“The truth of corporate journalism, and the great irony of its obsession with ‘fake news’, is that it is itself utterly fake. What could be more obviously fake than the idea that Truth can be sold by billionaire-owned media dependent on billionaire-owned advertisers for maximised profit? ” http://www.medialens.org/
Everyday on RNZ the pundits would talk up this narrative, that did not actually exist in any meaningful way…were they propagating fake news? or just trying to make our little election seem more exciting and intriguing than it was?
Either way they were certainly guilty of creating the news instead of reporting on news.
The “labour coalition” Government must now move swiftly to ‘neutralise ‘ this elitist corporate driven baised media activity, and provide us with a fully public funded commmercial free media for presentation of all views for all people on their government publically funded platforms, that will finally again provide a balanced fair media service that will in many cases show this current media simply as an unreliable and un-trustworthy source of news and current affairs.
“News & current affairs fit to feed a healthy democracy.”
“…..or just trying to make our little election seem more exciting and intriguing than it was?”
Exciting news – (fake or otherwise) sells.
“a fully public funded commercial-free media for presentation of all views for all people on their government publically funded platforms” (cleangreen) makes sense.
Bernie made a stir, Jeremy took it further and Jacinda attained the toe-hold. Now its up to all of us to keep the vision untarnished and run with the ball.
What I find particularly pernicious about the whole “fake news” bullshit – well there are a couple of things.
1. Proclaiming (for example) RT is ‘fake news’ leaves the field in the sole possession of slanted liberal publications.
2. Dismissing those who frequent well funded and popular right wing conspiratorial outlets out of hand, simply means the influential message and the weird logic of those outlets isn’t being challenged. (And a lot of people are getting their info and understandings from such places)
3. A belief in so-called “fake news” allows liberal media to peddle their own propaganda as more truthful and trustworthy – on the accepted basis that all others are “fake”.
4. The accusation of “fake news” (if broadly accepted as a legitimate ‘argument’) is a powerful mechanism enabling the development of ‘correct’ thought and opinion.
Don’t know how well I’ve articulated my thoughts there (or kind of repeated myself). But essentially, it’s why I’ll tend to insist that all sources are producing propaganda and there is no line that demarcates “propaganda” and “fake”.
Yeah nah when they deliberately lie and present falsehoods to generate heat it is fake news.
Defend rt or the righties or whoever, blame the libs the neo libs the msm the gummy bears the weaklings – for what? Balance – this from a revolutionary!!!
Fake news is real bill. I do agree that fake news is a form of propaganda.
Yeah nah when they deliberately lie and present falsehoods to generate heat it is fake news.
So when media reported WMD to get people behind the bombing and invasion of Iraq for example? Or when media reported that viagra was being issued to Libyan soldiers so they could rape en-masse? Or when the media peddled a catalogue of falsehoods through it’s reporting on Syria?
These things are the same type of “fake news” as the “fake news” you’re referring to?
The rest of your comment is strange projection and weirdness.
1: That’s because RT makes the liberal media look outstanding in comparison.
2: There’s a line where challenging a message with reasoned debate is still futile and actually gives the right wing conspiracy nuts credibility that they don’t deserve. Like the liberal media giving AGW a “balanced” view by putting deniers on equal footing with actual experts.
3: See point 1. If fake news wasn’t so utterly shit, the liberal media would not be the better option.
4: Some opinions and thoughts are just plain wrong.
1. Given that you’ve said you won’t so much as watch a link to an rt piece (and I did only give rt as an example) I suspect your number 1 is really just you indicating that Liberal media accords with your general believes and values.
2. Debating with conspiracy nuts on conspiracies is futile, But understanding their (usually) right wing non-conspiratorial arguments – the sources for them – means they can be engaged. And engagement loosens the hold of toxic ideologies.
2. 1Two camps – liberal and right wing – always dismissing one another out of hand won’t end well for liberals. Neither will it end well for the left (which is nowhere near as well resourced as either liberal or right wing outlets and has nothing like the media penetration of either).
1: You go ahead and suspect that, because if my opinion on RT and decision to no longer waste my time with it was actually based on a reasonably accurate observation of the qualitative differences between RT/Fox and other media, your position would look a bit silly.
2: how’s that working out for you? Converted any neonazis lately?
3: no, it’s not.
4: What’s your opinion on Nazi-themed pedophilia? Should we have a round-table discussion on the arguments for and against, a couple of Nazi-NAMBLA representatives stating their position, with a couple of opponents on the other side, and a tie-wearing moderator keeping everyone civil?
Or should we keep debating whether AGW exists, one oil-company shill vs one actual climatologist, every sunday afternoon at 6pm?
A revised TPPA could compromise many other things many of us wanted from a left wing government. If the underlying neoliberal MO remains in tact, then it remains a massive concern for me.
There are some policies and issues where there is room for compromise. Others, not so much.
I do strongly welcome the development of RNZ and public service media, after 9 years of being undermine and fund-frozen by NACT.
A revised TPPA could compromise many other things many of us wanted from a left wing government. If the underlying neoliberal MO remains in tact, then it remains a massive concern for me.
The ministerial statement released by the TPPA-11 has a catchy new branding for the deal: the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). No easy slogans there! But isn’t it interesting how something so toxic can simply be relabelled ‘progressive’?
My guess is because they are for “exports and trade”, without understanding that this doesn’t automatically help most people. TPP being an example of a deal that is mostly about growing the rights of the already rich, while doing little for ordinary people.
Labour taking a different path is up to its members forcing their leaders to take a different path and that doesn’t seem to be on the cards. The closest that they’ve come so far is David Cunliffe who then got massively white-anted by the rest of the Labour caucus. And the caucus still don’t seem to like their members giving direction to the party.
It raised more alarm bells with me and it was already getting noisier …
I feel like we’re being sold (!) a Government that sounds much more progressive and principled than it really is. Time will tell, maybe … Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose?
We’re being pacified with ‘stable’ language and ‘relentless positivity’ and the issues are framed such that we fall into a hypnosis-like state in which we are willing to accept almost anything.
I voted for change and for a Government that would govern based on core values that are not negotiable. I did not get what I’d hoped for but it’s too early to see how much less it is compared to what I’d hoped for. But I have not given up hope!
Pragmatism is the silent slayer of dreams and imagination and slowly kills off our creativity; hope keeps it alive!
I am not sure what Labour party voters thought they were going to get that is different from a labour Govt that is adherent to traditiona leconomics (the one that has failed so many for decades), is so scared of upsetting “business” it bends over backward to bring in things it likes ahead of addressing wage stagnation (median and below) and working conditions (casual… zero etc) that are an anaethma (sp) to a mickey Savage labour. This is NOT a Mickey Savage Labour party, it makes some Mickey Savage-like noises… but it will not move from the centre.
People hear dog-whistling because they want to. People also like to see things in a way that confirms their perceptions, etc. John Key knew & understood and explored this ‘vulnerability’ to its full potential. We’re all vulnerable to a certain degree …
I voted for a bunch of people whom I thought were the most likely to affect the much-needed change and I have no regrets whatsoever and would happily do it again.
Because the way the coalition is made up it is firmly rooted in the centre; it won’t move much to either the left of the right nor upwards – it might not move at all but may lean in or out depending on which way the wind blows. But despite this apparent and likely political inertia in the Beehive outside of it there’s an unstoppable movement and flurry of activity …
If national politics is to become (more) relevant (again) then our representatives better take heed of what’s going on outside the beltway rather than looking and talking down on us from the ninth floor. Monbiot refers to Politics of Belonging and restoration of community & democracy and our politicians, Labour ones in particular, need to decide whether they want to repair & bridge the disconnect and where they truly belong: with us or separate from us.
I just read the one by Peter Williams. What a self entitled tosser (IMO).
His two houses will likely have gone up in value by a good $million in just three years and he’s crying poor over a potential $2k increase in rates. His capital gain would pay his entire rates for the next 100years, banks will happily lend against the property and most councils do too. These people who want to have their cake and eat it are rather irksome.
Yup. He got rates calculations wrong and probably covered his rates from the pay from that article. Now had he bemoaning how hard it must be for those on median incomes it would have been more than the moaning of a highly privileged person ignorant of their privilege. Guess we know what he and Hosking last chatted about. I am tempted to say if paying the rates is going to be a problem then Williams and his wife need budgetting lessons and missed all the education on retirement proofing given their combined incomes would be north of 200k.
It’s a bit scary reading the comments which have now appeared on that Peter Williams article. You’d expect people with the ability to write legibly can also read and think rationally, sadly all too many of those comments kill that theory.
I so weep for Peter Williams……sitting on probably well over $3,000,000 of readily realisable property in St Marys Bay and Wanaka. Neurotic dork should STFU.
I know they are small points, but Max Towle quotes Ben Thomas as saying the following here in the Herald yesterday (written 27 Oct) about Bill English:
“He won 44.6 per cent of the vote in the general election and in the last week of polls was the country’s preferred Prime Minister.”
In fact National won 44.4 % of the vote. And rather than pretending English is still preferred PM, surely we should be waiting for the next poll which will doubtless show Jacinda as preferred PM.
Where the article is more interesting is the discussion on who will replace loser English. My money, like Bryce Edwards, is on Amy Adams. She has shown she has perfect qualifications with her abysmal hard-nosed compassionless treatment of Teina Pora and David Bain, her disdain for democracy in Canterbury etc etc.
I see the Herald on Sunday is keeping up it’s relentless anti-Labour bombardment today. It is ridiculous. Instead of writing predictably anti-labour nonsense I would suggest Heather du Plessis-Allan would be more profitably employed lobbying the Wellington City Council for better lighting on Wellington’s winding and vertiginous paths, lest another young person takes a drunken tumble.
Question: would it be a good idea to allow someone to be stripped of their civic rights (lose the right to vote, banned from standing for public office or get a government job) for up to, say, ten years, as a punishment available to judges under the crimes act? or would it set to dangerous a precedent?
Sanctuary
What sort of crimes would bring that on? I think it would create a dangerous precedent and really be the thin edge of the wedge of minimising the respect for other humans who don’t fit in with the dominant group. Laws are really enforced guidelines and have grown immensely from both parliamentary Bills and through regulations and deemed legislation, I think it is called.
Moses came down from the mountain with the ten Commandments and I have a picture of them being etched out on stone, but now we have law libraries of bound legislation with matching leather covers with spines striped in gold.
When it comes to restriction of participation by the public in civic matters, what do you think about changing part of the voting opportunities so that only people who have done a series of workshops that involve a scratch test, so that those people can be voters for a Party. They would have had to put some effort in to learn about the current economic, social and international position of the country. So they would vote and more would be informed about the effects of their decision.
Everyone would be able to vote for a representative in their electorate. If people are going to vote on personality and impression, and that is more important to them than substance and fact, then give them the opportunity to do that.
Generally, I was thinking we need to smarten up on civic affairs – for example, a resident should be able to vote until they complete a civics course (I am thinking the sort of thing you do at a local colleges and polytechs over 4-6 Wednesday evenings).
I’d like to make election day a public holiday like Xmas day, mid week, and only paid if you vote (imagine that, you didn’t vote and about six weeks after the election you get an email from HR saying they are docking you a day’s pay…).
I’d like everyone when they vote to get, say, a $10 voucher to donate to a political party of their choice before they leave the voting place and then ban large donations to political parties.
on the stick side I was thinking stripping civic rights might be a useful sentencing option for white collar criminals…
They teach civics in American schools and they have lower voter turnout than us. It is not about shoving more education down people’s throats it is about engaging people.
I would like to see a financial incentive for first time voters because statistically if you vote once you are 300% more likely to vote again. But in the end if people think they system isn’t for them, doesn’t serve them, engages in bullshit behaviour and doesn’t tell them stuff (Pointing at media here who have done more “analysis” post election than pre election when it was just regurgitating politicians practiced memes or writing “i reckon” pieces) about what they want to know, then they turn away.
Go to jail:
can’t enroll if in jail so can’t vote,
almost impossible to become a public servant,
can’t stand for parliament if you can’t enroll to vote
A very good point, my friend. Actually, those slaves in Epsom were nearly all obedient National supporters who voted ACT against their better judgment for the simple reason they were instructed to do so. It’s the same yes-man behaviour that gets you a good job and a nice house in Epsom in the first place.
Pronoun? How can ‘magnificent’ stand in the place of a noun when it is only an adjective? (Maybe we missed something because you got bounced to Open mike?)
Yeah, it was a cheap shot that I now regret. A knee-jerk ease with being flippant when I see a non-issue through my eyes. It’s not fair, I’m working on it.
Rather than trying to treat people as I wish to be treated, it’s more trying to treat them as they wish to be treated. I see that as a good thing.
Good restaurant staff are experts at treating people as they wish to be treated.
For one couple excellent service is having a wine glass topped after every sip. For another couple great service is wanting for nothing, yet hardly noticing the waiter.
A little 5 year old boy fell off a wharf not far from where I live yesterday. He drowned. I don’t know all the circumstances surrounding the tragedy, but I do know that somewhere close to me is a family living in a state of profound grief and desolation. They will probably never fully recover.
It certainly has caused me to think about my priorities in life and how dependent we are on each other – a dependency that has been so badly eroded over recent decades. My hopes are pinned on the Labour-led government turning this state of affairs around so that future communities – be they urban or rural – are far better resourced when it comes to looking after the safety and well being of ALL the people living in them.
I now live in a rural area 70kms from the nearest town and often see families driving up our dirt road miles from nowhere to find somewhere to stop and sleep and stay awhile, all the time and these are not campers but people down on their luck so this makes me weep as we should be doing better than this.
“Thousands of companies fail every year. A small number of them pass through my office. Very few are bad people. Almost every one has failed to pay GST and PAYE.”
Anyone knows that the PAYE money belongs to the employee – it’s part of their wages or salary.
Two solutions:
1. Pay it to the employee on payday so they can pay their own tax
2. Make employers pay IRD at the same time they pay the employee – I can’t for the life of me think of a good reason why my employer should be able to hold onto my deductions beyond the day they are deducted.
Even more so when almost every failed business has failed to pay.
That includes student loan deductions. Took my partner three years to sought out her student loan that her thieving employer took out of her wages and didn’t pay.
Day after day after day we see businesses who owe IRD tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.
It should be paid when deducted – not a day, week or month later.
we could start treating company owners like beneficiaries. When one messes up, commits fraud or something we make all of the pariahs and bring in even more regulations to bring them into line.
This morning on Radionz on immigrant labour needed for tourist trade, a bar owner was saying that he just couldn’t afford to pay NZrs. His problem I think was that he is competing in a small over-supplied market, and needs the subsidy of low wages to keep his business profitable.
Descendant of Ssmith point seems good. Make the people responsible for their PAYE payments, even if they are working irregular hours. A direct debit weekly or fortnightly that pays half the average payment and then a full net payment every month.
IRD might then be able to employ a few more people and not have to rely on machines. It is a useful job, we need responsible tax gatherers in person. And cut out the penalty payments for natural people, not thinking about legal ‘people’ devised by the flick of a pen.
This comments indicates perfectly (to me) that you ( and probably the vast majority of Standardistas) have no concept of business or financial operations. Unfortunately this ignorance extends to this Govt, which will gave tragic consequences for most NZers.
What concepts are they missing Bondy? Seems pretty straightforward to me, if you take on a debt you’re expected to pay what you owe. The majority of people in business pay their debts, pay their taxes, and don’t moan about it.
You may well be correct in your assertion but I look forward to the day that governing is less like running a business focussing on financial operations (spreadsheets and ‘actuarial tables’ to guide ‘social investment’) and being ‘astute managers of the economy’ and more about putting the people (and environment!) first and foremost. Ideally, all three are integrated and synergise rather than conflict/compete with each other.
Nope well aware that on my payday you take x amount of my wages to pay on my behalf to IRD.
I expect you to pay it. If you don’t you’ve stolen my money.
In this case because I’ve earned it under a lawful contract which you as the employer has signed to pay me x amount per hour it is my actual money.
Stop stealing. Thief, thief, thief………
If you can’t pay my full wages by not paying the PAYE you must really hate it when the government gives me tax cuts cause you have to pay me more on payday and hold less in your bank account.
Why do you think a business owner may not be able to pay paye?
I really recommend some of you guys give self-employment a go, be the boss, experience it from the other side.
By self-employment I don’t mean being on contract for six months or a year, I mean actually running a business where you’re lucky to have more than a months work ahead of you so you’ve got to endlessly get out there and have to hunt for work.
For that added level of difficulty add a few employees to the mix.
Been there, done that. Back in the days when everything was paper-based.
I made life difficult for myself a few times when I didn’t immediately set aside my employees PAYE when I paid their wages. But I always treated tax owed to the IRD as a top-level priority right alongside wages, so I did what it took to pay up when it came due. (I wasn’t so careful about getting returns in on time when there was no tax owing or a refund due to me, which the IRD got grouchy about).
These days if I set back up in business and employed people, I’d expect my electronic accounting package to make sure PAYE issues got sorted at the press of a button, right at the same time wages are paid.
In the end, it’s a case of setting priorities. In my case, I prioritised my obligations to the rest of society as represented by the government at the top-level right alongside obligations to employees. That the government carries the biggest stick of all was only a small part of that choice.
I made life difficult for myself a few times when I didn’t immediately set aside my employees PAYE when I paid their wages. But I always treated tax owed to the IRD as a top-level priority right alongside wages, so I did what it took to pay up when it came due. (I wasn’t so careful about getting returns in on time when there was no tax owing or a refund due to me, which the IRD got grouchy about).
Absolutely it a priority, otherwise the IRD is down on you like a tonne of bricks.
It’s just unfortunate sometimes no matter how hard some people try, the money has to be used to keep the business afloat.
This talk of stealing is bullshit, 99.99% of business owners want to run a successful legitimate business, sometimes things don’t go as planned
But that’s not the IRD’s fault, or the employees’.
You’re talking about struggling businesses that choose to not pay their bills in order to try to “keep the business afloat”. Those businesses are already sunk, hoping for a lotto-style hail-mary pass that, according to Grant’s article, hardly ever comes.
That’s true when you can meet your tax obligations you’re pretty much fucked.
It takes a strong person to realise that and admit you’re financially going down the gurgler and probably dragging a few of your employees’ down with you.
Yeah, he runs an insolvency business so what he sees of business is largely those who have gone bust.
Most are a pox on the business community. They use creditors as a bank and there’s a hell of a domino effect from those pricks who don’t pay their debts.
BM – I largely agree and I used to work at IRD. On the other hand, people like the Nosh owners here (John Denize was the subject of Friday’s Checkpoint) need a swift kick, so there needs to be stiffer punishments for those sorts of losers.
It would be great if employers could actually talk to the IRD if they’re in difficulty and see if they can come up with a plan that works for both parties.
IRD does tend to be seen as being like those old school teachers that whacks you with a cane if you step slightly out of line.
They can and regularly did when I was there as I set up many debt repayment arrangements in my time, and no doubt many others did as well. IRD also wipe debts (partially or totally) regularly in cases of genuine hardship or financial difficulty.
It would be great if employers could actually talk to the IRD if they’re in difficulty and see if they can come up with a plan that works for both parties.
Yeah, it would be great if MSD worked like that too. Hopefully, we’ve just elected a government that thinks in those terms.
I found that if you are honest with the IRD, they are actually rather good about you paying them back. I never treated PAYE as my money, so that was always there. They were very good about negotiating a payment schedule, I could afford, for the rest.
This talk of stealing is bullshit, 99.99% of business owners want to run a successful legitimate business, sometimes things don’t go as planned
One day, when I was working at McDs in Starship, a customer came in and ordered food for himself and his rellies. They were all there to see his son who’d been in an accident.
When he ordered he asked for the receipt at which point his wife asked if he was going to put it on the business and he said yes.
This person is not running a legitimate business.
Things is, this is just one anecdote. I have several more from different business owners throughout my life. Now, I’m certainly not friends with every business person in the country but when nine out of ten of the ones I do know are running these same or similar scams then I must question your assertion that 99.99% of business owners want to run a successful legitimate business.
Been there, done that. And paid everyone when I could, even though I was too ill to work for several years, at a real bad time when starting the business. .
The fact is. If your business cannot pay a living wage for all involved, and pay all its costs, including training staff, taxes for the resources it uses, and fair wages, then it is a tax payer and employee funded hobby, and should be shut down.
Why should your employees, and the rest of us who pay our taxes, fund your hobby?
This comments indicates perfectly (to me) that you ( and probably the vast majority of Standardistas) have no concept of business or financial operations. Unfortunately this ignorance extends to this Govt, which will gave tragic consequences for most NZers.
Funny, that was what I thought about all the right-wing fucks who had something bad to say about Metiria Turei, but funnily enough, that didn’t stop them running their mouths. Welcome to social media.
The man is a convicted fraudster and Stuff give him a regular soapbox to preach to us about ‘morals’. It’s like we’re all sitting at the Mad Hatters tea party.
The people who declare their business insolvent, leave their subbies and employees broke, and scarper. Or expect the Government to bail out their poor business decisions.
Some ideas reinforced.
Humans have amazing capabilities to adapt.
We need a hell of a lot less than what we imagine and when it really comes down to it most of the stuff we have is hardly worth it – we really need shelter, warmth, food, safety, love, community.
Humans are mammals and mammals clump together especially 9 and 2.5 year olds and their parents.
7 x 2.5 x 4.2 metres is doable, is enjoyable and is valuable at least for the four of us.
An interesting article in the Herald where Carmel Sepuloni is talking about welfare, with some mentioning of improving things. No time frames but beginnings.
This is starting to get tiresome. Lead story on Stuff is all Brownlee. Was comment sought from any government spokesperson? Did anyone bother to ask the Foreign Minister if he had a response?
National carrying on like they are still in charge and the MSM helping them do it.
Rubbish, 6 months ago brownlee was on the front page. Just because you say it doesn’t make it true buddy. The loser gnats are getting a free ride to rip into the government. Dirty.
“Think back six months, it was exactly the same but the roles were reversed.”
Are you saying that six months ago Labour had just been kicked out of govt and were getting media attention that the new govt wasn’t and thus the public were being presented with a skewed view? Because that would be stupid right?
The Dompost printed copy last week had a lengthy article by David Garrat defending the 3 strikes legislation . Can’t find it on the internet but WTF. Not exactly a credible source I’d have though but no disclaimer with it.
The events and data above describe how three internet companies have acquired massive influence on the Web, but why does that imply the beginning of the Web’s death? To answer that, we need to reflect on what the Web is.
The original vision for the Web according to its creator, Tim Berners-Lee, was a space with multilateral publishing and consumption of information. It was a peer-to-peer vision with no dependency on a single party. Tim himself claims the Web is dying: the Web he wanted and the Web he got are no longer the same.
Russia’s state-owned media outlet, RT, has announced that it will comply with US government demands to register as a “foreign agent” of the Russian government, amid controversy over Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election.
It’s a move that effectively marks the network, which runs both a website and a cable television channel, as a propaganda outfit for Moscow.
Voice of America? Still going. Readers Digest – always has a pro-USA view.
VOA News https://www.voanews.com/
English news from the Voice of America. VOA provides complete coverage of the U.S, Asia, Africa and the Mideast.
Voice of America – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America
Voice of America (VOA) is a U.S. government-funded international news source that serves as the United States federal government’s official institution for …
Answering my own question, Fox News has no terrestrial or satellite carriers in Russia while RT has terrestrial and satellite carriers, and studio facilities in the US.
VOA and affiliates are state funded cross-border broadcasters with studios and production based in the US.
It would be good perhaps to have USA media with facilities for Russian factual content getting first-hand information which is then available to their citizens to replace the info that just suits the propaganda that the pointy-heads give out.
The dominant culture should always look to see what the minority cultures are saying and seek to understand them , but they don’t; instead they seek to counter what they perceive to be an “attack” on mainstream thinking.
When
will
we
ever
learn?
Seemingly, never
Chins up! 🙂
“As environmentalist Paul Hawken put it: “We have an economy where we steal the future, sell it in the present, and call it GDP.”
“With politicians failing to step up to the climate challenge, what are the alternatives? One intriguing experiment in direct democracy has just concluded in Ireland, where a government-appointed Citizens’ Assembly composed of a nationally representative group of people selected at random heard detailed expert testimony on climate change from a range of experts. No lobbyists or politicians were allowed in the room.
The result: 13 recommendations for sharply enhanced climate action were overwhelmingly endorsed early this month, including citizens being personally prepared to pay more tax on high-carbon activities. The recommendations will now be discussed in parliament. Democracy may be dysfunctional, but rumours of its death have, perhaps, been exaggerated.”
Thanks Pat
This is a great place to keep informed. And gives us heart to keep on doing stuff that is purposeful and useful.
This is an excerpt from Pat’s link to New Statesman (think woman too) at 23.1.1. There was one dynamic in the model, however, that offered some hope. Werner termed it “resistance” – movements of “people or groups of people” who “adopt a certain set of dynamics that does not fit within the capitalist culture”.
According to the abstract for his presentation, this includes “environmental direct action, resistance taken from outside the dominant culture, as in protests, blockades and sabotage by indigenous peoples, workers, anarchists and other activist groups”.
Just off Arapawa Island at the Northern end of the Sounds in the Cook Strait. I hope its not leading to towards something bigger as I fly into the Wellington next week and I was reading an article today on the net that parts of Wellington still having problems after the last round of the earthquakes. Have been catching up on some podcasts about last the lot of earthquakes and some of the data gathered makes for some interesting reading epseacilly for the lower nth.
Whenever an earthquake around these parts starts with a sudden explosive bang – rather than a quiet rumble – & produces a jolt that’s both short & sharp = we know it’s more likely to be Northern end of the Sounds
Maybe the Prime Minister and his Finance Minister expected the worst, so they mounted a stout defence of the Budget tax cuts to their party faithful at a party conference over the weekend. In turn, they were greeted with applause, which, though it may have been less than wildly enthusiastic, ...
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, May 12, 2024 thru Sat, May 18, 2024. Story of the week “The legislation I signed today [will] keep windmills off our beaches, gas in our tanks, and ...
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David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: KiwiRail’s seemingly endless requests for more money is damning. At one point, KiwiRail assured Robertson when he was the Finance Minister that the worst-case scenario would be an extra $300 million before requesting $1.2 billion a few months later. Not what most people ...
No one knows what it's likeTo be the bad manTo be the sad manBehind blue eyesNo one knows what it's likeTo be hatedTo be fatedTo telling only liesHave you ever wondered what life must be like for Mike Hosking? Seeing things in black and white through blue tinted specs? In ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past two week’s editions.Share More Than A FeildingBike bling, London Read more ...
Hi,I think we all made it through another week — congratulations. I’ve been digesting the new Arab Strap record, which is astonishing. In other news, I’m going to be doing a Webworm popup in Auckland, New Zealand on Saturday July 13. I’ll bring a bunch of merch, and some other ...
The Fast-Track Approvals Bill enables cabinet ministers to circumvent key environmental planning and protection processes for infrastructure projects. Its difficulties have been well canvassed. This column suggests a different way of thinking about the proposal. I am going to explore the Bill from the perspective of its proponents with their ...
New Zealand First Cabinet Minister Shane Jones has become the best advertisement against the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill. In selling the radical new resource consenting processes, in which ministers can green light any mine, dam, or other major development, Jones seems to be shooting the proposal in the foot. ...
Buzz from the Beehive Associate Education Minister David Seymour is urging the PostPrimary Teachers Association to put learning ahead of ideology. He wants the union leaders to call off their teachers meetings around the country where they hope to muster the strength to undo the government’s plans to establish several ...
What are police for? "Fighting crime" is the obvious answer. If there's a burglary, they should show up and investigate. Ditto if there's a murder or sexual assault. Speeding or drunk or dangerous driving is a crime, so obviously they should respond to that. And obviously, they should respond to ...
Michael Reddell writes – I got curious yesterday about how the Australia/New Zealand real exchange rate had changed over the last decade, and so dug out the data on the changes in the two countries’ CPIs. Over the 10 years from March 2014 to March 2024, New Zealand’s ...
Graham Adams writes that 20 years after the land march, judges are quietly awarding a swathe of coastal rights to iwi. Early this month, an hour-long documentary was released by TVNZ to mark the 20th anniversary of the land-rights march to oppose Helen Clark’s Foreshore and Seabed Act. The account ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: Suspended Green MP Darleen Tana has passed an unpleasant milestone: she has now been absent for as many parliamentary sitting days as she has been present for this year. Tana is on full pay while she is suspended, and will benefit from a ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is no coincidence that two Labour should-have-been MPs are making the most noise about public sector cuts. As assistant general secretary of the Public Service Association, Fleur Fitzsimons has been at the forefront of revealing where the next round of state sector job ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a ...
This is one of the (extra) weekly columns on music or movies. Plenty of solid analyses of Possession exist online and most of them – inevitably – contain spoilers. This column is more in the way of a first-timer’s aid to getting your initial bearings. You don’t need to have ...
I am painting in oil, a portrait of a manWho has taken all the heart aches,And all the pain he can stand.I am using all the colors of blue,I have here on my stand.I am painting in oil, a portrait of a man.This has been an interesting week for me. ...
Helen Clark joins the Hoon as a special guest talking whether Aotearoa should join Aukus II, and her views on the fast track legislation and how Luxon and the new Government are performing. File Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts ...
With an election due in less than nine months, Britain’s embattled PM, Rishi Sunak, gave a useful speech earlier this week. He made a substantial case for his government, perhaps as compelling as is possible in the current environment. Quite an achievement. His overall theme was security, first pulling ...
Open access notablesPublicly expressed climate scepticism is greatest in regions with high CO2 emissions, Pearson et al., Climatic Change:We analysed a recently released corpus of climate-related tweets to examine the macro-level factors associated with public declarations of climate change scepticism. Analyses of over 2 million geo-located tweets in the U.S. showed that climate ...
You can be all negative about these charter schools if you want, but I’m here to accentuate the positive. You can get all worked up, if you want to, by the contradiction of Luxon saying We’re going to make sure that every school in the country is teaching exactly the same ...
Losing The Room: One can only speculate about what has persuaded the Coalition Government that it will pay no electoral price for unreasonably pushing ahead with policies that are so clearly against the national interest. They seem quite oblivious to the risk that by doing so they will convince an increasing ...
Name suppression decisions can be tough sometimes. No matter your views on free speech, you have to be hard-hearted not to be torn by the tug of the competing arguments. I think you can feel the Supreme Court wrestling with that in M v The King. The case for ...
The Merchants of Menace: The Coalition Government has convinced itself that the “Brahmins’” emollient functions have become much too irksome and expensive. Those who see themselves as the best hope of rebuilding New Zealand’s ailing capitalist system, appear to have convinced themselves that a little bit of blunt trauma is what their mollycoddled ...
When National first proposed its Muldoonist "fast-track" law, they were warned that it would inevitably lead to corruption. And that is exactly what has happened, with Resources Minister Shane Jones taking secret meetings with potential applicants:On Tuesday, in a Newsroom story, questions were raised about a dinner Jones ...
Buzz from the Beehive One day – hopefully – we will push that Russian rascal, Vladimir Putin, beyond breaking point. Perhaps it will happen today, when he learns that Foreign Minister Winston Peters is again tightening the thumbscrews. Peters announced further sanctions, this time on 28 individuals and 14 entities ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought New Zealand to the brink of economic and cultural chaos.TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition Government’s failure to retain, and build upon, the public ...
“Members of Parliament don’t work for us, they represent us, an entirely different thing. As with so much that has turned out badly, the re-organising of MPs’ responsibilities began with the Fourth Labour Government. That’s when they began to be treated like employees – public servants – whose diaries had ...
It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a third medical school in New Zealand, ...
Time To Choose: Like it or not, the Kiwis are either going into AUKUS’s “Pillar 2” – or they are going to China.HAD ZHENG HE’S FLEET sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks ...
Henry Ergas writes – When in Randall Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution, a college president is accused of being a hypocrite, the novel’s narrator retorts that the description is grossly unfair. After all, the man is still far from the stage of moral development at which the charge ...
David Farrar writes – Radio NZ reports: The Education Review Office says too many new teachers feel poorly prepared for their jobs. In a report published on Monday, the review office said 60 percent of the principals it interviewed said their new teachers were not ready. ...
New Zealand’s economic performance and the PM’s vision Michael Reddell writes – When I wrote yesterday morning’s post, highlighting how poorly both New Zealand and its Anglo peer countries have been doing in respect of productivity in recent times (ie, in the case of New ...
Hi all,Firstly - thank you! You guys are awesome. The response I’ve received to last night’s mail has been quite overwhelming. It’s a ghastly day outside, but there are no clouds in here.In case you didn’t read my email and are wondering what on earth I’m talking about you can ...
If there was still any doubt as to who is actually running this government – and it isn’t the buffoon from Botany – then this week’s announcement of a huge spend up on charter schools has settled the matter. While jobs and public services continue to be cut in the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gaye Taylor As widespread drought raises expectations for a repeat of last year’s ferocious wildfire season, response teams across Canada are grappling with the rapidly changing face of fire in a warming climate. No longer quenched by winter, nor quelled by the ...
Half of Christchurch City Holdings Ltd’s directors and its chair resigned en masse last night in protest at Christchurch City Council’s demand to front-load dividends File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The chair of Christchurch City Council’s investment company and four of its independent directors resigned in protest last ...
The University of Waikato has reworded an advertisement that begins the tender process for its new $300 million-plus medical school even though the Government still needs to approve it. However, even the reworded ad contains an architect’s visualisations of what the school might look like. ACT leader David Seymour told ...
As a follow-up to the Rings of Power trailer discussion, I thought I needed to add something. There has been some online mockery about the use of the same actor for both the Halbrand and Annatar incarnations of Sauron. The reasoning is that Halbrand with a shave and a new ...
This isn’t quite as dramatic as the title might suggest. I’m not going anywhere, but there is something I wanted to talk to you about.Let’s start with a typical day.Most days I send out a newsletter in the morning. If I’ve written a lot the previous evening it might be ...
Buzz from the Beehive The promise of tax relief loomed large in his considerations when the PM delivered a pre-Budget speech to the Auckland Business Chamber. The job back in Wellington is getting government spending back under control, he said, bandying figures which show that in per capita terms, the ...
Yesterday de facto Prime Minister David Seymour announced that his glove puppet government would be re-introducing charter schools, throwing $150 million at his pet quacks, donors and cronies and introducing an entire new government agency to oversee them (the existing Education Review Office, which actually knows how to review schools, ...
Seeing that, in order to discredit the figures and achieve moral superiority while attempting to deflect attention away from the military assault on Rafa, Israel supporters in NZ have seized on reports that casualty numbers in Gaza may be inflated … Continue reading → ...
David Farrar writes – Newstalk ZB report: The man responsible for a horror hit and run in central Wellington last year was on a suspended licence and was so drunk he later asked police, “Did I kill someone?” Jason Tuitama injured two women when he ran a red ...
Muriel Newman writes – Former US President Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.” The fight for ...
Why Courts should have said Waitangi Tribunal could not summons Karen Chhour Gary Judd writes – In the High Court, Justice Isacs declined to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal to compel Minister for Children, Karen Chhour, to appear before it to be ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The number of voices raising concerns about the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill is rapidly growing. This is especially apparent now that Parliament’s select committee is listening to submissions from the public to evaluate the proposed legislation. Twenty-seven thousand submissions have been made to Parliament ...
An average of 166 New Zealand citizens left the country every day during the March quarter, up 54% from a year ago.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The economy and housing market is sinking into a longer recession through the winter after a slump in business and consumer confidence in ...
The government has made it abundantly clear they’re addicted to the smell of new asphalt. On Tuesday they introduced a new term to the country’s roading lexicon, the Roads of Regional Significance (RoRS), a little brother for the Roads of National (Party) Significance (RoNS). Driving ahead with Roads of Regional ...
School is outAnd I walk the empty hallwaysI walk aloneAlone as alwaysThere's so many lucky penniesLying on the floorBut where the hell are all the lucky peopleI can't see them any moreYesterday morning, I’d just sent out my newsletter on Tama Potaka, and I was struggling to make the coffee. ...
Hi,I wanted to check in and ask how you’re doing.This is perhaps a selfish act, of attempting to find others feeling a similar way to me — that is to say, a little hopeless at the moment.Misery loves company, that sort of deal.Some context.I wish I could say I got ...
I have hitherto been fairly quiet on the new season of Rings of Power, on the basis that the underwhelming first season did not exactly build excitement – and the rumours were fairly daft. The only real thing of substance to come out has been that they have re-cast Adar ...
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 ...
“The thing is,” Chris Luxon says, leaning forward to make his point, “this has always been my thing.”“This goes all the way back to the first multinational I worked for. I was saying exactly the same thing back then. The name of our business needs to be more clear; people ...
Buzz from the Beehive It’s been a momentous few days for Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court decision which blocked a summons order from the Waitangi Tribunal for her. And today she has announced the Government is putting children first by introducing to ...
In 2014 former Australian army lawyer David McBride leaked classified military documents about Australian war crimes to the ABC. Dubbed "The Afghan Files", the documents led to an explosive report on Australian war crimes, the disbanding of an entire SAS unit, and multiple ongoing prosecutions. The journalist who wrote the ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – According to the respected Pew Research Centre, “In seven of eight [European] countries surveyed, the most trusted news outlet asked about is the public news organization in each country”. For example, “in Sweden, an overwhelming majority (90%) say they trust the public broadcaster SVT”. ...
David Farrar writes – Kata MacNamara reports: Details of Tony Blakely’s involvement in the New Zealand Government’s response to the pandemic raise serious questions about the work of the Covid-19 Royal Commission of Inquiry over which he presides. It has long been clear that Blakely, a ...
Chris Trotter writes – Are you a Brahmin or a Merchant? Or, are you merely one of those whose lives are profoundly influenced by the decisions of Brahmins and Merchants? Those are the questions that are currently shaping the politics of New Zealand and the entire West. ...
RNZ reports – It’s supposed to be a haven of healing and spiritual awakening but residents of the Kawai Purapura community say they’ve been hurt and deceived. It’s the successor to the former Centrepoint commune, and has been on the bush block opposite Albany shopping centre since 2008. It ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. Usually we have a video chat to go with this wrap, but were unable to do one this week. We’ll be back next week.Several reports ...
The Transport Minister has set a hard 'fiscal envelope' of $6.54 billion for transport capital spending. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The economy is settling into a state of suspended animation as the Government’s funding freezes and job cuts chill confidence and combine with stubbornly high interest rates to ...
To be precise, the term “anti- Zionism” refers to (a) criticism of the political movement that created a modern Jewish state on the historical land of Israel, and to (b)the subjugation of Palestinians by the Israeli state. By contrast, the term “anti-Semitism” means bigotry and racism directed at Jewish people, ...
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Because hurricanes are one of the big-ticket weather disasters that humanity has to face, climate misinformers spend a lot of effort muddying the waters on whether climate change is making hurricanes more damaging. With the official start to the hurricane ...
Yesterday the Mayor released what he calls his “plan to save public transport” which is part of his final proposal for the Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP). This comes following consultation on the draft version that occurred in March which showed, once again, that people want more done on transport, especially ...
And it's a pleasure that I have knownAnd it's a treasure that I have gainedAotearoa’s coalition government is fragile. It’s held together by the obsequious sycophancy of Christopher Luxon, who willingly contorts his party into the fringe positions of his junior coalition partners and is unwilling to contradict them. The ...
The Select Committee hearing submissions on the fast-track consenting legislation is starting to become a beat-up of regional councils. The inflexibility and slow workings of the Councils were prominent in two submissions yesterday. One, from the Coromandel Marine Farmers Association, simply said that the Waikato Regional Council’s planning decisions were ...
Back in April, the High Court surprised everyone by ruling that Ministers are above the law, at least as far as the Waitangi Tribunal is concerned. The reason for this ruling was "comity" - the idea that the different branches of government shouldn't interfere with each other's functions. Which makes ...
Buzz from the BeehiveTolling was mentioned when Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced the government was re-introducing the Roads of National Significance (RoNS) programme, with 15 “crucial” projects to support economic growth and regional development across New Zealand. All RoNS would be four-laned, grade-separated highways, and all funding, financing, and ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick used this year's State of the Planet to call on the Government to prioritise people and planet as the delivery of the Budget approaches. A full transcript of their speeches can be found below. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have used their State of the Planet speeches to challenge the Government to prioritise people and planet over profit as the delivery of the Budget approaches. ...
The Government’s introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
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 ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced that the Government will make it easier for lines firms to take action to remove vegetation from obstructing local powerlines. The change will ensure greater security of electricity supply in local communities, particularly during severe weather events. “Trees or parts of trees falling on ...
Wairarapa Moana ki Pouakani were the top winners at this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy awards recognising the best in Māori dairy farming. Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced the winners and congratulated runners-up, Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board, at an awards celebration also attended by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister ...
"On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Department’s correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,” says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “I raised my concerns after being ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on students’ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools. “The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stobo’s appointment is for a five-year term. “The FMA plays ...
Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “Heading to the beach for ...
New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,” says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019. “It is my pleasure ...
New Zealand is gravely concerned about the situation in New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The escalating situation and violent protests in Nouméa are of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “The immediate priority must be for all sides to take steps to de-escalate the ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met today with Samoa’s O le Ao o le Malo, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, who is making a State Visit to New Zealand. “His Highness and I reflected on our two countries’ extensive community links, with Samoan–New Zealanders contributing to all areas of our national ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced that he has approved Waiheke Island ferry operator Island Direct to be eligible for SuperGold Card funding, paving the way for a commercial agreement to bring the operator into the scheme. “Island Direct started operating in November 2023, offering an additional option for people ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further sanctions on 28 individuals and 14 entities providing military and strategic support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia is directly supported by its military-industrial complex in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, attacking its sovereignty and territorial integrity. New Zealand condemns all entities and ...
A year on from the tragedy at Loafers Lodge, the Government is working hard to improve building fire safety, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I want to share my sincere condolences with the families and friends of the victims on the anniversary of the tragic fire at Loafers ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here in the lead up to my Government’s first Budget. Before I get started can I acknowledge: Simon Bridges – Auckland Business Chamber CEO. Steve Jurkovich – Kiwibank CEO. Kids born ...
New Zealand and Vanuatu will enhance collaboration on issues of mutual interest, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “It is important to return to Port Vila this week with a broad, high-level political delegation which demonstrates our deep commitment to New Zealand’s relationship with Vanuatu,” Mr Peters says. “This ...
Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk will travel to Peru this week to represent New Zealand at a meeting of trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific region on behalf of Trade Minister Todd McClay. The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade meeting will be held on 17-18 May ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford will head to the United Kingdom this week to participate in the 22nd Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) and the 2024 Education World Forum (EWF). “I am looking forward to sharing this Government’s education priorities, such as introducing a knowledge-rich curriculum, implementing an evidence-based ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford has today thanked outgoing New Zealand Qualifications Authority Chair, Hon Tracey Martin. “Tracey Martin tendered her resignation late last month in order to take up a new role,” Ms Stanford says. Ms Martin will relinquish the role of Chair on 10 May and current Deputy ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and President Emmanuel Macron of France today announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Call’s work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. This change gives effect to the outcomes of the November 2023 Call Leaders’ Summit, ...
Distinguished public servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten Wevers will lead the independent review into the disability support services administered by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. The review was announced by Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston a fortnight ago to examine what could be done to strengthen the ...
Today’s announcement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster of a National Gang Unit and district Gang Disruption Units will help deliver on the coalition Government’s pledge to restore law and order and crack down on criminal gangs, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. “The National Gang Unit and Gang Disruption Units will ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today expressed regret at North Korea’s aggressive rhetoric towards New Zealand and its international partners. “New Zealand proudly stands with the international community in upholding the rules-based order through its monitoring and surveillance deployments, which it has been regularly doing alongside partners since 2018,” Mr ...
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies MNZM is the new Chief of Defence Force, Defence Minister Judith Collins announced today. The Chief of Defence Force commands the Navy, Army and Air Force and is the principal military advisor to the Defence Minister and other Ministers with relevant portfolio responsibilities in the defence ...
Legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been introduced to Parliament. The Bill’s introduction reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the safety of children in care, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour. “While section 7AA was introduced with good intentions, it creates a conflict for Oranga ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week travel to the UK and Italy to meet with her defence counterparts, and to attend Battles of Cassino commemorations. “I am humbled to be able to represent the New Zealand Government in Italy at the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of what was ...
The upcoming Budget will include funding for up to 50 charter schools to help lift declining educational performance, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced today. $153 million in new funding will be provided over four years to establish and operate up to 15 new charter schools and convert 35 state ...
“The results of the public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has now been received, with results indicating over 13,000 submissions were made from members of the public,” Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “We heard feedback about the extended lockdowns in ...
Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, other Members of Parliament Acting Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence Distinguished Guests Defence and Diplomatic Colleagues Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon, tēna koutou, apinun tru It’s a pleasure to be back in Port Moresby today, and to speak here at the Kumul Leadership ...
Health, infrastructure, renewable energy, and stability are among the themes of the current visit to Papua New Guinea by a New Zealand political delegation, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Papua New Guinea carries serious weight in the Pacific, and New Zealand deeply values our relationship with it,” Mr Peters ...
The coalition Government is launching Roads of Regional Significance to sit alongside Roads of National Significance as part of its plan to deliver priority roading projects across the country, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The Roads of National Significance (RoNS) built by the previous National Government are some of New Zealand’s ...
A high-level New Zealand political delegation in Honiara today congratulated the new Government of Solomon Islands, led by Jeremiah Manele, on taking office. “We are privileged to meet the new Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet during his government’s first ten days in office,” Deputy Prime Minister and ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestine’s participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealand’s ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Government’s focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
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“The truth of corporate journalism, and the great irony of its obsession with ‘fake news’, is that it is itself utterly fake. What could be more obviously fake than the idea that Truth can be sold by billionaire-owned media dependent on billionaire-owned advertisers for maximised profit? ” http://www.medialens.org/
Nicely put.
All they need are puppets and mercenaries like HDPA prepared to sell their souls.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11942657
Rubbish! Rubbish she writes!
Heather Plastic-Allan……the risible queen of risible trivia. Trudeau’s people arrived in a bus…..FFS! Hino over Pinot. Pleeez…..Noooooo!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11942657
Maybe she’d be better writing for The Onion until she grows up a wee bit?
https://www.theonion.com/
Og The Onion is way too good for her
True every word.
“money talks – truth walks.”
“Political understanding is made as hard as humanly possible by the billionaire press.”
George Monbiot
+1 Just take a look at the latest election cycle, our media invented a narrative of some sort of mythical “youth quake” that did not exist in reality…
NZ media driving unfounded news reality..
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/09/decision-17-youthquake-arrives-in-new-zealand.html
Actual reality….
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/342919/more-young-people-voted-but-no-youth-quake
Everyday on RNZ the pundits would talk up this narrative, that did not actually exist in any meaningful way…were they propagating fake news? or just trying to make our little election seem more exciting and intriguing than it was?
Either way they were certainly guilty of creating the news instead of reporting on news.
And don’t forget the incesant demand that the greens go with the Natz by the media.
100% the media are corupt in NZ today sadly.
The “labour coalition” Government must now move swiftly to ‘neutralise ‘ this elitist corporate driven baised media activity, and provide us with a fully public funded commmercial free media for presentation of all views for all people on their government publically funded platforms, that will finally again provide a balanced fair media service that will in many cases show this current media simply as an unreliable and un-trustworthy source of news and current affairs.
“News & current affairs fit to feed a healthy democracy.”
“…..or just trying to make our little election seem more exciting and intriguing than it was?”
Exciting news – (fake or otherwise) sells.
“a fully public funded commercial-free media for presentation of all views for all people on their government publically funded platforms” (cleangreen) makes sense.
Bernie made a stir, Jeremy took it further and Jacinda attained the toe-hold. Now its up to all of us to keep the vision untarnished and run with the ball.
What I find particularly pernicious about the whole “fake news” bullshit – well there are a couple of things.
1. Proclaiming (for example) RT is ‘fake news’ leaves the field in the sole possession of slanted liberal publications.
2. Dismissing those who frequent well funded and popular right wing conspiratorial outlets out of hand, simply means the influential message and the weird logic of those outlets isn’t being challenged. (And a lot of people are getting their info and understandings from such places)
3. A belief in so-called “fake news” allows liberal media to peddle their own propaganda as more truthful and trustworthy – on the accepted basis that all others are “fake”.
4. The accusation of “fake news” (if broadly accepted as a legitimate ‘argument’) is a powerful mechanism enabling the development of ‘correct’ thought and opinion.
Don’t know how well I’ve articulated my thoughts there (or kind of repeated myself). But essentially, it’s why I’ll tend to insist that all sources are producing propaganda and there is no line that demarcates “propaganda” and “fake”.
Yeah nah when they deliberately lie and present falsehoods to generate heat it is fake news.
Defend rt or the righties or whoever, blame the libs the neo libs the msm the gummy bears the weaklings – for what? Balance – this from a revolutionary!!!
Fake news is real bill. I do agree that fake news is a form of propaganda.
Yeah nah when they deliberately lie and present falsehoods to generate heat it is fake news.
So when media reported WMD to get people behind the bombing and invasion of Iraq for example? Or when media reported that viagra was being issued to Libyan soldiers so they could rape en-masse? Or when the media peddled a catalogue of falsehoods through it’s reporting on Syria?
These things are the same type of “fake news” as the “fake news” you’re referring to?
The rest of your comment is strange projection and weirdness.
You quoted my sentence and that sentence answers your question.
As for your insults – laughable.
I’m not going to reply to you anymore – you’ve got an attitude issue imo.
1: That’s because RT makes the liberal media look outstanding in comparison.
2: There’s a line where challenging a message with reasoned debate is still futile and actually gives the right wing conspiracy nuts credibility that they don’t deserve. Like the liberal media giving AGW a “balanced” view by putting deniers on equal footing with actual experts.
3: See point 1. If fake news wasn’t so utterly shit, the liberal media would not be the better option.
4: Some opinions and thoughts are just plain wrong.
1. Given that you’ve said you won’t so much as watch a link to an rt piece (and I did only give rt as an example) I suspect your number 1 is really just you indicating that Liberal media accords with your general believes and values.
2. Debating with conspiracy nuts on conspiracies is futile, But understanding their (usually) right wing non-conspiratorial arguments – the sources for them – means they can be engaged. And engagement loosens the hold of toxic ideologies.
2. 1Two camps – liberal and right wing – always dismissing one another out of hand won’t end well for liberals. Neither will it end well for the left (which is nowhere near as well resourced as either liberal or right wing outlets and has nothing like the media penetration of either).
3. The dichotomy is false.
4. Of course 😉
1: You go ahead and suspect that, because if my opinion on RT and decision to no longer waste my time with it was actually based on a reasonably accurate observation of the qualitative differences between RT/Fox and other media, your position would look a bit silly.
2: how’s that working out for you? Converted any neonazis lately?
3: no, it’s not.
4: What’s your opinion on Nazi-themed pedophilia? Should we have a round-table discussion on the arguments for and against, a couple of Nazi-NAMBLA representatives stating their position, with a couple of opponents on the other side, and a tie-wearing moderator keeping everyone civil?
Or should we keep debating whether AGW exists, one oil-company shill vs one actual climatologist, every sunday afternoon at 6pm?
Some shit is just plain wrong.
Remember that we agreed we would not get all we wanted?
I guess the revised TPPA comes under this list.
However, Clare Curran’s speech, SCOOP, gives great pleasure.
Public broadcasting, RNZ+, Cultural and NZ material gladdens my heart.
Win some lose some.
A revised TPPA could compromise many other things many of us wanted from a left wing government. If the underlying neoliberal MO remains in tact, then it remains a massive concern for me.
There are some policies and issues where there is room for compromise. Others, not so much.
I do strongly welcome the development of RNZ and public service media, after 9 years of being undermine and fund-frozen by NACT.
However, the suspension of intellectual property issues, and inclusion of protection for Pharmac sound promising.
in the new CaPpedTPP
Yep. Puts the lie to Labour being left-wing.
And the re-branding of the TPP while it remains essentially the same is a lesson in how psychopathy works:
Draco,
We fully support your position of this Labour Government wording change to ‘hoodwink’ us all in some rebranding ‘foolery’ excersise here.
This is not “Transperancy” that labour promised us but it is only pure deception.
“You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.”
Why do you think NZF agreed to this?
My guess is because they are for “exports and trade”, without understanding that this doesn’t automatically help most people. TPP being an example of a deal that is mostly about growing the rights of the already rich, while doing little for ordinary people.
I am trying to recall but wasn’t peters against TPP?
Yes, it seems Labour is still deeply neoliberal.
A kinder neoliberalism is still slightly better than a nastier neoliberalism – but I hope Labour can actually take a different path one day.
That is not a surprise though is it?
Of interest to me is that in a country where we have CER, 80% of our potential trade under CPTPP is with Australia!
” completely eliminates ISDS clauses between Australia and New Zealand, which makes up 80 per cent of potential CPTPP trade. ”
It has been kept very quiet that TPP was about gaining better access to our cloest neighbour with whom we have CER.
Interestingly Nats couldnt get the ISDS clause concessions? Or did they never try?
Nats would have been comfortable with the ISDS bits I am sure.
It seems I misunderstood what parker said.
Labour taking a different path is up to its members forcing their leaders to take a different path and that doesn’t seem to be on the cards. The closest that they’ve come so far is David Cunliffe who then got massively white-anted by the rest of the Labour caucus. And the caucus still don’t seem to like their members giving direction to the party.
I respectfully disagree.
I just read Duncan Garner’s ‘sensible’ piece on Stuff https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/98769403/duncan-garner-new-government-places-pragmatism-over-principles–fair-play.
It raised more alarm bells with me and it was already getting noisier …
I feel like we’re being sold (!) a Government that sounds much more progressive and principled than it really is. Time will tell, maybe … Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose?
We’re being pacified with ‘stable’ language and ‘relentless positivity’ and the issues are framed such that we fall into a hypnosis-like state in which we are willing to accept almost anything.
I voted for change and for a Government that would govern based on core values that are not negotiable. I did not get what I’d hoped for but it’s too early to see how much less it is compared to what I’d hoped for. But I have not given up hope!
Pragmatism is the silent slayer of dreams and imagination and slowly kills off our creativity; hope keeps it alive!
“Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose?”
I am not sure what Labour party voters thought they were going to get that is different from a labour Govt that is adherent to traditiona leconomics (the one that has failed so many for decades), is so scared of upsetting “business” it bends over backward to bring in things it likes ahead of addressing wage stagnation (median and below) and working conditions (casual… zero etc) that are an anaethma (sp) to a mickey Savage labour. This is NOT a Mickey Savage Labour party, it makes some Mickey Savage-like noises… but it will not move from the centre.
Could be a hell-cinder path then.
People hear dog-whistling because they want to. People also like to see things in a way that confirms their perceptions, etc. John Key knew & understood and explored this ‘vulnerability’ to its full potential. We’re all vulnerable to a certain degree …
I voted for a bunch of people whom I thought were the most likely to affect the much-needed change and I have no regrets whatsoever and would happily do it again.
Because the way the coalition is made up it is firmly rooted in the centre; it won’t move much to either the left of the right nor upwards – it might not move at all but may lean in or out depending on which way the wind blows. But despite this apparent and likely political inertia in the Beehive outside of it there’s an unstoppable movement and flurry of activity …
If national politics is to become (more) relevant (again) then our representatives better take heed of what’s going on outside the beltway rather than looking and talking down on us from the ninth floor. Monbiot refers to Politics of Belonging and restoration of community & democracy and our politicians, Labour ones in particular, need to decide whether they want to repair & bridge the disconnect and where they truly belong: with us or separate from us.
incognito +100
AND at least 2 article about how the property valuations will make the rates go up by the valuation increase!!!!
The writers need to do a little research about how rates are set.
I just read the one by Peter Williams. What a self entitled tosser (IMO).
His two houses will likely have gone up in value by a good $million in just three years and he’s crying poor over a potential $2k increase in rates. His capital gain would pay his entire rates for the next 100years, banks will happily lend against the property and most councils do too. These people who want to have their cake and eat it are rather irksome.
Yup. He got rates calculations wrong and probably covered his rates from the pay from that article. Now had he bemoaning how hard it must be for those on median incomes it would have been more than the moaning of a highly privileged person ignorant of their privilege. Guess we know what he and Hosking last chatted about. I am tempted to say if paying the rates is going to be a problem then Williams and his wife need budgetting lessons and missed all the education on retirement proofing given their combined incomes would be north of 200k.
It’s a bit scary reading the comments which have now appeared on that Peter Williams article. You’d expect people with the ability to write legibly can also read and think rationally, sadly all too many of those comments kill that theory.
I so weep for Peter Williams……sitting on probably well over $3,000,000 of readily realisable property in St Marys Bay and Wanaka. Neurotic dork should STFU.
Ten Reasons We Got Rid of the Nasties
No. 8: That waste of space Tau Henare
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10102014/#comment-908083
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-09122016/#comment-1272488
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11131033
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10373968
“It never ceases to amaze me, the bloodyminded soddishness of people!”
—Victor Meldrew, “The Worst Horror of All”, One Foot in the Grave
You are aware, I hope, that Tau Henare left Parliament in 2014?
How does voting Labour, or whoever you voted for in 2017, get rid of Tau?
A very, VERY good question, Alwyn.
You have got me there, my friend.
I know they are small points, but Max Towle quotes Ben Thomas as saying the following here in the Herald yesterday (written 27 Oct) about Bill English:
“He won 44.6 per cent of the vote in the general election and in the last week of polls was the country’s preferred Prime Minister.”
In fact National won 44.4 % of the vote. And rather than pretending English is still preferred PM, surely we should be waiting for the next poll which will doubtless show Jacinda as preferred PM.
Where the article is more interesting is the discussion on who will replace loser English. My money, like Bryce Edwards, is on Amy Adams. She has shown she has perfect qualifications with her abysmal hard-nosed compassionless treatment of Teina Pora and David Bain, her disdain for democracy in Canterbury etc etc.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11937290
Bearded Grit!
I direct people to the image on Bowalley Road where Simon Bridges is arguing the rightness of his bad behaviour. Amy Adams is sitting by him, watching his blustering with apparent interest, amusement, and I feel, approval.
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2017/11/settling-stardust-grim-logic-behind.html
It’s a lot to read into an image, very subjective, but I believe likely to be true.
Thanks Grey…you just ruined my lunch.
I see the Herald on Sunday is keeping up it’s relentless anti-Labour bombardment today. It is ridiculous. Instead of writing predictably anti-labour nonsense I would suggest Heather du Plessis-Allan would be more profitably employed lobbying the Wellington City Council for better lighting on Wellington’s winding and vertiginous paths, lest another young person takes a drunken tumble.
Question: would it be a good idea to allow someone to be stripped of their civic rights (lose the right to vote, banned from standing for public office or get a government job) for up to, say, ten years, as a punishment available to judges under the crimes act? or would it set to dangerous a precedent?
Sanctuary
What sort of crimes would bring that on? I think it would create a dangerous precedent and really be the thin edge of the wedge of minimising the respect for other humans who don’t fit in with the dominant group. Laws are really enforced guidelines and have grown immensely from both parliamentary Bills and through regulations and deemed legislation, I think it is called.
Moses came down from the mountain with the ten Commandments and I have a picture of them being etched out on stone, but now we have law libraries of bound legislation with matching leather covers with spines striped in gold.
When it comes to restriction of participation by the public in civic matters, what do you think about changing part of the voting opportunities so that only people who have done a series of workshops that involve a scratch test, so that those people can be voters for a Party. They would have had to put some effort in to learn about the current economic, social and international position of the country. So they would vote and more would be informed about the effects of their decision.
Everyone would be able to vote for a representative in their electorate. If people are going to vote on personality and impression, and that is more important to them than substance and fact, then give them the opportunity to do that.
Generally, I was thinking we need to smarten up on civic affairs – for example, a resident should be able to vote until they complete a civics course (I am thinking the sort of thing you do at a local colleges and polytechs over 4-6 Wednesday evenings).
I’d like to make election day a public holiday like Xmas day, mid week, and only paid if you vote (imagine that, you didn’t vote and about six weeks after the election you get an email from HR saying they are docking you a day’s pay…).
I’d like everyone when they vote to get, say, a $10 voucher to donate to a political party of their choice before they leave the voting place and then ban large donations to political parties.
on the stick side I was thinking stripping civic rights might be a useful sentencing option for white collar criminals…
Excellent Sanctuary I agree;
Get big money and bribes out of politics.
They teach civics in American schools and they have lower voter turnout than us. It is not about shoving more education down people’s throats it is about engaging people.
I would like to see a financial incentive for first time voters because statistically if you vote once you are 300% more likely to vote again. But in the end if people think they system isn’t for them, doesn’t serve them, engages in bullshit behaviour and doesn’t tell them stuff (Pointing at media here who have done more “analysis” post election than pre election when it was just regurgitating politicians practiced memes or writing “i reckon” pieces) about what they want to know, then they turn away.
Already the case.
Go to jail:
can’t enroll if in jail so can’t vote,
almost impossible to become a public servant,
can’t stand for parliament if you can’t enroll to vote
http://www.elections.org.nz/parties-candidates/candidates/becoming-candidate-2017-general-election
Slave Watch:
Epsom voters heading to the polls
http://www.radionz.co.nz/assets/galleries/14738/full_Kereru_Station_pic_5.jpg?1433900710
I thought maybe after being dumped “bleating torries ” could apply also.
A very good point, my friend. Actually, those slaves in Epsom were nearly all obedient National supporters who voted ACT against their better judgment for the simple reason they were instructed to do so. It’s the same yes-man behaviour that gets you a good job and a nice house in Epsom in the first place.
Ha ha, 100% M.
I prefer the pronoun ‘magnificent’ but I don’t tweet.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Pronoun? How can ‘magnificent’ stand in the place of a noun when it is only an adjective? (Maybe we missed something because you got bounced to Open mike?)
Pretty sure he was making fun of someone elses pronoun preference. See Ben Mack post
Yeah, it was a cheap shot that I now regret. A knee-jerk ease with being flippant when I see a non-issue through my eyes. It’s not fair, I’m working on it.
Rather than trying to treat people as I wish to be treated, it’s more trying to treat them as they wish to be treated. I see that as a good thing.
Good restaurant staff are experts at treating people as they wish to be treated.
For one couple excellent service is having a wine glass topped after every sip. For another couple great service is wanting for nothing, yet hardly noticing the waiter.
Yes I agree that treating people the way they want to be treated is the key. A lesson we can all work on methinks.
Don’t try to change David Mac. You’re good to read.
Yes, OK David Mac
A little 5 year old boy fell off a wharf not far from where I live yesterday. He drowned. I don’t know all the circumstances surrounding the tragedy, but I do know that somewhere close to me is a family living in a state of profound grief and desolation. They will probably never fully recover.
It certainly has caused me to think about my priorities in life and how dependent we are on each other – a dependency that has been so badly eroded over recent decades. My hopes are pinned on the Labour-led government turning this state of affairs around so that future communities – be they urban or rural – are far better resourced when it comes to looking after the safety and well being of ALL the people living in them.
Me too 100% Anna,
I now live in a rural area 70kms from the nearest town and often see families driving up our dirt road miles from nowhere to find somewhere to stop and sleep and stay awhile, all the time and these are not campers but people down on their luck so this makes me weep as we should be doing better than this.
+ 1 Anne – it really is about looking after everyone imo.
This guy is such a dick.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/98757184/damien-grant-ird-punishes-the-risktakers
“Thousands of companies fail every year. A small number of them pass through my office. Very few are bad people. Almost every one has failed to pay GST and PAYE.”
Anyone knows that the PAYE money belongs to the employee – it’s part of their wages or salary.
Two solutions:
1. Pay it to the employee on payday so they can pay their own tax
2. Make employers pay IRD at the same time they pay the employee – I can’t for the life of me think of a good reason why my employer should be able to hold onto my deductions beyond the day they are deducted.
Even more so when almost every failed business has failed to pay.
That includes student loan deductions. Took my partner three years to sought out her student loan that her thieving employer took out of her wages and didn’t pay.
Day after day after day we see businesses who owe IRD tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.
It should be paid when deducted – not a day, week or month later.
Just another puppet willing to sell his soul to the billionaire press.
I feel sad for such tragic people.
Damien Grant writing about Dairy thieves.
They are not bad people, they are the risk takers!!!
Damien grant = soulless empty vessel.
I agree, The solution is to pay the flippin’ taxman rather than whinging to the paper
A.
we could start treating company owners like beneficiaries. When one messes up, commits fraud or something we make all of the pariahs and bring in even more regulations to bring them into line.
This morning on Radionz on immigrant labour needed for tourist trade, a bar owner was saying that he just couldn’t afford to pay NZrs. His problem I think was that he is competing in a small over-supplied market, and needs the subsidy of low wages to keep his business profitable.
Descendant of Ssmith point seems good. Make the people responsible for their PAYE payments, even if they are working irregular hours. A direct debit weekly or fortnightly that pays half the average payment and then a full net payment every month.
IRD might then be able to employ a few more people and not have to rely on machines. It is a useful job, we need responsible tax gatherers in person. And cut out the penalty payments for natural people, not thinking about legal ‘people’ devised by the flick of a pen.
This comments indicates perfectly (to me) that you ( and probably the vast majority of Standardistas) have no concept of business or financial operations. Unfortunately this ignorance extends to this Govt, which will gave tragic consequences for most NZers.
A business model based on wage theft, huh?.
What concepts are they missing Bondy? Seems pretty straightforward to me, if you take on a debt you’re expected to pay what you owe. The majority of people in business pay their debts, pay their taxes, and don’t moan about it.
You may well be correct in your assertion but I look forward to the day that governing is less like running a business focussing on financial operations (spreadsheets and ‘actuarial tables’ to guide ‘social investment’) and being ‘astute managers of the economy’ and more about putting the people (and environment!) first and foremost. Ideally, all three are integrated and synergise rather than conflict/compete with each other.
Nope well aware that on my payday you take x amount of my wages to pay on my behalf to IRD.
I expect you to pay it. If you don’t you’ve stolen my money.
In this case because I’ve earned it under a lawful contract which you as the employer has signed to pay me x amount per hour it is my actual money.
Stop stealing. Thief, thief, thief………
If you can’t pay my full wages by not paying the PAYE you must really hate it when the government gives me tax cuts cause you have to pay me more on payday and hold less in your bank account.
Why do you think a business owner may not be able to pay paye?
I really recommend some of you guys give self-employment a go, be the boss, experience it from the other side.
By self-employment I don’t mean being on contract for six months or a year, I mean actually running a business where you’re lucky to have more than a months work ahead of you so you’ve got to endlessly get out there and have to hunt for work.
For that added level of difficulty add a few employees to the mix.
Been there, done that. Back in the days when everything was paper-based.
I made life difficult for myself a few times when I didn’t immediately set aside my employees PAYE when I paid their wages. But I always treated tax owed to the IRD as a top-level priority right alongside wages, so I did what it took to pay up when it came due. (I wasn’t so careful about getting returns in on time when there was no tax owing or a refund due to me, which the IRD got grouchy about).
These days if I set back up in business and employed people, I’d expect my electronic accounting package to make sure PAYE issues got sorted at the press of a button, right at the same time wages are paid.
In the end, it’s a case of setting priorities. In my case, I prioritised my obligations to the rest of society as represented by the government at the top-level right alongside obligations to employees. That the government carries the biggest stick of all was only a small part of that choice.
I made life difficult for myself a few times when I didn’t immediately set aside my employees PAYE when I paid their wages. But I always treated tax owed to the IRD as a top-level priority right alongside wages, so I did what it took to pay up when it came due. (I wasn’t so careful about getting returns in on time when there was no tax owing or a refund due to me, which the IRD got grouchy about).
Absolutely it a priority, otherwise the IRD is down on you like a tonne of bricks.
It’s just unfortunate sometimes no matter how hard some people try, the money has to be used to keep the business afloat.
This talk of stealing is bullshit, 99.99% of business owners want to run a successful legitimate business, sometimes things don’t go as planned
Indeed.
But that’s not the IRD’s fault, or the employees’.
You’re talking about struggling businesses that choose to not pay their bills in order to try to “keep the business afloat”. Those businesses are already sunk, hoping for a lotto-style hail-mary pass that, according to Grant’s article, hardly ever comes.
And he paints the IRD as the bad guy for it.
That’s true when you can meet your tax obligations you’re pretty much fucked.
It takes a strong person to realise that and admit you’re financially going down the gurgler and probably dragging a few of your employees’ down with you.
Yeah, he runs an insolvency business so what he sees of business is largely those who have gone bust.
Most are a pox on the business community. They use creditors as a bank and there’s a hell of a domino effect from those pricks who don’t pay their debts.
+100
Dealing with one of these at the moment. Utterly lost in his own world.
BM – I largely agree and I used to work at IRD. On the other hand, people like the Nosh owners here (John Denize was the subject of Friday’s Checkpoint) need a swift kick, so there needs to be stiffer punishments for those sorts of losers.
https://gazette.govt.nz/notice/id/2017-ar3655
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/335202/nosh-and-mt-eden-food-co-in-receivership
It would be great if employers could actually talk to the IRD if they’re in difficulty and see if they can come up with a plan that works for both parties.
IRD does tend to be seen as being like those old school teachers that whacks you with a cane if you step slightly out of line.
A bit like trolls such as some people I could mention..
Of course they can talk to IRD – but they don’t do they.
And yes it is theft. The employer has taken the money out of my wages, over which I have no choice btw, and not sent it to where it should be sent.
It should be compulsory to pay it at the same time as my wages.
That would help identify businesses in trouble at an earlier point and less people would be owed money if the business didn’t succeed.
They can and regularly did when I was there as I set up many debt repayment arrangements in my time, and no doubt many others did as well. IRD also wipe debts (partially or totally) regularly in cases of genuine hardship or financial difficulty.
It would be great if employers could actually talk to the IRD if they’re in difficulty and see if they can come up with a plan that works for both parties.
Yeah, it would be great if MSD worked like that too. Hopefully, we’ve just elected a government that thinks in those terms.
You can.
Found IRD very good to deal with, especially over provisional tax.
Which is difficult when your cashflow varies hugely.
Unlike WINZ. Advocating for young people, I have first hand experience of the culture of meanness, contempt and bloody mindedness.
I found that if you are honest with the IRD, they are actually rather good about you paying them back. I never treated PAYE as my money, so that was always there. They were very good about negotiating a payment schedule, I could afford, for the rest.
Much kinder than WINZ are to those on welfare.
One day, when I was working at McDs in Starship, a customer came in and ordered food for himself and his rellies. They were all there to see his son who’d been in an accident.
When he ordered he asked for the receipt at which point his wife asked if he was going to put it on the business and he said yes.
This person is not running a legitimate business.
Things is, this is just one anecdote. I have several more from different business owners throughout my life. Now, I’m certainly not friends with every business person in the country but when nine out of ten of the ones I do know are running these same or similar scams then I must question your assertion that 99.99% of business owners want to run a successful legitimate business.
Been there, done that. And paid everyone when I could, even though I was too ill to work for several years, at a real bad time when starting the business. .
The fact is. If your business cannot pay a living wage for all involved, and pay all its costs, including training staff, taxes for the resources it uses, and fair wages, then it is a tax payer and employee funded hobby, and should be shut down.
Why should your employees, and the rest of us who pay our taxes, fund your hobby?
+111
You don’t believe your word is your bond-y then?
This comments indicates perfectly (to me) that you ( and probably the vast majority of Standardistas) have no concept of business or financial operations. Unfortunately this ignorance extends to this Govt, which will gave tragic consequences for most NZers.
Funny, that was what I thought about all the right-wing fucks who had something bad to say about Metiria Turei, but funnily enough, that didn’t stop them running their mouths. Welcome to social media.
So, what did you think of Metiria’s actions to feed her child?
Another of those instances where you wonder what’s happened to this country;
“Damien Grant: IRD punishes the risk-takers”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/98757184/damien-grant-ird-punishes-the-risktakers
The man is a convicted fraudster and Stuff give him a regular soapbox to preach to us about ‘morals’. It’s like we’re all sitting at the Mad Hatters tea party.
Hah.. Descendant Of Sssmith … snap!
DH
Alice in Wonderland is so reeeaal man, its like man that the guy could see into the future!
Risk takers??
The people who declare their business insolvent, leave their subbies and employees broke, and scarper. Or expect the Government to bail out their poor business decisions.
Make us wear their risks. more like!
Damien Grant = Tea Party NZ Founder?
https://giphy.com/gifs/graphic-warning-kill-uTCAwWNtz7U2c
This little boy grew up to be Gareth Morgan
Chuckling
First anniversary in tiny house.
Some ideas reinforced.
Humans have amazing capabilities to adapt.
We need a hell of a lot less than what we imagine and when it really comes down to it most of the stuff we have is hardly worth it – we really need shelter, warmth, food, safety, love, community.
Humans are mammals and mammals clump together especially 9 and 2.5 year olds and their parents.
7 x 2.5 x 4.2 metres is doable, is enjoyable and is valuable at least for the four of us.
Sounds lovely Marty. ‘Onyous!
How funny thats exactly what ive got (9 and 2.5). Congrats
An interesting article in the Herald where Carmel Sepuloni is talking about welfare, with some mentioning of improving things. No time frames but beginnings.
This is starting to get tiresome. Lead story on Stuff is all Brownlee. Was comment sought from any government spokesperson? Did anyone bother to ask the Foreign Minister if he had a response?
National carrying on like they are still in charge and the MSM helping them do it.
Brownlee warns PM
Christ, you guys have short memories.
Think back six months, it was exactly the same but the roles were reversed.
Labour’s the target now, get used to it.
Rubbish, 6 months ago brownlee was on the front page. Just because you say it doesn’t make it true buddy. The loser gnats are getting a free ride to rip into the government. Dirty.
“Think back six months, it was exactly the same but the roles were reversed.”
Are you saying that six months ago Labour had just been kicked out of govt and were getting media attention that the new govt wasn’t and thus the public were being presented with a skewed view? Because that would be stupid right?
They were the target before as well. What country were you referring to? It can’t be this one.
The Dompost printed copy last week had a lengthy article by David Garrat defending the 3 strikes legislation . Can’t find it on the internet but WTF. Not exactly a credible source I’d have though but no disclaimer with it.
A more odious example of a disgraced ex politican would be impossible to find imo.
Remember when people had websites.
The events and data above describe how three internet companies have acquired massive influence on the Web, but why does that imply the beginning of the Web’s death? To answer that, we need to reflect on what the Web is.
The original vision for the Web according to its creator, Tim Berners-Lee, was a space with multilateral publishing and consumption of information. It was a peer-to-peer vision with no dependency on a single party. Tim himself claims the Web is dying: the Web he wanted and the Web he got are no longer the same.
https://staltz.com/the-web-began-dying-in-2014-heres-how.html
Does Faux news broadcast in Russia?.
Russia’s state-owned media outlet, RT, has announced that it will comply with US government demands to register as a “foreign agent” of the Russian government, amid controversy over Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election.
It’s a move that effectively marks the network, which runs both a website and a cable television channel, as a propaganda outfit for Moscow.
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/11/10/16633586/rt-russia-propaganda-foreign-agent
Voice of America? Still going. Readers Digest – always has a pro-USA view.
VOA News
https://www.voanews.com/
English news from the Voice of America. VOA provides complete coverage of the U.S, Asia, Africa and the Mideast.
Voice of America – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America
Voice of America (VOA) is a U.S. government-funded international news source that serves as the United States federal government’s official institution for …
Everybody’s doing it, doing it…
Answering my own question, Fox News has no terrestrial or satellite carriers in Russia while RT has terrestrial and satellite carriers, and studio facilities in the US.
VOA and affiliates are state funded cross-border broadcasters with studios and production based in the US.
It would be good perhaps to have USA media with facilities for Russian factual content getting first-hand information which is then available to their citizens to replace the info that just suits the propaganda that the pointy-heads give out.
The dominant culture should always look to see what the minority cultures are saying and seek to understand them , but they don’t; instead they seek to counter what they perceive to be an “attack” on mainstream thinking.
When
will
we
ever
learn?
Seemingly, never
Chins up! 🙂
“As environmentalist Paul Hawken put it: “We have an economy where we steal the future, sell it in the present, and call it GDP.”
“With politicians failing to step up to the climate challenge, what are the alternatives? One intriguing experiment in direct democracy has just concluded in Ireland, where a government-appointed Citizens’ Assembly composed of a nationally representative group of people selected at random heard detailed expert testimony on climate change from a range of experts. No lobbyists or politicians were allowed in the room.
The result: 13 recommendations for sharply enhanced climate action were overwhelmingly endorsed early this month, including citizens being personally prepared to pay more tax on high-carbon activities. The recommendations will now be discussed in parliament. Democracy may be dysfunctional, but rumours of its death have, perhaps, been exaggerated.”
Citizens Assembly anyone?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/10/can-direct-democracy-offer-a-third-way-to-meet-the-climate-challenge
Yes please!
at least….
https://www.newstatesman.com/2013/10/science-says-revolt
One more reason why universities should never be silenced as the ‘critic and conscience of society’.
Thanks Pat
This is a great place to keep informed. And gives us heart to keep on doing stuff that is purposeful and useful.
This is an excerpt from Pat’s link to New Statesman (think woman too) at 23.1.1.
There was one dynamic in the model, however, that offered some hope. Werner termed it “resistance” – movements of “people or groups of people” who “adopt a certain set of dynamics that does not fit within the capitalist culture”.
According to the abstract for his presentation, this includes “environmental direct action, resistance taken from outside the dominant culture, as in protests, blockades and sabotage by indigenous peoples, workers, anarchists and other activist groups”.
Citizens Assembly
Now +3?
Sharp Earthquake 2 minutes ago here in Wellington
http://quakelive.co.nz/Browse/?reference=quake.2017p852531
Just off Arapawa Island at the Northern end of the Sounds in the Cook Strait. I hope its not leading to towards something bigger as I fly into the Wellington next week and I was reading an article today on the net that parts of Wellington still having problems after the last round of the earthquakes. Have been catching up on some podcasts about last the lot of earthquakes and some of the data gathered makes for some interesting reading epseacilly for the lower nth.
Stay safe
Cheers, matey
I suspected Cook Strait-Arapawa Island
Whenever an earthquake around these parts starts with a sudden explosive bang – rather than a quiet rumble – & produces a jolt that’s both short & sharp = we know it’s more likely to be Northern end of the Sounds