Jobs for the boys? How much of our taxpayer money has the super ministry wasted since it was set up?
The greed for glory of the outgoing government and their friends is obscene.
“Some of its payments for consultants included:
– $198,523 on an analyst for one year
– $251,815 on a senior commercial advisor
– Up to $450 an hour for “immigration global management system independent governance adviser services”
– $156,457 for “temporary cover in information and education” over nine months
– and $249,398 for “NZ Business Number Senior Advisor Stakeholder Engagement”
In some cases, the contracts were paying roughly double the salary of that for a senior MBIE employee doing the same work”
In some cases, the contracts were paying roughly double the salary of that for a senior MBIE employee doing the same work
Which, as far as I can make out, is the point of the privatisation of government services. It costs more and so GDP goes up without actually doing anything more. The other point is that all that money most likely ends up in the hands of National supporters.
As Penny Bright has pointed out over the last few years – studies clearly show that using contractors costs more and that’s across the world where the same privatisation policies have been used.
Prohibition is a guaranteed source of funding for the gangs and provides employment for 1000’s of police, court workers and prison staff. Also the pharmaceutical industry makes big money selling anti-depressants, this market would also collapse if cannabis was legalised. I have heard of people using cannabloids to treat cancer here in NZ, which is evidently quite successful, and evidently there is sound research to back this up.
So obviously the decriminalisation of cannabis will deprive the gangs of funding, cut police spending, cut court costs, cut jail costs etc, etc
Most companies in NZ have a no drugs policy and drug testing in place, cannabis stays in the blood for approx 42 days, so most people will not use it unless they want to risk losing their job?
Alcohol prohibition in the USA provided funding for the mafia and the likes of
Al Capone in Chicago in the 1920’s, it is exactly the same senario here in NZ 2016.
If there are addiction issues it is a mental health/medical problem the same as alcohol, we need to shift the paradigm or think outside the square?
Much better for full legalisation of marijuana and a few other ‘recreational’ drugs. I’ve heard that magic mushrooms are absolutely brilliant for treating psychiatric issues.
Like, it will dry up cashflow for the likes of the Head Hunters, Hells Angels etc and will take the pressure of our police, corrections and judicial system.
It will take the cashflow out of the hands of the gangs and the pharmaceutical companies and we can reallocate those funds into medical and mental health.
There probably is somewhere but I think you’ll find that the drug companies are lobbying for IP laws that allow them to lock everyone else out so that they can get monopoly rentals.
This video explains how after North Korea tested a missile while Trump was at dinner with the Japanese Prime Minister at Trump’s resort in Florida, Trump got all his security advisors around the table at the restaurant along with the Japanese PM, top secret briefing papers etc to discuss the issue while other diners in the restaurant took photos and posted them on Facebook with one diner even taking a selfie of himself with the man who holds the briefcase with the nuclear code in it.
“Security guards unionised by Unite Union at MSD sites are angry with new policy changes brought in by the Government yesterday, that now sees them stopping every citizen trying to access their rights, and asking them for their name, appointment, and photo ID.”
So an agency that requires id wants s security staff to make sure clients have id, coz it aint for security given how clients are there to identify themselves. Less they give money to just anyone who walks in.
As for security, this is argued that some clients get very aggressive. As aggression is a barrier to work why isnt this a opportunity to send aggressive people to their doctor or councilling? Clearly any prospective employer will not employ angry people.
So overtime angry people would not be a problem, less of course, their anger is not the staff but the policy changes that keep kids sleeping in cars, families in damp state housing, running up huge debts to winz etc.
Any reasonable person would regard the act of upping security for staff as a defensive defeatist act of an organsation incapable of standing up to their minister. Instead of protecting staff properly by not puting them in the invidious position they leave them open to and increade the stressors that causes anger. i.e. the funding for security comes from a loss of ace time with clients duh, waiting causes stress…
Stressed people seeking assistanced are then woundup by WINZ who are forced into the position by neolib policies.
For we viewers of Three News, issues took a bizarre twist when the over-excitable political editor Paddy Gower popped up to announce breathlessly that “69,000 houses [are] to be built in Auckland over 10 years. A much bigger figure than has ever been made public by the Government before”.
He said they would be in Mt Roskill and Avondale, half state rentals, the rest for sale.
It was nice fantasy while it lasted, and, I thought, a smart political U-turn, stealing Labour’s thunder.
The most sinister aspect of his reign of terror which has yet to be officially acknowledged was his paranoid obsession with communists – or ‘reds under the beds’ as it was commonly referred to at the time. Many NZers were spied upon, bullied, intimidated and a lot of them lost their jobs. The vast majority were innocent but that didn’t stop his lackeys (whoever they may have been) from trying to ruin people’s lives. I should know because I was one of the innocent victims.
The campaign waged by the New Zealand Government of the time was extremely nasty and more in keeping with the actions of a totalitarian state than a democracy.
Brian Newth
Points of interest –
* Diem 25 relating to the Treaty of Rome is sharing some new approach on 25 March I think.
* The European New Deal, similar in its openness to ideas, and building capacity and keeping the economy alive with work schemes etc. He talks about people being displaced by deprivation in their areas and forced to emigrate, which destabilises the countries they go to.
* Besides high tech jobs for the future, there will be another stream of work recognised as basic and essential done by the Maintainers. (The idea here is this ensures that everybody that isn’t in IT is recognised as being a useful citizen, not some clapped out bit of old technology thrown out of the Human Resources offices.)
* Much use is to be made of a public bank that carries out basic transfers for the poorer people at little or no cost, and acts as an arm of social welfare.
* Social cohesion was referred to.
* Employment Guarantee Scheme – sounds rather like the UBI mixed with the work system we had giving employment to people doing things that are needed or wanted to do – Task Force Green ours is called.
Labour, however, turned its back on its history and pushed through free-market reforms, backed by significant business interests. After a stock market crash and some further volatility, the New Zealand economy finally got its act together in the 1990s.
Yeah, having higher rates of poverty while a few people own pretty much everything is truly getting our act together – NOT.
One lesson from the comparison is that a leader like Muldoon can be fairly popular, as he stayed in power from 1975 to 1984, winning three terms despite mistakes, antagonisms and policy failures.
And because he managed to win those three terms with less than a majority is what started the ball rolling to change to MMP.
Britain’s Pravda studiously ignored Ken Loach’s BAFTA win; maybe
he should punch an underling and make racist jokes if he wants BBC support
In 2005 the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Harold Pinter, a trenchant and uncompromising critic of the U.K./U.S. aggression against Iraq and Afghanistan. All the Blair regime’s self-proclaimed blather about “Cool Britannia” counted for nothing as Blair and his cronies sullenly showed the great playwright the collective cold shoulder. The displays of anger and bewilderment, and the obvious embarrassment of the British political class, was compared by many to the official mood in Moscow in 1958 after Boris Pasternak won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Another outspoken critic of government, the great Ken Loach, is now receiving similar treatment from Britain’s state television, the same state broadcaster that lionized Jimmy Savile for decades and bent over backwards for louts like Jeremy Clarkson….
A solar power expert from (I think) Oxford University was just interviewed on Nine to Noon (from about 9.30am). His conclusion was that in 5 years time all new installed capacity should be solar as nothing else will compete with it.
A new type of panel has just been developed and is just coming into production that adds 15% to solar panel efficiency at a stroke.
No it isn’t and hasn’t. It’s only economic if you ignore all the associated costs that support a solar installation and that are needed to provide a reliable 24/7 power source.
Even solar advocate sites I have seen acknowledge that solar lifetime operating costs have to halve before competitive with gas, geothermal, and wind.
Some individuals will find it cost effective, particularly if they have an isolated property with no services installed. If you are on mains power then solar is a lifestyle not an economic choice (and a perfectly valid one).
No it isn’t and hasn’t. It’s only economic if you ignore all the associated costs that support a solar installation and that are needed to provide a reliable 24/7 power source.
No, even with all that, it’s still more economical.
To put it another way, fossil fuels are only economical if you ignore the millions of barrels of non-renewable resources destroyed everyday and the damage done to the environment.
Even solar advocate sites I have seen acknowledge that solar lifetime operating costs have to halve before competitive with gas, geothermal, and wind.
Those groups sound like the environmental groups that support more logging and damage to the environment because money.
A transformation is happening in global energy markets that’s worth noting as 2016 comes to an end: Solar power, for the first time, is becoming the cheapest form of new electricity.
This has happened in isolated projects in the past: an especially competitive auction in the Middle East, for example, resulting in record-cheap solar costs. But now unsubsidized solar is beginning to outcompete coal and natural gas on a larger scale, and notably, new solar projects in emerging markets are costing less to build than wind projects, according to fresh data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
T’is about the Jackson-Williams issue, and Ohariu. Campbell quotes from comments on the Daily Blog by Martyn, and Anti-racist’s reply. then this:
Bomber’s message is the one that women on the left have been hearing since time eternal ie, that they should keep quiet, remain patient until victory is assured, and – in the meantime – make sure their concerns and modes of expression don’t antagonise the heroes of the proletariat. Besides everything else, this looks like a failure of imagination. Is the Winston Wing of Labour’s support base – those heroic, hand-calloused members of the white working class that Bomber Bradbury and Chris Trotter always bang on about – really so immune to policy arguments pitched any higher than Greg O’Connor’s face on a campaign billboard, or Willie Jackson on the mike?
By the final sentence, I take it that Campbell is presenting Bomber-Trotter’s limited view of the white working class: one that Campbell is indicating under-estimates working class people.
“We need to wise up to the fact that continuing to compartmentalise our endless individual battles – pay equity, dirty dairying, transport, roading, autism funding, education, intersectional feminism, partisan politics – is a waste of precious energy.
Don’t get me wrong. All are beyond important but, ultimately, unless we tackle climate change and right now, there’ll be no human rights or environment to actually fight for.”
The political writer from Rolling Stone magazine Matt Taibbi always been a joy to read. A very nice interview with Chris Hedges, about his new book “Insane Clown President”.
25.40 Min long.
It is well known that globalization has put strong downward pressure on wages and benefits of workers in wealthy countries, as companies have offshored and outsourced labor to lower-wage locations and justified wage cuts to try to stay competitive. But politicians and economists have yet to come to terms with the fact that in the rich world the income distribution system itself has broken down irretrievably.
The 20th century was the only century in which most income was divided between capital (profits) and labor (wages), with the struggle for shares mediated by the state through regulations, fiscal policy and a system of social protection. But once economic liberalization took off in the 1980s, the struggle was won decisively by capital, and labor’s share of total income has shrunk everywhere.
Meanwhile, rental income, linked to the control of natural resources, property, financial assets and intellectual property, has become a dominant force in the global economy.
This is the age of rentier capitalism; rich countries are becoming rentier economies. A rising share of global income is going to rent, rather than to wages or profits from productive activities. This perpetuates inequalities: It disproportionately favors the wealthy, and accentuates inequality over generations.
It is this rise of inequality, where a few rich people are getting richer not through producing anything of value but because they’re bludging off of everyone else, which eventually leads to the collapse of society. And this is what our governments have supported over the last 30+ years.
Throughout history it has been the rich that’s destroyed societies from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome and they’re doing it again now for our own society.
It is time that we learned the lesson of history and stopped them and the only way to do that is to get rid of the rich. Legislate them out of existence.
“The tendency to impute order to ambiguous stimuli is simply built into the
cognitive machinery we use to apprehend the world. It may have been bred into us through evolution because of its general adaptiveness. . .” (Gilovich 1993,
chapter 2).
or how to be fooled by randomness (without context) eg Lyttleton fire last night.
Listening now to Nick Smith,getting hamerd,and unlike lost arguement insulted Twyford.Now if Labour can keep housing pushing and the minimum wage joke,that employment is profit honest work,for some one hour per week others two,hours per week and for even more full employed,three,days per week.
Dr Custard keeps to his regular pattern , informs the speaker prior that the answer will be longer than normal and jacks up some patsy supplementary questions. Hand picked facts to delude and distract.
Nelson voters need educating, proactive approach is necessary.
Speaking to media at Parliament before the meeting, English offered his sympathies to the victims’ families, saying they were “people who have suffered the distress of enormous loss”.
However, the decision over whether or not to re-enter the mine was “at its core a safety issue”, rather than a decision for the Government.
Some political parties have taken up the cause of the Pike River families, with Labour and NZ First both pledging to make re-entry an election year issue.
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
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The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
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Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Ngaio Marsh House is one of Christchurch’s best kept secrets – and contains more than a few mysteries of its own.Trust Ngaio Marsh to leave more than a few mysteries scattered through her house long after her departure. For a start, there’s the curious concrete portal in the garden, ...
Appointment viewing has been lost to the mists of time, but memories of Montana Sunday Theatre can still be conjured by hitting play on a particular piece of classical music. “You’re not going to be able to sell it.” Over 30 years on, Karen Bieleski still recalls how the task ...
Performance Review King Luxon sat behind His massive polished oak desk. It is Performance Review time. There is a knock on the door. “Enter!” says the King. In steps Minister of Disabilities and Carer Pedicures, Penny Simmonds. “I can explain everything …” she begins. “Fine,” says King Luxon, pressing the ...
The pair opened their first fully collaborative exhibition, Nina for Flowers, last Saturday. Gabi Lardies visited their studio to find out who Nina is and what working together was like.‘It didn’t start out like, ‘This is a show about Nina,’” says Josephine Jelicich, gripping a thermos of peppermint tea. ...
Thank you, Dr Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner, for your brilliant invention. I’m another mid-20s Kiwi who had an OE last year. I hopped on my bicycle where France meets the Atlantic and cycled east. I pedalled through the Loire Valley, down rivers lined with willows and ancient wisteria-draped chateaus. I relished ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
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 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/89390521/government-superministry-under-fire-for-spending-on-external-consultants
Consultant = over paid suit who stands around sounding smart while the workers do the job they would have done anyway.
Jobs for the boys? How much of our taxpayer money has the super ministry wasted since it was set up?
The greed for glory of the outgoing government and their friends is obscene.
“Some of its payments for consultants included:
– $198,523 on an analyst for one year
– $251,815 on a senior commercial advisor
– Up to $450 an hour for “immigration global management system independent governance adviser services”
– $156,457 for “temporary cover in information and education” over nine months
– and $249,398 for “NZ Business Number Senior Advisor Stakeholder Engagement”
In some cases, the contracts were paying roughly double the salary of that for a senior MBIE employee doing the same work”
Which, as far as I can make out, is the point of the privatisation of government services. It costs more and so GDP goes up without actually doing anything more. The other point is that all that money most likely ends up in the hands of National supporters.
As Penny Bright has pointed out over the last few years – studies clearly show that using contractors costs more and that’s across the world where the same privatisation policies have been used.
Here is another reason the cannabis laws need to be changed.
Terminal cancer patient, uses cannabis for pain and nausea relief etc. Grows one plant in their garden so they don’t have to go to a gang or dealer.
Someone comes onto their property and steals their plant, their medicine, are they able to go to to the police for help? No.
Do they feel safe in their home after someone prowled around their property and stole something from them? No
Will the cannabis end up in the hands of a gang who will profit from it? Probably
Will the terminal cancer patient be suffering because someone stole from them? Yes
All the current cannabis laws seem to do is look after the gangs and neglects the sick and dying. Its disgusting.
Prohibition is a guaranteed source of funding for the gangs and provides employment for 1000’s of police, court workers and prison staff. Also the pharmaceutical industry makes big money selling anti-depressants, this market would also collapse if cannabis was legalised. I have heard of people using cannabloids to treat cancer here in NZ, which is evidently quite successful, and evidently there is sound research to back this up.
So obviously the decriminalisation of cannabis will deprive the gangs of funding, cut police spending, cut court costs, cut jail costs etc, etc
Most companies in NZ have a no drugs policy and drug testing in place, cannabis stays in the blood for approx 42 days, so most people will not use it unless they want to risk losing their job?
Alcohol prohibition in the USA provided funding for the mafia and the likes of
Al Capone in Chicago in the 1920’s, it is exactly the same senario here in NZ 2016.
If there are addiction issues it is a mental health/medical problem the same as alcohol, we need to shift the paradigm or think outside the square?
+1
Much better for full legalisation of marijuana and a few other ‘recreational’ drugs. I’ve heard that magic mushrooms are absolutely brilliant for treating psychiatric issues.
Like, it will dry up cashflow for the likes of the Head Hunters, Hells Angels etc and will take the pressure of our police, corrections and judicial system.
It looks after the corporations as well as it reduces the competition on them allowing them to charge far more for the drugs that they produce.
Just think of how the aspirin/panadol/neurofen market would crash if everyone could grow a plant in the back garden/spare room for pain.
It will take the cashflow out of the hands of the gangs and the pharmaceutical companies and we can reallocate those funds into medical and mental health.
Quite simple really?
I wonder if any one is actively fighting/lobbying against medical marijuana?
There probably is somewhere but I think you’ll find that the drug companies are lobbying for IP laws that allow them to lock everyone else out so that they can get monopoly rentals.
This video explains how after North Korea tested a missile while Trump was at dinner with the Japanese Prime Minister at Trump’s resort in Florida, Trump got all his security advisors around the table at the restaurant along with the Japanese PM, top secret briefing papers etc to discuss the issue while other diners in the restaurant took photos and posted them on Facebook with one diner even taking a selfie of himself with the man who holds the briefcase with the nuclear code in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGA-F-Jv34M
Dementia.
“Security guards unionised by Unite Union at MSD sites are angry with new policy changes brought in by the Government yesterday, that now sees them stopping every citizen trying to access their rights, and asking them for their name, appointment, and photo ID.”
<a hre="http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/02/14/union-anger-at-msd-id-crackdown/
So an agency that requires id wants s security staff to make sure clients have id, coz it aint for security given how clients are there to identify themselves. Less they give money to just anyone who walks in.
As for security, this is argued that some clients get very aggressive. As aggression is a barrier to work why isnt this a opportunity to send aggressive people to their doctor or councilling? Clearly any prospective employer will not employ angry people.
So overtime angry people would not be a problem, less of course, their anger is not the staff but the policy changes that keep kids sleeping in cars, families in damp state housing, running up huge debts to winz etc.
Any reasonable person would regard the act of upping security for staff as a defensive defeatist act of an organsation incapable of standing up to their minister. Instead of protecting staff properly by not puting them in the invidious position they leave them open to and increade the stressors that causes anger. i.e. the funding for security comes from a loss of ace time with clients duh, waiting causes stress…
Stressed people seeking assistanced are then woundup by WINZ who are forced into the position by neolib policies.
Ken Loach addressed the British government’s outrageous treatment of the poor eloquently at the BAFTA Awards two days ago…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR2g00SCKqA
Brian Rudman on the government’s alt-facts about housing – Bling catches the Trump disease.
Insights for the US from our feisty, protectionist populist, Muldoon.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-02-13/feisty-protectionist-populism-new-zealand-tried-that
The most sinister aspect of his reign of terror which has yet to be officially acknowledged was his paranoid obsession with communists – or ‘reds under the beds’ as it was commonly referred to at the time. Many NZers were spied upon, bullied, intimidated and a lot of them lost their jobs. The vast majority were innocent but that didn’t stop his lackeys (whoever they may have been) from trying to ruin people’s lives. I should know because I was one of the innocent victims.
Here’s an example from last Saturday’s Herald:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11789391
While thinking about how to do things in future to restore the country without someone like Trump or authoritarian fascist types, Yanis Varoufakis Greek economist and politician and Philip Adams a long-time Oz journalist have an interesting interview.
(https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2017/02/07/trump-brexit-the-european-new-deal-with-phillip-adams-on-abc-radio-national-live/
Points of interest –
* Diem 25 relating to the Treaty of Rome is sharing some new approach on 25 March I think.
* The European New Deal, similar in its openness to ideas, and building capacity and keeping the economy alive with work schemes etc. He talks about people being displaced by deprivation in their areas and forced to emigrate, which destabilises the countries they go to.
* Besides high tech jobs for the future, there will be another stream of work recognised as basic and essential done by the Maintainers. (The idea here is this ensures that everybody that isn’t in IT is recognised as being a useful citizen, not some clapped out bit of old technology thrown out of the Human Resources offices.)
* Much use is to be made of a public bank that carries out basic transfers for the poorer people at little or no cost, and acts as an arm of social welfare.
* Social cohesion was referred to.
* Employment Guarantee Scheme – sounds rather like the UBI mixed with the work system we had giving employment to people doing things that are needed or wanted to do – Task Force Green ours is called.
Yeah, having higher rates of poverty while a few people own pretty much everything is truly getting our act together – NOT.
Labour’s reforms have put us on the path to collapse.
And because he managed to win those three terms with less than a majority is what started the ball rolling to change to MMP.
Britain’s Pravda studiously ignored Ken Loach’s BAFTA win; maybe
he should punch an underling and make racist jokes if he wants BBC support
In 2005 the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Harold Pinter, a trenchant and uncompromising critic of the U.K./U.S. aggression against Iraq and Afghanistan. All the Blair regime’s self-proclaimed blather about “Cool Britannia” counted for nothing as Blair and his cronies sullenly showed the great playwright the collective cold shoulder. The displays of anger and bewilderment, and the obvious embarrassment of the British political class, was compared by many to the official mood in Moscow in 1958 after Boris Pasternak won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Another outspoken critic of government, the great Ken Loach, is now receiving similar treatment from Britain’s state television, the same state broadcaster that lionized Jimmy Savile for decades and bent over backwards for louts like Jeremy Clarkson….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkoCaml38dM
+100
I, Daniel Blake is an excellent film, they clapped at the end in Wanaka when it was shown…this seldom happens.
Shame on the beeb.
Ken Loach has hit a nerve, the hard right media are biting back hard.
All sorts of anti-Loach press now.
A solar power expert from (I think) Oxford University was just interviewed on Nine to Noon (from about 9.30am). His conclusion was that in 5 years time all new installed capacity should be solar as nothing else will compete with it.
A new type of panel has just been developed and is just coming into production that adds 15% to solar panel efficiency at a stroke.
Solar has been more price competitive for awhile now. It has always been more economical.
No it isn’t and hasn’t. It’s only economic if you ignore all the associated costs that support a solar installation and that are needed to provide a reliable 24/7 power source.
Even solar advocate sites I have seen acknowledge that solar lifetime operating costs have to halve before competitive with gas, geothermal, and wind.
Some individuals will find it cost effective, particularly if they have an isolated property with no services installed. If you are on mains power then solar is a lifestyle not an economic choice (and a perfectly valid one).
No, even with all that, it’s still more economical.
To put it another way, fossil fuels are only economical if you ignore the millions of barrels of non-renewable resources destroyed everyday and the damage done to the environment.
Those groups sound like the environmental groups that support more logging and damage to the environment because money.
World Energy Hits a Turning Point: Solar That’s Cheaper Than Wind
Gordon Campbell on Werewolf, always a journalist worth reading, doesn’t hold back on Labour’s latest candidate selections and Green’s complicity.
T’is about the Jackson-Williams issue, and Ohariu. Campbell quotes from comments on the Daily Blog by Martyn, and Anti-racist’s reply. then this:
By the final sentence, I take it that Campbell is presenting Bomber-Trotter’s limited view of the white working class: one that Campbell is indicating under-estimates working class people.
Rachel Stewart – nails it,
“We need to wise up to the fact that continuing to compartmentalise our endless individual battles – pay equity, dirty dairying, transport, roading, autism funding, education, intersectional feminism, partisan politics – is a waste of precious energy.
Don’t get me wrong. All are beyond important but, ultimately, unless we tackle climate change and right now, there’ll be no human rights or environment to actually fight for.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11800401
Yes, yes yes! Brilliant – again!
President Bannon and the Other Guy
Funny!
Next up to get the arse?.
http://freakoutnation.com/2017/02/uh-oh-trumps-personal-and-official-accounts-just-unfollowed-kellyanne-conway-images/
The political writer from Rolling Stone magazine Matt Taibbi always been a joy to read. A very nice interview with Chris Hedges, about his new book “Insane Clown President”.
25.40 Min long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf37rwgnwLU
The age of rentier capitalism
It is this rise of inequality, where a few rich people are getting richer not through producing anything of value but because they’re bludging off of everyone else, which eventually leads to the collapse of society. And this is what our governments have supported over the last 30+ years.
Throughout history it has been the rich that’s destroyed societies from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome and they’re doing it again now for our own society.
It is time that we learned the lesson of history and stopped them and the only way to do that is to get rid of the rich. Legislate them out of existence.
So I read today that Flynn’s 29 day tenure was the shortest appointment of a National Security Advisor in the position’s history.
So at least Trump’s made one historic change already 🙂
“The tendency to impute order to ambiguous stimuli is simply built into the
cognitive machinery we use to apprehend the world. It may have been bred into us through evolution because of its general adaptiveness. . .” (Gilovich 1993,
chapter 2).
or how to be fooled by randomness (without context) eg Lyttleton fire last night.
https://resources.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/h/8/u/b/g/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620×349.1h8lkx.png/1487120697474.jpg
Ah, so it was actually an attack from space…
😈
Listening now to Nick Smith,getting hamerd,and unlike lost arguement insulted Twyford.Now if Labour can keep housing pushing and the minimum wage joke,that employment is profit honest work,for some one hour per week others two,hours per week and for even more full employed,three,days per week.
Dr Custard keeps to his regular pattern , informs the speaker prior that the answer will be longer than normal and jacks up some patsy supplementary questions. Hand picked facts to delude and distract.
Nelson voters need educating, proactive approach is necessary.
Looking forward to this years election
“Pike River families told that sealing of mine will be stopped following meeting with PM”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/89454103/pike-river-families-meet-pm-bill-english-to-discuss-sealing-of-mine
More to come..
Stuff on this
Bill really is quite keen on an election win isn’t he…or is it swallowing dead rats time again?
Following Checkpoint on the out of control fire in Christchurch Port Hills.
RNZ doing updates