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Open mike 15/12/2019

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, December 15th, 2019 - 69 comments
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69 comments on “Open mike 15/12/2019”

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    • Anne 1.1
      15 December 2019 at 10:16 am

      And immediately below is a load of misleading trash (courtesy of James) from a Tory leaning lackey which serves to uphold the findings of the fake advertising claims.

    • mikesh 2.1
      15 December 2019 at 8:57 am

      The lying bastards who put it about that Corbyn was anti-semitic may have had some influence on the result, but I still think the major reason for Labour's loss was the fact that Corbyn was insufficiently pro brexit. Unfortunately for him, I think, too many of his caucus were pro EU while too many from Labour's natural support base were pro brexit.

      • James 2.1.1
        15 December 2019 at 9:00 am

        indeed it was clear from all his comments and actions that he was a huge supporter of the Jewish community /sarc

        • Stuart Munro. 2.1.1.1
          15 December 2019 at 9:04 am

          He certainly treated their allegations infinitely more fairly than they deserved.

          • James 2.1.1.1.1
            15 December 2019 at 9:15 am

            And didn’t he do a good job at that. A glorious crushing defeat with even some of his own MP’s calling him an anti-Semite (but hey they know the guy – you read papers and blogs so would know better)

            • James 2.1.1.1.1.1
              15 December 2019 at 9:23 am

              Mikesh – are the lying bastards you mentioning current and former labour staffers?

              70 of them have given sworn statements that the “Labour Party is not a safe space for Jewish people”. 

              And to think Stuart thinks allegations like this were treated more than fairly. 

              guess the election and crushing loss indicate he should have tried a little harder huh?

              https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/05/seventy-labour-staffers-give-statements-to-antisemitism-inquiry

              • mikesh …
                15 December 2019 at 1:29 pm

                I think the right wing, 3rd way aficionados, within the Labour establishment harbour a lot of antipathy towards him. But even so the party has achieved better results with him leading it than were achieved by either Gordon Brown or Ed Millibrand before him ( 32% in 2019, as opposed to 29% and 30% respectively; and that doesn't take into account the exceptionally good result in 2017). I suspect that he might even have won last Thursday had it not been for his party's poor handling of the brexit issue.

            • Ad 2.1.1.1.1.2
              15 December 2019 at 10:05 am

              That UK election should be the last time anyone in the English speaking with a real chance at national leadership campaigns on mass nationalization, huge taxes and otherwise full-on socialism (I'm sure it won't stop them trying).

              Even the social democratic governments such as ourselves are getting very rare around the world. 

              We need to treat social democratic governments like national parks: there to protect threatened species of policy surviving from a once-grand world.

              • aom …
                15 December 2019 at 10:08 am

                NZ a 'social democratic government'. Whose leg are you trying to pull?

              • Stuart Munro. …
                15 December 2019 at 10:43 am

                Keep appeasing the far Right and in 20 years you'll be congratulating yourself on keeping a public health system, and 20 years after that it will be gone.

              • millsy …
                15 December 2019 at 2:51 pm

                If you cut past all the bluff and bluster, I think the fact is, that the Brits wanted a middle class lifestyle, and if war, privatisation and austerity were the prices to pay for it (as well as the most vulnerable to be screwed over, so be it.

            • Stuart Munro. 2.1.1.1.1.3
              15 December 2019 at 10:13 am

              He did do a good job – but he misunderstood the venality of his enemies.

              There was never any substance to the anti-Semitism allegations – they were only the stock in trade of malicious persons like yourself.

            • Bearded Git 2.1.1.1.1.4
              15 December 2019 at 10:44 am

              Under MMP Corbyn would be PM now…..Corbyn would have been PM in 2017 but for incredibly bad luck when Ruth Davidson campaigned so well for the Scottish Conservatives and won so many seats from the SNP which have now almost all returned to the SNP.

              Scotland will vote to leave/secede from the UK and stay in the European Union. Ireland will unify. Boris will preside over the break-up of the UK….some triumph that. But then we all remember him as being the worst Foreign Secretary the UK has ever had.

        • greywarshark 2.1.2.1
          15 December 2019 at 11:27 am

          Thanks BG  that is a wonderful article and makes perfect sense with what I have been reading for months – years?   It finishes the jig-saw and I can see the pattern outlined clearly through the fog, or are they my tears?
          .

          mikesh

          "I still think the major reason for Labour's loss was the fact that Corbyn was insufficiently pro brexit. "

          I didn't understand how you could state that so firmly, as the whole approach seemed to be about not revealing Corbyn's direction and compass points.   But definition and understanding of the actual situation comes to me from Luke Goodall's Sky News extract from BG link:

          Jeremy Corbyn has quietly committed the Labour Party to everything Remainers wanted and were calling for only a few months ago: a government which would extend Article 50, then go to the country pledging a referendum on Britain’s exit deal, with Remain on the ballot paper.

          “Mr Corbyn had no end of political slurry deposited on his head for refusing to make such a commitment hitherto. You might think that those same people who were pouring it would be jubilant. Yet their response was curiously muted.”

          And the difficulties for Labour exponents were outlined by the writer on The Consciousness of Sheep (see Facebook):

          Put simply, in order to form a government in the UK parliament, Labour must win back its traditional working class support in those constituencies that delivered the biggest margins in favour of leaving the EU.  However, the activists that Labour needs to get out on the doorsteps to win these constituencies tend to be fervently pro-EU.  To come out in support of either position is to lose the supporters of the other, and thus to cede power to the Tories; who will inevitably deliver the worst Brexit settlement of all.  Labour’s only hope is to fudge their Brexit policy until the next election is won.”

          As the bard put it:   What a piece of work is Man.

  3. Josef 3
    15 December 2019 at 9:18 am

    Classic “it’s them against us!” socialism just doesn’t speak to as many people as it used to.

    Labour people want to talk about malign oligarchs conspiring against them for personal gain, and it sounds increasingly like conspirowhacky stuff from the more tinfoil hat wearing recesses of the internet. Labour people talk about moral duties to fight climate change, fight imperialism, fight islamophobia, and people more worried about layoffs at work are left scratching their head and wondering WHY is this what labour cares about now?

    And then they see anyone who questions the new priorities getting rounded on and called the most vile names. It's not the behaviour of a team that people want to be a part of, it's not what people want to see from the government. 

    There’s also a really distasteful saviour complex in evidence. Labour has become the party of trendy liberal elites with degrees, who expect the simple worker bees to trust in their goodness and greatness and keep on voting for the old Labour brand, even as Labour is focussing more and more on esoteric woke issues with little relevance to those whose main concern is keeping their jobs.

    John Key tapped into this, for every left person who “didn’t trust him” there were 1.2 people who reminded him of a good boss or a successful colleague, and he made people want to get on his team. Corbyn’s rhetoric is just loser, victim, misery, grievance, and that’s a hard sell. So far Jacinda Ardern appears to have learned some of Key’s lessons well in that regard.

    [You appear to be new here, although you look familiar, and you may have missed the instructional guidelines in the OP. Moving this to OM until I know whom we’re dealing with]

    [TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]

    • Stuart Munro. 3.1
      15 December 2019 at 10:37 am

      Malign oligarchs like Murdoch certainly exist and their activities go a long way to explain the kind of wretched plonkers who become UK conservatives & NZ Gnat MPs.

  4. Paaparakauta 4
    15 December 2019 at 9:18 am

    Robots Are Killing The Millennial Worker

    "There is no doubt that a wave of automation is about to be unleashed on economies worldwide. 

    In fact, the impact of automation on the labor market has become more of a political issue now than it ever has, with its impact on the labor force being cited as one of the main causes for the election of leaders like U.S. President Donald Trump and Italy’s Matteo Salvini, according to a new Bloomberg op-ed by Ferdinando Giugliano.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/pay-attention-robots-are-killing-millennial-worker

    • Ad 4.1
      15 December 2019 at 9:54 am

       

      The humans are dead. 

      Except, nah.

       

    • Sabine 4.2
      15 December 2019 at 12:39 pm

      i don't see self check outs as a political issue and they are killing jobs and we can all help do so by using them. 

      So maybe its us that are killing jobs? 

  5. Sacha 5
    15 December 2019 at 9:38 am

    How the US righties ended up in Putin's embrace:

    https://www.salon.com/2019/12/14/russia-and-the-republicans-how-vladimir-putin-got-an-american-subsidiary/

    How did we get here? London School of Economics professor Anne Applebaum, writing in this month’s Atlantic, traces the collapse of the Republican Party into Russia’s arms to Pat Buchanan, ironically a former aide to Russia-hater Richard Nixon.

    Buchanan's books “Death of a Superpower” and “The Death of the West” described America’s descent into “a sexual revolution of easy divorce, rampant promiscuity, pornography, homosexuality, feminism, abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, assisted suicide — the displacement of Christian values by Hollywood values.” Applebaum writes that “Buchanan has come to admire the Russian president because he is ‘standing up for traditional values against Western cultural elites.’” 

    • Paaparakauta 5.1
      15 December 2019 at 10:02 am

      Applebaum has also published on 'red famine' and 'gulag'. One can't argue with history, but it could be described less emotively and put in broader context.

    • Incognito 5.2
      15 December 2019 at 10:49 am

      One could argue that rampant hyper-individualism coupled with no-bounds hedonism and so-called personal freedom and responsibility has led to a leading principle of Western culture that more or less prescribes that it is ok to fuck oneself and screw over others. In other words, what people do in their own home is their own personal business and nobody else’s, least of all the State’s. If they want to use drugs, own MSSAs, go online to read/consume whatever filth they can find, spew any kind of filth online (freedom of speech) or in public places (AKA places paid for by tax- and/or rate-payers), et cetera, they should be allowed to do so because it is their human right and freedom. The so-called free market principle goes lock-step with this because nobody is forced to accept any transaction and if they do, it is caveat emptor. This extends to externalisation as well as screwing over the environment because this is virtually defenceless. This behaviour even intrudes into the sex lives of some where boundaries of acceptance and consent have become even more blurry. At least, that seems to be the reasoning of some. The apparent moral conservatism of the leadership in Russia, China, and Singapore, to name a few, is a logical reaction to this decay but is it the answer?

  6. joe90 6
    15 December 2019 at 9:48 am

    And the bullies are making hay.

    edit:

    SV SYNONYMS FOR STANDING AGAINST THE WALL
    Found 5 synonyms in 1 groups
    1Meaning: interrogation
    interview the wall against exam exam grill question
    Synonyms for posing

    https://synonymer.woxikon.se/sv/st%C3%A4lla%20mot%20v%C3%A4ggen

    https://en.bab.la/dictionary/swedish-english/st%C3%A4lla-n%C3%A5gon-mot-v%C3%A4ggen

  7. Jenny How to get there 7
    15 December 2019 at 9:57 am

    ‘
    The Last Cop?

    Latest news reports coming out from Madrid Spain is that the COP25 talks have stalled.

    …..Most countries agreed on the guidelines, and negotiators have been reluctant to name the holdouts. But on Friday, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, Costa Rica’s minister for energy and environment, called out the United States, Brazil, and Australia as the parties thwarting closure on the issue.

    https://www.vox.com/2019/12/13/21020192/cop25-greta-thunberg-un-climate-change-meeting-madrid

    The UN COP negotiations are reminiscent of the League of Nations negotiations over German and Italian fascist aggression in Europe and North Africa, which also stalled over lack of international agreement and commitment..

    What is required to break this international deadlock is unilateral action from at least one country.

    It's called leadership.

    In my opinion one country, this country, is better placed than many others to take this lead.

    All politics is pressure.

    Our close geographical, political, cultural and historical links to one of the bigger hold outs, Australia, makes us well place to set an example that couldn't be ignored across the Tasman.

    Even inside our parliament there is deadlock from taking decisive binding action.

    This parliamentary deadlock is reminiscent of the deadlock inside the British Parliament over German aggression. One back bench MP who who had won his seat as an independent as the only MP for his Constitutional Party, this minority of one, refused to keep quiet and decried the fascist threat at every chance. 

    Its called leadership.

    In my opinion one party, the Green Party, is better placed than even Churchill was to take this lead.

    • Sacha 7.1
      15 December 2019 at 10:07 am

      That seems a very romantic notion of leadership.

      • Dennis Frank 7.1.1
        15 December 2019 at 12:23 pm

        More confused than romantic.  The GP, operating as a minority of one in parliament, leading by constantly decrying the global warming threat?  The average voter:  `yeah, we know already, tell us something new'.

        "What is required to break this international deadlock is unilateral action from at least one country.  It's called leadership.  In my opinion one country, this country, is better placed than many others to take this lead…  Our close geographical, political, cultural and historical links to one of the bigger hold outs, Australia, makes us well place to set an example that couldn't be ignored across the Tasman."

        Aussies normally ignore our examples.  Why would they suddenly do a u-turn and get in behind?  She wants "decisive binding action" and is suggesting the Greens will produce that by breaking ranks with the coalition govt, taking a dissident public stand.  Even if they do that while waving a Greta Thunberg doll threateningly at the other parties, I don't see how other countries would get bound into decisive action on climate change as a logical consequence.

    • Ad 7.2
      15 December 2019 at 10:09 am

      I recall there was a lot of criticism of David Skilling a decade ago when he suggested New Zealand should be "fast followers" in climate change response. 

      This outcome in Spain is horrifying. 

      But if New Zealand had tried to be more of a global leader in this diplomatic area, this kind of massive diplomatic failure shows we would have become as exposed to international great power retaliation as we have been for decades since we deregulated into  free trade in the late 1980s. Maybe Skilling was right.

    • Ad 7.3
      15 December 2019 at 10:10 am

      What did the Greens get in the last UK election? 

      Did their share grow as Labour's collapsed?

    • pat 7.4
      15 December 2019 at 5:19 pm

      "But Mr Meyer commented: "The latest version of the Paris Agreement decision text put forward by the Chilean presidency is totally unacceptable. It has no call for countries to enhance the ambition of their emissions reduction commitments.

      "If world leaders fail to increase ambition in the lead up to next year's climate summit in Glasgow, they will make the task of meeting the Paris Agreement's well below 2C temperature limitation goal – much less the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal – almost impossible."

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/405516/low-ambition-coalition-puts-un-climate-talks-in-question

      "New Zealand's Climate Change Minister James Shaw said he was disappointed nothing was likely to come from Summit"

       

  8. infused 8
    15 December 2019 at 10:18 am

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/118179976/wellingtons-high-water-use-is-bad-news-for-the-environment-and-climate-change

    There are 10,000 undocumented leaks in Wellington since the earthquake. I'm on a few boards so I know this. It is not public knowledge as they cannot find them. The same issue as buildings which are still unsafe and slowly being made public as to not scare anyone.

    It's amazing what's being hidden from everyday people.

  9. Dennis Frank 9
    15 December 2019 at 11:09 am

    The Observer’s political editor accompanied "the impressive Labour candidate Karen Davis" on her campaign in Labour's target seat, Norwich North.  "I approached a man in his garden on the same Norwich estate who said: “I have voted Labour all my life but I can’t stand Corbyn and won’t vote for him.”  https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/14/i-saw-just-how-many-voters-were-hostile-to-jeremy-corbyn

    Labour MP Neil Coyle reports after campaigning in his Bermondsey and Old Southwark constituency:  “There were people who said they knew Boris Johnson was a liar and a cheat but they still preferred him over our leader."

    "He and his team talked to 10,000 people during the campaign and kept a record of what each of them said. The two reasons most often given by those who decided against Labour were its policy on Brexit and dislike of the leader. “Dislike of Corbyn came top,” added Coyle, who was one of the Labour survivors on election night. He retained his south London seat with a big – though reduced – majority."

    "Journalists who went on the campaign trail were struck constantly by the force of anti-Corbyn feeling on doorsteps."  So, if Boris is a populist, Jeremy is an unpopulist.  I thought he seemed reasonable & well-intentioned, but that could be due to the distance effect.  Exposure up close may be informing the Brits about his defects.

    "One Labour MP told me on Friday morning, after details of Labour’s catastrophic defeat were known: “We all knew what was coming, just not quite how bad it would be. We didn’t want to allow the Corbynistas and Momentum to blame us and point the finger at us afterwards, so there had to be an unspoken agreement to deny it.”"

    "The Observer’s pollsters Opinium have revealed their own analysis of the reasons people rejected Labour: 43% cited the leadership, 17% its policy on Brexit, and 12% its economic policies. Among Labour defectors – those who voted Labour in 2017 but didn’t this time – 37% mentioned the leadership, 21% Brexit and 6% its economic policies."

    This antipathy effect looks very widespread, and Jeremy could be pioneering unpopulism as an influential political trend. Charisma deficit only part of the prescription. I suspect the key syndrome is leftist arrogance: `the people need to think like me, as I keep telling them’.

    • Anne 9.1
      15 December 2019 at 12:17 pm

      Very interesting. Thank-you Dennis Frank.

      I'm still of the view that the 'dislike of Corbyn' was a reaction to the enormously successful campaign waged against him by personal and political opponents, media opponents and of course the ultra-conservative British establishment.

      I took time out in recent weeks to listen to some of his media interviews and he came across as a reasonable, mild mannered person who talked a lot of sense – the antithesis of how he has been portrayed. In today's political climate, such individuals are regarded as weak, indecisive, verging on communist ideology (which is utter nonsense), and they must be banished from ever gaining control of the treasury benches. It is power by the few over the many – just like our perennial political enemies, Russia, China et al – and the ultimate outcome is much the same.

      Michael Joseph Savage would not have lasted five minutes in today's climate, which is an indication of the depths of dishonesty, deceit and thuggish behaviour western societies are now engaging in.

      • Dennis Frank 9.1.1
        15 December 2019 at 12:32 pm

        I agree.  It's a question of the extent to which voters form impressions in accord with the intent of media manipulation.  I had a professional career crafting such propaganda so I have an insider's view of how it works on the psyche.

        Despite that I reported the summation due to getting a sense that the role played by perception of him was having a substantial grass-roots effect, and there seemed a likelihood that some kind of shakespearean character flaw was operating, causing mass resonance in the UK electorate.

    • Ad 9.2
      15 December 2019 at 3:35 pm

      The left need to accept what the great voters said: they really, really didn't like Jeremy Corbyn. You can call that a media conspiracy if you like. 

      In 2019 Jeremy Corbyn has been a total catastrophe for UK Labour.

      • SPC 9.2.1
        15 December 2019 at 5:11 pm

        Yeah Labour MP's who did not support Corbyn as leader and said so, say they got feedback from their electorate agreeing with them. 

        A Labour caucus that pressured Corbyn to back their pro Remain position say he was the reason they lost seats in pro Brexit Midlands and North. 

        One thing was clear, the economic policies were not the problem.

      • millsy 9.2.2
        15 December 2019 at 5:37 pm

        You are so right. The worst thing is, the chances of anything that is remotely left leaning have just evaporated right before our very eyes. Sanders/Warren's chances in the USA have just been tossed out the window, and AOC is probably going to be a one term wonder.  Medicare for All is going to be off the table in the USA for at least a generation. Even Jacinda and her team will be a lot more cautious going into 2020.

        Corbyn completely fucked the left. That will be his legacy for the Labour Party.

        Next time the Blairites are accused of straying too far from the party's roots, they will throw this right in our faces.

        • SPC 9.2.2.1
          15 December 2019 at 5:52 pm

          And yet it was their their Brexit position that cost Labour a lot of seats

          Very few people cited any problem with the more left wing Labour manifesto. 

          The right and the Blairites want left wing leadership and policy discredited, yet they did not go after Corbyn on policy. 

          So why would anyone think that the left has been harmed by this defeat? Or that Blairites will win back total control of the party?

      • mauī 9.2.3
        15 December 2019 at 8:17 pm

        What a load of BS, by your logic then Boris is incredibly popular and that's why he won.

      • Anne 9.2.4
        15 December 2019 at 8:49 pm

        a) The voters are not great. They're ordinary folk. Some good, some bad.

        b) They didn't like Corbyn because they had nothing but negative media stories to go on.

        c) So easy to claim "catastrophe" after the event.

        d) It wasn't a catastrophe anyway. Disappointing yes but the cards were always stacked against them.

        e) Under an MMP type system they would probably now have a Labour led govt.

    • SPC 9.3
      15 December 2019 at 5:20 pm

      We all knew what was coming

       

      Yet they forced Corbyn into a pro Remain position, did they not know this would cost them seats, or did they not care while Corbyn was there to take the blame? 

  10. Fireblade 10
    15 December 2019 at 11:49 am

    Simon's raw nerve.

    • Fireblade 10.1
      15 December 2019 at 2:09 pm

      Fuck me. Hours later and Bridges is still on twitter trying to justify his lies to Nigel Latta.

      It shows how childish and insecure Simon Bridges really is. He's an embarrassment.

  11. Incognito 11
    15 December 2019 at 12:07 pm

    Simon’s calculator has blown a fuse and please can somebody teach him how to do spreadsheets properly because it is an absolute shambles.

    https://www.national.org.nz/the_fiscal_hole_national_predicted_all_along

    • Graeme 11.1
      15 December 2019 at 9:54 pm

      Thanks for the heads up,  I'll make sure I've swallowed my coffee before he tries to explain that on Morning Report tomorrow morning.

  12. joe90 12
    15 December 2019 at 3:53 pm

    Released 40 years ago.

  13. greywarshark 13
    15 December 2019 at 4:31 pm

    Slavoj Zizek is stirring up the exhausted discourse on Trump and Brexit.

  14. SPC 14
    15 December 2019 at 5:43 pm

    A seemingly confused approach is being advocated here. 

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/118174774/pension-for-kids-could-level-income-inequality-between-young-and-old

    Arguing that universal super approach has reduced old age poverty, then advocating the end of that to afford universal support to reduce child poverty is asking a few questions about the logic of the proponents (the reduction in old age poverty was in fact prior home ownership or access to state housing and the availability of an aged based retirement income). 

    Lower rates of home ownership and the current lack of state housing is changing this dynamic. 

    There is also unaddressed poverty among 

    those unable to work 18-65 (because of disability and living on $270 a week without home ownership)

    those unable to work on SB (not eligible for ACC),

    those over 55 finding jobs hard to find.

    sole parents because of low benefits (paying back grant out of benefits when TD is not paid back while income is that low) and high abatement regimes

    working poverty caused by high rent costs 

    That said I do want more resources into health and education (more and better paid staff) and state housing as a focus for government with its finite resources.

    But I can agree in better targeted income support by reducing super cost and transferring it to those in need. Means testing is one way to do this, and most of those who work past the age of 65 have no need for super.

    • KJT 14.1
      15 December 2019 at 7:11 pm

      Agree with all but means testing. Super, family support, unemployment benefit and disability should be as of right and universal.

      Targeting is inefficient expensive and often inconsistent.

      Asset testing causes Poverty traps when people have to sell built up assets, to get welfare. I remember the builder who had to sell his site caravan.

      It is another attack on workers in favour of tax dodging, capital gains tax earners.

      Welfare should be on personal position. As in Germany, unemployment as of right and retraining for another job, is regardless of assets, and previous employment..

      We do it here with ACC. Payments do not depend on assets, but on income. Though payments should have an upper ceiling for really high incomes.

      By all means claw most of it back on high incomes with a higher progressive, tax rate.

    • A 14.2
      15 December 2019 at 10:17 pm

      Agree with every you said SPC. 

      We must have super means tested asap and those with health needs prioritised in our system.

      • KJT 14.2.1
        16 December 2019 at 7:58 am

        Anyone claiming to be "left" advocating means testing of super is a fool.

        The only reason we still have it, is because the rich get it too.

        If you want your grandchildren to still have super available, don't give the right wing an incentive to get rid of it. Which is inevitable, if they can offer tax cuts, by removing something the rich no longer have an interest in.

        You see the same effect with private school users, happy to defund, and destroy, State schools, because it doesn't affect, them.

  15. greywarshark 15
    15 December 2019 at 7:33 pm

    Macron the French President spells out EU requirements in English for Boorish's and his rag-tag gypsies, benefit.

    “If the British prime minister and the British parliament want an ambitious trade deal, they know where the European standards are … The more they are attracted to reducing standards – on climate, social standards or anything else – the more they walk away from the European market, the more they will be away from us. The more ambitious the trade deal, the more we need regulatory harmonisation."

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/13/brexit-eu-leaders-call-for-swift-ratification-after-tory-victory

  16. Fireblade 16
    15 December 2019 at 7:40 pm

    The National Party wants to fine cyclists who don't use cycle lanes.

    How ridiculous. Next they will announce it would be policed by a Strike Force Raptor division comprising of Young Nats riding tricycles with flashing lights on their heads.

    https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/national-party-wants-impose-fines-cyclists-refuse-use-cycleways

  17. A 17
    15 December 2019 at 8:15 pm

    Good to see.  Pity ACC will drag this on for a decade or more.  Putting them on the prayer lists. 

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/118004926/family-of-migrant-worker-who-died-on-the-job-seeks-compensation

     

    The family of an under-the-table migrant worker who died on the job is seeking compensation from ACC. 

    Unite Union is assisting Du Xiangli after her husband Yu Xingming fell to his death at a residential construction site in Auckland. 

    The union's national director, Mike Treen, said Yu's family should be eligible for an ACC payout over the death.

    • KJT 17.1
      16 December 2019 at 8:11 am

      And his employer should pay ACC, to make up for all the levies they dodged, leaving this poor mans family with nothing.

  18. joe90 18
    15 December 2019 at 8:42 pm

    Because elderly women are a threat to the motherland.

    /

     

    http://archive.li/8sdt7

  19. joe90 19
    15 December 2019 at 8:59 pm

    Oh shit.

    #Lindol #LindolPH #Linog #Earthquake #EarthquakePH

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    The Ngā Ara Tipuna -  Waipukurau Pā Site Interpretation project will receive $2.798 million from the Provincial Growth Fund to create an authentic cultural tourism experience, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today “The project will inform visitors about the history of six pā sites in Waipukurau with a combination ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    20 hours ago

  • 21 new judges boost diversity, improve access to justice
    Twenty-one new District Court judges have been appointed in a move that will improve access to justice and boost diversity on the bench. The new judges include replacements for retirements and 10 new positions. Attorney-General David Parker today announced the 14 judges who can immediately be named, with the remainder ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    20 hours ago

  • Puhinui to Auckland Airport in 10 minutes
    Aucklanders are another step closer to getting rapid transit to the airport, with the start of construction to upgrade State Highway 20B to the airport, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. SH20B will be upgraded with additional lanes in each direction, dedicated to bus and high-occupancy vehicles between Pukaki Creek ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    23 hours ago

  • Advancing New Zealand’s trade agenda focus of Europe meetings
    World Trade Organisation reform, agricultural trade and a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom will be the focus of Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker’s visit to Europe this week. David Parker leaves on Tuesday for a series of meetings in the UK and Switzerland that aim ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Minister of Defence to visit counterparts in US and Canada
    The Minister of Defence, Ron Mark, departed today for the United States and Canada where he will meet with his counterparts.  While in Canada Minister Mark will meet with his counterpart, Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan.  “New Zealand and Canada are close friends, and share an instinctive like-mindedness on ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Government to deliver family carers $2000 pay rise, expand scheme to spouses this year
    The Coalition Government is delivering this year the changes to Funded Family Care the disability sector has long-asked for, says Associate Minister of Health Jenny Salesa. “Today we are announcing the details of our big changes to Funded Family Care, including an annual average pay boost of $2,246.40 for funded ...
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    3 days ago

  • Ko te reo kua mū: Piri Sciascia
    Minister for Māori Development Nanaia Mahuta joins te ao Māori in their sorrow as they learn of the loss of one of the great orators and spokespersons of a generation – Piri Sciascia.  “The son of Pōrangahau was a staunch advocate for Māori development and served his people for over ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Minister opens new ecosanctuary at Cape Farewell
    A new ecosanctuary with a predator proof fence on Golden Bay’s Cape Farewell, which will restore a safe home for sea birds, rare native plants, giant snails, and geckos, was officially opened today by the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. “There has been a fantastic community effort supported by the ...
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    4 days ago

  • Pacific partners work together to provide additional support to Australia
    The NZDF continues to support the Australian Defence Force (ADF) as it battles fires in Victoria and New South Wales, including by transporting Republic of Fiji Military engineers from Nadi to Australia, announced Defence Minister Ron Mark. On Saturday morning a NZDF Boeing 757 will depart New Zealand to uplift ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Kaikōura $10.88 million boost in tourism & business
    The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $10.88 million to boost business and tourism opportunities in Kaikōura, Parliamentary Undersecretary for Regional Economic Development, Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. As part of the Kaikōura Marina Development Programme, the following two projects will receive PGF funding: A $9.88 million investment to begin the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Govt accounts in surplus, debt remains low
    The Government’s books are in good shape with the accounts in surplus and expenses close to forecast, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown accounts for the five months to November. The operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL) was above forecast by $0.7 billion resulting ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Auckland focus for first Police graduation of 2020
    The number of Police on the Auckland frontline is increasing with the graduation today of a special locally-trained wing of new constables. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the graduation of eighteen officers from Recruit Wing 333-5 means that more than 1900 new Police have been deployed since the Coalition Government ...
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    6 days ago

  • Wairarapa gets $7.11m PGF water boost
    The Provincial Growth Fund is putting $7.11 million into creating a sustainable water supply for Wairarapa, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. The following two projects will receive Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) funding: A $7 million investment in Wairarapa Water Limited for the pre-construction development of ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago

  • Progress with new Police station in Mahia
    Community safety and crime prevention in the East Coast community of Mahia has moved forward with the opening of a new Police station to serve the growing coastal settlement. Police Minister Stuart Nash has officially opened the new station, which was relocated almost 20 kilometres along the coast from the nearby ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Plans to protect the future of whitebaiting announced
    With several native whitebait species in decline the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage has today released proposals to standardise and improve management of whitebait across New Zealand. “The need for action for a healthy whitebait fishery has never been greater,” Eugenie Sage said.  “Four of the six whitebait species are ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • New resource for schools to increase awareness and understanding of climate change
    A new Ministry of Education resource available for schools in 2020 will increase awareness and understanding of climate change, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The resource, Climate Change – prepare today, live well tomorrow, will help students understand the effects of climate change at a local, national and global ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Getting more out of our most productive firms
    Finance Minister Grant Robertson has approved the terms of reference for an Inquiry into the economic contribution of New Zealand's frontier firms. Frontier firms are the most productive firms in the domestic economy within their own industry. “These firms are important as they diffuse new technologies and business practices into ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • NZDF sends more support to Australia
    The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) is sending an Environmental Health Team, a Primary Health Care Team and a Chaplain to Australia, boosting New Zealand support for the Australian Defence Force (ADF) as it battles bush fires in Victoria and New South Wales, Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. The ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • New Zealand joins partners in calling for full investigation into air crash in Iran
    Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Rt Hon Winston Peters says that developments suggesting a surface-to-air missile is responsible for the downing of the Ukrainian International Airlines flight in Iran is disastrous news. “New Zealand offers its deepest sympathies to the families of the 176 victims. It is ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • Staying connected to Australian agriculture
    Agriculture Minister, Damien O’Connor, says the Ministry for Primary Industries is continuing to stay connected to federal authorities in Australia as devastating fires affect the country.  “The Ministry is using an existing trans-Tasman forum for discussions on the agricultural impact of the fires and the future recovery phase,” says Damien ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • Investment in schools – a commitment to communities
    Thousands of school-age children, their teachers and wider communities are benefiting from the Government’s multi-million dollar investment upgrading and renewing schools, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “We want New Zealand to be the best place to be a child and that means learning in warm, comfortable and modern classrooms,” ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • New Zealand Defence Force sends support to Australia
    Minister of Defence Ron Mark today announced New Zealand is sending three Royal New Zealand Air Force NH90 helicopters and crew, and two NZ Army Combat Engineer Sections as well as a command element to support the Australian Defence Force efforts in tackling the Australian fires.  The New Zealand Defence Force ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • Better access to books for blind and low vision citizens on World Braille Day
    "Today is World Braille Day and I am delighted to announce that an international treaty giving blind and low vision New Zealanders access to books and literary works comes into force today,” Minister for Disability Issues Carmel Sepuloni announced today. “Today the Marrakesh Treaty and the associated amendments to the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago

  • New Zealand to send further firefighter support to Australia
    The New Zealand Government is sending a further 22 firefighters to help fight the Australian fires. “The devastation caused by these fires is taking a substantial toll on our Australian neighbours and we will continue to do what we can to assist as they deal with this extremely dynamic, dangerous ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago

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