Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike …
..thanks travellerev….can someone please translate this into simple English easily understood by non lawyers?
…on a cursory glance it looks a complex legal cunning predatory spiders nest web….. to deny NZers freedom of thought, intellectual rights, entrepreneurship and business…as well as forcing policing /spying on them by their internet providers
….the TPP definitely should NOT be signed!!…we will all become moron zombies imo…( or bigger moron zombies than we already are..speaking for myself)
The fact that it is giving its readers a beginners’ guide says so much about how poorly the paper has kept us informed. Indeed, if Wikileaks hadn’t actually sent the Herald the secret chapter, you wonder if the paper would have bothered.
Why did you like it? To me it looks facile. Of course lots of people decide who they will vote for before the election campaign – that’s everyone who isn’t a swing voter. I know who I will be voting for now. If she had crunched the actual numbers on those percentages I’d be more interested.
She thinks that Labour have to get votes from the GP. Good grief, how long until people understand what MMP is. Taking votes from the GP won’t make Labour any more likely to form govt. While I think there will be inevitable vote shifting between the two parties next year depending on how they campaign, the votes that Labour need are going to come from the 800,000 who didn’t vote last time, and probably from NACT and NZF.
I knew Claire in a former job. She is not a bad person, but she is, without a doubt, the most unimaginative empathy-less mediocre plodder you could ever hope to avoid.
Hopefully for dunney it will be a long drop. There was an item on ventriloquist dummies recently and his head would make for a great political lampoon. Actually a piece of art installation would be to have his head with a light bulb aloft under a shade and label it ‘Politcal Lampoon’.
Despite all the moral concern and outrage expressed on ‘the standard’ about….
1) young girls and alcohol…alcohol use/abuse…drunkenness in general by young New Zealanders
2) teenage boy sex gang Roast Busters and rape and sexual abuse of underage girls….
3)..patriarchy, sexism and abuse of women in general
4.)JT and Willy ‘s insensitive interviewing of a young abuse victim….and their subsequent suspension from radioLive ( much to the outrage of my teenage son!..ha ha)
5)how NZ parents are not being responsible and bringing up children properly
6)the Auckland (Catholic family man) Mayor Len Brown’s sex scandal…two years of frolicking and cavorting conducted on Council sacred property and at Sky City gambling casino with a young Asian whose sympathies were actually with the other side and who was working with the other side
7)the Auckland police and their cynicism, ineptitude or worse…..
….nothing has been said about the building of Aucklands 15 story meg-brothel (opposite the Sky Tower) ….why?….I would like to hear reasons why , because this has the potential to really embed sexual abuse of NZ girls and women…. in the very heart of Auckland City forever
…to me , this Capitalist enterprise allowed by Len’s Auckland Council is a far greater crime than working class male JTs and Willy’s misdemeanors…which have received a lot of noise from the Left and a sound smacking…lets get real here
@ weka…barn farming of women for sex and profit is not conducive to respect of women or children…..it creates a climate of objectification for sexual gratification…..abuse of children can lead to prostitution
1)…how many women are coerced into prostitution?…how many women get into prostitution because of child abuse, lack of education, lack of well paid meaningful work….drug addictions?
2) …..as a woman it restricts your freedom of movement….it restricts where you as a woman or child can safely walk in the streets and areas after dark
3.) …it creates a climate of corruption in which ANY woman is fair game…and all women and girls are potential prostitutes… ordinary women run the risk of being regarded as prostitutes …
….i know this personally because i used to work in a union, next door to a brothel and i was accosted on the street and asked “How Much?”……
4..)….any woman or girl is fair game because society condones this behaviour where women are objectified and used….legalising prostitution has not protected prostitutes…. judging by the numbers of prostitute murders in Christchurch since it was legalised
6.) i have no objection to prostitution if it is hidden and a woman runs her own business discretely…and prostitution does not foul certain streets with condoms and needles
The whole point surely was to expose the industry to regulation.
Take alcohol, gunpowder, abortion, and soon recreational drugs, its better to have them in the tent rather out of sight.
I thought the whole push of National was to provide facilities that Asian visitors would expect in NZ when they come for conferences. i.e along side the conference halls, a casino and a big brothel. Its Key’s social conservatism and free market agenda merging. Selling an airline merely makes vertical the whole package so that it can be mostly foriegned own and so profits flow overseas.
You’ve already posted this comment chooky and you were told two days ago that telling the authors what to do is not good form. If you feel that strongly about it, write a guest post.
Indeed, weka, but “the standard” starts with the authors and if commenters were meant, chooky should have said so. Remember, this comment was posted two days ago on open mike and received the same response. Chooky has decided to repost the comment, ignoring the advice given two days ago and choosing not to define the target in the way you suggest.
Fair enough, and on my first reading today I did automatically think ‘authors’ rather than commenters. I didn’t see the thread the other day, just had a look now.
eerr ummmh….I did not get a warning from Big Daddy Lprent…nobody gave me a warning …just you now!
….I was not criticising ‘the Standard’ as such …just the orientations of some arguments and perspectives …of which i have been party to myself
…We are not all unquestionable Holy Prophets here I hope …it is a continuing dialogue and dialectic….we can change opinions and question opinions I hope!…or are you suggesting that we can not?
@ weka….commenters and comments are questioned all the time here….
thnax for the support Muzza( bro?)….unfortanately I had to dash away after my comments…(some of us cant sit at the computer arguing all day)
1)….interesting that no one has really addressed the arguments I made above about the mega brothel in the heart of Auckland ( are we heading for a Bangkok of the South Pacific?)…the arguments I made strike me as being inherently feminist and working class arguments against capitalist farming women for sex and profit ..(.cf farming cows for milk and profit )…. for fucks sake women should be in charge of their own work , means of production, money making business …if that is the way they choose to go…I am sure Marx would agree)
2)….interesting too that Te Reo Putake has taken such exception to what I say and wants to shut me up ( 3 different commenters have warned me apparently …ha ha……well i am not sure who they are either.. )
…although Bill Drees once before told me to get off ‘the standard’…. .indicating I was not up to standard so to speak….and he keeps saying William Massey …would “smile” at me from his grave and “loves” me….not sure why…and whether this is a compliment?….can someone elucidate muggins me ?
…Actually from the grave ….I am sure my Father would be smiling at me approvingly ….he was at various times during his life a railway worker, truck driver, freezing worker , fisherman and farmer…….and he voted Labour all his life and then the Alliance….. My Mother has always voted Labour…I have voted Labour( even worked for Labour) , NZF, Green …and increasingly Mana is looking attractive
Which way do you vote Muzza?…or is that too intrusive a question?
. . . The internet backbone — the infrastructure of networks upon which internet traffic travels — went from being a passive infrastructure for communication to an active weapon for attacks.
According to revelations about the QUANTUM program, the NSA can “shoot” (their words) an exploit at any target it desires as his or her traffic passes across the backbone. It appears that the NSA and GCHQ were the first to turn the internet backbone into a weapon; absent Snowdens of their own, other countries may do the same and then say, “It wasn’t us. And even if it was, you started it.”
If the NSA can hack Petrobras, the Russians can justify attacking Exxon/Mobil. If GCHQ can hack Belgicom to enable covert wiretaps, France can do the same to AT&T. If the Canadians target the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy, the Chinese can target the U.S. Department of the Interior. We now live in a world where, if we are lucky, our attackers may be every country our traffic passes through except our own . . .
No wonder the Germans are looking to build and Internetz to keep data completely inside Germany
Deutsche Telekom wants to change this state of affairs by building a purely German Internet, with data packets only sent via German pathways if the sender and recipient are both within the country.
The company is hard at work on technical solutions for such an “Internetz” — a hybrid of “Internet” and the German word for “network.” Managers at Deutsche Telekom say they are in talks with various network operators, looking to bring them onboard with this idea of a unified German solution and to set prices for shared use of the necessary infrastructure.
otoh it may be they’ve had this solution looking for a problem for a while and now they might just be seeing a chance to make some money by building on the fear of being spied on.
It remains to be seen if the NAct part of National will trample all over the negotiators to get the December agreement. It seems unlikely to work though – there’s far too much dissent now in the U.S. for it to get through congress even if an agreement was reached.
I reckon the people that are going to lose face when it falls over are working out around about now how to frame the news that it’s all been a waste of time and money.
As a general rule, state-run and corporate mainstream media networks will only allocate coverage to certain demonstrations, namely those that are aligned with either state-sanctioned political parties or advocacy groups.
Anything else outside of that is normally swept under the control desk. The amnesty-immigration rally that took place on the National Mall in Washington DC during the government shutdown was given prime time by the media because it promoted a political party agenda. This is the globalist, corporatist way of keeping control over “consensus reality” regarding dissident movements. In other words: if it’s not on the BBC, or CNN, then it didn’t really happen.
That old stratagem of control is becoming less and less effective as word of mouth has also become globalized.
Despite the media blackout, this one was still hard to miss – an international Million Mask March organized by demonstrators around the globe and fronted by the hackivist confab known as Anonymous.
On Friday, it’s #IAmSomeone Day across NZ (but hey, the world can join in too). The idea is simple, you tweet, facebook, instagram, tumblr, Google+ (I’m not sure, is it a thing? Do people even use it?) etc your experiences of sexual violence. Be it personal or friends & family (respect people’s privacy obviously). Whether it’s near misses, feeling threatened, the attitudes of people in your community or personal experiences.
Rape culture is news to some, but so many have experienced it for so long. It’s time to add some human faces to the commentary to show how wide spread this hideous phenomena is.
@NZSexism, the NZ branch of Everyday Sexism will be RTing everything using that hashtag, so follow them to see what others are saying. If you like the idea of documenting sexism- check out the Everyday Sexism project, which has had huge success doing exactly that.
There seem to be a number of RW trolls that are just making short contentious comments, not adding anything factual or thoughtful. Is this going to be a trend as we come closer to the election? And is there a possibility of time out for them to give someone who cares and thinks more scope to get through the bumf? Cluster flies is an insect name that would fit them. Also there is a big fly, bumble bee like that has a noisy whine that comes to mind.
Distract and distort seems to be the (Key) intention. Word has gone down the line to follow your leader and start now because the campaign is underway. It’s going to double, treble, quadruple next year and people with something worthy to contribute will become fed up with their comments continuously being misrepresented/distorted and they will go away. It happened on Red Alert and the moderators did nothing for too long. By the time they acted it was too late… many commentators had departed the scene. (Yes, there were other reasons too but that was a significant one.)
Anne
I looked at the posters this morning and many were what seem like RW trolls. I don’t want the discourse to be dominated by RW or rape either. But I want something done to prevent the deterioration of safety for women, and men, too, and thinking how we can set about police improvements.
But Rw trolls are of limited good, ie they can sometimes bring up points that need looking at. But ultimately sincerity of purpose is what is needed. RWs are sincerely uncaring in a concrete mindset. And those two aspects make them barriers to discussion. That’s my observation. We will only get sidetracked in the limited time we have for communication here if we allow these mosquitoes. Have to swat them. When mosquitoes have been at you for a while and you actually get them, they can leave blood marks on the wall! It must not come to that!!
After reading some of the page, I couldn’t handle reading much more, because it makes me ashamed to be a Kiwi male, coming back to the Standard and reading your comment makes me realize how prevalent the attitude in NZ really is. Thank you for your insight into the lower common denominator of a kiwi male mind, you truly did just go full retard.
That’s KK practicing rape culture. That there will be women who have been raped reading this thread, and some of whom will be triggered by what KK wrote, is immaterial to him, because it’s all about him and what he wants.
Works fine right now. I don’t understand. Is it a time of day thing? Sun spots. Perhaps it’s the planets and satellites casting a shadow on me. Somebody is. I’m being…paranoid.
Intelligence agency “man in the middle” internet attacks mimic other websites
To trick targets into visiting a FoxAcid server, the NSA relies on its secret partnerships with US telecoms companies. As part of the Turmoil system, the NSA places secret servers, codenamed Quantum, at key places on the internet backbone. This placement ensures that they can react faster than other websites can. By exploiting that speed difference, these servers can impersonate a visited website to the target before the legitimate website can respond, thereby tricking the target’s browser to visit a Foxacid server.
Grey, when you said before that you could only access via google, what else did you try? eg where you typing the URL in manually? Or using a bookmark? Or what?
Well I had always done it one way and then for a while it has been hard to get in. Not a real clued up type! Anyway what I do is put ‘th; in the address bar, and that brings up a window which includes the standard.org/home and I click on that. I don’t know if it gets up quicker if it doesn’t have home on. Thanks for trying to help weka. I’ll check about the URL.
Interesting, that’s similar to what I do. If I put ‘t’ in the address bar, Firefox fills in thestandard.org.nz/ for me. It might be worth doing it manually for a while to see if you can get rid of the home bit. You could try clearing your history too. Or create a bookmark and use that for a while.
I found a piece in the Dom Post Tues 12/1//13 – a feature on sex assaults and their aftermath by GP Cathy Stephenson and tried to get a digital fix on it. But can’t. There are listings for 2012 on her pieces, on google there are listings about calcium intake from past years.
yes, hips and knees are on the chopping board at our DHB (and the inside line is that there are stealthy cuts being carried out on all limbs.). Furthermore, few GPs are willing to offer after hours service, resulting in ED being loaded with less acute patients. One suggestion is to place a GP at ED but the sawbones are dragging their brogues on that one, so far.
I don’t know how many sawbones get into the decision making process. Local health board seems to have the long-term people with nice faces, and a little understanding of health, and a steady hand on the wheel re-elected. Not inspiring if looking for people to cut through the daily agenda to get a periscope view of direction and method of getting somewhere.
So is there anyone on here that thinks Clare Curran should still be in parliament?
– “Ms Curran’s comments about both my production company and me are untrue and have damaged my professional reputation both presently and in the future. The statements made in the House could well have adversely affected both my application for the Chief Executive position at Māori Television, and also if I choose to apply for any job in the public sector in the future.
For the record, my primary reason for leaving Television New Zealand was that I was satisfied with what I had achieved during my tenure as the General Manager of Māori and Pacific Programmes, and I was also confident that the Māori and Pacific department would be retained in the future and remain under the auspices of Television New Zealand.
I left with a reference from the Head of News and Current Affairs at Television New Zealand. Additionally, I reject the suggestion that the Chairperson of Māori Television would have acted inappropriately in dealing with the shortlisting process. More likely the reason for my shortlisting was that I have twenty-six years of experience in the television industry, having served in various senior roles, and am one of a handful of people with the senior management experience to fill the role of Chief Executive of Māori Television. Ms Curran’s statement in relation to Te Māngai Pāho is also untrue as Te Māngai Pāho has confirmed that I have no current debt to it.”
However Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee this morning rejected the idea, saying after more analysis it was found that initial estimates of moving the port were off the mark….
Cost savings to ferry operators from a move to Clifford Bay were significantly below the levels estimated in 2012.
Cabinet papers on the decision released this morning showed the Clifford Bay investigation had found the Cook Strait passenger market had declined significantly in recent years and was expected to show little if any growth.
The study pointed to increased competition from air travel and changes in travel patterns of international visitors to New Zealand. Since the decision to further investigate the possibility of a move to Clifford Bay in early November 2012 about $1.1m had been spent on the investigation.
Soon however the rising air travel costs could improve numbers using ferry transport. And perhaps some smart customer building moves by rail like Air NZ uses, introducing incentives, reduced costs for return tickets, bring a friend half-price, spot free tickets, complimentary bag of peanuts for monkeys, etc. could make cost benefit ratios of having Picton remain as The Port with improvements, soar. My modest a/c for scenario will follow directly! Who to send it to though? I’m rough round the edges but going for less than a school commissioner @ $100ph.
The government wanted it to be privately built, owned and operated, where by the Picton terminal is owned and operated by the Marlborough District Council owned Port Marlbourogh. A victory for public ownership.
Midday Snooze
New Salvation Army report finds that 1/3 of New Zealanders continue to struggle finding affordable, secure housing, particularly the young, and low-income Baby Boomers (this sector acknowledged as under-served by Nick Smith), while critics of this government say HNZ is not housing enough people and continue making eligibility more difficult.
however, immunisation levels among maori, pacific, hard-to-reach and in-difficult-circumstances children have improved remarkably , thanks to predominantly general practice primary nurses.
I can’t wait to read the report. I listened to a discussion on RNZ just after 9 am on nine to noon this morning.
Housing stock has shrunk and less people are being housed by HNZ. Affordable housing does not seem to be a priority for this government; this is disgraceful.
am very disturbed to listen to the news this a.m. and hear that the national chumps lost a vote in the house last night to amend the employments contracts act and to know that it was never featured here.
Is this just wonk politics on the standard.
How about some real instead of the trademe opinions type drivel.
Thanks bad. I gathered that, I was just accentuating the nonsensical style of hook’s comment (along with the criticism of the being that is the standard).
Time to sling your hook perhaps, it is the Employment Relations Act, Jami-Lee Ross, was trying to repeal the section of the ERA that prohibits replacement labour (aka dirty filthy scabs) being engaged by an employer during a strike or lockout. National did not get the numbers.
Think I agree re the Trade Me style drivel but King ‘meathead’ Kong keeps at it.
Sounds very Gary Larson philip u.
Give me the shotgun Martha – I’ll blast ’em.
The country folk know how to deal with their chickens being sucked up by spaceships – ‘Theer go them dem aliens stealing our chickens agin’. Cows and farts will get dealt to summarily.
I sometimes read the Reader report area on Stuff. It is real, often sad, and shows (I think and hope) real people dealing with the stuff they have to deal with, pretty well like the rest of us.
I read this one and saw this
There is one other thing that will for me be the ultimate insult.
When I die, as with every other parent who has lost a child, those children will not appear on our death certificates.
As if they didn’t exist.
Is that true and why would it be like that? I just don’t get it.
I fail to see why there is any need for a list of children to appear on someone’s death certificate. The purpose of a death certificate is as an official record of someone’s death, so it is obviously important that the individual is clearly identified, by their date and place of birth, and details of their parents. The fact that a list of children do not appear on an official document issued by the government does not mean that they do not exist, it just means they are not thought to be important for the purposes of that document. You can still go ahead and list them in your memoirs or gravestone or whatever, and of course they still exist in the most important place – in our memories and the memories of others who knew them.
Sure re the death cert thingy but if they are putting children on then children that have died are still their children – but really just sad all around.
I wasn’t aware children, living or deceased, appeared on the parent’s death certificate.
They’re aren’t, as far as I know. I was just pointing out that although the bereaved parents in the Stuff article would like them to be, it isn’t really necessary.
Yes there is. They fired Jenny Michie (can’t remember what it was. Homophobia or racism, one of the two) and apparently I have heard they are about to cut ties with some Asian goofball…oops
I wonder what makes someone want to publicly present themselves as a delusional oversized monkey? The right wing sure have some high calibre support……I guess that’s the best they can achieve…
“I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it. ”
John Stuart Mill, in a Parliamentary debate with the Conservative MP, John Pakington (May 31, 1866);
Today, it was announced by the Ministry of Fair Goes that a man has become rich through winning Lotto.
“We are particularly proud that a man has won millions of dollars by buying a Lotto ticket and that he looks good on television”, said a spokespeoploid, Camille Simulacrum today.
The winner, Brian Noman, who has stunning blonde hair that doesn’t look like a wig at all and a fantastic moustache modelled on those of porn stars, said, “It was a hard selecting each number, but I was able to struggle through adversity to reach my goal of filling out my card. I know that life is a gamble, but I am absolutely delighted that random chance recognised the inherent excellence of my choices and rewarded me as I deserve.”
Edna Wibble, speaking for the Ministry of Fair Goes announced that this once again demonstrates the fairness of the market. “Random chance always reveals deserving talent, as my own relationship with the minister enabled my talent to be recognised.”
Surprise, surprise (not): Susan Baldacci hasn’t read Orwell;
And Steve McCabe dishes out a scolding to Jim Mora
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Thursday 14 November 2013
Jim Mora, Vicky Hyde, Steve McCabe
Most of the pre-show today was uneventful. But then this awkward little exposé occurred….
JIM MORA: All right, what else have you got?
SUSAN BALDACCI: Well, the Conservative Party has attempted to delete all its speeches and press releases online from the past ten years, including one in which David Cameron promises to use the internet to make politicians “more accountable”.
MORA: Oh yes? Ha ha ha ha!
SUSAN BALDACCI: They have deleted the backlog of speeches from the party’s main website and from the Internet Archive between 2000 and May 2010. [1]
STEVE McCABE: That was Winston Smith’s job!
…..[Awkward, confused silence]…..
STEVE McCABE: In Nineteen Eighty-Four.
…..[More bewildered silence]…..
SUSAN BALDACCI: Oooooooh. Spooky. I’m sure they won’t be able to get away with this, though….
The advent of the 4 o’clock time signal saved Ms. Baldacci from any further mortification. After the news, the first discussion was about the Government’s decision to keep the inter-island ferry terminal at Picton, and not to move it to Clifford Bay. The expert “talent” brought on to the Panel is, as so often, another regular Panelist—in this case Bernard Hickey, the owner of the interest.com website. Hickey spoke wistfully of how the Chinese regime just goes ahead and builds whatever it wants, and worries about cleaning up the mess afterwards. This admiration for Chinese dictatorship, and the impatience with democracy, is a common theme with business and right wing politicians, as is what Jim Mora had to say: something inane and approving about the way Margaret Thatcher got things done.
Vicky Hyde and Steve McCabe let Hickey’s expression of support for Chinese dictatorship go unchallenged, but the Manchester-raised McCabe was clearly irritated by Mora’s advocacy of Pol Pot’s and Pinochet’s English girlfriend [2]….
STEVE McCABE: Jim, you mentioned Margaret Thatcher. I think that is unwise, especially when talking to someone like me from the north of England. Her attacks on public life were ideologically based; her decisions to sell off and privatize public assets was not based on rigorous analysis, it was ideologically driven.
MORA: Well, that’s quite enough about Clifford Bay for today….
And that was that. Mora refused to engage in discussion, and another chance for interesting debate was stymied. The decline of this program seems to be terminal.
“Labour’s controversial policy to increase female representation in the Parliamentary Labour Party appears to have driven men away from Labour and across to National in large numbers over the past fortnight. Driving the increase in support for National was a large jump in support by men, who this week deserted Labour. New Zealand men now clearly favour National (50.5%, up 10%) over Labour (29%, down 5.5%) while female support was down for both of the major parties – National (41%, down 2.5%) and Labour (35%, down 2%).
That’s pretty much the immediate political result I expected from the gender quota stuff: men didn’t like it and women didn’t care for it.
When I said “women don’t care for it” I mean that there was zero increase in support from women for Labour which would have been nice to offset the large (well above margin of error) drop in male support for Labour.
Also it appears that previously “don’t know” males have now swung strongly to National.
From memory the quota stuff was coming out again in the MSM about 4-6 weeks ago. It was in the briefing docs available on web about then for the upcoming conference.
FFS.. This is about shifting from 41% of the caucus to 45% this election and to 50% in 2016. It isn’t the frigging National party where they tend to drag any half trained woman in (Tolley, Wilkinson, Collins etc – and those are the known ones) and drop them way past their skills. Bennett is merely a skilled arsehole – which tends to make her fit in pretty well.
But the attrition rate amongst National’s women is why they remain trying to get above a quarter of the caucus being XX. It isn’t that they don’t have competent women to call upon (I know quite a few who lean right). It is simply that National are the worst party to be a women in. Even NZ First is better and that is one boys club…
BTW: figure it out the way I tend to. We get a poll result now. They finished collecting data about a week ago. The sample period is usually about 2 weeks. If something happens during that two weeks the effect is diluted. It takes a few weeks for most things to circulate quite a bit anyway..
It isn’t that it takes 4-6 weeks to penetrate. It is that it takes at least 3 weeks for the results to process.
They seem to have asked a supplementary question, Karol:
“New Zealand men now clearly favour National (50.5%, up 10%) over Labour (29%, down 5.5%) while female support was down for both of the major parties – National (41%, down 2.5%) and Labour (35%, down 2%).”
That just looks like a gender breakdown of party preferences – ie a question would have been: “Are you male or female?” And that would have been correlated with party preference.
Its not a correlation. A correlation is an inference between two variables. What we have here is the direct statistic. Male support for Labour fell significantly while male support for National increased by a quarter.
In light of the nationwide conversation about misogyny in the past week, what does RM’s headline tell us?
National Party (45.5%) now ahead of Labour/ Greens (44.5%) as Labour’s new policy on female representation drives men to support National and away from Labour
(I haven’t looked yet, but I am assuming that RM made that up that rather than polling a question on Labour policy)
Edit: just seen CV’s comment above. A few RM assumptions in there. How do they know that there is a direct transfer of vote from Labour to National? Do they ask that in the poll?
Edit: just seen CV’s comment above. A few RM assumptions in there. How do they know that there is a direct transfer of vote from Labour to National? Do they ask that in the poll?
Some of the male vote going to National will be from previously undecided men who were on the sidelines and have now decided against voting Labour. Others will be from Labour’s male vote walking and dropping from 34.5% to 29.0%
NAT increase from 40.5% of men to 50.5% of men in one poll is massively over the margin of error and indicates a substantial and rapid shift in support, with zero corresponding increase in support for Labour by females.
BM
That remark is beneath you. And beneath this blog. We only make fun of pricks here,
Because they are more obvious and there are a considerable number that are stand outs for being named. Leave the ladies alone BM.
But really, the Nats always have been the menz party, IMO.
Really? Consider the working class men and the massive unions which Labour was built on. But National will be quite happy for you to see them in that way today.
Well, if guys are shifted in their views by that issue…. then they are as much the problem as the Labour Party. It means any attempt to be more equal meets with their resistance.
Don’t forget Karol that in politics the truism is the same as retail business: The customer (voter) is always right.
If Labour has lost support because of their equality quota then they need to consider whether they wish to continue with the quota and risk losing that support permanently.
Jimmie, that is not how I see politics. To me your prescription is very much of the neoliberal era.
For me it’s about principles and related policies. Tell me what you stand for, and I’ll decide whether or not to vote for you. If the people standing don’t get my vote, I’ll be putting on pressure for different people.
What you are talking about is the professionalisation of politics. And it’s become so insincere, treated like a game (too much poll watching), and like a marketable “business” (or brand), that many have lost interest.
I say, bring back a bit of conviction politics. Sometimes politicians should lead on principle, and then do their best to convince the public why they should vote for the principles.
I think it’s not so much to do with the policy itself, more to do with voters (particularly male) getting pissed off with Labour getting distracted on issues like gender balance, rather than focusing on things that are more important.
As someone who’s actually looked into the conference, I do know it was only a small matter compared to the other things which went through (such as the TPPA, KiwiAssure, Housing, etc), but as usual, the media picked up on that one issue and spun it out of proportion.
I don’t believe that this will affect Labour by much in the long term, and I’m glad the issue has been dealt with now rather than coming up in election year (though there still is a possibility of the media raising it again). Once more important issues spring up, I’m sure that will change.
It’s good to see that some of the more controversial policies (particularly the socially liberal ones) are being sidelined for now. Labour needs to be focused on it’s core policies, particularly supporting workers, if it’s to win the next election. If it’s seen to be too focused on other issues, the non-voters they’re trying to attract will not vote for them (nor even the swing voters).
PS: I should have said it’s only 5 of the sample – the bigger the sample, the more likely to be representative. Such a small number of people are a lot to hinge evidence of significant change on.
For sure. It’s the 10% jump in male support for National with 5.5% loss in male support for Labour which are the truly significant results.
You might also say that the absolute lack of additional support from women for Labour (actually it’s a drop but within the margin of error) is also a significant result.
Again, it seems a bit sudden to me to be taken too seriously, Because, overall, while there may be that gender shift, overall the relative support for each party hasn’t changed that much.
Not necessarily, it’s probably more that the issue has been really spun up by the media. The previous policy, which allowed electorate seats to become “female-only”, is the one which a lot of people didn’t like (understandably too. I agree that it’s a rather bad idea).
This one only places a quota on female candidates on the list (which is already at around 41%), though it’s been spun to be exactly the same as the previous policy.
A question for Karol, in brief what did you learn from the Labour Party conference that you agreed with to a point you ‘might’ vote for that Party besides the ‘gender equality’ of the party’s Parliamentary wing set down to be the norm into the future…
I think aiming for a reasonable gender equality is good. Quotas have their place, but I’m more interested in seeing a shift away from the dominance of masculine values/culture in the Labour Party and it’s priorities. And, related to that, I’d like to see more positive support for beneficiaries and those struggling on low incomes (women over-represented in that section of society).
– they are missing a policy to increase state housing, community housing and safe and affordable rentals.More needed on regaining state assets.
I agree with their focus on regional development, employment legislation that improves the lot of workers, supporting NZ enterprises and investments in NZ, R&D…. some other stuff I can’t think of right now … oh, pleased to see no guarantees on Sky City compensation. Pleased to see Cunliffe unhappy on the leaked wikileaks TPP info. Glad to see they will do away with Charter schools.
Would like a slightly stronger guarantee on repealing GCSB legislation. Mostly OK with them on education – would like to see stronger policies to return to ACC as was meant, and the health system. And would like to see re-strengthening local authorities as community entities.
PS; Will still vote Green on the stuff at the top of this list.
The jump in the Green Party vote and the dip in the Labour Party vote say that except for the core of the Party ‘Nothing’ of any import came out of the Labour Conference,
A ‘RED” Labour Party with David Cunliffe as the Leader???lets paint the town, but there wont be any more bread nor butter on the table afterwards, that’s what i gather from the recent Conference, and ‘Nothing’ delivered in a gender balanced way still equates for those most in need to ‘Nothing’…
Personally I think calling what Labour are aiming for a “quota” is a bit overstating it.
The man ban in electorates definitely would be a quota. But they aren’t aiming for that (as far as I know? haven’t followed this closely so could be wrong), they’ve just set aims for where they want their MP balance to be, which can be pretty easily achieved in the list rankings I would have thought, without it being a ‘quota’.
Yes. I agree. The aim was for a reasonable gender balance, but quotas weren’t talked about as some strict option. Also, i didn’t think it got so much media attention, especially negative media attention, for it to have had a significant influence on voting preferences.
To be clear, the “reasonable gender balance” you mention is the capping of likely male participation in caucus by 2017 at a maximum of 50%, with no similar limit placed on the likely proportion of women in caucus.
if the wording were reversed to limit female participation in caucus, I would regard it as a clearly sexist and gender unbalanced rule.
Surely they have made a policy to aim for 50% female representation in parliament. By stating an aim it behooves them to actually do stuff to achieve it. THAT is the point, imo.
Unlike the Nats and supporters like BM who like to believe that everyone is equal now and the “best person” already has the job and so nothing is required to even up representation.
more accurately, the policy is minimum 50% female participation and maximum 50% male participation in caucus. If the wording were reversed, I would say that the wording was sexist and inequitable.
The Chilean people endured much after the Pinochet coup in 1973, and they fought long to regain some democratic rights, which are still compromised by the powers in control, that favour such as present President Pinera, a major shareholder in Lan Chile airlines and one of the richest “pricks” in Latin America, who has his mates manipulate the population and system to serve their interests.
Time to be alert and realise the same happens in NZ, like under John Key, the rich one that got there with connections and working the Wall Street and allied systems. Same as Pinera, and they are both “mates”, by the way!
Stop the rot and shit to spread, take em on and challenge the rotten capitalist self serving bastards NOW!
I am trying again, with useless NZ internet services making my connection crash just before. This is what maybe should rather go on weekend social, but I present it today anyway. This is some choice Chilean music, that may be a bit “old” for some, but it is for that reason top and class A:
The Chilean people endured a lot after the Pinochet led coup in 1973, and it took a long time to regain some basic democratic rights. Still now those rights are compromised by their capitalist system, which favours persons like their present president Pinera, who is a major share holder in Lan Chile, and one of the richest persons in Latin America.
By the way, John Key is on great mates terms with him as they seem to be having similar “connections”. So Key and Pinera represent the Chicago Boy winners, those that gained from radical market “reforms” that we also saw under Roger Douglas here, but that left many behind.
Let us not forget what all this is about, it is an attempted dictatorial rule of the rich and their mates against the rest of us. The sooner the mostly docile Kiwis realise this and wake up, and take a stand, the sooner we may have a fairer society. Best wishes for tonight, X
Where did El presidente get his fortune? The megarich in Brazil got theirs through a trough filled by the military government, then filthy privatisations by the PSDB (Social democratic party of Brazil, which is like ACT with extra corruption thrown in).
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Breaking: Wiki Leaks Publishes Part Of The Secret TPP Proposals!!!
Happy analyzing!
..thanks travellerev….can someone please translate this into simple English easily understood by non lawyers?
…on a cursory glance it looks a complex legal cunning predatory spiders nest web….. to deny NZers freedom of thought, intellectual rights, entrepreneurship and business…as well as forcing policing /spying on them by their internet providers
….the TPP definitely should NOT be signed!!…we will all become moron zombies imo…( or bigger moron zombies than we already are..speaking for myself)
NZ Herald takes a pitch at it. Maybe our negotiators are showing some good backbone?
Or if I were to be more cynical – is this leak part of a PR softening up campaign?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11156737
thanx CV
I’m not sure wikileaks is in the business of providing PR cover for multinational trade talks.
The Herald gets leaked the TPP secret chapters by Wikileaks
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11156737
..then realises it has to explain what the TPP is to its readers as it has signally failed to tell them about the deal for the past 2 years.
Beginner’s guide: What is the TPP? – National – NZ Herald News http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11157100
The fact that it is giving its readers a beginners’ guide says so much about how poorly the paper has kept us informed. Indeed, if Wikileaks hadn’t actually sent the Herald the secret chapter, you wonder if the paper would have bothered.
puke-inducing politicians..
http://whoar.co.nz/2013/it-was-hard-to-stomach-david-cameron-preaching-austerity-from-a-golden-throne-comment-ed-and-what-makes-me-gag-here/
and the corporate-media whores who ‘service’ them..
phillip ure..
Not even that lady with the plum in her mouth was so blatant….
A nice write up on the election next year:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/future-of-nz-celebrating-the-new-zealand-herald-150-years/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503557&objectid=11156358
Why did you like it? To me it looks facile. Of course lots of people decide who they will vote for before the election campaign – that’s everyone who isn’t a swing voter. I know who I will be voting for now. If she had crunched the actual numbers on those percentages I’d be more interested.
She thinks that Labour have to get votes from the GP. Good grief, how long until people understand what MMP is. Taking votes from the GP won’t make Labour any more likely to form govt. While I think there will be inevitable vote shifting between the two parties next year depending on how they campaign, the votes that Labour need are going to come from the 800,000 who didn’t vote last time, and probably from NACT and NZF.
From Claire Robinson, Nat cheerleader?
I knew Claire in a former job. She is not a bad person, but she is, without a doubt, the most unimaginative empathy-less mediocre plodder you could ever hope to avoid.
for starters shes her prediction of a nat lead coalition relies on a few less than certain outcomes
1) the nats retaining or gaining seats
2) dunne and act both getting backin
3) or colin craig getting in
which are all pretty damn big assumptions
so nah – its a pretty weak write up
Hopefully for dunney it will be a long drop. There was an item on ventriloquist dummies recently and his head would make for a great political lampoon. Actually a piece of art installation would be to have his head with a light bulb aloft under a shade and label it ‘Politcal Lampoon’.
Despite all the moral concern and outrage expressed on ‘the standard’ about….
1) young girls and alcohol…alcohol use/abuse…drunkenness in general by young New Zealanders
2) teenage boy sex gang Roast Busters and rape and sexual abuse of underage girls….
3)..patriarchy, sexism and abuse of women in general
4.)JT and Willy ‘s insensitive interviewing of a young abuse victim….and their subsequent suspension from radioLive ( much to the outrage of my teenage son!..ha ha)
5)how NZ parents are not being responsible and bringing up children properly
6)the Auckland (Catholic family man) Mayor Len Brown’s sex scandal…two years of frolicking and cavorting conducted on Council sacred property and at Sky City gambling casino with a young Asian whose sympathies were actually with the other side and who was working with the other side
7)the Auckland police and their cynicism, ineptitude or worse…..
….nothing has been said about the building of Aucklands 15 story meg-brothel (opposite the Sky Tower) ….why?….I would like to hear reasons why , because this has the potential to really embed sexual abuse of NZ girls and women…. in the very heart of Auckland City forever
…to me , this Capitalist enterprise allowed by Len’s Auckland Council is a far greater crime than working class male JTs and Willy’s misdemeanors…which have received a lot of noise from the Left and a sound smacking…lets get real here
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1211/S00185/auckland-mega-brothel-hearings-labeled-a-sham.htm
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11134209
Out of curiosity, what is your objection to the brothel, and how do you connect it with sexual abuse of children?
@ weka…barn farming of women for sex and profit is not conducive to respect of women or children…..it creates a climate of objectification for sexual gratification…..abuse of children can lead to prostitution
1)…how many women are coerced into prostitution?…how many women get into prostitution because of child abuse, lack of education, lack of well paid meaningful work….drug addictions?
2) …..as a woman it restricts your freedom of movement….it restricts where you as a woman or child can safely walk in the streets and areas after dark
3.) …it creates a climate of corruption in which ANY woman is fair game…and all women and girls are potential prostitutes… ordinary women run the risk of being regarded as prostitutes …
….i know this personally because i used to work in a union, next door to a brothel and i was accosted on the street and asked “How Much?”……
4..)….any woman or girl is fair game because society condones this behaviour where women are objectified and used….legalising prostitution has not protected prostitutes…. judging by the numbers of prostitute murders in Christchurch since it was legalised
6.) i have no objection to prostitution if it is hidden and a woman runs her own business discretely…and prostitution does not foul certain streets with condoms and needles
The whole point surely was to expose the industry to regulation.
Take alcohol, gunpowder, abortion, and soon recreational drugs, its better to have them in the tent rather out of sight.
I thought the whole push of National was to provide facilities that Asian visitors would expect in NZ when they come for conferences. i.e along side the conference halls, a casino and a big brothel. Its Key’s social conservatism and free market agenda merging. Selling an airline merely makes vertical the whole package so that it can be mostly foriegned own and so profits flow overseas.
an interesting appraisal
You’ve already posted this comment chooky and you were told two days ago that telling the authors what to do is not good form. If you feel that strongly about it, write a guest post.
…what authors?
“Despite all the moral concern and outrage expressed on ‘the standard’ about…
..nothing has been said about the building of Aucklands 15 story meg-brothel (opposite the Sky Tower) ….why?….I would like to hear reasons why ”
edit: http://thestandard.org.nz/policy/
Could be aimed at commenters though.
Indeed, weka, but “the standard” starts with the authors and if commenters were meant, chooky should have said so. Remember, this comment was posted two days ago on open mike and received the same response. Chooky has decided to repost the comment, ignoring the advice given two days ago and choosing not to define the target in the way you suggest.
Fair enough, and on my first reading today I did automatically think ‘authors’ rather than commenters. I didn’t see the thread the other day, just had a look now.
@ Te Reo Putake
eerr ummmh….I did not get a warning from Big Daddy Lprent…nobody gave me a warning …just you now!
….I was not criticising ‘the Standard’ as such …just the orientations of some arguments and perspectives …of which i have been party to myself
…We are not all unquestionable Holy Prophets here I hope …it is a continuing dialogue and dialectic….we can change opinions and question opinions I hope!…or are you suggesting that we can not?
@ weka….commenters and comments are questioned all the time here….
” … nobody gave me a warning ..”
er, no:
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-12112013/#comment-726304
Bit subtle that TRP.
Voice, that’s sad bro, weak, like the All Whites defensive tactics.
Weak, muzza? I was pointing out that Chooky was warned, by 3 different commenters. The weakness may be in your head.
You pointed out some words, which did not equal any such thing you claim.
You’re not a mod/enforcer of this site are you ? Or did your guest post (hat tip), elevate your status ?
Is English not your first language, muz? Or is it dyslexia that holds back your comprehension?
No warning there bro, nor anything which you need to busy yourself with!
But you chose to. . .
FFS, do we really have to have a sullen kids fighting in the sandpit derail so early in the day?
Good call, weka.
Weka, run along silly
Voice involved himself , I then chose to do the same as a counter to his comments which I found to be out of place, now you’re in on it too.
I’ll leave the pseudo moderation and sense of self importance to you non mods.
🙂 (at TRP)
You just carry on muzza, doing whatever you want irrespective of how it affects other people.
thnax for the support Muzza( bro?)….unfortanately I had to dash away after my comments…(some of us cant sit at the computer arguing all day)
1)….interesting that no one has really addressed the arguments I made above about the mega brothel in the heart of Auckland ( are we heading for a Bangkok of the South Pacific?)…the arguments I made strike me as being inherently feminist and working class arguments against capitalist farming women for sex and profit ..(.cf farming cows for milk and profit )…. for fucks sake women should be in charge of their own work , means of production, money making business …if that is the way they choose to go…I am sure Marx would agree)
2)….interesting too that Te Reo Putake has taken such exception to what I say and wants to shut me up ( 3 different commenters have warned me apparently …ha ha……well i am not sure who they are either.. )
…although Bill Drees once before told me to get off ‘the standard’…. .indicating I was not up to standard so to speak….and he keeps saying William Massey …would “smile” at me from his grave and “loves” me….not sure why…and whether this is a compliment?….can someone elucidate muggins me ?
…Actually from the grave ….I am sure my Father would be smiling at me approvingly ….he was at various times during his life a railway worker, truck driver, freezing worker , fisherman and farmer…….and he voted Labour all his life and then the Alliance….. My Mother has always voted Labour…I have voted Labour( even worked for Labour) , NZF, Green …and increasingly Mana is looking attractive
Which way do you vote Muzza?…or is that too intrusive a question?
worst coaching ever. 🙁
‘
The internet is now weaponised . . .
No wonder the Germans are looking to build and Internetz to keep data completely inside Germany
otoh it may be they’ve had this solution looking for a problem for a while and now they might just be seeing a chance to make some money by building on the fear of being spied on.
Brazil too. This could be the start of the fragmentation of the internet…where what you can see and access depends on where you are…
http://www.dw.de/brazil-wants-internet-independence-from-the-us/a-17134352
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/01/nsa-surveillance-cause-internet-breakup-edward-snowden
https://wikileaks.org/tpp/
So one good thing thats come out is this shows Nationals opposing major parts TPP including fighting for Pharmac
Good eh 🙂
It remains to be seen if the NAct part of National will trample all over the negotiators to get the December agreement. It seems unlikely to work though – there’s far too much dissent now in the U.S. for it to get through congress even if an agreement was reached.
I reckon the people that are going to lose face when it falls over are working out around about now how to frame the news that it’s all been a waste of time and money.
Guy Fawkes Million Mask March
Never saw much coverage of this anywhere…
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/06/protesters-gather-million-mask-march
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d69cxTSBx7k
And good old RT
http://rt.com/op-edge/million-mask-march-media-436/
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/11/14/iamsomeone-this-friday/
Karol, any chance this could to up as a dedicated post tomorrow, and then standardistas can share in once place on the standard?
Hmmm… have a load of stuff to attend to today and first thing tomorrow. Will look at it later, weka.
Ok, thanks karol. Maybe QoT or Bill or someone could put it up. Might need moderation too though.
http://iamsomeonenz.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/events/1422866911263436/?source=1
https://twitter.com/NZSexism
I hate to point this out, but do the organisers realise that they are just about to compile some sick fucks ultimate beat off material.
Fuck off you complete and utter imbecile.
There seem to be a number of RW trolls that are just making short contentious comments, not adding anything factual or thoughtful. Is this going to be a trend as we come closer to the election? And is there a possibility of time out for them to give someone who cares and thinks more scope to get through the bumf? Cluster flies is an insect name that would fit them. Also there is a big fly, bumble bee like that has a noisy whine that comes to mind.
Agree greywarbler.
Distract and distort seems to be the (Key) intention. Word has gone down the line to follow your leader and start now because the campaign is underway. It’s going to double, treble, quadruple next year and people with something worthy to contribute will become fed up with their comments continuously being misrepresented/distorted and they will go away. It happened on Red Alert and the moderators did nothing for too long. By the time they acted it was too late… many commentators had departed the scene. (Yes, there were other reasons too but that was a significant one.)
Anne
I looked at the posters this morning and many were what seem like RW trolls. I don’t want the discourse to be dominated by RW or rape either. But I want something done to prevent the deterioration of safety for women, and men, too, and thinking how we can set about police improvements.
But Rw trolls are of limited good, ie they can sometimes bring up points that need looking at. But ultimately sincerity of purpose is what is needed. RWs are sincerely uncaring in a concrete mindset. And those two aspects make them barriers to discussion. That’s my observation. We will only get sidetracked in the limited time we have for communication here if we allow these mosquitoes. Have to swat them. When mosquitoes have been at you for a while and you actually get them, they can leave blood marks on the wall! It must not come to that!!
Sick fucks like yourself, King Kong?
Beat it then.
After reading some of the page, I couldn’t handle reading much more, because it makes me ashamed to be a Kiwi male, coming back to the Standard and reading your comment makes me realize how prevalent the attitude in NZ really is. Thank you for your insight into the lower common denominator of a kiwi male mind, you truly did just go full retard.
Make sure you give yourself a bit of a fan with your hanky to stop you from fainting.
You really are a sick individual KK, you must be a Slater.
That’s KK practicing rape culture. That there will be women who have been raped reading this thread, and some of whom will be triggered by what KK wrote, is immaterial to him, because it’s all about him and what he wants.
I wonder why I can’t get on to The Standard page without going through google? Is my old computer too slow perhaps? Any ideas please.
what happens if you click on this link?
http://thestandard.org.nz
Works fine right now. I don’t understand. Is it a time of day thing? Sun spots. Perhaps it’s the planets and satellites casting a shadow on me. Somebody is. I’m being…paranoid.
Intelligence agency “man in the middle” internet attacks mimic other websites
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131004/10522324753/
Grey, when you said before that you could only access via google, what else did you try? eg where you typing the URL in manually? Or using a bookmark? Or what?
Well I had always done it one way and then for a while it has been hard to get in. Not a real clued up type! Anyway what I do is put ‘th; in the address bar, and that brings up a window which includes the standard.org/home and I click on that. I don’t know if it gets up quicker if it doesn’t have home on. Thanks for trying to help weka. I’ll check about the URL.
Interesting, that’s similar to what I do. If I put ‘t’ in the address bar, Firefox fills in thestandard.org.nz/ for me. It might be worth doing it manually for a while to see if you can get rid of the home bit. You could try clearing your history too. Or create a bookmark and use that for a while.
I found a piece in the Dom Post Tues 12/1//13 – a feature on sex assaults and their aftermath by GP Cathy Stephenson and tried to get a digital fix on it. But can’t. There are listings for 2012 on her pieces, on google there are listings about calcium intake from past years.
But it is like Stuff don’t want people to have access to anything they published yesterday or yesteryear. They show archives but they don’t give a button to order by date or anything. So I just record on page A12 – Roast Busters and the frightening truth about sex assaults. Thoughtful info is needed.
This heading opens up some items Cathy Stephenson sex assaults Dominion Post 12/11/2013
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/9396514/Editorial-Busting-the-myth-around-sex-abuse
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/9369957/Editorial-Police-should-have-stopped-Roast-Busters
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/9375332/Editorial-Police-risk-loss-of-faith
Especially when I read the heading for this – http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/9397461/Rape-victim-could-have-closed-legs-says-lawyer
I think our hospitals DHBs and health system are hotting up for some torrid arguments pre election. They are severely under stress. Comment has had it that Tony Ryall has done a good job of keeping the lid on everything. But for how long.
Here’s a bit already http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wairarapa/9398137/Loss-of-chairman-dismays-board
yes, hips and knees are on the chopping board at our DHB (and the inside line is that there are stealthy cuts being carried out on all limbs.). Furthermore, few GPs are willing to offer after hours service, resulting in ED being loaded with less acute patients. One suggestion is to place a GP at ED but the sawbones are dragging their brogues on that one, so far.
I don’t know how many sawbones get into the decision making process. Local health board seems to have the long-term people with nice faces, and a little understanding of health, and a steady hand on the wheel re-elected. Not inspiring if looking for people to cut through the daily agenda to get a periscope view of direction and method of getting somewhere.
So is there anyone on here that thinks Clare Curran should still be in parliament?
– “Ms Curran’s comments about both my production company and me are untrue and have damaged my professional reputation both presently and in the future. The statements made in the House could well have adversely affected both my application for the Chief Executive position at Māori Television, and also if I choose to apply for any job in the public sector in the future.
For the record, my primary reason for leaving Television New Zealand was that I was satisfied with what I had achieved during my tenure as the General Manager of Māori and Pacific Programmes, and I was also confident that the Māori and Pacific department would be retained in the future and remain under the auspices of Television New Zealand.
I left with a reference from the Head of News and Current Affairs at Television New Zealand. Additionally, I reject the suggestion that the Chairperson of Māori Television would have acted inappropriately in dealing with the shortlisting process. More likely the reason for my shortlisting was that I have twenty-six years of experience in the television industry, having served in various senior roles, and am one of a handful of people with the senior management experience to fill the role of Chief Executive of Māori Television. Ms Curran’s statement in relation to Te Māngai Pāho is also untrue as Te Māngai Pāho has confirmed that I have no current debt to it.”
thx 4 yr cncrn
“So is there anyone on here that thinks Clare Curran should still be in parliament?”
i doubt it
Didn’t think so
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/9398726/Cook-Strait-ferry-terminal-Ferry-stays-in-Picton
One NACT disaster and costly mistake averted. Probably only an Act of God brought about the necessary cogitation. May lightning strike twice??? Please.
However Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee this morning rejected the idea, saying after more analysis it was found that initial estimates of moving the port were off the mark….
Cost savings to ferry operators from a move to Clifford Bay were significantly below the levels estimated in 2012.
Cabinet papers on the decision released this morning showed the Clifford Bay investigation had found the Cook Strait passenger market had declined significantly in recent years and was expected to show little if any growth.
The study pointed to increased competition from air travel and changes in travel patterns of international visitors to New Zealand. Since the decision to further investigate the possibility of a move to Clifford Bay in early November 2012 about $1.1m had been spent on the investigation.
Soon however the rising air travel costs could improve numbers using ferry transport. And perhaps some smart customer building moves by rail like Air NZ uses, introducing incentives, reduced costs for return tickets, bring a friend half-price, spot free tickets, complimentary bag of peanuts for monkeys, etc. could make cost benefit ratios of having Picton remain as The Port with improvements, soar. My modest a/c for scenario will follow directly! Who to send it to though? I’m rough round the edges but going for less than a school commissioner @ $100ph.
let’s split the fee.
I’ll lick my half of the ice cream and then send you yours.
airmail will be fine. Ask for sprinkles.
Can’t resist. I recommend you go for your i.c. to the two Ronnies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsvFd7N6I1c
“knicker-bocker glory greengage jelly marmalade. 😀 ( and I loved Eric Morecambe, wonderful).
The government wanted it to be privately built, owned and operated, where by the Picton terminal is owned and operated by the Marlborough District Council owned Port Marlbourogh. A victory for public ownership.
Jami-Lee Rossisname fella.
Alleged rising star and Key favourite.
Can’t even get a member’s bill passed while in govt. Hopeless.
Jammy Jami baby. Grate.
Midday Snooze
New Salvation Army report finds that 1/3 of New Zealanders continue to struggle finding affordable, secure housing, particularly the young, and low-income Baby Boomers (this sector acknowledged as under-served by Nick Smith), while critics of this government say HNZ is not housing enough people and continue making eligibility more difficult.
however, immunisation levels among maori, pacific, hard-to-reach and in-difficult-circumstances children have improved remarkably , thanks to predominantly general practice primary nurses.
I can’t wait to read the report. I listened to a discussion on RNZ just after 9 am on nine to noon this morning.
Housing stock has shrunk and less people are being housed by HNZ. Affordable housing does not seem to be a priority for this government; this is disgraceful.
am very disturbed to listen to the news this a.m. and hear that the national chumps lost a vote in the house last night to amend the employments contracts act and to know that it was never featured here.
Is this just wonk politics on the standard.
How about some real instead of the trademe opinions type drivel.
What?
Hook is talking of the Jamie Lee Ross private members bill that would have allowed ‘Scab Labour’ to be brought in by employers during strikes,
Those who voted for what Labour’s Andrew Little called ‘a piece of Fascist Legislation’ were:
National/ACT 60,
Those against,
Labour,Green,NZFirt,Mana,Maori, UF 60,
The tie in the voting meant that the bill could not proceed, a well deserved slap in the face for Ross…
Thanks bad. I gathered that, I was just accentuating the nonsensical style of hook’s comment (along with the criticism of the being that is the standard).
Time to sling your hook perhaps, it is the Employment Relations Act, Jami-Lee Ross, was trying to repeal the section of the ERA that prohibits replacement labour (aka dirty filthy scabs) being engaged by an employer during a strike or lockout. National did not get the numbers.
Think I agree re the Trade Me style drivel but King ‘meathead’ Kong keeps at it.
you could have written it up yourself, posted it here or submitted it as a guest post.
“..Cows Are The Root Of All Evil, And We’re Too Hungry To Care..
When put into perspective – it all makes sense:
The rapid depletion of our resources – the assault on our bodily health – the bombardment of our olfactory senses – the planet-destroying flatulence –
– cows must be hell-bent on our ultimate destruction.
Or at the very least – they want us out of the way to make room for the arrival of their alien overlords.
Either way – cows are the root of all evil.
Let’s review the facts..”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/13/cows-evil_n_4220482.html
phillip ure..
Sounds very Gary Larson philip u.
Give me the shotgun Martha – I’ll blast ’em.
The country folk know how to deal with their chickens being sucked up by spaceships – ‘Theer go them dem aliens stealing our chickens agin’. Cows and farts will get dealt to summarily.
I sometimes read the Reader report area on Stuff. It is real, often sad, and shows (I think and hope) real people dealing with the stuff they have to deal with, pretty well like the rest of us.
I read this one and saw this
Is that true and why would it be like that? I just don’t get it.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/assignments/blackspots-the-real-toll-of-nzs-roads/9394973/Blackspots-Losing-our-only-son
I fail to see why there is any need for a list of children to appear on someone’s death certificate. The purpose of a death certificate is as an official record of someone’s death, so it is obviously important that the individual is clearly identified, by their date and place of birth, and details of their parents. The fact that a list of children do not appear on an official document issued by the government does not mean that they do not exist, it just means they are not thought to be important for the purposes of that document. You can still go ahead and list them in your memoirs or gravestone or whatever, and of course they still exist in the most important place – in our memories and the memories of others who knew them.
wtl I like your recipe, just needs a twist of lemon. And your pseudo could do with a twist too – what about wtf.
I wasn’t aware children, living or deceased, appeared on the parent’s death certificate.
I can see why living might be included, as a quick next-of-kin reference, but then why them but not siblings, grandkids/etc? Seems a bit arbitrary.
Sad story though – good reminder that the road toll is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to victims of accidents.
the roads are are freakin’ dangerous places National want more of.
Very dangerous places indeed.
Sure re the death cert thingy but if they are putting children on then children that have died are still their children – but really just sad all around.
They’re aren’t, as far as I know. I was just pointing out that although the bereaved parents in the Stuff article would like them to be, it isn’t really necessary.
Jonathan Coleman has just lied to Parliament. Straight out, blatant lie … claiming he doesn’t know who was Prime Minister in 2009.
No, I am not making this up (but Coleman was …).
At least the Labour/Green/Winston team were onto it today. Better.
Privileges committee?
To any oppostion MPs reading – is it time for a smart protest?
Smart doesn’t mean losing temper and huffy walkout – that only backfires.
Smart means e.g. EVERY question is the same – “Who was PM in 2009”? Continue until answered.
(oh and to Wayne Mapp, who likes to talk about decent behaviour on here … tell us how proud you are of Coleman. Go on).
“Does PM have confidence in Coleman?” etc. etc.
Table photos of suicide bomber victims, a hundred times. Change the game plan.
Come on guys, brainstorm, pick a novel idea and go for it. Parlaament is already held in contempt.
Might still be a couple of spare desks in the leaders office…
Yes there is. They fired Jenny Michie (can’t remember what it was. Homophobia or racism, one of the two) and apparently I have heard they are about to cut ties with some Asian goofball…oops
Yeah, Curran is still working on that one.
Really? Why don’t you just “Shearer” her. It worked once it can work again.
I wonder what makes someone want to publicly present themselves as a delusional oversized monkey? The right wing sure have some high calibre support……I guess that’s the best they can achieve…
Probably the same reason that someone would present themselves as a non existent cat or a spaceship from a sci fi series or…
Didn’t really think that pot shot through, did you?
..not a delusional cat or spaceship though
and no, your response was terribly predictable…
I would be happy if you got banned for a while from your comments on this open mike.
Lift your game delusional monkey-brainless one.
Check out comment 22 below. Wise words I thought
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/future-of-nz-celebrating-the-new-zealand-herald-150-years/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503557&objectid=11156358
– A well reasoned and thought out article
no, it’s not
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14112013/#comment-727744
“- A well reasoned and thought out article”
I assume you were being sarcastic.
You can put a virtual banner on a virtual beach to in support of the 23 November demonstration against deep-oil sea drilling.
There are some pretty amusing banners
…its not letting me edit: ‘to support the demonstration’ (corrected from ‘in to support…’)
“I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it. ”
John Stuart Mill, in a Parliamentary debate with the Conservative MP, John Pakington (May 31, 1866);
‘
R . E . T . R . O . S . P . E . C . T . I . V . E .!!!111!!! legislation designed to punish those who held their elected representatives to account.
MAN WINS LOTTO THROUGH HARD WORK, GOOD LOOKS
Today, it was announced by the Ministry of Fair Goes that a man has become rich through winning Lotto.
“We are particularly proud that a man has won millions of dollars by buying a Lotto ticket and that he looks good on television”, said a spokespeoploid, Camille Simulacrum today.
The winner, Brian Noman, who has stunning blonde hair that doesn’t look like a wig at all and a fantastic moustache modelled on those of porn stars, said, “It was a hard selecting each number, but I was able to struggle through adversity to reach my goal of filling out my card. I know that life is a gamble, but I am absolutely delighted that random chance recognised the inherent excellence of my choices and rewarded me as I deserve.”
Edna Wibble, speaking for the Ministry of Fair Goes announced that this once again demonstrates the fairness of the market. “Random chance always reveals deserving talent, as my own relationship with the minister enabled my talent to be recognised.”
Pry Minshuh, Jun Kee, is said to be relashed.
Mr Noman is 93.
+1 😈
Awesome.
Surprise, surprise (not): Susan Baldacci hasn’t read Orwell;
And Steve McCabe dishes out a scolding to Jim Mora
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Thursday 14 November 2013
Jim Mora, Vicky Hyde, Steve McCabe
Most of the pre-show today was uneventful. But then this awkward little exposé occurred….
JIM MORA: All right, what else have you got?
SUSAN BALDACCI: Well, the Conservative Party has attempted to delete all its speeches and press releases online from the past ten years, including one in which David Cameron promises to use the internet to make politicians “more accountable”.
MORA: Oh yes? Ha ha ha ha!
SUSAN BALDACCI: They have deleted the backlog of speeches from the party’s main website and from the Internet Archive between 2000 and May 2010. [1]
STEVE McCABE: That was Winston Smith’s job!
…..[Awkward, confused silence]…..
STEVE McCABE: In Nineteen Eighty-Four.
…..[More bewildered silence]…..
SUSAN BALDACCI: Oooooooh. Spooky. I’m sure they won’t be able to get away with this, though….
The advent of the 4 o’clock time signal saved Ms. Baldacci from any further mortification. After the news, the first discussion was about the Government’s decision to keep the inter-island ferry terminal at Picton, and not to move it to Clifford Bay. The expert “talent” brought on to the Panel is, as so often, another regular Panelist—in this case Bernard Hickey, the owner of the interest.com website. Hickey spoke wistfully of how the Chinese regime just goes ahead and builds whatever it wants, and worries about cleaning up the mess afterwards. This admiration for Chinese dictatorship, and the impatience with democracy, is a common theme with business and right wing politicians, as is what Jim Mora had to say: something inane and approving about the way Margaret Thatcher got things done.
Vicky Hyde and Steve McCabe let Hickey’s expression of support for Chinese dictatorship go unchallenged, but the Manchester-raised McCabe was clearly irritated by Mora’s advocacy of Pol Pot’s and Pinochet’s English girlfriend [2]….
STEVE McCABE: Jim, you mentioned Margaret Thatcher. I think that is unwise, especially when talking to someone like me from the north of England. Her attacks on public life were ideologically based; her decisions to sell off and privatize public assets was not based on rigorous analysis, it was ideologically driven.
MORA: Well, that’s quite enough about Clifford Bay for today….
And that was that. Mora refused to engage in discussion, and another chance for interesting debate was stymied. The decline of this program seems to be terminal.
[1] http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/521988/20131113/conservative-party-delete-speeches-internet-remove-tory.htm
[2] http://www.globalresearch.ca/how-thatcher-helped-pol-pot
Imperator Fish recommends replacing Mora with JT and WJ, in short.
That’s very interesting, considering that Imperator Fish is himself a regular guest on the Panel.
Willie and JT leaving Radio Vile’s early afternoon slot to move to The Panel would increase the IQ level of both programs.
Iain Lees-Galloway’s Private Member’s Bill the ‘Electoral (Adjustment of Thresholds) Amendment Bill’ has been drawn from the ballot. Timely.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9400901/Electoral-threshold-bill-drawn
Groovy
Very
Don’t see a problem with Key helping the conservatives over the line.
Not that they’ll probably need it because they’ll be polling over 5% at the next election.
If you vote National, might be a good idea to slip your party vote the conservatives way.
Goodbye evolution from our schools then.
Roy Morgan out, Nats edge ahead, sort of.
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/5299-new-zealand-voting-intention-november-14-201311140325
NZF on 5% still in the box seat, Crazy Craig drops to bugger all.
That’s pretty much the immediate political result I expected from the gender quota stuff: men didn’t like it and women didn’t care for it.
How do they know that was the reason for a very slight, margin of error shift?
When I said “women don’t care for it” I mean that there was zero increase in support from women for Labour which would have been nice to offset the large (well above margin of error) drop in male support for Labour.
Also it appears that previously “don’t know” males have now swung strongly to National.
This largely skewers Lynn’s contention that polls lag political events by 4-6 weeks.
Lynn still might be correct. It is only an assumption by RM based on circumstantial evidence.
True, unless they actually asked why they were voting for the party or if they had changed their vote, we can’t know for sure.
But it is pretty compelling.
From memory the quota stuff was coming out again in the MSM about 4-6 weeks ago. It was in the briefing docs available on web about then for the upcoming conference.
FFS.. This is about shifting from 41% of the caucus to 45% this election and to 50% in 2016. It isn’t the frigging National party where they tend to drag any half trained woman in (Tolley, Wilkinson, Collins etc – and those are the known ones) and drop them way past their skills. Bennett is merely a skilled arsehole – which tends to make her fit in pretty well.
But the attrition rate amongst National’s women is why they remain trying to get above a quarter of the caucus being XX. It isn’t that they don’t have competent women to call upon (I know quite a few who lean right). It is simply that National are the worst party to be a women in. Even NZ First is better and that is one boys club…
BTW: figure it out the way I tend to. We get a poll result now. They finished collecting data about a week ago. The sample period is usually about 2 weeks. If something happens during that two weeks the effect is diluted. It takes a few weeks for most things to circulate quite a bit anyway..
It isn’t that it takes 4-6 weeks to penetrate. It is that it takes at least 3 weeks for the results to process.
They seem to have asked a supplementary question, Karol:
“New Zealand men now clearly favour National (50.5%, up 10%) over Labour (29%, down 5.5%) while female support was down for both of the major parties – National (41%, down 2.5%) and Labour (35%, down 2%).”
That’s not a question about Labour’s policy.
That just looks like a gender breakdown of party preferences – ie a question would have been: “Are you male or female?” And that would have been correlated with party preference.
Its not a correlation. A correlation is an inference between two variables. What we have here is the direct statistic. Male support for Labour fell significantly while male support for National increased by a quarter.
In light of the nationwide conversation about misogyny in the past week, what does RM’s headline tell us?
National Party (45.5%) now ahead of Labour/ Greens (44.5%) as Labour’s new policy on female representation drives men to support National and away from Labour
(I haven’t looked yet, but I am assuming that RM made that up that rather than polling a question on Labour policy)
Edit: just seen CV’s comment above. A few RM assumptions in there. How do they know that there is a direct transfer of vote from Labour to National? Do they ask that in the poll?
Some of the male vote going to National will be from previously undecided men who were on the sidelines and have now decided against voting Labour. Others will be from Labour’s male vote walking and dropping from 34.5% to 29.0%
NAT increase from 40.5% of men to 50.5% of men in one poll is massively over the margin of error and indicates a substantial and rapid shift in support, with zero corresponding increase in support for Labour by females.
“NAT increase from 40.5% of men to 50.5% of men in one poll is massively over the margin of error”
And what does this tell us at a time where Labour is being asked to stay true to its values?
btw, “If a National Election were held now the latest New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll shows that the result would be too close to call.”
Asked by whom exactly?
Indeed. Going from a clear win for LAB/GR to too close to call in a very short timeframe.
Without the shift in male support, the NATs would have barely made 40.0%.
Ah well.
Greens are very happy with their rise to 12.5%
I’d wait and see the longer term impact re gender policies on Labour.
But really, the Nats always have been the menz party, IMO.
Labour = labia party so I guess it all equals out.
BM
That remark is beneath you. And beneath this blog. We only make fun of pricks here,
Because they are more obvious and there are a considerable number that are stand outs for being named. Leave the ladies alone BM.
Nonsense, I believe in complete equality.
Everyone will be equally insulted, regardless of their private parts,
Labia are fabulous, hardly an insult.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/90/218481448_a55e8618bd_o.jpg
Sexy
Really? Consider the working class men and the massive unions which Labour was built on. But National will be quite happy for you to see them in that way today.
Man ban doesn’t go down well with the lads.
Color me surprised.
I was surprised that women didn’t swing support behind Labour for the policy at all.
Women aren’t that one dimensional.
I’m surprised there would be a significant shift on the basis of that gender remit. Seems relatively insignificant with all the other stuff going on.
It’s all about issues that people can relate to.
Politics 101.
Well, if guys are shifted in their views by that issue…. then they are as much the problem as the Labour Party. It means any attempt to be more equal meets with their resistance.
Don’t forget Karol that in politics the truism is the same as retail business: The customer (voter) is always right.
If Labour has lost support because of their equality quota then they need to consider whether they wish to continue with the quota and risk losing that support permanently.
Jimmie, that is not how I see politics. To me your prescription is very much of the neoliberal era.
For me it’s about principles and related policies. Tell me what you stand for, and I’ll decide whether or not to vote for you. If the people standing don’t get my vote, I’ll be putting on pressure for different people.
What you are talking about is the professionalisation of politics. And it’s become so insincere, treated like a game (too much poll watching), and like a marketable “business” (or brand), that many have lost interest.
I say, bring back a bit of conviction politics. Sometimes politicians should lead on principle, and then do their best to convince the public why they should vote for the principles.
i hate to agree with BM, but for different reasons i think for once ‘it’ is correct…
I think it’s not so much to do with the policy itself, more to do with voters (particularly male) getting pissed off with Labour getting distracted on issues like gender balance, rather than focusing on things that are more important.
As someone who’s actually looked into the conference, I do know it was only a small matter compared to the other things which went through (such as the TPPA, KiwiAssure, Housing, etc), but as usual, the media picked up on that one issue and spun it out of proportion.
I don’t believe that this will affect Labour by much in the long term, and I’m glad the issue has been dealt with now rather than coming up in election year (though there still is a possibility of the media raising it again). Once more important issues spring up, I’m sure that will change.
It’s good to see that some of the more controversial policies (particularly the socially liberal ones) are being sidelined for now. Labour needs to be focused on it’s core policies, particularly supporting workers, if it’s to win the next election. If it’s seen to be too focused on other issues, the non-voters they’re trying to attract will not vote for them (nor even the swing voters).
The shift in undecided vote to decided was only 0.5% – is that about 5 votes?
I really think there’s a load of male hysteria here – being led and whipped up by RM.
Let’s see what happens in the next couple of polls.
Question karol:
5,000 people left the hall, while 4,995 people arrived.
Did only 5 people move?
Eh? 5 people seem to have appeared from nowhere.
Is it the same 5 people?
PS: I should have said it’s only 5 of the sample – the bigger the sample, the more likely to be representative. Such a small number of people are a lot to hinge evidence of significant change on.
For sure. It’s the 10% jump in male support for National with 5.5% loss in male support for Labour which are the truly significant results.
You might also say that the absolute lack of additional support from women for Labour (actually it’s a drop but within the margin of error) is also a significant result.
Again, it seems a bit sudden to me to be taken too seriously, Because, overall, while there may be that gender shift, overall the relative support for each party hasn’t changed that much.
Absolutely. Of course, it only takes a couple of percent in MMP to go from a “clear win” to “too close to call.”
But isn’t the overall shift still within the margin of error?
That’s really a fascinating comment.
Its an interesting poll coming from roy morgan, its almost as if voters don’t like gender quotas but that can’t be right
Not necessarily, it’s probably more that the issue has been really spun up by the media. The previous policy, which allowed electorate seats to become “female-only”, is the one which a lot of people didn’t like (understandably too. I agree that it’s a rather bad idea).
This one only places a quota on female candidates on the list (which is already at around 41%), though it’s been spun to be exactly the same as the previous policy.
A question for Karol, in brief what did you learn from the Labour Party conference that you agreed with to a point you ‘might’ vote for that Party besides the ‘gender equality’ of the party’s Parliamentary wing set down to be the norm into the future…
I think aiming for a reasonable gender equality is good. Quotas have their place, but I’m more interested in seeing a shift away from the dominance of masculine values/culture in the Labour Party and it’s priorities. And, related to that, I’d like to see more positive support for beneficiaries and those struggling on low incomes (women over-represented in that section of society).
– they are missing a policy to increase state housing, community housing and safe and affordable rentals.More needed on regaining state assets.
I agree with their focus on regional development, employment legislation that improves the lot of workers, supporting NZ enterprises and investments in NZ, R&D…. some other stuff I can’t think of right now … oh, pleased to see no guarantees on Sky City compensation. Pleased to see Cunliffe unhappy on the leaked wikileaks TPP info. Glad to see they will do away with Charter schools.
Would like a slightly stronger guarantee on repealing GCSB legislation. Mostly OK with them on education – would like to see stronger policies to return to ACC as was meant, and the health system. And would like to see re-strengthening local authorities as community entities.
PS; Will still vote Green on the stuff at the top of this list.
The jump in the Green Party vote and the dip in the Labour Party vote say that except for the core of the Party ‘Nothing’ of any import came out of the Labour Conference,
A ‘RED” Labour Party with David Cunliffe as the Leader???lets paint the town, but there wont be any more bread nor butter on the table afterwards, that’s what i gather from the recent Conference, and ‘Nothing’ delivered in a gender balanced way still equates for those most in need to ‘Nothing’…
Personally I think calling what Labour are aiming for a “quota” is a bit overstating it.
The man ban in electorates definitely would be a quota. But they aren’t aiming for that (as far as I know? haven’t followed this closely so could be wrong), they’ve just set aims for where they want their MP balance to be, which can be pretty easily achieved in the list rankings I would have thought, without it being a ‘quota’.
Yes. I agree. The aim was for a reasonable gender balance, but quotas weren’t talked about as some strict option. Also, i didn’t think it got so much media attention, especially negative media attention, for it to have had a significant influence on voting preferences.
To be clear, the “reasonable gender balance” you mention is the capping of likely male participation in caucus by 2017 at a maximum of 50%, with no similar limit placed on the likely proportion of women in caucus.
if the wording were reversed to limit female participation in caucus, I would regard it as a clearly sexist and gender unbalanced rule.
Surely they have made a policy to aim for 50% female representation in parliament. By stating an aim it behooves them to actually do stuff to achieve it. THAT is the point, imo.
Unlike the Nats and supporters like BM who like to believe that everyone is equal now and the “best person” already has the job and so nothing is required to even up representation.
more accurately, the policy is minimum 50% female participation and maximum 50% male participation in caucus. If the wording were reversed, I would say that the wording was sexist and inequitable.
This should perhaps really go onto weekend social, but I wish to present links to some excellent musica Chilena:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpf4zCPbpvY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsdYs2qE7hA
The Chilean people endured much after the Pinochet coup in 1973, and they fought long to regain some democratic rights, which are still compromised by the powers in control, that favour such as present President Pinera, a major shareholder in Lan Chile airlines and one of the richest “pricks” in Latin America, who has his mates manipulate the population and system to serve their interests.
Time to be alert and realise the same happens in NZ, like under John Key, the rich one that got there with connections and working the Wall Street and allied systems. Same as Pinera, and they are both “mates”, by the way!
Stop the rot and shit to spread, take em on and challenge the rotten capitalist self serving bastards NOW!
I am trying again, with useless NZ internet services making my connection crash just before. This is what maybe should rather go on weekend social, but I present it today anyway. This is some choice Chilean music, that may be a bit “old” for some, but it is for that reason top and class A:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpf4zCPbpvY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsdYs2qE7hA
The Chilean people endured a lot after the Pinochet led coup in 1973, and it took a long time to regain some basic democratic rights. Still now those rights are compromised by their capitalist system, which favours persons like their present president Pinera, who is a major share holder in Lan Chile, and one of the richest persons in Latin America.
By the way, John Key is on great mates terms with him as they seem to be having similar “connections”. So Key and Pinera represent the Chicago Boy winners, those that gained from radical market “reforms” that we also saw under Roger Douglas here, but that left many behind.
Let us not forget what all this is about, it is an attempted dictatorial rule of the rich and their mates against the rest of us. The sooner the mostly docile Kiwis realise this and wake up, and take a stand, the sooner we may have a fairer society. Best wishes for tonight, X
Where did El presidente get his fortune? The megarich in Brazil got theirs through a trough filled by the military government, then filthy privatisations by the PSDB (Social democratic party of Brazil, which is like ACT with extra corruption thrown in).