So let me get this right. Paual Rebstock, a total hired gun government stooge, is allowed to comer out and accuse people of leaking on no evidence whatsoever beyond the fact that (in one case) they once worked for the Labour party)?
What an outrageous slur! How come she is allowed to do that?
All a red herring focusing on the political affiliation of the leaker.
Brenda Pilot (PSA secretary), has done a selection of tweets on it. Public servants are allowed political affiliations. They should be neutral n expressing advice on policy matters. The issue in question was a restructuring of a department. Public servants should be able to have opinions on that, but increasingly dissent is being suppressed.
Witch-hunts rarely work. The expensive search for the leakers of the Government’s botched plan to revamp Foreign Affairs is no exception. The State Services Commission’s inquiry cost a staggering $500,000 and more than 18 months’ work. It named nobody, although two of the three it casts “strong doubt” on have since been identified as former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Derek Leask, now retired, and New Zealand’s top trade negotiator Nigel Fyfe. The commission built a brewery which produced a pint of beer.
None of this is convincing.
The trouble with the “proper channels” argument is that it ignores the reality of power. The plan to upend the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was a stupid one which would have sacrificed 300 jobs.
[…]
This sort of “consultation” is cant. The judge in the case is also the executioner. It suits his purposes to have the discussion and the executions behind closed doors. It doesn’t suit the victims. And in this case it would clearly have harmed New Zealand’s diplomatic effort as well. So the ministry promptly leaked like a sieve. Why should these decisions, after all, be made in the dark without the public knowing anything?
That is why the leakers could argue they had a wider duty than their narrow duty of loyalty to the Government. Of course bureaucrats should not and must not leak willy-nilly. A broadly impartial public service should be able to be trusted with certain kinds of information.
[…]
In this case there was a wider public duty and therefore the leak was justified. No government has the right to demand silence from the victims of a misbegotten purge. No government should expect the “debate” to be confined to the victims and their executioners. No government should seriously expect this sort of thing not to leak.
I suspect it had to do with being paid half a million dollars and not coming up with a result. The money would have probably been better spent on evaluating why a decision was made to cut trade staff at a time when businesses really needed more effort overseas.
It is to late to tget rid of the neolib in Labour for 2014. With Parker calling the shots on Finance in election year we have to assume Labour is committed to continuing the same failed policies that we have been following since 1984.
There is only one option to ensure the Neolibs are pushed out or at least silenced.
Party Vote Green.
They must have a strong presence around the cabinet table to keep Parker and his dated policies quiet.
Yep, and as more of the Cunliffe converts to the RED Labour Party become disallusioned with business as usual from the party that brought us the Neo-Liberal cluster-f**k in the first place and swing their votes to the Green Party, i can happily vote tactically for the Mana Party to try and bolster their numbers in the next Parliament…
Cunliffe will struggle throughout next year, against a confident John Key, who will mount a pretty convincing scare campaign, while Labour will be, again wishy washy.
It doesnt look like Labour is going to swing left anytime soon anyway. Not while Parker has his way anyway. News of public sector workers getting their pensions slashed in Detroit should have inspired Labour to showcase why our pension system is superior. And any privatisation of retirement income provision will result in pensioners getting bugger all. While Trotters report that Labour doesnt appear to have any enthusasim for fixing the issue of poverty (the blame of while can lie directly at the feet of the Fourth National government, who begun the process of dismantling of our welfare state) should disturb.
A National win next year will have the obvious ramifications for those at the bottom, who will find their incomes held down for the sake of keeping inflation to between 1 and 2% and keeping middle class interest rates low (and delivering National truckloads of votes), the sick, who will bear the brunt of a possible attempt to resurrect the Upton health reforms, union members, who will find their right to join a union in jeapordy, and our environment, which will be choked up with even more crap.
I’ll be doing my damndest to make sure that it doesn’t happen like that, mate. If they show the necessary moral courage and alternative vision, Labour and Greens will take next year, and by a margin too.
There’s been this idea that Labour needs to clear out some old wood. How would that work? Is it something that Cunliffe can do? Or is it a membership issue during the selection process before the next election? Or what?
Weka – its an MP and membership process before selection, and if the dead wood doesn’t want to go, then Labour is stuck with that ! Its very difficult to unseat a current MP who doesn’t want to go.
i wonder if these neo-lib driftwood mp’s are playing the ageism/age-brings-wisdom-card..?
..and normally i wd agree..age is not a reason for them to go..
..the reason for them to go is that these are the faces/mouths who sold that neo-lib/uncaring bullshit from that clark govt for all those years..
..that is why they must go…
..and what compounds this case for their exit..
..is that they not only have not resiled from/apologised for their past errors..
..they are still pushing the same t.i.n.a.-bullshit/lies…
..and reinforcing that tweedle-dee/tweedledum labour/national comparison..
..this is why they must go..
..and as an aside..
..isn’t mallard..up there in his new seat right next to the exit..
..isn’t he so much resembling muldoon in his final days..?
..as he sits up there..with his unkempt hair..
.furiously punching/swiping at his i-pad-screen..
..pretending to be relevant..
..occaisonally having to suppress a roar..
..and just to show how far labour still has to go to become relevant on issues such as poverty..(remember they have their uncaring-history to still overcome..)
..who can forget the sighs of relief from the paganis..and their ilk..
..at the shelving of that ‘radical’-policy of including beneficiary-families in working for families..by 2018..
It’s very necessary but also very hard. For electorates the ball is in the court of each local membership, with Wellington only having a partial say. Cunliffe has minimal or no say in that process. Often times a dozen established members in the local organisation will have the majority of the sway at a selection, and they tend to be loyal to their incumbent through thick and thin. For list candidates the list ranking process is more fluid and Wellington has more influence.
One major problem is that Labour can’t pension MPs off to comfy corporate board jobs in the way that National can.
The Rogernome weeds need a dose of herbicide and the LECs are the ones that can do it.
If say they engage local support in numbers like in Auckland Central days when ‘Mad Dog’ Prebble was ACTing up, hundreds used to turn up at meetings.
The spirit of the more democratic selection rules that enabled the humiliated demoted DC to rise to party leader months later with member and affiliate support, should be grasped by LECs with half a brain or links to lefties in their community. This is a fight to the death for NZ which without a stronger Labour Party will be lost. The Greens can only grow so much further?
Selection should be denied to anyone that does not support a list of basic left policy, which I hope I do not need to list. I would like to see half the caucus with looks on their faces like those candidly photographed in a corridor after David Cunliffe’s election as leader.
The trouble with that assertion Tiger Mountain is that it did not get rid of Prebble. In the end the voters of Auckland Central decided that Sandra Lee was more Labour than Prebble was. Also, Labour activists left his electorate organisation in droves. I chaired the Kingsland branch of the Mt Albert electorate at the time, and of our 105 members, 60 were domiciled across the motorway in Auckland Central. They were not going to work for Prebble and they didn’t vote for him either.
In the final campaign, he had bugger all of an electorate organisation. The TV coverage of election night when he lost Auckland Central showed a dozen or so, mostly older people rattling around in the supper room at Trades Hall.
Yes, people turned out to try and get rid of him, but it was the lack of people to run the campaign that did him in the end when he had no way to counter Sandra Lee’s message or her organisation.
Thanks for responding Lindsey,
Not saying that the large attendance’s removed Richard Prebble, but it certainly indicated interest in the situation. My general view is the more people that get involved in politics the better.
Lindsey implies a very important point. In the Labour system of doing things a shit MP, or shit right wing MP tends to drive away all the good members, leaving a tiny core of loyalists who will keep re-selecting that MP as the next candidate every single time.
Until, as Lindsey points out, the remaining electorate organisation gets so weak, that the Labour MP gets shoved out – by Labour losing the seat.
Seriously, the NATs have this process under far better management.
Ok, but presumably, technically, Cunliffe can remove certain MPs from positions of power within caucus? Or is that power more distrubuted amongst the whole caucus (formally? Informally). What are the ramifications of that?
Numbers. He’s caught up in a numbers game. Trotter did one of his more reasonable pieces on Cunliffe’s situation/predicament the other day. the link if you haven’t read it….
Yeah, good article. I hope he comes back and answers some of the questions about solutions.
Numbers… ok, so Cunliffe requires a certain level of support to function as leader within caucus… does that mean Labour is screwed until the neoliberal faction die out?
Personally I think all this angst over Parker/retirement age is overblown.
As far as I can tell, the subject didn’t get much traction in the media at all.
I’m not that it’s not important, just that folks around this blog have gotten a massive bee in their bonnet about it, and are imagining that it’s something the general public have caught onto and are punishing Labour in the polls for.
Now, certainly, next year when they actually have to address it as part of their election campaign, it definitely will get attention. I just don’t think it is yet.
Yes +1, always so much ado about nothing, it becomes staid; does the ‘intellectual left’ have to think for everybody , or lead them.For goodness sake, wonder what the ‘objectivists’ make of the apparent facts; “thank you very much” not likely.
That inflation is kept low is the prayer of all retired who have to wait a full twelve months for adjustments. The only good thing about inflation is that it makes repayment of debt easier assuming the intake of money matches inflation …. but pensions are slow to do that.
We haven’t had a full year but we have had 5 quarterly drops in the CPI in the last 10 years, at least that is the number I see in a cursory glance at the Stats website.
Q4 in each of 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012. The drops were very minor and I don’t think anyone was going to note a vast rise in their standard of living.
I imagine every economist would agree that deflation is a very serious problem in terms of its economic results. Inflation can be catered for but deflation of any magnitude over an extended period is a disaster.
I am getting very nervous about the 2014 prospects.
At the beginning of 1999 and 2008, Labour and National respectivley had taken control of the MSM’s narrative of how the election year would play out. In both cases they were in opposition but were generally viewed on as Government in Waiting and were enjoying massive popular support in the polls.
The left block is marginally ahead at the moment. But the MSM does not realise that we live in a MMP world and as such report it as a National v Labour race. In that race there is only one player.
The media is powerful. For the majority of people their only exposure to Wellington is what Paddy and Corrin tell them each night at 6pm.
In 1999 and 2008 we were being told the incumbets were dog tucker. As 2014 dawns we don’t have that message.
Weird stuff happening when I click on comments in the right sidebar today. Sometimes I get taken to the Post heading, not the commenter’s remarks. And the next time I look, the commenter’s disappeared, then reappeared with other more recent commenters, then disappeared again…gremlins?
Not sure. But there was a security upgrade to wordpress last night (which took 2 hours to run through our database by the look of it), and a new version of wordpress installed this morning.
Nothing showed up when testing the betas\. But I’ll have a look at it.
Yeah my tests show the same. Rather than being a server generated error it could just be something local on your browser as well.
Have to say that the new backend is really nice so far. I also took the opportunity to change the color pattern to “coffee”. I think I was craving caffeine at the time.
Outrage after impostor hijacks Mandela memorial service
11 December 2013
“He was moving his hands around, but there was no meaning”; “What happened at the memorial service is truly a disgraceful thing to see”; “Disgusting”; “Shameful hypocrisy” and “It should not happen at all.”
Those are just a few of the angry comments following an outrageous performance by an impostor at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela.
I was being slightly ironic due to the likelihood of embarrassment to the establishment of that fact being known, you know, cos of the funeral and eulogies and stuff.
This bit (unfortunately glossing over a momentous fuck up on the part of the ANC during negotiations on the hand-over of power, but pertinent nonetheless)…a lesson for everyone on why political freedom should never be pursued separately from economic freedom.
There have been important social advances since the democratic transformation of the early 1990s, from water and power supply to housing and education. And in the global climate of the early 90s, it’s perhaps not surprising that the ANC bent to the neoliberal flood tide, putting its Freedom Charter calls for public ownership and redistribution of land on the back burner. But the price has been to entrench racial economic division, unemployment and corruption, while failing to attract the expected direct foreign investment.
Great read Morrissey. Of course the hypocrisy exercised by our PM and past National leaders is galling as well. Suppose they would class it as being pragmatic in a dynamic world that politicians inhabit.
Speaking of sickening displays of hypocrisy, Hoots was oozing over Public Address, saying how he admired Nelson Mandela because he was a champion of freedom, just like Reagand and Thatcher.
That’s how the right typically works: call them a terrorist or a lunatic, then if they win and eventualy die, appropriate and sanitize their memory and then use it as a stick to beat their successors.
On a smaller scale, arsewipes like Hoots were continually attacking Rod Donald and when they’d hounded him to his grave, imediately they were calling his successors dangerous and unreasonable, not like that lovely chap Donald.
Yeah I read that sick shit too, what a load of 3rd form dribble. The praise from other commentators has been illuminating and increased the feeling of nausea, but I’m pleased he’s found a home.
How do people like Hooton wake up in the morning?
He is intelligent and must know what he is doing. He must know that the policies he proposes harm the weak and the vulnerable.
Is it vanity? His career? A desire to feather his own nest no matter what the consequences to otherwise? A game?
Appreciate that no honest answer will eventuate but it does make me think.
Not only do you cut and paste, you do it a full 24hrs behind everybody else.
Look carefully, my friend: it’s not a cut and paste. It’s my own work.
But let’s return to your original, in this case unjustified, complaint: even if it were simply a cut-and-paste, that would have been very fast for me, Dumrse. There are no time limits on classy writing. And, come to think of it, there are no time limits even on writing by the likes of Paul Thomas, Jack Tame or Kerre ohoWmad.
Not a good week for satire—not that Kathryn Ryan would know that
Radio NZ National, Friday 13 December 2013
Very interesting interview with Civilian proprietor and panda-bother Ben Uffindell this morning. He’s a bright and funny guy, and had some interesting things to say.
However, I’m not convinced that Kathryn Ryan is quite up to the task of interviewing him. She’s an Obama-cultist, like her braindead U.S. correspondent Louisa Savage, Bruce Springsteen, Oprah Winfrey and (most notoriously) that hapless high priest of Obama-worship, Jim Mora. That means that she has voluntarily—or was it unwittingly?—removed a key section of her brain, namely that bit responsible for critical thinking and the recognition of irony, murderous hypocrisy and rancid insincerity.
And true enough, just as I suspected, in an ill-advised attempt to make intelligent conversation, Ms. Ryan dived in and made a really stupid statement. Speaking slowly and carefully in a low voice, to indicate how assiduously she had been thinking, she said: “New Zealand doesn’t have a rich tradition of satire like other countries do. Why do you think that is?”
In a week of Stalin-style worship of the self-appointed chief mourner at the “memorial service” for a real hero, this is perhaps the worst time ever to claim that “other countries” have a “rich tradition of satire.”
Shocked and concerned at Kathryn Ryan’s lack of any sense of irony, I flicked her the following email….
Dear Kathryn,
During your interview with Ben Uffindell, you claimed that New Zealand does not have “a rich tradition of satire like other countries do”.
In a week where the sanctimonious oratory in Johannesburg by a major impostor has been slavishly praised by mainstream commentators, and a minor signing-impostor has been showered with hectoring opprobrium, it is quite clear that satire is dead in South Africa, Britain and the United States as well as in New Zealand.
Even though he clearly didn’t want to open up that can of worms, Ben Uffindell is no doubt aware of the absurdity of the Obama cult; I wonder if you and your colleagues at Radio NZ National are.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
Keep listening, guys. She might read it out. Maybe….
The only time worth listening to n2n or afternoons Rhino, is when a locum is in place – a Lynne Freeman or a Brennan – both superior to the comfortably off.
The only good thing about Ryan is that she seems to have negotiated a HUGE amount of annual leave, OR she has some dreadful illness such that RNZ management feel sorry for her and tolerate her frequent absences.
Roll on ‘silly season’ afternoons. This ‘hater’ is anxious to see the nicest man on Earth get a well deserved break when he can spend some quality time with his nicest woman on Earth wife.
(Silence, and the sound of birds in the trees is often worthwhile, especially as I cast my eyes across Wgtn city towards RNZ House where that regular gal tries to pretend she abides by BBC style values of ‘journalistic integrity’).
Plastic. Anti-septic. Comfortable. Unchallenging. Nice. Super-nice. Intellectual bubblegum for the ears. Mundane. Faux empathy. In-touch with the people. Egotistical Linguistic Gymnastics. “Issssssyoos’. Diction. Wanna beed wannabees that wanna came and wanna cconquered. The bestest bestEST ever song ever FORever written – ALL of them supposedly the bEST. Experts in all things – from where Mavis from the Catlins to comfy Pete from Otorahanga come from. Familiarity. Did I mention the niceness?
How the two of them EVER managed to negotiate their comfy little pozzies in our ‘public service’ radio broadcaster is beyond me – especially when their frequent locums outshine them everytime
Thank Christ for the off switch though eh? Only slightly better than the other noise on the AM/FM spectrum
The trouble is that this short-term neurological arousal has long-term consequences. Firstly, it can cause desensitisation to the same erotic simuli that turned you on recently and, over the longer term, it can cause a greater likelihood of sexual dysfunction.
And not all porn is equal. Like Wolf, Cindy Gallop talks about how easy access to hardcore porn has changed many men’s ideas about what sex is (and not for the better).
The problem seems to be to do with the commodification of porn, the ease of distributing it online, and the addictive nature of images and videos that intensify sensation arousal.
And, yes, I imagine that similar processes work in advertising, and a lot of popular culture that aims to maximise audience share.
It takes one to know one. true or not.
I know Camille Nakhid even though I have never met her. she wants special privileges for herself and friends and what she wants is not democracy but oriental potentate style decison making on a friends and friends basis. another naked grab for power.
News of the New Zealand Customs stealing seizing all electronic equipment from returning Kiwi Sam Blackman has made its way into the headlines over at The Guardian:
. . . A New Zealand man returning home from London for Christmas has claimed he had all his electronic items confiscated at Auckland airport because he attended a debate on mass surveillance at which Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger spoke about the Snowden revelations . . .
The European parliament has voted to formally invite Edward Snowden to give testimony on NSA spying, despite opposition from conservative MEPs. If the US whistleblower provides answers to the questions compiled by parliamentarians in time, a hearing via video link could take place in early January.
It had looked on Wednesday as if European conservatives were trying to kick the hearing into the long grass. The European People’s party (EPP), the alliance of centre-right parties, had raised a number of concerns about inviting Snowden for a hearing, noting that it could endanger the transatlantic trade agreement with the US.
For a big picture view of the goings on, digby riffs off an interview with Glenn Greenwald exploring the how the USA Surveillance State reflects the panoptican model:
. . . The Panopticon is a type of institutional building designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century. The concept of the design is to allow a single watchman to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) inmates of an institution without them being able to tell whether they are being watched or not. Although it is physically impossible for the single watchman to observe all cells at once, the fact that the inmates cannot know when they are being watched means that all inmates must act as though they are watched at all times, effectively controlling their own behavior constantly . . .
whitewashing of what? Brown found not to have misused council resources in conducting his 2 year affair with Bevan Chuang, and not to have issued references etc inappropriately.
No he won’t. Brown’s press release in response to the report. He does an apology, but clearly doesn’t aim to resign.
“The report notes that over a three-year period I, and my family, stayed privately in hotels in central Auckland on a number of occasions. The arrangements for these hotels were made privately in most cases, and in all cases payment was made privately.
“My reason for staying in the central city is that I often work until late in the evening – attending meetings, functions or civic events – and I start work early the next morning, often for media interviews or breakfast events. A significant number of these rooms were also booked and used privately by me and my family.
“I was not charged for nine of these hotel rooms, including one occasion in relation to Ms Chuang.
“As the report notes, I never used council resources for private accommodation or in relation to Ms Chuang, and I do not hold a council credit card.
“However, I accept that as Mayor I am subject to a higher standard of public accountability, and in this context I should not have accepted the free rooms offered to me, and should have disclosed this fact when I was asked about it in October.
“This was an error of judgement and I apologise to the people of Auckland.
“I remain totally focussed on the issues that matter most to Aucklanders, including improving our transport system, tackling Auckland’s housing crisis and continuing to invest in our future.”
Hopefully this sets up the possibility for a new left wing candidate, whenever the next Auckland Council election is held. More importantly, Brown let us down over Ports of Auckland. He tends to bow to the neoliberal agenda too often. The search for a new left candidate should start now.
tinfoilhat, if we apply your logic to our politicians in general then 90% of them are scum.
You really need to open your eyes a bit fella/felless. It’s been going on since NZ’s first parliamentary precinct. The walls of the current precinct – including the Beehive – could tell a thousand stories worse than Len Brown.
As I commented the other day, all Brown has to do is copy John Banks, who has set the precedent for heroic “resignations” … i.e not resigning at all, just saying “I won’t bother standing next time”. (Of course, unlike actual resignations, such a promise can be reversed at any time).
Having said that, I’m now (drumroll …) withdrawing my defence of Brown. (Shock news – reporters will be banging on my door shortly, pictures at six!).
I was strongly opposed to the idea that he should be “guilty” of having sex outside marriage, because then there would have to be mass resignations from Parliament and the country would be run by eunuchs in hair-shirts.
But he’s abused his position re- the hotel rooms (the phone stuff doesn’t matter so much, almost everyone uses a work phone or computer for private use).
So he’s been an idiot and less than honest, he’s made his (hotel room) bed and can lie in it. I won’t be shouting “Resign!”, but if he does, so be it.
He may not lose his job. But he has lost my respect.
Duh, you can’t own up to gifts of luxury hotel room stays if you want to have a secret affair on the sly 😈
The main question mark over Brown’s competence is – how the hell can you traipse in and out of 5 star hotels at random times of day and night and then not expect anyone to find out??? Literally dozens of people, many of them hotel staff, must have known something was up.
It’s very interesting that this was kept under the radar for as long as it did – did journos sit on the story?
not good at all. Never been a supporter of the man, just a critic of the political subterfuge against him. Been a rapid-fire year politically; the speed of ‘progress’.
Len brown has received free hotel rooms and room upgrades from SkyCity valued at $6150 and made more than 1000 private calls to Miss Chuang from his council phone.
I agree he has to go now. That’s corruption.
But I also think that there should be an investigation into what sort of freebies have John Keys and his Tory cronies received from Sky City in return for changing the nation’s gambling laws and giving preferential treatment to one company competing with others for building the Convention centre.
Has anyone ever looked into that? I have more than once seen pictures of smiling Key and Missus at the Sky City centre.
Slater would have served democracy better by focusing on the gifts, hotel rooms etc,instead of wallowing in the sleaze of sexual affairs. He has muddied the waters.
He broke story, if he’d done nothing Len would still be there…not that I expect Len to resign because like any good leftie hes got it to good to want to leave voluntarily
That tendency has nothing to do with whether one’s a rightie or a leftie – it has to do with salary, ego, and lack of personal integrity. Something we tolerate as a nation, so it continues.
Yes. But all he’s done is open the way for a new, fresh left wing candidate. Slater’s objective looked to be to stop Brown being returned as Mayor and/or to get his preferred candidate elected mayor. On that he has failed. And he’s weakened his position for using any further smear campaigns.
“This was an error of judgement and I apologise to the people of Auckland.
“I remain totally focussed on the issues that matter most to Aucklanders, including improving our transport system, tackling Auckland’s housing crisis and continuing to invest in our future.”
This afternoon, someone drew my attention to Hooton’s post. Shocked by not only Hooton’s cynicism, but the drippily supportive responses for his cant by the likes of Hebe [1] and Craig Ranapia [2] I decided it was time to make my Public Address debut. This is what I wrote….
Some time soon, I’ll post a more thorough parsing of this bizarre concoction of sentimental posturing and cynical falsehoods, but right now I’ll deal with two statements that stand out above all the rest….
1.) “….he was alongside Reagan, Thatcher and Gorbachev in the sense of bringing tyranny to an end….”
That is not true. I’ll put Gorbachev to one side here, as I know as much about him as Barack Obama knows about irony.
Let’s just deal with Reagan and Thatcher: they were the polar opposites of Mandela, who was a democrat and a champion of human rights and justice. Reagan and Thatcher openly sneered at such notions. Reagan’s scofflaw regime backed and organized a brutal terrorist campaign in Nicaragua, for which it was found guilty in the International Criminal Court in 1986, and was an active backer of Saddam Hussein, the apartheid South African regime that imprisoned Mandela, Chile, Indonesia and Israel, as well as many other brutal anti-democratic governments and dictatorships. Thatcher supported all of the above, and even managed to go one better, when she announced her endorsement of the Khmer Rouge. Even Reagan wasn’t that shameless, or that foolish.
2.) “Mandela was a guy who would do attack ads with the best (or worst!) of them.”
Clearly, the implication Hooton wants us to draw here is that because Mandela was a robust and lively politician, that somehow makes him comparable to the likes of Hooton’s scurrilous friend John Ansell, the director of National’s attack ad campaigns and the genius behind National’s race-baiting “Iwi/Kiwi” campaign in 2005. Ansell is a notorious antagonist and hater of all things Māori (he was and no doubt still is a supporter of Alan Titford)—and Mandela has nothing in common with him.
Good on you Morrissey, the luvvies at PA will be pleased to welcome you aboard am sure. Rusty’s attack poodle Mr Ranapia will be snapping at your heels shortly.
Hooten is certainly a piece of work. “Gorby” was a Soviet sellout who basically greased the path for oligarchs that appropriated the state property that was worth having.
“They can do that, they have absolutely no reason not to. I can assure Mr Cunliffe the books are in tip top condition – that is the polar opposite position to what they were in when we became the Government.
I want to stress that New Zealand starts from a reasonable position in dealing with the uncertainty of our economic outlook…. In New Zealand we have room to respond. This is the rainy day that Government has been saving up for…
I have just been reading the Anadarko emergency response plan.
Tier 1- Anadarko cleans it up
Tier 2- Regional councils clean it up
Tier 3- Maritime NZ in charge of clean up,
The new rules giving beefed up powers to local body Mayors in New Zealand is really working well in Hamilton at the expense of democracy. It’s a recipe for disaster and a sad day for ratepayers, as they are the losers in all of this. The Mayor can now choose the Deputy Mayor, determine committee structure and appoint members. In the past the will of voters as expressed at the ballot box saw the highest polling councillor appointed deputy mayor and high polling councillors being appointed to chairmanships of significant committees. Sadly, this seems to have all gone out the window in Hamilton and no account has been taken of the poll results in these appointments. This is a real slap in the face for ratepayers and we now have an excellent example of empire building going on at City Hall.
In today’s Waikato Times we read that the Mayor is now to have five staff members costing ratepayers $365,000 a year. http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/9511892/Hardaker-spends-up-big-on-spin-doctor
Despite having a significant Public Relations team already in place in the council organisation, she wants her own “spin doctor”. Is this to massage the truth perhaps?
This all comes with a background of Hamilton City Council having a massive debt ($440 million), caused by the frivolous spend up by a previous council on the V8 racing fiasco and an event centre. There have also been many staff made redundant and budgets have been slashed, services have been severely curtailed and service fees increased, all in the quest to “balance the books”.
Added to this, only a small percentage of eligible voters chose to exercise their voting right. They have no room for complaint. It’s the likes of us who did bother to vote that have to live with the consequences.
Good stuff here by Gareth Hughes – this report should open some eyes and solidify resolve.
Interestingly Anadarko itself models a higher flow rate for an oil spill than Greenpeace did in their report and it shows the Government were wrong to attack Greenpeace as ‘scaremongering,’ when in fact they were being conservative with their numbers. Even the Texan cowboys Anadarko say if there is a deep sea well blowout there is a 2/3 chance we could see oil wash up on our beaches!
I can’t help thinking there is a headline out there somewhere that looks a bit like…..Phil Goff teaches public servants how to behave in a treacherous manner.
As you say, the electorate vote breakdowns are telling with only Epsom and Tamaki Yes votes exceeding No votes – but not by much.
Epsom 54.6% Yes; 45.0% No
Tamaki 53.2% Yes; 46.4% No
The Maori electorates are amazing with all seven recording No votes in the 90% ranging from 91.0% to 94.7% – although turnout was slightly lower than the overall rate, ranging from 28.9% to 33.5%.
Yes, but I felt forced.
With the Greens abusing the citizens initiated referendum I felt that I had no choice but to wallow in shit and participate in this whole charade.
Once again, Boooo to you Greens, you disgraceful excuse of a political party.
Apparently Anadarko considers Greenpeace’s level of risk assessment as valid, despite the PM calling them extreme case scenarios/alarmist.
The information being released on a Friday. I suppose leaving this to next week or early in the New Year was rejected as being too obvious a low publicity disclosure.
Recently more than 150 post-graduate students and young scientists presented an open letter to the Green Party via The Spinoff, encouraging them to reconsider their position on genetic modification. Their target is tackling climate change issues.[1] Can any party continue to be dismissive about genetic modification (GM) contributing to ...
by Deirdre O’Neill Under Thatcher and then Blair and continuing up until our contemporary moment, the working class has seen its culture slowly and progressively destroyed. The change from an industrial society to a service society produced a marked shift in focus from the working class as the backbone of ...
Since 2013, the Australian government has detained refugees without trial in Pacific gulags, where they are abused, tortured, and driven to suicide. The policy is not just an abuse of human rights and possible crime against humanity; it has also had a corrosive effect on the states Australia uses as ...
It seems fair to say that we currently live in a problematic political moment in world history. Democracies are in decline and dictatorships are on the rise. Primordial, sectarian and post-modern divisions have re-emerged, are on the rise or have been accentuated by political evolutions of the moment such as ...
Last month, Greenpeace head Russel Norman surrendered his speaking slot at an EPA conference to student climate activist Sorcha Carr, who told the EPA exactly what she thought of them. It was a bold move, which confronted both regulators and polluters (or, as the EPA calls them, "stakeholders") with the ...
The core principle supposedly underlying New Zealand's electoral finance regime is transparency: parties can accept large donations from rich people wanting to buy policy, but only if they tell the public they've been bought. Most parties abide by this, so we know that TOP was wholly-owned by Gareth Morgan, and ...
Today is a Member's Day, probably the second-to-last one of the year, and its a big one, with the Third Reading of David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill. last Member's Day it was reported back from committee, after MPs voted narrowly to make it subject to a (rules TBA) ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzThe growth of the human population over the last 70 ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women In her excellent oral submission to the Abortion reform select committee on 31st October on behalf of Otago University’s Department of Public Health, historian and public health researcher Hera Cook stated: “We would ask that the committee not use the term ‘pregnant persons’ and ...
by Don Franks In 1957, E M Forster wrote, of his greatest work: “The India described in ‘A Passage to India’ no longer exists either politically or socially. Change had begun even at the time the book was published ( 1924) and during the following quarter of a century it ...
The Referendums Framework Bill was due back from select committee today. But there's no report on it. Instead, the bill has been bounced back to the House under Standing order 29593) because the Committee didn't bother to produce one. They probably tried. But given the membership of the committee (which ...
Two years into New Zealand’s Labour-led government, the long-delayed Zero Carbon Bill became law on 7 November. Passed essentially unanimously, the lengthy public debates and political manoeuvring faded away until the final passage was even anticlimactic: Flipping through the @nzstuff@DomPost I was starting to wonder if I’d dreamt ...
Now the Zero Carbon Bill is law, what's next? Obviously, the ETS changes currently before select committee are going to be the next battleground. But we're also going to get a good idea of where we're going, and if the progress the Zero Carbon Act promises is good enough, during ...
Grant PearceThe effects of the current Australian bushfires in New South Wales and Queensland (and also again in California) are devastating and far-reaching. To date, the fires have resulted in several lives being lost and many homes and properties destroyed. Here in New Zealand, the impacts have been only ...
A passing comment in a post the other day about the labour force participation rates of older people prompted me to pull down the fuller data and see what we could see about various participation rates over the decades since the HLFS began in 1986. As it happens, the ...
Distract And Divert: The rise of what we have come to call “Identity Politics” represents the ideological manifestation of the ruling class’s objective need to destroy class politics, and of the middle-class’s subjective need to justify their participation in the process.THE RELIEF of the ruling class can only be imagined. ...
"I saw a newspaper picture,From the political campaignA woman was kissing a child,Who was obviously in pain.She spills with compassion,As that young child'sFace in her hands she gripsCan you imagine all that greed and avariceComing down on that child's lips?" ...
Dr Matt Boyd, Prof Michael Baker, Prof Nick WilsonThe Global Health Security Index which considers pandemic threats has just been published. Unfortunately, NZ scores approximately half marks (54/100), coming in 35th in the world rankings – far behind Australia. This poor result suggests that the NZ Government needs to ...
The Zero Carbon Act is inadequate, with a weak methane target designed to give farmers a free ride. But it turns out it could have been worse: Climate Change Minister James Shaw was so desperate to get National on board, he wanted to gut that target, and leave it in ...
The Herald reprints an Australian story on a couple of tragic deaths in Bali from drinking cocktails that had methanol in them. The story argues that methanol is likely the result of home distillation. But what the young tourists were experiencing was far from a hangover. They’d consumed a toxic cocktail ...
Last month, the police announced a trial of specialist roaming armed units, which would drive round (poor, brown) areas in armoured SUVs, armed to the teeth. When they announced the trial, they told us it was about having armed police "ready to attend major incidents at any time if needed". ...
Spain went to the polls today in the second elections this year, after the Socialists (who had come to power in a confidence vote, then gone to the polls in April) rejected the offer of a coalition with the left-wing PoDemos, and instead decided to gamble n a better outcome ...
A couple of days ago I attended (and spoke at) the University of Waikato’s “LearnFest” event. There were lots of talks and sessions on very diverse aspects of teaching, mostly at tertiary level. One was by Myra Williamson from Te Piringa Faculty of Law here at Waikato, on Contract Cheating ...
There will be a transit of Mercury – the planet Mercury will pass across the face of the Sun – taking place at sunrise in New Zealand on Tuesday, 12th November. It was by observing such an event 250 years ago that James Cook and his scientist colleagues were able ...
Since becoming the world’s first openly transexual mayor and member of parliament, Georgina Beyer has been recognised as a trailblazer for trans rights. Daphna Whitmore talks with her about where she sees the current trans movement We start out talking about legislation the government put on hold that would have ...
If FFNZ really put their faith in “Top Medical Journals” they would now be amending their billboards to recognise new research results. Image from FFNZ but updated to agree with the latest research. ...
National Messiah? Chris Luxon identifies himself as an evangelical Christian. If he is genuine in this self-characterisation, then he will take every opportunity his public office provides to proselytise on behalf of his faith. He will also feel obliged to bear witness against beliefs and practices he believes to be ...
I'm going to make a Reckless Prediction™ that the Tories have 'topped out' in the 'poll of polls' / Britain Elects multipoll tracker at about 38%, and in the next week we will start to see Labour creep up on them.In fact, we might just be seeing the start of ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Lizzie Marvelly: “I may have missed this… has @afterellen gone all terf-y? Or am I reading something incorrectly? “ https://twitter.com/LizzieMarvelly/status/1191840059105742849 After Ellen is a lesbian website that is unashamedly pro-lesbian, as you’d expect. So why is Ms Marvelly so bothered about lesbians having their ...
Did you know there once was a time when it was illegal to be a gypsy (aka Romani) in Britain?That was between 1530, when the Egyptians Act was passed, and 1856, when it was repealed.Amongst other things, the act forbade the entry of 'Egyptians' into England, ordered those already there ...
Some days I sit and think, “what will I write…?” What do you say when you get to 1000 posts? Maybe you just start where you are, diverge to where this all began, then offer a collection of reader’s favourite posts, and a few of your own? (And throw in ...
Counter-Puncher: The “activists” and “radicals” (his own words) from the Indian community who took such strong exception to Shane Jones’ remarks about Immigration NZ’s treatment of arranged marriages, may end up bitterly regretting their intervention. Jones is not the sort of person who turns the other cheek to his critics.SHANE ...
In the spirit of Remember, remember the fifth of November, let's keep this in mind FOREVER.
Oh dear. Extraordinary interview on PM with Andrew Bridgen and @EvanHD just now. Bridgen was defending Jacob Rees Mogg’s Grenfell comments. Evan asked him if JRM had meant to say he would have left ...
Collision Course? In conditions of ideological white-out, the international bankers’ “Woop-Woop! Pull Up!” warning may have come too late to save global capitalism.WHAT DOES IT MEAN when international bankers are more willing to embrace radical solutions than our politicians and their electors? At both the International Monetary Fund and the ...
Pertussis (whooping cough) is a conundrum. It is a disease that was described hundreds of years ago and the bacteria that causes it (Bordetella pertussis) isolated in 1906. We have had vaccines for about 80 years but this disease is defiant in the face of human immunity. I wanted to ...
The Zero Carbon Bill has just passed its third reading, uanimously. In the end, National supported it - but we all know they'll turn around and gut it the moment they regain power. Meanwhile, I guess ACT's David Seymour didn't even bother to show up. I am on record as ...
Dr Lindsay Robertson, Dr Jerram Bateman, Professor Janet HoekMembers of the public health community hold divergent views on how access to vaping products or electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) products should be arranged. Some believe ENDS should be as widely available as smoked tobacco and argue for liberal ...
When the Police were trying to cover up for the National Party over Dirty Politics, they went all-in with their abuses of power. They illegally search Nicky Hager's house, violating his journalistic privilege and invading his privacy. They unlawfully acquired Hager's bank records. They did the same to left-wing blogger ...
Last month, in response to a wave of protests by Extinction Rebellion, the British government purported to ban their protests from the whole of London. It was a significant interference with the freedoms of expression and assembly, and another sign of the country's decline into tyranny. But now, a court ...
Last year, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security reported on significant problems with the intelligence warrant system. While they were unwilling to declare any warrant "irregular" (meaning unlawful) due to the recent law change, they were also not willing to give the system a clean bill of health. Now, they've ...
The National Party has come out in support of encouraging greater vaccination uptake. But it sure isn’t the way I’d do it. National’s suggested docking the benefits of those on benefit whose kids aren’t keeping up with their vaccinations. Some in National have suggested extending that to payments under Working ...
Feeding The Flames: It is simply not enough to demand an end to “corruption”, or “inequality”, or the overbearing influence of the authorities in Beijing. These are just “lowest common denominator” demands: the sort of slogans that pull people onto the streets. They are not a plan.WHERE’S THE PLAN? Across ...
The labour market statistics have been released, and unemployment has risen to 4.2%. There are 115,000 unemployed - 11,000 fewer than when Labour took office. In that time the minimum wage has gone up by $2 an hour, which shows that the right's fears about increases causing unemployment are simply ...
The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee has called for submissions on Andrew Little's tyrannicalTerrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill. Normally I encourage participation in the democratic process. I am not doing so in this case. Instead, I encourage all of you to boycott this submissions process, and to post ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzIf tiny concentrations of carbon dioxide can hold enough heat ...
Aviation is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and within it, one of the fastest sources is elite travel: billionaires flitting around the world in their private jets, spewing excessive pollution into the atmosphere just so they can avoid mixing with us dirty peasants. But in ...
That's what we face if we don't stop climate change, according to a warning from 11,000 scientists:The world’s people face “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless there are major transformations to global society, according to a stark warning from more than 11,000 scientists. “We declare clearly and unequivocally ...
by Phil Duncan Here’s just a few of the kind of threats issued day in and day out against gender-critical women – feminists, marxists, etc – overwhelmingly by MEN (albeit men identifying as women). “Kill all Terfs”. “Shoot a Terf today”. “All terfs deserve to be shot in the head”. ...
This is the third of the synopses of parts of the opening chapter of John Smith’s Imperialism in the 21st Century (New York, Monthly Review Press, 2016). The synopsis and commentary below is written by Phil Duncan. Unlike the humble cup of coffee and t-shirt that we looked at in ...
Tom MooreTraditionally a food source and cutting tool, freshwater mussels/kākahi are now widely valued as water filters that help clean our waterbodies and maintain ecosystem health throughout Aotearoa. The improvement they provide in water quality can make it easier for other animals to live in streams and rivers, as ...
And to think he gave all the potential goodwill away with that moronic, cult-like statement (repeated ad nauseam by many National hardliners) that Key is quite simply “the greatest PM we ever had”…Installation complete: this was nothing ...
The Zero Carbon Bill is back in the House today for its second reading. While this isn't the final stage, its still effectively D-Day for the bill. Because today, at around 5pm, is when we're going to find out if it has a majority, whether National will support it or ...
Winston Peters is in court today, suing a bunch of former Minister and civil servants over their pre-election leak of his superannuation repayment. He's characterised the leak as malicious, and said that it is repugnant that his information was passed on to Ministers to use for political advantage. And he's ...
Murray CoxDo I have to finish my favourite genome? That’s an often-asked question. Geneticists generally strive to produce high-quality genomes that sequence every last gene, making full use of the state-of-the-art technologies coming on stream. Sequencing DNA means determining the order of the four chemical building blocks – called ...
Transformative Politics: The idea is to turn each recipient into an unwitting accomplice in their own transformation. From interested observer to hyped-up activist, sharing our messages promiscuously with ‘friends’. You’ll be part of an ever-expanding circulatory system, Jennifer, for the ideas that will win us the election.”JENNIFER SKITTERED her chair ...
The boycott is a fundamental tool of protest. By choosing who we buy from, we can send a message, and hopefully change corporate behaviour. Historically, boycotts have been effective, for example over apartheid in South Africa and Israel, in forcing divestment from Myanmar, and in ending bus segregation in the ...
Jan Rivers spoke at the Abortion Legislation Select Committee in favour of the bill, but in opposition to calls from other submitters to exchange the word ‘woman’ for ‘person’ throughout the bill. Jan is a supporter of the feminist group Speak Up For Women and has recently written an excellent ...
I checked my traffic stats:I was intrigued by 'monica29' - who was this very dedicated individual? I clicked on the link, to be greeted with ...Ho, hum.Spreadin' the word, spreadin' the word. Doesn't matter who hears it, as long as it gets out there. ...
There have been three polls since the election was announced, and I will shamelessly steal YouGov / UK Polling Report's Anthony Wells' summary of them:Survation – CON 34%, LAB 26%, LDEM 19%, BREX 12%, GRN 1% Ipsos MORI – CON 41%, LAB 24%, LDEM 20%, BREX 7%, GRN 3% YouGov ...
The following article is translated from Lutte Ouvrière, the weekly newspaper of the organisation usually known by the same name in France. When, for the second time this year, Chilean President Piñera announced an increase in the price of Metro tickets from 800 to 830 pesos, students in the high ...
Today, a worker contacted me asking if she could go to the police over her employer stealing thousands of dollars from her in unpaid wages. The employer also did not pay this worker’s taxes or student loan which amounts to tax fraud. As a workers rights activist, who founded the ...
Signed, Sealed, Delivered, They're Yours: Is there any person more vulnerable than a jilted lover on the rebound? Or, anything more certain than that the charmer, the predator, the glib spinner of lies and promises will seek such broken people out? Yes, of course, he will love every one of ...
Though Jonathan Romain is a fairly high profile Rabbi, writing in several papers and popping up on TV and the radio, this story doesn't seem to have made it to the Guardian yet, so I'll take the unusual step of linking the Stephen Pollard edited Jewish Chronicle:Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain ...
There's an election afoot, and that is when noted opinion formers such as myself get to make wild fools of ourselves by pretending we have the faintest idea what will happen.So, here is my absurdly optimistic prediction:Labour - 285Conservative - 262SNP - 53Lib Dems - 20PC - 5Ireland - 18 ...
Image Credit:Increase Social Media Traffic & Website Traffic I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your ...
Belinda CridgeI was reading my son a story last night. A great tale of derring-do of five mountaineers scaling the Matterhorn for the first time. One in the party had tried six times previously and failed, this was the last attempt before winter closed another season. They tried a ...
As introduced, the Zero Carbon Bill included an expansive secrecy clause, which would have covered virtually all decisions by the Climate Change Commission over our most important policy area. The Ministry for the Environment admitted this was a mistake (or as they put it, an "oversight"), and the select committee ...
Rachael Shaw, Victoria University of WellingtonWhen we think about animals storing food, the image that usually comes to mind is a squirrel busily hiding nuts for the winter. We don’t usually think of a small songbird taking down an enormous invertebrate, tearing it into pieces and hiding these titbits ...
. . NZ First’s success in putting the euthenasia bill to a public referenda may not be the victory they believe it to be. They may even have sounded the death-knell for a second Labour-NZ First-Green coalition. On 23 July this year, NZ First MP, Jenny Marcroft, submitted a Supplementary ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First backs the public to decide on the End of Life Choice Bill via a referendum at the 2020 General Election. The Bill, with New Zealand First’s referendum provision incorporated, passed its final reading in Parliament this evening. New Zealand First Spokesperson for ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Justice New Zealand First is proud that a key Coalition Agreement commitment which will provide for a more transparent and effective criminal justice system has been realised. Legislation to establish the Criminal Cases Review Commission, an independent body focused on identifying and responding to possible miscarriages of ...
"Today we have made a choice that will leave a legacy... I hope that means that future generations will see that we, in New Zealand, were on the right side of history." - Jacinda Ardern, Third Reading of the Zero Carbon Bill ...
Darroch Ball, New Zealand First List MP A Member’s bill has been proposed that would provide income tax exemptions for all New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel while on operational deployment overseas. The Income Tax (Exemption for Salary or Wages of NZDF Members on Active Deployment) Amendment Bill proposed by New Zealand First ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have brought common sense to the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, which passed its final reading in Parliament today. Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters says months of hard work went into negotiating a balanced ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First has listened to calls to recognise paramedics as registered health professionals under the Health Practitioners’ Competence Assurance Act (the Act).Today, the Coalition Government announced plans for paramedics to be registered as health practitioners under the Act, and the establishment of a ...
We began the week by commemorating the New Zealand Wars and celebrating a major increase in the number of teachers. Then, we were busy supporting offenders into work and getting our rail back on track after years of underinvestment. And that's just the start! ...
In October I was sworn in as the Mayor of Lower Hutt.It’s the privilege of my life to serve Hutt people as their Mayor. There is something really special to be able to serve the community where I was raised, and where I live. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Racing Racing Minister Winston Peters met with Korea Racing Authority Chairperson Nak Soon Kim in Seoul today to discuss closer cooperation between the New Zealand and Korean horse racing industries. As part of the visit to the Seoul Racecourse, Mr Peters witnessed ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $10 million to establish Otago as the centre of New Zealand’s creative digital industry over the next ten years, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “The initiative will bring us closer to the vision of ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)’s skills and employment programme will help young Otago people into long-term forestry careers, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. Te Ara Mahi will invest $63,000 in the 2020 school year to support eight 17 and 18 ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) will support local plans to revitalise and stimulate economic development opportunities in Otago, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The four Regional Economic Development Ministers have approved an in-principle investment of $19.9 million towards the region’s ...
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is pleased to have received the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) report on the Coalition Government’s Mycoplasma bovis eradication efforts, which shows significant progress in the fight against the disease. New Zealand First Spokesperson for Primary Industries, Mark Patterson, says the report’s findings ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Hon David Parker, Minister for Trade and Export Growth The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing to support economic growth opportunities for Otago’s engineering and manufacturing sectors, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones and Trade and Export Minister David Parker announced today. Almost $20 million ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters and his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, discussed in Seoul today opportunities to work more closely in the Pacific and the situation on the Korean Peninsula. Mr Peters and Minister Kang confirmed New Zealand and the ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Hon Nanaia Mahuta, Minister for Māori Development The three marae in the historic Parihaka Pa complex in Taranaki have been upgraded to high speed broadband with the support of the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF), Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Connecting the ...
Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence Minister of Defence Ron Mark will today launch the Advancing Pacific Partnerships 2019 Defence Assessment during a speech at Te Papa. The Assessment outlines how Defence will partner with our Pacific Island neighbours and invest in Pacific regional security architecture. The Plan aligns with the Coalition ...
A new Provincial Growth Fund investment could create about 80 new jobs in Gisborne over the next two years, turning a local small business into a “beacon of employment” in the process. Regional Economic Development Parliamentary Under-Secretary Fletcher Tabuteau said the PGF’s Te Ara Mahi funding stream would provide $1.6m ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters will travel to the Republic of Korea and Japan next week. “The Republic of Korea and Japan are two of New Zealand’s closest partners in the region with whom we share common values and ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced today that New Zealand is leading a police support mission in Bougainville as the region prepares to vote in a non-binding referendum on its political future. “New Zealand has accepted an invitation ...
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is defending Immigration New Zealand (INZ) after it instructed officials to stop granting visas as an exception to instructions. He has also lashed out at immigrant leaders upset with the tightening of the rules, saying they had an “elevated sense of entitlement”. Members of ...
The Government welcomes PHARMAC’s decision to fund a vaccine to protect young people from meningococcal disease from 1 December this year. “Meningococcal disease is a serious threat which people at higher risk should be protected from,” says Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter. “The combined pharmaceutical budget was increased by ...
Groups involved with innovative fisheries research projects are encouraged to apply for government support in the latest funding round from the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures programme. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash says the SFF Futures funding is designed to be flexible enough to support small or large projects across a ...
The Government has fixed an issue affecting how Immigration New Zealand has processed visa applications for culturally arranged marriages, which will now see a consistent process applied which ensures people with legitimate arranged marriages can visit New Zealand while also preventing any rorting of the system. Earlier this year Immigration ...
The Royal Commission into the Attacks on Christchurch Mosques will report back on 30 April 2020 to give it more time to hear submissions and consider information, Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The Royal Commission was originally scheduled to report back to Government by 10 December 2019. “There has ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Washington DC today to attend a ministerial meeting focused on defeating ISIS, and to continue pursuing New Zealand’s trade opportunities. Mr Peters will participate in a meeting of Foreign and Defence Ministers from key countries contributing to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. ...
The recently crowned Bird of the Year, the hoiho/yellow eyed penguin, is getting a much needed helping hand alongside more than 168 other community conservation projects announced Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage today. 168 community conservation projects throughout New Zealand are benefiting from $8 million in government grants, including $500,000 ...
Controls on assault rifles and semi-automatic firearms are to be broadened to include some types of pistols, under changes to a bill currently making its way through Parliament. Police Minister Stuart Nash has tabled a Supplementary Order Paper to the Arms Legislation Bill, which is currently before a Select Committee ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark will travel to Singapore today to conduct a counterpart visit and to co-chair the third annual Singapore-New Zealand Defence Ministers’ Meeting with his counterpart, Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen. “Singapore is one of our most important defence partners in the region, and our ...
Nelson’s Salisbury School is to be rebuilt, creating a modern and suitable learning environment for students at the residential special school, Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The school for girls aged 8-15, in Richmond, was earmarked for closure by National until the process ...
The panel undertaking a comprehensive review of the Resource Management Act has identified the main issues to be addressed and options for reform and is calling for feedback to inform its final report. In July the Government announced the comprehensive review of the resource management system, including the RMA - ...
An important safety valve has been added to New Zealand’s criminal justice system with the third reading of the Criminal Cases Review Commission Bill today. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) will investigate claimed miscarriages of justice. “We’ve seen how our justice system can very occasionally get things spectacularly wrong, ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters welcomes the tabling of the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) 2019 Annual Report in Parliament today. He says the 2019 Annual Report marks the point when New Zealand’s racing industry’s decline was arrested and a turnaround started. RITA’s 2019 Annual Report recorded an industry net profit ...
The New Zealand Government is today sending 21 firefighters to help fight the ongoing catastrophic Australian bushfires. “The fires in Australia are in some of the toughest, most challenging conditions ever,” says Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin. “As of yesterday morning, there were 100 active bushfire-related incidents across Queensland and ...
More frontline support for schools through a new education agency, as part of a redesigned Ministry of Education More support for principals and school boards including through a new centre of leadership and local leadership advisor roles New independent disputes panels for parents and students Management of school property ...
The Government’s reform of the Tomorrow’s Schools system is a watershed moment in education and an opportunity to create meaningful change for ākonga Māori and their whānau, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis said today. “Last year through Kōrero Mātauranga | Education Conversation, Māori teachers, parents, ākonga, whānau, hapū and iwi ...
Infrastructure Minister is welcoming the first of many updated project pipelines from the newly established New Zealand Infrastructure Commission today. The New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga, has released an expanded pipeline of major capital projects – another crucial step towards delivering better infrastructure outcomes. “The first iteration of the ...
Tougher gun laws designed to improve public safety through firearms prohibition orders are proposed in a new document released for public input. Police Minister Stuart Nash says firearms prohibition orders (FPOs) would give new powers to Police to ensure high-risk individuals come nowhere near firearms. “We have already prohibited the ...
Andy Coupe has been confirmed as TVNZ’s new Board Chair. “Mr Coupe has strong commercial and capital markets experience and TVNZ has benefited from his technical knowledge of business and finance, as well as his extensive governance experience,” the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Kris Faafoi said. Andy ...
Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter today officially opened a separated pathway, following the completion of the Kaiwharawhara Stream bridge, which will improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians along Hutt Road. The $6.8m Hutt Road project provides a separated path for cycling and pedestrians, the replacement of informal parking ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced the appointment of career diplomat Si’alei van Toor as New Zealand’s next Ambassador to Russia. “I’m pleased to appoint Ms van Toor to this position. She brings a wealth of experience to the role having previously served as Senior Trade Adviser to the ...
The Treasury’s 2019 Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) will be released on Wednesday December 11, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Coalition Government will publish the 2020 Budget Policy Statement at the same time, outlining the priorities for Budget 2020. Further details on arrangements for the release will ...
A new initiative to better support small businesses through hands-on mentoring and advice has been launched by the Minister for Small Business. The first event in the Kiwi Business Boost series of regional workshops and online tools has been launched in Wairoa by Stuart Nash. “The Business Boost initiative combines ...
The latest Quarterly Connectivity Report shows that more and more New Zealanders are moving to Ultra-fast Broadband (UFB), with Rolleston having the highest uptake at 74 per cent, as at the end of September. “This means that nearly three quarters of Rolleston’s households and businesses have moved to ultra-fast services. ...
The passing of the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill will help ensure a safe planet for our kids and grandkids, the Minister for Climate Change James Shaw said today. The landmark legislation which provides a framework to support New Zealanders to prepare for, and adapt to, the effects ...
The review of Oranga Tamariki practice around the planned uplift of a Hastings baby in May shows significant failings by the Ministry and that the planned and funded changes to shift from a child crisis service to a proper care and protection service need to be accelerated, Children’s Minister Tracey ...
Education Minister Chris Hipkins has wished students the best of luck for this year’s NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship exams which start tomorrow. Around 140,000 students will have participated in 119 NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship exams by the end of the exam period on 3 December. “I want to ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced the appointment of Bede Corry as New Zealand’s next High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. “The appointment of a senior diplomat to this important role underlines the significance New Zealand places on our relationship with the United Kingdom,” said Mr Peters. “The United ...
An innovative approach to boosting the number of frontline Police has seen 20 new officers graduate from one of the uncommon training wings in Auckland. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the graduation of 20 constables today means that 1,765 new Police officers have been deployed since the coalition government took ...
Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says the 1.2 million hours of community work completed by offenders in the last financial year has helped local communities right across the country. “Community work sentences are a great way for people to pay something positive back to society. There is a massive benefit to ...
"A pathway for Police in leadership with Iwi Māori, to achieve the aspirations of Māori whānau." Police launch of Te Huringa o Te Tai, Pipitea Marae, Thorndon Quay, Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou. Hello everyone, warm greetings to you all. ...
Working New Zealanders are getting more in their back pockets under the Coalition Government’s economic plan. Stats NZ data today shows average weekly ordinary time earnings are up by $83 since the Government took office. This shows that working New Zealanders are getting higher take-home pay, and that employers are ...
The Government is supporting schools to cut down their energy consumption and reduce environmental impacts, with a quarter of all schools having their lights replaced with LEDs, a sustainability contestable fund and a plan to improve the environmental sustainability of all schools in the future. Education Minister Chris Hipkins and ...
Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis heads to China on Friday to lead the New Zealand Government presence at the China-New Zealand Year of Tourism closing ceremony. The ceremony will take place at Canton Tower in Guangzhou on Sunday 10 November. “The Year of Tourism has been mutually beneficial for both New ...
Should we plan for drought or deluge and how is CO2 released from the ocean’s floor? Several climate change projects were given a boost in the latest Marsden Fund investment of $83.6 million, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods said today. “Climate change is long-term challenge that requires out-of-the-box ...
Leaders of 16 countries negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) have announced the completion of negotiation on the text as well as agreement on virtually all market access issues between 15 countries. The leaders said they will work with India to resolve its outstanding concerns in a way that ...
Civil Defence Minister Hon Peeni Henare says World Tsunami Awareness Day today (5 November) is a chance for all New Zealanders to learn more about the tsunami risk in our regions and the right actions to take to stay safe. “All of New Zealand’s coastline is at risk of tsunami. ...
New Zealand’s more than 1000 paramedics are to have their role as key frontline health professionals formally recognised and regulated in the same way as doctors and nurses, Health Minister David Clark says. The Government has agreed to regulate paramedics under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003. “Paramedic leaders ...
Changes to insolvency law announced by the Government today will include requirements to honour up to 50 per cent of the value of gift cards or vouchers held by consumers, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi says. “When a business is insolvent, these consumers are often left out of ...
Six New Zealanders tonight received medals for their meritorious work in the frontline public service. The Public Service Medal, established by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, is awarded annually. “For the second year this Government has recognised public servants who have made a real difference to the lives of New ...
Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker heads to Shanghai today for the China International Import Expo and meetings focused on reforming the WTO. Over 90 New Zealand companies will be exhibiting at the second China International Import Expo (CIIE), which runs from 5-10 November. “China is one of New Zealand’s ...
The newly launched Sustainable New Zealand Party’s first and biggest challenge is to prove that it is in fact sustainable, and not just another flash in the new party pan. ...
The fate of RNZ and TVNZ may soon be in the hands of Cabinet ministers; and the chair of the Medical Association says it will be difficult to put safeguards in place to prevent people from being subtlety coerced into euthanasia. ...
New Zealanders now have the casting vote on whether to make euthanasia legal, after Parliament voted 69 votes to 51 in favour of the End of Life Choice Bill. ...
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.Euthanasia Mike Hosking (Newstalk ZB): Euthanasia bill proves there’s power in a party-of-one Sam Sachdeva ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sally Wasef, Postdoctoral research fellow, Griffith University These days, not many Aussies consider the ibis a particularly admirable creature. But these birds, now colloquially referred to as “bin chickens” due to their notorious scavenging antics, have a grandiose and important place in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ward, PhD candidate, University of Sydney The ABC has announced it will not provide live radio coverage of the Olympics for the first time in 67 years for budgetary reasons, and because Australians now have the “increased ability to access Olympics ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Mosley, Research Fellow, Systems Neuroscience Laboratory, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting one in 350 Australians. It’s caused by the loss of cells deep within the brain that produce a neurotransmitter called dopamine. Degeneration ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael James Walsh, Assistant Professor Social Science, University of Canberra The concept of “home” refers to more than bricks and mortar. Just as cities are more than buildings and infrastructure, our homes carry all manner of emotional, aesthetic and socio-cultural significance. Our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lin Crase, Professor of Economics and Head of School, University of South Australia The deal to crank up Adelaide’s desalination plant to make more water available to farmers in the drought-stricken Murray-Darling Basin makes no sense. It involves the federal government paying ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona Andreallo, Lecturer in digital culture, University of Sydney When thinking of sexbots, companionship might not be the first word that comes to mind. But sexbot advertising promises more than sex toys. It is also selling emotional intimacy: robots marketed as if ...
Ahead of the 50 Shades of Green march on parliament today, Jon Pemberton – chairman of the Ag Proud NZ Trust – urges members of the rural community to avoid confrontation and focus on rebuilding the relationship with our urban friends. “Ag Proud NZ understands ...
Paula Bennett and Anne Tolley are financially off the hook after Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters accepted they did not leak his private information. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Another unexpected OCR move, NZ First Foundation donations under scrutiny, and End of Life Choice bill passes pending referendum.Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr seems intent on giving as many surprises as possible with the OCR. After slashing it in August when it was ...
The fate of RNZ and TVNZ may soon be in the hands of Cabinet ministers, with a proposal to disestablish both broadcasters and create an entirely new public media entity. ...
Electricity retailing is about to be changed by artificial intelligence and the move away from fossil fuels. Watch a video interview with Simply Energy's Murray Dyer. ...
Tomorrow the Australian minister for agriculture is in Christchurch to lobby for a ban on words like “milk” and “meat” from the labels of meat and dairy alternatives. Shama Sukul Lee, the founder of alternative meat startup Sunfed, says the campaign is not about the consumer: it’s driven by a ...
It’s setting up a high school and John Key is an investor, but leaked documents show the $380m education startup locks parents into tough contracts worth tens of thousands of dollars.A tutoring company with former prime minister John Key on its board is charging parents as much as $60,000 to ...
"It's highly concerning that Parliament has voted for the End of Life Choice Bill to become law, pending a referendum," says Renée Joubert, Executive Officer of Euthanasia-Free NZ . ...
The End-of-Life Choice Society is pleased MPs have recognised that the majority of voters across a wide spectrum of society want a law change to allow the terminally ill to die free of intolerable pain and suffering, its president Dr Mary Panko said ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brian Oliver, Research Leader in Respiratory cellular and molecular biology at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research and Senior Lecturer, School of Medical & Molecular Biosciences, University of Technology Sydney New South Wales and Queensland are in the grip of a devastating ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Toni Noble, Adjunct Professor, Institute for Positive Psychology & Education, Australian Catholic University More than 600 schools have been closed, and some damaged, in recent days as bushfires rage across Queensland and New South Wales. Some students have been urgently evacuated while ...
Early on Thursday NZ time, the Trump impeachment inquiry kicks into high gear, as the previously closed-door proceedings are replaced with televised public hearings. Here’s the lowdown.What’s about to happen?Just over seven weeks since Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grace Moore, Senior lecturer in English, the University of Otago, New Zealand, University of Otago Bushfire writing has long been a part of Australian literature. Tales of heroic rescues and bush Christmases describe a time when the fire season was confined only ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tanya M Howard, Senior research fellow, University of New England It’s five years since government worker Glen Turner was murdered by a farmer in a confrontation over land clearing laws. Media reporting after his death frequently propagated the image of the “poor ...
The option of requesting assisted dying for people with terminal illness as provisioned by the proposed End of Life Choice Bill has all but divided the country. ...
The Deputy Prime Minister's case against two top civil servants, two former ministers, and a ministry has wrapped at the Auckland High Court, with the judge is reserving his decision. ...
The extension of the Royal Commission report to 30 April 2020 means all other government responses to the mosque attack should be equally delayed, according to the Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO). ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia Australians woke to the news last weekend that a 19-year-old Warlpiri man had been shot and killed by a police officer in Yuendumu, 300km north-west of Alice Springs. A confrontation ...
Excessively stringent freshwater policies that won’t achieve significantly better water quality outcomes will cost New Zealanders more than $80 billion over the next thirty years, says DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle. “The water quality limits ...
Yesterday the government announced their reform of 1989’s Tomorrow’s Schools legislation. Claire Amos, a school principal in Auckland, reflects on what it all means. When the first draft of the Tomorrow’s School Report landed back in December 2018, I reflected that “the only real concern is that we are not brave enough ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Macquarie University It has been called “the robbery of the century”. Martin Shields and Nicholas Diable, two British investment bankers, are on trial in Germany for helping structure a massive tax evasion scheme, known as cum-ex ...
A group of about a dozen MPs from Labour and National have addressed a last-minute protest at Parliament, on the day the End of Life Choice Bill is due to pass its final reading. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Mathews, Professor, School of Law, Queensland University of Technology Two judges in the High Court of Australia this morning referred Cardinal George Pell’s application for special leave to appeal his convictions to a full bench of the High Court. While not ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has opened for submissions on Supplementary Order Paper No 408 to the Arms Legislation Bill. Submissions can be made online and close on Friday 29 November 2019 at midnight. Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 408 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stanley Shanapinda, Research Fellow, La Trobe University Yesterday, New South Wales and Queensland issued fire warnings classified as either “catastrophic”, “severe” or “extreme” – and these conditions will remain in the coming days. The Bureau of Meteorology’s fire danger rating for Wednesday, ...
Newly launched carbon offsetting company Carbonclick want to make it easier for businesses and consumers to save the planet. CEO Dave Rouse and CPO Jan Czaplicki explain that while carbon offsetting isn’t the solution to global warming, it’s necessary.We have pumped our skies full of greenhouse gases for over 200 ...
Premiering tonight on TVNZ DUKE, Tara Ward explores the salty depths of Spiky Gold Hunters. Spiky Gold Hunter is Country Calendar for hard arses. DUKE’s new documentary series follows six Kiwis as they search the Foveaux Strait for kina, a job with great financial reward but huge risk. These divers work ...
The Reserve Bank announced on Wednesday that it hold the Official Cash Rate at 1 percent when bank economists had widely predicted and recommended a 25 basis point cut. ...
It’s time for our leaders to harness their power to take action on meaningful and sustained welfare policy changes, so that all children can have the opportunity to live good lives and to experience a happy, healthy childhood, says Child Poverty ...
Winston Peters' lawyer appears to have accepted in the High Court that two former National ministers he is suing for $450,000 for breaching his privacy were not the source of the leak or responsible for it. ...
Artist Lema Shamamba highlights the threads that connect cellphone use to violence and exploitation in the Democratic Republic of Congo in her first solo exhibition at Auckland’s Objectspace. Embroidered into a purple and yellow dress, a woman has one baby slung on her front and another on her back. Looking at ...
Gloria Steinem speaks to On the Rag about what she has learned from over 50 years of feminist activism. In this very special episode of On the Rag, we are joined by journalist, author, activist and feminist hero Gloria Steinem ahead of the launch of her new book The Truth Will ...
A law change that would allow assisted dying in certain select cases is coming up to a final reading in parliament tonight. Here are some of the many views on the matter we’ve published.As the End of Life Choice bill has made its way through parliament, it has become clear ...
The National Party is floating the idea of replacing the tertiary fees-free policy with a scheme like KiwiSaver to pay for University or polytechnic courses; and the Crown says Winston Peters claim his privacy was breached falls away entirely when held up against the law. ...
Malcolm Harbrow, at No Right Turn, has picked up on an important governance issue which our web search (a brief one, we acknowledge) suggests was missed by the mainstream media. The Referendums Framework Bill was due back from Parliament’s Justice Select Committee yesterday. Harbrow would have been monitoring its progress because he was one of around ...
The State Services Commission has shut down the inquiry into how Budget sensitive information was accessed from the Treasury website, because a key member failed to declare a conflict of interest. ...
Taxpayers deserve a stronger commitment from National to scrap the fees-free policy, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “On one hand, National correctly called fees-free an ‘expensive failure’. ...
In this chapter from journalist Frances Cook’s guide to getting your finances sorted, she finally comes to terms with her attitudes and behaviour around money. They say the first step is accepting you have a problem. One of the first things I had to accept was that I was guilty of ‘lifestyle ...
Pioneering conservationist Richard Henry’s crucial contribution to saving our endangered native birds is remembered today, 13 November 2019, the 90th Anniversary of his death. ...
State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes has today terminated the investigation into how Budget-sensitive material was accessed at the Treasury and appointed a new inquirer. ...
Open mike 13/12/2013 
Recently more than 150 post-graduate students and young scientists presented an open letter to the Green Party via The Spinoff, encouraging them to reconsider their position on genetic modification. Their target is tackling climate change issues.[1] Can any party continue to be dismissive about genetic modification (GM) contributing to ...2 hours ago
by Deirdre O’Neill Under Thatcher and then Blair and continuing up until our contemporary moment, the working class has seen its culture slowly and progressively destroyed. The change from an industrial society to a service society produced a marked shift in focus from the working class as the backbone of ...16 hours ago
Since 2013, the Australian government has detained refugees without trial in Pacific gulags, where they are abused, tortured, and driven to suicide. The policy is not just an abuse of human rights and possible crime against humanity; it has also had a corrosive effect on the states Australia uses as ...20 hours ago
It seems fair to say that we currently live in a problematic political moment in world history. Democracies are in decline and dictatorships are on the rise. Primordial, sectarian and post-modern divisions have re-emerged, are on the rise or have been accentuated by political evolutions of the moment such as ...20 hours ago
by The Council of Disobedient Women In her excellent oral submission to the Abortion reform select committee on 31st October on behalf of Otago University’s Department of Public Health, historian and public health researcher Hera Cook stated: “We would ask that the committee not use the term ‘pregnant persons’ and ...2 days ago
Distract And Divert: The rise of what we have come to call “Identity Politics” represents the ideological manifestation of the ruling class’s objective need to destroy class politics, and of the middle-class’s subjective need to justify their participation in the process.THE RELIEF of the ruling class can only be imagined. ...2 days ago
2 days ago
If FFNZ really put their faith in “Top Medical Journals” they would now be amending their billboards to recognise new research results. Image from FFNZ but updated to agree with the latest research. ... 4 days ago
And to think he gave all the potential goodwill away with that moronic, cult-like statement (repeated ad nauseam by many National hardliners) that Key is quite simply “the greatest PM we ever had”…
Installation complete: this was nothing ... 1 week ago
Today, a worker contacted me asking if she could go to the police over her employer stealing thousands of dollars from her in unpaid wages. The employer also did not pay this worker’s taxes or student loan which amounts to tax fraud. As a workers rights activist, who founded the ...2 weeks ago
Image Credit: Increase Social Media Traffic & Website Traffic I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your ... 2 weeks ago
. . NZ First’s success in putting the euthenasia bill to a public referenda may not be the victory they believe it to be. They may even have sounded the death-knell for a second Labour-NZ First-Green coalition. On 23 July this year, NZ First MP, Jenny Marcroft, submitted a Supplementary ...2 weeks ago
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First backs the public to decide on the End of Life Choice Bill via a referendum at the 2020 General Election. The Bill, with New Zealand First’s referendum provision incorporated, passed its final reading in Parliament this evening. New Zealand First Spokesperson for ...28 mins ago
"Today we have made a choice that will leave a legacy... I hope that means that future generations will see that we, in New Zealand, were on the right side of history." - Jacinda Ardern, Third Reading of the Zero Carbon Bill ...6 days ago
The Government welcomes PHARMAC’s decision to fund a vaccine to protect young people from meningococcal disease from 1 December this year. “Meningococcal disease is a serious threat which people at higher risk should be protected from,” says Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter. “The combined pharmaceutical budget was increased by ...17 mins ago
The Early Childhood Council is calling on the government to not take their eye off the ball while working on the future of education. ...13 mins ago
Mysterious foundation loaning New Zealand First money; and Auckland ports' move to Whangarei: explained ...1 hour ago
New Zealand’s MPs yesterday stepped towards history as they debated the bill, which would hand the final decision on assisted dying to the public. ...1 hour ago
The fate of RNZ and TVNZ may soon be in the hands of Cabinet ministers; and the chair of the Medical Association says it will be difficult to put safeguards in place to prevent people from being subtlety coerced into euthanasia. ...1 hour ago
New Zealanders now have the casting vote on whether to make euthanasia legal, after Parliament voted 69 votes to 51 in favour of the End of Life Choice Bill. ...2 hours ago
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 baggage handling equipment maker Glidepath has been sold to a French company. ...2 hours ago
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Another unexpected OCR move, NZ First Foundation donations under scrutiny, and End of Life Choice bill passes pending referendum.Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr seems intent on giving as many surprises as possible with the OCR. After slashing it in August when it was ...3 hours ago
Philip Matthews celebrates two remarkble - and remarkably different - portraits of the great Colin McCahon. ...4 hours ago
Electricity retailing is about to be changed by artificial intelligence and the move away from fossil fuels. Watch a video interview with Simply Energy's Murray Dyer. ...4 hours ago
Arranged marriages where partners had the freedom to say no may not be included under a new partnership visa fix. Dileepa Fonseka explains. ...4 hours ago
National's education plans has some good stuff, but the promises that will resonate most could have come from Labour. ...4 hours ago
Elite female sporting events will ultimately speak for themselves to fans who need convincing they are worthwhile watching. ...5 hours ago
David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill won over Parliament where other MPs had failed - but the real fight may just be beginning. ...5 hours ago
The University of Auckland's Dr Louise Humpage makes a plea to Jacinda Ardern to ban private fireworks once and for all. ...5 hours ago
A new Māori policing strategy, designed to get reoffending numbers down, has been met with skepticism. ...5 hours ago
Despite its best efforts to lower power prices, the Government might see a retail rate hike just six months before next year's election. ...15 hours ago
The price of avocados has been smashed to their lowest in almost three years, and the price of other fruit and veges are also falling. ...19 hours ago
The Reserve Bank announced on Wednesday that it hold the Official Cash Rate at 1 percent when bank economists had widely predicted and recommended a 25 basis point cut. ...20 hours ago
The Reserve Bank has held the Official Cash Rate steady at a record low 1 percent. ...20 hours ago
Winston Peters' lawyer appears to have accepted in the High Court that two former National ministers he is suing for $450,000 for breaching his privacy were not the source of the leak or responsible for it. ...20 hours ago
An undeclared conflict of interest has seen the initial Budget leak probe abandoned, an a new investigation launched. ...20 hours ago
The recent outbursts by Shane Jones about Indian migration should be strenuously rejected. ...21 hours ago
The National Party is floating the idea of replacing the tertiary fees-free policy with a scheme like KiwiSaver to pay for University or polytechnic courses; and the Crown says Winston Peters claim his privacy was breached falls away entirely when held up against the law. ...21 hours ago
Malcolm Harbrow, at No Right Turn, has picked up on an important governance issue which our web search (a brief one, we acknowledge) suggests was missed by the mainstream media. The Referendums Framework Bill was due back from Parliament’s Justice Select Committee yesterday. Harbrow would have been monitoring its progress because he was one of around ...21 hours ago
So let me get this right. Paual Rebstock, a total hired gun government stooge, is allowed to comer out and accuse people of leaking on no evidence whatsoever beyond the fact that (in one case) they once worked for the Labour party)?
What an outrageous slur! How come she is allowed to do that?
From what I read the labour party chappie looks pretty guilty.
All the circumstantial evidence points directly at him.
If you are interested Kiwi blog did a post on it outlining what was in the report.
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2013/12/the_rebstock_report-2.html
All a red herring focusing on the political affiliation of the leaker.
Brenda Pilot (PSA secretary), has done a selection of tweets on it. Public servants are allowed political affiliations. They should be neutral n expressing advice on policy matters. The issue in question was a restructuring of a department. Public servants should be able to have opinions on that, but increasingly dissent is being suppressed.
Now Pilot has just linked to this Dom Post editorial:
Just read the full editorial. Well done Dom Post. That’s the wisest commentary I’ve seen on the matter.
I suspect it had to do with being paid half a million dollars and not coming up with a result. The money would have probably been better spent on evaluating why a decision was made to cut trade staff at a time when businesses really needed more effort overseas.
In 2014 I am going to help get rid of this government.
I want my country back.
Yep.
In 2014 I am going to help get rid of the neolibs and TINAs in Labour and get rid of this government.
I want my party and my country back.
It is to late to tget rid of the neolib in Labour for 2014. With Parker calling the shots on Finance in election year we have to assume Labour is committed to continuing the same failed policies that we have been following since 1984.
There is only one option to ensure the Neolibs are pushed out or at least silenced.
Party Vote Green.
They must have a strong presence around the cabinet table to keep Parker and his dated policies quiet.
+1
Yep, and as more of the Cunliffe converts to the RED Labour Party become disallusioned with business as usual from the party that brought us the Neo-Liberal cluster-f**k in the first place and swing their votes to the Green Party, i can happily vote tactically for the Mana Party to try and bolster their numbers in the next Parliament…
+1 for Mana
Party vote Mana. Electorate vote probably Green, unless Goff, Mallard, Jones, and Parker resign.
In 2014 I am going to help get rid of this government.
I want my country back.
PM wants to know how much you’re prepared to pay for it. He has other overseas customers expressing the same interest.
National will win next year’s election.
That is my sole prediction for 2014.
Cunliffe will struggle throughout next year, against a confident John Key, who will mount a pretty convincing scare campaign, while Labour will be, again wishy washy.
It doesnt look like Labour is going to swing left anytime soon anyway. Not while Parker has his way anyway. News of public sector workers getting their pensions slashed in Detroit should have inspired Labour to showcase why our pension system is superior. And any privatisation of retirement income provision will result in pensioners getting bugger all. While Trotters report that Labour doesnt appear to have any enthusasim for fixing the issue of poverty (the blame of while can lie directly at the feet of the Fourth National government, who begun the process of dismantling of our welfare state) should disturb.
A National win next year will have the obvious ramifications for those at the bottom, who will find their incomes held down for the sake of keeping inflation to between 1 and 2% and keeping middle class interest rates low (and delivering National truckloads of votes), the sick, who will bear the brunt of a possible attempt to resurrect the Upton health reforms, union members, who will find their right to join a union in jeapordy, and our environment, which will be choked up with even more crap.
I’ll be doing my damndest to make sure that it doesn’t happen like that, mate. If they show the necessary moral courage and alternative vision, Labour and Greens will take next year, and by a margin too.
There’s been this idea that Labour needs to clear out some old wood. How would that work? Is it something that Cunliffe can do? Or is it a membership issue during the selection process before the next election? Or what?
Weka – its an MP and membership process before selection, and if the dead wood doesn’t want to go, then Labour is stuck with that ! Its very difficult to unseat a current MP who doesn’t want to go.
i wonder if these neo-lib driftwood mp’s are playing the ageism/age-brings-wisdom-card..?
..and normally i wd agree..age is not a reason for them to go..
..the reason for them to go is that these are the faces/mouths who sold that neo-lib/uncaring bullshit from that clark govt for all those years..
..that is why they must go…
..and what compounds this case for their exit..
..is that they not only have not resiled from/apologised for their past errors..
..they are still pushing the same t.i.n.a.-bullshit/lies…
..and reinforcing that tweedle-dee/tweedledum labour/national comparison..
..this is why they must go..
..and as an aside..
..isn’t mallard..up there in his new seat right next to the exit..
..isn’t he so much resembling muldoon in his final days..?
..as he sits up there..with his unkempt hair..
.furiously punching/swiping at his i-pad-screen..
..pretending to be relevant..
..occaisonally having to suppress a roar..
..and just to show how far labour still has to go to become relevant on issues such as poverty..(remember they have their uncaring-history to still overcome..)
..who can forget the sighs of relief from the paganis..and their ilk..
..at the shelving of that ‘radical’-policy of including beneficiary-families in working for families..by 2018..
..eh..?
..phillip ure..
It’s very necessary but also very hard. For electorates the ball is in the court of each local membership, with Wellington only having a partial say. Cunliffe has minimal or no say in that process. Often times a dozen established members in the local organisation will have the majority of the sway at a selection, and they tend to be loyal to their incumbent through thick and thin. For list candidates the list ranking process is more fluid and Wellington has more influence.
One major problem is that Labour can’t pension MPs off to comfy corporate board jobs in the way that National can.
The Rogernome weeds need a dose of herbicide and the LECs are the ones that can do it.
If say they engage local support in numbers like in Auckland Central days when ‘Mad Dog’ Prebble was ACTing up, hundreds used to turn up at meetings.
The spirit of the more democratic selection rules that enabled the humiliated demoted DC to rise to party leader months later with member and affiliate support, should be grasped by LECs with half a brain or links to lefties in their community. This is a fight to the death for NZ which without a stronger Labour Party will be lost. The Greens can only grow so much further?
Selection should be denied to anyone that does not support a list of basic left policy, which I hope I do not need to list. I would like to see half the caucus with looks on their faces like those candidly photographed in a corridor after David Cunliffe’s election as leader.
The trouble with that assertion Tiger Mountain is that it did not get rid of Prebble. In the end the voters of Auckland Central decided that Sandra Lee was more Labour than Prebble was. Also, Labour activists left his electorate organisation in droves. I chaired the Kingsland branch of the Mt Albert electorate at the time, and of our 105 members, 60 were domiciled across the motorway in Auckland Central. They were not going to work for Prebble and they didn’t vote for him either.
In the final campaign, he had bugger all of an electorate organisation. The TV coverage of election night when he lost Auckland Central showed a dozen or so, mostly older people rattling around in the supper room at Trades Hall.
Yes, people turned out to try and get rid of him, but it was the lack of people to run the campaign that did him in the end when he had no way to counter Sandra Lee’s message or her organisation.
Thanks for responding Lindsey,
Not saying that the large attendance’s removed Richard Prebble, but it certainly indicated interest in the situation. My general view is the more people that get involved in politics the better.
Lindsey implies a very important point. In the Labour system of doing things a shit MP, or shit right wing MP tends to drive away all the good members, leaving a tiny core of loyalists who will keep re-selecting that MP as the next candidate every single time.
Until, as Lindsey points out, the remaining electorate organisation gets so weak, that the Labour MP gets shoved out – by Labour losing the seat.
Seriously, the NATs have this process under far better management.
Ok, but presumably, technically, Cunliffe can remove certain MPs from positions of power within caucus? Or is that power more distrubuted amongst the whole caucus (formally? Informally). What are the ramifications of that?
Numbers. He’s caught up in a numbers game. Trotter did one of his more reasonable pieces on Cunliffe’s situation/predicament the other day. the link if you haven’t read it….
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/12/12/a-sort-of-victory-is-labours-old-guard-undermining-cunliffes-lurch-to-the-left/
Yeah, good article. I hope he comes back and answers some of the questions about solutions.
Numbers… ok, so Cunliffe requires a certain level of support to function as leader within caucus… does that mean Labour is screwed until the neoliberal faction die out?
Personally I think all this angst over Parker/retirement age is overblown.
As far as I can tell, the subject didn’t get much traction in the media at all.
I’m not that it’s not important, just that folks around this blog have gotten a massive bee in their bonnet about it, and are imagining that it’s something the general public have caught onto and are punishing Labour in the polls for.
Now, certainly, next year when they actually have to address it as part of their election campaign, it definitely will get attention. I just don’t think it is yet.
Yes +1, always so much ado about nothing, it becomes staid; does the ‘intellectual left’ have to think for everybody , or lead them.For goodness sake, wonder what the ‘objectivists’ make of the apparent facts; “thank you very much” not likely.
That inflation is kept low is the prayer of all retired who have to wait a full twelve months for adjustments. The only good thing about inflation is that it makes repayment of debt easier assuming the intake of money matches inflation …. but pensions are slow to do that.
But in times of deflation, those who are on pensions similarly gain an advantage over those 12 months.
I don’t know if we’ve had a full year of deflation at any time recently, but we certainly have had the odd quarter here and there.
We haven’t had a full year but we have had 5 quarterly drops in the CPI in the last 10 years, at least that is the number I see in a cursory glance at the Stats website.
Q4 in each of 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012. The drops were very minor and I don’t think anyone was going to note a vast rise in their standard of living.
I imagine every economist would agree that deflation is a very serious problem in terms of its economic results. Inflation can be catered for but deflation of any magnitude over an extended period is a disaster.
I am getting very nervous about the 2014 prospects.
At the beginning of 1999 and 2008, Labour and National respectivley had taken control of the MSM’s narrative of how the election year would play out. In both cases they were in opposition but were generally viewed on as Government in Waiting and were enjoying massive popular support in the polls.
The left block is marginally ahead at the moment. But the MSM does not realise that we live in a MMP world and as such report it as a National v Labour race. In that race there is only one player.
The media is powerful. For the majority of people their only exposure to Wellington is what Paddy and Corrin tell them each night at 6pm.
In 1999 and 2008 we were being told the incumbets were dog tucker. As 2014 dawns we don’t have that message.
Weird stuff happening when I click on comments in the right sidebar today. Sometimes I get taken to the Post heading, not the commenter’s remarks. And the next time I look, the commenter’s disappeared, then reappeared with other more recent commenters, then disappeared again…gremlins?
Not sure. But there was a security upgrade to wordpress last night (which took 2 hours to run through our database by the look of it), and a new version of wordpress installed this morning.
Nothing showed up when testing the betas\. But I’ll have a look at it.
Thanks for that lprent. Whatever it was, the sidebar comments links all seem to be working ok now.
Yeah my tests show the same. Rather than being a server generated error it could just be something local on your browser as well.
Have to say that the new backend is really nice so far. I also took the opportunity to change the color pattern to “coffee”. I think I was craving caffeine at the time.
Outrage after impostor hijacks Mandela memorial service
11 December 2013
“He was moving his hands around, but there was no meaning”; “What happened at the memorial service is truly a disgraceful thing to see”; “Disgusting”; “Shameful hypocrisy” and “It should not happen at all.”
Those are just a few of the angry comments following an outrageous performance by an impostor at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela.
Here’s a photo of the fraudster, waving his arm in the air….
http://cdn1.independent.ie/world-news/article29829821.ece/ALTERNATES/h342/PANews_bfce2d94-f4ec-4d75-b069-6d5218eab9d2_I1.jpg
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/11/mandela-sanitised-hypocrites-apologists-apartheid
Brilliant article-everyone should read it.
+ 1 Yeah I enjoyed it too.
“and Mandela wasn’t removed from the US terrorism watch list until 2008.” – surprised that wasn’t removed from the official record.
Why are you surprised? Do you think the United States is on the side of those who struggle liberation, like Mandela did?
I was being slightly ironic due to the likelihood of embarrassment to the establishment of that fact being known, you know, cos of the funeral and eulogies and stuff.
I know you know that marty. I wasn’t having a go at you personally, I was just re-stating a point.
This bit (unfortunately glossing over a momentous fuck up on the part of the ANC during negotiations on the hand-over of power, but pertinent nonetheless)…a lesson for everyone on why political freedom should never be pursued separately from economic freedom.
Happened here. Patted ourselves on the back about nuclear free legislation and took eyes off the economy.
Great read Morrissey. Of course the hypocrisy exercised by our PM and past National leaders is galling as well. Suppose they would class it as being pragmatic in a dynamic world that politicians inhabit.
Speaking of sickening displays of hypocrisy, Hoots was oozing over Public Address, saying how he admired Nelson Mandela because he was a champion of freedom, just like Reagand and Thatcher.
That’s how the right typically works: call them a terrorist or a lunatic, then if they win and eventualy die, appropriate and sanitize their memory and then use it as a stick to beat their successors.
On a smaller scale, arsewipes like Hoots were continually attacking Rod Donald and when they’d hounded him to his grave, imediately they were calling his successors dangerous and unreasonable, not like that lovely chap Donald.
Yeah I read that sick shit too, what a load of 3rd form dribble. The praise from other commentators has been illuminating and increased the feeling of nausea, but I’m pleased he’s found a home.
a comfort-zone
Where “I” can rest my head….
How do people like Hooton wake up in the morning?
He is intelligent and must know what he is doing. He must know that the policies he proposes harm the weak and the vulnerable.
Is it vanity? His career? A desire to feather his own nest no matter what the consequences to otherwise? A game?
Appreciate that no honest answer will eventuate but it does make me think.
Not only do you cut and paste, you do it a full 24hrs behind everybody else.
Makes me wonder why you even come here.
Not only do you cut and paste, you do it a full 24hrs behind everybody else.
Look carefully, my friend: it’s not a cut and paste. It’s my own work.
But let’s return to your original, in this case unjustified, complaint: even if it were simply a cut-and-paste, that would have been very fast for me, Dumrse. There are no time limits on classy writing. And, come to think of it, there are no time limits even on writing by the likes of Paul Thomas, Jack Tame or Kerre ohoWmad.
Not a good week for satire—not that Kathryn Ryan would know that
Radio NZ National, Friday 13 December 2013
Very interesting interview with Civilian proprietor and panda-bother Ben Uffindell this morning. He’s a bright and funny guy, and had some interesting things to say.
However, I’m not convinced that Kathryn Ryan is quite up to the task of interviewing him. She’s an Obama-cultist, like her braindead U.S. correspondent Louisa Savage, Bruce Springsteen, Oprah Winfrey and (most notoriously) that hapless high priest of Obama-worship, Jim Mora. That means that she has voluntarily—or was it unwittingly?—removed a key section of her brain, namely that bit responsible for critical thinking and the recognition of irony, murderous hypocrisy and rancid insincerity.
And true enough, just as I suspected, in an ill-advised attempt to make intelligent conversation, Ms. Ryan dived in and made a really stupid statement. Speaking slowly and carefully in a low voice, to indicate how assiduously she had been thinking, she said: “New Zealand doesn’t have a rich tradition of satire like other countries do. Why do you think that is?”
In a week of Stalin-style worship of the self-appointed chief mourner at the “memorial service” for a real hero, this is perhaps the worst time ever to claim that “other countries” have a “rich tradition of satire.”
Shocked and concerned at Kathryn Ryan’s lack of any sense of irony, I flicked her the following email….
Dear Kathryn,
During your interview with Ben Uffindell, you claimed that New Zealand does not have “a rich tradition of satire like other countries do”.
In a week where the sanctimonious oratory in Johannesburg by a major impostor has been slavishly praised by mainstream commentators, and a minor signing-impostor has been showered with hectoring opprobrium, it is quite clear that satire is dead in South Africa, Britain and the United States as well as in New Zealand.
Even though he clearly didn’t want to open up that can of worms, Ben Uffindell is no doubt aware of the absurdity of the Obama cult; I wonder if you and your colleagues at Radio NZ National are.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
Keep listening, guys. She might read it out. Maybe….
The only time worth listening to n2n or afternoons Rhino, is when a locum is in place – a Lynne Freeman or a Brennan – both superior to the comfortably off.
The only good thing about Ryan is that she seems to have negotiated a HUGE amount of annual leave, OR she has some dreadful illness such that RNZ management feel sorry for her and tolerate her frequent absences.
Roll on ‘silly season’ afternoons. This ‘hater’ is anxious to see the nicest man on Earth get a well deserved break when he can spend some quality time with his nicest woman on Earth wife.
(Silence, and the sound of birds in the trees is often worthwhile, especially as I cast my eyes across Wgtn city towards RNZ House where that regular gal tries to pretend she abides by BBC style values of ‘journalistic integrity’).
Plastic. Anti-septic. Comfortable. Unchallenging. Nice. Super-nice. Intellectual bubblegum for the ears. Mundane. Faux empathy. In-touch with the people. Egotistical Linguistic Gymnastics. “Issssssyoos’. Diction. Wanna beed wannabees that wanna came and wanna cconquered. The bestest bestEST ever song ever FORever written – ALL of them supposedly the bEST. Experts in all things – from where Mavis from the Catlins to comfy Pete from Otorahanga come from. Familiarity. Did I mention the niceness?
How the two of them EVER managed to negotiate their comfy little pozzies in our ‘public service’ radio broadcaster is beyond me – especially when their frequent locums outshine them everytime
Thank Christ for the off switch though eh? Only slightly better than the other noise on the AM/FM spectrum
How porn is destroying modern sex lives:
Ok, fine, porn is bad.
Still, gives another reason to ban advertising.
And not all porn is equal. Like Wolf, Cindy Gallop talks about how easy access to hardcore porn has changed many men’s ideas about what sex is (and not for the better).
http://blog.ted.com/2009/12/02/cindy_gallop_ma/
The problem seems to be to do with the commodification of porn, the ease of distributing it online, and the addictive nature of images and videos that intensify sensation arousal.
And, yes, I imagine that similar processes work in advertising, and a lot of popular culture that aims to maximise audience share.
It’s also an issue of who makes porn, and who they think they are making it for.
It takes one to know one. true or not.
I know Camille Nakhid even though I have never met her. she wants special privileges for herself and friends and what she wants is not democracy but oriental potentate style decison making on a friends and friends basis. another naked grab for power.
Does that mean she is going to join the Mana party?
Nope, that would be more National’s style.
‘
News of the New Zealand Customs
stealingseizing all electronic equipment from returning Kiwi Sam Blackman has made its way into the headlines over at The Guardian:Meanwhile, the European Parliament clears the way for Edward Snowden to appear before it early next year to answer questions:
For a big picture view of the goings on, digby riffs off an interview with Glenn Greenwald exploring the how the USA Surveillance State reflects the panoptican model:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11172021
– Looks like whitewashing is rife at the moment
whitewashing of what? Brown found not to have misused council resources in conducting his 2 year affair with Bevan Chuang, and not to have issued references etc inappropriately.
He has been found to have had free use of hotel rooms for council business that he didn’t declare, plus some other gifts. This last revelation is wounding to Brown. I despair. He has disappointed those of us who voted for him.
He is a lying piece of scum he should resign………. but won’t.
No he won’t. Brown’s press release in response to the report. He does an apology, but clearly doesn’t aim to resign.
Hopefully this sets up the possibility for a new left wing candidate, whenever the next Auckland Council election is held. More importantly, Brown let us down over Ports of Auckland. He tends to bow to the neoliberal agenda too often. The search for a new left candidate should start now.
Brown really is scum anyone who voted for him should be furious with his behaviour.
tinfoilhat, if we apply your logic to our politicians in general then 90% of them are scum.
You really need to open your eyes a bit fella/felless. It’s been going on since NZ’s first parliamentary precinct. The walls of the current precinct – including the Beehive – could tell a thousand stories worse than Len Brown.
+1
these politicians are men and women, not angels.
As I commented the other day, all Brown has to do is copy John Banks, who has set the precedent for heroic “resignations” … i.e not resigning at all, just saying “I won’t bother standing next time”. (Of course, unlike actual resignations, such a promise can be reversed at any time).
Having said that, I’m now (drumroll …) withdrawing my defence of Brown. (Shock news – reporters will be banging on my door shortly, pictures at six!).
I was strongly opposed to the idea that he should be “guilty” of having sex outside marriage, because then there would have to be mass resignations from Parliament and the country would be run by eunuchs in hair-shirts.
But he’s abused his position re- the hotel rooms (the phone stuff doesn’t matter so much, almost everyone uses a work phone or computer for private use).
So he’s been an idiot and less than honest, he’s made his (hotel room) bed and can lie in it. I won’t be shouting “Resign!”, but if he does, so be it.
He may not lose his job. But he has lost my respect.
Duh, you can’t own up to gifts of luxury hotel room stays if you want to have a secret affair on the sly 😈
The main question mark over Brown’s competence is – how the hell can you traipse in and out of 5 star hotels at random times of day and night and then not expect anyone to find out??? Literally dozens of people, many of them hotel staff, must have known something was up.
It’s very interesting that this was kept under the radar for as long as it did – did journos sit on the story?
not good at all. Never been a supporter of the man, just a critic of the political subterfuge against him. Been a rapid-fire year politically; the speed of ‘progress’.
Is that an attempt to defame Ernst & Young…
More like Len refusing to allow Sky city to divulge what they know
Really? You seem to know everything , could you find time to submit a post
Len brown has received free hotel rooms and room upgrades from SkyCity valued at $6150 and made more than 1000 private calls to Miss Chuang from his council phone.
I agree he has to go now. That’s corruption.
But I also think that there should be an investigation into what sort of freebies have John Keys and his Tory cronies received from Sky City in return for changing the nation’s gambling laws and giving preferential treatment to one company competing with others for building the Convention centre.
Has anyone ever looked into that? I have more than once seen pictures of smiling Key and Missus at the Sky City centre.
Well Cameron Slater broke the story so maybe someone on the left could investigate
Slater would have served democracy better by focusing on the gifts, hotel rooms etc,instead of wallowing in the sleaze of sexual affairs. He has muddied the waters.
He broke story, if he’d done nothing Len would still be there…not that I expect Len to resign because like any good leftie hes got it to good to want to leave voluntarily
John Banks is a leftie now?
Well Banks is facing charges while Lens digging in for the long haul so not really applicable
Take a prosecution against him then PR. All the best mate.
Unlike certain bankrupts I have a job and other considerations on my time
hey, you don’t need to spend your time posting here, I’m sure we’d all understand and sadly accept the absence of your comments for a few months…
😀
Bankrupt? There’s identification again.
But Banks hasn’t resigned.
Do you think a conviction is necessary, before he should? And the same for Brown?
That tendency has nothing to do with whether one’s a rightie or a leftie – it has to do with salary, ego, and lack of personal integrity. Something we tolerate as a nation, so it continues.
Yes. But all he’s done is open the way for a new, fresh left wing candidate. Slater’s objective looked to be to stop Brown being returned as Mayor and/or to get his preferred candidate elected mayor. On that he has failed. And he’s weakened his position for using any further smear campaigns.
Maybe the new, young candidate won’t be a corrupt, lying sleazebag in which case its a win-win for everyone
And we can say the same about National but all indications are they’ll be just as unethical as John Key.
Slater broke wind and fed you fools with hot air.
Slater has damaged his public image, and delivered the left the potential of a new left candidate for mayor in the future.
“This was an error of judgement and I apologise to the people of Auckland.
“I remain totally focussed on the issues that matter most to Aucklanders, including improving our transport system, tackling Auckland’s housing crisis and continuing to invest in our future.”
– Yeah Lens not going anywhere
A reply to Matthew Hooton’s vapourings about Mandela
After Nelson Mandela died, Matthew Hooton took out an onion and posted this masterpiece of gall and hypocrisy…
http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-mandela/?p=302690#post302690
This afternoon, someone drew my attention to Hooton’s post. Shocked by not only Hooton’s cynicism, but the drippily supportive responses for his cant by the likes of Hebe [1] and Craig Ranapia [2] I decided it was time to make my Public Address debut. This is what I wrote….
Some time soon, I’ll post a more thorough parsing of this bizarre concoction of sentimental posturing and cynical falsehoods, but right now I’ll deal with two statements that stand out above all the rest….
1.) “….he was alongside Reagan, Thatcher and Gorbachev in the sense of bringing tyranny to an end….”
That is not true. I’ll put Gorbachev to one side here, as I know as much about him as Barack Obama knows about irony.
Let’s just deal with Reagan and Thatcher: they were the polar opposites of Mandela, who was a democrat and a champion of human rights and justice. Reagan and Thatcher openly sneered at such notions. Reagan’s scofflaw regime backed and organized a brutal terrorist campaign in Nicaragua, for which it was found guilty in the International Criminal Court in 1986, and was an active backer of Saddam Hussein, the apartheid South African regime that imprisoned Mandela, Chile, Indonesia and Israel, as well as many other brutal anti-democratic governments and dictatorships. Thatcher supported all of the above, and even managed to go one better, when she announced her endorsement of the Khmer Rouge. Even Reagan wasn’t that shameless, or that foolish.
2.) “Mandela was a guy who would do attack ads with the best (or worst!) of them.”
Clearly, the implication Hooton wants us to draw here is that because Mandela was a robust and lively politician, that somehow makes him comparable to the likes of Hooton’s scurrilous friend John Ansell, the director of National’s attack ad campaigns and the genius behind National’s race-baiting “Iwi/Kiwi” campaign in 2005. Ansell is a notorious antagonist and hater of all things Māori (he was and no doubt still is a supporter of Alan Titford)—and Mandela has nothing in common with him.
http://publicaddress.net/system/profile?id=136755
[1] http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-mandela/?p=302693#post302693
[2] http://publicaddress.net/system/cafe/hard-news-mandela/?p=303083#post303083
Good on you Morrissey, the luvvies at PA will be pleased to welcome you aboard am sure. Rusty’s attack poodle Mr Ranapia will be snapping at your heels shortly.
Hooten is certainly a piece of work. “Gorby” was a Soviet sellout who basically greased the path for oligarchs that appropriated the state property that was worth having.
Rusty’s attack poodle Mr Ranapia will be snapping at your heels shortly.
https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/6589003264/hC8BF5189/
John Key, lying again:
John Key, today (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9515170/PM-playing-down-voter-turnout)
vs
Bill English, 2008 (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501219&objectid=10548753&ref=imthis)
Someone should introduce those two, they could compare notes.
I have just been reading the Anadarko emergency response plan.
Tier 1- Anadarko cleans it up
Tier 2- Regional councils clean it up
Tier 3- Maritime NZ in charge of clean up,
http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1312/AnnexEEmergencyResponsePlan.pdf
The new rules giving beefed up powers to local body Mayors in New Zealand is really working well in Hamilton at the expense of democracy. It’s a recipe for disaster and a sad day for ratepayers, as they are the losers in all of this. The Mayor can now choose the Deputy Mayor, determine committee structure and appoint members. In the past the will of voters as expressed at the ballot box saw the highest polling councillor appointed deputy mayor and high polling councillors being appointed to chairmanships of significant committees. Sadly, this seems to have all gone out the window in Hamilton and no account has been taken of the poll results in these appointments. This is a real slap in the face for ratepayers and we now have an excellent example of empire building going on at City Hall.
In today’s Waikato Times we read that the Mayor is now to have five staff members costing ratepayers $365,000 a year. http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/9511892/Hardaker-spends-up-big-on-spin-doctor
Despite having a significant Public Relations team already in place in the council organisation, she wants her own “spin doctor”. Is this to massage the truth perhaps?
This all comes with a background of Hamilton City Council having a massive debt ($440 million), caused by the frivolous spend up by a previous council on the V8 racing fiasco and an event centre. There have also been many staff made redundant and budgets have been slashed, services have been severely curtailed and service fees increased, all in the quest to “balance the books”.
Added to this, only a small percentage of eligible voters chose to exercise their voting right. They have no room for complaint. It’s the likes of us who did bother to vote that have to live with the consequences.
Good stuff here by Gareth Hughes – this report should open some eyes and solidify resolve.
http://blog.greens.org.nz/2013/12/13/anadarkos-deep-sea-oil-drilling-information-blowout/
len brown will be interviewed on campbell live 2nite..
..i went to the mandela service in ak..and brown spoke..
..i so so wanted to heckle ..
..phillip ure..
I can’t help thinking there is a headline out there somewhere that looks a bit like…..Phil Goff teaches public servants how to behave in a treacherous manner.
Results in …
http://www.electionresults.govt.nz/2013_citizens_referendum/
Minority vote high enough to legitimise referendum. Turnout good.
2 electorates voted “Yes” – Epsom and Tamaki. All others “No”, including Key’s own, Helensville.
Maori electorates highest “No” votes (yep, the maori party are finished).
As you say, the electorate vote breakdowns are telling with only Epsom and Tamaki Yes votes exceeding No votes – but not by much.
Epsom 54.6% Yes; 45.0% No
Tamaki 53.2% Yes; 46.4% No
The Maori electorates are amazing with all seven recording No votes in the 90% ranging from 91.0% to 94.7% – although turnout was slightly lower than the overall rate, ranging from 28.9% to 33.5%.
Less than 1/2 of eligible voters.
What a waste of money, money that could have been spent on the poor but instead blown of this waste of time.
Shame on you Greens, Shame.
But you voted.
Yes, but I felt forced.
With the Greens abusing the citizens initiated referendum I felt that I had no choice but to wallow in shit and participate in this whole charade.
Once again, Boooo to you Greens, you disgraceful excuse of a political party.
Garn. Admit it. You love wallowing in shit. Your posts here drip it profusely.
he loves wallowing in his own shit.
And the money would NOT have been spent on the poor.
Apparently Anadarko considers Greenpeace’s level of risk assessment as valid, despite the PM calling them extreme case scenarios/alarmist.
The information being released on a Friday. I suppose leaving this to next week or early in the New Year was rejected as being too obvious a low publicity disclosure.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1312/S00212/anadarko-discharge-management-plan-available.htm
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2013/12/whos-scaremongering-now.html
Coober Pedy, South Australia = a shale oil find at 700 metres. Potential 233B barrels. Over 10% of current world reserves.
A find of geo-political significance.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-25/linc-energy-in-shale-talks-with-oil-services-company-in-u-s-1-.html
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Australia-Next-Petro-Superstate.html
http://oilandenergyinvestor.com/ext/arckaringa/articles/20-million-oil-find-to-unleash-energy-war.php?src=taboola&ad=ad7
.
With the existing oil reserves in SA/Iraq/Iran/Libya/Russia/Kazakhstan/Nigeria/Venezuela, OPEC has problems now with resumed flow from Iraq,Iran and Libya and the development of shale oil exploitation capacity in North America without such huge finds as this.
How economic is deep sea oil exploration in this environment, even if there is a discovery?
The NOAA Arctic report card update and James Hansen addresses the American Geophysical Union fall meeting.
http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/
http://cdnapisec.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/_922621/uiconf_id/21384601/entry_id/1_o17ip0if
and then there’s This , officer.
A drop in pressure.
and you joe, are among the best of the last , Now it’s our turn to Dream about Tomorrow’s lies yet, no need to be anybody’s Winter . Night All: expended, almost 😉
Interesting current Keiser Report.
Homozygosity – the phenomenon that keeps the National Party and the banker’s class alive (and oure, and entitled)