My goodness. That has been one LOOOOONG cup of tea, and still the cup’s not empty, nor has it been cleared away.
Herald on Sunday must have been quite p*ssed at the PM’s behaviour over it. HoS has 2 articles on it, both include criticisms of JonKey’s behaviour over the cuppa.
Prime Minister John Key personally phoned Solicitor General David Collins to pass on his gratitude for work on the so-called teapot tape case, two days before the election.
The Solicitor General’s office is meant to be kept strictly independent from all political influence.
An independent review finds nobody at the Herald on Sunday or its sister publications commissioned, suggested or condoned any recording in the teapot tapes saga. For the first time, Jonathan Milne can tell how the storm in the teacup was brewed and then stirred up.
[…]
An independent review finds nobody at the Herald on Sunday or its sister publications commissioned, suggested or condoned any recording in the teapot tapes saga. For the first time, Jonathan Milne can tell how the storm in the teacup was brewed and then stirred up.
[…]
John Key faces a decision, too. It is a simple one, but a challenging one for any public figure.
Well pointed Carol. I guess that Mr Key will ignore the implications but somehow I wish that Ambrose would get a Declaration and thus force some sort of political/legal resolution.
The catch is of course the political forces would no doubt dig some sort of dirt on Ambrose to forestall credibility, or further damage credibility.
But doesn’t that bluddy ad that heads the Herald page annoy? I will never buy one of those cars!
I am also pleased that the HOS is continuing to have an interest in this case, and while one phone call in itself is not a major issue, it is again another instance of Key acting inappropriately.
I am also pleased that today they included a prominate link to the earlier article on 1 April, as I felt at the time this was published, that it was somewhat overshadowed by other events. It gives a very plausible account of what actually happened by someone else who was there at the tea party and involved in the aftermath.
The phone call thanking the Solicitor-General is serious because it reconfirms the corruption. There is no doubt that the Solicitor-General’s office was acting on behalf of John Key, who got special treatment by what is meant to be an independent entity.
Finlayson’s reason for the Solicitor-General representing is basically because John Key got into trouble in a private capacity and this would impinge on his ability to function as the PM… so the crown was obliged to step in. If that’s not corruption I don’t know what is.
Thanks, Jackal. After I hit the submit button, I thought that my wording was wrong particularly in suggesting that the phone call was insignicant which it is not. But I had to go out so left it.
I totally agree that the whole way this situation was handled by Key and his people, from the actual tea party onwards was way out of order and corrupt. Having worked in the justice sector although not a legal beagle and being well experienced in the machinery of government, the use/misuse of Crown Law and the Solicitor General’s office in this case was extremely disturbing. Part of the problem is that we seem to be seeing such actions from Key and his Ministers on an ongoing basis, but yet the general public do not seem to comprehend or be interested in what this means and continue to support this PM and his mob.
+1 Jackal. The Solicitor-General should only ever have abided in this one, or perhaps made some lowkey submissions on how any criminal investigation would be affected. He should never have advocated for the leader of a party like he did (this was an electoral issue). And now he’s a judge, despite a record of fuck ups while in office. Go figure.
The Cunliffe cancellation from The Nation yesterday has been seen by some as a ruckus in the ranks.
I think it may be a potential positive, with Shearer starting to actually lead, and making it clear to others what their position in the party has to be.
Perhaps Shearer’s making steps in the right direction, but his party has to visibly unite behind him. Obviously some commenters here are independent of Labour and will voice disagreement, but it’s up to known Labourites like Anthony, lprent and mickysavage to sound like they are backing and promoting Shearer’s leadership.
Until that show of support happens in a sustained way I don’t like Labour’s chances of successfully rebuilding credibility as a party ready for Government..
It is a sign of weakness and insecurity to stop one of your best performers from appearing on television and taking the fight to the Government because you are afraid of him getting airtime.
If Shearer is a real leader he will support Cunliffe in his role and not muzzle him.
The Labour Party needs to stop playing games with each other and unite against the real enemy, the National Party.
It was not a sign of leadership of any kind to have absolutely no-one front The Nation 10 days out from the Budget.
It was not a sign of leadership of any kind to allow Tony Ryle a free and unopposed interview about asset sales, in the week they had announced that National would actually stand in the market after the sale to buy back shares for some New Zealanders.
Net outcome from the weekend: Labour was not an effective opposition.
I’ve just heard Garner’s spiel on this on The Nation and he mostly discusses Shearer apparently standing up to Cunliffe and “bawling him out” in caucus.
He also made the point that Shearer’s office said they didn’t want to have David Parker’s role as finance spokesman intefered with leading up to the budget. Reasonable point. Why wasn’t Parker lined up for The Nation in the first place?
“I’ve just heard Garner’s spiel on this on The Nation and he mostly discusses Shearer apparently standing up to Cunliffe”
Pete, that just shows how badly Shearer handled it. If he’d done his job then Garner would be discussing what Labour says about the budget, but instead he has to talk about why Labour didn’t send anyone to talk about the budget.
So let me get this straight… Rightwing commentator Duncan Garner has a bleat about Cunliffe’s no show on The Nation, making up some rubbish about Shearer telling him not to appear and suddenly we have the “Divided Labour” claims again coming from more rightwing hacks who’s commentary has proven itself incorrect on many occasions.
I agree that somebody should have represented but that’s not a signal of any division. It’s a media beat-up by a rightwing hack for rightwing hacks… nothing more.
I agree that somebody should have represented but that’s not a signal of any division. It’s a media beat-up by a rightwing hack for rightwing hacks… nothing more.
Seconded! AFAIK all the most anti-Shearer people here are not Labour people.
I am for one, and I back Shearer…
I can assure you that I am a dedicated and loyal member of the party and support the party and its leader. I wish that whoever apparently leaked to TV3 confidential information from what happened in Caucus would do the same.
You keep asking me to again pledge support.
I can recall you being asked repeatedly who you were going to vote for in the 2011 election and you never committed to voting for United Future even though you were on its list and an electorate candidate in Dunedin.
Do you think your failure to commit hurt the party? After all it did very poorly in the election.
Do you think your failure to commit hurt the party?
Simple answer – no.
I think there were much bigger forces at play than I was able to influence. I was standing in Dunedin, where the main media ODT had a policy of virutally no local electorate coverage. I had only been in the party for three months with minimal profile.
The significant forces included:
– Winston Peters successfully capturing a lot of small party share of media coverage
– media promotinjg “Dunne at risk in Ohariu” despite being shown polling suggesting Dunne was safe. Dunne was right, Chauvel and the media were wrong.
– Dunne having to commit so much time and focus on holding Ohariu, for obvious reasons.
– UF having no one with a national profile able to campaign nationally.
I can assure you that I am a dedicated and loyal member of the party and support the party and its leader.
That’s a repeat of a fairly weak assurance. Can you directly name and indicate support for David Shearer?
Jeez Pete, now that’s how you really annoy me. Weak?? MS’s statement was crystal clear.
No-one is bigger than the party, even it’s leader (something Key should learn). If MS had written ‘…support the party and David Shearer’ you would probably given him grief about not being able to move on if Shearer was rolled!
A bit rich coming from someone who refused to even state that he’d vote for his party until seriously pressed to do so.
A bit rich coming from someone who refused to even state that he’d vote for his party until seriously pressed to do so.
You’re confusing playing games on a blog that had no target market to the actual campaigning I did. And I wasn’t “seriously pressed to do so”, I freely chose to add my voting intentions under no pressure, along with everyone else who did so on the thread for it.
I got stuck in a loop trying to figure out why Dunne had to spend “so much time and focus on holding Ohariu” that he couldn’t help Pete retain the votes from the previous election, despite knowing that he was safe in Ohariu all along.
felix – indications were better than media reported, but nothing was guaranteed. Going by the party vote polls Ohariu was essential and he couldn’t take the risk not to give it most of his attention.
Safe with sustained attention. Dunne acknowledges he didn’t pay Ohariu enough attention leading up to 2008 and was determined to do more work in his electorate.
It’s a huge task looking after an electorate, being a sole MP running the parliamentary side of a party, and being a minister in Government. National campaigning took a hit. If UF is to survive it needs more effort from more people, Dunne can’t do it all.
having candidates not openly and directly state who they are voting for must have really helped the party
Exactly – this statement at 2.2.1.1.1 above from PG is delusional BS And I wasn’t “seriously pressed to do so”, I freely chose to add my voting intentions under no pressure, along with everyone else who did so on the thread for it. I for one, clearly recall the plethora of comments to and from PG on this.
I have no doubt that having a candidate that spent most of his time during the election campaign commenting on websites rather than out there actually campaigning and walking the talk did not help the party either.
a candidate that spent most of his time during the election campaign commenting on websites
You’ve got no idea how I campaigned.
Nor how local campaigns work in Dunedin – when Channel 9 went out into the suburbs asking about candidates many didn’t even know who the eventual MP was. And I bet that now if the electorates were surveyed here many wouldn’t know many if any of the four Dunedin based MPs.
One of the only ways to get much profile is to get on national media. As one TV journo told me, the bosses in Auckland are only interested in Benson-Pope type stories down here.
Which not surprisingly was very close to nation wide votes and party vote, indicating most people vote for parties and many electorate contests are barely contested.
If Shearer is a real leader he will support Cunliffe in his role and not muzzle him.
If Cunliffe is a real party man and not an individual with his own leadership agenda he will show support for Shearer. When he has earned respect and trust Shearer should allow Cunliffe to workn freely in his spokesman role.
If that were the case, Shearer would have allowed to go on The Nation, as a simple example.
Instead we are seeking Shearer and his masters centralize everything to the Leader and the Leader’s office. It is precisely this paranoia that was Goff’s undoing. No-one was prepared to tell Goff that he wasn’t as good as Key, and needed the whole team to take Key on.
Exactly the same thing is happening here. Shearer cannot take on Key and never will. But rather than acknowledge this and enable his whole team take Key on, he prefers to suppress them. All except Trevor Mallard.
Which goes to show that as Mallard and Shearer allow their own house to remain divided, Key’s government is allowed to stand.
The focus here should not be on those who try and actively engage with the Government like Cunliffe (which is of course the core Opposition’s job), but on those who are not effectively leading.
Actual Labour Party members should have the floor on this type of issue, sure we can all put our 5 cents worth in, 2 cents in Pete’s case, but the members (as in not United Future members) will have to sort it out in the end.
Nicely put, TM. From my vantage point, while there is some concern that Shearer risks being seen as being too passive at this early point in his leadership, party members I talk to are heartened that both Labour, and the left generally, are holding up in the polls. We have a good platform to build on and Key seems determined to burn off National’s support base, one insult at a time.
So that leaves the obvious question: is Shearer’s strategy to allow National to collapse without Labour being seen as having contributed to the fall? I’m picking that it is a desire to go into the next election with what the lawyers call ‘clean hands’ that is motivating Shearer. He wants to be able put Labour up as honest brokers of change, untainted by the negativity of National.
An indication of this is the asset sales campaign, which is not a purely LP initiative, of course, but one into which they have a significant input. Gone are the ‘No Asset Sales’ signs, in comes the more up beat message of ‘Keep Our Assets’. I think we will see Labour do more and more positive positioning as they seek to be seen as the alternative to the messages of misery from Key and co.
The Greens ran a much more positive election campaign, no surprise they improved and Labour went backwards. At last Labour are starting to get it, even if it’s an anti the other lot campaign at least it’s framed more positively.
Te Reo you are being very generous. If Labour wanted to do it with as you say “clean hands”, you would need to be be mighty sure that National were going to fall by themselves. You are dead right that is a valid medium-term tactic.
But I see National with Key at the helm as masters of distraction and dog-whistle. They are definitely weak for coalition partners, so the “do nothing” option is definitely fair.
But I still think it’s a core job of being in Opposition to demonstrate that you are a credible Government-in-waiting. Both in policy clarity and in the coalition partners you can tell the public will function well together.
Funny thing with the Tony Ryall interview, when he was discussing what the money from the sales is to be spent on there was not any mention of schools or hospitals or anything other than paying off debt. (and we know how well that worked last time!) What a shocker, seems the spin prior to the election worked, hook line and cement block.
also amusing to see Ryall unable to follow the breadcrumbs Garner laid out showing that for the Government to use shares in treaty settlements meant they have to buy some. Either when first floated or as Ryall said, later on from the market. Now if the shares are not bought immediately upon floating, and banked for later use, surely they will only cost more as the value of the shares is expected to increase. I would lay short odds that the purchase of shares at a later date is going to cost a whole lot more than the cheap loans we could be getting today, and we lose the ongoing dividends. The closer they get to the sales the more of a pigs breakfast it is becoming.
At least Ryall admitted National have added 42 billion dollars of debt in a little over three years.
Just what I was about to say Felix. The number of no-shows of the PM and of Ministers is legion. But there is hardly a murmer.
Just hope that there is method in the Labour strategy. Watch this space -optimistically?
Umm… the Greens and NZ First had their turn today. Do you think it is possible that Labour is holding it’s arsenal for next Sunday… only days before Budget day? Voter attention is likely to be more focused by then. No Mum’s day to distract them either.
All Norman and Peters did was say that the Government is doing it all wrong and if they were in Government their policies would be all successful, unlike in just about any other country during the GFC. Pointless pontificating.
There’s no way of knowing if things would be better or worse if Government made none of the changes they did, or if a different Government had made different changes. The much touted CGT would have taken many years to have had much effect.
There’s no way of knowing if things would be better or worse if Government made none of the changes they did, or if a different Government had made different changes.
That must be why UF doesn’t challenge the Nats on anything. After all what’s the point of being in Parliament beyond collecting the paycheck?
Part of Dunne’s job is to discuss issues with various National ministers, getting an input into policy. And it’s well known that Dunne has different positions to National on a number of issues. But don’t let reality stop you from generalised nonsense accusations.
BTW, I get accused hijacking threads off-topic, several have tried that here today, and it hasn’t been me.
i think you have finally cracked it Felix. A perfect PeteG vaccine. We only have to administer that question once a day and Pete G dissapears in a puff of fallibility. 🙂
Monday-ising Waitangi and Anzac days, TVNZ7, and 26 weeks maternity leave are ones he has publicly said he will challenge National’s position on if they come to a vote, that’s just obvious ones from the past couple of months.
National have to consult with Dunne to see what he will agree to in order to pass any none confidence and supply legislation that the Maori Party don’t support. All of Dunne, Banks and the Maori MPs have a degree of influence on what National can do.
Dunne has probably more influence than his 1/61 share of the vote, but is aware of the need to not exceed a reasonable degree of influence. There’s a fairly strong sentiment against tail wags dog – apart from those who expect to get their own way regardless of democratic principals.
“National have to consult with Dunne to see what he will agree to in order to pass any none confidence and supply legislation that the Maori Party don’t support.”
Right, but are you saying that in the last three and a half years there have been things the Nats wanted to pass that never made it to the floor because there was no point without Dunne’s agreement? (Mondayising holidays et al don’t fit here btw because the Nats want to pass those at all – those are private members bills opposed by them)
And therefore everything they have passed has had the Dunne stamp of approval?
Last term his vote wasn’t necessary, National could get votes with either Maori Party or Act.
As far as I understand how things work (limited), what is do-ableamongst coalition partners is worked out before bills are put forward to the House. It makes sense to do that – doesn’t it?
They don’t have voting in a database (it’s being considered) but the first week’s journal I checked had this:
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Crown Pastoral Land (Rent for Pastoral Leases) Amendment Bill
The House resumed the interrupted debate on the question, that the Crown Pastoral Land (Rent for Pastoral Leases) Amendment Bill be now read a third time.
On the question, That the bill be now read a third time, the votes were recorded as follows:
Ayes 63 New Zealand National 59; Māori Party 3; ACT New Zealand 1
Noes 57 New Zealand Labour 34; Green Party 13; New Zealand First 8; Mana 1; United Future 1
But Pete will Dunne challenge National and then go along like a scolded puppy when they say no? Or is he going to actually grow a pair and vote against the Government on these issues?
Or is retention of the limo privileges more important to the member (said in the nicest possible way).
He’s said he will vote for these or would support these if they come to that (Curran’s TVNZ7 members bill is far too late). There’s no reason to doubt that.
Mondayising is on the go now:
Labour MP David Clark says he has the political support he needs for his members bill, which would make Monday a public holiday when either Waitangi Day or Anzac Day fall on a weekend.
Mr Clark says he has the support of all parties except National, giving him the votes he needs to get the bill to a select committee.
There’s no way of knowing if things would be better or worse if Government made none of the changes they did, or if a different Government had made different changes.
There’s this thing called history that we can learn from and, interestingly enough, what this government is doing has been tried before and it didn’t work then whereas what the other parties are suggesting is closer to what did kinda work before. It’s still capitalism and so it won’t ever truly work and will need to be bailed out again sometime in the future.
The story of Peak Oil just can’t get legs; for 50 years the Greens have found that stating a lie over and over doesn’t make it true.
The US Geological Survey has just announced a 200 year supply of Shale OIL under Utah/Colorado. It may be about equal to all the world’s proven oil reserves.
Global supply is interesting, but the question is what price at the pumps here? I don’t presume to be a petroleum expert, but I can imagine that harder-to-extract oil being more expensive, and can also easily imagine future Labour-Green governments raising the excise tax on petrol.
Even if there is a very soft and long peak, price may still be driven up here. We still need to prepare for a significantly higher pump-price. We have already seen pretty high price elasticity at over $2.00. Imagine it under Labour-Greens at cover $3.00 91 Octane.
Anyone seen any MoT or MoT scenario modelling on petrol price elasticity in New Zealand?
Shale oil?
How much oil can be refined per tonne of shale; and ‘petrol grade’ per tonne (or in whatever measurement it is that is commonly used.) of extracted crude? What’s the environmental impact of attempting to recover the stuff in it’s present form? What sort and quantity of ‘by-product’ are we looking at? What’s the energy input required for recovery and refining? What other resources need to be used in the extraction process and what quantity of them are used in relation to recovered ‘crude’ product? And what do we do with the ‘by products’…disposal wise. And what’s even jut the basic financial cost of extracting it? And so on.
No attempt was made to estimate the amount of oil that is economically recoverable because there has not yet been an economic method developed to recover the oil from Green River Formation oil shale.
I’m guessing that EROEI in this shale oil is under 3:1.
And it appears that this USGS survey was done in 2011, with oil prices >US$100/bb, and its still considered uneconomic. My guess is that The incremental cost of pulling this oil up is over US$100/bb.
So the oil is there, but chances are no one will ever be able to afford to extract and use it.
Hammer, you need to find out more about Peak Oil. It is talking about a peak in extraction rate. This is definitely not the same as “running out” or “used up half of all oil”.
Imagine a long-tail scenario, where it takes 10 years to get to peak production and then a long long tale lasting out for 200 years. The peak has still been reached after 10 years, but that solitary fact doesn’t tell us anything about the length of the tale.
We reached the peak of conventional oil production in 2006. This means it’s highly unlikely conventional oil will ever get back up to those levels again. Meanwhile growth in alternative sources of oil, such as tar sands and deep water have kept total liquids on roughly a plateau since then. Eventually we’ll fall off the plateau. The fact that there’s 200 ‘year worth’ of oil shale available doesn’t help (in the short-medium term) us if it actually takes 300 years to process and extract it all.
Here comes the collateral expended in order to cover up the obvious lies, I mean story about the intercepted hyjack, hi tech nappy bomb!
“The Pentagon recently sent American military trainers to Yemen, and Washington has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to assist the impoverished Arab nation fight al-Qaida and other extremist groups in the country”
—Translation – We sent in our brass to make sure that the “rag heads” had their story straight, and knew who is boss, as well as give the fiat they needed to pay the ” made up AQ” guys, and whoever else they could round up to fire the weapons we provided. See we have to give funding and arming these groups, so that the military machine has never ending control of the planet, and so as the yanks can blow up the same “rag heads” with the drones, no matter where they hide, and claim the mighty victory!
Actually, it’s close to exactly the same. In most places there’s only one network and that’s Telecom. You may connect through a different ISP but the connection is still Telecom and there’s a very good reason for that – multiple networks are very expensive and highly inefficient. What we have is faux competition which actually made it worse because the monopoly that Telecom had with an already viable network meant that they didn’t have to improve that network and the new ISPs had to buy from Telecom anyway.
You may connect through a different ISP but the connection is still Telecom and there’s a very good reason for that – multiple networks are very expensive and highly inefficient. What we have is faux competition which actually made it worse because the monopoly that Telecom had with an already viable network meant that they didn’t have to improve that network and the new ISPs had to buy from Telecom anyway.
Unless you work in the Onekawa industrial suburb of Napier. Unison (the community owned lines company) have used the power poles to supply fibre throughout the suburb, and now almost a year later, Chorus are digging up the streets… laying fibre. Money wasted and a duplication of infrastructure.
Yes, I’m aware of that Draco, but at least in the US you can buy fairly decent mobile internet, plus there are massive amounts of free wifi.
I shouldn’t complain I suppose. The main reason (apart from Telecom being evil) that we have poor internet is because we have small population. I’d rather have crap internet access and less people to be honest.
The main reason (apart from Telecom being evil) that we have poor internet is because we have small population.
Nope, the only reason we have crap internet is because we sold Telecom and deregulated telecommunications. If we hadn’t have done either of those then we would have a much better network and cheaper access as all the surplus would have been reinvested rather than being taken out as profits.
The larger present problem is the Kiwifruit PSA outbreak,the concomitant outbreaks in the world largest export nations of NZ,Italy,and Chile are a remarkable geographical “coincidence” and the trackback suggests the originating strain originated in China.
Good work Poission. It appears as though you don’t even have to read between the lines when the researchers state ” …imported independently to Italy from China and to NZ from China ” . We have been in a “soft’ war with China for a long time and it will only get nastier. Meanwhile as usual, the generals and the politicians are preparing to fight the last one.
Still, the ability to plunder one corner of a complex system is not the same thing as the ability to control the whole system, and the freedom with which so many people pillage the institutions they’re supposed to be managing could as well be understood as a sign that there’s no center of power willing or able to defend the core interests of the US empire against death by financial hemorrhage. The only power the executives of, say, Goldman Sachs need is the power to block any effort to stop them from stripping their bank to the bare walls for their personal enrichment, or to cut them off from the access to tax dollars that’s made that process so lucrative. That much power they certainly have—but it’s a kind and a degree of power shared by many other influential groups in America just now.
He’s going on about power distribution and that instead of it being concentrated it’s become diffuse and thus prone to stasis. Of course, the diffuse that he’s talking about is pure oligarchy/plutocracy.
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Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
The Forum has raised concerns regarding the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill and the Regulatory Standards Bill, which, if enacted, will radically undermine existing human rights protections, Indigenous rights, and constitutional safeguards ...
The passage of time hasn’t been kind to Ngāi Tahu.When its High Court hearing over wai māori (freshwater) commenced last week, 52 months after the claim was filed, the tribe mourned the loss of two named first plaintiffs – Bishop Richard Wallace, of Makaawhio, and Theo Bunker, of Wairewa – ...
Margie Apa, Nicholas Jones, Diana Sarfati, the board of Health New Zealand … and will Lester Levy be next?The biggest names in our health service are tumbling like dominos.It’s been called a bloodbath and a crisis.What’s going on?Every day there’s a new story about shortages, patients having to wait for ...
Opinion: The coalition Government’s recent revisions to the business investor visa, officially the Active Investor Plus but commonly known as the ‘golden visa’, has put pay-for-residency back in the headlines. While many object to the commodification of citizenship implicit in this policy, questions should be asked about its potential as ...
One Christmas, to thank him for helping me hugely with my writing (on a mentor scheme), I sent Michael King a dark blue cashmere scarf. I chose it with the awful knowledge that he was battling cancer, and I somehow thought it might keep him warm and make him feel ...
Comment: Readers may recall the commentaries from academics that appeared on these pages as well as on many media outlets, alarmed and appalled by the disbanding of the Marsden panels for humanities and the social sciences.The Marsden Fund is a “blue skies” initiative established by Simon Upton in the 1990s. ...
Everything you missed from day five of the Treaty principles bill hearings, when the Justice Committee heard seven hours of submissions. Read our recaps of the previous hearings here.An “insult to every one of our tīpuna” was the first advice the Justice Committee heard on the Treaty principles bill ...
The same councillors who decry excessive spending on pet projects just voted to pump millions of dollars into a greenhouse for flowers. On Thursday last week, Wellington City Council voted to consult on repairing Begonia House, the greenhouse for exotic flowers in Wellington Botanic Garden. The options for repairs range ...
It’s important to respect people’s right to free speech and peaceful assembly, but how much political deference is due when it isn’t peaceful? Commenting on Destiny Church members storming a children’s event at the Te Atatū library and community centre on Saturday, prime minister Christopher Luxon said it’s important to ...
Comment: US is capitulating to Moscow’s demands before negotiations over Ukraine even begin The post The day the West died appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Asia Pacific Report Two Palestinian resistance groups have condemned “the brutal assault” on prisoners at Ofer Prison, saying it was “barbaric criminal behaviour that reflects the fascist and terrorist nature of” Israel. In the joint statement, Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) called the attack a “miserable attempt” by Israel ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist in Avarua, Rarotonga Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown hopes to have “an opportunity to talk” with the New Zealand government to “heal some of the rift”. Brown returned to Avarua on Sunday afternoon (Cook Islands Time) following his week-long state visit to China, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sonia R. Grover, Clinical Professor of Gynaecology, The University of Melbourne Polina Zimmerman/Pexels Menstruation, or a period, is the bleeding that occurs about monthly in healthy people born with a uterus, from puberty to menopause. This happens when the endometrium, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ella Barclay, Senior Lecturer, School of Art and Design, Australian National University Despite the perceived outrage at Khaled Sabsabi’s depiction of Hassan Nasrallah in his 2007 work You, Australian art has long made subjects of outlaws and questionable figures. And it is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Louise Pryke, Honorary Research Associate, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Sydney Lisa Tomasetti/Opera Australia “It’s an old song”, Hermes (Christine Anu) sings at the opening of Hadestown, but “we’re gonna sing it again and again”. Based on a ...
An additional $13 million will be invested in tourism infrastructure, including upgrading huts and resolving the backlog in Milford Sound concessions. ...
The reality is that we have no obligation to tolerate the intolerant. They are using violence to shut down and silence others. The result of tolerating intolerant views is the loss of everyone’s freedom of speech except for the one who most effectively ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Davis, Associate Professor in Conservation, Edith Cowan University Adwo/Shutterstock Humans have been poisoning rodents for centuries. But fast-breeding rats and mice have evolved resistance to earlier poisons. In response, manufacturers have produced second generation anticoagulant rodenticides such as bromadiolone, widely ...
Alex Casey unearths Simon Court’s full sales pitch for how menstrual cups could end poverty. On Friday last week, Act MP Simon Court was accused of “mansplaining” during a parliamentary committee hearing about benefit sanctions. After submitter Rachel Dibble shared her concerns about period poverty and the impact that sanctions ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato It’s an unfortunate fact that bad people sometimes want guns. And while laws are designed to prevent guns falling into the wrong hands, the determined criminal can be highly resourceful. There are three main ...
Asia Pacific Report Two independent Jewish Voices groups in Aotearoa New Zealand have written an open letter to the government condemning the Zionist “colonisation” project leading to genocide and criticising the role of the NZ Jewish Council for its “unelected” and “uncritical support” for Israel. The groups, Alternative Jewish Voices ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Newspoll, conducted February 10–14 from a sample of 1,244, gave the Coalition a 51–49 lead, unchanged from the previous Newspoll, ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you enjoy whip-smart satire: The White Lotus (Neon, February 17) HBO’s award-winning The White Lotus is back for what critics are calling “an absolutely exquisite third ...
NZPF called for a slowdown of the curriculum change, asking for one subject at a time, so that teachers and principals could be fully trained and feel confident and competent to implement the changes, New Zealand Principals’ Federation (NZPF) President ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University Indonesia’s TVOne launched an AI news presenter in 2023.T.J. Thomson Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has taken off at lightning speed in the past couple of years, creating disruption in ...
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My goodness. That has been one LOOOOONG cup of tea, and still the cup’s not empty, nor has it been cleared away.
Herald on Sunday must have been quite p*ssed at the PM’s behaviour over it. HoS has 2 articles on it, both include criticisms of JonKey’s behaviour over the cuppa.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10805498
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10796192
Well pointed Carol. I guess that Mr Key will ignore the implications but somehow I wish that Ambrose would get a Declaration and thus force some sort of political/legal resolution.
The catch is of course the political forces would no doubt dig some sort of dirt on Ambrose to forestall credibility, or further damage credibility.
But doesn’t that bluddy ad that heads the Herald page annoy? I will never buy one of those cars!
I am also pleased that the HOS is continuing to have an interest in this case, and while one phone call in itself is not a major issue, it is again another instance of Key acting inappropriately.
I am also pleased that today they included a prominate link to the earlier article on 1 April, as I felt at the time this was published, that it was somewhat overshadowed by other events. It gives a very plausible account of what actually happened by someone else who was there at the tea party and involved in the aftermath.
And, yes, Ianmac that ad also bugs me!
The phone call thanking the Solicitor-General is serious because it reconfirms the corruption. There is no doubt that the Solicitor-General’s office was acting on behalf of John Key, who got special treatment by what is meant to be an independent entity.
Solicitor-General compromised
Finlayson’s reason for the Solicitor-General representing is basically because John Key got into trouble in a private capacity and this would impinge on his ability to function as the PM… so the crown was obliged to step in. If that’s not corruption I don’t know what is.
Thanks, Jackal. After I hit the submit button, I thought that my wording was wrong particularly in suggesting that the phone call was insignicant which it is not. But I had to go out so left it.
I totally agree that the whole way this situation was handled by Key and his people, from the actual tea party onwards was way out of order and corrupt. Having worked in the justice sector although not a legal beagle and being well experienced in the machinery of government, the use/misuse of Crown Law and the Solicitor General’s office in this case was extremely disturbing. Part of the problem is that we seem to be seeing such actions from Key and his Ministers on an ongoing basis, but yet the general public do not seem to comprehend or be interested in what this means and continue to support this PM and his mob.
+1 Jackal. The Solicitor-General should only ever have abided in this one, or perhaps made some lowkey submissions on how any criminal investigation would be affected. He should never have advocated for the leader of a party like he did (this was an electoral issue). And now he’s a judge, despite a record of fuck ups while in office. Go figure.
The Cunliffe cancellation from The Nation yesterday has been seen by some as a ruckus in the ranks.
I think it may be a potential positive, with Shearer starting to actually lead, and making it clear to others what their position in the party has to be.
Is it, at last, signs of Shearer’s leadership? But where are genuine signs of party unity and support?
Perhaps Shearer’s making steps in the right direction, but his party has to visibly unite behind him. Obviously some commenters here are independent of Labour and will voice disagreement, but it’s up to known Labourites like Anthony, lprent and mickysavage to sound like they are backing and promoting Shearer’s leadership.
Until that show of support happens in a sustained way I don’t like Labour’s chances of successfully rebuilding credibility as a party ready for Government..
It is nothing of the sort.
It is a sign of weakness and insecurity to stop one of your best performers from appearing on television and taking the fight to the Government because you are afraid of him getting airtime.
If Shearer is a real leader he will support Cunliffe in his role and not muzzle him.
The Labour Party needs to stop playing games with each other and unite against the real enemy, the National Party.
It was not a sign of leadership of any kind to have absolutely no-one front The Nation 10 days out from the Budget.
It was not a sign of leadership of any kind to allow Tony Ryle a free and unopposed interview about asset sales, in the week they had announced that National would actually stand in the market after the sale to buy back shares for some New Zealanders.
Net outcome from the weekend: Labour was not an effective opposition.
David Shearer has no sack.
I’ve just heard Garner’s spiel on this on The Nation and he mostly discusses Shearer apparently standing up to Cunliffe and “bawling him out” in caucus.
He also made the point that Shearer’s office said they didn’t want to have David Parker’s role as finance spokesman intefered with leading up to the budget. Reasonable point. Why wasn’t Parker lined up for The Nation in the first place?
(a) Because Parker is weak
(b) Because Shearer is petulant enough to have no-one front for Labour rather than let the effective Cunliffe have a crack
“I’ve just heard Garner’s spiel on this on The Nation and he mostly discusses Shearer apparently standing up to Cunliffe”
Pete, that just shows how badly Shearer handled it. If he’d done his job then Garner would be discussing what Labour says about the budget, but instead he has to talk about why Labour didn’t send anyone to talk about the budget.
So let me get this straight… Rightwing commentator Duncan Garner has a bleat about Cunliffe’s no show on The Nation, making up some rubbish about Shearer telling him not to appear and suddenly we have the “Divided Labour” claims again coming from more rightwing hacks who’s commentary has proven itself incorrect on many occasions.
I agree that somebody should have represented but that’s not a signal of any division. It’s a media beat-up by a rightwing hack for rightwing hacks… nothing more.
“…that’s not a signal of any division. It’s a media beat-up…”
Yes of course it’s a beat-up, but a totally predictable and easily avoidable one.
Seconded! AFAIK all the most anti-Shearer people here are not Labour people.
I am for one, and I back Shearer…
Morning Pete
I can assure you that I am a dedicated and loyal member of the party and support the party and its leader. I wish that whoever apparently leaked to TV3 confidential information from what happened in Caucus would do the same.
You keep asking me to again pledge support.
I can recall you being asked repeatedly who you were going to vote for in the 2011 election and you never committed to voting for United Future even though you were on its list and an electorate candidate in Dunedin.
Do you think your failure to commit hurt the party? After all it did very poorly in the election.
A simple yes or no answer will do.
Do you think your failure to commit hurt the party?
Simple answer – no.
I think there were much bigger forces at play than I was able to influence. I was standing in Dunedin, where the main media ODT had a policy of virutally no local electorate coverage. I had only been in the party for three months with minimal profile.
The significant forces included:
– Winston Peters successfully capturing a lot of small party share of media coverage
– media promotinjg “Dunne at risk in Ohariu” despite being shown polling suggesting Dunne was safe. Dunne was right, Chauvel and the media were wrong.
– Dunne having to commit so much time and focus on holding Ohariu, for obvious reasons.
– UF having no one with a national profile able to campaign nationally.
That’s a repeat of a fairly weak assurance. Can you directly name and indicate support for David Shearer?
Jeez Pete, now that’s how you really annoy me. Weak?? MS’s statement was crystal clear.
No-one is bigger than the party, even it’s leader (something Key should learn). If MS had written ‘…support the party and David Shearer’ you would probably given him grief about not being able to move on if Shearer was rolled!
A bit rich coming from someone who refused to even state that he’d vote for his party until seriously pressed to do so.
A bit rich coming from someone who refused to even state that he’d vote for his party until seriously pressed to do so.
You’re confusing playing games on a blog that had no target market to the actual campaigning I did. And I wasn’t “seriously pressed to do so”, I freely chose to add my voting intentions under no pressure, along with everyone else who did so on the thread for it.
You got that far through Pete’s comment?
I got stuck in a loop trying to figure out why Dunne had to spend “so much time and focus on holding Ohariu” that he couldn’t help Pete retain the votes from the previous election, despite knowing that he was safe in Ohariu all along.
No, I always read the last line of his comments first to see if it’s worth the effort of going back through through the groups of words before it.
felix – indications were better than media reported, but nothing was guaranteed. Going by the party vote polls Ohariu was essential and he couldn’t take the risk not to give it most of his attention.
Oh of course. But it was “safe”?
Safe with sustained attention. Dunne acknowledges he didn’t pay Ohariu enough attention leading up to 2008 and was determined to do more work in his electorate.
It’s a huge task looking after an electorate, being a sole MP running the parliamentary side of a party, and being a minister in Government. National campaigning took a hit. If UF is to survive it needs more effort from more people, Dunne can’t do it all.
“If UF is to survive it needs more effort from more people, Dunne can’t do it all.”
– having candidates not openly and directly state who they are voting for must have really helped the party
having candidates not openly and directly state who they are voting for must have really helped the party
Exactly – this statement at 2.2.1.1.1 above from PG is delusional BS And I wasn’t “seriously pressed to do so”, I freely chose to add my voting intentions under no pressure, along with everyone else who did so on the thread for it. I for one, clearly recall the plethora of comments to and from PG on this.
I have no doubt that having a candidate that spent most of his time during the election campaign commenting on websites rather than out there actually campaigning and walking the talk did not help the party either.
a candidate that spent most of his time during the election campaign commenting on websites
You’ve got no idea how I campaigned.
Nor how local campaigns work in Dunedin – when Channel 9 went out into the suburbs asking about candidates many didn’t even know who the eventual MP was. And I bet that now if the electorates were surveyed here many wouldn’t know many if any of the four Dunedin based MPs.
One of the only ways to get much profile is to get on national media. As one TV journo told me, the bosses in Auckland are only interested in Benson-Pope type stories down here.
No we don’t. But we do know how many votes you got.
Which not surprisingly was very close to nation wide votes and party vote, indicating most people vote for parties and many electorate contests are barely contested.
“You’ve got no idea how I campaigned.”
Of course we have no idea how you campaigned Pete. Because no-one here exists offline.
And there definitely aren’t any Dunedinites here with an interest in politics.
I did happen to see a few clips of you in your offline campaign, and it struck me that you were always talking about what you do online.
If Shearer is a real leader he will support Cunliffe in his role and not muzzle him.
If Cunliffe is a real party man and not an individual with his own leadership agenda he will show support for Shearer. When he has earned respect and trust Shearer should allow Cunliffe to workn freely in his spokesman role.
If that were the case, Shearer would have allowed to go on The Nation, as a simple example.
Instead we are seeking Shearer and his masters centralize everything to the Leader and the Leader’s office. It is precisely this paranoia that was Goff’s undoing. No-one was prepared to tell Goff that he wasn’t as good as Key, and needed the whole team to take Key on.
Exactly the same thing is happening here. Shearer cannot take on Key and never will. But rather than acknowledge this and enable his whole team take Key on, he prefers to suppress them. All except Trevor Mallard.
Which goes to show that as Mallard and Shearer allow their own house to remain divided, Key’s government is allowed to stand.
The focus here should not be on those who try and actively engage with the Government like Cunliffe (which is of course the core Opposition’s job), but on those who are not effectively leading.
Actual Labour Party members should have the floor on this type of issue, sure we can all put our 5 cents worth in, 2 cents in Pete’s case, but the members (as in not United Future members) will have to sort it out in the end.
Nicely put, TM. From my vantage point, while there is some concern that Shearer risks being seen as being too passive at this early point in his leadership, party members I talk to are heartened that both Labour, and the left generally, are holding up in the polls. We have a good platform to build on and Key seems determined to burn off National’s support base, one insult at a time.
So that leaves the obvious question: is Shearer’s strategy to allow National to collapse without Labour being seen as having contributed to the fall? I’m picking that it is a desire to go into the next election with what the lawyers call ‘clean hands’ that is motivating Shearer. He wants to be able put Labour up as honest brokers of change, untainted by the negativity of National.
An indication of this is the asset sales campaign, which is not a purely LP initiative, of course, but one into which they have a significant input. Gone are the ‘No Asset Sales’ signs, in comes the more up beat message of ‘Keep Our Assets’. I think we will see Labour do more and more positive positioning as they seek to be seen as the alternative to the messages of misery from Key and co.
“in comes the more up beat message of ‘Keep Our Assets’.”
Ah, the Greens’ message. lol
I’d be keener on ‘build our assets’, but I’m not sure the electorate is ready for a nationalisation program just yet!
😀
I think that a lot of people are. They’ve seen how bad privatisation has been and are willing to go back some to get better services.
Ah, the Greens’ message.
The Greens ran a much more positive election campaign, no surprise they improved and Labour went backwards. At last Labour are starting to get it, even if it’s an anti the other lot campaign at least it’s framed more positively.
Te Reo you are being very generous. If Labour wanted to do it with as you say “clean hands”, you would need to be be mighty sure that National were going to fall by themselves. You are dead right that is a valid medium-term tactic.
But I see National with Key at the helm as masters of distraction and dog-whistle. They are definitely weak for coalition partners, so the “do nothing” option is definitely fair.
But I still think it’s a core job of being in Opposition to demonstrate that you are a credible Government-in-waiting. Both in policy clarity and in the coalition partners you can tell the public will function well together.
Funny thing with the Tony Ryall interview, when he was discussing what the money from the sales is to be spent on there was not any mention of schools or hospitals or anything other than paying off debt. (and we know how well that worked last time!) What a shocker, seems the spin prior to the election worked, hook line and cement block.
also amusing to see Ryall unable to follow the breadcrumbs Garner laid out showing that for the Government to use shares in treaty settlements meant they have to buy some. Either when first floated or as Ryall said, later on from the market. Now if the shares are not bought immediately upon floating, and banked for later use, surely they will only cost more as the value of the shares is expected to increase. I would lay short odds that the purchase of shares at a later date is going to cost a whole lot more than the cheap loans we could be getting today, and we lose the ongoing dividends. The closer they get to the sales the more of a pigs breakfast it is becoming.
At least Ryall admitted National have added 42 billion dollars of debt in a little over three years.
Q&A: how did Labour manage to be absent from today’s show? Two days in a row when the Nats are on the back foot, and they are AWOL from the TV.
Was there no one in the Shearer’s office answering phone calls from TV current affairs producers during the week?
Maybe they’re boycotting political shows. You know, like John Key does.
Just what I was about to say Felix. The number of no-shows of the PM and of Ministers is legion. But there is hardly a murmer.
Just hope that there is method in the Labour strategy. Watch this space -optimistically?
Umm… the Greens and NZ First had their turn today. Do you think it is possible that Labour is holding it’s arsenal for next Sunday… only days before Budget day? Voter attention is likely to be more focused by then. No Mum’s day to distract them either.
It’s a bit pointless before the budget.
All Norman and Peters did was say that the Government is doing it all wrong and if they were in Government their policies would be all successful, unlike in just about any other country during the GFC. Pointless pontificating.
There’s no way of knowing if things would be better or worse if Government made none of the changes they did, or if a different Government had made different changes. The much touted CGT would have taken many years to have had much effect.
That must be why UF doesn’t challenge the Nats on anything. After all what’s the point of being in Parliament beyond collecting the paycheck?
That must be why UF doesn’t challenge the Nats on anything
That’s a claim you can’t substantiate.
Policies were negotiated in the C&S, and UF driven policies are progressing, like:
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/child-support-bill-big-step-fairer-scheme
(Admittedly National didn’t challenge UF on this, Neither did Labour).
Part of Dunne’s job is to discuss issues with various National ministers, getting an input into policy. And it’s well known that Dunne has different positions to National on a number of issues. But don’t let reality stop you from generalised nonsense accusations.
BTW, I get accused hijacking threads off-topic, several have tried that here today, and it hasn’t been me.
It’s open mike, Pete. 😉
“That’s a claim you can’t substantiate.”
Ok, what has Dunne challenged the Nats on exactly?
i think you have finally cracked it Felix. A perfect PeteG vaccine. We only have to administer that question once a day and Pete G dissapears in a puff of fallibility. 🙂
Monday-ising Waitangi and Anzac days, TVNZ7, and 26 weeks maternity leave are ones he has publicly said he will challenge National’s position on if they come to a vote, that’s just obvious ones from the past couple of months.
National have to consult with Dunne to see what he will agree to in order to pass any none confidence and supply legislation that the Maori Party don’t support. All of Dunne, Banks and the Maori MPs have a degree of influence on what National can do.
Dunne has probably more influence than his 1/61 share of the vote, but is aware of the need to not exceed a reasonable degree of influence. There’s a fairly strong sentiment against tail wags dog – apart from those who expect to get their own way regardless of democratic principals.
“National have to consult with Dunne to see what he will agree to in order to pass any none confidence and supply legislation that the Maori Party don’t support.”
Right, but are you saying that in the last three and a half years there have been things the Nats wanted to pass that never made it to the floor because there was no point without Dunne’s agreement? (Mondayising holidays et al don’t fit here btw because the Nats want to pass those at all – those are private members bills opposed by them)
And therefore everything they have passed has had the Dunne stamp of approval?
Last term his vote wasn’t necessary, National could get votes with either Maori Party or Act.
As far as I understand how things work (limited), what is do-ableamongst coalition partners is worked out before bills are put forward to the House. It makes sense to do that – doesn’t it?
“Last term his vote wasn’t necessary”
So? The question still applies: what govt bills has he actually opposed.
They don’t have voting in a database (it’s being considered) but the first week’s journal I checked had this:
But Pete will Dunne challenge National and then go along like a scolded puppy when they say no? Or is he going to actually grow a pair and vote against the Government on these issues?
Or is retention of the limo privileges more important to the member (said in the nicest possible way).
He’s said he will vote for these or would support these if they come to that (Curran’s TVNZ7 members bill is far too late). There’s no reason to doubt that.
Mondayising is on the go now:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/105742/bill-to-%27monday-ise%27-holidays-has-support-labour
As soon as the bill was drawn I contacted Dunne and he confirmed then he would support it. I’ve been on record here on all that.
So is that it?
We provide this bugger with limos in the hope he will Mondayise a couple of holidays?
I would rather support Hone. At least he stands up and says shyte that challenges Key and his cronies.
He does a lot more than that. He is Minister of Revenue and Associate Minister of Health. I’ll try and get a summary of what he does.
There’s this thing called history that we can learn from and, interestingly enough, what this government is doing has been tried before and it didn’t work then whereas what the other parties are suggesting is closer to what did kinda work before. It’s still capitalism and so it won’t ever truly work and will need to be bailed out again sometime in the future.
what the other parties are suggesting is closer to what did kinda work before.
Kinda worked where and when? In what global economic conditions?
Try the Great Depression and after.
Peak Oil hits another snag
The story of Peak Oil just can’t get legs; for 50 years the Greens have found that stating a lie over and over doesn’t make it true.
The US Geological Survey has just announced a 200 year supply of Shale OIL under Utah/Colorado. It may be about equal to all the world’s proven oil reserves.
http://thegwpf.org/energy-news/5706-200-year-supply-of-oil-in-one-single-shale-formation.html
Not a good day for the sheiks or the Greens.
Global supply is interesting, but the question is what price at the pumps here? I don’t presume to be a petroleum expert, but I can imagine that harder-to-extract oil being more expensive, and can also easily imagine future Labour-Green governments raising the excise tax on petrol.
Even if there is a very soft and long peak, price may still be driven up here. We still need to prepare for a significantly higher pump-price. We have already seen pretty high price elasticity at over $2.00. Imagine it under Labour-Greens at cover $3.00 91 Octane.
Anyone seen any MoT or MoT scenario modelling on petrol price elasticity in New Zealand?
Well the Greens wont be happy but the Sheiks will be.
Shale oil?
How much oil can be refined per tonne of shale; and ‘petrol grade’ per tonne (or in whatever measurement it is that is commonly used.) of extracted crude? What’s the environmental impact of attempting to recover the stuff in it’s present form? What sort and quantity of ‘by-product’ are we looking at? What’s the energy input required for recovery and refining? What other resources need to be used in the extraction process and what quantity of them are used in relation to recovered ‘crude’ product? And what do we do with the ‘by products’…disposal wise. And what’s even jut the basic financial cost of extracting it? And so on.
Plus. Why do it?
Exactly:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2011/3063/pdf/FS11-3063.pdf
I’m guessing that EROEI in this shale oil is under 3:1.
And it appears that this USGS survey was done in 2011, with oil prices >US$100/bb, and its still considered uneconomic. My guess is that The incremental cost of pulling this oil up is over US$100/bb.
So the oil is there, but chances are no one will ever be able to afford to extract and use it.
Hammer, you need to find out more about Peak Oil. It is talking about a peak in extraction rate. This is definitely not the same as “running out” or “used up half of all oil”.
Imagine a long-tail scenario, where it takes 10 years to get to peak production and then a long long tale lasting out for 200 years. The peak has still been reached after 10 years, but that solitary fact doesn’t tell us anything about the length of the tale.
We reached the peak of conventional oil production in 2006. This means it’s highly unlikely conventional oil will ever get back up to those levels again. Meanwhile growth in alternative sources of oil, such as tar sands and deep water have kept total liquids on roughly a plateau since then. Eventually we’ll fall off the plateau. The fact that there’s 200 ‘year worth’ of oil shale available doesn’t help (in the short-medium term) us if it actually takes 300 years to process and extract it all.
Yemen next on the chopping block eh. Must have been all the great work from that super hero double agent eh!
Here comes the collateral expended in order to cover up the obvious lies, I mean story about the intercepted hyjack, hi tech nappy bomb!
“The Pentagon recently sent American military trainers to Yemen, and Washington has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to assist the impoverished Arab nation fight al-Qaida and other extremist groups in the country”
—Translation – We sent in our brass to make sure that the “rag heads” had their story straight, and knew who is boss, as well as give the fiat they needed to pay the ” made up AQ” guys, and whoever else they could round up to fire the weapons we provided. See we have to give funding and arming these groups, so that the military machine has never ending control of the planet, and so as the yanks can blow up the same “rag heads” with the drones, no matter where they hide, and claim the mighty victory!
America – Fcuk Yeah!
Ha, this is funny.
Lots of competition, no service.
Yeah that is funny. Not quite as funny as the broadband situation in NZ though 😉
Actually, it’s close to exactly the same. In most places there’s only one network and that’s Telecom. You may connect through a different ISP but the connection is still Telecom and there’s a very good reason for that – multiple networks are very expensive and highly inefficient. What we have is faux competition which actually made it worse because the monopoly that Telecom had with an already viable network meant that they didn’t have to improve that network and the new ISPs had to buy from Telecom anyway.
You may connect through a different ISP but the connection is still Telecom and there’s a very good reason for that – multiple networks are very expensive and highly inefficient. What we have is faux competition which actually made it worse because the monopoly that Telecom had with an already viable network meant that they didn’t have to improve that network and the new ISPs had to buy from Telecom anyway.
Unless you work in the Onekawa industrial suburb of Napier. Unison (the community owned lines company) have used the power poles to supply fibre throughout the suburb, and now almost a year later, Chorus are digging up the streets… laying fibre. Money wasted and a duplication of infrastructure.
Yes, I’m aware of that Draco, but at least in the US you can buy fairly decent mobile internet, plus there are massive amounts of free wifi.
I shouldn’t complain I suppose. The main reason (apart from Telecom being evil) that we have poor internet is because we have small population. I’d rather have crap internet access and less people to be honest.
Nope, the only reason we have crap internet is because we sold Telecom and deregulated telecommunications. If we hadn’t have done either of those then we would have a much better network and cheaper access as all the surplus would have been reinvested rather than being taken out as profits.
So they send teams to the local growers market, but put signs up at the super markets
You put a specimen in a trap , then use the opportunity as a dry run for the Food Safety Bill enforcement techniques?
“There is no guarantee there will be more than one fly,” said Quirke
— Translation, another will NOT found, as we put the original in the trap so this drill could be run!
Lets see if we get some Food Safety Bill articles this week!
The larger present problem is the Kiwifruit PSA outbreak,the concomitant outbreaks in the world largest export nations of NZ,Italy,and Chile are a remarkable geographical “coincidence” and the trackback suggests the originating strain originated in China.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0036518&annotationId=49635;jsessionid=A957222400BC66D0A515AF8A9741DCC6
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120509180040.htm
Why can’t we have a New Zealand “Hard Talk” with a capable and truly informed interviewer?
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/paul-holmes-needs-to-go.html
Greg Boyed?
I’m sure he would be fine, I think there are many real journalists who could do the job better than Mr Holmes.
Good work Poission. It appears as though you don’t even have to read between the lines when the researchers state ” …imported independently to Italy from China and to NZ from China ” . We have been in a “soft’ war with China for a long time and it will only get nastier. Meanwhile as usual, the generals and the politicians are preparing to fight the last one.
Now this is an interesting thought:
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/descent-into-stasis.html
He’s going on about power distribution and that instead of it being concentrated it’s become diffuse and thus prone to stasis. Of course, the diffuse that he’s talking about is pure oligarchy/plutocracy.