Karol.
Just a few years ago Auckland hosted the wonderfull Labour Day weekend festival/
Great talent from NZ and overseas ,M y family never missed one and from the Waikato.
Ended by the despicable John Banks . Who by the way has enough money to pay for Artistes if he wishes to see our talent. What a mean plonker . Lets hope he is never elected to public office ever again.
Why did that editor not sign it? It is not a comment on a blog site, it is an Editorial in the Herald. If it is truly their opinion and not paid-for propaganda, why wouldn’t the writer put their name to it?
It is not on a blog. It is presented as a Herald Editorial and is unsigned. Not even a pseudonym. It is a malicious opinion piece designed to denigrate Hone, shooting him in the back on his way out of the wasps nest. For the Herald to publish that piece of work minus any signature is an act of cowardice, an avoidance of accountability for their own words.
Stop Press:
Annette King is putting herself forward for the Labour Party Leadership. Trevor Mallard will be her campaign manager.
King says she is disgusted with Shearer and Goff for pushing Parker forward as the fall-back should Robertson slip into third in the preferences after Cunliffe and Little.
King says that on the daily “Anything But Co-operative” conference call it had been agreed that a Wellington Region MP was to be the back-up for the faltering Robertson.
King says she has proven leadership skills having driven the successful ABC faction since October 2007 when Helen Clark appointed Cunliffe Health Minister rather than her. King insists that is was very mean of Helen to not give her Health for reasons un-related to the Hawkes Bay.
Karol’s reminder of the Waitakere Festival parallels the National Radio commentary this morning on Dunedin’s Blueskin Bay. Resistance to bog-standard capitalism may not re-emerge in a cohrent nationwide political form for many years. And even local government is regularly gutted by reformation. But communitarian clusters can work. They can build up new leaders. They can find a scope for change and grasp it and make it happen.
They can also burn people out, and are no substitute for national governments. But I think this is where we are now. Politically, we are really starting again.
..their kow-towing rush to war with national/key..has me finally turning away spitting contempt at them..they are beyond any fucken hope of being a true progressive party..
..they are just a sub-section of a rotting/rotten establishment..
..and i am not sure what question ‘labour’ is the answer to..
Yes, you’re right there, BM. Protectionist, xenophobic and nothing without their leader. There was an interesting poll result overnight; despite Ed Miliband being personally unpopular, Labour have a solid 7 point lead over the Tories. UKIP are looking likely to split the vote in many southern Tory seats allowing Labour to win them even on a relatively small vote. That should have the effect of exaggerating the overall number of seats Labour win in comparison to their actual popularity.
“..UKIP are looking likely to split the vote in many southern Tory seats allowing Labour to win them even on a relatively small vote…”
pretty much just what the greens just did up and down the country..eh..?
..and what they do every election..
..split the vote..and allow the right to waltz thru into power..
..(but they are polite..i am sure you will be all reassured by the fact their green candidate in ohariu belmont..one tane woodley..who split over 2,500 votes from the progressive bloc..
..allowing dunne to win by just 700 votes..
..well..he is on record at ‘congratulating’ dunne on his victory..
..and i am still waiting for a green to fucken explain why they do this/fuck the progressive bloc..
“pretty much just what the greens just did up and down the country..eh..?..and what they do every election…split the vote..and allow the right to waltz thru into power..”
Bizarre that out of all the reasons for the past three election losses, you would ignore a multitude of contributing factors, yet you choose to point the finger at a couple of thousand voters in epsom and ohariu and the green party for standing candidates, even though they have to in order to participate in constituency debates to push the party vote.
I bemoaned the lack of cohesion and strategy on the left for a good number of years now, especially around tactical voting and presenting a unified opposition, so playing the outrage/blame card is moot.
Holding the green party responsible for losing those two seats and three elections is small minded little picture stuff. Besides being valid that you can’t get on the podium at candidate meetings if you don’t stand in the first place, the green party did ask for closer electoral cooperation and got rebuffed for their efforts.
So what’s the plan pu? You going to keep slinging mud at the greens because they’re not the party of flakes and pot suckers you fell in love with all those years ago? Or are you going to get stuck in, contribute to the discussion and help build the policy platform and shape the direction the opposition needs to become government in 2017?
“..go talk to nz first..
..their supporters only have one choice..”
What are you claiming here Phil?
You appear to be saying that New Zealand First candidates stood ONLY for List places and there were no electorate candidates.
In fact New Zealand First had a total of 32 candidates of whom 29 stood for electorates and 31 were on the list. There were only 3, including Winnie, who did not stand for an electorate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candidates_in_the_New_Zealand_general_election_2014_by_party#New_Zealand_First
NZ First didn’t field a candidate in Ohariu but at the “meet the candidates meeting” I attended NZ First was represented by the Wellington Central candidate, Hugh Barr.
..labour want to mine/drill etc..(they are environment-vandals..they are part of our problem..look at their fucken record last time..)
..labour promise to do sweet fuck all about the dire poverty/misery..(at least half-induced/fostered by them..)
..apart from some fiddling around the edges..
..economically..you can barely slide a cigarette-paper between national and labour policies..both are designed to maintain the status quo..however fucked/environmentally-dirty/poverty-sustaining it may be..)
..and now they are tripping over themselves to rush us into yet another long-war..
..far far away on the other side of the planet..
..(and of course labour took us into afghanistan..didn’t that work out well..?..)
Yet you want the Greens to step aside for neoliberal Labour. It makes as much sense to claim that Labour should disband and let Greens and Mana capture the opposition votes. Actually, probably more.
Three community things of the kind you describe, I’ve blown off just this weekend. And I’ve just come in from sitting in the sun doing absolutely nothing because my neighbour started his petrol hedge cutter on his side of the hedge just where I was leaning aginst it. We usually do it together. A really good neighbour, but not subtle with the hints.
Anyway, you’re right, this is exactly what we are left with now, our own communities. But building up the momentum, getting people on board and keeping on going is sometimes tiring and depressing, so it’s lucky there are those ‘energiser bunny’ types around being irrepressible and generally amazing.
Just saying really. When it works it’s all worth it, and the fact is, for most of us, where we are and the people around that place are our richest and most indispensible resource for dealing with the problems of the immediate future, let alone how things might be a decade from now. Sounds like it’s going really well at Waitati, I’ve long been impressed by what you people have achieved.
A succession of national governments have thrown whole communities to the wolves, not all of them National with a capital N. We have to stop imagining they give a shit and get on with it.
But communitarian clusters can work. They can build up new leaders. They can find a scope for change and grasp it and make it happen.
They can also burn people out, and are no substitute for national governments. But I think this is where we are now. Politically, we are really starting again.
I would say that many of the members of the Andersons Bay-Peninsula Branch of the Labour Party (Dunedin South) have this sensibility. In my view, it is the only way that Labour has a chance of getting out of the Thorndon Bubble and reconnecting with the 1.2M who did not vote.
The Labour Party in Australia, UK and NZ refuse to ‘just say the fucking truth’: about climate change, about resource depletion, about post-peak oil, about oligarchy. And in every one of those countries, the relevance of the Labour Party is declining.
I should add that participation in national politics also burns people out. Badly.
International security expert Paul Buchanan said the claims were “absurd”. “He’s building a case for war. He’s pulled the beheading imagery out for what I think are spurious purposes.”
Buchanan accused Key of misrepresenting New Zealand’s role in joining the coalition against Isis – although he conceded it was impossible to discount a threat. “There’s no evidence that because you fight against Isis the method of retribution is beheading on the streets of Auckland.”
I have just watched that dick on Q&A interview Key. He would not be a journalists arseole, Just let Key burble on at full throttle. No probing questions like,”you did not say you was thinking of engaging NZ troops before the election” or, “do you think it would put NZ at risk for being a target for terrorism if we engaged our troops ”
Good on Paul Buchanan for questioning the spivs warmongering because no one else will especially the media.
I think I could do that job,J Key referred to,the problem of my ten o’clock tea break,an the dilemma of staying on job for the only aircraft of the day,coming in at,yes you quest it ten o’clock.what an idiot .
Rationality has become a loaded word in economics, bringing with it the baggage of earlier models that did not anticipate the findings of behavioral economics or take into account other every-day observations. The traditional rationality model includes the assumption that rational behavior is optimizing behavior (“rational economic man maximizes his utility”). In the 1970s an extreme version of this made the further assumption that rational economic actors have “perfect information.” A slightly more modest version says that people will collect information until the perceived costs of acquiring additional information exceed the perceived benefits.
The big problem I have with modern economics is that, as studied in schools and universities, it doesn’t have a purpose. It seems to exist only to make a few people richer. We, as a community, need to change this and state what we want our economy to achieve.
Never tried the stuff but understand the nickname for it is shit just like the article you
copied into your post. Almost ALL the comments agreeing that Pot is OK were from long time users.
.
The Fairfax report today Fears of terror in our own backyard is a prompt to remind ourselves of an inherent bias in Western media, that often infers that the Muslim religion is a problem
Reza points out that “Muslim Countries” are not a problem. But repressive regimes in Muslim countries, and in Christian countries, and in Buddhist countries, (and in any country) certainly are.
I’ll be back to provide the facts and evidence which will prove how it is Auckland Council CEO Stephen Town who is making ‘wild and inaccurate’ allegations against me, as I continue to expose how Auckland Council is a ‘Supercity’ for the corporate 1%.
Which is why they’re attempting to neck stamp me as an anti-corruption whistle-blower by trying to sell my freehold home because of unpaid rates which I have withheld, because ratepayers and citizens are not being given the ‘devilish detail’ of where exactly rates monies are being spent.
I have sat by and watched lies and manipulations galore since my first awareness of the cold war, the hype and propaganda never stops, pulled by god knows what human being who’s compass has been corrupted.
It creates conspiracies and you wonder when you here these wild theorists and their conspiracies of army supplies, oil, world domination, Skulls and bones, Bilderberg groups etc and what the heck is real, what’s just plain old stupidity. What is a fabricated conspiracy, what is actually going on.
But Governments like the USA spread so many mistruths , a man can’t find out the truth if it was slapped in his face with a title saying” This is the real truth”.
The thing that drives my depression is the fact that it’s never ending with no way to stop or even change it’s course. I despair at my insignificance to say HEY. WTF! Stop it.
Thanks media, thanks for believing every statement issued by your elected governments without question or investigation. Thanks once again a hole fucking lot.
Andrew Little says voters wanted “greater clarity” about Labour’s potential coalition partners and the party should have clearly spurned Internet-Mana
Labour did and even worked with National to ensure that Hone wouldn’t get back in to TTT.
They didn’t like the idea of a very wealthy individual writing out a massive cheque, funding a campaign that was really about his self-interest and a bunch of other people signing up to it,
Except that wasn’t what it was about and Little continuing to spread that lie doesn’t help.
Oh, and the CCCP party, which has a leader doing exactly that, seems to be getting quite a bit of support.
Well Little listens to the people for starters, working people that is and he has the sense to come clean on crap policy’s like the raising of the retirement age which was a dead duck policy, as was the CGT. Property investment is a sacred cow since too many people got burned investing in the sharemarket.
Labour & the Greens just aren’t Left enough and unfortunately Mana’s leader is too off putting to many Maori & non Maori, it’s not like they attracted the 3/4 million non voter bloc.
What MMP needs to be successful is the dropping of the threshold down to 2 percent and scrapping electorate MP’s completely and empowering local body politics by electing one councilor to represent to parliament.
Bollocks, Phil. The EPMU has moved to the left in recent years, particularly in Little’s time. We’ll see during the election campaign where he stands politically, but I’m picking he is to the left of all the other candidates. Not that the others are right wing anyway. Some tend to the centre, but that doesn’t make them right wing per se.
I know what you mean, Draco, but the centre is still the centre. While the perceived normal has swung toward the right, left and right are still the political poles. Being on the right of the LP does not necessarily mean right wing in the wider political spectrum. Part of the reason that the me me me meme dominates at the moment is because of political ignorance. Perpetuating that ignorance by misplacing individuals and their beliefs is not helpful. The centre is the centre.
In the fifties, sixties and seventies, it could be argued that the consensus was skewed to the left. These things change and this current alignment will not last forever.
In the fifties, sixties and seventies, it could be argued that the consensus was skewed to the left.
When the world was more prosperous.
While the perceived normal has swung toward the right, left and right are still the political poles.
Actually, they’re pretty much meaningless dribble now as the Left wing hold to the same economic orthodoxy as the RWNJs. Even in the 1950s/60s the Left were all about protecting capitalism from capitalism rather than bringing about a social and economic shift away from that failed system.
The real problem is that we don’t have an economic system but a financial system pretending to be an economic system and both Left and Right hold to it religiously.
The real problem is that we don’t have an economic system but a financial system pretending to be an economic system and both Left and Right hold to it religiously.
Yep +100. A debt based financial and monetary system pretending to be an economy.
No right to collective bargaining or smoko – radical right wing.
For-profit education – radical right wing.
Criminal negligence on the environment – radical right wing.
“Ratfuckers” – radical right wing.
Ubiquitous mass surveillance – totalitarian too.
Death squads are hardly a “radical” idea – right wing, the result of cretinhood and malice, by all means, but radical?
For fucks sake. Anyone who truly understands what “left” and “right ” means knows that no one in Labour even comes close to being left wing. Havn’t for nearly 30 years. The true left wingers in the Labour Party left in the 80s and have never gone back.
“Labour did and even worked with National to ensure that Hone wouldn’t get back in to TTT.”
Yep – in some ways the dour, gray faced leadership choices they have now is a just reward for them – eenie, meanie, oh fuck it these stooges are all moe.
It’s funny how that line about Nat/Lab cooperation keeps getting repeated despite the total lack of evidence for it.
Just out of interest, how much do you think Hone contributed to the loss of TTT? 10%, 20%? Maybe more? To paraphrase an earlier comment, Hone was doomed the moment he signed up with KDC. He ceded control of the campaign and it cost him and mana dearly. There’s the problem, right there. A fatal strategic error, months before the campaign really got underway.
Sure Hone gets to take the blame for the result – how much of it? Quite a lot I think but I also believe the coalition of the anti-Hone/anti-Mana, comprising all those that backed kd, including labour, NZF, the maori party and the gnats, contributed too. I think that if KDC hadn’t come along that coalition would still have formed and maybe even achieved the same result. I’m really of the opinion that getting Hone and Mana out of parliament was the biggest win for the right on a night of big wins and a goal they had well before IMP was conceived and/or formed.
AFAIK both Harawira and IMP’s vote increased in TTT compared to 2011. So when you ask what % of Labour winning TTT is Hawawira’s fault, I’m perplexed. Do you mean that he should have forseen Labour, National, NZF and Mp all taking deliberate action to keep him out of parliament?
I’m not suggesting that those parties worked together in the way you imply. They didn’t have to. The opportunity arose for them all independently to take actions that worked in concert on a common target. No conspiracy, just a bunch of arseholes playing the power game to suit themselves.
Can’t expect much else from the other 3, but Labour should be ashamed of themselves. And don’t give me that crap about how Mana/IMP should have approached Labour earlier in the year to try and do a deal, unless you have some (any) evidence that Labour would have been willing (all the evidence to date suggests they wouldn’t).
“So when you ask what % of Labour winning TTT is Hawawira’s fault, I’m perplexed”
Yep, that’s pretty reflective of the blinkered reading some folk have of what happened in TTT, weka. To repeat myself, Hone lost the moment he shook KDC’s hand. Nobody in Labour made him do it. So, seriously, how much do you think Hone contributed to his own downfall?
“Do you mean that he should have forseen Labour, National, NZF and Mp all taking deliberate action to keep him out of parliament? ”
You mean like having an election? Standing candidates? That sort of thing? Yeah, I’m pretty sure Hone knew he wouldn’t be running unopposed.
As for a deal, it was up to Hone to make the approach. If he wanted something from Labour, he had to start the process and present a case for the deal. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Bargaining 101.
I am starting to view Labour’s stance toward Mana as reflective of the blinkered reading some folk in New Zealand have toward the serious issues of marginalization and loss of social mobility that comes with the increasing wealth disparity that is occurring in our society and which Mana speaks up strongly about.
Act gets parliamentary representation despite getting less than half of the votes that IMP got, whereas IMP ends up with no representation at all.
This difference is not solely due to Harawira’s choice to join with KDC and no matter how many times the ‘blame it on KDC factor’ is repeated, won’t make it the sole cause of what occurred in TTT.
Is what occurred in TTT solely IMP’s loss? Or the left wing’s too?
Could Labour have been in government by now had they taken a more inclusive approach toward all potential support parties?
Could the Left have been in government by now had they responded to the cheap-shit corporate spin being broadcast throughout this country all year by countering it, rather than running with it?
How many people didn’t vote IMP out of fear that Hone may not win the seat?
How many of these people shifted their vote to another leftwing party and how many of them ended up not voting at all?
Blaming it all on ‘the KDC factor’ bypasses these [above] types of important questions that need to be answered if the leftwing in this country want to sharpen up their act and gain power.
I suggest to you that responding to someone by implying they are blinkered is just the type of attitude that gets the left going nowhere – and fast.
I’m not blaming on the KDC factor, I’m blaming it on Hone. He made at least two poor strategic decisions; not trying to get an understanding from Labour in TTT was one, KDC was the other. He had options, and chose the wrong ones. KDC, however, was the killer, something that Dotcom himself recognised immediately post election.
Anyhoo, mana are history now. I wonder if Laila will get a book out of it?
“not trying to get an understanding from Labour in TTT was one”
lol – that was a labour mistake and look where it has got them – another 3 years in opposition, disarray in the leadership, distrust from the public, ridicule across the board and still the unbelievable ability from some, who support the Party, to even understand why it all happened.
Mana hasn’t died and it will rise again, stronger – but labour? Oh deary me I think the slippery slope is too steep and too slippery for those folk.
Ho ho ho. Labour are still in parliament. We are still the leading opposition party and will lead the next progressive government whenever it is formed. Mana? First step to a future would be admitting the mistakes made in the campaign.
Yep a few mistakes indeed – luckily Mana as a new movement with the knowledge that it takes time to build, time to grow and time to learn from mistakes.
but you can’t really say that about labour can you – I mean the same mistakes made over and over again is the definition of what again?
Mana didn’t lose the election for the left – how about dealing with that cold hard fact.
Actually, marty, I think it is arguable that mana did cost the left the election. KDC dominated the airwaves to the point where LP, Greens and even NZF policy barely got a mention. And the right played on the possibility of Labour needing to do a deal with mana to generate a negative vibe around the alternative government.
Anyway, it won’t be an issue at the next election.
Well that is definitely a line – that Mana cost the left the election. I don’t agree because I think that minimises labour and their ability to electioneer – I just don’t think they are as useless as that (but perhaps the result puts paid to my generosity of spirit). Responsibility must rest on labour – they have the history, the people, the leadership of the opposition – Mana and KDC supplied plenty of opportunity and labour squandered it, mainly imo due to lack of courage, lack of vision and lack of left wing cred – the electorate didn’t/doesn’t trust labour and its leaders and I am sad about that, they’d rather slimeball key and that must stick in the throat like a chicken bone.
get over it mate – rebuild your party just as we will rebuild the Mana Movement.
“Well that is definitely a line – that Mana cost the left the election.”
You may very well believe that, marty, but I’ll stick to it being arguable. Anyhoo, good luck with the rebuilding. Have a chat to Laila about how the Alliance rebuilt itself … oh, wait.
Not in your lifetime. Labour are terminal in so many ways. Look at the candidates for leader. Four white middle class, middle aged men. Now thats really going to appeal to the average kiwi voter.
The MISTAKE was of Labour by not supporting Hone and IMP in TT.
Kelvin Davies did have a fairly high place, 18th, on the list. There was absolutely no need to go all out to win the electorate. Labour should have simply asked for the party vote instead of trying to unseat Hone. This is MMP, not FFP. Labour needs to work smarter on their election winning plans, at least in crucial electorates.
As I said, Labour made a very stupid ego-driven strategic mistake, won the battle and lost the election war. How dumb is that! Idiots!
Electorates are FPP. Hone came second because he simply wasn’t popular enough. He didn’t get enough votes. The people of Te Tai Tokerau had a democratic choice and they chose Labour’s candidate.
And if was so obvious what Labour had to do, why didn’t Hone say something? Laila? KDC? You know why? Because Hone’s strategy was to get into parliament and vote issue by issue. He wanted to be on the cross benches. That was a clear message to Labour. Ok, when Laila got involved, she started talking a bit more sense of how things might look post election. But again, no approach to Labour. How dumb is that? As you say, Idiots!
btw, Labour’s strategy was a winner. 6 out of 7 maori seats says the LP got that strategy pretty much perfect.
I’m convinced that Labour see Mana as a more dangerous opposition to them than NAct. Mana is always going to be there, pointing out how Labour policies hurt the poor, the environment, and race relations. They show people that Labour is not what it pretends to be. Labour do not like this at all, and will do what they can to keep posing as representatives of the workers.
TRP’s glee at seeing Labour getting six of the Maori seats but remaining in opposition just convinces me more.
In the same way the most vociferous enemies of the Occupy Movement were not Republicans – but Democrats, who did not want to be shown up for the upper middle class big corporate leaning party that they really are.
“Yep, that’s pretty reflective of the blinkered reading some folk have of what happened in TTT, weka. To repeat myself, Hone lost the moment he shook KDC’s hand. Nobody in Labour made him do it. So, seriously, how much do you think Hone contributed to his own downfall?”
I’m not blinkered, I understand the argument about KDC’s toxicity well enough. I’m asking you to explain the mechanism, given his and the party vote INCREASED. All you’ve done is repeat what you said before, which is your assertion that it’s all Harawira’s fault, but you haven’t said HOW.
“Do you mean that he should have forseen Labour, National, NZF and Mp all taking deliberate action to keep him out of parliament? ”
You mean like having an election? Standing candidates? That sort of thing? Yeah, I’m pretty sure Hone knew he wouldn’t be running unopposed.
Don’t be a dick, you know that’s not what I meant.
“As for a deal, it was up to Hone to make the approach. If he wanted something from Labour, he had to start the process and present a case for the deal. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Bargaining 101.”
blah blah blah, heard it all before and it still’s just a line. Until you put up some kind of evidence, or even theory, that Labour were open to such a thing and how it might have worked, it’s just more Hone bashing.
Sorry, weka, but if you can’t get past the basics of electoral politics, then nothing I say will make a difference. SFW that Hone’s vote went up! It didn’t go up by enough. And if you can’t even except that Hone might be somewhat to blame, then you really do operate in a world of your own. 98.5% of voters who made a choice, rejected Mana/Imp. Hone chose that platform. He ran on it. He lost on it. He’s got to take the responsibility.
When NZF dipped out in 2008, Winston didn’t sulk. He organised.
Of course Harawira has responsibility on this. Stop putting words in my mouth. You’re just reducing a complex situation down to a very convenient slogan: KDC evil, Harawira fucked up. And that takes into account none of the issues that need to be understood by the left other than Labour will cut off its nose to spite its face and everyone else be damned. Still no explanation from you on either of the points I raised, so yep, Hone bashing.
@ CR…..yes this is why Labour must get back to grassroots membership democracy …otherwise it is just an oligarchy of middle class careerists.
..and not only former Labour voters, but also potential new Labour voters, know this is a contradiction in Labour values and what Labour is supposed to stand for .
My own son, a new blue collar worker , was going to vote Labour but changed his mind after what he saw Labour doing to undercut and defeat Hone and Internet /Mana! ( blue collar workers are not stupid and they listen to the radio and the likes of Willie Jackson )
My own son, a new blue collar worker , was going to vote Labour but changed his mind after what he saw Labour doing to undercut and defeat Hone and Internet /Mana!
I did that too!…and for the same reason. As I am not in TT, gave my electorate vote to Labour and party vote to IMP.
@Clemgeopin…no I am NOT your Mother!…my son gave both votes to the Greens
( Plunket the radio hack right winger put my son off Dotcom…and he was put off Winnie for the same reasons as being put off Labour ie the ganging up on Hone and Int/Mana in TT Electorate)…dont know if you follow that logic but it makes sense in a roundabout way)
…however i gave my local vote to local Green and after much thought because i thought they needed it the most …my Party vote to Int/MANA.
..and I am still peeved about my vote for Int/Mana NOT being counted (thankyou Kelvin Davis!…and the other bastards who ganged up on Hone !…who is a true man of the tangata whenua…”people of the land”)
….and thanks for losing the bloody Election for the Left …you will be remembered
Sorry, CV, but Hone has been sulking. Though he’s not alone. Look at weka’s efforts today FFS! Time to move on, Hone gambled and lost. Mana are now in the same dusty attic as Social Credit and the Alliance because of mana’s own failings.
..it fell in the execution..for a variety of reasons..
..and part of that must be down to labour going hellbent to kneecap harawira..
(and funny story..!..has anyone else noticed how labour..(the neighbourhood bully?) ..talk about harawira/mana the way they spoke of the greens for so long..?..
..ignorant fucken fools..that they are..just repeating the same mistakes..over and over again..
.and meanwhile the right laugh their way into power..)
..and that trp celebrates/sneers at the defeat of harawira/mana..(whose mp’s wd have supported cunliffe/labour..(!)
..couldn’t be more symptomatic of all that is wrong with labour..
..(and hones’ responsibilities..?..i wasn’t on the inside of the campaign..but from out here i feel he did a totally crap job of selling mana polices..
..and that he kinda vanished after his car accident didn’t help..
..basically..harre carried the campaign from that day on..
..but the original internet/mana idea/concept was a sound one..
..it totally failed in the execution of that concept..and the campaign seemed to be a strategy-free/wrong zone..)
just to let you know there is someone out there reading what you say and agreeing whole-heartedly
imo Labour ‘s strategy was insular and short sighted and unbecoming , especially in regards to Hone and Int/MANA …and it cost them the Election of of a Left wing coalition govt …( amongst other reasons )
I think really that the New Zealand public should take responsibility for their monumental stupidity, more than anyone involved with Internet Mana not named Jevan Goulter
“…They didn’t like the idea of a very wealthy individual writing out a massive cheque, funding a campaign that was really about his self-interest and a bunch of other people signing up to it..”
isn’t that the definition/story of gibbs and act..?
Except that wasn’t what it was about and Little continuing to spread that lie doesn’t help.
I thought Little was repeating what the voters were thinking and to paraphrase… they went for the line that Dotcom tried to influence the outcome of the election by writing out big cheques. I would add to that they also fell for the line that Dotcom is a dangerous criminal. From my experiences prior to the election that is exactly what the majority of voters were thinking.
I just don’t ‘get’ Labour’s aim to marginalize IMP – in particular Mana.
It seems to me, (and from personal experience) that the Mana Party is the party easiest to raise interest in voting from a section of the people who don’t make a habit of voting i.e. the most disenfranchised people in the country. Not only the most disenfranchised, though, also the most cynical ‘voting makes no difference’ types.
Having Labour marginalize Mana effectively neutralizes the ability to motivate people to vote (via Mana) and the perception that ‘we will never be listened to’ ends up sticking.
In fact, I am beginning to develop the perception that those people in the most difficult conditions in this country will continue to be marginalized and this perception is growing in me because of the way Labour continues to bad mouth Mana and effectively marginalize the people they represent.
Let’s face it, some people are never going to vote for a party as mainstream as Labour and I would like to see Labour being far more supportive of parties that may bring in the votes of those who are the most marginalized in this country, not marginalize them further.
The purpose of Labour is to squeeze the life out of any truly left wing political party. (Not my original thought, but puts things in sharp perspective).
Where is the fucking perspective is my question. The age of liquid fossil fuels is mostly over in the next 25 years: i.e. in less than one generation. Climate change effects will be critical within 50 years i.e. in less than 2 generations.
We are running a world where todays 10 year olds are guaranteed to be seriously screwed.
I have a personal ‘policy’ of being slow to agree with cynical critiques – however in this instance I have been pretty patient.
Having bided my time and observed, it is starting to look that way with Labour.
My preference was to view them at having appalling strategy, yet even this excuse is starting to seem weak.
Over the last few weeks, at some stage, someone was recounting how Labour had squeezed the Alliance out of existence too (wish I could find that comment) – that comment certainly influenced my view on this matter.
Mana is the most socialist of all parties as it works for the interests of the poorest of the poor, and the low income marginalised people. Michael Savage had said that Labour believes in socialism as it is applied Christianity. Mana comes close to that aspiration in its housing and poverty policies.
Labour was scared of National’s attacks and sheepishly, unfairly, stupidly and cowardly shunned Internet-Mana. Fools!
I Hope this stupidity of Labour will not continue.
Had Labour supported IMP, they would have had 3 to 5 MPs and Today, we would most probably have had a Labour led coalition with a progressive government in place in NZ and Key would have been somewhere over in Hawaii. A missed opportunity for all.
Oh right, so Little is just like all those other idiot wannabe Labour leaders getting in on the hate-on-Mana bandwagon. Is there anyone in Labour that actually wants to cultivate the left?
That just confirms my opinion of Little as a class collaborator, moving to the right at full steam ahead. It would be better for unions to sponsor members through Law School if they need lawyers, rather than getting student union bureaucrats.
News flash ” English has new idea for solving poverty”
Tommorow English announces the reason for poverty is the poor, After careful analysis of the statistics he can say for sure the blame lays squarely with the poor and if their was less of them their would be less poverty.
John Armstrong agreed and has called for David Cunliffe’s resignation for not thinking of it first.
National will formulate a policy chaired by previous National prime minister of every chair, Chairwoman of the century jenny Shipley to formulate a progressive policy to shift the poor off poor.
Paula Bennet has confirmed more security at Winz offices will stop the deranged poor, coming to state their poorness, saving valuable statistic space which could be used to promote National and dish dirt on it’s enemies. Anyone who thinks criticising the governments feely, do goody policies, well may want to remember the public embarrassment I will enact upon them.
My understanding is that, since most overseas jihadists come from poor and marginalised sections of society, Key is planning to round up NZ’s poor and send them off en masse to Iraq to fight ISIS terrorists.
Key apparently believes that the best way to fight poverty is to send the poor to fight each other. This will hopefully result not only in defeating terrorism but also in ending poverty once and for all.
He is currently busy putting the finishing touches to this policy as he is afraid that it may appear “odd” to some people.
Cogito, in historical terms sending off the poor to fight one’s enemies is called recruitment into the army. Who are the bulk of the armed forces of democracies without compulsory national conscription?
The army has always been a way ahead out of poverty, with training, steady work and income, a pension and social status, clothing, food and shelter.
The bastard thing about conscription is that the non-poor had to work pretty hard to avoid it and the attendant risk of getting shot at when conscripted- so you had deferred conscription for the middle and upper classes at university, the national guard as a safe alternative as practiced by George Bush or you had prolonged periods overseas avoiding the draft.
There were always the gullible and the sociopathic in the middle and upper classes who wanted to go to war, for adventure, patriotism and social acceptability as well.
“CITIZENFOUR, the new film by Intercept co-founding editor Laura Poitras, premiered this evening at the New York Film Festival, and will be in theaters around the country beginning October 24. Using all first-hand, real-time footage, it chronicles the extraordinary odyssey of Edward Snowden in Hong Kong while he worked with journalists, as well the aftermath of the disclosures for the NSA whistleblower himself and for countries and governments around the world.
The film provides the first-ever character study of Snowden and his courageous whistleblowing, contains significant new revelations about all of these events, and will undoubtedly be discussed for years to come. But one seemingly banal — yet actually quite significant — revelation from the film is worth separately highlighting: In July of this year, Snowden’s long-time girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, moved to Moscow to live with him”.
Colonial RS @14.1……………I have wondered about a film of the book DP’s. This might be something that the NZ public watch and start to understand what has been going on.
I didn’t think it was that bad and it certainly was NOT Dirty Politics (DP isn’t being mean or undercutting political rivals publicly. It might be a fucked thing to do, but it’s not DP).
He refused to answer Owen’s question about KDC being toxic, and instead framed the issue around many people being incomfortable about a wealthy man writing a check to influence politics to suit himself. He’s actually right about the first bit (remember how the Business Round Table anti-MMP backfired?). I don’t believe that KDC was solely motivated by his potential extradiction, but I can see that many people will believe that it’s a large part of his motivation. What is Labour supposed to do about that? Good luck btw with finding a Labour leader who will be open to building a relationship with IP or Mana.
Having said that, it does pose some real problems for Labour. My question for Little this afternoon might be, come 2017, if IP or Mana or IMP hold seats and are the make or break for Labour forming govt, will you choose the opposition benches or choose one of those parties’ support on C and S?
yes, and it’s possible that the MPs and staffers in Labour feel too uncomfortable with IMP and thus can’t see how to work with them in ways that assauge the general public’s fears. Maybe some members too.
its worse than that. not only has that 20% muddle class been lost, but also the growing precariat – which is perhaps his (and Labour’s) worst sin of all – especially when they think they have a Divine right to continue with that Godawful expression ‘Brand Labour’. Not many on the political “left mainstream” seem to talk about the precariat these days.
ah well – if they’re allowed to, they’ll have as their legacy being responsible for the demise of NZ Labour.
Someone on another thread mentioned Michael Joseph Savage and how Labour was a christian party because those are its values, feed the poor, do good to others etc.
If Labour were to reclaim those historical basics it would do a lot to pull in the average voter.
Labours leaders need to endorse honesty, charity, even anger as in the chucking the moneychangers tables, as a weapon against the pro-rich scheming of TeamKey.
It’s not just feed the poor, it’s also how to move away from a ‘me’ society and public good as in transport, pollution etc.
Labour need to reclaim their differences to Nats, and can the similarities. So no to deep-sea drilling (polluting) and Kiwis to Iraq.
Stop hunting the middle-ground and stand on core principles. And oppose Key at every turn so there’s a clear choice between them.
Yes kiwi!!!!!…Couldn’t agree more..True Labour.There is too little difference..and all those people who couldn’t even be bothered to vote…did that because there isn’t any party that represents them.
I assume you’re addressing me.
I also assume you don’t vote Labour, but it intrigues me that your answer is quite vehement.
It would be nice to know the reasons.
National is popular because it listens to the voters and acts upon that.
Labour is unpopular because it doesn’t listen to the voter but instead thinks the voter is stupid and tries to force upon them what Labour perceives to be right and truthful.
What Labour thinks is good is irrelevant, it’s what the voter thinks is good is what is important, National gets that, Labour does not.
BM…you and Nactional and Slater and Hooton are full of hot steaming ….. …. !
You can fool some of the people some of the time ( this time maybe with the help of DIRTY TRICKS and DIRTY POLITICS and Tony Abbott…the mad monk waving the plastic sword)
…but you can’t fool ALL of the people ALL of the TIME !
National is popular because it listens to the voters and acts upon that.
No they don’t. They don’t even give an impression of listening to the people. Our assets got sold against what the people wanted.
What Labour thinks is good is irrelevant, it’s what the voter thinks is good is what is important, National gets that, Labour does not.
National exploits peoples gullibility and greed to get what they want which is a) bad for our country and b) bad for the majority of people voting National. There’s nothing to proud of when National are scamming the entire country.
Well, BM….I cant afford horse shit due to cutbacks, so your horse shit will just have to do. I would rather be True to Labours principles which have been lost in the melee of lets mimic National or those that get confused with Greens/Labour/Tartan.We need to get back to core values, and engage and electrify those that didn’t t Vote Labour for whatever reason, yet dislike National…And engage those feelings and passions .Then at the next election we wont be worried about your sub figures as a majority will suffice…, regardless of the leader.Then I may be able to afford more of your selfie horse shit.
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...
Renowned musician, advocate, and proud born and raised daughter of Tauranga, Ria Hall, is announcing her candidacy for Mayor of Tauranga and Pāpāmoa Ward for the upcoming election on July 20th. ...
The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...
For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...
Late one afternoon in March 1860 a man in a thin green velveteen jacket and a wide-awake hat arrived on foot at a sheep station named Glenmark, about 65 kilometres north of Christchurch. The man was in his mid-fifties but he looked older. Several people who met him that day ...
If building one of Auckland’s possible waterfront stadiums was funded privately, it would need to hold a sold-out Ed Sherran concert every weekday for 25 years. That’s Rob Hamlin’s finding – he’s a senior marketing lecturer at the University of Otago. “It’s not going to happen; forget about it,” he ...
Comment: The debate over the future relationship between news and social media is bringing us closer to a long-overdue reckoning. Social media isn’t trying to kill journalism, because social media has never really cared about journalism. Social media is resolutely in the attention business. News propels some attention — perhaps ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Monday 6 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
For the past 12 years, Georgia-Rose Brown has balanced on the brink of making an Olympic Games – but always landed gracefully on the wrong side. Reaching the Olympics is a dream the gymnast has harboured since she was a six-year-old; a dream that would dwindle every four years, yet ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A new Commonwealth Prac Payment will provide students with $319.50 a week when they are on clinical and professional placements. The payment will be means tested and start from July 1 next year, which ...
Asia Pacific Report About 500 people honoured Palestinian journalists in the heart of the New Zealand city of Auckland today for their brave coverage of Israel’s War on Gaza, now in its seventh month with almost 35,000 people killed, mostly women and children. Marking the annual May 3 World Press ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
I’ve just found out about this Auckland Westie Festival – haven’t been to it before (Sunday is my usual work day):
Waitakere festival:
It’s more of a cultural than a political festival – aimed at maintaining a westie culture since the beginning of Auckland “super-city”. There is an environmental theme to it, focused on The Project Twin Streams.
Most of it focuses on live music and other arts and culture activities.
Karol.
Just a few years ago Auckland hosted the wonderfull Labour Day weekend festival/
Great talent from NZ and overseas ,M y family never missed one and from the Waikato.
Ended by the despicable John Banks . Who by the way has enough money to pay for Artistes if he wishes to see our talent. What a mean plonker . Lets hope he is never elected to public office ever again.
He needs a stint in jail.
comment@whoar:..herald editorial writer..(roughan..?..o’sullivan..?)..has a final spit/gob/good riddance! at harawira..
(ed:..this is an example of just how much the right/establishment hate/fear harawira..
..i doubt there would have been a more small-minded editorial piece in this rag..
..for many a long year..
(cont..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/herald-editorial-writer-roughan-osullivan-has-a-final-spitgobgood-riddance-at-harawira/
Why did that editor not sign it? It is not a comment on a blog site, it is an Editorial in the Herald. If it is truly their opinion and not paid-for propaganda, why wouldn’t the writer put their name to it?
Despite what the MSM want you to believe you usually do know the name of the person writing on blogs. It’s pseudonymity here and not anonymity.
It is not on a blog. It is presented as a Herald Editorial and is unsigned. Not even a pseudonym. It is a malicious opinion piece designed to denigrate Hone, shooting him in the back on his way out of the wasps nest. For the Herald to publish that piece of work minus any signature is an act of cowardice, an avoidance of accountability for their own words.
Stop Press:
Annette King is putting herself forward for the Labour Party Leadership. Trevor Mallard will be her campaign manager.
King says she is disgusted with Shearer and Goff for pushing Parker forward as the fall-back should Robertson slip into third in the preferences after Cunliffe and Little.
King says that on the daily “Anything But Co-operative” conference call it had been agreed that a Wellington Region MP was to be the back-up for the faltering Robertson.
King says she has proven leadership skills having driven the successful ABC faction since October 2007 when Helen Clark appointed Cunliffe Health Minister rather than her. King insists that is was very mean of Helen to not give her Health for reasons un-related to the Hawkes Bay.
Troubled Soul………..lol
Karol’s reminder of the Waitakere Festival parallels the National Radio commentary this morning on Dunedin’s Blueskin Bay. Resistance to bog-standard capitalism may not re-emerge in a cohrent nationwide political form for many years. And even local government is regularly gutted by reformation. But communitarian clusters can work. They can build up new leaders. They can find a scope for change and grasp it and make it happen.
They can also burn people out, and are no substitute for national governments. But I think this is where we are now. Politically, we are really starting again.
@ ad.
“..Politically, we are really starting again..”
i wd agree with that..
..int/mana weren’t ‘it’..
..greens weren’t /aren’t ‘it’..
..and labour sure as fucken hell aren’t ‘it’..
..their kow-towing rush to war with national/key..has me finally turning away spitting contempt at them..they are beyond any fucken hope of being a true progressive party..
..they are just a sub-section of a rotting/rotten establishment..
..and i am not sure what question ‘labour’ is the answer to..
..but it sure as hell isn’t what we want/need..
..so..what will be ‘it’..?
and i think i really couldn’t give a flying fuck who leads labour to its’ grave..
..why doesn’t nash stand..?
..at least he is the most honest/open about his rightwing-leanings..
..the others just talk fucken lying/mealy-mouthed mush..
..and labour deserves to become the nz first-like rump-party it will become..
..with of course..their grand-coalition with national (‘to keep the radicals out of power’) being the final nail in their coffin..
..this is labours’ future..
UKIP type of party.
already tried that..their name is act..
..and aside from some serious ongoing success @ troughing on their part..
..that hasn’t worked out that well..
Act isn’t a UKIP type of party
NZ First is, though.
i thought a blend of the two..
..however you slice it..we have already been there/done that..
Yes, you’re right there, BM. Protectionist, xenophobic and nothing without their leader. There was an interesting poll result overnight; despite Ed Miliband being personally unpopular, Labour have a solid 7 point lead over the Tories. UKIP are looking likely to split the vote in many southern Tory seats allowing Labour to win them even on a relatively small vote. That should have the effect of exaggerating the overall number of seats Labour win in comparison to their actual popularity.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/11/labour-lead-over-tories-poll-conservatives-election
And Farage has just ruled out pre-election deals with the Tories to stop that happening.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/11/nigel-farage-rules-out-ukip-election-pact-tories
“..UKIP are looking likely to split the vote in many southern Tory seats allowing Labour to win them even on a relatively small vote…”
pretty much just what the greens just did up and down the country..eh..?
..and what they do every election..
..split the vote..and allow the right to waltz thru into power..
..(but they are polite..i am sure you will be all reassured by the fact their green candidate in ohariu belmont..one tane woodley..who split over 2,500 votes from the progressive bloc..
..allowing dunne to win by just 700 votes..
..well..he is on record at ‘congratulating’ dunne on his victory..
..and i am still waiting for a green to fucken explain why they do this/fuck the progressive bloc..
..each and every election..
“pretty much just what the greens just did up and down the country..eh..?..and what they do every election…split the vote..and allow the right to waltz thru into power..”
That’s just bizarre.
why don’t you go and get/borrow a calculator..
..then have a look at each electorate result..
..and then come back and tell us just how many progressive-bloc defeats are down to that vote-splitting…
..and yes..it is ‘just bizarre’ that the greens continue to do this..
..with no sign/signal of them changing their ways at all..
Bizarre that out of all the reasons for the past three election losses, you would ignore a multitude of contributing factors, yet you choose to point the finger at a couple of thousand voters in epsom and ohariu and the green party for standing candidates, even though they have to in order to participate in constituency debates to push the party vote.
I’m not buying your meme. I look for the motive.
“..even though they have to in order to participate in constituency debates to push the party vote..”
bullshit..!
..go talk to nz first..
..their supporters only have one choice..
..and i wonder how many ‘green’ supporters split their vote..
..and gave a candidate tick to the green candidate..and the party tick o another party..
..a party vote only campaign ensures no ‘green’ votes are wasted in that way..
and the have to ‘participate in constituency debates etc..?
..bullshit..!
..the only people who go to those..are candidates and their supporters..
..and to pretty much nil media coverage..
..no minds are changed..
..that reason to stand candidates is utter bullshit..
..especially when you weigh it up against the devastation wreaked on the progressive bloc..
..by that vote-splitting..
..the progressive bloc should be able to stay in power virtually forever..
..but until they sort that out..and learn how to play the game that is mmp..
..they/we are rooted..
..and the tories/reactionaries..who play mmp like a well-tuned violin..
..will continue to waltz thru the middle..
..and will continue to rule over us..
I bemoaned the lack of cohesion and strategy on the left for a good number of years now, especially around tactical voting and presenting a unified opposition, so playing the outrage/blame card is moot.
Holding the green party responsible for losing those two seats and three elections is small minded little picture stuff. Besides being valid that you can’t get on the podium at candidate meetings if you don’t stand in the first place, the green party did ask for closer electoral cooperation and got rebuffed for their efforts.
So what’s the plan pu? You going to keep slinging mud at the greens because they’re not the party of flakes and pot suckers you fell in love with all those years ago? Or are you going to get stuck in, contribute to the discussion and help build the policy platform and shape the direction the opposition needs to become government in 2017?
“..go talk to nz first..
..their supporters only have one choice..”
What are you claiming here Phil?
You appear to be saying that New Zealand First candidates stood ONLY for List places and there were no electorate candidates.
In fact New Zealand First had a total of 32 candidates of whom 29 stood for electorates and 31 were on the list. There were only 3, including Winnie, who did not stand for an electorate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candidates_in_the_New_Zealand_general_election_2014_by_party#New_Zealand_First
NZ First didn’t field a candidate in Ohariu but at the “meet the candidates meeting” I attended NZ First was represented by the Wellington Central candidate, Hugh Barr.
my bad..
..the general argument against constituency-candidates stands tho’..
Good point PU,I fail to understand how this could keep happening,may we have more intellectual grunt within the so called progressive block,PLEASE.
I wouldn’t like to have a Farage here in NZ, but I can see why he’d appeal to many people.
If Winston was 20 -25 years younger he would have made a great Farage.
He was. He did.
i mean..do/run the checklist..!
..labour want to mine/drill etc..(they are environment-vandals..they are part of our problem..look at their fucken record last time..)
..labour promise to do sweet fuck all about the dire poverty/misery..(at least half-induced/fostered by them..)
..apart from some fiddling around the edges..
..economically..you can barely slide a cigarette-paper between national and labour policies..both are designed to maintain the status quo..however fucked/environmentally-dirty/poverty-sustaining it may be..)
..and now they are tripping over themselves to rush us into yet another long-war..
..far far away on the other side of the planet..
..(and of course labour took us into afghanistan..didn’t that work out well..?..)
..neo-lib labour is as what neo-lib labour does..
Yet you want the Greens to step aside for neoliberal Labour. It makes as much sense to claim that Labour should disband and let Greens and Mana capture the opposition votes. Actually, probably more.
Thanks Ad. You might think about making this into a guest post.
They can also burn people out,..
Three community things of the kind you describe, I’ve blown off just this weekend. And I’ve just come in from sitting in the sun doing absolutely nothing because my neighbour started his petrol hedge cutter on his side of the hedge just where I was leaning aginst it. We usually do it together. A really good neighbour, but not subtle with the hints.
Anyway, you’re right, this is exactly what we are left with now, our own communities. But building up the momentum, getting people on board and keeping on going is sometimes tiring and depressing, so it’s lucky there are those ‘energiser bunny’ types around being irrepressible and generally amazing.
Just saying really. When it works it’s all worth it, and the fact is, for most of us, where we are and the people around that place are our richest and most indispensible resource for dealing with the problems of the immediate future, let alone how things might be a decade from now. Sounds like it’s going really well at Waitati, I’ve long been impressed by what you people have achieved.
A succession of national governments have thrown whole communities to the wolves, not all of them National with a capital N. We have to stop imagining they give a shit and get on with it.
I would say that many of the members of the Andersons Bay-Peninsula Branch of the Labour Party (Dunedin South) have this sensibility. In my view, it is the only way that Labour has a chance of getting out of the Thorndon Bubble and reconnecting with the 1.2M who did not vote.
The Labour Party in Australia, UK and NZ refuse to ‘just say the fucking truth’: about climate change, about resource depletion, about post-peak oil, about oligarchy. And in every one of those countries, the relevance of the Labour Party is declining.
I should add that participation in national politics also burns people out. Badly.
Paul Buchanan calls Key on his warmongering.
.
International security expert Paul Buchanan said the claims were “absurd”. “He’s building a case for war. He’s pulled the beheading imagery out for what I think are spurious purposes.”
Buchanan accused Key of misrepresenting New Zealand’s role in joining the coalition against Isis – although he conceded it was impossible to discount a threat. “There’s no evidence that because you fight against Isis the method of retribution is beheading on the streets of Auckland.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11341133
I have just watched that dick on Q&A interview Key. He would not be a journalists arseole, Just let Key burble on at full throttle. No probing questions like,”you did not say you was thinking of engaging NZ troops before the election” or, “do you think it would put NZ at risk for being a target for terrorism if we engaged our troops ”
Good on Paul Buchanan for questioning the spivs warmongering because no one else will especially the media.
The media in NZ Is owned.
i understand that after parkyns’ second interview..(of ‘petal’ barry..)
..a medical-crew had to be called in to remove parkyns’ lips from barrys’ arse..
Phillip ure@5.1.2 said
“i understand that after parkyns’ second interview..(of ‘petal’ barry..)
..a medical-crew had to be called in to remove parkyns’ lips from barrys’ arse..”
I have just seen this Phillip. Larf, I pissed myself “petal barry” that name will stick
It must be remembered that all announcements from John Key in this regard cannot now be regarded as anything but full blown propaganda.
Nothing that Key says here can be believed.
Nothing.
“Nothing that Key says here can be believed.
Nothing.”
So what’s new?
I think I could do that job,J Key referred to,the problem of my ten o’clock tea break,an the dilemma of staying on job for the only aircraft of the day,coming in at,yes you quest it ten o’clock.what an idiot .
“..what an idiot …”
..no..he thinks we are all idiots..
..i can’t believe how he can just serially lie..
..and the corporate media just shrug their shoulders..
..and never call him on it..
f.f.s..!..if i was calling/predicting that if victorious that key wd have us in this latest american warl a.s.a.p..
..couldn’t those corporate-media clowns see that too..?
..or did they believe key pre-election when he said he wouldn’t be taking us into another war in the middle east..?
..silly them..!..eh..?..will they never learn…?
(and i think keys’ first post-election whopper was his saying that act had not asked for a ministerial position..
..and the dweeb from act saying that yes..he did ask for a ministry..
..anyone got any earlier post-election ones..?..)
Bernard Hickey advocates the Livkng Wage.
Pity 30% of NZers only care about themselves. The selfish who worry about CGT and the price of their rental properties.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11341049
Moved to thread
Economists Dissing Economics
To one of those arbitrary assumptions:
The big problem I have with modern economics is that, as studied in schools and universities, it doesn’t have a purpose. It seems to exist only to make a few people richer. We, as a community, need to change this and state what we want our economy to achieve.
“..5 Lies About Marijuana That Won’t Die Easy..
..We must shred the myths that underwrite prohibition..”
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/5-lies-about-marijuana-wont-die-easy
Reefer madness.
Never tried the stuff but understand the nickname for it is shit just like the article you
copied into your post. Almost ALL the comments agreeing that Pot is OK were from long time users.
well they would be the experts in the area John Shears
actually, the experts would be the long-time observers of the long-time users 🙂
As I think we are….
on this blog…………
Oh now I’m in fucken trouble..eh
.
The Fairfax report today Fears of terror in our own backyard is a prompt to remind ourselves of an inherent bias in Western media, that often infers that the Muslim religion is a problem
The following link is essential viewing: Media Matters for America – Reza Aslan calls out the media for generalization and bigotry when reporting on Muslims.
Reza points out that “Muslim Countries” are not a problem. But repressive regimes in Muslim countries, and in Christian countries, and in Buddhist countries, (and in any country) certainly are.
Mr. Botany (B.)
@ bold brian..
..this is also a relevant backgrounder..
“..Meet Some of America’s Most Dangerous Islamophobes—You Might Be Shocked Who They Are
We’ve been here before: at war with a people overseas while “otherizing” their kin here..”
http://www.alternet.org/belief/meet-some-americas-most-dangerous-islamophobes-you-might-be-shocked-who-they-are
(ed:..and it saddens me to say that bill maher is one of those islamophobes..)
It’s been a rather hectic week.
I’ll be back to provide the facts and evidence which will prove how it is Auckland Council CEO Stephen Town who is making ‘wild and inaccurate’ allegations against me, as I continue to expose how Auckland Council is a ‘Supercity’ for the corporate 1%.
Which is why they’re attempting to neck stamp me as an anti-corruption whistle-blower by trying to sell my freehold home because of unpaid rates which I have withheld, because ratepayers and citizens are not being given the ‘devilish detail’ of where exactly rates monies are being spent.
Penny Bright
you are an inspiration Penny…best wishes…the Council and its ‘commercial sensitivities is the biggest gravy train in the country.
Penny let us know if you need donations to save your home. You done us a huge favour taking down bent Bankie. We owe you for ya good work!
Boldsirbrian,
I have sat by and watched lies and manipulations galore since my first awareness of the cold war, the hype and propaganda never stops, pulled by god knows what human being who’s compass has been corrupted.
It creates conspiracies and you wonder when you here these wild theorists and their conspiracies of army supplies, oil, world domination, Skulls and bones, Bilderberg groups etc and what the heck is real, what’s just plain old stupidity. What is a fabricated conspiracy, what is actually going on.
But Governments like the USA spread so many mistruths , a man can’t find out the truth if it was slapped in his face with a title saying” This is the real truth”.
The thing that drives my depression is the fact that it’s never ending with no way to stop or even change it’s course. I despair at my insignificance to say HEY. WTF! Stop it.
Thanks media, thanks for believing every statement issued by your elected governments without question or investigation. Thanks once again a hole fucking lot.
.
@ Richard Rawshark (11)
Is there a reason why my user name is imbedded in your comment?
Mr. Botany (B.)
Labour should have spurned Dotcom’s party — Little
Labour did and even worked with National to ensure that Hone wouldn’t get back in to TTT.
Except that wasn’t what it was about and Little continuing to spread that lie doesn’t help.
Oh, and the CCCP party, which has a leader doing exactly that, seems to be getting quite a bit of support.
little is a rightwinger..
..he was the head of the most rightwing union in the country..
..the right in labour are really spoilt for choice in this leadership race..
..rarely has a voting bloc been more split..
..and are they all standing..?
..that whole right bloc..?
Cut it out Phil calling Little rightwing. Your brain is too fogged up, go have a cold shower and soap your mouth out while ya at it.
@ skinny..
..show me his/any progressive-creds..
..all he has harked on about is labour ‘appealing to the centre’..
..just more of the same-old/same-old neo-lib bullshit..
..maybe you need to clear yr brain of delusions..eh..?
Well Little listens to the people for starters, working people that is and he has the sense to come clean on crap policy’s like the raising of the retirement age which was a dead duck policy, as was the CGT. Property investment is a sacred cow since too many people got burned investing in the sharemarket.
Labour & the Greens just aren’t Left enough and unfortunately Mana’s leader is too off putting to many Maori & non Maori, it’s not like they attracted the 3/4 million non voter bloc.
What MMP needs to be successful is the dropping of the threshold down to 2 percent and scrapping electorate MP’s completely and empowering local body politics by electing one councilor to represent to parliament.
I believe the campaign should be halve wasted votes, halve the MMP threshold to 2.5%.
so..skinny..
..this is the question andrew little slid past..(answering the questions all around it..)
“..phillip ure 20
12 October 2014 at 3:19 pm
cd u plse detail the specific poverty-busting policies/ideas you wd support..?
..thank you…”
but he’s not a neo-lib/rightwing/fuck-the-poor ratbag…eh..?
Violin Concerto No.4 in F minor – ”The Winter”
Yep Cunliffe and Little- Formidable leaders together.
Bollocks, Phil. The EPMU has moved to the left in recent years, particularly in Little’s time. We’ll see during the election campaign where he stands politically, but I’m picking he is to the left of all the other candidates. Not that the others are right wing anyway. Some tend to the centre, but that doesn’t make them right wing per se.
“..Not that the others are right wing anyway. ..”
..yeah..right..
..and labour hasn’t been in the thrall of neo-lib/fuck-the-poor policies for the last three decades..eh..?
..a thrall they are yet to shed..
More to politics than poor people.
The current system works well for the vast majority of people, it ain’t changing any time soon.
It does when the ‘centre’ is radical right-wing.
I know what you mean, Draco, but the centre is still the centre. While the perceived normal has swung toward the right, left and right are still the political poles. Being on the right of the LP does not necessarily mean right wing in the wider political spectrum. Part of the reason that the me me me meme dominates at the moment is because of political ignorance. Perpetuating that ignorance by misplacing individuals and their beliefs is not helpful. The centre is the centre.
In the fifties, sixties and seventies, it could be argued that the consensus was skewed to the left. These things change and this current alignment will not last forever.
When the world was more prosperous.
Actually, they’re pretty much meaningless dribble now as the Left wing hold to the same economic orthodoxy as the RWNJs. Even in the 1950s/60s the Left were all about protecting capitalism from capitalism rather than bringing about a social and economic shift away from that failed system.
The real problem is that we don’t have an economic system but a financial system pretending to be an economic system and both Left and Right hold to it religiously.
Yep +100. A debt based financial and monetary system pretending to be an economy.
Spot on, Draco. A financial system pretending.
“radical right-wing.”
Jesus you’re full of shit Draco. Radical right wing? fucks sake…
Pinochet was radical right…NZ has nothing like that. You fucking muppet
Just because we don’t have any death squads here doesn’t mean that we’re not radical right-wing.
You’re the fucking muppet.
ha ha ha …..radical right wing you’re battier than Trav.
No right to collective bargaining or smoko – radical right wing.
For-profit education – radical right wing.
Criminal negligence on the environment – radical right wing.
“Ratfuckers” – radical right wing.
Ubiquitous mass surveillance – totalitarian too.
Death squads are hardly a “radical” idea – right wing, the result of cretinhood and malice, by all means, but radical?
🙄 😆
For fucks sake. Anyone who truly understands what “left” and “right ” means knows that no one in Labour even comes close to being left wing. Havn’t for nearly 30 years. The true left wingers in the Labour Party left in the 80s and have never gone back.
“Labour did and even worked with National to ensure that Hone wouldn’t get back in to TTT.”
Yep – in some ways the dour, gray faced leadership choices they have now is a just reward for them – eenie, meanie, oh fuck it these stooges are all moe.
It’s funny how that line about Nat/Lab cooperation keeps getting repeated despite the total lack of evidence for it.
Just out of interest, how much do you think Hone contributed to the loss of TTT? 10%, 20%? Maybe more? To paraphrase an earlier comment, Hone was doomed the moment he signed up with KDC. He ceded control of the campaign and it cost him and mana dearly. There’s the problem, right there. A fatal strategic error, months before the campaign really got underway.
Sure Hone gets to take the blame for the result – how much of it? Quite a lot I think but I also believe the coalition of the anti-Hone/anti-Mana, comprising all those that backed kd, including labour, NZF, the maori party and the gnats, contributed too. I think that if KDC hadn’t come along that coalition would still have formed and maybe even achieved the same result. I’m really of the opinion that getting Hone and Mana out of parliament was the biggest win for the right on a night of big wins and a goal they had well before IMP was conceived and/or formed.
AFAIK both Harawira and IMP’s vote increased in TTT compared to 2011. So when you ask what % of Labour winning TTT is Hawawira’s fault, I’m perplexed. Do you mean that he should have forseen Labour, National, NZF and Mp all taking deliberate action to keep him out of parliament?
I’m not suggesting that those parties worked together in the way you imply. They didn’t have to. The opportunity arose for them all independently to take actions that worked in concert on a common target. No conspiracy, just a bunch of arseholes playing the power game to suit themselves.
Can’t expect much else from the other 3, but Labour should be ashamed of themselves. And don’t give me that crap about how Mana/IMP should have approached Labour earlier in the year to try and do a deal, unless you have some (any) evidence that Labour would have been willing (all the evidence to date suggests they wouldn’t).
“So when you ask what % of Labour winning TTT is Hawawira’s fault, I’m perplexed”
Yep, that’s pretty reflective of the blinkered reading some folk have of what happened in TTT, weka. To repeat myself, Hone lost the moment he shook KDC’s hand. Nobody in Labour made him do it. So, seriously, how much do you think Hone contributed to his own downfall?
“Do you mean that he should have forseen Labour, National, NZF and Mp all taking deliberate action to keep him out of parliament? ”
You mean like having an election? Standing candidates? That sort of thing? Yeah, I’m pretty sure Hone knew he wouldn’t be running unopposed.
As for a deal, it was up to Hone to make the approach. If he wanted something from Labour, he had to start the process and present a case for the deal. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Bargaining 101.
@ TRP
I am starting to view Labour’s stance toward Mana as reflective of the blinkered reading some folk in New Zealand have toward the serious issues of marginalization and loss of social mobility that comes with the increasing wealth disparity that is occurring in our society and which Mana speaks up strongly about.
Act gets parliamentary representation despite getting less than half of the votes that IMP got, whereas IMP ends up with no representation at all.
This difference is not solely due to Harawira’s choice to join with KDC and no matter how many times the ‘blame it on KDC factor’ is repeated, won’t make it the sole cause of what occurred in TTT.
Is what occurred in TTT solely IMP’s loss? Or the left wing’s too?
Could Labour have been in government by now had they taken a more inclusive approach toward all potential support parties?
Could the Left have been in government by now had they responded to the cheap-shit corporate spin being broadcast throughout this country all year by countering it, rather than running with it?
How many people didn’t vote IMP out of fear that Hone may not win the seat?
How many of these people shifted their vote to another leftwing party and how many of them ended up not voting at all?
Blaming it all on ‘the KDC factor’ bypasses these [above] types of important questions that need to be answered if the leftwing in this country want to sharpen up their act and gain power.
I suggest to you that responding to someone by implying they are blinkered is just the type of attitude that gets the left going nowhere – and fast.
I’m not blaming on the KDC factor, I’m blaming it on Hone. He made at least two poor strategic decisions; not trying to get an understanding from Labour in TTT was one, KDC was the other. He had options, and chose the wrong ones. KDC, however, was the killer, something that Dotcom himself recognised immediately post election.
Anyhoo, mana are history now. I wonder if Laila will get a book out of it?
Don’t be so quick to write the last chapter while the story is still unfolding, mate.
It serves his purposes to render the Mana movement invisible.
Like the rest of the underclass, underemployed and the precariat.
“not trying to get an understanding from Labour in TTT was one”
lol – that was a labour mistake and look where it has got them – another 3 years in opposition, disarray in the leadership, distrust from the public, ridicule across the board and still the unbelievable ability from some, who support the Party, to even understand why it all happened.
Mana hasn’t died and it will rise again, stronger – but labour? Oh deary me I think the slippery slope is too steep and too slippery for those folk.
@marty mars
Well said.
log in the eye and all that.
Ho ho ho. Labour are still in parliament. We are still the leading opposition party and will lead the next progressive government whenever it is formed. Mana? First step to a future would be admitting the mistakes made in the campaign.
Yeah labour are real power-brokers 🙂
Yep a few mistakes indeed – luckily Mana as a new movement with the knowledge that it takes time to build, time to grow and time to learn from mistakes.
but you can’t really say that about labour can you – I mean the same mistakes made over and over again is the definition of what again?
Mana didn’t lose the election for the left – how about dealing with that cold hard fact.
Actually, marty, I think it is arguable that mana did cost the left the election. KDC dominated the airwaves to the point where LP, Greens and even NZF policy barely got a mention. And the right played on the possibility of Labour needing to do a deal with mana to generate a negative vibe around the alternative government.
Anyway, it won’t be an issue at the next election.
Well that is definitely a line – that Mana cost the left the election. I don’t agree because I think that minimises labour and their ability to electioneer – I just don’t think they are as useless as that (but perhaps the result puts paid to my generosity of spirit). Responsibility must rest on labour – they have the history, the people, the leadership of the opposition – Mana and KDC supplied plenty of opportunity and labour squandered it, mainly imo due to lack of courage, lack of vision and lack of left wing cred – the electorate didn’t/doesn’t trust labour and its leaders and I am sad about that, they’d rather slimeball key and that must stick in the throat like a chicken bone.
get over it mate – rebuild your party just as we will rebuild the Mana Movement.
“Well that is definitely a line – that Mana cost the left the election.”
You may very well believe that, marty, but I’ll stick to it being arguable. Anyhoo, good luck with the rebuilding. Have a chat to Laila about how the Alliance rebuilt itself … oh, wait.
yeah all those alliance supporters and workers, politicians and hanger-ons just dissipated into thin air never to be seen or heard from again…
I will wish you good luck with your rebuild too but could be a humpty dumpty situation and the wall was quite high.
Fair call. We’ve all got a long way to go, I guess.
Not in your lifetime. Labour are terminal in so many ways. Look at the candidates for leader. Four white middle class, middle aged men. Now thats really going to appeal to the average kiwi voter.
The MISTAKE was of Labour by not supporting Hone and IMP in TT.
Kelvin Davies did have a fairly high place, 18th, on the list. There was absolutely no need to go all out to win the electorate. Labour should have simply asked for the party vote instead of trying to unseat Hone. This is MMP, not FFP. Labour needs to work smarter on their election winning plans, at least in crucial electorates.
As I said, Labour made a very stupid ego-driven strategic mistake, won the battle and lost the election war. How dumb is that! Idiots!
Electorates are FPP. Hone came second because he simply wasn’t popular enough. He didn’t get enough votes. The people of Te Tai Tokerau had a democratic choice and they chose Labour’s candidate.
And if was so obvious what Labour had to do, why didn’t Hone say something? Laila? KDC? You know why? Because Hone’s strategy was to get into parliament and vote issue by issue. He wanted to be on the cross benches. That was a clear message to Labour. Ok, when Laila got involved, she started talking a bit more sense of how things might look post election. But again, no approach to Labour. How dumb is that? As you say, Idiots!
btw, Labour’s strategy was a winner. 6 out of 7 maori seats says the LP got that strategy pretty much perfect.
labour only got those seats because maori party/mana split the vote..
..you really are the one for selecting facts to fit yr story..
..and labour tanking cost the progressive bloc the election victory..
..have you not been able to work out/accept that yet..?
..(you blame mana for labour tanking from 35% to 25%..?..you really are seriously in denial..)
..yeah..’Labour’s strategy was a winner.’..eh..?
..you’d probably be on yr own claiming that..eh..?
I’m convinced that Labour see Mana as a more dangerous opposition to them than NAct. Mana is always going to be there, pointing out how Labour policies hurt the poor, the environment, and race relations. They show people that Labour is not what it pretends to be. Labour do not like this at all, and will do what they can to keep posing as representatives of the workers.
TRP’s glee at seeing Labour getting six of the Maori seats but remaining in opposition just convinces me more.
BOOOOOM!
In the same way the most vociferous enemies of the Occupy Movement were not Republicans – but Democrats, who did not want to be shown up for the upper middle class big corporate leaning party that they really are.
@ blue leopard..
..+ 1..and then some..
Well said BL. These things need to be said.
Sorry TRP but that’s bad faith commenting.
“Yep, that’s pretty reflective of the blinkered reading some folk have of what happened in TTT, weka. To repeat myself, Hone lost the moment he shook KDC’s hand. Nobody in Labour made him do it. So, seriously, how much do you think Hone contributed to his own downfall?”
I’m not blinkered, I understand the argument about KDC’s toxicity well enough. I’m asking you to explain the mechanism, given his and the party vote INCREASED. All you’ve done is repeat what you said before, which is your assertion that it’s all Harawira’s fault, but you haven’t said HOW.
“Do you mean that he should have forseen Labour, National, NZF and Mp all taking deliberate action to keep him out of parliament? ”
You mean like having an election? Standing candidates? That sort of thing? Yeah, I’m pretty sure Hone knew he wouldn’t be running unopposed.
Don’t be a dick, you know that’s not what I meant.
“As for a deal, it was up to Hone to make the approach. If he wanted something from Labour, he had to start the process and present a case for the deal. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Bargaining 101.”
blah blah blah, heard it all before and it still’s just a line. Until you put up some kind of evidence, or even theory, that Labour were open to such a thing and how it might have worked, it’s just more Hone bashing.
Sorry, weka, but if you can’t get past the basics of electoral politics, then nothing I say will make a difference. SFW that Hone’s vote went up! It didn’t go up by enough. And if you can’t even except that Hone might be somewhat to blame, then you really do operate in a world of your own. 98.5% of voters who made a choice, rejected Mana/Imp. Hone chose that platform. He ran on it. He lost on it. He’s got to take the responsibility.
When NZF dipped out in 2008, Winston didn’t sulk. He organised.
Of course Harawira has responsibility on this. Stop putting words in my mouth. You’re just reducing a complex situation down to a very convenient slogan: KDC evil, Harawira fucked up. And that takes into account none of the issues that need to be understood by the left other than Labour will cut off its nose to spite its face and everyone else be damned. Still no explanation from you on either of the points I raised, so yep, Hone bashing.
No Hone bashing here. Just simple logic. He made mistakes, he got punished electorally. At some point, I hope the penny drops for you.
spin spin spin. I thought you were better than that.
Facts, facts, facts. What bit are finding tricky?
That you are stating opinion as fact and refusing to back it up.
Oh, dear. Are the facts not enough? Quick question … is Hone still an MP? Or his losing the seat just a matter of opinion?
Neither Hone or KDC have been “sulking” – that’s a pretty unfair characterisation.
As for giving out lessons on taking responsibility – perhaps it’s the Labour Party front bench who need a few.
5 out of 6 Kiwis of voting age rejected Labour. Not sure what moral high ground you think you are standing on, but it’s not that high.
@ CR…..yes this is why Labour must get back to grassroots membership democracy …otherwise it is just an oligarchy of middle class careerists.
..and not only former Labour voters, but also potential new Labour voters, know this is a contradiction in Labour values and what Labour is supposed to stand for .
My own son, a new blue collar worker , was going to vote Labour but changed his mind after what he saw Labour doing to undercut and defeat Hone and Internet /Mana! ( blue collar workers are not stupid and they listen to the radio and the likes of Willie Jackson )
I did that too!…and for the same reason. As I am not in TT, gave my electorate vote to Labour and party vote to IMP.
P.S : U sure, u ain’t ma mum? 😀
@Clemgeopin…no I am NOT your Mother!…my son gave both votes to the Greens
( Plunket the radio hack right winger put my son off Dotcom…and he was put off Winnie for the same reasons as being put off Labour ie the ganging up on Hone and Int/Mana in TT Electorate)…dont know if you follow that logic but it makes sense in a roundabout way)
…however i gave my local vote to local Green and after much thought because i thought they needed it the most …my Party vote to Int/MANA.
..and I am still peeved about my vote for Int/Mana NOT being counted (thankyou Kelvin Davis!…and the other bastards who ganged up on Hone !…who is a true man of the tangata whenua…”people of the land”)
….and thanks for losing the bloody Election for the Left …you will be remembered
Sorry, CV, but Hone has been sulking. Though he’s not alone. Look at weka’s efforts today FFS! Time to move on, Hone gambled and lost. Mana are now in the same dusty attic as Social Credit and the Alliance because of mana’s own failings.
Yep, I doubt Mana will be back, Harawira doesn’t have the work ethic or commitment.
You do realise that I don’t even vote IMP. I’m not sulking, I’m calling you on yoru bullshit (still can’t explain your position, right?).
Already explained it. And you don’t have to be a mana voter to sulk. Apparently.
oh, good, you can link to the explanation then, thanks.
Scroll up. Start reading. Even better, start comprehending.
hone does have some responsibility..yes..
..but not the bullshit you are spinning..
..int/mana as a concept was a sound idea..
..it fell in the execution..for a variety of reasons..
..and part of that must be down to labour going hellbent to kneecap harawira..
(and funny story..!..has anyone else noticed how labour..(the neighbourhood bully?) ..talk about harawira/mana the way they spoke of the greens for so long..?..
..ignorant fucken fools..that they are..just repeating the same mistakes..over and over again..
.and meanwhile the right laugh their way into power..)
..and that trp celebrates/sneers at the defeat of harawira/mana..(whose mp’s wd have supported cunliffe/labour..(!)
..couldn’t be more symptomatic of all that is wrong with labour..
..(and hones’ responsibilities..?..i wasn’t on the inside of the campaign..but from out here i feel he did a totally crap job of selling mana polices..
..and that he kinda vanished after his car accident didn’t help..
..basically..harre carried the campaign from that day on..
..but the original internet/mana idea/concept was a sound one..
..it totally failed in the execution of that concept..and the campaign seemed to be a strategy-free/wrong zone..)
+100% …weka @ Colonial Rawshark and philip ure…
just to let you know there is someone out there reading what you say and agreeing whole-heartedly
imo Labour ‘s strategy was insular and short sighted and unbecoming , especially in regards to Hone and Int/MANA …and it cost them the Election of of a Left wing coalition govt …( amongst other reasons )
Throughout the election Labour was gearing its messaging to the top 20% “middle classes”. It should be pretty obvious how well that went.
@ colonial..
“..It should be pretty obvious how well that went..”
try telling them that..
..the constant bleats from most leadership candidates that ‘labour must move to the centre’..
..just proves they have learnt absolutely fucken nothing from their defeat..
Yeah, no sneering here, Phil. Cold, hards facts is all.
I think really that the New Zealand public should take responsibility for their monumental stupidity, more than anyone involved with Internet Mana not named Jevan Goulter
@ draco..
“…They didn’t like the idea of a very wealthy individual writing out a massive cheque, funding a campaign that was really about his self-interest and a bunch of other people signing up to it..”
isn’t that the definition/story of gibbs and act..?
I thought Little was repeating what the voters were thinking and to paraphrase… they went for the line that Dotcom tried to influence the outcome of the election by writing out big cheques. I would add to that they also fell for the line that Dotcom is a dangerous criminal. From my experiences prior to the election that is exactly what the majority of voters were thinking.
We really should get a Labour caucus who doesn’t fall for and reinforce National media framing.
+1
And which would be why Little continuing to spread the lie doesn’t help.
Yes can’t believe Little is saying Labour should have been clearer about IMP.
They were 100% clear about that and that was clearly communicated.
+1
I just don’t ‘get’ Labour’s aim to marginalize IMP – in particular Mana.
It seems to me, (and from personal experience) that the Mana Party is the party easiest to raise interest in voting from a section of the people who don’t make a habit of voting i.e. the most disenfranchised people in the country. Not only the most disenfranchised, though, also the most cynical ‘voting makes no difference’ types.
Having Labour marginalize Mana effectively neutralizes the ability to motivate people to vote (via Mana) and the perception that ‘we will never be listened to’ ends up sticking.
In fact, I am beginning to develop the perception that those people in the most difficult conditions in this country will continue to be marginalized and this perception is growing in me because of the way Labour continues to bad mouth Mana and effectively marginalize the people they represent.
Let’s face it, some people are never going to vote for a party as mainstream as Labour and I would like to see Labour being far more supportive of parties that may bring in the votes of those who are the most marginalized in this country, not marginalize them further.
The purpose of Labour is to squeeze the life out of any truly left wing political party. (Not my original thought, but puts things in sharp perspective).
That does seem to be their main purpose now. It certainly doesn’t appear to be about doing what’s right for NZ and the world.
Where is the fucking perspective is my question. The age of liquid fossil fuels is mostly over in the next 25 years: i.e. in less than one generation. Climate change effects will be critical within 50 years i.e. in less than 2 generations.
We are running a world where todays 10 year olds are guaranteed to be seriously screwed.
@ C R (& DTB)
I have a personal ‘policy’ of being slow to agree with cynical critiques – however in this instance I have been pretty patient.
Having bided my time and observed, it is starting to look that way with Labour.
My preference was to view them at having appalling strategy, yet even this excuse is starting to seem weak.
Over the last few weeks, at some stage, someone was recounting how Labour had squeezed the Alliance out of existence too (wish I could find that comment) – that comment certainly influenced my view on this matter.
+100
Mana is the most socialist of all parties as it works for the interests of the poorest of the poor, and the low income marginalised people. Michael Savage had said that Labour believes in socialism as it is applied Christianity. Mana comes close to that aspiration in its housing and poverty policies.
Labour was scared of National’s attacks and sheepishly, unfairly, stupidly and cowardly shunned Internet-Mana. Fools!
I Hope this stupidity of Labour will not continue.
Had Labour supported IMP, they would have had 3 to 5 MPs and Today, we would most probably have had a Labour led coalition with a progressive government in place in NZ and Key would have been somewhere over in Hawaii. A missed opportunity for all.
Clem…+100
Oh right, so Little is just like all those other idiot wannabe Labour leaders getting in on the hate-on-Mana bandwagon. Is there anyone in Labour that actually wants to cultivate the left?
That just confirms my opinion of Little as a class collaborator, moving to the right at full steam ahead. It would be better for unions to sponsor members through Law School if they need lawyers, rather than getting student union bureaucrats.
News flash ” English has new idea for solving poverty”
Tommorow English announces the reason for poverty is the poor, After careful analysis of the statistics he can say for sure the blame lays squarely with the poor and if their was less of them their would be less poverty.
John Armstrong agreed and has called for David Cunliffe’s resignation for not thinking of it first.
National will formulate a policy chaired by previous National prime minister of every chair, Chairwoman of the century jenny Shipley to formulate a progressive policy to shift the poor off poor.
Paula Bennet has confirmed more security at Winz offices will stop the deranged poor, coming to state their poorness, saving valuable statistic space which could be used to promote National and dish dirt on it’s enemies. Anyone who thinks criticising the governments feely, do goody policies, well may want to remember the public embarrassment I will enact upon them.
Signs of the times.
My understanding is that, since most overseas jihadists come from poor and marginalised sections of society, Key is planning to round up NZ’s poor and send them off en masse to Iraq to fight ISIS terrorists.
Key apparently believes that the best way to fight poverty is to send the poor to fight each other. This will hopefully result not only in defeating terrorism but also in ending poverty once and for all.
He is currently busy putting the finishing touches to this policy as he is afraid that it may appear “odd” to some people.
Cogito, in historical terms sending off the poor to fight one’s enemies is called recruitment into the army. Who are the bulk of the armed forces of democracies without compulsory national conscription?
The army has always been a way ahead out of poverty, with training, steady work and income, a pension and social status, clothing, food and shelter.
The bastard thing about conscription is that the non-poor had to work pretty hard to avoid it and the attendant risk of getting shot at when conscripted- so you had deferred conscription for the middle and upper classes at university, the national guard as a safe alternative as practiced by George Bush or you had prolonged periods overseas avoiding the draft.
There were always the gullible and the sociopathic in the middle and upper classes who wanted to go to war, for adventure, patriotism and social acceptability as well.
I know…. which was the reason for my comment! 🙂
From Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept:
“CITIZENFOUR, the new film by Intercept co-founding editor Laura Poitras, premiered this evening at the New York Film Festival, and will be in theaters around the country beginning October 24. Using all first-hand, real-time footage, it chronicles the extraordinary odyssey of Edward Snowden in Hong Kong while he worked with journalists, as well the aftermath of the disclosures for the NSA whistleblower himself and for countries and governments around the world.
The film provides the first-ever character study of Snowden and his courageous whistleblowing, contains significant new revelations about all of these events, and will undoubtedly be discussed for years to come. But one seemingly banal — yet actually quite significant — revelation from the film is worth separately highlighting: In July of this year, Snowden’s long-time girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, moved to Moscow to live with him”.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/10/10/narrative-destroyed-edward-snowdens-girlfriend-lindsay-mills-moved-moscow-live/
Certainly a film to look out for.
Looks like its gonna be a stunner. And another NSA whistleblower even more SENIOR than Snowden was? Amazing
Colonial RS @14.1……………I have wondered about a film of the book DP’s. This might be something that the NZ public watch and start to understand what has been going on.
Wouldn’t want to try it on less than $1M to $2M of funding, at a guess.
Trailer and a couple of backgrounders.
http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/10/6960099/edward-snowden-laura-poitras-documentary-citizenfour-trailer
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/20/holder-secrets
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/edward-snowden-new-yorker-festival-111808.html
@ joe90
🙂
well andrew little just blew it pumping nat dirty politics re dotcom
Lose him asap.
where?
s’alright I found it.
http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/thenation/interview-labour-mp-andrew-little-2014101112
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/labour-should-have-spurned-dotcoms-party-Andrew-Little-th-163808
I didn’t think it was that bad and it certainly was NOT Dirty Politics (DP isn’t being mean or undercutting political rivals publicly. It might be a fucked thing to do, but it’s not DP).
He refused to answer Owen’s question about KDC being toxic, and instead framed the issue around many people being incomfortable about a wealthy man writing a check to influence politics to suit himself. He’s actually right about the first bit (remember how the Business Round Table anti-MMP backfired?). I don’t believe that KDC was solely motivated by his potential extradiction, but I can see that many people will believe that it’s a large part of his motivation. What is Labour supposed to do about that? Good luck btw with finding a Labour leader who will be open to building a relationship with IP or Mana.
Having said that, it does pose some real problems for Labour. My question for Little this afternoon might be, come 2017, if IP or Mana or IMP hold seats and are the make or break for Labour forming govt, will you choose the opposition benches or choose one of those parties’ support on C and S?
Rock and hard place.
Do you notice how National confidently partners with the most extreme and inexperienced of parties in Parliament and gets away with it?
Hone and Laila are experienced Parliamentarians ffs. Labour needs to get over itself.
yes, and it’s possible that the MPs and staffers in Labour feel too uncomfortable with IMP and thus can’t see how to work with them in ways that assauge the general public’s fears. Maybe some members too.
Or, in fact, anyone.
Little seems to be open to teh GP.
Not great. He’s already forgotten that he needs to be talking to the membership, not to the top 20% middle class.
its worse than that. not only has that 20% muddle class been lost, but also the growing precariat – which is perhaps his (and Labour’s) worst sin of all – especially when they think they have a Divine right to continue with that Godawful expression ‘Brand Labour’. Not many on the political “left mainstream” seem to talk about the precariat these days.
ah well – if they’re allowed to, they’ll have as their legacy being responsible for the demise of NZ Labour.
Just caught up with the weekend Herald and see yet again they are telling Cunliffe to go away. Makes me even more determined to vote for him.
+100 Westiechick.. “Makes me even more determined to vote for him” [Cunliffe]
( btw..i might be related to you…birds of a feather and all that)
Me too, Westiechick!
Was the NZ Airforce training for war with Syria when the shook Auckland with their bombs on Kaipara beach in June 2014?
No.
laugh-out-loud moment..on tv3 news..
..rightwing former labour president mike williams.
..’parker is the front-runner’..
..this is a follow-up to his:..’robertson is the front-runner’..
..and his:..’little is the front-runner’..
..and of course his usual:..’cunliffe must resign!’..
..’pundit’ as moveable-feast..eh..?
..heh..!
..feckin’ idjit..!
Perhaps all these front runners will trip each other up and Cunliffe will win from behind.
Concise as ever Phil. Williams is an absolute idjit alright. And he looks evil to boot.
…well that is the effect of having kept too much company with Hooton…it ruins your looks
Where would I find the figures…as to how many people who were registered to vote but didn’t in the last election?
Someone on another thread mentioned Michael Joseph Savage and how Labour was a christian party because those are its values, feed the poor, do good to others etc.
If Labour were to reclaim those historical basics it would do a lot to pull in the average voter.
Labours leaders need to endorse honesty, charity, even anger as in the chucking the moneychangers tables, as a weapon against the pro-rich scheming of TeamKey.
It’s not just feed the poor, it’s also how to move away from a ‘me’ society and public good as in transport, pollution etc.
Labour need to reclaim their differences to Nats, and can the similarities. So no to deep-sea drilling (polluting) and Kiwis to Iraq.
Stop hunting the middle-ground and stand on core principles. And oppose Key at every turn so there’s a clear choice between them.
Yes kiwi!!!!!…Couldn’t agree more..True Labour.There is too little difference..and all those people who couldn’t even be bothered to vote…did that because there isn’t any party that represents them.
yes…
but there will be no opposition to Dear Leader
First…..over there Mr. D. Cunliffe….and he should
then oh there….Mr. Parker and he should….
and then oh my Mr. Robertson and he should
and then my oh my Mr. Little and he should…
and did we say that Mr. Cunliffe should just spontaneously combust?
and then after the election
mr. whomeverhasonetheleadershipofthelabourparty should…..insert blank.
all that rubbish waste of time, but no one to put up an opposition to Dear Leader.
Bread and Circuses…..comrades, bread and circuses.
What a load of horse shit.
If Labour followed your advice they’d be sub 20 at the next election.
I assume you’re addressing me.
I also assume you don’t vote Labour, but it intrigues me that your answer is quite vehement.
It would be nice to know the reasons.
Don’t bother. BM is a right wing troll trying his hardest not to get banned.
National is popular because it listens to the voters and acts upon that.
Labour is unpopular because it doesn’t listen to the voter but instead thinks the voter is stupid and tries to force upon them what Labour perceives to be right and truthful.
What Labour thinks is good is irrelevant, it’s what the voter thinks is good is what is important, National gets that, Labour does not.
That’s why Labour is failing.
BM…you and Nactional and Slater and Hooton are full of hot steaming ….. …. !
You can fool some of the people some of the time ( this time maybe with the help of DIRTY TRICKS and DIRTY POLITICS and Tony Abbott…the mad monk waving the plastic sword)
…but you can’t fool ALL of the people ALL of the TIME !
NEXT TIME!!!
No they don’t. They don’t even give an impression of listening to the people. Our assets got sold against what the people wanted.
National exploits peoples gullibility and greed to get what they want which is a) bad for our country and b) bad for the majority of people voting National. There’s nothing to proud of when National are scamming the entire country.
Well, BM….I cant afford horse shit due to cutbacks, so your horse shit will just have to do. I would rather be True to Labours principles which have been lost in the melee of lets mimic National or those that get confused with Greens/Labour/Tartan.We need to get back to core values, and engage and electrify those that didn’t t Vote Labour for whatever reason, yet dislike National…And engage those feelings and passions .Then at the next election we wont be worried about your sub figures as a majority will suffice…, regardless of the leader.Then I may be able to afford more of your selfie horse shit.