Today is one of the most famous anniversaries in the history of the New Zealand Trade Union Movement.
Today, the 15th of February 1951, is the very day, 61 years ago that marked the start of the 1951 lockout.
Sixty one years ago today, eight thousand wharfies were locked out of their jobs for 151 days from the 15th of February to 15th of July 1951.
The similarities don’t stop with the date.
On this day 61 years ago the entire waterfront workforce was dismissed to destroy the union.
Today in a copy of those employer tactics of the past, the whole Maritime Union workforce at the Ports of Auckland is to be dismissed to destroy the union.
Three days after the 1951 lockout began the National government declared a state of emergency, making it illegal to publicise the workers point of view.
Today in a copy of those tactics of the past, Ports of Auckland Ltd. is using an injunction to make it illegal to publicise the workers point of view.
Today in a deliberate copy of the union tactics of the past. The Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) has just as the Watersiders Union did in 1951, have called, for a partial strike. (In 1951 while making themselves available for normal duties the wharfies refused all overtime beyond 40 hours. Today while making themselves available for normal duties the wharfies are refusing to do any work on containers handled by contractors.)
In drawing attention to the obvious parralels between the two disputes, The Watersiders are giving their answer to those in the Labour Party and on this website who argue that this dispute “ain’t” nothing like 1951 therefore we should withhold our support.
Eddie in his post “1951 it ain’t, for now” argued that the Greens and Occupy and Labour should withhold their support from the wharfies.
One of the reasons Eddie gave for not supporting the wharfies was the difference in scale. Eddie said it is only 300 workers in one port.
Only 300 workers in one port are involved at present and there have been a few hours delays for a handful of ships on the 5 days of striking.
EDDIE: “1951 it ain’t, for now”
The differences Eddie highlights are quantative but not qualitive, (the sheer differences in numbers reflecting the huge increases in productivity between now and then).
Now as then, this is a fight to the death, for the soul and even the existence of a watersider union on the waterfront.
Now as then, win or lose, this dispute will have far reaching consequences for the whole union movement in this country.
Jenny do you have a link to details about the injunction preventing the distribution of information? Seems awfully undemocratic. Surely the Herald should be running a campaign!
And “Ports of Auckland Management confirmed to Lloyd’s List Australia it had filed for an injunction to prevent workers speaking publicly about the dispute.”
A little way away in a far off country a daily newspaper headline read “Memorandum Macht Frei”. For anybody who believes that a Chamberlain approach to far off places can come back to bite you very hard this should raise alarm bells.
Greece this morning is in turmoil, the end result of a romance with free and easy credit from banks. From the lie of perpetual growth to pay for all. From the corruption of financialisation of whole economies.
This is the lie Key has sold us too, tax cuts through borrowing, money for the wealthy, supposedly to “trickle” down. “Growth” to pay and create jobs. At some point the receiever comes to the door…”Mr Key, you failed to pay us the interest….bail out with austerity for the poor attached”.
Athens coming to NZ soon, courtesy of the National Party.
New Zealand government official stats show $318 billion NZ originated private institution credit money. They then treat as assets and deduct what has been invested overseas and come up with what they call Net International Investment Position which appears much less alarming despite that money competting to find profit in an international financial system where the international debt is also unrepayable from the day its born.
Even if the foreign investments from NZ where able to be repatriated in quick time they would come back to only the wealthiest few who control them and not benefit wider society as implied. Just more smoke and mirrors; http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/ParlSupport/ResearchPapers/3/4/6/00PlibCIP121-New-Zealand-s-International-Investment-Position.htm
$318 billion debt based money supply at annual interest rate of 7% equals $22 odd billion interest repayment that is essentially rent upon a revolving line of credit that circulates as our money supply.
Given most of that interest finds its way back to the same largest owners of larger international banks who own largest stake holdings in Australian banks who own NZ banks, it puts to shame the 1.3 billion they give back in tax and shout from the roof tops as being so beneficial to the prosperity of the nation
Partial strike action commences today at the Port of Auckland.Our members are refusing to service any cargo on or off Connlinx trucks.This is a company 90% owned by the Port of Auckland.The company contracted the containing moving in the Port out to themselves and made our members who used to undertake this work redundant.Tomorrow any machine that touches cargo off this company will be blacked.
Talk back radio and blog sites like the sewer have a lot to answer for. They have unleashed
a nasty, mean and selfish trait in the New Zealand psyche. It is appalling to hear what is being expressed regarding Mojo Mathers and the issues in the house. $30,000??? WTF. (Noone appears to have batted an eyelid over the obscene amounts of profit the banks are salting away…)
They of course ignore the fact that Bill English is being paid $30,000 per annum to live in the house he owns and which was paid for by 20 years of rorting.
Of course they do, if they didn’t then they’d have to face the fact that their self-selected leaders are corrupt and there’s no way that they will do that.
“Revising conventional wisdom on cats, media
from NewsCred Blog
02/14/2012
Contrary to common wisdom, cats make you popular — particularly online.”
This little gem comes from the same page linked to by felix above. Does it explain Key’s popularity when he talked about his cat on the infamous radio hour?
Does it explain felix’s popularity online?
As for the article on pseudonymity itself, are both researcher and article writer confusing ‘quality’ with ‘popularity’? The quality of a comment was gauged by whether it got a positive as in a ‘like’ or whether it got a negative rating or was dumped as spam. That seems like a popularity rating and not a
way of rating of quality which should be independent of popularity but judged on intrinsic factors.
Yeah surely quality is fairly subjective anyway. I agree it seems more like a popularity index, but I guess they’re just measuring what can be measured.
In 1951, at least, the word ain’t was a contraction of the words am not and definitely not is not. 1951 it ain’t, translates: 1951, it am not.
These days, any word can mean anything a person wants it to, which is the least of our problems since a writer can now uz txt spk qwite ezi. No one seems to have issues with using don’t and didn’t and now those of you who aren’t asleep can use ain’t correctly, too.
In 1695 “an’t” was used as a contraction of “am not”, and as early as 1696 “an’t” was used to mean “are not”. “An’t” for “is not” may have developed independently from its use for “am not” and “are not”.
The only place I can think of, apart from songs, where it is still in common usage is in the saying “Ain’t that the truth.” Songs, though, show where it is able to make sense. It ain’t me babe = It is not me babe. Ain’t misbehavin’= I am not misbehaving, etc.
Yeah that’s the post modern anything means anything approach. The Right uses it so easily and so blatantly to steal the language and symbolism of the Left and twists it for its own uses. And usually, the Left sits back and let it happen.
It is not quite the same thing, although I appreciate your point. “Ain’t” is an old fashioned slang word that is able to be used in various places where a contracted “not” is in order. Whereas the right recontextualises left wing concepts so as to rob them of their original meaning. Freedom from bondage is applied to the “free market” for example, and a woman’s right to paid work justifies the pitchforking of solo mothers into low-paid insecure jobs, etc. It works best where it is subtle, and draws the left into a conversation that it didn’t intend to have. The left wing concern about children going hungry, for example, implies that the poor need more money, but is likely to be translated by the right into the idea that the poor need more policing. And then the left finds itself disarmed. You said you wanted us to do something about child poverty, say the right. Well we’re doing something. The good thing about the Occupy Movement is that it has created a conceptual space that cannot easily be appropriated in this way.
These days, any word can mean anything a person wants it to, which is the least of our problems since a writer can now uz txt spk qwite ezi. No one seems to have issues with using don’t and didn’t and now those of you who aren’t asleep can use ain’t correctly, too.
I do! I very much have an issue with errors, especially those involving apostrophes and contractions.. (It’s part Aspergers and part being an English teacher and I never use ain’t!
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 6.3.1
The people who think anarchism is chaos also shriek that socialism will force “everyone to live in caves”. The problem is they just can’t grasp that alternative, sometimes more effective, ways of living existed before capitalism came along.
From the article you link to there is a comment on how guilds operated:
“…sovereign in its own sphere, but could not develop rules that interfered with the workings of other guilds. ”
Capitalism, or “growth”, depends on people being allowed to steal from and interfere with the property and rules of their neighbour. The wail of “living in caves” is the fear that theft would once again be called theft.
Thanks UTurn, its amazing how labels stick. Socialist states and capitalist states hate anarchism in equal doses, it is the devil incarnate to both parties.
At the heart of the issue is the point you make: respect for the rules and property. Capitalist / corporate / socialist states manage this through coercion, as represented by the mechanisms and the power of the state. That individuals might manage these affairs removes the “power” from their central control. A totally heretic position….God forbid you dont follow blind dogma.
Don’t know if you’ve noticed how often anarchist sentiment is tapped into by politicians who seek popular support for their programmes?
ACT (and just about every other right wing libertarian outfit I’ve come across) do it extensively. And L’nin (that lovely left wing Authoritarian) did it too. In fact, if you listen closely, the ideas and sentiments of anarchy are all over the political sphere.
But people seeking power over others need to ensure there is never any political expression of the underlying ideas or concepts they dress their political shit up in. So the terms of ‘anarchist’ or ‘anarchy’ are demonised and cast aside in order that their conceptual basis can be quietly and safely trawled, twisted and finally processed as unrecognisable end products (Right Wing Libertarianism or Corporatism on the one hand and Dictatorial Socialist States on the other.)
Interestingly, the internet is essentially an functioning Anarchy – currently being reigned in with the likes of failed SOPA, PIPPA and impending ACTA – perhaps because it is teaching a working Anarchsit model to the generation who has grown up on it.
The Occupy movement is essentially an Anarchist movement, spearheaded and conceived by Anarchists, and it’s defining feature is Direct (consensus based ) Democracy. The other thing technology seems to have taught this generation which certainly didn’t come from their Libertarian Babyboomer parents is sharing.
Yet of coarse the pop understanding of Anarchisim suggests it is incongruous with Democracy..
Actually, this boomer was well into anarchism in my 20s, especially anarcho-syndicalism. And back then, I knew a few of my age group, and some slightly younger uni students who were strong advocates of anarchism too, both HEre and in London. London feminists (full of boomers Iin the late 70s & early 80s) tended to be describe the women’s movement as operating according to anarchist principles.
I suspect that many younger folk may not fully embrace anarchism as a principle, even though they are strongly into the Internet. But I welcome the re-invigoration of anarchist ideas that the Internet has brought.
Individualist liberals and libertarian boomers were a much stronger feature in the US than in NZ or the UK.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting these ideas or radicalism is in any way new, what I’m suggesting is interesting is that they’re being ingested as a way of being as a byproduct of the way we interact with technology.
Re the Babyboomer dig, that’s a generalization obviously, of coarse much social progress was made by those who engaged..
Well it also isn’t that much of a correct generalisation of comparative generalisations of different generations. It’s by no means that clear-cut, and it ignores the strong and dominant political forces coming from the wealthy and powerful elites.
I see too much re-writing of history about boomers. The whole hippy movement, even in individualist US, was about sharing, helping others, and about rejecting materialist acquisition of wealth. It was a time when there was much media and popular attention given to the hippy, grass-roots, commune movement, for instance, and many young kiwis got into that.
Unfortunately, some who were well into that (eg Tim Shadbolt and his rural commune), later got absorbed into the neoliberal system – a shift which came from the elites above, in contrast to the more grass roots hippy movement.
Nevertheless, as a result of boomer-dominated hippy anti-materialist, left-leaning values, notions of sharing and a gift economy were built into the Internet architecture and gave rise to such notions as open source software.
And while many people today have absorbed some of the sharing fundamentals built into the Internet architecture, at the same time have absorbed (shonkey) individualist, materially and financially acquisitive neoliberal values.
I’m afraid the destruction wrought by the majority of the babyboomer generation far outweighs any good the minority of the countercoultre achieved. As the planet is testament.
PS: the geeks who laid down the original architect of the Internet, were grad students and others around the Paolo Alta-Silicon Valley area, who were strongly influenced by the Californian hippy ideals of the time, and that influenced the anarchistic elements that underlie the Internet today.
A wee side note relating to the article. What Darwin was saying by ‘survival of the fittest’ was that what fitted best was what survived; not that everything had to fight and struggle for survival and dominance
Bill @7.3. He also highlighted the part that chance plays. A tiny modification way back could have caused say horses to be the dominant species and humanoids faded out. A biologist much younger than Darwin (working in Indonesia I think) floated the idea of survival of the fittest to Darwin when writing to him years before Darwin published. Darwin of course gets the credit but he did not mean that the toughest, meanest fight the way to the top, although looking at humanity these days you might wonder. Politics huh?
He found the view of the social Darwinists contradicted by his own empirical research. After five years examining wildlife in Siberia, Kropotkin wrote, “I failed to find – although I was eagerly looking for it – that bitter struggle for the means of existence…which was considered by most Darwinists…as the dominant characteristic – and the main factory of evolution.”
Kropotkin honored Darwin’s insights about natural selection but believed the governing principle of natural selection was cooperation, not competition. The fittest were those who cooperated.
“The animal species, in which individual struggle has been reduced to its narrowest limits, and the practice of mutual aid has attained the greatest development, are invariably the most numerous, the most prosperous, and the most open to further progress. … The unsociable species, on the contrary, are doomed to decay.”
Social Darwinists still exist although the term has dropped from common usage – their natural home in NZ is now in National and Act. And they’re as wrong today as they were a hundred years ago.
Kropotkin forms a large basis of my thoughts on the matter of governance and society.
Yes, “survival of the fittest” means, those species most suited to survive in a given environment – it’s species level, and not about individual strength etc.
It is quite clear that one of the main reasons for human ‘advancement’ over other species has been its internal cooperation and not its internal competition.
That certain people alive today cannot see this dooms their own survival – which is in fact to the betterment of wider human survival and advancement of course. The fewer of these buffoons around the better.
Lprent,
Is there any way of measuring the number of external links followed by readers on a blog like this?
It would be interesting to know the number of different links, and the total number followed, as part of the bigger picture including visits and page view numbers.
Just curious really. And procrastinating something much more important…
Yes. We have that on several stats packages. The WP stats does it. For instance in the last 30 days, these are the top clicks from the body of the site (posts, comments, blogrolls) and note that these are the actual landing pages…
As you can see we generate a lot of clicks, but the fall off is pretty rapid. Yesterday for instance we did about 450 clicks out over about 200 links (over half only got one click).
If we look over the last year, we basically see the blogroll
I also jigged the system for google analytics to also do be able to do outward click analysis long ago. They have some more useful stats about paths people tended to take through and out of the site. Which is why I know that most of the readers use the front page to land, and select a post, and then use next and previous posts rather than navigating up and down. But there really isn’t a strong pattern for clickouts.
Of course we’re only really seeing what sites people navigated to from clicks on this site, and it excludes the ads.
Surprising. I thought sites like facebook would feature more prominently with the links to parliamentary clips etc.
It seems most visitors don’t follow links, even those within the body of blog posts (with some exceptions). I guess it’s mainly a matter of time and personal interest. Personally I love the links and some commenters on open mike provide some beauties too.
The more I follow things online, the less I follow the mainstream media. Seldom watch the TV news, but when I catch it I feel like I’m living in a parallel universe.
Facebook doesn’t get many outgoing links. However we do get a lot of incoming links from them. Since I put the recommendatory buttons in, it has gone from being a low contender to being second after the search engines.
Just been reading about Russia in the 50s and 60s. An intense drive to increase outputs of goods was spurred on by bonus payments to managers who met the annual targets of production. So Performance Pay is a Communist construct! The difference was that in Russia defined targets had to be met whereas here Bonus to Bankers, CEOs, Consultants are paid regardless of success.
Bring on the Commies!
Seems to be a common theme when reading such articles often contain sentences such as “This is the type of idiocy that passes as policy in the eurozone. ” – People like to fob off bad decision making as some sort of accident…
At what point will people come to realise that there is much more at play than “idiocy” when making decisions.
At what point does the continual “idiocy” beceome a deliberate act? 5, 10, 20, 30 years recently…..
Justice Miller said the application for review was granted and the decision by Land Information Minister Maurice Williamson and Associate Finance Minister Jonathan Coleman was set aside.
The judge directed that the ministers reconsider the application by Shanghai Pengxin subsidiary Milk New Zealand.
I may get repititive but it is for very good and simple reason…… namely, that having land owned by people who do not live in New Zealand is bad for New Zealand.
And they don’t even NEED to own the land. They claim they are investing in business, right? So invest ion the business, but they don’t need to own the land to do that.
Keep the issue alive! It is one of some paths to greater prosperity, of that there is no doubt.
I have had a quick squizz at the judgment. Justice Millar seems to be saying that the Ministers overstated the economic benefits of the purchase. The same benefits would have been available if the local bidder bought the farms. Interesting decision …
So if the ministry overstated ecenomic benefits, thats just a flash way to say “they lied” no!
The “It will create jobs” , followed by, there might be 2 possibly 3 training positions really was a give away to the fact that someone was talking CRAP!
Let’s have all the BS come out now, and lets watch the spin machine in action again!
I found the court summary quite interesting, it gelled with what I read in the OIO report here….
17. One submitter claimed that the Applicant’s proposal contains no benefits to New Zealand. In particular, the farming plans relating to herd and farm improvement are nothing more than what an average New Zealand farmer would do if given the chance to purchase the properties
(OIO) Response
19. The Overseas Investment Act does not require an overseas person investor to do more than a New Zealand investor would do to the land. Instead, the Overseas Investment Act tests only whether the investment will or is likely to benefit New Zealand, a part of New Zealand or a group of New Zealanders, and whether that benefit will be substantial and identifiable. That test is by reference to a number of benefit ‘factors’ which must be considered by the relevant Ministers.
My thoughts at the time was the OIO could not state anything to be a benefit unless they knew what other buyers intended and compared one against the other. Their response above didn’t make any sense to me, and clearly the judge thought so too.
To borrow an expression from OleBiscuitBarrel… colour me gobsmacked!!!!
What has yet to come out is the Ministerial interference in the LandCorp bid. Unfortunately I’m not 100% on my source and I can’t quote them properly; but the gist of the conversation was along the lines that LandCorp was instructed not to put in an acceptable bid for the farms.
Even if we give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn’t know the mine had exploded as he applied for another job, the overall mismanagement of Pike River mine is highly despicable!
COLLECTING SIGNATURES FOR THE PETITION WHICH MAY HELP GET RID OF JOHN BANKS – ACT MP FOR EPSOM:
Interesting that neither the old Securities Commission, the SFO, the Finance Markets Authority (FMA), or the Police have lifted a finger to apply ACT’s ‘one law for all’ to either the ACT Party MP for Epsom, John Banks, or the former ACT Party Leader Don Brash?
In fact, I have it in writing from the the SFO, the Finance Markets Authority (FMA), and the Police that they will not lay charges against Banks or Brash, which, in my considered opinion, is a form of political protection, which I believe is corrupt.
Both John Banks and Don Brash were equally former fellow Directors of Huljich Wealth Management (NZ) Ltd, whom, along with Peter Huljich equally signed Huljich Kiwisaver Registered Prospectuses which contained untrue statements.
Under the Securities Act 1978 s.58 (3) that is an offence.
Where is the ZERO TOLERANCE for ‘white collar’ crime in New Zealand?
In my considered opinion, in NZ – ‘perceived’ to be the least corrupt country in the world, according to Transparency International’s 2011 ‘Corruption Perception Index’ – the balance of power is arguably being held by a yet-to-be charged or convicted ‘white collar’ criminal – John Banks ACT MP for Epsom.
However – all is not lost.
When one door closes, another door opens.
Currently there are signatures being collected for a petition which requests:
“That the House conduct an urgent inquiry into the decisions regarding prosecutions relating to the Juljich Kiwisaver Scheme registered prospectuses dated 22 August 2008 and 18 September 2009.”
I do not anticipate any major problems in getting an MP to present this petition to the House.
[lprent: I have to confess that was partially my fault. Whilst chastising OleBiscuitBarrel last year, I told him that he was a gormless fool. He adopted it as his handle. But I have to say that it is one of the more unique and entertaining handles around 😈 ]
penny as I’ve said before in politics less is more .Your track record in politics proves me right .
I agree with your plight but you are obviously not very bright .
Abbreviate your message and people won’t be turned off by your boring posts!
I think the style over content argument is passé. It is conformist boring rubbish that people like Penny and Phil u get all the time by those who do not agree with their message. The only reason it would apply is that the style is somehow detrimental to the message, which is subjective to the reader. It would seem you’re more averse to the message than the style mik e. Either way, you have the choice of not reading it.
http://ilcorsaro.info/mondo/285-il-mito-del-fannullone-greco
Sorry this is in Italian, but it’s very good about the myths told about the Greek people, and what’s really going on!
The title means ‘The myth of the lazy Greek’.
Here’s an extract and my translation:
“Prendiamo i greci. I dati dell’Ocse mostrano chiaramente che i greci lavorano in media più ore all’anno (2.109) degli altri europei: i tedeschi per esempio lavorano 1.419 ore. Si può ovviamente obiettare che le ore lavorate non significano lavoro effettivo, che si può rimanere 12 ore sul luogo di lavoro e passarne la metà a cercare ricette esotiche su internet. Questo porta ad analizzare la produttività del lavoro, concetto più complicato da calcolare perché dipende da fattori che non sono in rapporto con l’assiduità (il livello tecnologico, la qualità dell’organizzazione produttiva e così via).”
“Take the Greeks. The OECD data show clearly that the Greeks are working longer hours on average per year (2,109) than other Europeans, the Germans work 1,419 hours for example. You can of course argue that the hours worked do not mean actual work, that you can stay 12 hours at work and spend half your time searching for exotic recipes on the Internet. This leads us to analyse labour productivity, a concept more complicated to calculate because it depends on factors not related to the attendance (the technological level, quality of production organization and so on)…. (and so it does, that is, attempt that analysis. )
The myth of the ‘lazy greek’ has to be repeated to justify to the German populace why it is their bankers’ moral right and imperative to subjugate that country.
To put it succinctly, in the European South, people are paid too much, work too little, receive excessive public benefits and retire too early. Unlike the industrious Germans.
There is a small problem with this diagnosis of the Euro crisis. It is false on all counts…
Key says Mondayising Public Holidays would ‘cost’ the economy $400 million.
These are Public Holidays already, the workers of NZ are alreadyentitled to them.
The reality is that the workers of NZ are being duped out of $400 million worth of holidays due to a silly loophole in the law.
The ultimate irony for me was seeing photos of foreign owned stores & Embassies closed on these Mondays, with their NZ staff given the day off.
Internal Heartland Institute strategy and funding documents obtained by DeSmogBlog expose the heart of the climate denial machine – its current plans, many of its funders, and details that confirm what DeSmogBlog and others have reported for years. The heart of the climate denial machine relies on huge corporate and foundation funding from U.S. businesses including Microsoft, Koch Industries, Altria (parent company of Philip Morris) RJR Tobacco and more.
We are releasing the entire trove of documents now to allow crowd-sourcing of the material. Here are a few quick highlights, stay tuned for much more.
And there’s a lot more!
Particularly with respect to Heartland funding of the so-called NZ (now International) “Climate Science Coalition”
As John Mashey in a comment on “Hot Topic” explains:
“The read might draw inferences about the likely effects of:
a) Heartland sending $ to foreign non-charities. NO-NO
b) Foreign non-charities engage in clearly non-exempt activities (the IRS-?E codes). NO-NO
c) Some of those involved in the NZ non-charities show up and make comments that repeatedly support the non-exemptness.
Already gone, but nice icing on the cake. When reading “puppets,” I sometimes had to hold back from commenting, lest I spoil the fun.
But all that’s on the record now.
It is very likely that neither the non-charities nor Heartland understood the US tax implications. Of course, if NZ citizens got money for a non-charity and spent it, without declaring income … well that’s for Kiwis to sort out.”
The personal search function is one I like – to keep track of my comments and those responding. I made some yesterday but they don’t come up on request. Is this something that gets dropped on occasions?
Not meant to. It runs on a cron process. I will look at in the morning as I’m in bed and doing a ssh console from the iPad is strictly an emergency procedure
Ok the problem was that sphinxsearch (the program that runs the search) had an update, and it appears that it was putting the lock files in with ownership coded to its own user id. That meant that the web process that had been running it was unable to run the daily updates.
I’ve shifted the period update to shift to the sphinx user.
I’ll check when I get to work to make sure that it has actually run.
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Up till now, Australia has made its living by digging up coal and exporting it to other countries, destroying the global climate in the process. But now they have a new option: exporting solar power:The desert outside Tennant Creek, deep ...
Later this month, thousands of people are expected to march to parliament as part of the #HandsOffOurTamaraki movement. At its heart, the movement is about preserving whānau and demanding that the state stop removing children from their whānau, hapū and iwi. ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh The recent statements made by the former FARC commander, Carlos Lozada (legal name Julian Gallo), where, from his seat in Congress, he praised the Colombian Army demonstrate how low the farianos have sunk. Lozada began by ...
A Woman’s Place is on the Podium was a public meeting in London on 10 July to discuss women’s sports and the impact of transwomen competing against women. The venue was sold out with a packed hall of 750 people. ...
Last month I talked about the no-fly movement: people who refuse to fly or limit it to absolute necessity to avoid destroying the climate. Now, that movement has a somewhat surprising new member: Dutch airline KLM:Dutch airline KLM has launched ...
In the 1960's, humanity faced a terrible threat: global thermonuclear war. Nuclear weapons were uniquely destructive and dangerous, and if more countries got them, the logic of MAD and the pre-emptive strike would put us on a hair-trigger to destruction. ...
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...
Matariki has been and gone, but this year we saw a couple of op-eds arguing that it should be a public holiday, replacing the foreign monarch's fake birthday. And now, New Zealand Republic - a group which campaigns for an ...
The discussion on the quality of economic advice, which we reported last week, has spilled over into a discussion about whether so many senior appointments should be of non-New Zealanders. Recall I discussed the failure to develop career paths within ...
When Nicky Hager revealed US footage of the Operation Burnham raid, obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act, one of the obvious questions was whether Ministers had seen it - and in particular, whether they'd been told that it ...
Northern Ireland is the Alabama of the UK: a backwards region where women and gay people are denied fundamental rights. But Westminster has just decided to fix that:MPs have voted resoundingly to extend same-sex marriage and access to abortion to ...
There's a problem with "synthetic cannabis", and not just the one you think. It's the name.We're in the midst of a wave of news stories that link synthetic drugs to serious harm, through deadly road accidents and accidental overdoses (which ...
Ranjit Kauri, The Dancing Maharani and Other Stories, Swansea, Head and Heart, 2019, £6.99; reviewed by Don Franks Working people are not the same country to country. Our struggles for a better life take place in surroundings of very different ...
Let's Do Them! All Jacinda Ardern has to do to clinch the 2020 General Election is frighten the bejesus out of the electorate by describing in the most graphic terms imaginable what will happen to all the positive beginnings her ...
It may be that we have all misinterpreted the somewhat surprising “bromance” between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. It has been all too easy to assume that it is Kim who is cosying up to Trump rather than the ...
by Michael Roberts So the full circle is completed. The corrupt pro-business conservative New Democracy party in Greece that was ousted by the anti-capitalist Syriza party in 2015 has been returned to office in yesterday’s general election, with an outright ...
When the Australian government passed a series of new spy laws over the last few years, they pinky-promised that they wouldn't use them to spy on journalists and subvert freedom of the press. They lied:The anti-encryption laws passed by the ...
From 1975 to 1989, the spy agencies of South America's right-wing military dictatorships cooperated in Operation Condor, a joint campaign of extermination against the continent's left. Roughly 400,000 people were imprisoned, 30,000 disappeared, and 60,000 murdered - kidnapped, tortured, executed, ...
When she was standing for office, Jacinda Ardern promised she would take abortion out of the Crimes Act. And to be fair, there was some early action on that, with an immediate referral of the issue to the Law Commission ...
When the government introduced the Zero Carbon Bill, people rightly asked what they planned to do to reduce transport emissions, which basicly had no policy at all other than the ETS. Today, they responded, announcing a "feebate" system which would ...
At almost every level, the problem with medicinal cannabis is a lack of good information. In the US, FDA regulations make it hard to research. Most doctors aren't familiar with what research there is and most patients don't know either. ...
Redline is critical of Corbyn for his political weaknesses, but he’s no anti-Semite. There is no substance to the McCarthyist witch-hunt being run by the right wing, and the pro-Israel lobby inside and outside the Labour Party in the UK. ...
The government's billion trees program is the sort of policy which could make a real difference to our emissions and the fight against climate change. But climate scientist Jim Salinger isn't convinced:The Forestry Minister Shane Jones' one billion trees won't ...
Last month the government was celebrating another surplus. Meanwhile, children are starving:One in five children are living in households where putting food on the table is a struggle, according to a new report from the Ministry of Health. It found ...
Show Me The Money! The alternative to state funding of infrastructure is, of course, to fund it by taking on massive amounts of private debt. On this issue, at least, Auckland mayoral challenger, Tamihere, has some solid points to make. ...
If we are to avoid making the earth uninhabitable, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to practically nothing over the next decade. But that will still leave us with the problem of the carbon we have already emitted, which ...
Former Waikato DHB CEO Nigel Murray allegedly misused public funds, spending more than $120,000 of public money on unjustified travel. He was forced to resign and the Serious Fraud Office began an investigation. But despite the SFO finding that the ...
Jeremy Corbyn, we are told, is being advised – not least by his deputy (as well as by some of his would-be successors) – that he must come “off the fence” on the Brexit issue if he wants to bolster ...
The End of Life bill has been read a second time and is now heading for the House for further debate. Personally, I support the proposal. I don't ever epect to take advantage of the Bill's provisions myself, but as ...
Before the substantive issue which this column is about – whether there has been a deterioration in the economic advice given to the government – a paragraph about the budget leaks.read more ...
Below is a translation of the editorial in the June 24 round of weekly workplace bulletins issued all over France by the revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvriere. Last Saturday, 8,000 people took to the streets of Belfort (eastern France) to ...
Why hasn't Parliament followed the lead set by our local authorities and declared a climate emergency? The answer is the National Party:The Prime Minister’s admission that she is open to the idea of declaring a climate change emergency is nothing ...
Back in May the government released its Zero Carbon Bill. While much of the bill was welcome, there was one big exception: it contained a secrecy clause, requiring the Climate Change Commission to maintain secrecy over practically everything it does. ...
by Phil Duncan This past week has marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Stonewall Inn riots in Christopher Street, New York, the event generally regarded as kicking off the gay liberation movement. Quite a few articles have ...
Southland - land of coal-burning dairy farmers - has become the first region in the country to explicitly vote against declaring a climate emergency. Their reason? They didn't want to "devalue" the word "emergency". Its an argument addressed powerfully in ...
New Zealand has a problem with police chases: officers going after fleeing drivers like rabid dogs, without any consideration for proportionality or public safety, often with fatal results. And according to an in-depth article in the Guardian today, the UK ...
Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...
Holly Lawford-Smith is a senior lecturer in political philosophy at the University of Melbourne. She’s currently writing a book about radical feminism. This article appeared on Feminist Current Academics should be standing together in defence of universities’ fundamental values: the ...
The Otago Daily Times has an in-depth article about the future of wind energy in New Zealand, and it is looking bright:The news that wind will play the leading role in New Zealand’s energy future was put up in lights ...
If the sight of schoolkids striking for a future has been filling you with hope, good news: they want you to join them on September 27:Students will take to the streets again demanding action on climate change, and this time ...
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...
The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...
I have been working my way through a 47,000 document tranche of declassified US government communications related to Argentina and the “Dirty War” of 1976-83. I grew up in Argentina in the period leading up to the March 24, 1976 ...
To express concern about foreign ownership and control in New Zealand is often to invite accusations of xenophobia and economic illiteracy. It is worthwhile, therefore, to rehearse the grounds for that concern, and to explore the various forms it can ...
It must be a day ending in Y because the Guardian - remember when it used to be a good paper1 - is running another spurious story about Corbyn's leadership being threatened over anti-Semitism.The headline the Guardian runs is: "MPs tell ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Jun 23 through Sat, June 29, 2019 Editor's Pick When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met Greta Thunberg: 'Hope is contagious'Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and ...
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...
Million-dollar start to gun collection eventsPolice Minister Stuart Nash says a solid start has been made to the gun buyback and amnesty after the first weekend of community collection events. “Gun owners will walk away with more than ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash has praised Police and gun owners after the first firearms collection event saw a busy turnout at Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch. “Police officers and staff have put a tremendous effort into planning and logistics for the ...
Seventy-eight new Police constables are heading out to the regions following today’s graduation of a new recruit wing from the Royal New Zealand Police College. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the record high number of new Police officers being recruited, ...
July 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government is looking to tighten control and impose harsher penalties after the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed cracks in the country's stock management system. ...
Kia Anga Mua Ngā Hapū o Ngāpuhi (KAM) has reached a pivotal milestone following a hui yesterday at Waitangi with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the Government spent $133,530 on producing its ‘Wellbeing Budget’ document, a cost blowout largely driven by spending on graphic design and photography. The $133,530 price tag compares to $86,268 ...
Kahungunu Māori Language Awards. Nominations closed on 5 July 2019, and were judged by the Senior Management Team of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated. The judges wish to acknowledge the very high calibre of all nominations received making it a very ...
High Court of Australia Judge, Justice Stephen Gageler, will address recent criticism of court judgment delays in Australia, at the University of Canterbury (UC) on 23 July at 6.15pm. ...
This summary is provided to assist in the understanding of the Inquiry’s proceedings but does not constitute the official record. The full Minute is available at the link below. ...
The Tertiary Education Commission is laying charges under section 292A of the Education Act 1989 against three individuals for making a false representation for the purpose of receiving, or continuing to receive, free tertiary education from a tertiary education ...
New Zealand food businesses today welcomed a trio of new food safety tools, designed to make it faster, easier and more affordable to follow the rules and keep consumers safe. ...
AUT research shows that Māori children are almost four times more likely than those of European descent to be placed out of home by child protection services ...
The Government announced today that grants of up to $2,500 for energy efficient heaters are now available as part of the Government’s Warmer Kiwi Homes programme. ...
Fonterra’s use of coal has been the target of numerous grassroots campaigns in recent years. Last year 350 Aotearoa affiliated groups, Fossil Free Aoraki and 350 Nelson launched a petition dismissing the dairy giant’s initial target of no new ...
Information sessions on proposals for The Medicinal Cannabis Scheme take place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch over the next fortnight. The sessions are open to anyone with an interest in learning more about the proposed scheme. ...
“Our children are our most vulnerable, most innocent victims and we do not want to see any more children harmed by these ‘known sex offenders’. The safety of our community must be the paramount consideration.” ...
“The announcement that Fonterra will immediately stop installing any new coal boilers or increasing capacity to burn coal is the signal that the biomass fuel supply industry welcomes” said Brian Cox, Executive Officer of the Bioenergy Association. ...
18 July 2019-- Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA) today welcomed Fonterra’s commitment to build no new coal plants, a “no brainer” for the climate crisis the world faces. The group has been urging this transition for six years now and ...
The increase in demand for cage-free eggs is set to continue according to animal rights organisation SAFE, who says the egg industry should expect this and prepare. ...
Wellington, New Zealand – 350 Pacific made a formal submission to the New Zealand Government’s Environment Parliamentary Select Committee on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, led by the Pacific Climate Warriors (PCWs) based in ...
There used to be a school of thought on the centre right side of politics that the best way to neuter the Greens as a political force would be to let them have a spell in government. Then, according to ...
Today (18 July) is Nelson Mandela International Day when the United Nations highlights the importance of humane conditions of imprisonment. In New Zealand our prisons are overcrowded and understaffed. At 214 prisoners per 100,000 people, we have the fifth ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa will take legal action over the lengthy delay in implementing pay increases for teachers. Novopay announced yesterday that teachers would have to wait until 11 September to see pay increases that they won when they settled ...
EDS has filed its submission on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill. The Bill sets targets for greenhouse gas reductions, provides for the government to set a series of carbon budgets, and sets up a new, independent, Climate ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has identified an absurd case of mission creep at Wellington City Council: the decision to spend $21,750 on two Consumer NZ investigations into different brands of bike lights. ...
The Motor Trade Association is welcoming the release of the Government’s new draft road safety strategy. MTA Chief Executive Craig Pomare says the association is pleased to see vehicle safety has been made a priority in the Road to Zero ...
The Department of Conservation continue to repeat the same old story about attacks on staff and how it is affecting their role in protecting our precious wildlife. NZ herald https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12249704 ...
The government's silence on the fact that the country's second-largest milk processor is on the brink of becoming 25% Chinese Government owned has been deafening. ...
School Strike 4 Climate NZ welcomes the coalition Government’s endeavour to take action on reducing agricultural emissions but is disappointed at the weak stance that the Government has taken on the issue. ...
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has issued a formal warning under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act) to seven reporting entities within the Regus Management Limited (RNZML) designated business ...
The Northland Regional Council (NRC) has voted to exclude all GM/GE precautionary provisions in its regional plan, despite years of community engagement showing support for such protection. There is a sense of betrayal following the way the NRC Chairman ...
New Zealand’s ‘mission-driven’ charities working in international aid are showing early signs of changing the way they work, in particular prioritising building the capacity and resilience of local communities to do their own development. ...
Teachers will have to wait until 11 September for pay increases won as part of their collective agreement negotiations settled in June, according to an update sent to schools today from Novopay. ...
July 16 (BusinessDesk) - Energy Minister Megan Woods says the government “won’t die in a ditch” if its goal of 100 percent renewable electricity generation isn't reached by 2035. ...
The Electricity Networks Association (ENA) is welcoming the Government’s response to the Interim Climate Change Committee (ICCC) Report released today. Graeme Peters, chief executive of the ENA, said one of the key recommendations, endorsed by the ...
An article* published this month in the Journal of Health Organization and Management raises questions over the way health board members are elected and whether the boards are even needed. ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa's kindergarten teacher members will vote on a proposed settlement to their collective agreement after four days of negotiations with the Ministry of Education and kindergarten employers. ...
Vector has today welcomed the ICCC’s report on Accelerated Electrification . Vector agrees that accelerating the electrification of transport and process heat will play a major role in reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Initiatives to ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Porirua City Council to cancel its underwriting of a proposed Canadian-led privately owned adventure park slated for public land after a similar project created a huge liability for Christchurch ...
Youth climate change campaigners Generation Zero welcome the Interim Climate Change Committee’s (ICCC’s) reports: Accelerated Electrification and Action on agricultural emissions ; which were finally released by the Government today, almost three months ...
Fish & Game New Zealand notes the announcement today that the Government and the intensive agriculture leadership have reached a ‘historic consensus’ and are exploring using a formal sector-government agreement instead of bringing agriculture ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report on Accelerated Electrification was released today by the Minister for Energy and Resources, Hon Dr Megan Woods. ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report Action on agricultural emissions was released today by the Minister for Climate Change, Hon James Shaw and the Minister of Agriculture, Hon Damien O’Connor. ...
Please find attached embargoed copies of two media statements from the Interim Climate Change Committee http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1907/Embargoed_Interim_Climate_Change_Committee_Accelerated_electrification_MEDIA_STATEMENT.pdf ...
Greenpeace Executive Director, Dr Russel Norman, has reacted with disbelief that the Government’s latest climate proposal includes an option for dairy to voluntarily deal with their emissions over the next six years. ...
This week’s “Youth Parliament” is an expensive waste of time that promotes taxpayer-funded junketeering, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . “We shouldn’t be training kids on the joys of the trough,” says Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones admitted on Q+A tonight that the state of New Zealand’s infrastructure planning is “dismal” and the government needs to get on with building “rather than writing more reports about it.” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan – one with a reduced pace, despite the 24 ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and ...
Jacinda Ardern’s Melbourne trip wrapped up with nothing to show on longstanding trans-Tasman concerns, but was a potent reminder of her international appeal. ...
Pricing agricultural emissions first at the processor level - such as Fonterra - rather than right down at farm level stacks up as a gap measure says Catherine Leining. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne Orlando, Researcher: Children and Technology, Western Sydney University Instagram is running a social media experiment in Australia and elsewhere to see what happens when it hides the number of likes on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Cross, Research Fellow, Curtin University Sign up to the Beating Around the Bush newsletter here, and suggest a plant we should cover at batb@theconversation.edu.au. Billabongs in the northern Kimberley are welcome ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling You’ve probably heard that this week marks 50 years since humans first set foot on the Moon – a feat that still boggles the mind given ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis Gentilin, Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University As strange as it might sound, whistleblowers in Australia have reason to rejoice – so long as they are in the private sector. Thanks to new ...
The fourth season of Queer Eye drops today on Netflix. Sam Brooks reflects on his difficult relationship with the show, and where it sits in mainstream culture.For depressingly many people, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was an introduction not just to ...
The collapse of a multi-billion dollar deal to sell AMP's life insurance division to a British company for $3.6 billion is the fault of the companies, according to the Reserve Bank. ...
A poem by Miramar poet Geoff Cochrane.Channel HoppingStupa or Stuka?Weet-Bix or Welsh rabbit?Galactic aerodrome or Matchbox truck?*I’m young in my dreams, still young.*Beautiful Keanu’s wearing shades—antique shades with iodine-coloured lenses.*I’m young in my dreams, still young,and I still have some ...
For the month of July, Josie Adams is taking on the challenge of being low-waste. That means minimising plastics, emissions, and even recyclables. Each week we release her diary. This is week two.Read week one here.I’ll be honest, week two ...
By Royson Willie in Port Vila Two Vanuatu Daily Post journalists were literally given a pat-down by the police criminal investigation unit yesterday over a story they had written about the vehicle of the Chairman of the Public Service ...
By Gorothy Kenneth in Port Moresby Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape will visit Australia this weekend for a week-long state visit and the Bougainville independence referendum in less than three months is expected to be high on ...
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...
Wtf did we just watch?That sound you heard was a million furries screaming in ecstasy as their fantasy and everyone else’s nightmare came to life in the form of the first trailer for the live action version of Cats.Is it ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Three Women by Lisa Taddeo (Bloomsbury, $35)Fucking ...
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...
As we mark the fiftieth anniversary the July 20th Moon landing Dr Nick Long reflects on what that's meant for New Zealand and considers the space 'gold rush' ahead. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Griebsch, Specialist and Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Medicine, University Veterinary Teaching Hospital Sydney, Sydney School of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney Recently reported cases of the often fatal bacterial infection ...
My selection of the eight best morning news links from here and overseas, along with eight lunchtime lean-back long reads. Also, the full list of links, including Jacinda Ardern's trip to Australia, the big emissions report, Fonterra's coal move and a new ...
Heaven is a place on earth, and June is saving the world one ’80s pop hit at a time. Tara Ward recaps season 4, episode 9 of The Handmaid’s Tale. Praise be, for there was a tiny bit of good news ...
Finance companies say they shouldn’t have to be ‘fit and proper’ even though in some cases they charge more than the planned clampdown on high cost lending. A group of finance companies that charges well over the government’s proposed cap on ...
An ANZ shareholder is demanding the bank disclose more information about the sale of an Auckland residential property to its former chief executive and his family. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentForeign Affairs and trade Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): The new, ...
Tara Ward sets out on a valiant quest to find the best apple in Aotearoa. The idea that every apple is a good apple is fake news. We’ve all got stories about shit experiences with apples, when it looked good on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Sarkissian, Operations Scientist, CSIRO The role Australia played in relaying the first television images of astronaut Neil Armstrong’s historic walk on the Moon 50 years ago this July features in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lyndal Sleep, Research Fellow, Griffith University In Australia’s social security laws, the “couple rule” is used to determine if a person is in a relationship, tying access to Centrelink payments to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Walker, Lecturer (Management), Victoria University of Wellington We live in a society obsessed with performance. For both young and old, competitions, awards and rankings are an inescapable feature of life. How ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan O’Connell, Honorary Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne One-third of all preschools may lack a qualified teacher in the next four years if nothing changes, my new modelling shows. Currently, half of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kirsty Volz, PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Of all the mantras for modernism, the one I think most befitting for Australian mid-century modern houses is L’esprit Nouveau – The New Spirit. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Skifield snowmaking a sign of the future, vaccination rates fall alarmingly, and construction industry encouraged to lower emissions.Snowmaking has saved the ski industry from disaster this year, after the weather ...
Joel Rindelaub explains why it's so important for those weighing on climate science to be transparent about their funding sources and conflicts of interest. ...
Neil Armstrong may have been the first man on the moon, but if we define the ‘space race’ as spaceflight capability, the Soviets won it hands down, writes Jennifer Frost. ...
Our government and leaders are (still) divided on the question of compulsory te reo Māori. Who’s for it, who’s against it, and who’s flip flopping around in the middle?Under article two of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the government pledges to ...
When teenagers today are being called upon to solve the problems of tomorrow, why aren’t they given the right to participate in democracy? Fourteen-year-old Oli Morphew makes the case for lowering the voting age. If you’re going to deprive someone of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Walker, Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe University Australia’s relations with China will be further complicated by the news that Australian citizen Yang Hengjun is set to be charged with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Kyne, Senior Research Fellow in conservation biology, Charles Darwin University More than 28,000 species around the world are threatened, according to the Red List of Threatened Species compiled by the International ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clive Hamilton, Professor of Public Ethics, Centre For Applied Philosophy & Public Ethics (CAPPE), Charles Sturt University Two Australian universities, University of Technology Sydney and Curtin University, are conducting internal reviews of ...
Open mike 15/02/2012 
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...3 hours ago
This week, in the wake of National's opposition to even talking about reducing agricultural emissions and Simon Bridges' refusal to recognise that there is a climate emergency, I've been saying that National is unfit to govern. And it looks like ...5 hours ago
Something I missed: not only did Youth MPs declare a climate emergency; they also launched a campaign to lower the voting age to 16:Youth Parliament week in Parliament has seen the establishment of Make it 16, a campaign to ...8 hours ago
I have been reading and listening to the aftermath of Trump’s comments about the four female first term Democratic representatives, all of whom are “people of color.” I found the US coverage interesting both as evidence of partisanship and the ...1 day ago
The proposed Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill treats biogenic methane emissions differently from all other carbon emissions. The latter are to be measured net so that emissions from fossil fuels can be offset by carbon stored in trees. ...2 days ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...2 days ago
2 days ago
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...3 days ago
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...3 days ago
A Woman’s Place is on the Podium was a public meeting in London on 10 July to discuss women’s sports and the impact of transwomen competing against women. The venue was sold out with a packed hall of 750 people. ...5 days ago
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...1 week ago
1 week ago
2 weeks ago
Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...2 weeks ago
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...2 weeks ago
The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...3 weeks ago
Image Credit: Blog Writing Tips. I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the ... 3 weeks ago
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...3 days ago
July 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government is looking to tighten control and impose harsher penalties after the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed cracks in the country's stock management system. ...4 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan – one with a reduced pace, despite the 24 ...59 mins ago
The Air Force's Boeing 757 has broken down in Melbourne, stranding media and forcing the Prime Minister on to last minute commercial flights. ...3 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cherie Hugo, Teaching Fellow, Nutrition & Dietetics, Bond University The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety this week turned its attention to food and nutrition. The testimony of maggots in ...3 hours ago
Jacinda Ardern’s Melbourne trip wrapped up with nothing to show on longstanding trans-Tasman concerns, but was a potent reminder of her international appeal. ...4 hours ago
Pricing agricultural emissions first at the processor level - such as Fonterra - rather than right down at farm level stacks up as a gap measure says Catherine Leining. ...4 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Cross, Research Fellow, Curtin University Sign up to the Beating Around the Bush newsletter here, and suggest a plant we should cover at batb@theconversation.edu.au. Billabongs in the northern Kimberley are welcome ...5 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis Gentilin, Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University As strange as it might sound, whistleblowers in Australia have reason to rejoice – so long as they are in the private sector. Thanks to new ...6 hours ago
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Today is one of the most famous anniversaries in the history of the New Zealand Trade Union Movement.
Today, the 15th of February 1951, is the very day, 61 years ago that marked the start of the 1951 lockout.
Sixty one years ago today, eight thousand wharfies were locked out of their jobs for 151 days from the 15th of February to 15th of July 1951.
The similarities don’t stop with the date.
On this day 61 years ago the entire waterfront workforce was dismissed to destroy the union.
Today in a copy of those employer tactics of the past, the whole Maritime Union workforce at the Ports of Auckland is to be dismissed to destroy the union.
Three days after the 1951 lockout began the National government declared a state of emergency, making it illegal to publicise the workers point of view.
Today in a copy of those tactics of the past, Ports of Auckland Ltd. is using an injunction to make it illegal to publicise the workers point of view.
Today in a deliberate copy of the union tactics of the past. The Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) has just as the Watersiders Union did in 1951, have called, for a partial strike. (In 1951 while making themselves available for normal duties the wharfies refused all overtime beyond 40 hours. Today while making themselves available for normal duties the wharfies are refusing to do any work on containers handled by contractors.)
In drawing attention to the obvious parralels between the two disputes, The Watersiders are giving their answer to those in the Labour Party and on this website who argue that this dispute “ain’t” nothing like 1951 therefore we should withhold our support.
Eddie in his post “1951 it ain’t, for now” argued that the Greens and Occupy and Labour should withhold their support from the wharfies.
One of the reasons Eddie gave for not supporting the wharfies was the difference in scale. Eddie said it is only 300 workers in one port.
The differences Eddie highlights are quantative but not qualitive, (the sheer differences in numbers reflecting the huge increases in productivity between now and then).
Now as then, this is a fight to the death, for the soul and even the existence of a watersider union on the waterfront.
Now as then, win or lose, this dispute will have far reaching consequences for the whole union movement in this country.
Jenny do you have a link to details about the injunction preventing the distribution of information? Seems awfully undemocratic. Surely the Herald should be running a campaign!
Sorry Micky, no link.
Maybe, Wharfie might be able to provide the link.
Here you go Micky http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1202/S00127/ports-of-auckland-management-attack-free-speech.htm
And “Ports of Auckland Management confirmed to Lloyd’s List Australia it had filed for an injunction to prevent workers speaking publicly about the dispute.”
http://www.lloydslistdcn.com.au/archive/2012/02-feb/14/ports-of-auckland-ups-the-ante-in-wharfie-dispute
A little way away in a far off country a daily newspaper headline read “Memorandum Macht Frei”. For anybody who believes that a Chamberlain approach to far off places can come back to bite you very hard this should raise alarm bells.
Greece this morning is in turmoil, the end result of a romance with free and easy credit from banks. From the lie of perpetual growth to pay for all. From the corruption of financialisation of whole economies.
This is the lie Key has sold us too, tax cuts through borrowing, money for the wealthy, supposedly to “trickle” down. “Growth” to pay and create jobs. At some point the receiever comes to the door…”Mr Key, you failed to pay us the interest….bail out with austerity for the poor attached”.
Athens coming to NZ soon, courtesy of the National Party.
New Zealand government official stats show $318 billion NZ originated private institution credit money. They then treat as assets and deduct what has been invested overseas and come up with what they call Net International Investment Position which appears much less alarming despite that money competting to find profit in an international financial system where the international debt is also unrepayable from the day its born.
Even if the foreign investments from NZ where able to be repatriated in quick time they would come back to only the wealthiest few who control them and not benefit wider society as implied. Just more smoke and mirrors;
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/ParlSupport/ResearchPapers/3/4/6/00PlibCIP121-New-Zealand-s-International-Investment-Position.htm
$318 billion debt based money supply at annual interest rate of 7% equals $22 odd billion interest repayment that is essentially rent upon a revolving line of credit that circulates as our money supply.
Given most of that interest finds its way back to the same largest owners of larger international banks who own largest stake holdings in Australian banks who own NZ banks, it puts to shame the 1.3 billion they give back in tax and shout from the roof tops as being so beneficial to the prosperity of the nation
Nice peice of research and analysis Muzza, its a real worry to think that unless we too default we will be debt serfs of these charlatans forever.
+1
The entire financial system that we slave under is a load lies and misdirection.
+ 7%
Partial strike action commences today at the Port of Auckland.Our members are refusing to service any cargo on or off Connlinx trucks.This is a company 90% owned by the Port of Auckland.The company contracted the containing moving in the Port out to themselves and made our members who used to undertake this work redundant.Tomorrow any machine that touches cargo off this company will be blacked.
People with disabilities.
Talk back radio and blog sites like the sewer have a lot to answer for. They have unleashed
a nasty, mean and selfish trait in the New Zealand psyche. It is appalling to hear what is being expressed regarding Mojo Mathers and the issues in the house. $30,000??? WTF. (Noone appears to have batted an eyelid over the obscene amounts of profit the banks are salting away…)
They of course ignore the fact that Bill English is being paid $30,000 per annum to live in the house he owns and which was paid for by 20 years of rorting.
Of course they do, if they didn’t then they’d have to face the fact that their self-selected leaders are corrupt and there’s no way that they will do that.
Food for thought on pseudonymity : http://testkitchen.colorado.edu/2012/02/what-is-a-quality-comment/
But The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell is my real name and my comments are all quality.
Haha you are many exceptions to many rules 😉
“Revising conventional wisdom on cats, media
from NewsCred Blog
02/14/2012
Contrary to common wisdom, cats make you popular — particularly online.”
This little gem comes from the same page linked to by felix above. Does it explain Key’s popularity when he talked about his cat on the infamous radio hour?
Does it explain felix’s popularity online?
As for the article on pseudonymity itself, are both researcher and article writer confusing ‘quality’ with ‘popularity’? The quality of a comment was gauged by whether it got a positive as in a ‘like’ or whether it got a negative rating or was dumped as spam. That seems like a popularity rating and not a
way of rating of quality which should be independent of popularity but judged on intrinsic factors.
Yeah surely quality is fairly subjective anyway. I agree it seems more like a popularity index, but I guess they’re just measuring what can be measured.
No surprise about cats though, cats are awesome 😀
Absolutely they are! 😀
And now a note on what time does to language:
In 1951, at least, the word ain’t was a contraction of the words am not and definitely not is not. 1951 it ain’t, translates: 1951, it am not.
These days, any word can mean anything a person wants it to, which is the least of our problems since a writer can now uz txt spk qwite ezi. No one seems to have issues with using don’t and didn’t and now those of you who aren’t asleep can use ain’t correctly, too.
Actually I always thought it was a contraction of “are not”, but it turns out it is both and has a history going back centuries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contractions_of_negated_auxiliary_verbs_in_English#Ain.27t
The only place I can think of, apart from songs, where it is still in common usage is in the saying “Ain’t that the truth.” Songs, though, show where it is able to make sense. It ain’t me babe = It is not me babe. Ain’t misbehavin’= I am not misbehaving, etc.
(ahem..!..i am trying to keep ‘ain’t’ alive….it is a great marker of tone..
..i reckon..eh..?..)
[email look alike deleted].
Yes that is probably why song writers like it. One “ain’t song of many:
Yeah that’s the post modern anything means anything approach. The Right uses it so easily and so blatantly to steal the language and symbolism of the Left and twists it for its own uses. And usually, the Left sits back and let it happen.
It is not quite the same thing, although I appreciate your point. “Ain’t” is an old fashioned slang word that is able to be used in various places where a contracted “not” is in order. Whereas the right recontextualises left wing concepts so as to rob them of their original meaning. Freedom from bondage is applied to the “free market” for example, and a woman’s right to paid work justifies the pitchforking of solo mothers into low-paid insecure jobs, etc. It works best where it is subtle, and draws the left into a conversation that it didn’t intend to have. The left wing concern about children going hungry, for example, implies that the poor need more money, but is likely to be translated by the right into the idea that the poor need more policing. And then the left finds itself disarmed. You said you wanted us to do something about child poverty, say the right. Well we’re doing something. The good thing about the Occupy Movement is that it has created a conceptual space that cannot easily be appropriated in this way.
…or close parentheses, apparently.
Haha, getting very close to Muphrey’s Law there.
http://whoar.co.nz/2012/anarchism-is-not-what-you-think-it-is-and-theres-a-whole-lot-we-can-learn-from-it/
“…The word anarchism has been so stripped of substance that it has come to be equated with chaos and nihilism.
That’s not what it means…”
[email look alike deleted].
The people who think anarchism is chaos also shriek that socialism will force “everyone to live in caves”. The problem is they just can’t grasp that alternative, sometimes more effective, ways of living existed before capitalism came along.
From the article you link to there is a comment on how guilds operated:
“…sovereign in its own sphere, but could not develop rules that interfered with the workings of other guilds. ”
Capitalism, or “growth”, depends on people being allowed to steal from and interfere with the property and rules of their neighbour. The wail of “living in caves” is the fear that theft would once again be called theft.
Thanks UTurn, its amazing how labels stick. Socialist states and capitalist states hate anarchism in equal doses, it is the devil incarnate to both parties.
At the heart of the issue is the point you make: respect for the rules and property. Capitalist / corporate / socialist states manage this through coercion, as represented by the mechanisms and the power of the state. That individuals might manage these affairs removes the “power” from their central control. A totally heretic position….God forbid you dont follow blind dogma.
Don’t know if you’ve noticed how often anarchist sentiment is tapped into by politicians who seek popular support for their programmes?
ACT (and just about every other right wing libertarian outfit I’ve come across) do it extensively. And L’nin (that lovely left wing Authoritarian) did it too. In fact, if you listen closely, the ideas and sentiments of anarchy are all over the political sphere.
But people seeking power over others need to ensure there is never any political expression of the underlying ideas or concepts they dress their political shit up in. So the terms of ‘anarchist’ or ‘anarchy’ are demonised and cast aside in order that their conceptual basis can be quietly and safely trawled, twisted and finally processed as unrecognisable end products (Right Wing Libertarianism or Corporatism on the one hand and Dictatorial Socialist States on the other.)
Interestingly, the internet is essentially an functioning Anarchy – currently being reigned in with the likes of failed SOPA, PIPPA and impending ACTA – perhaps because it is teaching a working Anarchsit model to the generation who has grown up on it.
The Occupy movement is essentially an Anarchist movement, spearheaded and conceived by Anarchists, and it’s defining feature is Direct (consensus based ) Democracy. The other thing technology seems to have taught this generation which certainly didn’t come from their Libertarian Babyboomer parents is sharing.
Yet of coarse the pop understanding of Anarchisim suggests it is incongruous with Democracy..
On that note, Adbusters call out to programmers to build new social network, that JP Morgan & Saudi Govt can’t buy shares in..
http://theglobalsquare.org/call4coders
Actually, this boomer was well into anarchism in my 20s, especially anarcho-syndicalism. And back then, I knew a few of my age group, and some slightly younger uni students who were strong advocates of anarchism too, both HEre and in London. London feminists (full of boomers Iin the late 70s & early 80s) tended to be describe the women’s movement as operating according to anarchist principles.
I suspect that many younger folk may not fully embrace anarchism as a principle, even though they are strongly into the Internet. But I welcome the re-invigoration of anarchist ideas that the Internet has brought.
Individualist liberals and libertarian boomers were a much stronger feature in the US than in NZ or the UK.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting these ideas or radicalism is in any way new, what I’m suggesting is interesting is that they’re being ingested as a way of being as a byproduct of the way we interact with technology.
Re the Babyboomer dig, that’s a generalization obviously, of coarse much social progress was made by those who engaged..
Well it also isn’t that much of a correct generalisation of comparative generalisations of different generations. It’s by no means that clear-cut, and it ignores the strong and dominant political forces coming from the wealthy and powerful elites.
I see too much re-writing of history about boomers. The whole hippy movement, even in individualist US, was about sharing, helping others, and about rejecting materialist acquisition of wealth. It was a time when there was much media and popular attention given to the hippy, grass-roots, commune movement, for instance, and many young kiwis got into that.
Unfortunately, some who were well into that (eg Tim Shadbolt and his rural commune), later got absorbed into the neoliberal system – a shift which came from the elites above, in contrast to the more grass roots hippy movement.
Nevertheless, as a result of boomer-dominated hippy anti-materialist, left-leaning values, notions of sharing and a gift economy were built into the Internet architecture and gave rise to such notions as open source software.
And while many people today have absorbed some of the sharing fundamentals built into the Internet architecture, at the same time have absorbed (shonkey) individualist, materially and financially acquisitive neoliberal values.
I’m afraid the destruction wrought by the majority of the babyboomer generation far outweighs any good the minority of the countercoultre achieved. As the planet is testament.
PS: the geeks who laid down the original architect of the Internet, were grad students and others around the Paolo Alta-Silicon Valley area, who were strongly influenced by the Californian hippy ideals of the time, and that influenced the anarchistic elements that underlie the Internet today.
A wee side note relating to the article. What Darwin was saying by ‘survival of the fittest’ was that what fitted best was what survived; not that everything had to fight and struggle for survival and dominance
Bill @7.3. He also highlighted the part that chance plays. A tiny modification way back could have caused say horses to be the dominant species and humanoids faded out. A biologist much younger than Darwin (working in Indonesia I think) floated the idea of survival of the fittest to Darwin when writing to him years before Darwin published. Darwin of course gets the credit but he did not mean that the toughest, meanest fight the way to the top, although looking at humanity these days you might wonder. Politics huh?
Fortunately most parts of mother nature don’t represent a contrived never ending gladiatorial contest or cage fight like Parliament is.
Quoting Article quoting Muatal Aid
Social Darwinists still exist although the term has dropped from common usage – their natural home in NZ is now in National and Act. And they’re as wrong today as they were a hundred years ago.
Kropotkin forms a large basis of my thoughts on the matter of governance and society.
Yes, “survival of the fittest” means, those species most suited to survive in a given environment – it’s species level, and not about individual strength etc.
Spot on DtB.
It is quite clear that one of the main reasons for human ‘advancement’ over other species has been its internal cooperation and not its internal competition.
That certain people alive today cannot see this dooms their own survival – which is in fact to the betterment of wider human survival and advancement of course. The fewer of these buffoons around the better.
Lprent,
Is there any way of measuring the number of external links followed by readers on a blog like this?
It would be interesting to know the number of different links, and the total number followed, as part of the bigger picture including visits and page view numbers.
Just curious really. And procrastinating something much more important…
Yes. We have that on several stats packages. The WP stats does it. For instance in the last 30 days, these are the top clicks from the body of the site (posts, comments, blogrolls) and note that these are the actual landing pages…
scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1201/S00136/teapot-tapes-uploaded.htm 325
tumeke.blogspot.com 264
patbrittenden.com/2012/01/18/its-not-about-race-or-age-or-gender-or-religion-its-about-poverty 260
whaleoil.co.nz/2012/01/not-involved 239
bowalleyroad.blogspot.com 222
nzherald.co.nz 167
norightturn.blogspot.com 167
facebook.com/NZNATS 155
imperatorfish.com 152
robertwinter.blogspot.com 131
kiwiblog.co.nz 119
stuff.co.nz 118
thejackalman.blogspot.com/2012/01/teapot-tape-released.html 117
tumeke.blogspot.com/2012/01/teapot-tape-now-online.html 116
soundcloud.com/goldenturkey/2johns2cups 115
blog.labour.org.nz/2012/01/31/my-christmas-gift-to-david-farrar-2 115
blog.labour.org.nz 111
As you can see we generate a lot of clicks, but the fall off is pretty rapid. Yesterday for instance we did about 450 clicks out over about 200 links (over half only got one click).
If we look over the last year, we basically see the blogroll
tumeke.blogspot.com 4,941
norightturn.blogspot.com 3,557
bowalleyroad.blogspot.com 3,483
blog.labour.org.nz 3,248
nzherald.co.nz 2,396
kiwiblog.co.nz 2,053
robertwinter.blogspot.com 1,895
brianedwardsmedia.co.nz 1,447
stuff.co.nz 1,383
imperatorfish.com 1,330
pundit.co.nz 1,315
asianinvasion2006.blogspot.com 1,200
dimpost.wordpress.com 1,174
Again with some pretty rapid falloffs.
I also jigged the system for google analytics to also do be able to do outward click analysis long ago. They have some more useful stats about paths people tended to take through and out of the site. Which is why I know that most of the readers use the front page to land, and select a post, and then use next and previous posts rather than navigating up and down. But there really isn’t a strong pattern for clickouts.
Of course we’re only really seeing what sites people navigated to from clicks on this site, and it excludes the ads.
Thanks for indulging my curiousity LPrent.
Surprising. I thought sites like facebook would feature more prominently with the links to parliamentary clips etc.
It seems most visitors don’t follow links, even those within the body of blog posts (with some exceptions). I guess it’s mainly a matter of time and personal interest. Personally I love the links and some commenters on open mike provide some beauties too.
The more I follow things online, the less I follow the mainstream media. Seldom watch the TV news, but when I catch it I feel like I’m living in a parallel universe.
Yeah, once you’ve spent time getting news and researching the background of that news online the MSM just doesn’t seem to be connected to reality.
Facebook doesn’t get many outgoing links. However we do get a lot of incoming links from them. Since I put the recommendatory buttons in, it has gone from being a low contender to being second after the search engines.
Just been reading about Russia in the 50s and 60s. An intense drive to increase outputs of goods was spurred on by bonus payments to managers who met the annual targets of production. So Performance Pay is a Communist construct! The difference was that in Russia defined targets had to be met whereas here Bonus to Bankers, CEOs, Consultants are paid regardless of success.
Bring on the Commies!
The future of New Zealand anyone?
I don’t know about you, but I am not planning to convert to Mormonism.
Seems to be a common theme when reading such articles often contain sentences such as “This is the type of idiocy that passes as policy in the eurozone. ” – People like to fob off bad decision making as some sort of accident…
At what point will people come to realise that there is much more at play than “idiocy” when making decisions.
At what point does the continual “idiocy” beceome a deliberate act? 5, 10, 20, 30 years recently…..
Nah its all a massive accident!
Well I can see the outsourcing is on it’s way outside NZ – with the IRD upgrade, which I’ve blogged about.
http://nowoccupy.blogspot.com/2012/02/creating-more-jobs-in-silicon-valley.html
National’s slack internet security
There are many holes in the government’s Internet security, mainly because there are so many operators that don’t know what they’re doing…
Stuff: High Court orders Government to reconsider Crafar farms sale deal … 🙂
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/6422866/Reconsider-Crafar-farms-deal-Government-told
Indeed!
Ha! Yeesssss…!!
Keep the issue in the spotlight.
I may get repititive but it is for very good and simple reason…… namely, that having land owned by people who do not live in New Zealand is bad for New Zealand.
And they don’t even NEED to own the land. They claim they are investing in business, right? So invest ion the business, but they don’t need to own the land to do that.
Keep the issue alive! It is one of some paths to greater prosperity, of that there is no doubt.
I have had a quick squizz at the judgment. Justice Millar seems to be saying that the Ministers overstated the economic benefits of the purchase. The same benefits would have been available if the local bidder bought the farms. Interesting decision …
I await the RWNJ claims that the Judge is racist. Snap McFlock.
Time until Fran O’Sullivan calls the High Court racist (sorry, “xenophobic”): 4… 3… 2… 1…
So if the ministry overstated ecenomic benefits, thats just a flash way to say “they lied” no!
The “It will create jobs” , followed by, there might be 2 possibly 3 training positions really was a give away to the fact that someone was talking CRAP!
Let’s have all the BS come out now, and lets watch the spin machine in action again!
I found the court summary quite interesting, it gelled with what I read in the OIO report here….
17. One submitter claimed that the Applicant’s proposal contains no benefits to New Zealand. In particular, the farming plans relating to herd and farm improvement are nothing more than what an average New Zealand farmer would do if given the chance to purchase the properties
(OIO) Response
19. The Overseas Investment Act does not require an overseas person investor to do more than a New Zealand investor would do to the land. Instead, the Overseas Investment Act tests only whether the investment will or is likely to benefit New Zealand, a part of New Zealand or a group of New Zealanders, and whether that benefit will be substantial and identifiable. That test is by reference to a number of benefit ‘factors’ which must be considered by the relevant Ministers.
My thoughts at the time was the OIO could not state anything to be a benefit unless they knew what other buyers intended and compared one against the other. Their response above didn’t make any sense to me, and clearly the judge thought so too.
To borrow an expression from OleBiscuitBarrel… colour me gobsmacked!!!!
What has yet to come out is the Ministerial interference in the LandCorp bid. Unfortunately I’m not 100% on my source and I can’t quote them properly; but the gist of the conversation was along the lines that LandCorp was instructed not to put in an acceptable bid for the farms.
Now that would be evidence that needs to be presented at a court.
One Ministerial resignation possibly from Parliament as well. Now that would set an interesting dynamic for the year.
Don’t get too excited. They will reconsider, apply the different criteria and come to the same result.
Yeah I know, but I live in hope.
Today is a good day!
Doug White – Asshole of the Week
Even if we give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn’t know the mine had exploded as he applied for another job, the overall mismanagement of Pike River mine is highly despicable!
COLLECTING SIGNATURES FOR THE PETITION WHICH MAY HELP GET RID OF JOHN BANKS – ACT MP FOR EPSOM:
Interesting that neither the old Securities Commission, the SFO, the Finance Markets Authority (FMA), or the Police have lifted a finger to apply ACT’s ‘one law for all’ to either the ACT Party MP for Epsom, John Banks, or the former ACT Party Leader Don Brash?
In fact, I have it in writing from the the SFO, the Finance Markets Authority (FMA), and the Police that they will not lay charges against Banks or Brash, which, in my considered opinion, is a form of political protection, which I believe is corrupt.
Both John Banks and Don Brash were equally former fellow Directors of Huljich Wealth Management (NZ) Ltd, whom, along with Peter Huljich equally signed Huljich Kiwisaver Registered Prospectuses which contained untrue statements.
Under the Securities Act 1978 s.58 (3) that is an offence.
Where is the ZERO TOLERANCE for ‘white collar’ crime in New Zealand?
In my considered opinion, in NZ – ‘perceived’ to be the least corrupt country in the world, according to Transparency International’s 2011 ‘Corruption Perception Index’ – the balance of power is arguably being held by a yet-to-be charged or convicted ‘white collar’ criminal – John Banks ACT MP for Epsom.
However – all is not lost.
When one door closes, another door opens.
Currently there are signatures being collected for a petition which requests:
“That the House conduct an urgent inquiry into the decisions regarding prosecutions relating to the Juljich Kiwisaver Scheme registered prospectuses dated 22 August 2008 and 18 September 2009.”
I do not anticipate any major problems in getting an MP to present this petition to the House.
For more background information, check out http://www.pennybright4epsom.org.nz
Penny Bright
[email deleted]
Fuck you are boring, Penny.
yeah yr handle is so entertaining too
[lprent: I have to confess that was partially my fault. Whilst chastising OleBiscuitBarrel last year, I told him that he was a gormless fool. He adopted it as his handle. But I have to say that it is one of the more unique and entertaining handles around 😈 ]
So – why bother engaging?
😉
Cheers!
Penny Bright
Penny, you don’t engage. You cut and paste press releases. I’d rather talk to randal.
Good on you Penny!
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2012/02/general_debate_15_february_2012.html#comment-933530
Quite a debate starting here!
Want to play?
🙂
Cheers!
Penny Bright
rather you than me Penny but fight the good fight
penny as I’ve said before in politics less is more .Your track record in politics proves me right .
I agree with your plight but you are obviously not very bright .
Abbreviate your message and people won’t be turned off by your boring posts!
I think the style over content argument is passé. It is conformist boring rubbish that people like Penny and Phil u get all the time by those who do not agree with their message. The only reason it would apply is that the style is somehow detrimental to the message, which is subjective to the reader. It would seem you’re more averse to the message than the style mik e. Either way, you have the choice of not reading it.
Imagine the effect if the charges were enforced. Far reaching indeed. Good on ‘yer Penny.
http://ilcorsaro.info/mondo/285-il-mito-del-fannullone-greco
Sorry this is in Italian, but it’s very good about the myths told about the Greek people, and what’s really going on!
The title means ‘The myth of the lazy Greek’.
Here’s an extract and my translation:
“Prendiamo i greci. I dati dell’Ocse mostrano chiaramente che i greci lavorano in media più ore all’anno (2.109) degli altri europei: i tedeschi per esempio lavorano 1.419 ore. Si può ovviamente obiettare che le ore lavorate non significano lavoro effettivo, che si può rimanere 12 ore sul luogo di lavoro e passarne la metà a cercare ricette esotiche su internet. Questo porta ad analizzare la produttività del lavoro, concetto più complicato da calcolare perché dipende da fattori che non sono in rapporto con l’assiduità (il livello tecnologico, la qualità dell’organizzazione produttiva e così via).”
“Take the Greeks. The OECD data show clearly that the Greeks are working longer hours on average per year (2,109) than other Europeans, the Germans work 1,419 hours for example. You can of course argue that the hours worked do not mean actual work, that you can stay 12 hours at work and spend half your time searching for exotic recipes on the Internet. This leads us to analyse labour productivity, a concept more complicated to calculate because it depends on factors not related to the attendance (the technological level, quality of production organization and so on)…. (and so it does, that is, attempt that analysis. )
The myth of the ‘lazy greek’ has to be repeated to justify to the German populace why it is their bankers’ moral right and imperative to subjugate that country.
Vicky32, you might like this article as well…
Awesome infographic: the true cost of war
Apparently a million US dollars is not that much money. In $100 bills it would fit in a decent sized, single strap, over the shoulder satchel.
Key says Mondayising Public Holidays would ‘cost’ the economy $400 million.
These are Public Holidays already, the workers of NZ are already entitled to them.
The reality is that the workers of NZ are being duped out of $400 million worth of holidays due to a silly loophole in the law.
The ultimate irony for me was seeing photos of foreign owned stores & Embassies closed on these Mondays, with their NZ staff given the day off.
+1
DeSmogBlog releases a trove of whistleblower documents that confirm a lot of things we already suspected:
And there’s a lot more!
Particularly with respect to Heartland funding of the so-called NZ (now International) “Climate Science Coalition”
As John Mashey in a comment on “Hot Topic” explains:
“The read might draw inferences about the likely effects of:
a) Heartland sending $ to foreign non-charities. NO-NO
b) Foreign non-charities engage in clearly non-exempt activities (the IRS-?E codes). NO-NO
c) Some of those involved in the NZ non-charities show up and make comments that repeatedly support the non-exemptness.
Already gone, but nice icing on the cake. When reading “puppets,” I sometimes had to hold back from commenting, lest I spoil the fun.
But all that’s on the record now.
It is very likely that neither the non-charities nor Heartland understood the US tax implications. Of course, if NZ citizens got money for a non-charity and spent it, without declaring income … well that’s for Kiwis to sort out.”
Awesome. Show up those who are funding the lies.
The personal search function is one I like – to keep track of my comments and those responding. I made some yesterday but they don’t come up on request. Is this something that gets dropped on occasions?
Not meant to. It runs on a cron process. I will look at in the morning as I’m in bed and doing a ssh console from the iPad is strictly an emergency procedure
Ok the problem was that sphinxsearch (the program that runs the search) had an update, and it appears that it was putting the lock files in with ownership coded to its own user id. That meant that the web process that had been running it was unable to run the daily updates.
I’ve shifted the period update to shift to the sphinx user.
I’ll check when I get to work to make sure that it has actually run.