I see POAL has finally admitted leaking Cecil Walkers’s private details to Whaleoil. Still trying to weasel out of responsibility though, blaming Walker for being uppity. I’m looking forward to the Privacy Commissioner putting them right about that.
The instant answer MS and social medias made Paid Parental Leave a big issue in a slow news week. They even explored and publicised the options that might stop it.
Did this hand National the NO option on a plate?
By the third reading, probably next year, the economic outlook may be looking much better. Starting to nervously eye the 2014 election and with less justification to be miserly National may have found it very difficult to stand in the way of the PPL.
But it’s been easy for Bill English to commit to a NO now.
Never was-been MP unravels, ironically, on the same social media he sneers at, using a current topic to demonstrate his ability to say something should have happened later on, but only if the situation changes, and that if it does, the result will not be what was intended.
Then a young chap who does not understand the English language, the influence of time or government in general, comments that it is hypocrisy to mention things you do not understand.
Interesting when Labour was in and brought in parental leave for 3 months.The mother and leader of the party at that time Helen Clark was asked why they didn’t do 6 months like other countries? She replied we looked at it but it was unaffordable.
So it was unaffordable then in better economic times than now . Why would it be affordable now?
Very hypocritical for the Labour party to even be supporting the bill.This is the issue I have with the Labour party there is no pragmatism,and realism.
It’s not affordable now. But with an improving economy and re-prioritising spending it could be affordable in the future?
Why not proceed with the bill and time the phasing in for when it can be afforded? Even if that means delaying it by a year or two, that doesn’t waste the time and effort of the bill going through the parliamentary process.
But making it a political football like this…
Sponsor Sue Moroney says the Government is being arrogant by making this premature announcement as the bill has not even had its first reading in the House.
The Family First lobby group says the Government is running scared of robust debate on the issue.
Why can’t Sue Moroney give some figures to her bill – she baulked and baulked on radio this morning.
Surely if you put a bill up you have costed it ????
Glad you asked, if only because it confirms your ignorance, Fortran.
Full costings are done during the process, not at the start. Usually, a bill gets amended, commented on in the house, submitted on in the committee, amended again, polished and finalised and the finished product is fully costed before it goes back for its final reading.
But, of course, that’s the process used in a democracy, not in Dipton’s dictartorship.
Probably what Labour meant was it unaffordable for them to go for more than 3 months at first on the basis of getting re-elected when it would be sure to strike hostility from the business sector and many of those who have no children, no desire to have children personally or have delayed having them.
Attitudes can of course change individually when a baby comes along and a woman with good earning rate and education wants to ensure that she can decide to follow her natural course in life but not drop out of her level in the modern employment market in its present construction.
This whole debate amazes me at the lack of fundamental questions being asked. The obvious one is can we afford it? That is fraught with political edges so I am not even going to go there.
Some questions I think relevant:
* why cant a family live on one income?
* why are careers considered more important than childrens upbringing?
* why are there not more men at home doing the child raising?
Looking at history and the low respect for wives who were just dependents of their husbands and even in the 1960s not able to open a shop account in their own name without a guarantee from a man, it is important that women can stay in the workforce, and be seen to be people to be reckoned with not despised or patronised.
What womens lib wasn’t able to achieve was an acceptance that everybody owes their being to the action of their mother carrying and giving birth and watching over them till self-reliance was learned. A decent intelligent society would make allowance for that. Parenthood is still just an annoying hobby to many employers, some of them women who have adopted the dominant male attitudes.
Good valid points. I think the bit I find worst about dependence is the need for two incomes to pay for the necessities. No easy answers there either, just a trend for wages to diminish relative to costs, and for a household to have to work longer to survive.
Bored I agree. Two wages were the key to advancing quickly and so getting a house and some things of one’s own. You both got down to work and got established and felt there was a point to the sacrifices required of time and tight schedules.
Then it all went to custard and now two wages are needed for the basics as you say. Nobody really felt the sharp end of the oncome of this though, as there was so much credit available and the economy seemed to be swinging nicely so it was all right to borrow future wages for things for now. Sorry Joe public this was an illusion but it wasn’t one of the well-known ones so passed unnoticed (no rabbits, no lady sawed in half.)
Some questions I think relevant:
* why can’t a family live on one income?
* why are careers considered more important than childrens’ upbringing?
* why are there not more men at home doing the child raising?
Agreed!
I stayed home with my sons, as my mother did with us. (She would have anyway, I chose to, and needed to.)
I feel very sorry for women who have to rush from the delivery suite home, and then back to work, dumping the child in a childcare warehouse on the way. (Or – who feel they have to!)
Sorry posted this in the wrong area interesting story developing here bigger than Nick Smith and a letter will it get the same coverage.
Can anyone tell me what the Meatworkers union has been doing with all the funds it has been receiving as it certainly hasnt been fully declaring them. Surely they havent been ripping off the workers ?
CEO Hamish Simson says the union has not declared its total income, and has failed to disclose what it does with its members’ contributions.
“It appears from the union’s published financial statements that only a fraction of its total income has been declared,” says Mr Simson.
“Affco workers contribute over $500,000 to the union each year, paying $5.95 each per week. Affco workers represent less than 10 percent of the 23,000 members the Union says it has and yet it only declares revenue of just over $700,000 per annum”.
More support from overseas Union affiliations for our workers facing incredibly hostile employers http://cms.iuf.org/?q=node/1586
It’s been interesting as well as welcoming to see how supportive overseas Union allies have been towards the viscious assualts from both POAL and Talleys/AFFCO towards their workforce.
James,
Yesterday I posted this link http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/6723730/SFO-complaint-over-union-accounts
on open mike. Is this what you are referring to?
If so, you’ll see there are two sides to that story. I would be more concerned about the hostile actions of Talleys referring the MWU to the SFO. I think you’ll find that that their reasons for doing so are baseless. Given that Unions often struggle financially I would assume and that the MWU isn’t likely to be smuggling gazillions away and that this is simply a desparate bid from a bad employer to destroy their enemy, which is how they seem to view their Union partner
Doing this the day before the commencement of mediation is particularly aggressive and stupid. It is as if Talley’s don’t want to sort things out peacefully with the Union …
I agree with with you Mickey. It does seem that Talleys have no commitment to or or intention to peacefully settle withe their Unionised employees.
We can’t forget that this is a business who made large donations to the National Party election campaign in 2005 – to the “Bosses Party”. Perhaps they now find themselves in a climate where they won’t be held to account for their oppressive actions. So now is their time to really rachet up the anti Union campaign
Quite rightly so to Jim Helen Clark said it was unaffordable to give six months at the time Labour brought in 3 months. I have to agree with her ,and economic conditions have only got worse.
Its parliament who pass the laws in this country, not the government of the day – if a majority of parliament vote in favour of something then by rights it shouldnt be shut down ahead of time by a veto from government.
heres a tiny experiment for you – what would be your reaction if it was labour in government doing this to a bill put forward by national that.. hmm… sought to cut business taxes?
You forgot the rest of the story Jimmy111 – PPL was gradually extended, from 12 weeks in 2002 for parents who had worked for the same employer for a year to 14 weeks in 2005 and including parents with 6 months service and self-employed mothers. It was expected to increase again if Labour won the 2008 election. The issue was not whether 6 months was unaffordable, but whether it was affordable all at once.
The bill was sponsored by Laila Harre – an Alliance Party minister and picked up as Labour Party core policy.
We can be assured that this government will make them work (but at what cost?)
Will the management of a school be able to turn “potential undesirable” children/families away? Will they be able to manipulate their rolls? What will happen to “stood down” pupils?
When the PM said he wanted all children to be above average, did he mean just the children of charter schools measured against the rest of the education system?
so you’ve had a bad day, you need to unwind, so you do what you love, you go cycling over the ranges. You do that a lot, you’re quite good at it. Its rare for anyone to turn up behind you, or you’ve never been on that track, or that track is unfamiliar since most times anyone has passed you there has been room. Anyway, this guy comes up behind you, wants to get past, and its one of those days you just need to be left alone. But they are not going to. Why not? Why can’t he just stop on a rise, take a breath for a few minutes and you will be far off someplace. Its the generous thing to do since you’ve never encountered this problem before, someone wanting to get past you on a tight track, maybe after a coffee, a shower, a good nights sleep you’d realise (or more likely rsubconcious would), how to move over and be generous to the nuisence behind you wanting to get past. And what’s his problem anyway, cars in back lanes sometimes have to slow down until there is a passing zone, you don’t actually see cars come to a halt to let cars pass them. Any experience rider would ‘get’ that their egos might get the better of them and actively find weakness in other riders a way to boast their egos even more. And then there’s the personal mp3 player, this get out of the way isn’t going to happen card, how would anyone behind even get noticed by someone wanting to get past. So I ask what mistakes did he make when he got up that day? was it going out cycling? no, was it giving any conscious thought to the guy behind him? Hell yes. If he’d just ignored the guy behind he’d never have gotten into the altercation and so never have the police looking for him. So why did he stop and start having a conversation? Why when he had ???been forced to stop??? did he not then let the guy pass silent, smirkin and a figure in the air, was he having a mental fart, a moment of insanity trying to argue with a moron on adrendlin. Was it the insanity every middle aged guy hits, with the notion that there were now young fitter cyclists who wanted to pass him and could easily beat them in a race, faced with his own aging and weakness. You can quite understand why a younger adrenalin junky, who premedatatively took a camera with him, to allegedly haze some older rider for the laugh, and make the effort of carrying it on his head worthwhile would be so pleased with the exposer but its not a good outcome for cycling since it teaches only that sometimes you will meet up with an old fart on the track and how easy it is to start a altecation with them, a handbook in how to make cycling fun in all the wrong ways. So the lesson is when you next meet up with the old fart slowing you down, just hope they arent wearing any mp3 player, and tell them that you will stop for a few minutes to let them get ahead so you dont bump into them quite as much. They might just feel twisted inside, see themselves as a bully hogging the track and let you pass, but what you don’t do is haze the guy for he might be carrying a knife and have just been let out of the psychoward.
In other mean spiritedness, the V8 Hamilton races have stopped a car driver accessing their own private driveway one too many times and now look set to suffer either a court action that will stop the race, or worse, the racing industry will look like an petrol head excuse who tramps all over the average car owners (who don’t worship cars). Go figure. But hey, adrendlin motor heads and cyclists are drug uses too. The responsible reasonable approach is to back off and let them pass, or stop putting yourself in their face without any concern for later consequences. i.e both parties have an obligation to back off, but the druggies have to be aware that its can be an offense to disturb the peace – being high on adrendlin is no excuse. They don’t have a right to impose themselves on others and expect the outcome they want. So don’t give it to them.
Its obvious to me that the offending mountain of a biker votes ACT. No other bugger would demand everything their way at the expense of everybody else.
In other mean spiritedness, the V8 Hamilton races have stopped a car driver accessing their own private driveway one too many times and now look set to suffer either a court action that will stop the race, or worse,
Let’s hope so! My sympathies are with the driver and his family…
The Auckland Blues have lost five out of their first six games, so of course there’s only one possible reason: too many darkies, both playing and coaching.
Well, that’s what “they” have been saying on the internet and on Radio Sport and NewstalkZB. And some of the people who ring in are almost as racist as the hosts.
Yet, in spite of the recent denunciations of the “gutless cowardly boofheads who hide behind the anonymity of the internet” there is little evidence that anyone, even the victims, are prepared or willing to confront the main culprits. Instead, the victims themselves have chosen to pretend that the racism infesting the airwaves is due to some vague ethereal “anonymous” presence…
Yesterday an emotionally distraught Pat Lam publicly fingered what he said was the source of these comments: “It’s the faceless people,” he blubbed. On radio this morning, Blues CEO Andy Dalton repeated that message: we don’t know who they are, these “faceless people”.
Yesterday on NewstalkZB, Larry Williams, without missing a beat, told Mark Watson that that “we get this garbage too”, and that it “goes straight into the rubbish bin.”
Listen to Susan Wood this morning on NewstalkZB: “The cowardly boofheads …anonymity of the internet….gutless…”
ENOUGH ALREADY! What Wood and Williams and (most of all) Pat Lam know perfectly well is that the source of the most vitriolic anti-Polynesian, anti-Maori comments is right under their noses. NewstalkZB/Radio Sport hosts Murray Deaker, Paul Holmes, Tony Veitch, Leighton
Smith are notorious for their racially charged comments, and their demeaning of Maori and Polynesians.
The people responsible for these ugly racist comments are not “faceless”, they are the colleagues of Wood and Williams. It’s an indictment of Lam and Dalton that they lack the courage to state this plainly.
Unfortunately not. The HRC, Privacy Commissioner and BSA have decided to not even acknowledge complaints from me anymore, which is unbelievably undemocratic! The Ombudsman is also delaying indefinitely many of my complaints well past the allowable timeframe, which is all designed to dissuade me from making them.
Our Forensic Psychologist viewed that Pat Lam interview and laughingly pointed out the way Pat managed to stop being emotional at least twice in the news footage to look up straight faced at the interviewer in what our Psychologist called a look of ”am I believable”,
Pat using ”emotion” to head those calling for His head off at the pass so to speak…
Its bloody ugly, you note there are never complaints when the team is going well, they could not have enough darkies then!
Couple of things to note:
* In my experience I have never heard Deaker making “racist” noises, I have heard him being brave enough to address the real problems of age size differences in school rugby that touch upon ethnicity that can bring charges of racism. He may be many things but he is definitely not a racist.
* Auckland rugby is suffering badly and the Blues are symptomatic of this. A few years back the Auckland provincial and Super teams had token Palangis and Maoris, the team was very Samoan. The fear was that “smaller” players (read pakeha) were being forced out of the game and that the top level would suffer from a reduced player base. I was involved with kids rugby on the North Shore when the local unions went to great lengths to ensure that the player drain of non Polynesians was staunched, and that weight / age grades etc were promoted. When you look at the Blues and Auckland now you can see the results, the team naturally has a large Polynesian content, Auckland after all is the largest Polynesian city.The teams ethnicity is now far more mixed. It looks a bit like the local population you would see walking down the road.
Time for all Aucklanders to get behind their team, cut the crap and support Lam.
Ah come on Morrissey, I did not call you out on Paul Holmes, Tony Veitch, Leighton
Smith because I never listen to them ( and maybe because its on the record that they are as you describe)!
Deaks…now that’s different, listen all the time as he is prepared to ask the hard questions and listen for the answers. Have I missed an episode? Can I get it on replay? He is very much like the Mad Butcher, a real enthusiast, I doubt he would treat you differently if you were a Martian.
I stand corrected…Deaks has used the term “nigger” it appears from your article and I don’t see it as acceptable in any context. I will however go by Willie Loses interpretation that the term is wrong but the man is not a racist.
Some confusion by our good friend Bored, when he writes: “I will however go by Willie Loses interpretation that the term is wrong but the man is not a racist.”
So… he uses a racist word, repeatedly and calculatedly, but he is not a racist.
Willy Lose’s bizarre and illogical claim can partly be explained by the fact he was speaking as a colleague and was afraid of provoking the notoriously belligerent Deaker. What is your motivation for writing such nonsense?
Motivation? I happen to like the work he does on rugby and I happen to believe he is not a racist. That’s my opinion, on that we obviously differ. I tend to give people a chance before I condemn, your evidence does rather lead me to reconsider. Whats is your motivation?
Deaks…now that’s different, listen all the time as he is prepared to ask the hard questions and listen for the answers.
“Prepared to ask the hard questions?” Deaker? You’re dreaming, my friend. Obviously you were asleep when he was toadying after John O’Neill and Vernon Pugh in 2002. Deaker accepted every single word they said as they hijacked New Zealand’s games for the 2003 World Cup. What hard questions are you talking about? His advocacy of the Blackheart campaign in 2003? What “hard questions” did he ask then? When he is not acting as a sycophant and asking patsy questions, bellowing his disdain for Maori and Polynesian footballers, he’s opining for hour after hour about how “dark skinned people lack the necessary concentration to play cricket”.
Have I missed an episode? Can I get it on replay?
Are you serious? Are you trying to suggest that Deaker’s racist ranting has been confined to just a few episodes that you happen to have missed?
He is very much like the Mad Butcher, a real enthusiast,
That’s a very charitable assessment of the talent-free zone known as the Mad Butcher.
I doubt he would treat you differently if you were a Martian.
Lucky for the Martians then. Just a pity he’s such a crude bigot towards Maori and Polynesian people.
Jeez Morrissey, just read your deconstruct and fell about laughing (genuinely, it is amusing), especially about the Mad Butcher. Just to put you straight here the Butcher may be talent free as far as you are concerned BUT he has an immense and demonstrable talent for charity and kindness. Now that’s talent.
Deaks also amused me with his constant questioning of Henry over his “judge me by the results” (hard questions perhaps).
All up I have admitted I got it wrong, you wont however get me regarding Deaks as a racist.
I can see you are a very kind and decent person, Bored. But there are a couple of points I still disagree with…
1.) “[The Mad Butcher] has an immense and demonstrable talent for charity and kindness.”
He certainly has a talent for publicising how much money he gives away.
2.) Deaks also amused me with his constant questioning of Henry over his “judge me by the results”
He’s had to shut up about that now, although you have to wonder how obnoxious he would be towards Henry and the All Blacks if there had been an unbiased referee in the World Cup final last year.
3.) you wont however get me regarding Deaks as a racist
National Radio, 9:50 a.m., Thursday 12 April 2012
Foreign Correspondent slot is increasingly a forum for lunatics
Who chooses the guests for this 9:50 slot? Many of them (Jack Hitt and Ray Moynihan, for instance) are excellent, but listeners have also had to suffer through such substandard and toxically biased commentators as Irris Makler, Jason Morrison, and Kate Adie.
Kathryn Ryan’s guest this morning is…uh, oh…. the notoriously unbalanced (in every sense) Dame Ann Leslie.
Dame Ann rants dyspeptically about the five Islamic men about to be sent to the United States on terrorism charges—she calls one of them, Abu Hamza, “Captain Hook”. Ryan giggles at that, and giggles continuously throughout Dame Ann’s unhinged ranting against the International Criminal Court, but never challenges her or asks her to explain herself. Then she moves it onto another topic…
RYAN: The teachers’ unions have been in the news, Dame Ann–
DAME ANN LESLIE: Arrrrgggh.
RYAN: He he he he!
DAME ANN: Every year we have to listen to the militant rabble rousingof the teacher unions!
RYAN: What are their concerns?
DAME ANN LESLIE: They never agree to any method of reforming our LOUSY education system. They need a full SIX WEEKS in the summer,… The unions have opposed EVERY EFFORT to improve the education system. All attempts to improve these schools are stifled. We are absolutely FED UP with them.
The spluttering and snarling continues for several more minutes, punctuated occasionally by Kathryn Ryan’s giggles.
National are ideologically blinded by neoliberalism. Under a John Key government, New Zealand has had to borrow billions to cover tax cuts for the wealthy. Additional consultancy fees directly attributed to cuts in public sector employment will also ensure our indebtedness for the foreseeable future…
I’m a contractor and wouldn’t even get out of bed for $2300/day, but I have to pay insane amounts of tax to fund all the dpb bludgers and dole payments of unionists who refuse to work, so can’t afford to get out of bed for such a pittance.
But I guess that is why you all pay >$2 litre for petrol – to keep me in the lifestyle that I’m accustomed to.
What a stirrer you want to be mister m. Stick to stirring the brown stuff that’s tea and leave the smelly stuff alone, it rubs off, smells foul and then your fine self will find high pay is no compensation.
M my man, just keep paying the ridiculous amounts of tax, enjoy the lifestyle and reflect upon your higher status as a generous person (even if you don’t want to be). And should you feel you pay too much tax, just pay it. Fear the IRD above all others.
It will disappoint you soon enough, being a proud capitalist, and a somewhat ignorant capitalist. That you think this is a world where opposites do not exist, that there is no opposing force to your pride, is a sad gap in your education. It’s even more depressing than your grasp of English. You see, no capitalist who understands capitalism, past its immediate appeal to self-interest and avarice, would say they love being a capitalist. It is like a tragic character, unaware he is a player, announcing to the audience he loves the idea he is about to never be the same, eager to leave behind his hubris and egotistical utterances in exchange for, usually, death, but in our context, risking something much worse – a living death.
It would be equally disappointing to find a communist – the modern capitalist’s arch rival – who is proud to be a communist. Capitalism sows the seeds of its own demise with its demand for increased production of things it cannot sell and in meeting the opposing force of communism, both perspectives are irrevocably changed. Once the two forces face off and struggle to the point of exhaustion, society is either reduced to the instinctual barbarism of human necessity as a result or we all move forward together in a new way; without our present isms and divisions. There is little to be proud of, once you realise the risks, unless you are mentally deranged – whichever side you stand on.
In the words of the Bard “M” sounds like ” a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”…..
Forget the money – you can’t take it with you. Get out of bed at dawn, don’t turn the light on, eat fruit and grains, drink a cup,of tea (without milk), walk somewhere and smile and say hello to the other walkers. Leave your cell phone at home.
“Along with everything else, the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath created new openings and potentials for working people in the struggle against neoliberalism. A number of struggles initially opened up, including factory occupations, efforts to defend pensions and the rights of younger workers. There were important political struggles, as well, as in Wisconsin, along with newer projects to link labour and communities, in the Occupy movement.”
All neo-liberalism means is there way, you have no say. But the fact is you have a lot of say, your consent is required for a civil society to provide the efficiencies to carry all those ‘extra’ rich (and they know it and will do everything to distort, distract and misdirect).
Just heard about the death of Jack Tramiel another great computer innovator like Steve Jobs. He introduced the Commodore Pet the first accessable home computer. I knew of the computer but not the innovator – this guy was a great clever doer and survivor. Jack Tramiel has died aged 84 years in the Usa Obit from the Washington Post.
Started with a Vic 20 then went C64, C128 and Amiga. Picked up a Plus/4 along the way.
Dabbled in machine code and learned to program in basic – which still comes in handy with Excel in particular.
It was those retired people in the C64 clubs who were impressive. They could do things with machine code on their 64’s I could only dream about.
I remember one group in Wanganui had worked out how to get their names to appear on the screen instead of Commodore when you turned it on.
I think they used a modded chip and machine code combination.
Boulderdash, Impossible Mission, Bubble Bobble, Armalyte, Pool Of Radiance, Wizball, IK+, Buggy Boy, Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, all the Magnetic Scrolls games, Zamzara, BC’s Quest for Tires, speech synthesis, GEOS – ahh the list is endless.
Can’t forget of course those tape loading screens:
I/S on No Right Turn in “If all you have is a hammer…” makes a couple of noteworthy observations.
The first is the fact that Nationals policy announcements consists of just a load of waffle with no actual detail whatsoever – It is quite an effective strategy, albeit a darkly cynical one given the importance of the issues paid only lip service to. For those wanting to critique the ‘plans’ or even to understand them there is nothing to grasp onto. An educated or informed response is impossible when slogans are all that we have been given.
But where is the critique in the media of the lack of detail? Nationals policy announcements are about as convincing as a new years resolution and their Ministers should be laughed out of their press conferences for daring to turn up and make proclamations that are a deliberate study in vagueness.
Secondly I/S highlights the growing use of ‘the children’ as an excuse for implementing unpopular policies or reform. Once again it is only the most darkly cynical who would deliberately use peoples concern for their children to promote a course of action – when a hostage taker holds a gun to the head of someone’s child and demands obedience the violence of the act is rightly condemned by law and society – yet the governments modus operandi is now little different.
It is time that the government stopped implying that children will suffer if we don’t accept their austerity and their radical hard right agenda or that children will benefit if we do.
Austerity harms economies and harms society. The Nats don’t care about kids any more than the hostage taker does.
Great Minds Thinking Hard about the Big Questions
NewstalkZB, Thursday 12 April 2012, 1:28 p.m.
As always at NewstalkZB, it’s an atmosphere of moral panic and befuddlement as confused callers try to come to grips with the question of the day. Today’s big topic is “teenagers committing burglaries—who’s to blame?”. As usual, there’s an easy answer for it—it’s all because parents are no longer allowed to punch, kick and whip their children. A caller called Shannon rings up host Danny Watson to share her wisdom….
SHANNON: The government took away our rights as parents when they brought in the anti-smacking law. And, yes, I KNOW there’s abuse and there’s children that get killed rah rah rah but seriously Danny—
DANNY WATSON: It’s still going on by the way. The killing.
What a surprise, farmers whinging about being held accountable for their destructive actions.
The interim dairy rule is a council initiative to improve water quality in Southland based on recommendations from the Office of the Auditor-general’s report on water policy and the council’s own State of the Environment report.
“Council can make the rules, you can police the rules, but without the people in the back of this room there will be no effect on the environment,” he said.
They’re basically complaining that they won’t be able to pollute unhindered.
I also find it amusing that they’re calling it an attack on democracy when it was the actions of farmers that resulted in the sacking of ECan and the implementation of a dictatorship in its place because they didn’t like the democratic result – rules that enforced environmental protection.
Southland Farmers are also complaining about an increase in rates that attempts to recoup the costs incurred by the industry. Dairy farmers claim they don’t want subsidies and yet that is what is occurring when the external costs of the industry continue to be covered by general ratepayers and taxpayers.
“Once an offender has been conclusively identified as a person who will never be safe around the vulnerable – particularly children – their “rights” very much take second place to the rights of children to play, or even to sleep, without a Lloyd McIntosh waiting for his chance to grab them and commit unspeakable crimes.”
David Garratt, a criminal convicted of an unspeakable crime against a child, in a guest post on Kiwiblog.
Yesterday I heard National Radio quoting Garrett’s most shameless defender, Garth McVicar, about a law and order question.
Following the brutal 2008 knife-killing of a boy in South Auckland, McVicar loudly defended the killer, and for day after day expressed scorn and contempt for the victim and his family. Yet he is still referred to by National Radio and other media outlets as a “victims’ advocate”.
Garrett and McVicar must be two of the most loathsome and hypocritical creatures in the country, yet they are still accorded respect.
Or possibly it is because the National Radio producers are indolent, and go to McVicar because he always has something incendiary to say, even if it makes little sense.
… and let the poor guy know that the SSTs favorite sheriff’s legal team have been stripped of their law licenses. It looks like Joe has more to worried about that Obama. TBH.
Great to see the pressure coming on Gillard in Aussie now in Australia she is admitting that Australia must focus on productivity thats enough to have the Union leaders over there having seizures they arent use to improving productivity.
Just as we need to improve productivty here at POAL, and the Affco plants
No Morrisey its all true you can watch it on sky channel 90. The other interesting thing is now that Labour has virtually been thrown out of Queensland and can only form a party because the liberals are being nice to them ie they dont have enough seats.
The Liberals have just announced they are taking $7000 stamp duty of buying a home. Halfing the Labour premieres fare increases on public transport. I bet the people of queensland are so happy to have pragmatism rather ideology rulingthem again.
What is “productivity” to you James ?
I suspect it is a measure of how much product comes out of the works and how much cargo unloaded and despatched per worker.
So you have more workers producing the same amount for a lesser wage per worker or fewer workers producing the same amount for a higher wage per worker, or you have some workers producing more than others but the average produced is the same and you pay the more productive workers more to allow for the “loafers”, or you only employ higher producing workers and contract them to maintain their higher production or lose the contract.
How do you decide which is best ?
4) And to bring back the right for the lord of the land to deflower any virgin serf of his choosing on her 16th birthday. Well any of the ones who are left by then.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said his party had not discussed the bill, which was drawn out of the private members ballot last week, and neither National nor the bill’s sponsor had discussed it with him.
“What is happening is government through media columns. It actually does not work in practice.”
For God sake why do We do it, watch that bloke Campbell make a mockery of journalism on our TV that is,
To-nights revelation that earnings of 80 grand a year are somehow putting people in the line of poverty makes us lot wonder if wee John doesn’t fall about the studio in mad fits of laughter once the lights have gone down on the nights offerings,
If 80 grand a year is sliding dangerously close to the poverty line,(according to John and the family featured),then what the fuck do these people make of the pittance those forced to survive on the minimum wage and benefits get every week…
The irony is that the people writing in saying “yeah were pulling $120,000 and we’re only just keeping our heads above water” are, I reckon, the same kinds of people that complain that solo parents with kids surviving on a fraction of that are living a luxurious lifestyle at their personal expense.
I did have some sympathy for the family featured though (interestingly viewers weren’t invited to go through their accounts with a fine toothed comb to criticise their expenditure as happens in stories about beneficiaries). I’m sure they do work very hard. The cost of living is ridiculously high, and ordinary people who expect a middle-class lifestyle are working longer and longer hours to stay still, a far cry from what that aspirational bullshit tells them is their due. Most of the middle-class is moving down economically. Unfortunately the anger is generally directed at those who have it much harder and not those with the power to make a difference. And it’s a pity the cost of living isn’t something that can be acknowledged when those who are really hard-up speak out.
I had UMR ring me up tonight and survey on a bunch of political questions relating to Sky City pokies and the Paid Parental Leave veto and that bootfaced cow Judith Collins as well as the usual. I can’t remember whether UMR has a publically released poll like Roy Morgan, does anyone know? Or was I just being surveyed by the Nats? I’m curious, as they’ve rung me before.
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
I see POAL has finally admitted leaking Cecil Walkers’s private details to Whaleoil. Still trying to weasel out of responsibility though, blaming Walker for being uppity. I’m looking forward to the Privacy Commissioner putting them right about that.
I hope they get put right in a severe way!
Have pro PPL people helped condemn it?
The instant answer MS and social medias made Paid Parental Leave a big issue in a slow news week. They even explored and publicised the options that might stop it.
Did this hand National the NO option on a plate?
By the third reading, probably next year, the economic outlook may be looking much better. Starting to nervously eye the 2014 election and with less justification to be miserly National may have found it very difficult to stand in the way of the PPL.
But it’s been easy for Bill English to commit to a NO now.
http://yournz.org/2012/04/12/have-pro-ppl-people-helped-condemn-it/
Irony unleashed on The Standard:
Never was-been MP unravels, ironically, on the same social media he sneers at, using a current topic to demonstrate his ability to say something should have happened later on, but only if the situation changes, and that if it does, the result will not be what was intended.
http://yournz.org/2012/04/12/have-pro-ppl-people-helped-condemn-it/
Then a young chap who does not understand the English language, the influence of time or government in general, comments that it is hypocrisy to mention things you do not understand.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-12042012/comment-page-1/#comment-458168
Interesting when Labour was in and brought in parental leave for 3 months.The mother and leader of the party at that time Helen Clark was asked why they didn’t do 6 months like other countries? She replied we looked at it but it was unaffordable.
So it was unaffordable then in better economic times than now . Why would it be affordable now?
Very hypocritical for the Labour party to even be supporting the bill.This is the issue I have with the Labour party there is no pragmatism,and realism.
It’s not affordable now. But with an improving economy and re-prioritising spending it could be affordable in the future?
Why not proceed with the bill and time the phasing in for when it can be afforded? Even if that means delaying it by a year or two, that doesn’t waste the time and effort of the bill going through the parliamentary process.
But making it a political football like this…
…makes it easy for National to just keep saying no.
The bill’s best chance of success is to look for ways of making it possible, and minimising National’s chances of saying no.
It’s affordable – if we stop giving too much to those who don’t deserve it. What we can’t afford is the rich.
Why can’t Sue Moroney give some figures to her bill – she baulked and baulked on radio this morning.
Surely if you put a bill up you have costed it ????
Glad you asked, if only because it confirms your ignorance, Fortran.
Full costings are done during the process, not at the start. Usually, a bill gets amended, commented on in the house, submitted on in the committee, amended again, polished and finalised and the finished product is fully costed before it goes back for its final reading.
But, of course, that’s the process used in a democracy, not in Dipton’s dictartorship.
Probably what Labour meant was it unaffordable for them to go for more than 3 months at first on the basis of getting re-elected when it would be sure to strike hostility from the business sector and many of those who have no children, no desire to have children personally or have delayed having them.
Attitudes can of course change individually when a baby comes along and a woman with good earning rate and education wants to ensure that she can decide to follow her natural course in life but not drop out of her level in the modern employment market in its present construction.
This whole debate amazes me at the lack of fundamental questions being asked. The obvious one is can we afford it? That is fraught with political edges so I am not even going to go there.
Some questions I think relevant:
* why cant a family live on one income?
* why are careers considered more important than childrens upbringing?
* why are there not more men at home doing the child raising?
Looking at history and the low respect for wives who were just dependents of their husbands and even in the 1960s not able to open a shop account in their own name without a guarantee from a man, it is important that women can stay in the workforce, and be seen to be people to be reckoned with not despised or patronised.
What womens lib wasn’t able to achieve was an acceptance that everybody owes their being to the action of their mother carrying and giving birth and watching over them till self-reliance was learned. A decent intelligent society would make allowance for that. Parenthood is still just an annoying hobby to many employers, some of them women who have adopted the dominant male attitudes.
Good valid points. I think the bit I find worst about dependence is the need for two incomes to pay for the necessities. No easy answers there either, just a trend for wages to diminish relative to costs, and for a household to have to work longer to survive.
Bored I agree. Two wages were the key to advancing quickly and so getting a house and some things of one’s own. You both got down to work and got established and felt there was a point to the sacrifices required of time and tight schedules.
Then it all went to custard and now two wages are needed for the basics as you say. Nobody really felt the sharp end of the oncome of this though, as there was so much credit available and the economy seemed to be swinging nicely so it was all right to borrow future wages for things for now. Sorry Joe public this was an illusion but it wasn’t one of the well-known ones so passed unnoticed (no rabbits, no lady sawed in half.)
Agreed!
I stayed home with my sons, as my mother did with us. (She would have anyway, I chose to, and needed to.)
I feel very sorry for women who have to rush from the delivery suite home, and then back to work, dumping the child in a childcare warehouse on the way. (Or – who feel they have to!)
Extending PPL is affordable — if the tax cuts for the rich were reversed by lunchtime.
You would be able to afford heaps of other things as well. Things that shouldnt be expected to make a ‘profit’.
Sorry posted this in the wrong area interesting story developing here bigger than Nick Smith and a letter will it get the same coverage.
Can anyone tell me what the Meatworkers union has been doing with all the funds it has been receiving as it certainly hasnt been fully declaring them. Surely they havent been ripping off the workers ?
CEO Hamish Simson says the union has not declared its total income, and has failed to disclose what it does with its members’ contributions.
“It appears from the union’s published financial statements that only a fraction of its total income has been declared,” says Mr Simson.
“Affco workers contribute over $500,000 to the union each year, paying $5.95 each per week. Affco workers represent less than 10 percent of the 23,000 members the Union says it has and yet it only declares revenue of just over $700,000 per annum”.
Do try and keep up, Jim Jim. The funds aren’t missing and the Affco boss has made a total tit of himself.
More support from overseas Union affiliations for our workers facing incredibly hostile employers
http://cms.iuf.org/?q=node/1586
It’s been interesting as well as welcoming to see how supportive overseas Union allies have been towards the viscious assualts from both POAL and Talleys/AFFCO towards their workforce.
why havent the Meat workers union declared all of the funds they receive Rosie where is it going?
James,
Yesterday I posted this link
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/6723730/SFO-complaint-over-union-accounts
on open mike. Is this what you are referring to?
If so, you’ll see there are two sides to that story. I would be more concerned about the hostile actions of Talleys referring the MWU to the SFO. I think you’ll find that that their reasons for doing so are baseless. Given that Unions often struggle financially I would assume and that the MWU isn’t likely to be smuggling gazillions away and that this is simply a desparate bid from a bad employer to destroy their enemy, which is how they seem to view their Union partner
Aye Rosie.
Doing this the day before the commencement of mediation is particularly aggressive and stupid. It is as if Talley’s don’t want to sort things out peacefully with the Union …
I agree with with you Mickey. It does seem that Talleys have no commitment to or or intention to peacefully settle withe their Unionised employees.
We can’t forget that this is a business who made large donations to the National Party election campaign in 2005 – to the “Bosses Party”. Perhaps they now find themselves in a climate where they won’t be held to account for their oppressive actions. So now is their time to really rachet up the anti Union campaign
The Tallys blunder by believing something Cameron Slater said was credible.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10798107
Listening to RadioNZ now and Double Dipton is essentially saying fuck Parliament.
Quite rightly so to Jim Helen Clark said it was unaffordable to give six months at the time Labour brought in 3 months. I have to agree with her ,and economic conditions have only got worse.
thats got zero to do with it james.
Its parliament who pass the laws in this country, not the government of the day – if a majority of parliament vote in favour of something then by rights it shouldnt be shut down ahead of time by a veto from government.
heres a tiny experiment for you – what would be your reaction if it was labour in government doing this to a bill put forward by national that.. hmm… sought to cut business taxes?
I’m inclined to think any bill ought to be vetoable if it necessitates expenditure that hasn’t been budgeted for.
You forgot the rest of the story Jimmy111 – PPL was gradually extended, from 12 weeks in 2002 for parents who had worked for the same employer for a year to 14 weeks in 2005 and including parents with 6 months service and self-employed mothers. It was expected to increase again if Labour won the 2008 election. The issue was not whether 6 months was unaffordable, but whether it was affordable all at once.
The bill was sponsored by Laila Harre – an Alliance Party minister and picked up as Labour Party core policy.
Harre, who is now working hard for the Greens.
Charter Schools
We can be assured that this government will make them work (but at what cost?)
Will the management of a school be able to turn “potential undesirable” children/families away? Will they be able to manipulate their rolls? What will happen to “stood down” pupils?
When the PM said he wanted all children to be above average, did he mean just the children of charter schools measured against the rest of the education system?
Gossiping yesterday I was told that Shonkey’s bach in Hawaii cost $40 million (NZ I would think). Should I ask Whaleoil – he would know all about it?
so you’ve had a bad day, you need to unwind, so you do what you love, you go cycling over the ranges. You do that a lot, you’re quite good at it. Its rare for anyone to turn up behind you, or you’ve never been on that track, or that track is unfamiliar since most times anyone has passed you there has been room. Anyway, this guy comes up behind you, wants to get past, and its one of those days you just need to be left alone. But they are not going to. Why not? Why can’t he just stop on a rise, take a breath for a few minutes and you will be far off someplace. Its the generous thing to do since you’ve never encountered this problem before, someone wanting to get past you on a tight track, maybe after a coffee, a shower, a good nights sleep you’d realise (or more likely rsubconcious would), how to move over and be generous to the nuisence behind you wanting to get past. And what’s his problem anyway, cars in back lanes sometimes have to slow down until there is a passing zone, you don’t actually see cars come to a halt to let cars pass them. Any experience rider would ‘get’ that their egos might get the better of them and actively find weakness in other riders a way to boast their egos even more. And then there’s the personal mp3 player, this get out of the way isn’t going to happen card, how would anyone behind even get noticed by someone wanting to get past. So I ask what mistakes did he make when he got up that day? was it going out cycling? no, was it giving any conscious thought to the guy behind him? Hell yes. If he’d just ignored the guy behind he’d never have gotten into the altercation and so never have the police looking for him. So why did he stop and start having a conversation? Why when he had ???been forced to stop??? did he not then let the guy pass silent, smirkin and a figure in the air, was he having a mental fart, a moment of insanity trying to argue with a moron on adrendlin. Was it the insanity every middle aged guy hits, with the notion that there were now young fitter cyclists who wanted to pass him and could easily beat them in a race, faced with his own aging and weakness. You can quite understand why a younger adrenalin junky, who premedatatively took a camera with him, to allegedly haze some older rider for the laugh, and make the effort of carrying it on his head worthwhile would be so pleased with the exposer but its not a good outcome for cycling since it teaches only that sometimes you will meet up with an old fart on the track and how easy it is to start a altecation with them, a handbook in how to make cycling fun in all the wrong ways. So the lesson is when you next meet up with the old fart slowing you down, just hope they arent wearing any mp3 player, and tell them that you will stop for a few minutes to let them get ahead so you dont bump into them quite as much. They might just feel twisted inside, see themselves as a bully hogging the track and let you pass, but what you don’t do is haze the guy for he might be carrying a knife and have just been let out of the psychoward.
In other mean spiritedness, the V8 Hamilton races have stopped a car driver accessing their own private driveway one too many times and now look set to suffer either a court action that will stop the race, or worse, the racing industry will look like an petrol head excuse who tramps all over the average car owners (who don’t worship cars). Go figure. But hey, adrendlin motor heads and cyclists are drug uses too. The responsible reasonable approach is to back off and let them pass, or stop putting yourself in their face without any concern for later consequences. i.e both parties have an obligation to back off, but the druggies have to be aware that its can be an offense to disturb the peace – being high on adrendlin is no excuse. They don’t have a right to impose themselves on others and expect the outcome they want. So don’t give it to them.
Its obvious to me that the offending mountain of a biker votes ACT. No other bugger would demand everything their way at the expense of everybody else.
Let’s hope so! My sympathies are with the driver and his family…
“Faceless people” attacking Pat Lam? YEAH RIGHT.
The Auckland Blues have lost five out of their first six games, so of course there’s only one possible reason: too many darkies, both playing and coaching.
Well, that’s what “they” have been saying on the internet and on Radio Sport and NewstalkZB. And some of the people who ring in are almost as racist as the hosts.
Yet, in spite of the recent denunciations of the “gutless cowardly boofheads who hide behind the anonymity of the internet” there is little evidence that anyone, even the victims, are prepared or willing to confront the main culprits. Instead, the victims themselves have chosen to pretend that the racism infesting the airwaves is due to some vague ethereal “anonymous” presence…
Yesterday an emotionally distraught Pat Lam publicly fingered what he said was the source of these comments: “It’s the faceless people,” he blubbed. On radio this morning, Blues CEO Andy Dalton repeated that message: we don’t know who they are, these “faceless people”.
Yesterday on NewstalkZB, Larry Williams, without missing a beat, told Mark Watson that that “we get this garbage too”, and that it “goes straight into the rubbish bin.”
Listen to Susan Wood this morning on NewstalkZB: “The cowardly boofheads …anonymity of the internet….gutless…”
ENOUGH ALREADY! What Wood and Williams and (most of all) Pat Lam know perfectly well is that the source of the most vitriolic anti-Polynesian, anti-Maori comments is right under their noses. NewstalkZB/Radio Sport hosts Murray Deaker, Paul Holmes, Tony Veitch, Leighton
Smith are notorious for their racially charged comments, and their demeaning of Maori and Polynesians.
The people responsible for these ugly racist comments are not “faceless”, they are the colleagues of Wood and Williams. It’s an indictment of Lam and Dalton that they lack the courage to state this plainly.
Re: Paul Holme’s racist outbursts.
Did The Jackal ever get a reply to his complaint to the HRC about Holmes article on Watangi Day?
Unfortunately not. The HRC, Privacy Commissioner and BSA have decided to not even acknowledge complaints from me anymore, which is unbelievably undemocratic! The Ombudsman is also delaying indefinitely many of my complaints well past the allowable timeframe, which is all designed to dissuade me from making them.
Our Forensic Psychologist viewed that Pat Lam interview and laughingly pointed out the way Pat managed to stop being emotional at least twice in the news footage to look up straight faced at the interviewer in what our Psychologist called a look of ”am I believable”,
Pat using ”emotion” to head those calling for His head off at the pass so to speak…
Its bloody ugly, you note there are never complaints when the team is going well, they could not have enough darkies then!
Couple of things to note:
* In my experience I have never heard Deaker making “racist” noises, I have heard him being brave enough to address the real problems of age size differences in school rugby that touch upon ethnicity that can bring charges of racism. He may be many things but he is definitely not a racist.
* Auckland rugby is suffering badly and the Blues are symptomatic of this. A few years back the Auckland provincial and Super teams had token Palangis and Maoris, the team was very Samoan. The fear was that “smaller” players (read pakeha) were being forced out of the game and that the top level would suffer from a reduced player base. I was involved with kids rugby on the North Shore when the local unions went to great lengths to ensure that the player drain of non Polynesians was staunched, and that weight / age grades etc were promoted. When you look at the Blues and Auckland now you can see the results, the team naturally has a large Polynesian content, Auckland after all is the largest Polynesian city.The teams ethnicity is now far more mixed. It looks a bit like the local population you would see walking down the road.
Time for all Aucklanders to get behind their team, cut the crap and support Lam.
In my experience I have never heard Deaker making “racist” noises… He may be many things but he is definitely not a racist.
You obviously have not listened to Murray Deaker for very long.
Your defence of him is based on fantasy.
Ah come on Morrissey, I did not call you out on Paul Holmes, Tony Veitch, Leighton
Smith because I never listen to them ( and maybe because its on the record that they are as you describe)!
Deaks…now that’s different, listen all the time as he is prepared to ask the hard questions and listen for the answers. Have I missed an episode? Can I get it on replay? He is very much like the Mad Butcher, a real enthusiast, I doubt he would treat you differently if you were a Martian.
I presume you’re accepting of Deaker using the N word then Bored?
I stand corrected…Deaks has used the term “nigger” it appears from your article and I don’t see it as acceptable in any context. I will however go by Willie Loses interpretation that the term is wrong but the man is not a racist.
Some confusion by our good friend Bored, when he writes: “I will however go by Willie Loses interpretation that the term is wrong but the man is not a racist.”
So… he uses a racist word, repeatedly and calculatedly, but he is not a racist.
Willy Lose’s bizarre and illogical claim can partly be explained by the fact he was speaking as a colleague and was afraid of provoking the notoriously belligerent Deaker. What is your motivation for writing such nonsense?
Motivation? I happen to like the work he does on rugby and I happen to believe he is not a racist. That’s my opinion, on that we obviously differ. I tend to give people a chance before I condemn, your evidence does rather lead me to reconsider. Whats is your motivation?
Deaks…now that’s different, listen all the time as he is prepared to ask the hard questions and listen for the answers.
“Prepared to ask the hard questions?” Deaker? You’re dreaming, my friend. Obviously you were asleep when he was toadying after John O’Neill and Vernon Pugh in 2002. Deaker accepted every single word they said as they hijacked New Zealand’s games for the 2003 World Cup. What hard questions are you talking about? His advocacy of the Blackheart campaign in 2003? What “hard questions” did he ask then? When he is not acting as a sycophant and asking patsy questions, bellowing his disdain for Maori and Polynesian footballers, he’s opining for hour after hour about how “dark skinned people lack the necessary concentration to play cricket”.
Have I missed an episode? Can I get it on replay?
Are you serious? Are you trying to suggest that Deaker’s racist ranting has been confined to just a few episodes that you happen to have missed?
He is very much like the Mad Butcher, a real enthusiast,
That’s a very charitable assessment of the talent-free zone known as the Mad Butcher.
I doubt he would treat you differently if you were a Martian.
Lucky for the Martians then. Just a pity he’s such a crude bigot towards Maori and Polynesian people.
Jeez Morrissey, just read your deconstruct and fell about laughing (genuinely, it is amusing), especially about the Mad Butcher. Just to put you straight here the Butcher may be talent free as far as you are concerned BUT he has an immense and demonstrable talent for charity and kindness. Now that’s talent.
Deaks also amused me with his constant questioning of Henry over his “judge me by the results” (hard questions perhaps).
All up I have admitted I got it wrong, you wont however get me regarding Deaks as a racist.
PS Nice to get off the “political” for a change.
I can see you are a very kind and decent person, Bored. But there are a couple of points I still disagree with…
1.) “[The Mad Butcher] has an immense and demonstrable talent for charity and kindness.”
He certainly has a talent for publicising how much money he gives away.
2.) Deaks also amused me with his constant questioning of Henry over his “judge me by the results”
He’s had to shut up about that now, although you have to wonder how obnoxious he would be towards Henry and the All Blacks if there had been an unbiased referee in the World Cup final last year.
3.) you wont however get me regarding Deaks as a racist
Unfortunately, no matter how indulgently or charitably one wants to look on Deaker, his own record acts as a prosecutor against him….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21032012/#comment-449711
I will keep being kind and decent, but I promise you if I hear him being deliberately racist I will telephone in with the wrath of Bored.
National Radio, 9:50 a.m., Thursday 12 April 2012
Foreign Correspondent slot is increasingly a forum for lunatics
Who chooses the guests for this 9:50 slot? Many of them (Jack Hitt and Ray Moynihan, for instance) are excellent, but listeners have also had to suffer through such substandard and toxically biased commentators as Irris Makler, Jason Morrison, and Kate Adie.
Kathryn Ryan’s guest this morning is…uh, oh…. the notoriously unbalanced (in every sense) Dame Ann Leslie.
Dame Ann rants dyspeptically about the five Islamic men about to be sent to the United States on terrorism charges—she calls one of them, Abu Hamza, “Captain Hook”. Ryan giggles at that, and giggles continuously throughout Dame Ann’s unhinged ranting against the International Criminal Court, but never challenges her or asks her to explain herself. Then she moves it onto another topic…
RYAN: The teachers’ unions have been in the news, Dame Ann–
DAME ANN LESLIE: Arrrrgggh.
RYAN: He he he he!
DAME ANN: Every year we have to listen to the militant rabble rousingof the teacher unions!
RYAN: What are their concerns?
DAME ANN LESLIE: They never agree to any method of reforming our LOUSY education system. They need a full SIX WEEKS in the summer,… The unions have opposed EVERY EFFORT to improve the education system. All attempts to improve these schools are stifled. We are absolutely FED UP with them.
The spluttering and snarling continues for several more minutes, punctuated occasionally by Kathryn Ryan’s giggles.
Blowing the budget
National are ideologically blinded by neoliberalism. Under a John Key government, New Zealand has had to borrow billions to cover tax cuts for the wealthy. Additional consultancy fees directly attributed to cuts in public sector employment will also ensure our indebtedness for the foreseeable future…
Bill lists the targets for his scythe: public servants in Health, Social Development, Education.
Be afraid, be very afraid…
The benefits of being a scab contractor:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10798223
How many unionists are on $2300/day????
I’m a contractor and wouldn’t even get out of bed for $2300/day, but I have to pay insane amounts of tax to fund all the dpb bludgers and dole payments of unionists who refuse to work, so can’t afford to get out of bed for such a pittance.
But I guess that is why you all pay >$2 litre for petrol – to keep me in the lifestyle that I’m accustomed to.
Fuck, I love being a capitalist!
What a stirrer you want to be mister m. Stick to stirring the brown stuff that’s tea and leave the smelly stuff alone, it rubs off, smells foul and then your fine self will find high pay is no compensation.
M my man, just keep paying the ridiculous amounts of tax, enjoy the lifestyle and reflect upon your higher status as a generous person (even if you don’t want to be). And should you feel you pay too much tax, just pay it. Fear the IRD above all others.
It will disappoint you soon enough, being a proud capitalist, and a somewhat ignorant capitalist. That you think this is a world where opposites do not exist, that there is no opposing force to your pride, is a sad gap in your education. It’s even more depressing than your grasp of English. You see, no capitalist who understands capitalism, past its immediate appeal to self-interest and avarice, would say they love being a capitalist. It is like a tragic character, unaware he is a player, announcing to the audience he loves the idea he is about to never be the same, eager to leave behind his hubris and egotistical utterances in exchange for, usually, death, but in our context, risking something much worse – a living death.
It would be equally disappointing to find a communist – the modern capitalist’s arch rival – who is proud to be a communist. Capitalism sows the seeds of its own demise with its demand for increased production of things it cannot sell and in meeting the opposing force of communism, both perspectives are irrevocably changed. Once the two forces face off and struggle to the point of exhaustion, society is either reduced to the instinctual barbarism of human necessity as a result or we all move forward together in a new way; without our present isms and divisions. There is little to be proud of, once you realise the risks, unless you are mentally deranged – whichever side you stand on.
In the words of the Bard “M” sounds like ” a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”…..
Apparently all of them, according to the POAL and the right wing media.
Forget the money – you can’t take it with you. Get out of bed at dawn, don’t turn the light on, eat fruit and grains, drink a cup,of tea (without milk), walk somewhere and smile and say hello to the other walkers. Leave your cell phone at home.
Canadian workers are struggling against NeoLiberalism :
“THE STRUGGLE AGAINST NEOLIBERALISM: Canadian Workers’ Rights in the Wake of the 2008 Financial Crisis
The Electro-Motive Lockout and Non-Occupation”
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=30234
“Along with everything else, the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath created new openings and potentials for working people in the struggle against neoliberalism. A number of struggles initially opened up, including factory occupations, efforts to defend pensions and the rights of younger workers. There were important political struggles, as well, as in Wisconsin, along with newer projects to link labour and communities, in the Occupy movement.”
All neo-liberalism means is there way, you have no say. But the fact is you have a lot of say, your consent is required for a civil society to provide the efficiencies to carry all those ‘extra’ rich (and they know it and will do everything to distort, distract and misdirect).
Just heard about the death of Jack Tramiel another great computer innovator like Steve Jobs. He introduced the Commodore Pet the first accessable home computer. I knew of the computer but not the innovator – this guy was a great clever doer and survivor.
Jack Tramiel has died aged 84 years in the Usa Obit from the Washington Post.
For those who have nostalgic memories of Commodore computers and Amigas and want to read more about this Jack Tramiel.
http://awesome.commodore.me/
Ahh sad.
Started with a Vic 20 then went C64, C128 and Amiga. Picked up a Plus/4 along the way.
Dabbled in machine code and learned to program in basic – which still comes in handy with Excel in particular.
It was those retired people in the C64 clubs who were impressive. They could do things with machine code on their 64’s I could only dream about.
I remember one group in Wanganui had worked out how to get their names to appear on the screen instead of Commodore when you turned it on.
I think they used a modded chip and machine code combination.
Boulderdash, Impossible Mission, Bubble Bobble, Armalyte, Pool Of Radiance, Wizball, IK+, Buggy Boy, Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, all the Magnetic Scrolls games, Zamzara, BC’s Quest for Tires, speech synthesis, GEOS – ahh the list is endless.
Can’t forget of course those tape loading screens:
I/S on No Right Turn in “If all you have is a hammer…” makes a couple of noteworthy observations.
The first is the fact that Nationals policy announcements consists of just a load of waffle with no actual detail whatsoever – It is quite an effective strategy, albeit a darkly cynical one given the importance of the issues paid only lip service to. For those wanting to critique the ‘plans’ or even to understand them there is nothing to grasp onto. An educated or informed response is impossible when slogans are all that we have been given.
But where is the critique in the media of the lack of detail? Nationals policy announcements are about as convincing as a new years resolution and their Ministers should be laughed out of their press conferences for daring to turn up and make proclamations that are a deliberate study in vagueness.
Secondly I/S highlights the growing use of ‘the children’ as an excuse for implementing unpopular policies or reform. Once again it is only the most darkly cynical who would deliberately use peoples concern for their children to promote a course of action – when a hostage taker holds a gun to the head of someone’s child and demands obedience the violence of the act is rightly condemned by law and society – yet the governments modus operandi is now little different.
It is time that the government stopped implying that children will suffer if we don’t accept their austerity and their radical hard right agenda or that children will benefit if we do.
Austerity harms economies and harms society. The Nats don’t care about kids any more than the hostage taker does.
Somehow I think I/S is close to the truth re National and using children, cynic that I am. Interestingly, Imperator Fish has a relevant Key/English cartoon on his site today – http://www.imperatorfish.com/2012/04/this-weeks-political-gallery.html
Southland dairy farmers attempt to bully Environment Southland into changing new rules with the support of Bill English. http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/dairy-farmers-and-bullying-tactics.html
Great Minds Thinking Hard about the Big Questions
NewstalkZB, Thursday 12 April 2012, 1:28 p.m.
As always at NewstalkZB, it’s an atmosphere of moral panic and befuddlement as confused callers try to come to grips with the question of the day. Today’s big topic is “teenagers committing burglaries—who’s to blame?”. As usual, there’s an easy answer for it—it’s all because parents are no longer allowed to punch, kick and whip their children. A caller called Shannon rings up host Danny Watson to share her wisdom….
SHANNON: The government took away our rights as parents when they brought in the anti-smacking law. And, yes, I KNOW there’s abuse and there’s children that get killed rah rah rah but seriously Danny—
DANNY WATSON: It’s still going on by the way. The killing.
SHANNON: Oh I knowwwwww…
What a surprise, farmers whinging about being held accountable for their destructive actions.
They’re basically complaining that they won’t be able to pollute unhindered.
I also find it amusing that they’re calling it an attack on democracy when it was the actions of farmers that resulted in the sacking of ECan and the implementation of a dictatorship in its place because they didn’t like the democratic result – rules that enforced environmental protection.
Southland Farmers are also complaining about an increase in rates that attempts to recoup the costs incurred by the industry. Dairy farmers claim they don’t want subsidies and yet that is what is occurring when the external costs of the industry continue to be covered by general ratepayers and taxpayers.
Quote of the day:
“Once an offender has been conclusively identified as a person who will never be safe around the vulnerable – particularly children – their “rights” very much take second place to the rights of children to play, or even to sleep, without a Lloyd McIntosh waiting for his chance to grab them and commit unspeakable crimes.”
David Garratt, a criminal convicted of an unspeakable crime against a child, in a guest post on Kiwiblog.
Yesterday I heard National Radio quoting Garrett’s most shameless defender, Garth McVicar, about a law and order question.
Following the brutal 2008 knife-killing of a boy in South Auckland, McVicar loudly defended the killer, and for day after day expressed scorn and contempt for the victim and his family. Yet he is still referred to by National Radio and other media outlets as a “victims’ advocate”.
Garrett and McVicar must be two of the most loathsome and hypocritical creatures in the country, yet they are still accorded respect.
Why?
Because they’re part of the old (white) boys club. The only respect such reprobates really get is from people who are racist themselves.
Or possibly it is because the National Radio producers are indolent, and go to McVicar because he always has something incendiary to say, even if it makes little sense.
pssssssst….
any of the petty petit-bourgeois around today.
they wanna ugh umm moderate me?
me.
hook!
Anyone who has bothered to register to comment over at DPF’s place, and wants a free hit on one of the resident birthers;
This thread:
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2012/04/general_debate_12_april_2012.html#comment-954789
‘Bereal’ talking about how Obama is going to get all busted about his birth certificate because “Sheriff Joe is on the case…..”.
In a later comment he talks about his respect for the rule of law.
point him here:
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/04/10/a-little-justice-served/
… and let the poor guy know that the SSTs favorite sheriff’s legal team have been stripped of their law licenses. It looks like Joe has more to worried about that Obama. TBH.
Great to see the pressure coming on Gillard in Aussie now in Australia she is admitting that Australia must focus on productivity thats enough to have the Union leaders over there having seizures they arent use to improving productivity.
Just as we need to improve productivty here at POAL, and the Affco plants
You’re a liar and an idiot.
No Morrisey its all true you can watch it on sky channel 90. The other interesting thing is now that Labour has virtually been thrown out of Queensland and can only form a party because the liberals are being nice to them ie they dont have enough seats.
The Liberals have just announced they are taking $7000 stamp duty of buying a home. Halfing the Labour premieres fare increases on public transport. I bet the people of queensland are so happy to have pragmatism rather ideology rulingthem again.
Wow! It’s on Sky TV? It’s got to be true.
Oh,you mean buying votes?
Right wing asset selling Labor deserved to be tossed out.
But you don’t really understand anything about it Jimbo, as has been proven so many times before.
Get your little digs in, that you think are fun, and maybe you even think you are cool, or that you are winning.
I assure you that you are not, and you can not!
What is “productivity” to you James ?
I suspect it is a measure of how much product comes out of the works and how much cargo unloaded and despatched per worker.
So you have more workers producing the same amount for a lesser wage per worker or fewer workers producing the same amount for a higher wage per worker, or you have some workers producing more than others but the average produced is the same and you pay the more productive workers more to allow for the “loafers”, or you only employ higher producing workers and contract them to maintain their higher production or lose the contract.
How do you decide which is best ?
James, I think you really need to come clean and admit you want to:
1) Ban unions
2) Ban collective bargaining
3) Bring back slavery
Cheers
Millsy.
4) And to bring back the right for the lord of the land to deflower any virgin serf of his choosing on her 16th birthday. Well any of the ones who are left by then.
Something I agree with Winston Peters on:
There seems to be an expectation by some to deal with everything by media instead of using parliamentary process.
(This is related but different to Bill English ignoring parliamentary process to decide the outcome of bills before they have even been in the house.)
For God sake why do We do it, watch that bloke Campbell make a mockery of journalism on our TV that is,
To-nights revelation that earnings of 80 grand a year are somehow putting people in the line of poverty makes us lot wonder if wee John doesn’t fall about the studio in mad fits of laughter once the lights have gone down on the nights offerings,
If 80 grand a year is sliding dangerously close to the poverty line,(according to John and the family featured),then what the fuck do these people make of the pittance those forced to survive on the minimum wage and benefits get every week…
The irony is that the people writing in saying “yeah were pulling $120,000 and we’re only just keeping our heads above water” are, I reckon, the same kinds of people that complain that solo parents with kids surviving on a fraction of that are living a luxurious lifestyle at their personal expense.
I did have some sympathy for the family featured though (interestingly viewers weren’t invited to go through their accounts with a fine toothed comb to criticise their expenditure as happens in stories about beneficiaries). I’m sure they do work very hard. The cost of living is ridiculously high, and ordinary people who expect a middle-class lifestyle are working longer and longer hours to stay still, a far cry from what that aspirational bullshit tells them is their due. Most of the middle-class is moving down economically. Unfortunately the anger is generally directed at those who have it much harder and not those with the power to make a difference. And it’s a pity the cost of living isn’t something that can be acknowledged when those who are really hard-up speak out.
I had UMR ring me up tonight and survey on a bunch of political questions relating to Sky City pokies and the Paid Parental Leave veto and that bootfaced cow Judith Collins as well as the usual. I can’t remember whether UMR has a publically released poll like Roy Morgan, does anyone know? Or was I just being surveyed by the Nats? I’m curious, as they’ve rung me before.
I thought UMR did the internal polling for Labour.