‘An apparent Jeremy Corbyn supporter has created a website detailing The Guardian‘s most anti-Corbyn headlines of the past two years.
Quite a list…….
The website, called Dump The Guardian!, gives 36 examples of times when the paper has run negative stories about Corbyn. Some of the examples featured include…’
I’m sure similar lists could be made for Espiner and Ferguson on Morning Report.
To see the bias on the Herald, ZB, Stuff and Garner’s awful show, you need to look at Murdoch’s garbage for a comparison.
What are the real issues Ed? Why attack a journo then? Perhaps you could state why this National led gov’t is keen on stopping any info coming to the public’s view concerning Auckland’s rail report.
Good questions but the point of eds posting is esoteric – personally I’d prefer 1 link with some original comment or thought but that ain’t the way ed rolls. Forcefed or nothing – but the plaintive cries will soon come out from ed…
It takes all sorts and ed is included so take it all with a grainary of salt ed ☺
The good thing is that these newspapers can’t win by keeping with this trajectory.
With the proportion of young people in the UK voting Labour and the proportion of old people voting Conservative, the newspapers are pandering to a population that will be dead in 10-20 years (and a minority even sooner) … and so will the newspapers if they don’t change.
BM
There is nothing that I despise more than some supercilious creep like yourself who skates on thin ice and knows just how to manipulate the blog, making moderating type criticisms like a smart alec. And what drives you mad apparently is someone who is concerned about many issues. Too much information! Makes your synapses pop apparently.
I see Joyce hasn’t learnt his lesson offered up in Nationals loss to NZF Leader Winston Peters.
Joyce was snapped last week with some of the Hundertwasser fund raisers.
After previously receiving substantial Government funding it now looks like further taxpayer funding is coming from his Govt through the heritage fund. It is what it is ‘more pork barrel politics with an election coming up.
Here the RNZ interview. Incredible given Joyce is on record saying no more taxpayers money. Must not be going well for Shane Reti if he has to do a flip flop. Expect WP to be laughing about it; http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201847467
‘One in nine NZers hit by ‘significant income fall
A joint study by Deloitte and Victoria University’s School of Government has found one in nine New Zealanders will experience a significant fall in income in any given year.
Lower to middle income earners are even more vulnerable, with the odds dropping to one in six.
Report co-author and Deloitte partner Dave Farrelly said the odds of being caught in serious financial strife surprised him.’
Considering the earthquake risk, is it wise for Wellington city to build upwards?
Is Wellington really constrained in its ability to grow out ? There seems to be plenty of scope for growth between Wellington, Kapiti and the Wairarapa rail corridor.
Would it not be more beneficial for council to buy buildings rather than lease?
Developers would be looking for long-term leases and the guarantee of income, yet it is expected that the housing provided will be cost neutral for ratepayers in the long term. However, if council decided to buy instead of lease, it would not only be cost neutral, it would also result with council owning new assets.
On Daily Review last night swordfish posted a great link on the Yougov detail of how/who voted in the UK. Fascinating. (Hope you don’t mind swordfish.)
Maybe (low income) Labour voters are more likely to die quite young? the UK health system, no longer being comprehensive care for all from cradle to the grave.
All the oldie voters I know in the UK, would never vote for the Tories.
This is a bit of self-indulgent narcissism – so feel free to disregard it – as many will, I know.
And I wish to make absolutely certain I still intend to work for the Labour Party to become the government in September.
So, what I’m talking about is a sort of cathartic moment – when the darkness dawns and the light goes out.
Let me explain. I attended a meeting in ChCh for Labour party workers, and Andrew Little spoke to the troops – preaching to the converted.
What I should have heard was a vision of what NZ would become under a truly progressive Labour-led government. A moving image of equality and fairness, a sharing of the wealth of the country among all its people and a determination to tackle the really big issues facing this country.
What I heard was a prescription for better administration – for neoliberalism with a smiling face. Waiting lists would be tackled, houses built, NEETs given training and so on.
All worth working and fighting for – but so so limited, so so mediocre! So so lacking in real willingness to fundamentally change any damn thing!
Frankly, I was deeply disappointed. But perhaps the fault was mine – perhaps I expected too much of a Labour Party still mired in the muck of Rogernomics?
Yes you are right Tony you did expect too much. If you have ever tried to move forward when standing in the mire in your gumboots, you will know how hard it is to lift them out and move forward. Rogernomics has led us deep and left us there.
What you would have liked to hear was a big picture, full-colour cenario but you know talk is easy, and if Andrew Little is going to provide services, tackle problems, housing, etc. actually DO SOMETHING INTELLIGENT AND POSITIVE. that will be 100% better than Dr Dolittle’s government of strange animals which we have now.
So buck up Tony, it will be a brighter future, but in winter the sun rises later in the day and then we rejoice to get it. We have been in the winter of our discontent so long that small amounts of regular sunshine will start a NewZeal Spring.
You’re not on your own Tony V. I went to a Greens meeting recently and felt just like you did. There’s no fire in their bellies, their meetings are just a 101 introduction. They don’t even have enough faith in themselves to call out neoliberalism for what it is.
I don’t think we are expecting too much, I just don’t think the talent is there.
@ garibaldi (8.2) … the Greens lost the fire in their bellies, the day Russel Norman left Parliament. Even Meteria Turei is a diluted version of what she once was. She used to spit hell, fire and brimstone at the Natz, alongside Russel. But not anymore now. The spirit seems to have gone out of the party with the fire. Pity.
Rod Donald must be turning in his grave to see what the Greens have come down to now, a murky shade of blue!
@Tony Veitch (not etc), garibaldi, you probably are right about Labour piecemeal messaging, too many policy wonks, and power points and not enough activism, but what is the alternative, they can hardly be worse that National and ACT!
Little is more cunning that everyone gives him credit for. He’s trying to navigate his own neoliberal MP’s, the shark Natz, dirty politics and the voters, many of whom still believe the MSM myth that the NZ economy is doing great guns! I’m just hoping that Labour don’t get the same nightmare advisor/management team that Cunliffe used with Vote positive, somewhere between an insurance slogan and mirth.
Also there are some good people in the Green party – Gareth Hughes and Barry Coates are still activists and deliver new ideas and speeches.
Yes saveNZ we know we have to vote for them because there is no alternative.
There are good people in Labour and the Greens but they get no exposure because of ‘discipline’.
“Boring” will not beat the Natz.
Corbyn got through to the people. There’s so much we could learn from Brit Labours campaign but we’re too proud/stupid/ignorant, or just too mired in neoliberalism,to do so.
no-o I think solid work by an mp shows through in the end.
And discipline in caucus is a shedload better than the post-clark Labour caucus bullshit. It just poisons the entire well: even the good mps have to start backstabbing in self defense – politics being the only pasttime that comes to mind where a backstab can actually be self defense lol
I think the way Natz dirty politics is steering the discourses is very cunning too. They are keeping the lefties focused on Labour and Greens messaging and their gaps… while superficially mimicking similar messaging. But under the covers the National party actions are actually very FAR RIGHT, not like Labour at all. It’s very far right, media control, state official controls, cronyism, deregulation of everything from environment to state assets, destruction of the welfare state etc.
The trick is not to bother with National messing or the Ministry of Truth propaganda and just look at what the Natz are up too not believe their press releases.
Like Trump, National’s policy doesn’t actually doesn’t make any sense – like some deranged is at the helm, homeless in expensive hotels, state houses being sold off or empty and then government paying more money to build less houses to private developers, buying fake carbon credits while promoting 100% pure NZ, building dams in areas that are prone to drought and making it worse by catching the water to get more water intensive business at the drought prone spot, giving water away for free to foreign interests, having zero tax havens that you don’t have to declare who owns the money… while using NZ respectability to mask it. Giving casino’s state money, even giving them TVNZ space to put a conference in, that get’s more gamblers here, sending millions on sheep to Saudi businessmen to die in a desert in the hope they might impress someone somewhere to give them a trade deal. Perservering with the zombie TPPA when even the US has pulled out, mass surveillance, having our SAS kill civilians in Afghanistan but pretending it didn’t happen….
The trick is to say to yourself – I wonder what the NZ mafia are up to now? And then keep tally life Blip did with Key. Just noting how the political machine shapes the once reasonably healthy NZ society so it is bulimic, it looks like a country but it’s real sick, though that’s not on show.
I remember the days when Corbyn campaigned for his initial Labour leadership bid. He was challenged during an interview that he obviously wasn’t interested in financial contributions to his party by wealthy donors. His answer was (not verbatim): “Well I am very interested in their contributions, but I don’t want small donations to the party, I’ll make them pay their fair share of tax instead”.
Evidently Corbyn’s campaign was financed with lots of small donations of 22 pounds each.
The much-mocked Corbyn had a very clear plan from the very beginning. “The politics of hope are not an inevitable reaction when politics fails,” he declared in a speech at the London School of Economics in May 2016. “The politics of hope have to be rebuilt.” Rebuilding, the Labour leader explained, required three things. First, “a vision to inspire people that politics has the power to make a positive difference to their lives.” Second, “trust – that people believe both that we can and that we will change things for the better.” Third, “the involvement and engagement of people to make the first two possible.”
1. Coal’s quickening demise, even in China
2. Diesel use in China declining fast as the economy becomes less oil intensive
3. Global carbon emissions are stabilising
Won’t necessarily save the world of course.
Just a good set of patterns for carbon use.
Coal isn’t the only fossil fuel at risk. Because of the rapidly improving performance and cost of batteries, Barry is “bullish” on electric vehicles. And as a result, he is bearish on oil demand, noting that “there was always this historic view on oil about peak supply but it’s about peak demand being an equal dynamic.” BNEF and the credit rating agency Fitch have made similar warnings.
It really does look like fossil fuels are on the out.
Of course we could, and should, have started that decades ago. The problem of leaving it to ‘the market’ is that it’s taken far longer than it should have.
“But some are already saying this year’s final could be overshadowed, perhaps even marred, by the fact the America’s Cup is a terrible, overly complicated, comically litigious excuse for a sport where the winner makes the rules – often for their own benefit – and nobody in the world actually cares about it anyway.”
I know, td. Yachts have feelings too. Fact is, I’ve one parked in the back yard and I know it’s yearning to get back in the lake. The Civilian post is funny though…
Our sailing history stretches back as far as we do. Most vehicular sports burn oil or calories, you race yachts sitting on your bottom while holding a stick and a rope. Being good at it requires a tuned sense of balance and an ability to read nature. It’s fun if you’re that way inclined.
Interesting that the hot-rods they’re racing in Bermuda are based on the twin hull design that Kupe showed up in, not the whaling barques that tied up centuries later.
The learn to sail fee at Taipa Sailing club is about $100. If that’s a bit steep I’m sure a couple of big Bacon and Egg pies for the family BBQ at the end of the month will do the trick. Sailing is not elitist, it’s available to everyone that wants to have a go. It’s one of the neat things about living in NZ.
Yep, sailors and fans want to watch the very best the world has to offer, the pinnacle of the game. Of course, the kids tootling around off Taipa…if you think the Bermuda Cats are boring…. Same with all sports, golfers don’t want to flick on Sky and watch the Helensville Open. They were just playing in the Muriwai Open.
This is as big as this sport gets, kids that started with tipping little sailing dinghys over on Lake Pupuke are duking it out with the very best in the world. Our competitors have a bottomless budget. I think it’s cool, I’m digging it, but if others are not interested, that’s cool too.
After becoming becalmed for an hour on Lake Te Anau during a race, I know what boring is; frustration too. I’ve no objection or opinion about those who like to watch high-end yacht racing but would baulk at the level of reporting it gets (apparently) in the mainstream media, though not having a tv means I’m not subject to that, nor news of the Lions. I feel blessed.
Becalmed is ok provided competitors are as well. When in the only zero pressure spot in the bay, frustration becomes a clubhouse ribbing.
With regard the level of reporting I see it in the same light as all lead stories, we get the media we deserve. Kiwis doing well on the world stage imparts a sense of accomplishment for recipients that need never leave the couch. “We’ve Won”.
I wonder which headline would get the most clicks? “House Prices Rise.” House Prices Stabilise.” or “House Prices Down.”
The one that gets the most clicks, that’s what we’re going to get.
Don’t you watch pirate live streams on your comp for sports Rob? (just nod, don’t type,)
Go the Middle Eastern Muslim Country Airline Team!
Too much emphasis on competition and big money spoils it for me, After the learn to sail at Taipa, it’s learn to race. That cuts out a few potential sailors.
Hi, love your name. I like those Twiss bronzes at the city end of the bridge.
I acknowledge that there is a mindset that views competition as de-constructive. I don’t. I think it is nature. All creatures and plants compete.
I also acknowledge that there is a view that would state “So you are no smarter than an ant or a lettuce huh Dave?”
I race myself. I set my phone stop watch and set off down to the letterbox, check it, work hard back up the drive, back into the office and loudly declare “I beat myself.” A racetubator. I figure I’m not hurting anyone and if someone else wants to race with me, I’m up for it. I think competing is a natural wholesome unavoidable pleasure in this day and age. it used to be about staying alive.
I still sail racing dinghies (not expensive) quite keenly. Sailing is a weather-dependent sport, like skiing or surfing. It can be heaven, but on some days it is better not to sail. I think that nowadays there is far too much emphasis on training. The emphasis should not be on how to win, it should be on how to enjoy sailing your boat. Before the days of intensive training we went out and did what we enjoyed doing. Sad to say, that is now a foreign concept for most trainees. They come in after training OK, but not with that light in the eye we oldies used to have after some really exciting blasts on a reach – something that simply does not exist in our current training programmes. Grafton Gully is right. Our sport is the poorer for it.
Yeah, if you’re that way inclined why join a sailing dinghy club? Those cats just go sailing. They are the majority.
Youngsters, particularly boys, naturally compete. Trying to get to the buoy first is a whole lot more attractive when you’re 15 rather than 50. Those tacking kids leap from side to side like coil springs. Bugger that.
Kids racing between buoys is not the ruination of yachting.
I think this change in attitude is a result of professionalism in sport. It is approached as a way to make money/have a career, rather than something you do for pleasure/escapism.
The America’s Cup was THE LEAD STORY on TVNZ One news last night. IMHO, nothing could more neatly illustrate the upper-class news values, class bias and neoliberal echo chamber of TVNZ.
A sport dominated by rich whites, viewable only on pay TV, and of interest primarily to a boat-owning segment of the middle class, led the news. What next, leading with Polo and a report on the this year’s fox hunting in Victoria?
90,000 young people neither in education or employmnet is scarcely reported upon. An elite sport for the idle rich? HELL YEAH!
Tally-ho! I’m with Sanctuary. Amazing, those yachts, technological marvels, poetry in action, but so’s a butterfly and I’d squash every yacht if it would ensure the survival of butterflies. Trouble is, we are moving in the direction of Save the Yachts, damn the butterflies.!
How do you feel about the business of exploring space Robert? Let’s go to some really remote place, unspoiled by people, and have a look at it just because we can, better than going to Antarctica, everybody goes there.
Planting trees in the desert was a post WW2 immense project to help stop the creeping desertification and many have been planted. But no we must have more fuel so we can go to somewhere special in space that we can brag about where movers and shakers congregate.
we should be invading space at full speed for many reasons ,
long term survival,
because it would be interesting ,
why not,
because young people have nothing much to get excited about , the rough necks of the world like me die inside at the thought that life is all about safety and mortgages.
it would /could unify the human race
So throw the health and safety books away and fire leaky rafts off into space and learn from the survivors.
bwaghorn
I have thought it would be an interesting end of life odyssey for adventurous old people to have ‘tours of duty’ to foreign lands where our allies or others have laid land mines. It would be dangerous, even knowing the techniques for safety wouldn’t stop the occasional death. But those times you know the value of being alive and alert. Here drones would be useful.
Once one had got old and bored why not be a hero and help some poor benighted people to have some land and growing area for their village on once dangerous areas. And help people not just amuse your own curiosity with boyhood fantasies. Read the space fiction, watch it on screen, live the taught excitement of this ventureon the Earth.
your idea is better than dribbling on oneself in a corner waiting to be euthanized .
Sci fi is often sci fact ,if you hang around long enough ,and the fact that i won’t is my only thing i hate about being mortal
I’m guessing you’ve just read Joe Bennett’s just-published article, ” What to do next after we reach Mars?”, Grey. If not, you’re in for a treat.
Space travel? Forget it. More of the same, as you describe.
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;”
I am also uninterested in the whole sail boat race thing. I avoid coverage of it like the plague.
Who exactly is interested? Not many people that I know.
Sailing used to be an art and DIY technology that everyone was involved in: an important mode of transport. Expensive sailing races are for the otherwise idle rich.
English will be very interested in holding the old mug aloft in one hand and a lions head in the other. On the world stage, representing us all. It may just happen –be brave, batten down the hatches is my nautical– and jolly rugger input.
The coverage is only delayed 1.5hrs not 5hrs, pretty damn good if you are not paying for it. If you want to bitch, go and get sky sport and watch it live like other people that want to watch sport live !
So it’s not free to air then. My mistake on the 5 hours, but you know 5 hours compared with 1 hour and a half is still delayed television, not free to air.
As for your pretty good comment, some of us have higher standards what is public broadcasting.
But then again, I don’t really care, as I have Netflix becasue I like good TV. Most gambling web sites will give you access to sport/game if you bet on it. So no need to pay for a monthly prescription.
It looks like Annie Goldson’s latest documentary, on Kim Dotcom, Caught in the Web will be on at this year’s Wellington Film Festival – hopefully also at the Auckland Festival. Click on the preceding title for a review.
so we are friends with the israelis again.
excuse me while i blow up some balloons.
i understand the pm wrote a letter of apology.
was it the typical polly apology eg: “sorry you feel that way’ or was it more fulsome?
what are we, as a nation sorry for?
where is the acknowledgement of responsibility and hurt in issues closer to home, eg children in state care.
It is ah, not one NZ comedian is this sharp or indeed funny in the sphere of politics. Most avoid politics like the plague, which I get, they have families, and we have a very tiny industry – so they don’t rock the boat. How lovely it is for the Tories to have all this self censorship, no one can then point fingers.
Hundertwasser museum in Whangarei are very happy.
“We are thrilled to tell you that the Hundertwasser art Centre project has just received a grant of $3.5 million from the New Zealand Lotteries Commission significant project fund. This means we have met our first target – raising $16,250,000 by 30 June 2017. Read more about it on our website……?
So horrible. Apparently it had recently been refurbished, what happened to the sprinklers? People are apparently trapped inside and the firefighters are spraying water but how the hell are the people supposed to get out – it’s 24 stories? It looks totally engulfed in flames.
I changed posting name so as not to be confused with the other Ed – who posts more frequently than I do.
A few weeks ago I saw an excellent graph showing government debt in billions, from the start of the Labour-led government to now – a clear downward curve until National’s tax cuts just after they were elected and a clear upwards curve from then.
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Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Kiwis planning a swim or heading out on a boat this summer should remember to stop and think about water safety, Sport & Recreation Minister Chris Bishop and ACC and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “New Zealand’s beaches, lakes and rivers are some of the most beautiful in the ...
The Government is urging Kiwis to drive safely this summer and reminding motorists that Police will be out in force to enforce the road rules, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“This time of year can be stressful and result in poor decision-making on our roads. Whether you are travelling to see ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...
Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...
The Government today released a request for information (RFI) to seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value (excluding National Parks) Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood ...
Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...
A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...
The Government has confirmed how it will provide redress to survivors who were tortured at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (the Lake Alice Unit). “The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that many of the 362 children who went through the Lake Alice Unit between 1972 and ...
It has been a busy, productive year in the House as the coalition Government works hard to get New Zealand back on track, Leader of the House Chris Bishop says. “This Government promised to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and reduce the cost of living. Our record this ...
“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...
Mehemea he pai mō te tangata, mahia – if it’s good for the people, get on with it. Enhanced reporting on the public sector’s delivery of Treaty settlement commitments will help improve outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders, Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka says. Compiled together for the ...
Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...
More building consent and code compliance applications are being processed within the statutory timeframe since the Government required councils to submit quarterly data, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “In the midst of a housing shortage we need to look at every step of the build process for efficiencies ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is proud to announce the first three recipients of the Government’s $10 million Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund which will enable more Kiwis faster access to mental health and addiction support. “This fund is part of the Government’s commitment to investing in ...
New Zealand is providing Vanuatu assistance following yesterday's devastating earthquake, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. "Vanuatu is a member of our Pacific family and we are supporting it in this time of acute need," Mr Peters says. "Our thoughts are with the people of Vanuatu, and we will be ...
The Government welcomes the Commerce Commission’s plan to reduce card fees for Kiwis by an estimated $260 million a year, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says.“The Government is relentlessly focused on reducing the cost of living, so Kiwis can keep more of their hard-earned income and live a ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour has welcomed the Early Childhood Education (ECE) regulatory review report, the first major report from the Ministry for Regulation. The report makes 15 recommendations to modernise and simplify regulations across ECE so services can get on with what they do best – providing safe, high-quality care ...
The Government‘s Offshore Renewable Energy Bill to create a new regulatory regime that will enable firms to construct offshore wind generation has passed its first reading in Parliament, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.“New Zealand currently does not have a regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy as the previous government failed ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji MP Lynda Tabuya has been dismissed as the country’s Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection. Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka said in a statement that in light of the recent events concerning the conduct of Lynda Tabuya, and in consideration of: the Oath she has taken ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent, French Pacific desk New Caledonia’s territorial government has been toppled on Christmas Eve, due to a mass resignation within its ranks. Environment and Sustainable Development Minister Jérémie Katidjo-Monnier said he was resigning from the cabinet, with immediate effect. Katidjo-Monnier was the sole representative from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Clarke, Senior Lecturer in History, specialising in built heritage and material culture, University of the Sunshine Coast Big Things first appeared in Australia in the 1960s, beginning with the Big Scotsman (1962) in Medindie, South Australia, the Big Banana (1964) in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By H. Peter Soyer, Professor of Dermatology, The University of Queensland Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock Australia has one of the highest skin cancer rates globally, with nearly 19,000 Australians diagnosed with invasive melanoma – the most lethal type of skin cancer – each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacquie Rand, Emeritus Professor of Companion Animal Health, The University of Queensland Elena Vorman/Shutterstock Learning a pet has diabetes can be a shock. Sadly, about 20% of diabetic cats and dogs are euthanised within a year of diagnosis due to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ali Hadigheh, Senior Lecturer, Structural Engineering, University of Sydney Pavel1964/Shutterstock In the early days of the modern Olympics and Paralympics, athletes competed using heavy, non-aerodynamic equipment. The record for throwing a javelin, for instance, has almost doubled since 1908, when the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Peden, NHMRC Research Fellow, School of Population Health & co-founder UNSW Beach Safety Research Group, UNSW Sydney MarKord/Shutterstock Many swimming schools have temporarily closed for the summer holidays. But this doesn’t mean you should take a break from helping ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthea Gerrard, Assistant Professor of Law, Bond University ELEVATE/Pexels Beer has existed for thousands of years. It was the drink of choice in ancient Egypt, in northern Europe in the Middle Ages and, of course, remains popular around the world ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruari Elkington, Senior Lecturer in Creative Industries & Chief Investigator at QUT Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC), Queensland University of Technology Dendy Powerhouse Outdoor Cinema In December 1916, as war raged in Europe, an entrepreneurial pearl diver took a chance on ...
Alex Casey chats to David Lomas about the art of finding needles in haystacks.The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member today.There are around 100 ...
Summer reissue: Megan Dunn’s mer-moir, The Mermaid Chronicles, is an immersive, moving and funny search for the meaning of mermaids and the anchors of interests and family in the ebb and flow of life. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these ...
Summer reissue: The groundbreaking show has had mixed reviews over the past two decades. Madeleine Chapman revisits a classic. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member ...
Summer reissue: After three decades of inhaling American-dominated, disproportionately New York-based media, Sharon Lam’s first time in the city became a traipse through a collage of movie sets rather than any real place.The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds ...
Summer reissue: Why do so many of us install security cameras – and are they breaching other people’s rights? The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 27 December appeared first on Newsroom. ...
This year has been a big one for me personally and professionally. The firm won the Litigation and Disputes Resolution Firm of the year award on November 28 and I was an Excellence Finalist in the category of firm leader for a firm with under 100 staff. I was also ...
Opinion: In 2024, 64 countries were scheduled to hold different types of national elections this year for an array of offices.Some of these, of course, were more democratic than others, but it made for a bumper year for election nerds like me.Incumbents had a bad year – more than three ...
Pacific Media Watch Five Palestinian journalists have been killed in a new Israeli strike near a hospital in central Gaza after four reporters were killed last week, reports Al Jazeera citing authorities and media in the besieged enclave. The journalists from the Al-Quds Today channel were covering events near al-Awda ...
RNZ Pacific A large 7.3 magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila , shortly after 3pm NZT today. The US Geological Survey says the quake was recorded at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles). Locals have been sharing footage of serious damage to infrastructure ...
By Victor Barreiro Jr in Manila Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, bishop of Kalookan, has condemned the state of Israel on Christmas Eve for its relentless attacks on Gaza that have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. “I can’t think of any other people in the world who live in darkness ...
By Cheerieann Wilson in Suva Veteran journalist and editor Stanley Simpson has spoken about the enduring power of storytelling and its role in shaping Fiji’s identity. Reflecting on his journey at the launch of FijiNikua, a magazine launched by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka on Christmas Eve, Simpson shared personal anecdotes ...
Summer reissue: From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter ...
Summer reissue: David Hill remembers an old friend, who you’ve probably never heard of. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member today. Doug (I’ll call him ...
Summer reissue: I watched all 46 of Tom Cruise’s films over the past 12 months. The question on everyone’s lips: why?The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be ...
Summer reissue: In recent years, checking online for a green tick has become a necessary habit for Aucklanders heading to the beach. Shanti Mathias tags along with the team tasked with testing the water for pollution – and figuring out how to stop it. The Spinoff needs to double the ...
Summer reissue: After two decades of promised redevelopment, Johnsonville Shopping Centre remains neglected and half empty. Joel MacManus searches for answers in the decaying suburban mall. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter ...
Comment: I’ve been digging up dirt over the past few weekends. I plan to dig up more over summer.As global geo-politics heats up, I’ve impulsively turned to tending my wee patch of the world. The world is complex and messy. But I’m determined my quarter acre won’t be. Apparently, this is ...
Winston Peters was 47 when he founded NZ First. David Seymour is 41. “It’s probably unlikely I’ll still be in Parliament when I’m 47,” he tells Newsroom.“I always said, I have no intention of being a Member of Parliament when I’m 70-something.”In saying that, Seymour has already exceeded his own ...
Asia Pacific ReportSilent Night is a well-known Christmas carol that tells of a peaceful and silent night in Bethlehem, referring to the first Christmas more than 2000 years ago. It is now 2024, and it was again a silent night in Bethlehem last night, reports Al Jazeera’s Nisa Ibrahim. ...
Summer resissue: Has the country changed all that much in three decades? Loveni Enari compares his two New Zealands. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member ...
Summer reissue: Alex Casey goes on a killer journey aboard the Tormore Express.The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member today.It was a dark and ...
Summer reissue: Speed puzzling is like a marathon for the mind – intense, demanding, surprisingly exhausting. But does turning it into a sport destroy it as a relaxing pastime? The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read ...
Summer reissue: In October, we counted down the top 100 New Zealand TV shows of the 21st century so far (read more about the process here). Here’s the list in full, for your holiday reading pleasure. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue ...
‘An apparent Jeremy Corbyn supporter has created a website detailing The Guardian‘s most anti-Corbyn headlines of the past two years.
Quite a list…….
The website, called Dump The Guardian!, gives 36 examples of times when the paper has run negative stories about Corbyn. Some of the examples featured include…’
https://www.thecanary.co/2017/06/12/someone-put-the-guardians-36-most-anti-corbyn-headlines-all-in-one-place-its-not-pretty-images/
http://theguardian.fivefilters.org/
I’m sure similar lists could be made for Espiner and Ferguson on Morning Report.
To see the bias on the Herald, ZB, Stuff and Garner’s awful show, you need to look at Murdoch’s garbage for a comparison.
The Herald wants you to be scared….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11854593
Suzie Ferguson’s voice suggests she is more concerned about the fate of a sailing team than child poverty….
Distraction………… just another meaningless message to keep you from paying attention to the issues that really matter
What are the real issues Ed? Why attack a journo then? Perhaps you could state why this National led gov’t is keen on stopping any info coming to the public’s view concerning Auckland’s rail report.
Good questions but the point of eds posting is esoteric – personally I’d prefer 1 link with some original comment or thought but that ain’t the way ed rolls. Forcefed or nothing – but the plaintive cries will soon come out from ed…
It takes all sorts and ed is included so take it all with a grainary of salt ed ☺
The good thing is that these newspapers can’t win by keeping with this trajectory.
With the proportion of young people in the UK voting Labour and the proportion of old people voting Conservative, the newspapers are pandering to a population that will be dead in 10-20 years (and a minority even sooner) … and so will the newspapers if they don’t change.
Ed: Perhaps someone could create an equivalent site for the examples you mention.
Stop spamming open mike Paul.
Do you have no control? this is the sort of behaviour that got you banned last time around,
Ed is considerably more informative than Poison Peter. If you don’t like their comments just scroll on by.
BM
There is nothing that I despise more than some supercilious creep like yourself who skates on thin ice and knows just how to manipulate the blog, making moderating type criticisms like a smart alec. And what drives you mad apparently is someone who is concerned about many issues. Too much information! Makes your synapses pop apparently.
I see Joyce hasn’t learnt his lesson offered up in Nationals loss to NZF Leader Winston Peters.
Joyce was snapped last week with some of the Hundertwasser fund raisers.
After previously receiving substantial Government funding it now looks like further taxpayer funding is coming from his Govt through the heritage fund. It is what it is ‘more pork barrel politics with an election coming up.
Here the RNZ interview. Incredible given Joyce is on record saying no more taxpayers money. Must not be going well for Shane Reti if he has to do a flip flop. Expect WP to be laughing about it;
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201847467
Isn’t it a Lotteries grant?
Some ideas for the Green or Labour’s manifesto.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ToryFibs/status/872558456712114177/photo/1
I suspect that quite a few of those (or the NZ equivalent) are already in Labour or the Greens’ policies. Have you looked?
The brighter future……
‘One in nine NZers hit by ‘significant income fall
A joint study by Deloitte and Victoria University’s School of Government has found one in nine New Zealanders will experience a significant fall in income in any given year.
Lower to middle income earners are even more vulnerable, with the odds dropping to one in six.
Report co-author and Deloitte partner Dave Farrelly said the odds of being caught in serious financial strife surprised him.’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/332968/one-in-nine-nzers-hit-by-significant-income-fall
The brighter future……
‘Struggling schools are going into debt to fund support staff they say are necessary for pupils’ education needs.’
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/93635019/schools-support-staff-day-marked-with-strain
The brighter future……
‘90,000 young Kiwis have no job, no training to go to’
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/93170524/90000-young-kiwis-have-no-job-no-training-to-go-to
You’re talking to yourself again, Paul.
Yes dear
No, he’s highlighting things about this government and capitalism in general that you simply don’t like and you’re getting upset about it.
@ BM (3.1.1.1) … you don’t have to read Ed’s intelligent posts you know.
Ignore BM – we like your stuff.
Hi Ed (3.1.1 and previous comments) … many thanks for your informative posts. Much appreciated. Keep ’em coming please.
Aldous Harding, just a great artist. This video will test all you folk fans out there.
And this will test feminists, too. Is this what is called having your satire and letting it eat you, too?
Did you spot the reference of the dance, and what she is wearing?
if there is anything deep in that song i swear i missed it due to the fact a hot girl was dancing with not much on , not complaining mind you
completely lost on me, care to explain?
It’s a homage to Apocalypse Now scene.
There are no free lunches. Or is there?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/93651601/campbell-barry-stand-on-council-meals-is-about-fairness-to-all
Considering the earthquake risk, is it wise for Wellington city to build upwards?
Is Wellington really constrained in its ability to grow out ? There seems to be plenty of scope for growth between Wellington, Kapiti and the Wairarapa rail corridor.
Would it not be more beneficial for council to buy buildings rather than lease?
Developers would be looking for long-term leases and the guarantee of income, yet it is expected that the housing provided will be cost neutral for ratepayers in the long term. However, if council decided to buy instead of lease, it would not only be cost neutral, it would also result with council owning new assets.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/93410105/council-asks-developers-to-convert-innercity-buildings-into-affordable-apartments-and-it-will-be-landlord
Are the Wellington City Council working in the best interest of private developers or in the best interest of ratepayers overall?
Lester and Eagle (both of which are associated with Labour) seem to be driving this, thus how will this reflect on Labour?
On Daily Review last night swordfish posted a great link on the Yougov detail of how/who voted in the UK. Fascinating. (Hope you don’t mind swordfish.)
https://yougov.co.uk/news/2017/06/13/how-britain-voted-2017-general-election/
Older people vote Conservative. Better educated vote Labour. Hmmm?
73% Guardian readership voted Labour? Must have a lot of their readers swearing over the coverage and opinion pieces over the last few years.
Maybe (low income) Labour voters are more likely to die quite young? the UK health system, no longer being comprehensive care for all from cradle to the grave.
All the oldie voters I know in the UK, would never vote for the Tories.
As far as I can recall repeated surveys show that the better educated are more likely to vote Labour – in this country too
This is a bit of self-indulgent narcissism – so feel free to disregard it – as many will, I know.
And I wish to make absolutely certain I still intend to work for the Labour Party to become the government in September.
So, what I’m talking about is a sort of cathartic moment – when the darkness dawns and the light goes out.
Let me explain. I attended a meeting in ChCh for Labour party workers, and Andrew Little spoke to the troops – preaching to the converted.
What I should have heard was a vision of what NZ would become under a truly progressive Labour-led government. A moving image of equality and fairness, a sharing of the wealth of the country among all its people and a determination to tackle the really big issues facing this country.
What I heard was a prescription for better administration – for neoliberalism with a smiling face. Waiting lists would be tackled, houses built, NEETs given training and so on.
All worth working and fighting for – but so so limited, so so mediocre! So so lacking in real willingness to fundamentally change any damn thing!
Frankly, I was deeply disappointed. But perhaps the fault was mine – perhaps I expected too much of a Labour Party still mired in the muck of Rogernomics?
Yes you are right Tony you did expect too much. If you have ever tried to move forward when standing in the mire in your gumboots, you will know how hard it is to lift them out and move forward. Rogernomics has led us deep and left us there.
What you would have liked to hear was a big picture, full-colour cenario but you know talk is easy, and if Andrew Little is going to provide services, tackle problems, housing, etc. actually DO SOMETHING INTELLIGENT AND POSITIVE. that will be 100% better than Dr Dolittle’s government of strange animals which we have now.
So buck up Tony, it will be a brighter future, but in winter the sun rises later in the day and then we rejoice to get it. We have been in the winter of our discontent so long that small amounts of regular sunshine will start a NewZeal Spring.
You’re not on your own Tony V. I went to a Greens meeting recently and felt just like you did. There’s no fire in their bellies, their meetings are just a 101 introduction. They don’t even have enough faith in themselves to call out neoliberalism for what it is.
I don’t think we are expecting too much, I just don’t think the talent is there.
@ garibaldi (8.2) … the Greens lost the fire in their bellies, the day Russel Norman left Parliament. Even Meteria Turei is a diluted version of what she once was. She used to spit hell, fire and brimstone at the Natz, alongside Russel. But not anymore now. The spirit seems to have gone out of the party with the fire. Pity.
Rod Donald must be turning in his grave to see what the Greens have come down to now, a murky shade of blue!
@Tony Veitch (not etc), garibaldi, you probably are right about Labour piecemeal messaging, too many policy wonks, and power points and not enough activism, but what is the alternative, they can hardly be worse that National and ACT!
Little is more cunning that everyone gives him credit for. He’s trying to navigate his own neoliberal MP’s, the shark Natz, dirty politics and the voters, many of whom still believe the MSM myth that the NZ economy is doing great guns! I’m just hoping that Labour don’t get the same nightmare advisor/management team that Cunliffe used with Vote positive, somewhere between an insurance slogan and mirth.
Also there are some good people in the Green party – Gareth Hughes and Barry Coates are still activists and deliver new ideas and speeches.
Yes saveNZ we know we have to vote for them because there is no alternative.
There are good people in Labour and the Greens but they get no exposure because of ‘discipline’.
“Boring” will not beat the Natz.
Corbyn got through to the people. There’s so much we could learn from Brit Labours campaign but we’re too proud/stupid/ignorant, or just too mired in neoliberalism,to do so.
no-o I think solid work by an mp shows through in the end.
And discipline in caucus is a shedload better than the post-clark Labour caucus bullshit. It just poisons the entire well: even the good mps have to start backstabbing in self defense – politics being the only pasttime that comes to mind where a backstab can actually be self defense lol
I think the way Natz dirty politics is steering the discourses is very cunning too. They are keeping the lefties focused on Labour and Greens messaging and their gaps… while superficially mimicking similar messaging. But under the covers the National party actions are actually very FAR RIGHT, not like Labour at all. It’s very far right, media control, state official controls, cronyism, deregulation of everything from environment to state assets, destruction of the welfare state etc.
The trick is not to bother with National messing or the Ministry of Truth propaganda and just look at what the Natz are up too not believe their press releases.
Like Trump, National’s policy doesn’t actually doesn’t make any sense – like some deranged is at the helm, homeless in expensive hotels, state houses being sold off or empty and then government paying more money to build less houses to private developers, buying fake carbon credits while promoting 100% pure NZ, building dams in areas that are prone to drought and making it worse by catching the water to get more water intensive business at the drought prone spot, giving water away for free to foreign interests, having zero tax havens that you don’t have to declare who owns the money… while using NZ respectability to mask it. Giving casino’s state money, even giving them TVNZ space to put a conference in, that get’s more gamblers here, sending millions on sheep to Saudi businessmen to die in a desert in the hope they might impress someone somewhere to give them a trade deal. Perservering with the zombie TPPA when even the US has pulled out, mass surveillance, having our SAS kill civilians in Afghanistan but pretending it didn’t happen….
The trick is to say to yourself – I wonder what the NZ mafia are up to now? And then keep tally life Blip did with Key. Just noting how the political machine shapes the once reasonably healthy NZ society so it is bulimic, it looks like a country but it’s real sick, though that’s not on show.
You were probably hoping like Minto the left had learned something from Corbyn.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/06/12/what-does-the-corbyn-result-in-the-uk-mean-for-new-zealand/
Here is something Labour could take in:
I remember the days when Corbyn campaigned for his initial Labour leadership bid. He was challenged during an interview that he obviously wasn’t interested in financial contributions to his party by wealthy donors. His answer was (not verbatim): “Well I am very interested in their contributions, but I don’t want small donations to the party, I’ll make them pay their fair share of tax instead”.
Evidently Corbyn’s campaign was financed with lots of small donations of 22 pounds each.
And here is another one from The Intercept (https://theintercept.com/2017/06/11/jeremy-corbyn-is-leading-the-left-out-of-the-wilderness-and-toward-power/):
Some really big shifts in energy consumption across the world:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-13/the-seismic-shifts-transforming-global-energy-in-five-charts
1. Coal’s quickening demise, even in China
2. Diesel use in China declining fast as the economy becomes less oil intensive
3. Global carbon emissions are stabilising
Won’t necessarily save the world of course.
Just a good set of patterns for carbon use.
‘Coal is dead’ and oil faces ‘peak demand,’ says world’s largest investment group
It really does look like fossil fuels are on the out.
Of course we could, and should, have started that decades ago. The problem of leaving it to ‘the market’ is that it’s taken far longer than it should have.
The yachting – nobody cares 🙂
“But some are already saying this year’s final could be overshadowed, perhaps even marred, by the fact the America’s Cup is a terrible, overly complicated, comically litigious excuse for a sport where the winner makes the rules – often for their own benefit – and nobody in the world actually cares about it anyway.”
http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/could-this-years-americas-cup-be-marred-by-the-fact-its-a-horrible-sport-where-the-winner-makes-the-rules-and-nobody-cares/
Robert, some people do care very much.
I know, td. Yachts have feelings too. Fact is, I’ve one parked in the back yard and I know it’s yearning to get back in the lake. The Civilian post is funny though…
Our sailing history stretches back as far as we do. Most vehicular sports burn oil or calories, you race yachts sitting on your bottom while holding a stick and a rope. Being good at it requires a tuned sense of balance and an ability to read nature. It’s fun if you’re that way inclined.
Interesting that the hot-rods they’re racing in Bermuda are based on the twin hull design that Kupe showed up in, not the whaling barques that tied up centuries later.
The learn to sail fee at Taipa Sailing club is about $100. If that’s a bit steep I’m sure a couple of big Bacon and Egg pies for the family BBQ at the end of the month will do the trick. Sailing is not elitist, it’s available to everyone that wants to have a go. It’s one of the neat things about living in NZ.
Yep, sailors and fans want to watch the very best the world has to offer, the pinnacle of the game. Of course, the kids tootling around off Taipa…if you think the Bermuda Cats are boring…. Same with all sports, golfers don’t want to flick on Sky and watch the Helensville Open. They were just playing in the Muriwai Open.
This is as big as this sport gets, kids that started with tipping little sailing dinghys over on Lake Pupuke are duking it out with the very best in the world. Our competitors have a bottomless budget. I think it’s cool, I’m digging it, but if others are not interested, that’s cool too.
After becoming becalmed for an hour on Lake Te Anau during a race, I know what boring is; frustration too. I’ve no objection or opinion about those who like to watch high-end yacht racing but would baulk at the level of reporting it gets (apparently) in the mainstream media, though not having a tv means I’m not subject to that, nor news of the Lions. I feel blessed.
Becalmed is ok provided competitors are as well. When in the only zero pressure spot in the bay, frustration becomes a clubhouse ribbing.
With regard the level of reporting I see it in the same light as all lead stories, we get the media we deserve. Kiwis doing well on the world stage imparts a sense of accomplishment for recipients that need never leave the couch. “We’ve Won”.
I wonder which headline would get the most clicks? “House Prices Rise.” House Prices Stabilise.” or “House Prices Down.”
The one that gets the most clicks, that’s what we’re going to get.
Don’t you watch pirate live streams on your comp for sports Rob? (just nod, don’t type,)
Go the Middle Eastern Muslim Country Airline Team!
Too much emphasis on competition and big money spoils it for me, After the learn to sail at Taipa, it’s learn to race. That cuts out a few potential sailors.
Hi, love your name. I like those Twiss bronzes at the city end of the bridge.
I acknowledge that there is a mindset that views competition as de-constructive. I don’t. I think it is nature. All creatures and plants compete.
I also acknowledge that there is a view that would state “So you are no smarter than an ant or a lettuce huh Dave?”
I race myself. I set my phone stop watch and set off down to the letterbox, check it, work hard back up the drive, back into the office and loudly declare “I beat myself.” A racetubator. I figure I’m not hurting anyone and if someone else wants to race with me, I’m up for it. I think competing is a natural wholesome unavoidable pleasure in this day and age. it used to be about staying alive.
I still sail racing dinghies (not expensive) quite keenly. Sailing is a weather-dependent sport, like skiing or surfing. It can be heaven, but on some days it is better not to sail. I think that nowadays there is far too much emphasis on training. The emphasis should not be on how to win, it should be on how to enjoy sailing your boat. Before the days of intensive training we went out and did what we enjoyed doing. Sad to say, that is now a foreign concept for most trainees. They come in after training OK, but not with that light in the eye we oldies used to have after some really exciting blasts on a reach – something that simply does not exist in our current training programmes. Grafton Gully is right. Our sport is the poorer for it.
Yeah, if you’re that way inclined why join a sailing dinghy club? Those cats just go sailing. They are the majority.
Youngsters, particularly boys, naturally compete. Trying to get to the buoy first is a whole lot more attractive when you’re 15 rather than 50. Those tacking kids leap from side to side like coil springs. Bugger that.
Kids racing between buoys is not the ruination of yachting.
I think this change in attitude is a result of professionalism in sport. It is approached as a way to make money/have a career, rather than something you do for pleasure/escapism.
The America’s Cup was THE LEAD STORY on TVNZ One news last night. IMHO, nothing could more neatly illustrate the upper-class news values, class bias and neoliberal echo chamber of TVNZ.
A sport dominated by rich whites, viewable only on pay TV, and of interest primarily to a boat-owning segment of the middle class, led the news. What next, leading with Polo and a report on the this year’s fox hunting in Victoria?
90,000 young people neither in education or employmnet is scarcely reported upon. An elite sport for the idle rich? HELL YEAH!
Tally-ho! I’m with Sanctuary. Amazing, those yachts, technological marvels, poetry in action, but so’s a butterfly and I’d squash every yacht if it would ensure the survival of butterflies. Trouble is, we are moving in the direction of Save the Yachts, damn the butterflies.!
How do you feel about the business of exploring space Robert? Let’s go to some really remote place, unspoiled by people, and have a look at it just because we can, better than going to Antarctica, everybody goes there.
Planting trees in the desert was a post WW2 immense project to help stop the creeping desertification and many have been planted. But no we must have more fuel so we can go to somewhere special in space that we can brag about where movers and shakers congregate.
we should be invading space at full speed for many reasons ,
long term survival,
because it would be interesting ,
why not,
because young people have nothing much to get excited about , the rough necks of the world like me die inside at the thought that life is all about safety and mortgages.
it would /could unify the human race
So throw the health and safety books away and fire leaky rafts off into space and learn from the survivors.
“because young people have nothing much to get excited about”
So let’s pour our remaining credit into sky rockets!
Help me, Jesus!
bwaghorn
I have thought it would be an interesting end of life odyssey for adventurous old people to have ‘tours of duty’ to foreign lands where our allies or others have laid land mines. It would be dangerous, even knowing the techniques for safety wouldn’t stop the occasional death. But those times you know the value of being alive and alert. Here drones would be useful.
Once one had got old and bored why not be a hero and help some poor benighted people to have some land and growing area for their village on once dangerous areas. And help people not just amuse your own curiosity with boyhood fantasies. Read the space fiction, watch it on screen, live the taught excitement of this ventureon the Earth.
your idea is better than dribbling on oneself in a corner waiting to be euthanized .
Sci fi is often sci fact ,if you hang around long enough ,and the fact that i won’t is my only thing i hate about being mortal
I’m guessing you’ve just read Joe Bennett’s just-published article, ” What to do next after we reach Mars?”, Grey. If not, you’re in for a treat.
Space travel? Forget it. More of the same, as you describe.
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;”
(Fragment of Yeats)
I wouldn’t mourn the cabbage white. Or Peter Dunne.
Pernicious pest!
And cabbage whites are a problem also.
I am also uninterested in the whole sail boat race thing. I avoid coverage of it like the plague.
Who exactly is interested? Not many people that I know.
Sailing used to be an art and DIY technology that everyone was involved in: an important mode of transport. Expensive sailing races are for the otherwise idle rich.
English will be very interested in holding the old mug aloft in one hand and a lions head in the other. On the world stage, representing us all. It may just happen –be brave, batten down the hatches is my nautical– and jolly rugger input.
Forgot–add —-a pair of paulas bloomers,” the mainsail”, draped around the English shoulders.
I agree with you, Carolyn. A sail though, springing to the wind, that’s magic! A screen between you and it though, is a sadness.
Your post is full of moaning and short on facts.
For example the Americas cup will be on free to air.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/sport/2017/06/america-s-cup-to-be-broadcast-free-to-air-but-with-1-5hr-delay.html
By definition that is not free to air if it is delayed by 5 hours, that is called delayed coverage.
The coverage is only delayed 1.5hrs not 5hrs, pretty damn good if you are not paying for it. If you want to bitch, go and get sky sport and watch it live like other people that want to watch sport live !
So it’s not free to air then. My mistake on the 5 hours, but you know 5 hours compared with 1 hour and a half is still delayed television, not free to air.
As for your pretty good comment, some of us have higher standards what is public broadcasting.
But then again, I don’t really care, as I have Netflix becasue I like good TV. Most gambling web sites will give you access to sport/game if you bet on it. So no need to pay for a monthly prescription.
The news is owned by billionaires, so course this is headline news.
Once again Brownlee proves he is not fit to hold public office. What a spineless, useless sack of shit he is.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/93662467/israel-to-restore-diplomatic-ties-with-new-zealand-brownlee-refuses-to-endorse-earlier-policy
Gutless retorically if not visually.
It looks like Annie Goldson’s latest documentary, on Kim Dotcom, Caught in the Web will be on at this year’s Wellington Film Festival – hopefully also at the Auckland Festival. Click on the preceding title for a review.
See the website for the doco here.
Click on The Trailer box for a taste of the film.
thanks, interesting, I’ll probably watch it if it becomes available outside of cinemas.
Syrian artist and refugee Abdalla Al Omari depicts world leaders as refugees.
https://twitter.com/_abdallaomari_
so we are friends with the israelis again.
excuse me while i blow up some balloons.
i understand the pm wrote a letter of apology.
was it the typical polly apology eg: “sorry you feel that way’ or was it more fulsome?
what are we, as a nation sorry for?
where is the acknowledgement of responsibility and hurt in issues closer to home, eg children in state care.
This appeared in my YouTube as I rather like Frankie Boyle.
It’s 35 minutes long, so McFlock won’t be watching. Aired on election night in the UK, good for a laugh, only if your not easily offended.
I did watch it Adam and thought it sharp and perceptive and funny. How sad that we have no equivalent – at all.
It is ah, not one NZ comedian is this sharp or indeed funny in the sphere of politics. Most avoid politics like the plague, which I get, they have families, and we have a very tiny industry – so they don’t rock the boat. How lovely it is for the Tories to have all this self censorship, no one can then point fingers.
And we don’t have a Labour Party with socilalist principles.
Hundertwasser museum in Whangarei are very happy.
“We are thrilled to tell you that the Hundertwasser art Centre project has just received a grant of $3.5 million from the New Zealand Lotteries Commission significant project fund. This means we have met our first target – raising $16,250,000 by 30 June 2017. Read more about it on our website……?
It will be a bright colourful point and a change from NZ often dour style. I think we should run with that and have gurning competitions in a people’s fair.
(http://metro.co.uk/2016/09/21/world-gurning-championships-are-as-brilliant-as-you-would-expect-6142686/
huge fire in london block of flats
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-40269625
So horrible. Apparently it had recently been refurbished, what happened to the sprinklers? People are apparently trapped inside and the firefighters are spraying water but how the hell are the people supposed to get out – it’s 24 stories? It looks totally engulfed in flames.
I changed posting name so as not to be confused with the other Ed – who posts more frequently than I do.
A few weeks ago I saw an excellent graph showing government debt in billions, from the start of the Labour-led government to now – a clear downward curve until National’s tax cuts just after they were elected and a clear upwards curve from then.
Does anyone have a link for it?