“..People who pay a large part of their household income for rent or a mortgage, or who save assiduously for a huge down payment, don’t have much cash left to contribute to the overall economy.
Most of their income simply gets confiscated by inflated home prices, or the resulting high rents and associated expenses.
It’s channeled to landlords, PE firms, and REITs that own the homes; banks and investment funds that own the mortgages or the mortgage-backed securities; and a million other entities.
Most of it becomes part of the grease that keeps Wall Street from squealing.
But nothing happens with that money to move the real economy forward..”
😀
This housing thing has got me thinking….are the costs lower to the government to support a social housing provider, or to pay accommodation supplement?
The answer will depend on whether or not social housing providers can charge market rent or at least enough for their tenants to qualify for AS. Could be a story here…
This housing frenzy to divest by government. It seems to me like a Richard Prebble moment as with our rail system. I think he said he would be prepared to give it away, because of the usual hperbole – gummint can’t be efficient, no good as managers, can’t being the proper commercial controls on running, and finally it would be better if some private organisation could lick into shape.
Which usually means run cheaper and better and be profitable. Which is an oxymoron I think? Can’t be done in a public service, which by their nature are costly and to be affordable and reasonably priced, can at best just meet costs. To give their best value they need thorough examination for viability and usefulness when started, and regular review and monitoring for successful performance along the way. That’s how gummint should be running housing, and providing what is needed in an appropriate way.
Which is important when our banks (mostly) export their profits so it doesnt get re-introduced…. ANZ NZ made a 500m half yearly profit to go with its Aussie heads 3bn…
I tried to live in an impossible city, once. It was impossible. Nothing was possible. So I moved to a possible city, which is marginally better, because while not everything works, there is the hope that something might work if approached in the right way. I pity the fool that saves for 37 years to go live in an impossible city. My dream is to build a plausible city, and if successful, move forward onto building highly likely communities.
TPPA: This from an interview with Elizabeth Warren in which she explains how the Investor-State Dispute Settlement system (ISDS) works.
PLUM LINE: Is it theoretically possible to write ISDS in a way that precludes it from overriding regulation?
WARREN: It doesn’t directly tell countries to repeal regulations. It imposes a financial penalty, which has caused countries to change their regulations…[ISDS mechanisms] never had the authority to override regulations. What they had was the authority to impose a monetary penalty directly against the government and its taxpayers. That’s the point at which governments have backed up and said, “we can’t afford this, we’ll just change the law.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/05/11/elizabeth-warren-fires-back-at-obama-heres-what-theyre-really-fighting-about/
We need our journalists to drill Tim Groser and John Key about this. $6million for the Saudi businessman over the live sheep ban will be very small beer compared to the figures in the ISDS cases. It will be so costly to preserve the environment and our citizens rights.
How can our Nat politicians not see that? Come on, Labour, Greens, NZ First, start making more noise about this!
They can see that – they don’t care. In fact, I’d say that that’s the entire point. Taking governments to the cleaners will be a nice profit making scheme.
““we can’t afford this, we’ll just change the law.””
So they can claim the TPP wasn’t the problem, but the Govts BUT the threat of law suits makes the govt change the law to “save” the taxpayer money from the lawsuit…
More insidious to me is that the decision-making process of the dispute is closed and the adjudicators are former corporate lawyers…
but they see it.
it is just you pretending to believe that they don’t see it.
IF we all would admit that they see it, know it, talk about and take it into account, than we would be really really scared, as we realise that we are nothing but cattle or chattel, utterle expendable and of no value to them what so ever.
The national party that supports the TPPA and the labour party and any other polititian in nz that supports this abomination should be charged with treason.
Yes drill Tim Groser and John Key till all the small beer leaks out. Makes no sense?
Neither does anything they say when studied closely. Let’s all talk politic (otherwise known as gobblegook while they treat us as turkeys to be roasted.)
And of course to balance the ISDS provisions, when regulations are changed that result in increased profits for corporates those corporates are required to pass that profit over to the government….
My puzzlement this morning comes from the fact that nobody seems to want to tell me where the bulk of the 2010 Liberal Democratic voters went. Did they go to the Conservative Party? And did the Conservative pParty lose a quarter of its 2010 votes to UKIP? Or is it that the Liberal Democratic voters see their identity as being neither Labour nor Conservative, and so jumped to UKIP when Nick Clegg turned the Liberal Democrats into Conservatives-not-so-light?
The rest of the rather short article also asks some interesting questions about the UK election.
Over the last few days, I’ve read many sweeping assertions about the swings and counter-swings that supposedly took place between the various parties in the UK Election. Almost always based on hunches or anecdotal evidence. But presented as cold, hard fact.
The vast body of data from pre-Election Opinion Polls remains the only reliable source in my opinion (although anecdotal evidence via discussions with an array of locals – including party activists – in specific electorates is useful as supplementary evidence). Probably most useful of all, though, will be the British Election Study data (from post-Election interviews) when it comes out.
All the polling evidence I’ve seen – both since 2010 in general and, more specifically, over the last few months – suggests Lib Dem deserters were disproportionately heading Labour’s way. How that dovetails with Labour’s woeful inability to win that vast array of Tory Marginals is another matter. Did an unusually large proportion of Lib Dem deserters have a last minute change of heart ?
Or was the Lib Dem swing to Labour nullified by an even greater swing from Labour-to-UKIP or Labour-to-the-Conservatives ?
No wonder the tories fought hard against a change to the electoral system…. Why Labour fought hard too is beyond me.
Labour very much likes two party privilege. Also, Labour Parties throughout the world see all minor left wing political parties as political enemies to be suppressed and sidelined where at all possible, lest they metastasize into left wing nightmares for them like the SNP.
Also remember that in NZ, the National Party were the ones who introduced MMP.
Yep, it’s clear the Non-Vote won in the vast majority of Labour-held seats (Merseyside and parts of Greater London being the key exceptions).
And despite the impressive turnout in Scotland overall, I see the Apathy Party also came first in Greater Glasgow (home of the “Yes” vote) and in poor old Orkney and Shetland (possibly allowing the Lib Dems to hang on by their fingertips in the latter constituency).
What the United States is in fact worried about is independence, what’s called the “threat of a good example,” or a rotten apple which might spoil the barrel, or some formulation of “the domino theory”: The idea that if one country decides to develop crazy ideas about democracy and popular control, other countries might do the same, leading to a widespread revolution.
This is directly antithetical U.S. business interests, so it must be rooted out, brutally and quickly, so that others get the message.
Noam Chomsky writes in Interventions that,
The United States has long reacted harshly to the “successful defiance” of Third World countries like Cuba that sought a path to independent development, assigning priority to domestic needs rather than those of foreign investors and Washington planners.
After the “virus” is removed, “stability” must be established, often through a nasty, corrupt dictator or a national security state which will not give in to such petty concerns as human rights and living conditions.
We can see these types of interventions of the US into other nations around the world. Iran and Iraq are the two most well known interventions but other countries have also fallen under US hegemony.
Been going on for some time. I remember doing an essay at uni in ’73 based around the CIA in cahoots with ITT, getting rid of Allende in Chile cos he nationalised the phone network.
Successive US governments have all had the arrogance to achieve imperialism, but they’ve also lacked the style that a decent imperial power needs. There’s a reason almost all the baddies in the original Star Wars were RADA-trained 😉
In a wee discussion the other day on The Standard, I suggested the Greens were nowhere near as toxic to voters as some pundits (both Left and Right-leaning) seem to assume.
Here’s some data to back-up my argument:
UMR November 2013
Potential Coalition Partners “How good a job do you think the following parties would do if they were part of a coalition government with one of the major parties”
Good = Will do Good Job
Bad = Will do Bad Job
G+N = Good+Neutral combined score
G/B Diff = Good/Bad Difference
Table One: Entire Sample Party…….Good…..Neutral….Bad….Unsure…G+N……..G/B Diff
(In order of Highest to Lowest Good+Neutral) Greens………26………31………..36………….7………..57………. – 10 Maori………..12………39…………41…………8………..51………. – 29 NZF…………..12……….31…………47……….10……….43………. – 35 ACT……………4………..25…………59……….12……….29………. – 55 Cons………….4………..24…………48……….24……….28………. – 44
Clearly, NZ voters are not particularly enamoured of any of the minor parties when it comes to coalition politics. But, taking a Glass Half Full approach, you can see that 57% of voters can live with the Greens as a coalition partner (64% if you include those Unsure). That makes them more popular than the Maori and NZF parties and vastly more acceptable to the voting public than ACT and the Conservatives.
The Greens are even acceptable to a significant minority of National voters:
Table Two: Views of National Party Voters Only Maori………….8………..36………..52………….4………..44………. – 44 Greens……….9…………31………..56………….4………..40………. – 47 ACT…………….6…………31………..56………….7………..37………. – 50 Cons…………..6…………29………..45…………20……….35………. – 39 NZF…………….6…………29………..59………….6………..35………. – 53
The Māori Party was willing to compromise their principles for a place at the table – even if it was sitting on the floor begging for crumbs. Now all but one of the Māori seats have returned to Labour, and the MP face total obliteration at the next election.
PR actually said “outside of Parliament”, not “outside of government”.
Labour are in Parliament and they, and the Greens, played a part in the zero-hours contract debate. Labour got Parliamentary Services to ditch them for the catering staff.
Or they could look at what happens to left/liberal parties who prop up Tory governments (cf LibDems last week). The Greens would accomplish nothing inside a NACT government. Or at least, nothing of substance; for example, can anyone tell me wtf ‘whanau ora’ is or what it has achieved?
As for achievements – I know of quite a few really good outcomes for families and individuals both in Auckland and around the country. I think it is a wonderful approach to accessing services. Holism seems to be a good approach, and contrary to many misguided comments here – I’ve only ever dealt with true professionals within the Whanau Ora framework.
That’s a heartening bit of number crunching there Swordfish. However, I do note that the data comes from November 2013. Now that Mana no longer have a parliamentary presence, the Overton window has moved rightwards and GP can once more be attacked as the Devil-Beast of leftward extremism.
One depressing tidbit from the weekend; I was talking to a GP member who had been at the; male coleader candidate speeches in Dunedin. They seemed to be leaning towards supporting Shaw at the delegate meeting next week, mainly due to him looking good in a suit. They were particularly scathing about Hughes rocking up to speak in more casual dress, especially his wearing scuffed shoes. However, while they were clear about what Hughes and Hague stood for (though unimpressed by Hague’s body language), they were unable to say much about Shaw’s or Tava’s accomplishments or principles.
It says something when even the Green Party is embracing style over substance.
How come Gwynn Compton (the new Dirty Politics guy in John Key’s office) went to such effort yesterday to bleach his online profiles of any mention of the fact that he works in the PM’s Office?
A new word is being used around the world: “Quaxing.” It means: “to shop, in the western world, by means of walking, cycling or public transit.”
Dick Quax wrote “no one in the entire Western world uses the train for their shopping trips…the very idea that people lug home their supermarket shopping on the train is fanciful”.
And now around the world people are sending examples of Quaxing. Dopey Dick eh? http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11447071
Well, it’s normal exasperated politician hyperbole. If we give him the benefit of the doubt (and why would we, really. He’s paid to be articulate, and he worked for ACT), what he might mean is, “Not many people carry eight bags of a weekly grocery shop onto the train or bus by themselves, regularly, because it’s too heavy, the silly plastic bag handles cut into your hands or break and there’s nowhere safe to put it so the bags don’t split or get trampled, or so you can move fast enough to get off the train before the doors close for the next station.”
And he’d be right. What people do is make multiple trips with smaller loads over several days. If you don’t own a car, you do what you have to do. This method requires specific knowledge to identify, but not the same kind you need to run for parliament with ACT Party.
He might also mean, “In the entire Western World, it is becoming less likely that a person could afford to buy eight bags of shopping in a weekly supermarket shop, therefore relying on local suppliers, which require no special transport or equipment to carry the food, and in living in cheaper accomodation far from what is now solely commuter transport, never see or use a train during the span of their lives.” However this would require thoughts and abilities that ACT supporters don’t have.
I prefer the interpretation that, “In the entire Western World, there weren’t any supermarkets, and trains ran off into the desert, often following telegraph lines and were ultimately attacked by bandits. This discouraged the problems of suburban living. There were no taxes and everyone considered the natives a nuisance. I dream of a NZ like this. Please vote ACT.”
Using re-usable shopping bags largely resolves the ‘cutting into your hands’ problem, and each bag can individually hold more weight so you won’t need as many of them, so it’s less cumbersome. Doesn’t help with the total weight of course.
Have we contact details for Dick Quax so I can enlighten him on how I, a 64 year old non-driver transport my groceries when I don’t have an obliging niece or foster son to drive me?
I can also describe how I managed in earthquake riven Christchurch should he need more examples.
Sometime soon I hope to find a calm place within myself that helps me to feel empathy for the over-privileged pontificators who seem to be inhabiting Planet Key. Alternatively, perhaps I could find a way to live and experience life as the out of work, unwell and elderly ‘enjoy’ it as a consequence of NACTdom.
How’s this for a leadership comment on the current issue of road safety.
Prime minister John Key, “We have to balance what the police advise with wider public opinion on road speeds.”
but it is funnier when having said that he vehemently denies that he is at all swayed by wider public opinion, possibly against lower limits, and backlash as a result.
You can take the piss out of Key’s approach all you want, but it is far more effective and popular than say, Labour talking about getting trucks out of fast lanes so that holiday makers have it easier.
C.R.
Labour might have been better advised to have suggested getting most trucks off most lanes period and putting freight on trains to strategic rail-heads for distribution by smaller vehicles.
Explain the logic of this one – last week travelling north from Tauranga to Paeroa I was following a fully laden logging truck-and-trailer carrying large Radiata logs. As we passed through the narrow Karangahake gorge, we encountered a fully laden logging truck-and-trailer carrying large Radiata logs heading south.
Locals advise that this a regular occurrence. Perhaps you could remind us why the Kaimai tunnel was created?
My comment was not about roads. It was about Pry Minister Key being glib and expert on absolutely nothing until poll-guided, and then he fails. You missed it CR.
Is everyone having a reading comprehension difficulty day? I mentioned roads primarily in the context of Key’s “glib and expert on absolutely nothing until poll guided” approach, which I commented on as being quite an effective tactic despite peoples inclinations to ridicule it; and certainly more effective than some of Labour’s attempts.
I have opposed the TPPA for always, but reading this today, a couple of extra jigsaw pieces fell into place about why Goldman Sachs Merrill Lynch BOA sock puppet John Key wants this signed at any cost.
The brilliant Elizabeth Warren points out TPPA fastrack could be used in the USA to weaken, prevent or overcome any Wall St or banking reforms. WOW.
This is the nub of it that I had not understood until now. Worth a look.
“WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren hit back at President Barack Obama in their tussle over “fast track” authorization to negotiate a Pacific Rim trade treaty, a power she says could be used in the future to weaken Wall Street reforms.
Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat and prominent liberal voice, stuck to her argument in an interview published on Monday with a left-leaning Washington Post blog, saying Obama should release details of the Pacific trade talks so legal experts can determine if a pact could be used to weaken U.S. bank rules.”
I’m begging to wonder if some of the more enlightened US millionaires are bank rolling these candidates to get an alternative narrative out there. Revolutions are costly
I see that Andrew Little, according to this morning’s Dom/Post is wandering of the reservation.
Labour Party claims are that a large increase in the minimum wage won’t cause any job losses don’t they? Say go to $16.00/hour and no jobs will be lost.
Now he is quoted as saying in the paper, and I can’t find it on-line, that the Government must immediately cut the ACC worker levy by 20c per $100 of earnings because not to do so is costing jobs!
How can it be that a 10% increase in the minimum wage won’t cost any jobs but a 0.2% step in the ACC rates costs jobs?
You’re right.
I needed it for my first reaction to his opinion when I had to put it in front of the comment that came to mind.
My thought was “uck! He’s a total idiot.”
No doubt there is something incredibly witty about your remarks.
For the life of me I don’t see what it is or what you are trying to say.
Still if it makes you happy ………
No, its a terrible argument. Funding ACC just funds the government, its the equivalent of taking that spending and locking it in a safe. The government can always fund ACC, even if it doesn’t receive full funding up front anyway. Meanwhile the governments marginal propensity to spend (especially ACC levies) is clearly not influenced by the higher take. Raising the minimum wage the extra business expenditure contributes back to spending, because of who receives it.
Minimum wage increases give more spending power to low-income people, which then gets spent in the local economy and ends up being neutral on job losses (or even gains some jobs.)
ACC levies by comparison are just going to the government to pad a surplus. That money isn’t being spent by workers or invested by businesses. So it costs jobs because it is a deadweight loss that is just money being taken out of the economy when it could be going to consumer spending or investment.
Exactly. It either needs to go to ACC to provide better services, or needs to be returned to the economy. Otherwise it’s just a deadweight loss that is padding National’s budget
Wages tend to be sticky in the upwards direction but really both of these $ are in the same direction.
Increasing wages puts more money in the pockets of the low paid which as it is spent increases jobs and certainly doesn’t cut them. Cutting the ACC levy by 2% also increases money in the pocket, spend among the working and increases jobs.
Quite clear
I heard on Radionz that David Milliband is badmouthing Ed. A good headline for Brit news would be Ed is sinister says David. But in fact they both are, and not, and the word dexter doesn’t apply either. I’ve been looking up etymology. I think,now that Humpty Dumpty has fallen and cracked open. they are inventing new terms of language, so that left doesn’t mean what we thought.
The interesting thing that Bob Jones didn’t mention is the fact that neo-liberalism has been shown by the present world economic situation to be as least as bad a failure as Marxist-Leninism under the USSR.
Once this fact is accepted – and it needs to be repeated over and over again until even people who only read/watch MSM get it – then Bob Jones comments become more about how you can become more selfish as you grow old, than why John Campbell is dangerous
If you are a Whangarei resident you will have heard about the Hundertwasser project. It will be a huge tourist attraction in your city that will attract money-spending people from all over NZ and indeed the world and increased employment. In two days the Referendum about the Hundertwasser-Wairau Maori Art Centre is being sent out.
If you are not local and eligible to vote, and like the idea and have progressive contacts in the city, you could phone them and point out what a good idea it is. People who are too small thinking and provincial often find it difficult to consider the benefits that will result and get stuck on whatever the cost is.
Donate: https://givealittle.co.nz/org/hacnorth
(We’ve raised $4million! We only need $1m more to build the fantastic Whangarei Hundertwasser Art Centre, the last Hundertwasser-designed bu Givealittle is …)
Info on Referendum
Not sure how to vote?
0800 922 822
Election Services
Voting Period
Thursday 14 May until 12 noon Friday 5 June
Result
9th June 2015
News
YES! Blog
Contact us
On Facebook
On Twitter
By Email
Hundertwasser HQ
has posters, caps, t-shirts, bumper stickers at their pop-up shop in Whangarei’s CBD.
Everything purchased raises funds for Prosper Northland Trust to spread more information about the project.
It is worrying – how much effort is going in to cover up something, which is supposed to be nothing.
Even jumping on here to defended her position and the Tory maggots who have jumped in as well. Is at best odd. At worst…
I believe Cactus Kate is a post-fascist. Which is essentially calling someone Ideologically dishonest and a unprincipled opportunist. But hey, you play in the dirt – you get dirty.
Seymour Hersh: official account of Bin Laden’s killing a complete lie
Osama had been captured by the Pakistanis and held since 2006. Seems like the US then sent in a SEAL team to execute the sick old, crippled, man after all. There was no firefight, Osama had no guards (the Pakistani security services had been ordered to leave the compound the moment they heard the US helis closing in), he did not pick up an AK47. He was just shredded on the spot by the SEALs. Stories about Osama’s burial at sea were a fiction improvised by the White House after Barack Obama decided to use the killing to boost his own electability. Also the story that Osama had been tracked down via an elaborate spy game following Al Qaeda couriers who were carrying orders from Osama was utterly false. Bin Laden appears to have been isolated and out of control of Al Qaeda; the compound where he was found was not an operations centre; it was a home detention centre.
Just got an email from Julie Anne Genter and it had this bit of info in it:
He [KiwiRail Chief Executive Peter Reidy] also gave me some numbers. By KiwiRail’s estimate, it would cost just $2 billion to electrify the entire North Island, and get 60 new electric locomotive engines up and running. That’s the same amount as it cost to finish building the Western Ring Route, just one of the National Government’s motorway extensions.
There you go, friggen cheap really and the savings, both monetary and environmental, over time from not having to burn diesel would be immense. And it’d be an excellent incentive to get more solar power feeding into the grid out to homes as well.
I just saw this flag petition on Change.org and signed it, Here is the link if you would like to support the petition against changing the flag at this time:
Leading Kiwi thinkers guffaw at “conspiracy theorist” Seymour Hersh The Panel, Radio NZ National, Tuesday 12 May 2015
Jim Mora, David Pagani, Josie Pagani, Noelle McCarthy
This afternoon, Seymour Hersh joined a long list of journalists and intellectuals—including Robert Fisk, Noam Chomsky, Julian Assange, Glenn Greenwald, Edward Snowden—to be scorned by the intellectual luminaries on the Panel. I’ll try to put up a transcript of this depressing episode, but I did manage to send the constantly laughing host the following email….
Quelle surprise! Your Panelists are having a go at Seymour Hersh.
Dear Jim,
Seymour Hersh is one of the world’s most respected journalists. His reporting is renowned for being thorough, rigorous and scholarly.
I was not amused at all to hear your panelists scoffing, dismissing him as a conspiracy theorist, and guffawing that “This is all turning into a Game of Thrones.”
I am concerned at the lack of standards on your show,
The panelists are not the only one’s referring to the story as a conspiracy Morrissey. This one does put up a strong argument for that being the case….
Thanks very much for that, sheep. Maybe Max Fisher is correct, and Hersh is indeed wrong on this one.
I am just concerned when I hear know-nothings like the four people this afternoon calling Hersh a “conspiracy theorist”, as if he is some 9/11 Truther. I’m quite prepared to read the views of serious writers like Fisher; Noelle McCarthy, Josie Pagani and David Farrar on the other hand have a track record of trivialising serious issues.
I was not necessarily endorsing Sy Hersh, I was contesting the competence and the seriousness of those four chattering, vapid numbskulls.
Morrissey / Felix.
I come from a small town where a favourite saying is..
“Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see”.
And then I always apply Trotsky’s immortal dictum that ‘You can deduce the truth by a comparison of the lies’.
But by any standard, I think Hersh, like Pilger, may have lost a bit of perspective with age…
With Bin Laden though, does it really matter how he died? If I can deduce anything from the lies, it would be a sense that he was fully aware and accepted the ‘live by the sword, die by the sword’ ethos.
But by any standard, I think Hersh, like Pilger, may have lost a bit of perspective with age…
Hersh’s piece, for the most part, was not editorialising. Did the US learn about Osama’s location through spying on Al Qaeda’s courier network or did that information walk in the door seeking the CIA reward? Did the US SEAL team kill a crippled, unarmed, elderly man for the sake of imperial vengeance, or was there really a firefight with Osama trying to kill the SEAL team members with an AK47.
Like 9/11, the official narrative on Osama’s death, and even his burial at sea, stinks to high heaven. Hersh goes some way to explaining why.
The expression ‘conspiracy theorist’ is used by the establishment to shut down dissent.
Sad to see you’ve fallen for their lines over 9/11, Morrissey.
It was lie that allowed the US to take over Central Asia and suppress civil rights in their homeland.
The US were already planning to implement mass surveillance over their own citizens pre 9/11. Their pre-9/11 approach to Quest for unhindered access to their telecoms network shows that. 9/11 gave the developing security and surveillance state the best PR in the world for going ahead with what they were going to do any way.
What amused me was Josie Pagani talking about how she had a friend who was a fellow student of Prince Edward’s (youngest son of Queen) and how she went to have tea with the prince several times but romance apparently never blossomed because Josie decided he wasn’t her type. Incredible!
What really appalled me about her behaviour this afternoon was the way she repeatedly tried to ingratiate herself with Farrar. Their “banter” was cringe-inducing.
He pointed to the way his circle of friends had made it into their own homes.
“I look at most of my friends, lawyers, doctors or engineers. All of them went to Auckland Grammar, or St Cuthberts. All of them have done it with parental help.”
With house prices rising up to a reported $1000 a day “houses in Auckland are earning more than people”, he said.
I suppose ACT has to act surprised despite being told that this is the inevitable result of their policies over the last few decades.
The funny thing about this is that Seymour doesn’t think that lawyers, doctors, engineers and others that went to Auckland Grammar aren’t among the privileged.
If these ‘friends’ of his had all bought houses without parental help, then I’m sure this idea that only the privileged can buy houses wouldn’t have even occurred to him…
I am amazed the Labour are suggesting penalising working class people by making Working for Families subject to enrolment to vote. I would have expected such a policy from National and not the Party who claims to support workers.
Will this proposed policy also relate to those on benefits and National Super?
Is this a sign that Labour is starting to panic about their poor showing last election?
won’t do Labour much good if they do….people will just vote Green, NZF or Mana/Int…Labour Party will never get these voters back ….so they are stuck on about 30% imo
….Labour Party has taken no opposition leadership stand on opposing the the TPPA or the mass surveillance Spy Bill
….for many who have abandoned Labour …..they are just a watered down Nact Party
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/05/11/how-long-to-save-for-down-payment-on-home-mortgage-in-these-top-10-most-impossible-cities-for-first-time-buyers/
(takeaway from that one:..)
“..People who pay a large part of their household income for rent or a mortgage, or who save assiduously for a huge down payment, don’t have much cash left to contribute to the overall economy.
Most of their income simply gets confiscated by inflated home prices, or the resulting high rents and associated expenses.
It’s channeled to landlords, PE firms, and REITs that own the homes; banks and investment funds that own the mortgages or the mortgage-backed securities; and a million other entities.
Most of it becomes part of the grease that keeps Wall Street from squealing.
But nothing happens with that money to move the real economy forward..”
(embrace the teaser-paragraph there – a.w.w…)
😀
This housing thing has got me thinking….are the costs lower to the government to support a social housing provider, or to pay accommodation supplement?
The answer will depend on whether or not social housing providers can charge market rent or at least enough for their tenants to qualify for AS. Could be a story here…
This housing frenzy to divest by government. It seems to me like a Richard Prebble moment as with our rail system. I think he said he would be prepared to give it away, because of the usual hperbole – gummint can’t be efficient, no good as managers, can’t being the proper commercial controls on running, and finally it would be better if some private organisation could lick into shape.
Which usually means run cheaper and better and be profitable. Which is an oxymoron I think? Can’t be done in a public service, which by their nature are costly and to be affordable and reasonably priced, can at best just meet costs. To give their best value they need thorough examination for viability and usefulness when started, and regular review and monitoring for successful performance along the way. That’s how gummint should be running housing, and providing what is needed in an appropriate way.
A flaw in the money system
Of course the rich, who benefit from it, don’t see it as a flaw.
Which is important when our banks (mostly) export their profits so it doesnt get re-introduced…. ANZ NZ made a 500m half yearly profit to go with its Aussie heads 3bn…
taken from oyur economy and put into Aussie’s.
And Labour is worried about a measly ACC levy cut being important for jobs. Talk about focussing on the molehills.
I tried to live in an impossible city, once. It was impossible. Nothing was possible. So I moved to a possible city, which is marginally better, because while not everything works, there is the hope that something might work if approached in the right way. I pity the fool that saves for 37 years to go live in an impossible city. My dream is to build a plausible city, and if successful, move forward onto building highly likely communities.
It’s posts like this that make me smile…
Notice that the Banks are now making public statements ‘there is no Auckland property bubble’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11446922
AKA ‘we are in deep shit if it bursts’ -> PR campaign.
TPPA: This from an interview with Elizabeth Warren in which she explains how the Investor-State Dispute Settlement system (ISDS) works.
PLUM LINE: Is it theoretically possible to write ISDS in a way that precludes it from overriding regulation?
WARREN: It doesn’t directly tell countries to repeal regulations. It imposes a financial penalty, which has caused countries to change their regulations…[ISDS mechanisms] never had the authority to override regulations. What they had was the authority to impose a monetary penalty directly against the government and its taxpayers. That’s the point at which governments have backed up and said, “we can’t afford this, we’ll just change the law.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/05/11/elizabeth-warren-fires-back-at-obama-heres-what-theyre-really-fighting-about/
We need our journalists to drill Tim Groser and John Key about this. $6million for the Saudi businessman over the live sheep ban will be very small beer compared to the figures in the ISDS cases. It will be so costly to preserve the environment and our citizens rights.
How can our Nat politicians not see that? Come on, Labour, Greens, NZ First, start making more noise about this!
They can see that – they don’t care. In fact, I’d say that that’s the entire point. Taking governments to the cleaners will be a nice profit making scheme.
YUP
““we can’t afford this, we’ll just change the law.””
So they can claim the TPP wasn’t the problem, but the Govts BUT the threat of law suits makes the govt change the law to “save” the taxpayer money from the lawsuit…
More insidious to me is that the decision-making process of the dispute is closed and the adjudicators are former corporate lawyers…
but they see it.
it is just you pretending to believe that they don’t see it.
IF we all would admit that they see it, know it, talk about and take it into account, than we would be really really scared, as we realise that we are nothing but cattle or chattel, utterle expendable and of no value to them what so ever.
The national party that supports the TPPA and the labour party and any other polititian in nz that supports this abomination should be charged with treason.
red pill or blue pill?
+111
Come on, Labour, Greens, NZ First, start making more noise about this!
Ya Hear???
START MAKING MORE NOISE ABOUT THIS.
Or some of us will start to believe you either …
a) don’t care
b) have, as elected MPs, some ‘inside knowledge’ that precludes/prevents any serious questioning of the Government on this issue.
Signing of this nefarious ‘agreement’ is months away.
Where the bloody hell are you?
Yes drill Tim Groser and John Key till all the small beer leaks out. Makes no sense?
Neither does anything they say when studied closely. Let’s all talk politic (otherwise known as gobblegook while they treat us as turkeys to be roasted.)
And of course to balance the ISDS provisions, when regulations are changed that result in increased profits for corporates those corporates are required to pass that profit over to the government….
The rest of the rather short article also asks some interesting questions about the UK election.
Over the last few days, I’ve read many sweeping assertions about the swings and counter-swings that supposedly took place between the various parties in the UK Election. Almost always based on hunches or anecdotal evidence. But presented as cold, hard fact.
The vast body of data from pre-Election Opinion Polls remains the only reliable source in my opinion (although anecdotal evidence via discussions with an array of locals – including party activists – in specific electorates is useful as supplementary evidence). Probably most useful of all, though, will be the British Election Study data (from post-Election interviews) when it comes out.
All the polling evidence I’ve seen – both since 2010 in general and, more specifically, over the last few months – suggests Lib Dem deserters were disproportionately heading Labour’s way. How that dovetails with Labour’s woeful inability to win that vast array of Tory Marginals is another matter. Did an unusually large proportion of Lib Dem deserters have a last minute change of heart ?
Or was the Lib Dem swing to Labour nullified by an even greater swing from Labour-to-UKIP or Labour-to-the-Conservatives ?
And what role did non-voting play ?
Where did LibDem voters come from originally?
That might help analysis.
My National voting brother told me a week out he was voting Green Party. ON the day he “couldn’t bring myself to do it” and voted National.
No wonder the tories fought hard against a change to the electoral system…. Why Labour fought hard too is beyond me.
Labour very much likes two party privilege. Also, Labour Parties throughout the world see all minor left wing political parties as political enemies to be suppressed and sidelined where at all possible, lest they metastasize into left wing nightmares for them like the SNP.
Also remember that in NZ, the National Party were the ones who introduced MMP.
Did you see this about the “Apathy Party.” Looks to me that even in Labour strongholds, most people could not be bothered to vote for them.
In Scotland, it seems clear that most Lib Dems voters went straight to the SNP.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/the-one-map-that-shows-how-nonvoting-would-have-won-the-general-election-if-it-were-a-party-10238290.html
Cheers for that, CV.
Yep, it’s clear the Non-Vote won in the vast majority of Labour-held seats (Merseyside and parts of Greater London being the key exceptions).
And despite the impressive turnout in Scotland overall, I see the Apathy Party also came first in Greater Glasgow (home of the “Yes” vote) and in poor old Orkney and Shetland (possibly allowing the Lib Dems to hang on by their fingertips in the latter constituency).
John Pilger, Noam Chomsky, and Others on the Shameful History of U.S. Interference in Latin America
We can see these types of interventions of the US into other nations around the world. Iran and Iraq are the two most well known interventions but other countries have also fallen under US hegemony.
Been going on for some time. I remember doing an essay at uni in ’73 based around the CIA in cahoots with ITT, getting rid of Allende in Chile cos he nationalised the phone network.
Goes all the way back to 1823 and the Monroe Doctrine.
Successive US governments have all had the arrogance to achieve imperialism, but they’ve also lacked the style that a decent imperial power needs. There’s a reason almost all the baddies in the original Star Wars were RADA-trained 😉
Not many countries where they haven’t interfered.
http://www.yachana.org/teaching//resources/interventions.html
(given our high rates of obesity – this one is more than useful..)
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/10/what-can-parents-do-to-stop-kids-becoming-obese-children-obesity
In a wee discussion the other day on The Standard, I suggested the Greens were nowhere near as toxic to voters as some pundits (both Left and Right-leaning) seem to assume.
Here’s some data to back-up my argument:
UMR November 2013
Potential Coalition Partners
“How good a job do you think the following parties would do if they were part of a coalition government with one of the major parties”
Good = Will do Good Job
Bad = Will do Bad Job
G+N = Good+Neutral combined score
G/B Diff = Good/Bad Difference
Table One: Entire Sample
Party…….Good…..Neutral….Bad….Unsure…G+N……..G/B Diff
(In order of Highest to Lowest Good+Neutral)
Greens………26………31………..36………….7………..57………. – 10
Maori………..12………39…………41…………8………..51………. – 29
NZF…………..12……….31…………47……….10……….43………. – 35
ACT……………4………..25…………59……….12……….29………. – 55
Cons………….4………..24…………48……….24……….28………. – 44
Clearly, NZ voters are not particularly enamoured of any of the minor parties when it comes to coalition politics. But, taking a Glass Half Full approach, you can see that 57% of voters can live with the Greens as a coalition partner (64% if you include those Unsure). That makes them more popular than the Maori and NZF parties and vastly more acceptable to the voting public than ACT and the Conservatives.
The Greens are even acceptable to a significant minority of National voters:
Table Two: Views of National Party Voters Only
Maori………….8………..36………..52………….4………..44………. – 44
Greens……….9…………31………..56………….4………..40………. – 47
ACT…………….6…………31………..56………….7………..37………. – 50
Cons…………..6…………29………..45…………20……….35………. – 39
NZF…………….6…………29………..59………….6………..35………. – 53
The Greens could pick up more then a few National votes but only if they’re prepared to compromise
The Māori Party was willing to compromise their principles for a place at the table – even if it was sitting on the floor begging for crumbs. Now all but one of the Māori seats have returned to Labour, and the MP face total obliteration at the next election.
If they hadn’t compromised they wouldn’t have got Whanau Ora up and running
If they hadn’t compromised they might not have vanished up their own gunga’s.
400 ppm and rising
spot on there.
You can’t compromise with nature.
400 ppm… there’s nothing negotiable there, pr
You’ll also find it hard to achieve much outside of parliament as well so whats more important your principles or a difference?
Parliament will seem a very abstract idea on an unliveable planet with no food.
Parliament will ensure that they have plenty of food while the rest of us get half sized frozen rations from Compass.
No true, a whole lot of fastfood chains just dumped zero hour contracts, and the dumping had NOTHING to do with the current government
noT true
PR actually said “outside of Parliament”, not “outside of government”.
Labour are in Parliament and they, and the Greens, played a part in the zero-hours contract debate. Labour got Parliamentary Services to ditch them for the catering staff.
I think its fair to say that the Greens could accomplish more in power rather then being outside
They need to ask themselves whats more important, their pride or making changes
Or they could look at what happens to left/liberal parties who prop up Tory governments (cf LibDems last week). The Greens would accomplish nothing inside a NACT government. Or at least, nothing of substance; for example, can anyone tell me wtf ‘whanau ora’ is or what it has achieved?
Sure can tell you what Whanau Ora is – go here – last two paragraphs are the charm
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2015/05/power-to-right-people-how-neoliberalism.html
As for achievements – I know of quite a few really good outcomes for families and individuals both in Auckland and around the country. I think it is a wonderful approach to accessing services. Holism seems to be a good approach, and contrary to many misguided comments here – I’ve only ever dealt with true professionals within the Whanau Ora framework.
examples?
That’s a heartening bit of number crunching there Swordfish. However, I do note that the data comes from November 2013. Now that Mana no longer have a parliamentary presence, the Overton window has moved rightwards and GP can once more be attacked as the Devil-Beast of leftward extremism.
One depressing tidbit from the weekend; I was talking to a GP member who had been at the; male coleader candidate speeches in Dunedin. They seemed to be leaning towards supporting Shaw at the delegate meeting next week, mainly due to him looking good in a suit. They were particularly scathing about Hughes rocking up to speak in more casual dress, especially his wearing scuffed shoes. However, while they were clear about what Hughes and Hague stood for (though unimpressed by Hague’s body language), they were unable to say much about Shaw’s or Tava’s accomplishments or principles.
It says something when even the Green Party is embracing style over substance.
Shaw represents the professional middle class aspiration that the Green Party is turning towards.
How come Gwynn Compton (the new Dirty Politics guy in John Key’s office) went to such effort yesterday to bleach his online profiles of any mention of the fact that he works in the PM’s Office?
Isn’t that shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted?
I think it’s a case of the bolting pony’s tail being caught in the door ??
If he was wrong, and he doesn’t work for the PM’s office, I think we would have heard something from Johnny Four Hats
It is reasonable to assume therefore, that he does work for the PM’s office, and the public needed that fact “sanitised”.
Do we REALLY have to do an OIA to find our if this clown does work for Johnny Four Hats??
It’s been confirmed in one of the articles that he does work in the PMs office but as National Party staff.
A new word is being used around the world: “Quaxing.” It means: “to shop, in the western world, by means of walking, cycling or public transit.”
Dick Quax wrote “no one in the entire Western world uses the train for their shopping trips…the very idea that people lug home their supermarket shopping on the train is fanciful”.
And now around the world people are sending examples of Quaxing. Dopey Dick eh?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11447071
Well, it’s normal exasperated politician hyperbole. If we give him the benefit of the doubt (and why would we, really. He’s paid to be articulate, and he worked for ACT), what he might mean is, “Not many people carry eight bags of a weekly grocery shop onto the train or bus by themselves, regularly, because it’s too heavy, the silly plastic bag handles cut into your hands or break and there’s nowhere safe to put it so the bags don’t split or get trampled, or so you can move fast enough to get off the train before the doors close for the next station.”
And he’d be right. What people do is make multiple trips with smaller loads over several days. If you don’t own a car, you do what you have to do. This method requires specific knowledge to identify, but not the same kind you need to run for parliament with ACT Party.
He might also mean, “In the entire Western World, it is becoming less likely that a person could afford to buy eight bags of shopping in a weekly supermarket shop, therefore relying on local suppliers, which require no special transport or equipment to carry the food, and in living in cheaper accomodation far from what is now solely commuter transport, never see or use a train during the span of their lives.” However this would require thoughts and abilities that ACT supporters don’t have.
I prefer the interpretation that, “In the entire Western World, there weren’t any supermarkets, and trains ran off into the desert, often following telegraph lines and were ultimately attacked by bandits. This discouraged the problems of suburban living. There were no taxes and everyone considered the natives a nuisance. I dream of a NZ like this. Please vote ACT.”
Yes, people shop several times a week instead of once on Saturday as Dickey does… or his wife.
and the grocery shops are closer to home i.e. walking distance.
Using re-usable shopping bags largely resolves the ‘cutting into your hands’ problem, and each bag can individually hold more weight so you won’t need as many of them, so it’s less cumbersome. Doesn’t help with the total weight of course.
a back-pack is even more useful…
And bike panniers can carry tens (if not hundreds) of kilos
You might be looked on suspiciously if you go into a supermarket wearing a backpack.
@ ianmac
LOL
Have we contact details for Dick Quax so I can enlighten him on how I, a 64 year old non-driver transport my groceries when I don’t have an obliging niece or foster son to drive me?
I can also describe how I managed in earthquake riven Christchurch should he need more examples.
Sometime soon I hope to find a calm place within myself that helps me to feel empathy for the over-privileged pontificators who seem to be inhabiting Planet Key. Alternatively, perhaps I could find a way to live and experience life as the out of work, unwell and elderly ‘enjoy’ it as a consequence of NACTdom.
Jack of all trades and master of none.
How’s this for a leadership comment on the current issue of road safety.
Prime minister John Key, “We have to balance what the police advise with wider public opinion on road speeds.”
Which expert is advising him?
David Farrar.
but it is funnier when having said that he vehemently denies that he is at all swayed by wider public opinion, possibly against lower limits, and backlash as a result.
must be awful not to know what you think until a prettypollyparrot like Farrar lets you in on the secret echoes.
You can take the piss out of Key’s approach all you want, but it is far more effective and popular than say, Labour talking about getting trucks out of fast lanes so that holiday makers have it easier.
C.R.
Labour might have been better advised to have suggested getting most trucks off most lanes period and putting freight on trains to strategic rail-heads for distribution by smaller vehicles.
Explain the logic of this one – last week travelling north from Tauranga to Paeroa I was following a fully laden logging truck-and-trailer carrying large Radiata logs. As we passed through the narrow Karangahake gorge, we encountered a fully laden logging truck-and-trailer carrying large Radiata logs heading south.
Locals advise that this a regular occurrence. Perhaps you could remind us why the Kaimai tunnel was created?
My comment was not about roads. It was about Pry Minister Key being glib and expert on absolutely nothing until poll-guided, and then he fails. You missed it CR.
And mine was?
Is everyone having a reading comprehension difficulty day? I mentioned roads primarily in the context of Key’s “glib and expert on absolutely nothing until poll guided” approach, which I commented on as being quite an effective tactic despite peoples inclinations to ridicule it; and certainly more effective than some of Labour’s attempts.
I have opposed the TPPA for always, but reading this today, a couple of extra jigsaw pieces fell into place about why Goldman Sachs Merrill Lynch BOA sock puppet John Key wants this signed at any cost.
The brilliant Elizabeth Warren points out TPPA fastrack could be used in the USA to weaken, prevent or overcome any Wall St or banking reforms. WOW.
This is the nub of it that I had not understood until now. Worth a look.
“WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren hit back at President Barack Obama in their tussle over “fast track” authorization to negotiate a Pacific Rim trade treaty, a power she says could be used in the future to weaken Wall Street reforms.
Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat and prominent liberal voice, stuck to her argument in an interview published on Monday with a left-leaning Washington Post blog, saying Obama should release details of the Pacific trade talks so legal experts can determine if a pact could be used to weaken U.S. bank rules.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/11/elizabeth-warren-obama-trade_n_7257802.html
I’m begging to wonder if some of the more enlightened US millionaires are bank rolling these candidates to get an alternative narrative out there. Revolutions are costly
I see that Andrew Little, according to this morning’s Dom/Post is wandering of the reservation.
Labour Party claims are that a large increase in the minimum wage won’t cause any job losses don’t they? Say go to $16.00/hour and no jobs will be lost.
Now he is quoted as saying in the paper, and I can’t find it on-line, that the Government must immediately cut the ACC worker levy by 20c per $100 of earnings because not to do so is costing jobs!
How can it be that a 10% increase in the minimum wage won’t cost any jobs but a 0.2% step in the ACC rates costs jobs?
you seem to have lost an ‘f’. wonder what you have done with it ?
You’re right.
I needed it for my first reaction to his opinion when I had to put it in front of the comment that came to mind.
My thought was “uck! He’s a total idiot.”
no need to lose an ‘f’. that’s just your normal default position 😀
No doubt there is something incredibly witty about your remarks.
For the life of me I don’t see what it is or what you are trying to say.
Still if it makes you happy ………
happy ? oh, no !
Good point Alwyn.
No, its a terrible argument. Funding ACC just funds the government, its the equivalent of taking that spending and locking it in a safe. The government can always fund ACC, even if it doesn’t receive full funding up front anyway. Meanwhile the governments marginal propensity to spend (especially ACC levies) is clearly not influenced by the higher take. Raising the minimum wage the extra business expenditure contributes back to spending, because of who receives it.
I see Michael made this same argument just below.
http://thestandard.org.nz/why-insurance-should-be-a-state-monopoly/
Minimum wage increases give more spending power to low-income people, which then gets spent in the local economy and ends up being neutral on job losses (or even gains some jobs.)
ACC levies by comparison are just going to the government to pad a surplus. That money isn’t being spent by workers or invested by businesses. So it costs jobs because it is a deadweight loss that is just money being taken out of the economy when it could be going to consumer spending or investment.
… or ACC could actually use it to provide the service it was set up to do.
Exactly. It either needs to go to ACC to provide better services, or needs to be returned to the economy. Otherwise it’s just a deadweight loss that is padding National’s budget
Wages tend to be sticky in the upwards direction but really both of these $ are in the same direction.
Increasing wages puts more money in the pockets of the low paid which as it is spent increases jobs and certainly doesn’t cut them. Cutting the ACC levy by 2% also increases money in the pocket, spend among the working and increases jobs.
Quite clear
I heard on Radionz that David Milliband is badmouthing Ed. A good headline for Brit news would be Ed is sinister says David. But in fact they both are, and not, and the word dexter doesn’t apply either. I’ve been looking up etymology. I think,now that Humpty Dumpty has fallen and cracked open. they are inventing new terms of language, so that left doesn’t mean what we thought.
Dear old Bob Jones is making his usual fool of himself again. If you can say anything about him there’s no shades of grey with him.http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11446869
The interesting thing that Bob Jones didn’t mention is the fact that neo-liberalism has been shown by the present world economic situation to be as least as bad a failure as Marxist-Leninism under the USSR.
Once this fact is accepted – and it needs to be repeated over and over again until even people who only read/watch MSM get it – then Bob Jones comments become more about how you can become more selfish as you grow old, than why John Campbell is dangerous
If you are a Whangarei resident you will have heard about the Hundertwasser project. It will be a huge tourist attraction in your city that will attract money-spending people from all over NZ and indeed the world and increased employment. In two days the Referendum about the Hundertwasser-Wairau Maori Art Centre is being sent out.
Information below. See here http://yeswhangarei.co.nz/
If you are not local and eligible to vote, and like the idea and have progressive contacts in the city, you could phone them and point out what a good idea it is. People who are too small thinking and provincial often find it difficult to consider the benefits that will result and get stuck on whatever the cost is.
Donate: https://givealittle.co.nz/org/hacnorth
(We’ve raised $4million! We only need $1m more to build the fantastic Whangarei Hundertwasser Art Centre, the last Hundertwasser-designed bu Givealittle is …)
Info on Referendum
Not sure how to vote?
0800 922 822
Election Services
Voting Period
Thursday 14 May until 12 noon Friday 5 June
Result
9th June 2015
News
YES! Blog
Contact us
On Facebook
On Twitter
By Email
Hundertwasser HQ
has posters, caps, t-shirts, bumper stickers at their pop-up shop in Whangarei’s CBD.
Everything purchased raises funds for Prosper Northland Trust to spread more information about the project.
Bazinga !
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11446869
u shd warn people u r linking to that toxic old toad…and his libertarian/neoliberal rants..
Bob Jones in his last line … “But as ever, these deadbeats make lots of noise in lieu of substance,”
ha ha ha – talk about self-description
Interesting seeing the lurkers from Whaleoil piling in on this question of Cactus Kate’s Cheshire cat act.
It is worrying – how much effort is going in to cover up something, which is supposed to be nothing.
Even jumping on here to defended her position and the Tory maggots who have jumped in as well. Is at best odd. At worst…
I believe Cactus Kate is a post-fascist. Which is essentially calling someone Ideologically dishonest and a unprincipled opportunist. But hey, you play in the dirt – you get dirty.
Now this is fascinating – A New super PAC – which is taking a different approach.
Well worth the read.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/05/05/17304/new-super-pac-takes-moon-shot
Seymour Hersh: official account of Bin Laden’s killing a complete lie
Osama had been captured by the Pakistanis and held since 2006. Seems like the US then sent in a SEAL team to execute the sick old, crippled, man after all. There was no firefight, Osama had no guards (the Pakistani security services had been ordered to leave the compound the moment they heard the US helis closing in), he did not pick up an AK47. He was just shredded on the spot by the SEALs. Stories about Osama’s burial at sea were a fiction improvised by the White House after Barack Obama decided to use the killing to boost his own electability. Also the story that Osama had been tracked down via an elaborate spy game following Al Qaeda couriers who were carrying orders from Osama was utterly false. Bin Laden appears to have been isolated and out of control of Al Qaeda; the compound where he was found was not an operations centre; it was a home detention centre.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-10/seymour-hersh-obamas-entire-account-bin-ladens-death-one-big-lie-what-really-happene
Just got an email from Julie Anne Genter and it had this bit of info in it:
There you go, friggen cheap really and the savings, both monetary and environmental, over time from not having to burn diesel would be immense. And it’d be an excellent incentive to get more solar power feeding into the grid out to homes as well.
add 10% to that bill and you could do most of the engineering work in NZ
Now there’s a plank for any progressive left-wing electoral campaign.
Think how many contractors would be kept in business and how many New Zealanders would be employed creating the lines and locomotives…
It is also a plank for a green electoral campaign. Think how much road and rail diesel fuel would be saved…
Looks like Cactus Kate isn’t the only one – Ben Rachinger’s blog and twitter account just got deleted.
Twitter account is still there, meduim.com account has been deleted.
http://twitter.com/B3nRaching3r
Nuked.
That’s not his @ or his current name on twitter, try using his real life name.
I just saw this flag petition on Change.org and signed it, Here is the link if you would like to support the petition against changing the flag at this time:
https://www.change.org/p/john-key-don-t-change-the-new-zealand-flag?tk=8mqxhZQ_DDQMRO7X9Xa3ndRxeRegQlIwFrfuyY8Z2-Y&utm_source=petition_update&utm_medium=email
Leading Kiwi thinkers guffaw at “conspiracy theorist” Seymour Hersh
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Tuesday 12 May 2015
Jim Mora, David Pagani, Josie Pagani, Noelle McCarthy
This afternoon, Seymour Hersh joined a long list of journalists and intellectuals—including Robert Fisk, Noam Chomsky, Julian Assange, Glenn Greenwald, Edward Snowden—to be scorned by the intellectual luminaries on the Panel. I’ll try to put up a transcript of this depressing episode, but I did manage to send the constantly laughing host the following email….
Quelle surprise! Your Panelists are having a go at Seymour Hersh.
Dear Jim,
Seymour Hersh is one of the world’s most respected journalists. His reporting is renowned for being thorough, rigorous and scholarly.
I was not amused at all to hear your panelists scoffing, dismissing him as a conspiracy theorist, and guffawing that “This is all turning into a Game of Thrones.”
I am concerned at the lack of standards on your show,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
The panelists are not the only one’s referring to the story as a conspiracy Morrissey. This one does put up a strong argument for that being the case….
http://www.vox.com/2015/5/11/8584473/seymour-hersh-osama-bin-laden
They’re all conspiracy theories, sheepie. Unless you’ve got some kooky lone-assassin theory of your own…
Thanks very much for that, sheep. Maybe Max Fisher is correct, and Hersh is indeed wrong on this one.
I am just concerned when I hear know-nothings like the four people this afternoon calling Hersh a “conspiracy theorist”, as if he is some 9/11 Truther. I’m quite prepared to read the views of serious writers like Fisher; Noelle McCarthy, Josie Pagani and David Farrar on the other hand have a track record of trivialising serious issues.
I was not necessarily endorsing Sy Hersh, I was contesting the competence and the seriousness of those four chattering, vapid numbskulls.
Morrissey / Felix.
I come from a small town where a favourite saying is..
“Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see”.
And then I always apply Trotsky’s immortal dictum that ‘You can deduce the truth by a comparison of the lies’.
But by any standard, I think Hersh, like Pilger, may have lost a bit of perspective with age…
With Bin Laden though, does it really matter how he died? If I can deduce anything from the lies, it would be a sense that he was fully aware and accepted the ‘live by the sword, die by the sword’ ethos.
But that might just be a fiction…
Hersh’s piece, for the most part, was not editorialising. Did the US learn about Osama’s location through spying on Al Qaeda’s courier network or did that information walk in the door seeking the CIA reward? Did the US SEAL team kill a crippled, unarmed, elderly man for the sake of imperial vengeance, or was there really a firefight with Osama trying to kill the SEAL team members with an AK47.
Like 9/11, the official narrative on Osama’s death, and even his burial at sea, stinks to high heaven. Hersh goes some way to explaining why.
The expression ‘conspiracy theorist’ is used by the establishment to shut down dissent.
Sad to see you’ve fallen for their lines over 9/11, Morrissey.
It was lie that allowed the US to take over Central Asia and suppress civil rights in their homeland.
The US were already planning to implement mass surveillance over their own citizens pre 9/11. Their pre-9/11 approach to Quest for unhindered access to their telecoms network shows that. 9/11 gave the developing security and surveillance state the best PR in the world for going ahead with what they were going to do any way.
Saying “this must be true because it’s Seymour Hersh” is just an appeal to authority.
Fair comment—but I wasn’t saying that. I was criticizing Noelle McCarthy, Jim Mora and those two cackling, sneering guests.
What amused me was Josie Pagani talking about how she had a friend who was a fellow student of Prince Edward’s (youngest son of Queen) and how she went to have tea with the prince several times but romance apparently never blossomed because Josie decided he wasn’t her type. Incredible!
What really appalled me about her behaviour this afternoon was the way she repeatedly tried to ingratiate herself with Farrar. Their “banter” was cringe-inducing.
Didn’t Farrar refer to Josie at one stage as the charming Josie which prompted her to effusively giggle or was it Mora?
Is Farrar still invited after his involvement in Dirty Politics?
Unbelievable.
Seems like he’s been on more frequently since DP.
Home ownership now for privileged few – ACT
I suppose ACT has to act surprised despite being told that this is the inevitable result of their policies over the last few decades.
The funny thing about this is that Seymour doesn’t think that lawyers, doctors, engineers and others that went to Auckland Grammar aren’t among the privileged.
If these ‘friends’ of his had all bought houses without parental help, then I’m sure this idea that only the privileged can buy houses wouldn’t have even occurred to him…
Breaking News: 7.1 earthquake in Nepal at a depth of 10km.
Oh no, those poor people 🙁
I am amazed the Labour are suggesting penalising working class people by making Working for Families subject to enrolment to vote. I would have expected such a policy from National and not the Party who claims to support workers.
Will this proposed policy also relate to those on benefits and National Super?
Is this a sign that Labour is starting to panic about their poor showing last election?
Labour lost its compass a long time ago.
won’t do Labour much good if they do….people will just vote Green, NZF or Mana/Int…Labour Party will never get these voters back ….so they are stuck on about 30% imo
….Labour Party has taken no opposition leadership stand on opposing the the TPPA or the mass surveillance Spy Bill
….for many who have abandoned Labour …..they are just a watered down Nact Party