An achievement, but how impressive remains to be seen. Tory leadership contenders will pounce on the deal like vultures, and their sharp beaks will tear off any shred that is a breach of UK sovereignty, and wave them at the public & media. Will the vassal state theory be validated? A cost/benefit analysis in caucus will just be the start, and the fate of May’s government will then be determined in the court of public opinion.
Sad though our political systems do not seem to protect the integrity of those systems as it seems clear in Brexit rules were broken, ethics questionable and nobody seems to be in jail over it. Just an enquiry and slap on the wrist is not exactly keeping the democratic process safe.
We have donations scandals in NZ on tape, and yep, no criminal prosecution or any one interested in preserving the integrity of democracy either, in the face of all that free money.
Then we have the women who put needles in the strawberries who faces years in prison in OZ, 8 years even for that Fonterra milk hoax who did not even do it.
Just an example of how lightly we treat political crimes against other crimes that can effect the entire country or industry.
I’m for a revote of the Brexit referendum, not enough people voted and there was electoral tampering. Then see if same result when the people of Britain go in to vote on it, with their eyes open.
You get your chance to vote so should use it wisely. I didn’t like the last US election. Maybe we should have a re-vote on that and if I still lose, then another vote after that.
Elections are different to a total and dysfunctional divorce based on phony pretences. And a huge number of Brits did not vote because among other things, the remain brigade told everyone they had it in the bag!
Also if there is election tampering then not sure of the process but I don’t think the result is considered valid????
Wight discusses Western imperialism and how ideologies of neoliberalism and domination have been inculcated to Western leaders in elite institutions of education.
And if you thought that was good, I highly recommend you watch the whole show.
As one commentator expresses it, this is an “amazing stream of awareness and consciousness here that exactly depicts the current socio-political and economic realities.”
There is nothing left about supporting despots like Putin.
[Drawing a line under this. I’m way over having to scroll past idiots, who in lieu of having nothing to say and nothing to share, slap their dicks on the table as though that should be seen as a contribution of some sort.
You are one of a number who disagree with the arguments of viewpoints of Ed (or those he links to)? Then either offer a reasoned argument to support your perspective, or a thought out critique of why those people (and so their views) might be best considered as suspect.
But as for the vacuous sloganeering, name calling and personalised attacks – take it to your facebook account or your twitter account or wherever that might be elsewhere. But stop subjecting readers of this collective and diverse space to it, day after day and (it seems) always as a predictable reaction to other commentators whose views you don’t share.
‘The Standard’ is for discussion and debate, not schoolyard or sandpit nonsense. Sort your crap out.] – B.
I have offered reasoned argument to Ed pretty damned often actually.
Lacking the skills to support his views, he carries on regardless.
The point is, they’re not his views – they’re copied and pasted from elsewhere, which is part of the reason he can’t defend them – he doesn’t understand them.
I get it – you’re down with supporting despotic regimes. I’m not.
I object.
I won’t sit silently while Ed shills for this murderous dictator.
Your crude crap about dick measuring is utterly false – when Ed posts about anything else I leave him alone.
[Evidently you’re an idiot Stuart. Instead of taking the intelligent route, which would have been taking note and desisting from your crap in future, you’ve doubled down by broadening out your attack to include me. It’s an odd self martyrdom kind of thing to have done. But hey…
You claim I’m “down with supporting despotic regimes”? Okay. You either provide a damned unequivocal link to be backing that one up. Or offer up a straightforward apology and retraction. You won’t be able to provide a link. And so, failing a retraction and an apology (and not some half arsed nonsense either), your summer break from ‘ts’ will be starting presently] – B.
You’ve made multiple posts trying to cast doubt on the British case against Russia with respect to the Skripals. One quoted Craig Murray “of a type developed by liars” for example. No evidence has come to light suggesting any other chemical agent however, the British claim seems to have been factual.
You made another post about the suspects visiting Salisbury cathedral, suggesting that their motives were altogether innocent, which seems to have been in error, as Bellingcat’s Russian colleagues The Insider were able to show.
It would be fair to say that these statements of yours support Russia and the campaign of disinformation and propaganda that they have maintained since their embarrassment over MH17.
I assert that Russia under Putin is a despotic regime – let’s go with Montesquieu’s definition: one in which rule is accomplished by fear. The murder of Politikovskaya was politically motivated and intended not merely silence her, but also like-minded journalists. A number of Russian journalists have been obliged to flee Russia in the years immediately after that.
The murder of Nemtsov probably related to the position he was taking on the invasion of the Ukraine. An awful lot of people inconvenient to Putin are murdered – and inconvenient news organs like the Moscow Times have been shut down under his rule.
Putin’s elections are invariably accomplished with large scale ballot tampering. My friends, collating reports from over twenty journalists right across Russia were able to demonstrate widespread fraud in his first election. Similar reports, if less comprehensive, are available on subsequent elections.
These actions are those of a despotic regime even without the lengthy record of atrocities relating to the Chechen campaign. I have yet to see a word in print from you that qualifies your support of them, to balance your pro-Russian speculations and echoing of Russian propaganda in respect of the Skripal affair.
Ed’s reposting of their propaganda and disinformatzia is not a public service, on the contrary, it is in service of a despotic regime, and undesirable.
[Questioning an official narrative doesn’t imply support of anyone or anything. I can’t see any link in your comment to me voicing support of despotism Stuart. And I can’t see any apology in that there shopping list you’ve flung up either. So I won’t see any comments from you until after Feb 3rd] – B.
As John Wight says,” Ignorance is increasingly a choice in our world.”
That’s an interesting way to put it and he’s right.
As a hunter/gatherer a person couldn’t afford to be ignorant. They may not have known what we know today but they had to know everything that the group knew and to extend that knowledge.
Today people get to choose to be ignorant and not to believe the truth and that’s causing all sorts of problems. Climate change denial, voting for schmucks because they’re blue, defending unethical behaviour because its legal etcetera.
A national leader wants us to believe he sanctioned one nation because in their view they were leaders, invaded and destroyed another becuase evil existed they, but didn’t send a assassination squad to kill a man who just wanted to get married. Russia, Saudi, it’s all half glass full and whose pouring. Russia spent generations securing Crimea, blood, treasure, and only lost it for a few decades, what about any number of U.S. bases… etc.
I stand on my record of arguing for freedom of expression here at TS; even when it’s annoying or steps over the line. It’s way better to SAY stupid things and get feedback on it, than to actually DO stupid things and find out too late what the awful cost was.
Even as a moderate left winger I’m happy with most of Ed’s contributions; he flirts with the edges of reasonable sometimes but for the most part I put that down to youthful enthusiasm.
What does irk me is seeing the personal vendettas that are clearly going on here; hell I’ve been on the wrong end of a few of them myself over the years. A small group gangs up on someone and reflexively shits on anything they say with no attempt at counter argument or informed debate. Tempers will flare from time to time, but unceasing repetition going turns this into an ugly form of bullying.
Most of the time it just runs it’s course, but this one has been going on too long and everyone involved needs to read Bill’s very pointed moderation note above. Otherwise I can guarantee some well deserved ‘holidays’ will soon be taken.
Can I ask a favour? I am looking for background stuff on the US opioid crisis. I keep hearing that the likes of Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, are behid a huge a epidemic of addiction in the USA and I just want some reputable background information…
Qoute: Investigators discovered that a single pharmacy in Mount Gay-Shamrock, population 1,779, received more than 16.5 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills between 2006 and 2016. In nearby Williamson, population 2,900, distributors sent almost 21 million opioids to two pharmacies during that same period.
“How many other communities across the country have received millions more opioids than their communities could reasonably sustain?” Harper asked.
Democrats and Republicans on the committee faulted the distributors for missing what they said were signs that too many opioids were going into the state. Quote end.
it has been obvious for a while now that certain, especially poor areas, where literally flooded with pain killers replacing proper medical care. This has been ongoing for a while. Once these people are addicted they are addicted. Does not matter how you get on the juice, it matters if you can find a way to get of it.
and just because you take away the prescription drugs does not meant you take away the addiction, so people now find other stuff to fix the need
According to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 72,000 people in the US are predicted to have died from drug overdoses in 2017 — nearly 200 a day. That’s up from 2016, which was already a record year in which roughly 64,000 people in the US died from overdoses. At least two-thirds of drug overdose deaths in 2016 and 2017 were linked to opioids.
reminds me of the seventies where one could not open a news paper or watch a news cast without reading / hearing of people falling of high roofs or being found dead in public toilets.
Its a friggin mess, and just say no ain’t gonna cut. Heck they killed Roseanne on the “Connors’ show with an overdose, after she got addicted to pain killers after knee surgeries.
Great news Cinny (4) … after all these years of being lied to, the cover ups etc, the bereaved families, friends and colleagues of the Pike River 29, will hopefully begin to have some closure early next year.
Well done Andrew Little for demonstrating some humanity and respect, which since the tragedy has been sadly lacking.
The darkening clouds gather, startled and skitterish.
“Donald Trump ramped up his spat with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, with a denigrating tweet in which he said Parisians had started to learn German during the second world war before the US saved them from occupation.”
If the Referendum on cannabis goes ahead there would have to be advance information on how decriminalisation would work.
Dr Eric Crampton is Head of Research with The New Zealand Initiative. He suggests modelling such new laws be modelled on existing Alcohol regulations. Sounds good.
“Want to make sure councils are able to set rules appropriate to their areas and implement smoking-ban areas around parks? Local alcohol policies do that for alcohol; councils can set up liquor-ban areas.
So “experts like Graeme Edgeler suggest the only sensible question to ask voters would be whether they prefer the current Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, or whether they prefer to allow the sale and supply of cannabis as provided for in draft legislation.”
Is it really sensible to ask voters to choose between a law and a proposed law? To a lawyer, it may seem so. Anyone else could point out that only a handful are likely to have read each piece of legalese. So the percentage of the electorate able to make an informed choice would be in the region of 0.0000024%.
The recent conference agreed the referendum ought to ask these two questions:
1. Should adults be allowed to grow and possess cannabis for personal use?
2. Should adults be allowed to purchase cannabis & cannabis products from licensed premises?
I agree with the conference decision. Both questions are simple & concise. Voters are unlikely to have difficulty comprehending them. Sharing with friends is implicit in the first question, so maybe no need to specify that.
“So “experts like Graeme Edgeler suggest the only sensible question to ask voters would be whether they prefer the current Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, or whether they prefer to allow the sale and supply of cannabis as provided for in draft legislation.””
If that is really his suggestion then he is an idiot. because its actually TWO separate questions conjoined and those who dont like either option are abused!
Most referendum that have been put to the public so far have suffered from this fault. (do you want more emphasis on the victims of crime AND harsher penalties comes to mind!)
A REFERENDUM QUESTION MUST ONLY HAVE A SINGLE PREMISE !
A REFERENDUM QUESTION MUST ONLY HAVE A SINGLE PREMISE !
A REFERENDUM QUESTION MUST ONLY HAVE A SINGLE PREMISE !
but yes there may well be several referendum run concurrently to allow for better understanding of the peoples choice
Anyone who supports whistleblowers still has an opportunity to send in a submission to the review. Rare for me to be impressed by the quality of work done by our public service, but I give them 10/10 for their articulation of the issues identified by the process thus far: http://ssc.govt.nz/sites/all/files/Targeted-Consultation-Summary-May-2018.pdf
I suspect the Jami-Lee Ross saga points to a loophole that the review & consultation process haven’t noticed. A parliamentarian acting in the public interest, exposing wrongdoing in their own party, deserves a support mechanism. The status quo seems to enable their party to victimise an MP who blows the whistle on corruption. That’s so obviously wrong that I’m likely to make a submission citing the apparent loophole. I’d like feedback from readers on this – would particularly appreciate opinions on how real the loophole actually is…
Every entity and agency and department has their own policy.
It’s not that little stoush public servants point to.
It’s the MoT massive fraud in which people who spoke up were hunted down and thrown out, and not even the CE believed them.
The net outcome of all of them is simple: you will never work in Wellington again.
Climate change will decrease fertility enough to lower the human population. Apparently.
Derived from 80 years of birth and weather data out of the United States, the study confirmed a higher number of babies being born in August and September (nine months after the depths of winter), while fewer babies were conceived in summer due to higher temperatures.
Fewer kids mean fewer emissions, which means slower climate change. FIFY.
Win/win ???
Do you have any idea at all of what we are facing? I suspect not.
A loophole where MPs do not need to disclose investment properties owned in superannuation schemes – and claim up to $78,000 in taxpayer-funded subsidies each year – is “stinging taxpayers in the pocket”, according to a Government lobby group.
A Herald investigation of property records for all 121 members of Parliament has discovered that six National MPs use their private superannuation schemes to own property that does not need to be disclosed – unlike assets held in trusts. This is because of an exception in the rules of the Register of Pecuniary Interests.
Can the rest of us also get $78000 per year subsidies to pay off our mortgages?
Your link goes to a 2013 article, am I missing something recent that makes it relevant? Surely there are sufficient things to be outraged about the current opposition rather than dragging up articles from 5 years ago.
True enough, may well be still happening as the spot light conveniently gets turned off by the MSM and the rorting bludgers in the article will probably have found another way of doing it anyway.
Whilst I don’t like rorting and fiddling and pushing the legal boundaries, there is a reason why MPs should be paid well, and that they be accommodated for the special nature of their job which requires most to live in two places with huge travel and time commitments.
That is, they are on a three year contract, renewable at the whim of others.
But it’s the afterwards also that matters. I think of my local MP who had five years in the job, was not re-elected and never was able to get a job in his home town, being blacklisted by small town employers. He fell back onto being a small farmer, selling produce at his house gate. On the night he lost his seat someone burnt down his hay barn.
He was a most generous man, and loaned to a constituent the necessary extra funds for this solo mother with two kids to purchase a modest home with the scheme introduced by Labour in 72-75 by Minister of Housing Roger Douglas.
I met him again a month ago, a hale and hearty 90 year old, up with the play and with a passion for politics still. A truly Christian Sally gentleman, who suffered for his political beliefs and activism after being an MP.
Whilst I don’t like rorting and fiddling and pushing the legal boundaries, there is a reason why MPs should be paid well, and that they be accommodated for the special nature of their job which requires most to live in two places with huge travel and time commitments.
I’m pretty sure that paying people extra to prevent corruption doesn’t actually prevent any corruption. Those who are corrupt will still do it.
Having to live in two places at once requires that the government make available housing in Wellington. The best way to do this is a government owned housing complex with no money paid out for rent to MP for housing. This would be cheaper and get rid of the rort.
I think of my local MP who had five years in the job, was not re-elected and never was able to get a job in his home town, being blacklisted by small town employers.
And hows that different from the rest of the precariat?
He fell back onto being a small farmer, selling produce at his house gate.
Ah, he was actually well off and could support himself anyway.
Bin double entry accounting in Govt. organisation, to lead a creative capitalist renaissance of the collective value systems of NZ society & citizenry.
Donald Trump’s deputy national security adviser is reportedly set to be fired following a dispute with the first lady, Melania Trump.
The US first lady took the extraordinary step of publicly pushing for the move against Mira Ricardel, the top aide to the national security adviser, John Bolton, on Tuesday.
[…]
Ricardel, who was hired in April by Bolton after he assumed the role of Trump’s national security adviser, reportedly clashed with members of the first lady’s staff over seating on a plane during Melania Trump’s recent trip to Africa.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have announced a new efficiency record for LEDs based on perovskite semiconductors, reportedly rivaling that of the best organic LEDs (OLEDs).
The team stated that compared to OLEDs, which are widely used in high-end consumer electronics, the perovskite-based LEDs can be made at much lower costs, and can be tuned to emit light across the visible and near-infrared spectra with high color purity.
The researchers have engineered the perovskite layer in the LEDs to show close to 100% internal luminescence efficiency, opening up future applications in display, lighting and communications, as well as next-generation solar cells.
Get that … close to 100% efficiency!!! This puts mono-crystalline silicon PV’s into buggy whip territory. OK so it’s lab stuff and probably a decade away from a product …. but this is how real change will happen.
That article is referring to the quantum efficiencyof one small part of the photosynthesis process. Overall, the efficiency of turning sunlight into useful chemical energy via photosynthesis is in the low single digits percentage. Real-life commercial PV panels convert incoming sunlight to useful electrical energy with an efficiency of 10% to 20%.
Uhh, that near 100% efficiency is for a perovskite LED turning electrical energy into light. Not quite the same thing as a PV panel turning incoming light into electrical energy. No reversibility going on in those processes.
Some existing commercial LEDs are already very efficient. It was the development of a very efficient blue LED that paved the way for white LEDs (as well as a Nobel for the inventors). At the top end of efficiency, there have been lab demonstrations of white LEDs putting out over 300 lumens/watt (if there were no inefficiencies other than the phosphorescent conversion of some of the blue light to yellow light, the luminous efficacy would be around 370 lumens/watt). But the led bulbs for sale at Bunnings and supermarkets are sadly still only around 80 to 100 lumens per watt, which is still way batter than fluorescent bulbs at 35ish or incandescents at 12ish.
Quote pulled from the link provided by PR:
“A 17-year-old is put in the dock for her choice of underwear, and she was open to meeting someone was the implication, she was asking for it,” Coppinger said.
“Women in this country are getting a little bit weary at the routine victim blaming going on in Irish courts and the failure of lawmakers in this House to do anything about it.”
Recently fake tan and even contraception had been used to discredit women who had the bravery to go to court.
As she held up the pair of underwear in the “incongruous setting” of the Dail, Coppinger asked: “How do you think a rape victim or a woman feels at the incongruous setting of her underwear being shown in the courts, and when is this Dail going to take serious action on the issue of sexual violence?”
She only held the underwear up for a brief moment, and the camera quickly pulled back from her as she did so. The use of props is against the rules of the Dail.”
‘A barrister in the Cork trial told the jury to look at the way the complainant was dressed. That the complainant was “open to meeting someone” because she was “wearing a thong with a lace front”.’
‘Recently fake tan and even contraception had been used to discredit women who had the bravery to go to court’
‘US Vice President Mike Pence has asked to be seated next to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at a dinner on Wednesday evening at the East Asia Summit in Singapore.’
What’s that about?
My first reaction is to say: watch your back, Jacinda. Or am I being unfair?
1+5 my guess. But really i would like to know where “Mother” is gonna sit, considering that he does not want to ‘meet’ women alone without his wife nearby.
My conspiracy theory is that he is going to try to convince her of the error of her ways …. unmarried mother, etc, etc. Whereas she has a long list of subjects such as tariffs, trade etc. LOL. Could be an interesting conversation!
I wonder if he knows that Jacinda is an former Mormon whose uncle is one of the only two NZers who has ever made it to being one of the General Authorities of the worldwide Church of Latter Day Saints?
Aaaah – Pence is actually a born again Catholic … and yes, according to Wikipedia (yes, Adam, Wikipedia) he does follow the Billy Graham Rule.
PS – if anyone wants to know, the PM has gone on this trip without baby or partner. Peters is joining her in Singapore or PNG, from his Paris trip, and Parker is already with her.
Pence is the guy who wants to be caliph at the place of the caliph.
and the caliph needs to go on a tour in Missisipi to help a women win a seat and i think after the last two weeks he just needs to hear a ‘ lock her/him/it/something up” chant to feel all presidential again. I hear all that winning has him packing a sad.
That’s major prestige for Jacinda and New Zealand you ninnys, at an Asian pacific regional meeting. What is this, National Party msm lite?
For our place in the world, what would be most suitable & impactful for NZs image would be if Jacinda could be involved in regular global meet ups with Ivanka Trump and we have a relationship that way – that would give a very popular & memorable image over time in much of the world i would guess, two leading and talented young female ambassadors of their countries on the world stage.
Yes, we like what New Zealand represents, what business links to that can we foster in our own society.
you should buy Ochos, and all other of the NZ artisan made chocolates. There are some really nice products out there and the variety of different chocolates is quite impressive. That does not stop you from also buying Whittakers 🙂 Just don’t ever buy chocolate melts, and cadbury, and Nestle produced chocolates. A lot of that stuff is compound chocolates (vegetable fat vs cocoa butter), contains very little actual chocolate but a lot of sugar.
Don’t worry my wife checks the ingredients list on all chocolate (especially the cooking stuff) we buy but (imho)the best chocolate is Makana chocolate in Blenheim 🙂
Keir Starmer has hinted that Labour might vote in favour of the Johnson government's shoddy deal, with the proviso that a second referendum is attached:Speaking to BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, he said: “We will see what that looks like but it makes sense to say that by whatever ...
In 1994, I was the editor for an issue of Planet magazine focused on cannabis, its culture and the prospects for the end of its prohibition. Part of that issue was an interview with 'Ringo', an experienced cannabis dealer.I recently posted my essay from that issue, and I figured it ...
Dr Helen Waite, sports sociologist and former elite athlete, on the invasion of women’s sport by men and the anti-scientific and misogynist ideology used to rationalise it. ...
As Brexit comes to a grisly conclusion (perhaps) people on all sides are saying intemperate and uwise things. Some, like the Daly Mail, have been doing it for years.People as normally level headed as Jon Lansman are calling for automatic deselection of MPs who vote against a (likely) Labour three ...
I've got one source saying more Labour MPs than expected are mulling whether to vote for the deal - including names who were not on the letter to Juncker and Tusk— Emilio Casalicchio (@e_casalicchio) 17 October 2019 I've compiled a list of possible reasons why Labour ...
On Wednesday, the government was loudly telling us that it needed to legislate to allow it to impose "control orders" - effectively a parole regime, but imposed without charge, prosecution, conviction or real evidence - on suspected terrorists because they couldn't be prosecuted for their supposed crimes. Today, it turns ...
On Monday, the Hit and Run inquiry heard from NZDF's former director of special operations, who claimed that the defence Minister knew everything about the Operation Burnham raid. Today, the inquiry heard from that (former) Minister - and it turns out that he didn't know nearly as much as NZDF ...
Yoga gurus and cult leaders – I’ve seen a few. Two weeks ago, I unknowingly joined an alleged new-age cult at the Kāpiti coast, together with a giant kraken and some neatly dressed pensioners who would make any book club proud.They were among the two hundred people of all ages ...
The last decade has seen a trend of increasing weapons availability to police. Assault rifles. Tasers on every hip. Guns in cars. And following the march 15 massacre, pistols on every hip, all over the country. At the same time, its also seen an increase in the abuse of force: ...
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy preparing for our summer paper on Science Communication. Looking for something amusing about ‘risk’ in science, I came across this neat xkcd.com cartoon about why so many people come knocking on my door (or phoning me, or emailing me) desperately wanting ...
by John Edmundson The International Socialist Organisation (ISO) have recently reposted a February article, by Romany Tasker-Poland, explaining ISO’s position in the “trans rights” debate. It is available on their website and on their Facebook Page. The article sets out to explain why “socialists support trans rights”. It reads more ...
"Auckland City Mission: 10% of Kiwis experiencing food insecurity", RNZ, 16 October 2019:About half a million people are experiencing food insecurity, according to new research from the Auckland City Mission. Food insecurity, or food poverty, is defined as not having enough appropriate food. The City Mission said over the last ...
Media Statement for Immediate Release 16th October 2019 “Fake News” from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers Despite comments from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers—Herald Newspaper Tuesday Oct 15th–there is very little evidence ...
Would You Buy A Used Propaganda Video From This Man? Bridges and the National Party’s strategists have discovered that the ideas and attitudes considered acceptable by today’s editors and journalists are no longer enforceable. The rise and rise of the Internet and the social media platforms it spawned means that ...
There is plenty of evidence of the way the business mentality has permeated every level of society since the recrudescence of market liberalism 35 years ago. You only need to think of how citizens in need of help from their government, their state, their country, are now routinely described as ...
John MacCormickOver the last 40 years, New Zealanders – and people in other countries – have experienced big changes in the jobs they do and where they live and work. These changes include: a decline in manufacturing jobs an increase in jobs in ‘information-intensive’ industries (which are better paid ...
Nick Wilson, Leah Grout, Mereana Wilson, Anja Mizdrak, Phil Shoemack, Michael BakerProtecting waterways has the benefits of: (1) protecting water from hazardous microbes; (2) minimising cancer risk and other problems from nitrates in water; (3) avoiding algal blooms that are hazardous to health; (4) protecting mahinga kai uses (cultural ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women In a press release today Massey University announced it has decided to rebrand and reorientate after struggling to be a University for grown-ups. For some time the University has wanted to be a safe play space for wee-woke-misogynists who have been really badly triggered ...
After a brief dalliance with 'hard Revoke' it looks like the Lib Dems are changing ground on on Brexit, with leader Jo Swinson reverting to calling for a second referendum on Johnson's deal.The party has tabled an amendment to the Queen’s speech requesting that any deal brought back from Brussels ...
The government has decided that someone has done Something Bad. But despite their belief, there seems to be no evidence that they have actually broken the law. So the government's solution is to pass a retrospective law allowing them to be punished anyway, on a lower standard of proof. If ...
So, Judith Collins has done a Facebook rant about climate change, peddling the same shit National has been shovelling for the past twenty years: the impacts are overstated, there's no need to do anything about it, and its too hard anyway (oh, and its so unfair that people who peddle ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzThere is a lot of discussion on the benefits of ...
I came across this song quite by accident. If it isn't one of Greta Thunberg's favourites - it should be.Video courtesy of YouTube.This post is exclusive to Bowalley Road. ...
Last month, NZDF's shoddy coverup of what it knew about civilian casualties in Operation Burnham began to fall apart, with the revelation that a report on the matter, which NZDF claimed not to have, had been sitting in an NZDF safe for the past nine years. Yesterday, the man responsible ...
While many imagine that countries like the USA and Europe dominate space activities, in fact India is now a major player on this stage. It launches satellites for its own purposes and also commercially, and has constellations orbiting our planet and returning data of vital importance to that nation in ...
Thanks to a report from the Acting Inspector General of Intelligence and Security following a complaint by Nicky Hager, we have come to find out that the SIS illegally spied on Mr. Hager on behalf of the NZDF after publication of Hager’s 2011 book, Other People’s Wars. The NZDF justified ...
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 1: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate. FACT: The HadCRUT3 surface temperature index, produced by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, shows warming to 1878, cooling to 1911, ...
For the past week, Extinction Rebellion has been peacefully protesting in London to demand action on climate change. The British government's response? Ban their protests:Police have banned Extinction Rebellion protests from continuing anywhere in London, as they moved in almost without warning to clear protesters who remained at the movement’s ...
An essay by Judith Collins MP reported on Carbon News yesterday seems to show an alarming shift in attitude within the National Party. Collins argues against the Zero Carbon Bill, the Paris Agreement, and downplays the magnitude of climate impacts. The Paris Agreement was adopted in December 2015 and ratified ...
When they were running for election, Labour promised to overhaul the Employment Relations Act and introduce fair pay agreements to set basic pay and conditions on an industry level, preventing bad employers from undercutting good ones. They followed this up by establishing a working group, which reported back in January ...
A list of indicators of bad science – many of these are found in articles promoted by anti-fluoride activists. Anti-fluoride activists have been pouring money into a scaremongering campaign warning pregnant women not to drink fluoridated water. They claim fluoride will lower the IQ of their future child. Fluoride ...
Nothing Left To Say: Labour's pollster, Stephen Mills, remains swaddled-up in the comforting myths of the 1980s. As if the experience of Roger Douglas’s genuinely radical post-Muldoon policy agenda was literally a once-in-a-lifetime thing – as much as the party could possibly absorb for at least the next 50 years.MEMO ...
The Royal Commission on abuse in care is very significant for the disability community. For many decades last century, thousands of disabled children, and adults who managed to survive, were locked away from families and communities. This was not for anything they had done, but for the perceived threat their ...
With an unfair voting system, uneven electorates and an un-elected upper house, the UK's "democracy" is barely worthy of the name. But now the government wants to make it worse:The government has been accused of suppressing voters’ rights with the potential disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of people after plans ...
Back in the 90's and early 2000's, the building industry was building leaky homes which should never have been granted consent. Now it turns out they've been building dodgy office blocks as well:New imaging technology has revealed hundreds of major buildings nationwide have defective or missing concrete or reinforcing steel. ...
Local body election results were released over the weekend, to joy or despair depending on where you live. In Auckland, Phil Goff trounced John Tamihere, who is muttering darkly about running for Parliament again (but which party would want him?) Wellington is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Weta Workshop, except ...
How could government evolve over the next decades? Reports of democracy’s imminent demise are greatly exaggerated. However, satisfaction with political systems in many countries is low, so there is much to do for governments of all political stripes to improve relevance and trust. Digital technologies are seen as one ...
Two years have now gone by since the Friday afternoon when my university-student son and I headed out of our Barcelona flat to a nearby primary school, designated as a polling station for the vote that was to be held the following Sunday: the referendum on Catalonia’s independence from Spain ...
Overruled: The joint decision of Finance Minister, Grant Robertson (Labour) and his Associate Minister, David Parker (Labour) arguably the two most powerful ministers in Jacinda Ardern’s government, to grant OceanaGold the consents which Land Information Minister, Eugenie Sage (Greens) had earlier denied them, offers bitter proof of how hard fighting ...
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...
A Statement on Abortion Law Reform by the Council of Disobedient Women On the eve of bringing an end to antiquated, anti-women abortion laws Green MP Jan Logie intends to write women out of the Bill. With a stroke of the pen, the woke are aiming for total erasure ...
Musings continue apace about “the experienced businessman!” soon to be taking up a National Party MP position. Or to be more accurate, being parachuted into a seat to shut down their former MP Jamie-Lee Ross, who despite his own shortcomings shed at least some more light on the inner workings ...
The Ugandan government wants to murder gay people:Uganda has announced plans to impose the death penalty on homosexuals. The bill, colloquially known as “Kill the Gays” in Uganda, was nullified five years ago on a technicality, but the government said on Thursday it plans to resurrect it within weeks. The ...
Hassan Vally, La Trobe UniversityWho doesn’t want to know if drinking that second or third cup of coffee a day will improve your memory, or if sleeping too much increases your risk of a heart attack? We’re invested in staying healthy and many of us are interested in reading ...
Freedom Of Speech? The Säuberung (cleansing by fire) was the work of the German Student Union which, on 10 May 1933, under the watchful eye of the Nazi Reichminister for Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, consigned 25,000 books to the flames in a ritual exorcism of “un-German thought”. According to the logic of the ...
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...
New Zealand has prided itself for decades with regard to its lack of pollution, and all will be aware that the ‘100% Pure New Zealand‘ meme is under threat through land, water and air pollution of various causes. There is another type of contamination that the country also faces: light ...
New Zealand’s media is doing its part in Japan, reassuring those in the path of the storm that they won’t miss any rugby while away from their flooded homes. New Zealand sports reporters stationed in Japan for the Rugby World Cup have had the rare and heartwarming opportunity to inform ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones is the only Cabinet member in favour of putting it all on green. As Finance Minister Grant Robertson finds himself with an enormous $7.5 billion surplus, the Government has begun intense, at times contentious conversations about whether to put the money on red or black at ...
by Susanne Kemp At the start of September close to 100,000 school teachers went on strike in Jordan. They demanded a 50% pay rise. A pay rise actually agreed to by the regime back in 2014. In early October, however, in the face of government repression and threats, the teachers’ ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhy do people still think climate change isn’t real?David ...
Back in 2011, journalist Nicky Hager published Other People's Wars, an expose on NZDF's activities over the previous decade of the "war on terror". NZDF didn't like this, and especially didn't like the fact that it was base don leaks from their own. So, they had the SIS investigate him ...
The Zero Carbon Bill is due back from select committee in two weeks, and will likely pass its final stages in November. So naturally, farmers are planning a hate-march against it. But they're not just demanding lower methane targets so they can keep on destroying the planet; they're also demanding ...
Last year, California burned. This year, to stop it happening again (or rather, to stop themselves from being found liable if it happens again), Pacific Gas and Electric is cutting power to half the state for a week:Schools are closed. Traffic lights down. Tunnels dark. Businesses unopened. Hospitals running on ...
The Best Way: Missing from the on-line voting debate is any reference to the voting system that produces turn-out figures ranging from 77 to 93 percent of registered voters. The voting system used to collect and count the votes cast in our parliamentary elections. The system that involves citizens making ...
Among the great new bunch of political friends we have been making recently is the excellent Australian-based Marxist gender-critical site, Freer Lives. So we asked the comrade who set up that blog to write something for Redline on the blog, himself, his analysis of the rise of gender politics and ...
by Don Franks The Auckland City Mission is struggling with a 40 percent increase in demand for food parcels this year. A total of 23,020 were needed by June. Last month Missioner Chris Farrelly told the Herald the “cupboards are bare” and without an emergency food drive, he can’t see ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women Massey Wellington Student Association had a sit-in today. Imagine a sit-in. On a campus. Against a women’s rights meeting. Did the ’60s really happen or did we fucking dream it? They gathered in the student square, an echo chamber. Sitting on soft pillows ...
For some reasons, my post about the mystery message from inside the Downing Street bunker seemed to catch people's attention. Quite a lot of hits from NZ (unsurprisingly) and the USA (a bit more puzzlingly, but hi there, USAians!!) and 76 views from the Ukraine.I've celebrated my Ukrainian readers in ...
First, almost a score of Labour MPs seem to have sent a letter to the EU basically begging them to accept a deal - any deal - just so Britain can get the Heck on with Brexiting instead of being trapped in limbo:
by Phil Duncan In 2016 the National-led government suspended the Parent Visa Category, through which migrants were able to bring their parents into New Zealand. Since then over 5,700 people have been in immigration limbo, stuck on the visa wait list. Labour is now bringing back the scheme. Well, sort ...
The following was released yesterday (Tues, October 8) by the women’s liberation organisation Speak Up for Women. On 23 September Speak Up For Women announced that we would be holding an event at the Massey University Theaterette in Wellington. The event is called Feminism 2020. The intention of the event ...
The government is currently consulting on plans to improve freshwater quality. So naturally, farmers oppose it:South Taranaki farmers are preparing to fight proposed national freshwater changes that some fear will bankrupt them. The Government's proposed National Environment Standard on Freshwater Management, released in September, rated the Waingongoro River as one ...
Yesterday was the last day for (reliably) posting your vote away in local body elections. Turnouts are mostly much lower than the equivalent time last year (Palmerston North is down 2.3%), and so naturally people are pushing their online-voting snake oil again. Because the online census worked so well, lets ...
This essay, on the political legacy of the eugenics movement, by Kenan Malik was originally published in the Observer on 6 October 2019, under the headline ‘The spirit of eugenics is still with us, as immigrants know to their cost’. Birth control. Intelligence tests. Town planning. Immigration controls. It’s striking how ...
Another year, and the government has announced another enormous government "surplus". And just like last year, its nothing of the sort. When we have people homeless and sick and hungry, when we have schools and hospitals still falling down, when we have underpaid public servants and infrastucture unmaintained or unbuilt, ...
James Forsyth at The Spectator (I know, I know) has tapped one of his contacts inside Number Ten for an insight into the Johnson administration's thinking and strategy.It is fascinating, unsettling and quite, quite mad. Some key points:Negotiations have stalled and the Johnson administration are keen to blame the EU: ...
Fatal Contact: With the arrival of captain James Cook in October 1769, the islands of what would become New Zealand ceased to be the preserve of Polynesian navigators and settlers and became a part of both the world’s map and the world’s history.THE MAORI NATIONALIST assault upon the historical meaning ...
Another round of tactical talks about forming a Government of National Unity have come to nothing with the Liberal Democrats still refusing countenance putting Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street:Opposition talks on Monday made little headway over when to try and vote down Boris Johnson's government and who might succeed him as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...
Speaking at the Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) biennial conference, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters told unionists that any future attacks on the Government won't work. "Now, we are being attacked by the union movement in this country. You can have your views but I'm here to say standing ...
We want every New Zealander to be happy, safe, and healthy. To do this, we need to support strong, safe communities, and a robust and efficient health system. ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has used his powers to overrule a noise complaint ruling against Whenuapai airbase on the grounds of "national security". The Environment Court last month released a ruling in favour of a private developer, declaring the Auckland airbase had to comply with noise restrictions when it performs ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has opened fire against "unreconstructed morons" after NZ First MP Shane Jones was photographed on holiday holding an AR-15 rifle. Mr Peters is defending Mr Jones, telling Magic Talk host Peter Williams that his MP was just having fun "like most people do". "The ...
New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau was in attendance during the morning blessing of the Rotorua Lakefront development project. Around 60 people gathered on the shores of Lake Rotorua, including city mayor Steve Chadwick and deputy Dave Donaldson. The Lakefront development is a ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
The Coalition Government is set to cut red tape in the building and construction sector in an effort to allow more houses to be built, including prefabricated houses. The changes will enable the mass factory production of "high quality" buildings, slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced ...
Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
A six-member independent working group selected the option of moving Auckland’s port to Northport, in Whangarei, ahead of other options. In what could be New Zealand’s most ambitious infrastructure project yet, a major expansion of the Marsden Point port could happen within 15 years. The project, officially called the “Upper ...
The final Electricity Price Review recommended prohibiting prompt payment discounts but allowing “reasonable” late fees. The findings of this review was welcomed by the Coalition Government, but they hope companies will follow through with its recommendations without regulations needed to be passed. Meridian Energy had already stopped prompt payment discounts, ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi,will invest nearly $600,000 to ensure work opportunities for locals in Turangia and Whanganui, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “I’m pleased to announce the PGF ...
An export-led economy is one of New Zealand First’s key principles, and our commitment to achieving this is shown by the continuing skyrocketing demand for our beef and sheep meat exports. Beef + Lamb New Zealand's New Season Outlook 2019-20 report forecasts beef, lamb and mutton prices to lift from ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today in Gisborne an investment of $17.27m into bringing “world-leading” food-growing technology and the creation of more than 100 new jobs in the East Coast city. The funding comes from the Provincial Growth Fund, and included a $15 million loan to LeaderBrand, a ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development More than 100 people in Tairāwhiti’s Tolaga Bay will benefit from two employment initiatives supported by the Provincial Growth Fund, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. “Tolaga Bay is an incredibly tight-knit community, but one in ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is supporting Gisborne business Leaderbrand to produce salad vegetables year round and create more jobs in the Tairāwhiti region, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Our support for Leaderbrand will help them build large greenhouses ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has praised the promise by New Zealand’s biggest banks not to close any provincial branches while the Coalition Government trials regional banking hubs across the country. The Minister said the announce was the “first sign of hope for regional communities”, many of which have ...
Two secondary-school initiatives are being expanded as part of the Government’s plan to see more young New Zealanders take up a trade to help close the skills gap. This includes the largest single increase in Trades Academy places in recent years. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris ...
The Government today announced its support for a project that could substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from cattle. The announcement was made as part of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor’s visit to Nelson’s Cawthron Aquaculture Park. The Cawthron Institute will receive $100,000 from the Government’s ...
Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni has welcomed the first reading of the New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension Legislation Amendment Bill. “Every New Zealander has a stake in New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension,” says Carmel Sepuloni. “They are our most common form of social assistance – nearly 800,000 New ...
Babies in Auckland aged six months and over can receive a free vaccination and children will all have access to vaccines, Associate Minister of Health Julie Anne Genter announced today at Papatoetoe High School. The move comes as part of Government efforts to step up the fight against measles. ...
***Check against delivery*** Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here, and to have the honour of opening this important conference on behalf of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. Let us take the opportunity to acknowledge all the people who have helped make today possible, including our special ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash says the safety of frontline officers and members of the public will be the focus of a new trial of specialist Police response teams in three of our largest urban centres. Police have this morning released details of an initiative to be trialled in Counties Manukau, ...
The Minister of Fisheries is calling for entries for a new public award to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector. “I have established the Seafood Sustainability Awards to recognise and celebrate those throughout industry, tangata whenua and communities who demonstrate outstanding dedication and innovation towards the sustainability of New Zealand’s ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter welcomes leaders in the private sector taking action on closing their gender pay gaps to ensure a fairer workplace for all New Zealanders. Ms Genter today launched a new report, Addressing the gender pay gap and driving women’s representation in senior leadership, from the Champions for ...
Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. The release underlines the importance of government proposals to combat climate pollution, ensure clean freshwater, protect biodiversity, make land use more sustainable, and reduce waste and plastic. Environment ...
The Government has approved funding for a new acute mental health facility for Waikato which will provide better care and support to people with mental health and addiction issues. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Dr David Clark announced the $100 million project to replace the aging Henry Rongomau ...
The Government is making progress on its goal to integrate te reo Māori into education by 2025, with over 500 teachers and support staff already graduating from Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis made the announcement at an awards ceremony in Waikanae today, for ...
Statistics Minister James Shaw has welcomed the first release of 2018 Census data. The first release of data today, 23 September, includes key data on population, regional growth, the number of homes and the size of different ethnic groups in New Zealand. Data from the 2018 Census will support the ...
Minister for Statistics James Shaw today announced a public consultation on a proposed algorithm charter for government agencies. The charter has been developed by the Government Chief Data Steward in response to growing calls for more transparency in government use of data. Computer algorithms – procedures or formulas for solving ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, Climate Change Minister James Shaw and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte co-hosted a business roundtable in Auckland this morning focused on working together to address climate change. “The Netherlands is an important partner for New Zealand. We share a strong agricultural history. Sustainable agribusiness and ...
The Government is taking action to build an inclusive economy where more of us receive our fair share at work and businesses can compete on great products and services, not undercutting wages and conditions, Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. Two consultations launched today seek feedback ...
The future for New Zealand’s threatened indigenous freshwater fish looks brighter with the passing of the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill in Parliament today said Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “Until now, our freshwater fish legislation has been 20 years out of date. We have lacked effective tools to ...
At 1.30pm tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of Kiwis will join about 65 million people around the globe in ShakeOut, the world’s biggest earthquake drill. The annual drill is to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake which is to Drop, Cover, Hold, and to practise their ...
Kiwis are benefiting from higher wage growth and low inflation under the Coalition Government. Stats NZ data out today shows the rise in the cost of living remains low, as annual Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation fell to 1.5% in September from 1.7% in June. “The low inflation comes as ...
New Zealand’s economic strength and resilience has been recognised in a major update on the state of the global economy. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook released overnight shows a reduced global growth forecast over the next two years as issues like the US-China trade war and Brexit take hold. ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little has today introduced a new Bill to prevent terrorism and support the de-radicalisation of New Zealanders returning from overseas. The Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill gives the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to the High Court to impose control orders on New Zealanders who ...
A Bill that proposes targeted changes to simplify the processes for Māori land owners when engaging with the Māori Land Court has had its First Reading today. “The approach taken by the Government is to ensure that the protection of Māori land remains a priority as we seek to improve ...
Let me first thank all the new unionists and members in the room. There is nothing more important to improving people’s working lives than people making the decision to care, to get on board and help, to take up the reins and get involved. Congratulations to you. You bring the ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has signed a certificate exempting the activity of engine testing at Whenuapai Airbase from the Resource Management Act 1991. The Act gives the Minister of Defence the power to exempt activities for the purposes of national security. The certificate will mean the recent Environment Court ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced New Zealand will join the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action while attending APEC meetings in Chile. The objective of the 39 member Coalition is to share information and promote action to tackle climate change. It was formed in April this year, in ...
Feedback sought– Lyttelton commercial zone parking The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to remove on-site car parking requirements for new developments in the Lyttelton commercial zone. The proposal, by Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section 71 of the Greater ...
Hon Minister Poto Williams Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration MEDIA STATEMENT Tuesday 15 October 2019 Feedback sought – Hagley Oval The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal about Hagley Oval. The proposal was developed by Regenerate Christchurch ...
Ladies and gentlemen, NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff, members of respective unions – thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. This might be preaching to the choir, but the importance of trade unions in New Zealand’s historical arch is difficult to understate. And it is my belief that ...
"Let’s start by acknowledging that it has been a huge year. " Police Association Annual Conference James Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou katoa. President of the Police Association, Chris Cahill; Members of the Association and ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and Minister of Defence Ron Mark have announced the New Zealand Government’s decision to again deploy a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 (P-3) maritime patrol aircraft to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions imposing sanctions against North Korea. New ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand continues to have serious concerns for peace and stability in north-east Syria. “Recent reports that hundreds of ISIS-affiliated families have fled from a camp are deeply concerning from a humanitarian and security perspective”, Mr Peters says. “While we acknowledge Turkey’s domestic security ...
Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor is warning travelling Kiwis to be vigilant as the high-season for the crop-eating brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is under way. “We’re on high alert to stop BMSB arriving in NZ. The high season runs until April 30 and we’ve strengthened our measures to stop stink ...
The Government is moving swiftly to change the law to improve the welfare and pastoral care of students living in university halls of residence and other tertiary hostels. Cabinet has agreed to several changes, including creating a new mandatory Code of Practice that sets out the duty of pastoral care ...
The Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage has launched a new comprehensive trapping guide for community trappers to help them protect our native birds, plants and other wildlife, at Zealandia in Wellington today. ‘A practical guide to trapping’, has been developed by the Department of Conservation (DOC), and was launched during ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter welcomes PHARMAC’s move to improve access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs). PHARMAC has today announced it will fund the full cost of Mirena and Jaydess for anyone seeking long term contraception, lifting previous restrictions on access to Mirena. “I welcome women having greater choices ...
The Government has approved the next stage of a major redevelopment of Taranaki Base Hospital, which will deliver new and improved facilities for patients. Health Minister Dr David Clark has announced details of a $300 million dollar project to build a new East Wing at the New Plymouth hospital. It ...
Extra funding will allow Rural Support Trusts to help farming families, says Minister for Rural Communities and Agriculture Damien O’Connor. “I know that rural families are worried about some of the challenges facing them, including the ongoing uncertainty created by the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak. “Those concerns sit alongside ongoing worries ...
Thank you for the opportunity to be here to present certificates to the 16 graduates who have completed a beekeeping course delivered by the Howard League. Let us start by acknowledging Auckland Prison’s Deputy Prison Director Tom Sherlock, and Acting Assistant Regional Commissioner of Corrections Northern Region Scott Walker - ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson leaves this weekend to attend the APEC Finance Ministers meeting in Santiago, Chile. Discussions between APEC Finance Ministers at the meeting will include the effects of the current global economic uncertainty, risks for APEC economies and sustainable development of the region. While at APEC Grant Robertson ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says for Pacific people, language can be a source of strength. It can help ground us and give us confidence. When we speak them, our languages provide us with an immediate and intimate access to our identity and our story - and ...
The Coalition Government has announced an action plan to improve the wellbeing of disabled New Zealanders by addressing inequalities in play, active recreation and sport. The initiative includes training to develop a workforce that understands the needs of children and young people with a range of impairments, advocacy for fit ...
Botany is an electorate that deserves a representative who is committed to their community which is the reason New Conservative has confirmed Elliot Ikilei as the candidate for the 2020 election. ...
Anyone who would like to submit an account of their experience of state care to the Māori Inquiry into Oranga Tamariki has 10 days left before submissions close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justine Shaw, Conservation Biologist, The University of Queensland This year, five of the seven Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science were awarded to women. While this is a welcome development, the great majority of awards and prizes for science, technology, engineering and mathematics ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison seized the opportunity of his Jakarta weekend visit for Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s inauguration to obtain a meeting with Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan. Morrison told a news conference he had come out ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon O’Connor, Associate Professor in American Politics at the United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney During the 2016 US presidential campaign, people around the world were regularly reassured by election experts that Donald Trump was too outrageous to be elected president. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Leask, Professor, University of Sydney Your neighbour is telling you about his new baby. He feels nervous about vaccinating, and says he’s considering delaying Lucy’s vaccines. Your mother’s group is chatting about vaccines. One mother tells the group Jimmy isn’t vaccinated, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hal Pawson, Associate Director – City Futures – Urban Policy and Strategy, City Futures Research Centre, Housing Policy and Practice, UNSW Low-income tenants in Australia are increasingly likely to be trapped in rental stress for years. New evidence from the Productivity Commission ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland In line with his usual practice, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has backed Donald Trump over the World Trade Organisation, criticising of China’s status in it as a “developing country”. Critics of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kristal Spreadborough, Casual Academic, University of New England As the Australian premier season of The Masked Singer draws to a close, fans are listening hard to guess which celebrities remain behind the weird and wonderful costumes. Although the celebrities throw listeners a ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: NZ First holds crucial party conference, roving AOS trial sparks concerns, and Mediaworks facing dramatic days ahead.The most pivotal political party in the country right now has held their annual conference, a year out from what will be a make ...
Five experts, all from countries with varying levels of cannabis legality, came to Auckland to speak on the benefits and costs of the drug before New Zealand’s cannabis referendum in 2020. Alice Webb-Liddall reports.While New Zealanders wait for the cannabis referendum in 2020, the government is working hard to draft ...
Protesting has brought about enormous social change in NZ. Will transformational groups emerge from the climate and Ihumātao protests? Trevor Richards hopes so. ...
Dr Olivier Jutel goes deep on blockchain, explaining why we should be cognisant of sweeping ideological claims masquerading as the technology of truth. ...
A psychiatric doctor who helps suicidal teenagers says the Ministry of Health’s suicide reduction plans miss much of the wider issue. We need to listen to affected communities, and equip them to make the changes they need, he writes.Last week, as I left yet another 3am crisis interview in ED ...
Highly trained, armed police are a necessary tool in emergency situations, but roving teams eager to find work could be a recipe for disaster, writes investigator and former police officer Tim McKinnel for RNZ. Police announced yesterday they are to introduce a trial of Armed Response Teams (ARTs) in Auckland, Waikato ...
“Proposals to curb environmental damage help our coasts and the oceans Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. We at CEAC also ...
David Robie, concluding his three-part series about Iran, profiles an extraordinary pair of Tehran brothers who have been pioneering global research adventurers. They have been dubbed the “Persian Indiana Joneses”. Their adventures are fabled and hair-raising, as shown by a Jivaro shrunken human head and relics from curious rituals ...
Four months ago Caroline Shaw bought an e-bike. She explains why they’re the answer to our lethal car culture.Four months ago we took what felt like a huge leap of faith and bought an e-cargo bike. The combination of three things tipped us over the edge: feeling the need to ...
The online magazine that boasted a bigger Instagram following than most New Zealand media has abruptly come to an end. So what was Auckland Mag? Why did it exist? And who was it mysterious founder Dan Rolph? David Farrier investigates. The reply from Dan Rolph at Auckland Magazine came quickly. It came ...
In the wake of the shocking revelations about Three, Duncan Greive assesses the health of New Zealand’s six big media companies.Winston Peters has studied the cold, pitiless heart of a certain strand of New Zealander for four decades now, and has become our foremost expert on both expressing its feelings ...
US justice reform activists Deborah Small and asha bandele say white supremacy and colonialism are at the heart of punitive drug laws. They spoke to Teuila Fuatai about how drug reform can reverse their effects on minority communities. Deborah Small sees Donald Trump as the US Dorian Gray. “He’s the physical ...
Madeleine Chapman spent a day learning about Christchurch through its most famous dishes.What is there do with with a day in Christchurch? Thanks to the inexplicably early check-out times at hotels all over the world and a 7pm flight back to Auckland, I had a full day to wander the ...
Winston Peters says his party is a handbrake on bad ideas and a "supercharged turbo" for good ones - but will it be in the driver's seat come 2020? ...
Our former prime minister secured a meeting with Chinese premier Xi Jinping outside all normal diplomatic channels. Interest’s Jenée Tibshraeny asks what it means for New Zealand’s evolving relationship with the superpower.Former prime minister John Key secured a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week without the involvement of ...
David Robiecontinues his three-part series about travelling in Iran. I stumbled on the scene by chance. Our host family in Iran’s second city Mashhad, a modern and beautiful metropolis that would comfortably fit in New Zealand’s entire population, was taking us on a drive to the outskirts to ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has lashed out at the media, in particular, MediaWorks, just a day after the company announced it was selling off its television arm. ...
About a hundred disgruntled licensed gun owners have descended on the New Zealand First conference to tell the party leader Winston Peters that they feel like victims. ...
New Zealand First members will vote on a policy today that would allow businesses of all sizes to enforce 90-day trials when they employ people straight out of prison. ...
"Each time she held her lighter underneath the pipe and sucked the smoke into the back of her throat, the promise was there": a New Zealand tragedy by Alice Tawhai. ...
With the future of Mediaworks’ TV business hanging in the balance, Al Jazeera news presenter Kamahl Santamaria reflects on what the imperilled channel meant, and continues to mean, to him.I always liked the logo. The fresh bright colours, the nod to a koru in its shape, and just the fact ...
There are still many barriers preventing people from voting in local elections. Laura O’Connell Rapira proposes some social solutions.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here.To vote in the local elections, I cast ...
What’s really stood out for me being back in Tokyo is the unique qualities of Japan’s spectators, writes Richard Light, professor of sport coaching at the University of Canterbury.The Rugby World Cup has thrown a global spotlight on Japan over recent weeks. Not just the rugby: the distinctive culture and ...
As the New Zealand First Party gathers for its annual conference, the question swirling in the year is how it can carve out a path to avoid electoral defeat in 2020, writes Jo Moir for RNZ. It’s not you, it’s me. It’s a familiar break up excuse that’s used ...
To the early intervention therapists, to the teachers, to the speech therapists, the occupational therapists, music therapists, diabetes nurses and all: you change the world.When I was married almost a decade ago we had the following reading at our wedding:You are holding up a ceilingwith both arms. It is very ...
The faces said it all. The smiles of the European leaders crowded round Boris after the Brexit deal was struck. The deal his opponents – no, pretty much everyone – said was impossible.So what’s in it? The detail is still opaque, but subject to gremlins in the fine print, ...
Iran attracts an onslaught of negative media in New Zealand and Western media. But is it fair or deserved? David Robie has spent several weeks travelling in the country on sabbatical and finds the media negativity far from the reality of the “most friendly” country he has ever visited ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Leigh Sullivan discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan. They talk about Alan Jones accusing Prime Minister Scott Morrison of failing the immediate needs of drought-striken farmers, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anita Parbhakar-Fox, Senior Research Fellow in Geometallurgy/Applied Geochemistry, The University of Queensland Last month, scientists uncovered a mineral called Edscottite. Minerals are solid, naturally occurring substances that are not living, such as quartz or haematite. This new mineral was discovered after an ...
The Auckland-based collective talk origins, ambitions and making the rave accessible to everybody.Friendly Potential is an outfit that defies easy summary. They’re among the country’s most ambitious and prolific club promoters. In their almost five-years of operation, they’ve been responsible for the local debuts of electronic music icons including Detroit ...
Analysis: Two polls show support for Labour sliding, the government is accused of breaking another promise and the Greens's refusal to back a bill forces Labour to rely on National to get it through. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kiera Lindsey, University of Technology Sydney One spring morning in 1850, over 8,000 Sydneysiders marched through town to protest the resumption of transportation – the act of sending British criminals to Australia. It was the largest protest in Australia thus far, an ...
Two shareholders of failed insurance firm company CBL are leading a class action against the firm's former directors seeking compensation for financial losses. ...
Sam Brooks recaps the third episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, and wonders why some of these queens don’t know how to sew.This episode asks, and sort of answers the main question that millions of people across the world: why would you come on Drag Race and not know how to sew?!There ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John M Clarke, Team Leader, Regional Projections, CSIRO Last month we lost Dr Penny Whetton – one of the world’s most respected climate scientists and a brilliant mentor to the next generation of researchers. Penny will also be remembered as a passionate ...
Ten moose were upended into the Dusky Sounds in 1910. Now, their descendants are getting their day in the sun.The climate crisis is affecting wildlife all over the country: rockhopper penguin populations are in drastic decline, tuatara eggs aren’t hatching females, and the ice walls keeping predators away from kea ...
Security footage of NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell being thrown out of a Tauranga bar looks unlikely to ever be aired - despite his leader Winston Peters promising a screening. ...
Amnesty International is concerned that Justice Minister Andrew Little's Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill could have the potential to undermine human rights in New Zealand. The Bill would give the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to ...
Expect the old campaigner Winston Peters to be at his belligerent best as he gears up for another election. He’s kept his party alive for 27 years and he shows no sign of quitting. The omens may be bleak—polls this week showed his party below the 5% threshold– but Peters ...
The National Party has agreed to take down any videos breaching the current rules around the use of parliamentary TV footage, as all parties try to reach consensus. ...
Recently the Health Promotion Agency released a report into hazardous drinking in New Zealand. The report shows that Māori who drink alcohol and live in deprived circumstances are less likely to have a harmful relationship with alcohol if they ...
Turkey-US joint-statement on military ops within Syria’s territory.The Turkish Embassy in New Zealand issued Evening Report this unabridged United States of America-Republic of Turkey joint-statement detailing what both sides agreed to regarding Turkey’s military operations within the so-called security zone within Syrian territory near Turkey’s southern border. It is ...
Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash didn’t mention what winners will receive, when he proudly called for entries for a new public award “to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector”. Nor did he mention the cost to taxpayers of this initiative. Point of Order’s checks with the website where more details have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona R Martin, Senior Lecturer in Convergent and Online Media, University of Sydney One of the basic tenets of the ABC Act is independence from government. Yet once again, in contravention to that principle, the federal government is trying to push through ...
A new poem by Auckland poet Lily Holloway.modernity to globalisationwhen I get there as still life and landscape and also portraitureseeking the cacti in small pots who dot the globeslices of pie offer up the vision after the sermonexpressing emotions without coherent narrative supportbecause no artist responded to this callemploying ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi to rule out any taxpayer-funded purchase or bailout for Mediaworks’s channel Three. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “For the last few months Mediaworks ...
The Police Commissioner's announcement that squadcars of officers with automatic rifles will patrol New Zealand's streets is dangerous and unnecessary, according to the criminal justice community organisation People Against Prisons Aotearoa. The ...
News broke this morning that Mediaworks is seeking to sell off, and even contemplating closing, its TV division. What might that mean for journalism?For journalism in New Zealand, the loss of Three’s TV division is a devastating blow. It is not yet known whether any of the news properties will ...
Open Mike 14/11/2018 
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Dr Helen Waite, sports sociologist and former elite athlete, on the invasion of women’s sport by men and the anti-scientific and misogynist ideology used to rationalise it. ...2 days ago
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In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy preparing for our summer paper on Science Communication. Looking for something amusing about ‘risk’ in science, I came across this neat xkcd.com cartoon about why so many people come knocking on my door (or phoning me, or emailing me) desperately wanting ...3 days ago
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by The Council of Disobedient Women In a press release today Massey University announced it has decided to rebrand and reorientate after struggling to be a University for grown-ups. For some time the University has wanted to be a safe play space for wee-woke-misogynists who have been really badly triggered ...5 days ago
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Expect the old campaigner Winston Peters to be at his belligerent best as he gears up for another election. He’s kept his party alive for 27 years and he shows no sign of quitting. The omens may be bleak—polls this week showed his party below the 5% threshold– but Peters ...3 days ago
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Looks like Prime Minister may has got her Brexit deal.
She’s called an emergency Cabinet meeting to get it signed off.
That would be an impressive achievement for her, and will truly box her caucus opponents.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/nov/13/cabinet-members-called-in-to-sign-off-mays-brexit-deal
An achievement, but how impressive remains to be seen. Tory leadership contenders will pounce on the deal like vultures, and their sharp beaks will tear off any shred that is a breach of UK sovereignty, and wave them at the public & media. Will the vassal state theory be validated? A cost/benefit analysis in caucus will just be the start, and the fate of May’s government will then be determined in the court of public opinion.
Notably she is briefing each of her Cabinet individually.
Corbyn won’t have an easy time of it.
She won’t get it through parliament.
An unholy alliance of hard-Brexiters, the DUP, tory-Remainers, the SNP and most of the Labour Party will vote it down.
Jo Johnson is sticking it to May at a Remain /People’s Vote event right now. This is a disaster for May who will be gone before Xmas.
Historians will not believe sheer ignorance of Brexit supporters
Future chroniclers will in fact have to distinguish between three kinds of ignorance
“And then there’s pig ignorance – the genuine hallmarked, unadulterated, slack-jawed, open-mouthed, village idiot variety”
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-historians-will-not-believe-sheer-ignorance-of-brexit-supporters-1.3695347
Sad though our political systems do not seem to protect the integrity of those systems as it seems clear in Brexit rules were broken, ethics questionable and nobody seems to be in jail over it. Just an enquiry and slap on the wrist is not exactly keeping the democratic process safe.
We have donations scandals in NZ on tape, and yep, no criminal prosecution or any one interested in preserving the integrity of democracy either, in the face of all that free money.
Then we have the women who put needles in the strawberries who faces years in prison in OZ, 8 years even for that Fonterra milk hoax who did not even do it.
Just an example of how lightly we treat political crimes against other crimes that can effect the entire country or industry.
If Cameron and May’s Brexit leadership leads to the gradual breakup of the EU, I suspect New Zealand will miss it when it’s gone.
I’m for a revote of the Brexit referendum, not enough people voted and there was electoral tampering. Then see if same result when the people of Britain go in to vote on it, with their eyes open.
Too bad.
You get your chance to vote so should use it wisely. I didn’t like the last US election. Maybe we should have a re-vote on that and if I still lose, then another vote after that.
Elections are different to a total and dysfunctional divorce based on phony pretences. And a huge number of Brits did not vote because among other things, the remain brigade told everyone they had it in the bag!
Also if there is election tampering then not sure of the process but I don’t think the result is considered valid????
You get another shot at that in a couple of years kevvy.
That “vote” was marked by massive disenfranchisement, voter suppression, voting machine “malfunctions” and gerrymandering.
Are you pretending Trump and his gang were installed after a fair and transparent process?
And no, I do not endorse the desperate Clintonista fantasy that “the Russians” put him in; it was all Republican Party dirty tricks.
AKA “the Epsom voter”.
John Wight on Western Imperialism.
Wight discusses Western imperialism and how ideologies of neoliberalism and domination have been inculcated to Western leaders in elite institutions of education.
And if you thought that was good, I highly recommend you watch the whole show.
As one commentator expresses it, this is an “amazing stream of awareness and consciousness here that exactly depicts the current socio-political and economic realities.”
Open your minds.
Oh the irony.
[On the assumption that’s to be read as yet another snide dig at another commentator, see below] – B.
You would never listen to John Wight.
Stick to Mike Hosking and Duncan Garner.
They operate at your level.
As John Wight says,” Ignorance is increasingly a choice in our world.”
Keep it up Lord HawHaw – you wretched sell out.
There is nothing left about supporting despots like Putin.
[Drawing a line under this. I’m way over having to scroll past idiots, who in lieu of having nothing to say and nothing to share, slap their dicks on the table as though that should be seen as a contribution of some sort.
You are one of a number who disagree with the arguments of viewpoints of Ed (or those he links to)? Then either offer a reasoned argument to support your perspective, or a thought out critique of why those people (and so their views) might be best considered as suspect.
But as for the vacuous sloganeering, name calling and personalised attacks – take it to your facebook account or your twitter account or wherever that might be elsewhere. But stop subjecting readers of this collective and diverse space to it, day after day and (it seems) always as a predictable reaction to other commentators whose views you don’t share.
‘The Standard’ is for discussion and debate, not schoolyard or sandpit nonsense. Sort your crap out.] – B.
I have offered reasoned argument to Ed pretty damned often actually.
Lacking the skills to support his views, he carries on regardless.
The point is, they’re not his views – they’re copied and pasted from elsewhere, which is part of the reason he can’t defend them – he doesn’t understand them.
I get it – you’re down with supporting despotic regimes. I’m not.
I object.
I won’t sit silently while Ed shills for this murderous dictator.
Your crude crap about dick measuring is utterly false – when Ed posts about anything else I leave him alone.
[Evidently you’re an idiot Stuart. Instead of taking the intelligent route, which would have been taking note and desisting from your crap in future, you’ve doubled down by broadening out your attack to include me. It’s an odd self martyrdom kind of thing to have done. But hey…
You claim I’m “down with supporting despotic regimes”? Okay. You either provide a damned unequivocal link to be backing that one up. Or offer up a straightforward apology and retraction. You won’t be able to provide a link. And so, failing a retraction and an apology (and not some half arsed nonsense either), your summer break from ‘ts’ will be starting presently] – B.
Bill we all know you’re a denialist.
You’ve made multiple posts trying to cast doubt on the British case against Russia with respect to the Skripals. One quoted Craig Murray “of a type developed by liars” for example. No evidence has come to light suggesting any other chemical agent however, the British claim seems to have been factual.
You made another post about the suspects visiting Salisbury cathedral, suggesting that their motives were altogether innocent, which seems to have been in error, as Bellingcat’s Russian colleagues The Insider were able to show.
It would be fair to say that these statements of yours support Russia and the campaign of disinformation and propaganda that they have maintained since their embarrassment over MH17.
I assert that Russia under Putin is a despotic regime – let’s go with Montesquieu’s definition: one in which rule is accomplished by fear. The murder of Politikovskaya was politically motivated and intended not merely silence her, but also like-minded journalists. A number of Russian journalists have been obliged to flee Russia in the years immediately after that.
The murder of Nemtsov probably related to the position he was taking on the invasion of the Ukraine. An awful lot of people inconvenient to Putin are murdered – and inconvenient news organs like the Moscow Times have been shut down under his rule.
Putin’s elections are invariably accomplished with large scale ballot tampering. My friends, collating reports from over twenty journalists right across Russia were able to demonstrate widespread fraud in his first election. Similar reports, if less comprehensive, are available on subsequent elections.
These actions are those of a despotic regime even without the lengthy record of atrocities relating to the Chechen campaign. I have yet to see a word in print from you that qualifies your support of them, to balance your pro-Russian speculations and echoing of Russian propaganda in respect of the Skripal affair.
Ed’s reposting of their propaganda and disinformatzia is not a public service, on the contrary, it is in service of a despotic regime, and undesirable.
[Questioning an official narrative doesn’t imply support of anyone or anything. I can’t see any link in your comment to me voicing support of despotism Stuart. And I can’t see any apology in that there shopping list you’ve flung up either. So I won’t see any comments from you until after Feb 3rd] – B.
Bellingcat
The Insider
My friends
Quite the hyporcrite aren’t you, Stu…
That’s an interesting way to put it and he’s right.
As a hunter/gatherer a person couldn’t afford to be ignorant. They may not have known what we know today but they had to know everything that the group knew and to extend that knowledge.
Today people get to choose to be ignorant and not to believe the truth and that’s causing all sorts of problems. Climate change denial, voting for schmucks because they’re blue, defending unethical behaviour because its legal etcetera.
A national leader wants us to believe he sanctioned one nation because in their view they were leaders, invaded and destroyed another becuase evil existed they, but didn’t send a assassination squad to kill a man who just wanted to get married. Russia, Saudi, it’s all half glass full and whose pouring. Russia spent generations securing Crimea, blood, treasure, and only lost it for a few decades, what about any number of U.S. bases… etc.
For those interested here is a link to one of the UK left wing best writers and thinkers.
https://twitter.com/johnwight1?lang=en
He is also a brilliant speaker.
He is a brilliant speaker. Thanks Ed
Good on you Ed. Please keep up your good work. You are one of the precious few real lefties on this site.
I stand on my record of arguing for freedom of expression here at TS; even when it’s annoying or steps over the line. It’s way better to SAY stupid things and get feedback on it, than to actually DO stupid things and find out too late what the awful cost was.
Even as a moderate left winger I’m happy with most of Ed’s contributions; he flirts with the edges of reasonable sometimes but for the most part I put that down to youthful enthusiasm.
What does irk me is seeing the personal vendettas that are clearly going on here; hell I’ve been on the wrong end of a few of them myself over the years. A small group gangs up on someone and reflexively shits on anything they say with no attempt at counter argument or informed debate. Tempers will flare from time to time, but unceasing repetition going turns this into an ugly form of bullying.
Most of the time it just runs it’s course, but this one has been going on too long and everyone involved needs to read Bill’s very pointed moderation note above. Otherwise I can guarantee some well deserved ‘holidays’ will soon be taken.
Cheers for your comment garibaldi (2.1.2.1.1.1) and to those of Ed as well.
Thank you Garibaldi.
Yes, keep posting Ed. I value your input and am appalled at the attacks on you.
Thanks Ed well worth watching didnt know about Renegade Inc till now John Wright straight shooter damn good stuff .
Worth following on Twitter.
John Wight wrote a brilliant article on Remembrance Day.
Can I ask a favour? I am looking for background stuff on the US opioid crisis. I keep hearing that the likes of Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, are behid a huge a epidemic of addiction in the USA and I just want some reputable background information…
I’d try the agencies that are left to clean up the mess. They won’t pull their punches so there’ll be a bias, but it’s better than cover ups.
I theorise the nasty right wing middle class are mostly just high. And when they clean up, oh, the shame.
Sanctuary,
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/drugs-opioid-oxycontin-drug-addiction-patent-new-drug-richard-sackler-a8529711.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/health/purdue-opioids-oxycontin.html
https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/oxycontin-time-bomb/
https://centerfordiscovery.com/blog/netflix-documentary-heroine-highlights-opioid-documentary/
company sponsored over prescription of certain medication that in the end proved very addictive to certain people.
take West Virginia
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/drug-distributors-missed-suspicious-opioid-sales-to-west-virginia-lawmakers-say
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=over+prescription+of+opiods+in+west+virginia&oq=over+prescription+of+opiods+in+west+virginia&aqs=chrome..69i57.9151j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
trying to turn the tide with legislation
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/justice-oks-legislation-to-reduce-opioid-prescribing-in-wv/article_e9331e45-90e7-50c4-b9d8-5c3e2f83d2ee.html
document on how to turn the tide, large read
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdhhr.wv.gov%2Fbph%2FDocuments%2FODCP%2520Reports%25202017%2FProposed%2520Opioid%2520Response%2520Plan%2520for%2520the%2520State%2520of%2520West%2520Virginia%25201%252010%252018.pdf
company says, surly not us
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/08/drug-crisis-distributor-apologizes-large-opioid-shipments/589760002/
Qoute: Investigators discovered that a single pharmacy in Mount Gay-Shamrock, population 1,779, received more than 16.5 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills between 2006 and 2016. In nearby Williamson, population 2,900, distributors sent almost 21 million opioids to two pharmacies during that same period.
“How many other communities across the country have received millions more opioids than their communities could reasonably sustain?” Harper asked.
Democrats and Republicans on the committee faulted the distributors for missing what they said were signs that too many opioids were going into the state. Quote end.
it has been obvious for a while now that certain, especially poor areas, where literally flooded with pain killers replacing proper medical care. This has been ongoing for a while. Once these people are addicted they are addicted. Does not matter how you get on the juice, it matters if you can find a way to get of it.
and just because you take away the prescription drugs does not meant you take away the addiction, so people now find other stuff to fix the need
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/22/west-virginia-saw-drop-in-opioid-painkillers-prescribed-deaths-rose.html
however if you are really in need of pain medication you are now out of luck in many cases
https://www.timeswv.com/news/chronic-pain-patients-say-opioid-crackdown-is-hurting-them/article_0418958e-54a0-11e7-907f-533b65b2b713.html
The story repeats across the country.
Overdoses killed up to 200 people a day in 2017 according to Study.
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/8/16/17698204/opioid-epidemic-overdose-deaths-2017
According to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 72,000 people in the US are predicted to have died from drug overdoses in 2017 — nearly 200 a day. That’s up from 2016, which was already a record year in which roughly 64,000 people in the US died from overdoses. At least two-thirds of drug overdose deaths in 2016 and 2017 were linked to opioids.
reminds me of the seventies where one could not open a news paper or watch a news cast without reading / hearing of people falling of high roofs or being found dead in public toilets.
Its a friggin mess, and just say no ain’t gonna cut. Heck they killed Roseanne on the “Connors’ show with an overdose, after she got addicted to pain killers after knee surgeries.
Look at veterans care, it’s federally run for ex service folk.
Some have been trying to get a switch off opiods onto the growing THC/CBD based medications. Being federal that’s illegal so can’t be done.
They’ve been collating some stats on their opioid addictions and side effects so check them out. Sorry can’t recall what they were called.
Hi sanctuary, you may have seen this or may not be what you are after.
After watching Oxyana a couple of years ago, I can’t stop thinking about it.
Grim viewing.
Red state white people are overdosing in record numbers.
That is all.
THEY ARE GOING IN TO PIKE
Thrilled for the families, so much respect goes out to them for never giving up. May they find answers and closure in due course.
Kudos Andrew Little.
According to police, whose forensic team will be going in… manslaughter charges could be a possibility.
this indeed is good news.
I do hope this brings much needed relieve to their pain, and that hopefully they may lay their loved ones to rest.
Wonderful news
Hopefully Winnie’s going in first show JK how it’s done.
Great news Cinny (4) … after all these years of being lied to, the cover ups etc, the bereaved families, friends and colleagues of the Pike River 29, will hopefully begin to have some closure early next year.
Well done Andrew Little for demonstrating some humanity and respect, which since the tragedy has been sadly lacking.
The darkening clouds gather, startled and skitterish.
“Donald Trump ramped up his spat with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, with a denigrating tweet in which he said Parisians had started to learn German during the second world war before the US saved them from occupation.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/13/trump-macron-eu-army-german-second-world-war
If the Referendum on cannabis goes ahead there would have to be advance information on how decriminalisation would work.
Dr Eric Crampton is Head of Research with The New Zealand Initiative. He suggests modelling such new laws be modelled on existing Alcohol regulations. Sounds good.
“Want to make sure councils are able to set rules appropriate to their areas and implement smoking-ban areas around parks? Local alcohol policies do that for alcohol; councils can set up liquor-ban areas.
A lot of the problems any regulated cannabis regime would need to solve have already been dealt with in our existing alcohol regulations. The rules may not be perfect, but they are the ones with which we are familiar….”
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/11/13/318388/crampton-a-framework-for-legalisation
So “experts like Graeme Edgeler suggest the only sensible question to ask voters would be whether they prefer the current Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, or whether they prefer to allow the sale and supply of cannabis as provided for in draft legislation.”
Is it really sensible to ask voters to choose between a law and a proposed law? To a lawyer, it may seem so. Anyone else could point out that only a handful are likely to have read each piece of legalese. So the percentage of the electorate able to make an informed choice would be in the region of 0.0000024%.
The recent conference agreed the referendum ought to ask these two questions:
1. Should adults be allowed to grow and possess cannabis for personal use?
2. Should adults be allowed to purchase cannabis & cannabis products from licensed premises?
It was organised by the Cannabis Referendum Coalition, a network of individuals and organisations campaigning for cannabis law reform, website here: http://makeitlegal.nz/?fbclid=IwAR3RkPfB7DzQVBNcr4uQU17ptF1PDWyYIZnzpPHtfP9SlFLiDcxtHbAdjfA
I agree with the conference decision. Both questions are simple & concise. Voters are unlikely to have difficulty comprehending them. Sharing with friends is implicit in the first question, so maybe no need to specify that.
“So “experts like Graeme Edgeler suggest the only sensible question to ask voters would be whether they prefer the current Misuse of Drugs Act 1975, or whether they prefer to allow the sale and supply of cannabis as provided for in draft legislation.””
If that is really his suggestion then he is an idiot. because its actually TWO separate questions conjoined and those who dont like either option are abused!
Most referendum that have been put to the public so far have suffered from this fault. (do you want more emphasis on the victims of crime AND harsher penalties comes to mind!)
A REFERENDUM QUESTION MUST ONLY HAVE A SINGLE PREMISE !
A REFERENDUM QUESTION MUST ONLY HAVE A SINGLE PREMISE !
A REFERENDUM QUESTION MUST ONLY HAVE A SINGLE PREMISE !
but yes there may well be several referendum run concurrently to allow for better understanding of the peoples choice
Anyone who supports whistleblowers still has an opportunity to send in a submission to the review. Rare for me to be impressed by the quality of work done by our public service, but I give them 10/10 for their articulation of the issues identified by the process thus far: http://ssc.govt.nz/sites/all/files/Targeted-Consultation-Summary-May-2018.pdf
I suspect the Jami-Lee Ross saga points to a loophole that the review & consultation process haven’t noticed. A parliamentarian acting in the public interest, exposing wrongdoing in their own party, deserves a support mechanism. The status quo seems to enable their party to victimise an MP who blows the whistle on corruption. That’s so obviously wrong that I’m likely to make a submission citing the apparent loophole. I’d like feedback from readers on this – would particularly appreciate opinions on how real the loophole actually is…
Every entity and agency and department has their own policy.
It’s not that little stoush public servants point to.
It’s the MoT massive fraud in which people who spoke up were hunted down and thrown out, and not even the CE believed them.
The net outcome of all of them is simple: you will never work in Wellington again.
Climate change will decrease fertility enough to lower the human population. Apparently.
Derived from 80 years of birth and weather data out of the United States, the study confirmed a higher number of babies being born in August and September (nine months after the depths of winter), while fewer babies were conceived in summer due to higher temperatures.
https://www.dw.com/en/climate-change-reduces-male-fertility-could-help-drive-extinction/a-46276058
Winter just can’t come quick enough.
Less kids means less emissions means slower climate change
Win/win
Fewer kids mean fewer emissions, which means slower climate change. FIFY.
Win/win ???
Do you have any idea at all of what we are facing? I suspect not.
+ 1. Yes exactly. He doesn’t.
MPs’ property loophole ‘stings taxpayers’
Can the rest of us also get $78000 per year subsidies to pay off our mortgages?
Or is that only for ‘special’ people?
Your link goes to a 2013 article, am I missing something recent that makes it relevant? Surely there are sufficient things to be outraged about the current opposition rather than dragging up articles from 5 years ago.
😳
Been awhile that I’ve forgotten to check the date.
Still, I haven’t heard that this rort has been ended.
True enough, may well be still happening as the spot light conveniently gets turned off by the MSM and the rorting bludgers in the article will probably have found another way of doing it anyway.
Whilst I don’t like rorting and fiddling and pushing the legal boundaries, there is a reason why MPs should be paid well, and that they be accommodated for the special nature of their job which requires most to live in two places with huge travel and time commitments.
That is, they are on a three year contract, renewable at the whim of others.
But it’s the afterwards also that matters. I think of my local MP who had five years in the job, was not re-elected and never was able to get a job in his home town, being blacklisted by small town employers. He fell back onto being a small farmer, selling produce at his house gate. On the night he lost his seat someone burnt down his hay barn.
He was a most generous man, and loaned to a constituent the necessary extra funds for this solo mother with two kids to purchase a modest home with the scheme introduced by Labour in 72-75 by Minister of Housing Roger Douglas.
I met him again a month ago, a hale and hearty 90 year old, up with the play and with a passion for politics still. A truly Christian Sally gentleman, who suffered for his political beliefs and activism after being an MP.
I’m pretty sure that paying people extra to prevent corruption doesn’t actually prevent any corruption. Those who are corrupt will still do it.
Having to live in two places at once requires that the government make available housing in Wellington. The best way to do this is a government owned housing complex with no money paid out for rent to MP for housing. This would be cheaper and get rid of the rort.
And hows that different from the rest of the precariat?
Ah, he was actually well off and could support himself anyway.
Most MP’s are professional bludgers IMHO ?
Wouldn’t get a job in the real world ?
Hopefully Winnie’s going in first show JK & the Natzi’s how it’s done ?
Bin double entry accounting in Govt. organisation, to lead a creative capitalist renaissance of the collective value systems of NZ society & citizenry.
NZ1st!
Imelda Marcos, come on down!
Donald Trump’s deputy national security adviser is reportedly set to be fired following a dispute with the first lady, Melania Trump.
The US first lady took the extraordinary step of publicly pushing for the move against Mira Ricardel, the top aide to the national security adviser, John Bolton, on Tuesday.
[…]
Ricardel, who was hired in April by Bolton after he assumed the role of Trump’s national security adviser, reportedly clashed with members of the first lady’s staff over seating on a plane during Melania Trump’s recent trip to Africa.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/13/melania-trump-mira-ricardel-aide-to-be-fired-white-house-latest
Meanwhile in Australia this news will surprise many who haven’t been watching closely:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-14/woodside-ceo-peter-coleman-argues-for-carbon-price/10494026
This is how real change will happen. (And yes I’m sure you can find the self-interest in this, but that’s how things work in the world.)
Eyeroll from Turnbull.
Real change is doing something (as opposed to talking about doing something)
such as the new LNG powered Russian aframax tankers.
http://sovcomflot.ru/en/press_office/press_releases/item99167.html
Game changer:
https://www.perovskite-info.com/cambridge-team-sets-new-efficiency-record-perovskite-leds
Get that … close to 100% efficiency!!! This puts mono-crystalline silicon PV’s into buggy whip territory. OK so it’s lab stuff and probably a decade away from a product …. but this is how real change will happen.
Gee close to 100% efficiency that is well about as efficient as a plant.
http://www2.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/PBD-quantum-secrets.html
That article is referring to the quantum efficiencyof one small part of the photosynthesis process. Overall, the efficiency of turning sunlight into useful chemical energy via photosynthesis is in the low single digits percentage. Real-life commercial PV panels convert incoming sunlight to useful electrical energy with an efficiency of 10% to 20%.
Uhh, that near 100% efficiency is for a perovskite LED turning electrical energy into light. Not quite the same thing as a PV panel turning incoming light into electrical energy. No reversibility going on in those processes.
Some existing commercial LEDs are already very efficient. It was the development of a very efficient blue LED that paved the way for white LEDs (as well as a Nobel for the inventors). At the top end of efficiency, there have been lab demonstrations of white LEDs putting out over 300 lumens/watt (if there were no inefficiencies other than the phosphorescent conversion of some of the blue light to yellow light, the luminous efficacy would be around 370 lumens/watt). But the led bulbs for sale at Bunnings and supermarkets are sadly still only around 80 to 100 lumens per watt, which is still way batter than fluorescent bulbs at 35ish or incandescents at 12ish.
https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/06/advanced-physicsprize2014.pdf
Yeah the article makes that clear, but it’s an impressive step all the same. It demonstrates what is possible
Damn…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/108586673/irish-politician-uses-womens-thong-in-parliament-sex-assault-protest
sometimes you need to show the evidence.
Quote pulled from the link provided by PR:
“A 17-year-old is put in the dock for her choice of underwear, and she was open to meeting someone was the implication, she was asking for it,” Coppinger said.
“Women in this country are getting a little bit weary at the routine victim blaming going on in Irish courts and the failure of lawmakers in this House to do anything about it.”
Recently fake tan and even contraception had been used to discredit women who had the bravery to go to court.
As she held up the pair of underwear in the “incongruous setting” of the Dail, Coppinger asked: “How do you think a rape victim or a woman feels at the incongruous setting of her underwear being shown in the courts, and when is this Dail going to take serious action on the issue of sexual violence?”
She only held the underwear up for a brief moment, and the camera quickly pulled back from her as she did so. The use of props is against the rules of the Dail.”
Wow PR, just wow.
‘A barrister in the Cork trial told the jury to look at the way the complainant was dressed. That the complainant was “open to meeting someone” because she was “wearing a thong with a lace front”.’
‘Recently fake tan and even contraception had been used to discredit women who had the bravery to go to court’
That’s so messed up.
Yup
‘US Vice President Mike Pence has asked to be seated next to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at a dinner on Wednesday evening at the East Asia Summit in Singapore.’
What’s that about?
My first reaction is to say: watch your back, Jacinda. Or am I being unfair?
where will his wife be seated?
poor Jacinda.
1. He’s a racist who only wants to sit next to european looking people.
2. Photo’s with Jacinda would be excellent publicity for Pence and co.
3. He’s a dirty old man.
4. He genuinely thinks she’s awesome.
5. Something else
1+5 my guess. But really i would like to know where “Mother” is gonna sit, considering that he does not want to ‘meet’ women alone without his wife nearby.
But maybe sitting next to is OK?
In that case it sounds like a very trusting relationship sarc.
Thought of another option lmao
6. Red is also his favourite colour.
Billy Graham rule.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Graham_rule
ROFL!!!!!!!!!!
My conspiracy theory is that he is going to try to convince her of the error of her ways …. unmarried mother, etc, etc. Whereas she has a long list of subjects such as tariffs, trade etc. LOL. Could be an interesting conversation!
I wonder if he knows that Jacinda is an former Mormon whose uncle is one of the only two NZers who has ever made it to being one of the General Authorities of the worldwide Church of Latter Day Saints?
Aaaah – Pence is actually a born again Catholic … and yes, according to Wikipedia (yes, Adam, Wikipedia) he does follow the Billy Graham Rule.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Pence#Personal_life
PS – if anyone wants to know, the PM has gone on this trip without baby or partner. Peters is joining her in Singapore or PNG, from his Paris trip, and Parker is already with her.
Random thought of the day: it seems the rule forbids dining alone with female family members as well as unrelated females not one’s spouse. Hmmm …
His wife apparently sat between him and Jacinda.
bwhahahahahahahahahahah
7.) Pence wants to know – if he’s allowed to build a bunker in Wanaka
and how much NZ citizenship costs
Pence considers her an enemy and is keeping his friends and enemies close.
Saying ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’. imo
Pence is the guy who wants to be caliph at the place of the caliph.
and the caliph needs to go on a tour in Missisipi to help a women win a seat and i think after the last two weeks he just needs to hear a ‘ lock her/him/it/something up” chant to feel all presidential again. I hear all that winning has him packing a sad.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iznogoud
That’s major prestige for Jacinda and New Zealand you ninnys, at an Asian pacific regional meeting. What is this, National Party msm lite?
For our place in the world, what would be most suitable & impactful for NZs image would be if Jacinda could be involved in regular global meet ups with Ivanka Trump and we have a relationship that way – that would give a very popular & memorable image over time in much of the world i would guess, two leading and talented young female ambassadors of their countries on the world stage.
Yes, we like what New Zealand represents, what business links to that can we foster in our own society.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/108568669/chocs-to-drop-after-record-crowdfunding-campaign-for-kiwi-chocolate-company-ocho
Well done Ocho, I normally buy Whittakers but I’m sure I could be convinced to try Ochos 🙂
you should buy Ochos, and all other of the NZ artisan made chocolates. There are some really nice products out there and the variety of different chocolates is quite impressive. That does not stop you from also buying Whittakers 🙂 Just don’t ever buy chocolate melts, and cadbury, and Nestle produced chocolates. A lot of that stuff is compound chocolates (vegetable fat vs cocoa butter), contains very little actual chocolate but a lot of sugar.
personally i am loving this story.
Don’t worry my wife checks the ingredients list on all chocolate (especially the cooking stuff) we buy but (imho)the best chocolate is Makana chocolate in Blenheim 🙂
Breaking News…
CIA says Saudi crown prince ordered Khashoggi’s murder.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/cia-concludes-saudi-crown-prince-ordered-khashoggi-murder-report-181117004639742.html
Should be on today’s Open Mike
I knew it!