Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike…
These estimates, which all come from a new study published today in Nature by scientists from the University of Hawaii, reflect a concerning trend that some scientists believe will define the arrival of climate change’s effects on the planet: It’ll arrive in tropical, biodiverse areas first.
It also links to an interactive map where you can access graphs showing prediction of trends for each country, including NZ.
PS: This Open Mike had yesterday’s date (11/10/2013) in the title – I changed it.
Dropped in my voting form to the Wgtn City Council yesterday. Preety crowded in there! Good to see that we don’t have total apathy in local elections : )
Now lets add some context: where the ‘Maori Economy’ was valued by Pita Sharples in 2010 as being worth $37B. Therefore ‘being brown’ and not being supported by ‘businessmen’ is now a much more interesting question than it used to be.
[lprent: The old plugin is now back in place. We will see if that is in fact the problem. ]
The Nation , with the luvly Rachael;
David Cunliffe on the TPP,
-Pharmac protection “bottom line”
-IP protection important consideration
on the RBA,
-governor should have independence
-although “open minded”
-as Parker has indicated a preference for a ‘monetary committee’ (export, manufacturing, union representation for example)
-with the independence intended by the RBA remaining.
on Mining,
-“responsible balance between economic and environmental objectives”
on relationship to the Greens and Green policy
-“my job as leader of the Labour Party is to maximize the Labour Party vote”.
NB: Japan entering the TPP is of huge benefit to the US (and Japan) with the US farm lobby endorsement. Consequently, agriculture will be the most problematic negotiating issue.-Groser.
Cunliffe gave her a good going over, I thought. She needs better questions.
The usual trick of asking the same question again when it has been decisively answered so as to create doubt about the answer does not appear to work against Cunliffe.
“… sorry, Rachel, you are putting words in my mouth on a very important matter. We will do what anybody … give you a corporate analogy … if we were a company looking at a joint venture, we would have to do due diligence on the contract. The Labour Caucus will do due diligence on the TPPA when we get it.”
This got a resounding VERY loud applause in our lounge.
Just superb. He will be a fine Prime Minister for NZ. We can hold our heads high for having someone who thinks and speaks so clearly among leaders of other larger, richer and more powerful countries.
I laughed out loud (actually, out loud) when he responded to a journo’s question after his CTU conference speech by saying something like, “I think you’ve asked that question based on what you assumed I was going to answer to an earlier question, but since I didn’t, it’s not relevant.” It was fucking beautiful.
No No weaknesses. She was excellent but Cunliffe’s brilliance outshone her and she accepted it graciously. It was like a good hard talk interview and he responded with super competence.
If you need inspiration, go see it on TV3 Nation.
I’d love to see Key in the same kind of interview. Oh that’s right I did see it and he tried to treat her like a silly girl, but she persisted and he just came across as a buffoon blithering on about fish or something.National supporters must have cringed.
Well done Cunliffe! you have my vote…and many others I reckon.
I grew up in Napier when the twin cities had two proper newspapers (Napier Daily Telegraph and Hastings Herald Tribune) that covered local affairs and the local ZB station broadcast the bulk of it’s daytime content from a local studio. I remember my parents listening to the (bi-weekly? weekly?) hour long discussions with the mayor and of all sorts of discussions about local issues. There was even, briefly, regional TV breakouts on TVNZ.
Now, the merged “newspaper” Hawkes Bay Today is barely a step up on the free rags. Local popular state radio is but a distant memory. TV treats the provinces the same way it treats stories from the third world – it takes either a disaster or a crime for a story to be covered.
When people talk about the decline in interest and participation in local body elections some blame excessive centralisation making voting irrelevant, some blame a disinchanted, lazy and uninformed public. But it seems to me that the eviscerating of local outlets for democracy has to be a major candidate in destroying avenues for communication and reducing interest and knowledge in local issues and candidates. The decline of voting in local body elections is worrying evidence of the hollowing out of our democracy and the slow death of civic society – and it paves the way for democracy to die not with a bang, but with the whimper of a corporate takeover.
…Every channel or radio station that broadcasts in New Zealand ought to be required to devote 5% of it’s 7am-7pm airtime to commercial free, civic broadcasting (I would call it the “civic quota”). No exceptions. Everything from MTV to the shopping channel to the History Channel to the ZB network to Mai FM. They would be required to use it to cover local and national political issues of importance to their target audience.
“The decline of voting in local body elections is worrying evidence of the hollowing out of our democracy and the slow death of civic society…”
The slow death of civic society also shows in the fact that the right no longer offers any kind of view of a civic society, just an ongoing series of economic rationalisations.
“…The Red Cross will this winter start collecting and distributing food aid to the needy in Britain for the first time since the Second World War, as welfare cuts and the economic downturn send soaring numbers of people to soup kitchens and food banks across Europe…”
The UK’s economy is the sixth biggest in the world.
Tweedle-dum Cameron won’t care, and neither does his cooker-cutter tweedle dee counterpart in New Zealand, John Key.
personally, when I get the time, I glean more information about the intricacies of the local community from reading the “free” weekly newspapers, when I have the time. (gotta pile awaiting)
I worked at the DT (Napier) for 33 years and also 3 years at Hawke’s Bay Yesterday.
You are dead right Sanctuary. HBT is a nothing newspaper. When I moved to that paper we were printing 32,000 papers. Now, just on 20,000 (I hear from ex workmates).
What does that tell you about the MSM. And yes the free papers keep you informed of the local news. Don’t even bother buying a printed paper. Heil the freepress. TS, TDB et al.
Cheers
How is it that we fight for an uplift in pay in the order of 2-3% minimum pay increases by $0.40 hour and yet house prices are increasing by $1,500/ week in the burbs.
How can this dicotomy exist when money can be so hard to earn yet prices increase by so much?
How can this dicotomy exist when money can be so hard to earn yet prices increase by so much?
Those rules only apply to labour attempting to work to earn wages/salaries.
The direct answer to your question is:
1) Unearned income accrued by capitalists on positive revenue assets allows them to finance additional asset purchases..
2) Banks willing to lend to those same capitalists at ever higher leverage on the assumption of continuing property asset price increases.
This is a particular worry with regard to the TPP negotiations. Both Tim Groser and Phil Goff cite Pharmac and intellectual property as matters of concern, but do not touch on wages, unions or social services. The worry is that “New Zealand” for them means the asset rich who think such an agreement will make them even asset richer. As long as wages, unions and social services go unmentioned, I fear that these people see the projected gains for themselves and their kind as well worth the cost of trashing the workforce and the poor even more than they are now trashed.
Yet CV as for many, money to survive has great value thru its scarcity yet thanks to the worlds monetary policies the same money is having its value greatly diminished. Why then can so few see this and there can be no “happy endings” or conclusion should the status quo continue.
This property boom that is currently in Auckland just protects many from seeing the issue as we all (property owners) are self congratulating ourselves for our rise in wealth.
Like you and a few others questioning this ability for independent banks to make money appear out of fresh air IMO is the real issue we face and an indirect attack to our sovereignty.
You are very welcome, Brett. Where I am, Electionz is going to inform the local councils directly, and then it’s each councils responsibility to get the word out for their own results. Unfortunately I don’t know if for example the electoral commission is going to collate and publish all the results from across the country.
Just watched The Nation, and I’m wondering why Groser and that other peevish little minister Finlayson are so scathing of Labour. I think they’re afraid, very afraid.
Nah, they are simply playing the role they are very well paid to do [by the suckers, us], by perpetuating/propagating the fraud through the ability to write *the law*, on behalf of [name your family]
“Hedge fund linked to George Osborne’s best man to make millions from privatisation of Royal Mail after ‘buying £50m stake’
“Far from being the unfortunate result of some unavoidable economic catastrophe, the social crisis in Europe is being consciously exploited by the continent’s financial and political elite to affect a major redistribution of wealth from the bottom of society to the top.”
Peter Davies met the Chancellor at Oxford University
Was Osborne’s best man when he married Frances Howell in 1998
Davies is a member of management committee for Lansdowne Partners
Hedge-fund firm has seen value of investment rise by £18million already
City fund made reported £100million from financial crash”
This is all happening and made infinitely worse by the privatisation of the Public’s wealth producing feudal inequality. Post WW11 Britain was socialist and poor and owed immense debts to the USA for the war effort, yet was still able to bring in a social welfare state, the NHS and public housing. One of these houses I grew up in. I can honestly say that not once was there ever a maintenance problem with electricals, plumbing, roofing or literally anything, the house I own now needs regular maintenance, though adequate its building standard leaves a lot to be desired.
Above the city Spivs are cashing in on the privatisation of the Royal Mail in collusion with Osborne.
My point is Key is out of the same stable as these looters ruining the once proud UK. Thatcher started it and Blair intensified it.
“In response to the crisis, the Red Cross plans to commence setting up soup kitchens for the poor in Britain for the first time since the Second World War. Welfare organisations had already revealed in May that more than half a million Britons are now reliant on food handouts, with the number expected to increase over the winter.”
What’s labour and Cunliffe going to do about 5billion$ of tax dodged every year here in NZ????
The welfare state that made us civilised is being destroyed by:
1. Tax dodging and govs who won’t act on it.
2. Privatisation
3. Gross obscene inequality
4. Attacks on the social safety net and its recipients.
5.offshoring of manufacturing and conseq
uent loss of revenue and income for people.
Bread and Wine
Round about the city rests. The illuminated streets grow
Quiet, and coaches rush along, adorned with torches.
Men go home to rest, filled with the day’s pleasures;
Busy minds weigh up profit and loss contentedly
At home. The busy marketplace comes to rest,
Vacant now of flowers and grapes and crafts.
But the music of strings sounds in distant gardens:
Perhaps lovers play there, or a lonely man thinks
About distant friends, and his own youth.
Rushing fountains flow by fragrant flower beds,
Bells ring softly in the twilight air, and a watchman
Calls out the hour, mindful of the time.
Now a breeze rises and touches the crest of the grove-
Look how the moon, like the shadow of our earth,
Also rises stealthily! Phantastical night comes,
Full of stars, unconcerned probably about us-
Astonishingly night shines, a stranger among humans’
Sadly over the mountain tops, in splendour.
I was going to say that it looks like only 10% of voting Hamiltonians are real nut jobs. Though enough of them are stupid enough to elect the former president of the act party as a councillor.
I see google are being evil again. This time forcing gmail users into a single email sign on for all their accounts. Typically, there is a work around (aren’t they nice?).
The Queensland State Government is going so far to the right in its attacks on workers and civil rights that political actions against it must be on the order of the day soon. The Attorney General, Jarrod Bleckie, is passing laws that he fully expects to be overturned by the High Court, but doesn’t care. Queensland Unions, who are openly referred to by the baby faced authoritarian as “union thugs” have a real fight on their hands to survive. Having been nice enough to give them fascism for banana benders part one via Bjelke-Petersen, what can we do to help save them from part 2?
I had a Freewiew before going digital in my area, Whanganui.Since the change over, i keep getting regular interference on all channels.Yet after twelve in the evening it clears up, as opposed to clear viewing prior to the change over.
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It's campaign time! The official countdown to Election Day is underway, with Labour supporters crowding into Auckland's Town Hall for our 2020 Campaign Launch. We recap some of the highlights below ...
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We went hard and we went early in our health response to COVID-19, and we did everything we could to cushion the economic impact too. In fact, we can fill every letter of the alphabet with the steps we took to fight COVID-19 and ensure we were in a position ...
Investing in our people, backing businesses, and upgrading infrastructure and housing throughout the country - it's been another week of progress for New Zealanders as we deliver our plan to recover and rebuild. ...
July was another busy month, packed with key investments aimed at progressing our economic recovery as we rebuild New Zealand. We extended support for businesses, helped create jobs through local infrastructure projects, and kept working to clean up our waterways so Kiwis can access safe clean water. Check out the ...
The Green Party is calling for the Defence Force Chiefs in place between 2010-2017 to front up and explain how dishonesty, process and policy failures within the Defence Force led to ‘a series of incorrect statements in briefings to ministers and public releases’ regarding alleged breaches of international torture prevention ...
Thanks to our strong health response, New Zealand’s economy is more open than many other countries. But as COVID continues to surge around the world, the economic consequences of the virus will continue to be a challenge, which is why we have a detailed plan to help New Zealand bounce ...
Thanks to our strong health response, New Zealand’s economy is more open than many other countries. But as COVID continues to surge around the world, the economic consequences of the virus will continue to be a challenge, which is why we have a detailed plan to help New Zealand bounce ...
The Government is stepping up action to deal with environmentally harmful products – including plastic packaging, tyres and e-waste – before they become waste. ...
The Green Party are ensuring that New Zealanders who were overseas when COVID-19 hit will not be charged for the cost of isolation or quarantine if they return home to live. ...
It's been another week of creating jobs, supporting local businesses, and investing in infrastructure up and down the country - all of which are helping to keep our economy moving post-COVID-19. ...
Following the success of the phase out of single-use plastic shopping bags, the Government now has plans to phase out more single-use and problem plastics to reduce waste and protect the environment announced Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage. The proposals are to phase-out: some hard-to-recycle PVC and polystyrene ...
After 102 days we have our first cases of Covid-19 outside of a Managed Isolation or Quarantine facility in New Zealand. Shortly I will ask Dr Bloomfield to set out the details of the case. While we have all worked incredibly hard to prevent this scenario, we have also planned ...
An iwi-Crown approach programme to restore the Raukūmara forest on the East Coast of the North Island and boost employment opportunities for whānau, particularly rangatahi/young people, will receive $34 million funding, Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage has announced. “Raukūmara Pae Maunga is a partnership with Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Ngāti Porou, and ...
Government agencies and partners are working closer together to provide more Māori Housing through the Te MAIHI o te Whare Māori – the Māori and Iwi Housing Innovation Framework for Action (MAIHI). MAIHI is a kaupapa Māori approach that drives a system change to give effect and impact on Māori ...
Site work is soon to begin on Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatū Tararua Highway, the project to replace the former SH3 route through the Manawatū Gorge, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Phil Twyford was today in Woodville at the signing of a formal agreement by members of the Alliance ...
The Pacific Islands Forum Economic Ministers Meeting (FEMM) begins today and will focus on the major economic and social impacts of COVID-19 on the Pacific. FEMM is an important congregation of Economic Ministers and senior officials from around the region, and for the first time, the annual meeting will be ...
Cabinet has approved a formal apology and ex gratia payment to former soldier George Nepata, announced Defence Minister Ron Mark. This payment is to recognise the New Zealand Defence Force’s failure to provide Mr Nepata with a safe system of work in April 1989 when, as a result of an ...
A report undertaken by Ministerial Services into Iain Lees-Galloway’s ministerial expenditure has found no evidence of any inappropriate transactions or spending. Ministerial Services undertook a line by line review of all his expenditure, including staff and spouse expenses for the period 1 January 2019 to 30 June 2020. “I commissioned ...
Managed isolation charges for returnees will come into force from 12.01am Tuesday 11th August, after they passed their last cabinet milestone today, Housing Minister Megan Woods said. “The new charging system balances the rights of New Zealanders to return home and helps reduce pressure on the managed isolation and quarantine ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Henry Puna have welcomed the completion of phase one in the establishment of a travel bubble between New Zealand and the Cook Island. Negotiations on the text of an ‘Arrangement to Facilitate Quarantine-Free Travel ...
The Government has launched a new online, phone and onsite service to help New Zealanders connect to a range of employment support and products for workers and businesses affected by COVID-19, announced Minister of Education Chris Hipkins and Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni. Connected.govt.nz is a one-stop-shop for jobseekers, ...
Security guards contracted to the Ministry of Social Development will be paid at least the Living Wage from next month supporting the Government’s commitment towards fair pay and employment conditions, announced Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni. “MSD was among the first government agencies to pay its employees the living ...
The Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today launched Te Mana o te Taiao, the Aotearoa New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy - a way forward that envisions Aotearoa New Zealand as a place where ecosystems are healthy and resilient, and people embrace the natural world. “Many of New Zealand’s plants and wildlife species ...
“Pacific languages, cultures and identity are essential to the health, wellbeing and lifetime success of our Pacific peoples and their communities in Aotearoa. The strength and resilience of Pacific Aotearoa is not only vital to their own prosperity but integral to the prosperity of all New Zealanders, and is particularly ...
· $38 million to help schools cover unexpected costs related to COVID-19 · $69 million upgrade for online learning · $107 million contingency funding to support school construction suppliers facing additional costs due to the lockdown. The Government is releasing $214 million from the COVID-19 response and recovery fund to ...
Despite the Government installing safety upgrades around the country, people should still take care around rail crossings, said Transport Minister Phil Twyford launching Rail Safety Week. Phil Twyford said installing safety infrastructure is crucial, but we are encouraging people to be more careful around trains too. “We’re making good progress ...
The Government is providing a cash injection to help Palmerston North City Council complete a programme to provide 78 social housing units for vulnerable tenants. The $4.7 million to build 28 units in the Papaioea Place redevelopment comes from the $3 billion set aside for infrastructure in the Government’s COVID-19 ...
A pest free Banks Peninsula/Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū is one step closer with a $5.11 million boost to accelerate this project and create jobs, announced Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage in Canterbury today. “This is a game changer for this ambitious project to restore the native wildlife and plants on Ōtautahi/Christchurch’s doorstep ...
A Government grant of $6.4 million will expand the Pettigrew Arena in Taradale with new indoor courts of national standard. “The project is likely to take 18 months with approximately 300 people employed through the process,” Grant Robertson said. “The expansion will increase the indoor court space up to 11 ...
The Far North tourist destination of Mangonui is to receive Government funding to improve waterfront infrastructure, open up access to the harbour and improve water quality, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has announced. A total of $6.5 million from the $3 billion set aside in the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund ...
The Government has re-affirmed its commitment to supporting the hosting of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, which the ICC has delayed from 2021 to 2022. “This is obviously a disappointing decision for cricket players and fans around the world and for the White Ferns and their supporters here at ...
Cyclists and walkers will now have a safer way to get around Taupō, Tūrangi, and between Hamilton and Cambridge, with funding for shared paths and Te Awa River Ride, Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter announced today. “The Te Awa River Ride is the latest part of massive growth ...
Six major cycle routes will be completed in Christchurch thanks to funding from the Government’s investment in shovel-ready infrastructure as part of the COVID-19 recovery Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter announced today. $125 million will be invested to kick-start construction and fund the completion of the following cycleway ...
Plans are underway for a brand new state-of-the-art hub for Whanganui’s justice and social agencies, following confirmation the ageing Whanganui Central Police Station is to be replaced. Police Minister Stuart Nash has announced $25 million in new infrastructure spending to improve facilities for the wider community, and for staff who ...
An adjustment payment has been made to Waikato-Tainui and Ngāi Tahu under the relativity mechanisms in their 1995 and 1997 Treaty of Waitangi settlements, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little announced today. The latest payments to Waikato-Tainui and Ngāi Tahu are $2,700,000 and $2,600,000 respectively to ensure the ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Transport Minister Phil Twyford today kicked off the start of the Auckland NZ Upgrade Programme rail projects which will support over 400 jobs and help unlock our biggest city. Both ministers marked the start of enabling works on the third main rail line project ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) investment of $3.78 million in Wairoa will create much needed economic stimulus and jobs, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. PGF projects announced today include: $200,000 loan to Nuhaka Kiwifruit Holdings Ltd (operated by Pine Valley Orchard Ltd) to increase the productivity ...
Tenants in public and Māori housing may be benefiting from their own affordable renewable energy in future – a fund to trial renewable energy technology for public and Māori housing has today been announced by Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods and Associate Minister for Housing (Māori Housing) Nanaia Mahuta. ...
Hokianga will receive $2.7 million to redevelop four of its wharves and upgrade its water supply, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Far North District Council will receive $1.8 million from the Provincial Growth Fund for the work on the wharves. “The work will include the construction of ...
A $350 million Residential Development Response Fund is being established to support the residential construction sector and to minimise the economic impact from COVID-19, the Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods has announced. “The Residential Development Response Fund will help to progress stalled or at-risk developments that support our broader housing ...
As part of a broader plan to divert waste from landfill, the Government today announced $10.67 million for new infrastructure as part of the Resource Recovery Network across the Auckland region. “This key investment in Auckland’s community recycling network is part of the Government’s Infrastructure Reference Group ‘shovel ready’ projects ...
The Government is investing $45 million in the first stage of an ambitious urban development project for Tauranga that will employ up to 250 people and help the region grow, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says the funding has been allocated out of the $3 billion ...
Getting low-emission trucks on the road is a step closer with investment in infrastructure to support hydrogen vehicles, the Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods has announced. The Infrastructure Reference Group has provisionally approved $20 million for New Plymouth company Hiringa Energy to establish a nationwide network of hydrogen-fuelling stations. ...
A new trades training centre to upskill the local workforce will be built in the South Waikato town of Tokoroa through funding from the Government’s COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund, Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones have announced. The Government will contribute $10.84 million from ...
The Government has agreed to repeal part of the Oranga Tamariki Act subsequent children provisions, Minister for Children Tracey Martin announced today. “There are times when children need to go into care for their safety – the safety and care of children must always be paramount,” Minister Martin said. “But ...
A $1.5 million boost to grow primary mental health and addiction services for Pacific peoples in Auckland, Hamilton and Canterbury will lead to better outcomes for Pacific communities, Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa says. Pasifika Futures has received funding to expand services through The Fono, Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest by ...
Twenty-two projects to boost the sustainability and climate resilience of New Zealand’s food and fibres sector have been announced today by Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. The $18m funding will deliver practical knowledge to help farmers and growers use their land more sustainably, meet environmental targets, remain prosperous, and better understand ...
Employment Minister Willie Jackson welcomes an initiative that assists employers to get mature workers into New Zealand small businesses. The disadvantages that older people face in the workplace was highlighted in the whole of Government Employment Strategy. In order to address this, a Mature Workers Toolkit has been developed and ...
New Zealand and Australia reaffirmed today the need for the closest possible collaboration as they tackle a global environment shaped by COVID-19, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said. “In these challenging times, our close collaboration with Australia is more vital than ever,” said Mr Peters. Mr Peters and his Australian ...
The recovery and forensic examination of the loader driven by survivor Russell Smith means the underground team are now moving into an area of the Pike River Mine that has not been seen since the explosion, Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little said. “The fifth and last robot ...
The health workers and contact tracers are out on the front lines, but in the backrooms teams of mathematicians are running scenarios to figure out exactly what needs to be done, and how bad things could get. In big picture terms, fighting a pandemic is a numbers game, but with real ...
Yesterday’s announcement by the Reserve Bank that it will increase its money creation by an extra $40 billion dollars up to $100 billion over the next two years to buy government IOU’s off banks and rich investors sets an all-time record for money ...
The peerless Policy tool returns for its third edition, and it’s better than ever – fully geared to easily compare both parties and candidates across all the important issues.Campaigning might have been suspended for the rest of the week, along with much of normal life, but don’t let that stop ...
The novel coronavirus mutates as it travels between people and around the world. By sequencing the genome, we can try to work out which case is linked with another.As Aotearoa confronted its first cases of Covid-19 community transmission in more than 100 days, the director general of health, Ashley Bloomfield, ...
Ambiguity, uncertainty and unpredictability are three key indicators for stress, and Aucklanders in particular are going through all of those right now The late-night announcement by the Prime Minister was a blow to the pit of the stomach of many. We thought we had this, and maybe some of ...
Wellington company EightyOne has been banned from Twitter for its 'Trumbers' campaign criticising Donald Trump. To date more than 600,000 people have viewed 'Trumbers' on Twitter and it has been shared with the Republican Party and Donald Trump. As ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Royal Commission into Aged Care put the Secretary of the Federal Health Department, Brendan Murphy, firmly in his place when he tried to make an opening statement to attack claims by the senior counsel ...
“Your post goes against our community standards on nudity or sexual activity” was the terse message that Professor David Robie, director of the Auckland-based Pacific Media Centre, RSF’s Oceania partner, received from Facebook whenever he tried to share an article about press freedom in Melanesia, especially the Indonesian provinces of ...
And is he about to launch a coup against Judith Collins? Just asking questions here.Jacindamania was meek by comparison. Just as Ardern captured a nation from the role of deputy leader of the opposition in 2017, so it is with Gerry Brownlee in 2020. Relentless grouchy, Gerrymania is in full ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kylie Quinn, Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow, School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, RMIT University On Tuesday, Vladimir Putin announced Russia was the first country to register a vaccine offering “sustainable immunity” against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Developed by the Gamaleya Research ...
Power Play - Warnings another outbreak was bound to happen were not enough to prepare New Zealanders for the shock of seeing the country's largest city put back into level 3 lockdown. ...
Power Play - Warnings another outbreak was bound to happen were not enough to prepare New Zealanders for the shock of seeing the country's largest city put back into level 3 lockdown. ...
At lunchtime yesterday, Jacinda Ardern was easing into full campaign mode on the main street of Whanganui. Just a few hours later, news from Auckland turned her plans, and an election campaign, on its head. Justin Giovannetti reports from Whanganui and Wellington.Jacinda Ardern’s first day on the campaign trail outside ...
One bright spot amid the grimness of the Covid resurgence: the return of our series of charts, graphics and data visualisations of the pandemic by Chris McDowall.Over one hundred days, Covid-19 slowly slipped from my attention. I was aware of new cases reaching Aotearoa’s border, managed isolation breaches, relapses in ...
By RNZ News QR app codes are now mandatory for businesses and services, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield have revealed, as they announced new covid-19 cases in New Zealand. Dr Bloomfield said there was just one new confirmed case in managed isolation recorded today, ...
Justin Latif takes the temperature of his community in South Auckland, ground zero for the latest Covid-19 outbreak.Following the prime minister’s announcement on Tuesday evening, my messenger app began pinging with pictures and videos of people at the supermarket. But it wasn’t panic buying that I was seeing, rather there ...
Odessa To’o on Selina Tusitala Marsh’s picture book Mophead, which was just named the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year. I almost didn’t read this book because of the title. Mophead. Instantly recognisable as an insult for anyone with big hair, even though I’ve never been called it myself. The kids ...
Announcing the winners of the 2020 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. The supreme prize of the night, the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year Award, goes to Selina Tusitala Marsh for her super-personal picture book, Mophead.Mophead is memoir and clapback and wild doodle; it’s the story of ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk Human rights activist and lawyer Veronica Koman says the Indonesian government has asked her to return scholarship money amounting to 773 million rupiah (about US$70,000) which she received to undergo her master’s degree in Australia in 2016, reports CNN Indonesia. According to Vero – as she ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By C Raina MacIntyre, Professor of Global Biosecurity, NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, Head, Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute, UNSW With mask wearing in public compulsory in Victoria and recommended in New South Wales, many Australians are buying, wearing or making face masks for the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruce Webber, Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Scientists have been interested in the flora of New Guinea since the 17th century, but formal knowledge of the tropical island’s diversity has remained limited. To solve this mystery, our global team of 99 scientists from ...
Photographers John Sefton, in Auckland, and Lynn Grieveson in Wellington watched the return of Level 3 lockdown and Level 2 restrictions on Wednesday, a day of masks, businesses shutting or setting themselves up for limited access, supermarket queues and people exercising their relative freedoms. As the clock ticked down, Bunnings ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Taylor, Teaching Fellow, Bond University The Melbourne International Film Festival is currently running online, but one movie announced at their program launch won’t be streaming. At the end of July, Sandra Wollner’s The Trouble With Being Born was withdrawn after the ...
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says the Government will sequence the genomes of yesterday's four Covid-19 cases to help identify how the outbreak started. What does that mean? New Zealand has found itself suddenly plunged into a dire situation: Four new cases of Covid-19 in the community with no obvious link ...
Several of National's sitting MPs have been allocated list rankings from which it will be difficult or near impossible for them to gain re-election. ...
Are you trying to wander the world with your government recommended mask while wearing glasses, but can’t stop them from fogging up? Don’t worry, we’re here to help.Today, Jacinda Ardern said that Aucklanders should wear a mask (or a face covering of some kind) when they leave the house. But ...
Responding to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s decision to expand its Large Scale Asset Purchase programme from $60 billion to $100 billion, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union Economic Advisor Karan Menon says: “ The Reserve Bank has just announced ...
As New Zealand braces for a return to lockdown, and parts of Australia wrestle with a recent surge in case numbers, a new study shows how we can do better in the COVID-enforced work from home (EWFH) experience. The study, by researchers at Auckland University ...
Last night Jacinda Ardern and Ashley Bloomfield announced four cases of Covid-19 in the community. Within hours the online community transmission of dumb takes was going like wildfire. It didn’t take long did it? Before the anti-Covid God squad shit the bed and started screeching about how they’ll never wear a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Geddis, Professor of Law, University of Otago The return of COVID-19 community transmission, with Auckland back in a level 3 lockdown and the rest of New Zealand at level 2, raises real questions about New Zealand’s upcoming general election. Polling day ...
Along with heightened alert levels, New Zealand has a new advisory on masks: Aucklanders should wear a face covering when outside the home, and the rest of us have been advised to wear one when in a confined public space, such as on public transport. But what kind of mask ...
As the Government mulls how the latest Covid-19 cases might affect the September 19 election, party leaders are stepping forward with their own opinions about how the news changes the campaign Political leaders have sparred over the impact of new Covid-19 community cases on the upcoming election, with claims Prime ...
The House - The dissolution of Parliament has been postponed following the discovery of Covid-19 cases in the community. What is dissolution and why is it important? ...
The Council of Trade Unions is reminding employers of their responsibilities to employees as we return to alert levels 2 and 3. "Employers need to remember that they must act in good faith with employees and their unions. Most employers ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Norberg, Associate Professor in Psychology, Macquarie University As COVID-19 quarantines and lockdowns drive up psychological distress, many people have increased their screen time, including online shopping, to cope. Like alcohol use — or overeating, watching TV or surfing the internet — ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Bastin, Associate Professor of English, Flinders University Finding Freedom was published on August 11.HarperCollins Publishers A new book about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is generating sensational headlines about their private life, defiance of Queen Elizabeth and how Prince ...
By The Bougainvillean Bougainville is heading to the polls today amid its first case of the covid-19 in thefourth general election of Papua New Guinea’s autonomous region since 2001. While this election is critically important in the region’s push for independence from mainland PNG, it comes at a time when ...
This week, Taranaki locals stumbled across a pit full of dead dairy calves, dumped on public land nearby a waterway. Graphic images of the scene were shared with SAFE. SAFE CEO Debra Ashton says the horrific images are the reality of the dairy industry. ...
The Health Quality & Safety Commission is the latest signatory of the government Accessibility Charter - a commitment to providing accessible information and online tools to all disabled people. The charter, launched by the Ministry of Social Development ...
As Alert Level 3 restrictions come in place, please keep in mind those people who can’t leave their homes to shop or who might need help with their shopping. Do you have a neighbour you could check in with and drop items off to? Can you free ...
Tēnā koutou katoa, welcome all. The Monetary Policy Committee agreed to expand the Large Scale Asset Purchase (LSAP) programme up to $100 billion so as to further lower retail interest rates in order to achieve its remit. The eligible assets remain ...
“Today’s announcement by Associate Minister for the Environment, Eugenie Sage, to ban seven single-use plastic items is an important step in addressing plastic pollution,” says Donna Peterson, Chair of the WasteMINZ Behaviour Change Sector ...
Our Seas Our Future welcomes today’s Government’s announcement by Minister Sage of a plan to phase out more single-use and problem plastics to reduce waste and protect the environment. Our Seas Our Future Founder, Noel Jhinku, says, ...
Auckland is now at alert level three and the rest of New Zealand has moved to level two. Here’s what you need to know about what’s happened so far. Last night, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, and the deputy general of health, Ashley Bloomfield, announced that four people in one ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bryan Cranston, Academic Teacher, Swinburne University of Technology Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has announced Kamala Harris as his running mate for the 2020 election — the first woman of colour to appear on a major party ticket. On the 100th anniversary ...
Latest from the Beehive While the PM has declared a renewal of the war against Covid-19 and activated the government’s resurgence plan (watch this space for more), the Greens’ Eugenie Sage is stepping up the war on plastics. The phase out of single-use plastic shopping bags had been successful, she ...
People calling New Zealand’s covid-19 healthline were facing long waits on hold today as the phone line struggles with high demand as the largest city of Auckland was poised for a three-day lockdown. This follows Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s announcement last night of four positive cases of covid-19 outside ...
What do they do? Do I really need one? And how much do they cost? Gillian Boyes from the Financial Markets Authority breaks down the basics.When it comes to important money decisions, having someone to help can make a big difference.A financial adviser can be your money coach – they ...
The September 19 election could yet be delayed, with Parliament's dissolution put on hold as health officials track the movements of our new Covid-19 cases - including one woman who visited tourist sites in Rotorua The dissolution of Parliament has been delayed after the re-emergence of Covid-19 in the community, with the Government seeking ...
In this year’s election, a party is offering a new economic model. That party is the Progressive Party and Bruce Dyer who is both its leader and Nelson candidate, said “Both Jim Bolger when interviewed for the 9th Floor TV series and Edmund Hilary ...
Visiting a brothel for the new series of Bad News helps convince Alice Snedden that sex work should be available to everyone.Beyond my teenage obsession with the movie Pretty Woman, my knowledge of the sex work industry has always been extremely limited. Like a lot of people I saw it ...
We have a caretaker government in the middle of an election campaign. Māori Party Co-Leader John Tamihere is calling on Jacinda Ardern to be up front and honest about the latest Covid community outbreak so we can all be part of the team. Level 3 lockdown ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Plank, Professor in Mathematics, University of Canterbury Auckland, and possibly other parts of New Zealand, almost certainly have more cases of COVID-19 in the community than the four new cases confirmed yesterday. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern activated a resurgence plan late ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union is urging the Prime Minister to recommend that the Governor-General delay the dissolution of Parliament. Taxpayers' Union spokesperson Islay Aitchison says, "Given the considerable uncertainty regarding ...
The Māori Affairs Committee has completed its inquiry into health inequities for Māori and has presented its final report. You can read the committee’s report here . The inquiry was initiated in March 2019 and focused on cancer care. It explored ...
Back in March 17th 2020 - WHO (world health Organisation) warned the global community test, test, test, everyone suspected of COVID 19 virus infections, today our senior epidemiologist James Baker advised to test multiple times, as he states that some ...
Today at noon, Auckland moves into alert level three while the rest of New Zealand moves into alert level two. Here’s how it will affect businesses and what you can do to help.Three days at a higher alert level may not seem like much, but for many fragile businesses still ...
Greenpeace is welcoming the Government’s announcement today of a plan to phase out more single-use plastics, but is calling for the ban to cover a wider range of products, including plastic drink bottles. "The world is drowning in plastic ...
Takeaway Throwaways applauds this morning’s announcement by Associate Minister Eugenie Sage, proposing phase-outs of a wide range of single-use plastics. Items targeted include multiple serviceware products - from bowls, plates, straws, stirrers, ...
John Bolton’s book on his time as Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser – The Room Where it Happened – is worth reading. His forensic training means he sets out clearly his own actions and their motivations. His recording of the responses of others appears scrupulous, albeit disputed. Failings of omission or ...
Parliament is scheduled to be dissolved today for an election on September 19. University of Otago law professor Andrew Geddis runs through how and under what circumstances the election will happen – or be delayed.No matter how, Covid-19 is now back in the community. How widespread, and with what consequences, ...
ACT Leader David Seymour wrote to the Speaker last night asking him to postpone the dissolution of Parliament. "Mr Speaker, Terrible news tonight. It occurs to me that Parliament does not need to dissolve before the election. I strongly urge ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Weismueller, Doctoral Researcher, University of Western Australia In February, major social media platforms attended a meeting hosted by the World Health Organisation to address coronavirus misinformation. The aim was to catalyse the fight against what the United Nations has called an ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Salisbury, Research Associate, School of Political Science & International Studies, The University of Queensland Government responses to COVID-19 in Australia have received, by and large, bipartisan support. An exception, it seems, is the imposition of restrictions on interstate movement. State borders ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Hoffmann, Professor of Economics and Chair of Behavioural Business Lab, RMIT University Fingers have been pointing all over the place as the country searches for answers to the stubbornly high coronavirus cases and rising death rates in Victoria. While Victorian Premier ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ali Lakhani, Senior Lecturer in Public Health, La Trobe University Under the stage 4 restrictions enforced throughout metropolitan Melbourne, residents can exercise for one hour each day, within five kilometres of their home. While such restrictions are necessary to reduce the spread ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Wilkins, Associate Professor of illegal drug research, Massey University The referendum on legalising recreational cannabis use is just over a month away. Campaigns for and against the change are well under way. We’ve had expert reports from the Helen Clark Foundation, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fernanda Alves, PhD student, Australian National University Saving endangered species from extinction is a challenging job. It requires creative, affordable and effective interventions. In a rare good news story for conservation, we came up with one such method. We want to save ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Krumdieck, Professor and Director, Advanced Energy and Material Systems Lab, University of Canterbury CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have ...
Open mike 12/10/2013 
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike…
INT: ILAM ELECTORATE OFFICES – TUESDAY GERRY: Morning everybody. ADVISORS 1, 2, AND 3: Morning Gerry. GERRY: Now… this is a bit of a crisis meeting. Several rogue polls have come out putting the National Party on or around 40% ADVISOR 2: 26? ADVISOR 1: 12? ADVISOR 3: 29? GERRY: ...12 hours ago
What's National's first move under lockdown? Call for elections to be delayed: National leader Judith Collins is demanding Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern delay the September election after the discovery of Covid-19 community transmission cases in Auckland. A clearly frustrated Collins on Wednesday afternoon said she was directly asking Ardern ...12 hours ago
Respecting the journal editorial process Each week we scan between 450 and 650 articles for relevance to Skeptical Science's remit: communication of the science of climate change itself the many affected branches of scientific inquiry by climate change. The 100+ journals we cover encompass a galaxy of expertise we cannot ...13 hours ago
You may have heard that there were queues at the supermarket last night, and again this morning. This will probably carry on for a while, even though it’s clear that supermarkets and other essential outlets and services will remain open and stocked throughout Alert Level 3 (and Alert Level 4, ...14 hours ago
Today’s content Community transmission Ben Thomas (Spinoff): What the Covid resurgence means for the election campaign Luke Malpass (Stuff): In this new lockdown, Labour competence will be key Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): NZ’s bubble bursts as Covid returns Jason Walls (Herald): ‘Extremely disappointed’: National Party leader Judith Collins blasts Govt; says it let Covid-19 back ...20 hours ago
In the musical Wicked, a re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz, the hit song Defying Gravity comes at the end of the first act and talks of how one woman (who would become the Wicked Witch of the West) breaks from what’s expected to strike off on her own path. ...1 day ago
Accused - Jami-Lee RossNobody would think poorly of you if you wrote former National Party MP Jami-Lee Ross off as just another crackpot! After all, now that he’s hitched his Advance NZ wagon to Billy Te Kahika’s crazy Public Party, there’s little chance of him ever redeeming himself or recovering ...2 days ago
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From some quarters, incessant scaremongering. From others, it’s a full-on tilt into touching the alarmist buttons a little too readily (uncertain times make for very captive audiences with this angle of attack). The (so-called) Opposition (and merely regarding them as that seems to be a far looser term now ...5 days ago
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Interesting Simthsonian article on how climate change will impact on different parts of the world:
It also links to an interactive map where you can access graphs showing prediction of trends for each country, including NZ.
PS: This Open Mike had yesterday’s date (11/10/2013) in the title – I changed it.
Dropped in my voting form to the Wgtn City Council yesterday. Preety crowded in there! Good to see that we don’t have total apathy in local elections : )
Two things come immediately into my mind when I hear a businessman has been fighting his corner.
what happens to innocent folk who dont attract the attention of a monied person either through their networks or publicity?
And how many brown people have had a businessman get in behind them?
Now%20lets%2520add%2520some%2520context%253A%2520where%2520the%2520’Maori%2520Economy’%2520was%2520valued%2520by%2520Pita%2520Sharples%2520in%25202010%2520as%2520being%2520worth%2520%252437B.%2520Therefore%2520’being%2520brown’%2520and%2520not%2520being%2520supported%2520by%2520’businessmen’%2520is%2520now%2520a%2520much%2520more%2520interesting%2520question%2520than%2520it%2520used%2520to%2520be.
[translated]
Now lets add some context: where the ‘Maori Economy’ was valued by Pita Sharples in 2010 as being worth $37B. Therefore ‘being brown’ and not being supported by ‘businessmen’ is now a much more interesting question than it used to be.
[lprent: The old plugin is now back in place. We will see if that is in fact the problem. ]
lol 😈
Same thing happened with an an xtasy comment last night/early hours.
It’s been happening to a few people, I think Lynn mentioned a bug in the edit function.
Edit: but doesn’t seem to be affecting me 🙂
Cheers, lprent.
Been wondering the same. All the evidence indicates that justice is only available to those with money in NZ.
Especially now thanks to the changes to the public defenders service.
Cunliffe on the Nation right now.
The Nation , with the luvly Rachael;
David Cunliffe on the TPP,
-Pharmac protection “bottom line”
-IP protection important consideration
on the RBA,
-governor should have independence
-although “open minded”
-as Parker has indicated a preference for a ‘monetary committee’ (export, manufacturing, union representation for example)
-with the independence intended by the RBA remaining.
on Mining,
-“responsible balance between economic and environmental objectives”
on relationship to the Greens and Green policy
-“my job as leader of the Labour Party is to maximize the Labour Party vote”.
NB: Japan entering the TPP is of huge benefit to the US (and Japan) with the US farm lobby endorsement. Consequently, agriculture will be the most problematic negotiating issue.-Groser.
Cunliffe gave her a good going over, I thought. She needs better questions.
The usual trick of asking the same question again when it has been decisively answered so as to create doubt about the answer does not appear to work against Cunliffe.
Yes, he revealed her weaknesses, not being a fawning, drooling Tory ‘bloke’ and all that. although, drooling is not exclusive to Tories. 😀
I guess interviewers have got so used to politicians not answering questions directly that they don’t know what to do when one of them does.
They pause, rinse, and repeat.
This one?
http://www.3news.co.nz/Cunliffe-promises-a-red-Labour-Party/tabid/1348/articleID/316957/Default.aspx
Good onya, David Cunliffe!
DC on TPPA at 7’41’
“… sorry, Rachel, you are putting words in my mouth on a very important matter. We will do what anybody … give you a corporate analogy … if we were a company looking at a joint venture, we would have to do due diligence on the contract. The Labour Caucus will do due diligence on the TPPA when we get it.”
This got a resounding VERY loud applause in our lounge.
A striking contrast with some other current, and former, party leaders. Doing well.
Brilliant stuff in there.
Substance, description, explanation, clarification, counter-response.
Just superb. He will be a fine Prime Minister for NZ. We can hold our heads high for having someone who thinks and speaks so clearly among leaders of other larger, richer and more powerful countries.
composure
I laughed out loud (actually, out loud) when he responded to a journo’s question after his CTU conference speech by saying something like, “I think you’ve asked that question based on what you assumed I was going to answer to an earlier question, but since I didn’t, it’s not relevant.” It was fucking beautiful.
No No weaknesses. She was excellent but Cunliffe’s brilliance outshone her and she accepted it graciously. It was like a good hard talk interview and he responded with super competence.
If you need inspiration, go see it on TV3 Nation.
I’d love to see Key in the same kind of interview. Oh that’s right I did see it and he tried to treat her like a silly girl, but she persisted and he just came across as a buffoon blithering on about fish or something.National supporters must have cringed.
Well done Cunliffe! you have my vote…and many others I reckon.
Cunliffe: “due diligence……due diligence…….” – the expertly piped cream on a very digestible cake served up by a man obviously cut out for the job.
Rachel Smalley: repeatedly – “Right OK” – on to the next question.
Which means he triumphed.
I suspect Rachel Smalley finished that interview with advanced respect for her subject.
Which is to say – quoting Rodel @ 4.1.1.1.2 – “…and many others I reckon.”
Is this why our current gig is Little Churchill World Leader ?
And just in case you haven’t seen it go to..
..http://www.3news.co.nz/Cunliffe-promises-a-red-Labour-Party/tabid/1348/articleID/316957/Default.aspx
and show your mates/family/etc..anybody who is wavering ( and your nat friends too.
I grew up in Napier when the twin cities had two proper newspapers (Napier Daily Telegraph and Hastings Herald Tribune) that covered local affairs and the local ZB station broadcast the bulk of it’s daytime content from a local studio. I remember my parents listening to the (bi-weekly? weekly?) hour long discussions with the mayor and of all sorts of discussions about local issues. There was even, briefly, regional TV breakouts on TVNZ.
Now, the merged “newspaper” Hawkes Bay Today is barely a step up on the free rags. Local popular state radio is but a distant memory. TV treats the provinces the same way it treats stories from the third world – it takes either a disaster or a crime for a story to be covered.
When people talk about the decline in interest and participation in local body elections some blame excessive centralisation making voting irrelevant, some blame a disinchanted, lazy and uninformed public. But it seems to me that the eviscerating of local outlets for democracy has to be a major candidate in destroying avenues for communication and reducing interest and knowledge in local issues and candidates. The decline of voting in local body elections is worrying evidence of the hollowing out of our democracy and the slow death of civic society – and it paves the way for democracy to die not with a bang, but with the whimper of a corporate takeover.
+!00 Sanctuary
If I were king for a day…
…Every channel or radio station that broadcasts in New Zealand ought to be required to devote 5% of it’s 7am-7pm airtime to commercial free, civic broadcasting (I would call it the “civic quota”). No exceptions. Everything from MTV to the shopping channel to the History Channel to the ZB network to Mai FM. They would be required to use it to cover local and national political issues of importance to their target audience.
“The decline of voting in local body elections is worrying evidence of the hollowing out of our democracy and the slow death of civic society…”
The slow death of civic society also shows in the fact that the right no longer offers any kind of view of a civic society, just an ongoing series of economic rationalisations.
Life in the right’s vision of the future:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/exclusive-red-cross-launches-emergency-food-aid-plan-for-uks-hungry-8872496.html
“…The Red Cross will this winter start collecting and distributing food aid to the needy in Britain for the first time since the Second World War, as welfare cuts and the economic downturn send soaring numbers of people to soup kitchens and food banks across Europe…”
The UK’s economy is the sixth biggest in the world.
Tweedle-dum Cameron won’t care, and neither does his cooker-cutter tweedle dee counterpart in New Zealand, John Key.
These dreams have gone
http://www.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D_c86Gwsb5LY
personally, when I get the time, I glean more information about the intricacies of the local community from reading the “free” weekly newspapers, when I have the time. (gotta pile awaiting)
Did you know…smurfs wear Phrygian caps ! 😀
and, and, that David Cunliffe received the “All the better for a Metaphor” Award on Te Radar’s Best Bits
I worked at the DT (Napier) for 33 years and also 3 years at Hawke’s Bay Yesterday.
You are dead right Sanctuary. HBT is a nothing newspaper. When I moved to that paper we were printing 32,000 papers. Now, just on 20,000 (I hear from ex workmates).
What does that tell you about the MSM. And yes the free papers keep you informed of the local news. Don’t even bother buying a printed paper. Heil the freepress. TS, TDB et al.
Cheers
You would probably know my uncle and my mother, they worked there for years.
How is it that we fight for an uplift in pay in the order of 2-3% minimum pay increases by $0.40 hour and yet house prices are increasing by $1,500/ week in the burbs.
How can this dicotomy exist when money can be so hard to earn yet prices increase by so much?
Those rules only apply to labour attempting to work to earn wages/salaries.
The direct answer to your question is:
1) Unearned income accrued by capitalists on positive revenue assets allows them to finance additional asset purchases..
2) Banks willing to lend to those same capitalists at ever higher leverage on the assumption of continuing property asset price increases.
This is a particular worry with regard to the TPP negotiations. Both Tim Groser and Phil Goff cite Pharmac and intellectual property as matters of concern, but do not touch on wages, unions or social services. The worry is that “New Zealand” for them means the asset rich who think such an agreement will make them even asset richer. As long as wages, unions and social services go unmentioned, I fear that these people see the projected gains for themselves and their kind as well worth the cost of trashing the workforce and the poor even more than they are now trashed.
Yet CV as for many, money to survive has great value thru its scarcity yet thanks to the worlds monetary policies the same money is having its value greatly diminished. Why then can so few see this and there can be no “happy endings” or conclusion should the status quo continue.
This property boom that is currently in Auckland just protects many from seeing the issue as we all (property owners) are self congratulating ourselves for our rise in wealth.
Like you and a few others questioning this ability for independent banks to make money appear out of fresh air IMO is the real issue we face and an indirect attack to our sovereignty.
Exactly correct. Reminds me of the bankster Rothschild quote
“Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws!”
When do the local body election results get announced?
When do the local body election results get announced?
From late afternoon, I believe, and then continuing staggered throughout the evening. Polls are still open for another 15 minutes…
Viper:
Thanks for the info, is their a page when you can follow the results coming in?
You are very welcome, Brett. Where I am, Electionz is going to inform the local councils directly, and then it’s each councils responsibility to get the word out for their own results. Unfortunately I don’t know if for example the electoral commission is going to collate and publish all the results from across the country.
Just watched The Nation, and I’m wondering why Groser and that other peevish little minister Finlayson are so scathing of Labour. I think they’re afraid, very afraid.
Nah, they are simply playing the role they are very well paid to do [by the suckers, us], by perpetuating/propagating the fraud through the ability to write *the law*, on behalf of [name your family]
As long as the democrats retain strong support of the unions in the usa the tppa wont be as harsh to labour relations as if repubs had tge w house
“This is not a recession it’s a robbery.”
Public money being robbed into private hands. Selling our Power Companies for private profit.
“New reports warn of mass poverty and social decline in Europe”
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/10/12/eurp-o12.html
“Hedge fund linked to George Osborne’s best man to make millions from privatisation of Royal Mail after ‘buying £50m stake’
“Far from being the unfortunate result of some unavoidable economic catastrophe, the social crisis in Europe is being consciously exploited by the continent’s financial and political elite to affect a major redistribution of wealth from the bottom of society to the top.”
Peter Davies met the Chancellor at Oxford University
Was Osborne’s best man when he married Frances Howell in 1998
Davies is a member of management committee for Lansdowne Partners
Hedge-fund firm has seen value of investment rise by £18million already
City fund made reported £100million from financial crash”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2455653/George-Osbornes-best-man-Peter-Davies-make-millions-Royal-Mail-shares.html
This is all happening and made infinitely worse by the privatisation of the Public’s wealth producing feudal inequality. Post WW11 Britain was socialist and poor and owed immense debts to the USA for the war effort, yet was still able to bring in a social welfare state, the NHS and public housing. One of these houses I grew up in. I can honestly say that not once was there ever a maintenance problem with electricals, plumbing, roofing or literally anything, the house I own now needs regular maintenance, though adequate its building standard leaves a lot to be desired.
Above the city Spivs are cashing in on the privatisation of the Royal Mail in collusion with Osborne.
My point is Key is out of the same stable as these looters ruining the once proud UK. Thatcher started it and Blair intensified it.
“In response to the crisis, the Red Cross plans to commence setting up soup kitchens for the poor in Britain for the first time since the Second World War. Welfare organisations had already revealed in May that more than half a million Britons are now reliant on food handouts, with the number expected to increase over the winter.”
“Tax Dodging Soars Under Tories To Seven Times Entire Bill For Unemployment Benefit”
http://thesiegeofbritain.wordpress.com/
What’s labour and Cunliffe going to do about 5billion$ of tax dodged every year here in NZ????
The welfare state that made us civilised is being destroyed by:
1. Tax dodging and govs who won’t act on it.
2. Privatisation
3. Gross obscene inequality
4. Attacks on the social safety net and its recipients.
5.offshoring of manufacturing and conseq
uent loss of revenue and income for people.
In a word economic fascism.
In a phrase economic social cannibalism! 🙂
One of the prices of Australia’s mining “boom”
As you look at these photos, bear in mind that the National Government is quite prepared to let Australian and Brazilian outfits do this in our national parks….
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/most-incredible-earth-scars/16808?image=2
Just so you know, the Superpit was first mined in 1893. Whole bunch of those mines are in Canada too. And they’re awesome
What meaning of awesome are you using here?
Huge or brilliant
Definitely both
Brilliant?
For whom?
Look a the handle name tkh20.
I thought the “shutdown”, had rid some of the trollops. Guess the autos are still up and roaming!
Well, the people that work there, the communities they help sustain and the people who use the minerals they produce…
Off the top of my head…
Test that the ajax edit backdated correctly.
Ok that seems to be working.
The Punk Singer
http://www.scotsman.com/what-s-on/film/the-punk-singer-is-a-london-film-festival-must-see-1-3138219
The Coming (Climate) Plague
http://www.trust.org/item/20131010012838-80m1x/?source=search
or
Bubonic if that tickles your fancy, or fills your pipe
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/madagascar-faces-possible-bubonic-plague-epidemic-experts-warn-8871958.html
“Iron Man” (through a lense Starkly)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24474336?
I’m NOT a costume
Although about Native Americans I’m sure we can find similar examples here.
a pair of nines and a pouch.
Bread and Wine
Round about the city rests. The illuminated streets grow
Quiet, and coaches rush along, adorned with torches.
Men go home to rest, filled with the day’s pleasures;
Busy minds weigh up profit and loss contentedly
At home. The busy marketplace comes to rest,
Vacant now of flowers and grapes and crafts.
But the music of strings sounds in distant gardens:
Perhaps lovers play there, or a lonely man thinks
About distant friends, and his own youth.
Rushing fountains flow by fragrant flower beds,
Bells ring softly in the twilight air, and a watchman
Calls out the hour, mindful of the time.
Now a breeze rises and touches the crest of the grove-
Look how the moon, like the shadow of our earth,
Also rises stealthily! Phantastical night comes,
Full of stars, unconcerned probably about us-
Astonishingly night shines, a stranger among humans’
Sadly over the mountain tops, in splendour.
Friedrich Holderlin
http://www.3news.co.nz/Hamilton-votes-in-support-of-fluoride/tabid/423/articleID/316964/Default.aspx
– Well done Hamilton for not getting sucked in by nutters
Too right chris.
I was going to say that it looks like only 10% of voting Hamiltonians are real nut jobs. Though enough of them are stupid enough to elect the former president of the act party as a councillor.
Unfortunately nutters and other assorted conspiracy theorists come from both sides of the political spectrum
C73 – Just drink it all down mate, I have no issue with you choosing to drink the raw product all day, that’s your choice!
In fact, just keep swallowing your toothpaste, go have some now, it’ll get you there sooner!
Get it in ya!
You mean dentists with somewhat of a self interest in not seeing fluoridation occur…..yes nutty about their incomes.
I see google are being evil again. This time forcing gmail users into a single email sign on for all their accounts. Typically, there is a work around (aren’t they nice?).
Once google have purchased all the “tech”, it will literally be a case of sign in, or you don’t get to use the service!
Welcome to www 2.0
/Internet off-switch!
The Queensland State Government is going so far to the right in its attacks on workers and civil rights that political actions against it must be on the order of the day soon. The Attorney General, Jarrod Bleckie, is passing laws that he fully expects to be overturned by the High Court, but doesn’t care. Queensland Unions, who are openly referred to by the baby faced authoritarian as “union thugs” have a real fight on their hands to survive. Having been nice enough to give them fascism for banana benders part one via Bjelke-Petersen, what can we do to help save them from part 2?
Ffs 2013 will see the end of analogue transmission, the digital service is quite frankly shit.
have we taken the cheapest technology available ! The vhs would be better.
I had a Freewiew before going digital in my area, Whanganui.Since the change over, i keep getting regular interference on all channels.Yet after twelve in the evening it clears up, as opposed to clear viewing prior to the change over.