Barry has just handed the election to National/NZFirst imho, I’m guessing that if NZ had to have another election then the Greens would be punished severely because no one likes elections all that much anyway so having to have another would really annoy people.
National and/or Winston can claim a vote for the Greens, and by extension of the MOU Labour, is a vote for instability so a lot of the swing votes are going to swing Winstons way
Well done Barry Winston is probably toasting you right now
NZ First with Shane Jones in top role, would never be a good partner in a progressive government. NZF-Labour or NZF-Nats – not much difference.
I’ll vote accordingly. I’ll leave others to make their choices. The future needs a progressive party/ies that stick to principles, rather than always having an eye on the GAME.
Edit: and the bigger issue arising from all this is that the contest in this election is between/for the smaller parties. It will not be decided on one action or blog post.
WOW all over rover – I went and checked the news sites – ummm nothing WTF – it’s being suppressed already!!!
then I checked ‘gnat supporters trying to cause trouble’ and there it was – in the funny pages next to the story on “How to tell if your cat was famous in a past life”.
James Shaw gave an interview to Guyon Espiner. Shaw ruled out an early election. Therefore the implication is that the Greens would give C & S to a Labour NZ First govt. He did not actually say that, but since he said they want to change the govt, and since the Greens have been emphatic that they will not support National in any circumstance, then that is the only logical conclusion to draw.
As was evident today from the RNZ interview, since the Greens have ruled out National in all circumstances (even if National was only 1 or 2 short of a majority), then the Greens have dramatically reduced their leverage, and greatly increased that of NZ First.
Their choice of course, and if I go by the voice of Standardnistas who party vote Green also their choice. But there are consequences of such a choice.
You Natz just don’t get it Wayne. You are an anathema to the Greens. Your policies are unacceptable. Personally I don’t want leverage by bastardizing ourselves and pretending we could work with you.
We want a change of Government.
Hes been in parliament since October,and is a fine example of the IYI species.
Intellectual Yet Idiot
From medium.com (taleb)
… the inner circle of no-skin-in-the-game policy making “clerks” and journalists-insiders, that class of paternalistic semi-intellectual experts with some Ivy league, Oxford-Cambridge, or similar label-driven education who are telling the rest of us 1) what to do, 2) what to eat, 3) how to speak, 4) how to think… and 5) who to vote for.
I suspect Coates is now regretting his brain fart. Basically nothing has changed. The Greens would prefer a coalition with Labour and not have to be in a 3 way coalition with NZF for obvious reasons. However they would be able to work with NZF if necessary.
They would never contemplate a coalition with the Nats (and their eugenics loving partner Act). The righties here still seem to be unable to understand the concept of having values.
Hey Wayne I went and checked a few online news sites and guess what I found? Nothing. Oh dear what a fizzer lol. Keep them coming gnats they’re starting to worry us. Meanwhile billshitter been a bit quiet – obviously been muzzled – until election day I spose.
As was evident today from the RNZ interview, since the Greens have ruled out National in all circumstances (even if National was only 1 or 2 short of a majority), then the Greens have dramatically reduced their leverage, and greatly increased that of NZ First.
🙄 The Greens ruled out National several elections ago.
All that’s happened this week is the Greens have pointed out that if NZers want a progressive government they need to vote Green. Their rationale in this is pretty sound.
I know this is a strange concept to get one’s head around, but the Greens are speaking to voters here, not people like yourself who think it’s all about power plays and behind doors machinations.
All I can see is the Gower fantasy piece, which is basically Gower making shit up, and the RNZ piece, which is a fairly perfunctory interview with Shaw. Hardly all over the news.
So far more accurate than saying ” I went and checked the news sites – ummm nothing WTF – it’s being suppressed already!!!”
Waynes ‘Standardnistas’ comments are in very bad taste …. considering the history of murders, rapes and other acts committed against the Sandinista s and their society ….. As Cocaine smuggling, funded a Cia war, waged against them …… to destabilize and destroy their society.
“To destabilize Nicaragua beginning in 1981, we began funding this force of Somoza’s ex-national guardsmen, calling them the contras (the counter
revolutionaries). We created this force, it did not exist until we allocated money.”
” they have systematically been blowing up graineries, saw mills, bridges,
government offices, schools, health centers. They ambush trucks so the produce can’t get to market. They raid farms and villages. The farmer has to carry a gun while he tries to plow, if he can plow at all.
“Systematically, the contras have been assassinating religious workers, teachers, health workers, elected officials, government administrators.”
“With the children forced to watch they gang rape the mother, and slash her breasts off. And sometimes for variety, they make the parents watch
while they do these things to the children.”
” the U.S government under Ronald Reagan, began funding and arming groups of rebels opposed to the Sandanistas known as the Counterrevolutionaries, or Contras. This is all easily obtainable information. Webb’s “Dark Alliance” series, appeared in the Mercury News in 1996. The series examined the origins of the crack cocaine trade in Los Angeles and claimed that members of the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua had played a major role in creating the trade, using cocaine profits to support their struggle”. ……. ” Webb was following the trial of a Contra leader named Oscar Danilo Blandon Reyes who testified as to the C.I.A’s involvement in cocaine trafficking into Inner city Los Angeles in the 1980’s.”
“The lead of the first article set out the series’ basic claims: “For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.” This drug ring “opened the first pipeline between Colombia’s cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles” and, as a result, “The cocaine that flooded in helped spark a crack explosion in urban America”
To be quite honest …. for a person like wayne mapp to be calling us “Standardnistas” ……….. makes me doubt any sincerity or bad feelings he may have expressed for his part in the killing of a three year old girl….
This coming from someone who at 7.45 this morning said neither of the GP co-leaders had said anything. Your just tripped over your troll shoelaces James.
When Alfred Ngaro threatened NGO’s who criticised National, was he revealing National Party intent?
Let’s ask James.
When Barry Coates described an possible outcome for the election, was he describing Green Party thinking?
Let’s ask James.
From what I can tell it goes like this. The Greens made a stand on the weekend about what voters need to do if they want a progressive government (hint, it doesn’t mean voting for Peters). Coates wrote his piece for The Daily Blog, published on Tues. Trotter shit stirs in his piece on Weds. Now Gower is trying to amp it up, and I see Bradbury is egging it on on twitter.
This is what it’s going to be like. Forget about truth, that lot are playing dickhead games. Gower can’t help himself, but Trotter and Bradbury should know better. It’s almost like they’d rather lose the election than have the Greens strong. Or maybe like Gower it’s all about the game.
None of it serves the country or the democratic process.
“Mr Coates also said Green MPs had discussed refusing to support a Labour-NZ First combination as a caucus in the past fortnight.”
So the Green MPs are discussing it as a possibility. – unless you are saying Coates is a liar.
Alfred Ngaro – moron. English came out – said he couldn’t do that, and reviewed all his decisions to make sure that they were not politically motivated.
So – One states that the party are discussing it, the other states that its categorically wrong and not happening. Pretty obvious that it wasn’t something being discussed as a party (but feel free to produce anything that proves that wrong if you can).
What I don’t understand is why all these non-GP voters believe that the Greens should do anything after the election. Seriously, why do you believe that the Greens should commit to C and S pre-election when no other party does?
Yes, I saw the Daily Blog piece, but Coates doesn’t actually say what Gower said he said, which is probably why Gower doesn’t quote him. Which makes me wonder if Gower did his piece solely off TDB and didn’t talk to Coates directly.
Yes, I saw that too, but given that Gower didn’t quote Coates at all, or say that bit, I’m assuming that Gower went solely off TDB piece.
What Barry Coates said
Mr Coates’ original comments come from a post he wrote for left-wing site The Daily Blog.
“The memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Labour is the foundation for building the next Government. If we were not part of the coalition, we would not accept a Labour-New Zealand First Government and certainly not a National-New Zealand First Government. Neither will be acceptable to the Greens.”
He later clarified to Newshub this “could” result in a second election, if no other combinations of parties could form a Government.
Agreed that Coates was incredibly stupid, and I’m surprised because the Greens are normally tighter than this. Does this mean MPs can post blogs without running them past caucus? More likely they don’t have a rule on this because the other MPs already know not to do that shit. Coates isn’t the only Green MP to post on TDB though.
I thought Shaw did a good job on RNZ. Hopefully it will blow over and we’ll get back to some politics without the boys shitstirring.
James Shaw was excellent in that interview. The interviewer was good also. He was direct but did not froth at the mouth like Paddy Gower and others. It gave James Shaw a chance to give his perspective without being interrupted constantly.
So, if the Greens won’t work with NZ First they should be punished, but if NZ First won’t work with the Greens that’s sound political judgement? There’s something about the Green Party that makes right-wingers lose any semblance of rationality.
Also: seriously, a Labour-NZ First government? Where the fuck is that coming from? People who can’t read or do maths?
“but if NZ First won’t work with the Greens that’s sound political judgement?”
I wouldn’t call that sound political judgement- but I would call it a nail in the coffin of a labour – greens – nzf government.
And looking at the numbers – it’s looking like 3 more years of national but this time with nzf – as well as the other parties.
That will give them a large majority.
Assuming (a big assumption) that they can make it work well and partner well with NZF (and Shane jones will help this a lot) 2020 and possibly 2023 are looking good.
Edit : looking good if you support national – not so much labour.
I’m not sure you could count that as “good.” A Lab/Green/NZF govt would be a horrendous clusterfuck because Winston Peters. Likewise, a Nat/ACT/MP/United/NZF govt would be a horrendous clusterfuck because Winston Peters. If those turn out to be the choices this election, I’d rather National suffered the horrendous clusterfuck and Labour/Greens set their sights on 2020.
If National and its current support parties are say more than 3 short of a majority I would expect a Labour/NZF/Green govt, though possibly with Greens only in a C & S role.
If National and support parties are extremely close to a majority, just 1 or 2 short, Winston will find it hard not to let them form a govt, though with NZF in the prime support role. In such a case the govt would have a solid majority, not that necessarily means much.
In constitutional terms a 1 seat majority is as good as a 10 seat majority. At least if the 1 seat majority is tidy and not a constant fractious debate on every issue. I have been there (1996 to 1999) and it is a mess.
I guess it will be an integrity test. Winston will go with whoever offers the choicest “baubles of office,” so if the right-bloc/left-bloc split is close, there will be plenty of temptation to make Winston some tasty offers. In that sense, forming a govt with Winston is kind of like cocaine – very tempting, but won’t work out well for you in the long run. I’m hoping Little, Shaw and Turei have the integrity to resist that temptation – I guess we’ll find out in September whether they do or not.
Both the Nats and Labour are going to be asked to pay up large for Winston. Hes done it before, and when Helens lot didnt offer enough, then Bolger got the treasury benches.
And Winston got the sack.
Sure it was a long time ago, but since then Winston has worked far better with Labour than with the Nats.
On present polling, I see Winston as PM of a Labour led minority government with support from the Greens, (and Dunne gone from Parliament)
It wasn’t just that they didn’t offer enough, the Alliance refused to commit to confidence and supply, apparently. I don’t know whether that was because they wanted to remain separate from Labour (lots of fresh wounds) or simply because they felt locked out of being in a threeway coalition (basically the potential Green situation that the tories are wanking over – being asked to support a government that won’t give them anything in return)
“it has to come back to the members”
That doesn’t seem to be the interpretation that Shaw is putting on the question of alliances.
In the Herald article he says
“Greens co-leader James Shaw said this morning that Coates’ comments were “absolutely not” the party’s position. Discussions about possible coalition deals were “the reserve of the leadership”, he said.” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11889937
He seems to be suggesting that it is the role of himself and Turei rather than the function of party members as a whole.
You are wrong. Shaw was referring to the caucus and that during the election campaign the only MPs who can make public statements about coalition deals are the co-leaders (have a listen to the RNZ piece).
As for post-election deals, there’s a process that involves the caucus, exec, and members, and there is a special negotiations team and one that liases with the rest of the party (that’s from memory)
alwyn
You belong with the type of people regularly heard to be calling for ‘leadership’. James Shaw has demonstrated it, but you are saying that he should leave everything important to the party members as a whole’.
marty mars at 8.11
Haha. Good,
Poission 11.53
That was a good summary of a type I’ve noticed.
Thanks for headsup.
” but you are saying that he should leave everything important to the party members as a whole”.
No, I said nothing of the sort. I gave no opinion at all on who should make the decisions on such things.
I merely suggested that what Shaw was quoted as saying didn’t seem to tie up with what Weka had said.
She assures us that the comments are not in conflict as one applies to statements made before the election and one to what they might do after the election when all the votes have been cast. That wasn’t at all clear from what the paper said and I am pleased that she has made it clear that different rules apply at the different dates.
I hope they don’t take too long over the matter. Remember how it took about 6 weeks to discover who the Government was going to be in 1996? God forbid it takes that long again.
You don’t need to tell us it’s a mess Wayne – we’ve had to live under their squalid sustained administrative failure. The Gnats are rubbish on their best day.
In constitutional terms a 1 seat majority is as good as a 10 seat majority. At least if the 1 seat majority is tidy and not a constant fractious debate on every issue. I have been there (1996 to 1999) and it is a mess.
A revealing comment!
A 1-seat majority may be all that’s need to push through bills but it does not make for sound democracy if it’s all you care about.
Obviously, in 1996 NZ politicians were still stuck in FPP mode and arguable some still are this day.
Indeed, with such a single-minded attitude each and every debate is likely to turn into a fractious one – it’s not the 1-seat majority but the mind-set that is the underlying issue.
In fact, National still displays this arrogant simplistic mind-set that winning is everything and justifies the means. In contrast, other smaller parties have adapted more to MMP and are more willing and able to build bridges, compromise, aim for consensus and generally take a broader view than just a 1-seat majority in the House.
In short, this is why we urgently need a change of government, because this kind or narrow-minded political ‘pragmatism’ is bad for (NZ) democracy and our society.
John Clark on NZ
“During the early 1980s however, the New Zealand economy was put in the hands of finance ministers due to a filing error, and authorities are still looking for the black box. A social democracy with only one previous owner was asset-stripped and replaced by a series of franchises. Even rugby sides stopped being called Canterbury, Wellington, Otago and Auckland and were instead given the names of animals, colours and weather conditions.” (Source: from the late, great John Clarke’s A Guide To New Zealand)
Most people are delusional about their economic status. I had a person the other day tell me they we middle class, renting and ten’s of thousands of dollars in debt – but middle class. Yeah right.
So the wool is firmly in place, as such the elites don’t fear working people. Until we get to a time that they do – nothing will change. Some tinkering maybe from the wets – but nothing will change.
most middle class people are one illness and one missed wage payment away from bankruptcy.
but as long as they can ‘service ‘ their debts they are middle class.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11887216
7 July 2017 On Monday, [Tesla CEO Elon] Musk sent out tweet saying that the Palo Alto, California, company anticipates production of 20,000 Model 3 cars per month in December, which was below previous estimates. Tesla also said Monday that it delivered about 22,000 vehicles in the second quarter, bringing first-half deliveries to about 47,100. That’s at the low end of the company’s projections earlier this year of between 47,000 and 50,000 deliveries.
Then on Wednesday, the dynamics of the electric car market shifted a bit when Volvo announced that by 2019, it would be producing only electric and hybrid vehicles, the first traditional automaker to make that leap.
Volvo, which is based in Sweden but owned by Chinese firm Geely, will launch five fully electric cars between 2019 and 2021. Three of them will be Volvo models and two will be electrified cars from Polestar, Volvo Cars’ performance car arm. It also plans to offer a range of hybrids as options, expecting to sell 1 million electrified cars by 2025.
The first (it’s a ger) was imported from Mongolia and is made by hand from traditional materials, yak, horse, larch etc. It needed a New Zealand-proof coat, as we are wetter than its home country, and now has one – thick pvc of the sort trucks are covered with., or circus tents made. The second is purpose built in Takaka by Jaia tents – their website reveals all. Ours is a 7-metre, windowed yurt, very pretty.
You could, if your bylaws allow. Most often, you need to show that it’s a “nomadic” structure and can be shifted about the place, it depends upon where in the country you live. Winter could be challenging, but a good rocket stove would fix that.
The regions can’t have – a decent transport avenue with rail because it won’t pay (Gisborne.) Fed Farmers want trucks, someone wants a road built on the railway tracks. Probably everyone is ducking for cover while the Gnats try to crank up the Special Economic Zones so government can say to the unpopular regions, ‘find a ….(foreign) investor and sell your soul to him/them’.
(Sort of like the story of Rumplestitskin – someone in fix, R says promise me your brightest and best and I’ll get you out of the poo. They managed to sort R out and send him off, but hey that can only happen in fairy tales.)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201850920/questions-over-iwirail-s-economics
transport politics
8:17 am today
Questions over IwiRail’s economics
From Morning Report, 8:17 am today
Listen duration 2′ :45″
The Maori Party’s plan to resurrect rail in the regions – dubbed IwiRail – would bring back moth-balled lines, beginning with the Napier-Gisborne route and look into setting up new tracks. It wants the Government to put up an initial $350 million, with iwi and local investors also contributing. But there are questions about whether the routes will be profitable, and whether the numbers add up.
And what about poor Manawatu – the Gorge is shifting, and its enough to make you throw up if you live round there. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/manawatu-guardian/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503567&objectid=11887406
Watch NZH Local Focus: Manawatu Gorge may never reopen
7 Jul, 2017 2:09pm
NZ Herald
It’s been shut 22 times in the last five years, that’s a total of 338 days. Most recently it closed in April after a massive slip took out the road. Now, the Manawatu Gorge may never reopen.
Re the gorge, IF we had true leadership, (not beholden to the trucking lobby), they could say no trucks to go over the saddle or the pahiatua track.
Perfectly good rail corridor through the ranges. Load up in woodvegas, ashhurst or palmy, then offload at other end.
Where there is a will there is a way.
I do feel for folks in the tararua, 6,000 vehicle movements now not happening like they used to, and citizens of ashhurst now having 6,000 largely unwanted vehicles going through the residential area.
UPDATE FROM HER WARSHIP IN THE HAGUE – WORLD JUSTICE FORUM Thursday 13 July 2017 6.24am
Unfinished reporting from Tuesday 11 July 2017….
– when I dropped my political ‘bombshell’ about NZ’s corruption REALITY being that
in my opinion, as a proven anti- corruption ‘whistle-blower’ – New Zealand was a ‘corrupt, polluted tax haven – a banana republic without the bananas’.
I also stated that the Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’ (which NZ topped 10 times (sometimes 1st equal) without having even ratified the UN Convention Against Corruption – should be screwed up and thrown into the rubbish bin of history.
That there were IMO, objective, significant milestones / yardsticks for quantifying corruption REALITY, rather than relying (largely) upon the subjective opinions of anonymous businesspeople for PERCEPTION of corruption (which in my view is a meaningless ‘measure’).
I pointed out how in 2010 how I had attended the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Conference in Bangkok.
Where we were told that the global procurement market was $14 TRILLION and the amount estimated to be lost in bribery and corruption was $2.5 TRILLION!
That I had a HUGE ‘lightbulb’ moment!
Wouldn’t $2.5 TRILLION
$2.5 THOUSAND BILLION
$2,500,000,000,000 – help to feed, clothe, water and shelter a few poor people?
That another ‘lightbulb’ moment – was that Transparency International were not looking at the underpinning private procurement MODEL, but the private procurement PROCESS.
That as soon as you got into the private procurement (contracting out) of public services, formerly provided ‘in house’ by staff directly employed under the ‘public service’ model, you got into CONTRACT MANAGEMENT.
Government or Council staff were regarded as ‘too dumb’ to do contract management – so a ‘bureaucrat'(s) would then hire CONSULTANT(S) to ‘project manage’ the WORKS CONTRACTOR(S), who would then usually SUB-CONTRACT- so by the time you got down to those in the boots and overalls getting their hands dirty and actually doing something productive – you might have up to 4 layers of pinstripe suits – clipping the ticket while effectively doing nothing.
How on EARTH is that a more ‘cost-effective’ use of public money?
In 2010, at that Transparency International Anti-Corruption Conference, I stood on my hind legs and asked a (high-faluting) panel – where was the EVIDENCE that the private procurement of public services that used to be provided at central and local government level, was more ‘cost-effective’ than former ‘in-house’ service provision?
(It was like I had slapped the face of the person who was chairing the panel.
He literally did a ‘double-take’ and mumbled that there was evidence – but none was ever provided.)
My point to this 2017 World Justice Forum group – was that in my opinion, it was time to look at the whole underpinning private procurement MODEL for public services.
( IMO – it is the privatisation -private procurement – of public services which is the major source of GRAND corruption.
I am one of the few people in the world actually saying this- that the root cause of most GRAND corruption- is PRIVATISATION.
How is it decided who GETS the contracts?
Remember – back in 2010 – the global amount estimated to be paid in bribery and corruption was $2.5 TRILLION!
__________________________
This is a BIG deal folks.
The whole Neo-liberal myth and mantra ‘public is bad – private is good’ upon which this massive privatisation of public services, locally, nationally and internationally was based – was NOT ‘evidence based’.
The BIG business globalists – just MADE IT UP!
More later …
Her Warship – guns loaded and blazing ‘inside the tent!’
(As it were …. 🙂
Does this tender business make sense? Expecting a bus firm to invest in providing good vehicles and provide good service and change over to better fuels, and then be dropped like a hot potato some years on. Waste of capital, and more expensive in the long run I would think. Another example of NZ demanding champagne while earning a beer income?
In Wellington a new operator says it will provide over 200 buses and the media is asking where they are going to be parked? It sounds as if all the dots haven’t been joined.
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This open letter to the Green Party was penned after an opinion piece by Jill Abigail, a feminist and founding member of the party, was censored by the Greens’ leadership. (Redline has reprinted her article here).The intolerance of the Green Party leaders and their acceptance of the misogyny of gender ...
Today is a Member's day, and David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill continues its slow crawl through its committee stage. They're spending the whole day on it today, though the first hour is likely to be spent on voting left over from last time. After that they'll move on ...
An ambitious plan to fly to Los Angeles petered out into a brief sight-seeing trip and a desire to return home and get some sleep before work tomorrow. Air New Zealand has confirmed a flight to Los Angeles last night was turned back about a quarter of the way into ...
There appears to be consensus – by omission – that the concept of indigenous futures should be accepted at face value. So I scavenged the internet to see if I could locate an academic descriptor or a framework around how we think about it as a concept, and whether it ...
Here’s another novelty chocolate to shove in your gob, New Zealand Cadbury could be seeking to make itself great again with a rumoured new release: Pineapple Trumps, a spin on its classic chocolate-encased pineapple treat and do-it-yourself tooth remover. The global confectionery manufacturer and bumbling “before” character in an infomercial, ...
During my time in the Pentagon I had the privilege of sitting down with military leaders and defence and security officials from a variety of Latin American nations. Sometimes I was present as a subordinate assistant to a senior US defence department official, sometimes as part of a delegation that ...
Kia ora, Aotearoa. It’s that magical time of year. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. In English, the week that frightens talk radio. As you probably know by now, all your favourite media outlets are participating, some more successfully than others. Stuff has changed its name to Puna for the ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. So how's that going? I was curious, so I asked for all advice about the proposal. ...
As the Brexit saga staggers on, the focus is naturally enough on the Prime Minister and his attempts to achieve Brexit “do or die”. But the role played by the Leader of the Opposition is of almost equal interest and complexity. The first problem for Jeremy Corbyn is that he ...
Last week, English Prime Minister Boris Johnson boldly declared that he would rather die be dead in a ditch than delay Brexit. Unfortunately for him, the UK parliament accepted the challenge, and promptly dug one for him. The "rebellion bill" requires him to ask for and secure yet another temporary ...
Lost In Political Space: The most important takeaway from this latest Labour sexual assault scandal, which (if I may paraphrase Nixon’s White House counsel’s, John Dean’s, infamous description of Watergate) is “growing like a cancer” on the premiership, is the Labour Party organisation’s extraordinary professional paralysis in the face of ...
by Daphna Whitmore Every Sunday for the past two months unionists from First Union, with supporters from other unions, have set out to the Ihumatao land protest, put up gazebos and gas barbeques, and cooked food for a few hundred locals and supporters who have come from across the country. ...
Newsroom today has an excellent, in-depth article on pine trees as carbon sinks. The TL;DR is that pine is really good at soaking up carbon, but people prefer far-less efficient native forests instead. Which is understandable, but there's two problems: firstly, we've pissed about so long on this problem that ...
Canan Kaftancioglu is a Turkish politician and member of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). Like most modern politicians, she tweets, and uses the platform to criticise the Turkish government. She has criticised them over the death of a 14-year-old boy who was hit by a tear gas grenade during ...
Hi there, just call me Tim.We face tough problems, and I’d like to help, because there are solutions.An Auckand District Health Board member has nominated me for as a candidate for the ADHB, because her MS-related pain and fatigue is reduced with hemp products from Rotorua. Nothing else helped her. If I ...
The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security has published their report on whether the SIS and GCSB had any complicity in American torture. And its damning. The pull quote is this:The Inquiry found both agencies, but to a much greater degree, the NZSIS, received many intelligence reports obtained from detainees who, ...
Bewhiskered Cassandra? Professor Hugh White’s chilling suggestion, advanced to select collections of academic, military and diplomatic Kiwi experts over the course of the past week, is that the assumptions upon which Australia and New Zealand have built their foreign affairs and defence policies for practically their entire histories – are ...
For most of the time I was a British MP, my party was out of government – these were the Thatcher years, when it was hard for anyone else to get a look-in. As a front-bencher and shadow minister, I became familiar with the strategies required in a parliamentary democracy ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh On August 29th a video in which veteran FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) commander Iván Márquez announced that they had taken up arms again was released. There was no delay in the reaction to it, from longtime Liberal Party figure and former president Uribe, for ...
Air New Zealand couldn’t believe its luck that this seemingly ideal piece of real estate had so far gone entirely unnoticed. Air New Zealand’s search for a site to build a second Auckland Airport may have made a breakthrough this afternoon, after employees scanning Google satellite imagery spotted a huge, ...
No-one on the anti-capitalist left in this country today puts forward a case that Labour is on the side of the working class. There are certainly people who call themselves ‘socialist’ who do, but they are essentially liberals with vested interests in Labourism – often for career reasons. Nevertheless, there ...
When National was in government and fucking over the poor for the benefit of the rich, foodbanks were a growth industry. And now Labour is in charge, nothing has changed: A huge demand for emergency food parcels means the Auckland City Mission is struggling to prepare for the impending arrival ...
Gayford, pictured here on The Project, before things got wildly out of control. A bold public relations move by the Government to encourage parents to vaccinate their children has gone horribly wrong. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appeared on tonight’s episode of Three’s The Project, where the plan was for her ...
Mr. Whippy’s business model has driven it down a dark road of intimidation. Residents in major centres around the country are becoming disgruntled by the increasingly aggressive actions of purported ice cream company Mr. Whippy, who have taken to parking on people’s front lawns and doorsteps in a desperate attempt ...
Today the government released its Action Plan for Healthy Waterways, aimed at cleaning up our lakes and rivers. Its actually quite good. There will be protection for wetlands, better standards for swimming spots, a requirement for continuous improvement, and better standards for wastewater and stormwater. But most importantly, there's a ...
Today I appeared before the Environment Committee to give an oral submission on the Zero Carbon Bill. Over 1,500 people have asked to appear in person, so they've divided into subcommittees and are off touring the country, giving people a five minute slot each. The other submitters were a mixed ...
Anti-fluoride activists have some wealthy backers – they are erecting billboards misrepresenting the Canadian study on many New Zealand cities – and local authorities are ordering their removal because of their scaremongering. Many New Zealanders ...
So, those who “know best” have again done their worst. While constantly claiming to be the guardians of democracy and the constitution, and respecters of the 2016 referendum result, diehard Remainers (who have never brought themselves to believe that their advice could have been rejected) have striven might and main ...
Following publication of this article, the Ministry has requested it to be noted that this supplied image is not necessarily representative of what the final house will look like, and it “probably won’t be that nice.” As part of today’s long-anticipated reset of the Government’s flagship KiwiBuild policy, Housing Minister ...
Over the next week or two we will be running three synopses of parts of the opening chapter of John Smith’s Imperialism in the 21st Century (New York, Monthly Review Press, 2016). The synopsis and commentary below is written by Phil Duncan. Marx began Capital not with a sweeping historical ...
The State Services Commission and Ombudsman have released another batch of OIA statistics, covering the last six months. Request volumes are up, and the core public service is generally handling them within the legal timeframe, though this may be because they've learned to extend rather than just ignore things. And ...
In 1994, I was editing an ambitious street mag called Planet, from a fabled office at at 309 Karangahape Road. The thirteenth issue of the magazine was published in the winter of that year and its cover embodied a particularly ambitious goal: the end of cannabis prohibition.I wanted to do ...
KiwiBuild was one of the Ardern government's core policies. The government would end the housing crisis and make housing affordable again by building 100,000 new homes. Of course, it didn't work out like that: targets weren't met, the houses they did build were in the wrong place, and the whole ...
As the climate crisis escalates, it is now obvious that we need to radically decarbonise our economy. The good news is that its looking easy and profitable for the energy sector. Wind is already cheaper than fossil fuels, and now solar is too:The levellised cost of solar PV has fallen ...
A Crown Asset? For reasons relating to its own political convenience, the Crown pretends to believe that “No one owns the water.” To say otherwise would re-vivify the promises contained in the Treaty of Waitangi – most particularly those pertaining to the power of the chiefs and their proprietary rights ...
Most people would say, no doubt, that they have a pretty good idea of what money is. They live with the reality of money every day. It is what is needed to buy the necessities of life and to maintain a decent standard of living. You get money, they would ...
The article below was an opinion piece that appeared in the Spring 2019 issue of Te Awa (the NZ Green Party’s newsletter) and on the Greens website. In keeping with their policy of hostility to women defending women’s right to female-only spaces, Green bureaucrats have since removed the opinion piece. ...
Longer term readers may remember my complaining that, as a political scientist, it is burdensome to have non-political scientists wanting to engage me about politics. No layperson would think to approach an astrophysicist and lecture him/her on the finer details of quarks and black holes, but everybody with an opinion ...
Joining The Fight: Stevan Eldred-Grigg's argument for New Zealand staying out of the Second World War fails not only on the hard-headed grounds of preserving the country’s strategic and economic interests; and not just on the soft-hearted grounds of duty and loyalty to the nation that had given New Zealand ...
On September 27, School Strike 4 Climate will be striking for a future to pressure the government for meaningful climate action. This time, they've asked adults to join them. And now, Lincoln University and Victoria University of Wellington have signed on:Victoria University of Wellington has joined Lincoln University in endorsing ...
Another day, another constitutional outrage in the UK. This time, the government is saying that if parliament passes a law to stop Brexit before being prorogued, they may just ignore it:A senior cabinet minister has suggested Boris Johnson could defy legislation to prevent a no-deal Brexit if it is forced ...
Environment Canterbury has finally proposed nitrogen limits to stop dairy farmers from poisoning Christchurch's water supply. And naturally, farmers are whining about it:A proposed move by Environment Canterbury (ECan) to protect Christchurch's drinking water by setting tough – some would say, draconian – nitrate reductions in the decades ahead and ...
The Zero Carbon Bill is currently before select committee. While its targets are weak, its a generally sensible bill that promises to establish a long-term framework to guide emissions reductions. But National hasn't made up its mind on whether it will support it - and according to Andrea Vance in ...
Dum-de-doo. Children across New Zealand have known him for generations as the lovable giraffe who tells them to exercise, hydrate and not to shove lit cigarettes up their nostrils. But a world renowned giraffe expert says we shouldn’t be getting attached to Life Education’s Harold the Giraffe, as he is ...
By Mike Hosking. Yesterday morning, I waltzed into work, and as I walked past the drones aggressively typing out news on the computers I’ve repeatedly asked to be moved further away from, I caught a glimpse of the words “climate change”, and noticed that suspiciously they weren’t in condescending quotation ...
National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett spent the week claiming a serious cover-up in the Prime Minister's office. She used parliamentary privilege to name three of the Prime Minister's closest advisors who, she says, knew about the sexual assault ...
Six months on from the worst terrorist attack in New Zealand history, Simon Shepherd asked Al Noor Mosque spokesperson Anthony Green how the Christchurch Muslim is community faring. ...
“The Game Animal Council is concerned that the Government’s second tranche of firearms legislation released today may contain unreasonable provisions that will unfairly impact hunters,” says Game Animal Council Chair Don Hammond. ...
Government policy work on the Carbon Zero bill highlights connections between climate change, carbon sequestration and agriculture. Water quality and allocation are also topical with the release of the Draft Policy Statement for Freshwater Management ...
DairyNZ Chief Executive Dr Tim Mackle is welcoming this afternoon’s announcement that consultation on Essential Freshwater has been extended by two weeks - but is calling on the Minister to go further. ...
DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle is calling on the Government to move swiftly to extend the six-week timeframe of the Essential Freshwater consultation. ...
Immigration New Zealand could really benefit from an large investment of money, comments Ms June Ranson, chair of the New Zealand Association for Migration and Investment (NZAMI) , a leading voice in the immigration sector. “Instead of spending $25m ...
In recent times there has been no shortage of commentary regarding whistleblowers, with the proposed amendments to the Protected Disclosures Act 2000. These are aimed at strengthening the protection available to whistleblowers in New Zealand. That ...
Gun Control NZ strongly welcomes the comprehensive gun law reform bill and calls on all political parties to support it. Gun Control NZ encourages New Zealanders to let their MPs know they support this Bill, submit to the Select Committee, and ...
Federated Farmers agrees with most of the steps by government to protect people from illegal or irresponsible firearms use. But concerns about pest control and the effectiveness of a register remain. ...
Today at Parliament the NZ Drug Foundation released Taking control of cannabis: A model for responsible regulation, a new report that shows how we can take back control of cannabis from organised crime. ...
In the face of overwhelming public opinion that farmers need to clean up after themselves, Federated Farmers has mounted an offensive to try and stop some of its members having to do just that. ...
Responding to reports that Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa plans to restrict flavoured e-cigarette liquid, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams says: ...
Māori and non- Māori value different aspects of plantation forestry, which owners should bear in mind if they want to maximise their social licence to operate, a new study shows. ...
The Prime Minister’s Award in the first annual Spirit of Service Awards has been won by the Ministry of Health and five agencies who teamed up on the Healthy Homes Initiative. ...
Smoking kills 5,000 Kiwis each year, so any government policies to help reduce smoking are a good thing. However, the current approaches are not working nor will the proposed limit on flavoured e-liquid that Associate Minister Salesa announced on the news ...
A petition, that promises a significant and dramatic improvement for the New Zealand economy, was handed to Dr Deborah Russell, the MP for New Lynn today. The petition, signed by over 5,000 New Zealanders addresses our crippling level of debt as well ...
The New Zealand Medical Association welcomes the announcement of an Initial Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission. We look forward to working with the newly appointed Chair Hayden Wano and the Commission. “It is vital that the steps to mental health ...
For anyone who even randomly follows the news will know that Hong Kong has been embroiled in demonstrations for months. These sometimes bloody demonstrations initially started as a result of a proposed Extradition Bill whereby there would be special ...
The release yesterday of Port Otago’s financial result for 2019, outlining a 12% increase and profits, including the news that the Chief Executive had received a $100,000 pay increase taking his remuneration to between $610,000-620,000, is like ...
“ I continue to be amazed at the incompetence of this Government when it comes to suicide prevention and mental health. Not only is this Government about to appoint a regional coroner who has a history of under reporting suicides amongst children ...
An unannounced inspection at Tongariro Prison has found a safe and well-managed prison, with a clear sense of purpose and striving for continuous improvement. ...
The Auditor-General’s discussion paper Public accountability: A matter of trust and confidence was presented to the House of Representatives today. ...
Keep New Zealand Beautiful (KNZB) are proud to announce the winners of the Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE) – Litter Less 2019 competition. ...
The Far North District Council (FNDC) and the Whangarei District Council (WDC) have lodged a joint appeal against the Northland Regional Council’s (NRC) omission of precautionary rules in its plan. [1] ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that an officer was not justified in tasering a man for a second time during an arrest in Picton on 23 June 2018. ...
The Chairman of the Authority, Judge Colin Doherty, has agreed to assist the Hong Kong Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC) as a member of an international panel to provide high level advice to the IPCC in relation to its proposed "Thematic ...
“Putting families into motels is a temporary fix for desperate situations, rather than a sustainable solution to problems of poverty and homelessness,” says Scott Figenshow, Chief Executive of Community Housing Aotearoa. He was commenting on media ...
The New Zealand Psychological Society (NZPsS) says the current partial strike by 600 psychologists working in district health boards is a sign that temporary fixes to ongoing workforce shortages in the profession are not working. ...
New Zealand’s contribution to military operations in Malaya and Malaysia from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s will be commemorated in a national service held at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park at 11.00am on Monday 16 September. ...
The Christchurch mosque attack might not have occurred had police had the resources to enforce firearms restrictions they control, according to the Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO). ...
The resignation of the President of the Labour Party over the sex pest allegations was inevitable. It was inevitable because of his appalling handling of the situation so far; and, because in situations like this where there has to be a “fall guy” ...
“It’s disappointing that Parliament failed to address the accountability issues in the End of LifeChoice Bill ,” says Renée Joubert, Executive Officer of Euthanasia-Free NZ . ...
Yesterday Hon Grant Robertson Minister of Finance issued a welcome ‘clear directive’ in the press to ensure every Government considers the wellbeing of New Zealanders when creating future budgets . ...
The Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa has written to Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters today urging that New Zealand condemn the Israeli Prime Minister’s planned annexation of vast tracts of the occupied West Bank of Palestine. ...
A groundbreaking tool launched today at The Spinoff will help voters across New Zealand see who’s running for local government election in their area and what they stand for. ...
Today Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga New Zealand’s Māori Centre of Research Excellence (NPM) releases its next Te Arotahi paper calling on government to pay even closer attention to the issues of whānau and whakapapa within the criminal justice system. ...
“Technology adoption supports higher productivity growth, higher income growth and increased resources to pay for the things New Zealanders’ value. But the main problem facing New Zealand today isn’t too much technology, it’s not enough,” ...
DairyNZ Biosecurity Manager, Dr. Liz Shackleton, will be appearing before Parliament’s Primary Production Select Committee today to submit on the National Animal Identification and Tracing Amendment Bill (No 2). ...
Federated Farmers is asking nicely - please can the Government immediately extend the timeframe of the Essential Freshwater consultation so we can find a pathway forward that provides for both the health of the water, the health of people and the health ...
Youthline applauds the Government’s commitment to boosting mental health and addiction programmes and its intention to establish a Suicide Prevention Office but we urge swifter action in relation to implementing the programmes announced in the last budget ...
An Auckland mayoral candidate has broken the internet* by announcing a plan for a monorail around the central city. Who is Craig Lord, and is he serious? Alex Braae spoke to him shortly after his campaign launch to find out.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The SpinoffMembers. ...
Antibiotics are becoming increasingly less effective, so what treatments can we use when the drugs stop working? With help from plant extracts, award-winning company HerbScience is set to breathe new life into how we treat bacterial infections.When Cynthia Hunefeld was just 10 years old, her father was hospitalised with a ...
For some, it symbolises the very backbone of New Zealand’s food culture. But can Kiwi onion dip survive after the factory that makes reduced cream is shut down?The Australian factory that makes Nestlé reduced cream, an integral ingredient in Kiwi onion dip, is shutting down, casting a shadow over the ...
Every year Matariki X brings Māori innovators and entrepreneurs together to share their experiences and inspire one another. Callaghan Innovation’s Vinnie Campbell says the Māori economy’s biggest strengths have nothing to do with money.This story was funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The ...
Today marks the start of Covering Climate Now. To launch the week, the New Zealand climate change minister, James Shaw, writes an open letter to participants in the School Strike 4 Climate ahead of their day of action later this month.The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is thanks to ...
National’s new agriculture spokesperson finds himself in one of the party’s most important portfolios, at a time of dramatically increasing tensions in the sector. Will Todd Muller, a man regularly mentioned as a future leader contender, find common ground?Todd Muller’s obsession with politics began with an American encyclopaedia, which his ...
Although few would now deny that there are far-right extremists in NZ, questions remain around whether we have truly reckoned with the root causes of white supremacy. ...
To celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, cookbook authors, 2014 MasterChef-winning sisters and badass wāhine Māori Karena and Kasey Bird (Te Arawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Manawa) have translated some of the delicious recipes from their second cookbook, Hungry, into te reo Māori for The Spinoff. Today, poached pears in chocolate.NGĀ PEA KŌHUA ...
Miss June’s Bad Luck Party was recorded literally between hospital shifts, and their summer schedule includes both festival dates and their frontwoman’s graduation from medical school. We sat down with the band to ask just how, exactly, they’ve survived so far.The first years of life for Tāmaki Makaurau pop-punk quartet ...
The following four short extracts are from A City Possessed: The Christchurch Child Crèche Case by Lynley Hood, which has just been reprinted by Otago University Press. The book was first published in 2001 and won the Montana Medal for Non-Fiction at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. The controversial ...
Hamilton councillors have drawn headlines this year for being anti-science and insensitive to terror victims. At a mayoral debate on Wednesday, there were signs a campaign for change is gathering force.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The SpinoffMembers. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click ...
The Spinoff editor writes on the story that has engulfed NZ politics this week.One of the very few positive things to come out of a hideous week in New Zealand politics has been the sieving-out of the blinkered, partisan zealots. On one side, those who are ready to conjure up ...
In June 2018, Rawinia Higgins was appointed chairperson of Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori. She’s the first female and the first te reo Māori second-language speaker to hold the role, and during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, she sat down with The Spinoff to talk about her ...
Compulsory New Zealand history in schools is an exciting opportunity but it’s crucial we’re critical of the stories we tell ourselves, writes Dr Aroha Harris. History is not simply an assemblage of facts and evidence. History is also the interrogation of those things.This may be unsettling news for some, including the ...
The government and the Drug Foundation say they are committed to keeping the public informed and keeping fear mongering to a minimum ahead of the cannabis referendum. ...
One of the people who first brought Labour's assault complaints scandal to light says the party has a long way to go before it's clear it has learnt from its mistakes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Senior Research Fellow, Moral philosophy, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University Argument is everywhere. From the kitchen table to the boardroom to the highest echelons of power, we all use argument to persuade, investigate new ...
Climate change is not just an environmental threat but also a psychological crisis, especially as children increasingly shoulder the burden to act. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alastair Blanshard, Paul Eliadis Chair of Classics and Ancient History Deputy Head of School, The University of Queensland Comedy often succeeds where tragedy fails. Fangirls, the pop musical which premiered on Thursday night in Brisbane, is not the first drama to explore ...
On the 10th anniversary of the infamous “Imma let you finish” episode, Josie Adams reflects on what this moment revealed about both Taylor Swift and Kanye West.Cast your mind back a decade: 2009 DJ Earworm was still good, Barack Obama was sworn in as president of the US, Israeli ground ...
Analysis - An astounding week in politics has left Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern carrying responsibility for sorting out the mess the Labour Party is in over the sexual assault allegation, writes Peter Wilson. ...
Newsroom joins 250 media organisations internationally who are highlighting global climate change in the week leading to a critical United Nations summit. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karen Dwyer, Deputy Head, School of Medicine, Deakin University Autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is the most common genetic kidney disorder, and the fourth most common cause of kidney failure in Australian adults. It affects about one in 1,000 Australians. In people ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash has confirmed details of a new bill that will create a registry of guns, and new offences and penalties for illegal manufacture, trafficking or changing markings of firearms. ...
To celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, cookbook authors, 2014 MasterChef-winning sisters and badass wāhine Māori Karena and Kasey Bird (Te Arawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Manawa) have translated some of the delicious recipes from their second cookbook, Hungry, into te reo Māori for The Spinoff. Today, a tino reka salmon salad.NGĀ MOMO ...
James Elliott suggests it might be time for Simon Bridges to turn to AI for answers and for the Prime Minister to move her meetings to the Koru Lounge. ...
Charli XCX has just released her latest album, Charli. The futuristic musician is always looking ahead, and so are her fans. We’ve paired each star sign with their perfect Charli XCX song.Charli XCX burst onto the scene in 2012, when she co-wrote and performed electro-pop headbanger ‘I Love It’ with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benedict Sheehy, Associate professor, University of Canberra British health-care conglomerate Bupa runs more nursing homes in Australia than anyone else. We now know its record in meeting basic standards of care is also worse than any other provider. This is more than ...
Fable is best remembered for the disastrous, over-the-top promises made by its designer Peter Molyneux. But maybe, Adam Goodall argues, we’re remembering it all wrong.“There is something I have to say. And I have to say it because I love making games.” So opens an October 2004 post on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Senior Research Fellow, Moral philosophy, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University Argument is everywhere. From the kitchen table to the boardroom to the highest echelons of power, we all use argument to persuade, investigate new ...
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 Native Son: The Writer’s Memoir by Witi Ihimaera (Penguin Random House, $40)Stand by for a review from ...
The liquidator of Stanley Group says the construction company is facing a $13.5 million deficit and it appears it has not held on to some retentions. ...
Tara Ward delved into Māori TV’s impressive OnDemand catalogue and found some of the best TV taonga for your viewing pleasure. From lifestyle shows to documentaries, from current affairs to reality TV, Māori TV has an abundance of quality telly that celebrates and acknowledges the people, places and cultures of ...
A new poem by London-based poet Morgan Bach.Turning, hurtlingI march diligently to sunshine in the parkeverything bathed and turning golden.A woman breathes fire by the folly framing herlike a personal door to hell. Conkers are pitched from high boughsto break and give up fruit, a spire emergent from the baring ...
Simon Day learns about the history and power of Chinese five-spice. Both the origins of Chinese five-spice and the flavour itself are a little mysterious. My internet investigations revealed the powder’s name could be in reference to the use of five spices (although this often grows to six or seven), or ...
Revelations around alleged sexual assault by a Labour staffer and the party inquiry into his behaviour have dominated the week. Alex Casey and Mihi Forbes join Gone By Lunchtime to survey the damage.Alex Casey, author of the Spinoff feature published on Monday, “A Labour volunteer alleged a violent sexual assault ...
In the fourth episode of Actually Interesting, The Spinoff’s monthly podcast exploring the effect AI has on our lives, Russell Brown speaks to Ana Arriola, general manager and partner at Microsoft AI and Research, about ethics and transparency in tech.Subscribe to Actually Interesting via iTunes or listen on the player below.To download this ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Labour Party sexual assault allegations Andrea Vance (Stuff): How to make the Labour abuse scandal ...
Toi Kai Rākau Iti, who is running in the Eastern Bay of Plenty Kohi Māori constituency, encounters an unlikely channel of youth engagement.In te ao Māori you’re always looking for tohu, or symbols. They guide you through uncertain territory and help you make sense of the world. The arrival of ...
A member of the Labour Party's youth wing says the party's handling of sexual assault allegations has left him heartbroken and doubting his commitment to the party. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tomer Ventura, Senior Lecturer, School of Science and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast The creation of all-male or all-female groups of animals, known as monosex populations, has become a potentially useful approach in aquaculture and livestock rearing. Researchers and those in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Holmes, Director, Climate Change Communication Research Hub, Monash University Predictably, both major political parties are resisting calls this week for a parliamentary conscience vote to declare a climate emergency in Australia. The resistance is unsurprising because both the Coalition and Labor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Shi, Lecturer, Graduate School of Business and Law, RMIT University If the Religious Discrimination Bill passes into law, women may find it harder to get an abortion. That’s because health practitioners with an objection to performing the procedure on religious grounds ...
Open Mike 13/07/2017 
by Rafael D. Quiles (gender-critical gay man from Puerto Rico) The writing on the wall is right in people’s faces and people just don’t see it or don’t want to. What could actually possess a heterosexual male to want to feminize himself and claim that he is a lesbian? Because ...7 hours ago
From the Wall Street Journal:Inside a room of the ornately decorated Hotel du Palais during last month’s Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, President Trump awaited a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Mr. Trump looked over a gathering of American and Egyptian officials and called out in ...13 hours ago
The Brexit issue has certainly brought with it a series of apparently difficult constitutional issues, many of them concerning the respective roles of the executive and parliament. Most of them arise because of the unwillingness of MPs, despite their professions to the contrary, to be bound by a constitutional rarity ...2 days ago
. . This blogpost is different to my usual format of reporting on issues… Since July 1011, I have blogged on a variety of political issues; near always political and/or environmental; mostly highly critical of the previous National Government. Other issues included Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and repression of ...2 days ago
Those close to the Police Minister believe the initiative may be the result of Nash “seeing a great deal” on AliExpress. In a move that comes seemingly out of nowhere, Police Minister Stuart Nash announced this afternoon that he expects all frontline staff to don bearskin hats, famously worn by ...2 days ago
The government has released its Arms Legislation Bill, containing the second tranche of changes to gun laws following the March 15 massacre. And it all looks quite sensible: a national gun register, higher penalties for illegal possession and dealing, tighter restrictions on arms dealers and shooting clubs, and a shorter ...2 days ago
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Maori Party introduces its first Asian candidate
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/07/maori-party-introduces-its-first-asian-candidate.html
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/07/green-mp-threatens-new-election-if-labour-goes-with-nz-first.html
Thanks Barry, the cheque is in the mail 🙂
Signed
Steven Joyce
This election is shaping up to be the contest between/for the medium sized and smaller parties.
Barry has just handed the election to National/NZFirst imho, I’m guessing that if NZ had to have another election then the Greens would be punished severely because no one likes elections all that much anyway so having to have another would really annoy people.
National and/or Winston can claim a vote for the Greens, and by extension of the MOU Labour, is a vote for instability so a lot of the swing votes are going to swing Winstons way
Well done Barry Winston is probably toasting you right now
You saw the leaders of the greens coming out to say he mis-spoke right?
No ? Nor did anyone. I say it’s green policy not just Barry.
NZ First with Shane Jones in top role, would never be a good partner in a progressive government. NZF-Labour or NZF-Nats – not much difference.
I’ll vote accordingly. I’ll leave others to make their choices. The future needs a progressive party/ies that stick to principles, rather than always having an eye on the GAME.
Edit: and the bigger issue arising from all this is that the contest in this election is between/for the smaller parties. It will not be decided on one action or blog post.
WOW all over rover – I went and checked the news sites – ummm nothing WTF – it’s being suppressed already!!!
then I checked ‘gnat supporters trying to cause trouble’ and there it was – in the funny pages next to the story on “How to tell if your cat was famous in a past life”.
This combined with the co =leaders description of NZF as racist just a few days ago makes L/NZF/G look unlikely
marty mars
It has been all over the news this morning.
James Shaw gave an interview to Guyon Espiner. Shaw ruled out an early election. Therefore the implication is that the Greens would give C & S to a Labour NZ First govt. He did not actually say that, but since he said they want to change the govt, and since the Greens have been emphatic that they will not support National in any circumstance, then that is the only logical conclusion to draw.
As was evident today from the RNZ interview, since the Greens have ruled out National in all circumstances (even if National was only 1 or 2 short of a majority), then the Greens have dramatically reduced their leverage, and greatly increased that of NZ First.
Their choice of course, and if I go by the voice of Standardnistas who party vote Green also their choice. But there are consequences of such a choice.
You Natz just don’t get it Wayne. You are an anathema to the Greens. Your policies are unacceptable. Personally I don’t want leverage by bastardizing ourselves and pretending we could work with you.
We want a change of Government.
James Shaw I have heard of.
Hes the leader with the portfolio of “make friends with the business community”, but this Barry Coates, who the hell is he?
I see that Shaw has come out (in keeping with his portfolio of keeping business happy) and said Coates has got it wrong. But Coates has support too.
Is this just clever marketing by the Greens?
Barry Coates, who the hell is he?
Hes been in parliament since October,and is a fine example of the IYI species.
Intellectual Yet Idiot
From medium.com (taleb)
… the inner circle of no-skin-in-the-game policy making “clerks” and journalists-insiders, that class of paternalistic semi-intellectual experts with some Ivy league, Oxford-Cambridge, or similar label-driven education who are telling the rest of us 1) what to do, 2) what to eat, 3) how to speak, 4) how to think… and 5) who to vote for.
I suggest people actually listen to Shaw themselves.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201850912/will-the-greens-support-a-labour-nz-first-government
I suspect Coates is now regretting his brain fart. Basically nothing has changed. The Greens would prefer a coalition with Labour and not have to be in a 3 way coalition with NZF for obvious reasons. However they would be able to work with NZF if necessary.
They would never contemplate a coalition with the Nats (and their eugenics loving partner Act). The righties here still seem to be unable to understand the concept of having values.
Hey Wayne I went and checked a few online news sites and guess what I found? Nothing. Oh dear what a fizzer lol. Keep them coming gnats they’re starting to worry us. Meanwhile billshitter been a bit quiet – obviously been muzzled – until election day I spose.
As was evident today from the RNZ interview, since the Greens have ruled out National in all circumstances (even if National was only 1 or 2 short of a majority), then the Greens have dramatically reduced their leverage, and greatly increased that of NZ First.
🙄 The Greens ruled out National several elections ago.
All that’s happened this week is the Greens have pointed out that if NZers want a progressive government they need to vote Green. Their rationale in this is pretty sound.
I know this is a strange concept to get one’s head around, but the Greens are speaking to voters here, not people like yourself who think it’s all about power plays and behind doors machinations.
“It has been all over the news this morning.”
By ‘all over the news’ you mean a single interview with James Shaw on RNZ?
No – see link above for another example.
So far more accurate than saying ” I went and checked the news sites – ummm nothing WTF – it’s being suppressed already!!!”
Mate you might get an Oscar for this dramatic performance – still not feeling it personally…
All I can see is the Gower fantasy piece, which is basically Gower making shit up, and the RNZ piece, which is a fairly perfunctory interview with Shaw. Hardly all over the news.
So far more accurate than saying ” I went and checked the news sites – ummm nothing WTF – it’s being suppressed already!!!”
Pretty sure marty was taking the piss.
Waynes ‘Standardnistas’ comments are in very bad taste …. considering the history of murders, rapes and other acts committed against the Sandinista s and their society ….. As Cocaine smuggling, funded a Cia war, waged against them …… to destabilize and destroy their society.
https://libcom.org/files/The secret wars of the CIA-John Stockwell.pdf
“To destabilize Nicaragua beginning in 1981, we began funding this force of Somoza’s ex-national guardsmen, calling them the contras (the counter
revolutionaries). We created this force, it did not exist until we allocated money.”
” they have systematically been blowing up graineries, saw mills, bridges,
government offices, schools, health centers. They ambush trucks so the produce can’t get to market. They raid farms and villages. The farmer has to carry a gun while he tries to plow, if he can plow at all.
“Systematically, the contras have been assassinating religious workers, teachers, health workers, elected officials, government administrators.”
“With the children forced to watch they gang rape the mother, and slash her breasts off. And sometimes for variety, they make the parents watch
while they do these things to the children.”
https://wearechange.org/real-drug-lords-brief-history-cia-involvement-drug-trafficking/
” the U.S government under Ronald Reagan, began funding and arming groups of rebels opposed to the Sandanistas known as the Counterrevolutionaries, or Contras. This is all easily obtainable information. Webb’s “Dark Alliance” series, appeared in the Mercury News in 1996. The series examined the origins of the crack cocaine trade in Los Angeles and claimed that members of the anti-communist Contra rebels in Nicaragua had played a major role in creating the trade, using cocaine profits to support their struggle”. ……. ” Webb was following the trial of a Contra leader named Oscar Danilo Blandon Reyes who testified as to the C.I.A’s involvement in cocaine trafficking into Inner city Los Angeles in the 1980’s.”
“The lead of the first article set out the series’ basic claims: “For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.” This drug ring “opened the first pipeline between Colombia’s cocaine cartels and the black neighborhoods of Los Angeles” and, as a result, “The cocaine that flooded in helped spark a crack explosion in urban America”
To be quite honest …. for a person like wayne mapp to be calling us “Standardnistas” ……….. makes me doubt any sincerity or bad feelings he may have expressed for his part in the killing of a three year old girl….
His banality is showing …….
You don’t expect me to vote Labour do you? What’s the choice then?
“WOW all over rover – I went and checked the news sites – ummm nothing WTF – it’s being suppressed already!!!”
None so blind that dont want to see.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/07/green-mp-threatens-new-election-if-labour-goes-with-nz-first.html
Nice big headline: Green MP threatens new election if Labour goes with NZ First.
Even a special video made for it.
Fizzer mate. Sad.
Fizzer?
But it proved you either a liar or just plain wrong.
“WOW all over rover – I went and checked the news sites – ummm nothing WTF – it’s being suppressed already!!!”
Apart from the interviews – news articles and video you mean.
You need to look at more sites other than echo chambers.
This coming from someone who at 7.45 this morning said neither of the GP co-leaders had said anything. Your just tripped over your troll shoelaces James.
In fairness at that point I had not seen anything..
So? At the point marty looked he didn’t see anything.
Fucksake, is this what it’s going to be like? Really? If you want to troll, at least get some half way decent troll skills.
Sure, try and get your steam up by insulting me. #fizzerloluselessgnats
When Alfred Ngaro threatened NGO’s who criticised National, was he revealing National Party intent?
Let’s ask James.
When Barry Coates described an possible outcome for the election, was he describing Green Party thinking?
Let’s ask James.
Yep hebe desperate James.
Fizzerwatch update. Still nothing.
From what I can tell it goes like this. The Greens made a stand on the weekend about what voters need to do if they want a progressive government (hint, it doesn’t mean voting for Peters). Coates wrote his piece for The Daily Blog, published on Tues. Trotter shit stirs in his piece on Weds. Now Gower is trying to amp it up, and I see Bradbury is egging it on on twitter.
This is what it’s going to be like. Forget about truth, that lot are playing dickhead games. Gower can’t help himself, but Trotter and Bradbury should know better. It’s almost like they’d rather lose the election than have the Greens strong. Or maybe like Gower it’s all about the game.
None of it serves the country or the democratic process.
no – and there is a difference:
“Mr Coates also said Green MPs had discussed refusing to support a Labour-NZ First combination as a caucus in the past fortnight.”
So the Green MPs are discussing it as a possibility. – unless you are saying Coates is a liar.
Alfred Ngaro – moron. English came out – said he couldn’t do that, and reviewed all his decisions to make sure that they were not politically motivated.
So – One states that the party are discussing it, the other states that its categorically wrong and not happening. Pretty obvious that it wasn’t something being discussed as a party (but feel free to produce anything that proves that wrong if you can).
What I don’t understand is why all these non-GP voters believe that the Greens should do anything after the election. Seriously, why do you believe that the Greens should commit to C and S pre-election when no other party does?
lol, that’s five minutes of Paddy Gower’s secret squirrel imaginings. Notice how he doesn’t quote Coates even once?
See if you can find where Coates said what Gower is claiming. There’s a reason no-one is quoting Coates.
Actually there is Weka.
Coates wrote an opinion piece on the Daily Blog last night. Unbelievably stupid. It was picked up by Newshub immediately of course.
James Shaw has handled it very well I think. He is very impressive in this interview.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/07/no-intention-of-forcing-an-second-election-james-shaw.html
Yes, I saw the Daily Blog piece, but Coates doesn’t actually say what Gower said he said, which is probably why Gower doesn’t quote him. Which makes me wonder if Gower did his piece solely off TDB and didn’t talk to Coates directly.
If you look at the last sentence it seems someone from Newshub did contact Coates directly:
http://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/no-intention-of-forcing-a-second-election-shaw/ar-BBEjiaU?li=BBqdk7Q&ocid=mailsignout
It is for the most part a Newshub beatup but just shows how careful MPs have to be. Hopefully Coates has learnt a valuable lesson.
Yes, I saw that too, but given that Gower didn’t quote Coates at all, or say that bit, I’m assuming that Gower went solely off TDB piece.
What Barry Coates said
Mr Coates’ original comments come from a post he wrote for left-wing site The Daily Blog.
“The memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Labour is the foundation for building the next Government. If we were not part of the coalition, we would not accept a Labour-New Zealand First Government and certainly not a National-New Zealand First Government. Neither will be acceptable to the Greens.”
He later clarified to Newshub this “could” result in a second election, if no other combinations of parties could form a Government.
Agreed that Coates was incredibly stupid, and I’m surprised because the Greens are normally tighter than this. Does this mean MPs can post blogs without running them past caucus? More likely they don’t have a rule on this because the other MPs already know not to do that shit. Coates isn’t the only Green MP to post on TDB though.
I thought Shaw did a good job on RNZ. Hopefully it will blow over and we’ll get back to some politics without the boys shitstirring.
Just checked, Coates has written at TDB quite a few times before. Curious.
James Shaw was excellent in that interview. The interviewer was good also. He was direct but did not froth at the mouth like Paddy Gower and others. It gave James Shaw a chance to give his perspective without being interrupted constantly.
I thought it was good too. Espiner asked the pertinent questions without being a dick about it, and Shaw got to be clear in what he was saying.
Unfortunately the “panel” then went on with some right wing memes about the left being disorganised.
Obviously forgotten about Brownlee, Ngaro and the tobacco dealer from Southland, already!
was that on the radio, or online?
TV. Breakfast time.
So, if the Greens won’t work with NZ First they should be punished, but if NZ First won’t work with the Greens that’s sound political judgement? There’s something about the Green Party that makes right-wingers lose any semblance of rationality.
Also: seriously, a Labour-NZ First government? Where the fuck is that coming from? People who can’t read or do maths?
“but if NZ First won’t work with the Greens that’s sound political judgement?”
I wouldn’t call that sound political judgement- but I would call it a nail in the coffin of a labour – greens – nzf government.
And looking at the numbers – it’s looking like 3 more years of national but this time with nzf – as well as the other parties.
That will give them a large majority.
Assuming (a big assumption) that they can make it work well and partner well with NZF (and Shane jones will help this a lot) 2020 and possibly 2023 are looking good.
Edit : looking good if you support national – not so much labour.
I’m not sure you could count that as “good.” A Lab/Green/NZF govt would be a horrendous clusterfuck because Winston Peters. Likewise, a Nat/ACT/MP/United/NZF govt would be a horrendous clusterfuck because Winston Peters. If those turn out to be the choices this election, I’d rather National suffered the horrendous clusterfuck and Labour/Greens set their sights on 2020.
If National and its current support parties are say more than 3 short of a majority I would expect a Labour/NZF/Green govt, though possibly with Greens only in a C & S role.
If National and support parties are extremely close to a majority, just 1 or 2 short, Winston will find it hard not to let them form a govt, though with NZF in the prime support role. In such a case the govt would have a solid majority, not that necessarily means much.
In constitutional terms a 1 seat majority is as good as a 10 seat majority. At least if the 1 seat majority is tidy and not a constant fractious debate on every issue. I have been there (1996 to 1999) and it is a mess.
I guess it will be an integrity test. Winston will go with whoever offers the choicest “baubles of office,” so if the right-bloc/left-bloc split is close, there will be plenty of temptation to make Winston some tasty offers. In that sense, forming a govt with Winston is kind of like cocaine – very tempting, but won’t work out well for you in the long run. I’m hoping Little, Shaw and Turei have the integrity to resist that temptation – I guess we’ll find out in September whether they do or not.
Both the Nats and Labour are going to be asked to pay up large for Winston. Hes done it before, and when Helens lot didnt offer enough, then Bolger got the treasury benches.
And Winston got the sack.
Sure it was a long time ago, but since then Winston has worked far better with Labour than with the Nats.
On present polling, I see Winston as PM of a Labour led minority government with support from the Greens, (and Dunne gone from Parliament)
Only Winston could pull that sort of deal off
It wasn’t just that they didn’t offer enough, the Alliance refused to commit to confidence and supply, apparently. I don’t know whether that was because they wanted to remain separate from Labour (lots of fresh wounds) or simply because they felt locked out of being in a threeway coalition (basically the potential Green situation that the tories are wanking over – being asked to support a government that won’t give them anything in return)
“I’m hoping Little, Shaw and Turei have the integrity to resist that temptation”
Me too. It’s going to be interesting, because in the case of Shaw and Turei, it has to come back to the members.
“it has to come back to the members”
That doesn’t seem to be the interpretation that Shaw is putting on the question of alliances.
In the Herald article he says
“Greens co-leader James Shaw said this morning that Coates’ comments were “absolutely not” the party’s position. Discussions about possible coalition deals were “the reserve of the leadership”, he said.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11889937
He seems to be suggesting that it is the role of himself and Turei rather than the function of party members as a whole.
You are wrong. Shaw was referring to the caucus and that during the election campaign the only MPs who can make public statements about coalition deals are the co-leaders (have a listen to the RNZ piece).
As for post-election deals, there’s a process that involves the caucus, exec, and members, and there is a special negotiations team and one that liases with the rest of the party (that’s from memory)
alwyn
You belong with the type of people regularly heard to be calling for ‘leadership’. James Shaw has demonstrated it, but you are saying that he should leave everything important to the party members as a whole’.
marty mars at 8.11
Haha. Good,
Poission 11.53
That was a good summary of a type I’ve noticed.
Thanks for headsup.
” but you are saying that he should leave everything important to the party members as a whole”.
No, I said nothing of the sort. I gave no opinion at all on who should make the decisions on such things.
I merely suggested that what Shaw was quoted as saying didn’t seem to tie up with what Weka had said.
She assures us that the comments are not in conflict as one applies to statements made before the election and one to what they might do after the election when all the votes have been cast. That wasn’t at all clear from what the paper said and I am pleased that she has made it clear that different rules apply at the different dates.
I hope they don’t take too long over the matter. Remember how it took about 6 weeks to discover who the Government was going to be in 1996? God forbid it takes that long again.
You don’t need to tell us it’s a mess Wayne – we’ve had to live under their squalid sustained administrative failure. The Gnats are rubbish on their best day.
A revealing comment!
A 1-seat majority may be all that’s need to push through bills but it does not make for sound democracy if it’s all you care about.
Obviously, in 1996 NZ politicians were still stuck in FPP mode and arguable some still are this day.
Indeed, with such a single-minded attitude each and every debate is likely to turn into a fractious one – it’s not the 1-seat majority but the mind-set that is the underlying issue.
In fact, National still displays this arrogant simplistic mind-set that winning is everything and justifies the means. In contrast, other smaller parties have adapted more to MMP and are more willing and able to build bridges, compromise, aim for consensus and generally take a broader view than just a 1-seat majority in the House.
In short, this is why we urgently need a change of government, because this kind or narrow-minded political ‘pragmatism’ is bad for (NZ) democracy and our society.
For the many, not just for the one.
Baltimore out of control, 72hr cease fire campaign launched.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-11/baltimore-citizens-urge-nobody-kill-anybody-ceasefire-start-august
In NZ context
Baltimore has a homicide rate of 5.3 per 10,000 pop
NZ is 0.15 per 10,000
The Wire.
Reading the comments section there, I think the 72 hour deal is a pisstake.
John Clark on NZ
“During the early 1980s however, the New Zealand economy was put in the hands of finance ministers due to a filing error, and authorities are still looking for the black box. A social democracy with only one previous owner was asset-stripped and replaced by a series of franchises. Even rugby sides stopped being called Canterbury, Wellington, Otago and Auckland and were instead given the names of animals, colours and weather conditions.” (Source: from the late, great John Clarke’s A Guide To New Zealand)
Oh, if only we’d been able to keep him here we might not be in this mess 🙁
We would have gone down the rabbit hole.
Most people are delusional about their economic status. I had a person the other day tell me they we middle class, renting and ten’s of thousands of dollars in debt – but middle class. Yeah right.
So the wool is firmly in place, as such the elites don’t fear working people. Until we get to a time that they do – nothing will change. Some tinkering maybe from the wets – but nothing will change.
most middle class people are one illness and one missed wage payment away from bankruptcy.
but as long as they can ‘service ‘ their debts they are middle class.
How is electric car manufacturing going in USA?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11887216
7 July 2017
On Monday, [Tesla CEO Elon] Musk sent out tweet saying that the Palo Alto, California, company anticipates production of 20,000 Model 3 cars per month in December, which was below previous estimates. Tesla also said Monday that it delivered about 22,000 vehicles in the second quarter, bringing first-half deliveries to about 47,100. That’s at the low end of the company’s projections earlier this year of between 47,000 and 50,000 deliveries.
Then on Wednesday, the dynamics of the electric car market shifted a bit when Volvo announced that by 2019, it would be producing only electric and hybrid vehicles, the first traditional automaker to make that leap.
Volvo, which is based in Sweden but owned by Chinese firm Geely, will launch five fully electric cars between 2019 and 2021. Three of them will be Volvo models and two will be electrified cars from Polestar, Volvo Cars’ performance car arm. It also plans to offer a range of hybrids as options, expecting to sell 1 million electrified cars by 2025.
Robert – from the other thread (to save the Mods moving it). [r0b: Very considerate!]
Yurt —
Did you build yours from scratch or did you use a ‘kit’ so to speak? like http://www.yurts.com/ ?
The first (it’s a ger) was imported from Mongolia and is made by hand from traditional materials, yak, horse, larch etc. It needed a New Zealand-proof coat, as we are wetter than its home country, and now has one – thick pvc of the sort trucks are covered with., or circus tents made. The second is purpose built in Takaka by Jaia tents – their website reveals all. Ours is a 7-metre, windowed yurt, very pretty.
can you live in that thing all year round?
You could, if your bylaws allow. Most often, you need to show that it’s a “nomadic” structure and can be shifted about the place, it depends upon where in the country you live. Winter could be challenging, but a good rocket stove would fix that.
a paddock near whakatane would be the location, and yes it would be removable.
Nice yurt and teepees from Jaia. Good one.
We have a teepee also. Elegant.
http://robertguyton.blogspot.co.nz/2017/01/teepee-camping.html
Nice. I love teepees.
The regions can’t have – a decent transport avenue with rail because it won’t pay (Gisborne.) Fed Farmers want trucks, someone wants a road built on the railway tracks. Probably everyone is ducking for cover while the Gnats try to crank up the Special Economic Zones so government can say to the unpopular regions, ‘find a ….(foreign) investor and sell your soul to him/them’.
(Sort of like the story of Rumplestitskin – someone in fix, R says promise me your brightest and best and I’ll get you out of the poo. They managed to sort R out and send him off, but hey that can only happen in fairy tales.)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201850920/questions-over-iwirail-s-economics
transport politics
8:17 am today
Questions over IwiRail’s economics
From Morning Report, 8:17 am today
Listen duration 2′ :45″
The Maori Party’s plan to resurrect rail in the regions – dubbed IwiRail – would bring back moth-balled lines, beginning with the Napier-Gisborne route and look into setting up new tracks. It wants the Government to put up an initial $350 million, with iwi and local investors also contributing. But there are questions about whether the routes will be profitable, and whether the numbers add up.
And what about poor Manawatu – the Gorge is shifting, and its enough to make you throw up if you live round there.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/manawatu-guardian/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503567&objectid=11887406
Watch NZH Local Focus: Manawatu Gorge may never reopen
7 Jul, 2017 2:09pm
NZ Herald
It’s been shut 22 times in the last five years, that’s a total of 338 days. Most recently it closed in April after a massive slip took out the road. Now, the Manawatu Gorge may never reopen.
Good map of Gorge and shows alternative Saddle Road.
https://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap?v=2&ll=-40.31796475,175.7980936&z=14&pin=1&lbl=Manawatu+Gorge
Re the gorge, IF we had true leadership, (not beholden to the trucking lobby), they could say no trucks to go over the saddle or the pahiatua track.
Perfectly good rail corridor through the ranges. Load up in woodvegas, ashhurst or palmy, then offload at other end.
Where there is a will there is a way.
I do feel for folks in the tararua, 6,000 vehicle movements now not happening like they used to, and citizens of ashhurst now having 6,000 largely unwanted vehicles going through the residential area.
Interesting food and biofuel project using seawater in Abu Dhabi. Hope it all works out.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/12/middleeast/iseas-abu-dhabi-aviation-biofuel/index.html
UPDATE FROM HER WARSHIP IN THE HAGUE – WORLD JUSTICE FORUM Thursday 13 July 2017 6.24am
Unfinished reporting from Tuesday 11 July 2017….
– when I dropped my political ‘bombshell’ about NZ’s corruption REALITY being that
in my opinion, as a proven anti- corruption ‘whistle-blower’ – New Zealand was a ‘corrupt, polluted tax haven – a banana republic without the bananas’.
I also stated that the Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’ (which NZ topped 10 times (sometimes 1st equal) without having even ratified the UN Convention Against Corruption – should be screwed up and thrown into the rubbish bin of history.
That there were IMO, objective, significant milestones / yardsticks for quantifying corruption REALITY, rather than relying (largely) upon the subjective opinions of anonymous businesspeople for PERCEPTION of corruption (which in my view is a meaningless ‘measure’).
I pointed out how in 2010 how I had attended the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Conference in Bangkok.
Where we were told that the global procurement market was $14 TRILLION and the amount estimated to be lost in bribery and corruption was $2.5 TRILLION!
That I had a HUGE ‘lightbulb’ moment!
Wouldn’t $2.5 TRILLION
$2.5 THOUSAND BILLION
$2,500,000,000,000 – help to feed, clothe, water and shelter a few poor people?
That another ‘lightbulb’ moment – was that Transparency International were not looking at the underpinning private procurement MODEL, but the private procurement PROCESS.
That as soon as you got into the private procurement (contracting out) of public services, formerly provided ‘in house’ by staff directly employed under the ‘public service’ model, you got into CONTRACT MANAGEMENT.
Government or Council staff were regarded as ‘too dumb’ to do contract management – so a ‘bureaucrat'(s) would then hire CONSULTANT(S) to ‘project manage’ the WORKS CONTRACTOR(S), who would then usually SUB-CONTRACT- so by the time you got down to those in the boots and overalls getting their hands dirty and actually doing something productive – you might have up to 4 layers of pinstripe suits – clipping the ticket while effectively doing nothing.
How on EARTH is that a more ‘cost-effective’ use of public money?
In 2010, at that Transparency International Anti-Corruption Conference, I stood on my hind legs and asked a (high-faluting) panel – where was the EVIDENCE that the private procurement of public services that used to be provided at central and local government level, was more ‘cost-effective’ than former ‘in-house’ service provision?
(It was like I had slapped the face of the person who was chairing the panel.
He literally did a ‘double-take’ and mumbled that there was evidence – but none was ever provided.)
My point to this 2017 World Justice Forum group – was that in my opinion, it was time to look at the whole underpinning private procurement MODEL for public services.
( IMO – it is the privatisation -private procurement – of public services which is the major source of GRAND corruption.
I am one of the few people in the world actually saying this- that the root cause of most GRAND corruption- is PRIVATISATION.
How is it decided who GETS the contracts?
Remember – back in 2010 – the global amount estimated to be paid in bribery and corruption was $2.5 TRILLION!
__________________________
This is a BIG deal folks.
The whole Neo-liberal myth and mantra ‘public is bad – private is good’ upon which this massive privatisation of public services, locally, nationally and internationally was based – was NOT ‘evidence based’.
The BIG business globalists – just MADE IT UP!
More later …
Her Warship – guns loaded and blazing ‘inside the tent!’
(As it were …. 🙂
Penny Bright
#StopCorruption
#OpenTheBooks
#CutOutTheContractors
#ImplementAndEnforceThePublicRecordsAct
#WJForum
Penny, Her War Ship, with lighting, in the Hague 😀
You are all shades of light bulb awesomeness.
I truly admire your intellect and dedication.
Thank you for doing what you do and for sharing.
Does this tender business make sense? Expecting a bus firm to invest in providing good vehicles and provide good service and change over to better fuels, and then be dropped like a hot potato some years on. Waste of capital, and more expensive in the long run I would think. Another example of NZ demanding champagne while earning a beer income?
In Wellington a new operator says it will provide over 200 buses and the media is asking where they are going to be parked? It sounds as if all the dots haven’t been joined.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/92407885/concern-over-where-tranzits-228-new-wellington-buses-will-be-kept