Has anyone else noticed that while John has denied being a shape shifting lizard creature, he didn’t refute the allegation he is out to enslave us all?
Hence Lenin’s lesser known, and somewhat discursive for a monograph, piece: “On the xenomorphology of the dopplegangst capitalist class, and smoking opium.”
” New Zealand bosses are upbeat about their business prospects in 2014 and the global economic outlook, even as they fear more regulation, a survey has found.
The PWC Annual Global CEO Survey shows Kiwi chief executives were more upbeat than their international counterparts.
Eighty-nine per cent of those surveyed said they felt confident about their company’s outlook and 91 per cent believed technology would be the biggest transformation trend to have an impact on their business.
Nearly two-thirds said the global economy would improve this year. ”
Nothing about how they will improve working conditions and raise wages. And anyone who says it will happen are BS-ing. These guys have no focus or time for their workforce. Workforce doesn’t even rate a mention in their upbeatedness… mentioned regulation again, so they can keep saying how hard it is in NZ when it comes time to reject pay increases.
New Zealand bosses are upbeat about their business prospects in 2014 and the global economic outlook, even as they fear more regulation, a survey has found.
Just saying what they have been told to say. No basis, justification or evidence needed for the survey as far as I know. If they say it often enough then people believe it.
“Nothing about how they will improve working conditions and raise wages. And anyone who says it will happen are BS-ing. These guys have no focus or time for their workforce.”
Ain’t that the truth Sis. It’s a one way street, this “recovery”, or this “confidence”
which is why mr mapp ignores my questions when he describes good economic news… wont say when it will translate to good for closing the gap between rich and poor and increasing minimum wage. Despite all evidence to the contrary he hangs on tot he neolib manta…
Just by chance recently came across a lovely gentleman from Wellington who often had tea with members of The Communist Party at his home during the Muldoon era.
Was interesting, and not surprising, to hear of his regular visits by police and spies to find out what he was up to. He oft took in sailors to stay with him on shore leave to ensure they had somewhere safe to stay and come back to while on leave and after each time he was again visited with demands as to whether he had been trying to influence them (towards communism). When traveling overseas he had to apply for special permission to come back to NZ.
He’s older now and undergoing cancer for treatment and thinking about writing some of this down I hope he does. The more light on this type of activity the better.
With the Dotcom saga going on, and various other events that have come to light e.g. Rob Gilchrist, it’s evident in this country there’s a long history of our government spying on it’s own people.
… it’s evident in this country there’s a long history of our government spying on it’s own people.
Indeed DOS. Although it doesn’t necessarily follow it was always our own spies. ASIS was very active in NZ in the 1960s and 70s at the least. To a lesser degree (perhaps) so was the CIA and MI5.
My late father had some experiences of surveillance activity in the late 60s and 1970s. He wasn’t a member of any Communist organisation but he did join The Russian Friendship Society. His interest in Russia (Soviet Union) was largely academic and had its origins in a Russian ‘adventure’ in the 1920s as a young British soldier. They had no evidence on him (because there was nothing there) but that didn’t stop the surveillance and other forms of harassment. Eventually it had repercussions for me too, so 20 years ago I made an attempt to get to the bottom of it all but with only partial success.
That would be right Tracey. My father also had a passion for Russian history, music and the language. Through the Friendship Society he subscribed to a Russian magazine which used to arrive in the letterbox in plain brown wrapping. I bet every last one of them was opened and minutely examined for secret codes etc. 🙂
And out of interest ASIS had a spy infiltrate the NZ Friendship Society. Her name was Wendi Holland (she went public about her spying activity in NZ 20 years ago) and her cover story was: she was born in Hamilton but her parents took her to Aussie when she was young and that’s why she had an Aussie accent. Dad used to talk about her and she seemed to have made a special effort to befriend him. He never did know the truth about her because he died before she went public.
Reminds me of a job I did for a short period after leaving school in the late 60s. I was reading a book at work – I read widely on various topics, just to find out about the world. This book was on a history of Mao Tse Tung, I think – or something similar on communism. I was far from committed to any political ideology.
I was very surprised when I fellow worker had a quiet word in my ear during a lunch break. She thought I was very brave to be openly read a book like that at work. She talked of widespread surveillance of people into communism. I wasn’t sure whether this person was a bit paranoid and delusional or if there was some reality attached to her fears. Mainly I was just puzzled by her response which semed a bit over the top to me.
I was quite young, politically naive, and just believed in the importance of knowledge.
That was the tragedy karol. Your fellow worker was right. The paranoia and delusion lay with the spy agencies – encouraged and led by American McCarthyism. My father’s crime was actually a life-long search for knowledge, and any attempt to dissuade him from this passion only made him more determined to succeed.
McCarthyism was the continuation of a programme to justify taking apart citizens civil rights and destroy socialist thought and socialist thinkers. Now, the anti-red scaremongering has become anti-muslim, anti-terror scaremongering.
Ha. It was the other way around in the UK. If you did Russian Lit, language or history, it was rumoured you would be getting a meeting from a tutor offering you a job as a spy.
All true DOS, a great little book “Seeing Red–Undercover in 1950s New Zealand” by one George Fraser, Dunmore Press, 1995, ISBN 0-86469-255-2 gives many verifiable details (names and places) of the NZ Police special branch and Early NZSIS from the view of a paid informant (Fraser) who later ditched by the service became an opponent of the SIS Amendment Bill 1977.
I know people involved with showing and distributing Soviet films who were approached to be quiet informers just passing on the odd snippet to their ‘handlers’. The old Socialist Unity Party was riddled with these types. The NZCP had an office in St Kevins Arcade Auckland at one stage and a physical line was discovered leading to a police station switch box.
The thing is it is now you do not need to be a commo or anarchist to attract attention just anything to do with exercising your democratic right to free speech.
It says something about the level of fear amongst the power elite, also how the security state apparatus has to continue to justify its own budgets and funding.
Didn’t Smedley Butler say that as a marine he was an enforcer for the US corporations? The rich have been selling out the military since time immemorial.
I’m against censorship of artists too. I’m not familiar with the exact contents of this groups ranting other than what’s been in the news, but it doesn’t sound healthy. I was thinking what would happen to me if I turned my amp up to ten and started shouting out obscene misogynist laden hate-speech in my neighbourhood. Would it be acceptable to say in my defence that I’m an artist and this is me expressing myself and should therefore be left alone to carry on? If my neighbours rushed to my defence and said they want to hear what I’m saying would that make it ok?
It sure is a grey area. I don’t even know if the gig is for over 18’s (complete with prior warning regarding disgusting content), or why people are remotely interested in such “art”. And if this stuff is not allowed then how come groups like Destiny church can get away with spreading their version of hate-speech?
The weirdest thing for me is why people are even interested in this “poetry”, but maybe I’m of the wrong generation to “get it”.
I know swearing and rebellion are attractive to the young, some of us never grow out of it, but what’s the attraction in hearing about gratuitous violence towards woman?
It would be a good subject for analysis, as to why free speech has come to mean so degraded a thing that shouted, hate-filled, violence encouraging, female despising stuff has become the banner of a mass of probably, young males. Who have communicated a lot of “vitriol”
to the person behind the group who complained about this filth.
Is it good to have this bottom-feeding bunch ready to be plucked and turned and issued with a cool uniform and handed a gun that really works and you can kill people with it, and learn cool technical stuff about it? As Bart said to the cop. Is that a club? No, no, was the reply.
It’s a baton. What do you do with it? We club people. From the mouth of a child the truth will come, or something.
The industrial mercenary, distanced from the seasons and quiet ways of the land, deprived of a thinking soul by the outpourings of a society saturated with trivia and manufactured glamour, and promises of tokens to get everything that crosses his mind, if he does what he’s told.
What a piece of work is man, how noble his reason….
Hey fender. I’m not familiar with “Odd Future” either apart from what I heard on 3news, where they published some of their lyrics. I also heard the organiser for an anti violence group (sorry I didn’t catch her name and the name of the organisation) has been sent death threats and rape threats from fans because she spoke out about the band coming to NZ.
Like you I’m wary of censorship and being the music fan I am have a room full of records and CD’s with what many people would find quite objectionable lyrics, within the songs, and on the cover artworks – but there is a line that shouldn’t be crossed and I feel those lyrics published last night on the telly, did just that.
I found them sickening and felt frightened by them despite the fact they are no tangible threat to me. For women who have been victims of sexual violence it can be really distressing to hear such threatening words, and no woman should have to. Those guys have some issues, and they need to get them sorted out.
I’m not that old but I fail to see the attraction in this vile style of lyrics. This article describes the reasons for their visas being revoked and sounds reasonable to me.
Like you I’m a music lover but I wouldn’t spend a cent on acquiring rubbish of this non-quality.
“Those guys have some issues, and they need to get them sorted out.”
Thanks for the link fender. From the audio: It was Denise Ritchie from the Stop Demand Foundation that I thought I heard on the radio this a.m who was the one that received threats, and indeed during the audio she did say the foundation had received abusive emails. I see that article was updated at 11pm last night so I’m not sure if there were developments since then or if I didn’t hear the news that precisely because it was early and I hadn’t had any coffee.
I’m not sure of any further developments but this:
“Unfortunately, the lead singer using his Twitter account and through some of the things he said on stage encouraged his fans to basically harass and stalk this woman. She received a lot of threats to her personal safety and, again, it’s not really behaviour we want to see here in New Zealand.”
…was enough for me to agree they shouldn’t be welcome, no matter who the woman that the threats were directed at is.
Bingo Drax, you posted at the same time as fender, re the above statement. The article fender linked above goes into the details of why they were denied entry and inciting violence was one of the main factors. Safety was a genuine issue.
Katherine Ryan having a interview on the electricity market prices and new renewable electricity production eg wind turbines.
The costing that will be required to support renewable electricity is $120 whatever and now it is $70-$77 whatever. So it is inevitable within the present system that we will have prices that rise by at least half. Can we afford to pay for all this and have to pay a profit to shareholders on each upgrade or new facility which will be like a tax on it. Has anyone ever suggested that shareholders’ demands are a tax which if too high are like theft? And further, that purchasers of companies can be just like scavengers and wrecking balls?
This is the ugly side of business.
Wikipedia says =
Electricity demand has grown by an average of 2.0% per year since 1974 and 0.4% from 2007 to 2012.
and
The national grid today has ageing infrastructure and increasing demand is placing significant loads on some parts of the network. Transpower is currently investing in upgrading existing lines and substations to ensure supply security.
Investments in new transmission are now regulated by the Commerce Commission. In a news release in January 2012, the Commerce Commission reported that Transpower was planning to invest $5 billion over the next 10 years in upgrades of critical infrastructure.[35]
and (just a reminder of past problems probably still ongoing)
The lack of diversity in the network is a further risk. Prior to 2013, all main transmission routes to Auckland and North Auckland passed through a single point in the network – Otahuhu substation.
High-profile grid failures have occurred in Auckland relating to its ageing and overloading network. In June 2006, the seven-hour 2006 Auckland Blackout occurred when a corroded shackle at Otahuhu broke in strong winds and subsequently blacked out much of inner Auckland; and in October 2009, a three-hour blackout of northern Auckland and Northland occurred after a shipping container forklift accidentally hit the only major line supplying the region.
Partly listening to Ryan today i didn’t hear which discussion i picked up upon one of the means that ‘business’ across all sectors of the economy is managing to gouge us the consumers with ever increasing prices,
This relates also to electricity prices,(but may or may not have been part of the same item on RadionNZ), valuation of assets is the book-keeping means of ensuring that we the consumer are always caught on the inflation spiral of raising prices,
The means of pricing of goods and services we would think would be simply a means of total costs of production plus X profit expectations being the means of arriving at the price for us the consumer,
Not likely, the thieves also known as ‘business’ now calculate profit expectations off of the value of their assets used to generate the production of whatever they sell,
SO, this means that the actual cost of production may fall or remain static, example: wages and ingredients needed for the production of a particular good or service have not risen, BUT, because of a book-keeping entry, purely theoretical i might add, the value of the actual machinery and building used in the production goes up and the current means of theft off of you and me then requires that the profit expectation has to rise in accordance with the subjective rise in the asset valuation,
Such profit expectations supposedly justified, not by rising costs to the producer, but based upon such subjective valuation of assets is simply voodoo economics…
Jokeyhen says that he agrees that the Commerce Commission should look into the supermarket matter.
According to Wikipedia, the Commerce Commission is an independent body not a creature of the shape-shifter. Therefore the PM should say that the Commerce Commission will decide on this matter and leave it publicly to them. But he sees himself as King John the Cunning and the decider on every matter concerning the country.
Commerce Commission – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commerce_Commission
It is an independent, quasi-judicial body, established under the Commerce Act 1986. The purpose of the Act is to promote competition in New Zealand’s market …
Commerce Commission laws to be reviewed – English – Business … http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid…
Dec 10, 2013 – Bill English says the Govt will review legislation around the Commerce Commission – but won’t rein in its independence. Photo / NZ Herald.
David Parker
Spokesperson for Finance
10 December 2013
English should support Commerce Commission
Labour is calling on Finance Minister Bill English not to undermine the Commerce Commission, because it has a vital role in protecting consumers from price gouging.
Finance spokesperson David Parker says Bill English’s warning he will review legislation around the Commission after it ruled to cut wholesale copper-based internet prices, sounds like “sour grapes”.
“The Commerce Commission has a proper role to limit monopoly excess. Monopolies do what monopolies can. They extract excessive prices from consumers if they are not properly regulated.
Public protest against Strong/Under Arm Aussie Supermarket chain Progressive. Whangarei, today 4.pm till 5.30pm, Location, Outside Countdown, Town basin store.
We will kick it off against the Aussies, Foodstuff your next once your practices are exposed, we have had enough of being ripped by the Supermarket duopoly.
Skinny
It seems to me that, though Foodstuff be kept in mind, the Aussie problem through Countdown and Progressive is a case on its own because it is not just here, it is also in Oz affecting our products there and our manufacturing and processing jobs here.
Then there is the fact that the profit made here is owned by Australians and part of their economy. Also the fact that the Oz-owned supermarkets here are able to source items from their Oz base or suppliers, which they have threatened to substitute for NZ supply, and have used that as leverage when demanding that NZ prices be lowered till they meet their approval.
There are so many different ways that this Oz mega-business is screwing NZ that I don’t know why you should start on Foodstuffs, who have to compete with this foreign Ozymandias of stoney harshness.
a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Shelley
It is interesting to read of the real Ozymandias and the marvellous feat of work in stone that commemorates him in the desert. It is possible that that will be all that is left to commemorate Australia soon. What a pity if they suck all the lifeblood out of this country too.
In antiquity, Ozymandias was an alternative name for the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II. Shelley began writing his poem in 1817, soon after the announcement of the British Museum’s acquisition of a large fragment of a statue Ramesses II from the thirteenth-century BCE, and some scholars consider that Shelley was inspired by this.
The 7.25-ton fragment of the statue’s head and torso had been recovered in 1816 from the mortuary temple of Ramesses at Thebes by the Italian adventurer Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778–1823).
Wikipedia
Hi Skinny. Onya’s for protesting this afternoon – thats excellent. Never forget the Under Arm incident!
Now, sorry to be a bore but I have copied my rant about Foodstuff’s from yesterday’s Open Mike here. I am hoping that the spotlight will shine on them as well and I really hope suppliers come forward.
A”lthough Jone’s allegation that Countdown has been pressuring suppliers to meet the shortfall in profit when a line doesn’t “perform” is a bit out there, I’d fully believe it (and look forward to the truth coming out) going on my my experience working for a supplier to Foodstuff’s.
I have a feeling Foodstuff’s will be packing themselves right now, just a little………
Just a couple of example of lose/win scenario’s:
Suppliers pay all freight costs to get their goods to either the supermarket or distribution centre
Suppliers carry the cost of item’s specialed
Suppliers pay for putting in a display end – the space at the end of an aisle is rented to them for the time they carry their stock there, usually a week
Suppliers are often obliged to provide privately contracted poorly paid casualised merchandisers to fill the shelves when the order comes in – the supermarket keeps costs down on the cost of hiring permanent shelf fillers. (I’ve also gone on about the the disadvantages of merchandising, many times before so no need to repeat)
I can’t prove this or provide a link – it’s just from my experience of dealing with grocery buyers. All of the above is considered standard practice and Countdown does it too. But at least they aren’t actively engaged in Union busting and do have reasonable collective agreements in most stores and of course the distribution centres (covered that one last week)
Countdown is the enemy at the moment because of the Australian connection but were we to look into Foodstuff’s practices I wouldn’t be surprised if there were similarities in their way of doing business. Either way I hope investigations lead to recommendations to make it a more level playing field for suppliers and workers and ultimately to regulation to ensure it.
I do shop at New World to support our local suppliers and keep NZ profits on shore but really it’s the better of two evils. Otherwise I try to purchase some goods at our local organic shop which charges much less for some items.”
PS: My observations are from 2007, it will not have improved since then.
I asked the Minister of Justice to initiate a Commerce Commission investigation into supermarket practices five years ago, and presented him with a range of allegations about dubious tactics that supermarkets were using with suppliers, but he said there wasn’t enough evidence to justify an inquiry at that time. So I’m hoping that an inquiry will finally happen.
[…]
Whatever the veracity of Shane Jones’ specific allegation, I’m informed that relationships between Progressive Enterprises and their suppliers have deteriorated significantly over the past year.
[…]
There are also wider complaints about the supermarket duopoly in New Zealand. Our grocery retail sector is the most concentrated in the world, with just two supermarket chains, Foodstuffs and Progressive, controlling around 95 per cent of our grocery retail sector.
This gives them enormous market power which they can use to set the rules, dictate conditions and squeeze more and more money out of suppliers. Suppliers cannot refuse their requests, or afford to get offside with them, no matter how unfair they may appear to be, as supermarkets are, effectively, the gateway to the consumer in New Zealand.
According to numerous suppliers I have spoken to, supermarkets routinely use a variety of trading practices that I believe are unfair.
Thanks for posting that karol, lots of interesting reading in Kedgely’s article, none of which surprises me sadly. I miss having Sue Kedgely around. She was great at keeping on the case around food safety, farmed animal welfare as I’ve been reminded, supermarket trading practices.
And ew, I have to say some of the creepiest men I’ve ever had the displeasure of dealing with have been supermarket grocery buyers.
There’s several examples but one that is up there in category one creepiness was the buyer with the girlie pictures and calendars all around his office. (there were two sightings of offices with girlie pictures but this one particular man was awful). I was called into his office after waiting with the other reps in the waiting room queue.
As I entered I was a bit shocked and momentarily dazed by all the nudity and was wondering what kind of ERA clause this contravened. When I turned to him I gave him my best evil frozen glare and he just grinned and looked me up and down. I was so angry (and feeling a bit threatened) I was shaking but just had to get on with the job of selling a new line.
There’s a lot of women reps on the road and I wonder just how many lose their power on a daily basis because of dealing with men like that. These are not likely the kind of issues that will be uncovered during a Commerce Commission enquiry, if one does indeed go ahead.
I miss her as well. She was a breath of fresh air in political circles. in my opinion the two Sue’s Nandor and Keith were the life blood of the Green party and I despaired when the change managment team took over and reorganised the party in what they thought was the new future. The Greens are sorely in need of the kind of social activism those four brought to politics.
Sue Kedgely’s piece in paper today show that she is still following up on her passions she is just not getting paid for it.
I miss having Sue Kedgely around. She was great at keeping on the case around food safety, farmed animal welfare as I’ve been reminded, supermarket trading practices.
I was out and about a few weeks ago and while waitng to see someone picked up some sort of food trade publication, had a bit signed by Katherine Rich in it, that actually discussed the behaviour of stores towards reps, merchandisers, in negative terms. Caught my attention as unusual for that sort of glossy pub. Can only infer that the behaviour has been pretty bad., . Can’t seem to source it on the internet though
John key made the following statement today about supermarkets and suppliers….
“‘‘Everyone accepts that when it comes to small suppliers and dominant supermarkets, there’s a power imbalance, and I suspect when the inquiry takes place there will be suppliers that say that they feel the pressure of that power imbalance. Whether that actually marries up to what Mr Jones is saying is quite a different issue.’’…
“Key told reporters said that New Zealand food producers reported to him that the supermarkets drove ‘‘hard bargains’’ but he believed that ‘‘by and large’’ this benefited consumers through lower prices, and nothing untoward had been drawn to his attention. ”
Now, think about individual employment contracts John.
It has enough publicity now, so John has a change of mind….
That’s great to know Rosie. I know some of that stuff, and believe you will be completely right about the rest. I suggested to Skinny that it seemed too big to take on everything at once. But when it’s ‘The Man’ you’re confronting, often your own people are as bad as the others.
I have talked to some of the merchandisers. One got a telling off from the boss and franchise holder as I stood near, for coming in too late, outside the time allocated. I thought she probably needs the money and has other commitments that she has to fit in, perhaps they overlap. She looked tired and it was sad to see, knowing the struggle that many people have to manage to earn and do all they need to meet the duties of their roles. (This was in New World too.)
Hi warbly. That’s nice that you spoke with the merchie who got the telling off. Yes, they often work several merchandising jobs to make ends meet and they work odd hours so jobs would overlap sometimes.
Cambell Live did a great job of highlighting Countdown’s shortcomings last night, as well as the interview with Jones, and the Countdown C.E, or whatever he was.
I hope they get around to looking into the poor working conditions of merchies and the whole business of supermarkets outsourcing their work on to the supplier. Although, I did see that in the case of Countdown you were charged an “administration fee” for having supermarket staff stock your product on the shelf, so another way of passing on the wage bill to the supplier.
Hi Rosie
I have thought of another thing I’ve heard of. That is, the supermarket may not allow the supplier to sell to anyone else, so that it becomes a straitjacket for their business. I don’t know what would happen if the supplier branched out under another brand. And if they did sell to others under their own brand, could the supermarket then sue them for breach of contract.
I was writing about the Treaty of Waitangi and which version of the Treaty was given prominence, English or Maori, and I remembered the contra proferentem rule which in international law, probably not in business law, in a dispute gives undue cognisance to the lesser partner, in a contract. So I wonder if they could take on the supermarkets whether the suppliers might be able to tilt the consideration their way, seeing it is a very unequal playing field.
Then there is the in house brand that copies a popular item that a supplier hs devised and built up, then it makes it for the s/mt, then the supermarket only stocks it’s own brand and then your brand is no longer seen, and the supermarket has acquired part of your business without paying anything. I think that happens often.
Thanks Rosie, Greywarbler, Karol and others. Just doing my bit 🙂 your quite right about the loss of Sue Kedgely such a outstanding producer for the Greens and the Left. As pointed out she was the first to expose the supermarket racketeering 5 years ago.
Of course Trader Key and his cronies ideologically supported the scamming then and up until now, by pretending there hasn’t been anything untoward going on, apart from ‘robust’ negotiations.
Chalking today’s little number (protest & heat clip) as further erosion to Mr Invisibles teflon coated kit. All those toots & waves from his former voters in their posh vehicles, this was despite clearly visible Labour supporters in their LP tee shirts. Things are looking wonderful for the Left by today’s response from the punters.
Here is the video link below. If it was a film the credit roll would show Sue Kedgely as Key’s source of information. It’s pretty much word for word copying a SK recommendation. Note damage control Joyce checking Key gets his lines correct. Progressive Enterprises got a good tune up with the month long scrap over terms & conditions for employees, a great effort from a collective union campaign.
Foodstuff your on notice in this regard, I am hearing very disturbing tales of slave like terms & conditions for their employees. While I hear the Pak & Slave up the road having been boosting
about the upsurge in customers. Your turns coming soon!
From the Herald online this morning it appears that No-No Pay for teachers is still just that, and, after six month’s of Steven Joyce having taken over the troubled Novo-Pay issue it aint fixed but Mr Fixer in the form of Joyce has managed to keep such news suppressed from the public for the past few months,
Begs the question don’t it, just how far into the pocket of National are the New Zealand media…
Re-jig of National Radio. John Drinnan says:
“Shake-up an attempt to reverse broadcaster’s drift into irrelevance but changes stray into fixing what isn’t broken
Fingers crossed that Radio New Zealand chief executive Paul Thompson has corrected Morning Report’s drift into irrelevance.
Changes at Morning Report were confirmed this week and more revamps are ahead for other shows, as well as further steps to improve Radio New Zealand’s approach to the news.
One source described the new approach as “journalism rather than reporting stories”.
It would result in the public broadcaster being less “reactive”, says another insider, adding that problems in RNZ’s news coverage resulted from a combination of factors.
National Party media strategists had ignored RNZ because they wrongly believed its listeners did not vote National.
Radio NZ had responded with a too narrow focus on Nationals’ critics, the insider says……”
Fingers crossed that Radio New Zealand chief executive Paul Thompson has corrected Morning Report’s drift into irrelevance….
‘reverse broadcaster’s drift into irrelevance’…
In my view, an important challenge will be to draw Cabinet ministers back to Morning Report, so it does not become overly focused on Opposition arguments. That should be easier in an election year.'(says John Drinnan)
‘Irrelevance’ what does he mean exactly? List 10 criticisms and examples.
What would be relevant? List 10 important headings and methods of achieving such relevance.
One source described the new approach as “journalism rather than reporting stories”.
It would result in the public broadcaster being less “reactive”, says another insider, adding that problems in RNZ’s news coverage resulted from a combination of factors.
What are the combination of factors? List ten in order of importance.
And what is the writer’s take on the difference of journalism as opposed to ‘reporting stories’.
No comments of interpretation, opinion allowed?
The stories would concentrate on giving the bare facts with no effort to set in context, indicate complexity, or background leading to the present happening – is that it?
National Party media strategists had ignored RNZ because they wrongly believed its listeners did not vote National.
Radio NZ had responded with a too narrow focus on Nationals’ critics, the insider says……”
There is that Royal Entitlement coming through. National is The Sovereign entity of NZ, and King John the Cunning its Prized Leader, and We Shall have control over every organ of information advising the populace of the correct understanding of everything they observe around them. And this will always indicate a positive viewpoint of all activity or non-activity in the country, for the sake of national unity and productivity.
Fingers crossed that Radio New Zealand chief executive Paul Thompson has corrected Morning Report’s drift into irrelevance….
Sounds a bit ominous to me. All that is missing is, and it is for your own good. You will thank us for cleaning it all up for the good of the people.”
And further on Radionz.
Looking at the John Drinnan piece that ianmac has links for. There are a lot of loaded comments that imply unrevealed information that Drinnan has.
Such as “entrenched bureaucracy” – does that mean people who have been a long time in their job with deep experience and knowledge and commitment to it. It sounds rather like a jab in the nature of people who have gone to sleep and are out of touch with today, which I don’t think applies to RadioNZ and probably no one person there.
More changes are to come. After a long period of paralysis under former CEO Peter Cavanagh, Thompson has made a lot of headway in a short time in an entrenched bureaucracy….
He understands the need for mainstream media to be a broad church, open to many views….
But across the day RNZ has not always delivered on those aims, in my view, ignoring large swathes of the potential audience. Sports coverage is an afterthought, for example, and small businesspeople hardly exist.
Sports are well covered, in an unbalanced way by Radionz I consider. Unbalanced because there already is too much of it. I don’t know what Drinnan is dribbling about here. It’s for commercial radio to give us the latest on the sports people, and their daily doings, and their highs and lows, their wins and losses and so stunningly boringly on…. Isn’t there even a sports radio station. Let them concentrate on that.
Instead we could have more about what is being done on the land. More Country Calendar type things in our agriculturally focussed country.
And what is Drinnan’s gripe here? After a long period of paralysis under former CEO Peter Cavanagh
I agree that I want to hear more from the beating heart of NZ commerce and what can be done to assist their continuation and expansion and employment opportunities. Though I already know quite a bit from listening to the station now, but want that expanded.
Prime Minister John Key has preferred patsy interviews on commercial radio over facing up to questions from the public broadcaster. Relations became particularly sour when Cavanagh adopted a bunker mentality over funding.
Another loaded comment ‘bunker mentality over funding’. As if Drinnan is writing just for people in the know, who will understand this term as if it was a code word. There is a back story here which needs at least another sentence to give guidance. Or would that be an example of journalism over mere reporting as mentioned elsewhere in Drinnan’s column?
Drinnan comments earlier that Nat pollies label RadioNZ as Radio Labour, and refers to Key snubbing them and instead fronting patsy questions on commercial radio. Yet if this is not satisfactory, why would Key want harder, more pointed questions on RadioNZ?
Does Drinnan consider that RadioNZ should be the ones asking the patsy questions? That RadioNZ should do whatever it needs to receive the PM’s attention and comments – ingratiate themselves maybe?
absolutely agree about the sport thing! you can’t get more narrow focused than sports. i couldn’t give a toss about any sport actually, it all seems the same to me, & there are other radio stations that play nothing but sport.
I am all in favour of the changes to afternoon programme the only thing I dislike is pushing Mora off on to Scarry Mary’s show. Is he an attempt to soften her interviews. A few of his laughs every time the subject gets serious should do the trick.
I would have dumped Mora and leave Mary show as it is.
As for the panel show. Dump that as well. It is just a vehicle for right wing to get more air time
I agree absolutely. Checkpoint is the only news I listen too because it is the broadcast news that isn’t full of trivia and soft interviews. Jim Mora has nearly all right wing people on his panel – it may as well be talk back for the amount of prejudice and misleading information that appears there. Josie Pagani claims she is left wing but she is at best middle of the road. If National Party MPs don’t want to be interviewed by Mary then that’s their choice. There are plenty of other avenues for them to have unchallenging interviews on other media.
“…Banning rap group Odd Future from New Zealand had nothing to do with the band’s lyrics and wasn’t a decision “made lightly”, says a Border Operations Manager…”
Am I the only person outraged that some low level pen pusher has the power to ban whoever they like for the Orwellian offense of being a “Threat to public order”?
“Immigration New Zealand said it didn’t ban them because of their sexually violent lyrics, but because they have incited violence during performances.”
“Ms Urwin said there was also an incident in Australia in which the rappers used a concert and Twitter to urge fans to harass a woman who objected to their act.”
“Unfortunately, the lead singer using his Twitter account and through some of the things he said on stage encouraged his fans to basically harass and stalk this woman. She received a lot of threats to her personal safety and, again, it’s not really behaviour we want to see here in New Zealand.”
I’m quite happy for them to be kept out of the country and not allowed to perform, but I would like to see this by way of a union boycott on little scumbags who promote rape. I’d like to see Kiwis refuse to acknowledge their existence, maybe beginning with industrial action by airline staff. I’d like to see hotel staff refuse to book them in. I’d like to see female electricians cutting off the power to their microphones (It could always be connected to something else). Of course, none of that is now possible within the law because secondary action is prohibited. Just one more way that our governments have acted to prevent solidarity.
I disagree violently with the message of their music and have absolutely no desire to fight for their right to play it, not even to the extent of a mildly increased heart rate. I’d rather put effort into Teina Pora getting his message heard. Fuck them, but we should be the ones stopping them, not some low level pen pusher.
Oh, so the PM and WO talk often then. Isn’t that a total non surprise with the tipline running hot and Ede’s cellphone and a top drawer full of dirt. Tricky Nats.
Xox
Radio New Zealand has been slipping into trivia, and becoming more tabloid and sensationalist with graphic details of violence at court cases. Hyping and increasing business emphasis. We now get the Ozzy share market report! How many of the general public are interested in this? RNZ needs a big shake up, but I am worried it will head the way of TVNZ, just another shallow, crappy broadcaster.
Would I be right in thinking that all the comments against the banning of Odd Future are being made by men?
It’s not that I’m accusing any of you of thinking like them, but you obviously don’t understand the constant fear that women in our society live with and how much it limits our lives. It makes it much worse when there is tacit approval of violence towards us by way of publicly acknowledging people who advocate it.
Unless you walk a mile in my shoes….
“Stop Demand emailed Auckland councillors, criticising the decision to allow the group to perform at the Western Springs event.
The email quoted several lyrics from Odd Future referencing rape.
Founder Denise Ritchie said yesterday, before the ban, the council should have made a stand against allowing the group to perform.
“It is astonishing that, in light of the nationwide outcry and soul-searching that arose over the Roast Busters’ incident, and the sexual callousness of some young men towards women, Auckland Council is about allow a group that glorifies rape and rape culture to perform on Council-owned property and at an `all ages’ event.””
Freedom of expression has consequences. Their music is available, just a show cancelled… running the risk of cancellation is one consequence of their choice of type of expression.
I have just been reserving judgement on this issue. I think the best argument I’ve seen so far against not banning them is that there is as much misogyny expressed in the MSM by others in various ways – OF is just one among way too many. Better to raise awareness about such expressions of misogyny wherever they occcur.
The reports about people advocating violence, including sexual violence, against a group that called for the banning is more worrying.
Try reading what I wrote before to go off all aggressive.
Agreed about Eminem and I was thinking to add a comment about them.
I wouldn’t ban them because of their lyrics. There are a whole lot of other artistes that could be banned on such grounds – as I said above.
I’m still reserving judgement because of reports about inciting violence, rape etc and other alleged incidents that have little to do with the actual songs/raps-
At a record signing in Boston in 2011 fans had been crowding a street and police turned up.
[…]
Urwin said Immigration NZ had reports about the incident from law enforcement agencies.
“I’m not at liberty to disclose the exact source, or what they contained.”
The second incident taken into account by Immigration NZ happened in Australia last year, when a woman from a group campaigning against Odd Future was targeted by the lead singer and received threatening Twitter messages from fans.
“The actions in that they were targeting a particular individual, a named individual, and singling her out for retribution, yes, that’s inciting violence, yes obviously that does play a very big part in our decision, and it did,” Urwin said.
“When you actually single people out and encourage other people to target them and their personal safety becomes at risk then that is crossing a line and that is not behaviour that we can have in New Zealand,” she said.
The suppressed police reports may have contained reports of actions not just words. Hard to know without the evidence one way or another.
RNZ does not specifically report that about the lead singer in it’s print reports. Which interview was it? – sorry was loking at Morning Repot which has about 3 interviews.
As I said, I’m reserving judgement – following the reports. Seems to me you are quick to defend the group, rather than wait to see all the evidence one way or another.
International study reinforces the need for action against sexual violence
Carol Beaumont | 14 Feb 2014
A report in the latest Lancet indicates that sexual violence against women is common worldwide and is a pressing health and human rights concern, says Women’s Affairs spokesperson Carol Beaumont.
The report estimates a rate of 16.4% of NZ and Australian women being sexually assaulted at least once in their lives and that figure excludes assaults by intimate partners.
Talitha Stone, a 24-year-old blogger and campaigner, says she felt “petrified” following “terrifying and disturbing” abuse which she says was levelled at her by US rapper Tyler, the Creator.
She was at the concert when Tyler abused her and recorded it. Video at the link but it’s hard to hear what’s being said.
“My heart was absolutely pounding as I heard him start to mention me,” she told Guardian Australia.
“I was petrified. I was standing among the crowd of people who were chanting along with threats towards me.”
They’ve been refused a visa for the purposes of performing in NZ. They haven’t been banned (you can still buy their music right?). On what you have just described karol, and the other examples of inciting violence, refusal of the visa seems reasonable to me, given that their inciting of violence happens at concerts.
On the face of it they’re like kids who’ve had their way too much and have gone beyond the bounds of humane behaviour, and now someone is telling them to pull their head in. About time by the sounds of it. Artistic freedom, my arse.
Oh, smart move – so now it’s racism, not sexism!
Fantastic – reminds me of a guy I knew in the 60s from Nigeria who used to go on a racist rant every time a girl he tried to hit on turned him down at a party – can’t win can we!!!
It seems the first recorded use of ‘faves’ was in 1938, but it either had a relapse in the 60’s or still hadn’t reached Dunedin by then – not part of my vocab then or now, I’m afraid.
In view of my initial comments I find your response specious and ingenuous, and if you don’t understand why perhaps have a chat with someone with a higher emotional IQ
The reason their visas were revoked isn’t because of their colour or their lyrics. Inciting riots, making threats via Twitter and on stage, plus encouraging others to threaten critics were the reasons given.
I can see your point, and as I said earlier I’m against censorship as such but there has to be some boundaries somewhere. (And remember they have been banned for reasons other than their lyrics)
I paint pictures, but if I exhibited works containing written (think McCahon) text about sick rape fantasies and violence towards woman, should I be allowed to, even if I was the gallery owner?
Reminds me of this fetus earring case. I happened to be a teacher with a group of students who we took to the Old Bailey when the case was beign tried. Sat in the gallery and watched some of the proceedings:
During the 1984 exhibition of freeze-dried sculptures in London, UK, Gibson was given two dehydrated human fetuses from an anatomy professor. They were 10 weeks in development and had been dehydrated for 20 years. Gibson re-hydrated both fetuses, freeze-dried them and attached them as earrings to a female mannequin head. The sculpture was titled Human Earrings. They were exhibited at the Young Unknowns Gallery in south London in December 1987.
[..]
On 11 April 1988, Gibson and the gallery owner, Peter Sylveire, were formally charged with the common law offences of exhibiting a public nuisance and outraging public decency.[11]
They were convicted and this was upheld on appeal.
That band were refused entry for their homophobic hatred plus the group is well known for “their deeply, deeply offensive and sickening lyrics which incite their fans to cross the line to act out sexually explicit and violent actions against women.”
In one instance, a police officer was hospitalised following a riot incited by Odd Future.” It says the group and its performances are a “potential threat to public order.”
Jeeeeez P.U! The ‘nicest man on Earth’ just read out one of your emails and deigned to acknowledge your planet on this erf.
I hope you’re feeling priviledged. Might be time to tackle the world’s most work-life balanced regular gal Rinny. (Make some allowances though – she’s Kethluk, with a view of the world that makes her think she in-touch with the real folk).
If you strum up a good enough relationship with her – you could even get a ‘spot’ on NointaNoon (provided, that is you don’t displace any other of the “go-toos” her and producer have on their list)
Gorgeous Darling
Philip its about the rise of neoliberalism and only has t/rollz.
Syrlands BM Damien grunt have all been contracted and shonkey is the shapeshifty meglomaniac reptile .
If we do not treat ‘Brown Sugar’ as a defence of slavery and sexual violence, it is because assume that Sir Mick is wearing a persona when he performs the song. We recognise that he is giving his voice and mannerisms to a character, a monster who belongs to a monstrous period of history.
I’d suggest that even if the issue were as compartmentalised as you suggest (and didn’t involve real-life incitement to violence etc) the key difference is the obvious delineation (or lack thereof) between the artistic character assumed by the performer, and the honest attitudes of the performer. Not ethnicity.
Yeah, and in 2054 Odd Future will be welcome to apply for a visa with their history of not inciting riots for 4 decades.
I can’t remember the details of what happened at Monterey, and to what extent the Rolling Stones were culpable. That aside, there is a clear case this week of a band that in recent times intentionally incites violence against women. It’s not an accident or mismanagement.
Green Party announcement of their new energy plan on Sunday, to be live streamed.
Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand
Join us online this Sunday at 1pm
Green Party Co-leader Russel Norman will announce a key plank of the Green Party’s Election 2014 energy policy this Sunday, as part of his keynote address to the Green Party campaign conference in Auckland. “People are paying too much for their power. Electricity prices have gone up 22 per cent under the National Government. The Greens are committed to fixing this, and delivering cheaper, cleaner, safer power to New Zealanders,” said Dr Norman. The announcement will build on previous energy announcements from the Greens, including NZ Power, which will fix the broken market by creating a single buyer and save families around $300 a year. Dr Norman will also look back at the Green Party’s achievements outside Government, and discuss prospects for Election 2014.
I was a bit concerned about further news about RadioNZ and what the journalist John Drinnan meant. Ianmac supplied the link with his comment in Open Mike. http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14022014/#comment-772654
Not many people seem to have commented.
But there were many comments about the banning of a vicious-mouthed bunch who spew hate, and encourage violence. This was largely fuelled by phillip ure, and he always is interesting. But not more important than Radionz and whether it might be spayed or castrated or not.
Then there was a lot of interest in Key and that he spoke about being in regular contact with Cameron Slater. (Verbal I am sure.) Everyone likes letting off steam at those two.
There is a lot to keep an eye on and discuss this year. If we get exercised about fleeting matters, and attention goes onto, sexual matters, pollies sleaziness, and other normal aberrations, we will end up with even more of
the same at the end of the year.
These are the topics that got discussed today with numbers of comments at about 7p.m.
Rotten
Key & Cameron Slater 4.30pm
98 comments
Dotcom Snoopers
4.19 pm
31 comments
Polity: data on moral mandates in Europe
4.04pm
No comments
Education always gets good discussion. But after that the outrage about Key and Slater and snooping took hold. Outrage is easy. Slogging away at facts and examining policy, even briefly, with thoughtful opinion is vital. Polity on how our MMP might work out looks encouraging. So equal energy into strategy-in, matching out-rage, will fuel some good thinking and be sustainable for this hard year. Can we do it?
Just live with the fact that some posts are easier for people to comment on than others. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the more involved ones are overlooked/ unread or not making an impact. I’d put ‘Local Bodies’ post from today under the latter category – clear, concise, well written and…well, what is there to say beyond something like ‘I agree’?
..well, what is there to say beyond something like ‘I agree’?
I agree. Besides even the most righteous advocate of private charter education would have to be cringing at the He Puna Marama Trust’s charter school ticket clipping at more than 4x the cost of the state schools. Especially when they got the state schools to do the work and clipped the taxpayers ticket on the way through.
This is *exactly* what was predicted. And what Local Bodies was talking about.
Bill
It isn’t for me to live with ‘that some posts are easier for people to comment on than others’.
The point is that – can people drag themselves away from the Moral Outrage Rules OK!and Single-Issue approach in election year? Is there time taken to study whatever information is being gathered by dedicated people who want to understand the facts? There is a lot to think about and not just one way of going about everything as some here seem to project.
Perhaps we do need ‘likes’ for the comments so that those who do the work and present information, know that they have been looked at and the work read and absorbed, and importantly that interest has been taken, even if no-one feels it is necessary to respond with a plus, an icon or a comment.
By the way I like my new gravatar thing. Can I keep it?
The revelation from John Key re-conversations with Slater today was politically quite an important one. Mr Nice Guy Key, and his distance from the out-sourced right wing smear bloggers are a significant part of the Nat’s election strategies.
I thought it was important to record it for the archive (hence my transcript) because there is a danger it will slip away from public view – with some help from the MSM editors. I was trying to check John Key’s statements in the video today, with what he said on 3 News – last night I think. The 3 News video has already disappeared – and the link to it from Scoop now no longer works.
Sometimes it’s also important to have a record in the archive.
The ‘riot’ Odd Future are supposed to have incited is a joke, but the verbal abuse of one of their critics at a concert in Oz is more serious. Tyler the Creator harangued her as a ‘fucking bitch’ and dedicated a song with a line about punching a woman to her. This makes him a nasty character, but does it count as incitement to violence? I note he was not charged with incitement.
I don’t agree with the idea that verbally abusing someone in public should ipso facto be illegal; if it were, I’d be facing prosecution for shouting abuse of George Bush whilst burning his effigy in Queen Street in 2003.
We can debate the details of the incident in Australia, but what concerns me most is the apparently widespread belief that the songs of Odd Future are somehow ontologically distinct from a track like ‘Brown Sugar’ or a TV series like Breaking Bad, in that their producers and consumers are automatically considered supportive of their subject matter. I can’t see how such a belief can be based on anything but the paranoia about young black men that has been part and parcel of the War on Drugs.
Here’s a comment that Viv Kent, who wrote a superb PhD thesis on sexual violence at the U of A, put on fb after I posted a link to the blog post I did on Odd Future:
‘I was thinking exactly this, Scott – Stray Cat Blues isn’t exactly a ‘dramatic monologue’! ‘I bet your mama don’t know that you scratch like that …’ Frank Ocean is occasionally part of Odd Future, too, and he’s been lauded for his enlightened stance over bisexuality. I think the attack on Odd Future is racist.’
It’d be interesting to know more about Frank Ocean, and how the some of the more disturbing lyrics of Odd Future resonate with him.
Some “interesting” is happening with these Fairfax media polls.
On the 28th October they reported that “…National is also up two points … winning the backing of more than 50 per cent of committed voters.
… On the latest poll numbers National would win 63 seats in a 124 seat Parliament and be able to govern alone.”
Today they say that “A new Fairfax Media-Ipsos poll puts National on 49.4 per cent…On those numbers National would win 64 seats…”
My bold.
So can we infer that the previous peak of “over 50%” is now below 50%, a continuation of the downward trend? Or can we infer that Fairfax media don’t know how to convert vote share into seats?
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Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark A Gregory, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, RMIT University The telecommunications industry faces a major shakeup following the release of the post-incident report on last November’s 12-hour Optus outage. Telecommunications companies will have to share more information with customers during future ...
NZCTU Economist Craig Renney said new data released by Statistics New Zealand shows the need for Government to act now, with unemployment rising from 3.4% to 4.3%. ...
Asia Pacific Report Ngāti Kahungunu in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay region has become the first indigenous Māori iwi (tribe) to sign a resolution calling for a “ceasefire in Palestine”, reports Te Ao Māori News. Reporter Te Aniwaniwa Paterson talked to Te Otāne Huata, who has been organising peace rallies ...
By Dale Luma in Port Moresby “We want grants and not concessional loans,” is the crisp message from Papua New Guinea businesses directly affected by the Black Wednesday looting four months ago. The businesses, which lost millions after the January 10 rioting and looting, say they need grants as part ...
Happy May Day. Join a union. Q: What’s worse than a staff break room where the only place to sit and have a cup of tea is on a teetering stack of old pornography magazines? A: Your boss replacing the magazine stacks with chairs that are “heartily encrusted with ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Former opposition leader Matthew Wale has been announced as the second prime ministerial candidate ahead of the election in Solomon Islands tomorrow. He will face off against former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele, who was announced by the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation ...
We get but one birthday a year – why not make it last as long as possible by scheduling as many meals with friends and family as you can? This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. How do you celebrate your birthday? Do you celebrate at ...
A Koi Tū discussion paper released today proposes sweeping changes to New Zealand’s media industry. The principal’s key author, Gavin Ellis, explains how journalists have a key role to play in making others value their role in society. This is an abridged version of a piece first published on knightlyviews.com ...
The Government’s spending cuts are again targeting support for Māori with proposed reform of the agency charged with advising on Māori wellbeing and development. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Douglas, Honorary Senior Lecturer, UNSW Aviation., UNSW Sydney The history of budget jet airlines in Australia is a long road littered with broken dreams. New entrants have consistently struggled to get a foothold. Low-cost carrier Bonza has just become the industry’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rosalind Dixon, Director, Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, UNSW Sydney Australia is finally having a sustained conversation about violence against women and what we can do about it. It is more than time. Australian women and girls continue to experience ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne stockfour/Shutterstock Preliminary bulk billing data released this week shows a 2.1% rise in bulk billing up to March. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Schulz, Senior Lecturer, University of Adelaide Australia is once again grappling with how we can stop gendered violence in our country. Protests over the weekend show there is enormous community anger over the number of women who are dying and National ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University AnastasiaDudka/Shutterstock What if the government was doing everything it could to stop thieves making off with our money, except the one thing that could really work? That’s how it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin Harrington, Senior Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies, University of Canterbury The Conversation It seems to be a time of old favourites. This month our experts have recommended two new seasons – the second season of Alone Australia (although ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland A bright Eta Aquariid meteor photobombed this photo of comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN) in May 2020.Jonti Horner Meteors – commonly known as shooting stars – can be seen on any night of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Flannery, Honorary fellow, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock Current concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in Earth’s atmosphere are unprecedented in human history. But CO₂ levels today, and those that might occur in coming decades, did occur millions of years ago. ...
Winston Peters has been keen to dismiss speculation on our involvement in Aukus but will give a speech tonight on the direction of our foreign policy, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Usmar, Lecturer in Critical Media Literacies, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images With the coalition government’s ban of student mobile phones in New Zealand schools coming into effect this week, reaction has ranged from the sceptical (kids will just get ...
Hospitals around the country are not allowed to make a single hiring decision without the approval of Te Whatu Ora's head office, including for cleaners and administration staff. ...
A new report on protecting journalism and democracy in New Zealand recommends a levy be charged on global platforms like Facebook and Google to fund media firms undertaking public interest reporting. It also calls for the reinstatement of a powerful Broadcasting Commission to distribute public funding for journalism and other ...
On International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi and the wider union movement are celebrating the proud history of the labour movement during a tough time for working people. ...
From bills to beards, a walk through the former Green co-leader’s time in politics. After close to a decade in politics, James Shaw is preparing to bid farewell to parliament. Tonight will see the former minister deliver his valedictory address, certain to be a speech filled with Shaw’s trademark wit ...
Two months ago, MPs unanimously voted to give themselves a week off in Efeso Collins’ honour. On Tuesday, most were too busy to give even an hour of their time. The day Fa’anānā Efeso Collins died, parliament felt different. In a building that operates at a breakneck pace, everyone stopped ...
India’s election involves hundreds of millions of people and is a months-long affair. Here’s how voting works and what’s at stake.The biggest-ever election in world history started on April 19, with more than 10% of the world’s population eligible to vote. Elections in India, the world’s most populous country ...
Opinion: The impression from the carpark is very inviting. The area is well fenced but barred so there is easy visibility of loved ones. Inside, the spaces are welcoming and clean and staff are friendly and clearly comfortable. I am greeted by ‘Kim’. She has worked here for three years, ...
After the Christchurch earthquake, the then-national civil defence boss compared his experience to “putting a team on the rugby field who have never ever played together before”. Now, eight years later – and following a damning inquiry into the emergency response of cyclones Gabrielle, Hale and the Auckland anniversary weekend floods – ...
“I had just come off the end of a major robbery case which I had been working on for six months when I got a call on the afternoon of September 1, 1992, that some remains had been found at a building site in Devonport, so I drove over with ...
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Comment: Journalists are very good at telling other people’s stories, but they fall well short when writing about their own profession. Perhaps that is why it is so undervalued. Every successive poll on the public’s attitude toward journalism is more alarming than the last. In the last month we have ...
Opinion: A young Māori woman and her Pacific partner arrive at their local hospital by ambulance. She has gone into labour at just under 24 weeks, but the couple haven’t recognised the symptoms – and don’t know the risks of premature birth for their baby. By the time they arrive, ...
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Has anyone else noticed that while John has denied being a shape shifting lizard creature, he didn’t refute the allegation he is out to enslave us all?
And what if his true form is more akin to an amphibian than a reptile?
It is always hard to tell with xenomorphology of the dopplegangst.
Hence Lenin’s lesser known, and somewhat discursive for a monograph, piece: “On the xenomorphology of the dopplegangst capitalist class, and smoking opium.”
😉
Is this what it has come down to?
Bring back Jenny
@ jenny..
..um..!..no..!
phillip ure..
@ sanctuary..
..heh..!
phillip ure..
Can one start on the latter and then come back to the xenomorphology of the dopplegangst capitalist class,
It seems that ‘all’ might become far clearer with the help of a pipe of O…
Well it worked for the British in China so no reason why it should not work nowadays. Slippery has probably taken your suggestion on board.
” New Zealand bosses are upbeat about their business prospects in 2014 and the global economic outlook, even as they fear more regulation, a survey has found.
The PWC Annual Global CEO Survey shows Kiwi chief executives were more upbeat than their international counterparts.
Eighty-nine per cent of those surveyed said they felt confident about their company’s outlook and 91 per cent believed technology would be the biggest transformation trend to have an impact on their business.
Nearly two-thirds said the global economy would improve this year. ”
Nothing about how they will improve working conditions and raise wages. And anyone who says it will happen are BS-ing. These guys have no focus or time for their workforce. Workforce doesn’t even rate a mention in their upbeatedness… mentioned regulation again, so they can keep saying how hard it is in NZ when it comes time to reject pay increases.
“how hard it is in NZ”
never mind that were consistantly rated one the easiest and free-est places in the world to do business
Just saying what they have been told to say. No basis, justification or evidence needed for the survey as far as I know. If they say it often enough then people believe it.
+1
“Nothing about how they will improve working conditions and raise wages. And anyone who says it will happen are BS-ing. These guys have no focus or time for their workforce.”
Ain’t that the truth Sis. It’s a one way street, this “recovery”, or this “confidence”
which is why mr mapp ignores my questions when he describes good economic news… wont say when it will translate to good for closing the gap between rich and poor and increasing minimum wage. Despite all evidence to the contrary he hangs on tot he neolib manta…
Yes, I’ve seen those discussions………………He was probably sitting there with his hands over ears going “la la la! I can’t hear you!”
Just by chance recently came across a lovely gentleman from Wellington who often had tea with members of The Communist Party at his home during the Muldoon era.
Was interesting, and not surprising, to hear of his regular visits by police and spies to find out what he was up to. He oft took in sailors to stay with him on shore leave to ensure they had somewhere safe to stay and come back to while on leave and after each time he was again visited with demands as to whether he had been trying to influence them (towards communism). When traveling overseas he had to apply for special permission to come back to NZ.
He’s older now and undergoing cancer for treatment and thinking about writing some of this down I hope he does. The more light on this type of activity the better.
With the Dotcom saga going on, and various other events that have come to light e.g. Rob Gilchrist, it’s evident in this country there’s a long history of our government spying on it’s own people.
Indeed DOS. Although it doesn’t necessarily follow it was always our own spies. ASIS was very active in NZ in the 1960s and 70s at the least. To a lesser degree (perhaps) so was the CIA and MI5.
My late father had some experiences of surveillance activity in the late 60s and 1970s. He wasn’t a member of any Communist organisation but he did join The Russian Friendship Society. His interest in Russia (Soviet Union) was largely academic and had its origins in a Russian ‘adventure’ in the 1920s as a young British soldier. They had no evidence on him (because there was nothing there) but that didn’t stop the surveillance and other forms of harassment. Eventually it had repercussions for me too, so 20 years ago I made an attempt to get to the bottom of it all but with only partial success.
w i was at university there was a rumour that if you did russian lit, russian history or written language you were recorded on the Wanganui computer?
That would be right Tracey. My father also had a passion for Russian history, music and the language. Through the Friendship Society he subscribed to a Russian magazine which used to arrive in the letterbox in plain brown wrapping. I bet every last one of them was opened and minutely examined for secret codes etc. 🙂
And out of interest ASIS had a spy infiltrate the NZ Friendship Society. Her name was Wendi Holland (she went public about her spying activity in NZ 20 years ago) and her cover story was: she was born in Hamilton but her parents took her to Aussie when she was young and that’s why she had an Aussie accent. Dad used to talk about her and she seemed to have made a special effort to befriend him. He never did know the truth about her because he died before she went public.
I did Russian and american history…
Spying is not new. Spying is not gone. No generation ever believes their government would spy on them in a democratic country.
Reminds me of a job I did for a short period after leaving school in the late 60s. I was reading a book at work – I read widely on various topics, just to find out about the world. This book was on a history of Mao Tse Tung, I think – or something similar on communism. I was far from committed to any political ideology.
I was very surprised when I fellow worker had a quiet word in my ear during a lunch break. She thought I was very brave to be openly read a book like that at work. She talked of widespread surveillance of people into communism. I wasn’t sure whether this person was a bit paranoid and delusional or if there was some reality attached to her fears. Mainly I was just puzzled by her response which semed a bit over the top to me.
I was quite young, politically naive, and just believed in the importance of knowledge.
That was the tragedy karol. Your fellow worker was right. The paranoia and delusion lay with the spy agencies – encouraged and led by American McCarthyism. My father’s crime was actually a life-long search for knowledge, and any attempt to dissuade him from this passion only made him more determined to succeed.
McCarthyism was the continuation of a programme to justify taking apart citizens civil rights and destroy socialist thought and socialist thinkers. Now, the anti-red scaremongering has become anti-muslim, anti-terror scaremongering.
But the goals remain the same.
Ha. It was the other way around in the UK. If you did Russian Lit, language or history, it was rumoured you would be getting a meeting from a tutor offering you a job as a spy.
and then it became “if you studied at cambridge, you might be a spy” 🙂
All true DOS, a great little book “Seeing Red–Undercover in 1950s New Zealand” by one George Fraser, Dunmore Press, 1995, ISBN 0-86469-255-2 gives many verifiable details (names and places) of the NZ Police special branch and Early NZSIS from the view of a paid informant (Fraser) who later ditched by the service became an opponent of the SIS Amendment Bill 1977.
I know people involved with showing and distributing Soviet films who were approached to be quiet informers just passing on the odd snippet to their ‘handlers’. The old Socialist Unity Party was riddled with these types. The NZCP had an office in St Kevins Arcade Auckland at one stage and a physical line was discovered leading to a police station switch box.
The thing is it is now you do not need to be a commo or anarchist to attract attention just anything to do with exercising your democratic right to free speech.
It says something about the level of fear amongst the power elite, also how the security state apparatus has to continue to justify its own budgets and funding.
Just for the socialist out there, an interview which will make you smile, rage a little and I hope motivated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6BOvprpI6c
Yes it on RT.
And once you feel drawn out here’s part two to make you feel better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxNqDg1m46I
It’s always better with a few solutions thrown in…
And for the truly cynical out there – it is an interview with Chris Hedges, one hell of a great journalist.
re hedges..
+1..
phillip ure..
And for those so focused on NZ it hurts – This is happening everywhere.
http://dissentingdemocrat.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/killing-people-for-fun-profit-in-honduras/
The video is of poor quality sorry.
And here’s one I missed on Fukushima – just goes to show the military is not above being sold down the river by the corporations.
http://dissentingdemocrat.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/what-the-fukushima/
Didn’t Smedley Butler say that as a marine he was an enforcer for the US corporations? The rich have been selling out the military since time immemorial.
funny breakfast stuff..
..rawdon christie..(who has admitted he buys sugar-laden fizzy-drinks for..and feeds cups of caffeine/sugar(?)-laced tea to..his own children..)
..railed against the ‘nanny-state’ idea of a sugar-tax..
..phillip ure..
I’d ask him if he’d be more than happy to be later kicked from a hospital waiting list because people with diabetes have taken all the places?
@ amrite..
..aye..!..
phillip ure..
the banning of this rap group is complete and utter hypocritical/double-standard bullshit..
..phillip ure..
i hope immigration maintains some consistancy here…
..and will cast their banning-eyes over the upcoming tour by those aging junkie-nihilists..
..the rolling stones..
..i mean..they are clear that they have ‘sympathy for the devil’..(!)
..and what if they should sing ‘street fighting man’…?
..whoar..!
..fans may not be able to control themselves..!
(zimmer-frames may get lobbed at zambucks..)
..therefor..by any measure..(especially those used by the banners of this rap-group..)
..the rolling stones..are ‘a threat to new zealand public safety’..
..and we must be protected from them..!
phillip ure..
I’m against censorship of artists too. I’m not familiar with the exact contents of this groups ranting other than what’s been in the news, but it doesn’t sound healthy. I was thinking what would happen to me if I turned my amp up to ten and started shouting out obscene misogynist laden hate-speech in my neighbourhood. Would it be acceptable to say in my defence that I’m an artist and this is me expressing myself and should therefore be left alone to carry on? If my neighbours rushed to my defence and said they want to hear what I’m saying would that make it ok?
It sure is a grey area. I don’t even know if the gig is for over 18’s (complete with prior warning regarding disgusting content), or why people are remotely interested in such “art”. And if this stuff is not allowed then how come groups like Destiny church can get away with spreading their version of hate-speech?
The weirdest thing for me is why people are even interested in this “poetry”, but maybe I’m of the wrong generation to “get it”.
@ fender..
“..but maybe I’m of the wrong generation to “get it”..”
aye..!
and btw..rap is poetry..eh..?
..and i went to laneways..
..and i thought the best show there was from a rather large american rapper..
..he had the audience heaving..
..and if seeking an entree into rap..
..you could look back to yr generation..
..and explore the wonderful ouvre of one gil-scott-heron..
..as it is from him most modern rap flows..
phillip ure..
I know swearing and rebellion are attractive to the young, some of us never grow out of it, but what’s the attraction in hearing about gratuitous violence towards woman?
@fender..
..you could start with this doco..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVNORb4RvBw
phillip ure..
It would be a good subject for analysis, as to why free speech has come to mean so degraded a thing that shouted, hate-filled, violence encouraging, female despising stuff has become the banner of a mass of probably, young males. Who have communicated a lot of “vitriol”
to the person behind the group who complained about this filth.
Is it good to have this bottom-feeding bunch ready to be plucked and turned and issued with a cool uniform and handed a gun that really works and you can kill people with it, and learn cool technical stuff about it? As Bart said to the cop. Is that a club? No, no, was the reply.
It’s a baton. What do you do with it? We club people. From the mouth of a child the truth will come, or something.
The industrial mercenary, distanced from the seasons and quiet ways of the land, deprived of a thinking soul by the outpourings of a society saturated with trivia and manufactured glamour, and promises of tokens to get everything that crosses his mind, if he does what he’s told.
What a piece of work is man, how noble his reason….
Hey fender. I’m not familiar with “Odd Future” either apart from what I heard on 3news, where they published some of their lyrics. I also heard the organiser for an anti violence group (sorry I didn’t catch her name and the name of the organisation) has been sent death threats and rape threats from fans because she spoke out about the band coming to NZ.
Like you I’m wary of censorship and being the music fan I am have a room full of records and CD’s with what many people would find quite objectionable lyrics, within the songs, and on the cover artworks – but there is a line that shouldn’t be crossed and I feel those lyrics published last night on the telly, did just that.
I found them sickening and felt frightened by them despite the fact they are no tangible threat to me. For women who have been victims of sexual violence it can be really distressing to hear such threatening words, and no woman should have to. Those guys have some issues, and they need to get them sorted out.
I’m not that old but I fail to see the attraction in this vile style of lyrics. This article describes the reasons for their visas being revoked and sounds reasonable to me.
Like you I’m a music lover but I wouldn’t spend a cent on acquiring rubbish of this non-quality.
“Those guys have some issues, and they need to get them sorted out.”
+1 and thanks for your perspective.
Thanks for the link fender. From the audio: It was Denise Ritchie from the Stop Demand Foundation that I thought I heard on the radio this a.m who was the one that received threats, and indeed during the audio she did say the foundation had received abusive emails. I see that article was updated at 11pm last night so I’m not sure if there were developments since then or if I didn’t hear the news that precisely because it was early and I hadn’t had any coffee.
I’m not sure of any further developments but this:
“Unfortunately, the lead singer using his Twitter account and through some of the things he said on stage encouraged his fans to basically harass and stalk this woman. She received a lot of threats to her personal safety and, again, it’s not really behaviour we want to see here in New Zealand.”
…was enough for me to agree they shouldn’t be welcome, no matter who the woman that the threats were directed at is.
Apparently (ie, read somewhere in passing) it’s not the songs that are the problem but that they’ve started riots.
Bingo Drax, you posted at the same time as fender, re the above statement. The article fender linked above goes into the details of why they were denied entry and inciting violence was one of the main factors. Safety was a genuine issue.
Katherine Ryan having a interview on the electricity market prices and new renewable electricity production eg wind turbines.
The costing that will be required to support renewable electricity is $120 whatever and now it is $70-$77 whatever. So it is inevitable within the present system that we will have prices that rise by at least half. Can we afford to pay for all this and have to pay a profit to shareholders on each upgrade or new facility which will be like a tax on it. Has anyone ever suggested that shareholders’ demands are a tax which if too high are like theft? And further, that purchasers of companies can be just like scavengers and wrecking balls?
This is the ugly side of business.
Wikipedia says =
Electricity demand has grown by an average of 2.0% per year since 1974 and 0.4% from 2007 to 2012.
and
The national grid today has ageing infrastructure and increasing demand is placing significant loads on some parts of the network. Transpower is currently investing in upgrading existing lines and substations to ensure supply security.
Investments in new transmission are now regulated by the Commerce Commission. In a news release in January 2012, the Commerce Commission reported that Transpower was planning to invest $5 billion over the next 10 years in upgrades of critical infrastructure.[35]
and (just a reminder of past problems probably still ongoing)
The lack of diversity in the network is a further risk. Prior to 2013, all main transmission routes to Auckland and North Auckland passed through a single point in the network – Otahuhu substation.
High-profile grid failures have occurred in Auckland relating to its ageing and overloading network. In June 2006, the seven-hour 2006 Auckland Blackout occurred when a corroded shackle at Otahuhu broke in strong winds and subsequently blacked out much of inner Auckland; and in October 2009, a three-hour blackout of northern Auckland and Northland occurred after a shipping container forklift accidentally hit the only major line supplying the region.
Partly listening to Ryan today i didn’t hear which discussion i picked up upon one of the means that ‘business’ across all sectors of the economy is managing to gouge us the consumers with ever increasing prices,
This relates also to electricity prices,(but may or may not have been part of the same item on RadionNZ), valuation of assets is the book-keeping means of ensuring that we the consumer are always caught on the inflation spiral of raising prices,
The means of pricing of goods and services we would think would be simply a means of total costs of production plus X profit expectations being the means of arriving at the price for us the consumer,
Not likely, the thieves also known as ‘business’ now calculate profit expectations off of the value of their assets used to generate the production of whatever they sell,
SO, this means that the actual cost of production may fall or remain static, example: wages and ingredients needed for the production of a particular good or service have not risen, BUT, because of a book-keeping entry, purely theoretical i might add, the value of the actual machinery and building used in the production goes up and the current means of theft off of you and me then requires that the profit expectation has to rise in accordance with the subjective rise in the asset valuation,
Such profit expectations supposedly justified, not by rising costs to the producer, but based upon such subjective valuation of assets is simply voodoo economics…
bad12+100
I note that one of the big companies tried the scare tactic of “dont do power nz” or we cant afford renewable energy.
I have but, after due consideration, I’ve come to the conclusion that all profit is theft.
DTB
Don’t you think that is being too pure and narrow?
No. It is, quite literally, money for nothing. It’s why I call shareholders the biggest bludgers.
Jokeyhen says that he agrees that the Commerce Commission should look into the supermarket matter.
According to Wikipedia, the Commerce Commission is an independent body not a creature of the shape-shifter. Therefore the PM should say that the Commerce Commission will decide on this matter and leave it publicly to them. But he sees himself as King John the Cunning and the decider on every matter concerning the country.
Commerce Commission – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commerce_Commission
It is an independent, quasi-judicial body, established under the Commerce Act 1986. The purpose of the Act is to promote competition in New Zealand’s market …
Commerce Commission laws to be reviewed – English – Business …
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid…
Dec 10, 2013 – Bill English says the Govt will review legislation around the Commerce Commission – but won’t rein in its independence. Photo / NZ Herald.
Labour’s David Parker commenting clearly and sending a warning to English on scoop.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1312/S00212/english-should-support-commerce-commission.htm
David Parker
Spokesperson for Finance
10 December 2013
English should support Commerce Commission
Labour is calling on Finance Minister Bill English not to undermine the Commerce Commission, because it has a vital role in protecting consumers from price gouging.
Finance spokesperson David Parker says Bill English’s warning he will review legislation around the Commission after it ruled to cut wholesale copper-based internet prices, sounds like “sour grapes”.
“The Commerce Commission has a proper role to limit monopoly excess. Monopolies do what monopolies can. They extract excessive prices from consumers if they are not properly regulated.
The countdown is on, here is the lowdown;
Public protest against Strong/Under Arm Aussie Supermarket chain Progressive. Whangarei, today 4.pm till 5.30pm, Location, Outside Countdown, Town basin store.
We will kick it off against the Aussies, Foodstuff your next once your practices are exposed, we have had enough of being ripped by the Supermarket duopoly.
Skinny
It seems to me that, though Foodstuff be kept in mind, the Aussie problem through Countdown and Progressive is a case on its own because it is not just here, it is also in Oz affecting our products there and our manufacturing and processing jobs here.
Then there is the fact that the profit made here is owned by Australians and part of their economy. Also the fact that the Oz-owned supermarkets here are able to source items from their Oz base or suppliers, which they have threatened to substitute for NZ supply, and have used that as leverage when demanding that NZ prices be lowered till they meet their approval.
There are so many different ways that this Oz mega-business is screwing NZ that I don’t know why you should start on Foodstuffs, who have to compete with this foreign Ozymandias of stoney harshness.
a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Shelley
It is interesting to read of the real Ozymandias and the marvellous feat of work in stone that commemorates him in the desert. It is possible that that will be all that is left to commemorate Australia soon. What a pity if they suck all the lifeblood out of this country too.
In antiquity, Ozymandias was an alternative name for the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II. Shelley began writing his poem in 1817, soon after the announcement of the British Museum’s acquisition of a large fragment of a statue Ramesses II from the thirteenth-century BCE, and some scholars consider that Shelley was inspired by this.
The 7.25-ton fragment of the statue’s head and torso had been recovered in 1816 from the mortuary temple of Ramesses at Thebes by the Italian adventurer Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778–1823).
Wikipedia
Hi Skinny. Onya’s for protesting this afternoon – thats excellent. Never forget the Under Arm incident!
Now, sorry to be a bore but I have copied my rant about Foodstuff’s from yesterday’s Open Mike here. I am hoping that the spotlight will shine on them as well and I really hope suppliers come forward.
A”lthough Jone’s allegation that Countdown has been pressuring suppliers to meet the shortfall in profit when a line doesn’t “perform” is a bit out there, I’d fully believe it (and look forward to the truth coming out) going on my my experience working for a supplier to Foodstuff’s.
I have a feeling Foodstuff’s will be packing themselves right now, just a little………
Just a couple of example of lose/win scenario’s:
Suppliers pay all freight costs to get their goods to either the supermarket or distribution centre
Suppliers carry the cost of item’s specialed
Suppliers pay for putting in a display end – the space at the end of an aisle is rented to them for the time they carry their stock there, usually a week
Suppliers are often obliged to provide privately contracted poorly paid casualised merchandisers to fill the shelves when the order comes in – the supermarket keeps costs down on the cost of hiring permanent shelf fillers. (I’ve also gone on about the the disadvantages of merchandising, many times before so no need to repeat)
I can’t prove this or provide a link – it’s just from my experience of dealing with grocery buyers. All of the above is considered standard practice and Countdown does it too. But at least they aren’t actively engaged in Union busting and do have reasonable collective agreements in most stores and of course the distribution centres (covered that one last week)
Countdown is the enemy at the moment because of the Australian connection but were we to look into Foodstuff’s practices I wouldn’t be surprised if there were similarities in their way of doing business. Either way I hope investigations lead to recommendations to make it a more level playing field for suppliers and workers and ultimately to regulation to ensure it.
I do shop at New World to support our local suppliers and keep NZ profits on shore but really it’s the better of two evils. Otherwise I try to purchase some goods at our local organic shop which charges much less for some items.”
PS: My observations are from 2007, it will not have improved since then.
Sue Kedgely is also asking for an investigation into supermarket buying practices, for Coundown, plus for the supermakrket duopoly.
“but he said there wasn’t enough evidence to justify an inquiry at that time. ”
he means it hasnt got enough publicity yet
Thanks for posting that karol, lots of interesting reading in Kedgely’s article, none of which surprises me sadly. I miss having Sue Kedgely around. She was great at keeping on the case around food safety, farmed animal welfare as I’ve been reminded, supermarket trading practices.
And ew, I have to say some of the creepiest men I’ve ever had the displeasure of dealing with have been supermarket grocery buyers.
There’s several examples but one that is up there in category one creepiness was the buyer with the girlie pictures and calendars all around his office. (there were two sightings of offices with girlie pictures but this one particular man was awful). I was called into his office after waiting with the other reps in the waiting room queue.
As I entered I was a bit shocked and momentarily dazed by all the nudity and was wondering what kind of ERA clause this contravened. When I turned to him I gave him my best evil frozen glare and he just grinned and looked me up and down. I was so angry (and feeling a bit threatened) I was shaking but just had to get on with the job of selling a new line.
There’s a lot of women reps on the road and I wonder just how many lose their power on a daily basis because of dealing with men like that. These are not likely the kind of issues that will be uncovered during a Commerce Commission enquiry, if one does indeed go ahead.
I miss her as well. She was a breath of fresh air in political circles. in my opinion the two Sue’s Nandor and Keith were the life blood of the Green party and I despaired when the change managment team took over and reorganised the party in what they thought was the new future. The Greens are sorely in need of the kind of social activism those four brought to politics.
Sue Kedgely’s piece in paper today show that she is still following up on her passions she is just not getting paid for it.
I was out and about a few weeks ago and while waitng to see someone picked up some sort of food trade publication, had a bit signed by Katherine Rich in it, that actually discussed the behaviour of stores towards reps, merchandisers, in negative terms. Caught my attention as unusual for that sort of glossy pub. Can only infer that the behaviour has been pretty bad., . Can’t seem to source it on the internet though
John key made the following statement today about supermarkets and suppliers….
“‘‘Everyone accepts that when it comes to small suppliers and dominant supermarkets, there’s a power imbalance, and I suspect when the inquiry takes place there will be suppliers that say that they feel the pressure of that power imbalance. Whether that actually marries up to what Mr Jones is saying is quite a different issue.’’…
“Key told reporters said that New Zealand food producers reported to him that the supermarkets drove ‘‘hard bargains’’ but he believed that ‘‘by and large’’ this benefited consumers through lower prices, and nothing untoward had been drawn to his attention. ”
Now, think about individual employment contracts John.
It has enough publicity now, so John has a change of mind….
That’s great to know Rosie. I know some of that stuff, and believe you will be completely right about the rest. I suggested to Skinny that it seemed too big to take on everything at once. But when it’s ‘The Man’ you’re confronting, often your own people are as bad as the others.
I have talked to some of the merchandisers. One got a telling off from the boss and franchise holder as I stood near, for coming in too late, outside the time allocated. I thought she probably needs the money and has other commitments that she has to fit in, perhaps they overlap. She looked tired and it was sad to see, knowing the struggle that many people have to manage to earn and do all they need to meet the duties of their roles. (This was in New World too.)
Hi warbly. That’s nice that you spoke with the merchie who got the telling off. Yes, they often work several merchandising jobs to make ends meet and they work odd hours so jobs would overlap sometimes.
Cambell Live did a great job of highlighting Countdown’s shortcomings last night, as well as the interview with Jones, and the Countdown C.E, or whatever he was.
I hope they get around to looking into the poor working conditions of merchies and the whole business of supermarkets outsourcing their work on to the supplier. Although, I did see that in the case of Countdown you were charged an “administration fee” for having supermarket staff stock your product on the shelf, so another way of passing on the wage bill to the supplier.
Hi Rosie
I have thought of another thing I’ve heard of. That is, the supermarket may not allow the supplier to sell to anyone else, so that it becomes a straitjacket for their business. I don’t know what would happen if the supplier branched out under another brand. And if they did sell to others under their own brand, could the supermarket then sue them for breach of contract.
I was writing about the Treaty of Waitangi and which version of the Treaty was given prominence, English or Maori, and I remembered the contra proferentem rule which in international law, probably not in business law, in a dispute gives undue cognisance to the lesser partner, in a contract. So I wonder if they could take on the supermarkets whether the suppliers might be able to tilt the consideration their way, seeing it is a very unequal playing field.
Then there is the in house brand that copies a popular item that a supplier hs devised and built up, then it makes it for the s/mt, then the supermarket only stocks it’s own brand and then your brand is no longer seen, and the supermarket has acquired part of your business without paying anything. I think that happens often.
why would national give a shit, they favour bullying… they even practice it (Bennett… Collins)
small supplier in power differential with large supermarket = single employee in large company in a huge power differential
the fiood council is kinda like a union for suppliers… that council must be legislated against, surely?
Thanks Rosie, Greywarbler, Karol and others. Just doing my bit 🙂 your quite right about the loss of Sue Kedgely such a outstanding producer for the Greens and the Left. As pointed out she was the first to expose the supermarket racketeering 5 years ago.
Of course Trader Key and his cronies ideologically supported the scamming then and up until now, by pretending there hasn’t been anything untoward going on, apart from ‘robust’ negotiations.
Chalking today’s little number (protest & heat clip) as further erosion to Mr Invisibles teflon coated kit. All those toots & waves from his former voters in their posh vehicles, this was despite clearly visible Labour supporters in their LP tee shirts. Things are looking wonderful for the Left by today’s response from the punters.
Here is the video link below. If it was a film the credit roll would show Sue Kedgely as Key’s source of information. It’s pretty much word for word copying a SK recommendation. Note damage control Joyce checking Key gets his lines correct. Progressive Enterprises got a good tune up with the month long scrap over terms & conditions for employees, a great effort from a collective union campaign.
Foodstuff your on notice in this regard, I am hearing very disturbing tales of slave like terms & conditions for their employees. While I hear the Pak & Slave up the road having been boosting
about the upsurge in customers. Your turns coming soon!
http://m.tvnz.co.nz/news/top_stories/5831943
Good one Skinny. Pak’nSlave is an effective slogan with one letter.
Yes quite right your are!
From the Herald online this morning it appears that No-No Pay for teachers is still just that, and, after six month’s of Steven Joyce having taken over the troubled Novo-Pay issue it aint fixed but Mr Fixer in the form of Joyce has managed to keep such news suppressed from the public for the past few months,
Begs the question don’t it, just how far into the pocket of National are the New Zealand media…
Re-jig of National Radio. John Drinnan says:
“Shake-up an attempt to reverse broadcaster’s drift into irrelevance but changes stray into fixing what isn’t broken
Fingers crossed that Radio New Zealand chief executive Paul Thompson has corrected Morning Report’s drift into irrelevance.
Changes at Morning Report were confirmed this week and more revamps are ahead for other shows, as well as further steps to improve Radio New Zealand’s approach to the news.
One source described the new approach as “journalism rather than reporting stories”.
It would result in the public broadcaster being less “reactive”, says another insider, adding that problems in RNZ’s news coverage resulted from a combination of factors.
National Party media strategists had ignored RNZ because they wrongly believed its listeners did not vote National.
Radio NZ had responded with a too narrow focus on Nationals’ critics, the insider says……”
Funny if National Ministers start appearing on Nat Radio, in an election year?
Journalism he says will be the new look?
Watch this space!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11201729
Fingers crossed that Radio New Zealand chief executive Paul Thompson has corrected Morning Report’s drift into irrelevance….
‘reverse broadcaster’s drift into irrelevance’…
In my view, an important challenge will be to draw Cabinet ministers back to Morning Report, so it does not become overly focused on Opposition arguments. That should be easier in an election year.'(says John Drinnan)
‘Irrelevance’ what does he mean exactly? List 10 criticisms and examples.
What would be relevant? List 10 important headings and methods of achieving such relevance.
One source described the new approach as “journalism rather than reporting stories”.
It would result in the public broadcaster being less “reactive”, says another insider, adding that problems in RNZ’s news coverage resulted from a combination of factors.
What are the combination of factors? List ten in order of importance.
And what is the writer’s take on the difference of journalism as opposed to ‘reporting stories’.
No comments of interpretation, opinion allowed?
The stories would concentrate on giving the bare facts with no effort to set in context, indicate complexity, or background leading to the present happening – is that it?
National Party media strategists had ignored RNZ because they wrongly believed its listeners did not vote National.
Radio NZ had responded with a too narrow focus on Nationals’ critics, the insider says……”
There is that Royal Entitlement coming through. National is The Sovereign entity of NZ, and King John the Cunning its Prized Leader, and We Shall have control over every organ of information advising the populace of the correct understanding of everything they observe around them. And this will always indicate a positive viewpoint of all activity or non-activity in the country, for the sake of national unity and productivity.
Fingers crossed that Radio New Zealand chief executive Paul Thompson has corrected Morning Report’s drift into irrelevance….
Sounds a bit ominous to me. All that is missing is, and it is for your own good. You will thank us for cleaning it all up for the good of the people.”
And further on Radionz.
Looking at the John Drinnan piece that ianmac has links for. There are a lot of loaded comments that imply unrevealed information that Drinnan has.
Such as “entrenched bureaucracy” – does that mean people who have been a long time in their job with deep experience and knowledge and commitment to it. It sounds rather like a jab in the nature of people who have gone to sleep and are out of touch with today, which I don’t think applies to RadioNZ and probably no one person there.
More changes are to come. After a long period of paralysis under former CEO Peter Cavanagh, Thompson has made a lot of headway in a short time in an entrenched bureaucracy….
He understands the need for mainstream media to be a broad church, open to many views….
But across the day RNZ has not always delivered on those aims, in my view, ignoring large swathes of the potential audience. Sports coverage is an afterthought, for example, and small businesspeople hardly exist.
Sports are well covered, in an unbalanced way by Radionz I consider. Unbalanced because there already is too much of it. I don’t know what Drinnan is dribbling about here. It’s for commercial radio to give us the latest on the sports people, and their daily doings, and their highs and lows, their wins and losses and so stunningly boringly on…. Isn’t there even a sports radio station. Let them concentrate on that.
Instead we could have more about what is being done on the land. More Country Calendar type things in our agriculturally focussed country.
And what is Drinnan’s gripe here? After a long period of paralysis under former CEO Peter Cavanagh
I agree that I want to hear more from the beating heart of NZ commerce and what can be done to assist their continuation and expansion and employment opportunities. Though I already know quite a bit from listening to the station now, but want that expanded.
Prime Minister John Key has preferred patsy interviews on commercial radio over facing up to questions from the public broadcaster. Relations became particularly sour when Cavanagh adopted a bunker mentality over funding.
Another loaded comment ‘bunker mentality over funding’. As if Drinnan is writing just for people in the know, who will understand this term as if it was a code word. There is a back story here which needs at least another sentence to give guidance. Or would that be an example of journalism over mere reporting as mentioned elsewhere in Drinnan’s column?
Drinnan comments earlier that Nat pollies label RadioNZ as Radio Labour, and refers to Key snubbing them and instead fronting patsy questions on commercial radio. Yet if this is not satisfactory, why would Key want harder, more pointed questions on RadioNZ?
Does Drinnan consider that RadioNZ should be the ones asking the patsy questions? That RadioNZ should do whatever it needs to receive the PM’s attention and comments – ingratiate themselves maybe?
absolutely agree about the sport thing! you can’t get more narrow focused than sports. i couldn’t give a toss about any sport actually, it all seems the same to me, & there are other radio stations that play nothing but sport.
I am all in favour of the changes to afternoon programme the only thing I dislike is pushing Mora off on to Scarry Mary’s show. Is he an attempt to soften her interviews. A few of his laughs every time the subject gets serious should do the trick.
I would have dumped Mora and leave Mary show as it is.
As for the panel show. Dump that as well. It is just a vehicle for right wing to get more air time
Agreed Ron.
What on earth can Mora contribute to Mary’s first class programme ?
Nothing of any use.
Cannot understand RNZ’s move in this = crazy
I agree absolutely. Checkpoint is the only news I listen too because it is the broadcast news that isn’t full of trivia and soft interviews. Jim Mora has nearly all right wing people on his panel – it may as well be talk back for the amount of prejudice and misleading information that appears there. Josie Pagani claims she is left wing but she is at best middle of the road. If National Party MPs don’t want to be interviewed by Mary then that’s their choice. There are plenty of other avenues for them to have unchallenging interviews on other media.
i don’t think mora should go from afternoons..
..his show just needs a re-jig..and a panel cleanout/re-think..
..phillip ure..
“…Banning rap group Odd Future from New Zealand had nothing to do with the band’s lyrics and wasn’t a decision “made lightly”, says a Border Operations Manager…”
Am I the only person outraged that some low level pen pusher has the power to ban whoever they like for the Orwellian offense of being a “Threat to public order”?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11201747
“Immigration New Zealand said it didn’t ban them because of their sexually violent lyrics, but because they have incited violence during performances.”
“Ms Urwin said there was also an incident in Australia in which the rappers used a concert and Twitter to urge fans to harass a woman who objected to their act.”
“Unfortunately, the lead singer using his Twitter account and through some of the things he said on stage encouraged his fans to basically harass and stalk this woman. She received a lot of threats to her personal safety and, again, it’s not really behaviour we want to see here in New Zealand.”
RNZ
I’m quite happy for them to be kept out of the country and not allowed to perform, but I would like to see this by way of a union boycott on little scumbags who promote rape. I’d like to see Kiwis refuse to acknowledge their existence, maybe beginning with industrial action by airline staff. I’d like to see hotel staff refuse to book them in. I’d like to see female electricians cutting off the power to their microphones (It could always be connected to something else). Of course, none of that is now possible within the law because secondary action is prohibited. Just one more way that our governments have acted to prevent solidarity.
I disagree violently with the message of their music and have absolutely no desire to fight for their right to play it, not even to the extent of a mildly increased heart rate. I’d rather put effort into Teina Pora getting his message heard. Fuck them, but we should be the ones stopping them, not some low level pen pusher.
+1
Oh, so the PM and WO talk often then. Isn’t that a total non surprise with the tipline running hot and Ede’s cellphone and a top drawer full of dirt. Tricky Nats.
Incredible that a PM;
a. has the time;
b. behaves this way
This is not how a “leader” behaves.
Is there a source for Key’s statements, other than Jessica William’s tweets?
sorry, who is jessica williams…
See my comment here on the ‘Mindless questions’ thread.
Her ttwitterprofile says she’s political editor at Radio live.
This shows that Blubber Boy is a high level member of the Key regime, with ready access to Dear Leader. Who voted for him?
The other thing I noticed is how happy Key was in his little interview. He knows he’s arranged for plausible deniability.
and should you receive an email from one ‘david garrett’..(remember him..?..no..?..)
..don’t open it..
..virus-laden spam is being sent out in his name..
..(this has been a public service announcement..)
..phillip ure..
Xox
Radio New Zealand has been slipping into trivia, and becoming more tabloid and sensationalist with graphic details of violence at court cases. Hyping and increasing business emphasis. We now get the Ozzy share market report! How many of the general public are interested in this? RNZ needs a big shake up, but I am worried it will head the way of TVNZ, just another shallow, crappy broadcaster.
Would I be right in thinking that all the comments against the banning of Odd Future are being made by men?
It’s not that I’m accusing any of you of thinking like them, but you obviously don’t understand the constant fear that women in our society live with and how much it limits our lives. It makes it much worse when there is tacit approval of violence towards us by way of publicly acknowledging people who advocate it.
Unless you walk a mile in my shoes….
“Stop Demand emailed Auckland councillors, criticising the decision to allow the group to perform at the Western Springs event.
The email quoted several lyrics from Odd Future referencing rape.
Founder Denise Ritchie said yesterday, before the ban, the council should have made a stand against allowing the group to perform.
“It is astonishing that, in light of the nationwide outcry and soul-searching that arose over the Roast Busters’ incident, and the sexual callousness of some young men towards women, Auckland Council is about allow a group that glorifies rape and rape culture to perform on Council-owned property and at an `all ages’ event.””
Freedom of expression has consequences. Their music is available, just a show cancelled… running the risk of cancellation is one consequence of their choice of type of expression.
I have just been reserving judgement on this issue. I think the best argument I’ve seen so far against not banning them is that there is as much misogyny expressed in the MSM by others in various ways – OF is just one among way too many. Better to raise awareness about such expressions of misogyny wherever they occcur.
The reports about people advocating violence, including sexual violence, against a group that called for the banning is more worrying.
so..ban a black rap group..(easy..!..eh..?..)
..(there is one woman in the group..but hey..!..)
..but allow..on the same bill..
..a white eminem..?
..whose lyrics are arguably ‘worse’ than the rappers..?
..whoar..!
..and guess who’s coming soon..?
..the rolling stones..(..’under my thumb’..anyone..?..)
..this is about freedom of speech/censorship..
..and a long history of ‘white people’ being horrified by ‘black’ artists..
..and if a band/group can be banned..because some people/doris-from-fucken-palmerston-north/glenfield..don’t like their lyrics..
..it will be a long time between concerts..
..(personally..should celine dion/barry manilow threaten to tour..doing duets..
..i’ll be emailing/setting up facebook pages..)
..this is a joke..
..but not a funny one..
..and a special false-equivalence/pop-psychology award for those claiming those opposing this banning..ipso facto..
..must be supporters of rape..
..really..?
..are you serious..?
..phillip ure..
phil – where did I call for banning OF?
Try reading what I wrote before to go off all aggressive.
Agreed about Eminem and I was thinking to add a comment about them.
I wouldn’t ban them because of their lyrics. There are a whole lot of other artistes that could be banned on such grounds – as I said above.
I’m still reserving judgement because of reports about inciting violence, rape etc and other alleged incidents that have little to do with the actual songs/raps-
As here:
@ karol..misplaced comment..it was a general comment..not specifically directed @ you..
..apologies for causing misunderstanding..
..phillip ure..
accepted.
@ karol..
..kathryn ryan this morn had the perth incident being the lead singer from a band who supported of..not the lead singer of of..as alleged..
..and ‘we can’t be told’ exactly what they said..in america..to incite violence..?
..we don’t even get to hear the words..?..(would they ‘hurt’ us..?..)
..so..add those two together..and what do you get..?
..as a case mounted against of..?
..not much..
..eh..?
..phillip ure..
The suppressed police reports may have contained reports of actions not just words. Hard to know without the evidence one way or another.
RNZ does not specifically report that about the lead singer in it’s print reports.
Which interview was it?– sorry was loking at Morning Repot which has about 3 interviews.As I said, I’m reserving judgement – following the reports. Seems to me you are quick to defend the group, rather than wait to see all the evidence one way or another.
@ karol..ryan made the point in an interview-question..with the immigration appartchik who did the deed..
..um..!..anyway..all that to one side..
..historical reports of band-singers inciting violence..?
..a reason/justification for banning today..?
..ok..
..dave dobbyn..?..anyone..?
..most punk bands..?
..the rolling stones..?
..the list goes on and on..
..and as you yrslf admit..we have seen/there is no ‘evidence’..
..are they being banned for having a general/all-round ‘bad-attitude’..?
..and we haven’t had a moral panic for awhile..eh..?
.(.do you remember what the last one was..?
..no..neither do i..)
..so we must be overdue..
..and here it is..
..right on schedule..
..phillip ure..
phil – the charge was inciting violence against an individual – there is some evidence – I have yet to see evidence to refute the claim.
Waiting for more evidence.
International study reinforces the need for action against sexual violence
Carol Beaumont | 14 Feb 2014
A report in the latest Lancet indicates that sexual violence against women is common worldwide and is a pressing health and human rights concern, says Women’s Affairs spokesperson Carol Beaumont.
The report estimates a rate of 16.4% of NZ and Australian women being sexually assaulted at least once in their lives and that figure excludes assaults by intimate partners.
https://www.labour.org.nz/media/international-study-reinforces-need-action-against-sexual-violence
Kathryn Ryan interview with Immigration spokeswoman:
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ntn/ntn-20140214-0923-immigration_nz_denies_visas_to_us_rappers_odd_future-048.mp3
Says the band incited others to violence against an individual via twitter. Nothing about it coming from the lead singer from another band.
So is Tyler the Creator part of OF still or not?
Guardian article on the Aussie incident where Tyeler incited violence against a blogger campaigning against him.
She was at the concert when Tyler abused her and recorded it. Video at the link but it’s hard to hear what’s being said.
They’ve been refused a visa for the purposes of performing in NZ. They haven’t been banned (you can still buy their music right?). On what you have just described karol, and the other examples of inciting violence, refusal of the visa seems reasonable to me, given that their inciting of violence happens at concerts.
On the face of it they’re like kids who’ve had their way too much and have gone beyond the bounds of humane behaviour, and now someone is telling them to pull their head in. About time by the sounds of it. Artistic freedom, my arse.
+1
Artistic freedom comes with responsibilities, it’s not a license to be reckless.
Oh, smart move – so now it’s racism, not sexism!
Fantastic – reminds me of a guy I knew in the 60s from Nigeria who used to go on a racist rant every time a girl he tried to hit on turned him down at a party – can’t win can we!!!
@ jan m..
yr fascinating 60’s anecdote to one side..
..of course there are racial/race-fear undertones to this banning..
..and ‘sexism’..?
..you want them banned for their ‘sexism’..?
..bloody hell..!..
..which artists wouldn’t you ban..?
..using/on those grounds..
..and..just to give us some perspective here..
..care to list three or four of yr music-faves.?..(60’s lingo..see..!..)
..from those 60’s..?..or wherever..?
..phillip ure..
It seems the first recorded use of ‘faves’ was in 1938, but it either had a relapse in the 60’s or still hadn’t reached Dunedin by then – not part of my vocab then or now, I’m afraid.
In view of my initial comments I find your response specious and ingenuous, and if you don’t understand why perhaps have a chat with someone with a higher emotional IQ
@ jan m..
..a (sniffy) historical correction..
(and you obviously weren’t in with the in crowd..no ‘faves’..?..aww..!!..)
..followed by an ad-hom..?
..that’s all ya got..?
..right ho..!
..carry on..!
..phillip ure..
One who has a glass head should beware of stones
mmm!!!..’stones’…!!!
..’glassy stones’..
phillip ure..
and you spent the 60’s in dunedin..?
..you have my sympathies..
..not much ‘reached dunedin’..
..phillip ure..
The reason their visas were revoked isn’t because of their colour or their lyrics. Inciting riots, making threats via Twitter and on stage, plus encouraging others to threaten critics were the reasons given.
And Phillip, can you answer this ?
@ fender..
..answered above in response to karol..
..phillip ure..
Phillip, I was hoping you could answer this: What’s the attraction in hearing about gratuitous violence towards woman?
@ fender.
…i’ve never heard them..
..and that’s not the point..
..(nick cave/kylie minogue..?..that murder-ballad thing..?..
..he murders a woman on the edge of a river..and more..!
..now there’s grounds for banning..)
..and..who are yr favourite musical-artists..?
..should/shall we do a lyrics/life-sanitation exercise on them..?
..too..?
..this is about freedom of speech..
..if someone wants to come here and scream ‘fuck you’ continuously at the audience..
..and if people want to pay to see that..?
..i couldn’t care less..
.
..and neither should anyone else..
..and this comes from the exact same mindset that supported the banning of germaine greer when she came here..
..’cos she was ‘obscene’/swearing..
..the censors can just fuck off..i say..
..give them an inch..
..and they’ll take a fucken mile..
..phillip ure..
I can see your point, and as I said earlier I’m against censorship as such but there has to be some boundaries somewhere. (And remember they have been banned for reasons other than their lyrics)
I paint pictures, but if I exhibited works containing written (think McCahon) text about sick rape fantasies and violence towards woman, should I be allowed to, even if I was the gallery owner?
Reminds me of this fetus earring case. I happened to be a teacher with a group of students who we took to the Old Bailey when the case was beign tried. Sat in the gallery and watched some of the proceedings:
They were convicted and this was upheld on appeal.
Phillip probably won’t mind if I use his name when I sign them 😉
That band were refused entry for their homophobic hatred plus the group is well known for “their deeply, deeply offensive and sickening lyrics which incite their fans to cross the line to act out sexually explicit and violent actions against women.”
and also this
http://www.gaynz.com/articles/publish/2/article_14606.php
In one instance, a police officer was hospitalised following a riot incited by Odd Future.” It says the group and its performances are a “potential threat to public order.”
I suggest you get your facts right
risildowtg..
so why weren’t you out picketing eminem..?
..as he has far more of those lyrics..
..than odd future do..
..once again..
..you reek of hypocrisy/double-standards..
..phillip ure..
Gotta laugh
Especially @ Peter Dunne’s
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11201803
the-best-ever-tolkien/rings-critique…ever..
..reportedly from his compatriot..the poet w.h. auden..
“..When told that Tolkien has written a new book –
– he replies:
“Really?
More fucking elves – I suppose..”
phillip ure..
Jeeeeez P.U! The ‘nicest man on Earth’ just read out one of your emails and deigned to acknowledge your planet on this erf.
I hope you’re feeling priviledged. Might be time to tackle the world’s most work-life balanced regular gal Rinny. (Make some allowances though – she’s Kethluk, with a view of the world that makes her think she in-touch with the real folk).
If you strum up a good enough relationship with her – you could even get a ‘spot’ on NointaNoon (provided, that is you don’t displace any other of the “go-toos” her and producer have on their list)
Gorgeous Darling
Philip its about the rise of neoliberalism and only has t/rollz.
Syrlands BM Damien grunt have all been contracted and shonkey is the shapeshifty meglomaniac reptile .
Why do we ban black musicians, but not the Stones?
http://readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2014/02/after-odd-future-shall-we-ban-rolling.html
I’d suggest that even if the issue were as compartmentalised as you suggest (and didn’t involve real-life incitement to violence etc) the key difference is the obvious delineation (or lack thereof) between the artistic character assumed by the performer, and the honest attitudes of the performer. Not ethnicity.
Haven’t heard of The Stones inciting riots.
taking the piss? altamont….but i guess that was 40 years ago & they hardly incited i guess. but still, long bow could be drawn & all that.
a long bow? More fucking elves.
weka
😎
Monterey – 1969. Hells Angels hired as security by the Rolling Stones. Whole thing apparently a clusterfuk and the Angels killed a concert goer.
Maybe not ‘inciting’ a riot per-se, but,fuck, y’know?
Yeah, and in 2054 Odd Future will be welcome to apply for a visa with their history of not inciting riots for 4 decades.
I can’t remember the details of what happened at Monterey, and to what extent the Rolling Stones were culpable. That aside, there is a clear case this week of a band that in recent times intentionally incites violence against women. It’s not an accident or mismanagement.
it was altamont…
..montery was the pinnacle of hippiedom/peace ‘n love..
..still a great video to watch..that montery one..
..here ya go..
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=monterey+pop+festival+1967+full+movie&sm=1
phillip ure..
ta.
chris knox cutting himself on stage..?
..hello sailor going on stage smacked out of their heads..?
..where do you draw the line..?
..and i love/laugh at the current moral-panic about justin beiber..
..beiber is drag-racing rental cars..(now..c;mon..!..who hasn’t done that..?..)
..and is smoking pot..(say no more..)
..care to look back at the previous decades cavalcade of excess-lives lived by rock stars..etc..?
..then you realise just how tame beibers scting out is..
..phillip ure..
Concerns about rape culture aren’t moral panic. This isn’t about morality. It’s about some people using their privilige to damage other people.
You mean Altamont and the whole day seems to have been a cluster fuck but not, specifically, due to anything the Rolling Stones did.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/lightbox/national/politics/9723185/PMs-Whaleoil-friends?KeepThis=true
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9723130/Looks-like-Slater-is-Keys-Peters-source
So Key has admitted that he speaks to Whaleoil regularly and that it was his source for knowing Peters visited KDC. Anyone surprised?
Sorry if already posted elsewhere.
Thanks Tim. Wonder where Mr Slater got his news from?
Green Party announcement of their new energy plan on Sunday, to be live streamed.
Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand
Join us online this Sunday at 1pm
Green Party Co-leader Russel Norman will announce a key plank of the Green Party’s Election 2014 energy policy this Sunday, as part of his keynote address to the Green Party campaign conference in Auckland. “People are paying too much for their power. Electricity prices have gone up 22 per cent under the National Government. The Greens are committed to fixing this, and delivering cheaper, cleaner, safer power to New Zealanders,” said Dr Norman. The announcement will build on previous energy announcements from the Greens, including NZ Power, which will fix the broken market by creating a single buyer and save families around $300 a year. Dr Norman will also look back at the Green Party’s achievements outside Government, and discuss prospects for Election 2014.
http://new.livestream.com/nzgreens/events/2766975
I was a bit concerned about further news about RadioNZ and what the journalist John Drinnan meant. Ianmac supplied the link with his comment in Open Mike.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14022014/#comment-772654
Not many people seem to have commented.
But there were many comments about the banning of a vicious-mouthed bunch who spew hate, and encourage violence. This was largely fuelled by phillip ure, and he always is interesting. But not more important than Radionz and whether it might be spayed or castrated or not.
Then there was a lot of interest in Key and that he spoke about being in regular contact with Cameron Slater. (Verbal I am sure.) Everyone likes letting off steam at those two.
There is a lot to keep an eye on and discuss this year. If we get exercised about fleeting matters, and attention goes onto, sexual matters, pollies sleaziness, and other normal aberrations, we will end up with even more of
the same at the end of the year.
These are the topics that got discussed today with numbers of comments at about 7p.m.
Rotten
Key & Cameron Slater 4.30pm
98 comments
Dotcom Snoopers
4.19 pm
31 comments
Polity: data on moral mandates in Europe
4.04pm
No comments
LB: Rich Schools Poor Schools
3.33pm
2 comments
Herding Cats: Leadership, authoritarianism and Nationals “education”? policy
12.05pm
66 comments
Open Mike
7 am
135 comments
Education always gets good discussion. But after that the outrage about Key and Slater and snooping took hold. Outrage is easy. Slogging away at facts and examining policy, even briefly, with thoughtful opinion is vital. Polity on how our MMP might work out looks encouraging. So equal energy into strategy-in, matching out-rage, will fuel some good thinking and be sustainable for this hard year. Can we do it?
Just live with the fact that some posts are easier for people to comment on than others. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the more involved ones are overlooked/ unread or not making an impact. I’d put ‘Local Bodies’ post from today under the latter category – clear, concise, well written and…well, what is there to say beyond something like ‘I agree’?
..well, what is there to say beyond something like ‘I agree’?
I agree. Besides even the most righteous advocate of private charter education would have to be cringing at the He Puna Marama Trust’s charter school ticket clipping at more than 4x the cost of the state schools. Especially when they got the state schools to do the work and clipped the taxpayers ticket on the way through.
This is *exactly* what was predicted. And what Local Bodies was talking about.
The Local Bodies post also has some important corroborating links, backing up his arguments.
Bill
It isn’t for me to live with ‘that some posts are easier for people to comment on than others’.
The point is that – can people drag themselves away from the Moral Outrage Rules OK!and Single-Issue approach in election year? Is there time taken to study whatever information is being gathered by dedicated people who want to understand the facts? There is a lot to think about and not just one way of going about everything as some here seem to project.
Perhaps we do need ‘likes’ for the comments so that those who do the work and present information, know that they have been looked at and the work read and absorbed, and importantly that interest has been taken, even if no-one feels it is necessary to respond with a plus, an icon or a comment.
By the way I like my new gravatar thing. Can I keep it?
The revelation from John Key re-conversations with Slater today was politically quite an important one. Mr Nice Guy Key, and his distance from the out-sourced right wing smear bloggers are a significant part of the Nat’s election strategies.
I thought it was important to record it for the archive (hence my transcript) because there is a danger it will slip away from public view – with some help from the MSM editors. I was trying to check John Key’s statements in the video today, with what he said on 3 News – last night I think. The 3 News video has already disappeared – and the link to it from Scoop now no longer works.
Sometimes it’s also important to have a record in the archive.
It looks like the PMs $30m gift to Rio Tinto has come back to bite him on the butt.
It did increase their profit by 0.8%, so it’s all worthwhile.
As Key is finding, it’s not the amount but the fact that the money was given when they obviously didn’t need it.
Yeah, that was a joke.
The ‘riot’ Odd Future are supposed to have incited is a joke, but the verbal abuse of one of their critics at a concert in Oz is more serious. Tyler the Creator harangued her as a ‘fucking bitch’ and dedicated a song with a line about punching a woman to her. This makes him a nasty character, but does it count as incitement to violence? I note he was not charged with incitement.
I don’t agree with the idea that verbally abusing someone in public should ipso facto be illegal; if it were, I’d be facing prosecution for shouting abuse of George Bush whilst burning his effigy in Queen Street in 2003.
We can debate the details of the incident in Australia, but what concerns me most is the apparently widespread belief that the songs of Odd Future are somehow ontologically distinct from a track like ‘Brown Sugar’ or a TV series like Breaking Bad, in that their producers and consumers are automatically considered supportive of their subject matter. I can’t see how such a belief can be based on anything but the paranoia about young black men that has been part and parcel of the War on Drugs.
Here’s a comment that Viv Kent, who wrote a superb PhD thesis on sexual violence at the U of A, put on fb after I posted a link to the blog post I did on Odd Future:
‘I was thinking exactly this, Scott – Stray Cat Blues isn’t exactly a ‘dramatic monologue’! ‘I bet your mama don’t know that you scratch like that …’ Frank Ocean is occasionally part of Odd Future, too, and he’s been lauded for his enlightened stance over bisexuality. I think the attack on Odd Future is racist.’
It’d be interesting to know more about Frank Ocean, and how the some of the more disturbing lyrics of Odd Future resonate with him.
Latest Fairfax Media-Ipsos poll puts National on 49.4 per cent against 31.8 per cent for Labour and 10 per cent for the Greens.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9724511/National-on-wave-of-optimism-poll
Some “interesting” is happening with these Fairfax media polls.
On the 28th October they reported that “…National is also up two points … winning the backing of more than 50 per cent of committed voters.
… On the latest poll numbers National would win 63 seats in a 124 seat Parliament and be able to govern alone.”
Today they say that “A new Fairfax Media-Ipsos poll puts National on 49.4 per cent…On those numbers National would win 64 seats…”
My bold.
So can we infer that the previous peak of “over 50%” is now below 50%, a continuation of the downward trend? Or can we infer that Fairfax media don’t know how to convert vote share into seats?