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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The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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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.