Karl Du Frense positioning himself as the defender of free speech and balanced Public Broadcasting with this tacky little piece in which he pins his colours to the mast.
He was obviously disturbed by the public eviscerating of that stalwart of Free Speech Don Brash, by Kim Hill on Natrad a couple of weeks ago.
Du Frense say’s
”
Here’s where we get down to the real issue. RNZ is a public institution. It belongs to us.
The public who fund the organisation are entitled to criticise it. But can we now expect that anyone who has the temerity to do so will be subjected to a mauling by RNZ’s in-house attack dog? Or is this treatment reserved for despised white conservative males such as Brash, to make an example of them and deter others from similar foolishness?
Either way, Hill’s dismemberment of Brash was a brazen abuse of the state broadcaster’s power and showed contemptuous disregard for RNZ’s charter obligation to be impartial and balanced.
This is nothing new, of course. The quaint notion that RNZ exists for all New Zealanders was quietly jettisoned years ago. Without any mandate, the state broadcaster has refashioned itself as a platform for the promotion of favoured causes.
You’re more likely to see an aardvark riding a bike down The Terrace than to hear a conservative voice, or even a middle-of-the-road one, on smug groupthink fests such as RNZ’s current series of Smart Talk.”
Whew!
The lad sounds a little peeved.
Calling Kim Hill a ‘dominatrix’ and an ‘attack dog’….absolutely no class at all there Karl.
Another right wing apologist having a tantrum – such fun!
And that horrible little man from 7 Sharp is going going gone – wow! Do you think Australia would like him?
“Calling Kim Hill a ‘dominatrix’ and an ‘attack dog’”
Kind of rich coming from someone who’s rather like a Dr Who 1960s Dalek screaming ‘exterminate, exterminate, assimilate, assimilate’
Yes Rosemary
This mornings episode of Kim Hill Vs Blustering Steven Joyce was very reminesent of when David parker was over-burdened by discussion with Joyce during the lead up to the 2014 election; – when Steven joyce was barrelling over top of the meek David Parker in discussion about ‘finance’ as it was equally as arrogant a performance from Joyce three years ago.
This festive season Steven Joyce is likened to the mean arsed ‘Grinch’
Rosemary, Karl Du Frense is another poor loser, bitter that the left have platforms of power and are using them.
I did not see him asking for fairness every time Joyce or Boag got up to complain about the left.
He is full of it, and Kim Hill does her job, and does not tolerate self aggrandizing idiots like Brash.
Du Frense says “What made him do that?” “Ego” he suggests. Got it in one, Brash doesn’t think he has any problems, and when called out on them blames others.
We are going to get a stream of complaints about Left influence. I might pay attention, had they been more even handed in the past.
Yes, its going to be all on over the next few years.
Paradoxically, Farrar’s Ferals are also not happy with the mainstream media and Natrad in particular.
For sometime they have complained bitterly that presenters on Natrad are biased towards the left…and this includes Espiner, who many here perceive as tending right.
My hope is that if none of us are happy with the MSM…this might just indicate that they are landing somewhere in the middle.
Lmao, some men cannot deal with strong, educated women, so they resort to name calling. Interestingly by calling Kim a dominatrix karl is admitting his submission. Or is he volunteering brashes?
So many chickens are coming home to roost and it’s beautiful to watch.
Only one lesson here – if you are going up against Hill don’t be an ignorant, illogical nitwit. And outside a very narrow set of economic theories, Brash is exactly that.
This is not the first time that Kim Hill has provoked Karl Du Fresne into a state of apoplexy. In 2010 the old curmudgeon went into core meltdown after Hill had dared to ask a few challenging questions of the former Australian prime minister John Howard. On that occasion he damned Hill not for being a dominatrix, but for being “relentlessly adversarial”. He also damned her listeners as “chardonnay socialists”…..
Another who regards equality as a form of oppression… and Hosking gone too… the privileged male feels under attack today as everything isnt as they are used to it… sharing takes some getting used to.
“…Either way, Hill’s dismemberment of Brash was a brazen abuse of the state broadcaster’s power and showed contemptuous disregard for RNZ’s charter obligation to be impartial and balanced…”
Actually the RNZ charter says in section 5:
(i) provide comprehensive, independent, accurate, impartial, and balanced regional, national, and international news and current affairs…
Kim Hill’s Saturday morning show isn’t news or current affairs. It is a magazine show driven by it’s host. Du Fresne is an idiot who appears to have not actually read the RNZ charter.
Kim Hill allowed Don Brash to have his point of view put forth. He wasn’t an expert in the area – on this topic he was as expert as any random person on the street. And a random person on the street doesn’t get so much airtime to put their point of view across.
Kim Hill basically just quoted things he had said in the past. If that made him look foolish then he shouldn’t have said such silly things.
For that interesting wording from the RNZ Charter section 5.
(i) provide comprehensive, independent, accurate, impartial, and balanced regional, national, and international news and current affairs…
We have lost our HB/Gisborne regional voice here since 2013 and are still waiting for our
(i) provide comprehensive, independent, accurate, impartial, and balanced regional, national, and international news and current affairs…
We in HB/Gisborne had apparently had Steven Joyce take away our regional reporter from RNZ two years ago!!!!!
We enquired with the RNZ CEO on 9th September 2017 under OIA why we lost our reporter and we still dont have one yet, and here is what we got back on 13/10/17.
NOTE; To date as of yesterday 14/12/17 we still have no RNZ reporter to cover HB/Gisborne, so the new Broadcasting Minister Claire Curran has now recieved a letter of complaint from us to provide us with a reporter ASAP.
Attached is a letter we received 20/10/17 after sending Radio NZ 9/9/17 in a OIA request as to why we in HB no longer have a Radio NZ reporter since 2016.
The date of our request was sent quite a time before the election 9/9/17 and came to us just days before the election.
Since then we have sent several letters to the new Broadcasting Minister Claire Curran for assistance to get another local reporter and to date no new reporter has been hired.
Yesterday we called Radio NZ to enquire when we are to get a reporter and the person I was sent through to was a lady named “ Paloma” who said still “no reporter has been found yet”!!!!!!! This is now late december 15/12/17.
Quote George Bignell – 13/10/27
“The Hawkes Bay regional reporting position is currently vacant and Radio New Zealand will look to fill that position in the near future.
We trust this of assistance to you.” End.
See the letter below from this person inside the old style RNZ while then under National Government control.
SEE BELOW our Letter sent to Radio NZ PA 8/9/17.
So from the 20th October 2017 till now 14th December 2017, (over eight weeks later) no replacement report as been found yet??????
URGENT
Official Information request
RADIO NZ.
CEO PAUL THOMPSON
9th September 2017.
Official Information request
HB Advocacy centre made this Official Information request to PAUL THOMPSON – RADIO NZ CEO For information 9th September 2017 for quick response please.
9th September 2017.
Dear Paul.
We are a senior NGO working within the Government & local regional authorities on issues that have been presented to our Environmental Centre for 16 yrs to date.
We have had a close communication relationship in the past particularly during the years 2009 to 2013 with your Radio NZ reporters but we now have virtually no response from your regional news, transport, environment, and rural reporters since then and I have been requested to enquire how the regional reporting structure of the Radio NZ broadcasting services now are different to the way the operations serviced the regions formerly.
We would want you to supply any detailed changes that may have affected our loss of regional reporting services how affected our ability to have press coverage of our community issues regarding the above subjects of Transport and transport relationships to community health and wellbeing please, and we ask that under the Official Information Act please from this date 9/9/17 please arrange information to be provided as soon as able please. If you
If you wish to refer this issue of ‘several communication’ also to the Minister handling the ‘Broadcasting portfolio’ who is Hon’ Maggie Barry please feel free to converse with the minister as you prepare our information request. The Minister had increased funding to Radio NZ recently we are told.
We have supplied you with a copy of yesterday’s letter that we sent from our Centre to your office & is attached (below) for your reference.
Regards.
——————————————————————————————————
letter from RNZ
October 13, 2017
Dear —–
I write in response to your request “how the regional reporting structure of the Radio NZ broadcasting services now are different to the way the operations serviced the regions formerly.”
I can advise that RNZ does not hold any specific information in this regard that we can supply to you. To answer your question, apart from the relocation of one reporting position from our Queenstown office to our Dunedin office, there has been no recent changes to our regional reporting structure.
The Hawkes Bay regional reporting position is currently vacant and Radio New Zealand will look to fill that position in the near future.
Yup, Mr Magoo is simply expressing his own fear of (progressive) women in power.
Like many on the right he wants to remove “public” platforms for those who support a more progressive New Zealand, while strangely silent on the role of the “unchallenging to the conservative regime” Hosking at TVNZ.
One almost suspects the idea of Barry and Campbell on Seven Sharp was floated to wind him up.
Thank goodness.
Grant Robertson has had some sense pushed into him regarding the National Super recipients having to apply for the grant for “winter heating”.
It will apparently be paid out automatically and there will be no need for people to go into WINZ and apply for it. Complaints about the stupidity of his demand seem to have finally got through to him.
Some common sense has been shown. Amazing.
We worry about anyone listening to Alwyn thinks they are getting the acurate true facts as he is a ‘cherry picker’, and an apologist for the trucking industry, and hence supports dirty environmental policies.
Having read the items you link to, and looking at his occupation, I can hear the immortal words of Mandy Rice-Davies.
Anyone who has been the union leader for Rail Workers will of course qualify for her comment about Lord Astor.
“Well he would say that wouldn’t he?”
I still think they only have very limited reason for existing in New Zealand.
Is it really worth spending half a billion dollars on getting the Auckland/Northland line to a minimum standard and putting a spur line into Marsden Point for a maximum of a short train each day?
Improving the roads makes much more sense.
The statistics quoted in the Listener article are also misleading.
A statement such as “Whereas the rail network carries 16% of freight (by tonne-kilometres), it generates only 0.2% of national emissions” is simply a ridiculous comparison. It is intended to pretend that our overall emissions would be greatly reduced if we used trains more.
I could make an equally misleading, and equally silly statement such as.
“Less than 0.01% of passengers from Wellington to Auckland travel by rail and yet the rail network generates 0.2% of our national emissions”.
There, that implies that trains are terribly inefficient doesn’t it
I have no idea what the actual number is but this could be about the correct one. There are tourist trains a couple of times a week for at least part of the year so I suppose they might carry a single Airbus 320 load of passengers each week for the whole distance.
Half a billion for trains, several billion for roads.
Yeah, much more sense to do the trains.
It is intended to pretend that our overall emissions would be greatly reduced if we used trains more.
That’s not a pretence. If we used trains more our emissions would fall quite drastically. Would use far less resources as well and thus be a hell of a lot cheaper.
I have no idea what the actual number is…
And that’s the only thing you said that actually truthful. Finally admitting that you have no idea what you’re talking about.
You did note that the half billion for trains is ONLY for the line from Auckland to Marsden Point.
God knows how may billion the puff-puff lovers want in total.
National put around $3 billion I think into rail between 2009 and 2017 and committed about a further $1.5 billion into the Auckland link.
“And that’s the only thing you said that actually truthful”.
Don’t be so bloody stupid. You are just unhappy that I can demonstrate that many of the comments made about the wonders of rail are ridiculous and founded only in fantasy.
What exactly have I said that is false. Facts please, not just an eruption of bile.
Steven Joyce has announced plans for a motorway from Puhoi to Wellsford at a cost of $2 billion
And it won’t have anywhere near the economies of rail.
You are just unhappy that I can demonstrate that many of the comments made about the wonders of rail are ridiculous and founded only in fantasy.
You’ve never done that. You’ve done a lot of talking out your arse about it though.
What exactly have I said that is false. Facts please, not just an eruption of bile.
A statement such as “Whereas the rail network carries 16% of freight (by tonne-kilometres), it generates only 0.2% of national emissions” is simply a ridiculous comparison.
You missed the context and thus produced a lie:
At the same time as the funding hurdle was lowered for big highway projects, the Land Transport Management Act – the sector’s guiding legislation – was amended in 2013 to remove the explicit requirement for sustainability to be considered.
Rail advocates say these changes have effectively served as a subsidy for the trucking industry and added to the difficulties KiwiRail faces in competing for freight business even in the context of rising concern about climate change and an increasing awareness of the potential role of rail in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Whereas the rail network carries 16% of freight (by tonne-kilometres), it generates only 0.2% of national emissions. In a 2016 report, the Royal Society of New Zealand noted that a tonne of freight moved by diesel-powered rail produces a third of the emissions the same tonnage going by truck would yield. It identified shifting more freight from road to rail or coastal shipping as a major opportunity for carbon dioxide reduction.
And you even followed it up by saying that you were talking out your arse.
The problem for KiwiRail is that none of the virtues identified and costed by EY generate an extra cent in revenue for its business, either from its customers or through Government support. At the same time, unlike trucking companies, it’s responsible for owning, maintaining and upgrading its own “road” – the core infrastructure of tracks, bridges and tunnels. As a state-owned enterprise, it is expected to make a commercial return on assets, which it has proved year after year that it is unable to do.
my bold
Trucking companies and even cars get massive cross subsidisation that rail doesn’t get and so it looks a lot better on the accounts. When that cross subsidisation is properly accounted for rail looks a hell of a lot better.
“Its a huge social shift for good in New Zealand”
Do you mean that he has apparently had second thoughts about making everyone apply or do you mean the money itself?
If the first I would agree. This must be the first time in decades that a Labour Government has altered something they have announced, and in effect admitted they got it wrong.
On the other hand the amount of money is precisely $10/year more than National were going to provide to couples with the tax cuts that were going to happen on April 1 and which Labour and its hangers-on are cancelling. Would you call that $10/year a “huge social shift”?
Good program this morning breakfast people many thanks to you.
You Lady’s are very good netures but you are so busy looking after everyone else you forget to take care of yourself my wife did this my sister my daughters well I ring them up and insist they go to the doctor when they tell me about there ailments . I tell there health is the most important as they have the care of there family in there hands an no one will care for the children like they do.
The wait time to get into a doctor in South Waikato is ridiculous especially for a wealth country. O that’s right we have Shonky bullshiet dilldow to thank for this slide back wards in all OUR State services the likes of these people will not be allowed back in OUR government how can they lift there heads with all the bad shit they have done to OUR country this is what you get when you have people who worship money over humanity and mother earth. Many thanks to Mark Zuckerberg founder of Facebook for seeing the big picture that’s is that all the people of OUR WORLD SOCIETY HAVE A Obligation to help all the vanurable people in our world. I hope all the Big Tech companies in our world will pay Taxes in the country’s that they draw there revenue from as this is the humane thing to do Ka pai
Hosking was first to blink in the battle of the relentlessly positive. He found now that JA is the boss he couldn’t keep up his smug schtick any longer. So like all quitters, he quit.
Doesn’t Shaw release the climate and sea level thing today – on a day when it’s almost guaranteed to be eclipsed by this general nodding approval of a budget?
Rosemary, Karl Du Frense is another poor loser, bitter that the left have platforms of power and are using them.
I did not see him asking for fairness every time Joyce or Boag got up to complain about the left.
He is full of it, and Kim Hill does her job, and does not tolerate self aggrandizing idiots like Brash.
Du Frense says “What made him do that?” “Ego” he suggests. Got it in one, Brash doesn’t think he has any problems, and when called out on them blames others.
We are going to get a stream of complaints about Left influence. I might pay attention, had they been more even handed in the past.
Many thanks to the Rock morning rumble team see hear you in the new year. PS found a present from my neo liberal neighbour a dead bird on my truck this is the mind set of these cares of OUR society Ana to kai
When instrumentation designed to “trip out” in the case of a malfunction, “trips out” because the extent of warming it’s measuring is read as a malfunction… 🙁
Well, Given that neither you nor “North” can tell me any connection I can only assume that you have screwed the pooch and got your story messed up.
The only “Alabama Bible” I have ever heard of is the Alabama State Bible in Montgomery Alabama. It was the one used to swear in Jefferson Davis as President.
However the verse I quoted isn’t in that bible.
It has, instead
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”.
Well I guess you didn’t get it right and you are too embarrassed to admit it.
About par for the course for you.
seems an appropriate comment. Seeing your comments is like eating boiled rice for dinner for three months straight, but without the sustenance value. Hence the comment “Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and forever”.
Visualise a hat. 195 pieces of paper within, each one bearing the name of a country around the globe. We get to close our eyes and reach in, the country we get, that’s where we’re moving to.
I’d turn down the opportunity to play. For me it would be like playing Russian Roulette with an automatic weapon and about 4 bullets missing from it’s 195 bullet magazine. For me, this new policy just put another bullet in the mag.
Regardless of the circumstances, whether flush or on the bones of my arse, I’ve always found that the most influential person when it comes to influencing outcomes in my life has been me. I don’t see that changing anytime soon. I fear I would die waiting for any government to take me by the hand and lead me to a life of contentment.
Yes, we’re not going to get things sorted out in 100 days. It will be a generation before we are an international poster child of The Fair Go. Favourable trend-lines and moving up credible world rankings are the things to look for, housing, health, education, incomes. The mechanical bits that get more of us pushing on towards our personal variations of lives well led.
Really a generation? The nats managed to fuck it up quite a bit in only nine years.
But really, tell us more about how you are the master of your own destiny, when apparently you’re lucky enough to live in the best country in the world.
9 years, Left/Right, Holden/Ford, South Island/North Island
In our hearts we’re all chasing the same things, we all have similar core values. We want to be noticed and appreciated. We want to give love and be loved. We all aspire to being crucial cogs in loving families, neighbourhoods, towns, nation.
Ford, Holden, National, Labour, I think they have little to do with addressing our core aspirations.
I think what we should be asking from our government is a fairly marked out playing field. A ‘stickler for the rules’ referee and a comfy place to sit for those that can’t play.
If they were irrelevant, a change in government wouldn’t coincidentally be followed by a change in educational attainment, a change in homelessness, a change in poverty levels, etc etc etc. I guess in the early 1990s hundreds of thousands of people just decided to be poor for a while.
Oh we’re certainly positioned to create a NZ that treats more of us better.
A government that places people and the planet near the top of most agendum are much better placed to create a NZ that suits more of us.
The best we can hope for from them is that they are a brilliant band, for it to be an ace party 4.5 million of us need to dance.
I have a choice, I can say ‘McFlock you’re fulla shite.” Or I could tell the truth “McFlock I think you make a valuable contribution to this blog and it would be a less interesting place if you chose to stop.”
Your comments here today make (a lot of) sense (to me) as long as we realise that no man is an island and that we cannot make the necessary change all by ourselves but that we need to work together and help one and another: “united we stand, divided we fall”.
Which is all well and good, but still doesn’t acknowledge the massive role that sheer luck has played in your (and my) life.
The country we are in, the government of the day, the chaotic results of decisions of billions of people creating or eliminating opportunities… the privileges we have oblige us to try to make life better for those less fortunate, not just look to ourselves and assume that we played the bulk of the role that led us to our position.
Hi incognito, you’re good at making me think ‘Hmmm I hadn’t thought of that.’ I like you. Because your ‘hmmm I hadn’t thought of that’ is as often highlighting a positive as it is a negative.
You and me bro. We’ve got this.
McFlock, this sheer luck thing of yours, I can’t swallow it.
If I shoot the breeze in here for a week, my income slips away. If I apply myself, make a few calls, hustle, my income bumps up. This is the case over and over. Ain’t luck mate, it’s me getting stuck in or cruising.
You never had a happy coincidence in your life, where someone turns out to be willing and able to help you? Never had a seemingly insignificant choice of two roads “much the same” turn out to be life changing? Never met the love of your life by chance? Never had an inspiring teacher who retired shortly after your final year in school? Never had a completely unexpected opportunity fall in your lap? Never look back on your teenage love and breathe a sigh of relief that you never had a baby with them, despite foolish teenage choices? Shame.
On the flipside, most of my life has been good luck. I don’t hustle. I’m just really lucky. Papers I took randomly at university turned out to be the foundation of my second career a decade later. Whenever my life becomes inconvenienced by need for something, someone always seems to have a suitable substitute in the interim (I’m currently commenting on a surplus-to-requirements linux box with DDR2 ram, until I get funds for a gaming machine). I work 30 hours a week, and that provides me enough for a reasonable existence. I’m lucky my colleagues put up with me. I’m lucky I’m an amiable drunk. I’m lucky I recognised early that I’m prone to addiction, so avoided anything too bad in the way of drugs. I’m lucky I took so long to get my drivers license, otherwise winz would have put me into shiftwork I’d be stuck in to this day – too tired to do job interviews and all my daywalker skills evaporated. Seen it happen to others.
Sure, I could pretend I navigated the course to this life of comfort, but mostly I just went with the flow.
Whereas most people work or hustle most of their lives. Especially those on lower wages, because they don’t get the option not to. The cleaner at my workplace hustles every night, and probably works longer hours than I do for less. He deserves my luck, but he has bad luck.Never complains, but shit happens.
So you go out and hustle. Ain’t you lucky that your hustle is so much more rewarding than mike the cleaner’s.
See how you go being raped when you are a child, or starved, or your CV discarded cos of your surname… yes you are influential in your life but to have lived without the invisible barriers of systems designed for one section of society makes you privileged indeed.
The opportunity for me to get over being raped as a child and lead a quality life in spite of my harrowing experience would ultimately be down to me. Starved as a child? I think the best thing I could do would be to get myself into a position to help see that other children aren’t starving, that’s down to me. If my CV was not getting past the initial screening. Changing that is down to me. Yesterday I was Davinda, today I am David.
I hear you Tracey but regardless of the privilege some may soak up, the best way to clear the hurdles is not to rely on Susan Devoy’s intervention, it’s down to me.
If I was Davinda and the job application required a photo I’d lie. I’d look at the ‘Our Team’ on their websites. I’d steal an online photo of what I thought the company’s perfect applicant would look like and send that in with my CV.
Then I’d spend some time rehearsing what I would say at the beginning of my interview and ways of handling a variety of outcomes.
Something like: “I’m sorry to start my interview with a fib, plainly, I am not the person in my CV photo. My flatmate has convinced me that beautiful people get more interviews. He thinks they go on to enjoy privileged lives. I’m keen to prove him wrong. I’ve looked at your websites, this company does not hire people based on the colour of their skin, their age or cut of their jawline. Maybe my bogus photo helped get me here infront of you, now I’d like the chance to prove to you why I am the man for this job.”
Even with little onboard, the privilege BS can be spun in one’s favour.
I attended an author lecture for high-school aged students during the Writers Festival, and an Australian white fifty-something author, was speaking about challenging systems, and how they should – as engaged citizens – do the same.
As an example, similar to your story above, he related a personal choice of his to challenge the authority of the police who stopped him while he was speeding. He related how he believed the positioning of the police officer outside his driver’s window would tip the balance of body language in favour of the officer – so, he decided to immediately exit the car, and make a phone call so that when the officer approached the car, he would already be out and engaged in another activity. He then stopped the call, and approached the officer introducing himself.
The sheer disconnect of this author struck me. How unaware he was that his age, his race, his social status all contributed to how this was received by the officer.
Your comments today – to me – have the same cognitive dissonance.
The same actions, performed by different actors will have different consequences, and all the “clever” and can-do attitudes you espouse, will not address that fundamental truth.
You are not only missing a trick, you have missed the whole damn circus.
As much as we like to say ‘No we aren’t.’ We are guided by our emotions.
I see little value in trying to appear taller than the officer accusing me of speeding. I’d go for his heart.
“Yep, guilty as charged, but more important than that, I’ve forgotten my wife’s birthday and I’m on the way to get something. By all means give me a ticket but please accompany it with gift suggestions, what did your get your other half last birthday?”
““Yep, guilty as charged, but more important than that, I’ve forgotten my wife’s birthday and I’m on the way to get something. By all means give me a ticket but please accompany it with gift suggestions, what did your get your other half last birthday?””
Kissed the Blarney stone myself, and still wouldn’t come up with this kind of blather. What’s wrong with just accepting the ticket?
Once again, you miss the point. You are someone who can actually imagine doing this, and giving it a go. This makes you tone-deaf when it comes to listening to others about privilege and how it manifests.
I am glad life worked out for you but there is more than one version of tge world. Next you will tell me all people with a nice house and big income worked really hard to get it.
While vastly superior to the alternative (National led), yesterdays mini budget disappoints with its lack of forward thinking and begs the question have the Greens been sacrificed by having a horizon no further ahead than 2020?
Chris Trotter….
“There will be some who take umbrage at my uncompromising pessimism. To them I say: “It is only because I have been here before.” I remember another inspirational Labour leader who put an end to nine long years of National Party rule by promising to take New Zealand “up where we belong”, and who then allowed his Finance Minister to wreak havoc on the expectations and aspirations of his party’s electoral base.”
He has a very good point however…..by reaffirming the budget responsibility intent what tools will be provided to James Shaw to address ‘this generations nuclear free moment’??…..any transition is going to require massive investment and its not as if it can wait until a second or third term…..though there is a hint of a workable sleight of hand within Bernard Hickeys article..
“Grant Robertson has ‘squared the circle’ of fitting the coalition Government’s big new spending plans into its self-imposed surplus and debt restrictions, but it means he will have to embrace “innovative financing mechanisms” such as Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and off balance sheet bond issuance to fix the infrastructure deficits the Government has found.”
Can you imagine how much MORE criticism and attack Labour and the Greens would have been under, leading up to the election, if they hadn’t signed up to the Budget responsibility pledge? Joyce and all his media flunkies would have had a field day, and the various economists who spoke up against the fictional $11.8 billion hole would have been entirely on their side. There’s no way in the world they would have been elected – they were already under attack on the issue of financial management and it would have buried them.
Once elected, a u-turn on this would be an absolute betrayal and a nail in the coffin of the new government. Governments are accountable to the people who elect them and the people are entitled to know their true intentions.
As for PPPs, I was really glad to know that one of the first announcements of the new Health Minister was that the rebuild of Dunedin Hospital is going ahead without one. I’m glad to see the list of areas that are now out of bounds. Better than we would have had under the Nats!
Couldnt agree more and your point re the attack pre election is noted though I suspect much the same outcome could have been achieved if the need for extending borrowing for infrastructure and transition had been promoted.
As for a u turn…..meh, could the Nats and MSM be much more disruptive than they have been to date?….there has been ample uncovered to justify a move away from the 20% target, and IF off balance sheet bonds are used the same attacks will come in any case
I just hope the plan IS to raise additional capital(off balance sheet if they must)..and not continue an austerity till collapse programme.
Poverty was a Green priority from pre election campaign, through the campaign and beyond. As a Party which garnered 6% of the vote they will be pleased to see the Families Package and rewinding of sanctions on not naming fathers going through so soon.
I do not know why some are so disappointed in the Greens because they do not believe in wagging the dog and some core policy ( albeit not as far as they campaigbed)
Coroner beats head against brick wall trying to save another child from the fate suffered by Nia and Moko.
Calls for, again mind, tracking of children so obvious red flags can be seen and action taken to save a child.
New Children’s Minister, (in a fit of what? sensitivity for her righter winged constituents?) says….
” “I don’t think [compulsory monitoring is] something that most New Zealanders would be comfortable with”.
“My initial conversations with colleagues reflect a similar view. While every child’s death is a tragedy and there are far too many, thankfully they are still rare. Most families are loving families,” she said.”
Now come on…if compulsory monitoring of all children, (and it doesn’t have to be Gestapo like) will save a single child from death by someone in loco parentis and save many more from abuse and petty fucking neglect then I say bring it on.
Sensitivities be damned.
If ALL children are expected to be seen by Plunket, doctors etc and questions asked and support offered if this is not happening, it will become apparent quite early those children who seriously need this level of monitoring.
Must do better Tracey…you’re no longer on the campaign trail, you’re in…make the most of the opportunity to get this finally right.
Rosemary I agree with you that this Government should get this right and I agree with the Children’s Commissioner that this register idea is a step too far.
A children”s register is an authoritarian move and the potential for abuse of such a register is unlimited. Nearly all children are seen now – the problem is the under funding and excessive workload of the appropriate agencies once children are referred.
While recognising that we have a serious child abuse problem in this country a band aid with fascist overtones is not the solution.
Realistically there is no single magic bullet solution but I suspect that the families package announced yesterday will help and hope that other ideas and initiatives will come to the fore over the next wee while.
Hang on a minute…did you read the article I linked to?
Moko didn’t die because there was no funding and there was an excessive workload…he died because those who were being funded to support…and I struggle to use the ‘families’ in this case…households such as this failed to take the appropriate steps to save his life.
Why? God knows…the warning signs were all there and the agencies knew and for some reason…and I suspect some misplaced sensitivities…no one put their foot down demanded to see all the children in the household and check on their welfare.
Or did you read the other article linked to in that article?
Agencies involved with Moko…
Child Youth and Family, the Auckland DHB, the Maori Women’s Welfare Refuge, the Waipahihi Kindergarten, Family Works, as well as the Rural Education Activities Programme.
But not one of them actually did their job and ensured the safety of all the children in that household.
Why? Poor training? Lack of authority? Absence of some mechanism to facilitate direct investigation and immediate intervention is there is a suspicion that a child is at risk.
If a child has come under the Lens of a government agency I would like to think we put resource into the education of the parent/carer while constantly ensuring the child is safe. It sounds like the Minister is appeasing someone/someones? Why?
Yes we are entering a serious stage of being labeled as a dirty country now sadly, after nine years of National mishandling of our environment and national must now be blamed globally for their foolish deception of using “profit first without preservation.”
Harvey Weinstein told him not to hire two young women, so he obeyed:
The spineless “Sir” Peter Jackson slithers back into our consciousness.
You may have thought the nadir of “Sir” Peter Jackson’s career came on Q+A in 2010 when he sat, cringing and obviously uncomfortable, occasionally forcing himself to parrot the brutal anti-union rhetoric of his Warner Brothers paymasters, and then squirming uncomfortably, in a fretful silence, as Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh did all the talking.
Now it transpires he was not just a slave to Warner Brothers’ lawyers, but also to Harvey Weinstein….
Awe, don’t be mean Morrissey – your just jealous. Think of all the good he’s done!
A true philanthropist. A humble man who has pulled himself up by the bootstraps and put NuZull on the global stage.
I mean……Bats Theatre – think of all those poor starving actors and actorines he’s given opportunity to. The increase in property values on the Miramar Penninsular.
The lookalike Hollywood sign – truly inspirational and fostering aspiration amongst our up and coming yoof. His contribution to arts’n’kulcha makes him a true hero – the likes of which we have not seen since Sir Edmund, or Sir John, or Dame Kurry Prendisgust and sidekick Rex, and to all those hardworking people he’s given so much sprayshun to. Why the haughty soon2b Sir Krus Seatoun Heights might have to issue you with an admonishment tackling you over your obvious bitterness. (It really isn’t a good look doncha know)
And then think of all those industries he’s helped while building his reputation! The IT sector.
You do know don’t you, that Sir Peter is actually really, really down with the people and peons, and has an undying love of all the minions that have contributed to building his empire. I know people who’d be prepared to lick the pavement clean before he puts a step on it!
What’s wrong with you man!!! I suspect it’s just envy and your inability (and desire) to reach the heights of beloved SPete . How dare you judge that icon who symbolises everything that’s put NuZull on the Whurl stage (going forward).
I’m forever indebted to the humble SPete to be be able to live in the same space (Wellington and its environs).
Sorry, Sir Peter, that irrefutable rundown of your inestimable goodness and humanity means that I shall now—to quote the great Tauranga M.P. Robert “Bob” Clarkson—withdraw and apologize….
You mean Bob Clarkson former MP…….the wacko, dribbling, multi-millionaire exemplar of inhumanity whose reaction in our parliament to the death of Mrs Folole Muliaga was to screechingly and repeatedly interject – “She didn’t pay her bill !” as though that was a sufficient moral explanation. Emailed him to express my disgust…….some staffer emailed back “sorry sorry”. BS. Not sorry at all. Just covering his own vileness.
Yes, North, the very same Bob Clarkson. That’s very interesting, to hear that he actually said something in the House. As far as I was aware, all he ever did was try to hit on young females, Trump style. Or any females, come to think of it.
In fact, I’m working on a little script involving the old goat right now. Keep your eyes peeled in the next few days, my friend….
Thanks Morrissey.
As soon as I can find my crystals, I’ll pop down to Courtenay Place and kneel under that wonderful 4 legged edifice, face the Embassy Theatre, and beg your forgiveness for any offence your selfishness and envy may have caused.
We should always remember our place.
Morrissey
I hope you have managed to buy a house. It will probably be the biggest and most complex financial transaction you ever make. If you built it also, that is complex, but not a spot on swinging a huge financial deal and technical marvel that Sir Peter Jackson did. It is funny to hear so many criticise Sir Peter unmercifully. You are good at criticising from your keyboard and your small projects. You have no idea of the weight of mega bucks and executive decisions required to make these films in New Zealand. He may not have behaved as fairly as he should, but he shouldn’t be demonised either.
Jackson made some really good movies—long ago. But, as we saw when he presented as a shambling embarrassment in that Q+A debacle, he sold his conscience to Hollywood, and he is well aware of it. Save your admiration for someone who deserves it.
Roy Moore continues to deliver gloriously nutso moments. FFS, even the White adult daycare House thinks he should have conceded by now. But no, Moore delivers a delightfully bonkers “battle rages on” statement.
Yep Andre. I watched the Moore video where he will fight on. I expect that a deeply religious man like him will have god on his side and therefore the votes will do a magnificent Russian flip giving Moore a 90% majority. Let us pray.
From the ‘thank god its Friday and we all deserve a laugh’ file…
Who will speak up for them now Mike is gone????
(Hankies optional)
“Mike Hosking fought for the luxury European car owner. He fought for the dispossessed of Orakei and St Heliers. He provided a voice for the wearers of distressed denim and funky blazers. Without him, Mark Richardson stands alone and lonely atop his mountain, a sole sane speaker of truth amid a sea of bloody pinko lefties.
Labour gets in here, and completely coincidentally, Hosking and Leighton are gone. You didn’t need Ken Ring around to predict a painful two years ahead for Mike.
Lots of time to be wasted, fiddling with your pen and providing sad-faced links to stories about Labour policies on doing nice things for the homeless and beneficiaries and children would have been tough when he could have been vacuuming his car or doing at-home spreads for Woman’s Day.”
I watched the programme with Mike and Miss Personality tonight from start to finish for the first time ever. What a cringeworthy load of kaka with the exception of the guys offering a serenade.
AS Mike fought back tears, I half expected John Hawkesby to come on set and tell us how thankful he was to have Mike as his sonny-bro.
What a complete load of self-indulgent crap.
Who is Miss Personality btw?
Never mind…. I just googled her. All over tomorrow’s fish and chip wrappers
Farrar has stooped to an all time low by posting an ‘anonymous letter from a reader’ casting even further aspersions on Golriz Ghahraman’s career.
What?
Were his rating falling and he had to come up with a scheme to incite the pack of racist misogynists who dwell there into a fervour of comment and click?
A truly pathetic effort there Farrar, and you call yourself an “Editor”.
I did laugh. Those who bemoan lack of work ethic in others couldnt wait for lunch. Shoulda taken sammies in with them given they knew they were going to delay the hell out of proceedings.
ISTR a similar story about lunches from a mines dispute decades ago. The argument that went to court was whether the miners’ half hour lunch break should start when they left the face or when they left the pit mouth. There was much discussion about how long the workers deserved, then the judge called a break in proceedings for lunch: two hours.
If you think Freudian slip, what made Laura Walters fingers say this:
National’s protestations were likely more an effort to delay the passing of the Government’s Families Package Bill, than a bout of hanger.
To me I think of those undisciplined school boys in the Gnat Party needing a ‘hanging’ judge.
Maybe they should be hung up on the tiled walls of the men’s room to cool down.
Perhaps hung from a nice pillory or, if budget constraints limit, a set of stocks outside where the public could show their feelings for them.
Yes poor Jami lee Ross the wee petal. It looks like the low wage, union busting, zero hour, employment contracts act National party doesn’t walk the talk on work ethic.
Always nice for the public to see what real hypocrites look like.
I refrained from attacking the ferrari man to much after all he is human and he toned it down a bit but one could read that he wanted to trash our Coalition Government. Did you see what happened on breakfast this morning that was when Jack mentioned someone’s career that was ________ funny I got a sore face.
I had a good day yesterday oil changed the truck got the vacuum cleaner fixed just about fix it myself the things to old to see how to open it up on youtube so I took it to Turnbuckle Electrical on Amohia st Vags they gave me excellent service Ka pai.
I’m battling one of our computers it the main one with all my business files and files on you no who I think they gave it a hand to crash Iv had help from my coder uncle I took the hard drive out put it in a external drive case I’m just scanning it at the moment because we are minimalistic I will fix the old laptop if I can load all the data on another hard drive and load Windows 10 back then reload all the data if not new computer they are cheap now. When my children were young I spent $10.000 on computers for them to play games on most of the educational games did not run my wife typed up a few letters for a friend whom had a bone to pick with a district council. But the investment payed off because we all have at least basic computer skills Thanks to my uncle influence Ka pai
When I took my computer into the computer shop and met PREBLE and Gissymo they want to keep my computer YEA RIGHT eco didn’t drop out the sky yesterday they could have said it was _____ so today it’s going again all good Ana to kai
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 ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from 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 public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
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:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
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. ...
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 ...
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. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
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 Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 19 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
Karl Du Frense positioning himself as the defender of free speech and balanced Public Broadcasting with this tacky little piece in which he pins his colours to the mast.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/99845282/dinosaur-v-dominatrix-don-brash-didnt-stand-a-chance
He was obviously disturbed by the public eviscerating of that stalwart of Free Speech Don Brash, by Kim Hill on Natrad a couple of weeks ago.
Du Frense say’s
”
Here’s where we get down to the real issue. RNZ is a public institution. It belongs to us.
The public who fund the organisation are entitled to criticise it. But can we now expect that anyone who has the temerity to do so will be subjected to a mauling by RNZ’s in-house attack dog? Or is this treatment reserved for despised white conservative males such as Brash, to make an example of them and deter others from similar foolishness?
Either way, Hill’s dismemberment of Brash was a brazen abuse of the state broadcaster’s power and showed contemptuous disregard for RNZ’s charter obligation to be impartial and balanced.
This is nothing new, of course. The quaint notion that RNZ exists for all New Zealanders was quietly jettisoned years ago. Without any mandate, the state broadcaster has refashioned itself as a platform for the promotion of favoured causes.
You’re more likely to see an aardvark riding a bike down The Terrace than to hear a conservative voice, or even a middle-of-the-road one, on smug groupthink fests such as RNZ’s current series of Smart Talk.”
Whew!
The lad sounds a little peeved.
Calling Kim Hill a ‘dominatrix’ and an ‘attack dog’….absolutely no class at all there Karl.
Another right wing apologist having a tantrum – such fun!
And that horrible little man from 7 Sharp is going going gone – wow! Do you think Australia would like him?
“Calling Kim Hill a ‘dominatrix’ and an ‘attack dog’”
Kind of rich coming from someone who’s rather like a Dr Who 1960s Dalek screaming ‘exterminate, exterminate, assimilate, assimilate’
How can he say that when her co-host is Guyon Espiner?
Yes Rosemary
This mornings episode of Kim Hill Vs Blustering Steven Joyce was very reminesent of when David parker was over-burdened by discussion with Joyce during the lead up to the 2014 election; – when Steven joyce was barrelling over top of the meek David Parker in discussion about ‘finance’ as it was equally as arrogant a performance from Joyce three years ago.
This festive season Steven Joyce is likened to the mean arsed ‘Grinch’
“Leopards dont change their spots’.
Rosemary, Karl Du Frense is another poor loser, bitter that the left have platforms of power and are using them.
I did not see him asking for fairness every time Joyce or Boag got up to complain about the left.
He is full of it, and Kim Hill does her job, and does not tolerate self aggrandizing idiots like Brash.
Du Frense says “What made him do that?” “Ego” he suggests. Got it in one, Brash doesn’t think he has any problems, and when called out on them blames others.
We are going to get a stream of complaints about Left influence. I might pay attention, had they been more even handed in the past.
Hiya pat.
Yes, its going to be all on over the next few years.
Paradoxically, Farrar’s Ferals are also not happy with the mainstream media and Natrad in particular.
For sometime they have complained bitterly that presenters on Natrad are biased towards the left…and this includes Espiner, who many here perceive as tending right.
My hope is that if none of us are happy with the MSM…this might just indicate that they are landing somewhere in the middle.
Lmao, some men cannot deal with strong, educated women, so they resort to name calling. Interestingly by calling Kim a dominatrix karl is admitting his submission. Or is he volunteering brashes?
So many chickens are coming home to roost and it’s beautiful to watch.
Only one lesson here – if you are going up against Hill don’t be an ignorant, illogical nitwit. And outside a very narrow set of economic theories, Brash is exactly that.
And you have to be an ignorant, illogical, nitwit to have any truck with those narrow set of economic theories of which Brash is an “expert”
This is not the first time that Kim Hill has provoked Karl Du Fresne into a state of apoplexy. In 2010 the old curmudgeon went into core meltdown after Hill had dared to ask a few challenging questions of the former Australian prime minister John Howard. On that occasion he damned Hill not for being a dominatrix, but for being “relentlessly adversarial”. He also damned her listeners as “chardonnay socialists”…..
http://karldufresne.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/howard-deserved-more-balanced-treatment.html
Another who regards equality as a form of oppression… and Hosking gone too… the privileged male feels under attack today as everything isnt as they are used to it… sharing takes some getting used to.
“…Either way, Hill’s dismemberment of Brash was a brazen abuse of the state broadcaster’s power and showed contemptuous disregard for RNZ’s charter obligation to be impartial and balanced…”
Actually the RNZ charter says in section 5:
(i) provide comprehensive, independent, accurate, impartial, and balanced regional, national, and international news and current affairs…
Kim Hill’s Saturday morning show isn’t news or current affairs. It is a magazine show driven by it’s host. Du Fresne is an idiot who appears to have not actually read the RNZ charter.
Kim Hill allowed Don Brash to have his point of view put forth. He wasn’t an expert in the area – on this topic he was as expert as any random person on the street. And a random person on the street doesn’t get so much airtime to put their point of view across.
Kim Hill basically just quoted things he had said in the past. If that made him look foolish then he shouldn’t have said such silly things.
Well observed. It is one thing to be heard that doesnt mean a platform to bully your world view. Hill ought to be congratulated not vilified.
Thanks awfully Sanctuary;
For that interesting wording from the RNZ Charter section 5.
(i) provide comprehensive, independent, accurate, impartial, and balanced regional, national, and international news and current affairs…
We have lost our HB/Gisborne regional voice here since 2013 and are still waiting for our
(i) provide comprehensive, independent, accurate, impartial, and balanced regional, national, and international news and current affairs…
We in HB/Gisborne had apparently had Steven Joyce take away our regional reporter from RNZ two years ago!!!!!
We enquired with the RNZ CEO on 9th September 2017 under OIA why we lost our reporter and we still dont have one yet, and here is what we got back on 13/10/17.
NOTE; To date as of yesterday 14/12/17 we still have no RNZ reporter to cover HB/Gisborne, so the new Broadcasting Minister Claire Curran has now recieved a letter of complaint from us to provide us with a reporter ASAP.
Attached is a letter we received 20/10/17 after sending Radio NZ 9/9/17 in a OIA request as to why we in HB no longer have a Radio NZ reporter since 2016.
The date of our request was sent quite a time before the election 9/9/17 and came to us just days before the election.
Since then we have sent several letters to the new Broadcasting Minister Claire Curran for assistance to get another local reporter and to date no new reporter has been hired.
Yesterday we called Radio NZ to enquire when we are to get a reporter and the person I was sent through to was a lady named “ Paloma” who said still “no reporter has been found yet”!!!!!!! This is now late december 15/12/17.
Quote George Bignell – 13/10/27
“The Hawkes Bay regional reporting position is currently vacant and Radio New Zealand will look to fill that position in the near future.
We trust this of assistance to you.” End.
See the letter below from this person inside the old style RNZ while then under National Government control.
SEE BELOW our Letter sent to Radio NZ PA 8/9/17.
So from the 20th October 2017 till now 14th December 2017, (over eight weeks later) no replacement report as been found yet??????
URGENT
Official Information request
RADIO NZ.
CEO PAUL THOMPSON
9th September 2017.
Official Information request
HB Advocacy centre made this Official Information request to PAUL THOMPSON – RADIO NZ CEO For information 9th September 2017 for quick response please.
9th September 2017.
Dear Paul.
We are a senior NGO working within the Government & local regional authorities on issues that have been presented to our Environmental Centre for 16 yrs to date.
We have had a close communication relationship in the past particularly during the years 2009 to 2013 with your Radio NZ reporters but we now have virtually no response from your regional news, transport, environment, and rural reporters since then and I have been requested to enquire how the regional reporting structure of the Radio NZ broadcasting services now are different to the way the operations serviced the regions formerly.
We would want you to supply any detailed changes that may have affected our loss of regional reporting services how affected our ability to have press coverage of our community issues regarding the above subjects of Transport and transport relationships to community health and wellbeing please, and we ask that under the Official Information Act please from this date 9/9/17 please arrange information to be provided as soon as able please. If you
If you wish to refer this issue of ‘several communication’ also to the Minister handling the ‘Broadcasting portfolio’ who is Hon’ Maggie Barry please feel free to converse with the minister as you prepare our information request. The Minister had increased funding to Radio NZ recently we are told.
We have supplied you with a copy of yesterday’s letter that we sent from our Centre to your office & is attached (below) for your reference.
Regards.
——————————————————————————————————
letter from RNZ
October 13, 2017
Dear —–
I write in response to your request “how the regional reporting structure of the Radio NZ broadcasting services now are different to the way the operations serviced the regions formerly.”
I can advise that RNZ does not hold any specific information in this regard that we can supply to you. To answer your question, apart from the relocation of one reporting position from our Queenstown office to our Dunedin office, there has been no recent changes to our regional reporting structure.
The Hawkes Bay regional reporting position is currently vacant and Radio New Zealand will look to fill that position in the near future.
We trust this of assistance to you.
Yours sincerely
George Bignell
OIA Inquiries Coordinator
Yup, Mr Magoo is simply expressing his own fear of (progressive) women in power.
Like many on the right he wants to remove “public” platforms for those who support a more progressive New Zealand, while strangely silent on the role of the “unchallenging to the conservative regime” Hosking at TVNZ.
One almost suspects the idea of Barry and Campbell on Seven Sharp was floated to wind him up.
Du Fresne must hate listening to Hosking then. You know with TVNZ being public… I guess it is why the TVNZ Charter had to go… so Hosking could have
” contemptuous disregard for RNZ’s charter obligation to be impartial and balanced “
Thank goodness.
Grant Robertson has had some sense pushed into him regarding the National Super recipients having to apply for the grant for “winter heating”.
It will apparently be paid out automatically and there will be no need for people to go into WINZ and apply for it. Complaints about the stupidity of his demand seem to have finally got through to him.
Some common sense has been shown. Amazing.
Must be listening to you Alwyn!!!
dv well said. 100%
We worry about anyone listening to Alwyn thinks they are getting the acurate true facts as he is a ‘cherry picker’, and an apologist for the trucking industry, and hence supports dirty environmental policies.
http://www.noted.co.nz/money/the-great-rail-revival-why-its-time-to-get-rail-back-on-track/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=LISTENER_newsletter_14-12-2017&utm_term=list_nzlistener_newsletter
plus he is confused about his love/hate relationship with trains – not so much a trainspotter, more a trainsnotter.
Having read the items you link to, and looking at his occupation, I can hear the immortal words of Mandy Rice-Davies.
Anyone who has been the union leader for Rail Workers will of course qualify for her comment about Lord Astor.
“Well he would say that wouldn’t he?”
I still think they only have very limited reason for existing in New Zealand.
Is it really worth spending half a billion dollars on getting the Auckland/Northland line to a minimum standard and putting a spur line into Marsden Point for a maximum of a short train each day?
Improving the roads makes much more sense.
The statistics quoted in the Listener article are also misleading.
A statement such as “Whereas the rail network carries 16% of freight (by tonne-kilometres), it generates only 0.2% of national emissions” is simply a ridiculous comparison. It is intended to pretend that our overall emissions would be greatly reduced if we used trains more.
I could make an equally misleading, and equally silly statement such as.
“Less than 0.01% of passengers from Wellington to Auckland travel by rail and yet the rail network generates 0.2% of our national emissions”.
There, that implies that trains are terribly inefficient doesn’t it
I have no idea what the actual number is but this could be about the correct one. There are tourist trains a couple of times a week for at least part of the year so I suppose they might carry a single Airbus 320 load of passengers each week for the whole distance.
Half a billion for trains, several billion for roads.
Yeah, much more sense to do the trains.
That’s not a pretence. If we used trains more our emissions would fall quite drastically. Would use far less resources as well and thus be a hell of a lot cheaper.
And that’s the only thing you said that actually truthful. Finally admitting that you have no idea what you’re talking about.
You did note that the half billion for trains is ONLY for the line from Auckland to Marsden Point.
God knows how may billion the puff-puff lovers want in total.
National put around $3 billion I think into rail between 2009 and 2017 and committed about a further $1.5 billion into the Auckland link.
“And that’s the only thing you said that actually truthful”.
Don’t be so bloody stupid. You are just unhappy that I can demonstrate that many of the comments made about the wonders of rail are ridiculous and founded only in fantasy.
What exactly have I said that is false. Facts please, not just an eruption of bile.
And the road is billions of dollars for the same stretch. We know this from National’s RoNs:
And it won’t have anywhere near the economies of rail.
You’ve never done that. You’ve done a lot of talking out your arse about it though.
You missed the context and thus produced a lie:
And you even followed it up by saying that you were talking out your arse.
I’ll add this to the context as well:
my bold
Trucking companies and even cars get massive cross subsidisation that rail doesn’t get and so it looks a lot better on the accounts. When that cross subsidisation is properly accounted for rail looks a hell of a lot better.
It’s better than amazing Alwyn.
Its a huge social shift for good in New Zealand.
“Its a huge social shift for good in New Zealand”
Do you mean that he has apparently had second thoughts about making everyone apply or do you mean the money itself?
If the first I would agree. This must be the first time in decades that a Labour Government has altered something they have announced, and in effect admitted they got it wrong.
On the other hand the amount of money is precisely $10/year more than National were going to provide to couples with the tax cuts that were going to happen on April 1 and which Labour and its hangers-on are cancelling. Would you call that $10/year a “huge social shift”?
I would call lifting about 1 million New Zealanders up with straight cash a “huge social shift”.
You can use your $450 to keep doing jobs around the house.
National just got outflanked and have no answer.
I wonder why the people who dont need it as Seymour says dont just give it back or contact authorities to be excluded?
Good program this morning breakfast people many thanks to you.
You Lady’s are very good netures but you are so busy looking after everyone else you forget to take care of yourself my wife did this my sister my daughters well I ring them up and insist they go to the doctor when they tell me about there ailments . I tell there health is the most important as they have the care of there family in there hands an no one will care for the children like they do.
The wait time to get into a doctor in South Waikato is ridiculous especially for a wealth country. O that’s right we have Shonky bullshiet dilldow to thank for this slide back wards in all OUR State services the likes of these people will not be allowed back in OUR government how can they lift there heads with all the bad shit they have done to OUR country this is what you get when you have people who worship money over humanity and mother earth. Many thanks to Mark Zuckerberg founder of Facebook for seeing the big picture that’s is that all the people of OUR WORLD SOCIETY HAVE A Obligation to help all the vanurable people in our world. I hope all the Big Tech companies in our world will pay Taxes in the country’s that they draw there revenue from as this is the humane thing to do Ka pai
Good advice. We need to remibd the women in our lives that they can only be for others what they want to be if they stay fit and healthy and happy.
Hosking was first to blink in the battle of the relentlessly positive. He found now that JA is the boss he couldn’t keep up his smug schtick any longer. So like all quitters, he quit.
Doesn’t Shaw release the climate and sea level thing today – on a day when it’s almost guaranteed to be eclipsed by this general nodding approval of a budget?
Rosemary, Karl Du Frense is another poor loser, bitter that the left have platforms of power and are using them.
I did not see him asking for fairness every time Joyce or Boag got up to complain about the left.
He is full of it, and Kim Hill does her job, and does not tolerate self aggrandizing idiots like Brash.
Du Frense says “What made him do that?” “Ego” he suggests. Got it in one, Brash doesn’t think he has any problems, and when called out on them blames others.
We are going to get a stream of complaints about Left influence. I might pay attention, had they been more even handed in the past.
Sorry, accidentally posted twice!
Many thanks to the Rock morning rumble team see hear you in the new year. PS found a present from my neo liberal neighbour a dead bird on my truck this is the mind set of these cares of OUR society Ana to kai
When instrumentation designed to “trip out” in the case of a malfunction, “trips out” because the extent of warming it’s measuring is read as a malfunction… 🙁
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/arctic-global-warming-rapid-computer-rejected-alaska-a8110941.html
That’s really bad programming. It should still have recorded it but marked it as possibly erroneous.
Ding dong Hoskings gone
Yep – circling the wagons, retreating to the fortress of private radio to commiserate with like-minded souls and snipe from a position of safety.
Oh yes make it so; – sack Mike Hoskings.
As he sits already on the ‘can’t do’ grump mantle with Alwyn, James, and the National clingons.
And we hopefully all will gravitate to the “fortress of private radio to commiserate with like-minded souls and snipe from a position of safety.”
What have I ever done to upset you so much?
Apart from pointing out the flaws when you publish silly ideas I really don’t take any notice of you.
Just relax, read what I say and , as the Bible says in John 8:32
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set free you.”
Oh God…….Alwyn lecturing us from his Alabama Bible.
“Alabama Bible”?
What is the connection?
Yep alwyn know everything about nothing thus the worm turns.
Well, Given that neither you nor “North” can tell me any connection I can only assume that you have screwed the pooch and got your story messed up.
The only “Alabama Bible” I have ever heard of is the Alabama State Bible in Montgomery Alabama. It was the one used to swear in Jefferson Davis as President.
However the verse I quoted isn’t in that bible.
It has, instead
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”.
Well I guess you didn’t get it right and you are too embarrassed to admit it.
About par for the course for you.
You are wrong as usual – silly wee twerp.
Hebrews 13:8 King James version
Really?
You’re sure now?
seems an appropriate comment. Seeing your comments is like eating boiled rice for dinner for three months straight, but without the sustenance value. Hence the comment “Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and forever”.
Yet another neolib Labour govt doing nothing for the poor. Shame on them.
Visualise a hat. 195 pieces of paper within, each one bearing the name of a country around the globe. We get to close our eyes and reach in, the country we get, that’s where we’re moving to.
I’d turn down the opportunity to play. For me it would be like playing Russian Roulette with an automatic weapon and about 4 bullets missing from it’s 195 bullet magazine. For me, this new policy just put another bullet in the mag.
Regardless of the circumstances, whether flush or on the bones of my arse, I’ve always found that the most influential person when it comes to influencing outcomes in my life has been me. I don’t see that changing anytime soon. I fear I would die waiting for any government to take me by the hand and lead me to a life of contentment.
” For me, this new policy just put another bullet in the mag.”
I presume that related to the crux of your post but refers to nothing.
My crystal ball is on the fritz. What are you talking about?
I’m talking about the people that are not happy about life in NZ but given an opportunity to change would still walk past 194 countries to live here.
Especially now we have a decent government. NZ was sliding down too many rankings for a while there.
Yes, we’re not going to get things sorted out in 100 days. It will be a generation before we are an international poster child of The Fair Go. Favourable trend-lines and moving up credible world rankings are the things to look for, housing, health, education, incomes. The mechanical bits that get more of us pushing on towards our personal variations of lives well led.
Really a generation? The nats managed to fuck it up quite a bit in only nine years.
But really, tell us more about how you are the master of your own destiny, when apparently you’re lucky enough to live in the best country in the world.
9 years, Left/Right, Holden/Ford, South Island/North Island
In our hearts we’re all chasing the same things, we all have similar core values. We want to be noticed and appreciated. We want to give love and be loved. We all aspire to being crucial cogs in loving families, neighbourhoods, towns, nation.
Ford, Holden, National, Labour, I think they have little to do with addressing our core aspirations.
I think what we should be asking from our government is a fairly marked out playing field. A ‘stickler for the rules’ referee and a comfy place to sit for those that can’t play.
If they were irrelevant, a change in government wouldn’t coincidentally be followed by a change in educational attainment, a change in homelessness, a change in poverty levels, etc etc etc. I guess in the early 1990s hundreds of thousands of people just decided to be poor for a while.
Oh we’re certainly positioned to create a NZ that treats more of us better.
A government that places people and the planet near the top of most agendum are much better placed to create a NZ that suits more of us.
The best we can hope for from them is that they are a brilliant band, for it to be an ace party 4.5 million of us need to dance.
I have a choice, I can say ‘McFlock you’re fulla shite.” Or I could tell the truth “McFlock I think you make a valuable contribution to this blog and it would be a less interesting place if you chose to stop.”
Making NZ a better place is down to you and me.
QFT
Your comments here today make (a lot of) sense (to me) as long as we realise that no man is an island and that we cannot make the necessary change all by ourselves but that we need to work together and help one and another: “united we stand, divided we fall”.
Which is all well and good, but still doesn’t acknowledge the massive role that sheer luck has played in your (and my) life.
The country we are in, the government of the day, the chaotic results of decisions of billions of people creating or eliminating opportunities… the privileges we have oblige us to try to make life better for those less fortunate, not just look to ourselves and assume that we played the bulk of the role that led us to our position.
‘Sheer luck’
You, nor any of us know how that plays out…
That’s what you chosen to attribute life as being based from it seems..
It’s possible that ‘luck’ is the all it is..
But luck is a human label..they all are..
Therefore the human ascribed ‘Luck’ has nothing to do with anything outside of events in this life…if that
“Labels” require denotation for to have meaning.
The origin of the label is not the origin of the thing being denoted.
Therefore your comment is confused and delusional.
But that was already highly likely, because it was prefaced by the label “One Two”.
‘Sheer luck’
‘Require detonation to have meaning’
‘Confused and delusional’
Have you considered other possibilities, or did you stop at, ‘sheer luck’?
We’ve run out of reply clickables
Hi incognito, you’re good at making me think ‘Hmmm I hadn’t thought of that.’ I like you. Because your ‘hmmm I hadn’t thought of that’ is as often highlighting a positive as it is a negative.
You and me bro. We’ve got this.
McFlock, this sheer luck thing of yours, I can’t swallow it.
If I shoot the breeze in here for a week, my income slips away. If I apply myself, make a few calls, hustle, my income bumps up. This is the case over and over. Ain’t luck mate, it’s me getting stuck in or cruising.
Really?
You never had a happy coincidence in your life, where someone turns out to be willing and able to help you? Never had a seemingly insignificant choice of two roads “much the same” turn out to be life changing? Never met the love of your life by chance? Never had an inspiring teacher who retired shortly after your final year in school? Never had a completely unexpected opportunity fall in your lap? Never look back on your teenage love and breathe a sigh of relief that you never had a baby with them, despite foolish teenage choices? Shame.
On the flipside, most of my life has been good luck. I don’t hustle. I’m just really lucky. Papers I took randomly at university turned out to be the foundation of my second career a decade later. Whenever my life becomes inconvenienced by need for something, someone always seems to have a suitable substitute in the interim (I’m currently commenting on a surplus-to-requirements linux box with DDR2 ram, until I get funds for a gaming machine). I work 30 hours a week, and that provides me enough for a reasonable existence. I’m lucky my colleagues put up with me. I’m lucky I’m an amiable drunk. I’m lucky I recognised early that I’m prone to addiction, so avoided anything too bad in the way of drugs. I’m lucky I took so long to get my drivers license, otherwise winz would have put me into shiftwork I’d be stuck in to this day – too tired to do job interviews and all my daywalker skills evaporated. Seen it happen to others.
Sure, I could pretend I navigated the course to this life of comfort, but mostly I just went with the flow.
Whereas most people work or hustle most of their lives. Especially those on lower wages, because they don’t get the option not to. The cleaner at my workplace hustles every night, and probably works longer hours than I do for less. He deserves my luck, but he has bad luck.Never complains, but shit happens.
So you go out and hustle. Ain’t you lucky that your hustle is so much more rewarding than mike the cleaner’s.
See how you go being raped when you are a child, or starved, or your CV discarded cos of your surname… yes you are influential in your life but to have lived without the invisible barriers of systems designed for one section of society makes you privileged indeed.
The opportunity for me to get over being raped as a child and lead a quality life in spite of my harrowing experience would ultimately be down to me. Starved as a child? I think the best thing I could do would be to get myself into a position to help see that other children aren’t starving, that’s down to me. If my CV was not getting past the initial screening. Changing that is down to me. Yesterday I was Davinda, today I am David.
I hear you Tracey but regardless of the privilege some may soak up, the best way to clear the hurdles is not to rely on Susan Devoy’s intervention, it’s down to me.
If I was Davinda and the job application required a photo I’d lie. I’d look at the ‘Our Team’ on their websites. I’d steal an online photo of what I thought the company’s perfect applicant would look like and send that in with my CV.
Then I’d spend some time rehearsing what I would say at the beginning of my interview and ways of handling a variety of outcomes.
Something like: “I’m sorry to start my interview with a fib, plainly, I am not the person in my CV photo. My flatmate has convinced me that beautiful people get more interviews. He thinks they go on to enjoy privileged lives. I’m keen to prove him wrong. I’ve looked at your websites, this company does not hire people based on the colour of their skin, their age or cut of their jawline. Maybe my bogus photo helped get me here infront of you, now I’d like the chance to prove to you why I am the man for this job.”
Even with little onboard, the privilege BS can be spun in one’s favour.
We regret to inform you ….
we’re racist?
I attended an author lecture for high-school aged students during the Writers Festival, and an Australian white fifty-something author, was speaking about challenging systems, and how they should – as engaged citizens – do the same.
As an example, similar to your story above, he related a personal choice of his to challenge the authority of the police who stopped him while he was speeding. He related how he believed the positioning of the police officer outside his driver’s window would tip the balance of body language in favour of the officer – so, he decided to immediately exit the car, and make a phone call so that when the officer approached the car, he would already be out and engaged in another activity. He then stopped the call, and approached the officer introducing himself.
The sheer disconnect of this author struck me. How unaware he was that his age, his race, his social status all contributed to how this was received by the officer.
Your comments today – to me – have the same cognitive dissonance.
The same actions, performed by different actors will have different consequences, and all the “clever” and can-do attitudes you espouse, will not address that fundamental truth.
You are not only missing a trick, you have missed the whole damn circus.
Nah Molly, we agree, that dude is a wanker.
As much as we like to say ‘No we aren’t.’ We are guided by our emotions.
I see little value in trying to appear taller than the officer accusing me of speeding. I’d go for his heart.
“Yep, guilty as charged, but more important than that, I’ve forgotten my wife’s birthday and I’m on the way to get something. By all means give me a ticket but please accompany it with gift suggestions, what did your get your other half last birthday?”
““Yep, guilty as charged, but more important than that, I’ve forgotten my wife’s birthday and I’m on the way to get something. By all means give me a ticket but please accompany it with gift suggestions, what did your get your other half last birthday?””
Kissed the Blarney stone myself, and still wouldn’t come up with this kind of blather. What’s wrong with just accepting the ticket?
Once again, you miss the point. You are someone who can actually imagine doing this, and giving it a go. This makes you tone-deaf when it comes to listening to others about privilege and how it manifests.
I am glad life worked out for you but there is more than one version of tge world. Next you will tell me all people with a nice house and big income worked really hard to get it.
I’m sorry you see me as someone so shallow. The life I lead flies in the face of your assumption.
While vastly superior to the alternative (National led), yesterdays mini budget disappoints with its lack of forward thinking and begs the question have the Greens been sacrificed by having a horizon no further ahead than 2020?
Chris Trotter….
“There will be some who take umbrage at my uncompromising pessimism. To them I say: “It is only because I have been here before.” I remember another inspirational Labour leader who put an end to nine long years of National Party rule by promising to take New Zealand “up where we belong”, and who then allowed his Finance Minister to wreak havoc on the expectations and aspirations of his party’s electoral base.”
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2017/12/grant-robertsons-mini-budget-presents.html
Chris Trotter unimpressed – shock, horror! Since when has this guy been anything but a grinch when commenting on anything related to Labour?
He has a very good point however…..by reaffirming the budget responsibility intent what tools will be provided to James Shaw to address ‘this generations nuclear free moment’??…..any transition is going to require massive investment and its not as if it can wait until a second or third term…..though there is a hint of a workable sleight of hand within Bernard Hickeys article..
“Grant Robertson has ‘squared the circle’ of fitting the coalition Government’s big new spending plans into its self-imposed surplus and debt restrictions, but it means he will have to embrace “innovative financing mechanisms” such as Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and off balance sheet bond issuance to fix the infrastructure deficits the Government has found.”
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/12/14/68554/analysis-debt-anchor-dragging-labour-into-ppps
However sleight of hand gives the opposition ammunition and isnt likely to instil the sense of common purpose required…disappointing.
Can you imagine how much MORE criticism and attack Labour and the Greens would have been under, leading up to the election, if they hadn’t signed up to the Budget responsibility pledge? Joyce and all his media flunkies would have had a field day, and the various economists who spoke up against the fictional $11.8 billion hole would have been entirely on their side. There’s no way in the world they would have been elected – they were already under attack on the issue of financial management and it would have buried them.
Once elected, a u-turn on this would be an absolute betrayal and a nail in the coffin of the new government. Governments are accountable to the people who elect them and the people are entitled to know their true intentions.
As for PPPs, I was really glad to know that one of the first announcements of the new Health Minister was that the rebuild of Dunedin Hospital is going ahead without one. I’m glad to see the list of areas that are now out of bounds. Better than we would have had under the Nats!
“Better than we would have had under the Nats!”
Couldnt agree more and your point re the attack pre election is noted though I suspect much the same outcome could have been achieved if the need for extending borrowing for infrastructure and transition had been promoted.
As for a u turn…..meh, could the Nats and MSM be much more disruptive than they have been to date?….there has been ample uncovered to justify a move away from the 20% target, and IF off balance sheet bonds are used the same attacks will come in any case
I just hope the plan IS to raise additional capital(off balance sheet if they must)..and not continue an austerity till collapse programme.
Very good comment there Red.
Labour said it was Arderns generations nuclear free moment so Robertson has hamstrung his own Party’s intention to address that?
Poverty was a Green priority from pre election campaign, through the campaign and beyond. As a Party which garnered 6% of the vote they will be pleased to see the Families Package and rewinding of sanctions on not naming fathers going through so soon.
I do not know why some are so disappointed in the Greens because they do not believe in wagging the dog and some core policy ( albeit not as far as they campaigbed)
Well, quite frankly, fuckit.
Coroner beats head against brick wall trying to save another child from the fate suffered by Nia and Moko.
Calls for, again mind, tracking of children so obvious red flags can be seen and action taken to save a child.
New Children’s Minister, (in a fit of what? sensitivity for her righter winged constituents?) says….
” “I don’t think [compulsory monitoring is] something that most New Zealanders would be comfortable with”.
“My initial conversations with colleagues reflect a similar view. While every child’s death is a tragedy and there are far too many, thankfully they are still rare. Most families are loving families,” she said.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11959003
Now come on…if compulsory monitoring of all children, (and it doesn’t have to be Gestapo like) will save a single child from death by someone in loco parentis and save many more from abuse and petty fucking neglect then I say bring it on.
Sensitivities be damned.
If ALL children are expected to be seen by Plunket, doctors etc and questions asked and support offered if this is not happening, it will become apparent quite early those children who seriously need this level of monitoring.
Must do better Tracey…you’re no longer on the campaign trail, you’re in…make the most of the opportunity to get this finally right.
Rosemary I agree with you that this Government should get this right and I agree with the Children’s Commissioner that this register idea is a step too far.
A children”s register is an authoritarian move and the potential for abuse of such a register is unlimited. Nearly all children are seen now – the problem is the under funding and excessive workload of the appropriate agencies once children are referred.
While recognising that we have a serious child abuse problem in this country a band aid with fascist overtones is not the solution.
Realistically there is no single magic bullet solution but I suspect that the families package announced yesterday will help and hope that other ideas and initiatives will come to the fore over the next wee while.
“the problem is the under funding and excessive workload of the appropriate agencies once children are referred. ”
Agree 100%. Address this and so much will fall into place.
Hang on a minute…did you read the article I linked to?
Moko didn’t die because there was no funding and there was an excessive workload…he died because those who were being funded to support…and I struggle to use the ‘families’ in this case…households such as this failed to take the appropriate steps to save his life.
Why? God knows…the warning signs were all there and the agencies knew and for some reason…and I suspect some misplaced sensitivities…no one put their foot down demanded to see all the children in the household and check on their welfare.
Or did you read the other article linked to in that article?
Agencies involved with Moko…
Child Youth and Family, the Auckland DHB, the Maori Women’s Welfare Refuge, the Waipahihi Kindergarten, Family Works, as well as the Rural Education Activities Programme.
But not one of them actually did their job and ensured the safety of all the children in that household.
Why? Poor training? Lack of authority? Absence of some mechanism to facilitate direct investigation and immediate intervention is there is a suspicion that a child is at risk.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11915525
“Fascist overtones”…wtf?
Such a pity that some would rather have a dead child than an authority figure step in…
Yes I read it. I also know a large number of social workers. All have great hearts, huge workloads, poor resources…
Did you miss comment 14.2?
If a child has come under the Lens of a government agency I would like to think we put resource into the education of the parent/carer while constantly ensuring the child is safe. It sounds like the Minister is appeasing someone/someones? Why?
“If ALL children are expected to be seen by Plunket, doctors etc”…
No
Good old counter propaganda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlpCwgXivBk&ab_channel=TeleSUREnglish
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/12/where-not-to-swim-this-summer-beaches-and-swimming-spots-too-dirty-to-swim-in.html
The article lists above 32 spots plus many more at a cautionary level.
Most I don’t know but the list includes places where I have swum as man and boy- Coes Ford on the Selwyn River, Lake Hayes and Lake Tekapo.
What a headline for a clean, green New Zealand.
No wonder a British paper described NZ as likened to a beautiful woman with cancer.
Yes we are entering a serious stage of being labeled as a dirty country now sadly, after nine years of National mishandling of our environment and national must now be blamed globally for their foolish deception of using “profit first without preservation.”
I’m glad you spotted the lack of reference as to who is to blame. You are right, of course. Nine long years……. etc.
After less than two months in office, such issues lie with other than the present government.
I am angry that such a legacy, having been handed on from the days of my youth and young manhood, is now so besmirched.
I do place great faith and hope in this Green-Labour- NZF government. So much important work to be done.
Harvey Weinstein told him not to hire two young women, so he obeyed:
The spineless “Sir” Peter Jackson slithers back into our consciousness.
You may have thought the nadir of “Sir” Peter Jackson’s career came on Q+A in 2010 when he sat, cringing and obviously uncomfortable, occasionally forcing himself to parrot the brutal anti-union rhetoric of his Warner Brothers paymasters, and then squirming uncomfortably, in a fretful silence, as Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh did all the talking.
Now it transpires he was not just a slave to Warner Brothers’ lawyers, but also to Harvey Weinstein….
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/99885932/sir-peter-jackson-breaks-silence-on-harvey-weinstein
Possibly a case of outing yourself before somebody else does.
Awe, don’t be mean Morrissey – your just jealous. Think of all the good he’s done!
A true philanthropist. A humble man who has pulled himself up by the bootstraps and put NuZull on the global stage.
I mean……Bats Theatre – think of all those poor starving actors and actorines he’s given opportunity to. The increase in property values on the Miramar Penninsular.
The lookalike Hollywood sign – truly inspirational and fostering aspiration amongst our up and coming yoof. His contribution to arts’n’kulcha makes him a true hero – the likes of which we have not seen since Sir Edmund, or Sir John, or Dame Kurry Prendisgust and sidekick Rex, and to all those hardworking people he’s given so much sprayshun to. Why the haughty soon2b Sir Krus Seatoun Heights might have to issue you with an admonishment tackling you over your obvious bitterness. (It really isn’t a good look doncha know)
And then think of all those industries he’s helped while building his reputation! The IT sector.
You do know don’t you, that Sir Peter is actually really, really down with the people and peons, and has an undying love of all the minions that have contributed to building his empire. I know people who’d be prepared to lick the pavement clean before he puts a step on it!
What’s wrong with you man!!! I suspect it’s just envy and your inability (and desire) to reach the heights of beloved SPete . How dare you judge that icon who symbolises everything that’s put NuZull on the Whurl stage (going forward).
I’m forever indebted to the humble SPete to be be able to live in the same space (Wellington and its environs).
(/sarc)
Sorry, Sir Peter, that irrefutable rundown of your inestimable goodness and humanity means that I shall now—to quote the great Tauranga M.P. Robert “Bob” Clarkson—withdraw and apologize….
http://cdn-webimages.wimages.net/0519f1e4f65e2f717231c0244a3f45de7c3e6c.jpg?v=3
You mean Bob Clarkson former MP…….the wacko, dribbling, multi-millionaire exemplar of inhumanity whose reaction in our parliament to the death of Mrs Folole Muliaga was to screechingly and repeatedly interject – “She didn’t pay her bill !” as though that was a sufficient moral explanation. Emailed him to express my disgust…….some staffer emailed back “sorry sorry”. BS. Not sorry at all. Just covering his own vileness.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/640942/Cutting-power-a-factor-in-Muliaga-death
Yes, North, the very same Bob Clarkson. That’s very interesting, to hear that he actually said something in the House. As far as I was aware, all he ever did was try to hit on young females, Trump style. Or any females, come to think of it.
In fact, I’m working on a little script involving the old goat right now. Keep your eyes peeled in the next few days, my friend….
http://walltoshare.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/1422028753417_wm.jpg
Thanks Morrissey.
As soon as I can find my crystals, I’ll pop down to Courtenay Place and kneel under that wonderful 4 legged edifice, face the Embassy Theatre, and beg your forgiveness for any offence your selfishness and envy may have caused.
We should always remember our place.
“sprayshun”
‘Larious
Morrissey
I hope you have managed to buy a house. It will probably be the biggest and most complex financial transaction you ever make. If you built it also, that is complex, but not a spot on swinging a huge financial deal and technical marvel that Sir Peter Jackson did. It is funny to hear so many criticise Sir Peter unmercifully. You are good at criticising from your keyboard and your small projects. You have no idea of the weight of mega bucks and executive decisions required to make these films in New Zealand. He may not have behaved as fairly as he should, but he shouldn’t be demonised either.
aGREED. But I’ve yet to see him atone.
A bit of a pathetic effort today in relation to Harvey W. But then we’re all so bloody perfect eh?
And that weight of megabucks must be something truly horrible to have to endure.
Jackson made some really good movies—long ago. But, as we saw when he presented as a shambling embarrassment in that Q+A debacle, he sold his conscience to Hollywood, and he is well aware of it. Save your admiration for someone who deserves it.
Morrissey has no problems acquiring property.
Harvey Weinstein told him not to hire two young women, so he obeyed:
Gosh, what a surprise – the story you refer to bears no relation to your description of it.
That’s what happened, though, is it not? He caved to Harvey Weinstein like he caved to Warner Brothers and Stephen Joyce.
Roy Moore continues to deliver gloriously nutso moments. FFS, even the White adult daycare House thinks he should have conceded by now. But no, Moore delivers a delightfully bonkers “battle rages on” statement.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/14/16777786/white-house-roy-moore-alabama-concede
Of course, Alex Jones has to take it to a whole ‘nother level.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/alex-jones-roy-moore-conspiracy-theory_us_5a32a17ee4b00dbbcb5b97ec?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Then if you take one of the conspiracy theories and work out the logistics of actually making it happen …
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/alabama-election-conspiracy-theory_us_5a321692e4b01bdd7659f2ce
Yep Andre. I watched the Moore video where he will fight on. I expect that a deeply religious man like him will have god on his side and therefore the votes will do a magnificent Russian flip giving Moore a 90% majority. Let us pray.
From the ‘thank god its Friday and we all deserve a laugh’ file…
Who will speak up for them now Mike is gone????
(Hankies optional)
“Mike Hosking fought for the luxury European car owner. He fought for the dispossessed of Orakei and St Heliers. He provided a voice for the wearers of distressed denim and funky blazers. Without him, Mark Richardson stands alone and lonely atop his mountain, a sole sane speaker of truth amid a sea of bloody pinko lefties.
Labour gets in here, and completely coincidentally, Hosking and Leighton are gone. You didn’t need Ken Ring around to predict a painful two years ahead for Mike.
Lots of time to be wasted, fiddling with your pen and providing sad-faced links to stories about Labour policies on doing nice things for the homeless and beneficiaries and children would have been tough when he could have been vacuuming his car or doing at-home spreads for Woman’s Day.”
More here….
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/99891844/mike-hosking-gone-time-for-european-car-drivers-to-unite
Once he takes all his Dysons home with him, what will happen to the state of the housekeeping at TVNZ?
He’ll still be on the radio, right? I mean, if he’s not around at all we’d lose Like Mike too and that really would be a loss.
I watched the programme with Mike and Miss Personality tonight from start to finish for the first time ever. What a cringeworthy load of kaka with the exception of the guys offering a serenade.
AS Mike fought back tears, I half expected John Hawkesby to come on set and tell us how thankful he was to have Mike as his sonny-bro.
What a complete load of self-indulgent crap.
Who is Miss Personality btw?
Never mind…. I just googled her. All over tomorrow’s fish and chip wrappers
Farrar has stooped to an all time low by posting an ‘anonymous letter from a reader’ casting even further aspersions on Golriz Ghahraman’s career.
What?
Were his rating falling and he had to come up with a scheme to incite the pack of racist misogynists who dwell there into a fervour of comment and click?
A truly pathetic effort there Farrar, and you call yourself an “Editor”.
Wow. Just wow.
Tories get cranky when they miss their lunch. Long may an opposition of this calibre last lol.
I did laugh. Those who bemoan lack of work ethic in others couldnt wait for lunch. Shoulda taken sammies in with them given they knew they were going to delay the hell out of proceedings.
ISTR a similar story about lunches from a mines dispute decades ago. The argument that went to court was whether the miners’ half hour lunch break should start when they left the face or when they left the pit mouth. There was much discussion about how long the workers deserved, then the judge called a break in proceedings for lunch: two hours.
It would be funny if it werent true
Tories’ attitudes to other people’s lunchtimes got even worse than that: Blackball miners sacked for refusing to accept 15-minute lunch break in 10-hour work day. Easy to picture Jami-Lee Ross or Rimmer doing the sackings then settling down to a nice long lunch break with food delivered by servants.
If you think Freudian slip, what made Laura Walters fingers say this:
National’s protestations were likely more an effort to delay the passing of the Government’s Families Package Bill, than a bout of hanger.
To me I think of those undisciplined school boys in the Gnat Party needing a ‘hanging’ judge.
Maybe they should be hung up on the tiled walls of the men’s room to cool down.
Perhaps hung from a nice pillory or, if budget constraints limit, a set of stocks outside where the public could show their feelings for them.
Yes poor Jami lee Ross the wee petal. It looks like the low wage, union busting, zero hour, employment contracts act National party doesn’t walk the talk on work ethic.
Always nice for the public to see what real hypocrites look like.
I refrained from attacking the ferrari man to much after all he is human and he toned it down a bit but one could read that he wanted to trash our Coalition Government. Did you see what happened on breakfast this morning that was when Jack mentioned someone’s career that was ________ funny I got a sore face.
I had a good day yesterday oil changed the truck got the vacuum cleaner fixed just about fix it myself the things to old to see how to open it up on youtube so I took it to Turnbuckle Electrical on Amohia st Vags they gave me excellent service Ka pai.
I’m battling one of our computers it the main one with all my business files and files on you no who I think they gave it a hand to crash Iv had help from my coder uncle I took the hard drive out put it in a external drive case I’m just scanning it at the moment because we are minimalistic I will fix the old laptop if I can load all the data on another hard drive and load Windows 10 back then reload all the data if not new computer they are cheap now. When my children were young I spent $10.000 on computers for them to play games on most of the educational games did not run my wife typed up a few letters for a friend whom had a bone to pick with a district council. But the investment payed off because we all have at least basic computer skills Thanks to my uncle influence Ka pai
When I took my computer into the computer shop and met PREBLE and Gissymo they want to keep my computer YEA RIGHT eco didn’t drop out the sky yesterday they could have said it was _____ so today it’s going again all good Ana to kai
The mokos have arrived so much for getting the paper work dune my little blue eyes is here to they keep a smile on my face Kia kaha
Have a good weekend with the whānau em 🙂