Open mike 14/07/2019

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, July 14th, 2019 - 200 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

200 comments on “Open mike 14/07/2019 ”

  1. johnm 1

    In this episode of the Summer Solutions 2019 for the Keiser Report, Max and Stacy are joined by Dr. Michael Hudson, author of many books, including “And Forgive Them Their Debts,’ for his ideas on solutions to the ever growing wealth and income gap currently ‘solved’ with ever increasing amounts of debt. They discuss the reason for the huge surge in this wealth and income gap that began in the early seventies as the top once percent ran off with all the productivity gains. What role, if any, does the post-Bretton-Woods-all-fiat-dollar-reserve-system play in this economic injustice? The discussion then moves to Representative Brad Sherman’s recent claim that, "An awful lot of our international power comes from the fact that the U.S. dollar is the standard unit of international finance and transactions. Clearing through the New York Fed is critical for major oil and other transactions.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_XtIPoBHx8

  2. johnm 2

    https://web.archive.org/web/20190620143250/https://topnewsrussia.ru/09/06/2019/japan-abandoned-the-development-of-5g-networks-for-the-health-of-citizens.html

    Красная Армия Japan will not develop and invest in the creation of fifth-generation mobile networks. This is stated on the official website of the Ministry of High Technologies of the country. Officials expressed the opinion that the creation of a faster Internet than previously is dangerous for the population and may adversely affect people’s health and labor productivity.

    Источник: https://web.archive.org/web/20190620143250/https://topnewsrussia.ru/09/06/2019/japan-abandoned-the-development-of-5g-networks-for-the-health-of-citizens.html

  3. reason 3

    This is part one of a good audio podcast giving the history of tRump …

    You'll learn a lot, gain insights and get a few laughs ….

    Listen to part 2 if you want to skip to the more current stuff

    It actually starts at 8mins 25 secs

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osOkysoJgcc

  4. marty mars 4

    sad – they tried and they failed. We need to know why this was such a fail.

    Fish and Game is horrified by reports that nearly 1000 native fish have died in a botched transfer project. Wellington branch manager Phil Teal says virtually none of the 921 rare brown mudfish transferred to a new site by the Carterton District Council have survived.

    …He said the wetland site at Daleton Road in Carterton was also used to discharge partially treated wastewater from the council's treatment plant.

    The transfer project cost Wairarapa ratepayers $161,000 and Mr Teal said the public should be demanding answers from the council.

    He said an independent inquiry by the Department of Conservation was also needed.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/394290/hundreds-of-native-fish-die-in-botched-transfer

    • tc 4.1

      Haha haha good one expecting something from that.

      WDC can't stop raw sewage spewing into raglan harbour yet still allow the Rongatai dev to connect to it.
      They also aren't touching the single lane bridge across the harbour whereas the dev has a flash new bridge of its own to ensure they join the growing jams.

      Developers do as they please in NZ as they’ve the Legal guns and legislative terrain to blow opposition away.

    • WeTheBleeple 4.2

      These fish are extremely sensitive like the Galaxiids – lacking scales. Any number of things could have taken them out but I think the problem was putting them where sewage discharges. Poisoned by bacteria or fungi or xenobiotics or metal.

      The sewage plant sounds like a mish-mash of ideas rather than a comprehensive treatment plant but I'd need to see if to see if it's as bad as it sounds. Sounds like an accountants sewage plant with add-ons after public outcry for environmental issues.

      A big white (man) elephant.

      https://cdc.govt.nz/services/wastewater/

      As for the price to move some fish, there's cronyism in there someplace. It's ridiculous.

      Possibly the same cronyism delivering piss poor wastewater management.

    • Adrian Thornton 4.3

      If anyone was actually serious about our native fish surviving into the future they would making whitebaiting bi annual (at the lest) and eradicate trout from our water ways.

      I once interviewed Rod McDowell and he told me off the record that in his view with out major government intervention NZ native fresh water fish were heading for mass extinction.

      I mean seriously, an introduced apex predator like the trout that is not only allowed to be in our waters, but is still actively introduced and has more protections than our own fish is fucking insane…they are nothing more than ferrets of the watersways, the natives haven't got a chance, kill them on sight I say, I know I do.

  5. Observer Tokoroa 5

    Hi There JohnM

    I am not for one minute suggesting that Americans and Japanese are mentally disabled.

    But I am praising them for having used electricity in their households and Skyscrapers for over a hundred enlightened years.

    Prior to that they used coal and oil. Which are deadly. And which you seem to want to return to. They are in fact the highest Carcinogens that we have in daily use. Thousands thousands of people die from Diesel daily.

    All because people are supporting the Oil Companies.

    May I ask when will you be taking electricity out of the houses of America and Japan ? Are you really that stupid ?

    • johnm 5.1

      Concerned citizens express outrage, heartache and concern regarding the Town's lack of due diligence, lack of solidarity with the citizens and lack of fortitude to STOP the small cell installation in Huntington NY. Facts regarding 5G and a list of the new small cell sites are listed in this video!

      The people of the above video have electricity, but they obviously consider cell phone 4g 5g and wifi etc an order of magnitude more dangerous and intrusive. Especially the concentrated intensity of the cell phone towers permeating the very atmosphere we need to live in.

  6. lprent 6

    Lera Lynn: The Only Thing Worth Fighting For

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tklA8sSXYBM

  7. Ed1 7

    A couple of days ago Kiwiblog got excited about a new development in Wellington:

    https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2019/07/the_wellington_party_-_vote_for_competence.html

    which Stuff duly reported:

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/114209468/rightwing-wellington-party-to-contest-council-elections

    Farrar claims that “Certainly things have gone horribly wrong in Wellington in the last couple of years.”, and among a list he gives, the first is

    “The two Councils have destroyed the bus network, and can’t even work together to fix it.”

    Now it is my understanding that the Council responsible for transport is the regional council – perhaps Farrar is thinking Wellington should have had all Councils amalgamated as in Auckland – that has gone so well for National . . .

    But regarding the bus contracts, they were let before the last election, under rules set by Gerry Brownlee (they were available on a website, but I can’t find it now – I do hope it has been changed!).

    The rules Regional Council had to follow for public transport contracts were to seek competitive tenders, to enable contracts for parts of the region to encourage competition, and to base contracts on price. This the regional council did, and it is arguable that Wellington got just what National wanted. After all, who would argue in favour of a more expensive contract, and why would you look for competence? Of course the fragmentation of services meant a re-design of routes by yet another agency, complex contracts, and when some routes needed further change then the lawyers must have fed on contract changes. More opportunities to clip the ticket – neo-liberal heaven! Now we find that the companies cannot pay the wages to recruit enough drivers (and the multiple contracts make moving drivers harder). Given the contract is with the public sector, the neo-lib answer is probably that the Council should pay more – but if the contracts did not allow for adequate wages that is again just what the government wanted . . . – of course the implication has been that the Council has erred in not paying more . . .

    So now some services are being cancelled for lack of drivers – again that is as designed – almost certainly they will be those where the number of passengers did not justify the service anyway – Brownlee knew what he was doing!

    The comments on Kiwiblog are amusing – various posters see a great future in the principle behind the name, and are calling for an Auckland Party (cit-rats became a joke, com-res hasn’t done well, why not an “Auckland Party”!). If the various city parties combined, they could even call themselves the New Zealand Party, or, dare we say it, the National Party!

    The party website is informative as anyone would expect : https://thewellingtonparty.org/ but from the Stuff article, having Hughes, Morrison and Mihaka all running in wellington Central, and four or five other candidates, how could they possibly lose!

    • Pat 7.1

      Councils everywhere are incapable of addressing that which needs to be addressed, be it basic services, transport, climate change impacts or whatever….they are structurally flawed and growth is simply highlighting the deficiencies. It is delusional to believe that any grouping can or will change that.

      Deck chairs on the Titanic

  8. marty mars 8

    50 years ago this was released

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXSGocWifAg

    … planet earth is blue and there's nothing we can do…

    • Sacha 8.1

      Stands up amazingly well. #respec

      • Morrissey 8.1.1

        #respec

        ???

        Lori Mattix, who had a liaison with him aged 15, explained: ‘I never thought of David Bowie as a paedophile. He would f**k anything. If he liked it he would f**k it.’

        Early girlfriend Dana Gillespie concurred, telling me: ‘As far as sex went, if it moved, he was there. Man, woman, old or young. Times have changed and it doesn’t always look so good in black and white now, but in those days we were just having fun; there were no rules.’

        …. The sexual free-for-all characterised his open marriage to Angie, whom he wed in 1970. She wrote in her autobiography: ‘David made a virtual religion of slipping the lance of love into almost everyone around him.’

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6684325/Two-women-reveal-flings-David-Bowie-aged-15.html

        https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-talking-about-bowies-sexual-misconduct-matters_b_9009230

        https://jezebel.com/what-should-we-say-about-david-bowie-and-lori-maddox-1754533894

        • Psycho Milt 8.1.1.1

          Are you feeling jealous? He's dead, Morrissey – there's no chance of him fucking you now.

          • Morrissey 8.1.1.1.1

            I don't think his personal sins and foibles should stop anyone listening to his music. But Yadana Saw and her hiveminded colleagues at RNZ National obviously do.

          • Adrian Thornton 8.1.1.1.2

            This is really strange coming from you guys, I remember only too well and also very recently that all you lot ( Sacha, marty mars and others ) were losing your shit over Assange over what you said was his mistreatment of woman, and now defending Bowie fucking 15 year old girls, holy shit what a bunch of hypocrites.
            Guess if you can write a few good tunes you get a free pass, is that how it goes for you?
            Assange should have practiced his guitar a bit more eh.

            • Morrissey 8.1.1.1.2.1

              Bowie's crimes are exhaustively documented, and he and his followers boasted about them incessantly. Assange committed no crime, unless journalism is now a criminal enterprise. The lurid Soviet-style sex fantasy concocted by the British and U.S. intelligence services has as much rigour as that case cooked up against Peter Ellis by the Christchurch Police and a few demented psychiatrists.

              • Adrian Thornton

                Problem is many on here don't seem to be able to produce an original thought in their head, and lack what seems to be any critical thought process at all.

                It they read it in The Guardian or whatever..it must be true..end of story for this lot.

                • Morrissey

                  It they read it in The Guardian or whatever..it must be true..end of story for this lot.

                  The propaganda that daily emanates from the Guardian and the very similar BBC is dutifully repeated in our media by the likes of John Campbell, Kathryn Ryan, Kim Hill, Bernard Hickey, and Patrick Gower.

                  Over at NewstalkZzzzzB, meanwhile, they recycle Fox News and the Spectator as reflexively and as irresponsibly.

            • Psycho Milt 8.1.1.1.2.2

              I remember only too well and also very recently that all you lot ( Sacha, marty mars and others ) were losing your shit over Assange over what you said was his mistreatment of woman, and now defending Bowie fucking 15 year old girls…

              Why does the word "consent" seem either completely unheard-of or just plain irrelevant to so many men when it comes to the morality of sex?

              Also: despite the enthusiastic participation of the 15-year-olds in question, if the Police had been made aware of the incident they would have wanted to interview Mr Bowie, and if he'd instead resisted extradition, jumped bail and spent years hiding out in a foreign embassy, I'd probably have a fairly low opinion of him too.

              • Adrian Thornton

                Whatever..you hypocrites, you guys are so full of shit it defies logic, but then as I have seen first hand through parts of my life, some humans can justify and defend and/or enable almost any type of bad behaviour if they get cornered and feel they need too…guess you are in that club, well done.

              • marty mars

                yep pretty basic stuff but too much for the wee adrian

                • Adrian Thornton

                  Haven't seen you or your pals show the moral outrage toward Bowie that you all spewed out towards Assange when you were told to do so by the Guardian is all I''m saying.

                  Or is 'enthusiastic participation' from a 15 yo girl OK in your books..,,because as far as I know wether that 15 yo girl consents or not, is it is still considered illegal,and that girl would be considered a minor, so in other words and according to the law, Bowie was fucking children.

                  Now I am not actually offering moral judgment on this, i am just stating what the law is, and undisputed stories about who Bowie had sex with, in this case a under age girl…no you are the ones who presented yourselves as the rulers on what is considered moral when it comes to sexual relations in your stances on Assange..wee man.

                  • marty mars

                    put up ONE post that I have done in support or against assange – you can't cos you're a fucken liar – fuck off bullshit artist.

                  • Or is 'enthusiastic participation' from a 15 yo girl OK in your books…

                    For me? No. For other people? Not really my business. Might be of interest to the Police if there's a complaint, though. Don't you think?

              • The Chairman

                Why does the word "consent" seem either completely unheard-of or just plain irrelevant to so many men when it comes to the morality of sex?

                In the case of 15 year olds, perhaps it's to do with them not being considered mature enough to give their consent.

                Also: despite the enthusiastic participation of the 15-year-olds in question, if the Police had been made aware of the incident they would have wanted to interview Mr Bowie, and if he'd instead resisted extradition, jumped bail and spent years hiding out in a foreign embassy, I'd probably have a fairly low opinion of him too.

                So as Bowie didn't resisted extradition, jumped bail and spend years hiding out in a foreign embassy are you saying you condone him having sex with underage girls?

                • In the case of 15 year olds, perhaps it's to do with them not being considered mature enough to give their consent.

                  What the law says, and what individuals choose to do, are sometimes not the same. The law says a 15-year-old isn't allowed to drink alcohol, and yet I did so (and drove afterwards, often enough). I would also have been more than happy if someone wanted to fuck me, hell anyone let alone a famous celebrity, which sadly no-one at the time did (don't cry, readers, someone took pity on me later on).

                  …are you saying you condone him having sex with underage girls?

                  Somehow I can't imagine Bowie was living in fear of what Psycho Milt might think of him for having fucked underage girls. My point, which somehow seems to need making over and over again on these threads, is that if sex with you leaves a woman feeling the need to visit a police station, ur doin it wrong.

            • McFlock 8.1.1.1.2.3

              Not sure anyone's argued that wikileaks should be boycotted specifically because Assange is an accused rapist.

              Caravaggio was a murderer. Good paintings, though.

              The outcome of boycott/noboycott is binary, but the decision-making is not.

              Work quality and uniqueness is one factor. Severity and frequency of crimes is another (as a judge might look at sentence length). Degree of input the criminal had into the work is another (e.g. boycott Deadwood because Jeffrey Jones is in it? What if Swearengen were played by [alleged criminal]Kevin Spacey?). How long ago were the crimes, and were they a lifetime practise? Will my boycott affect the criminal's ability to profit from this or future work, or help deter future criminals?

              From my perspective, all this and probably more mushes into a single boycott/noboycott outcome. Sometimes it's a conscious "argh, shit, I really liked him, he's not on my playlist until he owns it" (louisCK). Sometimes it's just that the abuser is no longer a selling point, the billing they get in the cinema might as well be a blank space or even a shitstain.

              So I'm not going to parse what Bowie did. It was wrong. Is he on my playlist? not really. Did I play the embed? Yup. Was that wrong or inconsistent? Maybe. But fuck it, it's a Sunday and I'm at the office.

              • Adrian Thornton

                @ McFlock , I grew up in the AKL art scene in the late 1960's, and have been involved in one way or another with artists in all fields since, so believe me this whole issue is nothing new to me, I learnt long long ago to separate art from art creator, in both the fine arts and in music.

                • McFlock

                  Yeah, that line has always been bullshit.

                  A great song or painting about romantic love would forever be coloured if you discovered that it was created a few weeks after the creator beat their lover to death, or a few weeks after they'd met the person they would be in love with for the next fifty years, or both. The context of the creation adds texture to it, whether we want it or not.

              • Morrissey

                …. because Assange is an accused rapist.

                He's not. There were, and are, no charges for rape against him. You're simply smearing him, for the umpteenth time in your case.

                • McFlock

                  He has been accused of rape.

                  You are adamant, without any basis, that he is innocent of that accusation. That is a stupid position to take, but not uncommon in a society where women are routinely disbelieved. But your bias goes so far as to have you deny the literal truth that he has been accused of rape. What little judgement you have has been clouded by your ego.

                  • Morrissey

                    …where women are routinely disbelieved.

                    Ha! As if this pursuit of Assange is driven by women and not the secret police of two rogue nations. The young women badgered and inveigled to go along, for a short time, with this murderous travesty almost immediately made it clear they wanted no charges brought against him. Your zealous desire to see him destroyed stands in stark contrast to their courage.

                    the literal truth that he has been accused of rape.

                    No he has not.

                    There were never any rape charges against Assange. What happened is this. Two Swedish women took Assange into their beds in their homes and had consensual sex with him. No condom was used. The women or one of them wanted Assange to take a test so she could be reassured that he had no disease that could be sexually transmitted. Assange foolishly refused. The woman went to the police to see if Assange could be coerced to take the test. Out of this came the investigation that was closed without charges. Assange was free to leave Sweden.

                    He foolishly went to the UK, Washington’s prime puppet state. Once there Washington prevailed on a female Swedish prosecutor to reopen questioning of Assange.

                    No real reason was ever given for the female Swedish prosecutor to reopen the questioning. One possible reason is Washington’s money. It was clear to Assange’s lawyers that the extradition request was a trick to get him back in Swedish hands so that he could be handed over to Washington. Assange fought the extradition, but a corrupt British court to comply with Washington ruled that Assange could be extradited for questioning even though there were no changes against him. This ruling shocked everyone who thought British judges had integrity.

                    https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2019/04/16/the-fake-charge-against-julian-assange-proves-that-the-us-government-has-no-integrity/

                    • McFlock

                      Two Swedish women took Assange into their beds in their homes and had consensual sex with him. Consent was granted on the explicit basis that he used a condom. No condom was used. Therefore it was non-consensual sex, which is more properly known as "rape". The women or one of them wanted Assange to take a test so she could be reassured that he had no disease that could be sexually transmitted.

                      Fixed it for you.

                      Also: details of the rape allegations here.

            • Sacha 8.1.1.1.2.4

              Have never commented about Assange. You must be thinking of somebody else.

              • Adrian Thornton

                Sorry about that, my apologies.

                • marty mars

                  What about my apology too? Or have you found some non existent post of mine.

                  • Morrissey

                    What about my apology too? Or have you found some non existent post of mine.

                    On Wednesday 17 April, shortly after Julian Assange had, at the behest of the Trump regime, been dragged out of political asylum, put in front of a biased and abusive "judge", and imprisoned, Te Reo Putake instigated a gloating, outrageous thread entitled "Assange Must Be Extradited." He summarily banned half a dozen people who dared to defend journalism and the rule of law, and he excised their posts. Later in the thread he admitted (to Brigid, who had protested about his conduct) that he had devised the "admittedly click baity title" in order to "get people to read the post, Brigid. Obviously, some of my fans here love being outraged, so it was a good way to get their blood pressure up." Such antics constituted, he joked, "churnalism at its finest."

                    At 10.33 p.m. you chose to add the following comment to that Red China-style festival of abuse, contempt, denunciation, and malice:

                    yep – it’s pretty basic consent issue – if no consent then rape – simple.

                    https://thestandard.org.nz/assange-must-be-extradited/#comment-1609041

                    So you supported the bullies and the slanderers, by amplifying their callous lies. It's a post of yours all right, and it's anything but "non-existent."

                    • marty mars

                      You're a liar too moonbreem

                      the context of that comment was in relation to the law around consent in NZ. It was a comment on the difference between Sweden and NZ and NOT about what you implied it was about.

                    • McFlock

                      Paraphrasing a dictionary defnition of "rape" only amplifies people opposed to rape.

                      Last I looked, journalism didn't involve rape.

                      I think that somehow you might have inadvertantly conflated two distinct issues. I'm sure you haven't realised it and that this is the first person to explain that the subject of a person's "journalism" is distinct from the subject of whether that journalist is also a rapist.

                      I look forward to you acknowledging the disinction betwen the two subjects in a calm and dignified manner in the near future.*

                      *actual results may vary

    • Morrissey 8.2

      I hope you don't mind me saying that THAT song is a LITTLE bit of a controversial CHOICE, a-a-a-a-and I'm really interested why you were brave enough to be choosing a David Bowie clip at this time. Marty, w-w-what will happen is that, I'm pretty sure this thread is going to get very BUSY with this choice.

      What would you SAY to-o-o-o Standard readers, who may say "We CAN'T listen to this music any more"?

  9. Morrissey 9

    Yenta Hodge's daughter is Deputy Editor for BBC News at Six and News at Ten: the British State Propaganda organ is blatantly biased to the extreme right.

    Thought I would put up a link to some who feature in the BBC Who's Who.

    1.) Amol Rajan is the voluble BBC Media Editor, always appearing and giving his take on events. He was one time editor of Levedev's Independent and was at the FCO early on for a year.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38054561

    2.) James Harding was the Head of News. He arrived at the BBC along with James Purnell, one time chair of LFoI and ex Labour MP, and Ceri Thomas.

    Apologists for Israel take top posts at BBC
    23 April 2013 https://electronicintifada.net/content/apologists-israel-take-top-posts-bbc/12395

    3) Tony Hall was a successor to Mark Thompson, the Director General who presided over the Savile evil. Thompson is married to Jane Blumberg, daughter of a US physicist. Thompson visited Sharon in Israel in 2005 to reassure him that BBC reports on Israel were fair! It was originally said he was accompanied by his wife but the BBC would not confirm that.

    See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Thompson_(media_executive)#Accusations_of_pro-Israeli_editorial_stance

    4.) Under Thompson's watch, the DEC appeal for Gaza after the Cast Lead slaughter was not aired by the BBC. Caroline Thomson, no longer at the BBC, was his sidekick who also took a decision not to broadcast Caryl Churchill's Seven Jewish Children, a radio play. Thompson is now CEO at the New York Times. At the BBC in 2010 he was being paid just under £1million.

    5.) Ms Thomson is now the chair of OXFAM. (YCNMIU)

    6.) Harding left the BBC and set up his own media outfit called Turquoise.

    7.) James Purnell is still at the BBC as Head of Radio, Head of Strategy and Digital. Before, he had worked privately for Blair, was a SPAD at No 10 and was given two jobs (DCMS and Pensions) by Brown. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Purnell

    8.) Lastly, Lizzi Watson, Margaret Hodge's daughter from her first marriage, is currently the Deputy Editor for BBC News at Six and News at Ten, i.e. the country's main news provider. As you know, Hodge (MP Lab Barking) has been instigating the anti-Semitism smears against Jeremy Corbyn.
    https://twitter.com/islingtonlizzi?lang=en

    Does the anti-Corbyn bias that we see and hear get passed down the line?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hodge

    9.) All in all, 'Bought by and Sold to Israel' and Paid For by the licence fee payers. Just some of the stuff that is in the public domain. There is probably much more that we will never know about.

    Orig. posted by Mary at The Lifeboat News…. http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/msg/1563039156.html

    • greywarshark 9.1

      This is good backgrounding Morrissey thanks for links.

    • Ad 9.2

      Joseph McCarthy tried the same trick you're trying. Just read out the names and make them sound as Jewish as possible. Generally the media can just let such vile fools hang themselves; the bias is with those who are hunting people down.

      Here's how the real pro's did what you are trying:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnKTgmOJr78

      You can do similar slurs with those 30 Jewy-sounding names who are testifying on the issue within Labour UK to the Equality and Human Right Commission.

      Failing that, you could stop the slurs and listen to the evidence they have to say about anti-semitism within the Labour Party instead of attacking the messengers.

      https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jul/11/labour-antisemitism-30-whistleblowers-to-give-evidence-to-ehrc

      Corbyn has been as weak and pushed around by activists on the anti-semitic issues within his party as has has been on Brexit. This is not surprising from a person who has actually never before stood successfully for any legislation in Parliament, proved totally unwhippable, or led anything in his life.

      To catch you up, the EHRC launched a formal investigation into whether Labour “unlawfully discriminated against, harassed or victimised people” from the Jewish community in May, saying it had received a number of complaints about Labour’s handling of allegations. It's not the BBC doing this.

      Not even sunlight can disinfect Labour UK from the damage that Corbyn has now done.

      • Morrissey 9.2.1

        Your ignorance is astounding, as are your cynicism and dishonesty. I pay no attention to what you say.

        • Ad 9.2.1.1

          That is because you are a bigot who is afraid to hear the truth of submissions in a public hearing on the matter.

          Your McCarthyism won't work.

          • Morrissey 9.2.1.1.1

            Nope, you ain't got it. Sorry.

            • Ad 9.2.1.1.1.1

              I just knew you couldn't help yourself.

              People like you never take any kind of criticism because their righteousness drives and blinds them.

              You seek bias in every person in the media, and you'll find it because that perfect place your righteousness drives you towards does not even exist in your mind, so it’s invented as a future no-place. U-topia.

              Try another comment. You know you want to.

              • Poission

                Human nature stands in the way of social engineers (see Pinker the bland slate)

                https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D-64tfoU8AM4MV7.jpg:large

                Societies grow into systems. The systems require management and are therefore increasingly wielded, like a tool or a weapon, by those who have power. The rest of the population is still needed to do specific things. But the citizens are not needed to contribute to the form or direction of the society. The more "advanced" the civilization, the more irrelevant the citizen becomes.

                Voltaire's Bastards (1992)

                • Ad

                  There are better descriptions of human agency around.

                  JR Saul's version stands as pretty pre-internet and pre-social media.

                  If you can get hold of it, he does a really good one comparing the development of Canada and the United States as societies and as geographies: Confessions of a Siamese Twin.

                  It's a pretty good analogue for the New Zaland – Australia relationship.

                  • Poission

                    we have seen the effects of networked systems and the outcome of catastrophic collapse eg Haldane and May.

                    In the run-up to the recent financial crisis, an increasingly elaborate set of financial instruments emerged, intended to optimize returns to individual institutions with seemingly minimal risk. Essentially no attention was given to their possible effects on the stability of the system as a whole. Drawing analogies with the dynamics of ecological food webs and with networks within which infectious diseases spread, we explore the interplay between complexity and stability in deliberately simplified models of financial networks. We suggest some policy lessons that can be drawn from such models, with the explicit aim of minimizing systemic risk.

                    https://www.nature.com/articles/nature09659

                    Sauls outcomes for a corporate coup d'etat held up well.

                    • Ad

                      Sorry the link doesn't work for me.

                      Could you explain the reference to Haldane and May.

                    • Poission

                      a lack of diversity in risk models as networking increased or to put it another way a sterility of thinking. as HM suggest.

                      The analytic model outlined earlier demonstrates that the topology ofthe financial sector’s balance sheet has fundamental implications for thestate and dynamics of systemic risk. From a public policy perspective,two topological features are key15.First, diversity across the financial system. In the run-up to the crisis,and in the pursuit of diversification, banks’ balance sheets and risk management systems became increasingly homogenous. For example,banks became increasingly reliant on wholesale funding on the liabilities side of the balance sheet; in structured credit on the assets side of thei rbalance s eet; and managed the resulting risks using the same value -at- risk models. This desire for diversification was individually rational from a risk perspective. But it came at the expense of lower diversity across the system as whole, thereby increasing systemic risk. Homogeneity bred fragility

                      Similarly if a profession's textbooks (widely cited by social engineers) were wrong in their assumptions on statistical testing,would you not feel a little uncomfortable or indeed cynical.

                      https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/observer/obsonline/textbook-analysis-uncovers-erroneous-explanations-of-statistical-significance.html

              • Morrissey

                Criticism? All you offer is rancid abuse. If it were witty, or clever, that might be a mitigating factor.

                • Ad

                  Now you can look back on all your comments in 9, and feel what you've tried to do to others.

                  Funny the way weak and cowardly analysts such as yourself turn on themselves.

                  As you are about to see with UK Labour, eventually such slurs end up in court.

        • greywarshark 9.2.1.2

          It is foolish to not pay attention to what Ad says. He is likely to get to solid ground in a sentence, compared to yourself Morrissey in numbers of paragraphs.

          • Morrissey 9.2.1.2.1

            It is foolish to not pay attention to what Ad says.

            So far today he's peddled Blairite black propaganda, i.e. lies, about Jeremy Corbyn, and he's called me a McCarthyite.

            He is likely to get to solid ground in a sentence,

            If by "solid ground" you mean abusive, demeaning and not terribly creative name-calling, then, yes, he quickly gets to "solid ground."

            compared to yourself Morrissey in numbers of paragraphs.

            ???? I work hard at writing lean, well organized pieces, whether they're short replies like this or longer essays or, on the odd occasion, play scripts. I'd put up anything from my oeuvre against his complacent and self-satisfied little rants.

      • Psycho Milt 9.2.2

        Failing that, you could stop the slurs and listen to the evidence they have to say about anti-semitism within the Labour Party instead of attacking the messengers.

        Will there be some evidence at some point? So far it all seems to be a very successful anti-Corbyn propaganda campaign with nothing to back it up.

        • Ad 9.2.2.1

          The joy of this is that there are now two legal avenues in which the evidence against the Labour Party handling of anti-semitism will play out as evidence.

          BBC's programme has alerted everyone to what is to come.

          Labour has gone on the attack rather than front it, so now it will all play out in the courts, and get further amplified in the media.

          That's where the likes of Morrisey will find the evidence, rather than attacking the BBC.

          • Psycho Milt 9.2.2.1.1

            This is a propaganda campaign against Corbyn that's been going on for a year already, and we might finally see some evidence to back it up at some point in the future? I'll believe it when I see it. My money is on both the EHRC investigation and any libel case being entirely about how Labour handled allegations of anti-semitism, with pretty much no evidence of anti-semitism actually presented.

    • TootingPopularFront 9.3

      @Morissey and @Psycho Milt, there are a couple of links about the astonishing Panorama episode aired in the UK, made by a former Sun journalist, about the alleged "crisis of anti-semitism" in the UK Labour Party:

      Jeremy Corbyn's take:

      https://www.thecanary.co/breaking-news/2019/07/13/corbyn-many-inaccuracies-in-panorama-probe-into-anti-semitism-in-labour/

      A former BBC staffer's point of view:

      https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2019/07/13/ex-bbc-presenter-exposes-the-dark-side-of-panoramas-incredibly-suspect-episode-on-corbyn/

      A debunking:

      https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1149426426665455622.html

      And hilariously, the British public are not buying it:

      https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2019/07/13/bbc-hatchet-job-on-jeremy-corbyn-immediately-backfires-as-labour-takes-remarkable-poll-lead/

      • Morrissey 9.3.1

        Thanks for that, Wolfie. Very interesting indeed.

        Oh, I nearly forgot—Power to the People!

  10. Anne 10

    For anyone interested in the ongoing crisis re- the baiting of Iran by the Trump regime and the effects on Britain and ultimately the rest of us… the following link is a must read:

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/13/this-death-star-presidency-is-no-ally-for-modern-britain

    The final sentence sums up the situation well:

    Trump’s America is an ugly, dangerous creation from which old certainties recoil. The US alliance can no longer be relied upon. The Darroch affair is a timely warning to step back and take stock. And it’s no good saying Trump will soon be gone. The way the divided Democrats are behaving, he could still be calling the shots in 2025.

    This "death star" presidency is no ally for NZ either, and our government should accordingly base their decisions relating to this regime on reality and not the past!

    • Morrissey 10.1

      Trump didn't start the baiting of Iran. It started in 1953, when the U.S. and its U.K. vassal conspired to smash Iranian democracy.

      Trump's instability and unpredictability, and especially the presence of John Bolton, only make things more dangerous, but the policies, and these utterly unjust "sanctions", were not dreamed up by him or his crazy inner cabal.

      • Anne 10.1.1

        Agree. Trump didn't start it. Successive US governments have been using the baiting technique and yes… other nations have followed suit. However Trump and Co. are taking it to a whole new level which has the potential to destroy our very existence and he can only be stopped if western governments stop cow-towing to the maniacal regime and conspire to be rid of this regime.

    • greywarshark 10.2

      The 'death star' presidency – a great appellation. The warnings are there for any sane politicians to see also the jerks pulling the strings on we puppets, passing their jerks on to us.

  11. The Chairman 11

    The National Addiction Centre say the Government's lack of action over alcohol regulation, following recommendations made in a recent mental health inquiry, suggests outside influences are involved.

    Health Minister Dr David Clark said he wouldn't dignify such suggestions with a response.

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/07/government-accused-of-pandering-to-alcohol-industry.html

    • "You gotta follow the money and ask who is benefiting from the status quo," Simon Adamson, the National Addiction Centre director, said.

      "There is a lot of money being made by the alcohol industry and the supermarket industry so we could speculate that there's been some strong lobbying going on," said Adamson.

      I expect he's right and there is a lot of lobbying going on, just like there is from every other industry or interest group. That's water off Clark's back.

      To get the real situation, ignore the money and ask who's benefiting from the status quo. The answer is "Me and hundreds of thousands of others like me who buy alcohol at the supermarket every week, and most of us vote in general elections." Now, that the Minister does care about…

      • The Chairman 11.1.1

        I suspect there is more than just lobbying go on, there will most likely also be party donations given from those sectors.

        But is sounds like you are arguing that the damaged caused is the price we have to pay to keep the price of booze low for the piss heads.

        • Psycho Milt 11.1.1.1

          I'm arguing that attempting to eradicate drug addiction from a society is a doomed enterprise regardless of the proposed mechanism, but the mechanism of taking a punitive approach to recreational drug users has been proven beyond dispute to be among the more stupid ones. Clamp down on one drug, people start using others – there is no drug-free society just waiting for us to get the right policy mix in place. Repairing the damage done by over-indulgence in recreational drugs is a cost society just has to bear, much like it does for the damage done by over-eating, playing sports, fucking etc.

          • The Chairman 11.1.1.1.1

            Who do you believe is attempting to eradicate booze?

            Moreover, most that drink aren't addicted.

            • Psycho Milt 11.1.1.1.1.1

              Who do you believe is attempting to eradicate booze?

              Anti-alcohol lobbyists, for a start. Like the alcohol industry, they also are lobbyists with an agenda and should be seen in that light. And the fact that you call people who drink alcohol "pissheads" but use no pejoratives to describe tobacco smokers suggests you're in the same camp.

              Moreover, most that drink aren't addicted.

              Which makes the anti-alcohol lobby's constant attempt to fuck with us all the more annoying.

        • The Al1en 11.1.1.2

          the damaged caused is the price we have to pay to keep the price of booze low for the piss heads.

          Good to know, with this stance on alcohol and it's users, you've also now dropped your objection to high taxation of tobacco products for the cancer makers.

          • The Chairman 11.1.1.2.1

            Apples and oranges

            Unlike booze, most tobacco users are highly addicted to the product.

            Moreover, the price of tobacco is far from low. And it tends to damage the user and not the wider society. Increasing the cost is what is driving the wider damage with the vast increase in shop holdups.

            • The Al1en 11.1.1.2.1.1

              You called the alcoholics 'piss heads', not me, so as addicts, it's apple for apple.

              Yeah, the reason tobacco is not cheap is because of the taxes, the same sort of taxes you want to put on booze to minimise the uptake and usage. An orange for an orange.

              Will you also be a hypocrite, if the high taxes come in, and slam the government if and when scum rip off bottle shops?

              • The Chairman

                You called the alcoholics 'piss heads

                No. I didn't say anything about alcoholics. You are clearly clutching.

                Thus, my position holds. The majority of those that drink aren't addicted as smokers are, so lifting the price will have a better effect as most don't need to have that drink. Unlike smoking.

                Additionally, taxes on tobacco have largely exceeded their effectiveness. We are largely down to the hardcore addicts that won't quit regardless the tax.

                Moreover, it's not just about lifting prices. However, I'm sure your already knew that, but it didn't fit with you narrative.

                • The Al1en

                  Some one is clutching, and it aint me.

                  Taxes raised on drinks, for exactly the same reason as those raised on tobacco, make it exactly the same thing you've been whining on about here since for ever.

                  You just can't have it both ways.

                  • The Chairman

                    Those that drink are not largely addicts opposed to those that smoke. And that is the difference you are continually failing to see.

                    • The Al1en

                      Don't you like to say, along the lines of 'who will it affect most'?

                      So you're full of compassion for smokers but not drunks.

                      Again, will you condemn the government if and when slimeballs start to rob off licences because of the tax policy you want introduced?

                • …so lifting the price will have a better effect as most don't need to have that drink.

                  You don't need to have that computer you're using, either. Our thoughts on what someone else needs or doesn't need has a net value of $0.00.

                  • The Chairman

                    It's not just my thoughts. The reality is, most drinkers aren't addicts, thus they don't need that drink as a smoker needs that smoke. Which clearly is the point you missed.

                    • There's a point there? I guess there's an implied one that you personally believe addicts shouldn't have their fix taxed but recreational users should. Good luck turning that into a coherent and enforceable policy.

                  • The Chairman

                    Taxing the fix of an addict doesn't stop them from being addicted.

                    Whereas, taxing recreational users will have a far better impact on their recreational use.

                    Drinking is over rated anyway. There are far better recreational drugs out there for when it comes to partying and creativeness.wink

                    • Taxing the fix of an addict doesn't stop them from being addicted.

                      That bold assertion is somewhat undermined by the numbers of smokers who've given up due to cost increases via taxation. (NB: like you, I'm unhappy with the level of taxes charged on cigarettes, but that's based on a general principle that it's beyond the state's remit to punish people for their recreational drug choices, not because I bullshit myself about addiction. Also NB: I'm not and never have been a tobacco smoker.)

                      Whereas, taxing recreational users will have a far better impact on their recreational use.

                      People's recreational drug use is none of the government's business. It's entitled to tax the drug to recover health costs, but anything beyond that is just arbitrary exercise of authority.

                      Drinking is over rated anyway. There are far better recreational drugs…

                      Your opinions on what recreational drugs people should or shouldn't use are of value only to you.

                    • The Chairman

                      That bold assertion is somewhat undermined by the numbers of smokers who've given up due to cost increases via taxation.

                      Only slightly, you are talking around 5% opposed to the 13.8 that continue to smoke, hence strengthening my assertion. Along with the 45 per cent of Maori women between 18 and 24 that smoke now, and which the number isn't reducing.

                      Addiction to smoking is not bullshit, it's the main factor people aren't giving up.

                      Along with the fact that users are addicted, my opposition is based on the fact it's gone too far and is hurting the poor who are already hurting, while destroying our once safe and peaceful society. We are getting down to the hardcore smokers that aren't going to give up easily. Hell, some of them actually enjoy it. It's their vice and they are never going to stop.

                      People's recreational drug use is none of the government's business. It's entitled to tax the drug to recover health costs, but anything beyond that is just arbitrary exercise of authority.

                      Cover health costs? What about the costs of the wider damaged it creates?

            • Drowsy M. Kram 11.1.1.2.1.2

              Could you quantify the tobacco price-fuelled "vast increase in shop holdups"?
              I know the idea is common ‘knowledge’, but I'm having trouble finding the supporting evidence using Google searches.

              ‘Smoke and Mirrors’, or ‘Smoke in (Y)Our Eyes’?

              "The authors note it is difficult to assess adverse impacts, because of the lack of high quality trend and current data. For example, they describe increasing media reports of retail robberies involving cigarettes, and growing retailer concerns. However, they also note that lack of reliable longitudinal data on tobacco-related crimes makes it impossible to assess whether such robberies are actually increasing, and, if so, whether any observed increases are due to higher tobacco excise taxes, points we have made previously. Similarly, there are few data on trends in imported or crime-related illicit tobacco supply, making it difficult for the Report authors to verify or disprove claims that these are increasing."

              https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/pubhealthexpert/2019/01/24/what-does-the-ey-tobacco-excise-tax-evaluation-report-mean-for-reaching-the-smokefree-2025-goal/

              • The Chairman

                A total of 1237 aggravated robberies were recorded at dairies and petrol stations from June 2016 to May 2017, up 87 per cent on the previous 12 months.

                • Drowsy M. Kram

                  Thanks Chair; what proportion of that shocking annual increase in robberies was due to the increase in tobacco excise tax?

                  Regardless of the reasons, that's an appalling increase in aggravated robberies under a National-led government. Aren't they supposed to be tough on Law'n'Order? No doubt you were critical of National's poor performance at the time, in your own "lefty" "more left than most" way laugh

                  • Ad

                    It's a bit brutal to let the market of law-and-order determine who can still retail tobacco.

                    Any government (Labour or National-led) should be able to regulate dispensaries for combusted cancerous products, just like alcohol shops are.

                  • The Chairman

                    What proportion of that shocking annual increase in robberies was due to the increase in tobacco excise tax?

                    Zero. It was all just a big coincidence – not.

                    I was critical of the tax, and have been for sometime now.

                    Hard on crime you say. So how is putting a bad ass motherfucker in jail with a bunch of other bad ass motherfuckers meant to result in them being rehabilitated once they come out? The whole system seems flawed from the get go.

                    • Drowsy M. Kram

                      We can agree it wasn't zero, but I didn’t ask what it wasn't.

                      Asking if you had any idea what it was? It’s OK if you’ve no idea at all.

                    • The Chairman

                      Data is yet to be kept on that. Although, cigarettes were often targeted in these robberies. And it's logical to assume the main related cause for such an sharp and sudden increase was the tax.

                      Do you see any other new or outstanding reasons for it? Apart from the tax, little if anything had changed in that year.

                    • Drowsy M. Kram

                      Wonder if at least some of the increase might be related to another rather soggy National parrty attack line that The Chairman was peddling here a few days ago? https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-09-07-2019/#comment-1635449

                      If this was a National Government…

                      So much sogginess – how do you avoid becoming bogged down?

                    • Incognito []

                      Today has been another particularly soggy day. When I read Chair’s comments, my screen fogs up.

                    • The Chairman

                      National party attack line?

                      As you can clearly see (in that linked comment) I merely stated a few genuine facts and made a little summary at the end.

                      Next minute, you Labour Party cheerleaders get all offended and see these true facts as an attack.

                      You lot need to face reality and deal with it.

                      Shooting the messenger doesn't change the facts.

                      “Wonder if at least some of the increase might be related… ”

                      Unlikely to explain the sudden spike. Albeit the hardship and whatnot would most likely be behind the normal rate of robberies.

                    • solkta

                      He's as wet as the weather.

                    • McFlock

                      I did like the bit where he diverged from the link and showed his had:

                      I suspect there is more than just lobbying go on, there will most likely also be party donations given from those sectors.

                      Party donations are public record. If the industry donated anything of note, the notes would be online, and they'd be thrown around with soggy abandon.

                    • Drowsy M. Kram

                      I consider myself a ‘lefty‘, indeed a friend of left and “more left than most“.

                      The Chairman is adept with speculation masquerading as fact – and to what end?

                      "the vast increase in shop holdups" is a result of governments (National and Labour) increasing excise tax on tobacco?

                      Aren’t these tax increases a rare and much-needed example of bipartisan political agreement? Why undermine that?

                      https://www.drugfoundation.org.nz/news-media-and-events/well-done-on-tobacco-tax-prime-minister-why-not-for-alcohol/
                      [28 April 2010]

                    • Drowsy M. Kram

                      Dr Nick Wilson: https://www.otago.ac.nz/wellington/departments/publichealth/staff/otago024455.html

                      To achieve the smokefree goal, the team of researchers led by Nick Wilson says the Government needs "to massively increase investment" in established interventions, including cessation support and mass media campaigns, while also continuing with substantial tobacco tax increases, "or else add substantive new strategies into the intervention mix."

                      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/113896113/smokefree-2025-the-evermutating-government-plan-to-stamp-out-smoking [9 July 2019]

                      "Indigenous peoples experience disproportionately high rates of commercial tobacco use, and consequently disproportionately high rates of tobacco-related death and disease. Philip Morris International (PMI) appears to be interested in building a veneer of social responsibility, so that it can bolster corporate credibility and leverage this to influence political debates about tobacco control policy. If PMI was serious about its aims for a smoke-free world, it would cease its opposition to evidenced-based measures to reduce smoking rates, such as advertising bans, tax increases and plain packaging. Further, the tobacco industry would cease commercial tobacco manufacturing, marketing, lobbying and litigation. The tobacco industry has a long history of deliberately colluding in covering up, denying, confusing and questioning the science on smoking-related morbidity and mortality. As a business, PMI’s goal is to safeguard and extend shareholder profits, thus it is rapidly expanding into the lucrative AND markets. PMI has never demonstrated genuine concern for the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples, and has a history of ignoring and undermining scientific evidence. The tobacco industry’s interest in Indigenous peoples has been to appropriate our names and imagery along with the tobacco plant itself, with the sole intent of furthering tobacco sales and profits."

                      https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2019/05/10/tobaccocontrol-2018-054792.full

                    • Incognito []

                      Indeed, alcohol and tobacco are two important contributing factors to NZ health inequalities and not only in NZ. Junk food and sugary drinks would be another one.

  12. The Chairman 12

    The process of removing Tamariki has stirred anger among Māori not seen in 15 years.

    "So it's the first kotahitanga or unity meeting since foreshore and seabed," said Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency chief executive John Tamihere.

    Helen Clark's Foreshore and Seabed comments triggered a political movement. Delegates say the Newsroom video of the attempted removal of a baby from its mother had a similar impact.

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/07/oranga-tamariki-m-ori-leaders-issue-strong-call-to-action-over-uplifts.html

    • I was thinking last night I've yet to see a TV news report on this subject that gave any hint the removal of babies from parents is done for a reason, rather than being a dastardly plot by central government to kidnap children. Have any journos bothered to mention it?

      • The Chairman 12.1.1

        That reason (at times) may merely be a suspicion of harm leading to the Family Court making an interim Order and removing the child without talking to the child’s parent, guardian or caregiver first.

      • Pat 12.1.2

        that would require addressing the cause rather than the symptom….too hard basket

      • marty mars 12.1.3

        the Minister has defended from this very position, even crasher collins has said 'just stop hitting the kids' – although to be fair, i've only heard it on the radio cos we don't have telly.

  13. greywarshark 13

    Can we match this in NZ for attractiveness.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apcLT_F5VYc Flash mobs singing like this – perhaps popping up everywhere in song month = to be organised and put in our events calendars?

    and a lovely holiday park: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbgcWnHuO9M

    And what flash mobs are up on youtube under New Zealand.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLzPgBXHAJQ NZ Symphony – only NZ one that stands out.

  14. marty mars 14

    The correct names will set you free

    With its renowned Church of the Good Shepherd, pristine blue waters and crystal clear night skies, Lake Tekapo in the Mackenzie Basin is one of the must-do stops in any tour of the South Island.

    But it turns out its name has been misspelt for more than 100 years.

    Takapō, meaning "to leave in haste at night", is the traditional Māori name given to the lake, and many feel it should be reinstated.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/113994852/tekapo-or-takap-one-of-nzs-world-famous-lakes-could-be-in-for-a-name-change

    and if you want a real treat – go and have a look at this amazing site

    http://www.kahurumanu.co.nz/atlas

  15. ianmac 15

    Getting specialist training to turn our kids into World champions has been in the news lately. Should schools be grabbing kids to train them to be All Blacks?

    One infant was learning to putt before he could walk and constant support from his Dad turned him into a golfing prodigy and a World champion. Guess who that is?

    Another lad was very skilled but from an early age he was encouraged to try any sport that he fancied. By the time he was in his 20s he specialised in tennis and became a World Champion. Guess who that is?

    The professed necessity of hyperspecialisation forms the core of a vast, successful and sometimes well-meaning marketing machine, in sport and beyond.

    And what about doctors and engineers and lawyers?https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jul/12/generalise-dont-specialise-why-focusing-too-narrowly-is-bad-for-us?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

  16. Morrissey 16

    This Day in History: July 14, 2010

    Happy Bastille Day everyone! If you were unwise enough to be watching breakfast television exactly nine years ago, you would have been repulsed by the following little exchange….

    https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/07/paul-henry-calls-susan-boyle-retarded.html

    If you'd been up a bit earlier, however, you would have heard something far more uplifting….

    https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/07/lloyd-scott-upset-at-having-to-read.html

    Football fans exactly forty years ago were treated to an awesome spectacle of Gallic speed, power and flair….

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqltQ_f_QGY

    • beewee 16.1

      A great game that abs played a big part in with some great tries of their own Who was nz halfback Loveridge or Donaldson, some shocking passing, accepting quality of ball in those days, also ruck area a mess compared to protection halfbacks get today I also note TV coverage has improved out of sight

  17. Ad 17

    First there will be evidence before the Equality and Human Rights Commission on anti-semitism within UK Labour. 30 activists will testify so far.

    And now we will get to see what it looks like to people thinking about voting Labour when they see how their party is run, when it's exposed in open court as well.

    "Two of the whistleblowers who featured in last week’s explosive BBC Panorama programme entitled Is Labour Anti-Semitic? – Sam Matthews and Louise Withers Green – contacted the Observer last night to say they had instructed the prominent media lawyer Mark Lewis to act on their behalf because they believed the party had defamed them in its response to their claims. Others who spoke to Panorama are also understood to be considering contacting Lewis to represent them in libel actions.

    On the evening the programme was aired, a Labour spokesman said: “It appears these disaffected former officials include those who have always opposed Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, worked to actively to undermine it and have both personal and political axes to grind. This throws into doubt their credibility as sources.”

    Anyone want to work for Labour after that?

    With that kind of attitude from UK Labour's leadership, it's going to be something else when their next sexual harassment or bullying case comes around.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/13/whistleblowers-to-sue-labour-as-antisemitism-row-deepens

    • Drowsy M. Kram 17.1

      Dirty Politics? (‘How attack politics is poisoning…’, etc.)

      http://www.nickyhager.info/crosby-v-hager-defamation-proceedings-as-political-weapon/

      • ianmac 17.1.1

        Fascinating and terrifying Drowsy M Kram. So many cases seem to end in "settlement out of court" which takes us in a different direction. Giving in because the cost is too high and not because of justice?

        And the efforts that the Crosby Textor goes to to use anti-democratic processes and close down people like Nicky Hager is appalling. If Key had been a good man he would have refused to be part of the process.

        So thank goodness we have Steven Price and Nicky to help us all.

        I have just been through an eleven month defamation case. Fortunately, we mostly won. About 20 to 1 if it was a score. If I was ever going to be sued like this, I am pleased that the suer was a man of Lynton Crosby’s standing and that his case against me was so weak….

        Unfortunately, defamation is a tool that can be used by any well resourced company or individual against people who have annoyed them or who they do not like. This has serious implications for journalism and public accountability — potentially chilling freedom of speech about the people who most deserve scrutiny and criticism — since the sad fact is that it is much safer for a news organisation to criticise poor people than rich and powerful ones.

        Again thanks to Drowsy:

        http://www.nickyhager.info/crosby-v-hager-defamation-proceedings-as-political-weapon/

    • Morrissey 17.2

      The Grauniad? Yes, you would be dumb enough to cite that discredited propaganda weapon.

      http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2019/894-dump-the-guardian.html

      • Ad 17.2.1

        That's the spirit. Keep attacking messengers centre, left, and right, and rely only on the flakiest and most histrionic of sources.

        After their attacks on those who came forward, UK Labour are going to pay for it all.

        • Morrissey 17.2.1.1

          ???

          The only person around here who supports the attacking of messengers is you. I'm not the only one to read your attacks on Julian Assange.

          And what would you know about whether a source is “flaky” or not? You don’t read enough to make such a statement.

          • Ad 17.2.1.1.1

            Your citation was a copy-and-paste from LifeboatNews; a raw and uncritiqued tribute to the Momentum-maddened extremists boiling into a fully benzadrine-popped, arm-waving, foam-flecked, beat-the-messenger, do-what-the-Leaders-office-pays-you-to medically-assisted pink frothy head explosion worthy of Alec Jones on a five-day Sandy Hook jag.

            The results will be the same for them both, in court.

    • Anyone want to work for Labour after that?

      Depends on whether the description was accurate or not, doesn't it?

      • Ad 17.3.1

        Which will now play out in court.

        This is going to go really badly, and turn more towards the Liberal Democrats when they are rising.

        • Psycho Milt 17.3.1.1

          That does seem to be the aim of the propaganda, yes. The Israeli lobby get what they want, the anti-Corbyn faction in Labour get what they want, left-of-centre voters get shafted.

          Clearly, parties are learning from it – the bogus claim from the NZ Jewish Council the other day that Golriz Ghahraman had insulted Jews saw an immediate, humiliating apology from James Shaw rather than the laughter that their bogus claim warranted. That reaction may be a lot more politically astute than UK Labour's, but it's also poisonous to political discourse.

  18. millsy 18

    Happy 35th birthday Rogernomics.

    Though you could argue that:

    1) During 1984-90, much of the social welfare and services net was still more or less kept in place, those laid off during those years were able to "hang in there", as the cuts to welfare and steep increases in state housing rents didnt kick in until 1991-95.

    2) The corporatisation wasnt a *bad* thing, but selling everything off to the private sector was.

    3) Much of the larger changes werent brought in until 1987-90.

    4) The Muldoon goverment was already starting to bring in measures to deregulate the economy. The Think Big projects had heavy private sector involvement (part of the Clyde Dam project was designed and built via the contracting process we take for granted today).

    5) The SMP's that everyone were complaining about were only brought in about 1975-76.

    I think people need to let the idea of everything being wonderful before 1984 and then turning to shit thereafter go, and realise that the truth is much more complicated. Personally I think the real damage was done after 1990, with deregulation and privatisation of electricity, slashing of health and education, the changes to housing policy, and of course, the benefit cuts and ECA.

    • Ad 18.1

      You might want to have a look at McAloon's economic history "Judgements of All Kinds", which has a good bibliography on that section of our political history, as well as earlier policy frameworks.

      He's pretty kind, but you can see the counterfactual New Zealand that might have emerged without the policy violence of that Lange-Douglas first term.

    • greywarshark 18.2

      millsy The opportunities to make changes and fight our way out of our strong paper bag got limited, then decimated, and we were subsumed under neo lib models that were The Only Thing.

  19. greywarshark 19

    USA Pence visits migrants ' tough stuff' but it is the Democrats (Demon-rats) fault.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/13/pence-visits-caged-unwashed-overcrowded-migrants-tough-stuff

  20. Sacha 20

    Obedient scribe gets in early with a convenient puff piece on long-time tory Glenda Hughes before she throws her hat in the Welli council race: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/114181635/glenda-hughes-the-unlikely-conservative

  21. greywarshark 21

    Who killed Cock Robin?

    We now know who to look for when trying to identify the sneaker-leaker or the most unreliable one in the clan.. Anyone with a Mike Hosking haircut.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/394339/police-identify-suspect-for-ambassador-s-leaked-memos

  22. joe90 22

    Because who needs bees?

    https://twitter.com/KnickmeyerEllen/status/1149747869961687040

    Washington (CNN)The US Department of Agriculture has suspended data collection for its annual Honey Bee Colonies report, citing cost cuts — a move that robs researchers and the honeybee industry of a critical tool for understanding honeybee population declines, and comes as the USDA is curtailing other research programs.
    It’s also another step toward undoing President Barack Obama’s government-wide focus on protecting pollinators, including bees and butterflies, whose populations have plummeted in recent years.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/06/politics/honeybees-study-usda-donald-trump-budget-cuts/index.html

    • beewee 22.1

      Doesn’t sound good but is nzh only US source the Washington Post, it’s hardly an impartial source

      • Macro 22.1.1

        Doesn’t sound good but is nzh only US source the Washington Post, it’s hardly an impartial source

        Oh yes it's accurate alright. Did you know that since June 2017 the WH has not had any Scientific advice whatsoever.* All scientific staff at the WH who were there to advise the President on Scientific matters have left and have not been replaced. Meanwhile this is not the first attack on bees (an insect absolutely essential to humans survivability) by this administration.

        The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) annual honeybee count has fallen victim to budget cuts, CNN reported Saturday.

        The suspension of the Honey Bee Colonies report is at least the third bee-related data set to be halted or reduced under the Trump administration, and comes three weeks after Trump's U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the emergency use of bee-killing pesticide sulfoxaflor on 13.9 million acres. It also comes as the population of bees, which help pollinate a third of edible crops, has been declining since 2006.

        "This is yet another example of the Trump administration systematically undermining federal research on food safety, farm productivity and the public interest writ large," Union of Concerned Scientistseconomist Rebecca Boehm told CNN.

        The survey began in 2015 and tracks the number of honeybees in each state by quarter. The most recent report, scheduled to be released in August, will only include data taken from January 2018 to April 2019, the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service said in a statement released July 1.

        "The decision to suspend data collection was not made lightly but was necessary given available fiscal and program resources," the statement said.

        A USDA spokesperson told CNN the suspension was "temporary" but did not say how long it might last.

        The loss of the data set comes at a crucial time for honeybees. A University of Maryland-led study released in June found that U.S. beekeepers lost 38 percent of their colonies last winter, the greatest winter loss since the university's research began in 2006,

        https://www.ecowatch.com/usda-suspends-honeybee-survey-2639125764.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1

        https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/452528-critics-worry-trump-turning-blind-eye-to-honeybee-decline

        Meanwhile:

        The US will soon have an Acting Labor Sec, an Acting DHS Sec and no Dep Sec, an Acting Defense Sec and no Dep Sec, an Acting White House Chief of Staff, an Acting CBP Commiss., an Acting ICE Dir, an Acting USCIS Dir, an Acting UN Ambassador, an Acting FDA Commiss., An Acting OMB Director, an Acting Secretary of the Army, an Acting Secretary of the Air Force, an Acting DHS Under Secretary for Management, no DHS Under Secretary for Science & Tech, no DHS Under Secretary for Strategy, and an Acting FEMA Director. (PS: it’s hurricane season!)

        Trump prefers acting heads because he can control them more easily. The sheer volume of acting heads shows

        -A) Trump has an unstable government

        -B) Trump isn’t interested in congressional oversight inherent in the confirmation process – more chiseling away at the constitution.

        *https://www.cbsnews.com/news/science-division-of-white-house-office-now-empty-as-last-staffers-depart/?fbclid=IwAR13igwXNuQWOraSXRGQLyZpSsJAHyPiDtyiPzMtb86TDoUk4anRlJyqgEE

        • Anne 22.1.1.1

          Meanwhile:

          Leak number two has been revealed:

          https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48978484

          I thought we all knew it at the time but it has now been confirmed.

          Edit: I think the British Public Servants might have it wrong. This particular release is not so much an undermining of them, but an important message to the British people about what is going on with the current US Administration. They have a right to know just as we would have a right to know in similar circumstances.

          The plot indeed thickens.

        • joe90 22.1.1.3

          Of course tRump's pick to replace Acosta is a vile human who argued sweatshops should be allowed to use indentured labour.

          On July 12, President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta will be replaced on an acting basis by Deputy Secretary of Labor Patrick Pizzella. As Mother Jones reported after reviewing hundreds of pages of billing records and emails, Pizzella worked in the late 1990s with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff to promote a sweatshop economy in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory.

          […]

          The agreement between the islands and the United States granted two exemptions. First, the CNMI could set its own minimum wage. Second, the commonwealth would be allowed to make its own immigration laws. CNMI officials initially requested control of immigration to ensure that the indigenous population would not be overwhelmed by newcomers. But a decade later, garment manufacturers and the CNMI’s government decided to use the exemption to import unlimited guest workers to make clothes for companies like Brooks Brothers and Banana Republic. The clothes they produced were stamped “Made in the USA” and exported to the United States tariff-free. Between 1985 and 1998, CNMI garment exports grew from almost nothing to more than $1 billion annually—over a third of total CNMI business revenue.

          “Things were just completely out of control,” says Allen Stayman, the top Interior Department official assigned to the CNMI from 1993 to 1999. Recruiters illegally required many foreign workers to pay fees in order to land jobs in the CNMI, causing them to go into debt that they’d have to work to pay off. Others signed “shadow contracts” in which they promised their employers not to unionize, date, or practice a religion while working in the CNMI. Some were made to sleep a dozen to a room, with barbed wire surrounding their barracks. If workers complained, the CNMI government, which had close ties to the garment industry, could deport them immediately. In 1992, Willie Tan, a top garment industry baron, paid a $9 million settlement in a Labor Department suit alleging he’d failed to pay workers overtime and the CNMI’s minimum wage of $2.15 an hour—compared with $4.25 elsewhere in the United States. The settlement was the largest in Labor Department history at the time.

          https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/08/trump-pick-to-run-labor-department-promoted-sweatshops-on-remote-us-islands/

          • Macro 22.1.1.3.1

            Tiny statues of Trump with signs inviting dogs to 'pee on me' appear across Brooklyn

    • greywarshark 22.2

      Lower level than toxic USA and their playful politicians who will in time, kill everything worthwhile in the world.

  23. A 23

    I was leaving ANZ anyways but this just seals the deal. Sounds like they have multiple issues at every level.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/114105242/daughter-complains-over-anz-bank-managers-deathbed-visit-to-her-mother

  24. Ad 24

    I'm beginning to warm to Elizabeth Warren.

  25. greywarshark 25

    Hooray we win on the world stage!!

    New Zealand has the highest house price to rent ratio in the world, and the highest house price compared to income (a ratio of 156.8), while Canada has the highest real house prices and the biggest percentage of credit to households, with New Zealand just behind, according to Shah [Bloomberg economist Niraj Shah]…

    New Zealand household credit is the equivalent of 94 per cent of gross domestic product. That compared with 100.7 per cent of GDP in Canada, 76.3 per cent in the US, and Australia's 120.3 per cent…

    The Government's foreign buyer ban, an attempt to curb house prices, has seen a significant drop in home ownership by overseas residents. House sales to overseas buyers dropped 81 per cent in the March quarter compared to the same time last year, Statistics New Zealand data shows.

    The 5 Eyes don't see what's in front of them. Australia is stuffed and too much milk will pollute the country in a big way. At lease coal and mining can be left in the ground, left piled up and the pollution will not stink like sour milk. Please keep buying our milk peeps out in the world, till we can wean ourselves off this panacea, and on to paracetamols, or anything.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/114227809/new-zealand-at-risk-of-a-house-price-crash-bloomberg

  26. joe90 27

    Gotta be a coincidence.

    It’s not like Mnuchin or any other administration appointees have ties to Wall Street.

    Is Donald Trump’s erratic behavior fueling a business model? Some Wall Street options traders are beginning to suspect so. They’ve taken note, with increasing alarm, of people making strange bets tied to Trump’s actions and then cashing in bigly when the odd bets pay off. “If you had the ability to make hundreds of millions of dollars, or billions, and you knew how to hide it and it was impossible to find, wouldn’t you do it?” a longtime Wall Street options trader asks me sarcastically.

    There is an old saw on Wall Street about how if you could somehow get tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal today, you could make a fortune. Advance knowledge of presidential actions might provide a similar advantage, and some unusual trading patterns are fueling gossip and suspicion on the Street.

    https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/07/the-mystery-of-the-wall-street-trump-trades

  27. joe90 28

    Thirty four years ago, Freddie Mercury conquered the world.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkFHYODzRTs&feature=youtu.be

  28. Eco Maori 29

    Kia Ora Te So Maori News.

    Condolences to Matua Prime Whanau for there great loss of a leader.

    Mike Smith it's cool that you have consersens about our mokopuna future environment But Papatuanuku wasn't built in a day all in good time our government is changing our policy on climate change I know it's looks slow but time are changing and the oil barons money pulls alot of strings in there effort to convince people climate is not happening Yeah Right

    Eco Maori Tau toko the tangata whenua who are protesting there whenua been sold by camping on te whenua ka Pai

    Ka Pai to our rangatihi for going to Parlament that's what we need more Maori standing up and becoming Leaders. That gives Eco Maori a sore face. I was listening to some of Ngati Porou up and coming Leaders a few weeks ago on Radio Ngati Porou.

    Ka kite ano

  29. Eco Maori 30

    Kia Ora The Am Show.

    There you go the wealth make there own rules. Eco Maori knows what it like not trusting the people on street Zoie as they will be sandfly's that are swarming at the minute.

    It's awesome that NIWA is helping dairyfarmer with the measurements of there methane gas from bovine it's not a big change but the it's a start. A lot better than the last lot.

    Garth and Tom all the best in your goals it's a good cause The John charity Kerwin foundation for mental health. P.S. I'm having problems with my viewing devices

    Ka kite ano

  30. Eco Maori 31

    Kia Ora Newshub.

    I think it's good our government is changing roads rules and spending more money on safety features

    Ask Dick if the common poor people can afford his safety driving course or does he plan that only wealth tangata can drive in the future.

    I think it's awesome that furniture is going to be legerslated so the furniture is fire restint.

    Noverpay is nationals stuff up that Labour is cleaning up national should have used local tangata to develop the software not foreign people who stuff it up.

    kellyann conner/ conway is a redneck like her boss.

    The Himalayan trust does good mahi for the poor people that part of Papatuanuku.

    Ingrid I hope tawhitimate doesn't tangi as much as he did on Sunday when I was on the Napier Taupo road .

    Ka kite ano

  31. Eco Maori 32

    Kia Ate Ao Maori News.

    Condolences to Kens Eruea Whanau .

    Condolences to the 100 year old kuia sorry I missed her name Whanau.

    The taxpayers union is irrelevant .He jordan is just a altright national attack MUT.

    Ka Pai to the Grand Rod tribes for there celebratetion of there Waka traveling gathering it cool that tangata whenua O Aotearoa is invited to there celebratetion.

    Eco Maori backs the Hawaiians who are protesting that huge telescope being planted on there sacred Monga / Mountain the ruling class of Hawaii don't even consider te tangata whenua O Hawaii cultural reason for protesting that telescope being forced on them.

    Ka kite ano

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

  • At a glance – Does CO2 always correlate with temperature?
    On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
    2 hours ago
  • Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6.06 pm on Tuesday, March 19
    TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 hours ago
  • Relentlessly negative
    Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 hours ago
  • Scoring 4.6 out of 10, the new Government is struggling in the polls
    Bryce Edwards writes –  It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 hours ago
  • Promiscuous Empathy: Chris Trotter Replies To His Critics.
    Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played. “Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
    5 hours ago
  • Don’t run your business like a criminal enterprise
    The Detail this morning highlights the police's asset forfeiture case against convicted business criminal Ron Salter, who stands to have his business confiscated for systemic violations of health and safety law. Business are crying foul - but not for the reason you'd think. Instead of opposing the post-conviction punishment and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 hours ago
  • Misremembering Justinian’s Taxes.
    Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I - Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
    6 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Scoring 4.6 out of 10, the new Government is struggling in the polls
    It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    7 hours ago
  • Bishop scores headlines with crackdown on unwelcome tenants – but Peters scores, too, as tub-thump...
    Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    8 hours ago
  • Will it make the boat go faster?
    Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    11 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi The fact that a ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    11 hours ago
  • Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    11 hours ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' at 10:10am on Tuesday, March 19
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st Century The SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims Stuff Steve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    11 hours ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things on Tuesday, March 19
    It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    12 hours ago
  • New Life for Light Rail
    This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail  Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    13 hours ago
  • Why Are Bosses Nearly All Buffoons?
    Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    16 hours ago
  • Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6.06 pm on March 18
    TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Peters holds his ground on co-governance, but Willis wriggles on those tax cuts and SNA suspension l...
    Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 day ago
  • Labour’s final report card
    David Farrar writes –  We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how  went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promise The result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • “Drunk Uncle at a Wedding”
    I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago
  • Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • Gordon Campbell on Dune 2, and images of Islam
    Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
    1 day ago
  • New Rail Operations Centre Promises Better Train Services
    Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
    2 days ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things at 6.36am on Monday, March 18
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    2 days ago
  • The Kaka’s diary for the week to March 25 and beyond
    TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Bitter and angry; Winston First
    New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • Out of Touch.
    “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    5 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    6 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    6 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • Government moves to quickly ratify the NZ-EU FTA
    "The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 hours ago
  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    9 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    11 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    12 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
    Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024  Acknowledgements and opening  Morena, Nga Mihi Nui.  Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau  Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Early visit to Indonesia strengthens ties
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country.   “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • China Foreign Minister to visit
    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week.  “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Minister opens new Auckland Rail Operations Centre
    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Celebrating 10 years of Crankworx Rotorua
    The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee.  “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government delivering on tax commitments
    Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today.  “The Amendment Paper represents ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Significant Natural Areas requirement to be suspended
    Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government classifies drought conditions in Top of the South as medium-scale adverse event
    Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government partnership to tackle $332m facial eczema problem
    The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced.  “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • NZ, India chart path to enhanced relationship
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level.   “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Ruapehu Alpine Lifts bailout the last, say Ministers
    Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Fresh produce price drop welcome
    Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024.  “Lower fruit and vege ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Statement to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Speech to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68)
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Government backs rural led catchment projects
    The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber
    Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction.   Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Commission’s advice on ETS settings tabled
    Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Government lowering building costs
    The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Trustee tax change welcomed
    Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister’s Ramadan message
    Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness.  It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister appoints new NZTA Chair
    Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Speech to Life Sciences Summit
    Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology.  It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Progress continues apace on water storage
    Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Government agrees to restore interest deductions
    Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister to attend World Anti-Doping Agency Symposium
    Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

Page generated in The Standard by Wordpress at 2024-03-19T08:26:04+00:00