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.
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
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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.