John Campbell would hardly be relevant to this story surely?
It is about the SUNDAY news program being the lowest for years.
I may be wrong as I never watched him, or either news program actually, but wasn’t he limited to weekdays?
It wouldn’t matter anyway as it is the lead-in program that affects the one after it, not the other way round. An unpopular news program would have affected Campbell but a dud Campbell wouldn’t have affected the news audience.
John Key on the 1981 tour: “sorry, no can’t recall”
John Key on Whaleoil: “sorry, no can’t recall”
John Key’s most famous line to come out of his political career: “sorry I can’t recall”
Well, as expected, this has caught on out in the real world now and everybody is running this line when in strife. It is as if the whole of NZ now considers lying about what you recall somehow acceptable. It is becoming more and more common as John Key’s poor and lowly character traits are picked up by others for less than quality purposes.
Maybe that is because they can’t recall. John Key was 20 years old in 1981. I was born in the same year as John Key. All I remember about 1981 is a lot of study, girls and beer. So when JK says he can’t recall events from 1981 you are deluded to go looking for some whacko explanation. He was focussed on Bronagh and his third year accountancy exams. In what time he had left he was working as a stable hand.
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
I was also born in the same year as Key. I can remember every protest, the escalation of police violence, the introduction of the red squad, the thwack thwack of batons. The only way you could not recall anything about the tour is if you lived on the moon at the time.
Exactly. SpRaYglands is not credible on this or any other issue. The entire nation was thinking of nothing else for weeks. Possible exceptions, hermits who’d gone bush for a few months and the mentally incompetent. Even the crew wintering over in Antarctica were probably divided on the issue.
Every pose Key takes is a Crosby Textor thing. No heart, no philosophy. Just a Crosby Textor thing. Oh except perhaps for that extraordinarily weird very possibly intoxicated “Gerrr Sarrrm Garrrds ” dance. Crosby Textor says deny having a position……”Right you are !”
Fuckin bullshit Grant, The only people getting all bent out of shape about the tour were the protesters. All I remember was seeing some nutter dropping flour bombs out of a plane and hearing some wankers had put razor blades on a rugby field.
I was only interested in piss, girls and surfing at the time.
If I hadn’t seen the news I wouldn’t have known about it.
Teenagers just want to have a good time and don’t know or care about politics.
You can say what you like but the vast majority of teenagers in 1981 would have been well aware of the tour, would have heard adults arguing and expressing opinions and would probably have formed an opinion or been prepared to parrot someone else’s. Key was scarcely even a teenager. He turned twenty that year (I turned 23). He was at Uni and the Uni’s were hot-beds of discussion and debate about the tour and focal points for organising marches and rallies. No one who lived through that time and was Key’s age, lived in a university city and had a functioning intelligence believe’s him when he claims to not remember what his opinion was at the time. It stretches incredulity way beyond breaking point.
So you did know about it. And people told you the stories about the razorblades, so obviously you discussed it. And you remember thinking about protestors as “nutters” and “wankers”.
No clues there about whether you thought the tour was ok to go ahead in NZ or not?
McFlock
No I said I saw it on the news and I said people who put razor blades on rugby fields are wankers and obviously anyone who endangers peoples lives dropping bags of flour on them from a plane is a nutter. I have no problem with peaceful protest but there was a few violent shitheads amongst them.
I like most people had no interest in rugby and don’t agree with mixing sport and politics.
I like most people had no interest in rugby and don’t agree with mixing sport and politics.
So, actually what you are saying is you knew about the tour and you had an opinion. The issue was should the government have allowed the 1981 SA team to tour.
Those opposed argued “No, apartheid has no place in sport, that is mixing sport and politics”.
Those not opposed to the tour proceeding argued “You shouldn’t mix sport and politics”. And refused to acknowledge that a racially selected team was already mixing politics with sport. Racial segregation is political.
And John Key also bloody well knew about it and had a position on it I bet. I’ll bet he believed you shouldn’t mix sport and politics, and even if he didn’t care, he wasn’t opposed. That’s a position. He’d know if he’d been opposed.
No mickey he’s on planet key which he’s shown again and again he prefers to the real world and the truth.
Given GST hike, Pike River, Fletcher at GCSB, ponytails, SCF, no more asset sales, Dirty politics etc etc (Blip’s list) it just consolidates his dishonest nature further in voters minds.
He could’ve been honest and I don’t believe it would’ve done him any harm at the polls but it just doesn’t seem to be in his nature.
Where were you on the night of blah blah?
“…sorry can’t recall”
What age were you then?
“… sorry can’t recall”
What was your opinion on Rob Muldoon’s wage and price freeze?
“… sorry can’t recall”
How much did the cricket fixers pay you?
“… sorry can’t recall”
How much did Merrill Lynch pay you under clause 32.2 of the subordinate loan agreement dated 22.2.96, amended 14 oct?
“… 4,552,221.34 less the deductions for x,y,z of $1,211.06 but that was only after Mr Dunderhead and the 3 foreign officials of YCorp collated their previous proposals under the DDD Scheme, which was interesting because blah blah on and on”
John Key is famous for being New Zealand’s biggest bald-faced liar
Its not credible to have no memory of the tour, I was 17 at the time and have very clear memories. From a provincial, rugby mad environment I was pro-tour until after the fact, though at the time I didn’t view it from a political or human rights perspective. But from the time I went on to University just a year or two later, I would and have had a very different view. I did go to the Bay of Plenty game in Rotorua, and threw half a pie at the protestors who were pulling down a fence. At the time it all seemed like a bit of a laugh.
One thing we forget about a bit now is how at the time it was framed for many New Zealanders – and this was in a time when the only source of information for a family like mine – was a local paper, the herald and TVNZ news. Nothing else. My parents were inclined to be against the tour but because all the framing we saw was as a law and order issue, communist agitators trying to destroy NZ institutions etc, a huge number of people who might have been against the tour, were not prepared to do so.
I was 14, in a similar small-town Waikato environment. Rugby was king (and I played rugby as well as Cricket) and the framing of the discussion was very much about law and order rather than about the moral issues around apartheid.
My views were altered when I had a History teacher who was one of the protesters on the field at Hamilton. He came to school the following Monday with a cut on his head from where he had been hit by a beer can. It was a brave stand in a conservative town – more so because he was local, an old-boy of the school who had been a member of the 1st XV and captain of the 1st XI. He changed the views of many of us I suspect.
Key would could have quite simply say he supported the tour but in hindsight and in the balance of history he was wrong as many other New Zealanders have subsequently realised they were to. (Assuming he did support the tour).
I was 11 in ’81 and remember even in the school playground kids were divided into pro & anti tour, influenced by parents obviously.
To say an adult of 20yo at uni can’t remember what side they were on during that time is so improbable, it’s laughable.
Really? You only “think” you were 21?
If someone can’t remember how old they were in any particular year I would have serious doubts about anything else they might claim to remember. Now are you sure that you remember the demonstrations?
On the other hand there is the famous quote from my generation –
“If you can remember the 1960s, you weren’t really there.”
The problem with that quote is that there is an enormous dispute about who said it. After all those of us who were there can’t remember clearly.
Perhaps you had a really good time when you were at University and can be forgiven for not remembering how old you were..
Yeahbut, at least Vincent has a viable excuse for poor memory, given that he was, by his own admission, suffering depression and doing a fair bit of substance abuse at the time.
John Key was in the Accounting school at the University of Canterbury during the Springbok tour.
I have family acquaintances who were at Canterbury at the same time. The accounting school were, as a group, supporters of the tour. They can’t say anything about Key specifically however, but it’s pretty easy to see how peer pressure works in a conservative and ‘elite’ area of study such as that.
You don’t give the Dutch Safety Board any chance of being honest?
Your comment is actually a really good example of the bad behaviour you accuse others of – a knee jerk ideological reaction.
If you had actually read any news reports you would see that the report is very neutral in not drawing conclusions where there is no clear evidence. It doesn’t for instance, blame rebels for the downing (although I personally believe it was russian backed rebels but they thought they were attacking a military plane not a civilian airliner).
And why do you see a conspiracy around timing of the release?
I think the only reason the authority is not pointing blame is because it’s not their job, they’re only supposed to find out why it crashed.
There are still a lot of murky details though, as Dmitry Orlov points out:
The black box recordings, the air traffic control records, the satellite surveillance photos—where are they? They have been hidden away.
Another point is why was Ukraine included in the team of countries to investigate the crash, alongside the Dutch, Australians, Malaysians. While Russia was not invited, seems a little odd doesn’t it?
Well the reason was included in the crash is because under international law it is their responsibility to be lead investigator – it happened on their territory. Ukraine actually gave up their role to the Dutch.
speaking of “international law” (international norms) many of the air accident reporting standards normally expected in an incident like this were not met by the Dutch.
It wasn’t until Spring i.e., 8 months after the crash that the investigators were able to fully survey and clear the site.
Can you reference the standards you claim weren’t followed? If its the “4 week guideline for a preliminary report” to be released then you probably missed the bit about “except in justifiably exceptional circumstances” which being unable to safely access the crash site would fit that criteria. As far as I am aware ICAO seemed pretty happy at the time, in fact not only did they agree that the preliminary report was “submitted” “in accordance with the provisions contained in Annex 13— Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation, to the Convention on International Civil Aviation.”, but they were also “encouraged” by the investigation:
So, which bits of the ICAO convention did the Dutch Safety Board flout?
Yeah we get it, MH17 was a false flag operation by the CIA to tarnish the good name of the Russians, any narrative to the contrary is dishonest. Of course the Dutch are gonna help cover that up.
How about this for a piece of grand nonsense from the commenter “Once Duped” in response to Kelsey’s article in the Herald yesterday…….it’s that or it’s a wicked send-up –
“Noone doubts your sincerity, but in a democracy we each get to decide what weight we should put on any public person’s opinion.
Because you have been denied access to any of the negotiation documents, you have little specific information above what a normal informed member of society would have.
Notwithstanding, you have adopted a position of unwavering opposition to the TPPA. However much that opposition may in fact be justified by scholarly analysis, the reality is that the majority of people have accepted it as a free expression of political views untarnished by academic objectivity.”
“……..untarnished by academic objectivity” ?????
Talk about contradictions in terms. I smell a Hosking, maybe a wag.
Ha ha, sometimes ignorance in people is funny.. and the more ignorant the funnier it is ….
That person’s view right there is a classic because under their opinion about opinions, an opinion that the grass is not green has equal validity…
“… untarnished by academic objectivity …”
that is a clanger that reflects back on the writer (who is it?)
Or actually maybe it reflects more on the general ignorant public who believe, like this person, that everybody’s opinions are equal. Certainly John Key believes he can just go and get another scientific ‘opinion’ whenever he likes to support or oppose whatever he likes……
…. just like my comment above, John Key’s lowly traits are catching on and it is not a good thing.
“One woman, who does not want to be identified, applied for a benefit when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
She was put on Jobseeker Support, which replaced the sickness benefit after the 2013 welfare reforms.
She said she had to pay for a medical certificate every month to prove she could not work – even though her surgeon insisted she would be off for much longer.
“The letter from the hospital wasn’t sufficient. I then had to go back and get a doctor’s note to keep them happy, just to prove the fact that I was going in for surgery,” she said.
“Then I also had to, on the day of my surgery, get someone from the hospital to fax through that I had been operated on”
Anne -Where Did I leave My Heart- Tolley …
“…admitted that having to provide monthly medical certificates in the early stages of cancer was difficult, but said the government had to draw a line somewhere.
She said cancer patients could not expect special treatment, because then everyone would want it.
“Where you draw the line is always the issue,” she said.
“You start creating a whole lot of layers and there would be, I’m sure, other groups of people that would come forward and say, ‘we need special consideration too’.”
This is the “Crawling Out of The Woodwork” argument the Government used against the family carers of high needs disabled NZ citizens during the Atkinson Human Rights Review Tribunal hearing.
Bastards.
(Can anyone else hear the rail cars clanking as they pull into the sidings….?)
She said cancer patients could not expect special treatment, because then everyone would want it.
“Where you draw the line is always the issue,” she said.
Actually there is a pretty simple solution to that. You leave it to the medical people involved in the care to determine the length of time and they write it on the form. Because this is a clinical decision not a bureaucratic one. This is what happens already (with the medical exemption on job seeker allowance) except the doctor can’t determine the length of time. But they do make a clinical decision about the person’s fitness for work or not and there is no reason why that couldn’t include something like a 6 month exemption. In an age of computer technology this shouldn’t be a difficult thing to administier.
Is jobseeker now a monthly rather than 12 weekly cycle?
Based on UK “experts” from a certain school of thought, the MSD’s Principal Health Advisor has been working hard to “convince” medical practitioners, such as GPs and the WINZ designated doctors for years, that work is “therapeutic” and has “health benefits”, and that even sick and disabled are better off working: http://www.gpcme.co.nz/pdf/GP%20CME/Friday/C1%201515%20Bratt-Hawker.pdf
Problem is most people just believe what they are told, or simply put up with arguments, without examining what it is actually all about.
I fear that doctors are increasingly being expected to diagnose and assess patients along the guidelines MSD now set, for work ability and duration of incapacity, and with the same forces lobbying the medical professional organisations, more and more practitioners go along with all this madness.
“How often does a person need to give Work and Income a medical certificate?
The medical certificate allows you to indicate an appropriate review period based on your clinical assessment.
The legislative requirements for the Jobseeker Support benefit mean that medical certificates can cover a maximum of four weeks for the first eight weeks, and then up to a maximum of 13 weeks subsequently.”
By the way as well as the incredibly heartless stance on Cancer there is also the absolute waste of taxpayers money on getting all those medical reports which are subsidised as well as the waste of time for the doctors and medical staff to supply such ridiculous level of documentation.
Oh I have cancer, lets let the state know MONTHLY if I still have it. Disgusting on all levels.
Sorry our hospitals are not so good as they cure cancer every month.
It appears that the Cancer Society did not present a submission then, probably because most felt they would never be affected by a draconian, inhumane benefit regime. But not all have working partners, or savings and other resources to fall back on when serious poor health hits them.
And it was again only Radio NZ National that reported on it this morning, as far as I could hear it. Paul Henry was busy cracking silly jokes and relishing in rubbishing Andrew Little and Labour again (with the help of Paddy Gower).
Indeed, this new approach, to look rather at what people can (hypothetically) do, rather than what they cannot, which was brought in from the UK, and had been thought out by their “experts” like Mansel Aylward et al, from one ‘Centre for Psychosocial and Disability Research’ at Cardiff Uni, once generously “sponsored” by UNUM Provident (that nobody likes to mention these days), is insane and open to abuse by MSD and WINZ.
And Carmel Sepuloni had nothing more to say, than she had “anecdotally” heard of such cases, where seriously sick were expected to jump through hoops to “prove” they are too sick to work. What have you been doing as opposition spokesperson on social security then? Perhaps more should get out of the comfort zone and talk to people directly affected? But I fear most are so pressured and fearful now, they dare not rock the boat, and rather “harden up”, before the final day comes, and try and struggle, also with mental illness and what else some have that is now considered not so serious anymore.
Have the MSM been fast asleep for two years, to not come across other stories of people being expected to look for work while being seriously sick or disabled?
Mike @5.3 The MSM haven’t been fast asleep. We’re just not on their radar, why should we be? Unless of course we’re sprung for benefit fraud, now THAT’S good copy. Is my cynicism showing? I’ve been following the UK system with great fear, as you obviously have been. Note it’s only the left-wing papers (Guardian, Independent)that are reporting the ATOS and welfare reform tragedies going on there- it doesn’t even get a mention on the “impartial” BBC.
I honestly thought in NZ, with our 1.5-2 degrees of separation, everyone really does know someone with some sort of long term disability, many of whom can’t work, there would be more of the general public who cared, but there aren’t, until it happens to them. And there’s noone who can say that they’ve never known someone who’s had cancer and have some idea what the treatment entails. That would include our beloved Minister; her response only confirms the psychopathy, ie incapable of empathy.
As for Carmel Sepaloni- good that she’s bringing these things to the public’s attention but as happened with her pointing out the 18 years of benefit underpayments, Guyon couldn’t get her to say that she thinks we should be reimbursed. She was political point scoring off our backs, and just going along labour’s anti-benefit policy. So don’t expect any real work done on our behalf by her.
“She was political point scoring off our backs, and just going along labour’s anti-benefit policy. So don’t expect any real work done on our behalf by her.”
Totally. Labour hates beneficiaries. I don’t know what’s happened with the possibility of retrospective legislation papering over that one day of benefit payment thing, but it wouldn’t surprise if Labour votes with the government on it. That’s where things are at the moment – the first question when it comes to social welfare benefits and attacks on the poor is “will Labour vote with the government on this.” It’s quite incredible to think that’s where things have got to.
(Which I agree with BTW, and add to beneficiaries ….non ACC disabled and others with long term medical conditions….the ‘incurables’)
Considering the huff and puff from many on the Left about the Right’s attitude to “the poor” and “beneficiaries”…. it boggles the mind that when an example is presented about a specific group impacted by government policy, the usual flay brigade remain silent.
Non-ACC disabled and those too sick to work have been treated like shit by various governments.
The non-ACC disabled are reduced to living on a benefit for the whole of their lives because of something they cannot change. The NZ Disability Strategy and other core government documents sanction the idea of “an ordinary life” for all disabled people. Surely that must translate into rejecting the notion that disabled people must be reduced/forced/expected to live on a welfare benefit until they die? Surely this group must be treated differently and, perhaps, be given the equivalent of, say, at least the minimum wage? A percentage of the average wage? The average wage? Whatever the figure to condemn the non-ACC disabled to a life of poverty disgusts me.
“Surely that must translate into rejecting the notion that disabled people must be reduced/forced/expected to live on a welfare benefit until they die? Surely this group must be treated differently and, perhaps, be given the equivalent of, say, at least the minimum wage? A percentage of the average wage? The average wage? Whatever the figure to condemn the non-ACC disabled to a life of poverty disgusts me.”
Going into WINZ as a person on the Supported Living Payment with your partner who is on the same benefit even though she provides you with all the care you have been assessed as needing is a humiliating and demoralising experience. You are scum, and treated like scum. (There is the odd WINZ employee who treats you like a human and gets that the system sucks, but they are rare)
Then you go to WINZ to transition to National Super.
And OMG…there is a separate waiting area (apart from the hoipolloi), and its all smiles, respect and congratulations.
We eschewed the special seating…we know where we belong.
Chris…the NZ Disability Strategy, along with the Carers Strategy and the UN Convention are the foundation documents for the so called advocacy organisations who happily accept $millions from the government for a pantomime of representation.
“…the NZ Disability Strategy, along with the Carers Strategy and the UN Convention are the foundation documents for the so called advocacy organisations who happily accept $millions from the government for a pantomime of representation.”
I’ve got a niece with an intellectual disability who used to live in an IHC residence. She had an average sort of an existence which is why my sister took her out of there. But I was always intrigued by IHC management people, probably from their head office, who you’d hear on the radio talking about this unfairness or that unfairness. Something never quite rang true. It was as if they didn’t really know what they were talking about or that they didn’t really ever want anything to change. I don’t know exactly what it is. But this post on The Daily Blog and some of the comments, particularly this one, get as close as I’ve seen to explaining it.
Labour didn’t always hate beneficiaries but it does now. Labour’s always been “the party for workers”, or so it says. Labour still says that. It’s just that its idea of who the workers are has changed. It used to be the “pool of labour”. Now it’s only those with a job, the employed, the workers. And that explains why Labour’s quite happy voting with Key’s government for legislation that attacks beneficiaries, and how its managed to shift its view of beneficiaries and the poor to one of hatred towards them, without too many people noticing.
Chris @5.3.1.1- I emailed Ms Sepaloni to her parliament address the day of that interview, both thanking her for bringing the matter to our attention, but also to express my disappointment in her response to Guyons questioning. 4 weeks later not even an acknowledgement my email was received, or a bounced back email. So it got there alright, but I’m guessing I can add myself to the list of voters who are having their emails ignored by MPs if they don’t like the subject matter. Seems to be a growing trend from what I’m hearing.
I was toying with the idea of re-sending it and asking for an update on the situation but I suspect that email will conviniently not make it either.
And Labour wonder where so many of their votes went after 1999? Ask the beneficiary bloc.
Now there would be about close to 300 thousand potential votes, or say, at least 100 to 200 thousand, going by a conservative estimate. If they would be more honest, and trustworthy, and also explain to the other voters they want to attract, that social justice and fairness must come first, and that it is in our all interest, they may even be able to “harvest” votes in that “centre” and from beneficiaries.
So far a gigantic FAIL by Labour, simply ignoring so many potential voters, also other disillusioned. Look at Sanders in the US, putting pressure on Clinton, at 74 years of age, attracting many students and other young voters, look at Corbyn in the UK, when do Labour damned wake up? It can be done!
Beneficiaries in NZ are too busy doing everything they can to feed their families. Benefits aren’t enough to do that so way more time is taken up dealing with that problem, including trying to avoid being kicked off the benefit in the first place.
“I honestly thought in NZ, with our 1.5-2 degrees of separation, everyone really does know someone with some sort of long term disability, many of whom can’t work, there would be more of the general public who cared, but there aren’t, until it happens to them. And there’s noone who can say that they’ve never known someone who’s had cancer and have some idea what the treatment entails. That would include our beloved Minister; her response only confirms the psychopathy, ie incapable of empathy.”
Rosemary, the problem we face is much greater than even many insiders are aware of. Even the Health and Disability Commissioner, same as the Office of Ombudsmen, seem to take a very dim view of the fate of some of those with permanent sickness and disability, especially if it involves mental health conditions. Strangely medical practitioners seem to be given more “credit” when it comes to complaints:
So while I have great reservations about the Taxpayers’ Union, they make a valid point also, re Beverley Wakem and some of her decisions, and the general disgusting situation of the OIA process having become farcical. Our democracy has been under threat for a while, this has never been shown so damned clearly.
My message is clear: Persist, keep it up, send the messages, remind them all out there, do NEVER stop telling and sharing the truth, the truth will prevail in the end, comment on all blogs there are, even on Kiwiblog, that is as long as we stand for the truth, and in that I HAVE NO DOUBT!
I remember hearing about someone refused the invalid’s benefit because their condition wasn’t going to last for two years or more. They had cancer and about six months to live. The condition wasn’t likely to last for two years or more because they weren’t going to last for two years or more! I think that’s been fixed up now, but the fact it happened illustrates the attitude.
Just like the young lady from Crewe
who once found a mouse in her stew.
Said the waiter, “Don’t shout
and wave it about,
or the others will all want one too.”
But that didn’t bother the lady,
Brought up in an orphanage shady,
“From where I’m sittin’,
I don’t mind it shittin’,
So long as it doesn’t have rabies.”
Yahya Hassan gives his baby daughter a last kiss goodbye. The 3 year old girl was killed by an Israeli airstrike on Gaza last night. Their house collapsed on them while they slept. Her mother Nour who was 5 months pregnant was also killed in the blast.
I think more and more people will take up income protection insurance to avoid the clutches of WINZ when they fall sick. Can’t say I would blame them.At least the insurance company would leave you with enough money to pay bills and buy food after you pay rent/mortgage.
I dont know why people think that people live a caviar and champagne lifestyle on a benefit.
I would read the fine print if I was you because a lot of those policies sold to the poor do not kick in, until you qualify for unemployment benefit. If you can’t get that then you don’t get the pay out.
Yeah, cause private insurers are such an upstanding bunch, always doing the best for their clients and never trying to weasel out of their obligations. As the people of Christchurch found out.
Re the Rugby World Cup obsession .. I have a simple solution.
Put the champion of Islamic State (al-Baghdadi ?) together with his counterpart (Vladimir ?) in a spare Roman ampitheatre and to the victor go the spoils.
“Opponents of government aid to the poor often argue that the poor are not really poor. The evidence they are fond of is often an inappropriate comparison, usually with people in other countries: “Thus we can say that by global standards there are no poor people in the US at all: the entire country is at least middle class or better” (Tim Worstall in Forbes). Sometimes the comparison is with earlier times, as in this quote from Heritage’s Robert Rector: “‘Poor’ Americans today are better housed, better fed, and own more property than did the average US citizen throughout much of the 20th Century.””
Too Much: Behind every great fortune, Honoré de Balzac quipped back in the 19th century, lies a great crime. How might you edit that aphorism for today?
Sam Wilkin: Balzac was onto something. Most of the best wealth secrets from back in the age of the “robber barons” — Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan — would today be illegal.
The vast fortune of the Rockefeller clan, to somewhat oversimplify a fascinating story, was arguably built on cartels — not illegal at the time, but made illegal shortly thereafter. Pierpont Morgan’s “money trust,” which helped make Andrew Carnegie the world’s richest man, was constructed in part via interlocking directorships that were, shortly thereafter, outlawed.
The new monopolists like to claim that they face competition when really they don’t.
A lot of what went on in the modern banking sector in the 2000s, and that to some extent still goes on today, probably won’t be legal five to ten years from now.
So, to update Balzac: “Behind every great fortune lies something that was not a crime when it happened, but probably should have been.”
‘Fifteen months after the tragic loss of MH17 over war-torn Ukraine the Dutch Safety Board has presented the results of its investigation. From the very beginning the explicit aim of this probe was to determine why the plane was destroyed in midair. Will we ever learn the “who” and “why” parts of this tragedy?CrossTalking with John Laughland, Alexander Mercouris, and Dmitry Babich.”
‘BUK producer detonates missiles next to pilot’s cockpit in real-life MH17 experiment (VIDEO)’
Take the damage shown in the video and figure out exactly how it would be amplified if the missile and aircraft had a closing speed of a couple of thousand kph and the aircraft cabin was pressurised way above the outside atmosphere. You can’t? That’s why the video is completely useless, except for propaganda purposes.
I am so I’d like a centrist party in power (National) but National will still need support partners and maybe if Act get more seats then Peter Dunne can get the boot
No they weren’t.
It’s Ok, don’t feel shy.
I can understand why you’d be embarrassed to admit your desire to vote for Act or National, the extreme right parties of NZ politics.
You still haven’t looked at the political compass which shows the relative positions of the political parties have you?
Even though several commenters have linked to it for you? See the link at my comment 14.2.1.1: It shows that National and Act are furthest to the authoritarian right on the spectrum of NZ politics. You can claim that you made a hash of filling out your personal compass, but you can’t deny your self expressed preference for those two parties.
Ergo, you are not a centrist. In NZ terms you are an extreme rightist.
Also if it’s fair enough to call the Greens “hard left” as many of your fellow travelers like Wayne Mapp do, then it is equally fair to call National voters such as yourself “hard right”, is it not?
It is pitiable that I am still trying to get an intellectually honest answer from you so long into the conversation.
I have to admit that Seymour has been greatly underestimated by the left. He will probably be more effective at articulating ACT policies than Prebble, Hide, Banks, Brash and Whyte ever have/will.
It doesn’t take much for you to become enthralled! Alfred E Newman delivering his Master’s Voice in the guise of Paddy Gower has you creaming yourself.
The ultimate irony – it’s getting cold, can we please move south.
The second study, meanwhile, seeks to explain the Younger Dryas, a cold period that began abruptly 12,900 years ago, as the planet was actually coming out of a glacial period and entering the present interglacial. Suddenly, though, temperatures swung back and became quite cold again for more than a thousand years, leading glaciers and ice sheets to rebuild. And once again, a change in Atlantic ocean circulation has long been a leading suspect in causing this dramatic, sudden event.
“The start of the Younger Dryas was in a couple of years, really five years or so,” says Hans Renssen of VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands, who led the research, along with scientists from Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland.
Awesome performance by Bill English, delivering a technical surplus after only seven years. His government has always been a day late and a dollar short, but Bill is seven years late and $101 billion short.
The gibbering incompetence of far-right neo con ideologues is virtually infinite, being compromised of the second most abundant thing in the universe – 1 being hydrogen & 2 being stupidity.
worse than useless – nothing can make amends for the damage they have done to the NZ economy – but confiscating all their property and imprisoning them for life would be a good place to start.
It actually shows how feudal the ‘right’ are in NZ that folk like Hooten aren’t all over this maladministration for non-performance. Real growth – ex Christchurch & migration – at under 0.5% – if growth is their policy object they’re failures of truly awesome proportions. Screwups have no friends, left or right.
Will Michael Woodhouse resign?
Documents clearly show that Woodhouse not only lied to the people but also to Parliament when he said that he had not intervened and the exclusion of Dairy as a High Risk Industry wasn’t deliberate, but based on an the risks. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11528604
I’m not holding my breath – just watch this sort of corruptness go whoooooosh over the heads of the sheeple – their house prices are still making more than them.
Question 10 today from IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY to the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety was answered by not Woodhouse, but the “enthusiastic Dr Smith who argued quite differently. http://www.inthehouse.co.nz/video/40020
When Woodhouse is in a hole he hides. Smith will and has dug him out of the hole – sort of.
It would have been a Cabinet decision to protect farmers and Woodhouse would have just been following orders – perhaps.
Does the Labour Party have a problem with a more open and democratic process for candidate selection – something that has been developed for leadership races?
Is there a problem with people forming organised lobby groups within the party membership to agitate for this change?
And if so, who with/for – unions, groups that have managed to secure quotas for themselves (the national organisations involvement in selecting local candidates)?
It was pretty obvious from the start that the man arrested for burglary was Alex Fisher’s brother. Otherwise we would have heard from him because he was the last person the young lad was seen with. Deeply sad for all concerned.
Let’s just hope that the Sensible Sentencing Trust, that gang of callous publicity seekers and vultures that feed off human misery, are nowhere to be seen in the inevitable media coverage of this tragedy.
The Prime Minister says he's really comfortable with us not knowing the reoffending rate for his boot camp programme.They asked him for it at yesterday’s press conference, and he said, nah, not telling, have to respect people's privacy.Okay I'll bite. Let's say they release this information to us:The rate of ...
Warning 1: There is a Nazi theme at the end of this article related to the disabled community. Warning 2: This article could be boring!One day, last year, I excitedly opened up a Substack post that was about how to fight back, and the answer at the end was disappointing ...
This may be rhetorical but here goes: did any of you invest in the $Libra memecoin endorsed and backed by Argentine president and darling of the global Right Javier Milei (who admitted to being paid a fee for his promotion of the token)? You know, the one that soared above ...
Last week various of the great and good of New Zealand economics and public policy trooped off to Hamilton (of all places) for the annual Waikato Economics Forum, one of the successful marketing drives of university’s Vice-Chancellor. My interest was in the speeches delivered by the Minister of Finance and ...
The Prime Minister says the Government would be open to sending peacekeepers to Ukraine if a ceasefire was reached. The government has announced a $30 million spend on tourism infrastructure and biodiversity projects, including $11m spent to improve popular visitor sites and further $19m towards biodiversity efforts. A New Zealand-born ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler “But what about when the sun doesn't shine?!” Ah yes, the energy debate’s equivalent of “The Earth is flat!” Every time someone mentions solar or wind power, some self-proclaimed energy expert emerges from the woodwork to drop this supposedly devastating truth bomb: ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission.In this article I look into data on how well the rail network serve New Zealanders, and how many people might be able to travel by train… if we ran more than a ...
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 ...
Despite delays, logjams and overcrowding in our emergency departments, funding constraints are limiting the numbers of nurses and doctors being trained. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, February 18 are:A NZ Herald investigation ...
Now that the US has ripped up the Atlantic alliance, Europe is more vulnerable now than at any time since the mid-1930s. Apparently, Europe and Ukraine itself will not have a seat at the table in the talks between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin that will ...
Olivia and Noah and Hana are going to the library!It is fun to go to the library. It has books and songs and mat time and people who smile at you and say, Hello Olivia, what have you been doing this morning?The library is more fun than the mall. At ...
New World Orders: The challenge facing Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins is how to keep their small and vulnerable nation safe and stable in a world whose economic and political climate the forty-seventh American president is changing so profoundly.IT IS, SURELY, the ultimate Millennial revenge fantasy. Calling senior Baby-Boomer and Gen-X ...
“This might surprise you, Laurie, but I reckon Trump’s putting on a bloody impressive performance.”“GOODNESS ME, HANNAH, just look at all those Valentine’s Day cards!”“Occupational hazard, Laurie, the more beer I serve, the more my customers declare their undying love!”“Crikey! I had no idea business was so good.” Laurie squinted ...
In 2005, Labour repealed the long-standing principle of birthright citizenship in Aotearoa. Why? As with everything else Labour does, it all came down to austerity: "foreign mothers" were supposedly "coming to this country to give birth", and this was "put[ting] pressure on hospitals". Then-Immigration Minister George Hawkins explicitly gave this ...
And I just hope that you can forgive usBut everything must goAnd if you need an explanation, nationThen everything must goSongwriters: James Dean Bradfield / Sean Anthony Moore / Nicholas Allen Jones.Today, I’d like to talk about a couple of things that happened over the weekend:Brian Tamaki’s Library Invasion and ...
New reporting highlights how Brooke van Velden refuses to meet with the CTU but is happy to meet with fringe Australian-based unions. Van Velden is pursuing reckless changes to undermine the personal grievance system against the advice of her own officials. Engineering New Zealand are saying that hundreds of engineers ...
The NZCTU strongly supports the Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill. This Bill represents a positive step towards addressing serious issues around unlawful disparities in pay by protecting workers’ rights to discuss their pay and conditions. This Bill also provides welcome support for helping tackle the prevalent gender and ...
Years of hard work finally paid off last week as the country’s biggest and most important transport project, the City Rail Link reached a major milestone with the first test train making its way slowly though the tunnels for the first time. This is a fantastic achievement and it is ...
Engineers are pleading for the Government to free up funds to restart stalled projects. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, February 17 are:Engineering New Zealand CEO Richard Templer said yesterday hundreds of ...
It’s one of New Zealand’s great sustaining myths: the spirit of ANZAC, our mates across the ditch, the spirit of Earl’s Court, Antipodeans united against the world. It is also a myth; it is not reality. That much was clear from a series of speakers, including a former Australian Prime ...
Many people have been unsatisfied for years that things have not improved for them, some as individuals, many more however because their families are clearly putting in more work, for less money – and certainly far less purchase on society. This general discontent has grown exponentially since the GFC. ...
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 9, 2025 thru Sat, February 15, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report shows worsening food poverty and housing shortages mean more than 400,000 people now need welfare support, the highest level since the 1990s. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and ...
You're just too too obscure for meOh you don't really get through to meAnd there's no need for you to talk that wayIs there any less pessimistic things to say?Songwriters: Graeme DownesToday, I thought we’d take a look at some of the most cringe-inducing moments from last week, but don’t ...
Please note: I’ve delayed my “What can we do?” article for this video.The video above shows Destiny Church members assaulting staff and librarians as they pushed through to a room of terrified parents and young children.It was posted to social media last night.But if you read Sinead Boucher’s Stuff, you ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is sea level rise exaggerated? Sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate, not stagnating or decreasing. Warming global temperatures cause land ice ...
Here is a scenario, but first a historical parallel. Hitler and the Nazis could well have accomplished everything that they wanted to do within German borders, including exterminating Jews, so long as they confined their ambitious to Germany itself. After all, the world pretty much sat and watched as the ...
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Hamilton covering Waikato University’s annual NZ Economics Forum, where (arguably) three of the most influential people in our political economy right now laid out their thinking in major speeches about the size and role of Government, their views on for spending, tax ...
Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
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 ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
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 ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
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 ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
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 ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
“The ACT Party can’t be bothered putting an MP on one of the Justice subcommittees hearing submissions on their own Treaty Principles Bill,” Labour Justice Spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...
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. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
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 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Stone, Principal Research Fellow, School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock Having dense breasts is a clear risk factor for breast cancer. It can also make cancers hard to spot on mammograms. Yet you ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The National Anti-Corruption Commission will finally investigate whether six people referred to it by the royal commission into Robodebt engaged in corrupt conduct. This follows an independent reconsideration by former High Court judge Geoffrey ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University Last week in Europe, the United States sent some very strong messages it is prepared to upend the established global order. US Vice President JD Vance warned a stunned Munich ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Reserve Bank has delivered the expected modest rate cut of a quarter of a percentage point, and we’re set for the predictable frenzy of speculation about an April election. The cut is unlikely to ...
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The boycott of TV3 after the political axing of John Campbell is working.
Stuff, however, fail to mention this once in their reporting.
The MSM lies.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/72981663/3-news-sees-lowest-ratings-in-four-years
But it’s all over the Comments.
John Campbell would hardly be relevant to this story surely?
It is about the SUNDAY news program being the lowest for years.
I may be wrong as I never watched him, or either news program actually, but wasn’t he limited to weekdays?
It wouldn’t matter anyway as it is the lead-in program that affects the one after it, not the other way round. An unpopular news program would have affected Campbell but a dud Campbell wouldn’t have affected the news audience.
John Key on the 1981 tour: “sorry, no can’t recall”
John Key on Whaleoil: “sorry, no can’t recall”
John Key’s most famous line to come out of his political career: “sorry I can’t recall”
Well, as expected, this has caught on out in the real world now and everybody is running this line when in strife. It is as if the whole of NZ now considers lying about what you recall somehow acceptable. It is becoming more and more common as John Key’s poor and lowly character traits are picked up by others for less than quality purposes.
Current example:
Chris Cairns cheating trial in UK at the moment. Lou Vincent in the dock yesterday…. check it out ….. “The phrase “I can’t recall” was used so often in response to questions, it was possible Vincent raised a century of them.” http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/72991117/chris-cairns-trial-daryl-tuffey-was-furious-over-non-payment-court-told
How apt – in a trial about cheating and lying, the participants use John Key’s most used line “I can’t recall”
It would be funny if it weren’t so sad
Maybe that is because they can’t recall. John Key was 20 years old in 1981. I was born in the same year as John Key. All I remember about 1981 is a lot of study, girls and beer. So when JK says he can’t recall events from 1981 you are deluded to go looking for some whacko explanation. He was focussed on Bronagh and his third year accountancy exams. In what time he had left he was working as a stable hand.
You were a University student in the early 80s and can’t remember the Springbok tour.
Yeah, right.
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
sad
I was also born in the same year as Key. I can remember every protest, the escalation of police violence, the introduction of the red squad, the thwack thwack of batons. The only way you could not recall anything about the tour is if you lived on the moon at the time.
Exactly. SpRaYglands is not credible on this or any other issue. The entire nation was thinking of nothing else for weeks. Possible exceptions, hermits who’d gone bush for a few months and the mentally incompetent. Even the crew wintering over in Antarctica were probably divided on the issue.
We all know JK would have supported the racism in 1981 – that is why he can’t recall anything.
Every pose Key takes is a Crosby Textor thing. No heart, no philosophy. Just a Crosby Textor thing. Oh except perhaps for that extraordinarily weird very possibly intoxicated “Gerrr Sarrrm Garrrds ” dance. Crosby Textor says deny having a position……”Right you are !”
Fuckin bullshit Grant, The only people getting all bent out of shape about the tour were the protesters. All I remember was seeing some nutter dropping flour bombs out of a plane and hearing some wankers had put razor blades on a rugby field.
so you admit you were aware of it – pity key still lies through his teeth about it – shows how weak he is.
I was only interested in piss, girls and surfing at the time.
If I hadn’t seen the news I wouldn’t have known about it.
Teenagers just want to have a good time and don’t know or care about politics.
And yet the protest marches and opposing rugby crowds were full of teenagers. Funny that.
“And yet the protest marches and opposing rugby crowds were full of teenagers. Funny that.”
Not every teenager has a parent who is protester and some teenagers have interests other than rugby. Actually most of them.
You can say what you like but the vast majority of teenagers in 1981 would have been well aware of the tour, would have heard adults arguing and expressing opinions and would probably have formed an opinion or been prepared to parrot someone else’s. Key was scarcely even a teenager. He turned twenty that year (I turned 23). He was at Uni and the Uni’s were hot-beds of discussion and debate about the tour and focal points for organising marches and rallies. No one who lived through that time and was Key’s age, lived in a university city and had a functioning intelligence believe’s him when he claims to not remember what his opinion was at the time. It stretches incredulity way beyond breaking point.
So you did know about it. And people told you the stories about the razorblades, so obviously you discussed it. And you remember thinking about protestors as “nutters” and “wankers”.
No clues there about whether you thought the tour was ok to go ahead in NZ or not?
Heh..
McFlock
No I said I saw it on the news and I said people who put razor blades on rugby fields are wankers and obviously anyone who endangers peoples lives dropping bags of flour on them from a plane is a nutter. I have no problem with peaceful protest but there was a few violent shitheads amongst them.
I like most people had no interest in rugby and don’t agree with mixing sport and politics.
Oh look, another clue…
I like most people had no interest in rugby and don’t agree with mixing sport and politics.
So, actually what you are saying is you knew about the tour and you had an opinion. The issue was should the government have allowed the 1981 SA team to tour.
Those opposed argued “No, apartheid has no place in sport, that is mixing sport and politics”.
Those not opposed to the tour proceeding argued “You shouldn’t mix sport and politics”. And refused to acknowledge that a racially selected team was already mixing politics with sport. Racial segregation is political.
And John Key also bloody well knew about it and had a position on it I bet. I’ll bet he believed you shouldn’t mix sport and politics, and even if he didn’t care, he wasn’t opposed. That’s a position. He’d know if he’d been opposed.
and am I surprised you are a National supporter?
Naki man: “All I remember …..”
As I mentioned, hermits and the mentally incompetent may have been uninterested or unaware.
I don’t remember my opinion of the tour.
But then I wasn’t even in school yet, so the news was before my bedtime and I think we only had one TV channel in our location.
That’s ok, you’re excused. 🙂
I still have bouts of mental incompetence sometimes, too 🙂
Don’t worry we make allowances for you.
I suspect that even on my worst days you’d not be in much of a position to do so.
No mickey he’s on planet key which he’s shown again and again he prefers to the real world and the truth.
Given GST hike, Pike River, Fletcher at GCSB, ponytails, SCF, no more asset sales, Dirty politics etc etc (Blip’s list) it just consolidates his dishonest nature further in voters minds.
He could’ve been honest and I don’t believe it would’ve done him any harm at the polls but it just doesn’t seem to be in his nature.
Imagine if John Key ever ended up on trial…
Where were you on the night of blah blah?
“…sorry can’t recall”
What age were you then?
“… sorry can’t recall”
What was your opinion on Rob Muldoon’s wage and price freeze?
“… sorry can’t recall”
How much did the cricket fixers pay you?
“… sorry can’t recall”
How much did Merrill Lynch pay you under clause 32.2 of the subordinate loan agreement dated 22.2.96, amended 14 oct?
“… 4,552,221.34 less the deductions for x,y,z of $1,211.06 but that was only after Mr Dunderhead and the 3 foreign officials of YCorp collated their previous proposals under the DDD Scheme, which was interesting because blah blah on and on”
John Key is famous for being New Zealand’s biggest bald-faced liar
Its not credible to have no memory of the tour, I was 17 at the time and have very clear memories. From a provincial, rugby mad environment I was pro-tour until after the fact, though at the time I didn’t view it from a political or human rights perspective. But from the time I went on to University just a year or two later, I would and have had a very different view. I did go to the Bay of Plenty game in Rotorua, and threw half a pie at the protestors who were pulling down a fence. At the time it all seemed like a bit of a laugh.
One thing we forget about a bit now is how at the time it was framed for many New Zealanders – and this was in a time when the only source of information for a family like mine – was a local paper, the herald and TVNZ news. Nothing else. My parents were inclined to be against the tour but because all the framing we saw was as a law and order issue, communist agitators trying to destroy NZ institutions etc, a huge number of people who might have been against the tour, were not prepared to do so.
100% with you nadis.
I was 14, in a similar small-town Waikato environment. Rugby was king (and I played rugby as well as Cricket) and the framing of the discussion was very much about law and order rather than about the moral issues around apartheid.
My views were altered when I had a History teacher who was one of the protesters on the field at Hamilton. He came to school the following Monday with a cut on his head from where he had been hit by a beer can. It was a brave stand in a conservative town – more so because he was local, an old-boy of the school who had been a member of the 1st XV and captain of the 1st XI. He changed the views of many of us I suspect.
Key would could have quite simply say he supported the tour but in hindsight and in the balance of history he was wrong as many other New Zealanders have subsequently realised they were to. (Assuming he did support the tour).
To claim he doesn’t remember is just bullshit.
I was 11 in ’81 and remember even in the school playground kids were divided into pro & anti tour, influenced by parents obviously.
To say an adult of 20yo at uni can’t remember what side they were on during that time is so improbable, it’s laughable.
@ Srylands (2.1)
Pathetic!
I think I was 21 years old at the time. I remember it, both in the initial arguments about the tour in 1980 and when i happened in 1981.
You’d have had to have been living in a glass bottle not to have an opinion by the time the tour started. You have a big test tube?
“I think I was 21 years old at the time”
Really? You only “think” you were 21?
If someone can’t remember how old they were in any particular year I would have serious doubts about anything else they might claim to remember. Now are you sure that you remember the demonstrations?
On the other hand there is the famous quote from my generation –
“If you can remember the 1960s, you weren’t really there.”
The problem with that quote is that there is an enormous dispute about who said it. After all those of us who were there can’t remember clearly.
Perhaps you had a really good time when you were at University and can be forgiven for not remembering how old you were..
Yeahbut, at least Vincent has a viable excuse for poor memory, given that he was, by his own admission, suffering depression and doing a fair bit of substance abuse at the time.
Key? No excuse.
John Key was in the Accounting school at the University of Canterbury during the Springbok tour.
I have family acquaintances who were at Canterbury at the same time. The accounting school were, as a group, supporters of the tour. They can’t say anything about Key specifically however, but it’s pretty easy to see how peer pressure works in a conservative and ‘elite’ area of study such as that.
.. and with what could only be a deeply insecure young man, judging from what he has grown into.
Russia back in the news as source of MH17 downing; how opportune that the final report is released now….
Once upon a time I believed western propaganda …and then they told me about weapons of mass destruction in 2003 and invaded Iraq.
No more lies for war.
You don’t give the Dutch Safety Board any chance of being honest?
Your comment is actually a really good example of the bad behaviour you accuse others of – a knee jerk ideological reaction.
If you had actually read any news reports you would see that the report is very neutral in not drawing conclusions where there is no clear evidence. It doesn’t for instance, blame rebels for the downing (although I personally believe it was russian backed rebels but they thought they were attacking a military plane not a civilian airliner).
And why do you see a conspiracy around timing of the release?
I think the only reason the authority is not pointing blame is because it’s not their job, they’re only supposed to find out why it crashed.
There are still a lot of murky details though, as Dmitry Orlov points out:
Another point is why was Ukraine included in the team of countries to investigate the crash, alongside the Dutch, Australians, Malaysians. While Russia was not invited, seems a little odd doesn’t it?
Great write up by respected journalist Robert Parry who also talks about neo-Nazis running Ukraine’s national security and western media repeating their side of the story:
https://consortiumnews.com/2014/07/20/what-did-us-spy-satellites-see-in-ukraine/
Also have a look at who had the greater motive for the attack.
http://cluborlov.blogspot.co.nz/2014/07/fact-free-zone.html
Well the reason was included in the crash is because under international law it is their responsibility to be lead investigator – it happened on their territory. Ukraine actually gave up their role to the Dutch.
speaking of “international law” (international norms) many of the air accident reporting standards normally expected in an incident like this were not met by the Dutch.
Like? Can list them?
Perhaps some of those norms weren’t followed because they didnt get access to much of the crash site for the better part of a year.
ICAO rules (a UN organisation) govern the procedures to be followed. Havent seen any complaints to ICAO about the dishonesty of the Dutch.
The crash site was open and accessible from the start, albeit there were security concerns
It is ICAO standards which were not followed, including the preparation, timing and release of the preliminary investigation report.
yeah nah.
It was at least 2 weeks before crash investigators could get to the site:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/still-no-safe-passage-to-malaysia-airlines-crash-site-1406714025
Then they had to leave a week later
http://www.outlookindia.com/news/article/21-more-mh17-crash-victims-identified-experts-leave-site/854102
On again off again:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30000967
It wasn’t until Spring i.e., 8 months after the crash that the investigators were able to fully survey and clear the site.
Can you reference the standards you claim weren’t followed? If its the “4 week guideline for a preliminary report” to be released then you probably missed the bit about “except in justifiably exceptional circumstances” which being unable to safely access the crash site would fit that criteria. As far as I am aware ICAO seemed pretty happy at the time, in fact not only did they agree that the preliminary report was “submitted” “in accordance with the provisions contained in Annex 13— Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation, to the Convention on International Civil Aviation.”, but they were also “encouraged” by the investigation:
http://www.icao.int/newsroom/pages/icao-receives-preliminary-report-on-mh17-accident-investigation.aspx
So, which bits of the ICAO convention did the Dutch Safety Board flout?
Yeah we get it, MH17 was a false flag operation by the CIA to tarnish the good name of the Russians, any narrative to the contrary is dishonest. Of course the Dutch are gonna help cover that up.
How about this for a piece of grand nonsense from the commenter “Once Duped” in response to Kelsey’s article in the Herald yesterday…….it’s that or it’s a wicked send-up –
“Noone doubts your sincerity, but in a democracy we each get to decide what weight we should put on any public person’s opinion.
Because you have been denied access to any of the negotiation documents, you have little specific information above what a normal informed member of society would have.
Notwithstanding, you have adopted a position of unwavering opposition to the TPPA. However much that opposition may in fact be justified by scholarly analysis, the reality is that the majority of people have accepted it as a free expression of political views untarnished by academic objectivity.”
“……..untarnished by academic objectivity” ?????
Talk about contradictions in terms. I smell a Hosking, maybe a wag.
The Herald buried the story of her victory in court.
An inconvenient story in face of their daily pro-TPP brainwashing.
It had normal prominence on their website.
Both TVNZ and ChristieWorks did not cover the story at all.
Ha ha, sometimes ignorance in people is funny.. and the more ignorant the funnier it is ….
That person’s view right there is a classic because under their opinion about opinions, an opinion that the grass is not green has equal validity…
“… untarnished by academic objectivity …”
that is a clanger that reflects back on the writer (who is it?)
Or actually maybe it reflects more on the general ignorant public who believe, like this person, that everybody’s opinions are equal. Certainly John Key believes he can just go and get another scientific ‘opinion’ whenever he likes to support or oppose whatever he likes……
…. just like my comment above, John Key’s lowly traits are catching on and it is not a good thing.
it would be funny if it weren’t so sad
Only if “…the majority of people have accepted it… untarnished by academic objectivity”. 🙂
(Actually when I read that commenter’s whole sentence again it’s so confused and ambiguous it’s meaningless.)
Finally, finally, this scummy reality for those battling serious health issues has floated to the top of the news bulletin….on Natrad anyway.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/286914/jobseeker-benefit-for-cancer-patients-'ludicrous‘
“One woman, who does not want to be identified, applied for a benefit when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
She was put on Jobseeker Support, which replaced the sickness benefit after the 2013 welfare reforms.
She said she had to pay for a medical certificate every month to prove she could not work – even though her surgeon insisted she would be off for much longer.
“The letter from the hospital wasn’t sufficient. I then had to go back and get a doctor’s note to keep them happy, just to prove the fact that I was going in for surgery,” she said.
“Then I also had to, on the day of my surgery, get someone from the hospital to fax through that I had been operated on”
Anne -Where Did I leave My Heart- Tolley …
“…admitted that having to provide monthly medical certificates in the early stages of cancer was difficult, but said the government had to draw a line somewhere.
She said cancer patients could not expect special treatment, because then everyone would want it.
“Where you draw the line is always the issue,” she said.
“You start creating a whole lot of layers and there would be, I’m sure, other groups of people that would come forward and say, ‘we need special consideration too’.”
This is the “Crawling Out of The Woodwork” argument the Government used against the family carers of high needs disabled NZ citizens during the Atkinson Human Rights Review Tribunal hearing.
Bastards.
(Can anyone else hear the rail cars clanking as they pull into the sidings….?)
BUT….you will have a choice….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/72984566/david-seymours-voluntary-euthanasia-bill-to-be-lodged-in-parliament
Rather not have your illness or disability drag you and your family into financial despair????
She said cancer patients could not expect special treatment, because then everyone would want it.
“Where you draw the line is always the issue,” she said.
Actually there is a pretty simple solution to that. You leave it to the medical people involved in the care to determine the length of time and they write it on the form. Because this is a clinical decision not a bureaucratic one. This is what happens already (with the medical exemption on job seeker allowance) except the doctor can’t determine the length of time. But they do make a clinical decision about the person’s fitness for work or not and there is no reason why that couldn’t include something like a 6 month exemption. In an age of computer technology this shouldn’t be a difficult thing to administier.
Is jobseeker now a monthly rather than 12 weekly cycle?
If it was so easy, the fact is, the attempts to influence the medical profession has been a parallel effort over recent years, all smartly planned by vested interest players and their selected, mostly UK based “experts”:
http://members.racp.edu.au/page/racp-faculties/australasian-faculty-of-occupational-and-environmental-medicine/realising-the-health-benefits-of-work/may-2010-video-presentation-professor-sir-mansel-aylward/
http://www.racp.org.nz/docs/default-source/default-document-library/australian-and-new-zealand-consensus-statement-on-the-health-benefits-of-work.pdf?sfvrsn=2
Based on UK “experts” from a certain school of thought, the MSD’s Principal Health Advisor has been working hard to “convince” medical practitioners, such as GPs and the WINZ designated doctors for years, that work is “therapeutic” and has “health benefits”, and that even sick and disabled are better off working:
http://www.gpcme.co.nz/pdf/GP%20CME/Friday/C1%201515%20Bratt-Hawker.pdf
There are more efforts under way, to open up the ways to re-assess sick and disable for work ability, by more health professionals, I suspect, ones that may be more happy to collaborate with MSD/WINZ:
https://www.rnzcgp.org.nz/assets/Submissions/Submission-Widening-who-can-sign-Work-Capacity-Medical-Certificates.pdf
And while some suitable activities, e.g. perhaps some forms of suitable work, may benefit some sick and disabled, that does not mean to be so for all. Someone has actually bothered looking at the so often presented “evidence”, and it is at best inconclusive, the supposed “health benefits of work”:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2015/08/09/msd-and-dr-david-bratt-present-misleading-evidence-claiming-worklessness-causes-poor-health/
Some work may actually be more harmful than not working, certainly much precarious work we have now:
http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2014/10/05/work-has-fewer-health-benefits-than-mansel-aylward-and-other-experts-claim-it-can-cause-serious-harm/
Problem is most people just believe what they are told, or simply put up with arguments, without examining what it is actually all about.
I fear that doctors are increasingly being expected to diagnose and assess patients along the guidelines MSD now set, for work ability and duration of incapacity, and with the same forces lobbying the medical professional organisations, more and more practitioners go along with all this madness.
“How often does a person need to give Work and Income a medical certificate?
The medical certificate allows you to indicate an appropriate review period based on your clinical assessment.
The legislative requirements for the Jobseeker Support benefit mean that medical certificates can cover a maximum of four weeks for the first eight weeks, and then up to a maximum of 13 weeks subsequently.”
More info re the new requirements:
http://www.workandincome.govt.nz/community/brochures/work-capacity-med-cert-health-practitioners.html
So for the first 8 weeks after applying for Jobseeker Support (deferred) about once every four weeks a medical certificate is required.
+1 Rosemary
By the way as well as the incredibly heartless stance on Cancer there is also the absolute waste of taxpayers money on getting all those medical reports which are subsidised as well as the waste of time for the doctors and medical staff to supply such ridiculous level of documentation.
Oh I have cancer, lets let the state know MONTHLY if I still have it. Disgusting on all levels.
Sorry our hospitals are not so good as they cure cancer every month.
You beat me to it, I see, thanks for posting this comment!
Indeed, what a disgrace, it takes the Cancer Society and terminal cancer sufferers to suddenly raise this OVER TWO YEARS after this was passed and introduced, and about three years since the submission process started:
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/legislation/bills/00DBHOH_BILL11634_1/social-security-benefit-categories-and-work-focus-amendment
It appears that the Cancer Society did not present a submission then, probably because most felt they would never be affected by a draconian, inhumane benefit regime. But not all have working partners, or savings and other resources to fall back on when serious poor health hits them.
And it was again only Radio NZ National that reported on it this morning, as far as I could hear it. Paul Henry was busy cracking silly jokes and relishing in rubbishing Andrew Little and Labour again (with the help of Paddy Gower).
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/286914/jobseeker-benefit-for-cancer-patients-'ludicrous‘
Indeed, this new approach, to look rather at what people can (hypothetically) do, rather than what they cannot, which was brought in from the UK, and had been thought out by their “experts” like Mansel Aylward et al, from one ‘Centre for Psychosocial and Disability Research’ at Cardiff Uni, once generously “sponsored” by UNUM Provident (that nobody likes to mention these days), is insane and open to abuse by MSD and WINZ.
And Carmel Sepuloni had nothing more to say, than she had “anecdotally” heard of such cases, where seriously sick were expected to jump through hoops to “prove” they are too sick to work. What have you been doing as opposition spokesperson on social security then? Perhaps more should get out of the comfort zone and talk to people directly affected? But I fear most are so pressured and fearful now, they dare not rock the boat, and rather “harden up”, before the final day comes, and try and struggle, also with mental illness and what else some have that is now considered not so serious anymore.
As I remember, all this had been raised before:
http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/medical-and-work-capability-assessments-based-on-the-controversial-bio-psycho-social-model/
http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/designated-doctors-used-by-work-and-income-some-also-used-by-acc-the-truth-about-them/
http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2014/06/21/work-ability-assessments-done-for-work-and-income-a-revealing-fact-study-part-a/
Radio NZ National presented an interview on this topic also some time ago:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2592666/winz-expands-scheme-to-support-unemployed-with-illness-issues
A post with some transcripts and comments on that one:
http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2014/06/22/work-ability-assessments-done-for-work-and-income-a-revealing-fact-study-part-d/
And they have even changed the process they use for the Medical Appeals Board hearings some time ago, bringing in a “presenter” from MSD or WINZ to have an extra player in appeal hearings, supporting their new approaches:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2015/03/17/the-medical-appeal-board-how-msd-and-winz-have-secretely-changed-the-process-disadvantaging-beneficiaries/
Have the MSM been fast asleep for two years, to not come across other stories of people being expected to look for work while being seriously sick or disabled?
Mike @5.3 The MSM haven’t been fast asleep. We’re just not on their radar, why should we be? Unless of course we’re sprung for benefit fraud, now THAT’S good copy. Is my cynicism showing? I’ve been following the UK system with great fear, as you obviously have been. Note it’s only the left-wing papers (Guardian, Independent)that are reporting the ATOS and welfare reform tragedies going on there- it doesn’t even get a mention on the “impartial” BBC.
I honestly thought in NZ, with our 1.5-2 degrees of separation, everyone really does know someone with some sort of long term disability, many of whom can’t work, there would be more of the general public who cared, but there aren’t, until it happens to them. And there’s noone who can say that they’ve never known someone who’s had cancer and have some idea what the treatment entails. That would include our beloved Minister; her response only confirms the psychopathy, ie incapable of empathy.
As for Carmel Sepaloni- good that she’s bringing these things to the public’s attention but as happened with her pointing out the 18 years of benefit underpayments, Guyon couldn’t get her to say that she thinks we should be reimbursed. She was political point scoring off our backs, and just going along labour’s anti-benefit policy. So don’t expect any real work done on our behalf by her.
“She was political point scoring off our backs, and just going along labour’s anti-benefit policy. So don’t expect any real work done on our behalf by her.”
Totally. Labour hates beneficiaries. I don’t know what’s happened with the possibility of retrospective legislation papering over that one day of benefit payment thing, but it wouldn’t surprise if Labour votes with the government on it. That’s where things are at the moment – the first question when it comes to social welfare benefits and attacks on the poor is “will Labour vote with the government on this.” It’s quite incredible to think that’s where things have got to.
“Labour hates beneficiaries. ”
Now there’s a very interesting comment.
(Which I agree with BTW, and add to beneficiaries ….non ACC disabled and others with long term medical conditions….the ‘incurables’)
Considering the huff and puff from many on the Left about the Right’s attitude to “the poor” and “beneficiaries”…. it boggles the mind that when an example is presented about a specific group impacted by government policy, the usual flay brigade remain silent.
Non-ACC disabled and those too sick to work have been treated like shit by various governments.
Can’t see this changing any time soon.
The non-ACC disabled are reduced to living on a benefit for the whole of their lives because of something they cannot change. The NZ Disability Strategy and other core government documents sanction the idea of “an ordinary life” for all disabled people. Surely that must translate into rejecting the notion that disabled people must be reduced/forced/expected to live on a welfare benefit until they die? Surely this group must be treated differently and, perhaps, be given the equivalent of, say, at least the minimum wage? A percentage of the average wage? The average wage? Whatever the figure to condemn the non-ACC disabled to a life of poverty disgusts me.
“Surely that must translate into rejecting the notion that disabled people must be reduced/forced/expected to live on a welfare benefit until they die? Surely this group must be treated differently and, perhaps, be given the equivalent of, say, at least the minimum wage? A percentage of the average wage? The average wage? Whatever the figure to condemn the non-ACC disabled to a life of poverty disgusts me.”
Going into WINZ as a person on the Supported Living Payment with your partner who is on the same benefit even though she provides you with all the care you have been assessed as needing is a humiliating and demoralising experience. You are scum, and treated like scum. (There is the odd WINZ employee who treats you like a human and gets that the system sucks, but they are rare)
Then you go to WINZ to transition to National Super.
And OMG…there is a separate waiting area (apart from the hoipolloi), and its all smiles, respect and congratulations.
We eschewed the special seating…we know where we belong.
Chris…the NZ Disability Strategy, along with the Carers Strategy and the UN Convention are the foundation documents for the so called advocacy organisations who happily accept $millions from the government for a pantomime of representation.
“…the NZ Disability Strategy, along with the Carers Strategy and the UN Convention are the foundation documents for the so called advocacy organisations who happily accept $millions from the government for a pantomime of representation.”
I’ve got a niece with an intellectual disability who used to live in an IHC residence. She had an average sort of an existence which is why my sister took her out of there. But I was always intrigued by IHC management people, probably from their head office, who you’d hear on the radio talking about this unfairness or that unfairness. Something never quite rang true. It was as if they didn’t really know what they were talking about or that they didn’t really ever want anything to change. I don’t know exactly what it is. But this post on The Daily Blog and some of the comments, particularly this one, get as close as I’ve seen to explaining it.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/09/28/ihc-helping-national-abandon-vulnerable-families/#comment-306664
Labour didn’t always hate beneficiaries but it does now. Labour’s always been “the party for workers”, or so it says. Labour still says that. It’s just that its idea of who the workers are has changed. It used to be the “pool of labour”. Now it’s only those with a job, the employed, the workers. And that explains why Labour’s quite happy voting with Key’s government for legislation that attacks beneficiaries, and how its managed to shift its view of beneficiaries and the poor to one of hatred towards them, without too many people noticing.
Chris @5.3.1.1- I emailed Ms Sepaloni to her parliament address the day of that interview, both thanking her for bringing the matter to our attention, but also to express my disappointment in her response to Guyons questioning. 4 weeks later not even an acknowledgement my email was received, or a bounced back email. So it got there alright, but I’m guessing I can add myself to the list of voters who are having their emails ignored by MPs if they don’t like the subject matter. Seems to be a growing trend from what I’m hearing.
I was toying with the idea of re-sending it and asking for an update on the situation but I suspect that email will conviniently not make it either.
And Labour wonder where so many of their votes went after 1999? Ask the beneficiary bloc.
Now there would be about close to 300 thousand potential votes, or say, at least 100 to 200 thousand, going by a conservative estimate. If they would be more honest, and trustworthy, and also explain to the other voters they want to attract, that social justice and fairness must come first, and that it is in our all interest, they may even be able to “harvest” votes in that “centre” and from beneficiaries.
So far a gigantic FAIL by Labour, simply ignoring so many potential voters, also other disillusioned. Look at Sanders in the US, putting pressure on Clinton, at 74 years of age, attracting many students and other young voters, look at Corbyn in the UK, when do Labour damned wake up? It can be done!
Beneficiaries in NZ are too busy doing everything they can to feed their families. Benefits aren’t enough to do that so way more time is taken up dealing with that problem, including trying to avoid being kicked off the benefit in the first place.
@Kay 5.3.1
“I honestly thought in NZ, with our 1.5-2 degrees of separation, everyone really does know someone with some sort of long term disability, many of whom can’t work, there would be more of the general public who cared, but there aren’t, until it happens to them. And there’s noone who can say that they’ve never known someone who’s had cancer and have some idea what the treatment entails. That would include our beloved Minister; her response only confirms the psychopathy, ie incapable of empathy.”
Deserves to be repeated that…spot on.
Every last word.
Yep…same old same old isn’t it Mike TSO.
Scream it from the highest rooftop in the loudest voice and those who will not listen won’t.
If there was anything approaching an Opposition Party in NZ, they would be screaming “unfuckingacceptable!!!”.
Yet…watch the cross- Party accord on Voluntary Euthanasia.
Rosemary, the problem we face is much greater than even many insiders are aware of. Even the Health and Disability Commissioner, same as the Office of Ombudsmen, seem to take a very dim view of the fate of some of those with permanent sickness and disability, especially if it involves mental health conditions. Strangely medical practitioners seem to be given more “credit” when it comes to complaints:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2015/10/04/how-the-n-z-health-and-disability-commissioner-let-off-a-biased-designated-doctor/
Hence I and a few friends celebrated Jane Kelsey’s and her friends’ win at court yesterday, it really exposed how useless the Ombudsmen (and other Officers of Parliament) have been, at least in some cases:
http://thestandard.org.nz/congratulations-jane-kelsey/#comment-1082082
So while I have great reservations about the Taxpayers’ Union, they make a valid point also, re Beverley Wakem and some of her decisions, and the general disgusting situation of the OIA process having become farcical. Our democracy has been under threat for a while, this has never been shown so damned clearly.
“Hence I and a few friends celebrated Jane Kelsey’s and her friends’ win at court yesterday,”
Yes. One of those occasions when a cry of triumph cannot be contained.
(Even if passersby thought we had lost the plot.)
Its well past time for Kiwis to demand a stop to this…yet so many are locked into the mindless drivel that passes for ‘news’ and ‘journalism’.
How do we get the attention of those who would care if only they had the information???
My message is clear: Persist, keep it up, send the messages, remind them all out there, do NEVER stop telling and sharing the truth, the truth will prevail in the end, comment on all blogs there are, even on Kiwiblog, that is as long as we stand for the truth, and in that I HAVE NO DOUBT!
I’ve just popped in for a visit, Good post MTS one. 🙂
Just popped in, Good post MST one. 🙂
I remember hearing about someone refused the invalid’s benefit because their condition wasn’t going to last for two years or more. They had cancer and about six months to live. The condition wasn’t likely to last for two years or more because they weren’t going to last for two years or more! I think that’s been fixed up now, but the fact it happened illustrates the attitude.
Just like the young lady from Crewe
who once found a mouse in her stew.
Said the waiter, “Don’t shout
and wave it about,
or the others will all want one too.”
But that didn’t bother the lady,
Brought up in an orphanage shady,
“From where I’m sittin’,
I don’t mind it shittin’,
So long as it doesn’t have rabies.”
“Can anyone else hear the rail cars clanking as they pull into the sidings…”
Quite. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_T4
Most people have no idea this happened.
Yahya Hassan gives his baby daughter a last kiss goodbye. The 3 year old girl was killed by an Israeli airstrike on Gaza last night. Their house collapsed on them while they slept. Her mother Nour who was 5 months pregnant was also killed in the blast.
https://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2015/10/12/a-fathers-last-kiss-goodbye/
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/72344235/death-by-a-thousand-cuts-nzs-oil-spill-record-revealed.html
‘Death by a thousand cuts’: NZ’s oil spill record revealed
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1510/S00193/governments-credibility-in-tatters.htm
I think more and more people will take up income protection insurance to avoid the clutches of WINZ when they fall sick. Can’t say I would blame them.At least the insurance company would leave you with enough money to pay bills and buy food after you pay rent/mortgage.
I dont know why people think that people live a caviar and champagne lifestyle on a benefit.
Yeah, just look at all those malingerers, choosing to be poor. It’s a disgrace.
@Millsy
I would read the fine print if I was you because a lot of those policies sold to the poor do not kick in, until you qualify for unemployment benefit. If you can’t get that then you don’t get the pay out.
Hey it worked for a certain Mr Slater, for a while.
Yeah, cause private insurers are such an upstanding bunch, always doing the best for their clients and never trying to weasel out of their obligations. As the people of Christchurch found out.
Re the Rugby World Cup obsession .. I have a simple solution.
Put the champion of Islamic State (al-Baghdadi ?) together with his counterpart (Vladimir ?) in a spare Roman ampitheatre and to the victor go the spoils.
Think of the ratings.
this ones for you doc
“Opponents of government aid to the poor often argue that the poor are not really poor. The evidence they are fond of is often an inappropriate comparison, usually with people in other countries: “Thus we can say that by global standards there are no poor people in the US at all: the entire country is at least middle class or better” (Tim Worstall in Forbes). Sometimes the comparison is with earlier times, as in this quote from Heritage’s Robert Rector: “‘Poor’ Americans today are better housed, better fed, and own more property than did the average US citizen throughout much of the 20th Century.””
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2015/10/13/arent-the-poor-comparatively-rich-the-fallacy-of-faulty-comparison/
The Real Secrets to Grand Fortune
Most definitely an interesting interview.
The other side of the story:
‘MH17 shot with BUK missile, Ukraine failed to close airspace’
https://www.rt.com/news/318536-mh17-investigation-dutch-report/
‘BUK producer detonates missiles next to pilot’s cockpit in real-life MH17 experiment (VIDEO)’
https://www.rt.com/news/318505-almaz-antey-video-simulation/
and ‘MH17 report’
https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/318603-mh17-report-investigation-results/
‘Fifteen months after the tragic loss of MH17 over war-torn Ukraine the Dutch Safety Board has presented the results of its investigation. From the very beginning the explicit aim of this probe was to determine why the plane was destroyed in midair. Will we ever learn the “who” and “why” parts of this tragedy?CrossTalking with John Laughland, Alexander Mercouris, and Dmitry Babich.”
‘BUK producer detonates missiles next to pilot’s cockpit in real-life MH17 experiment (VIDEO)’
Take the damage shown in the video and figure out exactly how it would be amplified if the missile and aircraft had a closing speed of a couple of thousand kph and the aircraft cabin was pressurised way above the outside atmosphere. You can’t? That’s why the video is completely useless, except for propaganda purposes.
David Seymour is doing some good work in the house as of late…might have to start thinking about changing my party vote again
Did you like his recent comment that “the French love the cock”
says the man who claims he’s a centrist.
I am so I’d like a centrist party in power (National) but National will still need support partners and maybe if Act get more seats then Peter Dunne can get the boot
“I am so I’d like a centrist party in power (National)..”
Lying again…
http://www.politicalcompass.org/nz2014
Those questions were a bit skewed towards the left 🙂
No they weren’t.
It’s Ok, don’t feel shy.
I can understand why you’d be embarrassed to admit your desire to vote for Act or National, the extreme right parties of NZ politics.
I was also working at the same time so my concentration was on other things!
lol
ah, the “I can’t remember my opinion” defence.
You still haven’t looked at the political compass which shows the relative positions of the political parties have you?
Even though several commenters have linked to it for you? See the link at my comment 14.2.1.1: It shows that National and Act are furthest to the authoritarian right on the spectrum of NZ politics. You can claim that you made a hash of filling out your personal compass, but you can’t deny your self expressed preference for those two parties.
Ergo, you are not a centrist. In NZ terms you are an extreme rightist.
Also if it’s fair enough to call the Greens “hard left” as many of your fellow travelers like Wayne Mapp do, then it is equally fair to call National voters such as yourself “hard right”, is it not?
It is pitiable that I am still trying to get an intellectually honest answer from you so long into the conversation.
I have to admit that Seymour has been greatly underestimated by the left. He will probably be more effective at articulating ACT policies than Prebble, Hide, Banks, Brash and Whyte ever have/will.
There is a very interesting article on three news….
“Labour is swallowing an enormous, filthy, stinking, rotten, maggot-infested dead rat called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).”
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/opinion/opinion-labour-swallowing-tppa-rats-2015101316#ixzz3oUVXNHqw
Because it is a Paddy Rant it is probably way off course. Written and paid for by National’s subsidary.
I think you are dreaming.
So you don’t think that Mr Shouty is gagging on a maggoty rat then???
Only time will tell.
Tempting as your vision sounds, Paddy Gower can gag perfectly well on 3News’ audience ratings.
waffer-thin: http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/72981663/3-news-sees-lowest-ratings-in-four-years
I don’t watch National Party propaganda.
I boycott TV3.
Gower and garner alone are enough reason not to bother regardless of who fills their coin tin up.
It doesn’t take much for you to become enthralled! Alfred E Newman delivering his Master’s Voice in the guise of Paddy Gower has you creaming yourself.
The ultimate irony – it’s getting cold, can we please move south.
The second study, meanwhile, seeks to explain the Younger Dryas, a cold period that began abruptly 12,900 years ago, as the planet was actually coming out of a glacial period and entering the present interglacial. Suddenly, though, temperatures swung back and became quite cold again for more than a thousand years, leading glaciers and ice sheets to rebuild. And once again, a change in Atlantic ocean circulation has long been a leading suspect in causing this dramatic, sudden event.
“The start of the Younger Dryas was in a couple of years, really five years or so,” says Hans Renssen of VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands, who led the research, along with scientists from Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/10/12/why-the-earths-past-has-scientists-so-worried-about-the-atlantic-oceans-circulation/
Awesome performance by Bill English, delivering a technical surplus after only seven years. His government has always been a day late and a dollar short, but Bill is seven years late and $101 billion short.
The gibbering incompetence of far-right neo con ideologues is virtually infinite, being compromised of the second most abundant thing in the universe – 1 being hydrogen & 2 being stupidity.
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2015/10/houston_we_have_a_surplus.html
Well done John Key and Bill English
if it were a poll this surplus would be within the margin of error……
lol ACT-level…
Hey its not the size its what you do with it that counts remember
1. Attack children.
2. Tax cuts.
3. Deny responsibility.
4. Win next election
5. Wake up.
0. Scream #repeat
Yes indeed
worse than useless – nothing can make amends for the damage they have done to the NZ economy – but confiscating all their property and imprisoning them for life would be a good place to start.
Useless treacherous wasters.
The law allows Cabinet Club and other examples of money-laundering. The National Party is merely filling a gap in the market.
Get the money out of politics.
“imprisoning them for life would be a good place to start.”
I for one welcome such trials.
Yeah – better keep the trials short I think – some people mistake notoriety for fame – Gower, Slater, Key for a start.
When the national debt is something like $100 billion, this surplus is basically irrelevant.
@Puckish Rogue
For what? a pseudo surplus? Or the unprecedented level of debt National are clocking up?
It actually shows how feudal the ‘right’ are in NZ that folk like Hooten aren’t all over this maladministration for non-performance. Real growth – ex Christchurch & migration – at under 0.5% – if growth is their policy object they’re failures of truly awesome proportions. Screwups have no friends, left or right.
Will Michael Woodhouse resign?
Documents clearly show that Woodhouse not only lied to the people but also to Parliament when he said that he had not intervened and the exclusion of Dairy as a High Risk Industry wasn’t deliberate, but based on an the risks.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11528604
I’m not holding my breath – just watch this sort of corruptness go whoooooosh over the heads of the sheeple – their house prices are still making more than them.
Question 10 today from IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY to the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety was answered by not Woodhouse, but the “enthusiastic Dr Smith who argued quite differently.
http://www.inthehouse.co.nz/video/40020
When Woodhouse is in a hole he hides. Smith will and has dug him out of the hole – sort of.
It would have been a Cabinet decision to protect farmers and Woodhouse would have just been following orders – perhaps.
The relationship between Smith and the truth of the matter, is somewhat strained at best.
No doubt about it.
So Woodhouse avoids telling porkies in Parliament again, and has someone else do it for him.. Lovely!
“The relationship between Smith and the truth”
.. of any sort has been tenuous. Yet folk vote for him.
Does the Labour Party have a problem with a more open and democratic process for candidate selection – something that has been developed for leadership races?
Is there a problem with people forming organised lobby groups within the party membership to agitate for this change?
And if so, who with/for – unions, groups that have managed to secure quotas for themselves (the national organisations involvement in selecting local candidates)?
“Is there a problem with people forming organised lobby groups within the party membership to agitate for this change?”
Pagani/Nash et al?
“The man arrested in connection with the disappearance of Alex Fisher is his older brother Eric McIsaac.”
Note that the Judge asked for a Psychiatric report. Pretty awful for so many reasons.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11529097
It was pretty obvious from the start that the man arrested for burglary was Alex Fisher’s brother. Otherwise we would have heard from him because he was the last person the young lad was seen with. Deeply sad for all concerned.
Let’s just hope that the Sensible Sentencing Trust, that gang of callous publicity seekers and vultures that feed off human misery, are nowhere to be seen in the inevitable media coverage of this tragedy.