Heh! Why worry about climate change and the inevitable rise in sea levels when you can make it illegal? Gotta love them denialists . . . always thinking.
Other schools approved for state-funded vouchers use social studies texts warning that liberals threaten global prosperity; Bible-based math books that don’t cover modern concepts such as set theory; and biology texts built around refuting evolution.
Delightful farce joe90. Of course the reality is very different. Please tell me that is the case and if it isn’t I don’t want to think about the decline of my illusions about the USA. One could expect in this century a modern take on their Constitution that has respect for all.
That’s actually terrifying as what these goons have done is tell the scientists how to get their measurements and how those measurements can be used and done it in such a way so as to produce the results that they want rather than the ones that will match physical reality. It’s going back to the days when scientists were persecuted by the church for their findings which contradicted the church’s teachings.
The next phase of New Zealand history will not be defined by games inside the Wellington Beltway. The “clever insiders” have failed.
Labour has the answers but not the voice. The answers are in it’s history and it’s people. They have an excellent policy machine (bright people). It now needs to focus on the future of New Zealanders. It needs to free itself from the shackles of the past Strategies.
Labour needs to focus on 5 years and 10 years out. When they Are seen to own the future vision the people will come back: back to the polling booth from the couch or garden on election day, back from the Gold Coast, the mines, London, back from the Greens/Mana/Maori.
Gareth Morgan’s half-page article in the Business Herald this morning outlines the complete hash that English is making of the economy. Gareth also seriously questions asset sales and instructing the Reserve bank to correct its prudential guidelines to banks “so that a repeat of speculative housing demand raising pressure on interest rates simply wouldn’t happen …”
He also points out that never has there been a better tmie for structural reform. Sorry I’m not good at links.
It’s as if the government is so burnt by its cluster of fuckups in the last six months that it can no longer make rational plans and is retreating further and further into itself. This is the ideal circumstance for the opposition to come out with pathbreaking plans.
All left parties need a rethink – I gave up on Labour a few years ago, and they still seem locked into the neoliberal paradigm.
I voted Green the last few elections, but am not happy with the centralising Normanisation of the Green Party. When Norman gets more sidelined in favour of the stronger left winger MPs, I’ll be happier with them.
Mana has promise, but I don’t yet trust them, and have some concerns about whether women will play a significant part in the party in the long term -incorporation of Bradford and Sykes seems promising, but I’ve yet to see them playing a leading role.
Yes, Carol, as usual I agree with your views. I, too, went with the Greens last time for the same reason. But Norman, though but a co-leader, always seems to be spokesperson and I am seldom happy with him. Turei is co-leader, much more to the Left, and whose views are fresher and much more exciting to see or hear.
Agree on Turei. I think the Normanisation is getting help from the MSM. Duncan Garner, in his live online chat this week, said Norman was the real leader on The Greens.
It suits the news corporates to have a more centrist Green Party. The Greens should resist colluding with them.
Mana is a very young party and was initially built on Hone’s popularity up north. I think it’s come a long way and hope it will go even further. What impresses me most about them is their willingness to act outside the established parliamentary norms, with Hone and the other candidates actually getting out on the street.
VTO; disappointed we are. Reading Uturns contributions recently indicates to us what a “wise” person or persons they are. As wise as DTB but in a broader way.
We learn a great deal of wisdom from contributors such as these. We have not learnt much beneficial from your recent rants.
THANKYOU (not shouting, but BIG) to
Joe 90
Mickey
Olwyn
Lanth
Carol (we think)
Dr T
Bored
et al; Chu know if you are being helpful.
Muchas Gracias
We want Bolivia with snow like Sweden and some of Cubas’ great features!
We could pilot-scheme a new constitution right here in Hawkes Bay. Great Natural Environment.
Dominant culture/hegemony/sleepwalk could do with some interuption though.
Thats why, that is why, chu are not on the list in our bubble.
We believe the internet can be a tool to leverage great wisdom.
As personal experience may prove to be the bitterest form of learning.
For those of you interested in 911 research I will be talking with professor and researcher radio host Jim Fetzer about my 911 storyboard research. the Show is live at 11 am NZ time.
Matt McCarten’s column certainly hit the mark, bestowing a knighthood on a Monarch’s spouse seems a little ridiculous but i was more interested in his quiet comment regarding the Asset sales.
Last week The Queen ( according to the media ) was so distressed about the future of a certain church that her majesty made inquiries to our PM concerning the hardship facing Christchurch if they lose a pile of bricks erected to symbolise the groupthink homoly to a Deity. Yes the symbolism of the cathedral and its importance to Christchurch is a serious matter and in no way do i mean to belittle it’s importance but why is our Monarch not showing the same concern for the very real hardship and poverty that so many of her subjects will endure if we sell the Assets? Does her majesty even know they are being sold?
freedom, I doubt that her Britannic Majesty even knows who or where we are (when did she last visit?) But I will concede that she sure does know John Key who is “one of her own” sort! (Did you observe his fawning bow?) Indeed he was even invited a while back to holiday at royal Balmoral Castle! (Though it did not come off). When was this invitation extended to a Labour PM?
Constitutionally the Queen does not get involved in the affairs of the government. That was the point of the Magna Carta.
Rebuilding the Cathedral is a little more of a grey area, because the Queen is the head of the Anglican Church of England. I think part of Key’s response that it’s the government’s job was a way out of outlining the constitutional ‘hands off’ approach that the monarch is expected to take.
By allowing a couple of lying bastards to get away with making a false complaint to the police, Judith Collins shows she is an ineffective minister. If she does not know what is right from wrong in this situation, in my opinion, she has no place being a minister of the crown at all…
The irony here Jackal is that Judith is taking a case of Defamation for her reputation allegedly being impugned.
In her own Ministry, she is condoning the much more serious defaming of Pullar and Boag. In not speaking out she could be identified as a hypocrite. Let alone the downright dishonesty of Senior Staff. Be an interesting line for Question Time.
freedom
The Queen is head of the Anglican church isn’t she. For that reason she would be expected by the church to be interested in the holy pile.
The poverty inducing governments which we persist in voting in is an operational matter. We have been given the right to decide on our own governments arising from our own people. This was achieved after sacrificial efforts by a dedicated minority for centuries on behalf of all to get the vote and a say in laws. We screwed up and now can we stop the sociopathic (The end always justifies the means and they let nothing stand in their way) way we think which is turned on ourselves in self-punishment? Can we stop the mutilation of our country and its once universally beneficial policies?
Don’t blame the Queen, we wallow in a sad moshpit of our own national choice.
Looks like it’s the police that can’t tell the difference between rape and sex – Stuff call it sex when reporting what Counties Manukau central acting crime manager Inspector Richard Wilkie said. He goes on to focus on teen sex workers rather than the men cruising the street*, or the offender who raped a teen at knifepoint. He also calls sex work ‘selling oneself’. I’m fairly sure that sex workers sell sex, not their selves. Classic endorsement of rape culture and a policeman of that seniority should know better (even if he is just acting).
*with the law change, is it illegal to pay for sex with someone between 16 and 18, or is it still just the sex worker who gets charged?
Policemen of much more seniority than him also seem to be a little confused about what constitutes rape. It’s a shame that the investigations into “police culture” didn’t go a lot further. Having a commision of inquiry with Ross Meurant as commisioner would shake a few of them up. He knows their inside bullshit and isn’t shy about speaking out.
Old media thinks rape against prostitutes isn’t rape.
And victim blaming from the police.
I just read the Stuff article about that, and didn’t get what you got from it at all! Don’t you think that if the media thought “rape against prostitutes isn’t rape”, then the headline wouldn’t say rape?
A little thought would go a lot further than your knee-jerking does. But your comments are almost exclusively about sexual issues, and I can absolutely predict your views on all of them! 😀
It’s the TVNZ article NickS linked to first. Which starts with the line “A 16-year-old prostitute was picked up in Manurewa and forced to have sex at knifepoint over the weekend, police have said.”
My italics.
Sigh.
“Let’s recap the main points. Assume we agree with the premise of the Stuff story (Russian mafia). Assume also, reasonably, that if one connected company is dodgy, it means all of them are at least worth a quick look. On that basis, we have a whole bunch of active companies worth a quick look, as follows:
35 active New Zealand companies, some with possible Russian Mafia links, at 17 Georgia Terrace, Albany.
594 active New Zealand companies, many with possible Russian Mafia links (run inter alia, by Vanagels, Bilder and miscellaneous residents of Cyprus), at Level 4, 44 Khyber Pass Road.
…and…
another 730 defunct New Zealand companies at 17 Georgia Terrace, Albany, many with possible Russian Mafia links, that may still, in the worst case, have active overseas bank accounts.
1766 defunct New Zealand companies at 69, Ridge Road, Albany, many with possible Russian Mafia links, that may still, in the worst case, have active overseas bank accounts.
That’s 3,000 companies that are worth some level of closer scrutiny: or at least, the (large) subset of that 3,000 that has overseas directors.
These counts and assumptions may exaggerate the scale of the problem, but not necessarily by much. And if I’ve missed any other big clusters, which is perfectly possible, the problem is bigger. For instance a thorough trawl of New Zealand company directors with addresses in Cyprus, Latvia, Panama, the US and Canada might throw up some interesting patterns. One can’t do that kind of investigation via the register’s public interface, but a sleuth with SQL-level query access and a bit of gumption could serve up some pretty neat (and alarming) reports, I should think.
By way of taster, among the companies at those three hot spot addresses in Albany we can quickly identify (in addition to Stuff’s red flags):
People running 28 active or defunct New Zealand companies (Liliya Soboleva, Evgeny Orlov, John Acosta, Olga Belchikova) who are indirectly connected with alleged moneylaunderers.
88 active New Zealand companies with possible Russian Mafia links, all run by one guy in Cyprus.
124 active New Zealand companies with possible Russian Mafia links, all run by another guy in Cyprus.
One is not necessarily impressed by the vigilance of the New Zealand authorities”
Southern Limits
Are these companies that have been registered in NZ under what has been called a very open company registration system. I had heard that some companies on NZ company lists were shell companies for criminal gangs looking to lander assets.
This sounds like the dumb sort of thing we would do under the evil eye influence of Sir Roger Douglas et al, unregulated, no business standards or eithics to keep to, no awkward government controls. An interesting list of dodgy sounding companies. How do you know they are mafia> Is all big Russian business to be regarded as such?
Also relevant is this article – that mentions New Zealand has been struck off a European ‘white list’ of countries with comparable controls to prevent money laundering in banking.
New Zealand and Russia have been struck off a prestigious European Union banking and corporate “white list” over this country’s weak money laundering and terrorism financing controls.
…
Latvia’s confirmation it had blacklisted New Zealand comes after revelations over the way New Zealand registered shell companies – which can be created on the internet for $153.33 – have been used in multi-million dollar money laundering operations involving banks in Riga.
Southern Limits don’t forget the Japanese yakousa’s very large share holding in the Bank of America which now owns Merrill lynch.I wonder if this is why Key resides in Hawaii .
More hits to the poor from this despicable government. I don’t know whether Labour brought in user pays on couples who once could get some free legal aid to deal with their separation or divorce and property and custody matters. But that really hit people on low and medium incomes – it is not cheap to finish a marriage or couple partnership. Often the female parent is left quite poor, and possibly homeless and having to rent in a different location and school. We have wonderfully equal laws which can demand that the house be sold and money split between the partners despite the needs of the custodial parent to provide and bring stability to the children.
Now NACT are charging to go to the Family Court as a disincentive, in their excuse, for couples fighting themselves into a corner. Now with this new measure they will sit down like rational people and talk it out. Huh. The people who go to the Family Court are the minority and extreme. By all means give them limits as to the number of times they can appear. But Courts Minister Chester Borrows (now he will be in tough with the people sseeking legal help who will have to borrow)! So $200 here and $900 a day there, no worries from the viewpoint of an MP overpaid and over there in Wellington.
I googled and found item on family lawyers fuming by lawfuel.co.nz and within seconds of viewing the page all the words changed to little squares – so not allowed to read it on google.
Haven’t struck this before.
Its about time that hooton and farrar were prohibited by law from making a book on politics.
Politics is not sport and the free exercis of the vote is fundamental to our democracy,
Trivialising it in this way is detrimental to society and moreover it is an illegitimate assist to the party who aspires to rig the election in any way possible.
Fighting to STOP asset sales – not just ‘OPPOSING’ asset sales!
If dodgy John Banks is forced to resign from Parliament then this MINORITY National Government with only 59 out of 121 MPs will not have the number to railroad through the Mixed Ownership Model Bill.
(UPDATED)*OPEN LETTER / REQUEST TO THE DIRECTOR OF THE SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE, ADAM FEELEY: 12 June 2012 RE: C2390 – COMPLAINT TO THE SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE
PLEASE URGENTLY REVIEW YOUR DECISION WHICH HAS TREATED A ‘BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION’ COMPLAINT AS A ‘SERIOUS OR COMPLEX FRAUD’ COMPLAINT – WHICH IT IS NOT:
The reply received from Graham Gill, General Manager of Fraud Detection and Intelligence, dated 30 May 2012 stated:
Dear Ms Bright,
RE: C2390 – Complaint to the Serious Fraud Office
I refer to your complaint received by the Serious Fraud office (SFO) on 3 May 2012.
We have assessed your complaint and decided that there was insufficient evidence to support an allegation of a serious or complex fraud.
The Police are already investigating the circumstances surrounding Kim Dotcom’s donation to John Banks. We have advised the police to contact us should they find any evidence that would be of interest to the SFO.
If you have any further information you would like to provide in relation to this matter please feel free to do so.”
Why has a complaint alleging BRIBERY and CORRUPTION has been treated as a complaint alleging SERIOUS or COMPLEX FRAUD.
With all due respect – do you people know what you’re doing?
Since 2010, the SFO has been purportedly the ‘lead agency’ to whom complaints alleging bribery and corruption are supposed to be forwarded.
This complaint has been made, in the proper way – to supposedly the proper body, and it appears to have been sent in the completely wrong direction.
According to your SFO ‘flow chart’ – the General Manager for Fraud and Corruption is Nick l Paterson.
The recent phone call (Monday 11 June 2012) from Graham Gill, has now clarified why a complaint alleging ‘bribery and corruption’ was not directed to the General Manager of Fraud and Corruption, but – it still seems a rather peculiar process.
New Zealand is ‘perceived’ to be the ‘least corrupt country in the world’ (according to the 2011 Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception index’).
Is this one of the reasons why NZ has this ‘perceived’ status? Because allegations of bribery and corruption are simply not dealt with as such, as appears to have happened in this case?
Why is it that former Labour MP Taito Phillip Field got sentenced to SIX years jail for ‘bribery and corruption’, for providing ‘immigration advice’ to Thai nationals in exchange for work on his properties – whilst John Banks, the Minister of Regulatory Reform appears to be effectively getting political protection from NZ Prime Minister John Key, after John Banks has allegedly given ‘immigration assistance’ and Coatsville property purchase ‘assistance’ to a German/ Finnish national, in return for $50,000 donated to his 2010 Auckland Mayoral campaign fund, and gifts valued at over $500 which he failed to declare?
Are you aware that Kim Dotcom’s ‘John Bank’s song’ has had nearly 150,000 ‘hits’ on You Tube,
in my opinion, helping to make NZ an international laughing stock? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CvRSZxqk_I
It is also of great concern that ACT’s ‘one law for all’ has yet still to apply to either John Banks and/ or Don Brash, current and former Leaders of the ACT Party.
As former fellow directors of Huljich Wealth Management (NZ) Ltd, both signed Huljich Kiwisaver Scheme registered prospectuses dated 22 August 2008 and 18 September 2009, which contained untrue statements, but were never charged for so doing. This is a strict liability offence under s58(3) of the Securities Act 1978, but neither the old Securities Commission, the Finance Markets Authority (FMA), the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) , nor the NZ Police arguably ‘did their job’ and charged John Banks or Don Brash.
John Banks, is now the Minister of Regulatory Reform, yet four different ‘regulatory’ bodies failed to act against him , someone, who arguably couldn’t properly run a Kiwisaver Scheme, yet now has a key Ministerial post and is supposedly helping to run the country ‘perceived’ to be the ‘least corrupt in the world’
The public ‘perception’ is arguably that John Banks has been politically protected at the highest levels, because this minority National Government has only 59 out of 121 MPs, thus no mandate for assets sales. Because there is not a majority of National MPs, this minority National Government is dependent on the pivotal vote of John Banks – the ACT MP for Epsom.
The ‘perception’ is that this why NZ Prime Minister John Key is continuing to ‘defend the indefensible’ and still express ‘confidence’ in John Banks, although former National MPs, Richard Worth and Pansy Wong appear to have lost his confidence over a lot less.
The public ‘perception’ is that if you are a politician upon whose vote the Government is politically dependent, you are protected at the highest levels, and ‘one law for all’ does NOT apply to you?
Please ensure that this complaint is given to those in the SFO tasked with dealing with corruption, as a matter of extreme urgency, and please ensure that the Police are requested to act with similar haste. This Government is proceeding with extreme urgency to railroad through the Mixed Ownership Model Bill, and it would be a travesty of justice for this to occur on the pivotal vote of a yet-to-be-charged alleged ‘corrupt’ Minister of the Crown?
You are certainly doing your job Penny, against all (very many) odds. Justice is probably the hardest thing in the world to gain, but must never cease to be our aim..
The following quotation is misapplied, but possibly pertinent:
“With our backs to the wall, and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end.”
Guys this is as spectacular a peice of news as the governing caving on teacher funding.
Sorry for swearing but good fucking job to that soft cock Mayor Len Brown and all the Tory filth that supported their hands off approach to governance of assets and companies that are fully public owned. And hooo-ahhh to all those who hung tight and marched and protested.
Utterly wonderful news – I think this deserves a thread all by itself surely?
I also have heard unnoficially that the Oceania rest home wage dispute has been settled with an above inflation increase to the workers and no removal of OT payments as had been threatened by the employer. A good day in the union movement!
wow what an enlightening q&a that was with the PM. A whole hour of his wisdom to bathe in. I may be wrong but was it not advertised as being from 12-2pm ? Anyways, so it was as expected just patsy question after patsy question but i am sure the msm will pontificate at large about our glorious leader and his selfless dedication to open and accessible Government.
On a personal note, my question about the introduction of a tax free allowance to bring us in line with our OECD partners was unsurprisingly absent.
Dear Students, with STUDENT LOANS, after you have completed your indoctrination,oops, education under a regime that is vastly different from that experienced by your “elders and betters” (sic) here is an idea;
U know how businesses and business people etc can avoid the financial liabilities of their poor (predatory) decisions and go BANKRUPT, wellllll…
if you file for insolvency with the Ministry of Economic Development, Insolvency and Trustee service,
You can attach your STUDENT LOAN to your debtor schedule.
After learning what it ‘means” to be human being, and how to use that particular apparatus, (stuff the free education could teach if not so focused on grooming you for exploitation) WE have done this exact thing TWICE. Yep. Cost nothing, and nothing personal was taken, or any clawback made on income since.
Sooo, even before heading overseas, EMANCIPATE yourselves if you choose.
When applying for an insurance policy recently:
Have you ever been declared bankrupt?
Have you ever been declined or had additional questions for any reason when applying for an insurance policy in the past?
Excuse me, Sam, but are you saying you deliberatly chose bankruptcy to avoid repaying your student loan or was that part of a larger debt that you couldn’t manage?
The Treaty of Waitangi is being moved from Archives NZ to the National Library. This has been on the cards for the past year or so, but it’s now confirmed.
I never quite saw the point of having two buildings. But I really did love the restrained lighting and vault that they kept those kinds of documents in. Sincerely hope there is something similarly spooky and secure for such a hallowed set of documents.
Apparently he’s taking up the role of chair of ACC National Bank (which is not the same thing as chief executive). Somehow I’m reminded of this scene from the West Wing.
By appointing Paula Rebstock the National Government certainly shows they are committed to an efficient use of resources .. .. they are not wasting time attaching strings to a new puppet.
What is going to happen to the Treaty when we become a Republic after the next Election – there will be no Crown as far as New Zealand is concerned ?
Which Tribal leaders will sign the New Treaty – will they agree on anything ?
I don’t see why a new treaty is required – the new republican government will simply assume the rights and duties of the Crown. Same as with the title deeds to the Beehive.
Were Syrian rebels and not Assad forces responsible for the Houla massacre?
It was, in the words of U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan, the “tipping point” in the Syria conflict: a savage massacre of over 90 people, predominantly women and children, for which the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad was immediately blamed by virtually the entirety of the Western media.
Within days of the first reports of the Houla massacre, the U.S., France, Great Britain, Germany, and several other Western countries announced that they were expelling Syria’s ambassadors in protest.
But according to a new report in Germany’s leading daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Houla massacre was in fact committed by anti-Assad Sunni militants, and the bulk of the victims were member of the Alawi and Shia minorities, which have been largely supportive of Assad.
For its account of the massacre, the report cites opponents of Assad, who, however, declined to have their names appear in print out of fear of reprisals from armed opposition groups.
According to the article’s sources, the massacre occurred after rebel forces attacked three army-controlled roadblocks outside of Houla. The roadblocks had been set up to protect nearby Alawi majority villages from attacks by Sunni militias. …..
The shift the mainstream media ned to do in the heads is stop relating this to the Arab Spring (bracketing Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt in the same breathless paragraph), and linking it more to Bosnia or Iraq or one of those thorough decade-long ethnic cleansings with all their attendant horror.
Further to a discussion on open mike recently about Jonathon Haidt’s theory of the working class being more interested in bigotry (moral issues about purity and authority), than social justice for themselves, here is George Manibot’s scathing rebuttal – full unlike Haidt’s right-wing apologism of those useful facty things.- hat tip Gobsmacked via No Right Turn
Will the Labour party take note of the fact that, rather than turning to the tories because of “identity politics” the working class left, has, in lieu on any real alternative because of being betrayed by Labour, largely stopped voting.
Nah they don’t give a shit about the poor either, hence the problem.
Still, Shearer might hand out food parcels to the starving in South Auckland one day – as long as he’s paid a big fat one-percenter salary, and given enough plaudits and awards to do so.
Damn – the strike-out tag is still not working. The word “bigotry” above was supposed to have had a line through it. I checked I did it correctly via the FAQ, but no joy.
[lprent: There was discussion a week or so ago that it was meant to be <del> </del> rather than the s tag. I haven’t caught up yet. ]
There is a new CDN running on the site that while having other possible benefits* will also hopefully get rid of the remaining excess of overseas traffic that we get charged for. 21GB last month and nearly double that in April. Many of you will be aware that I have been trying to club that excess to death since last year as it is a expensive and unrequired variable cost^
If it works then I should be able to turn the RSS full post feed back on for those dependent apon it rather than the front page excerpts.
So far the main effect I have noticed as it comes on line as the DNSes update (and shifted 1.1GB of mostly offshore traffic away from my content server since 1600), is that it is highlighting an error of quotes in the Opinions tab on the right hand side of the screen. I will fix it in the weekend as few people use that feature.
If anyone notices any other non-usual bugs**. Then let me know. I haven’t noticed any apart from a irritating option turned on at 1800 and off by 1830.
* mostly as far as the users are concerned it simply speeds up the static content of the site – images etc. this will mean that pages are faster to load until they hit the bloody slow advert servers. For the moderators, it should also really hammer the spambots (which I can see already) and move handling of them to the CDN providers servers.
^ problem with variable costs is that they kind of vary. Which means it is hard to hard to predict how they will impact in our cost structure a month later. What is really irritating is that we have more than 95% of our readers in NZ, but the entirety of our variable costs comes from offshore users coming through a really really expensive and resource constrained pipe to offshore.#
** ie don’t use this as an opportunity to offload the wish list. I’m almost through at work on this phase of the project. I have at least a week of catchup after that before I can enhance this site. I’d also like some lounging around doing nothing much time where the location is not Invercargill.
# it is cheaper by far to move the entire site offshore purely to escape those excess charges. Of course that makes the site a lot slower and indirecy more expensive for 95% of readers who live in NZ…. I wouldn’t stay here if this was commercial. Any commercial user with any sense would obey the price signals from the idiotic charges from monopoly suppliers of the Southern Cross Cable data and put their servers anywhere but here.
The UK, for the opening of the Olympics is setting up a picture of a country idyll with happy cows and people – must be like a glossy Midsomer Murders background. Very Marie Antoinette who used to have tableaus with her entourage dressed as rustics I understand.
And funny in a nightmarish way when one thinks of residential buildings in London having their roofs turned into sites for anti-missile etc surveillance. This will have to be set up earlier than the opening and people screened in and out. The people there will have this burden of suspicion and checking systems for months perhaps, and feel like targets for damage. Not an idyll.
Here is a scenario, but first a historical parallel. Hitler and the Nazis could well have accomplished everything that they wanted to do within German borders, including exterminating Jews, so long as they confined their ambitious to Germany itself. After all, the world pretty much sat and watched as the ...
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Hamilton covering Waikato University’s annual NZ Economics Forum, where (arguably) three of the most influential people in our political economy right now laid out their thinking in major speeches about the size and role of Government, their views on for spending, tax ...
Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
The infamous over-the-suit T-shirt worn by the PM at a Parliament barbecue has gone on sale to raise funds for children living in poverty, in a TradeMe auction. ...
MONDAYSheriff Seymour rode slowly down the main street of Dodge on his faithful white horse Atlas Network.He liked what he saw.Children were being fed free lunches prepared by kind people who collected the scraps from an offal rendering plant.“Very strongly flavoured liver, such as ox liver, can be soaked overnight ...
Once upon a time it was all about being an astronaut, a firefighter or doctor; but these days kids have their sights set on becoming vloggers or YouTubers.That’s according to a 2019 study by Lego that surveyed 3000 children between the ages of eight to 12 from the US, the ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. From the moment I started high school and realised almost every other girl in my year was at least partially interested in what the boys were up to, I realised that I would be single for life. The feeling wasn’t one of ...
The Pacific profiles series shines a light on Pacific people in Aotearoa doing interesting and important work in their communities, as nominated by members of the public. Today, Selina Alesana Alefosio.All photos by Geoffery Matautia.On a bright Sunday morning from her grandparent’s home in Pito-one, I spoke with ...
The White Lotus star reflects on her life in TV, including the local ad reference that doesn’t work in Australia, and her bananas co-star on Neighbours.Morgana O’Reilly was scrolling her phone next to her sleeping son on an idle Saturday morning when she got the call confirming that she ...
Claire Mabey explores the pros and cons of puff quotes on book covers.In January, Publishers Weekly put out an article by Sean Manning – publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship US imprint – in which he said he’d “no longer require authors to obtain blurbs for their books”.The ...
New Zealand’s Entomological Society is hosting its annual bug of the year contest. Here are some of the insects in the running. For some reason – perhaps humans’ inherent competitiveness, the idealisation of democracy, the need to demarcate winners and losers – one of the best ways to get people ...
A journey along the border, with words and illustrations by Bob Kerr.The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous support of our members.The Sunset Limited leaves Union Station New Orleans on time at nine in the morning. We ...
Neville Peat is the 2024 recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in nonfiction. He’s written 56 books, mostly on natural history; this excerpt is from The Falcon and the Lark: A New Zealand High Country Journal, first published in 1992. The falcon wintering on the Rock and ...
It was a light-hearted gesture Greta Pilkington will be forever grateful for – thanks to an Aussie rival who jumped in when the Olympic sailor couldn’t be at her own graduation.Pilkington, then 20, had been leading a double life – while qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the ILCA ...
I was born in the back of my grandfather’s ute, by an overgrown windbreak in a remote place called Wahi-Rakauyou can’t find on a map. I was born a girl but given the man’s name Harvey, as my dad always wanted a violent-minded boy to one day help him ...
“We’re not here to interfere in people’s property rights,” Ngāi Tahu’s Te Maire Tau has told the High Court.Tau, a historian, Upoko (traditional leader) of Ngāi Tūāhuriri, and a university professor of history, is the lead witness in a case designed to force the Crown to recognise the tribe’s rangatiratanga ...
Pacific Media Watch Trump administration officials barred two Associated Press (AP) reporters from covering White House events this week because the US-based independent news agency did not change its style guide to align with the president’s political agenda. The AP is being punished for using the term “Gulf of Mexico,” ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific Presenter/Bulletin editor France’s top diplomat in the Pacific region says talks around the “unfreezing” of New Caledonia’s highly controversial electoral roll are back on the table. The French government intended to make a constitutional amendment that would lift restrictions prescribed under the Nouméa Accord, which ...
By bringing these global voices to the fight for free expression in New Zealand, we’ll continue to protect and expand our culture of free speech, says Nathan Seiuli, the Free Speech Union's Events Manager. ...
The issue is no longer a hypothetical one. US President Donald Trump will not explicitly suggest death camps, but he has already consented to Israel’s continuing a war that is not a war but rather a barbaric assault on a desolate stretch of land. From there, the road to annihilation is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cecelia Cmielewski, Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University To be selected as the artist and curator team to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale is considered the ultimate exhibition for an artistic team. To have your selection rescinded, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steve Turton, Adjunct Professor of Environmental Geography, CQUniversity Australia Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia is bearing down on the northwest coast of Australia and is likely to make landfall early Friday evening. It’s a monster storm of great concern to Western Australia. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Ireland-Piper, Associate Professor, ANU National Security College, Australian National University A Victorian government decision to allow dingo culling in the state’s east until 2028 has reignited debate over what has been dubbed Australia’s most controversial animal. Animals Australia, an animal welfare ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University Overnight, Robert F. Kennedy Jr was confirmed as the secretary of the US Health and Human Services Department. Put simply, this makes him the most influential figure in overseeing the health and wellbeing of more ...
Everything you missed from day five of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard eight hours of submissions.Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.It was another work from home day for the Justice Committee, the only people in Room 3 being security guards, committee ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milad Haghani, Associate Professor & Principal Fellow in Urban Risk & Resilience, The University of Melbourne Juris Teivans/Shutterstock In Australia, fatal road crashes are climbing again, especially since the pandemic, and despite years of attempts to reduce road trauma, the numbers ...
In its eagerness to appease supporters of Israel, the media is happy to ride roughshod over due process and basic rights. It’s damaging Australia’s (and New Zealand’s?) democracy.COMMENTARY:By Bernard Keane Two moments stand out so far from the Federal Court hearings relating to Antoinette Lattouf’s sacking by the ...
“The reality is we’re getting poorer. The government this year is leaning heavy on chasing economic growth, which is absolutely the right thing to do.” ...
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 The Vegetarian by Han Kang (Granta, $28) Han Kang’s astounding novel was based on an ...
This new docuseries about two single comedians looking for love is also a joyful celebration of female friendship. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. “How many people do you think are boning right now?” Kura Forrester asks Brynley Stent as the bright ...
A new poem by Freya Turnbull. Hunger Song – After Kaveh Akbar (Untitled With Hunger And Matcheads) I hold my age in ripped fishnet hold an empty vessel oldyoung body cracks like gunshot like killa i was a father ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominik Koll, Honorary Lecturer, Australian National University View of the Pacific Ocean from the International Space Station.NASA Earth must have experienced something exceptional 10 million years ago. Our study of rock samples from the floor of the Pacific Ocean has found ...
.
Heh! Why worry about climate change and the inevitable rise in sea levels when you can make it illegal? Gotta love them denialists . . . always thinking.
Bloody hell. Like trying to legislate to make pi equal to 3.000000000
They’re trying to LP.
Other schools approved for state-funded vouchers use social studies texts warning that liberals threaten global prosperity; Bible-based math books that don’t cover modern concepts such as set theory; and biology texts built around refuting evolution.
This too.
http://errancy.org/pi.html
Love em all BLiP. Agenda 21, illegal.
Delightful farce joe90. Of course the reality is very different. Please tell me that is the case and if it isn’t I don’t want to think about the decline of my illusions about the USA. One could expect in this century a modern take on their Constitution that has respect for all.
When you are right you’re right.
Any attempt to portray US lawmakers to be showing respect for their Constitution could only be done as a farce.
Now that’s a plan that Treasury could adopt. Do not measure unemployment or inconvenient Deficits.
That’s actually terrifying as what these goons have done is tell the scientists how to get their measurements and how those measurements can be used and done it in such a way so as to produce the results that they want rather than the ones that will match physical reality. It’s going back to the days when scientists were persecuted by the church for their findings which contradicted the church’s teachings.
The next phase of New Zealand history will not be defined by games inside the Wellington Beltway. The “clever insiders” have failed.
Labour has the answers but not the voice. The answers are in it’s history and it’s people. They have an excellent policy machine (bright people). It now needs to focus on the future of New Zealanders. It needs to free itself from the shackles of the past Strategies.
Labour needs to focus on 5 years and 10 years out. When they Are seen to own the future vision the people will come back: back to the polling booth from the couch or garden on election day, back from the Gold Coast, the mines, London, back from the Greens/Mana/Maori.
Gareth Morgan’s half-page article in the Business Herald this morning outlines the complete hash that English is making of the economy. Gareth also seriously questions asset sales and instructing the Reserve bank to correct its prudential guidelines to banks “so that a repeat of speculative housing demand raising pressure on interest rates simply wouldn’t happen …”
He also points out that never has there been a better tmie for structural reform. Sorry I’m not good at links.
It’s as if the government is so burnt by its cluster of fuckups in the last six months that it can no longer make rational plans and is retreating further and further into itself. This is the ideal circumstance for the opposition to come out with pathbreaking plans.
It seems to be only in the hard copy (page B2). But the sub-header says “Ideology-driven cuts adding momentum to the downturn”
so conmankey can steal them as he has no plan for the economy
All left parties need a rethink – I gave up on Labour a few years ago, and they still seem locked into the neoliberal paradigm.
I voted Green the last few elections, but am not happy with the centralising Normanisation of the Green Party. When Norman gets more sidelined in favour of the stronger left winger MPs, I’ll be happier with them.
Mana has promise, but I don’t yet trust them, and have some concerns about whether women will play a significant part in the party in the long term -incorporation of Bradford and Sykes seems promising, but I’ve yet to see them playing a leading role.
Yes, Carol, as usual I agree with your views. I, too, went with the Greens last time for the same reason. But Norman, though but a co-leader, always seems to be spokesperson and I am seldom happy with him. Turei is co-leader, much more to the Left, and whose views are fresher and much more exciting to see or hear.
Agree on Turei. I think the Normanisation is getting help from the MSM. Duncan Garner, in his live online chat this week, said Norman was the real leader on The Greens.
It suits the news corporates to have a more centrist Green Party. The Greens should resist colluding with them.
Mana is a very young party and was initially built on Hone’s popularity up north. I think it’s come a long way and hope it will go even further. What impresses me most about them is their willingness to act outside the established parliamentary norms, with Hone and the other candidates actually getting out on the street.
VTO; disappointed we are. Reading Uturns contributions recently indicates to us what a “wise” person or persons they are. As wise as DTB but in a broader way.
We learn a great deal of wisdom from contributors such as these. We have not learnt much beneficial from your recent rants.
THANKYOU (not shouting, but BIG) to
Joe 90
Mickey
Olwyn
Lanth
Carol (we think)
Dr T
Bored
et al; Chu know if you are being helpful.
Muchas Gracias
We want Bolivia with snow like Sweden and some of Cubas’ great features!
We could pilot-scheme a new constitution right here in Hawkes Bay. Great Natural Environment.
Dominant culture/hegemony/sleepwalk could do with some interuption though.
Posting on a blog site , is no indication of the wisdom of any idividual(s), you have misused the word SH.
While there are angles of thought to be considered, true wisdom will not be found on the internet, this site or anywhere else.
Thats why, that is why, chu are not on the list in our bubble.
We believe the internet can be a tool to leverage great wisdom.
As personal experience may prove to be the bitterest form of learning.
As I once said to another bully, (policeman),
Opinions are like bumholes…………..
Sam Hall
Have you crossed over from the Jedi or some such?
I wonder where Fairfax Media are going with this.
A deliberate attempt to make the minister look like a tool much?
Someone really should tell them she doesn’t need any help.
Good on them for highlighting this. Bennett’s proposal was clearly a dog whistle, as such actions are already being taken.
Depends how much prominence it gets – they blew Bennett’s dog whistle loud and clear and long.
The article isn’t open for comments; my guess is this is the last we’ll hear of it.
For those of you interested in 911 research I will be talking with professor and researcher radio host Jim Fetzer about my 911 storyboard research. the Show is live at 11 am NZ time.
Matt McCarten’s column certainly hit the mark, bestowing a knighthood on a Monarch’s spouse seems a little ridiculous but i was more interested in his quiet comment regarding the Asset sales.
Last week The Queen ( according to the media ) was so distressed about the future of a certain church that her majesty made inquiries to our PM concerning the hardship facing Christchurch if they lose a pile of bricks erected to symbolise the groupthink homoly to a Deity. Yes the symbolism of the cathedral and its importance to Christchurch is a serious matter and in no way do i mean to belittle it’s importance but why is our Monarch not showing the same concern for the very real hardship and poverty that so many of her subjects will endure if we sell the Assets? Does her majesty even know they are being sold?
freedom, I doubt that her Britannic Majesty even knows who or where we are (when did she last visit?) But I will concede that she sure does know John Key who is “one of her own” sort! (Did you observe his fawning bow?) Indeed he was even invited a while back to holiday at royal Balmoral Castle! (Though it did not come off). When was this invitation extended to a Labour PM?
Constitutionally the Queen does not get involved in the affairs of the government. That was the point of the Magna Carta.
Rebuilding the Cathedral is a little more of a grey area, because the Queen is the head of the Anglican Church of England. I think part of Key’s response that it’s the government’s job was a way out of outlining the constitutional ‘hands off’ approach that the monarch is expected to take.
The Queen could always sell a few of her assets and build a new cathedral if she’s so worried.
Waiting for Judith
By allowing a couple of lying bastards to get away with making a false complaint to the police, Judith Collins shows she is an ineffective minister. If she does not know what is right from wrong in this situation, in my opinion, she has no place being a minister of the crown at all…
The irony here Jackal is that Judith is taking a case of Defamation for her reputation allegedly being impugned.
In her own Ministry, she is condoning the much more serious defaming of Pullar and Boag. In not speaking out she could be identified as a hypocrite. Let alone the downright dishonesty of Senior Staff. Be an interesting line for Question Time.
+1 Jackal and Ianmac
freedom
The Queen is head of the Anglican church isn’t she. For that reason she would be expected by the church to be interested in the holy pile.
The poverty inducing governments which we persist in voting in is an operational matter. We have been given the right to decide on our own governments arising from our own people. This was achieved after sacrificial efforts by a dedicated minority for centuries on behalf of all to get the vote and a say in laws. We screwed up and now can we stop the sociopathic (The end always justifies the means and they let nothing stand in their way) way we think which is turned on ourselves in self-punishment? Can we stop the mutilation of our country and its once universally beneficial policies?
Don’t blame the Queen, we wallow in a sad moshpit of our own national choice.
thankfully the musos of Aotearoa supply one hell of a soundtrack
Read Erich Fromm “Escape from Freedom”
His thesis is writ large across New Zealand society.
SamHall, absolutely! Everybody should read this classic. It will not be hard to make necessary comparisons.
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/teen-prostitute-attacked-knifepoint-4924869
Old media thinks rape against prostitutes isn’t rape.
And victim blaming from the police.
Yay.
And Stuff strangely gets it right:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/7081519/Teen-prostitute-raped-at-knifepoint
Looks like it’s the police that can’t tell the difference between rape and sex – Stuff call it sex when reporting what Counties Manukau central acting crime manager Inspector Richard Wilkie said. He goes on to focus on teen sex workers rather than the men cruising the street*, or the offender who raped a teen at knifepoint. He also calls sex work ‘selling oneself’. I’m fairly sure that sex workers sell sex, not their selves. Classic endorsement of rape culture and a policeman of that seniority should know better (even if he is just acting).
*with the law change, is it illegal to pay for sex with someone between 16 and 18, or is it still just the sex worker who gets charged?
Policemen of much more seniority than him also seem to be a little confused about what constitutes rape. It’s a shame that the investigations into “police culture” didn’t go a lot further. Having a commision of inquiry with Ross Meurant as commisioner would shake a few of them up. He knows their inside bullshit and isn’t shy about speaking out.
I just read the Stuff article about that, and didn’t get what you got from it at all! Don’t you think that if the media thought “rape against prostitutes isn’t rape”, then the headline wouldn’t say rape?
A little thought would go a lot further than your knee-jerking does. But your comments are almost exclusively about sexual issues, and I can absolutely predict your views on all of them! 😀
It’s the TVNZ article NickS linked to first. Which starts with the line “A 16-year-old prostitute was picked up in Manurewa and forced to have sex at knifepoint over the weekend, police have said.”
My italics.
Sigh.
Anybody know any more about this?
“Let’s recap the main points. Assume we agree with the premise of the Stuff story (Russian mafia). Assume also, reasonably, that if one connected company is dodgy, it means all of them are at least worth a quick look. On that basis, we have a whole bunch of active companies worth a quick look, as follows:
35 active New Zealand companies, some with possible Russian Mafia links, at 17 Georgia Terrace, Albany.
594 active New Zealand companies, many with possible Russian Mafia links (run inter alia, by Vanagels, Bilder and miscellaneous residents of Cyprus), at Level 4, 44 Khyber Pass Road.
…and…
another 730 defunct New Zealand companies at 17 Georgia Terrace, Albany, many with possible Russian Mafia links, that may still, in the worst case, have active overseas bank accounts.
1766 defunct New Zealand companies at 69, Ridge Road, Albany, many with possible Russian Mafia links, that may still, in the worst case, have active overseas bank accounts.
That’s 3,000 companies that are worth some level of closer scrutiny: or at least, the (large) subset of that 3,000 that has overseas directors.
These counts and assumptions may exaggerate the scale of the problem, but not necessarily by much. And if I’ve missed any other big clusters, which is perfectly possible, the problem is bigger. For instance a thorough trawl of New Zealand company directors with addresses in Cyprus, Latvia, Panama, the US and Canada might throw up some interesting patterns. One can’t do that kind of investigation via the register’s public interface, but a sleuth with SQL-level query access and a bit of gumption could serve up some pretty neat (and alarming) reports, I should think.
By way of taster, among the companies at those three hot spot addresses in Albany we can quickly identify (in addition to Stuff’s red flags):
People running 28 active or defunct New Zealand companies (Liliya Soboleva, Evgeny Orlov, John Acosta, Olga Belchikova) who are indirectly connected with alleged moneylaunderers.
88 active New Zealand companies with possible Russian Mafia links, all run by one guy in Cyprus.
124 active New Zealand companies with possible Russian Mafia links, all run by another guy in Cyprus.
One is not necessarily impressed by the vigilance of the New Zealand authorities”
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/05/new-zealand-fresh-from-its-service-to-mexican-drug-lords-helps-out-the-russian-mafia.html
Southern Limits
Are these companies that have been registered in NZ under what has been called a very open company registration system. I had heard that some companies on NZ company lists were shell companies for criminal gangs looking to lander assets.
This sounds like the dumb sort of thing we would do under the evil eye influence of Sir Roger Douglas et al, unregulated, no business standards or eithics to keep to, no awkward government controls. An interesting list of dodgy sounding companies. How do you know they are mafia> Is all big Russian business to be regarded as such?
I didn’t write the article but the Russian Mafia link comes from this story on Stuff: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/6976306/NZ-shell-company-linked-to-alleged-150m-fraud
Also relevant is this article – that mentions New Zealand has been struck off a European ‘white list’ of countries with comparable controls to prevent money laundering in banking.
Southern Limits don’t forget the Japanese yakousa’s very large share holding in the Bank of America which now owns Merrill lynch.I wonder if this is why Key resides in Hawaii .
so tell me now so I can understand: if you get on the list does that mean you are now an employeee of the public service?
More hits to the poor from this despicable government. I don’t know whether Labour brought in user pays on couples who once could get some free legal aid to deal with their separation or divorce and property and custody matters. But that really hit people on low and medium incomes – it is not cheap to finish a marriage or couple partnership. Often the female parent is left quite poor, and possibly homeless and having to rent in a different location and school. We have wonderfully equal laws which can demand that the house be sold and money split between the partners despite the needs of the custodial parent to provide and bring stability to the children.
Now NACT are charging to go to the Family Court as a disincentive, in their excuse, for couples fighting themselves into a corner. Now with this new measure they will sit down like rational people and talk it out. Huh. The people who go to the Family Court are the minority and extreme. By all means give them limits as to the number of times they can appear. But Courts Minister Chester Borrows (now he will be in tough with the people sseeking legal help who will have to borrow)! So $200 here and $900 a day there, no worries from the viewpoint of an MP overpaid and over there in Wellington.
I googled and found item on family lawyers fuming by lawfuel.co.nz and within seconds of viewing the page all the words changed to little squares – so not allowed to read it on google.
Haven’t struck this before.
ALSO found was David Farrar running a book on nz herald on who is going to be Labour leader in 2020, which will be the 7th Labour Govt, after the Sixth to come.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10812235
Its about time that hooton and farrar were prohibited by law from making a book on politics.
Politics is not sport and the free exercis of the vote is fundamental to our democracy,
Trivialising it in this way is detrimental to society and moreover it is an illegitimate assist to the party who aspires to rig the election in any way possible.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10812383
“The negotiations are expected to end at the point final agreement is reached,” wrote Roger Wigglesworth, MED’s tourism and events director.
in reply i would like to quote a friend’s four year old,
” d’uh !”
Why should we care about Tongan history?
http://www.readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2012/06/size-isnt-everything-or-why-we-should.html
Great link. Thank you.
Fighting to STOP asset sales – not just ‘OPPOSING’ asset sales!
If dodgy John Banks is forced to resign from Parliament then this MINORITY National Government with only 59 out of 121 MPs will not have the number to railroad through the Mixed Ownership Model Bill.
FYI –
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150850601911790&set=a.10150818107276790.398518.727511789&type=1&theater
(UPDATED)*OPEN LETTER / REQUEST TO THE DIRECTOR OF THE SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE, ADAM FEELEY: 12 June 2012 RE: C2390 – COMPLAINT TO THE SERIOUS FRAUD OFFICE
PLEASE URGENTLY REVIEW YOUR DECISION WHICH HAS TREATED A ‘BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION’ COMPLAINT AS A ‘SERIOUS OR COMPLEX FRAUD’ COMPLAINT – WHICH IT IS NOT:
The reply received from Graham Gill, General Manager of Fraud Detection and Intelligence, dated 30 May 2012 stated:
Dear Ms Bright,
RE: C2390 – Complaint to the Serious Fraud Office
I refer to your complaint received by the Serious Fraud office (SFO) on 3 May 2012.
We have assessed your complaint and decided that there was insufficient evidence to support an allegation of a serious or complex fraud.
The Police are already investigating the circumstances surrounding Kim Dotcom’s donation to John Banks. We have advised the police to contact us should they find any evidence that would be of interest to the SFO.
If you have any further information you would like to provide in relation to this matter please feel free to do so.”
Why has a complaint alleging BRIBERY and CORRUPTION has been treated as a complaint alleging SERIOUS or COMPLEX FRAUD.
With all due respect – do you people know what you’re doing?
Since 2010, the SFO has been purportedly the ‘lead agency’ to whom complaints alleging bribery and corruption are supposed to be forwarded.
This complaint has been made, in the proper way – to supposedly the proper body, and it appears to have been sent in the completely wrong direction.
According to your SFO ‘flow chart’ – the General Manager for Fraud and Corruption is Nick l Paterson.
The recent phone call (Monday 11 June 2012) from Graham Gill, has now clarified why a complaint alleging ‘bribery and corruption’ was not directed to the General Manager of Fraud and Corruption, but – it still seems a rather peculiar process.
New Zealand is ‘perceived’ to be the ‘least corrupt country in the world’ (according to the 2011 Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception index’).
Is this one of the reasons why NZ has this ‘perceived’ status? Because allegations of bribery and corruption are simply not dealt with as such, as appears to have happened in this case?
Why is it that former Labour MP Taito Phillip Field got sentenced to SIX years jail for ‘bribery and corruption’, for providing ‘immigration advice’ to Thai nationals in exchange for work on his properties – whilst John Banks, the Minister of Regulatory Reform appears to be effectively getting political protection from NZ Prime Minister John Key, after John Banks has allegedly given ‘immigration assistance’ and Coatsville property purchase ‘assistance’ to a German/ Finnish national, in return for $50,000 donated to his 2010 Auckland Mayoral campaign fund, and gifts valued at over $500 which he failed to declare?
Are you aware that Kim Dotcom’s ‘John Bank’s song’ has had nearly 150,000 ‘hits’ on You Tube,
in my opinion, helping to make NZ an international laughing stock? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CvRSZxqk_I
It is also of great concern that ACT’s ‘one law for all’ has yet still to apply to either John Banks and/ or Don Brash, current and former Leaders of the ACT Party.
As former fellow directors of Huljich Wealth Management (NZ) Ltd, both signed Huljich Kiwisaver Scheme registered prospectuses dated 22 August 2008 and 18 September 2009, which contained untrue statements, but were never charged for so doing. This is a strict liability offence under s58(3) of the Securities Act 1978, but neither the old Securities Commission, the Finance Markets Authority (FMA), the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) , nor the NZ Police arguably ‘did their job’ and charged John Banks or Don Brash.
John Banks, is now the Minister of Regulatory Reform, yet four different ‘regulatory’ bodies failed to act against him , someone, who arguably couldn’t properly run a Kiwisaver Scheme, yet now has a key Ministerial post and is supposedly helping to run the country ‘perceived’ to be the ‘least corrupt in the world’
The public ‘perception’ is arguably that John Banks has been politically protected at the highest levels, because this minority National Government has only 59 out of 121 MPs, thus no mandate for assets sales. Because there is not a majority of National MPs, this minority National Government is dependent on the pivotal vote of John Banks – the ACT MP for Epsom.
The ‘perception’ is that this why NZ Prime Minister John Key is continuing to ‘defend the indefensible’ and still express ‘confidence’ in John Banks, although former National MPs, Richard Worth and Pansy Wong appear to have lost his confidence over a lot less.
The public ‘perception’ is that if you are a politician upon whose vote the Government is politically dependent, you are protected at the highest levels, and ‘one law for all’ does NOT apply to you?
Please ensure that this complaint is given to those in the SFO tasked with dealing with corruption, as a matter of extreme urgency, and please ensure that the Police are requested to act with similar haste. This Government is proceeding with extreme urgency to railroad through the Mixed Ownership Model Bill, and it would be a travesty of justice for this to occur on the pivotal vote of a yet-to-be-charged alleged ‘corrupt’ Minister of the Crown?
Yours sincerely,
Penny Bright Anti-corruption campaigner’ …..
Lisa Prager …..
_______________________________________________________________________
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com
You are certainly doing your job Penny, against all (very many) odds. Justice is probably the hardest thing in the world to gain, but must never cease to be our aim..
The following quotation is misapplied, but possibly pertinent:
“With our backs to the wall, and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end.”
Just being retweeted around Twitter:
https://twitter.com/juliefairey/status/212331333660311552
Carol, is there a stronger source for this? Seems a pretty important story.
Confirmed by MUNZ, ad. Just got the email.
Guys this is as spectacular a peice of news as the governing caving on teacher funding.
Sorry for swearing but good fucking job to that soft cock Mayor Len Brown and all the Tory filth that supported their hands off approach to governance of assets and companies that are fully public owned. And hooo-ahhh to all those who hung tight and marched and protested.
Utterly wonderful news – I think this deserves a thread all by itself surely?
A press release, but doesn’t say much:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1206/S00324/union-pleased-with-progress-in-poal-facilitation.htm
I also have heard unnoficially that the Oceania rest home wage dispute has been settled with an above inflation increase to the workers and no removal of OT payments as had been threatened by the employer. A good day in the union movement!
That is really great news….
Why are $ 112 Billion in Derivatives not on our books?
Ask thi question on the “live” chat going on right now!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7084397/Live-chat-Prime-Minister-John-Key
With this link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/latest-edition/6671255/Government-in-112b-barney
wow what an enlightening q&a that was with the PM. A whole hour of his wisdom to bathe in. I may be wrong but was it not advertised as being from 12-2pm ? Anyways, so it was as expected just patsy question after patsy question but i am sure the msm will pontificate at large about our glorious leader and his selfless dedication to open and accessible Government.
On a personal note, my question about the introduction of a tax free allowance to bring us in line with our OECD partners was unsurprisingly absent.
Kapiti Cheese and Cartier watches and hopefully a whole lot of people wondering why their questions did not get asked!
Dear Students, with STUDENT LOANS, after you have completed your indoctrination,oops, education under a regime that is vastly different from that experienced by your “elders and betters” (sic) here is an idea;
U know how businesses and business people etc can avoid the financial liabilities of their poor (predatory) decisions and go BANKRUPT, wellllll…
if you file for insolvency with the Ministry of Economic Development, Insolvency and Trustee service,
You can attach your STUDENT LOAN to your debtor schedule.
After learning what it ‘means” to be human being, and how to use that particular apparatus, (stuff the free education could teach if not so focused on grooming you for exploitation) WE have done this exact thing TWICE. Yep. Cost nothing, and nothing personal was taken, or any clawback made on income since.
Sooo, even before heading overseas, EMANCIPATE yourselves if you choose.
The World, or Aotearoa, is your paua baby!
When applying for an insurance policy recently:
Have you ever been declared bankrupt?
Have you ever been declined or had additional questions for any reason when applying for an insurance policy in the past?
Excuse me, Sam, but are you saying you deliberatly chose bankruptcy to avoid repaying your student loan or was that part of a larger debt that you couldn’t manage?
And loss of “ability” to obtain credit? think about it.
Dont Even Bother Trying.
The Treaty of Waitangi is being moved from Archives NZ to the National Library. This has been on the cards for the past year or so, but it’s now confirmed.
I never quite saw the point of having two buildings. But I really did love the restrained lighting and vault that they kept those kinds of documents in. Sincerely hope there is something similarly spooky and secure for such a hallowed set of documents.
ACC CEO is leaving (yay!).
To be taken over by Paula Rebstock (boo!)
Apparently he’s taking up the role of chair of ACC National Bank (which is not the same thing as chief executive). Somehow I’m reminded of this scene from the West Wing.
By appointing Paula Rebstock the National Government certainly shows they are committed to an efficient use of resources .. .. they are not wasting time attaching strings to a new puppet.
What is going to happen to the Treaty when we become a Republic after the next Election – there will be no Crown as far as New Zealand is concerned ?
Which Tribal leaders will sign the New Treaty – will they agree on anything ?
I don’t see why a new treaty is required – the new republican government will simply assume the rights and duties of the Crown. Same as with the title deeds to the Beehive.
Footrot Maybe you better sell your house now and leave the country as your building is probably on stolen land.
Were Syrian rebels and not Assad forces responsible for the Houla massacre?
It was, in the words of U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan, the “tipping point” in the Syria conflict: a savage massacre of over 90 people, predominantly women and children, for which the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad was immediately blamed by virtually the entirety of the Western media.
Within days of the first reports of the Houla massacre, the U.S., France, Great Britain, Germany, and several other Western countries announced that they were expelling Syria’s ambassadors in protest.
But according to a new report in Germany’s leading daily, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Houla massacre was in fact committed by anti-Assad Sunni militants, and the bulk of the victims were member of the Alawi and Shia minorities, which have been largely supportive of Assad.
For its account of the massacre, the report cites opponents of Assad, who, however, declined to have their names appear in print out of fear of reprisals from armed opposition groups.
According to the article’s sources, the massacre occurred after rebel forces attacked three army-controlled roadblocks outside of Houla. The roadblocks had been set up to protect nearby Alawi majority villages from attacks by Sunni militias. …..
Read more…..
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/middle-east-and-north-africa/1581-were-syrian-rebels-and-not-assad-forces-responsible-for-the-houla-massacre
The shift the mainstream media ned to do in the heads is stop relating this to the Arab Spring (bracketing Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt in the same breathless paragraph), and linking it more to Bosnia or Iraq or one of those thorough decade-long ethnic cleansings with all their attendant horror.
Thanks Morrissey, I have wondered…
Yep, guessed as much.
And what a contrast with the Western reaction to Israel’s massacre of 1400 Gazan civilians, including more than 300 Palestinian children.
Re-making the world, one school at a time.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/11/mitt-romney-blueprint-privatizing-american-education
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/11/voters-have-not-turned-right
Further to a discussion on open mike recently about Jonathon Haidt’s theory of the working class being more interested in
bigotry(moral issues about purity and authority), than social justice for themselves, here is George Manibot’s scathing rebuttal – full unlike Haidt’s right-wing apologism of those useful facty things.- hat tip Gobsmacked via No Right TurnWill the Labour party take note of the fact that, rather than turning to the tories because of “identity politics” the working class left, has, in lieu on any real alternative because of being betrayed by Labour, largely stopped voting.
Nah they don’t give a shit about the poor either, hence the problem.
Still, Shearer might hand out food parcels to the starving in South Auckland one day – as long as he’s paid a big fat one-percenter salary, and given enough plaudits and awards to do so.
Damn – the strike-out tag is still not working. The word “bigotry” above was supposed to have had a line through it. I checked I did it correctly via the FAQ, but no joy.
[lprent: There was discussion a week or so ago that it was meant to be <del> </del> rather than the s tag. I haven’t caught up yet. ]
Thanks LPrent.
I’ve made a bit of a hash of it all round. The comment was supposed to be in open-mike.
[lprent: No problem… Moved.]
There is a new CDN running on the site that while having other possible benefits* will also hopefully get rid of the remaining excess of overseas traffic that we get charged for. 21GB last month and nearly double that in April. Many of you will be aware that I have been trying to club that excess to death since last year as it is a expensive and unrequired variable cost^
If it works then I should be able to turn the RSS full post feed back on for those dependent apon it rather than the front page excerpts.
So far the main effect I have noticed as it comes on line as the DNSes update (and shifted 1.1GB of mostly offshore traffic away from my content server since 1600), is that it is highlighting an error of quotes in the Opinions tab on the right hand side of the screen. I will fix it in the weekend as few people use that feature.
If anyone notices any other non-usual bugs**. Then let me know. I haven’t noticed any apart from a irritating option turned on at 1800 and off by 1830.
* mostly as far as the users are concerned it simply speeds up the static content of the site – images etc. this will mean that pages are faster to load until they hit the bloody slow advert servers. For the moderators, it should also really hammer the spambots (which I can see already) and move handling of them to the CDN providers servers.
^ problem with variable costs is that they kind of vary. Which means it is hard to hard to predict how they will impact in our cost structure a month later. What is really irritating is that we have more than 95% of our readers in NZ, but the entirety of our variable costs comes from offshore users coming through a really really expensive and resource constrained pipe to offshore.#
** ie don’t use this as an opportunity to offload the wish list. I’m almost through at work on this phase of the project. I have at least a week of catchup after that before I can enhance this site. I’d also like some lounging around doing nothing much time where the location is not Invercargill.
# it is cheaper by far to move the entire site offshore purely to escape those excess charges. Of course that makes the site a lot slower and indirecy more expensive for 95% of readers who live in NZ…. I wouldn’t stay here if this was commercial. Any commercial user with any sense would obey the price signals from the idiotic charges from monopoly suppliers of the Southern Cross Cable data and put their servers anywhere but here.
The UK, for the opening of the Olympics is setting up a picture of a country idyll with happy cows and people – must be like a glossy Midsomer Murders background. Very Marie Antoinette who used to have tableaus with her entourage dressed as rustics I understand.
And funny in a nightmarish way when one thinks of residential buildings in London having their roofs turned into sites for anti-missile etc surveillance. This will have to be set up earlier than the opening and people screened in and out. The people there will have this burden of suspicion and checking systems for months perhaps, and feel like targets for damage. Not an idyll.