Experts found defects including superficial patching of earthquake cracks running through foundation walls, the use of inappropriate building materials and poorly installed exterior brickwork or solid plaster repairs.
How can homeowners be sure a builder who did shoddy foundation work did other repairs on a house properly?
Insurers were also part of the MBIE investigation – 14 over-cap repairs were checked and sources have said that many failed the test.
Will the Government ask them to audit their own work?
If the builders are to blame and to bear the cost of fixing this mess, many will go bankrupt.
And is it fair to blame the builders?
Experts and industry leaders say EQC and Fletcher EQR need to take responsibility for selecting bad builders, scoping work inappropriately, giving tight budgets and failing to identify faulty work.
For years, foundation experts have raised concerns about the MBIE repair guidelines.
YET
However, Brownlee said it was a poor workmanship issue and that EQC and EQR’s processes were good.
This is appalling – and hugely bad for NZ’s international reputation as being good workers and expert at what NZers do, to say the least – and lousy for the homeowners. Will they have any financial comeback to get shoddy work re-done ?
This is an extraordinarily good result for people opposed to GMOs in NZ forests – there wasn’t much time to put in submissions.
Surely the Govt will start to take a bit of notice of people’s objections to genetically modified organisms being introduced – one lives in hope !!
Press Release: GE Free NZ 13 Aug 2015 Scoop NZ
The Ministry of Primary Industries has received over 16,550 submissions and petitions on the National Environment Standards for Plantation Forestry (NES-PF). All 16,000 submissions recommended the deletion of the clauses, inserted at the 11 hour, on genetically engineered trees being the sole responsibility of the Environmental Protection Agency.
“This is amazing, it must be the largest opposition ever recorded on an issue open for submissions. The Ministry must now take these submissions seriously” said Claire Bleakley president of GE Free NZ “They are not holding a hearing and we hope that these views are not ignored.”
Will they eventually need a checking account for daily purposes? Sure. Nevertheless, I want to teach them the real reasons why saving money in a bank makes sense in a normal world, namely a combination of capital preservation and compound interest. The American status quo has killed the innocence and logic of simply walking into a bank and depositing money by offering a near-zero-percent interest rate return for depositors.
Meanwhile we have seen the precedent for bail-ins set in Cyprus, and even just last month, Greek banks simply shut down, denying access and limiting withdrawals.
In Australia, a deposit tax could be coming in the near future. You’d think the banks and consumers would be raising hell, but ING Direct Treasury Head Michael Witts had this to say about Australia’s deposit tax:
“So I think it’s generally a move in the right direction and so, therefore, I think from a consumer’s viewpoint the additional stability that this potentially will bring I think is very good.”
Notice that this isn’t a tax on bank profits, but a tax on citizens’ money in the banks.
The American status quo has killed the innocence and logic of simply walking into a bank and depositing money by offering a near-zero-percent interest rate return for depositors.
Putting money aside so that it begets more money is delusional as it doesn’t actually do anything because the banks just create more money when they make a loan. It’s this concept of money for nothing that makes our entire financial system unstable and prone to collapse.
Another F – U to the people of Auckland – by the company the ratepayers are supposed to ‘own’ and who the council and CEO can’t and won’t control.
Michael talks with RadioLIVE about Auckland’s new big ‘breast’
Silo blocking harbour views erected without notification
Sean talks with Michael Goldwater from Stop Stealing Our Harbour about the latest outrage concerning the Auckland port company.
Yeah, that was a real piss off that one. Really, they should actually be looking to close the Ports of Auckland as it is no longer a suitable place for a commercial terminal.
Edward Snowden wins Swedish human rights award for NSA revelations
Whistleblower receives several standing ovations in Swedish parliament as he wins Right Livelihood award
John Oliver: How many of those documents have you actually read?
Edward Snowden: I’ve evaluated all of the documents that are in the archive.
Oliver: You’ve read every single one?
Snowden: I do understand what I turned over.
Oliver: There’s a difference between understanding what’s in the documents and reading what’s in the documents.
Snowden: I recognize the concern.
Oliver (cuts in sarcastically): Right, because when you’re handing over thousands of NSA documents, the last thing you want to do is read them. (laughter)
Snowden: I think it’s fair to be concerned – did this person do enough, were they careful enough?
Oliver (cuts in): Especially when you’re handling material like we know you’re handling.
Snowden: In my defence I’m not handling anything any more. That’s been passed to the journalists and they’re using extraordinary security measures to make sure this is being reported in the most responsible way.
Oliver: But those are journalists with a lower technical skill set than you.
Snowden: That’s true but they do understand like you and I do just how important it is to get this right.
Oliver: The New York Times took a slide, it didn’t redact it properly and in the end it was possible to see that something was being used in Mosul on Al Qaeda.
Snowden: That is a problem.
Oliver: Well, that’s a ****-up.
Snowden: It is a ****-up and these things do happen in reporting. In journalism we have to accept that some mistakes will be made. This is a fundamental concept of liberty.
Oliver: Right, but you have to own that then. You’re giving documents with information that you know could be harmful which could get out there.
Snowden: Yes, if people act in bad faith.
Oliver (cuts in): We’re not even talking about bad faith, we’re talking about incompetence.
Snowden: We are, but you will never be completely free from risk if you’re free. The only time you can be free from risk is when you’re in prison.
Like all activities, we live in a world of risks. Is the return worth the risks? That appears to be the question that you are sloppily and incompetently avoiding to deal with in your comment.
One of the risks is the risk of doing nothing and letting the paranoid idiots in the US congress, NSA and other similar ‘security’ organisations try the impossible task of making the US ‘safe’ from foreigners. In doing so they make their citizens and everyone else worldwide less safe because they routinely screw up in how they use that information. There are enough public instances of that that I’m not going to mention more than one – the colossal misinterpretation / wishful thinking screwup by Bush Jnr’s administration in Iraq and its downstream effects of the millions killed and maimed which was exactly that.
What Snowden revealed about the way that organisations like the NSA, GCSB, etc were collecting and using data (industrial espionage on Merkel’s phone?) has changed the whole political landscape about surveillance. More importantly, that the way they were collecting and using that data was (to say the least) highly susceptible to error and misinterpretation.
Sure there are the risks of individual casualties from that when people screw up. But the risk of having fuckwits like George W Bush launch wars based on screwed up information is a much higher risk. Opening those processes, and in particular the outright lying by many of the people in those agencies to their oversight committees, up to public scrutiny is an extremely valuable contribution to public debate.
Return vs risk so far has been extremely high for us.
In doing so they make their citizens and everyone else worldwide less safe because they routinely screw up in how they use that information.
And its worse than that. These “security” agencies have now proven time and again that they cannot even competently safeguard the information that they collect from illegal, inappropriate or political use.
There is a MUCH bigger picture to consider, details you have explained are collateral damage unfortunately.
Choice of two routes, you chose to take the route where people are under the illusion that “someone can look over us and keep us safe” with catastrophic collateral damage, the loss of all freedom to think for ourselves, ever.
I choose the route that although it appears more risky, will allow us to continue to participate and think for ourselves, and thrive, despite the inability to control everything.
Good God, people who want the Labour Party to be the Labour Party are joining the Labour Party!
Just a reminder that Labour’s old guard in the UK are aghast that new supporters won’t fuck up things as thoroughly as they have and are therefore pre-emptively trying desperately to fuck things up even more.
I see by another of Mark Steel’s pieces that Blairites must have got control of the membership applications as some left wingers have been told they don’t fit in with Labour’s values. War criminal Tony Blair is just fine, however.
The fervour around Jeremy Corbyn is extraordinary, but it wouldn’t be fair to suggest he’s the only Labour politician who can bring large crowds on to the streets to greet him. Tony Blair is just as capable. In his case the crowds are there to scream that he should be arrested for war crimes and to throw things at him, but that’s being pernickety; he can certainly draw an audience.
Yeah Blair’s the biggest scab in the world really. Not counting Douglas Moore Prebble Bassett et al. As a youngster in 70s Wellington I used to cruise the corridors of Parliament, getting drunk, wanking, fraternising with, licking-up to those punks whom at the time I thought contained ‘All Wonder’. My God ! Guess I can rightly say that whatever a blithering wanker I was at the time my being knew no artifice.
“The fact that WikiLeaks is offering €100,000 for documents that reveal thedetails of the secretive TTIP shows that the US and EU are attempting to block anybody that has any sort of real information regarding this treaty, Matteo Bergamini, director of Shout Out UK told RT.
WikLleaks has launched a bounty hunt for the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership documents. The terms of the trade deals, including the loss of sovereignty for participating countries, have been kept away from the public….
…and on another issue:
Assange can’t leave embassy as UK wants to arrest him, no matter what – attorney to RT
“Toilet flushing accounts for up to 90 per cent of water consumption in commercial buildings,” he said. “Changing to a more sustainable and water-efficient technology can pay both cost and environmental dividends. This system reduces the water used but does not compromise on the action. In fact, it significantly improves flushing and hygiene performance.”
Now that has got to be a plus. Water is more precious than gold and supplies of fresh potable water are declining around the world so using less water is a Good Thing. Wonder if there’s a political party with enough gumption to make toilets this efficient as mandatory on new instals.
Of course, we should also be working to stop the destruction of fresh water supplies in the first place.
Its more interesting what UMRs mood of the nation has come up with and remember UMR is Labours pollers of choice but better you don’t read it, you might not like to read that unions are the least trusted organisation in NZ, even less trusted then the media
Can’t be that Key……way too articulate – no ‘pissy’ babble. Could be that Mutton/Lamb thing Hosking……glib, hubristic, patronising. Eckshilly, not a bad physical resemblance to that Sir-Loony-Bob-Lower-Hutt-Hills number come to think of it. Less ill-tempered, less “One Foot in the Grave”, but redolent.
Thanks Adam. Please keep putting up these John Clarke “shows” ….. he’s an extraordinarily astute political commentator. Just brilliant this one – and especially the “warning” at the end re infrastructure.
More western media propaganda on how the Russians were behind MH17 being shot down with a Buk missile. Still no word from the Dutch Safety Board, who are running the actual investigation to give us the real answers on what happened.
Guyon Espiner interviews Blinglish today on the imminent demise of Solid Energy, and at 2.30mins starts to rip into him calling him out on his asset stripping of Solid Energy… http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20150814-0817-english_defends_govts_record_over_solid_energy-00.ogg
An extraordinary statement from English:
“If you leave the cash in there they waste it!”
Having driven Solid Energy to borrow heavily and taken cash out of the SOE at an ever increasing rate, it is clear English is as much to blame for the sorry state of the SOE as the equally incompetent Elder.
One of Guyon’s best interviews I have heard. Well done.
Article re Murray’s being found guilty of murder…….there’s a message there if you read it closely (perhaps not even closely)…….certainly hope there was no interference in the reaching of the verdict by the ghost of the onetime putative ‘Father Of The Entitled Nation’.
Why do we trust financiers with the nations money and assets ? is it that they have professional integrity, are beyond reproach, infallible, sit on the the right hand of god, commanded by the Pope, the Queen, the President of the USA etc
Nah they are opportunist scumbags with a B Com degree or should that be just a B Con degree and very little else
It’s the way of ‘The World’ now unfortunately……utter inhuman shit from the media controlling/owning mouths of the slavers……it rules. For myself I have trouble seeing but pitchforks in answer. Lusty greed way beyond need knows no limits. That is their ethos – “Way Beyond My Needs Forever !”
We must, must find a charismatic leader capable of constructing theism in opposition. Otherwise countless babies, our nation, our future, will be born into the service of the gloating, the entitled, the pampered, the fetid, greedy !
It’s a hoot isn’t it ? The Establishment of UK Labour and The Establishment of US Republicans on the horns of the same dilemma at the same time. UK Labour because Corbyn’s actually Left while they’re not – US Republicans because Trump’s actually Mad while they’re not (to be generous).
Tomorrow afternoon, if things go really really badly, I may find myself down to one eye. People who used to sneer at me on Twitter will no doubt say So what's changed? Nothing, that's what, you one-eyed lefty.I don’t mean to be dramatic, it’s just a routine bit of cataract ...
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Hi,Before we get into Hayden Donnell’s new column about how yes, Donald Trump is definitely the Antichrist, I wanted to touch on something feral that happened in New Zealand last week.Members of Destiny Church pushed and punched their way into an Auckland library, apparently angry it was part of Pride ...
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1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
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Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
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All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
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I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
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The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Ngāi Tahu wants to introduce contamination charges to address contamination in Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere, the High Court has been told.In the second week of the two-month case against the Attorney-General over wai māori (freshwater), Dr Elizabeth Brown, the Rangatira of Taumutu, which sits on the lake’s edge, told Justice Melanie ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra ASIO chief Mike Burgess has warned that over the next five years Australia’s security environment will become more dynamic, diverse and degraded, with “more security surprises” in the second half of the decade than in ...
There is certainly plenty of room for better police training for dealing with protest activity that starts with a rights-based approach to ensuring people can fully exercise their human rights. ...
“We are thrilled that this Bill is making its way through the House and looks set to become law,” said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Isaac Gross, Lecturer in Economics, Monash University Gumbariya/Shutterstock The Reserve Bank’s decision to cut interest rates for the first time in four years has triggered a round of celebration. Mortgage holders are cheering the fact their monthly repayments are now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Housing supply in Australia will be a key battleground in the election campaign. With home ownership more and more out of reach for young and not so young Australians, red tape and low productivity are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Korolev, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, UNSW Sydney The United States and Russia agreed to work on a plan to end the war in Ukraine at high-level talks in Saudi Arabia this week. Ukrainian and European representatives were pointedly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University BaLL LunLa/Shutterstock Sleep is the holy grail for new parents. So no wonder many tired parents are looking for something to help their babies sleep. A TikTok trend claims ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ranjana Gupta, Senior Lecturer, Accounting Department, Auckland University of Technology Jirsak/Shutterstock The profit made on every breakfast bowl of weet-bix is tax exempt, giving Sanitarium Health Food Company, owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, an advantage over other breakfast food companies. ...
A closer look at some of the homegrown talent currently commanding television screens around the globe. The new season of The White Lotus hit our screens this week, and with it a familiar face in New Zealand actor Morgana O’Reilly. To secure a role in one of the world’s most ...
"This is a crisis of the Government’s own making and the unit is another sign of desperation," said PSA acting national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Francesca Perugia, Senior Lecturer, School of Design and the Built Environment, Curtin University Australia’s housing crisis has created a push for fast-tracked construction. Federal, state and territory governments have set a target of 1.2 million new homes over five years. Increasing housing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ash Watson, Scientia Fellow and Senior Lecturer, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock When we’re uncomfortable we say the “vibe is off”. When we’re having a good time we’re “vibing”. To assess the mood we do a “vibe check”. And when the atmosphere in ...
What’s up with the man from Epsom? The leader of the Act Party has been in plenty of headlines in the last two weeks, ranging from a controversial letter to police on behalf of constituent Philip Polkinghorne (written before David Seymour was a minister) to an attempt to drive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Stephenson, Deputy Director, Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, Australian National University Newly published research has found clear evidence that openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and queer+ (LGBTIQ+) Australian politicians were disproportionately targeted with personal abuse on social media at the ...
Gilmore Girls, Schitt’s Creek, even The Vampire Diaries – they’re all set in tight-knit neighbourhoods where everyone knows everyone. So what is it like to actually know your neighbours? My favourite television shows are set in tight-knit neighbourhoods where everyone knows everyone. Characters attend town meetings where they debate local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yanyan Hong, PhD Candidate in Communication and Media Studies, University of Adelaide IMDB On the surface, Ne Zha 2: The Sea’s Fury (2025), the sequel to the 2019 Chinese blockbuster Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child, is a high-octane, action-packed and ...
Wellington travellers say their buses are so hot they’re often forced to get off early and walk. Shanti Mathias explores the impact of non-functioning air conditioning on public transport. When Bella, a young professional living in Wellington, thinks about taking the bus, her first thought is “Ugh”. The bus might ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Annette Kroen, Research Fellow Planning and Transport, RMIT University The cleanup is underway in northern Queensland following the latest flooding catastrophe to hit the state. More than 7,000 insurance claims have already been lodged, most of them for inundated homes and other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Subha Parida, Lecturer in Property, University of South Australia Carl Oberg/Shutterstock Houses and fire do not mix. The firestorm which hit Los Angeles in January destroyed nearly 2,000 buildings and forced 130,000 people to evacuate. The 2019–20 Australian megafires destroyed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania Tasmania has been burning for more than two weeks, with no end in sight. Almost 100,000 hectares of bushland in the northwest has burned to date. This includes the Tarkine rainforest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martin Loosemore, Professor of Construction Management, University of Technology Sydney This week, the Productivity Commission released its much-awaited report into productivity growth in Australia’s housing construction sector. It wasn’t a glowing appraisal. The commission found physical productivity – the total number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pascale Lubbe, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Molecular Ecology, University of Otago Royal spoonbills are among several new species that have crossed the Tasman and naturalised in New Zealand. JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA When people arrived on the shores of Aotearoa ...
Stats NZ’s head is stepping down over the agency’s failure to safeguard census data, and more officials may soon be in the firing line, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. An ‘absolutely unacceptable’ failure Stats NZ chief ...
Health NZ is under greater government scrutiny, with the new health minister setting up a unit he says will "drive greater accountability and performance". ...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/business/the-rebuild/71093579/brownlees-bombshell-leaves-cantabrians-in-the-dark
This is appalling – and hugely bad for NZ’s international reputation as being good workers and expert at what NZers do, to say the least – and lousy for the homeowners. Will they have any financial comeback to get shoddy work re-done ?
How can it be good if they were selecting people to do that work that obviously didn’t know what they were doing?
The thing about builders is that they’re not structural engineers.
Yes I thought that was really bizarre.
Surely the GOOD processes would have picked up the faulty workmanship on inspections of the work!!!
This is an extraordinarily good result for people opposed to GMOs in NZ forests – there wasn’t much time to put in submissions.
Surely the Govt will start to take a bit of notice of people’s objections to genetically modified organisms being introduced – one lives in hope !!
Press Release: GE Free NZ 13 Aug 2015 Scoop NZ
The Ministry of Primary Industries has received over 16,550 submissions and petitions on the National Environment Standards for Plantation Forestry (NES-PF). All 16,000 submissions recommended the deletion of the clauses, inserted at the 11 hour, on genetically engineered trees being the sole responsibility of the Environmental Protection Agency.
“This is amazing, it must be the largest opposition ever recorded on an issue open for submissions. The Ministry must now take these submissions seriously” said Claire Bleakley president of GE Free NZ “They are not holding a hearing and we hope that these views are not ignored.”
thanks Jenny, great to have good news about activism.
Hmmm…food for thought
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/08/13/the-dissident-dad-teaching-children-how-to-save-in-a-0-world/
Will they eventually need a checking account for daily purposes? Sure. Nevertheless, I want to teach them the real reasons why saving money in a bank makes sense in a normal world, namely a combination of capital preservation and compound interest. The American status quo has killed the innocence and logic of simply walking into a bank and depositing money by offering a near-zero-percent interest rate return for depositors.
Meanwhile we have seen the precedent for bail-ins set in Cyprus, and even just last month, Greek banks simply shut down, denying access and limiting withdrawals.
In Australia, a deposit tax could be coming in the near future. You’d think the banks and consumers would be raising hell, but ING Direct Treasury Head Michael Witts had this to say about Australia’s deposit tax:
“So I think it’s generally a move in the right direction and so, therefore, I think from a consumer’s viewpoint the additional stability that this potentially will bring I think is very good.”
Notice that this isn’t a tax on bank profits, but a tax on citizens’ money in the banks.
Putting money aside so that it begets more money is delusional as it doesn’t actually do anything because the banks just create more money when they make a loan. It’s this concept of money for nothing that makes our entire financial system unstable and prone to collapse.
It wouldn’t happen in Wellington.
Auckland’s ‘big breast’ courtesy of Ports of Auckland – it has to be seen to be believed. Click on link.
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Silo-blocking-harbour-views-erected-without-notification/tabid/506/articleID/94031/Default.aspx
Another F – U to the people of Auckland – by the company the ratepayers are supposed to ‘own’ and who the council and CEO can’t and won’t control.
Michael talks with RadioLIVE about Auckland’s new big ‘breast’
Silo blocking harbour views erected without notification
Sean talks with Michael Goldwater from Stop Stealing Our Harbour about the latest outrage concerning the Auckland port company.
Yeah, that was a real piss off that one. Really, they should actually be looking to close the Ports of Auckland as it is no longer a suitable place for a commercial terminal.
Edward Snowden wins Swedish human rights award for NSA revelations
Whistleblower receives several standing ovations in Swedish parliament as he wins Right Livelihood award
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/01/nsa-whistlebloewer-edward-snowden-wins-swedish-human-rights-award?CMP=share_btn_tw
good to know not everyone joins in with the childish schoolyard narrative of “lets get him”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEVlyP4_11M
John Oliver: How many of those documents have you actually read?
Edward Snowden: I’ve evaluated all of the documents that are in the archive.
Oliver: You’ve read every single one?
Snowden: I do understand what I turned over.
Oliver: There’s a difference between understanding what’s in the documents and reading what’s in the documents.
Snowden: I recognize the concern.
Oliver (cuts in sarcastically): Right, because when you’re handing over thousands of NSA documents, the last thing you want to do is read them. (laughter)
Snowden: I think it’s fair to be concerned – did this person do enough, were they careful enough?
Oliver (cuts in): Especially when you’re handling material like we know you’re handling.
Snowden: In my defence I’m not handling anything any more. That’s been passed to the journalists and they’re using extraordinary security measures to make sure this is being reported in the most responsible way.
Oliver: But those are journalists with a lower technical skill set than you.
Snowden: That’s true but they do understand like you and I do just how important it is to get this right.
Oliver: The New York Times took a slide, it didn’t redact it properly and in the end it was possible to see that something was being used in Mosul on Al Qaeda.
Snowden: That is a problem.
Oliver: Well, that’s a ****-up.
Snowden: It is a ****-up and these things do happen in reporting. In journalism we have to accept that some mistakes will be made. This is a fundamental concept of liberty.
Oliver: Right, but you have to own that then. You’re giving documents with information that you know could be harmful which could get out there.
Snowden: Yes, if people act in bad faith.
Oliver (cuts in): We’re not even talking about bad faith, we’re talking about incompetence.
Snowden: We are, but you will never be completely free from risk if you’re free. The only time you can be free from risk is when you’re in prison.
Sloppy at best, incompetent at worst
Like all activities, we live in a world of risks. Is the return worth the risks? That appears to be the question that you are sloppily and incompetently avoiding to deal with in your comment.
One of the risks is the risk of doing nothing and letting the paranoid idiots in the US congress, NSA and other similar ‘security’ organisations try the impossible task of making the US ‘safe’ from foreigners. In doing so they make their citizens and everyone else worldwide less safe because they routinely screw up in how they use that information. There are enough public instances of that that I’m not going to mention more than one – the colossal misinterpretation / wishful thinking screwup by Bush Jnr’s administration in Iraq and its downstream effects of the millions killed and maimed which was exactly that.
What Snowden revealed about the way that organisations like the NSA, GCSB, etc were collecting and using data (industrial espionage on Merkel’s phone?) has changed the whole political landscape about surveillance. More importantly, that the way they were collecting and using that data was (to say the least) highly susceptible to error and misinterpretation.
Sure there are the risks of individual casualties from that when people screw up. But the risk of having fuckwits like George W Bush launch wars based on screwed up information is a much higher risk. Opening those processes, and in particular the outright lying by many of the people in those agencies to their oversight committees, up to public scrutiny is an extremely valuable contribution to public debate.
Return vs risk so far has been extremely high for us.
And its worse than that. These “security” agencies have now proven time and again that they cannot even competently safeguard the information that they collect from illegal, inappropriate or political use.
There is a MUCH bigger picture to consider, details you have explained are collateral damage unfortunately.
Choice of two routes, you chose to take the route where people are under the illusion that “someone can look over us and keep us safe” with catastrophic collateral damage, the loss of all freedom to think for ourselves, ever.
I choose the route that although it appears more risky, will allow us to continue to participate and think for ourselves, and thrive, despite the inability to control everything.
Gee puckish we await your concern for all the innocent victims of the U.s.a drone murder program …..
Or all the Palestinian woman, children and other civilians regularly murdered by the Israelis with american weapons ……….
Incompetent at best ……….. murderous but unconcerned in practise.
Good God, people who want the Labour Party to be the Labour Party are joining the Labour Party!
Just a reminder that Labour’s old guard in the UK are aghast that new supporters won’t fuck up things as thoroughly as they have and are therefore pre-emptively trying desperately to fuck things up even more.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/with-hundreds-of-thousands-of-new-supporters-labour-is-on-the-verge-of-something-big–what-a-complete-disaster-10454504.html
I’m sure Goff, Mumblefuck and Robertson have their notepads out (though in Robertson’s case, he’ll just do a cut and paste).
😈
Thanks for the link Rhinocrates.
I see by another of Mark Steel’s pieces that Blairites must have got control of the membership applications as some left wingers have been told they don’t fit in with Labour’s values. War criminal Tony Blair is just fine, however.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-leadership-contest-mark-steel-becomes-latest-leftwinger-to-be-barred-from-voting-10452628.html
😈 😆
+1 @ Draco
+100 Draco….LOL
Yeah Blair’s the biggest scab in the world really. Not counting Douglas Moore Prebble Bassett et al. As a youngster in 70s Wellington I used to cruise the corridors of Parliament, getting drunk, wanking, fraternising with, licking-up to those punks whom at the time I thought contained ‘All Wonder’. My God ! Guess I can rightly say that whatever a blithering wanker I was at the time my being knew no artifice.
‘Campaigners are key to getting secret TPP and TTIP trade deals published’
http://www.rt.com/op-edge/312362-ttip-eu-us-wikileaks/
“The fact that WikiLeaks is offering €100,000 for documents that reveal thedetails of the secretive TTIP shows that the US and EU are attempting to block anybody that has any sort of real information regarding this treaty, Matteo Bergamini, director of Shout Out UK told RT.
WikLleaks has launched a bounty hunt for the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership documents. The terms of the trade deals, including the loss of sovereignty for participating countries, have been kept away from the public….
…and on another issue:
Assange can’t leave embassy as UK wants to arrest him, no matter what – attorney to RT
https://www.rt.com/news/312385-assange-attorney-uk-arrest/
Is this the world’s greenest toilet? Minimise Water unveils new system for flushing away carbon emissions
Now that has got to be a plus. Water is more precious than gold and supplies of fresh potable water are declining around the world so using less water is a Good Thing. Wonder if there’s a political party with enough gumption to make toilets this efficient as mandatory on new instals.
Of course, we should also be working to stop the destruction of fresh water supplies in the first place.
Four times as many dairy farmers than normal crying out for help
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/71028700/dairy-farmers-crying-out-for-help-in-wake-of-falling-fonterra-payout
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2015/03/why-labour-needs-to-distance-themselves-from-the-unions/
Theres a link to UMRs mood of a nation which makes for interesting reading
What, the one released in February?
Linkwhore.
Oh Boy! Thanks!. a link to whaleoil to read the Slutter’s advice to Labour. Can’t resist..on second thoughts– yes I can.
Its more interesting what UMRs mood of the nation has come up with and remember UMR is Labours pollers of choice but better you don’t read it, you might not like to read that unions are the least trusted organisation in NZ, even less trusted then the media
And the effect of the drop will be for next season as they finish this one still on the higher payout.
Wow, this does a great summing up.
+1111
The last bit was brilliant.
Thank you – *brilliant, indeed.
* weeps
Can’t be that Key……way too articulate – no ‘pissy’ babble. Could be that Mutton/Lamb thing Hosking……glib, hubristic, patronising. Eckshilly, not a bad physical resemblance to that Sir-Loony-Bob-Lower-Hutt-Hills number come to think of it. Less ill-tempered, less “One Foot in the Grave”, but redolent.
I like the “Grexit” “explanation” too – so very true.
Thanks Adam. Please keep putting up these John Clarke “shows” ….. he’s an extraordinarily astute political commentator. Just brilliant this one – and especially the “warning” at the end re infrastructure.
And so very pertinent re NZ.
Thank YOU very much.
More western media propaganda on how the Russians were behind MH17 being shot down with a Buk missile. Still no word from the Dutch Safety Board, who are running the actual investigation to give us the real answers on what happened.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/71132150/mh17-dastardly-cia-plot-to-shoot-down-plane-revealed-in-russia
Guyon Espiner interviews Blinglish today on the imminent demise of Solid Energy, and at 2.30mins starts to rip into him calling him out on his asset stripping of Solid Energy…
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/mnr/mnr-20150814-0817-english_defends_govts_record_over_solid_energy-00.ogg
An extraordinary statement from English:
“If you leave the cash in there they waste it!”
Having driven Solid Energy to borrow heavily and taken cash out of the SOE at an ever increasing rate, it is clear English is as much to blame for the sorry state of the SOE as the equally incompetent Elder.
One of Guyon’s best interviews I have heard. Well done.
Well said Macro Guyon was really on target and the dipton boy was dithering.
Article re Murray’s being found guilty of murder…….there’s a message there if you read it closely (perhaps not even closely)…….certainly hope there was no interference in the reaching of the verdict by the ghost of the onetime putative ‘Father Of The Entitled Nation’.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11497335
Why do we trust financiers with the nations money and assets ? is it that they have professional integrity, are beyond reproach, infallible, sit on the the right hand of god, commanded by the Pope, the Queen, the President of the USA etc
Nah they are opportunist scumbags with a B Com degree or should that be just a B Con degree and very little else
It’s the way of ‘The World’ now unfortunately……utter inhuman shit from the media controlling/owning mouths of the slavers……it rules. For myself I have trouble seeing but pitchforks in answer. Lusty greed way beyond need knows no limits. That is their ethos – “Way Beyond My Needs Forever !”
We must, must find a charismatic leader capable of constructing theism in opposition. Otherwise countless babies, our nation, our future, will be born into the service of the gloating, the entitled, the pampered, the fetid, greedy !
Well well well
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/71145106/auckland-housing-market-fears-lead-to-standard–poors-bank-credit-rating-cuts
Auckland house prices
Oops
It’s a hoot isn’t it ? The Establishment of UK Labour and The Establishment of US Republicans on the horns of the same dilemma at the same time. UK Labour because Corbyn’s actually Left while they’re not – US Republicans because Trump’s actually Mad while they’re not (to be generous).