“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported earlier this month that New Zealand was unprepared for between 2C and 4C of warming this century. Climate Change Minister Tim Groser said New Zealand was doing its fair share to reduce emissions and that the onus was on local councils to respond to the effects of climate change such as sea level rise.
Mr Mills said: “For me that was the end. I thought ‘I’ve got to stand up and be counted now’.”
Good on Mr Mills.
Time for more New Zealanders to stand up and be counted on this vital issue.
Who are you voting for?
Your own greedy needs of those of your grandchildren?
Certainly putting His money where His mouth is,”tired of National Government inaction on climate change issues” the owner of the Les Mills fitness business donates $64,999 to Labour and 65,000 to the Green Party,
Suggests exactly what this businessman wants as the next Government…
The Pure Advantage website that is mentioned in the article is worth checking out. It’s been active for a year or two now – definitely not picking political sides, so this article from Phillip Mills is a bit of a step up in the campaign it seems.
Also positive to see Cunliffe making some right (uncosted, not sure of programme) noises about forming a mitigation package against climate change.
Groser was saying yesterday that there’s really no point doing anything unless the major country emitters agree to do it together. Because I am deeply pessimistic about climate change, I could understand that.
But when we choose to be New Zealand can lead globally. I want more for and from this country than that.
When even party political funding is becoming dependent on where you stand on climate change, you know the worm is turning.
To properly capitalise on this new political understanding David Cunliffe needs to announce that the law that prevents climate change being raised as an objection in consent hearings for new coal mines will be repealed on the return of a Labour Government.
It would also be good if Labour could announce that on regaining office they will impose a complete moratorium on new coal mines, in line with their coalition Partner the Green Party policy of No New Coal Mines.
A moratorium on deep sea oil drilling and fracking and on any other extreme non-traditional fossil fuel extraction methods, would be good too.
Lets not hear anymore sychophantic pedantic whining about ‘we must respect existing contracts’.
What’s more sacred, business contracts negotiated unfairly with no mandate, or the environment we all depend on to survive?
If we want to respect contracts how about this one?
Maybe instead of honouring deals done with Bathurst Resources we should first honour the contract we signed with our Pacific neighbors to endeavor to cut back our CO2 emissions? A contract to which we are a signatory, but which John Key had no problem tearing up to keep letting Solid Energy cook the climate.
Many of the islands look to New Zealand, their closest large land mass, to give financial and diplomatic leadership.
“New Zealand can and should do more. They are the fifth highest per capita emitters in the world and Kiwi emissions continue to climb.” President Loeak of the Marshall Islands
Honour the Majuro Declaration. Send Bathurst packing.
Jenny, Yesterday you wanted Cunliffe to announce the adoption of Greens policy of no deep see drilling. Today you want him to adopt their policy on mining AND announce the Greens as a Coalition Partner!
I wait with baited breath to hear what wonderful original thoughts you have tomorrow!
“Jenny, Yesterday you wanted Cunliffe to announce the adoption of Greens policy of no deep see drilling. Today you want him to adopt their policy on mining” Wyndham, George
So what?
Labour are demanding that the Greens adopt their policies of supporting deep sea oil drilling, and new coal mines.
I have argued for some time that it will be electoral suicide for the Greens to concede to Labour’s demands, and if they persist with these demands better to sit on the cross benches giving support only on budget and supply.
But apart from the Greens calling for Labour to change, physics demand it.
The coy Mr Key.
“Mr Key confirmed yesterday it was paid for by the taxpayer and when asked whether that meant it was not such a private dinner after all, he said “well, it kind of is and it isn’t”.
“This time round, it was the tight five – the royals, himself, his wife Bronagh and son Max, who met William during the Keys’ stay at Balmoral last year.” – and this –
“It has become a bit of a tradition for Mr Key and William to cook for each other: after Mr Key hosted the 2010 barbecue, William returned serve by helping out cooking a barbecue for the Key family at Balmoral.”
The wonderful work of Claire Arse-Licker Trevett !
Facts are, the majority of the sheeple are enjoying having the royals out here, the cute little baby, the glamorous duke/duchess.
It’s fun, it’s happy and people especially women want to hear all about it, which is why Cunnliffe came across as such an arse by politising the royal tour.
After the Campbell debacle last night one really has to wonder if the man has a political bone in his body, he really is doing a shit job.
The people giddiest about the royal tour are the trivia and celebrity obsessed media. Despite the efforts of the press to whip up a colonial cringeworthy royal hysteria the crowds are modest, at best. If you scratch the surface, most people think that they seem nice but the whole thing is a bit of a circus.
It’s not my cup of tea, but that doesn’t mean other people aren’t allowed to enjoy it.
Anyway, whats the harm the oldies get to relive the past, the woman get to oooh and ahhh over the cute baby and the young girls get to see a real life princess/duchess.
The Woyal Bludgers must be leaving soon, good riddance, there hasn’t been a scrap of blue sky here in Wellington since these sponges arrived for a break from sponging on the English to take a few big slurps at the trough here…
Oh I don’t know, I expect the advertising and exposure NZ has got in the commonwealth media (most particularly the UK) is more than worth the cost to the taxpayer of having the royals visit.
I must admit I’m a bit bemused as to why anyone gets so worked up one way or the other about the royals visiting.
BM, a ‘youtube video for simpletons!!!’ who would have thunk that You would use such a child’s view to explain the Woyal Family of Bludgers,
Basically a ‘Disneyland tourist attraction way over-paid for the role that lot have sponged off of the people of Britain for centuries, murder, standover, and direct taxation of the peasants was how the ‘Crown Estate’ came into being so it doesn’t matter an iota that a previous head of the Bludge Family gave up ownership in favor of a direct ‘suck’ on the revenue stream now managed by the democratically elected Government,
”The Crown Estate is NOT the private property of the Monarch. It cannot be owned by the Monarch in a private capacity”,
The royals are a tourist attraction they make the UK a truck load of money, far more than what they cost.
The UK has set it’s self up as a Victorian Disney land and the Royals are the centerpiece.
The Royal family generate close to £500 million every year for British tourism with The Tower of London, Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace the most popular Royal destinations.
More rubbish BM, the Woyals do not own the Tower of London, Windsor Castle or Buckingham Palace and as such are simply overpaid actors sucking at the public teat to the tune of millions of pounds a year,
A handful of actors could be hired to ‘play’ the role that these sponges are paid multi-millions of pounds a year to act out for a fraction of the cost,
That still doesn’t explain the fact that the Sponge family is over here bludging off of us at the moment…
I think you should pop down to Civic Square and see them tomorrow. You don’t need to wave a flag, but seeing them in person might change your mind about them, and you have nothing else to do.
Getting all bitter and twisted about Will, Kate and George seems a little sad.
Ha Ha SSLands, the last time i seen one of the plastic Lowness’es was years back when Dun Mihaka gave Her an entirely appropriate whakapahone as a greeting,
My presence so exercised the DPS prowling the side-show bob spectators that they saw reason to curtail my civil rights by bailing me up against a wall asking the same sort of stupid questions that you are famed for…
slylands this is one of your more vacuous efforts during worktime. you start work at 10am and at 10:10am here you are posting. the king of productivity preaches not practices.
It’s fun, it’s happy and people especially women want to hear all about it, which is why Cunnliffe came across as such an arse by politising the royal tour.
The entire tour is politicking – exactly as planned. You’re here adding more to it.
majority bm, you mean the fewthousand who turn out in the streets. by your logic the majority of kiwis are against the gcsb act, the tpp because a few thousands took to the streets.
I haven’t been looking at Royals visit news. I don’t click on the links on news websites. I switch on mute during the TV News, and attend to something else. Why encourage the media obssession – they measure success by the number of clicks on those links, not whether you are for or against the royals.
I have been enjoying a relatively royals free space on TS.
And all this on TV at dinner time, where we all eating ‘cheap’. If eating at all. But nice to see that our tax dollars are being used for something important …
We don’t need a monarchy anymore — anywhere, not just here. We are capable of choosing our own leaders, like religion, it is a hangover from more archaic times.
The Chinese managed to get rid of their monarchy after 3000 years, as did the Russians, the French, the Indians, and so on. We should be able to do the same.
Have just turned on and then turned off morning report. Radio New Zealand have employed one of the slimiest national party shills to front their flagship operation. What an awful mouthful of mangement speak but a slimy little toad is a slimy little toad whichever way you paint it.
I missed hearing Rod Oram because I forgot to turn the radio back on again after another (gag) news report with heartfelt sound of Piss story wringing out his tears. How long Oh Lord do we have to put up with this `news’ from South Africa? We have a good celebrity story incubating right here in River City, or NZ when we find our bearings.
It may be that there are some strange radio news agreements with countries such as South Africa also the USA, so that we take whatever because more volume (hah) costs less, and we then sound so linked in and international.
I haven’t bothered with the Royal visit. I wish them well and hope that they didn’t mind spending time watching children play rugby in Dunedin. How exciting. I can understand that the Dunedinites wanted to show off their wonderful stadium, but it wouldn’t please me as an event if I was on a Magical Mystery Tour.
Something else I missed on radio was Ellis at 11.45 discussing somebody interviewed by Campbell last night prevaricating. There that’s my big word for the day – hope it’s the right one.
Apparently whoever said whatever was not sure about whether he would do something or not. Might have been Cunliffe. Doesn’t sound like Winston who is always positive about things – even positive that he is negative on a policy. Same with Hone. Dunne’s been done. Russel is being spoken to tomorrow I think!
I did think that someone may have had some comment to make about last night’s pollies but you are all of on a royal tour around the beltway or somewhere. Perhaps someone can enlighten me on a) the person who was interviewed, and b) what it was he wasn’t sure about. (I understood it was a him.)
I remember Sharon Crosby leaving for (somewhere) and she made a departing statement, (something like) “there you all thought I was right wing didn’t you”
There is something positive about the interwebs at the moment… Almost as if a malevolent force has been removed. What might have excised the ugliness? What great change?
Ah yes, there it is!!!
DPF is in the Himalayas and can’t update his little National Party propaganda vehicle. Let’s hope he doesn’t stumble into the path of a grumpy Yak. That would be terrible. Yesssireeeee, ait would be absolutely terrible.
Prostituting the Office of the Prime Minister, fresh from being the ‘star’ attraction at the Northern Club said to be the most exclusive ‘Gentlmen’s club’ in Auckland,(funnily enough the Splash Club, a Brothel, advertises itself as an ‘exclusive Gentlemen’s Club here in Wellington),on sale for 5 grand a ‘client’ the ACT Party are now saying they have a far better deal ‘for sale’,
Is this the benefit of ‘competition’ or just the fact the Prime Minister has been well used by the ‘clients’ at previous 5 grander’s, ACT are selling Him to the ‘clients’ at $100 a time at an upcoming dinner,(pretty much ‘street prices’ for a ‘one on one’ with the PM),
Meanwhile Oravida having already ‘paid’ handsomely for the Prostitution of the Office of the Prime Minister are wringing as much use out of Him as possible, featured next to an Oravida ad in a magazine a large picture of Slippery the Prime Minister is said by His office not to breach any rules of propriety because He is not quoted as endorsing the Oravida products being advertised next to it,
What price will this Political prostitute be fetching next year???10 bucks for a quicky…
SSLands, as usual you use what you see as a cunning lie to advance whatever the point is you are attempting to advance,
Notice who Slippery the Prime Minister is Prostituting the Office of Prime Minister in aid of??? who would have thunk it, the Prime Minister is selling himself for 5 grand a time not in aid of any non-political ”good deed”, simply applying Political Prostitution to raise funds for the National Party, the ACT Party, and, the Maori Party,
Compare that with the fundraising of an auctioned dinner with ex-Prime Minister Helen Clark???the beneficiary of the Clark dinner, Team NZ,
If you cannot see the difference then your stupidity level is far greater than i have previously imagined…
Shane Jones drops the hyperbole and makes sense again, describing on Morning report this morning the Maori Party as hypocrites for their 5 grand a time dinner for Auckland’s pakeha elite while they at the same time ‘dissed’ the Mana Party for being in negotiations with the Internet Party,
Jones then went on to draw a thin line of split flax through the chances of the Maori parties Te Ururoa Flavell in the Waiariki electorate saying Annette Sykes will give Him what He has earned for 5 years spent as a lapdog of the National Government,(that don’t include another 3 years),
Jones’es prognosis for the future of the Maori Party, the same as mine, Haere ra…
so dpf is up a mountain. well whipty do for him. does he think he is Sir Ed or sumfing. why doesn’t he just look in a mirror and get some tools for looking into his black heart for the causes of his bile and pathology.
Another appalling example of Judith Collins’ arrogance.
But what can you expect from an admitted liar(re Oravita), who is also Minister of (choke) Justice?
This needs vigorous followup. What are the chances of a criminal prosecution of the ACC executives involved? After all, we have the good old standover tactics, coercion, fraudulent threats etc?
INTERNET FREEDOM is crucial to a DEMOCRACY…it is perhaps one of the most important issues of our time….especially on issues such as globalisation, monopoly capitalism, free debate
….just think what one can learn from the internet and how much authorities with a totalitarian bent would like to control, censor….. close down an open internet …or make it user pays ( to them) and so restrict full public access
…the free open internet fills in many of the gaps and omissions of the mainstream media
as just one example .. ..a free open internet provides people the ability to think critically about the pharmaceutical industry…and take charge of their own health decisions….(just think how much multi national multi billion dollar pharmaceutical companies would like to censor and close down open debate/ critiques and counter research , people sharing adverse effects / experiences etc which cut into their profits)
…in some ways the issues Dotcom and the Internet Party are promoting are the most important issues for all New Zealanders and their democracy , freedom of thought …regardless of what party they belong to
what did you make of the nine to noon discussion of the way winz is dealing with mental health “clients”. i was a little perturbed than they are expected to get into preparedness to return to work immediately, unless granted an exemption. surely complete rest and freedom from work stresses has merit.
i also note how quickly ryan changed 40% may remaon on a benefit for a long time to “most” will do do.
Her unwillingness to admit total numbers of people on any of the benefits was a really big tell. Exception being the 400 people she mentioned who had found work on the new trial, work she was quick to qualify by saying it included [mainly?] part time hours.
The references to the general Jobseeker benefit were particularly funny. Listening to her explain what the Jobseeker seminars are like and how hands on the staff are getting people into work was surreal. Is there a word for laughing out loud whilst internally cringing?
Mana seem to be making sincere overtures to The Greens
The comments come after Mana leaders said at the weekend they wanted to meet with like-minded parties including the Greens in order to try and flesh out a cooperative election strategy, including possible electorate deals.
The comments were Metiria’s comment that
Turei said she was always open to having such conversations with other parties but was yet to hear from Mana.
“It’s highly unlikely though that we would do deals in an electorate, we don’t favour that approach. We haven’t done any in the past and we’re highly unlikely to do any in the future.”
I don’t disagree with
“Voters want to have a genuine choice about the person who will represent them as well as the party that will and they’re entitled to that choice and that’s why we’ve done our best to stand in every electorate where we can.”
but i wonder if that will cut it in today’s political environment. Personally I’ve struggled with deals for the same reasons that Metiria says but times have changed and the way it is is the way it is even though we would wish it different. It is time for The Greens to get into power and enact some of their great policies, we can’t afford another 3 years of the gnats, we need The Greens in there. I don’t believe in any means being justifiable but working together with others is essential and it can be done with integrity and alignment with values imo.
I’m against deals and coat-tail type arrangements. I have been very critical of the way the right games the system. Ultimately, it undermines democracy.
I vote Green party, but understand that in my electorate voting for the Green candidate is a waste of a vote. I will vote for the most viable “left” electorate candidate. But the choice should be up to voters.
I think like-minded parties can have on-going talks on polices, without needing a formal “deal” for elections.
Generally, voters could be educated more about their choices. The media focuses too much on the horse race and “strategies” and deals. I think that tends to put off a lot of voters. It becomes more of a game between parties and pollies, and doesn’t directly address the needs and interests of the public.
but isn’t, in the example you give, that just being covert instead of overt? That those who understand the ramifications of tactical voting make their choice and those that don’t miss the choice or opportunity. So the choices are explained to people and they choose but really the choice explanation is guiding their choices anyway by showing the lie of the land from the choices made.
sorry about that paragraph but hopefully you’ll get my meaning 🙂
Yesterday John Key challenged Cunliffe to a live debate on TV One about housing affordability. It was reported on TV1 news at 6pm that Cunliffe accepted the challenge.
This is really win-win for Cunliffe. He’s now accepted the challenge, so will get air-time opposite Key, months ahead of the election, showing that he is a contender for the job, in the same way that Key getting up next to Clark for the S59 deal only helped him out.
If Key backs down on the challenge, Labour can trumpet from the ramparts that Key is a coward and all talk.
The only downside is if Cunliffe gets smacked around in the debate, but truthfully I don’t think that’s likely.
Is this perhaps the biggest strategic mis-step from smart-alec Key in this election campaign?
Keys dealt to: Cullen, Clark, Goff, Shearer (well ok he didn’t get the chance to deal to him but most likely he would have) and Campbell whereas Cunliffes dealt to Robertson, Jones and has ducked Campbell twice
Yeah it might possibly be a mis-step by Key but based on what Keys done to the best and brightest of the Left in the past its probably not
In the debates against Clark, Key was the real underdog. He ‘won’ the debates on the back of ‘doing better than everyone expected’. That’s not a ringing endorsement.
He beat Clark, he had her screeching about not shouting her down like he does to his wife at home (forgotten that?)
But the point being that Keys gone up against the best the left could muster whereas Cunliffe has gone up against the rest the left could muster so its a calculated decision by Key
Disagree.
Key can’t handle difficult interviews. Stephen Sackur on Hard Talk had him on the ropes.
Hence Key’s aversion to interviews on RNZ ; instead he has cosy chats with Mike, Rawdon and Marcus in the morning.
If ( and it’s a big if) a half decent and impartial interviewer is brought to the debate, Key is toast.
From what I’ve seen of Cunliffe unless the interview follows a set path he’s in trouble.
If Key asks him a question he hasn’t got a set answer to, he’ll fall apart.
It’s a valid question you can research if you like, but as I’m not a politician in the house where knowing the answer to a question before you ask it is a pre requisite, or blogger with credibility resting on the outcome, I’ll just quietly wait in the hope of an adequate response.
When Key was asked on his return from China on the level of discussion and representation re climate change, his eyes took that all too familiar fixed stare position and he fudged that “yeah we talked about it at dinner…” Key does not handle direct, unrehearsed questions well at all.
watch this … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrPgK3bf9_4
Many people who have only a passing interest in politics tend to not know who David Cunliffe is. So it will be of value for David to appear on national TV. Exposure is important.
the one saving grace from such a debate is that if its chaired by hoskings he wont be able to help himseld and his career and might just be even handed as a result.
Now how about Cunliffe and co. do some serious mocking of the coward on TV, radio and the newspapers – and in parliament. I’m sick of Labour letting Key and co. get away with murder without responding in kind.
If they think the general public are going to give them brownie points for behaving nicely then they are seriously deluded.
Probably Key made that challenge to Cunliffe off the cuff in a moment of bravado, then backed down when Cunliffe accepted it and Key(or his advisors) realised what it would involve.
key could just be feeling bullet proof with his second family currently touring… once off the podium he had to deal with the looks of horror in the corridor and the realisation he isnt actually a Windsor.
doesnt follow as such. look at his past popularity in polls compared to election day results.
all that aside, neither cunliffe nor key look good from this BUT cunliffe is moving to the position key had in 2008. low expectation in the debate and all the pressure on key to deliver up a storm.
Key definitely has a positive story to tell with the Reserve Bank moves cooling the lower end of the housing market effectively.
His HNZ recent reforms also seem to be going down pretty well as well among the NZ Housing NGOs.
The cooperation with Auckland Council, and the acceleration of Hobsonville and Tamaki Transformation, are also positive for the government.
Cunliffe however will be able to point to the Christchurch housing rebuild debacle, and the range of more structural responses that Labour has ready.
Cunliffe will not be caught short on briefing.
I would however further arm him with those tasty zingers that Peters is grand master of – because those are the lines that turn ito memes the day after.
Housing is certainly preferable ground for the Left to argue on than the economy.
Key’s “co-operation” with Auckland Council, involved threatening them if they did not comply with the addition of SHA’s, which effectively undermined the more sustainable compact city outcomes that the Unitary Plan was trying to achieve.
The debacle of the Hobsonville project, which was intended to provide 20%, or 500 affordable homes under Labour, but after National came in – only “achieved” 17 Gateway home purchases is not actually positive from my perspective. I’m guessing the Tamaki transformation will be similar.
Anyone familiar with my commenting will realist that I don’t approve National’s direction – just stating what the overwhelming majority of MSM say it is. Unfortunately that matters this year.
Yes Hobsonville is in small part a missed opportuity – but it is also a massive masterplanning, sustainability and commercial success. Started and imagined under Labour. Don’t believe me – go and have a drive through – or take the ferry up there.
Re last sentence: Labour has pretty much run out of the time to turn the MSM to believing that National aren’t doing a good job at economic growth, and that economic growth their way is a good thing. Fight other fights.
My personal approach is never to let the memes pass uncommented, but yes, I can understand where you are coming from.
To me, Hobsonville looks pretty and is pretty, but also pretty much missed the boat in terms of it’s intention of redevelopment of government owned land.
The first few pages of Adding it all Up by the Salvation Army in 2012, puts the success of Hobsonville in perspective.
Tamaki will be the same. And economic growth from where I (and many others) sit, just means our expenses have grown and nothing else!
cunliffe needs to talk about rising interest rates, likely to rise further, so the only thing national has done is prevent young and lower income getting a house, while landlords pass on interest hikes through increasing the same folks rent. thats not housing affordability its preserving home ownership for the wealthy and investors.
I’m agreeing with you, when Keys prepared he makes it look like hes not prepared similar to Churchill saying his best come-backs were thought of ahead of time
thats not even remotely what im saying or asking you
you claimed key is good off the cuff
i disagreed and asked you to further explain your opinion, specifically asking if there was anything you could bring to the discussion that showed how you formed this opinion
if pr can compare key to churchill, we must be able to compare his lying about ian fletcher, his use of the gcsb and his disdain for democracy with hitler.
Why did Cunnliffe cancel. Labour needs an effective leader. Shane Jones would be far more effective. Labour is no longer the opposition party. It is the Labour Greens and the greens don’t even have an elected representative. Come on the Unions get your party back up the polls. NZ needs a decent opposition and one that has the potential to govern NZ effectively.
The GP has 14 elected representatives. You may have noticed that change to our electoral system in the 1990s, whereby we moved to a more representative and fairer system.
Jones may or may not be more effective for Labour than DC, but he would be a disaster for the left and any hope of NZ shifting away from neoliberalism, relieving poverty, addressing AGW/PO/GFC etc, ie doing the things we desperately need to do. Jones = BAU.
State geologists in Ohio have for the first time linked earthquakes in a geologic formation deep under the Appalachians to gas drilling, leading the state to issue new permit conditions in certain areas that are among the nation’s strictest.
A state investigation of five small tremors in the Youngstown area, in the Appalachian foothills, last month has found the high-pressure injection of sand and water that accompanies hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the Utica Shale may have increased pressure on a small, unknown fault, said State Oil & Gas Chief Rick Simmers. He called the link “probable.”
[…]
Under the new permit conditions, all new drilling sites in Ohio within 3 miles of a known fault or seismic activity of 2.0 magnitude or higher will be conditioned on the installation of sensitive seismic-monitoring equipment. Results will be directly available to regulators, Simmers said, so the state isn’t reliant on drilling operators providing the data voluntarily.
If seismic activity of 1.0 magnitude or greater is felt, drilling will be paused for evaluation. If a link is found, the operation will be halted
In 1991 the Club voted to admit women and today has a thriving membership of men and women. Membership of the Northern Club attracted many leaders of the Auckland community, and the Club has played an active and sometimes pivotal role in the history of New Zealand’s largest city.
In 2010, the Auckland Club[5] was absorbed by The Northern club, adding over $3,000,000 in assets to the club, and 250 members. Exclusively male in its membership for over 120 years, facilities for women were introduced only gradually. The first female member was admitted in 1990, shortly after the earliest woman after-dinner speaker, the Minister of Finance Ruth Richardson, who addressed the club in 1989.
The Northern Club Building is significant as the oldest surviving gentlemen’s club in Auckland, and one of the city’s oldest hotels. It has strong links to early colonial institutions, such as the provincial government and British army, as well as prominent individuals in New Zealand history.
It is representative of important aspects of colonial society, such as all-male associations and business networks. It demonstrates the implanting and nurturing of traditions introduced from Britain, particularly among the social elite. The building’s well-preserved interiors yield information about nineteenth- and twentieth-century life in New Zealand, from the use of decor to attitudes about gender and class. The building is particularly significant for its association with other early colonial structures in the area, such as the Albert Barracks Wall and former Government House.
Very interesting interview on RNZ, with Dr Michael Stevens on the historical importance of Bluff. Lots of good stuff on Kāi Tahu culture, southern Māori and a bit of myth busting too.
Dr. Michael Stevens, history lecturer at Otago University and a proud “Bluffie”, has received a Marsden Fund Fast-Start grant to research the history of Bluff between the years 1800 and 2000. He believes his historical case study of the port will re-shape thinking about New Zealand’s economic development and race relations. Of Kai Tahu descent, Dr. Stevens is descended from some of Bluff’s oldest Maori and Pakeha families and grew up in the port town.
Thanks, I missed that, it was good to listen to the interview. I’ve got multiple family connections with Bluff.
Dr Stevens’ research will be interesting. He advises:
I am in the process of developing a “blog” to help spread the word about this project and progressively disseminate some of its findings in advance of the book that will come out of it.
I really like Dame Anne Salmond and this article is awesome imo
Echoing the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Sir David argues that in choosing between intensive farming and dirty and degraded waterways, the country faces “a classic economy versus the environment dilemma”.
This kind of framing, which speaks as though the interests of the economy and the environment are at odds, is based on a logic that splits mind from matter, subject from object, and people from the world around them.
The difficulty with this logic is that it has been rendered obsolete by the findings of contemporary science – brain science, quantum physics and the social and environmental sciences, for example.
Economics, too, has moved on. To quote Herman Daly, a senior economist at the World Bank, “the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment”.
As Daly points out, it is an oxymoron to separate people from the ecosystems that sustain us. This is certainly true in New Zealand, a country that derives so much of its wealth from the land, waterways and the sea.
Yep we really need to see with fresh eyes and be open to other options than the duopoly often presented as ‘the only options’ – there are infinite options if we allow our minds to consider and be open.
On polluted Seas and Land in Taranaki due to oil drilling and dairying …Film maker Eruera Ted Nia, a child of Parihaka and Taranaki, has produced documentaries.
In 1986 Eruera formed Rangiatea Films and Produced/Directed the 48 minute documentary ‘Te Atiawa o Runga te Rangi’ that was commissioned for TVNZ. A portrait of the remaining kuia and koro from Taranaki, they discuss in 100% Taranaki mita, their families, education and way of life.
On Tuesday 24 July 2013 Eruera traveled to Wellington thanks to NZ Film Archives and screened his films ‘Te Atiawa o Runga Te Rangi’ (1986) ‘ Huakina (1987) a look at the polluted seas and land in Taranaki due to oil drilling, ‘Nga Tai o Makiri’ (1987) a study of four Taranaki rivers, with three being almost destroyed due to dairy farming and oil drilling, ‘Te Ara Puoro o Aotearoa’ (1996) a portrait of long time colleague and fellow artist Hirini Melbourne to a largely Taranaki audience.
Just watched “How Wolves Change Rivers” narrated by George Monbiot. I had read of this effect, but 4 mins on Youtube provides a pretty effective summary.
You need to keep dairying in context. NZ has about 2% of the world’s dairy cows. If we reduce dairying the slack will just get taken up elsewhere. Brazil has FOUR TIMES our dairy cow numbers with poorer environmental standards. Do you want to see more pollution in Brazil? No of course you don’t.
Better have dairying in clean green New Zealand where we can keep an eye on it rather than send it off to Brazil and destroy more rainforest. PLUS Brazil is NEVER going to bring its agriculture sector into any future agreement on GHG reductions. Do you want to increase global greenhouse emissions? No of course you don’t.
So I encourage you to think globally. Get out on your next vacation and go and check out dairying in Brazil. It will allow you to keep perspective.
So unless you want to stuff our economy and stuff Brazil’s environment there is no alternative.
Dairy in New Zealand is a win win for the economy and the environment.
Actually, in an own goal sort of way, he has a point.
It’s the same with the big Greens push for solar – great for NZ, but ignores the strip mining of rare earths, inhuman working conditions, and coal-powered production in China which makes the pannels in the first place.
You need to keep dairying in context. NZ has about 2% of the world’s dairy cows. If we reduce dairying the slack will just get taken up elsewhere. Brazil has FOUR TIMES our dairy cow numbers with poorer environmental standards. Do you want to see more pollution in Brazil? No of course you don’t.
You know, there’s actually a better solution and it’s one that will probably work because, no matter what we do, chances are Brazil will end up having more cows than us anyway meaning that we will lose the income from all those dirty, filthy cows that are polluting our waterways. That better solution is tariffs specifically linked to environmental policy and enforcement. Basically, no country gets to export unless it meets minimum environmental standards. There, looking after the environment in a way that might actually work.
Of course, I don’t think international trade works so I’ll take that with a grain of salt.
Where should we go to check out dairying in Brazil, SSLands? How far is it from the rainforest that is being destroyed? Which states are involved? I’d love to hear your version. Who runs the largest grass fed dairy farm in Brazil?
Is Cunnliffe working for National.His transport policy has just been announced and ridiculed by MSM. IF Shane Jones is unpalatable try Robinson or Parker please.
[lprent: If you just want to be a fuckwit and just write trite trollisms, then just go elsewhere please.
Next time I see you utter one under any handle, you will get a permanent ban for basic stupidity.
To make sure you see this, I’m adding you to auto-moderation. ]
Trucks should not be in the fast lane in the first place.
All heavy traffic is meant to stick to 90km/hr or under when on the open road.
It is not just a rule it is actually a law.
” So why not police the current rule?”
please srylands, you want the rules enforced, an honest answer from you on this topic would be very interesting.
Why do the powers that be not actively police this consistently ignored law ?
Seriously? With the country facing unemployment, inequality, a housing crisis and climate change, and Labour is relentlessly talking about regulatory subsidies for the caravan-rental industry.
So much for “talking about the real issues”.
When we’ve got thousands of people without houses to live in to the point that people are buying caravans to park up on friends and neighbours lawns to live in then those people will probably find the extra few hundred a year to be a serious drain on their finances.
I think NRT is dead right. If Labour was concerned about the thousands of people living in caravans it would say so. This is what they did say to explain the policy:
“There’s nothing Kiwis like more than getting on the road and going on holiday. But on public holidays like Easter and Anzac Weekend fun can quickly turn to frustration when the family realises the rego for the caravan has expired or there’s a big truck hogging the fast lane,” he said.
Last week it was Kauri trees.
It’s just the same old crap from Labour. There is now a leader who is able to string a sentence together, but still the same refusal to stand up for anything substantial for fear of upsetting the well-to-do. It is beyond pathetic. Labour doesn’t desrve to continue to exist it has no reason to exist, National looks after the top 20 percent just fine.
There is some good stuff in there (including reversing the idiotic charges on motorhomes as if they were freight vehicles). But I tend to agree js. Labour should be fronting up with the big, important policies. That someone has spent time on that graphic so Cunliffee can tweet it makes me despair, as does the ignorance about the two kinds of people in NZ that have caravans – those that go on holidays, and those that don’t have anywhere else to live.
Weekend fun can quickly turn to frustration when the family realises the rego for the caravan has expired or there’s a big truck hogging the fast lane,” he said.
So they are going to ban trucks that have a speed limit of 90 kph from the fast lane so cars and caravans can go on holiday faster – with a speed limit of 90 kph.
theres an “or” in their pete – nearly gave you a “well spotted” myself there – but the “or” in cunliffes statement changes the meaning from what you (and i) first read it to mean
situation (A) can turn to frustration if (B) OR (C)
One anonymous bloke. Sorry about the mistake my P.A.is away. Also where is the reply button? Anyway you understood.What’s wrong with Robertson or Parker?
all the tory kiss arses are out in full strength today.
I guess they are taking their lead from guyon epsiner.
he wont last long though.
his arrogance and contempt for average kiwis is already showing through but I guess as long as he is there to help swing the election for national then he has a job.
this country gets creepier and crepier by the day.
Do you get that defensive yet quizzical look from people when you say that to them?
Like you have just offered to brush their hair with a fetid dingo tail 🙂
yes i know that look( fetid dingo tail)…so i never say it.( “turn it off”)…but i think to myself …”you dont know you are alive”…”you are already half an automated moron”….my daughters friend lost her cell phone in a pub for an hour and she just about had a nervous or mental breakdown..it was like she had lost a vital part of her Self…she was all at sea….she had lost her pilot and her pivot…WEIRD
It seems, according to exchanges in the House, that John Key has backed down on his challenge to have a specific debate with Cunliffe on TV on housing policy.
Do you think it was ‘incredible luck’, or it was your political connections that helped to ensure that ‘one law for all’ did not apply to yourself or John Banks as former fellow Directors of Huljich Wealth Management (NZ ) Ltd, and you were never charged or prosecuted for signing Registered Prospectuses which contained misleading information?
you believe key was going to debate cunliffe on housing affordability and a hundred other things… which turned out to be “mispoking” . you dont have any high ground here puck
FYI folks – this is rather politically significant given that the Committee for Auckland is like a HERD of mammoth elephants in the room, that apparently hardly anyone dare mention??
THE COMMITTEE FOR AUCKLAND HAVE ACKNOWLEDGED MY PRIVACY ACT REQUEST. THIS SHOULD NOW GET VERY INTERESTING ………..
9 April 2014
To whomever is responsible for handling PRIVACY ACT requests for the Committee for Auckland
On 20 February 2014, I made a copy of the membership list of the Committee for Auckland, which included Auckland Council CEO, Stephen Town.
The next day, the name of Auckland Council CEO Stephen Town, was removed from the Committee for Auckland membership list, which now still lists Auckland Council, and their website, but the name column is now blank:
Please provide all copies of information (including, but not limited to: emails, reports, letters, memos, diary notes, meeting minutes, text messages, telephone messages which contain my name, Penny Bright (Penelope Mary Bright), or make referral to me, in relation to the removal of Auckland Council CEO Stephen Town’s name from the Committee for Auckland membership list.
Please be reminded that the Committee for Auckland is covered by the Privacy Act.
I look forward to your prompt reply.
Kind regards,
Penny Bright
Attendee Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference 2009
Attendee Transparency International Anti-Corruption Conference 2010
Attendee Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference 2013
Auckland Mayoral candidate 2013 (polling 4th with 11,723 vote, campaigning against corrupt corporate control of the Auckland region)
11 April 2014
‘Admin’
Committee for Auckland
To whom it may concern
Please be reminded that it it is ‘good business practice’ to acknowledge correspondence?
I look forward to your prompt acknowledgement of this correspondence.
Kind regards,
Penny Bright
from: Committee for Auckland Administration admin@committeeforauckland.co.nz
to: Penny Bright
date: Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 2:13 PM
subject: RE: ‘Open Letter / Privacy Act request’
– When and why was Auckland Council CEO Stephen Town removed from the Committee for Auckland membership list?
Dear Penny,
Thank you for your email. Receipt of your correspondence is acknowledged.
Craig’s speech theme – “five things we shouldn’t be afraid to say” – acted as a launching pad for his concerns about becoming a nanny state and his push to remove bureaucracy and legislation, such as the anti-smacking law.
[…]
The five things were:
1. Say no to drugs, special interest groups, and don’t give added significance to Maori spirituality.
2. Say yes to business opportunities, freeing up land particularly.
3. Take responsibility – make people work for the dole, make prisoners work.
4. Let people decide – more consultation with the public.
5. Don’t be afraid to be politically active.
Isn’t #1 actually 3 things? That makes 7 things.
And they are very spirashional – aiming for up to 10% of the vote. Reminds me of Don Brash’s ACT, aiming for 15% of the vote.
Well, the report was hidden in a local newspaper, so I don’t think it’s getting much traction – not worthy of a full post – just a passing reference on open mike to his punitive approach to the less well off – and as for lumping “drugs, special interest groups and Maori spirituality” into one “thing”… not a lot to recommend his 7 things and an empty aspiration.
Given that perception is almost everything in politics Cunnliffe has made so many mistakes that even if he comes up with decent policy it won’t be heard by the MSM let alone the swing voter that will decide the outcome of the election. Please fix him up.I am not a Labour supporter nor am I happy with National but the Greens and their Australian leader scare the hell out of me.
Prosper, you can’t even prosper as a concern tr*ll. If your PA ever realises what a failure you are, expect to be drinking a lot more sputum in your coffee.
Just heard Cunliffe on Radio live. He sounded good, quite natural and a reasonable explanation as to why he failed to front on TV. Keep it up. Much better.
In my considered opinion, as an ‘anti-corruption / anti-privatisation Public Watchdog’, Minister for Justice Judith Collins is CORRUPT and should be sacked FORTHWITH.
[Sitting date: 15 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:7. Text is subject to correction.]
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) to the Minister of Justice: Does she maintain that it is not in the public interest to answer all questions regarding Oravida?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Justice) :I have never made that statement.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: How can she give that answer, when it is crystal clear that her pre-arranged meeting with a senior Chinese customs official at the height of the botulism scare was not just dinner with close personal friends but a serious conflict of interest that she and the Prime Minister are trying to cover up?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: I can make that statement because it is the truth.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: Well, if that is the case, why will she not give the name and position of the customs official, when she arranged to meet the customs official at the very time that her husband’s company was having huge issues getting its product through customs and had enlisted her willing intervention?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: The member is quite wrong in his question. If he goes back and looks at previous questions he has asked of that nature, he will see that I have corrected him.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: Is it not the case that, when she was told that joining her and her close personal friends at the dinner was a senior customs official, it did not raise alarm bells, because meeting this customs official was the whole reason for the dinner in the first place?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: The member is quite wrong. I have never said that there was any senior customs official, and he knows it.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: Why is the Minister now claiming that there is no connection with the senior customs official, and does she not understand that her arranged meeting with that official was a serious conflict of interest and a corrupt abuse of her Cabinet position?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: No. The member is quite wrong again. He continues to state in his question matters that are incorrect. I would say to that member that if he is worrying about corruption, I think he should consider a member of Parliament who asks questions in this House and written questions to help his girlfriend in her position with a major global company.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: Does the Minister not understand that throwing out those sorts of allegations will not save her when she was moonlighting for her husband’s company, that her DNA is all over this issue, and that if she answers questions fully, she would no longer get the Prime Minister’s defence and would be sacked for corruption?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: The only member of this House who should be sacked for corruption is that member who has asked the question.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. [Interruption]
Mr SPEAKER: Order! This is a point of order. It will be heard in silence.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: That Minister is not within the Standing Orders attempting to answer that question that way. She has been asked a serious question on a very serious matter—as serious as this House has ever seen—and she is seeking now to deflect it by attacking the questioner.
Mr SPEAKER: In my opinion, the Minister addressed the question.
Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.
Mr SPEAKER: Before I hear any more, I just want to clarify the member is not in any way questioning the decision I have just made.
Grant Robertson: No, it is a different point of order. I am under the impression that in this House a member cannot accuse another member directly of being corrupt, and that is what the Minister just did.
Mr SPEAKER: No, I have already ruled that the answer was addressing the question and I think on this occasion, in light of the tone of the question, it adequately addressed it.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.
Mr SPEAKER: Again, before I hear the member, is he raising a fresh point of order?
Rt Hon Winston Peters: I am raising a fresh point of order. The Minister made an allegation for which she has no evidence whatsoever, and I want an apology.
Mr SPEAKER: If the member is now saying that he took offence, well, on that basis, if the member, the Rt Hon Winston Peters, was offended by that answer, I ask the honourable Minister to stand and withdraw.
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Well, I withdraw—is it? I withdraw. But I am happy—
Mr SPEAKER: Order! It is not helpful to do that. The withdrawal does help the order of the House.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.
Mr SPEAKER: If the member is attempting to trifle with the Chair, I will take a very dim view of that.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: I am not trifling with the Chair, Mr Speaker. That Minister did not apologise as required under the Standing Orders—
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat. [Interruption] The member will resume his seat. I did not ask the Minister to apologise; I asked her to withdraw the remark, and she did so.
just tried to read this through but all the tory twerps are basically illiterate and functionally imbecilic.
I really cant understand what they are trying to say except that they are all shifty key arse kissers and desperate to please their masters. all in all a thundering herd of lobotomised warthogs.
I can’t find anything that says James Dunne is “the Legal High Industry’s key advocate” or that shows Peter Dunne in a bad light? James Dunne deals with legal issues around such recreational drugs. Article that includes comments from James Dunne on legal highs.
”
Tonight … a Seven Sharp exclusive! … Revelations that a lawyer is acting on behalf of the legal high companies is none other than the son of Minister Peter Dunne.
What do you think about this? ”
ps correction on my post. “Labour’s”. I missed the apostrophe key in my excitement
Add to that Dunne’s very recent “economy of truth” about leaking some report and Dunne’s poor judgement in his behaviour towards some young journalist of the opposite gender.
The Legal Highs story is being pumped by the RadioLive/TV3 stable, under the Duncan Garner brand, on a daily basis. The problems arising from Dunne’s legislative approach is very hot in call-back land. TV3 will be pissed that TV One has trumped them with this explosive story. Each will now try to out-do the other on milking this story. Alfa-laval don’t make milking machines as effective as a miffed media outlet!
On top of that Ohariu is middle-class to the core. Even beggars in Ohariu are middle class! They will not like this narrative: Your local “independent” MP and serial government minister is failing to crack down on scummy legal-high peddlers. Co-incidentally that scummy industry is paying that Minister’s son a big wad of cash on a regular basis to negotiate with the Ministers civil servants….
Dunne’s other problem is that he is sanctimonious. Very very sanctimonious. Many many people love love seeing sanctimonious people fall.
2.89 When accepting an invitation, a Minister should inform the organisation that it may not:
use any photos taken of the Minister at the event; or
publicise the event,
in a way that could be perceived as an endorsement by the Minister of the organisation, or its products or services.
Seems fairly clear to me that our PMs pic is being used as an endorsement and so is a few other ministers.
The accusations that Judith Collins made about girlfriends and corruption, anyone have any idea what she was on about? Had a distinctly whaleoilish smell about it. What a dreadful old gossip she is. Parliament gets more like absurdist theatre and pantomime every day.
Jrobin, it was very specifically directed at her accuser, Winston. It has been reported elsewhere that Winston’s lady was a senior exec of a pharmaceuticals related business.
Perhaps Collins is suggesting that Winston asked loaded questions in Parliament?
James Dunne
SENIOR ASSOCIATE – LEADER PARLIAMENT TEAM
James has valuable inside knowledge of how Parliament works in New Zealand, and is New Zealand’s leading specialist in the regulation of new psychoactives under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013. He has an LLB and a BA (History) from Victoria University, and has worked at Chen Palmer since his admission to the bar in 2008. At Chen Palmer he specialises in policy and law reform, and has developed a wide range of expertise in a number of areas:
Policy and law reform: James has advised on a range of law reforms including liquor law reform, psychoactives law reform, real estate agents law reform, taxation law reform, and child support law reform;
Parliament: James advises on how Parliament works and on interacting with Parliamentary processes including the passage of legislation, Select Committees, financial reviews and issues of Parliamentary privilege; and
Regulatory affairs: James advises on the interface with a range of regulators including the Overseas Investment Off
hmmm, that’s tricky. Minimum house sizes set too high prevent people from building small, more energy efficient and cheaper houses for themselves. The problem with NACT setting policy is that it’s bound to be to the advantage of developers, not the community. Also smacks of squashing as many low paid workers into one block as possible. At the other end, people of means are building houses that are too big in terms of ecological footprinting. Lots of problems here, not too many easy solutions.
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Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
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. ...
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. ...
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. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
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 ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
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)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
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Opinion: With maths understanding at 42 percent for Year 8 students, there’s no doubt something has to be done. But how? The post Financial literacy should be on all of us appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11238187
“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported earlier this month that New Zealand was unprepared for between 2C and 4C of warming this century. Climate Change Minister Tim Groser said New Zealand was doing its fair share to reduce emissions and that the onus was on local councils to respond to the effects of climate change such as sea level rise.
Mr Mills said: “For me that was the end. I thought ‘I’ve got to stand up and be counted now’.”
Good on Mr Mills.
Time for more New Zealanders to stand up and be counted on this vital issue.
Who are you voting for?
Your own greedy needs of those of your grandchildren?
Certainly putting His money where His mouth is,”tired of National Government inaction on climate change issues” the owner of the Les Mills fitness business donates $64,999 to Labour and 65,000 to the Green Party,
Suggests exactly what this businessman wants as the next Government…
+1.
The Pure Advantage website that is mentioned in the article is worth checking out. It’s been active for a year or two now – definitely not picking political sides, so this article from Phillip Mills is a bit of a step up in the campaign it seems.
http://www.pureadvantage.org/
Also positive to see Cunliffe making some right (uncosted, not sure of programme) noises about forming a mitigation package against climate change.
Groser was saying yesterday that there’s really no point doing anything unless the major country emitters agree to do it together. Because I am deeply pessimistic about climate change, I could understand that.
But when we choose to be New Zealand can lead globally. I want more for and from this country than that.
When even party political funding is becoming dependent on where you stand on climate change, you know the worm is turning.
To properly capitalise on this new political understanding David Cunliffe needs to announce that the law that prevents climate change being raised as an objection in consent hearings for new coal mines will be repealed on the return of a Labour Government.
It would also be good if Labour could announce that on regaining office they will impose a complete moratorium on new coal mines, in line with their coalition Partner the Green Party policy of No New Coal Mines.
A moratorium on deep sea oil drilling and fracking and on any other extreme non-traditional fossil fuel extraction methods, would be good too.
Lets not hear anymore sychophantic pedantic whining about ‘we must respect existing contracts’.
What’s more sacred, business contracts negotiated unfairly with no mandate, or the environment we all depend on to survive?
If we want to respect contracts how about this one?
Maybe instead of honouring deals done with Bathurst Resources we should first honour the contract we signed with our Pacific neighbors to endeavor to cut back our CO2 emissions? A contract to which we are a signatory, but which John Key had no problem tearing up to keep letting Solid Energy cook the climate.
The Majuro Declaration on Climate Change
Many of the islands look to New Zealand, their closest large land mass, to give financial and diplomatic leadership.
“New Zealand can and should do more. They are the fifth highest per capita emitters in the world and Kiwi emissions continue to climb.”
President Loeak of the Marshall Islands
Honour the Majuro Declaration. Send Bathurst packing.
Jenny, Yesterday you wanted Cunliffe to announce the adoption of Greens policy of no deep see drilling. Today you want him to adopt their policy on mining AND announce the Greens as a Coalition Partner!
I wait with baited breath to hear what wonderful original thoughts you have tomorrow!
Lolz, a million different people from one day to the next…
So what?
Labour are demanding that the Greens adopt their policies of supporting deep sea oil drilling, and new coal mines.
I have argued for some time that it will be electoral suicide for the Greens to concede to Labour’s demands, and if they persist with these demands better to sit on the cross benches giving support only on budget and supply.
But apart from the Greens calling for Labour to change, physics demand it.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11238219
Corrupt.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11238214
More diversionary trivia for NZers so they don’t pay attention to the important stuff.
The coy Mr Key.
“Mr Key confirmed yesterday it was paid for by the taxpayer and when asked whether that meant it was not such a private dinner after all, he said “well, it kind of is and it isn’t”.
Celebrity Grossed ?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/royal-tour/9940930/Wills-and-Kates-dinner-is-on-us
“My understanding is they were certainly keen to catch up, they were certainly keen to have something that was relaxed and in a fun environment.”
Imelda without the heels !
@north.
And the poor blighters ended up spending the evening with ‘thick as batshit’ key. Yawn.
FFS ! It gets worse – From the Herald this morning –
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11238214
“This time round, it was the tight five – the royals, himself, his wife Bronagh and son Max, who met William during the Keys’ stay at Balmoral last year.” – and this –
“It has become a bit of a tradition for Mr Key and William to cook for each other: after Mr Key hosted the 2010 barbecue, William returned serve by helping out cooking a barbecue for the Key family at Balmoral.”
The wonderful work of Claire Arse-Licker Trevett !
What an uplifting piece of journalism.
Makes you proud to be a New Zealander.
Who said ShonKey Python and his pet scribblers wouldn’t be working the guts out of it a few months out from a general election, then ?
Facts are, the majority of the sheeple are enjoying having the royals out here, the cute little baby, the glamorous duke/duchess.
It’s fun, it’s happy and people especially women want to hear all about it, which is why Cunnliffe came across as such an arse by politising the royal tour.
After the Campbell debacle last night one really has to wonder if the man has a political bone in his body, he really is doing a shit job.
The people giddiest about the royal tour are the trivia and celebrity obsessed media. Despite the efforts of the press to whip up a colonial cringeworthy royal hysteria the crowds are modest, at best. If you scratch the surface, most people think that they seem nice but the whole thing is a bit of a circus.
It’s not my cup of tea, but that doesn’t mean other people aren’t allowed to enjoy it.
Anyway, whats the harm the oldies get to relive the past, the woman get to oooh and ahhh over the cute baby and the young girls get to see a real life princess/duchess.
Good harmless family fun.
The Woyal Bludgers must be leaving soon, good riddance, there hasn’t been a scrap of blue sky here in Wellington since these sponges arrived for a break from sponging on the English to take a few big slurps at the trough here…
Have a look at this, you may learn something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhyYgnhhKFw
That may be a true picture for the UK. But none of that is valid for NZ is it BM?
Oh I don’t know, I expect the advertising and exposure NZ has got in the commonwealth media (most particularly the UK) is more than worth the cost to the taxpayer of having the royals visit.
I must admit I’m a bit bemused as to why anyone gets so worked up one way or the other about the royals visiting.
BM, a ‘youtube video for simpletons!!!’ who would have thunk that You would use such a child’s view to explain the Woyal Family of Bludgers,
Basically a ‘Disneyland tourist attraction way over-paid for the role that lot have sponged off of the people of Britain for centuries, murder, standover, and direct taxation of the peasants was how the ‘Crown Estate’ came into being so it doesn’t matter an iota that a previous head of the Bludge Family gave up ownership in favor of a direct ‘suck’ on the revenue stream now managed by the democratically elected Government,
”The Crown Estate is NOT the private property of the Monarch. It cannot be owned by the Monarch in a private capacity”,
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/finances_of_the_british_royal_family
The royals are a tourist attraction they make the UK a truck load of money, far more than what they cost.
The UK has set it’s self up as a Victorian Disney land and the Royals are the centerpiece.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/tourism/8587231/UK-Tourism-facts-and-figures.html
Try to think out side the square, chap.
More rubbish BM, the Woyals do not own the Tower of London, Windsor Castle or Buckingham Palace and as such are simply overpaid actors sucking at the public teat to the tune of millions of pounds a year,
A handful of actors could be hired to ‘play’ the role that these sponges are paid multi-millions of pounds a year to act out for a fraction of the cost,
That still doesn’t explain the fact that the Sponge family is over here bludging off of us at the moment…
I think you should pop down to Civic Square and see them tomorrow. You don’t need to wave a flag, but seeing them in person might change your mind about them, and you have nothing else to do.
Getting all bitter and twisted about Will, Kate and George seems a little sad.
And SSLands proves his complete and total shallowness. For him, looks and image are everything.
Ha Ha SSLands, the last time i seen one of the plastic Lowness’es was years back when Dun Mihaka gave Her an entirely appropriate whakapahone as a greeting,
My presence so exercised the DPS prowling the side-show bob spectators that they saw reason to curtail my civil rights by bailing me up against a wall asking the same sort of stupid questions that you are famed for…
“you have nothing else to do.”
mind your manners
classic transference by slylands
slylands this is one of your more vacuous efforts during worktime. you start work at 10am and at 10:10am here you are posting. the king of productivity preaches not practices.
good harmless costly to the taxpayer fun.perhaps the govt should pass buckets through the crowd seeking donations to pay for it all.
The entire tour is politicking – exactly as planned. You’re here adding more to it.
majority bm, you mean the fewthousand who turn out in the streets. by your logic the majority of kiwis are against the gcsb act, the tpp because a few thousands took to the streets.
Or about half the entire population according to the last poll
one fact at a time or bm’s head will explode
Makes you ill.
not a nzer bm, a colonial.
I haven’t been looking at Royals visit news. I don’t click on the links on news websites. I switch on mute during the TV News, and attend to something else. Why encourage the media obssession – they measure success by the number of clicks on those links, not whether you are for or against the royals.
I have been enjoying a relatively royals free space on TS.
Yeah, I’ve managed to bypass it so far as well.
Goebbels would be proud of the corporate media.
And all this on TV at dinner time, where we all eating ‘cheap’. If eating at all. But nice to see that our tax dollars are being used for something important …
Im over the Royal Family.
We don’t need a monarchy anymore — anywhere, not just here. We are capable of choosing our own leaders, like religion, it is a hangover from more archaic times.
The Chinese managed to get rid of their monarchy after 3000 years, as did the Russians, the French, the Indians, and so on. We should be able to do the same.
Claire “Key Cracks a Joke” Sycophantic Trevett. Time to start collecting her articles for systematic bias complaint.
She’s not a journalist’s backside.
Have just turned on and then turned off morning report. Radio New Zealand have employed one of the slimiest national party shills to front their flagship operation. What an awful mouthful of mangement speak but a slimy little toad is a slimy little toad whichever way you paint it.
Espiner?
I missed hearing Rod Oram because I forgot to turn the radio back on again after another (gag) news report with heartfelt sound of Piss story wringing out his tears. How long Oh Lord do we have to put up with this `news’ from South Africa? We have a good celebrity story incubating right here in River City, or NZ when we find our bearings.
It may be that there are some strange radio news agreements with countries such as South Africa also the USA, so that we take whatever because more volume (hah) costs less, and we then sound so linked in and international.
I haven’t bothered with the Royal visit. I wish them well and hope that they didn’t mind spending time watching children play rugby in Dunedin. How exciting. I can understand that the Dunedinites wanted to show off their wonderful stadium, but it wouldn’t please me as an event if I was on a Magical Mystery Tour.
Something else I missed on radio was Ellis at 11.45 discussing somebody interviewed by Campbell last night prevaricating. There that’s my big word for the day – hope it’s the right one.
Apparently whoever said whatever was not sure about whether he would do something or not. Might have been Cunliffe. Doesn’t sound like Winston who is always positive about things – even positive that he is negative on a policy. Same with Hone. Dunne’s been done. Russel is being spoken to tomorrow I think!
I did think that someone may have had some comment to make about last night’s pollies but you are all of on a royal tour around the beltway or somewhere. Perhaps someone can enlighten me on a) the person who was interviewed, and b) what it was he wasn’t sure about. (I understood it was a him.)
I remember Sharon Crosby leaving for (somewhere) and she made a departing statement, (something like) “there you all thought I was right wing didn’t you”
There is something positive about the interwebs at the moment… Almost as if a malevolent force has been removed. What might have excised the ugliness? What great change?
Ah yes, there it is!!!
DPF is in the Himalayas and can’t update his little National Party propaganda vehicle. Let’s hope he doesn’t stumble into the path of a grumpy Yak. That would be terrible. Yesssireeeee, ait would be absolutely terrible.
They have cyber cafes in Nepal….??
“they have McDonald’s in Tibet”
theological complexities aside – Amused to Death is still a great album and has one of those timeless message thingys to boot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaGXVU2CbNs
Prostituting the Office of the Prime Minister, fresh from being the ‘star’ attraction at the Northern Club said to be the most exclusive ‘Gentlmen’s club’ in Auckland,(funnily enough the Splash Club, a Brothel, advertises itself as an ‘exclusive Gentlemen’s Club here in Wellington),on sale for 5 grand a ‘client’ the ACT Party are now saying they have a far better deal ‘for sale’,
Is this the benefit of ‘competition’ or just the fact the Prime Minister has been well used by the ‘clients’ at previous 5 grander’s, ACT are selling Him to the ‘clients’ at $100 a time at an upcoming dinner,(pretty much ‘street prices’ for a ‘one on one’ with the PM),
Meanwhile Oravida having already ‘paid’ handsomely for the Prostitution of the Office of the Prime Minister are wringing as much use out of Him as possible, featured next to an Oravida ad in a magazine a large picture of Slippery the Prime Minister is said by His office not to breach any rules of propriety because He is not quoted as endorsing the Oravida products being advertised next to it,
What price will this Political prostitute be fetching next year???10 bucks for a quicky…
You are making a big deal out of absolutely nothing. PMs have been involved in fundraising forever.
NZ PM on menu at auction
http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/sailing/10/17/tnz.auction.biz/
That doesn’t make it right. Specifically, a picture of our PM should not be part of a products promotion.
SSLands, as usual you use what you see as a cunning lie to advance whatever the point is you are attempting to advance,
Notice who Slippery the Prime Minister is Prostituting the Office of Prime Minister in aid of??? who would have thunk it, the Prime Minister is selling himself for 5 grand a time not in aid of any non-political ”good deed”, simply applying Political Prostitution to raise funds for the National Party, the ACT Party, and, the Maori Party,
Compare that with the fundraising of an auctioned dinner with ex-Prime Minister Helen Clark???the beneficiary of the Clark dinner, Team NZ,
If you cannot see the difference then your stupidity level is far greater than i have previously imagined…
These clowns are just bitter because no one would pay good money to talk to Clusterfuck Cunliffe
Shane Jones drops the hyperbole and makes sense again, describing on Morning report this morning the Maori Party as hypocrites for their 5 grand a time dinner for Auckland’s pakeha elite while they at the same time ‘dissed’ the Mana Party for being in negotiations with the Internet Party,
Jones then went on to draw a thin line of split flax through the chances of the Maori parties Te Ururoa Flavell in the Waiariki electorate saying Annette Sykes will give Him what He has earned for 5 years spent as a lapdog of the National Government,(that don’t include another 3 years),
Jones’es prognosis for the future of the Maori Party, the same as mine, Haere ra…
so dpf is up a mountain. well whipty do for him. does he think he is Sir Ed or sumfing. why doesn’t he just look in a mirror and get some tools for looking into his black heart for the causes of his bile and pathology.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/9941577/ACC-forms-ruled-to-be-unlawful
Another appalling example of Judith Collins’ arrogance.
But what can you expect from an admitted liar(re Oravita), who is also Minister of (choke) Justice?
This needs vigorous followup. What are the chances of a criminal prosecution of the ACC executives involved? After all, we have the good old standover tactics, coercion, fraudulent threats etc?
arrogance and bullying.
INTERNET FREEDOM is crucial to a DEMOCRACY…it is perhaps one of the most important issues of our time….especially on issues such as globalisation, monopoly capitalism, free debate
….just think what one can learn from the internet and how much authorities with a totalitarian bent would like to control, censor….. close down an open internet …or make it user pays ( to them) and so restrict full public access
…the free open internet fills in many of the gaps and omissions of the mainstream media
as just one example .. ..a free open internet provides people the ability to think critically about the pharmaceutical industry…and take charge of their own health decisions….(just think how much multi national multi billion dollar pharmaceutical companies would like to censor and close down open debate/ critiques and counter research , people sharing adverse effects / experiences etc which cut into their profits)
…in some ways the issues Dotcom and the Internet Party are promoting are the most important issues for all New Zealanders and their democracy , freedom of thought …regardless of what party they belong to
….So go Mana for Internet Freedom and Democracy!
I’m glad Mana is getting on board with what has long been Green Party Policies.
So Mana and The Greens should be able to work well together.
agree.
what did you make of the nine to noon discussion of the way winz is dealing with mental health “clients”. i was a little perturbed than they are expected to get into preparedness to return to work immediately, unless granted an exemption. surely complete rest and freedom from work stresses has merit.
i also note how quickly ryan changed 40% may remaon on a benefit for a long time to “most” will do do.
I didn’t hear it. I don’t listen to RNZ much these days – browse their website and selct an audio or 2.
Generally, I don’t support an approach that stresses work as a priority over mental health.
it all was said by a woman with such a reasonable tone and yet…
Her unwillingness to admit total numbers of people on any of the benefits was a really big tell. Exception being the 400 people she mentioned who had found work on the new trial, work she was quick to qualify by saying it included [mainly?] part time hours.
The references to the general Jobseeker benefit were particularly funny. Listening to her explain what the Jobseeker seminars are like and how hands on the staff are getting people into work was surreal. Is there a word for laughing out loud whilst internally cringing?
and her single example of a job well done…
Mana seem to be making sincere overtures to The Greens
The comments were Metiria’s comment that
I don’t disagree with
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9943442/Greens-open-to-talks-with-Mana
but i wonder if that will cut it in today’s political environment. Personally I’ve struggled with deals for the same reasons that Metiria says but times have changed and the way it is is the way it is even though we would wish it different. It is time for The Greens to get into power and enact some of their great policies, we can’t afford another 3 years of the gnats, we need The Greens in there. I don’t believe in any means being justifiable but working together with others is essential and it can be done with integrity and alignment with values imo.
I’m against deals and coat-tail type arrangements. I have been very critical of the way the right games the system. Ultimately, it undermines democracy.
I vote Green party, but understand that in my electorate voting for the Green candidate is a waste of a vote. I will vote for the most viable “left” electorate candidate. But the choice should be up to voters.
I think like-minded parties can have on-going talks on polices, without needing a formal “deal” for elections.
Generally, voters could be educated more about their choices. The media focuses too much on the horse race and “strategies” and deals. I think that tends to put off a lot of voters. It becomes more of a game between parties and pollies, and doesn’t directly address the needs and interests of the public.
“But the choice should be up to voters.”
but isn’t, in the example you give, that just being covert instead of overt? That those who understand the ramifications of tactical voting make their choice and those that don’t miss the choice or opportunity. So the choices are explained to people and they choose but really the choice explanation is guiding their choices anyway by showing the lie of the land from the choices made.
sorry about that paragraph but hopefully you’ll get my meaning 🙂
Yesterday John Key challenged Cunliffe to a live debate on TV One about housing affordability. It was reported on TV1 news at 6pm that Cunliffe accepted the challenge.
This is really win-win for Cunliffe. He’s now accepted the challenge, so will get air-time opposite Key, months ahead of the election, showing that he is a contender for the job, in the same way that Key getting up next to Clark for the S59 deal only helped him out.
If Key backs down on the challenge, Labour can trumpet from the ramparts that Key is a coward and all talk.
The only downside is if Cunliffe gets smacked around in the debate, but truthfully I don’t think that’s likely.
Is this perhaps the biggest strategic mis-step from smart-alec Key in this election campaign?
Depends on who is the m.c.
If it’s someone like Hosking, expect an ambush.
well, he can always quip to hosking that
” at least i know the difference between climate change and a weather forecast”
“Or I didn’t know Sky City sponsored this programme”
Cunliffe cancelled twice from appearing on cambell live – I’m guessing he wont turn up for this either.
He is re-scheduling for Campbell Live.
Why? So he can cancel a third time ?
so he can by an expensive bach to pretend its his “home”.
key backed off his challenged. opps, aye james?
Even if Cunliffe smacks around Key in the debate, it will be reported the other way around.
Worth bearing in mind, for anyone that can recall it, the result of that tv3 debate on housing.
Pundits were sure that Metiria Turei had stuffed everything up till the results came in.
http://www.3news.co.nz/How-do-we-fix-the-housing-crisis/tabid/1785/articleID/311238/Default.aspx
Keys dealt to: Cullen, Clark, Goff, Shearer (well ok he didn’t get the chance to deal to him but most likely he would have) and Campbell whereas Cunliffes dealt to Robertson, Jones and has ducked Campbell twice
Yeah it might possibly be a mis-step by Key but based on what Keys done to the best and brightest of the Left in the past its probably not
No, Key held his own against Clark.
In the debates against Clark, Key was the real underdog. He ‘won’ the debates on the back of ‘doing better than everyone expected’. That’s not a ringing endorsement.
dont confuse the right with facts
He beat Clark, he had her screeching about not shouting her down like he does to his wife at home (forgotten that?)
But the point being that Keys gone up against the best the left could muster whereas Cunliffe has gone up against the rest the left could muster so its a calculated decision by Key
on which he has reneged already
😕 just how drunk was he when he made the challenge?
Was at his weekly press briefing.
Cunliffe doesn’t do off the cuff, Key does and he’s very very good at it.
I’m get the feeling that this is Key going in for the kill.
Disagree.
Key can’t handle difficult interviews. Stephen Sackur on Hard Talk had him on the ropes.
Hence Key’s aversion to interviews on RNZ ; instead he has cosy chats with Mike, Rawdon and Marcus in the morning.
If ( and it’s a big if) a half decent and impartial interviewer is brought to the debate, Key is toast.
From what I’ve seen of Cunliffe unless the interview follows a set path he’s in trouble.
If Key asks him a question he hasn’t got a set answer to, he’ll fall apart.
And what happens when a good interviewer asks Key a difficult question on say child poverty?
Like how much have you done personally to ease child poverty having $50 mil sitting in the bank of Hawaii?
you need to know the answers before you ask the questions…
cunliffe can debate. i have no doubt and he will be uneditted, thats a plus
It’s a valid question you can research if you like, but as I’m not a politician in the house where knowing the answer to a question before you ask it is a pre requisite, or blogger with credibility resting on the outcome, I’ll just quietly wait in the hope of an adequate response.
When Key was asked on his return from China on the level of discussion and representation re climate change, his eyes took that all too familiar fixed stare position and he fudged that “yeah we talked about it at dinner…” Key does not handle direct, unrehearsed questions well at all.
watch this … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrPgK3bf9_4
Cunliffe is rescheduling the interview with Campbell Live.
They now have weekly interviews with both Key and Cunliffe on Morning Report.
Many people who have only a passing interest in politics tend to not know who David Cunliffe is. So it will be of value for David to appear on national TV. Exposure is important.
remember when key stormed off in a huff.
the one saving grace from such a debate is that if its chaired by hoskings he wont be able to help himseld and his career and might just be even handed as a result.
David Parker said in the House a few minutes ago that Key had backed down from doing a specific TV debate with Cunliffe on housing.
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/pm-won-t-debate-cunliffe-over-housing-5931001
Now how about Cunliffe and co. do some serious mocking of the coward on TV, radio and the newspapers – and in parliament. I’m sick of Labour letting Key and co. get away with murder without responding in kind.
If they think the general public are going to give them brownie points for behaving nicely then they are seriously deluded.
pretty hard to do that when you just backed out of a tv appearance
Probably Key made that challenge to Cunliffe off the cuff in a moment of bravado, then backed down when Cunliffe accepted it and Key(or his advisors) realised what it would involve.
Lanthanide said it was announced at the PM’s press briefing, so it was surely not an off the cuff idea ?
key could just be feeling bullet proof with his second family currently touring… once off the podium he had to deal with the looks of horror in the corridor and the realisation he isnt actually a Windsor.
don’t the corgis carry the surname ?
Verily it was off the cuff. He was giving a smart-alec reply to a journalist’s question, grinning ear to ear and walked off the stage.
Good, starve Cunliffe of oxygen until you have to deal with him then smoke in the debate
yet your saying key can slay him any time, any where, with no prep
which is it?
its hard to support someone that just made him look so stupid. why do these folks keep sticking up for key, he just makes fools of them over and over.
wow, you need a panadol for that superfast flip flop sir??
“so its a calculated decision by Key” Puckish rogue only one hour ago folks
So …. what is the next step in this cunning plan we wonder ?
His next step is to continue to have an approval rating at least 5 times the size of Cunliffe
Which is going according to plan 🙂
his party poll is the relevant one. .. hence hes baking cakes for the maori party fair.
The more popular he is the better it is for National so expect to see Keys face on more womens magazines in the near future
doesnt follow as such. look at his past popularity in polls compared to election day results.
all that aside, neither cunliffe nor key look good from this BUT cunliffe is moving to the position key had in 2008. low expectation in the debate and all the pressure on key to deliver up a storm.
i see youve steered away from the issue of you contradicting yourself
Key definitely has a positive story to tell with the Reserve Bank moves cooling the lower end of the housing market effectively.
His HNZ recent reforms also seem to be going down pretty well as well among the NZ Housing NGOs.
The cooperation with Auckland Council, and the acceleration of Hobsonville and Tamaki Transformation, are also positive for the government.
Cunliffe however will be able to point to the Christchurch housing rebuild debacle, and the range of more structural responses that Labour has ready.
Cunliffe will not be caught short on briefing.
I would however further arm him with those tasty zingers that Peters is grand master of – because those are the lines that turn ito memes the day after.
Housing is certainly preferable ground for the Left to argue on than the economy.
Key’s “co-operation” with Auckland Council, involved threatening them if they did not comply with the addition of SHA’s, which effectively undermined the more sustainable compact city outcomes that the Unitary Plan was trying to achieve.
The debacle of the Hobsonville project, which was intended to provide 20%, or 500 affordable homes under Labour, but after National came in – only “achieved” 17 Gateway home purchases is not actually positive from my perspective. I’m guessing the Tamaki transformation will be similar.
As for your last sentence – satire?
Anyone familiar with my commenting will realist that I don’t approve National’s direction – just stating what the overwhelming majority of MSM say it is. Unfortunately that matters this year.
Yes Hobsonville is in small part a missed opportuity – but it is also a massive masterplanning, sustainability and commercial success. Started and imagined under Labour. Don’t believe me – go and have a drive through – or take the ferry up there.
Re last sentence: Labour has pretty much run out of the time to turn the MSM to believing that National aren’t doing a good job at economic growth, and that economic growth their way is a good thing. Fight other fights.
My personal approach is never to let the memes pass uncommented, but yes, I can understand where you are coming from.
To me, Hobsonville looks pretty and is pretty, but also pretty much missed the boat in terms of it’s intention of redevelopment of government owned land.
The first few pages of Adding it all Up by the Salvation Army in 2012, puts the success of Hobsonville in perspective.
Tamaki will be the same. And economic growth from where I (and many others) sit, just means our expenses have grown and nothing else!
cunliffe needs to talk about rising interest rates, likely to rise further, so the only thing national has done is prevent young and lower income getting a house, while landlords pass on interest hikes through increasing the same folks rent. thats not housing affordability its preserving home ownership for the wealthy and investors.
“Key does and he’s very very good at it.”
yeah – nah.
i dont know where you get that idea from – the same place as cunliffes faux bro accent perhaps?\
jesus wept – you seriously think that key does well when hes off script?
note – off script doesnt mean the appearance of making off the cuff remarks in an environment where you control or know the questions before hand
Worked for Winston Churchill and it works for John Key
no it doesnt
on what do you base this weird opinion? – when ever key is put on the spot in an unscripted or unprepared environment he makes an ass of himself
note – major point here – unscripted and unprepared, so dont bring up the campbell live thing because that was a planned prepared appearance
could you provide some examples?
I’m agreeing with you, when Keys prepared he makes it look like hes not prepared similar to Churchill saying his best come-backs were thought of ahead of time
thats not even remotely what im saying or asking you
you claimed key is good off the cuff
i disagreed and asked you to further explain your opinion, specifically asking if there was anything you could bring to the discussion that showed how you formed this opinion
and you came back with churchill
if pr can compare key to churchill, we must be able to compare his lying about ian fletcher, his use of the gcsb and his disdain for democracy with hitler.
id say its the opposite. key needs time to prepare and be prepared.
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/pm-won-t-debate-cunliffe-over-housing-5931001
gutless wonder
“Yeah, we’ll call it the first debate, I’m looking forward to it.”
He says the Prime Minister does not start debating with the Leader of the Opposition prior to the debates.”
thats almost pythonesque
i think the team planned on four more months preparation…
what a lot of shit bm. wait a moment. thats what a bm is. a load of crap.
Why did Cunnliffe cancel. Labour needs an effective leader. Shane Jones would be far more effective. Labour is no longer the opposition party. It is the Labour Greens and the greens don’t even have an elected representative. Come on the Unions get your party back up the polls. NZ needs a decent opposition and one that has the potential to govern NZ effectively.
The GP has 14 elected representatives. You may have noticed that change to our electoral system in the 1990s, whereby we moved to a more representative and fairer system.
Jones may or may not be more effective for Labour than DC, but he would be a disaster for the left and any hope of NZ shifting away from neoliberalism, relieving poverty, addressing AGW/PO/GFC etc, ie doing the things we desperately need to do. Jones = BAU.
Shane Jones should probably shift to National. Not a great endorsement for a Labour Party leader.
F*ck the poor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBuC_0-d-9Y#t=48
Keeping it that way.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/04/08/rich-people-rule/
The Taranaki regional council assurance does seem rather convenient.
http://www.trc.govt.nz/seismologists-find-nothing-to-fear/
.
State geologists in Ohio have for the first time linked earthquakes in a geologic formation deep under the Appalachians to gas drilling, leading the state to issue new permit conditions in certain areas that are among the nation’s strictest.
A state investigation of five small tremors in the Youngstown area, in the Appalachian foothills, last month has found the high-pressure injection of sand and water that accompanies hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the Utica Shale may have increased pressure on a small, unknown fault, said State Oil & Gas Chief Rick Simmers. He called the link “probable.”
[…]
Under the new permit conditions, all new drilling sites in Ohio within 3 miles of a known fault or seismic activity of 2.0 magnitude or higher will be conditioned on the installation of sensitive seismic-monitoring equipment. Results will be directly available to regulators, Simmers said, so the state isn’t reliant on drilling operators providing the data voluntarily.
If seismic activity of 1.0 magnitude or greater is felt, drilling will be paused for evaluation. If a link is found, the operation will be halted
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101576489
im sure they are lying
On ‘Martin Bradbury’s New Zealand’ ( cf Alistair Cooke’s America):
Maori National Party vs Mana Socialist Party…and BIG Money connections
Q: who is the biggest hypocrite?…
A:.Maori National Party
‘Comparing Maori Party $5000 per ticket John Key Fundraiser at sexist Northern Club to MANA’s Internet Party alliance’ –
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/04/15/comparing-maori-party-5000-per-ticket-john-key-fundraiser-at-sexist-northern-club-to-manas-internet-party-alliance/
In 1991 the Club voted to admit women and today has a thriving membership of men and women. Membership of the Northern Club attracted many leaders of the Auckland community, and the Club has played an active and sometimes pivotal role in the history of New Zealand’s largest city.
In 2010, the Auckland Club[5] was absorbed by The Northern club, adding over $3,000,000 in assets to the club, and 250 members. Exclusively male in its membership for over 120 years, facilities for women were introduced only gradually. The first female member was admitted in 1990, shortly after the earliest woman after-dinner speaker, the Minister of Finance Ruth Richardson, who addressed the club in 1989.
The Northern Club Building is significant as the oldest surviving gentlemen’s club in Auckland, and one of the city’s oldest hotels. It has strong links to early colonial institutions, such as the provincial government and British army, as well as prominent individuals in New Zealand history.
It is representative of important aspects of colonial society, such as all-male associations and business networks. It demonstrates the implanting and nurturing of traditions introduced from Britain, particularly among the social elite. The building’s well-preserved interiors yield information about nineteenth- and twentieth-century life in New Zealand, from the use of decor to attitudes about gender and class. The building is particularly significant for its association with other early colonial structures in the area, such as the Albert Barracks Wall and former Government House.
Is that a cut and paste? Can you please attribute clearly, Tracey?
Very interesting interview on RNZ, with Dr Michael Stevens on the historical importance of Bluff. Lots of good stuff on Kāi Tahu culture, southern Māori and a bit of myth busting too.
Dr. Michael Stevens, history lecturer at Otago University and a proud “Bluffie”, has received a Marsden Fund Fast-Start grant to research the history of Bluff between the years 1800 and 2000. He believes his historical case study of the port will re-shape thinking about New Zealand’s economic development and race relations. Of Kai Tahu descent, Dr. Stevens is descended from some of Bluff’s oldest Maori and Pakeha families and grew up in the port town.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2592674/dr-michael-stevens-traces-the-history-of-bluff
Thanks weka – will listen to that later on. The deep south has much to teach us all about how to get on.
Thanks, I missed that, it was good to listen to the interview. I’ve got multiple family connections with Bluff.
Dr Stevens’ research will be interesting. He advises:
I really like Dame Anne Salmond and this article is awesome imo
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11238114
Yep we really need to see with fresh eyes and be open to other options than the duopoly often presented as ‘the only options’ – there are infinite options if we allow our minds to consider and be open.
On polluted Seas and Land in Taranaki due to oil drilling and dairying …Film maker Eruera Ted Nia, a child of Parihaka and Taranaki, has produced documentaries.
In 1986 Eruera formed Rangiatea Films and Produced/Directed the 48 minute documentary ‘Te Atiawa o Runga te Rangi’ that was commissioned for TVNZ. A portrait of the remaining kuia and koro from Taranaki, they discuss in 100% Taranaki mita, their families, education and way of life.
On Tuesday 24 July 2013 Eruera traveled to Wellington thanks to NZ Film Archives and screened his films ‘Te Atiawa o Runga Te Rangi’ (1986) ‘ Huakina (1987) a look at the polluted seas and land in Taranaki due to oil drilling, ‘Nga Tai o Makiri’ (1987) a study of four Taranaki rivers, with three being almost destroyed due to dairy farming and oil drilling, ‘Te Ara Puoro o Aotearoa’ (1996) a portrait of long time colleague and fellow artist Hirini Melbourne to a largely Taranaki audience.
http://falamedia.com/category/polynesian-screen-production/pasefika-filmmakers/
Excellent.
The connectedness of all things….
Just watched “How Wolves Change Rivers” narrated by George Monbiot. I had read of this effect, but 4 mins on Youtube provides a pretty effective summary.
thanks for that ‘How Wolves Change Rivers’ …it is lovely
You need to keep dairying in context. NZ has about 2% of the world’s dairy cows. If we reduce dairying the slack will just get taken up elsewhere. Brazil has FOUR TIMES our dairy cow numbers with poorer environmental standards. Do you want to see more pollution in Brazil? No of course you don’t.
Better have dairying in clean green New Zealand where we can keep an eye on it rather than send it off to Brazil and destroy more rainforest. PLUS Brazil is NEVER going to bring its agriculture sector into any future agreement on GHG reductions. Do you want to increase global greenhouse emissions? No of course you don’t.
So I encourage you to think globally. Get out on your next vacation and go and check out dairying in Brazil. It will allow you to keep perspective.
So unless you want to stuff our economy and stuff Brazil’s environment there is no alternative.
Dairy in New Zealand is a win win for the economy and the environment.
LOL that was awesome comedy slylands.
Actually, in an own goal sort of way, he has a point.
It’s the same with the big Greens push for solar – great for NZ, but ignores the strip mining of rare earths, inhuman working conditions, and coal-powered production in China which makes the pannels in the first place.
So make them here.
You know, there’s actually a better solution and it’s one that will probably work because, no matter what we do, chances are Brazil will end up having more cows than us anyway meaning that we will lose the income from all those dirty, filthy cows that are polluting our waterways. That better solution is tariffs specifically linked to environmental policy and enforcement. Basically, no country gets to export unless it meets minimum environmental standards. There, looking after the environment in a way that might actually work.
Of course, I don’t think international trade works so I’ll take that with a grain of salt.
Where should we go to check out dairying in Brazil, SSLands? How far is it from the rainforest that is being destroyed? Which states are involved? I’d love to hear your version. Who runs the largest grass fed dairy farm in Brazil?
slylands says its the only way to grow and make everyone better off…
egosystem versus ecosystem
Is Cunnliffe working for National.His transport policy has just been announced and ridiculed by MSM. IF Shane Jones is unpalatable try Robinson or Parker please.
[lprent: If you just want to be a fuckwit and just write trite trollisms, then just go elsewhere please.
Next time I see you utter one under any handle, you will get a permanent ban for basic stupidity.
To make sure you see this, I’m adding you to auto-moderation. ]
Today, on Irrelevant Trivia, we will explore why the Labour Party doesn’t take advice from pseudonymous right wing wankers.
common sense to get trucks out of the fast lane.. but seriously prosper did you read the policy or just the headline?
All slow moving vehicles are already required to keep left. So why not police the current rule?
As for the changes, they are stupid. They simply introduce cross subsidies.
Whatever.. both issues are so trivial why would they go there for an announcement? It is like someone was bored.
Trucks should not be in the fast lane in the first place.
All heavy traffic is meant to stick to 90km/hr or under when on the open road.
It is not just a rule it is actually a law.
” So why not police the current rule?”
please srylands, you want the rules enforced, an honest answer from you on this topic would be very interesting.
Why do the powers that be not actively police this consistently ignored law ?
Can someone please show me where in the road code and in legislation that it says that our highways have a fast lane.
A little bit presumptuous don’t you think? Is Cunnliffe taking advice from anybody?
A little out of your depth, aren’t you, dribbling drivel when you haven’t learnt to spell the subject?
Can you learn to use the reply button?
learn????
NRT is wrong on this one:
When we’ve got thousands of people without houses to live in to the point that people are buying caravans to park up on friends and neighbours lawns to live in then those people will probably find the extra few hundred a year to be a serious drain on their finances.
I think NRT is dead right. If Labour was concerned about the thousands of people living in caravans it would say so. This is what they did say to explain the policy:
“There’s nothing Kiwis like more than getting on the road and going on holiday. But on public holidays like Easter and Anzac Weekend fun can quickly turn to frustration when the family realises the rego for the caravan has expired or there’s a big truck hogging the fast lane,” he said.
Last week it was Kauri trees.
It’s just the same old crap from Labour. There is now a leader who is able to string a sentence together, but still the same refusal to stand up for anything substantial for fear of upsetting the well-to-do. It is beyond pathetic. Labour doesn’t desrve to continue to exist it has no reason to exist, National looks after the top 20 percent just fine.
Ok, then, Labour are still barking up the wrong tree.
More on the whole policy here http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11238595
There is some good stuff in there (including reversing the idiotic charges on motorhomes as if they were freight vehicles). But I tend to agree js. Labour should be fronting up with the big, important policies. That someone has spent time on that graphic so Cunliffee can tweet it makes me despair, as does the ignorance about the two kinds of people in NZ that have caravans – those that go on holidays, and those that don’t have anywhere else to live.
https://www.labour.org.nz/easierdriving
The RUC needs to be a logarithmic calculation based upon mass. Doubling the mass of the vehicle and load does 16 times more damage.
So they are going to ban trucks that have a speed limit of 90 kph from the fast lane so cars and caravans can go on holiday faster – with a speed limit of 90 kph.
theres an “or” in their pete – nearly gave you a “well spotted” myself there – but the “or” in cunliffes statement changes the meaning from what you (and i) first read it to mean
situation (A) can turn to frustration if (B) OR (C)
One anonymous bloke. Sorry about the mistake my P.A.is away. Also where is the reply button? Anyway you understood.What’s wrong with Robertson or Parker?
Are you on a mobile device? No reply button on the mobile version. It’s highly irritating.
Prosper, no-one said anything is wrong with Robertson or Parker. Like I said, you’re a miserable failure as a tr*ll.
you use your pa to help you post??
all the tory kiss arses are out in full strength today.
I guess they are taking their lead from guyon epsiner.
he wont last long though.
his arrogance and contempt for average kiwis is already showing through but I guess as long as he is there to help swing the election for national then he has a job.
this country gets creepier and crepier by the day.
Draco.That could be it. I am using a Kindle that runs on android.The auto correct drives me nuts. It keeps spelling your name as Drake.
turn it off then.
Do you get that defensive yet quizzical look from people when you say that to them?
Like you have just offered to brush their hair with a fetid dingo tail 🙂
yes i know that look( fetid dingo tail)…so i never say it.( “turn it off”)…but i think to myself …”you dont know you are alive”…”you are already half an automated moron”….my daughters friend lost her cell phone in a pub for an hour and she just about had a nervous or mental breakdown..it was like she had lost a vital part of her Self…she was all at sea….she had lost her pilot and her pivot…WEIRD
Now I’m imagining Game of Thrones with giant fire-breathing ducks…
😆
Unfortunately they cast John Key as Ramsay Snow and all the little wingnuts are fighting over who gets to play Reek.
sounds fun for you
It seems, according to exchanges in the House, that John Key has backed down on his challenge to have a specific debate with Cunliffe on TV on housing policy.
Reported by Pundit as “Wimp” 😀
do you have a link please? just went to pundit, couldn’t see anything. Maybe i’m looking in the wrong place?
http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/pm-won-t-debate-cunliffe-over-housing-5931001
Wonder why he won’t. Wriggles off by saying he meant for the official Election period.
thanks ianmac, I got that one but thought there was a Pundit post somewhere.
Sorry Freedom, my mistake: the “Wimp” post is on Polity not Pundit
http://www.nbr.co.nz/ask-don-brash
My question to Don Brash (not yet published).
Do you think it was ‘incredible luck’, or it was your political connections that helped to ensure that ‘one law for all’ did not apply to yourself or John Banks as former fellow Directors of Huljich Wealth Management (NZ ) Ltd, and you were never charged or prosecuted for signing Registered Prospectuses which contained misleading information?
https://docs.google.com/file/d/1OfbKNxoyZgDs1gZtA1zJLTYAl7sqjYDZgKrIXdUU21S2WRG2D7quY_VyXOKA/edit?pli=1
Penny Bright
nice question. could you ask them to disclose total director fees they took from hujlich
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11238656
Does anyone really believe he had a sitting MP?
Does anyone believe you have anything to contribute other than mockery and right-wing propaganda?
So you believed him then
you believe key was going to debate cunliffe on housing affordability and a hundred other things… which turned out to be “mispoking” . you dont have any high ground here puck
why so binary?
FYI folks – this is rather politically significant given that the Committee for Auckland is like a HERD of mammoth elephants in the room, that apparently hardly anyone dare mention??
THE COMMITTEE FOR AUCKLAND HAVE ACKNOWLEDGED MY PRIVACY ACT REQUEST. THIS SHOULD NOW GET VERY INTERESTING ………..
9 April 2014
To whomever is responsible for handling PRIVACY ACT requests for the Committee for Auckland
On 20 February 2014, I made a copy of the membership list of the Committee for Auckland, which included Auckland Council CEO, Stephen Town.
The next day, the name of Auckland Council CEO Stephen Town, was removed from the Committee for Auckland membership list, which now still lists Auckland Council, and their website, but the name column is now blank:
http://www.committeeforauckland.co.nz/membership/member-organisations
Auckland Council www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz
Please provide all copies of information (including, but not limited to: emails, reports, letters, memos, diary notes, meeting minutes, text messages, telephone messages which contain my name, Penny Bright (Penelope Mary Bright), or make referral to me, in relation to the removal of Auckland Council CEO Stephen Town’s name from the Committee for Auckland membership list.
Please be reminded that the Committee for Auckland is covered by the Privacy Act.
I look forward to your prompt reply.
Kind regards,
Penny Bright
Attendee Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference 2009
Attendee Transparency International Anti-Corruption Conference 2010
Attendee Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference 2013
Auckland Mayoral candidate 2013 (polling 4th with 11,723 vote, campaigning against corrupt corporate control of the Auckland region)
11 April 2014
‘Admin’
Committee for Auckland
To whom it may concern
Please be reminded that it it is ‘good business practice’ to acknowledge correspondence?
I look forward to your prompt acknowledgement of this correspondence.
Kind regards,
Penny Bright
from: Committee for Auckland Administration admin@committeeforauckland.co.nz
to: Penny Bright
date: Tue, Apr 15, 2014 at 2:13 PM
subject: RE: ‘Open Letter / Privacy Act request’
– When and why was Auckland Council CEO Stephen Town removed from the Committee for Auckland membership list?
Dear Penny,
Thank you for your email. Receipt of your correspondence is acknowledged.
Regards,
Committee for Auckland
T: + 64 9 300 1234 | E: admin@committeeforauckland.co.nz
Level 21, SAP Tower, 151 Queen Street, Auckland
PO Box 3403, Shortland Street, Auckland 1140
http://www.committeeforauckland.co.nz
For all the nut bars who think Cameron Slater had anything to do with the assult on Blomfield:
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2014/04/press-release-regarding-certain-rumours-circulating-around-recent-assault/
Only a nut-bar would instantly conclude that a creep like Slater couldn’t possibly be involved.
Conservative Party’s 5 things:
Isn’t #1 actually 3 things? That makes 7 things.
And they are very spirashional – aiming for up to 10% of the vote. Reminds me of Don Brash’s ACT, aiming for 15% of the vote.
will he be mauled like the internet party for masquerading fluff as policy?
Well, the report was hidden in a local newspaper, so I don’t think it’s getting much traction – not worthy of a full post – just a passing reference on open mike to his punitive approach to the less well off – and as for lumping “drugs, special interest groups and Maori spirituality” into one “thing”… not a lot to recommend his 7 things and an empty aspiration.
yup, he would rather make us pray to his invisible friend… so much more rational than honouring nature
“1. Say no to drugs, special interest groups, and don’t give added significance to Maori spirituality.”
Oh dear – the heathens are at the gate.
“1. Say no to drugs, special interest groups, and don’t give added significance to Maori spirituality.”
like most religious tub thumpers he hasnt spotted the massive slippery slope hes just made with that comment – in fact hes made two
If we’re saying no to special interest groups, can we start with rich white fundementalist bigots?
plus 100
Given that perception is almost everything in politics Cunnliffe has made so many mistakes that even if he comes up with decent policy it won’t be heard by the MSM let alone the swing voter that will decide the outcome of the election. Please fix him up.I am not a Labour supporter nor am I happy with National but the Greens and their Australian leader scare the hell out of me.
Goodness – just as well you aren’t living in the 1930s – the Savage government would be one long horror show for you.
well for a start hes a co-leader
maybe you would be less afraid if you took the time to get to know them and their policies?
the greens are widely recognised across parliament for both their professional behaviour and the detail level of their policies
what does that make you, an ACT voter??? the greens are also led by a maori woman, i bet that bunches up your undies bigtime.
lol
Prosper, you can’t even prosper as a concern tr*ll. If your PA ever realises what a failure you are, expect to be drinking a lot more sputum in your coffee.
Just heard Cunliffe on Radio live. He sounded good, quite natural and a reasonable explanation as to why he failed to front on TV. Keep it up. Much better.
Loomio: 2 days to go on crowd funding
In my considered opinion, as an ‘anti-corruption / anti-privatisation Public Watchdog’, Minister for Justice Judith Collins is CORRUPT and should be sacked FORTHWITH.
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/business/qoa/50HansQ_20140415_00000007/7-justice-minister%E2%80%94compliance-withcabinet-manual
Justice, Minister—Compliance withCabinet Manual
[Sitting date: 15 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:7. Text is subject to correction.]
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) to the Minister of Justice: Does she maintain that it is not in the public interest to answer all questions regarding Oravida?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Justice) :I have never made that statement.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: How can she give that answer, when it is crystal clear that her pre-arranged meeting with a senior Chinese customs official at the height of the botulism scare was not just dinner with close personal friends but a serious conflict of interest that she and the Prime Minister are trying to cover up?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: I can make that statement because it is the truth.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: Well, if that is the case, why will she not give the name and position of the customs official, when she arranged to meet the customs official at the very time that her husband’s company was having huge issues getting its product through customs and had enlisted her willing intervention?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: The member is quite wrong in his question. If he goes back and looks at previous questions he has asked of that nature, he will see that I have corrected him.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: Is it not the case that, when she was told that joining her and her close personal friends at the dinner was a senior customs official, it did not raise alarm bells, because meeting this customs official was the whole reason for the dinner in the first place?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: The member is quite wrong. I have never said that there was any senior customs official, and he knows it.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: Why is the Minister now claiming that there is no connection with the senior customs official, and does she not understand that her arranged meeting with that official was a serious conflict of interest and a corrupt abuse of her Cabinet position?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: No. The member is quite wrong again. He continues to state in his question matters that are incorrect. I would say to that member that if he is worrying about corruption, I think he should consider a member of Parliament who asks questions in this House and written questions to help his girlfriend in her position with a major global company.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: Does the Minister not understand that throwing out those sorts of allegations will not save her when she was moonlighting for her husband’s company, that her DNA is all over this issue, and that if she answers questions fully, she would no longer get the Prime Minister’s defence and would be sacked for corruption?
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: The only member of this House who should be sacked for corruption is that member who has asked the question.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. [Interruption]
Mr SPEAKER: Order! This is a point of order. It will be heard in silence.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: That Minister is not within the Standing Orders attempting to answer that question that way. She has been asked a serious question on a very serious matter—as serious as this House has ever seen—and she is seeking now to deflect it by attacking the questioner.
Mr SPEAKER: In my opinion, the Minister addressed the question.
Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.
Mr SPEAKER: Before I hear any more, I just want to clarify the member is not in any way questioning the decision I have just made.
Grant Robertson: No, it is a different point of order. I am under the impression that in this House a member cannot accuse another member directly of being corrupt, and that is what the Minister just did.
Mr SPEAKER: No, I have already ruled that the answer was addressing the question and I think on this occasion, in light of the tone of the question, it adequately addressed it.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.
Mr SPEAKER: Again, before I hear the member, is he raising a fresh point of order?
Rt Hon Winston Peters: I am raising a fresh point of order. The Minister made an allegation for which she has no evidence whatsoever, and I want an apology.
Mr SPEAKER: If the member is now saying that he took offence, well, on that basis, if the member, the Rt Hon Winston Peters, was offended by that answer, I ask the honourable Minister to stand and withdraw.
Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Well, I withdraw—is it? I withdraw. But I am happy—
Mr SPEAKER: Order! It is not helpful to do that. The withdrawal does help the order of the House.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.
Mr SPEAKER: If the member is attempting to trifle with the Chair, I will take a very dim view of that.
Rt Hon Winston Peters: I am not trifling with the Chair, Mr Speaker. That Minister did not apologise as required under the Standing Orders—
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat. [Interruption] The member will resume his seat. I did not ask the Minister to apologise; I asked her to withdraw the remark, and she did so.
Penny Bright
just tried to read this through but all the tory twerps are basically illiterate and functionally imbecilic.
I really cant understand what they are trying to say except that they are all shifty key arse kissers and desperate to please their masters. all in all a thundering herd of lobotomised warthogs.
Ohariu is Labours.
Peter Dunne is killed off politically by TV One 7oc show tonight.
The Legal High industry’s key advocate and government liaison person is none other that his son James Dunne!
http://www.chenpalmer.com/people/james-dunne/
http://tvnz.co.nz/seven-sharp
I can’t find anything that says James Dunne is “the Legal High Industry’s key advocate” or that shows Peter Dunne in a bad light? James Dunne deals with legal issues around such recreational drugs. Article that includes comments from James Dunne on legal highs.
The Seven Sharp site has a teaser on their site and on their Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/sevensharp?ref=stream&hc_location=stream
”
Tonight … a Seven Sharp exclusive! … Revelations that a lawyer is acting on behalf of the legal high companies is none other than the son of Minister Peter Dunne.
What do you think about this? ”
ps correction on my post. “Labour’s”. I missed the apostrophe key in my excitement
Hmmmm… I still need to see more information to show that this is a problem for Peter Dunne.
Perception is everything. No one is going to believe that father and son don’t talk and that daddy doesn’t listen to his son.
+1 DTB
Add to that Dunne’s very recent “economy of truth” about leaking some report and Dunne’s poor judgement in his behaviour towards some young journalist of the opposite gender.
The Legal Highs story is being pumped by the RadioLive/TV3 stable, under the Duncan Garner brand, on a daily basis. The problems arising from Dunne’s legislative approach is very hot in call-back land. TV3 will be pissed that TV One has trumped them with this explosive story. Each will now try to out-do the other on milking this story. Alfa-laval don’t make milking machines as effective as a miffed media outlet!
On top of that Ohariu is middle-class to the core. Even beggars in Ohariu are middle class! They will not like this narrative: Your local “independent” MP and serial government minister is failing to crack down on scummy legal-high peddlers. Co-incidentally that scummy industry is paying that Minister’s son a big wad of cash on a regular basis to negotiate with the Ministers civil servants….
Dunne’s other problem is that he is sanctimonious. Very very sanctimonious. Many many people love love seeing sanctimonious people fall.
that’s an optimistic scenario, i reckon
Even if the family relationship doubles as a backchannel, it’s not gonna go anywhere.
Oravida has more leg-power.
Oh dear, it appears that the Beehive hasn’t been reading the cabinet manual.
No of course not. You will know much more about the Cabinet Manual.
Cabinet Manual 2,89
Seems fairly clear to me that our PMs pic is being used as an endorsement and so is a few other ministers.
So what do you think 2.89 actually says, SSpylands?
Gonna try to tell us that ministers appearing in advertisements is cool?
[distantly, you can hear the screams of a troll being burned to the ground]
Gonna say sry now?
The accusations that Judith Collins made about girlfriends and corruption, anyone have any idea what she was on about? Had a distinctly whaleoilish smell about it. What a dreadful old gossip she is. Parliament gets more like absurdist theatre and pantomime every day.
Jrobin, it was very specifically directed at her accuser, Winston. It has been reported elsewhere that Winston’s lady was a senior exec of a pharmaceuticals related business.
Perhaps Collins is suggesting that Winston asked loaded questions in Parliament?
James Dunne
SENIOR ASSOCIATE – LEADER PARLIAMENT TEAM
James has valuable inside knowledge of how Parliament works in New Zealand, and is New Zealand’s leading specialist in the regulation of new psychoactives under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013. He has an LLB and a BA (History) from Victoria University, and has worked at Chen Palmer since his admission to the bar in 2008. At Chen Palmer he specialises in policy and law reform, and has developed a wide range of expertise in a number of areas:
Policy and law reform: James has advised on a range of law reforms including liquor law reform, psychoactives law reform, real estate agents law reform, taxation law reform, and child support law reform;
Parliament: James advises on how Parliament works and on interacting with Parliamentary processes including the passage of legislation, Select Committees, financial reviews and issues of Parliamentary privilege; and
Regulatory affairs: James advises on the interface with a range of regulators including the Overseas Investment Off
Bill English want us to live in cupboards
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11238867
Wanker!
hmmm, that’s tricky. Minimum house sizes set too high prevent people from building small, more energy efficient and cheaper houses for themselves. The problem with NACT setting policy is that it’s bound to be to the advantage of developers, not the community. Also smacks of squashing as many low paid workers into one block as possible. At the other end, people of means are building houses that are too big in terms of ecological footprinting. Lots of problems here, not too many easy solutions.