle and a clear background, making him look authoritative (of course, being Corbyn, he doesn't do authoritative very well).Where as Johnson gets pictured with children at some sort of mad-hatters' tea party:Begging the question, who is the ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Justice New Zealand First is proud that a key Coalition Agreement commitment which will provide for a more transparent and effective criminal justice system has been realised. Legislation to establish the Criminal Cases Review Commission, an independent body focused on identifying and responding to possible miscarriages of ...
"Today we have made a choice that will leave a legacy... I hope that means that future generations will see that we, in New Zealand, were on the right side of history." - Jacinda Ardern, Third Reading of the Zero Carbon Bill ...
Darroch Ball, New Zealand First List MP A Member’s bill has been proposed that would provide income tax exemptions for all New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel while on operational deployment overseas. The Income Tax (Exemption for Salary or Wages of NZDF Members on Active Deployment) Amendment Bill proposed by New Zealand First ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have brought common sense to the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, which passed its final reading in Parliament today. Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters says months of hard work went into negotiating a balanced ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First has listened to calls to recognise paramedics as registered health professionals under the Health Practitioners’ Competence Assurance Act (the Act).Today, the Coalition Government announced plans for paramedics to be registered as health practitioners under the Act, and the establishment of a ...
We began the week by commemorating the New Zealand Wars and celebrating a major increase in the number of teachers. Then, we were busy supporting offenders into work and getting our rail back on track after years of underinvestment. And that's just the start! ...
In October I was sworn in as the Mayor of Lower Hutt.It’s the privilege of my life to serve Hutt people as their Mayor. There is something really special to be able to serve the community where I was raised, and where I live. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Racing Racing Minister Winston Peters met with Korea Racing Authority Chairperson Nak Soon Kim in Seoul today to discuss closer cooperation between the New Zealand and Korean horse racing industries. As part of the visit to the Seoul Racecourse, Mr Peters witnessed ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $10 million to establish Otago as the centre of New Zealand’s creative digital industry over the next ten years, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “The initiative will bring us closer to the vision of ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)’s skills and employment programme will help young Otago people into long-term forestry careers, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. Te Ara Mahi will invest $63,000 in the 2020 school year to support eight 17 and 18 ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) will support local plans to revitalise and stimulate economic development opportunities in Otago, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The four Regional Economic Development Ministers have approved an in-principle investment of $19.9 million towards the region’s ...
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is pleased to have received the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) report on the Coalition Government’s Mycoplasma bovis eradication efforts, which shows significant progress in the fight against the disease. New Zealand First Spokesperson for Primary Industries, Mark Patterson, says the report’s findings ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Hon David Parker, Minister for Trade and Export Growth The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing to support economic growth opportunities for Otago’s engineering and manufacturing sectors, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones and Trade and Export Minister David Parker announced today. Almost $20 million ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters and his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, discussed in Seoul today opportunities to work more closely in the Pacific and the situation on the Korean Peninsula. Mr Peters and Minister Kang confirmed New Zealand and the ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Hon Nanaia Mahuta, Minister for Māori Development The three marae in the historic Parihaka Pa complex in Taranaki have been upgraded to high speed broadband with the support of the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF), Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Connecting the ...
Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence Minister of Defence Ron Mark will today launch the Advancing Pacific Partnerships 2019 Defence Assessment during a speech at Te Papa. The Assessment outlines how Defence will partner with our Pacific Island neighbours and invest in Pacific regional security architecture. The Plan aligns with the Coalition ...
A new Provincial Growth Fund investment could create about 80 new jobs in Gisborne over the next two years, turning a local small business into a “beacon of employment” in the process. Regional Economic Development Parliamentary Under-Secretary Fletcher Tabuteau said the PGF’s Te Ara Mahi funding stream would provide $1.6m ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters will travel to the Republic of Korea and Japan next week. “The Republic of Korea and Japan are two of New Zealand’s closest partners in the region with whom we share common values and ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced today that New Zealand is leading a police support mission in Bougainville as the region prepares to vote in a non-binding referendum on its political future. “New Zealand has accepted an invitation ...
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is defending Immigration New Zealand (INZ) after it instructed officials to stop granting visas as an exception to instructions. He has also lashed out at immigrant leaders upset with the tightening of the rules, saying they had an “elevated sense of entitlement”. Members of ...
A change to the End of Life Choice Bill was passed in Parliament, meaning if politicians decide to vote for the law it must be approved by the public first. A binding referendum was a condition insisted on by New Zealand First, and Jenny Marcroft’s supplementary order paper (SOP) successfully ...
Groups involved with innovative fisheries research projects are encouraged to apply for government support in the latest funding round from the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures programme. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash says the SFF Futures funding is designed to be flexible enough to support small or large projects across a ...
The Government has fixed an issue affecting how Immigration New Zealand has processed visa applications for culturally arranged marriages, which will now see a consistent process applied which ensures people with legitimate arranged marriages can visit New Zealand while also preventing any rorting of the system. Earlier this year Immigration ...
The Royal Commission into the Attacks on Christchurch Mosques will report back on 30 April 2020 to give it more time to hear submissions and consider information, Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The Royal Commission was originally scheduled to report back to Government by 10 December 2019. “There has ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Washington DC today to attend a ministerial meeting focused on defeating ISIS, and to continue pursuing New Zealand’s trade opportunities. Mr Peters will participate in a meeting of Foreign and Defence Ministers from key countries contributing to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. ...
The recently crowned Bird of the Year, the hoiho/yellow eyed penguin, is getting a much needed helping hand alongside more than 168 other community conservation projects announced Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage today. 168 community conservation projects throughout New Zealand are benefiting from $8 million in government grants, including $500,000 ...
Controls on assault rifles and semi-automatic firearms are to be broadened to include some types of pistols, under changes to a bill currently making its way through Parliament. Police Minister Stuart Nash has tabled a Supplementary Order Paper to the Arms Legislation Bill, which is currently before a Select Committee ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark will travel to Singapore today to conduct a counterpart visit and to co-chair the third annual Singapore-New Zealand Defence Ministers’ Meeting with his counterpart, Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen. “Singapore is one of our most important defence partners in the region, and our ...
Nelson’s Salisbury School is to be rebuilt, creating a modern and suitable learning environment for students at the residential special school, Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The school for girls aged 8-15, in Richmond, was earmarked for closure by National until the process ...
The panel undertaking a comprehensive review of the Resource Management Act has identified the main issues to be addressed and options for reform and is calling for feedback to inform its final report. In July the Government announced the comprehensive review of the resource management system, including the RMA - ...
An important safety valve has been added to New Zealand’s criminal justice system with the third reading of the Criminal Cases Review Commission Bill today. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) will investigate claimed miscarriages of justice. “We’ve seen how our justice system can very occasionally get things spectacularly wrong, ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters welcomes the tabling of the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) 2019 Annual Report in Parliament today. He says the 2019 Annual Report marks the point when New Zealand’s racing industry’s decline was arrested and a turnaround started. RITA’s 2019 Annual Report recorded an industry net profit ...
The New Zealand Government is today sending 21 firefighters to help fight the ongoing catastrophic Australian bushfires. “The fires in Australia are in some of the toughest, most challenging conditions ever,” says Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin. “As of yesterday morning, there were 100 active bushfire-related incidents across Queensland and ...
More frontline support for schools through a new education agency, as part of a redesigned Ministry of Education More support for principals and school boards including through a new centre of leadership and local leadership advisor roles New independent disputes panels for parents and students Management of school property ...
The Government’s reform of the Tomorrow’s Schools system is a watershed moment in education and an opportunity to create meaningful change for ākonga Māori and their whānau, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis said today. “Last year through Kōrero Mātauranga | Education Conversation, Māori teachers, parents, ākonga, whānau, hapū and iwi ...
Infrastructure Minister is welcoming the first of many updated project pipelines from the newly established New Zealand Infrastructure Commission today. The New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga, has released an expanded pipeline of major capital projects – another crucial step towards delivering better infrastructure outcomes. “The first iteration of the ...
Tougher gun laws designed to improve public safety through firearms prohibition orders are proposed in a new document released for public input. Police Minister Stuart Nash says firearms prohibition orders (FPOs) would give new powers to Police to ensure high-risk individuals come nowhere near firearms. “We have already prohibited the ...
Andy Coupe has been confirmed as TVNZ’s new Board Chair. “Mr Coupe has strong commercial and capital markets experience and TVNZ has benefited from his technical knowledge of business and finance, as well as his extensive governance experience,” the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Kris Faafoi said. Andy ...
Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter today officially opened a separated pathway, following the completion of the Kaiwharawhara Stream bridge, which will improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians along Hutt Road. The $6.8m Hutt Road project provides a separated path for cycling and pedestrians, the replacement of informal parking ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced the appointment of career diplomat Si’alei van Toor as New Zealand’s next Ambassador to Russia. “I’m pleased to appoint Ms van Toor to this position. She brings a wealth of experience to the role having previously served as Senior Trade Adviser to the ...
The Treasury’s 2019 Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) will be released on Wednesday December 11, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Coalition Government will publish the 2020 Budget Policy Statement at the same time, outlining the priorities for Budget 2020. Further details on arrangements for the release will ...
A new initiative to better support small businesses through hands-on mentoring and advice has been launched by the Minister for Small Business. The first event in the Kiwi Business Boost series of regional workshops and online tools has been launched in Wairoa by Stuart Nash. “The Business Boost initiative combines ...
The latest Quarterly Connectivity Report shows that more and more New Zealanders are moving to Ultra-fast Broadband (UFB), with Rolleston having the highest uptake at 74 per cent, as at the end of September. “This means that nearly three quarters of Rolleston’s households and businesses have moved to ultra-fast services. ...
The passing of the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill will help ensure a safe planet for our kids and grandkids, the Minister for Climate Change James Shaw said today. The landmark legislation which provides a framework to support New Zealanders to prepare for, and adapt to, the effects ...
The review of Oranga Tamariki practice around the planned uplift of a Hastings baby in May shows significant failings by the Ministry and that the planned and funded changes to shift from a child crisis service to a proper care and protection service need to be accelerated, Children’s Minister Tracey ...
Education Minister Chris Hipkins has wished students the best of luck for this year’s NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship exams which start tomorrow. Around 140,000 students will have participated in 119 NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship exams by the end of the exam period on 3 December. “I want to ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced the appointment of Bede Corry as New Zealand’s next High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. “The appointment of a senior diplomat to this important role underlines the significance New Zealand places on our relationship with the United Kingdom,” said Mr Peters. “The United ...
An innovative approach to boosting the number of frontline Police has seen 20 new officers graduate from one of the uncommon training wings in Auckland. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the graduation of 20 constables today means that 1,765 new Police officers have been deployed since the coalition government took ...
Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says the 1.2 million hours of community work completed by offenders in the last financial year has helped local communities right across the country. “Community work sentences are a great way for people to pay something positive back to society. There is a massive benefit to ...
"A pathway for Police in leadership with Iwi Māori, to achieve the aspirations of Māori whānau." Police launch of Te Huringa o Te Tai, Pipitea Marae, Thorndon Quay, Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou. Hello everyone, warm greetings to you all. ...
Working New Zealanders are getting more in their back pockets under the Coalition Government’s economic plan. Stats NZ data today shows average weekly ordinary time earnings are up by $83 since the Government took office. This shows that working New Zealanders are getting higher take-home pay, and that employers are ...
The Government is supporting schools to cut down their energy consumption and reduce environmental impacts, with a quarter of all schools having their lights replaced with LEDs, a sustainability contestable fund and a plan to improve the environmental sustainability of all schools in the future. Education Minister Chris Hipkins and ...
Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis heads to China on Friday to lead the New Zealand Government presence at the China-New Zealand Year of Tourism closing ceremony. The ceremony will take place at Canton Tower in Guangzhou on Sunday 10 November. “The Year of Tourism has been mutually beneficial for both New ...
Should we plan for drought or deluge and how is CO2 released from the ocean’s floor? Several climate change projects were given a boost in the latest Marsden Fund investment of $83.6 million, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods said today. “Climate change is long-term challenge that requires out-of-the-box ...
Leaders of 16 countries negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) have announced the completion of negotiation on the text as well as agreement on virtually all market access issues between 15 countries. The leaders said they will work with India to resolve its outstanding concerns in a way that ...
Civil Defence Minister Hon Peeni Henare says World Tsunami Awareness Day today (5 November) is a chance for all New Zealanders to learn more about the tsunami risk in our regions and the right actions to take to stay safe. “All of New Zealand’s coastline is at risk of tsunami. ...
New Zealand’s more than 1000 paramedics are to have their role as key frontline health professionals formally recognised and regulated in the same way as doctors and nurses, Health Minister David Clark says. The Government has agreed to regulate paramedics under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003. “Paramedic leaders ...
Changes to insolvency law announced by the Government today will include requirements to honour up to 50 per cent of the value of gift cards or vouchers held by consumers, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi says. “When a business is insolvent, these consumers are often left out of ...
Six New Zealanders tonight received medals for their meritorious work in the frontline public service. The Public Service Medal, established by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, is awarded annually. “For the second year this Government has recognised public servants who have made a real difference to the lives of New ...
Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker heads to Shanghai today for the China International Import Expo and meetings focused on reforming the WTO. Over 90 New Zealand companies will be exhibiting at the second China International Import Expo (CIIE), which runs from 5-10 November. “China is one of New Zealand’s ...
Drivers holding a current five-year learner or restricted car or motorbike licence, expiring between 1 December 2019 and 1 December 2021, will receive an automatic two-year extension, Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter announced today. Over 144,000 drivers’ time-limited licences are due to expire in the next two years; 67,000 ...
"It's highly concerning that Parliament has voted for the End of Life Choice Bill to become law, pending a referendum," says Renée Joubert, Executive Officer of Euthanasia-Free NZ . ...
The End-of-Life Choice Society is pleased MPs have recognised that the majority of voters across a wide spectrum of society want a law change to allow the terminally ill to die free of intolerable pain and suffering, its president Dr Mary Panko said ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brian Oliver, Research Leader in Respiratory cellular and molecular biology at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research and Senior Lecturer, School of Medical & Molecular Biosciences, University of Technology Sydney New South Wales and Queensland are in the grip of a devastating ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Toni Noble, Adjunct Professor, Institute for Positive Psychology & Education, Australian Catholic University More than 600 schools have been closed, and some damaged, in recent days as bushfires rage across Queensland and New South Wales. Some students have been urgently evacuated while ...
Early on Thursday NZ time, the Trump impeachment inquiry kicks into high gear, as the previously closed-door proceedings are replaced with televised public hearings. Here’s the lowdown.What’s about to happen?Just over seven weeks since Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grace Moore, Senior lecturer in English, the University of Otago, New Zealand, University of Otago Bushfire writing has long been a part of Australian literature. Tales of heroic rescues and bush Christmases describe a time when the fire season was confined only ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tanya M Howard, Senior research fellow, University of New England It’s five years since government worker Glen Turner was murdered by a farmer in a confrontation over land clearing laws. Media reporting after his death frequently propagated the image of the “poor ...
The option of requesting assisted dying for people with terminal illness as provisioned by the proposed End of Life Choice Bill has all but divided the country. ...
The Deputy Prime Minister's case against two top civil servants, two former ministers, and a ministry has wrapped at the Auckland High Court, with the judge is reserving his decision. ...
The extension of the Royal Commission report to 30 April 2020 means all other government responses to the mosque attack should be equally delayed, according to the Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO). ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia Australians woke to the news last weekend that a 19-year-old Warlpiri man had been shot and killed by a police officer in Yuendumu, 300km north-west of Alice Springs. A confrontation ...
Excessively stringent freshwater policies that won’t achieve significantly better water quality outcomes will cost New Zealanders more than $80 billion over the next thirty years, says DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle. “The water quality limits ...
Yesterday the government announced their reform of 1989’s Tomorrow’s Schools legislation. Claire Amos, a school principal in Auckland, reflects on what it all means. When the first draft of the Tomorrow’s School Report landed back in December 2018, I reflected that “the only real concern is that we are not brave enough ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Macquarie University It has been called “the robbery of the century”. Martin Shields and Nicholas Diable, two British investment bankers, are on trial in Germany for helping structure a massive tax evasion scheme, known as cum-ex ...
A group of about a dozen MPs from Labour and National have addressed a last-minute protest at Parliament, on the day the End of Life Choice Bill is due to pass its final reading. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Mathews, Professor, School of Law, Queensland University of Technology Two judges in the High Court of Australia this morning referred Cardinal George Pell’s application for special leave to appeal his convictions to a full bench of the High Court. While not ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has opened for submissions on Supplementary Order Paper No 408 to the Arms Legislation Bill. Submissions can be made online and close on Friday 29 November 2019 at midnight. Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 408 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stanley Shanapinda, Research Fellow, La Trobe University Yesterday, New South Wales and Queensland issued fire warnings classified as either “catastrophic”, “severe” or “extreme” – and these conditions will remain in the coming days. The Bureau of Meteorology’s fire danger rating for Wednesday, ...
Newly launched carbon offsetting company Carbonclick want to make it easier for businesses and consumers to save the planet. CEO Dave Rouse and CPO Jan Czaplicki explain that while carbon offsetting isn’t the solution to global warming, it’s necessary.We have pumped our skies full of greenhouse gases for over 200 ...
Premiering tonight on TVNZ DUKE, Tara Ward explores the salty depths of Spiky Gold Hunters. Spiky Gold Hunter is Country Calendar for hard arses. DUKE’s new documentary series follows six Kiwis as they search the Foveaux Strait for kina, a job with great financial reward but huge risk. These divers work ...
The Reserve Bank announced on Wednesday that it hold the Official Cash Rate at 1 percent when bank economists had widely predicted and recommended a 25 basis point cut. ...
It’s time for our leaders to harness their power to take action on meaningful and sustained welfare policy changes, so that all children can have the opportunity to live good lives and to experience a happy, healthy childhood, says Child Poverty ...
Winston Peters' lawyer appears to have accepted in the High Court that two former National ministers he is suing for $450,000 for breaching his privacy were not the source of the leak or responsible for it. ...
Artist Lema Shamamba highlights the threads that connect cellphone use to violence and exploitation in the Democratic Republic of Congo in her first solo exhibition at Auckland’s Objectspace. Embroidered into a purple and yellow dress, a woman has one baby slung on her front and another on her back. Looking at ...
Gloria Steinem speaks to On the Rag about what she has learned from over 50 years of feminist activism. In this very special episode of On the Rag, we are joined by journalist, author, activist and feminist hero Gloria Steinem ahead of the launch of her new book The Truth Will ...
A law change that would allow assisted dying in certain select cases is coming up to a final reading in parliament tonight. Here are some of the many views on the matter we’ve published.As the End of Life Choice bill has made its way through parliament, it has become clear ...
The National Party is floating the idea of replacing the tertiary fees-free policy with a scheme like KiwiSaver to pay for University or polytechnic courses; and the Crown says Winston Peters claim his privacy was breached falls away entirely when held up against the law. ...
Malcolm Harbrow, at No Right Turn, has picked up on an important governance issue which our web search (a brief one, we acknowledge) suggests was missed by the mainstream media. The Referendums Framework Bill was due back from Parliament’s Justice Select Committee yesterday. Harbrow would have been monitoring its progress because he was one of around ...
The State Services Commission has shut down the inquiry into how Budget sensitive information was accessed from the Treasury website, because a key member failed to declare a conflict of interest. ...
Taxpayers deserve a stronger commitment from National to scrap the fees-free policy, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “On one hand, National correctly called fees-free an ‘expensive failure’. ...
In this chapter from journalist Frances Cook’s guide to getting your finances sorted, she finally comes to terms with her attitudes and behaviour around money. They say the first step is accepting you have a problem. One of the first things I had to accept was that I was guilty of ‘lifestyle ...
Pioneering conservationist Richard Henry’s crucial contribution to saving our endangered native birds is remembered today, 13 November 2019, the 90th Anniversary of his death. ...
State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes has today terminated the investigation into how Budget-sensitive material was accessed at the Treasury and appointed a new inquirer. ...
One journalist’s quest for a silly answer leads to a desperate search for the truth behind the most bizarre news story. A woman was reading a book, her husband was driving, and their son was asleep in the back seat when an axe flew through the windscreen. The short-handled axe – ...
The Earthquake Commission’s Annual Report 2018-19 has been tabled in Parliament today. The Annual Report summarises progress being made on EQC’s mission “to reduce the impact on people and property when natural disasters occur.” ...
The country's biggest listed transport company, Mainfreight, has had a 6 percent lift in profit as better trading in overseas markets has offset the slower growth in local markets. ...
The catastrophic bushfires in Australia are framed very differently depending on which media you consume, writes Duncan Greive from Sydney.The horizon started the day crisp and clear, the bushfires out there but not palpable. A group of 60 or so media from across Australia and New Zealand, all holed up ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Tiller, Ethical, Legal & Social Adviser – Public Health Genomics, Monash University In the past week, news has spread of a Florida judge’s decision to grant a warrant allowing police to search one of the world’s largest online DNA databases, for ...
“At the end of the day when you commit a brutal act such as murder a ‘difficult upbringing’ will never explain why someone chose to take another’s life.” ...
The Department of Corrections is marking World Kindness Day today (13 November) by acknowledging the work Good Bitches Baking does spreading kindness through baked goods to those who need it most. ...
The spat between Labour and New Zealand First ministers over Indian arranged marriages may have moved behind closed doors -but is no closer to resolution. ...
Emily Writes provides an essential guide through the vast world of sex toys and finds something for everyone. Sex toys have well and truly become mainstream. When you buy a toy you’re taking control of your sex life and fully celebrating your body and how wonderful it is. These days, there ...
United against David Seymour’s euthanasia and assisted suicide bill, representatives from all walks of life will gather peacefully on Parliament's lawn on Wednesday 13 November between 12 and 2 pm. Over 39,000 submissions have been written and heard. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Whitehouse, Bennett Chair of Autism, Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia It’s 25 years since the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) was published. The manual is the clinical “bible” that defines the criteria for the diagnosis ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frédérik Saltré, Research Fellow in Ecology, Flinders University For more than 3.5 billion years, living organisms have thrived, multiplied and diversified to occupy every ecosystem on Earth. The flip side to this explosion of new species is that species extinctions have also ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Petterson, Professor of Geology, Auckland University of Technology CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Glen Fuller, Associate Professor Communications and Media, University of Canberra Once upon a time when something was simple to do we said: “It’s as easy as riding a bike.” But switching from driving a car to riding a bike as one’s main ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Kinsella, Professor of Literature and Environment, Curtin University I start with a disclaimer: I am a UWA Publishing poet. I have published a book of poetry with them (as well as a novel), and have two books forthcoming with them in ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Education Audrey Young (Herald): Why Education Minister Hipkins has shot to the top of the ...
Jacinda Ardern says she doesn’t see Ports of Auckland's future as ‘necessarily being political’; and call for urgent review of foreign forestry investment. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Humphery-Jenner, Associate Professor of Finance, UNSW Myer is the in the clear, sort of, after Australia’s first judicial ruling on a securities class action. It centred around allegations that Myer misled the market about its projected earnings. The court found Myer ...
Health Minister David Clark has told the House the overall District Health Board deficit is actually almost $170 million higher than the Government had previously admitted. ...
The education ministry's decision not to investigate a teacher sex case in Marlborough means the victim children and parents have been short-changed, argues Victoria University of Wellington's Michael Macaulay ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Big changes coming for how schools are run, highly anticipated OCR decision coming today, and a clear-eyed look at the protests up Ōwairaka/Mt Albert.The government has set up a fight with a dangerous political constituency – highly involved parents at affluent ...
Lawyers acting for those being sued by Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters over his supernannuation overpayment say he has failed to present any evidence to back his sweeping public comments on the issue. ...
Open mike 12/04/2011 
by Deirdre O’Neill Under Thatcher and then Blair and continuing up until our contemporary moment, the working class has seen its culture slowly and progressively destroyed. The change from an industrial society to a service society produced a marked shift in focus from the working class as the backbone of ...10 hours ago
Since 2013, the Australian government has detained refugees without trial in Pacific gulags, where they are abused, tortured, and driven to suicide. The policy is not just an abuse of human rights and possible crime against humanity; it has also had a corrosive effect on the states Australia uses as ...14 hours ago
It seems fair to say that we currently live in a problematic political moment in world history. Democracies are in decline and dictatorships are on the rise. Primordial, sectarian and post-modern divisions have re-emerged, are on the rise or have been accentuated by political evolutions of the moment such as ...15 hours ago
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz The growth of the human population over the last 70 ...18 hours ago
by The Council of Disobedient Women In her excellent oral submission to the Abortion reform select committee on 31st October on behalf of Otago University’s Department of Public Health, historian and public health researcher Hera Cook stated: “We would ask that the committee not use the term ‘pregnant persons’ and ...1 day ago
Distract And Divert: The rise of what we have come to call “Identity Politics” represents the ideological manifestation of the ruling class’s objective need to destroy class politics, and of the middle-class’s subjective need to justify their participation in the process.THE RELIEF of the ruling class can only be imagined. ...2 days ago
2 days ago
If FFNZ really put their faith in “Top Medical Journals” they would now be amending their billboards to recognise new research results. Image from FFNZ but updated to agree with the latest research. ... 4 days ago
And to think he gave all the potential goodwill away with that moronic, cult-like statement (repeated ad nauseam by many National hardliners) that Key is quite simply “the greatest PM we ever had”…
Installation complete: this was nothing ... 1 week ago
Today, a worker contacted me asking if she could go to the police over her employer stealing thousands of dollars from her in unpaid wages. The employer also did not pay this worker’s taxes or student loan which amounts to tax fraud. As a workers rights activist, who founded the ...2 weeks ago
Image Credit: Increase Social Media Traffic & Website Traffic I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your ... 2 weeks ago
. . NZ First’s success in putting the euthenasia bill to a public referenda may not be the victory they believe it to be. They may even have sounded the death-knell for a second Labour-NZ First-Green coalition. On 23 July this year, NZ First MP, Jenny Marcroft, submitted a Supplementary ...2 weeks ago
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Justice New Zealand First is proud that a key Coalition Agreement commitment which will provide for a more transparent and effective criminal justice system has been realised. Legislation to establish the Criminal Cases Review Commission, an independent body focused on identifying and responding to possible miscarriages of ...19 hours ago
"Today we have made a choice that will leave a legacy... I hope that means that future generations will see that we, in New Zealand, were on the right side of history." - Jacinda Ardern, Third Reading of the Zero Carbon Bill ...5 days ago
Groups involved with innovative fisheries research projects are encouraged to apply for government support in the latest funding round from the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures programme. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash says the SFF Futures funding is designed to be flexible enough to support small or large projects across a ...9 hours ago
Arranged marriages where partners had the freedom to say no may not be included under a new partnership visa fix. ...4 hours ago
"It's highly concerning that Parliament has voted for the End of Life Choice Bill to become law, pending a referendum," says Renée Joubert, Executive Officer of Euthanasia-Free NZ . ...7 hours ago
The third and final reading of the End of Life Choice Bill has been passed in Parliament by 69 votes to 51 ...8 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brian Oliver, Research Leader in Respiratory cellular and molecular biology at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research and Senior Lecturer, School of Medical & Molecular Biosciences, University of Technology Sydney New South Wales and Queensland are in the grip of a devastating ...9 hours ago
Despite its best efforts to lower power prices, the Government might see a retail rate hike just six months before next year's election. ...9 hours ago
Early on Thursday NZ time, the Trump impeachment inquiry kicks into high gear, as the previously closed-door proceedings are replaced with televised public hearings. Here’s the lowdown.What’s about to happen?Just over seven weeks since Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, ...10 hours ago
The price of avocados has been smashed to their lowest in almost three years, and the price of other fruit and veges are also falling. ...14 hours ago
The Reserve Bank announced on Wednesday that it hold the Official Cash Rate at 1 percent when bank economists had widely predicted and recommended a 25 basis point cut. ...14 hours ago
The Reserve Bank has held the Official Cash Rate steady at a record low 1 percent. ...14 hours ago
Winston Peters' lawyer appears to have accepted in the High Court that two former National ministers he is suing for $450,000 for breaching his privacy were not the source of the leak or responsible for it. ...14 hours ago
An undeclared conflict of interest has seen the initial Budget leak probe abandoned, an a new investigation launched. ...14 hours ago
The recent outbursts by Shane Jones about Indian migration should be strenuously rejected. ...15 hours ago
The National Party is floating the idea of replacing the tertiary fees-free policy with a scheme like KiwiSaver to pay for University or polytechnic courses; and the Crown says Winston Peters claim his privacy was breached falls away entirely when held up against the law. ...16 hours ago
Malcolm Harbrow, at No Right Turn, has picked up on an important governance issue which our web search (a brief one, we acknowledge) suggests was missed by the mainstream media. The Referendums Framework Bill was due back from Parliament’s Justice Select Committee yesterday. Harbrow would have been monitoring its progress because he was one of around ...16 hours ago
Infratil has reported a profit drop after making large investments, including buying a half stake in telecommunications company Vodafone. ...17 hours ago
The country's biggest listed transport company, Mainfreight, has had a 6 percent lift in profit as better trading in overseas markets has offset the slower growth in local markets. ...17 hours ago
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Workers seek higher wages – National don’t agree.
Workers seek valued trusting relationships with employers – National don’t agree.
National want companies but not workers.
warner bros check
local workers……?
petrobras check
local users of the sea for kai……?
overseas train makers check
local engineers and unemployed citizens……?
g says – Heard someone talking about our local film project via Warner Bros. They are tending to keep things quiet about their progress. No doubt they recognise, and are wary of, the confused and naive attitudes to the connection between business and employment here in nz by many workers who are prepared to wreck others jobs in their pursuit of their own individual, unreasonable demands.
Think of it as workers, each acting in their own self interest, guiding the employment market like an invisible hand…
so now that the dole queue is growing, the flight to australia has continued and the economic outlook is grim, maybe now we can build the rail fleet that is needed for auckland, in new zealand. after all i hear the labour is relatively cheap here.
the idea that it will cost more than what overseas markets can do it for is an archaic and limited view.
who are the organizations that can raise awareness and put pressure on mr joyce and jonkey to change their stance?
new zealand first? the unions?
Uh, the Labour Opposition?
You’d hope as that’s the job they’re paid for.
I fear they’re too busy imploding and arguing about identity politics. They don’t really seem interested in working people.
Every Labour MP I know is working tirelessly on behalf of working people…don’t be misled by media and political spin.
All working people?
What about working for all people?
hs, that’s funny, off to Mexico to check up on the F&P workers over there?
“All people”? They’re called the “Labour” Party. They are supposed to represent working people.
You have your own parties representing your interests.
I expect any of our governments to represent my interests, as best they can in conjunction with everyone else’s.
The “we’ll look after our own, fuck the rest” attitude is not what I’d expect from the left, but it seems to be common.
In case you haven’t noticed, my dear dim-witted friend, there are no Labour MPs in the government.
F.F.S. You can’t be this fucking thick, Pete.
In case you haven’t noticed there have been Labour MPs in government, and I sort of thought they wanted to be there again eventually . I’d like to think that they won’t ignore everyone but their favourites. I’m a worker (employee) but I think they should also consider the interests of self employed, business people, and non-workers.
If not they should be up front about their intentions.
This is seriously the stupidest tangent you’ve ever gone off on.
Do you want all MPs to represent all interests or all MPs to represent your interests?
You do know those are two different things, right?
If not they should be up front about their intentions.
Giving themselves a label might help. How about ‘Labour’?
You’re the thick one that doesn’t get it felix.
Labour MPs should commit themselves to “working tirelessly on behalf of all people”, not just working people or other select groups. Sure there is sometimes compromise needed between conflicting needs of different groups, but overall government should be “for the people”, not just “for whoever might vote for me”.
pb – they’re labouring a bit at the moment, that’s for sure.
Good. I agree with you Pete, I just wanted you to say it.
And now you’re going to be held to it.
Felix the way I read it, PeteG is only holding Labour MPs up to the standard of working on behalf of all groups in society.
He implicitly excuses National MPs for not doing the same by not mentioning them at all.
You must have missed me saying “I expect any of our governments to represent my interests, as best they can in conjunction with everyone else’s” early in the exchange. This was generally about Labour MPs. But just to make sure you have it clear and don’t think I am implicitly excusing the pope too because I didn’t mention him:
All MP’s in our government of the day and all MPs in parliament should be working for all New Zealanders. They can’t presume any special interest group has specifically voted for them, they shouldn’t favour any group becasue they think it’s worth a few votes to them, once in parliament they are there to represent everyone.
You mean that John Key needs just as much assistance as ordinary people?
Yeah right
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4864310/Hodgson-Sio-off-to-Mexico-Panama
c.v. hmmm… the silence is deafning.
now please do not get me wrong, i am not a fan, however, i was heartened to hear that mr peters was returning to politics as this was a chance of an at least vocal opposition.
i do feel for mr goff as it seems to be feast or famine when it comes to media exposure.
now that there is focus on labour (darren and damien) i would like to see mr goff include a concise message proposing an alternative to the nacts .(no more asset sales, $15 an hour minimum wage, no gst on fresh fruit and veges) a ‘la mr peters
CV, Labour isn’t the only party in opposition.
It is the only opposition party likely to be capable of forming a government after the election and as the largest party in opposition with the most resources the onus is on them more than anyone else in parliament to hold the government to account.
Big ups to Green MP Kevin Hague in defending Damien O’Connor, or rather having a go at those who attacked O’Connor for referring to gays in the labour party. Hague says that he is sick and tired of the west coast stereotype as ‘redneck’ and said he has never encountered any trouble throug his being gay on the coast.
Spending a great deal of time there I have to agree completely. The coasters tend to call things pretty bluntly but they aint so-called rednecks. I would suspect that Hague would encounter more trouble east of the alps or north of the strait, where there really is more bigotry and hatred and spit.
Two other points – why on earth does Goff let hmself get dragged into these things? Bloody useless. And secondly, why on earth are the gaggle of gays in the labour party so upset that he refers to them as gays? It is they after all who hold themselves out as gay and representative of that sector. How is he meant to refer to them – a herd of gays? a bunch of gays? some gays? That is what they claim yet they don’t like it when people refer to them as gay??? Should no people other than themselves refer to their being gay? Something missing there..
And why aren’t the unionists similarly outraged that they were referred to as unionists?
sheesh, immaturity running around like headless chooks… get a life.
Yeah, there are more important things to be getting on with this year.
It’s the “gaggle” part that people have been particularly upset by, as well as implying gays have hi-jacked the selection process. People have been upset at referring to unionists as “self-serving.” As far as I’m aware, Hague didn’t so much support O’Connor’s claims about the “gaggle of gays”, or his use of that term, but defended West Coasters from the label of “rednecks”.
“It’s the “gaggle” part that people have been particularly upset by ”
But isn’t the word gaggle commonly used within the gay community ?
Not in the way O’Connor used it to refer to gay people, in my experience anyway. And judging by the responses from the reporters & commenters on the gaynz site, they don’t think so either.
I appreciate that to an extent Carol and a careful reading of my post indicates that.
But and in addition.. At the risk of incurring the wrath of gay people by applying some generalisations…. they are overly sensitive. Chris Carter’s tanties being the last example. They do tend to support such generalisations given their more feminine nature and sensitivity. generally.
Though I guess many others suffer similarly. How many times on here have various been referred to as balding, or fat, or simply arrogantly dismissed as the great lost “white middle class male” like it is some unfortunate gene some are born with. Or what about Helen Clark and the femina*i brigade? Or perhaps we could search this website for instances of Family First generalisations? Or Garth McVicar and his disciples? or rugby players? Or, one of the most rude in recent times, Helen Clark’s own reference to inbreds on the Coast?? Ay ? Ay ?
really…
Hmmm…. so are you saying that the “gays” O’Connor was referring to are all males? I thought it included Maryan Street? Or do you include her (and me) in having a “more feminine nature.”
Yep, you’re over-generalising.
I must at this point refer to the French and their peculiar manner of viewing the world upside down and backwards, which so often makes complete sense…
Vive la difference !
Given the performance of Chris Carter and Darren Hughes, its fairly understandable that people are uncomfortable with the gay MPs in Labour. Unfortunately, its all of their own doing – and stating the bleeding obvious is all O’Connor has done.
Given the hounding by the mainstream media of Chris Carter and their hysterical outbursts re Darren Hughes it’s no wonder gay MP’s get a bit touchy. Homophobia is still the name of the mainstream media’s game.
Bullshit, it’s just exposing hypocrisy and reverse bigotry.
I’ll see Grumpy’s bullshit and raise you a couple of craps.
This lovely sentiment from Bipolar Bear speaks volumes for the contempt that we hold for Labour:
How can a party like Labour possibly have a skeleton like Darren Hughes in its closet? You had the country’s first transgender MP, for Christ’s sake – and she was a former hooker! In an election year, how could a party which has traded on its “rainbow” image not see that the press would have a field day with outing one of its less honest members…
‘Hounding’ by the MSM is a result of poor message management by Phil and co – end of story
No, the hounding by the MSM is the failure of the MSM to actually do any investigative reporting on real issues.
To quote a friend on Twitter: A group of gays in Labour are a ‘gaggle’, in National they’re called a ‘closet’.
adriank – thanks for the laugh! Nothing stings quite like the truth
Agreed VTO but …
I have three wishes:
1. All MPs realise they are the servants of the movement and their personal ranking and prestiege is, essentially, of no concern whatsoever. They should be there only as long as they are useful. And the movement does not owe them a career.
2. All Labour MPs should think about what they say. If it is not policy related, does not further an important debate or is going to be seized on by RWNJs who will then pollute comments with WAH WAH WAH WAH the aforesaid MP should STFU.
3. All debates on line are about things that really matter like poverty, environmental protection, inequality or crony capitalism and not the schoolyard crap like “but XYZ said Blah Blah Blah and this is conclusive evidence that Goff and Labour is fucked and isn’t John Key great”.
Here endeth rant.
Alternative view from outside the committee…
1. All MPs realise they are the servants of the people and their personal party, ranking and prestige is, essentially, of little concern. They should be there only as long as they are useful to the country. And the country does not owe them a career.
The party rules philosphy may seem right from within the bubble, but it’s not what the people want.
PeteG,
The Westminster adversarial, party-based parliamentary system arose because there has been profound disagreement (even amongst the elite/establishment) about what amounts to being “useful to the country”. Party philosophies (to which you don’t want individual party members to be beholden) are a large part of the basis for the choices electors make.
Would you be equally sanguine about an employee not being publicly ‘loyal’ to a company (e.g., saying they make crap products on a blog?).
No-one is forcing people to join political parties. They can stand as independents if they wish. And, if enough people want a parliament of independents they can vote for them, can’t they? (Much like consumers in a market buying from corporates??- Sorry, but I do like using right-wing logic against right wingers.).
But you know all that …
No one forces, no. But to stand any reasonable chance of getting elected you need to be in a party. Even small parties struggle in our two major party favourable system that is not likley to be changed much by the two major parties.
Some adversarial aspect is healthy for sure. But I think the balance is wrong. Rather than 20/80 co-operative to adversarial I’d rather see more like 20/80. Mostly things should be done positively in the best possible way while allowing for some open scrutiny.
I can understand the impulse.
Others may know better than I do, but I also understand that a substantial amount of legislation IS processed ‘cooperatively’ or with little opposition. The focus areas of opposition, however, tends to dominate the political debate (naturally, since there isn’t much debate over more ‘mundane’ matters over which the parties tend to agree).
Who knows, you may have your 80/20 cooperative/adversarial split, in terms of legislation, currently.
I know that could be the case, but it’s largely unseen. And largely unreported.
What is seen by most people is a preponderance of deliberate negative attack politics. Not a good look. Not good for developing decent policy.
Cry wolf politics may have some parties some short term wins but I think the public get turned off by it all. It’s hard it differentiate bleating from valid criticism.
The Green Party seems to be managing to hold their numbers up with a modest lineup, in the absence of retired icons, and with minimal attack politics.
What do you imagine the function of politics to be, Pete? That’s a serious, honest question.
Short answer for 21st century New Zealand – seeking the best balance, country first.
And deciding what the “best balance” is, and what is best for the country – how is that achieved?
Well, personally, I’d like fact and research to be used rather than blind faith. We really should be over the delusion that Greed is Good by now.
Agree Mickey, it might help if they espoused some pretty clear policies that submerged their individual interests. Song sheet of mantras required urgently.
Tend to agree that West Coasters have been unfairly labelled “rednecks” over recent years.
Having extensively researched demographic breakdowns from 1970s-1990s opinion polls on moral/social/foreign policy issues, I’ve found that provincial New Zealand is not quite the morally-conservative bastion so often implied by journalists, historians, politicians and various other commentators (nor is Big City New Zealand, for that matter, the great repository of liberal/progressive values).
To give just one example: of the 20 cities and towns polled on the Springbok Tour in 1981, Greymouth was consistently among the most strongly opposed (usually more opposed than at least 2 of the 4 main centres, and always in the top 5 (out of 20) communities in terms of depth of opposition).
I’d also suggest working-class/blue-collar voters are by no means as rigidly conservative (nor the middle classes as wonderfully liberal and tolerant) as so many of these (usually liberal, middle-class, Baby-Boomer) commentators would have us believe.
Unfortunately, the labelling of West Coasters really went south when Helen Clark described them as feral inbreds.
To back up your statistics with anecdotal evidence (which we all know is of much more value): My parents, living in Hokitika at the time, were staunch protestors of the tour and, from the way they describe it, certainly not the only ones around those parts.
However, much like John Key, I cannot remember which side I was on… namely because I was born in 1984.
If Damien O’Connor is punished by caucus, Labour may as well disband.
It’s true that the Labour list process is deeply flawed. I’ve been there, seen it happen. The Greens do it better.
Is the result of the selections of a committee of 36 more likely to be a diverse committee or a strong management team?
It’s not the List committee’s fault, but diversity seems to have too much prominence in Labour. In stark contrast to the Clark years the Labour caucus seems less a led team and looks more like a diverse bunch of leadership hopefuls, only one of which has been prepared to have a go right now.
That’s right, Labour’s front line should be stacked with middle aged white men, just like the top ranked Government ministers are.
Again you take a comment and put an extreme diss on it.
What’s most important to you, winning or being diverse?
Note – that doesn’t need to be an either/or question. It’s possible to be diverse but put an emphasis on being seen as electable, and it’s possible to have a chance of success with a very diverse list.
What’s better, having a very diverse group who have trouble agreeing on anything of substance? Or having a less diverse group who can work as a team and give reasonable consideration to diverse needs?
Diversity is good, too much diversity can be counter-productive.
G, fekk off to your side of the fence, its our fight and not yours. By the way what was Worth up to? Or Bill dipping into? Or Key lying about? You RWNJs wont even fight amongst yourselves over matters of principle, you just shut up and pretend all is good whilst the most corrupt and venal admin you have ever had gets away with shit.
Governance of New Zealand is our concern. We all have to put up with both National and Labour led governments, in turn.
If you want to frame it as a fight then you will always end up fighting. Listen to Clayton’ Cosgroves interview on NatRad this morning. He was focussed on working with the government to get the best legal structure in place for the good of his constituents. It’s a pity the Labour MPs with a grown up attitude to getting things done together are too busy on their home turf to help their hapless other MPs.
Funny thing Bored, I tend to comment on Labour stuff on a Labour orientated blog, and I comment more on National stuff on a National orientated blog. Do you think that’s unusual?
I dont think it unusual, just duplicitous. I sense a deep seated economy with the truth.
Pete, you seem to be saying that the party should be unified in this comment, and a bunch of individuals free to do their own thing in other comments.
Perhaps you could clarify what it is you want.
Both. A party is best to be generally unified but should also demonstrate that they work with and allow differences rather than suppress them.
Pete,
If you don’t like parties with diverse lists, then vote for a party that doesn’t have one.
For example the maori Party list will probably not have much in the way of ethnic diversity. You say you don’t want too much diversity, right?
Or is that not what you mean at all?
So what you are basically saying is “la la la la la, I can’t hear you, la la la”?
We don’t have a problem! Our voting base doesn’t matter, its what the party wants that is important! If someone questions us lets just throw mud at National to deflect the attention!
I think they’re saying that what you and Pete and George and Tim and tsmithfield and tknorriss think is neither here nor there.
You don’t like the Labour list?
Cool, don’t vote for it.
You don’t like the Labour party leadership?
Don’t vote for it.
You disapprove of the way you think internal Labour party matters are dealt with?
Don’t vote for it.
etc.
I found it quite interesting that the Stuff poll on the issue (the results of which show a reliably heavy right-wing bias) showed that nearly 70% of respondents thought that the list was not representative of the Labour Party as a whole… which confused me, because isn’t the standard RWNJ line that Labour is over-run by faggots and unionists? Yet somehow they maintain a base level of support of over 30% of the country…
Thanks Jaymam, thats where I stand. Made a comment yesterday basically pointing out that OConnors comments were in line with the public perception of Labour as being hijacked by sectoral interests.
Before anybody gives me shit, read the above again. Perception, perception, perception, not necessarily reality. My issue is how Labour are going to change that perception, or accomodate it because it is not electable. Prejudices whether we like them or not are real and drive voters. It is an issue thaat wont go away and requires a clear strategy.
Asking OConnor to apologise or to punish him will only send a signal to the electorate that their view of labour as captured by sectoral interests is correct. Or conversely to sectoral interests that they can wag the dog.
It is probable that the National Party will learn from this chatter about Labour’s List. They will be very careful to keep a tight lid and keep the discontenters silent. And discontent there will be on National’s List. Especially if their Far Right Wing (currently in Act) were asked about their right to high palcement.
So how is National’s List shaping up. We won’t see the old hands getting high listings, er um will we? MSM please be prepared to discuss.
Er um yes, obviously there will be some, probably most. The important thing will be if we see enough replenishment with high enough rankings. Ideally it should be a mix of experience with fresh new talent.
The fresh new talent for Labour entered at the 2008 election. Once Labour have the benches those 2008 and current fresh blood will flourish. And balance the experienced team members.
I had a good look through the list and the new candidates. All seem reasonable; I don’t see any high flyers or “tactical” recruits with high profiles. That however is entirely up to the party to decide if they think it electable. As you say, last term some good new faces appeared, the question now is how Labour gets these people to the front bench which in my mind has too many timeservers, starting with numbers one and two.
And you are right, the lid needs to be kept on discontent very tightly, another reason why the factions need to be given a hymn sheet.
Yeah. I think I’ll find a stake and get it ready for the next idiot.
Yesterday, I heard the first coherent defence of the SCF extension. That was that, had they not rolled the guarantee over, SCF would have collapsed at the time of the refusal to roll, thereby invoking the existing guarantee. The roll over was simply an effort to buy more time for Sandy Meier to try to flog it off.
To me, this actually makes some sense.
The extension gave more time for the Government’s mates to pile even more of their cash into a tax payer funded money making merry go round. And it worked brilliantly for them.
This actually makes sense to me.
Of course it would have collapsed if the guarantee wasn’t extended. Everyone would know something was wrong and no one would invest in it anymore. The question is how much more did we have to fork out for guaranteeing all those new investors who invested after the guarantee was renewed?
oleoleole.. “That was that, had they not rolled the guarantee over, SCF would have collapsed at the time of the refusal to roll, thereby invoking the existing guarantee. The roll over was simply an effort to buy more time for Sandy Meier to try to flog it off.”
And the taxpayer has an obligation to do this why?
And the rules around the guarantee allowed them to be bent to allow this rollover?
Just more muddy murk at the taxpayers expense. Corruption and fraud. That is all there is to it.
One of the big questions again… another for Key in fact, given his background in the underground finance world…
Why did Standard & Poors give SCF any sort of credit ranking in 2010 when the New Zealand government knew SCF was going to go broke in 2008?
The silence of the New Zealand government over this is appalling.
And the taxpayer has an obligation to do this why?
Because, once a government has committed to do something, it should do it, right? Labour put the scheme in place (reluctantly) because it believed that the harm which would flow from forbearing to do it would be greater than doing it. Once it is in place, you live with the consequences, or no-one will believe you next time you do it.
Are we talking about governments keeping commitments? Excuse me while I barf in the petunias.
If I recall correctly, the scheme was to run for only a relatively short period of time. The national govt announced the extension and could at that point have announced new rules around acceptance into the extended scheme (and I think they did in some areas). There was no obligation at all to extend the scheme. In particular to SCF which Key knew was about to fail.
It is precisely at this point where the smell starts to arise.
And further, upon some braincell flurry.. if, at the point of termination of the original scheme it was left to terminate then surely SCF would have gone bust the day after the scheme was terminated and as such gone bust outside tof the scheme. The scheme surely only provided a guarantee during the term of the guarantee and not for a random collection of days outside the term?
…and this whole 5 point conversation started with me saying that the reason they extended it was because not extending it would have certainly caused a collapse covered by the existing guarantee put in place by Labour and the reason for the extension was a calculated gamble to avoid that.
I think you will find that being notified that the guarantee was being withdrawn would have compelled the directors to appoint a liquidator thus triggering the existing scheme. The government could hardly have said: “we’re not saying” until the scheme expired. Everyone would have known what that meant.
A refusal to extend the scheme would not have caused the collapse. The collapse was caused long before then, the scheme merely changed some of the timeframes around its collapse.
Also, it was not a withdrawal of the scheme, it was merely coming to its stated end.
The fundamental question remains unanswered… why was SCF allowed in the scheme when Key was told by Treasury on the day he became PM that SCF was going under?
The point is that you were stating the obvious. Now if you could show some evidence that the total liability to the taxpayer was less due to the scheme being extended, then you might have an argument. But something tells me that’s not the case, and extending the scheme increased our liability rather than decreased it. If this was a ‘calculated gamble’, the gamble did NOT pay off, so heads should roll.
Labour didn’t sign SCF into the scheme – NACT did.
Labour didn’t sign SCF into the scheme – NACT did.
According to this, Treasury advised the then Labour government two days before the election that SCF complied with the criteria.
http://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/informationreleases/scf/pdfs/scf-chronology-oct10.pdf
As they were eligible under the criteria set by Labour, National had to accept SCF into the scheme.
While you are technically correct, the new government had to let SCF into the scheme under the criteria Labour had set, so I am not sure the basis on which you consider them to be free of culpability.
(BTW, I am not suggesting National balked at letting them in).
And even that was only because of some jiggery-pokery with the books that made no difference to those books that was allowed by Treasury. The whole damn thing stinks.
<i>Why did Standard & Poors give SCF any sort of credit ranking in 2010 when the New Zealand government knew SCF was going to go broke in 2008? </i>
Because treasury and the trustees approved a transfer of assets from southbury which made their bottom line look good, (but was otherwise of zero benifit to scf according to treasury), just in time to get that credit rating, which allowed the inclusion into the extended guarantee scheme?
YesP’s b, but as you pointed out that transfer was a zero sum game. i.e. SCF’s net position was the same.
What that means is that Standard & Poors standards are extremely poor. But why are we surprised? Aren’t they one of the organisation which gave superior credit ratings to each and every bank and finance company in the land right up until the GFC?
It is a clear manipulation of low standard finance requirements. Just like Hanover and Hotchin and Watson’s manipulation of dividend and accounting rules allowed them to pull over $90million in dividends prior to bust. (rules allowed a profit on a loan to be booked on advancing the loan, not repayment. head shaking).
These guys (S&P and their like) were also saying that Lehman Bros, AIG, Goldman Sach et al were safe companies.
Under President Ronald (I think) the rules were changed so that credit agencies ceased to be independent assessors and could write a report if you slipped them a few bucks.
Chris Trotter has a good piece of reflection on the slow grind of the right since FDR to undo all the safe guards and create a climate for cowboys to operate unhindered (they’re certainly unhindered by a conscience!)
I understood that some very rich savvy investors knew that SCF was dodgy, but invested heavily knowing that it was still guaranteed. If it survived they would get about 11% interest. Great return. If it failed they would get their money back. Like betting on a horse but if it loses the nice man will refund your bet. Or buy umpteen Lotto tickets but if they don’t win – refund.
It’s an even better deal than that, ianmac. The company fell over and we covered not just the invested capital, but the interest that would have hypothetically been made if the company survived as well.
That’s the real scandal. Key & English’s rich mates piled in and invested when they knew the company was falling over, but why would they unless they knew that they’d be compensated for the potential profits that they would never make? If they were only likely to get back their principal (and they knew the company was going down) then why bother?
Key & English should be investigated by the serious fraud office for their part in this mess.
Yup, they must have been pissing themselves at the prospect of easy money.
Some of them are our fellow NZdrs and sit at home at night and watch the news stories of other NZdrs anguishing over the cost to the country, knowing that they, themselves, made money by fleecing NZdrs.
I wonder if these people will also be the types to get involved in bene-bashing, and tut tuting when they see the great unwashed at KFC.
I can only hope that the SFO get making some prosecutions or at least someone starts naming names.
Bring back the pillory!
yes. up to 3 times that return for some though.
I wonder if the site of a similar finance business to SCF was in Northland, never a great National seat, what would have been the treatment then? Canterbury with well-heeled and entrenched aggro business (particularly over irrigation water), would have more leverage. And is Timaru a National electorate? People there loved this guy Alan Hubbard and were angry at attempts to measure his company’s health and make an informed diagnosis. Understandable – they didn’t want to take hard tack after having good fodder for so long.
I had a look at Wikipedia. Timaru is part of the parliamentary electorate of Rangitata, represented by Jo Goodhew of the New Zealand National Party.
Considering that SCF should never have been in the guarantee scheme it’s still a weak excuse.
DTB I wasn\’t thinking of it as an excuse but as a reason for why the SCF couldn\’t, early on, go into receivership or whatever. Would the NACTS have acted I ask, if the centre of the SCF financial vortex wasn\’t around Ashburton where so many fine farm-grown specimens of NACTS come from?
Cryptome: Images of anti-nuclear protests from around the globe.
Michael Morpurgo writes: The pity of War.
Sciencedaily:
“Our data from the early Pliocene, when carbon dioxide levels remained close to modern levels for thousands of years, may indicate how warm the planet will eventually become if carbon dioxide levels are stabilized at the current value of 400 parts per million,” said Aradhna Tripati, a UCLA assistant professor in the department of Earth and space sciences and the department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.
The results of this study lend support to assertions made by climate modelers that summertime sea ice may be eliminated in the next 50 to 100 years, which would have far-reaching consequences for Earth’s climate, she said.
Seeing as AMI is effectlively a consumer co-operative, I wonder if various people on both sides of the political fence will use this to try to discredit this model.
As we all know, co-operatives have been a large part of the kiwi landscape (especially agriculture) for years, and our largest company, Fonterra, is a co-op.
The Labour party will do well in making generous room for co-operatives in its vision for NZ.
The NZ economy is a skeleton, the arguments that apply to deep balanced economies with broad tax regimes do not apply here. The reason why successful companies are so social, trade me, fonterra, AMI (yes), is they do the social costly part themselves that government (both sides) have ignored. If government does not deal to society fairly then of course the winners will be the social companies, the interest wins, the old oil processes lose. From the looks of AMI, AMI would have survived if there was a competent Earthquake specialist in NZ. In heinsight NZ is twisting, Southland moved toward Australia, so when the major Earthquake happened to the East of ChCh, it was obvious there would be a serious one less order magnitude under ChCh that would push existing buildings further into collpase. Now AMI was not insured enough for the reason that ChCh developers (you know the people who brought us the leaky homes crisis) push concil to open up land on the liquefaction soils. So it was a council that created the problem, and AMI who didn’t charge the going rate to those homes on sand water logged soils. If I were AMI I’d be suing Council and the Earthquake specialists who gave their advice and didn’t expose the hazard of liquefaction. But essential this problems comes back to central government who continue under mining of good professional expertise, the profit driven university model, leaves top scientists with little incentive to tell us of the risks and too much incentive to actively play the market themselves. NZ is a skeleton because government routinely go to the people telling them they can have government on the cheap, that no area of the economy should not be producing profit, that we don’t need no cake, and we don’t need to eat it either, we just need to make cake for others and never eat it and everything will be fine.
In an internet connected world there is no tyranny of distance, there is only poor governance.
ACT are most into the formula of no government, hands off the driving wheel, wee look how competent they are having no engagement with active policy making around facts.
My pick millsy is that AMI will be taken over by the govt, most likely in part and that it will be used as the ‘insurer’ that the Nat govt will use to begin its stated agenda of insurance rather than govt cover for things like unemployment, heathcare etc. By doing it thus the transfer from public to private cover looks less radical and they can still claim that we are being looked after by the Govt – right up to the point when the company is sold back into private hands. Just a guess but when it comes to the Nats and bail outs (or any type or assistance for that matter) they only help those that further thier agenda in some way.
millsy – A financial commentator recently said that AMI had a problem as a mutual company, with its shareholders being also policy holders, in obtaining capital. He thought that would have been a constraint. It was not in the interests of policy holders to pay higher premiums enabling bigger reserves.
Fonterra seems to have managed its capital needs though. I think it is too strong to easily be cut to pieces by predatory interests.
New Police Commissioner Peter Marshall has only one opportunity to show how much change he wants the Police to achieve.
He can choose to continue to follow the whims of oil barons and bankers or work within the law and support the legal rights of the New Zealand citizenry,
Two current events are going to show his hand. One is the Petobas protest, the second and far more discreet though no less vital to the role of the Police is the defense of a citizen’s right to free speech. I refer to the ridiculous arrest of Tiki Taane for an impromptu performance of a song that has been regularly performed throughout NZ for many years.
It is important to remember no violence occured, no Police were assaulted and all arrests occured long after the performance of the song.
read the comments from Miss Rose, she was there
http://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/12398-tikis-court-date-f-police.html
There is no such thing as “freedom of speech”. There are legal constraints on what you can say.
For what freedom that remains there comes, as with all freedoms, an expectation of responsibility.
Saying “F*&^% the police” over the sound system, to a crowded bar of people drinking at 3 am, when the cops walk in, is a deliberately provocative act and the consequence is that it escalates the “mood” of the situation.
Not a smart thing to do and is in no way a test for the new police commissioner – it’s just a set to with a load mouth and can be handled by the rank and file.
As for comparing it to the use of the military to enforce an a police action against it’s own citizenry in favour of foreign commercial interests and on the high seas, is just plainly absurd!
i was not comparing anything. I plainly stated there are two current events that will show which interpretation of law the Police see themselves using.
Taane’s decision to sing this particular track when the Police entered the bar was not particularly smart but if ignorance is a crime this country is going to need more prisons. A performance, as with most Art, has certain allowances that differ from the public statements of daily life. I have been told that Tiki Taane’s ‘cover’ of the song was during a routine visit to the establishment by Police, that no violence occured and no Police were physically threatened. No arrests were made and the Police left unaccosted by the audience..
It was over an hour later, as the bar was closing that Police returned, with wagons, and the arrests happened. An hour where any events resulting from the alledged incitement to violence would certainly have eventuated.
if someone has details that differ from these reports please let people know
For those thinking about credit ratings as discussed above.
With the current agency policy in the US of issuer-pays i.e. the entity raising the debt pays for the assessment to be done. This has the advantage over the investor pays model because not all investors can afford to have the rating done and when it is completed it remains the property of the investor and no one else gets to see it.
With issuer-pays, every one gets to see it. But, there is a problem with this model – a conflict of interest of with the agency being paid to may give an assessment to suit, and the issuer can sit on an unfavourable assessment until they have shopped around until they find a favourable one (which is the only one made public)
Perhaps we need an independent agency (I suggest treasury have the expertise) that would require all issuers of debt (and similar institutions) to undergo regular assessments by Treasury.
The Treasury would be required by statute to make the assessments publicly available and the whole process would kept, by statue, free from any old boys interference from the politicians.
Affordable, public, independent.
Damien O’Connor has apologised for the wording he used when criticising the Labour List process. Apology accepted (by me,as I have been strongly critical of his choice of words).
He reserves the right to criticise the Labour List. I’m not a Labour Party member, so I’ll leave that up to those who are. IMO, he has a right to be critical of stuff. However, I see no evidence of some sort of controlling gay power block in Labour.
The union issue is another matter. Again I didn’t like his choice of wording, but I thought there was a significant place for union leaders in labour, that is historical.
Damien O’Conner has apologised to caucus, but according to Stuff news he hasn’t resiled from his actual claims. In my view he should be suspended from caucus until such a time as he does…
Lets be clear why he made the claims in the first place. He was a mediocre minister in the Clark Labour govt., and he is a mediocre parliamentarian. That is why he was placed low on the list in 2008 and only scraped back into parliament after a resignation – either Clark or Cullen I think. He knew the same was going to happen this time around so he went looking for scapegoats – unionists and gays.
Interestingly, the Herald has produced a list of the number of unionists and gays in the Labour caucus. Out of 47 MPs, 8 have union backgrounds and 5 are gay. That speaks for itself!
Well, I don’t have views on what the Labour causus should do on this issue. But on looking at the evidence, i agree that the targeting of unionists & gays seems like a bit of dog-whistle scapegoating.
Rob Salmond over at Pundit has done a comprehensive breakdown of the relevant stats. Salmond concludes:
So it would seem women have the greatest reason to criticise the list system.
I predicted this demand on the Open Mike of 11.04.11. Sure you don’t want his citizenship stripped from him too?
“If you had your way, O’Connor would be ceremonially expelled from the Labour party, and maybe from the country. Shame on you!”
That’s not quite the same thing as being suspended from caucus, Deb. Which I think he should be, if he doesn’t understand it’s not his words that are the problem, it’s his prejudices. And it’s certainly not to late to de-select him as West Coast/Tasman candidate. That Tony Kokshoorn would make a fine replacement, IMHO
Tony Kokshoorn looks to me like more like a Nat man..
I notice, VoR, that your quote above is not what I said here, but what I said elsewhere. Why? Because you don’t have an answer to what I actually said?
Have you checked Tony Kokshoorn carefully for any signs of homophobia? 🙂 For goodness’ sake, you’re making his point for him! Why all the screaming about gay rights, and no moans about what he said about unionists?
Middleclass kiddies. On the other thread someone asked if there were working class gays. The only answer to that is “who knows’? If there are (and there well might be) they’re not in your social circle!
Yes, I saw that. It was in reply to a comment which implied – perhaps unwittingly – that “working class” and “gay” were mutually exclusive groups. It appeared to be phrased as a question to make the recipient rethink what they had written.
You’re developing quite a habit of referring to people’s statements out of context and suggestively superimposing a new meaning on them.
You’ve expressed a keen professional interest in the use of language before which makes it difficult to believe that you’re doing this accidentally.
Is that why you decided to call me ‘mental’? Wnat a prince, what a charming guy you are.
I didn’t think I’d used the quote out of context, but if you say so, you’re the boss! Clearly…
OK, there’s something idiotically wrong with the edit function. I tried to correct my typos, and I don’t know what went wrong. Whatever it is, it wants fixing.
I am a bit constrained about fixing anything right now. The CPU use is way way up (which appears to be causing the problem) and I’m waiting for a new server to go online. When that happens I am expecting the problem to largely disappear. But I also have a wee list of fixes to apply that I cannot right now (the test webpages are also affected so I can’t do the final tests).
I’m waiting for you to email the bank acct numba to me so that I can give my first monthly contribution. Sorry, won’t be heaps (not till I win lotto, haha) but every wee bit helps.
Oops I knew there was something I have to add. In the morning.
Nah, I said you seem mental because you seem a bit mental.
As for the out-of-context bit, you said:
For which you provided no context at all. You then went on to imply that the questioner asked it as if they didn’t already know the answer.
I think that was dishonest. I don’t believe that someone who uses language at your level could’ve misread that except wilfully.
I didn’t imply, you inferred. Believe it or not, I had forgotten the context, because I don’t devote myself to verbal battles at the Standard, I have other things to do and think about – such as the language teaching you’re busy belittling.
Goodnight sweet prince. I just want to say, your chances of getting a boyfriend go down considerably, if you’re in the habit of belittling people who don’t think exactly as you believe they ought to.
No, you did imply. You discussed the remark as if it meant something you had to know full well it didn’t.
And now you’re implying that I’m gay, which I guess you think I must be because I pointed out that you’re a homophobe. Which does kinda reinforce the impression that you’re a homophobe.
Vicky32, I’m not belittling your language teaching and I fail to see how you could draw that conclusion from anything I’ve said. On the contrary I’m pointing out that as a language teacher you don’t get to use the excuse that you don’t understand language.
They’re your words, Deb. From yesterday. Sorry if that wasn’t clear, but in your comment above you said you “predicted this demand” (suspension from caucus) and I thought I’d check, because that’s not what I remember you saying yesterday. So I quoted what you did say, which is not actually what you claimed today that you said. It’s not a big difference in tone, of course, however you went for hyperbole and overkill, not the reasonable suggestion from Carol that suspension from caucus might be an option.
not the reasonable suggestion from Carol that suspension from caucus might be an option.
Huh? Where did I ever suggest that? I have never thought that. In the interest of accuracy, check above. The suggestion came from Anne.
Whoops, sorry, Carol, sorry Anne. A bit distracted tonight.
No problem TVOR. It’s easy to lose track of who said what over time in such discusssions.
You’re forgiven. 🙂
dear damien
write out 100 times I must do what mummy tells me, take a clean handkerchief and wear clean undies.
LOL 10% of the party say you are a very naughty boy Damien!
Slate: In Japan’s nuclear cleanup, is human life cheaper than machines?
A month into Japan’s nuclear crisis, no robots have been put to work at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Instead, the plant’s operator is relying on a cheaper, expendable resource: humans.
These are not today’s questions in the House.
http://parliamenttoday.co.nz/2011/04/questions-for-oral-answer-april-12/
I think they were last week’s. Today Goff got things going by questioning Key as to how much he agrees with English’s statements on QU & A at the weekend.
Carol. I get the questions of the day direct from Parliament. They get up about 11am on the day it seems.
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Business/QOA/2/f/3/00HOH_OralQuestions-List-of-questions-for-oral-answer.htm
Thanks, ianmac. I’ve bookmarked it.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
An Egyptian blogger was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for criticizing the military in what human rights advocates called one of the more alarming violations of freedom of expression since a popular uprising led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubaraktwo months ago.
I wish I could say I was surprised.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4874546/Oil-company-protestors-issued-with-trespass-notices
check out the poll on the bottom right of the page. look who is winning? bahaha
Samuel: Those National Trolls have been busy formenting their mischief.
Or else it is a signal that the general population couldn’t give a damn about the Hughes or O’Conner Kiwiblog fabricated distraction.
You mean “fomenting”.
The way that “King of the Trolls” Farrar does it it’s more like fermenting.
That would have been a bit clever. But “formenting” is just a bit meaningless.
Helen Kelly, President of the NZCTU provides a comprehensive account of one of last year’s most contentious industrial disputes.
How many of those right wingers who screamed and screamed that the nasty actors (and possibly some of the crew members), should actually seek to be actual employees and have union coverage, will actually go and SEE this movie.
To be fair, I probably will, Jackson and his crew actually make half decent movies, with half decent special effects (which, by the way, are probably the largest cost in a movie)
Thanks,DTB. It’s a very comprehension coverage of the dispute. I followed the dispute as represented in the media, quite closely at the time, and this seems like an acurate account. I heard that RNZ interview by Ryan of Boyens & Walsh live, thought the interviewees were vicious in their smears of the CTU & Kelly (later shown to be misinformation), and wrote a few posts here mentioning it. As kelly says, it didn’t get much MSM news coverage.
If people don’t want to wade through all the detail, I suggest at least reading the Conclusion: eg this part:
Plus there’s an interesting comment on Pike River after that.
Why is Labour MP Kelvin Davis opposing submerged turbines in the Kaipara Harbour? What madness. Would he rather have a nuclear power generator there?
Dont know what Jones issue is but there is a fear that turbines will kill off the snapper fishery. I recall 95% of the snapper breed in the Kaipara, and if the turbines kill the youngsters the west coast snapper fishery would die out. I dont know how real the risk is.
I would believe it. My grandparents had a batch up at Pouto on the north head. It is the only place that I have ever been able to wander down to the beach in the morning, throw a line off the beach, and haul in a snapper breakfast for 7 or more people within an hour. I grew up thinking that was normal fishing.
But with the depth of the rip trench there, I wouldn’t be too worried about the snapper. They mostly stick to the upper areas of the rip areas from when I was diving there. But I’d like to see some impact reports.
But Kelvin Davis is also correct. Those massive dune hills would make a amazing windfarm area. I suspect the biggest issue would be finding a way to anchor them into something solid
It seems the answer is on his Labour.org personal page.
<p><a title=”The opening salvo in this year\’s Easter trading debate is fired.” href=”http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/4876868/Motueka-supermarket-plans-to-defy-Easter-Sunday-ban” target=”_blank”>The opening salvo in this year\’s Easter trading debate is fired</a></p>
<p>
Personally I think that this supermarket boss is totally out of line here, but in saying that, I accept that the restrictions will eventually be lifted, and while supermarket owners will love it, the workers will find themselves losing yet another holiday (and one step close to getting the boot, what with the 90 trial, etc if they refuse), this policy of having the law dicate that certain shops must be closed over easter is getting harder to justify.
A simple solution would be to a) make Easter Sunday a public holiday, so workers are given full compensation for giving up their holiday (get fucked Cameron Brewer — I\’d love to see you come into work on your day off) and b) give workers the legal right to refuse to work over these days.</p>
Lynn/Rob: can you please fix my post 🙁