In his post Doha blah blah blah, Anthony Robins wrote;
Perhaps the only moment of genuine passion was the tears of the delegation from the Philippines, in the wake of typhoon Bopha, which left 600 dead and nearly 1000 missing. (Didn’t get as much coverage as Sandy for some reason.)
The figures are, over 300 dead and over 900 missing, 400,000 have been left homeless. The death and destruction dwarfs that caused by Hurricane Sandy. Yet got the barest coverage possible in the Western media.
I don’t think that the difference in reporting this huge human tragedy can all be explained by euro-centric racism in the MSM.
The footprint of global warming is all over this one. For the media to look too closely at the tragedy in the Philippines is to risk opening up a huge political controversy that the MSM don’t know how to cover, without offending the authorities and vested interest.
Even in Hurricane Sandy in which climate change was only possibly implicated by the mainstream media, the questions and debate about climate change threatened to spiral out of the authorities’ control and disrupt the carefully stage managed presidential elections in which all mention of climate change had been scripted out.
The same thing threatened to occur at Dohar when the current round of climate talks where briefly disrupted by the intrusion of reality by the unfolding disaster in the Philippines, when the lead representative of the Philippines called on world leaders to stand up to “our political masters“. Apart from the alternative media this emotional call for revolt was greeted with silence by the MSM.
“As we sit here in these negotiations, even as we vacillate and procrastinate here, the death toll is rising. There is massive and widespread devastation. Hundreds of thousands of people have been rendered without homes. And the ordeal is far from over, as typhoon Bopha has regained some strength as it approaches another populated area in the western part of the Philippines…..
“I appeal to the whole world, I appeal to leaders from all over the world, to open our eyes to the stark reality that we face. I appeal to ministers. The outcome of our work is not about what our political masters want.
Naderev Saño, the lead negotiator of the Philippines delegation to Dohar.
Unfortunately Naderev Sano’s plea went unheeded and the Dohar talks delivered exactly what “our political masters” wanted.
Who are “our political masters” that Sano is appealing to the government “ministers” and political “leaders” of the world to stand up to?
Would I be wrong in supposeing that they are the same political masters who influence our mainstream media outlets to play up some stories and play down others?
Are they the same “political masters” that influence even Green Party politicians to play down and ignore climate change?
That last sentence: there’s the problem, see? Reading this false claim makes me wonder how many other lies your comment contains. Undermines its effectiveness. Y’know, like when John Key’s lips are moving.
Be careful who you call a liar, you risk looking foolish. You know as well as I that the Green Party leadership are playing down climate change and that they are doing it for narrow political advantage. i.e. bums on seats. They are not even in government yet, and already they are selling out. There can be little doubt, that with all the compromises they are prepared to make to get cabinet positions the Green Party in government will be a big disappointment.
In a previous thread I asked weka to explain why the Green Party was playing down climate change.
This is what he wrote:
……I just don’t think it’s the job or responsibility of the GP to do this at this point. Time for others to step up.
weka
In reply I asked weka a simple question; Who?
Who weka are these “others” you think should “step up”, now that the Greens are standing down?
Weka has not replied to me. Maybe weka should consider the words of Naderev Sano, though addressed to the government reps gathered at Doha it could just as easily be asked of the Greens.
Please, let 2012 be remembered as the year the world found the courage to find the will to take responsibility for the future we want. I ask of all of us here, if not us, then who? If not now, then when? If not here, then where?”
Naderev Saño, lead negotiator of the Philippines delegation to Dohar.
the Green Party leadership are playing down climate change
Citation needed. Students are advised that “playing down” is normally read as an active move on the part of the sentence’s subject, and arguments based on a lack of sufficiently-robust press releases on the topic will be marked down as disingenuous.
Um, it is really hard to report things that didn’t happen. Like the fact that climate change was never mentioned by the Green Party as an election issue in the last election. And looks likely not to be raised again in the next elections by the Green Party.
I suppose I could link to a blank sheet of paper if that would satisfy you.
Never mentioned? Five press releases specifically mentioning climate change in the last 3 months before the 2011 election. Here, here, here, here, and here. Almost one a fortnight through the campaign. On top of every other issue mentioned during the campaign.
I’m never going to vote Green, but I am prepared to spend 20 seconds to do a basic search of the interwebz.
What were you saying about reporting things that didn’t happen?
Probably because we had just spent a whole lot of time and effort providing links that demonstrated you were lying about Russell Norman and grossly misrepresenting the GP as a way of manipulating reality to suit your agenda.
Or maybe it’s because I don’t believe that the GP are ARE downplaying CC, so there was no clear way to answer your somewhat idiotic and manipulative question.
I also find it weird that you don’t already know who the other parties are that should be challenging climate change AS WELL AS the GP. See that? – AS WELL AS. That was my point – that the GP has done massive amounts of work to address climate change, and they still do but they have changed their focus a bit. Hence my suggestion that others step up (political parties, NGOs, industry etc, duh).
You have an odd sense of responsibility IMO. You think that the GP should abandon its attempt to form government (which includes abandoning an attempt to effect real change within parliament on all those other equally important issues), and instead put CC at the forefront and stay in parliament as a CC lobby group. Well too bad. The GP doesn’t exist to suit your agenda, and as already amply demonstrated is doing its bit to address CC.
Thank you weka for attempting to answer my question. I am glad to see that you think that it is the time that other political parties, (presumably Labour and National), step up to the campaign against climate change. I agree totally. But for this to happen requires leadership from the Greens. Labour and National will never change their current positions unless they are challenged, and challenged strongly and repeatedly. But how can this happen when in your words, “<i>the Greens have changed their focus….</i>”? (in your opinion “a bit” in my opinion an “awful lot”). Your reply is contradictory. You say that you “<i>don’t believe that the GP are downplaying CC</i>”. But you admit that the Green Party have “<i>changed their focus a bit</i>”. A concession to the truth. You argue that the Green Party should attempt to enter government that supports deep seas oil drilling and prospecting, and open cast coal mining, and fracking. And that, to not do so means, “<i>abandoning an attempt to effect real change within parliament on all those other equally important issues</i>” (Without saying what those other equally important issues are.) It doesn’t really matter what they are, because you are full of it, just making excuses before time, for selling out. I imagine that by “<i>equally important issues</i>” you mean social issues of justice and equality and relief for the poor etc. All highly commendable and high minded, of course, and who could object? Except that by leveling them equal to climate change each one of these other issues will be worsened, not alleviated. Making your stand hypocritical.
Weka if you haven’t already, you should listen to the words of Naderev (Yeb) Sano talking about Typhoon Bopha: <blockquote>”….. heartbreaking tragedies like this are not unique to the Philippines, because the whole world, especially developing countries struggling to address poverty and achieve social and human development, confront these same realities. <b>Naderev Sano</b> Lead negotiator, Philippines delegation to Dohar round on climate change. </blockquote> You say that by not staying outside of government to fight against climate change includes abandoning an attempt to effect real change within parliament on all those other equally important issues. I say you will be following in the well trod path of <a href=’http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/an-appointment-with-reality.html’>Joshka Fischer</a> and <a href=’http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/clegg-sold-out-to-get-power-say-voters-2083293.html’>Nick Clegg</a>. To keep the pressure on the Labour and National Parties the Green Party need to abandon attempting to form a government that will allow deep sea oil drilling and fracking and new open cast strip mining of coal for export.
(For some reason my ability to use html has failed. I will try reposting again) Thank you weka for attempting to answer my question. I am glad to see that you think that it is the time of the Labour Party and National parties to take over the campaign against climate change. I agree totally. But for this to happen requires leadership from the Greens. Labour and National will never change their current positions unless they are challenged, and challenged strongly and repeatedly. Inside parliament and out. But how can this happen when in your words, “<i>the Greens have changed their focus….</i>”? (in your opinion “a bit” in my opinion an “awful lot”). Your reply is contradictory. You say that you “<i>don’t believe that the GP are downplaying CC</i>”. But you admit that the Green Party have “<i>changed their focus a bit</i>”. A concession to the truth. You argue that the Green Party should attempt to enter government that supports deep seas oil drilling and prospecting, and open cast coal mining, and fracking. And that, to not do so, <i>”means abandoning an attempt to effect real change within parliament on all these other equally important issues</i>” (Without saying what those other equally important issues are.) It doesn’t really matter what they are, because you are full of it, just making excuses before time, for selling out. I imagine that by “<i>equally important issues</i>” you mean social issues of justice and equality and relief for the poor etc. All highly commendable and high minded, of course, and who could object? Except that by leveling them equal to climate change each one of these other issues will be worsened, not alleviated. Weka if you haven’t already, you should listen to the words of Naderev (Yeb) Sano talking about Typhoon Bopha: <blockquote> “…….heartbreaking tragedies like this are not unique to the Philippines, because the whole world, especially developing countries struggling to address poverty and achieve social and human development, confront these same realities. <b>Naderev Sano</b> Lead negotiator, Philippines delegation to Dohar round on climate change. </blockquote> You say that by not staying outside of government to fight against climate change includes abandoning an attempt to effect real change within parliament on all those other equally important issues. I say you will be following in the well trod path of <a href=’http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/an-appointment-with-reality.html’>Joshka Fischer</a> and <a href=’http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/clegg-sold-out-to-get-power-say-voters-2083293.html’>Nick Clegg</a>. To keep the pressure on the Labour and National Parties the Green Party need to abandon attempting to form a government that will allow deep sea oil drilling and fracking and new open cast strip mining of coal for export. By staying outside of such a government you can vote on each issue, case by case. In a coalition you will be bound by collective responsibility, forced to swallow many dead rats.
I don’t think that the difference in reporting this huge human tragedy can all be explained by euro-centric racism in the MSM.
Most of the difference can be explained by reference to the fact that Sandy bore down on the highest concentration of big media producers in the english speaking world, a few days before a US presidential election, combine that with this:
So is this how the gathering global disaster of climate change will be reported? The hundreds of deaths now, which in the future will be millions, will get less media attention than the passing milestones of the yet unborn heir to the British throne.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/12-0 “The honchos of America’s establishment media are quick to blame such external causes as the Internet for their problems. But if they looked internally, they might notice that they’re damn near eaten-up with a bad case of conventional wisdomitis. The problem with conventional wisdom is that more often than not it’s nothing more than the contrived “wisdom” of the corporate powers.
Associated Press. March 2023.
Sir Trevor Mallard of Wainuiomata has returned from London after six years as a highly successful and very popular High Commissioner. Sir Trevor is expected to continue to bring his unique talents to bear on assignments for the UN and the Olympics Movement.
Sir Trevor took of the London position after three hectic years as Speaker of the House during the first Cunliffe Government. He successfully guided the house through the historic period of economic reform that has led the country to its new export led prosperity and low employment. Sir Trevor is New Zealand’s last High Commissioner. The role will now be titled Ambassador, given New Zealand’s new status of a republic.
Sir Trevor was greeted at the Airport by his BFFL, Tau Henare.
NZHerald. April 2023
Premier Lady Jacinta Ardern flew back from Australasia’s capital Canberra for the annual Federation Heads meeting where she was greeting with 400 young schoolchildren who ran across the airport as she emerged from the plane. In a well choreographed display of affection with long red ribbons on sticks they all sang The People’s Flag is Deepest Red, We Praise You For Our Room And Bed.
She confirmed in a written statement that “Our decision to join in union with Australia after the ANZAC centenary has been proven the only and the best way to ensure our national sovereignty is secure, our labour rights improved, and our strategic assets retained within Canberra’s more generous banking framework. Our discussions on the New Guinea question were fruitful.”
Lady Ardern was formally welcomed by New Zealand’s last Governor-General Lord Key of Thorndon at Premier House, where the security cordon against what he described last month as “Those filthy Hobbitses” remained tight as over half the country is now officially in poverty and the vast steaming camp outside Premier House remains, in the words of the Chief of Welfare and Goodness, “Too fetid to consider seriously until they all just get a job.”
Correction for Lady Ardern – “Our discussion on the New Guinea question of overpopulation of fruitbats was sterile I’m sorry to report.” Nothing else of import was addressed.
Trevor has just issued a statement in which, in a very Statesmanlike tone, he recommends Maurice Williamson for the Speaker Role.
This great act by Sir Trevor should be applauded.
Jaysus…I just had a thought: Trevor would be a great speaker. Cunliffe should propose Trevor for that role.
And while Cunliffe is being so generous he should endorse Annette for the Wellingtom Mayoralty… Lady Annette has a certain ring to it.
Eh Cunners? Why not give Phil Goff the nod for Secretaty General of the Commonwealth? Lord Goff of Pukekohe has a certain ring to it.
Shearer you ask eh Cunners? No the UN don’t want him back. A little bit embarrassing….
These appointments have been well earned by our leaders. They are now ready to retire their seats. They have all insisted that they will not parachute in any staffers from the Parliamentary office it the Labour HQ. They would like to encourage candidates who will engage with the Membership in a respectful manner.
KMan (Absolutely Fabulous)
Very good. Interesting though how you happy republicans believe that life will be better with the type of elected uber-leader that we would get when we can’t even attract the quality under leaders we absolutely need. All in all the Monarchy is mainly monetarily supported by the Brits, does her or his best to think responsibly and behave with integrity and graciousness, and aren’t lawyers or con-men out to help their friends to chisel any money you have accumulated in the naive belief that this is the proper financial duty according to the seen laws and the general meme.
RNZ – The Panel – yesterday.
Jim Mora and his guests appeared to countenance the practice of “prank” phone calls. They are apparently part of the social fabric and have been for years, and they even interviewed a former DJ from a “pop” radio station who was world-famous-in-NZ for this type of phone call.
What is the justification for the calls to be made at all.
I wasn’t sure whether they were advocating that Radio New Zealand National start doing it. Further, I wonder if they would approve. If they were uncomfortable with that notion, then the question might be why.
I was astonished to hear that Holmes did it before ubiquitous global communications had twittered into every area of life. The basic observation was lacking in Moro, radio used to have the ability to control the message (a switch to cut the caller off), but now we all get to pile in to the bullying of shock jocks, that their meanness isn’t a bitchy corner of the media space where a few listen in, its a world where their efforts are redistributed on utube, their master complex creates copy cats from timbucktoo to alaska. This poor nurse, unable to reply, unable to remedy the offense to her own professional standing, was caught in an off moment, to the riddle of the world. That could be anyone next if we allow this incidient to go unpunished, and its striking that Moro would come to their defense, surely what’s good for the goose is good for the gander? Well no, it just continues the original reckless ridiculing. This was wrong, lawyers should have long since shutdown this debate pending criminal charges of the editors of the radio show. They were just gunning for spectacle royal stories to feed into the killing frenzy, the blood was in the water, and they wanted a bite too.
Another example of this Government’s refusal to adhere to even a basic understanding of natural justice is Judith Collins’ handling of the recommendation to pay David Bain compensation.
he has criticised the report prepared by overseas Jurist Ian Binnie but has not released it. She has asked the Solicitor General to have a critique prepared but has refused to let Bain’s lawyers see it. This is giving the side who lost the chance to undermine the proposal for compensation.
Binnie has released the most scathing response I have ever seen from a Western Jurist.
He has said that he expected Collins to follow a fair and even-handed process, yet she has taken advice from the Solicitor-General who for almost 17 years tried to uphold the guilty verdict from David Bain’s first trial.
He stated that the minister is searching for reasons that support her preferred disposition of the Bain claim.
He said says it is unfair that his report has been given to the police and other officials but Bain has not been able to see it.
Binnie finished by saying that by Collins insisting his report remain confidential she seems to have a “curiously one-sided view of confidentiality”. He believes the report should be made public so people can judge the merits of the minister’s concerns.
I don’t know, Micky. I am deeply suspicious of the Binnie report (no, I haven’t seen it). Two things – firstly it’s been reported that Binnie interviewed Bain while compiling the report. Is this normal? I would rather have thought a judge should be making decisions based on the evidence, not trying to form their own impressions of the accused at that stage of the process.
And secondly, I really doubt that it’s possible to find David Bain innocent on the balance of probabilities. There’s enough for reasonable doubt, definitely, but on balance of probabilities I think you’d have to be Joe Karam in disguise to come to Binnie’s conclusion.
“I would rather have thought a judge should be making decisions based on the evidence, not trying to form their own impressions of the accused at that stage of the process.”
The questioning was known and attended by all parties so presumably fine. Further, the report is around compensation rather than another trial over his guilt. The issue is compensation for what has occurred – the issue is not whether he is innocent or guilty.
But seriously, this bunch of neanderthals in government simply buy the recommendations and opinions that suit their political requirements. Examples – Wyatt Creech’s Ecan report, John Key’s Hardtalk interview which gave his game away, and now Judith Collins and Binnie.
Heard Justice Binnie on Checkpoint. An understated, truly authoritative, quintessential, impeccable, judicial analysis of the ignorant backwoodsman behaviour of Judith Collins. Collins…… the true, leathered, impervious to mature thought, redneck.
Was left thinking that Collins is much like George Dubya – “I say, therefore it is”.
Agreed Blue about the complexity of the Bain case and I am not sure that he should qualify for compensation. But the process is appalling. If a Minister asks a Judge for an opinion and he gives her one she should follow it. If she is not going to she should at least release the decision and set out her concerns and then let Bain have a chance to respond.
Which begs a second question. With Parata, Power, Bennett and now Collins out of the running by dint of incompetence, retirement or plain stupidity, does that leave Joyce as the next leader of the Nat party?
Thanks for that. It’s a pity Binnie referred to his expertise as an “opinion” – “just one judge’s opinion and I can show you another that will give you a counterview”.
Look in Nz the law is to simple, you become
entangled in a crime scene, and the evidence
does not stack up, in fact, starts shrinking
as time passes, but courts being run by
humans make the mistake and convict.
Now if you appreciate this,
and argue that courts should be judicious,
bring all matters (and appeals) in timely
fashion, then commonly held (other nations)
this would be considered a credit to a nation.
But in NZ we ignore incompetence, and in
ignoring end up rewarding the failures
(who fail to learn).
Look at neo-conservatist neo-liberalist
deregulation, that contributed not only to
Pike River, CTV, SCF, but now Bain.
Judith Collins, by ignoring, by not humbling
herself, and admitting the horrendously long
time for justice to be done, is bringing the
case back to life, and re-litigating it.
So I ask when will the law council start
proceedings to disbar Judith Collins.
Now, of course, it could just be political
and Collins needing the prosecutors to sign
on to compensation too.
The Bain case says more about us as a country than
of a soulless Justice Minister or the patently
incapable legal fraternity of admitting error.
Do we believe as a nation, that if you walk into
a murder scene where nearly all your family have
been murdered, and fight for your life also,
then at trial the wrong verdict, guilty, was
announced. Leads to you losing your family
wealth, incarcerated for over a decade, all the
time you are declaring your innocence. How would
you see the case? when you finally vindicated
that the state had not given you a fair trial,
a speedy process that uncovers guilt?
The balance of probabilities test does not
access the fairness of the trial, the
the court system ability to discern truth,
or hold them to account when they inevitably gone wrong.
A persons life, their family murdered, then
can be destroyed by the system on top? where
the courts are used by the real murderer to
continue the criminality?
So as the evidence shrinks, the possibility
of another perpetrator rises, the pronounced
reality that the system is aiding and abetting
them.
Its not beyond possibility that a murderer can
wipe out their family, inadvertantly frame the
sole survivor. Murder suicides do not go to plan.
And if you haven’t noticed, you cannot make a
case on the balance of probabilites if you
don’t have the initial weights of those possibilites
before the evidence is added in.
We cannot have a situation where the less
evidence there is, the more definitive we can be
about merits of our own case. Its like declaring
the classic invisible pink unicorn is both pink and
has just one horn, having a discussion that the
balance of probabilities tells us that it must be
just the one horn is nonsense, not none or many.
Our court system has too
streams, civil and criminal, we remove incarceration
as civil punishments. Just by admitting the need
to discuss probabilities should mean we compensate
for the incarceration. Bain should get some
compensation no matter what, even if its just
to safeguard the surviving relatives from paying
back inheritances.
Should we let one innocent person go to jail, who
lost their whole family, their inheritance,
their right to a judicious court process, time
having destroyed the evidence of innocence?
Do we live in a nation where innocent till proven otherwise?
Do we live in a nation of law, or of a lawyer pandering
to their political needs?
Impeach Judith Collins. Sick sad. How is it my
problem that see cannot understand a competent
legalist and has to call in ‘help’ from partial
lawyers? Why do we as a nation have to talk
Judith collins done from her high horse again.
The idea that anyone of us could walk into
a crime, be wrongly convicted, fight for justice
languishing in jail for over a decade, only to
be vindicated, and then be ignored by a sad sick
lawyer more worried about her political career
than her oath to uphold the integrity of the legal
system, to not bring parliament into disrepute,
by micro managing to political ends, what now is
clear to all, even the impartial third party expert
believes compensation is merited.
There’s been excuses all over the news channels about how they weren’t in cahoots with the drug-runners, it’s just their systems weren’t robust enough. The man in charge at the time, Stuart Green is now the UK Minister of State for Trade and Investment.
No such thing as a sacking or accountability for these types, just a life peerage and a seat in the House of Lords
That is weird. The flag to display it or not is stored in a cookie from your system that is sent to the server.
It literally doesn’t write the code for the HTML page that it sends back unless it see that coming through. Nothing is meant to be caching the HTML at the server side or at cloudflare.
Ummm just tried myself and it turned it on and off on chrome / ubuntu.
Something odd but not a problem.
Just left a comment. Hit submit, which took me to the comment in final form in the thread. Hit the “back’ button to get out and it took me to the comment in the thread with the draft underneath it. never happened like that before, usually the “back” takes me back in time to before the comment was posted on my way out and back to the site as a whole.
As i say, it didn’t cause a problem, I just mention it in case the difference indicates some kind of problem.
edit: same thing happened as I tried to exit this comment. Guess this is the new normal.
That will be your browser. It probably had an upgrade of some type as well. Those history operations are usually completely done on the client and they have all kinds of odd behaviours.
There is something incredibly boring about the current labour leadership. They have no spark or imagination. How they ever think they could win an election beats me. That cheshire cat (Chris Hipkins) makes me want to vomit when I see and hear him on the tv. Nothing logical or sensible comes out of his mouth. He looks like a schoolboy and has about the same level of appeal as a teenage boy to what was once loyal labour voters.
Stale, stayed and lacking vision is what this labour leadership is all about. They chopped off the only tall poppy so they are all as dull as each other now.
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Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
AN OPEN LETTER FOR SIGN ON BY ORGANISATIONS AND MOVEMENTS ACROSS THE WORLD, ALLIED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST INEQUALITY. This letter was released at the UN Political Forum on 9 July, where the Sustainable Development Goal on inequality was reviewed. The purpose of the letter is to call out the ...
We asked a young gay science student and critic of trans ideology and the trans activists’ assault on women’s and gay rights to outline his views on Redline. Thanks to him for his article. by Cian Ó Catháin Gender identity ideology (Gender ID) is ripping through western society at full ...
The Environment Committee is currently hearing submissions on the Zero Carbon Bill, and Stuff is reporting on the submissions. Today, they're covering yesterday they heard from "NZ" Steel:NZ Steel has told MPs it may be forced to close with the loss of thousands of jobs if changes aren't made to ...
Students are striking against climate change on September 27. And this time, they're asking everyone to join them:Students are taking to the streets, beaches and parks on 27 September, and we're inviting everyone to join us. That's right, this is an intergenerational issue, and you're all invited to put pressure ...
Peter McKenzie has a piece on Newsroom this morning about how local body politics is awash with property developer cash. 70% of all the donations in the 2016 Wellington mayoral election came from property developers. And its pretty obvious what they want in exchange:That’s particularly important in local government, according ...
Source: Unknown, twitter user Recently, I wrote a (relatively) short paper titled as above, to explore what self-determination could like in a practical sense. Maybe I’m a bit of an international trade truther or something, but I absolutely believe trade is at the heart of achieving peace and self-determination. Since ...
In the 1960s, after I had graduated with a first-class Oxford postgraduate law degree, I joined the British Foreign Office as the top entrant of my year. There, I worked for a couple of years on European affairs and was eventually posted to the Embassy in Brussels. After this exposure ...
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...
I heard a 45 minute interview with Monica Lewinsky talking to TED’s Chris Anderson on BBC Radio 4 over the weekend, and have listened to it another two times out walking. I recommend it. Highly. Man, I am so impressed with how this woman has integrated her life experiences and ...
Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure, London, Penguin, 2019, 352pp; reviewed by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s book The Coddling of the American Mind is a timely book, whose ...
When the Justice Committee reported back on the Administration of Justice (Reform of Contempt of Court) Bill, free speech advocates breathed a sigh of relief. As originally introduced, the Bill reitered the ancient offence of "scandalising the court" - basicly, a special sedition law protecting judges from criticism. The select ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. Since then - crickets. Which raises the obvious question: are they actually going to do this, ...
Back in March, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act. 285 people submitted on it. Now, Stuff has trawled through those submissions, and the case for reform is strong:The Justice Ministry asked Kiwis what they thought was ...
National's prisoner voting ban has gone down as one of the worst laws in New Zealand history. Passed after a farcical debate (including this farcial speech from ACT MP Hilary Calvert), it has subsequently been found to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act by the High Court, Court ...
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...
by Daphna Whitmore US social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt spoke on 1 August in Auckland to a crowd of around one thousand people. He is best known for his bookThe Coddling of the American Mind which examines the new climate of trigger warnings and acute sensitivity of Gen Z. ...
What an extraordinarily depressing experience it is to be compelled to watch, at 12,000 miles distance, the contortions and machinations of the British political class as they set about their determined attempt to overturn the decision taken by the British people that they wish to leave the European Union. The ...
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...
by Don Franks Way back when British guitar virtuoso Joe Brown was a beginning session guy he got to back a visiting American artist. Young Joe was an able technician but had yet to learn some points of professionalism. Part way through “Five foot high and rising” Joe tired of ...
Since scientists started studying climate change, they have warned that it will reduce food production. And now, its happening:The climate crisis is damaging the ability of the land to sustain humanity, with cascading risks becoming increasingly severe as global temperatures rise, according to a landmark UN report compiled by some ...
The Abortion Legislation Bill just passed its first reading, 94-23. Its a far bigger margin than I expected, even allowing for the Winston factor, and it reflects the overwhelming support there is in this country for reform. but that support isn't a new thing - it has existed for literally ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Referendums Framework Bill. The Bill does what it says on the label - establishes a framework for referenda. Things you may want to address in your submission: Whether the bill should apply only at the 2020 election, or whether it should ...
The Thompson and Clark / MBIE spying scandal continues to result in fallout, this time in the form of a report on the implementation of MBIE's "Operation Exploration", its internal operation to enforce the infamous Anadarko Amendment which criminalised protests against the oil industry. MBIE's enforcement operation was tainted by ...
So, Winston Peters is defending his last-minute demand for a referendum on abortion by claiming he was "blindsided" by the bill. Really? The bill is a government bill. It has been working through the cabinet approval process since December last year. As part of that process, NZ First was consulted, ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
Last week, the ongoing democracy protests in Hong Kong saw a pro-Hong Kong student assaulted at the University of Auckland. The Chinese consulate in Auckland followed this up with a press release "express[ing] its appreciation to the students for their spontaneous patriotism" - effectively condoning the assault and inciting further ...
Only those who close their eyes and minds to the evidence can still be in any doubt that we are facing a climate change crisis. The evidence is conclusive that the world is not only getting inexorably hotter, but also that the rising temperatures are creating a number of other ...
Rural communities are wailing about forestry conversions "taking land out of production" and putting it into locking up carbon. Its driven purely by economics: there's more money and lower costs in carbon than in sheep or beef, and if carbon prices rise, there'll be more net money than dairy even. ...
This week, the government introduced its (underwhelming) Abortion Legislation Bill. And despite having negotiated the text of the bill through the coalition process, Winston Peters is now suggesting that he will demand a referendum on it:NZ First leader Winston Peters has hinted that his party may only support the Government's ...
Blowing-Up The House: Is Winston Peters planning to put himself at the head of all those New Zealanders who refuse to countenance the Coalition Government caving-in to the Ihumatao protesters? The most effective way of doing this would be to issue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with an ultimatum. If she ...
Last night the police dramatically incresed their numbers at Ihumātao, shoving over protestors and threatening them with arrest. Despite police talk about the need to maintain "public order" and prevent a "breach of the peace", there appeared to be absolutely no justification for this: the protest camp is, was, and ...
A Cult, that many actors, politicians, and those with a low IQ are joining is sweeping across civilisation, with one main intention – ending humans reign on Earth. Starting as a well meaning though deeply flawed theory, that the Earth was warming due to mankind emitting greenhouse gasses, it was ...
Today's abortion reform announcement is just the latest in a long line of disappointing decisions or outright failures from the Labour government. The 90-day law. KiwiBuild. A capital gains tax. Climate change. Every time they make one of those decisions, we hope for better next time. No repeal of the ...
The Greens used their party conference over the weekend to push for a rent-to-own scheme, where people would be able to work towards home ownership by renting from the government. Its a sensible policy, and one which could make a real difference to home ownership rates. But its also basicly ...
by Daphna Whitmore Over the past fortnight, thousands of people have come to the Ihumātao land protest in South Auckland. On 23 July police prepared to evict a few dozen people who had maintained the encampment at Ihumātao for the past three years. As hundreds of supporters arrived the ...
The following article is translated from an article in Lutte de Classe (Class Struggle), the magazine of the French revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle). The United States’ blacklisting of the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, which took shape in Google’s ban on Huawei using its systems on its phones, marks a ...
There is a military phrase: “Full spectrum dominance”. It refers to the all-encompassing policy to dominate across all spheres of war. Lately, that has come to include the internet – in other words, cyberwarfare initiatives. That is in addition to land, sea, air and the like. Now, if ...
The IMF issued a Report on the state of the Economy as it is at present. Some of it points out significant issues that certainly warrant attention, but that we know already exist. Some of it is very much tied to the very obvious context of global concerns, that everyone ...
I'm glad to see the Lib Dems won.I had a moment of terror yesterday thinking that the Conservatives might cling on, due to a combination of Johnson's elevation to the premiership, the apparent uselessness of the Lib Dem candidate (who had failed to be elected in other constituencies) and the ...
. . Current Leader of the National Party, Simon Bridges gave the usual rah-rah speech to the Loyal & Faithful in Christchurch today (27 July). With National’s party polling and his own personal popularity sliding steadily in the polls, Mr Bridges has not much left to reverse his fortunes. ...
Those concerned for Langridge’s wellbeing say they hope he’ll change his mind when he sees the ocean coming. The protester who has vowed to stand outside Parliament every day until the Government announces a climate emergency says he accepts that his quest will most likely end in drowning. Ollie Langridge, ...
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...
Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says the report of the Small Business Council will help maintain the momentum for innovation and improvements in the sector. Mr Nash has thanked the members of the Small Business Council (SBC) who this week handed over their report, Empowering small businesses to aspire, succeed ...
Extra Police officers are being deployed from Northland to Southland with the graduation of a new wing of recruits from the Royal New Zealand Police College. “The graduation of 78 constables today means that 1524 new constables have been deployed since the government took office,” says Police Minister Stuart Nash. ...
Ongoing drug-test sanctions contradicts Government’s rhetoric on drugs Reports that two-thirds of beneficiaries who fail drug tests are still having their benefit sanctioned contradicts the Government’s so-called health approach to drugs. Auckland ...
An Auckland Homelessness Collective is optimistic extra government support for sustaining tenancies signals a commitment to a multi-pronged approach to tackling homelessness. ...
Wanaka-based trust ONE New Zealand will be hosting six days of talks, workshops and hands-on activities with local and national experts to educate, inspire and enable grassroots action towards a sustainable future. ...
In last week’s episode of Politics in Full Sentences, David, Brooke and Ruwan discussed why Jacinda Ardern has been lecturing our friends overseas, why Andrew Little called ACT's three strikes law “fascism”, whether he will give prisoners the right to ...
“Community safety must be the paramount consideration when releasing an offender, and the only way for that to be achieved is for the offender to acknowledge their crimes.” ...
“District Health Boards are failing to foster a culture of distributed clinical leadership, despite its demonstrated benefits to the sector,” says Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). ...
Ratepayers around Auckland were spitting out their morning coffees listening to Phil Goff’s incredible claims on breakfast radio today that this election is about ‘honesty’ and that Aucklanders can trust him on his promises. Auckland Ratepayers’ ...
The Hōkai Rangi plan for reducing Māori reoffending announced today fails to fulfil the Waitangi Tribunal’s recommendations, says justice organisation People Against Prisons Aotearoa. Minister Kelvin Davis announced the plan this morning, which aims ...
Waatea News at the invitation of the North Island Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency will exclusively broadcast the next Māori-led Inquiry into Oranga Tamariki starting today at 1pm. ...
Staff at the Ministry of Social Development say they are enthusiastic about the government’s $54 million investment in housing the homeless, with many describing it as a welcome change. ...
Today posters have gone up outside ANZ branches across New Zealand to expose ANZ’s sponsorship of an exclusive oil industry group, ‘The Petroleum Club’. The satirical posters play on ANZ’s recent ad campaigns, replacing the banks’ tagline ‘healthy ...
Imagine a country where children look forward to walking or cycling to school, parents arrive home safely, and the journeys we take for work or pleasure do more than leave us alive or uninjured, they also improve our lives. This is happening now in countries ...
Sunday, 18 August, 2019 - Environmental groups and well known New Zealanders are preparing to deliver a 55,000 strong petition to the steps of Parliament tomorrow, calling on the Government to protect the world’s smallest dolphin. ...
The Government’s proposed rescue plan must be strengthened because it is the last chance to save Māui dolphins from extinction and secure the future for Hector’s dolphins, Forest & Bird says. ...
Simon Shepherd: Roads, schools, hospitals, prisons, the building blocks that keep society functioning. And we don't have enough. It's called the infrastructure deficit and will be the focus of a major conference this coming week. The man charged with ...
New Zealand has been issued a stark challenge from Pacific leaders to dramatically upscale its action to address climate breakdown, Oxfam says, after a clear rallying cry from nations at this week’s Pacific Islands Forum. ...
Support for Recreational Dope Going ‘Up in Smoke’ Family First NZ is welcoming yet another poll showing plummeting support for legalising cannabis in New Zealand. The Horizon Research poll shows support for legalising has plummeted from 60% last ...
The prospect of ending wider cannabis prohibition looks increasingly unlikely. Over the last nine months, the percentage of New Zealanders who would vote for legalising the personal use of cannabis has declined at a near linear rate of around 10% per ...
“It’s disappointing that news out of the United States of hospitalisations linked to illegal street drugs is somehow seen as relevant to the New Zealand vaping scene,” says Ben Pryor, Director of Alt New Zealand – the largest Kiwi-owned vaping company. ...
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) welcomes the successful passing of Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill through parliament, by the New Zealand Government. ...
Today’s news from the Electoral Commission has provided the party with the clarity it was seeking around use of the word “Coalition” being used as the brand name of the party. ...
A recently released Otago University study has provided further evidence that low-quality housing is a significant problem in Aotearoa. This has prompted the Chief Executive of the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACENZ) Paul Evans to question “why ...
With the BNZ-Business NZ PMI signaling manufacturing is contracting , the Government needs to seriously consider tax relief, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . ...
The New Zealand Maori Council has called for an overhaul of the Public Services executive ranks as the Corrections debacle shows mis-management and incompetence at the highest level. Matthew Tukaki, Executive Director of the New Zealand Maori Council has said ...
Findings from the 2018 New Zealand Consumer Survey have been released and the results are in; 48 per cent of respondents consider their purchases based on how ethically employees are treated. ...
The responsibility for the fact that Westland Milk Products is now in the hands of an overseas conglomerate 25% owned by the Chinese government can be laid fair and square at our government's doorstep. ...
As Fonterra is projecting multi million dollar losses for the second year in a row, it is clear the writing is on the wall for dairy as more and more Kiwis turn to plant milks. 22nd August is International Plant Milk Day and there is now a different plant ...
The $65,000 granted to Interislander so it can install electric vehicle chargers on its ferries is the most absurd waste of money yet to be delivered by the “Low Emissions” vehicle fund, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. ...
Wellingtonians will have the chance to hear international child rights experts from Ireland, Scotland and Samoa speak at the Making Child Rights Real in Aotearoa New Zealand seminar to be held in the city on Wednesday 21 August. ...
Paul Evans, Chief Executive of the Association of Consulting Engineers (ACENZ), is advocating a balanced approach to the development of productive land. ...
CPAG (Child Poverty Action Group) says that new research from the University of Otago provides a solid foundation for why the Government must not delay instating a comprehensive Warrant of Fitness for tenanted homes in Aotearoa-New Zealand, and ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that an officer drove carelessly during a pursuit and that this was the primary cause of a collision with a motorcycle that injured the rider. ...
Responding to the Prime Minister’s commitment of $150 million in funding for climate change response in the Pacific, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says: “It is no secret that many Pacific nations lack serious oversight when it ...
AUT research not only shows an increase in political affiliation, but that candidates affiliated to a central political party are more likely to win seats in Auckland local government. ...
On the 23rd of August School Strike NZ will join Ollie Langridge in his 100th day of sitting outside of New Zealand Parliament calling for the government to declare a climate emergency. School Strike 4 Climate NZ also demand that Parliament acknowledge ...
You have stood up for what is fair, and I am sure you will speak for over 7 million people who have been muted and rendered voiceless in Indian occupied Kashmir for more than a 10 days now. I am writing to bring to your notice the plight of Kashmiri ...
In the last 10 months alone, 11 petitions have been delivered to Parliament calling for medicines to be funded by Pharmac. Today, another nine petitions have been launched by Patient Voice Aotearoa (PVA) members asking that life changing, saving and extending ...
When we were first working to get Miscanthus approved for import into New Zealand, the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) waived the fee for their work because they thought that having Miscanthus in New Zealand was so very much in the ...
PHARMAC’s recent decision to fund two additional drugs from December this year has been widely welcomed by patients and the general public alike. The drugs, Kadcyla and Ibrance, are used in the treatment of advanced lung and breast cancers and will ...
Animal rights organisation SAFE is urging the Government to include experts and advocates from outside the agriculture industry on its newly announced winter crop grazing taskforce. ...
The Government’s plans to prohibit housing on ‘productive’ farmland will serve as yet another regulatory tax on housing, and is a shameful breach of Jacinda Ardern’s promise to fix housing supply, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . ...
The latest round of the Ethnic Communities Development Fund opens today, supporting projects that grow the leadership and capability of ethnic groups, improve cultural understanding, and ensure our ethnic communities are a vibrant and celebrated part ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is warning of the dangers of hiking excise tax, in response to calls from a former Prime Minister for stronger action on alcohol harm. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “It seems inevitable ...
Is a second attempt at merging parts of Stuff and NZ Herald owner NZME planned, with a bid for political intervention to help the media industry? Tim Murphy reports. ...
How the NZ Superfund has drummed up $15 trillion to put pressure on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube giants over livestreaming following the Christchurch terror attacks. ...
Kiwi Jamie Greene has established herself as one of the fittest women on the globe in the fast-growing gruelling sport of CrossFit. And she wants to thank her runner sister for helping drive her. ...
Newsroom is delighted to welcome the University of Otago as our third university partner for the IdeasRoom section exploring issues of importance to society and the country’s future. ...
Who should decide how many more tourists fly into Queenstown and Wanaka? Journalist and former district councillor, Cath Gilmour, argues local residents should, not the airlines. ...
Phil Goff has kept a low profile compared with his headline-grabbing opponent in the early stages of the Auckland mayoral campaign. Hayden Donnell heads along to see if the mayor can win back the spotlight at his campaign launch.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to ...
Backed by businessman Eric Watson and launched in a blaze of publicity, online trader Fashbae disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived. Now its founder is traversing the globe in a jeep. Business editor Maria Slade tries to keep up with events.It had it all. A suave multi-millionaire investor and ...
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk Rioting broke out in Manokwari, West Papua, today as local people – mostly university students – protested against racial abuse of Papuan students in East Java, reports TheJakarta Post. The protesters blocked a number of major streets in the city this morning, cutting down ...
By Ben Bilua in Suva Multimedia skills and innovation are key to adapting to the changing media landscape, said US academic Professor Debora Wenger as newsmakers around the world continue to grapple with challenges arising from the transformation of technology and social media. Speaking to journalists at a regional ...
The new RBNZ seems to crave the limelight and be known for advocacy of new causes, and that has not impressed macroeconomics professor Robert MacCulloch. ...
The prime minister won't meet with Ihumātao protesters before Thursday - the deadline given by the group to stop them marching to her Auckland electorate office. ...
Cabinet ministers will discuss possible law changes to what mail can be received and sent by prisoners, after the accused Christchurch gunman was able to send mail to supporters. ...
The Catholic and Anglican churches are still considering quashing legal agreements that may prevent abuse survivors from giving evidence to the inquiry investigating historical abuse in care. ...
The new joint from the team behind one of Wellington’s favourite craft beer bars is dedicated to minimal-intervention, organic wine – and more exciting things are coming to the heritage building it’s housed in.Before the Cadbury factory opened in Dunedin in 1930, New Zealanders ate Cadbury chocolate made in England. ...
Alex Casey chats to Bree Tomasel about hosting Celebrity Treasure Island NZ, farting in the ZM studio and going viral on the regular. The most important thing you need to know about Bree Tomasel is not the fact that she peed her pants during Celebrity Treasure Island NZ, but the glee ...
Dr Bryce EdwardsAnalysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – The election race is on. The nominations process for local government positions has now closed, and the political campaign is officially underway. But does the public care? Will many of us even vote for any of the various mayoral or council ...
At Eden Park on Saturday night, the Wallabies were on the receiving end of a ruthless players’ revenge, writes Scotty StevensonThe rain came. It always seems to at Eden Park, just as the Wallabies warm up on the pitch, dreaming of ending a drought. It came from the west, the ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Local government Michael Fallow (Stuff): Your council – what’s its job description? Dileepa Fonseka and ...
Protesters occupying land at Ihumātao will begin a four-hour hikoi to Mt Albert on Thursday to present a petition calling on the Prime Minister to visit the land. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jamie Walvisch, Lecturer, Monash University This morning an Extinction Rebellion protester was arrested after hanging from a rope over the William Jolly Bridge in Brisbane, blocking all lanes to peak hour traffic. And earlier this month in Brisbane, more than 70 climate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Jobson, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, Monash University Many of us enjoy writing in a diary, reading autobiographies or nostalgically reflecting with others about past times. Why is remembering our past so important? Are there downsides? And what can we do ...
Roll Red Roll is a brutal, painfully illuminating documentary on the Steubenville High School rape case, a shocking crime that made headlines worldwide. Emily Writes reviews. This review discusses rape and sexual violenceAugust 11, 2012: two teenage boys rape an unconscious teenage girl as two of their peers watch and ...
By RNZ Pacific Tuvalu’s Prime Minister has condemned the Australian Prime Minister’s conduct at last week’s Pacific Islands Forum, calling Scott Morrison’s attitude “unfortunate” and “neo-colonial,” and questioning Australia’s future in the 18-member body. In an interview with RNZ on Sunday, Enele Sopoaga also threatened to pull Tuvaluan labour from ...
The second hui of the Māori-led inquiry into Oranga Tamariki takes place in Hamilton today. Newsroom, in partnership with Radio Waatea, are broadcasting it live from 1pm. ...
Prolific, award-winning Palmerston North poet Paula Harris somehow manages to be stroppy and properly vulnerable all at once. Here, she writes about her first slam competition – and why she cried all the way home. I am old enough to have given birth to most of the people here.Sure, there’s a ...
High speed rail links between cities could play a massive role in revitalising regional New Zealand, says a visiting transport infrastructure expert. Professor Andrew McNaughton spoke to Alex Braae. Imagine commuting from Hamilton to Auckland, and it only taking an hour to get there. It’s a vision of how the right ...
On the good days, riding a bike is the best. But in Auckland there aren’t nearly enough of those days, and unless decision makers take urgent action, that’s not going to change.This piece originally appeared on Bike AucklandMy first bike crash in central Auckland happened on Symonds Street. I was ...
It's not since 1989 that a mayoralty campaign in the southern city has been so unpredictable - a record 14 candidates have put their names forward. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Mills, Hon Senior Lecturer, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney On the morning of the last Monday in April, 2019, federal election officials opened the doors of more than 500 pre-poll voting centres around Australia, and waited for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Veronica Alfano, Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University Memorising poetry was once common in classrooms. But it has, for the most part, gone out of style. There are good reasons for this. Memorisation can clash with creativity and analytical thought. Rote learning can ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darren Paul Fisher, Head of Directing, Department of Film, Screen and Creative Media, Bond University What do J.J. Abrams, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Shonda Rhimes, David Lynch, Aaron Sorkin, Donald Glover, Jenji Kohan, Jordan Peele, Tina Fey, and Joss Whedon have in common? They ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Mayors launch bids to return in Auckland and Wellington, Hamilton’s skyline could change significantly, and support for cannabis legalisation plummets in poll.Two incumbent mayors have launched their re-election campaigns over the weekend, with a bigger fight on their hands than ...
MediaWorks has been lobbying the Government to turn TVNZ 1 into a non-commercial channel to help stem its own financial bleeding. Frustrated, and getting nowhere, it’s decided to change tack. ...
Open mike 12/12/2012 
by Philip Ferguson This weekend just past marks the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, the most famous of the great 1960s music festivals. It was held over the weekend (Friday-Monday) of August 15-18, 1969. Woodstock was a highpoint of the US ‘counter-culture’, and also the beginning of its end. When exploring the ...16 hours ago
Last week, Australia sabotaged the Pacific Forum by opposing action on climate change. Their Deputy Prime Minister followed that up by saying that Pacific Peoples could always pick Australian fruit - just as they had done in the era of blackbirding. And now, that arrogant, tone-deaf approach has drawn a ...16 hours ago
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...2 days ago
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...2 days ago
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...3 days ago
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Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...4 days ago
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...5 days ago
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...6 days ago
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...6 days ago
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...6 days ago
Most economists agree that a currently slowing economy could do with some stimulus – and they would also agree that there is no shortage of infrastructure projects which could be brought to productive fruition with help from that stimulus. In view of the current practice of sub-contracting economic policy decisions ...6 days ago
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...6 days ago
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ... 6 days ago
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...7 days ago
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In his post Doha blah blah blah, Anthony Robins wrote;
The figures are, over 300 dead and over 900 missing, 400,000 have been left homeless. The death and destruction dwarfs that caused by Hurricane Sandy. Yet got the barest coverage possible in the Western media.
I don’t think that the difference in reporting this huge human tragedy can all be explained by euro-centric racism in the MSM.
The footprint of global warming is all over this one. For the media to look too closely at the tragedy in the Philippines is to risk opening up a huge political controversy that the MSM don’t know how to cover, without offending the authorities and vested interest.
Even in Hurricane Sandy in which climate change was only possibly implicated by the mainstream media, the questions and debate about climate change threatened to spiral out of the authorities’ control and disrupt the carefully stage managed presidential elections in which all mention of climate change had been scripted out.
The same thing threatened to occur at Dohar when the current round of climate talks where briefly disrupted by the intrusion of reality by the unfolding disaster in the Philippines, when the lead representative of the Philippines called on world leaders to stand up to “our political masters“. Apart from the alternative media this emotional call for revolt was greeted with silence by the MSM.
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/12/4/as_typhoon_bopha_wreaks_havoc_philippine
Unfortunately Naderev Sano’s plea went unheeded and the Dohar talks delivered exactly what “our political masters” wanted.
Who are “our political masters” that Sano is appealing to the government “ministers” and political “leaders” of the world to stand up to?
Would I be wrong in supposeing that they are the same political masters who influence our mainstream media outlets to play up some stories and play down others?
Are they the same “political masters” that influence even Green Party politicians to play down and ignore climate change?
That last sentence: there’s the problem, see? Reading this false claim makes me wonder how many other lies your comment contains. Undermines its effectiveness. Y’know, like when John Key’s lips are moving.
Lift your game.
+1
Be careful who you call a liar, you risk looking foolish. You know as well as I that the Green Party leadership are playing down climate change and that they are doing it for narrow political advantage. i.e. bums on seats. They are not even in government yet, and already they are selling out. There can be little doubt, that with all the compromises they are prepared to make to get cabinet positions the Green Party in government will be a big disappointment.
In a previous thread I asked weka to explain why the Green Party was playing down climate change.
This is what he wrote:
In reply I asked weka a simple question; Who?
Who weka are these “others” you think should “step up”, now that the Greens are standing down?
Weka has not replied to me. Maybe weka should consider the words of Naderev Sano, though addressed to the government reps gathered at Doha it could just as easily be asked of the Greens.
…the Green Party leadership are playing down climate change…
It’s time for your reality check.
Oh look, here’s a press-release from five days ago. From Russell Norman. The co-leader.
“Looking foolish”? Yes, you are.
<blockquote>Oh look, here’s a press-release from five days ago. From Russell Norman. The co-leade
<b>One Tāne Viper</b>
</blockquote>
Oh look, there’s not a single word in this press release attributed to Russel Norman. The co-leader
Grabbing for straws are we not?
Um – the entire release is attributed to RN. He’s the primary contact for it.
Impressive
the Green Party leadership are playing down climate change
Citation needed. Students are advised that “playing down” is normally read as an active move on the part of the sentence’s subject, and arguments based on a lack of sufficiently-robust press releases on the topic will be marked down as disingenuous.
Um, it is really hard to report things that didn’t happen. Like the fact that climate change was never mentioned by the Green Party as an election issue in the last election. And looks likely not to be raised again in the next elections by the Green Party.
I suppose I could link to a blank sheet of paper if that would satisfy you.
Never mentioned? Five press releases specifically mentioning climate change in the last 3 months before the 2011 election.
Here, here, here, here, and here. Almost one a fortnight through the campaign. On top of every other issue mentioned during the campaign.
I’m never going to vote Green, but I am prepared to spend 20 seconds to do a basic search of the interwebz.
What were you saying about reporting things that didn’t happen?
“Weka has not replied to me.”
Probably because we had just spent a whole lot of time and effort providing links that demonstrated you were lying about Russell Norman and grossly misrepresenting the GP as a way of manipulating reality to suit your agenda.
Or maybe it’s because I don’t believe that the GP are ARE downplaying CC, so there was no clear way to answer your somewhat idiotic and manipulative question.
I also find it weird that you don’t already know who the other parties are that should be challenging climate change AS WELL AS the GP. See that? – AS WELL AS. That was my point – that the GP has done massive amounts of work to address climate change, and they still do but they have changed their focus a bit. Hence my suggestion that others step up (political parties, NGOs, industry etc, duh).
You have an odd sense of responsibility IMO. You think that the GP should abandon its attempt to form government (which includes abandoning an attempt to effect real change within parliament on all those other equally important issues), and instead put CC at the forefront and stay in parliament as a CC lobby group. Well too bad. The GP doesn’t exist to suit your agenda, and as already amply demonstrated is doing its bit to address CC.
Thank you weka for attempting to answer my question. I am glad to see that you think that it is the time that other political parties, (presumably Labour and National), step up to the campaign against climate change. I agree totally. But for this to happen requires leadership from the Greens. Labour and National will never change their current positions unless they are challenged, and challenged strongly and repeatedly. But how can this happen when in your words, “<i>the Greens have changed their focus….</i>”? (in your opinion “a bit” in my opinion an “awful lot”). Your reply is contradictory. You say that you “<i>don’t believe that the GP are downplaying CC</i>”. But you admit that the Green Party have “<i>changed their focus a bit</i>”. A concession to the truth. You argue that the Green Party should attempt to enter government that supports deep seas oil drilling and prospecting, and open cast coal mining, and fracking. And that, to not do so means, “<i>abandoning an attempt to effect real change within parliament on all those other equally important issues</i>” (Without saying what those other equally important issues are.) It doesn’t really matter what they are, because you are full of it, just making excuses before time, for selling out. I imagine that by “<i>equally important issues</i>” you mean social issues of justice and equality and relief for the poor etc. All highly commendable and high minded, of course, and who could object? Except that by leveling them equal to climate change each one of these other issues will be worsened, not alleviated. Making your stand hypocritical.
Weka if you haven’t already, you should listen to the words of Naderev (Yeb) Sano talking about Typhoon Bopha: <blockquote>”….. heartbreaking tragedies like this are not unique to the Philippines, because the whole world, especially developing countries struggling to address poverty and achieve social and human development, confront these same realities. <b>Naderev Sano</b> Lead negotiator, Philippines delegation to Dohar round on climate change. </blockquote> You say that by not staying outside of government to fight against climate change includes abandoning an attempt to effect real change within parliament on all those other equally important issues. I say you will be following in the well trod path of <a href=’http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/an-appointment-with-reality.html’>Joshka Fischer</a> and <a href=’http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/clegg-sold-out-to-get-power-say-voters-2083293.html’>Nick Clegg</a>. To keep the pressure on the Labour and National Parties the Green Party need to abandon attempting to form a government that will allow deep sea oil drilling and fracking and new open cast strip mining of coal for export.
are you putting markup tags in the WYSIWYG editor?
It’s a complete mystery to me. All paragraphs have been removed as well.
(For some reason my ability to use html has failed. I will try reposting again) Thank you weka for attempting to answer my question. I am glad to see that you think that it is the time of the Labour Party and National parties to take over the campaign against climate change. I agree totally. But for this to happen requires leadership from the Greens. Labour and National will never change their current positions unless they are challenged, and challenged strongly and repeatedly. Inside parliament and out. But how can this happen when in your words, “<i>the Greens have changed their focus….</i>”? (in your opinion “a bit” in my opinion an “awful lot”). Your reply is contradictory. You say that you “<i>don’t believe that the GP are downplaying CC</i>”. But you admit that the Green Party have “<i>changed their focus a bit</i>”. A concession to the truth. You argue that the Green Party should attempt to enter government that supports deep seas oil drilling and prospecting, and open cast coal mining, and fracking. And that, to not do so, <i>”means abandoning an attempt to effect real change within parliament on all these other equally important issues</i>” (Without saying what those other equally important issues are.) It doesn’t really matter what they are, because you are full of it, just making excuses before time, for selling out. I imagine that by “<i>equally important issues</i>” you mean social issues of justice and equality and relief for the poor etc. All highly commendable and high minded, of course, and who could object? Except that by leveling them equal to climate change each one of these other issues will be worsened, not alleviated. Weka if you haven’t already, you should listen to the words of Naderev (Yeb) Sano talking about Typhoon Bopha: <blockquote> “…….heartbreaking tragedies like this are not unique to the Philippines, because the whole world, especially developing countries struggling to address poverty and achieve social and human development, confront these same realities. <b>Naderev Sano</b> Lead negotiator, Philippines delegation to Dohar round on climate change. </blockquote> You say that by not staying outside of government to fight against climate change includes abandoning an attempt to effect real change within parliament on all those other equally important issues. I say you will be following in the well trod path of <a href=’http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/an-appointment-with-reality.html’>Joshka Fischer</a> and <a href=’http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/clegg-sold-out-to-get-power-say-voters-2083293.html’>Nick Clegg</a>. To keep the pressure on the Labour and National Parties the Green Party need to abandon attempting to form a government that will allow deep sea oil drilling and fracking and new open cast strip mining of coal for export. By staying outside of such a government you can vote on each issue, case by case. In a coalition you will be bound by collective responsibility, forced to swallow many dead rats.
No luck
I don’t think that the difference in reporting this huge human tragedy can all be explained by euro-centric racism in the MSM.
Most of the difference can be explained by reference to the fact that Sandy bore down on the highest concentration of big media producers in the english speaking world, a few days before a US presidential election, combine that with this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNN_effect
and it would have been a miracle if anything else happened.
Exactly. Occam’s Rasor, yes. Huge global conspiring new order cabals of racists, no.
So is this how the gathering global disaster of climate change will be reported? The hundreds of deaths now, which in the future will be millions, will get less media attention than the passing milestones of the yet unborn heir to the British throne.
I have no idea how that is supposed to relate to my comment, or the aspect of your comment I was responding to.
‘
http://www.janbrett.com/piggybacks/deep_tex.mid
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/12-0 “The honchos of America’s establishment media are quick to blame such external causes as the Internet for their problems. But if they looked internally, they might notice that they’re damn near eaten-up with a bad case of conventional wisdomitis. The problem with conventional wisdom is that more often than not it’s nothing more than the contrived “wisdom” of the corporate powers.
And again, while this is an interesting area, it doesn’t relate in any way to what we were talking about.
Associated Press. March 2023.
Sir Trevor Mallard of Wainuiomata has returned from London after six years as a highly successful and very popular High Commissioner. Sir Trevor is expected to continue to bring his unique talents to bear on assignments for the UN and the Olympics Movement.
Sir Trevor took of the London position after three hectic years as Speaker of the House during the first Cunliffe Government. He successfully guided the house through the historic period of economic reform that has led the country to its new export led prosperity and low employment. Sir Trevor is New Zealand’s last High Commissioner. The role will now be titled Ambassador, given New Zealand’s new status of a republic.
Sir Trevor was greeted at the Airport by his BFFL, Tau Henare.
NZHerald. April 2023
Premier Lady Jacinta Ardern flew back from Australasia’s capital Canberra for the annual Federation Heads meeting where she was greeting with 400 young schoolchildren who ran across the airport as she emerged from the plane. In a well choreographed display of affection with long red ribbons on sticks they all sang The People’s Flag is Deepest Red, We Praise You For Our Room And Bed.
She confirmed in a written statement that “Our decision to join in union with Australia after the ANZAC centenary has been proven the only and the best way to ensure our national sovereignty is secure, our labour rights improved, and our strategic assets retained within Canberra’s more generous banking framework. Our discussions on the New Guinea question were fruitful.”
Lady Ardern was formally welcomed by New Zealand’s last Governor-General Lord Key of Thorndon at Premier House, where the security cordon against what he described last month as “Those filthy Hobbitses” remained tight as over half the country is now officially in poverty and the vast steaming camp outside Premier House remains, in the words of the Chief of Welfare and Goodness, “Too fetid to consider seriously until they all just get a job.”
Hell 2060
Very warm welcomes are expected in Hell for the NZ members of the Australasian politburo lynched by a mob of “rabid hobbits”.
Correction for Lady Ardern – “Our discussion on the New Guinea question of overpopulation of fruitbats was sterile I’m sorry to report.” Nothing else of import was addressed.
Trevor has just issued a statement in which, in a very Statesmanlike tone, he recommends Maurice Williamson for the Speaker Role.
This great act by Sir Trevor should be applauded.
Jaysus…I just had a thought: Trevor would be a great speaker. Cunliffe should propose Trevor for that role.
And while Cunliffe is being so generous he should endorse Annette for the Wellingtom Mayoralty… Lady Annette has a certain ring to it.
Eh Cunners? Why not give Phil Goff the nod for Secretaty General of the Commonwealth? Lord Goff of Pukekohe has a certain ring to it.
Shearer you ask eh Cunners? No the UN don’t want him back. A little bit embarrassing….
I thought this post was taking the p**s – but here is the link to Mallard the Duck’s press release
– http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1212/S00228/new-speaker-must-want-the-job.htm
On the same subject, Tariana Turia’s response to Tau Henare’s blaming the MP for not now supporting his bid for Speaker
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1212/S00221/turia-corrects-record-regarding-contest-for-speaker.htm
LOL – love the other suggestions in your comment!
Moi? Take the P*ss?
These appointments have been well earned by our leaders. They are now ready to retire their seats. They have all insisted that they will not parachute in any staffers from the Parliamentary office it the Labour HQ. They would like to encourage candidates who will engage with the Membership in a respectful manner.
Laughed Out Loud
Another V
+1
…and another……
KMan (Absolutely Fabulous)
Very good. Interesting though how you happy republicans believe that life will be better with the type of elected uber-leader that we would get when we can’t even attract the quality under leaders we absolutely need. All in all the Monarchy is mainly monetarily supported by the Brits, does her or his best to think responsibly and behave with integrity and graciousness, and aren’t lawyers or con-men out to help their friends to chisel any money you have accumulated in the naive belief that this is the proper financial duty according to the seen laws and the general meme.
RNZ – The Panel – yesterday.
Jim Mora and his guests appeared to countenance the practice of “prank” phone calls. They are apparently part of the social fabric and have been for years, and they even interviewed a former DJ from a “pop” radio station who was world-famous-in-NZ for this type of phone call.
What is the justification for the calls to be made at all.
I wasn’t sure whether they were advocating that Radio New Zealand National start doing it. Further, I wonder if they would approve. If they were uncomfortable with that notion, then the question might be why.
I was astonished to hear that Holmes did it before ubiquitous global communications had twittered into every area of life. The basic observation was lacking in Moro, radio used to have the ability to control the message (a switch to cut the caller off), but now we all get to pile in to the bullying of shock jocks, that their meanness isn’t a bitchy corner of the media space where a few listen in, its a world where their efforts are redistributed on utube, their master complex creates copy cats from timbucktoo to alaska. This poor nurse, unable to reply, unable to remedy the offense to her own professional standing, was caught in an off moment, to the riddle of the world. That could be anyone next if we allow this incidient to go unpunished, and its striking that Moro would come to their defense, surely what’s good for the goose is good for the gander? Well no, it just continues the original reckless ridiculing. This was wrong, lawyers should have long since shutdown this debate pending criminal charges of the editors of the radio show. They were just gunning for spectacle royal stories to feed into the killing frenzy, the blood was in the water, and they wanted a bite too.
“Spectacle royal stories” – I hope I live to when New Zealand voters elect their Head of State.
This is for anybody who still thinks the Cullen fund is going to provide us with pensions for the rest of times.
Lovely rant there for the morning – great stuff in the interview.
Isn’t it just 🙂
Another example of this Government’s refusal to adhere to even a basic understanding of natural justice is Judith Collins’ handling of the recommendation to pay David Bain compensation.
he has criticised the report prepared by overseas Jurist Ian Binnie but has not released it. She has asked the Solicitor General to have a critique prepared but has refused to let Bain’s lawyers see it. This is giving the side who lost the chance to undermine the proposal for compensation.
Binnie has released the most scathing response I have ever seen from a Western Jurist.
He has said that he expected Collins to follow a fair and even-handed process, yet she has taken advice from the Solicitor-General who for almost 17 years tried to uphold the guilty verdict from David Bain’s first trial.
He stated that the minister is searching for reasons that support her preferred disposition of the Bain claim.
He said says it is unfair that his report has been given to the police and other officials but Bain has not been able to see it.
Binnie finished by saying that by Collins insisting his report remain confidential she seems to have a “curiously one-sided view of confidentiality”. He believes the report should be made public so people can judge the merits of the minister’s concerns.
Strong stuff.
I don’t know, Micky. I am deeply suspicious of the Binnie report (no, I haven’t seen it). Two things – firstly it’s been reported that Binnie interviewed Bain while compiling the report. Is this normal? I would rather have thought a judge should be making decisions based on the evidence, not trying to form their own impressions of the accused at that stage of the process.
And secondly, I really doubt that it’s possible to find David Bain innocent on the balance of probabilities. There’s enough for reasonable doubt, definitely, but on balance of probabilities I think you’d have to be Joe Karam in disguise to come to Binnie’s conclusion.
“I would rather have thought a judge should be making decisions based on the evidence, not trying to form their own impressions of the accused at that stage of the process.”
The questioning was known and attended by all parties so presumably fine. Further, the report is around compensation rather than another trial over his guilt. The issue is compensation for what has occurred – the issue is not whether he is innocent or guilty.
But seriously, this bunch of neanderthals in government simply buy the recommendations and opinions that suit their political requirements. Examples – Wyatt Creech’s Ecan report, John Key’s Hardtalk interview which gave his game away, and now Judith Collins and Binnie.
They are a joke this government
Judith Collins has just done a Parata. With hopefully the same result. Let’s hope Chauvel is up for it.
Heard Justice Binnie on Checkpoint. An understated, truly authoritative, quintessential, impeccable, judicial analysis of the ignorant backwoodsman behaviour of Judith Collins. Collins…… the true, leathered, impervious to mature thought, redneck.
Was left thinking that Collins is much like George Dubya – “I say, therefore it is”.
Embarrassing !
Agreed Blue about the complexity of the Bain case and I am not sure that he should qualify for compensation. But the process is appalling. If a Minister asks a Judge for an opinion and he gives her one she should follow it. If she is not going to she should at least release the decision and set out her concerns and then let Bain have a chance to respond.
Natural Justice requires no less.
mr micky, this latest grunting from the current NZ Government is simply mroe evidence that we have neanderthals in charge..
ooga booga, snort grunt stomp stomp stomp.
ug ug
oog oog oog
nothing more. there is no sophistication, no civility, no wisdom, no judgment, certainly no justice or fairness. There is just grunting and grabbing.
ooga booga
Have a listen to this. Sounds like Collins has bitten off more than she can chew with this guy.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/national/news/video.cfm?c_id=1503075&gal_cid=1503075&gallery_id=129782
Which begs a second question. With Parata, Power, Bennett and now Collins out of the running by dint of incompetence, retirement or plain stupidity, does that leave Joyce as the next leader of the Nat party?
Thanks for that. It’s a pity Binnie referred to his expertise as an “opinion” – “just one judge’s opinion and I can show you another that will give you a counterview”.
Look in Nz the law is to simple, you become
entangled in a crime scene, and the evidence
does not stack up, in fact, starts shrinking
as time passes, but courts being run by
humans make the mistake and convict.
Now if you appreciate this,
and argue that courts should be judicious,
bring all matters (and appeals) in timely
fashion, then commonly held (other nations)
this would be considered a credit to a nation.
But in NZ we ignore incompetence, and in
ignoring end up rewarding the failures
(who fail to learn).
Look at neo-conservatist neo-liberalist
deregulation, that contributed not only to
Pike River, CTV, SCF, but now Bain.
Judith Collins, by ignoring, by not humbling
herself, and admitting the horrendously long
time for justice to be done, is bringing the
case back to life, and re-litigating it.
So I ask when will the law council start
proceedings to disbar Judith Collins.
Now, of course, it could just be political
and Collins needing the prosecutors to sign
on to compensation too.
The Bain case says more about us as a country than
of a soulless Justice Minister or the patently
incapable legal fraternity of admitting error.
Do we believe as a nation, that if you walk into
a murder scene where nearly all your family have
been murdered, and fight for your life also,
then at trial the wrong verdict, guilty, was
announced. Leads to you losing your family
wealth, incarcerated for over a decade, all the
time you are declaring your innocence. How would
you see the case? when you finally vindicated
that the state had not given you a fair trial,
a speedy process that uncovers guilt?
The balance of probabilities test does not
access the fairness of the trial, the
the court system ability to discern truth,
or hold them to account when they inevitably gone wrong.
A persons life, their family murdered, then
can be destroyed by the system on top? where
the courts are used by the real murderer to
continue the criminality?
So as the evidence shrinks, the possibility
of another perpetrator rises, the pronounced
reality that the system is aiding and abetting
them.
Its not beyond possibility that a murderer can
wipe out their family, inadvertantly frame the
sole survivor. Murder suicides do not go to plan.
And if you haven’t noticed, you cannot make a
case on the balance of probabilites if you
don’t have the initial weights of those possibilites
before the evidence is added in.
We cannot have a situation where the less
evidence there is, the more definitive we can be
about merits of our own case. Its like declaring
the classic invisible pink unicorn is both pink and
has just one horn, having a discussion that the
balance of probabilities tells us that it must be
just the one horn is nonsense, not none or many.
Our court system has too
streams, civil and criminal, we remove incarceration
as civil punishments. Just by admitting the need
to discuss probabilities should mean we compensate
for the incarceration. Bain should get some
compensation no matter what, even if its just
to safeguard the surviving relatives from paying
back inheritances.
Should we let one innocent person go to jail, who
lost their whole family, their inheritance,
their right to a judicious court process, time
having destroyed the evidence of innocence?
Do we live in a nation where innocent till proven otherwise?
Do we live in a nation of law, or of a lawyer pandering
to their political needs?
Impeach Judith Collins. Sick sad. How is it my
problem that see cannot understand a competent
legalist and has to call in ‘help’ from partial
lawyers? Why do we as a nation have to talk
Judith collins done from her high horse again.
The idea that anyone of us could walk into
a crime, be wrongly convicted, fight for justice
languishing in jail for over a decade, only to
be vindicated, and then be ignored by a sad sick
lawyer more worried about her political career
than her oath to uphold the integrity of the legal
system, to not bring parliament into disrepute,
by micro managing to political ends, what now is
clear to all, even the impartial third party expert
believes compensation is merited.
Hekia Parata plagiarises the “Teaching 101” introduction to teaching textbook yet again ….
http://news.msn.co.nz/nationalnews/8578933/govt-blamed-for-poor-student-performance
DunnoKeyo still has great confidence in “His Team” 😀
Ho hum, another day, another “journalist” peddling wingnut spin.
…she revealed retired Canadian judge Ian Binnie went “well beyond”…
Revealed? Not “asserted” then?
Isn’t it time the electoral commission started totting up the value of these free services Fairfax media et al provide to the National Party?
Hello David, you are a part of this family and you are my child- ‘mine’ Forever.
“All for one, one for all”.
WE work together, that is the deal, we are family.
You have two choices- be a leader or be a loser?
At least I am getting the ball rolling!
You have to believe, both of you.
The art of magic, is the art of believing.
DON’T EVER DOUBT YOURSELVES!
So What?
Draco T Bastard gone too?
WTF is going on??
Journos on the tweet machine saying the Auditor General has sent draft report about the Sky City convention centre bizzo to interested parties.
Should be ready for release when everyone is sitting on the beach then.
you pretty much have to laugh at this shit by now:
http://t.co/pOr5cdcF
That’s some well written reportage there too, BTW.
There’s been excuses all over the news channels about how they weren’t in cahoots with the drug-runners, it’s just their systems weren’t robust enough. The man in charge at the time, Stuart Green is now the UK Minister of State for Trade and Investment.
No such thing as a sacking or accountability for these types, just a life peerage and a seat in the House of Lords
Now on WordPress 3.5. Tests worked ok. Leave me a message if any problems show…
Test message
I’m getting the wysiwyg editor for comments, never had it before. Haven’t got the box checked.
Chrome on xp.
That is weird. The flag to display it or not is stored in a cookie from your system that is sent to the server.
It literally doesn’t write the code for the HTML page that it sends back unless it see that coming through. Nothing is meant to be caching the HTML at the server side or at cloudflare.
Ummm just tried myself and it turned it on and off on chrome / ubuntu.
Try killing your TS cookies and/or cache
Test message2
Test message3, links are alive dead on wysiwg
Test message 4, testing not logged in.
Reedit appears to work
Something odd but not a problem.
Just left a comment. Hit submit, which took me to the comment in final form in the thread. Hit the “back’ button to get out and it took me to the comment in the thread with the draft underneath it. never happened like that before, usually the “back” takes me back in time to before the comment was posted on my way out and back to the site as a whole.
As i say, it didn’t cause a problem, I just mention it in case the difference indicates some kind of problem.
edit: same thing happened as I tried to exit this comment. Guess this is the new normal.
That will be your browser. It probably had an upgrade of some type as well. Those history operations are usually completely done on the client and they have all kinds of odd behaviours.
There is something incredibly boring about the current labour leadership. They have no spark or imagination. How they ever think they could win an election beats me. That cheshire cat (Chris Hipkins) makes me want to vomit when I see and hear him on the tv. Nothing logical or sensible comes out of his mouth. He looks like a schoolboy and has about the same level of appeal as a teenage boy to what was once loyal labour voters.
Stale, stayed and lacking vision is what this labour leadership is all about. They chopped off the only tall poppy so they are all as dull as each other now.
so they are all as dull as each other now
I remember some old Radio NZ or NZBC(?) comedy show about a vain doctor. In one episode, as he left for his holiday, he told the others in the practise, “Now remember: don’t do anything I can’t do.” Since the ABC gang are saying that… nobody’s doing anything.