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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To Limit Another's Rights Is To Limit One's Own: Is it too much to expect senior members of our Government to be capable of explaining that we protect the rights of human-beings precisely because not even the most depraved act can cancel-out the fact that its perpetrator is also a ...
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This section builds on Part 1 of this series to provide a theoretical basis for the final instalment (part 3 – to come). Self-determination: law or resurgence — or both? International law promotes the principal of equal treatment and self-determination, which includes peoples’ rights to freely pursue their social, cultural and ...
Everyone was outraged yesterday to learn that the Christchurch shooting accused had been able to send mail from prison to his Nazi fans, apparently pushing more hate. "How could this possibly happen", people asked. Simple: because New Zealand is a civilised country, and so we let prisoners send and receive ...
If we are to avoid dangerous anthropogenic climate change, we need to rapidly decarbonise our transport fleet. The good news: its starting to happen:The number of electric vehicles on New Zealand's roads have nearly tripled in the past two years. There are currently 15,453 registered electric vehicles (EVs), up ...
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...
Most economists agree that a currently slowing economy could do with some stimulus – and they would also agree that there is no shortage of infrastructure projects which could be brought to productive fruition with help from that stimulus. In view of the current practice of sub-contracting economic policy decisions ...
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
AN OPEN LETTER FOR SIGN ON BY ORGANISATIONS AND MOVEMENTS ACROSS THE WORLD, ALLIED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST INEQUALITY. This letter was released at the UN Political Forum on 9 July, where the Sustainable Development Goal on inequality was reviewed. The purpose of the letter is to call out the ...
We asked a young gay science student and critic of trans ideology and the trans activists’ assault on women’s and gay rights to outline his views on Redline. Thanks to him for his article. by Cian Ó Catháin Gender identity ideology (Gender ID) is ripping through western society at full ...
The Environment Committee is currently hearing submissions on the Zero Carbon Bill, and Stuff is reporting on the submissions. Today, they're covering yesterday they heard from "NZ" Steel:NZ Steel has told MPs it may be forced to close with the loss of thousands of jobs if changes aren't made to ...
Students are striking against climate change on September 27. And this time, they're asking everyone to join them:Students are taking to the streets, beaches and parks on 27 September, and we're inviting everyone to join us. That's right, this is an intergenerational issue, and you're all invited to put pressure ...
Peter McKenzie has a piece on Newsroom this morning about how local body politics is awash with property developer cash. 70% of all the donations in the 2016 Wellington mayoral election came from property developers. And its pretty obvious what they want in exchange:That’s particularly important in local government, according ...
Source: Unknown, twitter user Recently, I wrote a (relatively) short paper titled as above, to explore what self-determination could like in a practical sense. Maybe I’m a bit of an international trade truther or something, but I absolutely believe trade is at the heart of achieving peace and self-determination. Since ...
In the 1960s, after I had graduated with a first-class Oxford postgraduate law degree, I joined the British Foreign Office as the top entrant of my year. There, I worked for a couple of years on European affairs and was eventually posted to the Embassy in Brussels. After this exposure ...
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...
I heard a 45 minute interview with Monica Lewinsky talking to TED’s Chris Anderson on BBC Radio 4 over the weekend, and have listened to it another two times out walking. I recommend it. Highly. Man, I am so impressed with how this woman has integrated her life experiences and ...
Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure, London, Penguin, 2019, 352pp; reviewed by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s book The Coddling of the American Mind is a timely book, whose ...
When the Justice Committee reported back on the Administration of Justice (Reform of Contempt of Court) Bill, free speech advocates breathed a sigh of relief. As originally introduced, the Bill reitered the ancient offence of "scandalising the court" - basicly, a special sedition law protecting judges from criticism. The select ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. Since then - crickets. Which raises the obvious question: are they actually going to do this, ...
Back in March, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act. 285 people submitted on it. Now, Stuff has trawled through those submissions, and the case for reform is strong:The Justice Ministry asked Kiwis what they thought was ...
National's prisoner voting ban has gone down as one of the worst laws in New Zealand history. Passed after a farcical debate (including this farcial speech from ACT MP Hilary Calvert), it has subsequently been found to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act by the High Court, Court ...
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...
by Daphna Whitmore US social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt spoke on 1 August in Auckland to a crowd of around one thousand people. He is best known for his bookThe Coddling of the American Mind which examines the new climate of trigger warnings and acute sensitivity of Gen Z. ...
What an extraordinarily depressing experience it is to be compelled to watch, at 12,000 miles distance, the contortions and machinations of the British political class as they set about their determined attempt to overturn the decision taken by the British people that they wish to leave the European Union. The ...
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...
by Don Franks Way back when British guitar virtuoso Joe Brown was a beginning session guy he got to back a visiting American artist. Young Joe was an able technician but had yet to learn some points of professionalism. Part way through “Five foot high and rising” Joe tired of ...
Since scientists started studying climate change, they have warned that it will reduce food production. And now, its happening:The climate crisis is damaging the ability of the land to sustain humanity, with cascading risks becoming increasingly severe as global temperatures rise, according to a landmark UN report compiled by some ...
The Abortion Legislation Bill just passed its first reading, 94-23. Its a far bigger margin than I expected, even allowing for the Winston factor, and it reflects the overwhelming support there is in this country for reform. but that support isn't a new thing - it has existed for literally ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Referendums Framework Bill. The Bill does what it says on the label - establishes a framework for referenda. Things you may want to address in your submission: Whether the bill should apply only at the 2020 election, or whether it should ...
The Thompson and Clark / MBIE spying scandal continues to result in fallout, this time in the form of a report on the implementation of MBIE's "Operation Exploration", its internal operation to enforce the infamous Anadarko Amendment which criminalised protests against the oil industry. MBIE's enforcement operation was tainted by ...
So, Winston Peters is defending his last-minute demand for a referendum on abortion by claiming he was "blindsided" by the bill. Really? The bill is a government bill. It has been working through the cabinet approval process since December last year. As part of that process, NZ First was consulted, ...
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...
West Papua solidarity activists met yesterday and resolved to call on the Prime Minister to step up to help resolve the escalating crisis in West Papua. ...
Landmark Report Released into Maori Aging and Disabilities “Manaaki Pakeke” – New Zealand Maori Council calls for a policy shift and greater focus The New Zealand Maori Council has released a comprehensive policy statement challenging the ...
MANATŪ TAONGA MINISTRY FOR CULTURE AND HERITAGE MEDIA RELEASE 25 August 2019 Privacy breach identified with the Tuia 250 Voyage Trainee website Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage is investigating a serious digital privacy breach involving ...
‘Original Sin’ of Land Confiscation at Ihumātao is a wrong that can be put right by Government says Justice & Peace Commission of Catholic Diocese of Auckland ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told a press conference on August 19 that her government is likely to impose new restrictions on prisoners’ rights to send letters. She said the law could be changed in “weeks.” ...
Heart-warming images of House Speaker Trevor Mallard cradling a baby in Parliament have been welcomed around New Zealand, but the Public Service Association warns most families can only dream of such support in the workplace. ...
Applying New Zealand’s international human rights commitments, particularly those in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, can help in resolving the situation at Ihumātao, Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt says. ...
Climate campaigners impersonating bank staff have taken to the streets this week to expose ANZ Bank’s sponsorship of the fossil fuel industry. In the series of satirical actions in Wellington, Dunedin, and Auckland, the ‘bank staff’ promoted ...
Auckland Action Against Poverty joins the Children’s Commissioner , The Green Party , The New Zealand Drugs Foundation , Child Poverty Action Group and other organisations in the calls for an immediate end to the drug testing benefit sanctions. ...
Negotiations between Port Otago workers represented by the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU) and the Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) and management failed today and the unions have issued notice of an overtime ban from Saturday 7th September. ...
Queenstown Lakes District Council’s comments that it has applied for a consent to pollute waterways to avoid 'prosecutions by the Otago Regional Council' are unacceptable,’ Fish & Game New Zealand Chief Executive Martin Taylor says. ...
On March 15, the real world impact of online hate became abundantly, horrifically clear. As a shooter opened fire at two Christchurch mosques, the online image board 8chan anticipated, celebrated and amplified his killing spree. ...
Friday, 23 August: Government delegates from around the world, including New Zealand, are meeting in New York for the third of four meetings at the United Nations to agree a Global Oceans Treaty that could help to protect 30% of our oceans by 2030. Greenpeace ...
The excuses about a reportedly unwanted $57,000 payrise for Dunedin City Council CEO Sue Bidrose are laughable, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union. ...
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance has launched the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” committing to no more than 2% annual rate hikes over the next Council term, and has written to all Mayoral and Council candidates asking them to sign. The pledge will ...
This Saturday, Pakuranga Hunt Day at the Ellerslie Racecourse will see anti-horse racing protesters demonstrating at the corner of Ascot Avenue and Greenlane East. ...
Mayoral candidate John Tamihere will meet with Pacific Island leaders and community elders today at Puhunui Reserve in South Auckland to commit to a Pasefika Cultural Centre. ...
Cruel and invalid Forced Swim Tests carried out at Victoria University of Wellington, will be exposed at the University Open Day today, so prospective students can be warned about the flawed and unethical research being conducted at the institute. ...
The organiser of the annual YWCA Equal Pay Awards has expressed her disappointment with the latest Gender Pay Gap figure for New Zealand workers. The figure rose slightly from 9.2% in 2018 to 9.3% for the quarter ended 30 June 2019. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to pass on information to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques now that the period for submissions has been extended to 27 September. ...
An application was filed in the Employment Relations Authority in Wellington today, seeking an injunction to prevent the Board of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation from removing the President from office. ...
The Government’s commitment to support literacy and numeracy training in the workplace is a strong signal from Government on recognising the importance of upskilling, reskilling and increasing productivity alongside their commitment to address the challenges ...
“The infrastructure sector sees a major role for the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission/Te Waihanga in lifting the nation’s sagging infrastructure performance,” says Paul Blair, incoming CEO of Infrastructure NZ. ...
The AA is calling on the Government to bring forward critical highway projects while time is spent properly developing the plans for a rapid transit system in Auckland. ...
Between 2015/16 and 2017/18, DHBs spent $280 million treating patients due to adverse drug reactions, reveals the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union in its latest briefing paper on health productivity . ...
The Pay Equity Coalition Auckland (PECA) is pleased the gender pay gap has decreased slightly. Statistics released today show the gap is now 11.9%, nearly 2 percent less than last year. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to make sure they pass on any information they have to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques before submissions close tomorrow (Friday). ...
The big electricity companies consider solar energy “disruptive” and want pricing to suppress it. In contrast, advocates of local energy say that solar, energy efficiency, and other local energy solutions are the cheapest ways to reduce carbon emissions. ...
The Earthquake Commission and Shine Lawyers are delighted to announce that EQC has reached an agreement with the Gibling family, agreeing to cover the cost of repairs of remaining earthquake damage on their property. ...
Four months into the inquiry, the Royal Commission is gathering significant information and continues to receive valuable submissions from the public, from current and former State servants, experts and community groups. ...
While Fish & Game New Zealand is pleased to see Federated Farmers Environment Spokesperson Chris Allen say that 'we all want good, fresh water', he conveniently overlooks some key facts. ...
What: Wellington demo “Save the Amazon Forest/Salve a Amazônia!” When: Friday, 6 September 2019 from 12:30-13:30 Where: Embassy of Brazil in Wellingtona ...
Rt Hon Trevor Mallard, Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, welcomes the visit of His Excellency Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal. ...
A cross political Mental Health and Addictions Wellbeing group will be launched on Wednesday 28 August hosted by Sir John Kirwan and Moe Milne (ONZM) who have both been at the forefront of our country’s often difficult conversations about mental ...
Confirmation that the government will be progressing an independent Parliamentary Budget Office is great news for democracy and transparency, Federated Farmers says. ...
At first glance, Simon Bridges’ strident opposition to the government’s proposal to establish an independent office to cost political parties’ election spending plans looks childish and petty. ...
Euthanasia-Free NZ is appalled that Parliament spent so little time debating Part 2 of the End of Life Choice Bill and voted to leave it full of holes. ...
Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance and its nationwide sister group the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Auckland Mayor Phil Goff for his comments today that John Tamihere would need the Government’s support to ...
A ‘one size fits all’, inflexible and punitive regulatory regime for water quality just gets backs - and costs - up and most importantly will not work, Federated Farmers says. ...
Mediation yesterday between secondary principals and the government has resulted in a deal that the principals' negotiating team is recommending to its members. ...
Clubs New Zealand welcomes the decision of Justice Minister Andrew Little to put forward a bill amending the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act to allow all licensed premises to remain open for Rugby World Cup matches. ...
The Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation has ordered a review looking at labelling of added sugars in food and drinks. An option under investigation is ‘a pictorial approach applied to sugary beverages / sugar-sweetened beverages’ ...
Labour market data released by Statistics New Zealand today indicates that a gender pay gap persists in New Zealand, despite improvement in some areas. ...
In the midst of the 6th Great Extinction Event the coalition, STOP Trashing Our Planet is urging voters to take full responsibility for the legacy we are leaving our children. ...
ANALYSIS:By David Robie Indonesia’s harsh policies towards West Papua ought to be scrapped. Whatever happened to the brief window of enlightenment ushered in by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in 2015 with promises of a more “open door” policy towards foreign journalists and human rights groups? They were supposed ...
The House - The grammar of being an MP is harder than you might think. MPs in Parliament choose their words with care, and it just got more complicated. ...
As a format it predates almost all reality TV, and that’s precisely why it works in 2019, writes Duncan Greive.There’s something deeply comforting about watching Celebrity Treasure Island. It is a very pure form of escapism, largely because it explicitly recalls a world without the internet, and before everything started ...
Residents in Los Angeles and Orange County warned to check for symptoms after an infected NZ teen visited theme parks including Disneyland and Universal Studios earlier this month.Californian health authorities have issued warnings to residents and visitors after a New Zealand teenager was found to have spent five days in ...
When you crave fresh, bright flavours but summer veges seem far away, throw together this simple salad.Growing up we often ate this salad, or one very similar to it. My mum is a fantastic cook and this dish is one she still makes to this day – though I must ...
Analysis of New Zealand media headlines reveals a lot of people slamming a lot of other people.Slamming is at epidemic levels in New Zealand news. Drawn from just the last month, we present a selection of slamming.On July 27A union boss slammed David ClarkOn July 29Police slammed a dangerous photographerOn ...
Vana Manasiadis wrote a collection of poetry in the wake of her mother’s death. In this essay, ahead of her appearance at the Going West festival, she argues that as a nation Aotearoa needs to learn to make space for mourning. When Mum died in Athens, I cried loudly and publicly ...
The giant hand that captivated, delighted and disgusted the nation is now settling into its new Wellington home. For City Gallery Wellington’s blog, Spinoff arts editor Megan Dunn talked to Ronnie van Hout, the man who made Quasi.“Quasi is in the wrong place,” wrote art critic Warren Feeney in 2016, ...
At school camp, the children are banned from having phones, laptops, lollies, chocolate, money, cotton clothing or independent thoughts. They, are, however, allowed home baking – but it’s gotta be hearty. How hearty are you? We are packing for a school camp. If you’re thinking that the middle of winter is ...
Phil Goff’s rival has already pledged an 0800-Jacinda homeless hotline and an 18-lane harbour bridge. What’s next? The two most important people in the 2019 campaign for the Auckland mayoralty faced each other down on Wednesday night across the desk in the NZME debate: Bernard Orsman and Simon Wilson. Correction: it ...
Split Level View Finder: Theo Schoon and New Zealand Art is the exhibition that sparked a protest over issues of cultural appropriation and institutional representation. Theo Schoon is a divisive historical figure. But is his art any good? Martin Patrick reviews.British novelist L.P. Hartley once wrote that “the past is ...
Ahead of debuting her solo show at New Zealand Fashion Week, Korean-NZ couture designer Cecilia Kang talks about growing up ‘feminine’, being influenced by the LGBTQ+ community, and why an ‘administrative error’ at Fashion Week left her so shaken up. ‘I like something big,” says Cecilia Kang, gesturing to the giant ...
The Labour Party is distancing itself from one of its members who is strongly pro-Beijing and has caused controversy in the Chinese community by standing for local office in Auckland. ...
Faced with staff shortages, equipment failures, cancer risks, and a jump in critical calls that can leave them traumatised, some firefighters are wondering if it’s time to hang up the hose. Gareth Shute reports on the dissatisfaction inside Fire and Emergency New Zealand.The state of our nation’s fire service is ...
“She comes over. You’re my mother, she says. Yes, I say. I don’t know you, she says”: a mother and child seaside story by Wellington author Jan Pryor. Photo by Peter Black. ...
On Monday the government announced its new five-year strategy to reduce the Māori prison population. Emilie Rākete looks at another ‘kaupapa Māori’ prison initiative that degrades prisoners and asks if Corrections are capable of seeing it through.On August 19th, the Department of Corrections announced Hōkai Rangi, its new strategy intended ...
By Michael Andrew The Indonesian media is contributing to resentment and racism toward Papuans, according to a human rights researcher and former journalist. Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch Jakarta told Pacific Media Watch many Indonesian journalists either view Papuans as enemy “separatists” or deviants and their reporting tends to convey these ...
Analysis - The prime minister puts a stake in the ground over petrol prices, National balks at having its election promises costed and the government puts millions into helping the homeless. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danilo Ignacio de Urzedo, PhD candidate, University of Sydney Record fires are raging in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, with more than 2,500 fires currently burning. They are collectively emitting huge amounts of carbon, with smoke plumes visible thousands of kilometres away. Fires in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sean Docking, Post-doctoral researcher, La Trobe University Basketball fans around the world were recently sickened by the footage of NBA star Kevin Durant’s Achilles tendon rupturing during a game. But while many think it’s only elite athletes who suffer from Achilles tendon ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruce Mountain, Director, Victoria Energy Policy Centre, Victoria University The possibility of blackouts affecting half of Victoria has attracted plenty of attention to a document once read only by industry insiders and policy wonks: the Electricity Statement of Opportunities. The Statement, updated ...
George Clooney sold his tequila company for a billion dollars – but is the stuff any good? The Spinoff finds out. Imagine being so stupidly sexy you sneeze and sell a billion-dollar booze company. That’s what George Clooney did last year, flicking off the tequila business he started accidentally with an ...
The departure of "two Pākehā men" from the government's justice reform group will not hurt the quality of its final report, another member of the team says. ...
Combatting internet-related harm is being stymied by inter-industry disagreement and a lack of information about the extent and nature of the problem, a new report says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Harcourt, J.W. Nevile Fellow in Economics and host of The Airport Economist, UNSW Amid the tributes to former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer and the stories of his authenticity, courage and quirky interests – like trains and military history – what ...
Current leader of the National Party, Simon Bridges.Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Is Simon Bridges really trying to channel Donald Trump? Or is he taking his cue from Scott Morrison? Or is he looking to emulate Boris Johnson? Whatever the inspiration, there’s been a clear change in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]Michelle Grattan talks about the sad news of the passing of former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer with University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini. They also discuss Scott Morrison’s recent announcement about joining ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabriel Crowley, Adjunct Principal Research Fellow, James Cook University In February, about 600,000 cattle were killed by catastrophic flooding across north Queensland’s Carpentaria Gulf plains. The flood waters rose suddenly, forming a wall of water up to 70km wide. Record depths were ...
Simon Day dined alone at Monique Fiso’s Wellington restaurant Hiakai, and discovered it was the perfect way to appreciate the meaning of this special food. “Would you like a few more minutes with your phone?” the waitress at Hiakai asked sympathetically as I mashed a final goodbye text to my wife ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Willamson, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Monash University Australia’s gender pay gap is diminishing, says a new report, but some contributors to it seem harder to overcome than others. For me, the finding hit close to home. The report, by KPMG for ...
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 Te Tiriti o Waitangi: The Treaty of Waitangi by Toby Morris with Ross Calman, Mark Derby, and ...
Honey producer Comvita has confirmed a full year net loss of $27.7m with China market access restrictions and tougher regulations locally affecting the company's sales. ...
James Elliott realises John Tamihere's uncosted bridge proposal wasn't actually a metaphor, but a fine example of 'folks is mighty generous with money what they ain’t got'. ...
A new poem by Oamaru-born poet Nick Ascroft.SupermanHalfway up the ascent zigzagging from Royal Terrace to upper Stuart Street carrying four too-heavy grocery bags I begin to understand that I will not make it. My huffing personage – from the fingers, white with the strain, to a face the colour of rhubarb – will ooze into the pavement and roll slowly ...
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in reality television and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s.Sound the alarm, because it’s time for another absolute chaos pod. We’re talking haunted dolls in Waipu, we’re talking giant hands taking over Wellington, we’re talking soft serve cones dipped in powdered Milo. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Press, Adjunct Professor, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania This week, the ABC revealed that the Australian Defence Force wants to roll out military technology in Antarctica. The article raises the issue of what is, or is not, ...
New Zealand teacher aides say their pay reflects an outdated idea of what they do. Elizabeth McLeod hears from four TAs, and one parent, about the classroom realities they face every dayCleaning up poo, defusing violent situations, copping physical and verbal abuse: these are the realities of a teacher aide’s ...
The lanky sidekick from Jono and Ben journeys around New Zealand trying to solve small town problems. Does he succeed?Guy Williams, hardly a shy, retiring type, has been screaming out for his own vehicle for years. A loud, lanky, fearless comic, he’s spent nearly a decade in MediaWorks purgatory, sat ...
Ballot Box.Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – The nature of New Zealand general election campaigns could be significantly changed with the proposed establishment of an “umpire” to adjudicate over political party manifesto policies. A suggestion has been put forward by the Government for the establishment of a parliamentary watchdog ...
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.Ihumātao Delphine Herbert and Dan Satherley (Newshub): Tainui to buy Ihumātao land – sources Danielle ...
Open Mike 13/07/2017 
My wife and I have had dogs for the whole of our 52 years of married life – and that has meant sharing our lives with our little furry friends. Because we usually spend a good part of our evenings watching television, it also means that our dogs have learned ...12 hours ago
. . Former Police, Corrections, and Justice Minister in the previous John Key government, Judith Collins, has been ridiculed on social media after posting a comment on Twitter that was patently untrue; . Wrong!! National did not remove Prisoners’ ability to vote. Parliament voted through a Private Member’s Bill ...2 days ago
Speaker Trevor Mallard was left to look after Jones, while his usual caretaker, Winston Peters, underwent surgery. A truly adorable scene from Parliament yesterday has gone viral, after Speaker Trevor Mallard cradled an extremely drunk Shane Jones in his arms while the House was in session. Loud “awwww”s could be ...2 days ago
Western media have defended their decision not to cover the fires so as not to give them any oxygen. Social media outrage continues to grow around the sentiment that mainstream western media is devoting too little coverage to an ongoing series of fires in the Amazon rainforest, and in doing ...2 days ago
A Long Time Ago, In A Parallel Universe Far, Far Away: The political journalist scratched his head in confusion. Only then did he notice the name of the building: ‘The Jacinda Ardern Presidential Library and Public Resource Centre’. Making his way inside to the information desk, he asked the librarian ...2 days ago
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Nothing from me tody - I'm off to Christchurch to pretend to be other people for a weekend. Normal bloggage should resume on Tuesday. ...2 days ago
Spark is bracing for a customer backlash as rugby fans all across the country struggle to get a picture on their wireless router. With the Rugby World Cup fast approaching, an elderly Taranaki couple are furious after being told that they still won’t be able to watch the tournament, even ...3 days ago
Several explosions have been reported across Auckland, as well-meaning environmentalists have already begun purchasing too much petrol Starting from next week, customers will no longer need a car to purchase petrol directly from the pump, a development that two major fuel providers are billing as an opportunity to help fight ...3 days ago
A new study claims to find that a mother’s exposure to fluoridated water during pregnancy may decrease the IQ of male children – but is it correct? (Photo: Getty Images) Anti-fluoride campaigners are promoting ... 3 days ago
by Jan Rivers More than 30 years ago a Commission of Inquiry was held in New Zealand to investigate, amongst other things, whether women with cervical cancer were aware that they had been part of a research project and whether they were properly informed of the treatment options ...5 days ago
Everyone Wants To Be Fuhrer: When fascist groups are discussed, the image conjured-up in the minds of most New Zealanders is one of pathetic misfits. This negative impression is reinforced by the latter’s idiotic embrace of the swastika. Even in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the baleful legacy ...5 days ago
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...1 week ago
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...1 week ago
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...1 week ago
1 week ago
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...1 week ago
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The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...2 weeks ago
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...2 weeks ago
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I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...2 weeks ago
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This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...2 weeks ago
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Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...2 weeks ago
West Papua solidarity activists met yesterday and resolved to call on the Prime Minister to step up to help resolve the escalating crisis in West Papua. ...5 hours ago
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As a format it predates almost all reality TV, and that’s precisely why it works in 2019, writes Duncan Greive.There’s something deeply comforting about watching Celebrity Treasure Island. It is a very pure form of escapism, largely because it explicitly recalls a world without the internet, and before everything started ...7 hours ago
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Vana Manasiadis wrote a collection of poetry in the wake of her mother’s death. In this essay, ahead of her appearance at the Going West festival, she argues that as a nation Aotearoa needs to learn to make space for mourning. When Mum died in Athens, I cried loudly and publicly ...14 hours 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