Good question posed in the Guardian. Should Californian police lives be risked capturing fugitive killer Christopher Dorner when a drone strike would be so much more efficient?
A facile argument…actually, any argument… seeking to justify extra judicial killings being carried out by the state, falls a long way short of “a good question (being) posed”.
Summary judgement and execution, enacted by remote control hellfire missle. What’s not to like about extra-judicial “efficiency”. I hear Afghan villagers have really got behind the concept as being “fair and balanced”.
Further in the US, it would save all that messy expensive bullshit to do with death row: lawyers, appeals, incarceration at tax payer expense for the next 15 years etc.
Reminds me of good old Chinese (or Russian) style justice. Very efficient. Get it done, move on, the only documentation left to do being an after-action report and some coroners paper work.
Also, bringing home military tactics, procedures and technology formerly developed and used against muslim terrorists for the purposes of actions against US citizens on US soil – what could possibly be unconstitutional about that?
It couldn’t be that the survivalist nut types in the US had a point all along about not being able to trust the motivations of the Feds, could it???
Looks like the killer has been cornered. Dorner’s apparently been found in a mountain cabin; so much for the assymetrical war etc. boasting he did on fb. Just another yank nutter with easy access to weapons.
– is it still possible to have one legal standard for summary justice operating across the world; can’t we just be a little loose for those people Richard Prosser describes?
– if you’re innocent, don’t you have nothing to worry about?
– wouldn’t this make leadership selections and country elections easier?
– which side were you on watching Terminator Salvation?
– when every country in the world with a significant defence capability operates fleets of them, can we do away with armed forces then?
Somehow I made it to the end.
@ 8mins Shearer gives Key a pat on the back for his punitive response to students who are in Australia.
WTF Shearer?.. this is a student radio station. You just failed big time.
Students have just been told quite clearly why its not worth getting out of bed on election day.
Is this it Labour? Is this your tertiary education policy? The student loan scam will continue under stumble-face?
FFS Labour…you are killing this county.
The only upside of this interview is that most students would have turned it off before Fozzie Bear mumbled on about treating our educated people as criminals.
And he was on TV3 this morning talk about stumbling over all his words, it got so bad that he gave up the line of conversation and stumbled over the next.
Really, Daveo, you’re being a bit desperate. Shearer was asked what he did on the weekend by the DJ, replies to that bit of fluff, then moves on to answer more relevant questions quite competently, before er, returning to the weather. Pretty normal stuff for this kind of interview.
Daveo. A bit odd talking to yourself???
I listened via your link. Sounded like a good interview to me. He answered the questions. Was unafraid to support the decision to get NZ students in Australia to repay their debts. I think that Mr Shearer was more informative than Mr Key in a similar scenario. And chatting about the weather was the DJ’s initiative, not Mr Shearer.
I didn’t think that Shearer did too badly. But the remarkable thing is that he conveys almost nothing in terms of substance or insight into the topics he is asked about. And certainly nothing about his own personal convictions on issues.
For instance. Why did he attend Big Gay Out? Response. Well, there are Gay Labour MPs who have worked really hard for gay rights, but in fact it was just down the road from home so I could take a stroll. WTF. An opportunity to espouse important principles and values of equality, equal rights, and unhindered participation in our society to tens of thousands of people, missed, in favour of “It was within walking distance”.
Tens of thousands? Listening to BFM? Maybe back when Graeme Hill did the morning show …
edit: just spotted the Daveo doppleganger comment. That was me. It appears that I’m using the same IP address as Daveo today. Not the first time that’s happened; my work takes me to a variety of workplaces and I log in to whatever broadband server is handiest. For what it’s worth, Daveo’s email address is a generic gmail account, so I don’t know who he or she is.
have you thought about changing back to ‘voice of reason’ – your te reo joke lacks ompf and the right wingers don’t get it anyway – might be a bit more honest voice.
Righties never saw the objectivist based humour in The Voice of Reason either, Marty. Come to think of it, not many lefties did either. I’ve been TRP since Waitangi Day last year and the change was both out of respect for that celebration and also to end the needless confusion TVoR seemed to bring. However, using the maori translation has allowed the occasional witless racist to riff on it, too. Hi, Pete!
The IP thing, and using multiple computers, is apparently why some of my comments also occasionally come up as TVoR. I’ll try to remember to check the ‘name and email’ boxes in future so it doesn’t happen again.
I just posted this on the site of the witless whiner… Pete George. Saw a linkback when I was clearing spam.
It is the classic (and slowly diminishing) cached page in a badly configured web proxy problem.
Because we allow anyone to leave messages without logging in, the details of what pseudonym and email address are stored on a cookie held on the client machine. This is sent to the server when a request for a page is made and is filled in on the page by the server in the appropriate fields. It means that people commenting without logging in don’t have to spend their time plugging in the fields all of the time.
Now this works almost everywhere because we have the settings for all of our *dynamic* pages set to not cache (and all of the static images, css, js, etc to cache). But it has problems when it runs into a web proxy that doesn’t obey the caching instructions in the http and html headers.
What happens then is that if there are two or more people are commenting at the same time, then the dumbarse web proxy is quite likely to serve up the wrong cached page. In practice this has happened only in few workplaces that I know of in the last 5 years. In both places it is a known technical issue. One hasn’t shown up for a couple of years. The other is obviously still an issue.
I have investigated alternatives to using the server side insertion of the cookie info. Javascript proved to be far to problematic for security reasons, a pretty extreme level of variation between browsers, and that a good number of readers have it turned off. The auto-fill on many browsers is just too flaky to rely on.
Of course I could just turn off the insertion of the name and e-mail fields, or force everyone to login or shift everything over to running on https (with all of the problems that has for dialup readers).
But doing this for the slowly diminishing numbers of poorly configured proxies that don’t obey caching instructions, it is simply excessive. Instead whenever it causes problem, I tell the participants that they should whine like you do to their techs.
And incidentally, your site will have exactly the same problem in those same workspaces
Cheers, LP, will do. But I will also check the boxes in the meantime as well.
Good ol’ PG, eh? I see he’s too dim to even work out which ‘daveo’ comment was the doppleganger. Wait till he gets to the line about racist commentaters; how long dya reckon it’ll take before he twigs which Pete I was referring to?
PS, PG, ya wally. I have nothing to do with the leadership of the LP, apart from badgering them at every reasonable opportunity to lift their game on social media. I don’t do their talking for them and never have. Didn’t LP explain this to you only a few weeks ago?
That was me. It appears that I’m using the same IP address as Daveo today. Not the first time that’s happened; my work takes me to a variety of workplaces and I log in to whatever broadband server is handiest….
I would have thought the chance of it happening once would be remote. You must be visiting some interesting workplaces.
I’m grateful to have a job that keeps me in touch with working Kiwis in a wide variety of industries accross rural, provincial and urban NZ, js. It certainly gives me access to a wide range of opinions and experiences which I hope adds a little authenticity to some of my comments at TS.
As for Daveo, the wee scamp, I’m pretty sure we both think we know who the other is online, but that’s Ok. Neither of us is telling. The bigger problem would be others on that server logging in to a TS comment box to try and suss both of us out.
Got a couple of STUNNING new banners which will be unfurled today – first outside the offices of Mighty River Power, then outside the offices of Mercury Energy!
Opposed to the sale of State Assets by this minority National Government (which only got 59 out of 121 MPs in the 2011 election?
Remember – the vote on the Mixed Ownership Model Act was 61 – 60.
National – who did campaign on asset sales – were dependent on the votes of dodgy John Banks – who arguably should NOT be an MP – let alone a Minister, and Peter Dunne – who DID NOT campaign on supporting State Asset sales.
Wednesday, February 13, 12-2pm, outside head office of Mighty River Power, 23-29 Albert St, Auckland CBD
PROTEST! Say No to Asset Sales 3:30 – 5:30 pm,
outside Mercury Energy Office, 602 Great South Road, Penrose.
…………………………………………………
Wednesday, February 13, 6pm, Frank Kitts Park in Wellington
Rally to oppose government asset sales.
The Rainbow Warrior will be in town and will drop a banner off her side in support. Join the crowd after work at Frank Kitts, bring the kids.
Hear interesting speakers (named below) and some of Wellington’s finest musicians and performers, Aroha Priest, Warren Pomana, Marama Te Kira, Skank Jigger, Lucky Ngatuere, Tribal Rizin and Brass Razoo.
Now’s the time to show you care, if you don’t like the idea of selling our assets. No other time will do. So, Wellington and anybody else, come on down and bring a couple of people with you.
Greenpeace is backing this event, so show your support for them when they’re here. Say No To Asset sales is a rally not a protest.
We all recognise the diversity of opinion in opposition to the government’s proposed sale of state assets.
We all know that we will have to fight hard to stop the sales, but that we can do it. Only by retaining 100% control of the power companies can we, the public, develop and enjoy a clean, affordable, NZ-owned energy system. Selling removes these opportunities and, crucially, replaces the chance to investigate historical and contemporary violations of the terms of the Treaty of Waitangi with mere promises that the issue of rights in water between Government and tangata whenua will somehow be unaffected by privatisation.
The following speakers at this Rally represent the diverse range of groups, organisations and factions and the vast majority of people in Aotearoa/NZ opposed to the sale of our state assets. Celia Wade-Brown, Major of Wellington City Council; Justin Duckworth, Anglican Bishop of Wellington; Nathan Argent, National Policy Adviser, Greenpeace; Dr Geoff Bertram. Senior Economics Lecturer, Victoria University; Dr Jane Kelsey, Professor Law, Auckland University; Maanu Paul, Chair, NZ Maori Council; Peter Love, Te Atiawa & Board Member Wellington Tenths Trust with mokopuna, Kaira Love, Te Atiawa; Frances Kuo, Spokesperson, Aotearoa is Not for Sale; Dr Ganesh Nana, Chief Economist, BERL; Roy Reid, National President, Grey Power; John Maynard & Steve Booth, Spokespeople, Peoples Power Ohariu.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Forwarded by Penny Bright
A Spokesperson for the Switch Off Mercury Energy community group.
Auckland rates due 20th of Feb, have you paid you rates arrears yet Penny? Are you allowed to vote if you are in rate arrears? Are you allowed to stand for mayor?
[RL: Penny has chosen to withhold paying her rates as a means of political protest; as distinct from avoiding an obligation to the Council. Your failure to mention this is of course a deliberate distortion. Virtually all protest involves some action which can be described as illegal at one level, while ethically justifiable at another. Your approach is here is not a discussion, it’s abuse. Don’t keep repeating it.]
RL: Penny also has a proud history of challenging established authority in other ways too. She was the first woman to become a licenced welding inspector back when it was an all male club. All power to her (no pun intended!).
After getting a bit carried away with comments over a week ago, which was due to honest frustrations and a level of built up anger, I wish to apologise to Irishbill for losing focus on the topic, in a thread he had launched with good intentions (http://thestandard.org.nz/on-engagement-with-the-labour-caucus/).
Retrospectively I thank IrishBill for giving me a week of a “break” or holiday, as it enabled me to have a closer look at some policy and plans that this present National led government is pushing through in the health areas.
Particularly mental health and addiction treatment and care should be of interest to all those that also are highly concerned about the welfare reforms presently before the Social Services Committee in the form of the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill. A high number of sick and invalids on benefits do have mental health issues, and some have addiction illnesses.
There has (from Bennett, English and Key) been talk about putting more resources into “helping” those that are on sickness and invalid’s benefits, to somehow get well and fit enough to return to work or training.
Well, by looking at the Ministry of Health’s “Rising to the Challenge: The Mental Health and Addiction Service Development Plan 2012–2017”, which Associate Minister for Health Peter Dunne (UF) presented without much notice by media and the public just about a week before Christmas last year, I have discovered, how hollow, false and misleading the statements by the government are once again.
It is full of high aspirations, “new” goals, ambiguous slogans, much talk about more responsibilities, efficiencies, effectiveness, mentions repeatedly KPIs (“key performance indicators”), but delivers very little of substance in regards to what will actually be done, what staff will be employed and trained, what resources will be made available, and how better outcomes are supposed to be achieved.
In short: It basically reveals that the mentally ill and addicted will first and foremost have to help themselves, and additional resources will NOT be made available, new resources for new focus and target areas will instead need to come from “less effective” areas in health care, which means taking money off some to help others (“re-allocation”). “Robbing Peter to pay Paul” comes to mind.
Also does it seem to be leading to a “mass medication” program that will be expected from GPs and other primary care deliverers, as what I have heard and experienced at the coal face is, that these low cost “solutions” are now the primary way of dealing with mental health and addiction.
Key stakeholders and professional health organisation appear to not have been consulted properly and sufficiently, so many have delivered damning criticism at this plan.
Now while all this is going on “discretely” in the background, I encourage all those interested to do a thorough read and study of all this. It appears – once again, that neither the media, nor politicians, are discussing and debating this highly important information in the open. I ask also, where is the opposition spokeswoman on health, whom I heard deliver yet another very mediocre speech in Parliament yesterday afternoon.
Maybe a Labour front bench re-shuffle will see to it that someone more dedicated will be looking at all relevant stuff that a spokesperson in such key area should be looking at???
As nobody in government seems to be able to rise to it, maybe someone there will soon “Rise to the Challenge”?
CV – more at peace with myself, kind of, but still committed to address issues that need attention, no matter what party affiliation or other orientations.
Yay xtasy (keep up the good work) I recommend a little extra-curricular reading and gardening myself. Oh, and listening to a little Bach, Elgar, Michael Nyman, Handel,
Vivaldi, Metallica!
RT – Yes, thanks, I have a fair bit of that in my collection, but I need to take more time out and play some of it. I have had a couple of years of pretty hard work, not for pay by the way, but just to take a stand, to defend justice, and to take on some real big players in the NZ admin system environment.
Heaps of stuff I and others learned, and more is to come, as a “mission” has been discovered and is being realised, to take things further.
Hey there – always good to welcome people back from their bans. I’ve been guilty of deserving a ban or two myself when the blood starts to boil and hit the Enter key before taking a deep breath. These days, I keep this pinned to the wall next to my monitor . . . it helps keep things in perspective.
No need for Joyce to front up … yet, … thanks to Prosser.
And whatever might, or might not, be Winston’s tactics, the stupid Prosser thing is taking attention away from Winston’s own questions being raised in the House about National’s appointment of Jenny Shipley to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Review Panel, her directorship on Mainzeal, and questions about conflicted interests.
What appears to be a solid piece of helpful information with a warning to pay attention to.
Under radionz news – rural for today
Blind push for production brings risk – consultant
A Waikato agricultural consultant says the dairy industry’s focus on more cows, more milk and ever-more production does not equal more profit for all farmers, and in fact, it puts some at a lot more risk.
Like treasury reports provide the basis for great decisions. Another area the nats want to privatise.
We aren’t large enough to support a workable private health insurance system, Oz is, only just and it’s struggling as it’s a luxury most folk go without for the public system.
Ryall’s zero sum health budgets set a scene for this. Pay more tax have better health care, healthy population is the basis of growth and propserity.
Private insurance benefits mostly the private sector not the poeple.
English contends that the productive sector wants to pay their workers less by arguing for intervention to bring the dollar down. But as we know National hate looking at other aspects of the accountancy equation. Producers who pay more to their workers and less to pay down foreigner held debt (by not growing the debt in the first place) would give their employees more buying power and so increase the demand for foreign exchange which in turn would drive down the high doller.
So let’s make this clear, people are demanding NZ dollars because our assets are under valued, our workers are underpaid, and our government rig the tax system to reward capital gain at the expense of organic NZ economic growth, but worse, the global system is rigged to reward those who get to pay their taxes in a low tax haven, and grow capital gain in higher tax NZ.
But English doesn’t like to put meat on the argument, or emphasis that when NZ employers pay NZ employees more the economy will boom, when NZ companies go bust that have too much debt, and NZ owned companies take over and pay their workers more, the dollar will drop, when NZ companies vote for a capital gains tax on a second home (investment property) then the housing bubble won’t burst just the pressure will come off and builders can start building to the demands of the NZ market not the demands of the world foreign speculators who use NZ.
Its precisely because the NZ manager classes read the Herald that they keep having problems understanding why the dollar is so high and who (them) needs to change their nasty habits of debt, low wages and chronically deficient neo-liberal economic thinking. You don’t get healthy as
a person by eating junk food, we won’t as a nation get health economically by listening to the turd
way National and the Herald newspaper.
Mr English has some farm like clothes and ready-to-wear muddied boots that provide the right outfit and look for when he goes walky walky down South. But that is about it, ha ha ha!
Mr English’s hands have not seen much farming and outdoors work. Anyone who has a sharp eye or has shaken real farmers’ hands and his hand can tell the difference.
Interesting. On Rural Roundup 😉 the other day- China, by volume, largest importer of our lamb, yet returning only $4 / kilo, half that to UK which is still largest importer by value. dear oh dearie me.
Yahoo hacking cough; take some more medication.
Sooo , now we are struglling to maintain species from extinction, Y-E.P , species that our own lifestyles are exterminating. Exterminate! Exterminate!
The City! “…man’s greatest achievement ” -Ellul (not withstanding, the toilet-roll cathedral)
Northland farmers panhandle “…they’re cutting people like us out!”
when Sport becomes the fraud and drug-crime news. (shame on those hippies though, smokin’ dope and watchin’ sport on Sky)
watched Seven Sharp, before the accident and surveillance porn that followed, and is it just me or do the presenters seem ultra-scripted and adhered to the prompters before them; not very natural. And Winston Peters? Is he on drugs or just drunk most evenings?
Education?- “the gap between the poorest 3 deciles and the wealthiest 3 grew 31.6 % between 2010 – 2011, despite a fall in achievement at the top schools”- Metiria Turei
even at study group this morning, the consensus was that these cultural memes of self-reliance, self-made, independent blah blah, will be our undoing. (see this attitude of “tolerance” of kiwis in Oz by their citizens repeated in the MSM, dear oh dear, paybacks (for our disproportionate earlier successes and hubris) may be painful)
Sadly the private prosecution of ACT leader,(ACT leader that’s a hilarity),John Banks has had to be withdrawn as the original paperwork was incorrectly filled out,(wonder if they let all the minor crims off for the same excuse),
Leave has been sought from the Judge in the Wellington district Court to re-lay the charges…
”We would be out in a war zone armed only with a pea-shooter” so says the Member for Dipton Bill English who as Minister of Finance seems to be ‘out in a war zone armed only with a pea-brain’ when it comes to intervening in the NZ$ so as to save as many jobs in this country as possible,
Bill was talking about lowering the Kiwi$ as lowering the living standards of all New Zealander’s versus having another 10,000 or so Kiwi’s lose their jobs altogether and become a political football for Him and the Minister of overseas travel for employment Paula to kick around,
Bill’s actually saying that it’s great to have 10’s of 1000’s of New Zealand workers to throw on the scrap heap of unemployment so as to keep the prices of i pads’ flat-screen TV’s and other imported shit cheap to buy for those who vote for this abysmal Slippery lead National Government,
Maybe Bill hasn’t thought of it, but even if He has He wont tell us, that a lower NZ dollar will encourage people to make the stuff we need here in New Zealand instead of importing it all from the cheap labour countries thus creating jobs,
Bill’s just another liar who refuses to face the reality that in the future we all are going to have to get by on less,there is no grand recovery from the ‘smart economy, export lead or otherwise, and the sooner the politicians in the Parliament begin to address this particular FACT and how we are to better share around our monetary resources the sooner we can all get down to actually doing so…
Well, Bill’s just operating in the conventional, orthodox, neoliberal framework. If we were to print every tenth dollar the NZ government required instead of borrowing it from overseas, we’d find that the NZD would drop in value fairly significantly.
Yep and then use the monies to embark on a proper affordable housing program where the government builds the houses and either sells them or rents them to tenants at 25% of income thus becoming the mortgage holder,
The monies taken in by Government from those it was the mortgage holder too could then be ticked off the original ‘debt’ of having created the money in the first place and the actual cash brought into the coffers could be redistributed as social programs and welfare payments to those most in need,
Thus any price rises from having lowered the value of the NZ$ by printing the money in the first place would be negated by those paying lower rent costs and lower rates of mortgage to the Government as the lender,
It’s obvious from here that ‘this’ or a variation of this will have to occur within the next ten years or the whole s**t-pile will come to a grinding halt, which would be fun but not of any real benefit in societal terms…
Richard Prosser is appearing on TV1’s 7sharp tonight, hope they ask Him why He found it necessary to be attempting to board domestic flights in New Zealand armed with a pocket-knife,
that’s the sort of s**t that Terrorists get up to…
Think Labour+Green+Mana would give a simple majority on those numbers, polls should get better for labour next month again as the left wing of NZfirst abandon ship big-time,
If Roy was doing as i suspect, reading the National vote from the high side of the margin of error and Labour from the low side he appears to have rectified that,
Not party in the street material but looking good 20 month’s out from an election, wonder if this will provoke another fainting spell from Slippery…
Actually, I’m waiting for tomorrow’s post; something like …
Another Flatlining Roy Morgan Poll:
The latest Roy Morgan poll has National on 44%, Labour 34.5%, the Greens on 13.5%, and NZ First on 4%.
It just amazes me the government can still poll close to 45% after stuff up, after stuff up.
I’m sick of hearing from the Greens “just wait, it’ll get better”. Well it’s not. You’ve been stuck on 13.5 for 4 weeks. So stop making excuses.
Labour have done their bit.
Maybe it’s time the Greens started focusing on the important stuff rather than pulling silly stunts. Instead, take some risks and put yourselves on the line for the people who put you there.
Trying to enable a National victory in 2014 by attacking the Green Party in a fit of overblown egoism over a margin of error poll rise for the Labour Party isn’t very clever…
Over two hundred comments on that post attacking Labour only two weeks ago. Sauce for the goose etc. But point taken bad; we’re all in this together.
It’s been a good few days on the unity front actually. Signs of a rapproachment between the LP and TS and now the Roy Morgan result hint at good times to come.
Right, so why not get all the parties on the “left” together, to throw off their vanities and individual member’s personal ambitions, and hammer out ONE unified left party, so that all are in it for the same one cause, which will have synergy effects, as the entrepreneurial operators so often describe the growth effect of positive combinations.
I still cannot believe, how so many choose to be divided, and it is so, when really, much more should combine and join forces.
Is it not the “branding” crap, that led us to this, now we have “Labour”, “National”, “Greens” and the likes, the word “party” is not mentioned, as it is perceived as a negative word from the past.
We have individuals try to portray themselves as “leaders”, as “spokespersons”, as “members” and whatever, but they brand themselves too, so the unifying factor becomes less relevant.
It is a result of the “corporatisation” of politics, is it not? YOU do as MP or whatever politician No longer represent, you are a “brand” to “stand” for a kind of label “option”, and anything else, even personal involvement is not even considered anymore.
This stinks, as this thinking has totally corrupted politics and society as a whole. I want to deal with people, persons and meet and see people face to face. I want to know who represents me in person, not some glossed up web page, a Facebook facade, a poster or whatever crap they present now, but I do not get what I expect.
So politics is becoming too faked, like so bloody much, I am afraid. Who can I trust, relate to and even vote?
34.5%, that’s a Labour high not achieved since late 2010/mid 2011 under Goff. Not bad at all. 34.5% in the polls on E-day will likely win the Treasury benches for Labour, at the cost of having to give up a lot of relatively minor portfolios to support parties.
Lordy, just imagine the black ops posts on KB and WO in the weeks before Xmas about cabinet scenarios. All the ‘Greens To Get Treasury, Police and the Army’ Shock Horrors.
Indeed. Certainly not out of the woods. The high water mark pre-Nov 2011 was 36% or 37%. It didn’t hold to election day. A lot of work needs to be done.
However the wrong move would be for caucus to see this as vindication of the “tide coming in” strategy.
Parliament, assuming all electorate seats stay the same:
ACT New Zealand 1 1 1
Green Party 17 0 17
Labour Party 44 22 22
Mana 1 1 1
Māori Party 1 3 3
National Party 56 42 14
United Future 0 1 0
120 70 53 (123)
And if Labour pick up a couple from National and 1 from the MP:
ACT New Zealand 1 1 1
Green Party 17 0 17
Labour Party 44 25 19
Mana 1 1 0 1
Māori Party 1 2 2
National Party 56 40 16
United Future 0 1 1
Whoops, got caught out editing that data. If no electorate seats change (ie MP, UF and ACT are a combined 5 seats, Mana 1), the current Gov’t have 61 seats in a 123 seat Parliament. Lab/Green the same, so it’d be up to Hone! (well, more likely, Peter Dunne would rediscover his socialist roots).
However, with just a minimum of likely electorate seat changes (two off National, 1 from the MP) its Nats et al 50, Lab/Green 51 (plus Hone’s one on the side) in a 122 seat house.
Of course the latter is a conservative reading of what might happen to the electorate seats. If the MP lose 2 seats, not 1, or Dunne or Banks miss out, its curtains for the Nats.
LOL, that’s still not as bad as posting an angry comment on a 3 year old post over at Red Alert, as I did earlier today! That’s a classic.
But the good news is that the only man smiling tonight over in National towers is Steven Joyce. btw, if Joyce is Mr Fixit, does that make Key Mr Fuxit?
A quick calculation (oh how I love the Elections NZ Virtual Seat calculater!) and assuming Electorate seats stay the same (a stretch I know) the results would translate into a 122 seat House:
However if Nats were to stitch a deal with the Conservatives over an Electorate seat a National/MP/Conservative/ACT/UF coalition could grab 62 seats. Actually they could take back Epsom from ACT and still do it as long as they reach an accomodation with the Conservatives.
Fascinating!
Still work to be done on the left to secure the field though – there could still be much fancy footwork around NZ First and the Conservatives which could distort it unless some big chunks are taken out of the National vote that go to the Left.
My view is that the Maori Party are going to be left with 1 seat in 2014, i am now going to have to start practicing saying bye bye Slippery without going into mad bursts of laughter…
Actually to be honest I wonder whether they will end up with any representation – their political capital seems pretty much spent – unless there is a rapprochement with Mana of course (which might actually be the logical thing for the MP to do).
Ah man sailing on His ego trip, which is what politics consists of for many, i cannot see the Maori Party and Mana joining forces, can’t see it but they definitely should,(after Turia and Sharples have gone that is),
After what was said on the Marae at firstly Ratana Pa and secondly at Waitangi you are not far off on where the Maori Party now sit in relation to what was it’s support base,
The bulk of the ‘Whanau ora’ fund that just so happened to have been spent in the electorate of Tariana Turia might ensure a reasonable turnout of the vote for the Maori Party in that electorate if they stand someone like Rahui Katene as the candidate, Ken Mair’s chances should He stand i think are about zero,
I am picking that the Labour candidate while not winning Te Ureroa Flavell’s Waiariki seat will split the vote sufficiently so as to allow Mana’s Annette Sykes to win,
The reverse i believe will occur in Sharple’s seat where the Mana candidate will pick up enough votes for Labour’s Shane Jones to prevail…
Yes – the politics of the personal should not be underestimated – I always felt that it meant the MP and Labour missed an opportunity because of personal antipathies – the events and principles that lead to the formation of the MP were legitimate and after an understandable cooling down period (the emotions were running high) the 2 parties really should have looked at how to work together – in the end the MP got some IMO minimal gains from National at the expsense of selling their soul.
Okay this is dumb question of the week.
How does Roy Morgan poll treat the non voter. The “won’t say” is 3.5% but the poll assumes they will vote? That is tiny compared to the total electorate non vote. Does Roy Morgan simply assume that all the hang up’s, non answers and “go away it’s teatime” are the non voters?
Not a dumb question at all. There may be some breakdown of the process on the Roy Morgan site and I do know that most polling companies press for an answer even if the respondent says they haven’t made up their mind. Email Roy, I’m sure he’ll tell you how it works if you ask nice.
As I understand it, most polls completely ignore the hang-ups, non-answers, and go-away-it’s-teatimes in the results.
The reported percentages are of those who answer the poll, not those who were called. So if 1000 calls are made and 100 responses received and 44 of those support National, National is reported as 44%, not 4.4% (which, while technically correct, would also be slightly absurd.)
Does this mean that an ever increasing “I’m not going to vote”, [some days I feel like joining them] simply goes unrecorded? It means that increasing disillusionment isn’t recorded?
So eventually we may get down to say 10 voters and 4.4 of them say NACT – well 4 say NACT and .4 of Peter Dunne as he spreads his personal vote around?
We have done much the same as the USA when we adopted National Standards. We have put aside intellectual rigour applied in understanding our education problem and chosen a response pathetically lacking in self-determination and heavily skewed towards genuflecting to the big guy, the USA, and so finding an excuse for visiting there and having Important Discussions about Weighty Matters with people who are richer than we are (and therefore on the scale of simple commercial value we judge by, must be better than us.)
I didn’t make a submission on the Family Court even though I think it is important. I was too busy doing other things like having a go at Prosser the Tosser. I had the idea that it closed Friday but didn’t check.
When I went to the site I saw the date but no closing time. This is important as the Electoral Commission submissions closed at 5pm. It is strange to adopt post office hours when on-line submissions are given. I would have thought that 12 am would be the deadline.
Then if you follow the information to help with submissions you have to download a booklet from a PDF. How clunky and convoluted – a barrier in fact.
I guess its too late to make a submission though it doesn’t state closing time. And I don’t feel like reading a textbook on submission making. Isn’t there a Plain English movement that would also apply to making this sort of instruction clear and short?
Go ahead and make ‘a’ submission anyway if you wish. And copy the submission to relevant parliamentary spokespeople as well as the individual members of the appropriate select committee.
Is that a submission to a parliamentary select committee?
If so, for the information of readers here, generally –
Next time, just before the deadline, or as soon as the announcement comes out, put in a quick one- or two-line submission stating that you are putting in a submission, that you wish to be heard (you can decide later and write in that you don’t wish to be heard) and that the rest of your comments will be submitted asap.
That way, even if you miss the deadline by a few minutes or a day, you are still ‘in’.
And given that you have stated you wish to be heard, you will be contacted at some stage later. (You can indicate otherwise later if you change your mind.)
Recommended reading for Paula Bennett, the Principal Health Advisor David Bratt, senior employee at MSD and for Work and Income, and even for opposition welfare and health spokespersons:
So when getting GPs to make “assessments”, to diagnose and to refer clients to specialists, always bear in mind, there may well be a “mine field” in regards to actions not being the right ones to take, in many cases, or in at least some cases.
While having relied so heavily on even MSD “trained” general practitioners, to make decisions on health, disability and work incapacity, MSD and WINZ seem to have taken risks and possibly relied on “flawed” recommendations in quite high numbers.
Even on the so-called Medical Appeal Boards (appointed by the “Chief Executive” of MSD) do usually have about 2 GPs (being “designated doctors” trained or at least “selected” by MSD) sit on them, so they tend to have a two thirds majority.
A recent workshop held by MSD on 31 Jan. 2013 does though appear to be used now, by MSD, to select comments from disability participants, saying they do NOT want to be assessed about work capacity by their GPs. Now while that may seem reasonable and sensible for some, though, that is exactly what MSD want, as they are going to take over that job under the new welfare reforms themselves! I fear that some of these advocates and disabled spokespersons are not quite aware what they are asking for. Doctors – mostly GPs – may not be right all the time, but are WINZ health and disability advisors the ones you want to rely on?
There is a lot of shit happening, like the recent “survey” MSD conducted on suggestions by various affected groups, what may assist people with ill health or disabilities back into work. I fear this is all being abused and used as an “instrument” to pick the suggestions that suit them, to justify the introduction of UK style assessments, and to force sick and disabled into work, before they may even be asked themselves.
Now much more scrutiny must be put on all this. I appeal to all opposition spokespersons on welfare and health to pay serious attention to these matters and issues.
I am sure nobody wants to have the UK scenario, with many dying trying to do work they are not able to do, or committing suicide, seeing no hope, and being unable to be taken serious as sick and disabled.
Surely, a trusted doctor and GP will need to be listened to, same as proper specialists for the conditions people suffer, but a balanced and objective and fair, fact based approach is needed, before determining sick and disabled can do some work.
One intersting relevant article is this by the way:
…this despite an expected increase by 8% in half-year operating profits.
Apparently savings have to be made and late last year, CEO Barnes signalled returns to shareholders were likely to be “ramped up” once the company’s big investment programme ended in the current financial year…so the translation would be “shareholders need more profits so let’s cut some more jobs”. Obviously rorting the consumers just isn’t cutting it.
Message to PG: re: your question on YawnNZ about missing the login. You can see the comment box yourself. Like most posters (I guess) my eyes glaze over the ‘Name (required)’ and ‘Mail’ bits above it because they come up automatically. I go straight to the comment box and start typing the sparkling bon mots you’ve grown to love so well.
Anyway, nice to see this crushingly dull event has quadrupled your usual average daily comments. Up to four now, I see! Is this a record?
The responses to Farrar’s post on KB got me totally shocked and frozen to be honest. Even Farrar seems to be shocked by at least some comments on his post. Wow, this is showing how many sickoes there are in NZ society.
I have been against too liberal migration for various reasons, also am aware (as I know about it) of some abuse of migration, but hey, this is FUCKING SICK!
Heh!! I recognise a couple of lols tr0lls in there winding it all up and giving room for the bigots to show their colours. But, seriously, you’re surprised by that? C’mon, Farrar’s Sewer reflects the general conversation you will find at pretty much any gathering of employed, sporting, wanna-be middle-class Kiwi baldheads.
If its not the Muslims its the Greenies or women or bloody maaaari – they gotta have something to hate – its as much a social lubricant as their green bottle beer. A lot of the banter is just piss and wind designed to irritate the overly sensitive but, as you can see, what passes for discourse is driven by deliberate and beligerent ignorance.
God forbid that they should actually read a scholarly book or watch a 90-minute documentary about what they think they know all about. Even worse would be admitting to having done such a thing. Nah, much easier to get their religious instruction from Fox News and then reinforce the messages amongst themselves. Its a good way for them to judge if you’re wiv ’em or agin ’em.
Unfortunately, as more and more of our best and most able head overseas, this cohort of “sickoes” is growing by the day and forms a significant political bloc. They are the sort of people who turn their stove and oven on during Earth Hour and vote National Ltd™ only to keep Labour out. Study them well.
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
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Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter has apologised in Parliament after National accused her of intimidating and attacking one of its ministers in the House. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Prime Minister and state and territory leaders met on Wednesday as the national cabinet to discuss a crisis gripping Australia – the horrific number of women murdered this year. The killings have shocked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Radhika Raghav, Teaching Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Otago Netflix Indian director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is known for his big-budget Bollywood production, featuring grand sets, star casts, meticulously choreographed dance sequences and lavish costumes, jewellery and furnishings. ...
Sir Robert devoted his life to disability rights after living in institutions in his younger years, says Kaihautū Tika Hauātanga | Disability Rights Commissioner Prudence Walker. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University Violence against women is not a women’s problem to solve, it is a whole of society problem to solve; and men in particular have to take responsibility. Those were the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Allen, Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of Newcastle Snapshot freddy/ShutterstockPlans to revive an old coal-fired power station using bioenergy are being considered in the Hunter region of New South Wales. Similar plans for the station ...
Responding to the long-awaited release of judges’ special allowances, including free air travel and hotels for spouses, generous sabbaticals, and access to limousines, Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Alex Murphy said: “In what world does your employer ...
Analysis - The United States has unveiled plans to boost the weapons trade with Australia and the UK, on the same day that Winston Peters is expected to sketch NZ's position on AUKUS. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University Since Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum in October 2023, diverse commentaries have sought to explain why it failed. But what does an analysis of media ...
Lawyers representing two iwi as well as the Māori Women’s Welfare League on Wednesday asked the Court of Appeal to overturn last week’s High Court decision on the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision to summons Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Tribunal is currently investigating the Government’s decision to repeal section 7AA of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will introduce legislation to ban deepfake pornography and provide more funding for the eSafety Commission to pilot age-assurance technologies. The contribution of internet sites to gender-based violence was one major issue ...
Average ordinary time hourly earnings, as measured by the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES), increased 5.2 percent in the year to the March 2024 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. Annual wage cost inflation, as measured by the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dimitrios Salampasis, FinTech Capability Lead | Senior Lecturer, Emerging Technologies and FinTech, Swinburne University of Technology Clem Onojeghuo/Unsplash In the digital era, the job market is increasingly becoming a minefield – demanding and difficult to navigate. According to the Australian Bureau ...
As of the March 2024 quarter, we can now look back on 20 years of data related to youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET), as collected by the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), according to figures released by Stats NZ today. "The ...
Thousands of workers attended public events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch today to celebrate International Workers’ Day (May Day), but union representatives are urging caution and vigilance over the Government’s blatantly "anti-worker" ...
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in the March 2024 quarter, compared with 4.0 percent in the previous quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
The PSA is warning the Government that the sensitive information of New Zealanders held by various agencies will fall into the wrong hands if the latest round of proposed cuts goes ahead. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Talitha Best, Professor of Psychology, CQUniversity Australia Victoria Rodriguez/Unsplash How do sugar rushes work? – W.H, age nine, from Canberra What a terrific question W.H! Let’s explore this, starting with some of the basics. What is sugar? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karinna Saxby, Research Fellow, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne MART PRODUCTION/Pexels Increasing income support could help keep women and children safe according to new work demonstrating strong links between financial insecurity and domestic violence. ...
ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark A Gregory, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, RMIT University The telecommunications industry faces a major shakeup following the release of the post-incident report on last November’s 12-hour Optus outage. Telecommunications companies will have to share more information with customers during future ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Eden Denyer, bookseller at Unity Books Auckland.Weirdest question/request you’ve had on the shop floorA mother came in looking for anything we might have on Alaskan bison as that was her little boy’s ...
NZCTU Economist Craig Renney said new data released by Statistics New Zealand shows the need for Government to act now, with unemployment rising from 3.4% to 4.3%. ...
The outpouring of anger over Maiki Sherman’s hyperbolic presentation of this week’s ‘nightmare’ poll is itself an overreaction, argues Stewart Sowman-Lund. Politicians love nothing more than to pretend they don’t care about polls. This week, deputy prime minister Winston Peters said he didn’t give a “rat’s derriere” about a TVNZ ...
Asia Pacific Report Ngāti Kahungunu in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay region has become the first indigenous Māori iwi (tribe) to sign a resolution calling for a “ceasefire in Palestine”, reports Te Ao Māori News. Reporter Te Aniwaniwa Paterson talked to Te Otāne Huata, who has been organising peace rallies ...
By Dale Luma in Port Moresby “We want grants and not concessional loans,” is the crisp message from Papua New Guinea businesses directly affected by the Black Wednesday looting four months ago. The businesses, which lost millions after the January 10 rioting and looting, say they need grants as part ...
Happy May Day. Join a union. Q: What’s worse than a staff break room where the only place to sit and have a cup of tea is on a teetering stack of old pornography magazines? A: Your boss replacing the magazine stacks with chairs that are “heartily encrusted with ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Former opposition leader Matthew Wale has been announced as the second prime ministerial candidate ahead of the election in Solomon Islands tomorrow. He will face off against former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele, who was announced by the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation ...
We get but one birthday a year – why not make it last as long as possible by scheduling as many meals with friends and family as you can? This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. How do you celebrate your birthday? Do you celebrate at ...
A Koi Tū discussion paper released today proposes sweeping changes to New Zealand’s media industry. The principal’s key author, Gavin Ellis, explains how journalists have a key role to play in making others value their role in society. This is an abridged version of a piece first published on knightlyviews.com ...
The Government’s spending cuts are again targeting support for Māori with proposed reform of the agency charged with advising on Māori wellbeing and development. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Douglas, Honorary Senior Lecturer, UNSW Aviation., UNSW Sydney The history of budget jet airlines in Australia is a long road littered with broken dreams. New entrants have consistently struggled to get a foothold. Low-cost carrier Bonza has just become the industry’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rosalind Dixon, Director, Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, UNSW Sydney Australia is finally having a sustained conversation about violence against women and what we can do about it. It is more than time. Australian women and girls continue to experience ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Schulz, Senior Lecturer, University of Adelaide Australia is once again grappling with how we can stop gendered violence in our country. Protests over the weekend show there is enormous community anger over the number of women who are dying and National ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University AnastasiaDudka/Shutterstock What if the government was doing everything it could to stop thieves making off with our money, except the one thing that could really work? That’s how it ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland A bright Eta Aquariid meteor photobombed this photo of comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN) in May 2020.Jonti Horner Meteors – commonly known as shooting stars – can be seen on any night of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Flannery, Honorary fellow, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock Current concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in Earth’s atmosphere are unprecedented in human history. But CO₂ levels today, and those that might occur in coming decades, did occur millions of years ago. ...
Winston Peters has been keen to dismiss speculation on our involvement in Aukus but will give a speech tonight on the direction of our foreign policy, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Usmar, Lecturer in Critical Media Literacies, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images With the coalition government’s ban of student mobile phones in New Zealand schools coming into effect this week, reaction has ranged from the sceptical (kids will just get ...
Hospitals around the country are not allowed to make a single hiring decision without the approval of Te Whatu Ora's head office, including for cleaners and administration staff. ...
A new report on protecting journalism and democracy in New Zealand recommends a levy be charged on global platforms like Facebook and Google to fund media firms undertaking public interest reporting. It also calls for the reinstatement of a powerful Broadcasting Commission to distribute public funding for journalism and other ...
On International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi and the wider union movement are celebrating the proud history of the labour movement during a tough time for working people. ...
From bills to beards, a walk through the former Green co-leader’s time in politics. After close to a decade in politics, James Shaw is preparing to bid farewell to parliament. Tonight will see the former minister deliver his valedictory address, certain to be a speech filled with Shaw’s trademark wit ...
Two months ago, MPs unanimously voted to give themselves a week off in Efeso Collins’ honour. On Tuesday, most were too busy to give even an hour of their time. The day Fa’anānā Efeso Collins died, parliament felt different. In a building that operates at a breakneck pace, everyone stopped ...
India’s election involves hundreds of millions of people and is a months-long affair. Here’s how voting works and what’s at stake.The biggest-ever election in world history started on April 19, with more than 10% of the world’s population eligible to vote. Elections in India, the world’s most populous country ...
Behind closed doors, NZ First will be arguing fiercely against any watering down of the ministerial decision-making powers in the Bill The post Bishop backtracks after fast-track backlash appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Emotional scenes played out in the Invercargill courthouse on the first two days of the coronial inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones, in which the boy’s mother was accused of disposing of her son’s body. The second season of Newsroom’s award-nominated podcast The Boy in the Water ...
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After the Christchurch earthquake, the then-national civil defence boss compared his experience to “putting a team on the rugby field who have never ever played together before”. Now, eight years later – and following a damning inquiry into the emergency response of cyclones Gabrielle, Hale and the Auckland anniversary weekend floods – ...
“I had just come off the end of a major robbery case which I had been working on for six months when I got a call on the afternoon of September 1, 1992, that some remains had been found at a building site in Devonport, so I drove over with ...
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Comment: Journalists are very good at telling other people’s stories, but they fall well short when writing about their own profession. Perhaps that is why it is so undervalued. Every successive poll on the public’s attitude toward journalism is more alarming than the last. In the last month we have ...
Top work by the Salvation Army this morning, launching its State of the Nation report.
Good question posed in the Guardian. Should Californian police lives be risked capturing fugitive killer Christopher Dorner when a drone strike would be so much more efficient?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/11/chris-dorner-drones-lapd
A facile argument…actually, any argument… seeking to justify extra judicial killings being carried out by the state, falls a long way short of “a good question (being) posed”.
Summary judgement and execution, enacted by remote control hellfire missle. What’s not to like about extra-judicial “efficiency”. I hear Afghan villagers have really got behind the concept as being “fair and balanced”.
Further in the US, it would save all that messy expensive bullshit to do with death row: lawyers, appeals, incarceration at tax payer expense for the next 15 years etc.
Reminds me of good old Chinese (or Russian) style justice. Very efficient. Get it done, move on, the only documentation left to do being an after-action report and some coroners paper work.
Also, bringing home military tactics, procedures and technology formerly developed and used against muslim terrorists for the purposes of actions against US citizens on US soil – what could possibly be unconstitutional about that?
It couldn’t be that the survivalist nut types in the US had a point all along about not being able to trust the motivations of the Feds, could it???
Looks like the killer has been cornered. Dorner’s apparently been found in a mountain cabin; so much for the assymetrical war etc. boasting he did on fb. Just another yank nutter with easy access to weapons.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21436588
– is it still possible to have one legal standard for summary justice operating across the world; can’t we just be a little loose for those people Richard Prosser describes?
– if you’re innocent, don’t you have nothing to worry about?
– wouldn’t this make leadership selections and country elections easier?
– which side were you on watching Terminator Salvation?
– when every country in the world with a significant defence capability operates fleets of them, can we do away with armed forces then?
– are we not entertained?
Shearer on bfm. Jesus Christ. http://www.95bfm.com/assets/sm/209858/3/shearerfeb11.mp3
He starts by talking about the weather and then can’t even keep that up.
Somehow I made it to the end.
@ 8mins Shearer gives Key a pat on the back for his punitive response to students who are in Australia.
WTF Shearer?.. this is a student radio station. You just failed big time.
Students have just been told quite clearly why its not worth getting out of bed on election day.
Is this it Labour? Is this your tertiary education policy? The student loan scam will continue under stumble-face?
FFS Labour…you are killing this county.
The only upside of this interview is that most students would have turned it off before Fozzie Bear mumbled on about treating our educated people as criminals.
And he was on TV3 this morning talk about stumbling over all his words, it got so bad that he gave up the line of conversation and stumbled over the next.
Link?
Really, Daveo, you’re being a bit desperate. Shearer was asked what he did on the weekend by the DJ, replies to that bit of fluff, then moves on to answer more relevant questions quite competently, before er, returning to the weather. Pretty normal stuff for this kind of interview.
BTW, where is it from? BFM?
Note comment 4 and comment 4.2 in this thread
It appears in 4.2 someone is using Daveo’s same email address and handle to question and criticise Daveo himself in comment 4.0
This is very weird.
[lprent: It is the badly configured client side web page caching issue that pops up in a few places. ]
Daveo. A bit odd talking to yourself???
I listened via your link. Sounded like a good interview to me. He answered the questions. Was unafraid to support the decision to get NZ students in Australia to repay their debts. I think that Mr Shearer was more informative than Mr Key in a similar scenario. And chatting about the weather was the DJ’s initiative, not Mr Shearer.
I didn’t think that Shearer did too badly. But the remarkable thing is that he conveys almost nothing in terms of substance or insight into the topics he is asked about. And certainly nothing about his own personal convictions on issues.
For instance. Why did he attend Big Gay Out? Response. Well, there are Gay Labour MPs who have worked really hard for gay rights, but in fact it was just down the road from home so I could take a stroll. WTF. An opportunity to espouse important principles and values of equality, equal rights, and unhindered participation in our society to tens of thousands of people, missed, in favour of “It was within walking distance”.
Tens of thousands? Listening to BFM? Maybe back when Graeme Hill did the morning show …
edit: just spotted the Daveo doppleganger comment. That was me. It appears that I’m using the same IP address as Daveo today. Not the first time that’s happened; my work takes me to a variety of workplaces and I log in to whatever broadband server is handiest. For what it’s worth, Daveo’s email address is a generic gmail account, so I don’t know who he or she is.
that sounds very weird
have you thought about changing back to ‘voice of reason’ – your te reo joke lacks ompf and the right wingers don’t get it anyway – might be a bit more honest voice.
Ahhh fascinating…
Righties never saw the objectivist based humour in The Voice of Reason either, Marty. Come to think of it, not many lefties did either. I’ve been TRP since Waitangi Day last year and the change was both out of respect for that celebration and also to end the needless confusion TVoR seemed to bring. However, using the maori translation has allowed the occasional witless racist to riff on it, too. Hi, Pete!
The IP thing, and using multiple computers, is apparently why some of my comments also occasionally come up as TVoR. I’ll try to remember to check the ‘name and email’ boxes in future so it doesn’t happen again.
I liked the voice of reason personally and it had a reasonable back story/comment history. But yes the new name has caused a few laughs for sure.
I just posted this on the site of the witless whiner… Pete George. Saw a linkback when I was clearing spam.
So TRP, and Daveo – irritate your techs (again)..
Cheers, LP, will do. But I will also check the boxes in the meantime as well.
Good ol’ PG, eh? I see he’s too dim to even work out which ‘daveo’ comment was the doppleganger. Wait till he gets to the line about racist commentaters; how long dya reckon it’ll take before he twigs which Pete I was referring to?
PS, PG, ya wally. I have nothing to do with the leadership of the LP, apart from badgering them at every reasonable opportunity to lift their game on social media. I don’t do their talking for them and never have. Didn’t LP explain this to you only a few weeks ago?
That was me. It appears that I’m using the same IP address as Daveo today. Not the first time that’s happened; my work takes me to a variety of workplaces and I log in to whatever broadband server is handiest….
I would have thought the chance of it happening once would be remote. You must be visiting some interesting workplaces.
ps, I bet Daveo knows who you are now
I’m grateful to have a job that keeps me in touch with working Kiwis in a wide variety of industries accross rural, provincial and urban NZ, js. It certainly gives me access to a wide range of opinions and experiences which I hope adds a little authenticity to some of my comments at TS.
As for Daveo, the wee scamp, I’m pretty sure we both think we know who the other is online, but that’s Ok. Neither of us is telling. The bigger problem would be others on that server logging in to a TS comment box to try and suss both of us out.
A FRIENDLY REMINDER FOLKS!
Got a couple of STUNNING new banners which will be unfurled today – first outside the offices of Mighty River Power, then outside the offices of Mercury Energy!
Opposed to the sale of State Assets by this minority National Government (which only got 59 out of 121 MPs in the 2011 election?
Remember – the vote on the Mixed Ownership Model Act was 61 – 60.
National – who did campaign on asset sales – were dependent on the votes of dodgy John Banks – who arguably should NOT be an MP – let alone a Minister, and Peter Dunne – who DID NOT campaign on supporting State Asset sales.
SO – WHERE’S THE ‘MANDATE’?
Do the maths!
NO MAJORITY – NO MANDATE!
(In my considered opinion 🙂
http://gpjanz.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/gpja-454-rally-against-assett-sales-6pm-tomorrow-in-wellington/
WHAT’S ON IN AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND
Wednesday, February 13, 12-2pm, outside head office of Mighty River Power, 23-29 Albert St, Auckland CBD
PROTEST! Say No to Asset Sales 3:30 – 5:30 pm,
outside Mercury Energy Office, 602 Great South Road, Penrose.
…………………………………………………
Wednesday, February 13, 6pm, Frank Kitts Park in Wellington
Rally to oppose government asset sales.
The Rainbow Warrior will be in town and will drop a banner off her side in support. Join the crowd after work at Frank Kitts, bring the kids.
Hear interesting speakers (named below) and some of Wellington’s finest musicians and performers, Aroha Priest, Warren Pomana, Marama Te Kira, Skank Jigger, Lucky Ngatuere, Tribal Rizin and Brass Razoo.
Now’s the time to show you care, if you don’t like the idea of selling our assets. No other time will do. So, Wellington and anybody else, come on down and bring a couple of people with you.
Greenpeace is backing this event, so show your support for them when they’re here. Say No To Asset sales is a rally not a protest.
We all recognise the diversity of opinion in opposition to the government’s proposed sale of state assets.
We all know that we will have to fight hard to stop the sales, but that we can do it. Only by retaining 100% control of the power companies can we, the public, develop and enjoy a clean, affordable, NZ-owned energy system. Selling removes these opportunities and, crucially, replaces the chance to investigate historical and contemporary violations of the terms of the Treaty of Waitangi with mere promises that the issue of rights in water between Government and tangata whenua will somehow be unaffected by privatisation.
The following speakers at this Rally represent the diverse range of groups, organisations and factions and the vast majority of people in Aotearoa/NZ opposed to the sale of our state assets. Celia Wade-Brown, Major of Wellington City Council; Justin Duckworth, Anglican Bishop of Wellington; Nathan Argent, National Policy Adviser, Greenpeace; Dr Geoff Bertram. Senior Economics Lecturer, Victoria University; Dr Jane Kelsey, Professor Law, Auckland University; Maanu Paul, Chair, NZ Maori Council; Peter Love, Te Atiawa & Board Member Wellington Tenths Trust with mokopuna, Kaira Love, Te Atiawa; Frances Kuo, Spokesperson, Aotearoa is Not for Sale; Dr Ganesh Nana, Chief Economist, BERL; Roy Reid, National President, Grey Power; John Maynard & Steve Booth, Spokespeople, Peoples Power Ohariu.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Forwarded by Penny Bright
A Spokesperson for the Switch Off Mercury Energy community group.
Auckland rates due 20th of Feb, have you paid you rates arrears yet Penny? Are you allowed to vote if you are in rate arrears? Are you allowed to stand for mayor?
[RL: Penny has chosen to withhold paying her rates as a means of political protest; as distinct from avoiding an obligation to the Council. Your failure to mention this is of course a deliberate distortion. Virtually all protest involves some action which can be described as illegal at one level, while ethically justifiable at another. Your approach is here is not a discussion, it’s abuse. Don’t keep repeating it.]
You keep asking that same stupid personal question, do you live under a bridge,stink worse than a goat but are not one….
RL: Penny also has a proud history of challenging established authority in other ways too. She was the first woman to become a licenced welding inspector back when it was an all male club. All power to her (no pun intended!).
so its ok not to pay taxes now?
Hi ALL –
After getting a bit carried away with comments over a week ago, which was due to honest frustrations and a level of built up anger, I wish to apologise to Irishbill for losing focus on the topic, in a thread he had launched with good intentions (http://thestandard.org.nz/on-engagement-with-the-labour-caucus/).
Retrospectively I thank IrishBill for giving me a week of a “break” or holiday, as it enabled me to have a closer look at some policy and plans that this present National led government is pushing through in the health areas.
Particularly mental health and addiction treatment and care should be of interest to all those that also are highly concerned about the welfare reforms presently before the Social Services Committee in the form of the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill. A high number of sick and invalids on benefits do have mental health issues, and some have addiction illnesses.
There has (from Bennett, English and Key) been talk about putting more resources into “helping” those that are on sickness and invalid’s benefits, to somehow get well and fit enough to return to work or training.
Well, by looking at the Ministry of Health’s “Rising to the Challenge: The Mental Health and Addiction Service Development Plan 2012–2017”, which Associate Minister for Health Peter Dunne (UF) presented without much notice by media and the public just about a week before Christmas last year, I have discovered, how hollow, false and misleading the statements by the government are once again.
The plan can be downloaded from this website:
http://www.health.govt.nz/publication/rising-challenge-mental-health-and-addiction-service-development-plan-2012-2017
It is full of high aspirations, “new” goals, ambiguous slogans, much talk about more responsibilities, efficiencies, effectiveness, mentions repeatedly KPIs (“key performance indicators”), but delivers very little of substance in regards to what will actually be done, what staff will be employed and trained, what resources will be made available, and how better outcomes are supposed to be achieved.
In short: It basically reveals that the mentally ill and addicted will first and foremost have to help themselves, and additional resources will NOT be made available, new resources for new focus and target areas will instead need to come from “less effective” areas in health care, which means taking money off some to help others (“re-allocation”). “Robbing Peter to pay Paul” comes to mind.
Also does it seem to be leading to a “mass medication” program that will be expected from GPs and other primary care deliverers, as what I have heard and experienced at the coal face is, that these low cost “solutions” are now the primary way of dealing with mental health and addiction.
Key stakeholders and professional health organisation appear to not have been consulted properly and sufficiently, so many have delivered damning criticism at this plan.
See some here:
http://www.nzno.org.nz/home/consultation/articletype/articleview/articleid/1350/rising-to-the-challenge–the-mental-health-and-addiction-service-development-plan-2012-2017
(see final draft consultation at bottom, PDF download)
http://www.nzma.org.nz/sites/all/files/NZMA%20Submission%20on%20the%20Mental%20Health%20%26%20Addiction%20Service%20Development%20Plan%202012-2017.pdf
http://www.psychology.org.nz/cms_show_download.php?id=1753
http://www.rnzcgp.org.nz/assets/documents/Standards–Policy/Submissions/2012.11.02-MoH-Rising-to-the-Challenge.pdf
http://anzasw.org.nz/social_work_practice/topics/show/426-release-of-rising-to-the-challenge-the-mental-health-and-addiction-service-development-plan-2012-2017
(download their submission in PDF by clicking the templet at the top right)
http://www.nzcmhn.org.nz/files/file/338/Rising%20to%20the%20Challenge%20Feedback%20form%204102012.pdf
Now while all this is going on “discretely” in the background, I encourage all those interested to do a thorough read and study of all this. It appears – once again, that neither the media, nor politicians, are discussing and debating this highly important information in the open. I ask also, where is the opposition spokeswoman on health, whom I heard deliver yet another very mediocre speech in Parliament yesterday afternoon.
Maybe a Labour front bench re-shuffle will see to it that someone more dedicated will be looking at all relevant stuff that a spokesperson in such key area should be looking at???
As nobody in government seems to be able to rise to it, maybe someone there will soon “Rise to the Challenge”?
a warm welcome back xtasy…glad to hear you are more at peace this week.
CV – more at peace with myself, kind of, but still committed to address issues that need attention, no matter what party affiliation or other orientations.
Thanks!
Yay xtasy (keep up the good work) I recommend a little extra-curricular reading and gardening myself. Oh, and listening to a little Bach, Elgar, Michael Nyman, Handel,
Vivaldi, Metallica!
RT – Yes, thanks, I have a fair bit of that in my collection, but I need to take more time out and play some of it. I have had a couple of years of pretty hard work, not for pay by the way, but just to take a stand, to defend justice, and to take on some real big players in the NZ admin system environment.
Heaps of stuff I and others learned, and more is to come, as a “mission” has been discovered and is being realised, to take things further.
.
Hey there – always good to welcome people back from their bans. I’ve been guilty of deserving a ban or two myself when the blood starts to boil and hit the Enter key before taking a deep breath. These days, I keep this pinned to the wall next to my monitor . . . it helps keep things in perspective.
Hahaha, yes it may help when you have someone wait for you in bed and reminds you!
Yay Cait Reilly.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/12/in-praise-of-cait-reilly
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/feb/12/poundland-legal-challenge-cait-reilly-interview
Joyce will be live on TV3’s website at 12.45pm over the novapay debacle, I wonder what dog whistle he will try to spin this time.
Yeah right no sign of it he must have changed his mind
No need for Joyce to front up … yet, … thanks to Prosser.
And whatever might, or might not, be Winston’s tactics, the stupid Prosser thing is taking attention away from Winston’s own questions being raised in the House about National’s appointment of Jenny Shipley to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Review Panel, her directorship on Mainzeal, and questions about conflicted interests.
And on the TV3 website here’s Key showing what an unprincipled prick he really is.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Opinion-Key-open-to-a-deal-with-Wogistan-Party/tabid/1382/articleID/286612/Default.aspx
Or it could just be Gower having a bad news day making shit up again.
What appears to be a solid piece of helpful information with a warning to pay attention to.
Under radionz news – rural for today
That’s just common sense but you won’t find either the economists or politicians accepting that.
Unhealthy budget
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10865118
No, just raise taxes – it’s far more efficient and cost effective than private insurance.
over to them, Over We Go
http://southasia.oneworld.net/news-you-can-use/media-partnerships/dsds-2013/articles/beyond-the-tipping-point-climate-change-consequences-will-be-difficult-uk-professor
http://www.rtcc.org/climate-change-science-irrefutable-ed-davey/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/12/permafrost_releasing_co2_faster_than_previously_thought/
ciao
Like treasury reports provide the basis for great decisions. Another area the nats want to privatise.
We aren’t large enough to support a workable private health insurance system, Oz is, only just and it’s struggling as it’s a luxury most folk go without for the public system.
Ryall’s zero sum health budgets set a scene for this. Pay more tax have better health care, healthy population is the basis of growth and propserity.
Private insurance benefits mostly the private sector not the poeple.
English contends that the productive sector wants to pay their workers less by arguing for intervention to bring the dollar down. But as we know National hate looking at other aspects of the accountancy equation. Producers who pay more to their workers and less to pay down foreigner held debt (by not growing the debt in the first place) would give their employees more buying power and so increase the demand for foreign exchange which in turn would drive down the high doller.
So let’s make this clear, people are demanding NZ dollars because our assets are under valued, our workers are underpaid, and our government rig the tax system to reward capital gain at the expense of organic NZ economic growth, but worse, the global system is rigged to reward those who get to pay their taxes in a low tax haven, and grow capital gain in higher tax NZ.
But English doesn’t like to put meat on the argument, or emphasis that when NZ employers pay NZ employees more the economy will boom, when NZ companies go bust that have too much debt, and NZ owned companies take over and pay their workers more, the dollar will drop, when NZ companies vote for a capital gains tax on a second home (investment property) then the housing bubble won’t burst just the pressure will come off and builders can start building to the demands of the NZ market not the demands of the world foreign speculators who use NZ.
Its precisely because the NZ manager classes read the Herald that they keep having problems understanding why the dollar is so high and who (them) needs to change their nasty habits of debt, low wages and chronically deficient neo-liberal economic thinking. You don’t get healthy as
a person by eating junk food, we won’t as a nation get health economically by listening to the turd
way National and the Herald newspaper.
Mr English is a farmer, that should give the answer. He is only interested to have a return for his mates.
Mr English is most certainly NOT a farmer.
That is true.
Mr English has some farm like clothes and ready-to-wear muddied boots that provide the right outfit and look for when he goes walky walky down South. But that is about it, ha ha ha!
Mr English’s hands have not seen much farming and outdoors work. Anyone who has a sharp eye or has shaken real farmers’ hands and his hand can tell the difference.
What do you mean “much”?
The dude went straight from uni to treasury and then to parliament. He’s the archetypal career bureaucrat.
Okies!!!
Not much or any,
and definitely no mulch (except for his much decayed/decaying Cabinet colleagues).
Oh definitely no mulch. He has 4 state-funded servants who lie in his garden to keep the soil moist.
hmm, I wonder if that’s where all the shit from Planet Key goes too.
His Brother is the farming lobby uber leader.
Interesting. On Rural Roundup 😉 the other day- China, by volume, largest importer of our lamb, yet returning only $4 / kilo, half that to UK which is still largest importer by value. dear oh dearie me.
Yahoo hacking cough; take some more medication.
Sooo , now we are struglling to maintain species from extinction, Y-E.P , species that our own lifestyles are exterminating. Exterminate! Exterminate!
The City! “…man’s greatest achievement ” -Ellul (not withstanding, the toilet-roll cathedral)
Northland farmers panhandle “…they’re cutting people like us out!”
when Sport becomes the fraud and drug-crime news. (shame on those hippies though, smokin’ dope and watchin’ sport on Sky)
watched Seven Sharp, before the accident and surveillance porn that followed, and is it just me or do the presenters seem ultra-scripted and adhered to the prompters before them; not very natural. And Winston Peters? Is he on drugs or just drunk most evenings?
Education?- “the gap between the poorest 3 deciles and the wealthiest 3 grew 31.6 % between 2010 – 2011, despite a fall in achievement at the top schools”- Metiria Turei
even at study group this morning, the consensus was that these cultural memes of self-reliance, self-made, independent blah blah, will be our undoing. (see this attitude of “tolerance” of kiwis in Oz by their citizens repeated in the MSM, dear oh dear, paybacks (for our disproportionate earlier successes and hubris) may be painful)
on the Bohm, yet comes in for a lot of criticism. (“wat you lookin’ at Willis?”)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphic_resonance#Morphic_resonance
Sadly the private prosecution of ACT leader,(ACT leader that’s a hilarity),John Banks has had to be withdrawn as the original paperwork was incorrectly filled out,(wonder if they let all the minor crims off for the same excuse),
Leave has been sought from the Judge in the Wellington district Court to re-lay the charges…
Chalk another one up to the brothers…
This slips off radar, as it was always going to do!
[lprent: Tomorrow is the end of the ban. But removing the block. Feel free to comment. ]
”We would be out in a war zone armed only with a pea-shooter” so says the Member for Dipton Bill English who as Minister of Finance seems to be ‘out in a war zone armed only with a pea-brain’ when it comes to intervening in the NZ$ so as to save as many jobs in this country as possible,
Bill was talking about lowering the Kiwi$ as lowering the living standards of all New Zealander’s versus having another 10,000 or so Kiwi’s lose their jobs altogether and become a political football for Him and the Minister of overseas travel for employment Paula to kick around,
Bill’s actually saying that it’s great to have 10’s of 1000’s of New Zealand workers to throw on the scrap heap of unemployment so as to keep the prices of i pads’ flat-screen TV’s and other imported shit cheap to buy for those who vote for this abysmal Slippery lead National Government,
Maybe Bill hasn’t thought of it, but even if He has He wont tell us, that a lower NZ dollar will encourage people to make the stuff we need here in New Zealand instead of importing it all from the cheap labour countries thus creating jobs,
Bill’s just another liar who refuses to face the reality that in the future we all are going to have to get by on less,there is no grand recovery from the ‘smart economy, export lead or otherwise, and the sooner the politicians in the Parliament begin to address this particular FACT and how we are to better share around our monetary resources the sooner we can all get down to actually doing so…
Well, Bill’s just operating in the conventional, orthodox, neoliberal framework. If we were to print every tenth dollar the NZ government required instead of borrowing it from overseas, we’d find that the NZD would drop in value fairly significantly.
Yep and then use the monies to embark on a proper affordable housing program where the government builds the houses and either sells them or rents them to tenants at 25% of income thus becoming the mortgage holder,
The monies taken in by Government from those it was the mortgage holder too could then be ticked off the original ‘debt’ of having created the money in the first place and the actual cash brought into the coffers could be redistributed as social programs and welfare payments to those most in need,
Thus any price rises from having lowered the value of the NZ$ by printing the money in the first place would be negated by those paying lower rent costs and lower rates of mortgage to the Government as the lender,
It’s obvious from here that ‘this’ or a variation of this will have to occur within the next ten years or the whole s**t-pile will come to a grinding halt, which would be fun but not of any real benefit in societal terms…
Richard Prosser is appearing on TV1’s 7sharp tonight, hope they ask Him why He found it necessary to be attempting to board domestic flights in New Zealand armed with a pocket-knife,
that’s the sort of s**t that Terrorists get up to…
Latest Roy Morgan out. Labour up 3 and National down 2 …
http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2013/4865/
[lprent: better. But the GCR is a pain. ]
Shearer Out Now!
Love the headline:
NATIONAL (44%) LEAD DOWN OVER LABOUR (34.5%)
LABOUR, GREENS WITH MINOR PARTIES WOULD WIN ELECTION
Think Labour+Green+Mana would give a simple majority on those numbers, polls should get better for labour next month again as the left wing of NZfirst abandon ship big-time,
If Roy was doing as i suspect, reading the National vote from the high side of the margin of error and Labour from the low side he appears to have rectified that,
Not party in the street material but looking good 20 month’s out from an election, wonder if this will provoke another fainting spell from Slippery…
“Shearer Out Now!”
Now you’re getting it. 😆
At 34% he’s still Colonel Mumblefuck leading the charge of the slight brigade.
Actually, I’m waiting for tomorrow’s post; something like …
Another Flatlining Roy Morgan Poll:
The latest Roy Morgan poll has National on 44%, Labour 34.5%, the Greens on 13.5%, and NZ First on 4%.
It just amazes me the government can still poll close to 45% after stuff up, after stuff up.
I’m sick of hearing from the Greens “just wait, it’ll get better”. Well it’s not. You’ve been stuck on 13.5 for 4 weeks. So stop making excuses.
Labour have done their bit.
Maybe it’s time the Greens started focusing on the important stuff rather than pulling silly stunts. Instead, take some risks and put yourselves on the line for the people who put you there.
Because right now, it’s just sad.
Trying to enable a National victory in 2014 by attacking the Green Party in a fit of overblown egoism over a margin of error poll rise for the Labour Party isn’t very clever…
Over two hundred comments on that post attacking Labour only two weeks ago. Sauce for the goose etc. But point taken bad; we’re all in this together.
It’s been a good few days on the unity front actually. Signs of a rapproachment between the LP and TS and now the Roy Morgan result hint at good times to come.
TRP: “We’re all in it together”
Right, so why not get all the parties on the “left” together, to throw off their vanities and individual member’s personal ambitions, and hammer out ONE unified left party, so that all are in it for the same one cause, which will have synergy effects, as the entrepreneurial operators so often describe the growth effect of positive combinations.
I still cannot believe, how so many choose to be divided, and it is so, when really, much more should combine and join forces.
Is it not the “branding” crap, that led us to this, now we have “Labour”, “National”, “Greens” and the likes, the word “party” is not mentioned, as it is perceived as a negative word from the past.
We have individuals try to portray themselves as “leaders”, as “spokespersons”, as “members” and whatever, but they brand themselves too, so the unifying factor becomes less relevant.
It is a result of the “corporatisation” of politics, is it not? YOU do as MP or whatever politician No longer represent, you are a “brand” to “stand” for a kind of label “option”, and anything else, even personal involvement is not even considered anymore.
This stinks, as this thinking has totally corrupted politics and society as a whole. I want to deal with people, persons and meet and see people face to face. I want to know who represents me in person, not some glossed up web page, a Facebook facade, a poster or whatever crap they present now, but I do not get what I expect.
So politics is becoming too faked, like so bloody much, I am afraid. Who can I trust, relate to and even vote?
34.5%, that’s a Labour high not achieved since late 2010/mid 2011 under Goff. Not bad at all. 34.5% in the polls on E-day will likely win the Treasury benches for Labour, at the cost of having to give up a lot of relatively minor portfolios to support parties.
Lordy, just imagine the black ops posts on KB and WO in the weeks before Xmas about cabinet scenarios. All the ‘Greens To Get Treasury, Police and the Army’ Shock Horrors.
It’s close, but the next one will probably go down a touch. Progressing well, but still not out of the woods IMO.
[edit] lolfuck CV – we might be slowly swapping sides at this rate 🙂
The important poll will be in 6 months time. Goff got a bounce when he ditched Carter but it did not last for very long.
And Shearer will be far more articulate and much sharper than Goff when it comes to live debate – I am so looking forward to that!
Uh? Let’s not get too carried away, eh.
Hey CV, welcome to the big brave world of my real Labour Party!
Indeed. Certainly not out of the woods. The high water mark pre-Nov 2011 was 36% or 37%. It didn’t hold to election day. A lot of work needs to be done.
However the wrong move would be for caucus to see this as vindication of the “tide coming in” strategy.
aye – in 2014 I’d be looking to have at least a couple of 40%+ under the labour belt, just as breathing room for the campaign.
Parliament, assuming all electorate seats stay the same:
ACT New Zealand 1 1 1
Green Party 17 0 17
Labour Party 44 22 22
Mana 1 1 1
Māori Party 1 3 3
National Party 56 42 14
United Future 0 1 0
120 70 53 (123)
And if Labour pick up a couple from National and 1 from the MP:
ACT New Zealand 1 1 1
Green Party 17 0 17
Labour Party 44 25 19
Mana 1 1 0 1
Māori Party 1 2 2
National Party 56 40 16
United Future 0 1 1
Whoops, got caught out editing that data. If no electorate seats change (ie MP, UF and ACT are a combined 5 seats, Mana 1), the current Gov’t have 61 seats in a 123 seat Parliament. Lab/Green the same, so it’d be up to Hone! (well, more likely, Peter Dunne would rediscover his socialist roots).
However, with just a minimum of likely electorate seat changes (two off National, 1 from the MP) its Nats et al 50, Lab/Green 51 (plus Hone’s one on the side) in a 122 seat house.
Of course the latter is a conservative reading of what might happen to the electorate seats. If the MP lose 2 seats, not 1, or Dunne or Banks miss out, its curtains for the Nats.
Lolz, rifmatic not your strong suit then Te Reo, you mean Labour/Green 61 v National and assorted scum 60 right…
LOL, that’s still not as bad as posting an angry comment on a 3 year old post over at Red Alert, as I did earlier today! That’s a classic.
But the good news is that the only man smiling tonight over in National towers is Steven Joyce. btw, if Joyce is Mr Fixit, does that make Key Mr Fuxit?
i think Slippery might be considering more of an Asian persona next, Mr Legginit Soon, i believe is His preferred name…
A quick calculation (oh how I love the Elections NZ Virtual Seat calculater!) and assuming Electorate seats stay the same (a stretch I know) the results would translate into a 122 seat House:
Nats – 55
Labour – 44
Greens – 17
MP – 3
Mana – 1
ACT – 1
UF – 1
However if Nats were to stitch a deal with the Conservatives over an Electorate seat a National/MP/Conservative/ACT/UF coalition could grab 62 seats. Actually they could take back Epsom from ACT and still do it as long as they reach an accomodation with the Conservatives.
Fascinating!
Still work to be done on the left to secure the field though – there could still be much fancy footwork around NZ First and the Conservatives which could distort it unless some big chunks are taken out of the National vote that go to the Left.
My view is that the Maori Party are going to be left with 1 seat in 2014, i am now going to have to start practicing saying bye bye Slippery without going into mad bursts of laughter…
Actually to be honest I wonder whether they will end up with any representation – their political capital seems pretty much spent – unless there is a rapprochement with Mana of course (which might actually be the logical thing for the MP to do).
Ah man sailing on His ego trip, which is what politics consists of for many, i cannot see the Maori Party and Mana joining forces, can’t see it but they definitely should,(after Turia and Sharples have gone that is),
After what was said on the Marae at firstly Ratana Pa and secondly at Waitangi you are not far off on where the Maori Party now sit in relation to what was it’s support base,
The bulk of the ‘Whanau ora’ fund that just so happened to have been spent in the electorate of Tariana Turia might ensure a reasonable turnout of the vote for the Maori Party in that electorate if they stand someone like Rahui Katene as the candidate, Ken Mair’s chances should He stand i think are about zero,
I am picking that the Labour candidate while not winning Te Ureroa Flavell’s Waiariki seat will split the vote sufficiently so as to allow Mana’s Annette Sykes to win,
The reverse i believe will occur in Sharple’s seat where the Mana candidate will pick up enough votes for Labour’s Shane Jones to prevail…
Yes – the politics of the personal should not be underestimated – I always felt that it meant the MP and Labour missed an opportunity because of personal antipathies – the events and principles that lead to the formation of the MP were legitimate and after an understandable cooling down period (the emotions were running high) the 2 parties really should have looked at how to work together – in the end the MP got some IMO minimal gains from National at the expsense of selling their soul.
Bloody good news!
NZF are looking good.
Okay this is dumb question of the week.
How does Roy Morgan poll treat the non voter. The “won’t say” is 3.5% but the poll assumes they will vote? That is tiny compared to the total electorate non vote. Does Roy Morgan simply assume that all the hang up’s, non answers and “go away it’s teatime” are the non voters?
Not a dumb question at all. There may be some breakdown of the process on the Roy Morgan site and I do know that most polling companies press for an answer even if the respondent says they haven’t made up their mind. Email Roy, I’m sure he’ll tell you how it works if you ask nice.
As I understand it, most polls completely ignore the hang-ups, non-answers, and go-away-it’s-teatimes in the results.
The reported percentages are of those who answer the poll, not those who were called. So if 1000 calls are made and 100 responses received and 44 of those support National, National is reported as 44%, not 4.4% (which, while technically correct, would also be slightly absurd.)
Does this mean that an ever increasing “I’m not going to vote”, [some days I feel like joining them] simply goes unrecorded? It means that increasing disillusionment isn’t recorded?
So eventually we may get down to say 10 voters and 4.4 of them say NACT – well 4 say NACT and .4 of Peter Dunne as he spreads his personal vote around?
Would Roy Morgan answer?
Our edumacation. A serious comment from a US teacher about the ‘No Child Left Behind” rote learning system that the US adopted around 2002 and its results there.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/02/09/a-warning-to-college-profs-from-a-high-school-teacher/
(The Washington Post has a number of entries under the subject line I used – the washington post no child left behind. )
and
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/study-graduation-rate-accountability-weakened-under-no-child-left-behind-waive
and – Business leaders urge Congress to rewrite No Child Left Behind (Why?)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/01/31/business-leaders-urge-congress-to-rewrite-no-child-left-behind/
We have done much the same as the USA when we adopted National Standards. We have put aside intellectual rigour applied in understanding our education problem and chosen a response pathetically lacking in self-determination and heavily skewed towards genuflecting to the big guy, the USA, and so finding an excuse for visiting there and having Important Discussions about Weighty Matters with people who are richer than we are (and therefore on the scale of simple commercial value we judge by, must be better than us.)
🙂
Something to go to in wellington:
http://t.co/yEsfFxL4
suspect all the cool kids are going to be there
heh
.lol…
@InvisibleObama
The most impressive feat was Marco Rubio turning water into whine.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/12/marco-rubios-long-drink-of-water-dominates-rebuttal-speech-coverage/
I didn’t make a submission on the Family Court even though I think it is important. I was too busy doing other things like having a go at Prosser the Tosser. I had the idea that it closed Friday but didn’t check.
When I went to the site I saw the date but no closing time. This is important as the Electoral Commission submissions closed at 5pm. It is strange to adopt post office hours when on-line submissions are given. I would have thought that 12 am would be the deadline.
Then if you follow the information to help with submissions you have to download a booklet from a PDF. How clunky and convoluted – a barrier in fact.
I guess its too late to make a submission though it doesn’t state closing time. And I don’t feel like reading a textbook on submission making. Isn’t there a Plain English movement that would also apply to making this sort of instruction clear and short?
Go ahead and make ‘a’ submission anyway if you wish. And copy the submission to relevant parliamentary spokespeople as well as the individual members of the appropriate select committee.
Is that a submission to a parliamentary select committee?
If so, for the information of readers here, generally –
Next time, just before the deadline, or as soon as the announcement comes out, put in a quick one- or two-line submission stating that you are putting in a submission, that you wish to be heard (you can decide later and write in that you don’t wish to be heard) and that the rest of your comments will be submitted asap.
That way, even if you miss the deadline by a few minutes or a day, you are still ‘in’.
And given that you have stated you wish to be heard, you will be contacted at some stage later. (You can indicate otherwise later if you change your mind.)
Have fun.
Johninsg
Thanx for advice.
Recommended reading for Paula Bennett, the Principal Health Advisor David Bratt, senior employee at MSD and for Work and Income, and even for opposition welfare and health spokespersons:
http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/files/kf/field/field_document/quality-gp-diagnosis-referral-gq-inquiry-research-paper-mar11.pdf
I am sure this may well apply to NZ as well.
So when getting GPs to make “assessments”, to diagnose and to refer clients to specialists, always bear in mind, there may well be a “mine field” in regards to actions not being the right ones to take, in many cases, or in at least some cases.
While having relied so heavily on even MSD “trained” general practitioners, to make decisions on health, disability and work incapacity, MSD and WINZ seem to have taken risks and possibly relied on “flawed” recommendations in quite high numbers.
Even on the so-called Medical Appeal Boards (appointed by the “Chief Executive” of MSD) do usually have about 2 GPs (being “designated doctors” trained or at least “selected” by MSD) sit on them, so they tend to have a two thirds majority.
A recent workshop held by MSD on 31 Jan. 2013 does though appear to be used now, by MSD, to select comments from disability participants, saying they do NOT want to be assessed about work capacity by their GPs. Now while that may seem reasonable and sensible for some, though, that is exactly what MSD want, as they are going to take over that job under the new welfare reforms themselves! I fear that some of these advocates and disabled spokespersons are not quite aware what they are asking for. Doctors – mostly GPs – may not be right all the time, but are WINZ health and disability advisors the ones you want to rely on?
There is a lot of shit happening, like the recent “survey” MSD conducted on suggestions by various affected groups, what may assist people with ill health or disabilities back into work. I fear this is all being abused and used as an “instrument” to pick the suggestions that suit them, to justify the introduction of UK style assessments, and to force sick and disabled into work, before they may even be asked themselves.
Now much more scrutiny must be put on all this. I appeal to all opposition spokespersons on welfare and health to pay serious attention to these matters and issues.
I am sure nobody wants to have the UK scenario, with many dying trying to do work they are not able to do, or committing suicide, seeing no hope, and being unable to be taken serious as sick and disabled.
Surely, a trusted doctor and GP will need to be listened to, same as proper specialists for the conditions people suffer, but a balanced and objective and fair, fact based approach is needed, before determining sick and disabled can do some work.
One intersting relevant article is this by the way:
http://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/news/2013/january-2013/31/doubts-about-gps-assessing-work-fitness.aspx
If the link does not work, google “Doubts about GPs assessing work fitness” along NZ Doctor and 31 Jan. 2013.
And the good news continues to roll in for National…Contact to cut 100 jobs
…this despite an expected increase by 8% in half-year operating profits.
Apparently savings have to be made and late last year, CEO Barnes signalled returns to shareholders were likely to be “ramped up” once the company’s big investment programme ended in the current financial year…so the translation would be “shareholders need more profits so let’s cut some more jobs”. Obviously rorting the consumers just isn’t cutting it.
Capitalism and it’s mission to seek increased return on capital at any social cost, at it’s finest.
To be fair, contact are shit. Highest prices by far. Useless helpdesk. I did a merry go round, Genesis->Contact->Meridian->Power Shop
Contact by far the worst, the Meridian. Should have never changed from Genesis actually. Powershop is great.
Also, didn’t contact shed like 30k customers?
Time to re-nationalise. The private sector can’t deliver. Well, except to foreign shareholders.
Message to PG: re: your question on YawnNZ about missing the login. You can see the comment box yourself. Like most posters (I guess) my eyes glaze over the ‘Name (required)’ and ‘Mail’ bits above it because they come up automatically. I go straight to the comment box and start typing the sparkling bon mots you’ve grown to love so well.
Anyway, nice to see this crushingly dull event has quadrupled your usual average daily comments. Up to four now, I see! Is this a record?
Pip pip!
Don’t get carried away, TRP, two of the comments *are* just Pete himself demonstrating no practical knowledge of how web forms work.
Another success.
/
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/12/republican-backed-for-profit-school-caught-deleting-bad-student-grades/
The responses to Farrar’s post on KB got me totally shocked and frozen to be honest. Even Farrar seems to be shocked by at least some comments on his post. Wow, this is showing how many sickoes there are in NZ society.
I have been against too liberal migration for various reasons, also am aware (as I know about it) of some abuse of migration, but hey, this is FUCKING SICK!
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2013/02/nz_first_mps.html#comments
.
Heh!! I recognise a couple of lols tr0lls in there winding it all up and giving room for the bigots to show their colours. But, seriously, you’re surprised by that? C’mon, Farrar’s Sewer reflects the general conversation you will find at pretty much any gathering of employed, sporting, wanna-be middle-class Kiwi baldheads.
If its not the Muslims its the Greenies or women or bloody maaaari – they gotta have something to hate – its as much a social lubricant as their green bottle beer. A lot of the banter is just piss and wind designed to irritate the overly sensitive but, as you can see, what passes for discourse is driven by deliberate and beligerent ignorance.
God forbid that they should actually read a scholarly book or watch a 90-minute documentary about what they think they know all about. Even worse would be admitting to having done such a thing. Nah, much easier to get their religious instruction from Fox News and then reinforce the messages amongst themselves. Its a good way for them to judge if you’re wiv ’em or agin ’em.
Unfortunately, as more and more of our best and most able head overseas, this cohort of “sickoes” is growing by the day and forms a significant political bloc. They are the sort of people who turn their stove and oven on during Earth Hour and vote National Ltd™ only to keep Labour out. Study them well.
WTF!!! Moderation!!! Moi???
[RL: Happens to the best of us.]