. . . Labour Minister Chris Finlayson has trimmed the criteria for the annual minimum wage review from 20 factors, which have been considered since 2008, to just four: the consumer price index, the median wage, effects on jobs and a catch-all category called “other relevant factors”.
A footnote in a paper he took to Cabinet last month says “other relevant factors” means, “For example, the effect on the public sector, particularly on ACC, the Ministries of Health and Education” . . .
. . . sneaky lawyer is sneaky, but John Key speaks with forked tongue.
Yes once Findlayson got Labour off nana Kate it was always going to come to something like this.
Keep and eye on the sneaky ones like him, Ryall, Joyce and also watch housing now it’s in with ‘wouldn’t lie straught in bed’ Smith as Heatley didn’t plunder the stock for mates enough and got the shove.
Well, see, “global action on tax avoidance” = contracting out the collection of taxes to private companies with an international reach. Privisation. But worse: contracting multi-nationals to collect tax from themselves. Good luck with that. Basically, he’s selling the public on the idea of putting the fox in the hen house but, because he’s so stupid, he doesn’t realise it. Alternatively, John Key has just given him a wee media spot so he can feel he’s helping out. You know, keep the Belmont Bouffant busy doing something useful rather than standing around being a dork.
Harry Duynhoven, the mendacious, bullying, cowardly, fascist mayor of New Plymouth, has just orchestrated the silencing of one of the few honest and caring councillors on NPDC via yet another ‘code of conduct’ hearing, the third under his nasty regime and just the fourth in the history of the council.
Harry Dunhoven was Labour MP for the district until booted out. He was known locally as Harry Do-nothing (though he did manage to sign away a slice of our fossil fuel reserves to overseas corporations and orchestrate raised CO2 levels) .Via a massive advertising campaign (paid for by his corporate mates no doubt) and a series of lies he told at the local body elections he managed to win the mayoralty by a very slim majority.
It all goes to show what awful people have constituted the Labour Party in recent decades.
Harry wasn’t booted out as MP, he lost by a mere hundred votes in 2008. He then went on to comfortably win the mayoralty. He’s not a fascist. The councillor concerned was rightly censured for a cowardly attack on a person who could not fight back. Other than those minor points, you’re 100% correct.
Duynhoven was booted out [by the voters]. If he wasn’t we would still be enduring his mendacity as an MP.
Do you really think that the corporation-owned Daily News gives a balanced view? Everything in the Daily News is propaganda, designed to keep ‘proles’ believing in the system that has enslaved them from birth (and keep the advertising revenue flowing). Neuro-linguistic programming and manufacturing consent for corporate looting is the norm for ALL mainstream media.
Having spoken at length with both Duynhoven and George and seen the policies they promote I KNOW who the lying fascist is.
Harry’s most recent push for complete control is to implement a ban on public deputation to the council for anyone who tells the truth… nasty, vicious creep that he is.
The Richard Prosser (or is that Tosser?) saga gets more and more bizarre.
His professed reason for his anti muslim rant was the “confiscation” of a prized pocketknife when he tried to board an Air New Zealand plane. Most people would have the good sense to realise that taking a potential weapon onto a plane was not a good thing to do and it is reasonable for the authorities to have rules about this sort of thing. But apparently not Richard. He obviously does not think that rules should apply to him. The incident happened in December last year and he was an MP at the time.
The weird thing is that Stuff reports this morning that the knife was not confiscated and that Airport staff facilitated the checking in of the knife as baggage.
This is on Scoop NZ news this morning. IMO Harawira is justified in his stance.
Wednesday, 13 February 2013, 2:55 pm
Press Release: Mana Party
Today I opposed a request from Richard Prosser to make a personal statement to the house. I did so because if he has an apology to make for his offensive remarks to the Muslim community, then he can make his way to the nearest mosque and ask forgiveness there.
I do not accept that he should be able to make such remarks and then simply wash away his venom via an unchallenged explanation in the house.
Fair enough Mr Hone, but what do you make of what will be a big fat rump of the populace slowly shaking their heads at the apparent double and triple and quadruple standards around the big stinking pile of shit that is race relations and bigotry in this country. It is ok to be racist or advocate for racist policies, or to mock other genders and ages and races, in some but not in others.
I am not defending that rump nor wanting to debate the pluses and minuses, I am wondering how you deal with that rump and their relatively simple concern. Because today the views in this arena simply fly all over the place, each missing each other and flying off on their own tangents. No connection. Hence no start at understanding each other.
And meantime the smell gets worse.
I wonder, genuinely, whether this area is something you could speak to.
Keep rolling your eyes and taking the mick mickey mouse. It is all you ever do. If you don’t want to engage on the subject then leave it alone. You have made your point well clear on what you think of me personally. That’s fine. But the ongoing schoolyard mocking is offensive and abusive and a decent person would stop wallowing in it.
mickory mockery
abuse and offence
just make for one big pile of stench
… punch out your next piece mick, but I am off for a few days and wont see it. Your fans will though so go right ahead, knock yourself out, rub that ego …..
What reasonable excuse can there be for a Member of the New Zealand Parliament to be wandering round in public armed with a knifeâŠ
Too many to mention:
– good for keeping the nails clean
– handy for getting a key started on those tight-as key rings
– great for getting staples out
– opening envelopes
– slicing box tape
– flicks those SIM cards out of the back of cell phones easy-peasy
– sharpening pencils
– taking bottle caps off
– all manner of emergency uses
. . . I’ve always carried a pocket knife, inherited my ole man’s one a while back, and its a beauty. The one time I got nabbed with it at the Airport it was too late for me, a mere voter, to be “expedited” through to checked-in baggage. Instead, the nice lady there said if I gave her $5 and my address she’s stick in a courier bag. She said it was a personal favour and not policy. (Love ya, Tui).
I get that you’re probably making a joke, but I shall defend forever the right for anyone to carry a pen knife. I don’t think its unusual or bad or sufficient evidence of anything. Perhaps its a bit old fashioned, something of an affectation, and, maybe, a bit blokey. Believe me, I do understand how a person might feel if a such treasured item were to taken from them at an airport, especially when a cigarette lighter is a far more lethal weapon aboard an aircraft.
I think Prosser’s act of terror was not in being “armed” but that he used a lie to generate hate.
Yes many of us carry a pocket knife, should the plods find you with one tho i believe you would still likely to be charged and convicted for carrying an offensive weapon in a public place as all your list of reasons are easily accomplished with other tools,
Prosser adding whine to His cheese makes a mockery of Himself by raving at being held up at an airport security checkpoint specifically set up to detect passengers attempting to board domestic flights carrying just what He was, a concealed weapon for which i would suggest that He had no reasonable excuse to be carrying in a public place let alone an airport security check-in…
Not that I’ve had much to do with them, the plods seem okay about it. The fact that a multitude of other tools can be entirely replaced with a single penknife strikes me as being a perfectly reasonable excuse to carry one. Plods tend to agree, most of the time . . . once the knife was sitting on the front passenger’s seat and that, apparently, was sufficient cause for an otherwise arbitary search. South Auckland wankers.
And, yeah: the airport staff did their job and caught an idiot, probably, half a dozen other passengers were held up while the matter was sorted out . . . and Prosser is pissed off?? Odd MP is odd.
My understanding is that it’s a bit of a balance – the front passenger seat issue would be that it’s too readily accessible (as opposed to fishing it out of your pocket while seated), and they might have had a wee op on for proactive policing. “Fishing”, in other words.
Basically it’s a balance of “reasonable”. No prescribed criteria: tradies with multitools would be cool, some guy with a history of violence and a fucking great scimitar on a friday night … not so much. Holding for self defence = very uncool, taking it to and from self defence practise = probably cool, especially if it’s wrapped up or in the bottom of your gym bag.
Because you were carrying it in the apparent commission of a crime.
For the same reason that you can carry a screwdriver every day, but if you were breaking into a house it would suddenly become “carrying a tool for burglary”.
But then, if you were carrying a little swiss army knife, cooperated with the officer, advised them of its presence and volunteered it willingly, had not threatened them or anyone else with it, and had no history of violence, then any weapons charge could well just be a “contempt of cop” issue. You’d be amazed at how charges can disappear if you don’t make life difficult.
And if it’s a particularly small knife and all the other charges fell through, it could still be realistically challenged in court.
Of course, if you said you carried it “for protection”, you’re fucked.
Lolz, yes a perfectly reasonable excuse for carrying a knife, and if Garth says its ok then who is a mere peasant like me to argue with such a great um, (expletive deleted)…
I consider this strange as I have never met you and harbour no ill will toward you. I am certain that if I walked past you on the street your suspicions would not be raised. If you were a customer in my shop I am certain you would not suspect that I pose your family any risk. For you see, I am Muslim, I am 30, and I am also white. Throw in the fact that I am an American expatriate – accent and all – and I possess quite the subterfuge. After all, I could sit next to you on a flight, our arms negotiating the armrest for space, and you would think nothing of it. And yet if between us the subject of religion arose, my reply would disable you with fear.
Or so your column would lead me to believe.
I am writing an open letter to you out of sympathy, respect, and the desire for understanding. I do not write this so publicly in order to give your opinions greater status than they deserve. Instead, I hope to circumvent your vitriol from tainting the views of other people who, through lack of personal experience with the Muslim community, may be susceptible to your very limited and ignorant view of our religion and families.
Or were you pointing people to the speech in the hope that they might read/view their way past the lies and spin, while trying to interpret what he might, actually be telling the world!
Tragic situation where 5 people have lost their lives in the US and MSM media show their ineffectiveness yet again…
I have been following the Christoper Dorner saga in the US with great interest. Whilst not a fan at all of his methods, I am interested in anything that outs racism and corruption.
Yesterday Police had him surrounded and cornered in a cabin. The Cabin then catches fire.
At this point There are 3 possibilities
1. Dorner set fire to the cabin himself – Unlikely in my view as he was inside
2. The police set fire to it either accidently or on purpose.
3. it caught fire for some other reason. perhaps a freak lightening strike, an electrical fault, or perhaps he was cooking himself something to eat whilst trying to figure out a way out of this mess and left the oven on. – I’m pretty sure we can rule this one out too.
This then begs the question why none of the mainstream media are asking the question of how did the cabin actually catch fire. Some non MSM media are asking this very question. What makes it even more chilling is reports and recordings puported to be from police via a local radio station KCal 9 where police can be heard saying.
âburn this F#$*erâ
Someone is heard to shout: âBurn that smoke grenade out. Burn that F$%*ing house down!â
Moments later another voice says: âGet it going right now! F%^&ing burn this F$%&er!â
Another video, posted to YouTube, purports to be a recording of police radio conversations during the raid.
Posters on some sites have already started likening this to Waco Texas (obviously less people but same tactics),
The course of action Dorner took was clearly wrong but should he not be caught if possible and brought before the Justice system? Or were police exacting their own justice as revenge for fellow officers and family members killed by Dorner.
Given two earlier incidents involving trucks where police opened fire without warning that involved members of the public (two hispanic women in one and a white male in another) that were not Dorner, and now with how this appears to have ended. Were police hell bent on ensuring he didn’t have his day in court especially as he was alleging ongoing racism and corruption within the LAPD…. Conspiratorial??
But again MSM show their ineffectiveness and bias by not asking the questions that need to be asked.
Remember that that next link in the sequence of events to *destroy America*, is to create situations, where people and the police turn on eachother – These events have been predicted, and appear to be playing themselves out through the media, what a surprise /sarc!
I try to be more subtle in my approach đ but understand where you are coming from. Do you have any links I think they may be useful to help wake some people up or at least start them thinking in this instance…..
Kathryn Ryan this morning interviewed Denise Arnold, a Tauranga lawyer who runs the Cambodia Charitable Trust. This is by all accounts an excellent organization, and Denise Arnold is a hard working and articulate advocate for it.
However, it is surely incumbent on someone like Denise Arnold to speak plainly and honestly about all aspects of her work, and about the political and historical reality of the country in which she is doing so much good work. Sadly, however, she has chosen to rigorously censor her public utterances. So when Kathryn Ryan said, only half-accurately, that Cambodia “was devastated after the Khmer Rouge years”, Denise Arnold restrained herself from pointing out that Cambodia had already been devastated by the United States, and that the horrors of the Khmer Rouge were made possible largely because of that.
Sadly, she simply reiterated Ryan’s anodyne and dishonest approach. “Cambodia lost,” Arnold said, “one quarter of its population due to Pol Pot’s genocide.”
Of course, the rise to power of Pol Pot was only possible because of the genocidal attack on Cambodia by the United States. This history was studiously ignored by both Kathryn Ryan and Denise Arnold. No one benefits from such cleansed public discourse—except the people who colluded with the Pol Pot regime, both at the height of its atrocities and for years afterwards.
As Ms. Arnold would know perfectly well, one of the governments that obediently followed the U.S. directive to support the Khmer Rouge was our own. Read more HERE… http://brothernumberone.co.nz/nzcambodianrelations
[lprent – the information in the comment history vs the ban list is inconsistent, I can’t work out if Morrissey has served his time or not. Can we let him out of purgatory? r0b]
Kathryn Ryan – like morning TV except on radio, lightweight and trying hard not to be challenging to whatever line’s being pushed.
A publicly funded soapbox most of the time oh goody.
tc
Don’t moan at Kathryn Ryan and NinetoNoon – it’s meant to be current news that tells it like it is but doesn’t push the barrow. If you want a drop of the hard stuff go to Mary Wilson at night. But Kathryn seems okay, asks good questions. But then I used to think Maggie Barry was good. I was a bit younger then and perhaps less cynical.
Much preferred Kim Hill, She has the ability to put people completely at their ease and then ask them a hardie right out of left field which deflates their egos big time…
Let’s hope KH is still around when we eventually get PSB TV back. And by that I mean true PSB.
That doesn’t mean pseudo PSBTV like FACE or KIDZONE or HEARTLAND designed to give a monopoly interest a veneer of “corporate responsibility and concern” and only available to the “UN”digitally-divided.
I fear though, she’s getting to the stage of weighing up whether pushing shit uphill is worth the effort.
Still – she likes gardening and feeding the soil with seaweed, sheep and cowshit, so it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that a bit of poli-shit could be worth an experiment.
I’m sure there’s some sort of ‘smart-think-recycling-politician-anal or verbal crap’ possibility there, whereby a fascist Key-NAct-brand type kaka could be fed into fertilising a crop of something useful. And if it all fails, we’ll just put it all down to a venture that was ‘mis-sold’ and appoint Steven Joyce to investigate it’s failure (on minimum wage)
Kathryn Ryan asks good questions, initially, but doesn’t take the time to listen to the answers so misses the opportunities for killer follow up questions. Kim Hill is brilliant at that.
hee hee, from through the Square Window
RNZ-there is a slip to the lowest common denominator when it comes to the training and experience of people caring for the impaied in this country (and this is current info from friends employed in the sector)
61/2 % Current Acount Deficit, heading towards 8% (not so good I read); Parker “2nd worse in the developed world”
the fishing industries are slaughtering marine mammals and comparing the collateral to “road kill kiwis” (yep!)
Nathan Guy “well, I’ll read the briefings , talk to the officials, then get some advice.” :), talk about drivel!
Shearer, NEATs now 90,000.
ha ha! on 3 “have the US negotiate MORE with N.K”, when previously their leader is on record referring to “sworn enemy” and Major Tom (North Korean astronaut) dreams of a US city being annihilated by nuclear attack!
Robertson-describes Regional Equivalent GDP akin to economic apartheid, with mainly the extractive, polluting provinces proceeding…and outside promary industries, foreign investment contracting (never fear, English Budget nearly here). Did you see how primary produce is exported overseas and then flown back to restock cruise ships???
Winston appears to be an ongoing nemesis for Carter. then there is the price of groceries in NZ compared to OZ (where food used to be more expensive). Now, Campbell Live, the comparitive total was $24 less in OZ, incl. a lamb roast that was $8 cheaper.
Bertram-“no NZ govt in the last three decades has been prepared to tackle economic problems like the food-supply duopoly”.
New Zealand Post-owned print and mailing house Datam has today informed unions it intends to make 100 redundancies in Wellington and Auckland.
The proposed job cuts come as a result of a restructuring exercise and will lead to the closure of the Petone plant at a cost of 75 jobs and a reduction of 28 roles in Auckland.
This announcement follows recent mass redundancies at Summit Wool Spinners, Mainzeal and Contact Energy.
EPMU postal sector organiser Joe Gallagher says the job cuts are a blow for communities already struggling with high unemployment.
âThese redundancies have come as a shock to workers and it will take a while for everyone to digest what it means. New Zealand Post has committed to a fair consultation and timeframe but the reality is redundancy is never easy for anyone.
âWhile we accept the restructuring is a result of new machinery being installed, we have serious concerns about the state of the job market our members will be facing and we believe this shows the need for a Government strategy to tackle the jobs crisis.â
The PSA says unions will be working with the company to look at future options for workers.
âItâs always disappointing to see good jobs being lost and given the lack of employment opportunities in the market, itâs important that Datam look at retraining and redeployment possibilities for affected staff within the organisation. Weâll be working hard to make sure that happens,â says PSA Assistant Secretary Jeff Osborne.
The unions understand the company intends to create 30 new positions in Christchurch as part of the restructure.
re Corrections Amendment Bill; govt wants to dilate all the inmates orifices for inspection, while even the Dept. says this is inflammatory; Goff made a good summary of the contrast between private and state prison provision, and Chauvel articulated some real concerns Human Rights; Serco have come in for a lot of criticism remember, for scandals and abuse in the UK NHS and Prison Service; even NZF supports state provision of corrections.
Dom-a “Laziness Pandemic” is active in our population, burdening the purse to 1.3B in 2010. (sometimes i wonder what happened to the outdoorsy, sports mad, country I grew up in); The Lancet-“50% of population insufficiently active.”
meanwhile, back at the batsh*t cave; “NZ exchange rate effectively a pawn in the currency wars between larger economies”.
“We are effectively destroying ourselves by violence masquerading as love.” R.D Laing
a lament or two for that ‘Dick”; you know who.
Surah 43:83
So leave them to babble
And play (with vanities)
Until they meet that Day
Of theirs, which they
Have been promised (perhaps retribution)
Surah 3:10
Those who reject Faith-
Neither their possessions
Nor their numerous progeny
Will avail them aught
Against Allah; they are themselves
But fuel for the fire. (Liked that one Alot)
Surah 2:171
The parable of those
Who reject faith is
As if one were to shout
Like a goat-herd to things
That listen to nothing
But calls a nd cries:
Deaf, dumb and blind,
They are void of wisdom. (cannot distinguish intelligently between shades of meaning or subtle differences in values)
now, for some comedy I’m going to watch par-ley-ment. đ
Wages produce dependence. This governments attack upon the welfare system is a means to ram that dependence home. As a society we need to break that dependence and that means breaking the capitalist ownership model that brings it about.
I look after two children once a week and normally they do not have their TV on One, which I do not watch.EVER!!! While I was trying to turn Breakfast off (up high,couldn’t find remote) and I heard the cute giggly Toni? and the pom waaing on about valentines and I THINK ! I heard that the honourable (“we would love to see wages DROP”) tedious little mankey had been voted DRUM ROLL!! sexiest something or other for the fourth year in a row.
Question. Did I hear this or was it just an extremely hilarious dream.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 20
A millionaire businessman is among 19 people arrested after a covert investigation targeting a criminal syndicate allegedly making and selling thousands of Ecstasy pills every week.
Or perhaps we shouldn’t trust businessmen either?
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 20.1.1
My point is the exact opposite. I admire their industry. Goes to show that sickness is no impediment to supporting yourself through running a business.
They were running at least a retail operation. That requires a procurement, business plan, systems, marketing, cash handling procedures, a policy for dealing with returns and dissatisfied customers and a plan for dealing with emergencies.
If they were running a wholesale operation, they would need manufacturing and distribution.
I admire and support the small businessperson. To do all that while you are sick as well shows real grit.
But you said “Goes to show that sickness is no impediment to supporting yourself through running a business.”
Perhaps you’d like to rephrase that so it relates to those particular peoples’ particular sickness and their particular business. Cos as it stands your statement says anyone with any sickness could be running a business, which is pretty much saying anyone on a sickness benefit or invalids benefit is a bludger for not running one.
And I can’t figure out how you get that from a story about a small business that failed so spectacularly.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell …
Well, was the failure to plan for the events which led to the demise of the business caused by the sickness the business owners were suffering under, or something else?
hey, when you were deep-sea trawling, did you come across any of the wall posters I seem to have mislaid over the years; had a really excellent on with The Rolling Stones as Tolkien-esque characters, oh those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end…
“Derivatives have been described by the US investment guru Warren Buffett as âfinancial weapons of mass destructionâ. NZ Prime Minister John Key was the former Head of Derivatives for Merrill Lynch, when he was also a Foreign Exchange Advisor for the New York Federal Reserve. In whose interests is NZ Prime Minister John Key working? ‘Once a Wall St bank$ter – always a Wall St bank$ter’?
For folk in Dunedin who have a bit of spare time this coming Monday (18th Feb).
Gordon Holmes was underpaid by WINZ and was awarded $17 000 damages by the Human Rights Commission. And, of course, WINZ are appealing. His court case is on Monday (not to be confused with the Wednesday stated in the linked article)
He has asked for public support. And so if you are of a mind to gather with others at 9:40 a.m. on the grass outside the court in Lower Stuart Street I’m sure he would greatly appreciate the show of solidarity.
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Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. Iâm talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at RÄtana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
Thereâs been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the childrenâs playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the âbotched mergerâ of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic partyâs primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housingâs ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Ministerâs metaphor of âflooding the marketâ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is Americaâs un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is Americaâs Octavian, the Republicâs youthful undertaker â and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMPâS SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the âilliberalâ prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi MÄori rallied against the Crownâs attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hÄ«koi of a generation and the birth of Te PÄti MÄori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Governmentâs move to dilute child poverty targets is a reminder that it is actively choosing to preserve hardship for thousands of households. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israelâs illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinianâs have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinianâs who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israelâs occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Governmentâs disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whÄnau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they canât escape on ...
Te PÄti MÄori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. âThis announcement is just another example of the governmentâs anti-Tiriti, anti-MÄori agenda.â Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. âSeymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
Nationalâs Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now itâs been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didnât declare and said wasnât pre-arranged. ...
Te PÄti MÄori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. âReinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of MÄori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. âThis legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whÄnau out onto the street for no reasonâ said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. âTheir solution to the housing ...
âNationalâs campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,â Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
âThere are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,â Jan Tinetti said. ...
âThis government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this governmentâs agenda and the future of our mokopuna,â said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
âTodayâs climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,â Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how theyâre taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. âThe Abuse in Care Inquiryâs report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faithâbased institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Governmentâs online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. âIt is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
TÄnÄ tÄtou katoa, NgÄ mihi te rangi, ngÄ mihi te whenua, ngÄ mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealandâs payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. âThe Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre â Te PokapĆ« WÄina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. âThe research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. âRegions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesiaâs Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. âIndonesia is important to New Zealandâs security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,â says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kĆrero, he kĆrero, he kĆrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of NgÄti Maniapoto, Minister for MÄori Development Tama Potaka says. âMy thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust â NgÄti Maniapoto for bringing their important kĆrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.âI have received Ms Fredricâs resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,â Mr Brown says.âOn behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliamentâs test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. âSection 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are âdangerous changesâ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. âIssues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. âThe level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations Iâve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatƫ rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawkeâs Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. Itâs the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care âWhanaketia â through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,â was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry âWhanaketia â through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. âTax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. âIt includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. âCompetitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. âUnder current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and WhangÄrei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. âFor too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. âIt is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,â Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. âI am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. âASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,â Mr Peters says. âThis will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. âThis $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,â Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. âThis support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealandâs commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. âCabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. âThe previous governmentâs botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. âNew Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. âAttending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,â Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the regionâs fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministersâ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Governmentâs plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. âOn the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.âIncreasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. âNew Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,â Mr Peters says. âWe are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, itâs a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealandâs foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kÄkÄ shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro â winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 â died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Wattsâ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Governmentâs emissions reduction plan. Now Iâve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayersâ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. âThey didnât explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still havenât. Thereâs no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character sheâd like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. âIf the phone rings, I have to answer it,â Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of PĆneke writer Flora Feltham.In âThe Raw Materialâ, the longest essay in Flora Felthamâs dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. âPounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the bandâs perfect weekend and new release. âGood speakers, good food, good music, no distractionsâ: thatâs all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Prettiesâ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this yearâs showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing â a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our Whatâs Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babuâs humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field â especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the âteal waveâ into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
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.
Hmmm . . .
Yes once Findlayson got Labour off nana Kate it was always going to come to something like this.
Keep and eye on the sneaky ones like him, Ryall, Joyce and also watch housing now it’s in with ‘wouldn’t lie straught in bed’ Smith as Heatley didn’t plunder the stock for mates enough and got the shove.
Peter Dunne wants multi-nationals to pay their fair share:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/128020/minister-backs-global-action-on-tax-avoidance
Why is this creep pushing this policy? Trying to stay relevant for the next election?
.
Well, see, “global action on tax avoidance” = contracting out the collection of taxes to private companies with an international reach. Privisation. But worse: contracting multi-nationals to collect tax from themselves. Good luck with that. Basically, he’s selling the public on the idea of putting the fox in the hen house but, because he’s so stupid, he doesn’t realise it. Alternatively, John Key has just given him a wee media spot so he can feel he’s helping out. You know, keep the Belmont Bouffant busy doing something useful rather than standing around being a dork.
Correct, Dunne is actually showing his support for global governance in the open, this is no surprise!
Harry Duynhoven, the mendacious, bullying, cowardly, fascist mayor of New Plymouth, has just orchestrated the silencing of one of the few honest and caring councillors on NPDC via yet another ‘code of conduct’ hearing, the third under his nasty regime and just the fourth in the history of the council.
Harry Dunhoven was Labour MP for the district until booted out. He was known locally as Harry Do-nothing (though he did manage to sign away a slice of our fossil fuel reserves to overseas corporations and orchestrate raised CO2 levels) .Via a massive advertising campaign (paid for by his corporate mates no doubt) and a series of lies he told at the local body elections he managed to win the mayoralty by a very slim majority.
It all goes to show what awful people have constituted the Labour Party in recent decades.
Harry wasn’t booted out as MP, he lost by a mere hundred votes in 2008. He then went on to comfortably win the mayoralty. He’s not a fascist. The councillor concerned was rightly censured for a cowardly attack on a person who could not fight back. Other than those minor points, you’re 100% correct.
A more balanced account of what happened can be found here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/8300708/Conduct-vote-against-George
btw, Sherrill George is an unrepentant racist; her last censuring was for trying to destroy the business of a Waitara couple for being too Cambodian.
Duynhoven was booted out [by the voters]. If he wasn’t we would still be enduring his mendacity as an MP.
Do you really think that the corporation-owned Daily News gives a balanced view? Everything in the Daily News is propaganda, designed to keep ‘proles’ believing in the system that has enslaved them from birth (and keep the advertising revenue flowing). Neuro-linguistic programming and manufacturing consent for corporate looting is the norm for ALL mainstream media.
Having spoken at length with both Duynhoven and George and seen the policies they promote I KNOW who the lying fascist is.
Harry’s most recent push for complete control is to implement a ban on public deputation to the council for anyone who tells the truth… nasty, vicious creep that he is.
However, he has been very successful as a conman.
Cr George tried to organise a racist boycott. That sounds pretty fascist to me, to be honest.
The Richard Prosser (or is that Tosser?) saga gets more and more bizarre.
His professed reason for his anti muslim rant was the “confiscation” of a prized pocketknife when he tried to board an Air New Zealand plane. Most people would have the good sense to realise that taking a potential weapon onto a plane was not a good thing to do and it is reasonable for the authorities to have rules about this sort of thing. But apparently not Richard. He obviously does not think that rules should apply to him. The incident happened in December last year and he was an MP at the time.
The weird thing is that Stuff reports this morning that the knife was not confiscated and that Airport staff facilitated the checking in of the knife as baggage.
He is one unusual individual …
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8295162/Wogistan-MP-should-resign-Islamic-leader
This is on Scoop NZ news this morning. IMO Harawira is justified in his stance.
Wednesday, 13 February 2013, 2:55 pm
Press Release: Mana Party
Today I opposed a request from Richard Prosser to make a personal statement to the house. I did so because if he has an apology to make for his offensive remarks to the Muslim community, then he can make his way to the nearest mosque and ask forgiveness there.
I do not accept that he should be able to make such remarks and then simply wash away his venom via an unchallenged explanation in the house.
Hone Harawira
MANA leader and MP for Tai Tokerau
Well done Hone.
Fair enough Mr Hone, but what do you make of what will be a big fat rump of the populace slowly shaking their heads at the apparent double and triple and quadruple standards around the big stinking pile of shit that is race relations and bigotry in this country. It is ok to be racist or advocate for racist policies, or to mock other genders and ages and races, in some but not in others.
I am not defending that rump nor wanting to debate the pluses and minuses, I am wondering how you deal with that rump and their relatively simple concern. Because today the views in this arena simply fly all over the place, each missing each other and flying off on their own tangents. No connection. Hence no start at understanding each other.
And meantime the smell gets worse.
I wonder, genuinely, whether this area is something you could speak to.
Over.
đ
Keep rolling your eyes and taking the mick mickey mouse. It is all you ever do. If you don’t want to engage on the subject then leave it alone. You have made your point well clear on what you think of me personally. That’s fine. But the ongoing schoolyard mocking is offensive and abusive and a decent person would stop wallowing in it.
mickory mockery
abuse and offence
just make for one big pile of stench
… punch out your next piece mick, but I am off for a few days and wont see it. Your fans will though so go right ahead, knock yourself out, rub that ego …..
Well done Hone.
Tosser/Prosser should be booted out by 2 faced Peters,, but he won’t be as it fits right in with Peters racist rants.
Good job Hone – thanks for doing that because I agree we let these race baiters off too easy.
+1000 Hone.
Maybe it’s time he went back to winemaking.
Yes it is usually the province of the Terrorist to be attempting to board airplanes armed with knives,
It is also border-line illegal as it is illegal to possess a knife in a public place without a reasonable excuse,
What reasonable excuse can there be for a Member of the New Zealand Parliament to be wandering round in public armed with a knife…
.
Too many to mention:
– good for keeping the nails clean
– handy for getting a key started on those tight-as key rings
– great for getting staples out
– opening envelopes
– slicing box tape
– flicks those SIM cards out of the back of cell phones easy-peasy
– sharpening pencils
– taking bottle caps off
– all manner of emergency uses
. . . I’ve always carried a pocket knife, inherited my ole man’s one a while back, and its a beauty. The one time I got nabbed with it at the Airport it was too late for me, a mere voter, to be “expedited” through to checked-in baggage. Instead, the nice lady there said if I gave her $5 and my address she’s stick in a courier bag. She said it was a personal favour and not policy. (Love ya, Tui).
I get that you’re probably making a joke, but I shall defend forever the right for anyone to carry a pen knife. I don’t think its unusual or bad or sufficient evidence of anything. Perhaps its a bit old fashioned, something of an affectation, and, maybe, a bit blokey. Believe me, I do understand how a person might feel if a such treasured item were to taken from them at an airport, especially when a cigarette lighter is a far more lethal weapon aboard an aircraft.
I think Prosser’s act of terror was not in being “armed” but that he used a lie to generate hate.
you can take my Zippo from my cold, dead fingers!
But I make sure I don’t carry it onto a plane.
Yes many of us carry a pocket knife, should the plods find you with one tho i believe you would still likely to be charged and convicted for carrying an offensive weapon in a public place as all your list of reasons are easily accomplished with other tools,
Prosser adding whine to His cheese makes a mockery of Himself by raving at being held up at an airport security checkpoint specifically set up to detect passengers attempting to board domestic flights carrying just what He was, a concealed weapon for which i would suggest that He had no reasonable excuse to be carrying in a public place let alone an airport security check-in…
.
Not that I’ve had much to do with them, the plods seem okay about it. The fact that a multitude of other tools can be entirely replaced with a single penknife strikes me as being a perfectly reasonable excuse to carry one. Plods tend to agree, most of the time . . . once the knife was sitting on the front passenger’s seat and that, apparently, was sufficient cause for an otherwise arbitary search. South Auckland wankers.
And, yeah: the airport staff did their job and caught an idiot, probably, half a dozen other passengers were held up while the matter was sorted out . . . and Prosser is pissed off?? Odd MP is odd.
My understanding is that it’s a bit of a balance – the front passenger seat issue would be that it’s too readily accessible (as opposed to fishing it out of your pocket while seated), and they might have had a wee op on for proactive policing. “Fishing”, in other words.
Basically it’s a balance of “reasonable”. No prescribed criteria: tradies with multitools would be cool, some guy with a history of violence and a fucking great scimitar on a friday night … not so much. Holding for self defence = very uncool, taking it to and from self defence practise = probably cool, especially if it’s wrapped up or in the bottom of your gym bag.
Get arrested for anything and be found with a knife in your pocket and you can bet the charge sheet includes a charge of carrying an offensive weapon…
Most likely, yes.
Because you were carrying it in the apparent commission of a crime.
For the same reason that you can carry a screwdriver every day, but if you were breaking into a house it would suddenly become “carrying a tool for burglary”.
But then, if you were carrying a little swiss army knife, cooperated with the officer, advised them of its presence and volunteered it willingly, had not threatened them or anyone else with it, and had no history of violence, then any weapons charge could well just be a “contempt of cop” issue. You’d be amazed at how charges can disappear if you don’t make life difficult.
And if it’s a particularly small knife and all the other charges fell through, it could still be realistically challenged in court.
Of course, if you said you carried it “for protection”, you’re fucked.
“What reasonable excuse can there be for a Member of the New Zealand Parliament to be wandering round in public armed with a knife⊔
Very handy if you come across someone who looks like they might tag your fence and you have to chase them 300 metres and stab them to death.
I go by Garth McVicar’s judgement on matter such as these and he said it was OK.
Be fair, CV, he said it was fair because the guy was really frustrated. He’s not advocating total anarchy.
Lolz, yes a perfectly reasonable excuse for carrying a knife, and if Garth says its ok then who is a mere peasant like me to argue with such a great um, (expletive deleted)…
Prosser gets told what is what; someone make this writer an MP
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10865255
Very good letter. Extremely generous to invite Prosser to dinner.
A good State of the Union speech from Obama. He has signalled a legacy building last term in office.
He promises to pull out of Afghanistan in the next year, but unfortunately I suspect Gitmo will still be open and operating strong.
A video from Greenpeace 3.
Sub-Antarctic islands. Beautiful. Must be protected.
Full transcript.
CV did you leave the sarc tag off?
Or were you pointing people to the speech in the hope that they might read/view their way past the lies and spin, while trying to interpret what he might, actually be telling the world!
Oh you cynic đ
It’d be nice if he promised to ground the drones. They don’t need boots on the ground as much as they used to.
Tragic situation where 5 people have lost their lives in the US and MSM media show their ineffectiveness yet again…
I have been following the Christoper Dorner saga in the US with great interest. Whilst not a fan at all of his methods, I am interested in anything that outs racism and corruption.
Yesterday Police had him surrounded and cornered in a cabin. The Cabin then catches fire.
At this point There are 3 possibilities
1. Dorner set fire to the cabin himself – Unlikely in my view as he was inside
2. The police set fire to it either accidently or on purpose.
3. it caught fire for some other reason. perhaps a freak lightening strike, an electrical fault, or perhaps he was cooking himself something to eat whilst trying to figure out a way out of this mess and left the oven on. – I’m pretty sure we can rule this one out too.
This then begs the question why none of the mainstream media are asking the question of how did the cabin actually catch fire. Some non MSM media are asking this very question. What makes it even more chilling is reports and recordings puported to be from police via a local radio station KCal 9 where police can be heard saying.
âburn this F#$*erâ
Someone is heard to shout: âBurn that smoke grenade out. Burn that F$%*ing house down!â
Moments later another voice says: âGet it going right now! F%^&ing burn this F$%&er!â
Another video, posted to YouTube, purports to be a recording of police radio conversations during the raid.
Posters on some sites have already started likening this to Waco Texas (obviously less people but same tactics),
The course of action Dorner took was clearly wrong but should he not be caught if possible and brought before the Justice system? Or were police exacting their own justice as revenge for fellow officers and family members killed by Dorner.
Given two earlier incidents involving trucks where police opened fire without warning that involved members of the public (two hispanic women in one and a white male in another) that were not Dorner, and now with how this appears to have ended. Were police hell bent on ensuring he didn’t have his day in court especially as he was alleging ongoing racism and corruption within the LAPD…. Conspiratorial??
But again MSM show their ineffectiveness and bias by not asking the questions that need to be asked.
It seems if you’ve gone deliberately hunting for US cops, killing them, this is the usual favour that they return to you.
But yes, the MSM are unquestioning and ineffective at bringing important points to light.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/02/dorner-manhunt-highly-incendiary-hot-gas-used-on-cabin.html
This too.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/13/audio-catches-cops-shouting-burn-this-motherfcker-during-dorner-siege/
Remember that that next link in the sequence of events to *destroy America*, is to create situations, where people and the police turn on eachother – These events have been predicted, and appear to be playing themselves out through the media, what a surprise /sarc!
I try to be more subtle in my approach đ but understand where you are coming from. Do you have any links I think they may be useful to help wake some people up or at least start them thinking in this instance…..
The Mystery of the Urinal Deuce.
Conveniently “forgetting” who supported Pol Pot
National Radio, Nine to Noon, Thursday 14 February 2013
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon
Kathryn Ryan this morning interviewed Denise Arnold, a Tauranga lawyer who runs the Cambodia Charitable Trust. This is by all accounts an excellent organization, and Denise Arnold is a hard working and articulate advocate for it.
http://www.cambodiatrust.org.nz/
However, it is surely incumbent on someone like Denise Arnold to speak plainly and honestly about all aspects of her work, and about the political and historical reality of the country in which she is doing so much good work. Sadly, however, she has chosen to rigorously censor her public utterances. So when Kathryn Ryan said, only half-accurately, that Cambodia “was devastated after the Khmer Rouge years”, Denise Arnold restrained herself from pointing out that Cambodia had already been devastated by the United States, and that the horrors of the Khmer Rouge were made possible largely because of that.
Sadly, she simply reiterated Ryan’s anodyne and dishonest approach. “Cambodia lost,” Arnold said, “one quarter of its population due to Pol Pot’s genocide.”
Of course, the rise to power of Pol Pot was only possible because of the genocidal attack on Cambodia by the United States. This history was studiously ignored by both Kathryn Ryan and Denise Arnold. No one benefits from such cleansed public discourse—except the people who colluded with the Pol Pot regime, both at the height of its atrocities and for years afterwards.
As Ms. Arnold would know perfectly well, one of the governments that obediently followed the U.S. directive to support the Khmer Rouge was our own. Read more HERE…
http://brothernumberone.co.nz/nzcambodianrelations
[lprent – the information in the comment history vs the ban list is inconsistent, I can’t work out if Morrissey has served his time or not. Can we let him out of purgatory? r0b]
Kathryn Ryan – like morning TV except on radio, lightweight and trying hard not to be challenging to whatever line’s being pushed.
A publicly funded soapbox most of the time oh goody.
tc
Don’t moan at Kathryn Ryan and NinetoNoon – it’s meant to be current news that tells it like it is but doesn’t push the barrow. If you want a drop of the hard stuff go to Mary Wilson at night. But Kathryn seems okay, asks good questions. But then I used to think Maggie Barry was good. I was a bit younger then and perhaps less cynical.
Much preferred Kim Hill, She has the ability to put people completely at their ease and then ask them a hardie right out of left field which deflates their egos big time…
Let’s hope KH is still around when we eventually get PSB TV back. And by that I mean true PSB.
That doesn’t mean pseudo PSBTV like FACE or KIDZONE or HEARTLAND designed to give a monopoly interest a veneer of “corporate responsibility and concern” and only available to the “UN”digitally-divided.
I fear though, she’s getting to the stage of weighing up whether pushing shit uphill is worth the effort.
Still – she likes gardening and feeding the soil with seaweed, sheep and cowshit, so it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that a bit of poli-shit could be worth an experiment.
I’m sure there’s some sort of ‘smart-think-recycling-politician-anal or verbal crap’ possibility there, whereby a fascist Key-NAct-brand type kaka could be fed into fertilising a crop of something useful. And if it all fails, we’ll just put it all down to a venture that was ‘mis-sold’ and appoint Steven Joyce to investigate it’s failure (on minimum wage)
Kathryn Ryan asks good questions, initially, but doesn’t take the time to listen to the answers so misses the opportunities for killer follow up questions. Kim Hill is brilliant at that.
Okay, okay, r0b, I’ll come back in March.
[See you then – r0b]
[deleted – sorry you picked up a one week ban. r0b]
hee hee, from through the Square Window
RNZ-there is a slip to the lowest common denominator when it comes to the training and experience of people caring for the impaied in this country (and this is current info from friends employed in the sector)
61/2 % Current Acount Deficit, heading towards 8% (not so good I read); Parker “2nd worse in the developed world”
the fishing industries are slaughtering marine mammals and comparing the collateral to “road kill kiwis” (yep!)
Nathan Guy “well, I’ll read the briefings , talk to the officials, then get some advice.” :), talk about drivel!
Shearer, NEATs now 90,000.
ha ha! on 3 “have the US negotiate MORE with N.K”, when previously their leader is on record referring to “sworn enemy” and Major Tom (North Korean astronaut) dreams of a US city being annihilated by nuclear attack!
Robertson-describes Regional Equivalent GDP akin to economic apartheid, with mainly the extractive, polluting provinces proceeding…and outside promary industries, foreign investment contracting (never fear, English Budget nearly here). Did you see how primary produce is exported overseas and then flown back to restock cruise ships???
Winston appears to be an ongoing nemesis for Carter. then there is the price of groceries in NZ compared to OZ (where food used to be more expensive). Now, Campbell Live, the comparitive total was $24 less in OZ, incl. a lamb roast that was $8 cheaper.
Bertram-“no NZ govt in the last three decades has been prepared to tackle economic problems like the food-supply duopoly”.
Brighter Future Update:
Joint Media Release
PSA?EPMU
100 jobs cut at Datam
New Zealand Post-owned print and mailing house Datam has today informed unions it intends to make 100 redundancies in Wellington and Auckland.
The proposed job cuts come as a result of a restructuring exercise and will lead to the closure of the Petone plant at a cost of 75 jobs and a reduction of 28 roles in Auckland.
This announcement follows recent mass redundancies at Summit Wool Spinners, Mainzeal and Contact Energy.
EPMU postal sector organiser Joe Gallagher says the job cuts are a blow for communities already struggling with high unemployment.
âThese redundancies have come as a shock to workers and it will take a while for everyone to digest what it means. New Zealand Post has committed to a fair consultation and timeframe but the reality is redundancy is never easy for anyone.
âWhile we accept the restructuring is a result of new machinery being installed, we have serious concerns about the state of the job market our members will be facing and we believe this shows the need for a Government strategy to tackle the jobs crisis.â
The PSA says unions will be working with the company to look at future options for workers.
âItâs always disappointing to see good jobs being lost and given the lack of employment opportunities in the market, itâs important that Datam look at retraining and redeployment possibilities for affected staff within the organisation. Weâll be working hard to make sure that happens,â says PSA Assistant Secretary Jeff Osborne.
The unions understand the company intends to create 30 new positions in Christchurch as part of the restructure.
re Corrections Amendment Bill; govt wants to dilate all the inmates orifices for inspection, while even the Dept. says this is inflammatory; Goff made a good summary of the contrast between private and state prison provision, and Chauvel articulated some real concerns Human Rights; Serco have come in for a lot of criticism remember, for scandals and abuse in the UK NHS and Prison Service; even NZF supports state provision of corrections.
Dom-a “Laziness Pandemic” is active in our population, burdening the purse to 1.3B in 2010. (sometimes i wonder what happened to the outdoorsy, sports mad, country I grew up in); The Lancet-“50% of population insufficiently active.”
meanwhile, back at the batsh*t cave; “NZ exchange rate effectively a pawn in the currency wars between larger economies”.
“We are effectively destroying ourselves by violence masquerading as love.” R.D Laing
a lament or two for that ‘Dick”; you know who.
Surah 43:83
So leave them to babble
And play (with vanities)
Until they meet that Day
Of theirs, which they
Have been promised (perhaps retribution)
Surah 3:10
Those who reject Faith-
Neither their possessions
Nor their numerous progeny
Will avail them aught
Against Allah; they are themselves
But fuel for the fire. (Liked that one Alot)
Surah 2:171
The parable of those
Who reject faith is
As if one were to shout
Like a goat-herd to things
That listen to nothing
But calls a nd cries:
Deaf, dumb and blind,
They are void of wisdom. (cannot distinguish intelligently between shades of meaning or subtle differences in values)
now, for some comedy I’m going to watch par-ley-ment. đ
More like Par LIAR ment.
The beginning of the collapse of an entire marine resource?. Probably.
http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21571386-global-warming-may-make-northernmost-ocean-less-productive-not-more
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/climatesnapshot/arctic-death-spiral-leaves-climate-scientists-shocked-and-worried
David Cunliffe on free markets …
Wages produce dependence. This governments attack upon the welfare system is a means to ram that dependence home. As a society we need to break that dependence and that means breaking the capitalist ownership model that brings it about.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10865297
Claire Trevitt: Shearer’s reshuffle comes out of the shadows.
Worth a giggle.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/8304869/Salisbury-School-consultation-a-sham
This shows up the shonky dealings that have enveloped this Key led Nact govt,just disgraceful
I look after two children once a week and normally they do not have their TV on One, which I do not watch.EVER!!! While I was trying to turn Breakfast off (up high,couldn’t find remote) and I heard the cute giggly Toni? and the pom waaing on about valentines and I THINK ! I heard that the honourable (“we would love to see wages DROP”) tedious little mankey had been voted DRUM ROLL!! sexiest something or other for the fourth year in a row.
Question. Did I hear this or was it just an extremely hilarious dream.
If only they’d been painting the roof:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10865417
The point you seem to miss is that them being on the sickness benefit has nothing to do with the drug bust.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10766619
Or perhaps we shouldn’t trust businessmen either?
My point is the exact opposite. I admire their industry. Goes to show that sickness is no impediment to supporting yourself through running a business.
Can you explain how it shows that?
They were running at least a retail operation. That requires a procurement, business plan, systems, marketing, cash handling procedures, a policy for dealing with returns and dissatisfied customers and a plan for dealing with emergencies.
If they were running a wholesale operation, they would need manufacturing and distribution.
I admire and support the small businessperson. To do all that while you are sick as well shows real grit.
But you said “Goes to show that sickness is no impediment to supporting yourself through running a business.”
Perhaps you’d like to rephrase that so it relates to those particular peoples’ particular sickness and their particular business. Cos as it stands your statement says anyone with any sickness could be running a business, which is pretty much saying anyone on a sickness benefit or invalids benefit is a bludger for not running one.
And I can’t figure out how you get that from a story about a small business that failed so spectacularly.
Well, it seems it only failed because the sale of the product was illegal. That was a hole in the plan.
Many illegal businesses operate successfully for decades, lifetimes, even across generations.
This failed because a) it wasn’t run well enough to avoid detection and b) plans weren’t in place to cope with such a predictable event.
But anyway, what about your ‘anyone on a sickness bene can run a business’ schtick?
Well, was the failure to plan for the events which led to the demise of the business caused by the sickness the business owners were suffering under, or something else?
hey, when you were deep-sea trawling, did you come across any of the wall posters I seem to have mislaid over the years; had a really excellent on with The Rolling Stones as Tolkien-esque characters, oh those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end…
Happy Valentine’s Day folks!
đ
“Derivatives have been described by the US investment guru Warren Buffett as âfinancial weapons of mass destructionâ. NZ Prime Minister John Key was the former Head of Derivatives for Merrill Lynch, when he was also a Foreign Exchange Advisor for the New York Federal Reserve. In whose interests is NZ Prime Minister John Key working? ‘Once a Wall St bank$ter – always a Wall St bank$ter’?
http://theconversation.edu.au/uk-banking-reform-bill-wont-curb-reckless-risk-taking-12087
Cheers!
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
2013 Auckland Mayoral candidate
For folk in Dunedin who have a bit of spare time this coming Monday (18th Feb).
Gordon Holmes was underpaid by WINZ and was awarded $17 000 damages by the Human Rights Commission. And, of course, WINZ are appealing. His court case is on Monday (not to be confused with the Wednesday stated in the linked article)
He has asked for public support. And so if you are of a mind to gather with others at 9:40 a.m. on the grass outside the court in Lower Stuart Street I’m sure he would greatly appreciate the show of solidarity.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7779571/Jobless-battler-takes-on-Winz-for-a-3-cause