John Roughan supports the curtailment of democracy in New Zealand.
The rich owners of the Herald told him to write this.
‘Editorial: TVNZ election broadcasts a giant turn off
Political parties need to listen carefully when TVNZ asks to be relieved of its obligation to screen their election broadcasts. These productions, which can take an hour of prime time at the opening and closing of election campaigns, rate very poorly.’
He is completely correct. Having these on TVNZ is stupid. I believe last election, there was a rugby game on at the same time.
Instead what they need to do, is play them non-stop 24/7 on Parliament TV, which apart from when Parliament is in session, just has that green sign saying when Parliament will next be in session.
If these things were on repeat 24/7 for the election campaign, anyone who was interested would be able to quickly and easily see the ones they wanted to see.
In my case, it would be re-watching the ACT one over and over again to see how amateur it was (I watched it at least 6 times last year on youtube).
Is Parliamentary TV available everywhere?
If so I think this is a great idea. Just link them all together, with a break between the individual addresses and then run them continuously. The break is so that if you really can’t stand seeing the NZF one you will be able to start after he has finished and before the hair-do that is Peter Dunne pops up.
Then rerun every two hours or so.
The ACT one must have been rather effective actually. You watched it 6 times didn’t you? I couldn’t have watched any of then a second time.
You can find it here. They seem to put an incredible amount on-line. http://www.c-span.org/
I fear that running something like this would probably cost half the New Zealand Government’s budget.
It’s not like everyone’s moving around at these things – fitting out a couple of committee rooms with permanent cameras and audio would be a one-off cost with moderate budget for annual upgrades/repairs. All the IT infrastructure is in place.
Some editing work, but they do that for the House already (ISTR the cuts in the video correspond to progressions through the agenda – you don’t get the videos chopping in mid-sentence).
Piss-all compared to the flag, anyway. Probably less than hospital food consultants.
“The ACT one must have been rather effective actually. You watched it 6 times didn’t you? I couldn’t have watched any of then a second time.”
Er, the goal is to get people to vote ACT. Certainly wasn’t effective on me.
The other reason I watched it so many times was because it was so short – because ACT are such an unpopular party that they aren’t given much screen time.
Not really. I have never voted for ACT and only considered doing so when Prebble was the leader. “Mad-Dog” Richard was quite something, although even he couldn’t get me to vote for the party.
Actually, thinking back I can only think of two of last year’s party opening addresses I watched at all, and even they were snippets as I had recorded them and didn’t watch them right through.
The last good TV Political Ad I saw was the Johnson one where the little girl counting the petals morphed into a countdown to a nuclear explosion. It didn’t mention Goldwater but it didn’t need to. They only showed it once I believe.
Parliament TV is on Freeview, so effectively available everywhere.
I like election broadcasts personally, but based on last year, I suspect we will know the approximate outcome in future elections once the advance vote counts are released.
“He is completely correct. Having these on TVNZ is stupid.”
I should have been clearer that was the part my reply was addressed to.
I grew up in a NZ where party announcements were simulcast. I don’t think it encroached heavily on our human rights and for 30 minutes a day for a few weeks, every 3 years we had to do something else or watch our democracy on our tv screens and on our radios.
That is rather my point. What you *used* to do, no longer applies.
We have more than 1 or 2 TV stations these days. Putting the addresses onto TVNZ (and ONLY TVNZ – they’re only available on YouTube if someone uploads it, they aren’t available on any government website etc) is hardly achieving the reach that it should. Especially when it’s scheduled in the same night as a rugby match playing on a different channel.
I understand that. I just think there are a few times when Democracy deserves the limelight. And a short period of time once every three years is bugger all to ask when you consider the implications of the vote.
Well, basing an entire argument on an occassion when it was cross scheduled to a rugby match is also specious (although *I* know you are not actually doing that.
Simulcast on ALL channels is absolutely do-able. There needs to be a political will to pass the legislation. Will EVERYONE watch? Nope.
Yeah, simul-cast on all channels would be more effective than TVNZ. But I’m not sure that ‘foisting’ such stuff on the public, instead of their regular programming, is particularly effective. Seems like it would piss people off and make them tune-out. Better to allow an opt-in service like watching it on P-TV at any time, and then have little 10 second ads that advertise it on all other channels.
I suppose there’s no reason it can’t be TVNZ + 24/7 on Parliament TV as I’ve suggested.
This is purely for showing the opening and closing arguments, which each party is allocated a set amount of time for. Each party is also given an advertising budget for TV and radio, so they can choose how much of that budget they put into the opening/closing addresses.
It’s based on the size of the party (parties outside Parliament can get some funding/time too, but not much). ACT didn’t get much money and not much time because they’re unpopular. National got the most. Greens were slightly ahead of NZFirst, etc.
There’s two problems there. First is the racism in the post and the second is the fact that there’s someone driving on our roads who obviously shouldn’t be. The latter is probably due to our legislation that allows anybody from anywhere in the world to drive on our roads if they have a license in their own country.
TPPA – The ongoing fightback by Obama to get the fast track has made a little progress after the initial no-vote of Tuesday..
“WASHINGTON—The Senate passed a bill to crack down on unfair foreign-trade practices, in a push to ensure that an emerging trade pact sought by President Barack Obama is accompanied by tough enforcement of trade rules.
The vote on the bill, a customs measure that includes provisions aimed at cracking down on currency manipulation and bolstering the enforcement of trade rules, was 78-20. Its passage followed days of rocky negotiations over the path of a measure that would expedite approval of trade deals, most immediately the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an accord between the U.S. and 11 other nations around the Pacific. The measure needed at least 60 votes to pass.
Democrats, even those who favor new trade deals, have been worried about ratifying that pact without also blocking other countries from engaging in unfair practices, such as manipulating their currency, dumping their products in the U.S. at artificially low prices or using other tactics that disadvantage U.S. companies.
“The vote clears a path for the Senate to consider whether to open debate on giving the president trade promotion authority, the power to submit trade pacts to Congress with an up-or-down vote without amendments. The Thursday vote is on a procedural motion to move forward on the bill, but because it has a 60-vote threshold it is considered the higher hurdle for the measure, known as fast-track trade authority. The final Senate fast-track bill is expected to come up for a vote next week before Congress adjourns for a Memorial Day recess. http://www.wsj.com/articles/senate-passes-bill-to-toughen-enforcement-of-trade-laws-1431622577
The vote on the bill, a customs measure that includes provisions aimed at cracking down on currency manipulation and bolstering the enforcement of trade rules, was 78-20.
And you’d probably be amazed at what that will actually include. Pharmac will be gone, Fonterra will have to be broken up and regulations ensuring that food be safe to eat will probably also come under fire.
Can’t find anything on Fonterra ATM but there’s been numerous news reports over the years that show that the US and the EU don’t like the Fonterra monopoly. Please note: I also couldn’t really give a fuck about Fonterra as we really need to decrease the amount of our land that is used for farming and return large swaths of it to the wild.
My personal opinion on fonterra is that now they’ve opened it up to let non farmers in on the shares they will kill it off through greed and self interest .
@DTB re “we really need to decrease the amount of our land that is used for farming and return large swaths of it to the wild”
….well you are going to have difficulty doing that if there is ‘open immigration’ as Philip Ferguson wants…..NZ will be as full of people as New York or Hong Kong….no space for wilderness then!
…no better to keep farmers and farmland but have strict environmental and sustainability national regulations as they do I think in France
well you are going to have difficulty doing that if there is ‘open immigration’ as Philip Ferguson wants…..NZ will be as full of people as New York or Hong Kong
And I told Phil what I thought of that particular idea.
no better to keep farmers and farmland but have strict environmental and sustainability national regulations as they do I think in France
Nope. Better to keep only enough farmland as needed to ensure that the people in NZ are fed with good sustainability regulations and revert all the rest of the land back to wilderness.
well i could almost agree with that but what about exports eg wine….if we had to drink it all…we would be alcoholics or dead….should that go back into punga forest as well?
I tend to look to minimise international trade rather than maximising it as the politicians and economists insist must be done. That said, I’m sure wine is still good as long as we don’t go overboard with it the way we did with lambs and what we’re now doing with dairy.
All those tanilized posts they’ve put in the ground in Marlborough have effected the water I’ve always found it interesting that I’ve never heard any “greenies” attack the wine industry.
“.. Better to keep only enough farmland as needed to ensure that the people in NZ are fed with good sustainability regulations and revert all the rest of the land back to wilderness..”
i totally disagree..the japanese don’t call us ‘the empty islands’ for nothing..
DTB +100 agreed…as the Aboriginies and the Maori and the American Indian well know….. and land without people doesnt mean it has no value ( this sounds very anthropocentric Old Testamant ie go forth and multiply and fill up the Earth)
…in fact peopleless places and wilderness areas have always had intrinsic value and humans increasingly see empty spaces as having ecological value as they become rarer….this has been a part of NZ’s charm and attraction for tourism
….pu’s view is a very anthropocentric view…he is certainly no Greenie
Ah, but does Phil U even acknowledge that indigenous people were here before his forebears brought all the pest flora and fauna to these islands as well as chopping down and burning trees to sacrifice before the great god of agricultural exports?
I think we also have quite romantic views about indigenous cultures that they lived in perfect harmony with the land. I have heard that the polynesian rat (kiore) that was introduced by polynesian settlers wiped out a fair few of our plants and birds just by itself and has been here for much longer to do the damage. Also places like wairarapa and the eastern side of the south island were already burnt off before europeans arrived. It was easier to get food like waterfowl in the more open scrub as well as harvesting bracken root than getting food from dense forests.
Europeans accelerated the whole process and have done a whole heap more damage on an industrial scale, I accept that. But for whatever settlers that came here, the priority was survival first and it’s all done damage in some way.
and for indigenous peoples and pagans and those of primal religions there were no “empty spaces” as such….rather they were inhabited by the spirits of place, animal totems, natural features
The Ministry of Social Development is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to change its workers from red to blue.
It has hired consulting firm Human Synergistics to introduce a programme of culture change called Building Blue.
The programme aims to change the thinking and behaviour styles of staff, and uses colours to illustrate current operating culture and the preferred culture it wants to achieve.
Labour should be moving to reduce the red element of their party. Perhaps by introducing more black and white, which is more kiwi anyway.
Like death by a thousand cuts – so too is improvement by a thousand small steps.
This is what the Nats have done – constant review and improvement and tweaking of every single aspect. Little bit here, little bit there. Constant improvement towards goals.
those ‘goals’ of mass asset-sell-off/record foreign debt/an out of control property-bubble in ak/chronic poverty for both children and adults/the rich getting ever more rich..the working-poor getting ever more poor..
..the strengthening of both ends of our low-wage/high-cost economy..?
..are these the ‘goals’ of which you speak..?
..yes..he has been very successful in all those areas..
All of our lifetimes I would say.
I remember buying John A Lee’s book “Simple on a Soapbox” when it came out about 1963.
He claimed that in the late 1930’s Savage, Fraser and Nash had emasculated the party. According to him the Labour MPs on the train back to Auckland used to sing a version of the Red Flag that went something like, (and I am doing this from memory).
“The people’s flag is palest pink
It’s not as red as you might think
We’ve been to see and so we know
They’ve gone and changed its colour so”.
Something like that anyway. I no longer own the book so I can’t check.
There was nothing on your site about the article. No commentary, no opinion, nothing. This means that the link to your site was a waste of time and all that was needed was that you place the link in your comment and not a link to your site.
USA sending B1s to sit in Australia along with personnel because they are going to counter “Chinese destabilisation” in the Pacific. Pot kettle black. Australia to be feared, not given friendly nation status. Build up Kiwibank resources!
I hope that we are soon about to prevent Australians here who are not NZ citizens, from helping themselves to our social services. Someone I know here, who had liaison with someone in the Islands not connected with NZ who had settled in Oz, was thinking of hosting family here if they could get cheaper medical attention here under our system. There are many ways we can be rorted by non-NZs. We can’t afford to be so leaky.
Top international NZ scientist trying to save the Tekapo Observatory ….cant even get an interview with the Minister of Science in this hopeless Jonkey Nact government
…it is a disgrace ( nasty thought: by starving it of funds are they thinking of privatising it and hocking it off to one of their mates?)
“Professor Gerry Gilmore of the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge. He is the principal investigator on Gaia project – a space observatory launched by the European Space Agency in 2013. Professor Gilmore is currently in New Zealand on a lecture tour for the Royal Astronomical Society, and has written to the Science and Innovation Minister urging him to find new ways to fund Mt John, which he says is a precious resource.”
Listening to the plea to provide adequate funds for the Mt John observatory. The Min in charge of Science is Joyce. Perhaps he can get a perk from the job and get a brain transplant or get his turbo-charged or an add-on. It probably doesn’t look like a candidate for privatising, so why worry. Nothing here, move on.
Tourism boss Kevin Bowler? doesn’t mind that 100% Pure claim for our scenic attractions is actionable. Well we are doing all right as it is, numbers are up, it’s competitive out there you know (so a few lies and fudging is justified). It’s the environment stupid, show them a few trees and a kiwi, wax lyrical about all the hard work on environment and rat-free islands that has been done mainly under other governments. Take credit for it NACts and she’ll be sweet.
You lie in your teeth which are false, Bowler and Kay. http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/businessnews/audio/201754522/100-percent-tourism-campaign-changes
Ian Wright is a New Zealander engineer who co-founded Tesla Motors with Elon Musk in 2003. But he left after a year to focus on creating a super-fast electric car, which he did, and in recent years has turned his attention to electrifying trucks. His company Wrightspeed, based in Califorina has coverted medium to heavy trucks for Fed Ex and is now applying its technology to heavy-duty rubbish trucks. Ian Wright believes that cleaning up commercial and industrial fleets will make a bigger difference to pollution and fossil fuel problems, than getting commuters into electric vehicles.
This petition is doomed to being ignored, but does point to a regional dissatisfaction with the reduction of the UK to a haven for London financial scams (where infinite rehypothecation is somehow legal):
“New Scotland” would see Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle and the rest of the north of England ruled from Edinburgh instead of London, with the Scottish National party holding the reins. The SNP won 56 out of the 59 Scottish seats in Westminster last week, leaving the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats with just one each.
The petition was started last year during the Scottish referendum campaign but lay dormant following the no vote.
It has received a new lease of life in the last week since the Conservatives won a majority in the general election, more than doubling the number of signatures in the past few days. The performance of the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon in the first leaders’ debate impressed many voters in England, who took to Google to ask if they could vote for her party despite living south of the border.
10:05 Profitting off climate change: Investigative Journalist and author McKenzie Funk
McKenzie Funk is an author and journalist who has been investigating the ways people are responding to the effects of climate change. His latest book, The Wreck of the Kulluk details how Royal Dutch Shell tried and failed to begin drilling for oil in the Beaufort sea in the Arctic in 2012. Melting sea ice has made the area more accessible, but the exploratory drilling rig, the Kulluk, was battered by storms and its crew had to be rescued. Shell however, is planning to return to the remote Chukchi sea off Northwestern Alaska, and has been granted conditional approval by the US government to begin exploratory drilling.
They are going to have to put in quite a lot of work aren’t they?
According to the story they have got 12,000 signatures on their petition.
Just counting up the populations of the four cities named, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle and using the “Greater” definition the population of those cities alone come to about 6 million.
Scotland would never allow this merger of course. After you would simply go back to the situation where the “English” population part would exceed the “Scottish” part and the capital would probably move to Manchester. Ms Sturgeon would not be amused.
I don’t think anyone can really stopping it from happening or has the power to, relying on an economic collapse is probably the only way to restore some sanity.
Don Franks looks at how the anti-working class character of the Labour Party is revealed (yet again); this time as their general-secretary wants to have the state take benefit and subsidies money away from people who don’t register to vote: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/10/labour-party-obey-or-starve/
Hat tip to Phil Twyford – from whom I first heard about the 22,000 EMPTY private sector houses in the Auckland region.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Media Alert! – Penny Bright: “22,000 EMPTY Auckland houses – while people live in cars and caravans? Where’s the ‘Auckland housing crisis’?”
TRANSCRIPT OF MY PRESENTATION TO THE AUCKLAND COUNCIL DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETING, THURSDAY 14 MAY 2015:
“Thank you Councillors.
What I want to know is why have there not been ‘MAN ON THE MOON’ headlines about the fact that currently in the Auckland region, according to the 2013 census, there is over a city’s worth of EMPTY private sector houses.
Over 22,000 houses are sitting empty in the Auckland region.
They obviously have not been bought to be occupied – by the buyer- or they would not be empty.
They have not been purchased to be rented by those who bought them – or they would not be empty.
22,000 empty houses in the Auckland region while other Aucklanders are living in garages, caravans, cars or sleeping on Queen Street – on the street.
How on earth is this right?
And that was from an Auckland Council report on the census.
So – we have a housing crisis with 22,000 empty houses and then we have this ‘bubble and fluff’ myth that there’s an extra million people coming to Auckland, which I challenged in a petition that was accepted by the Social Services Select Committee and resulted in an inquiry, and Report of that Social Services Select Committee:
” The Social Services Committee has considered Petition 2011/64 of Penelope Mary Bright, requesting that Parliament decline to proceed with the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill until the lawfulness of the reliance of Auckland Council on the New Zealand Department of Statistics “high” population growth projections, instead of their “medium” population growth projections for the Auckland Spatial Plan, has been properly and independently investigated, taking into consideration that both Auckland Transport and Watercare Services Ltd, have relied upon “medium” population growth projections for their infrastructural asset management plans.
We heard and received evidence from the petitioner, but note that the matters she raised have been addressed publicly by the Auckland Council in statements posted on its website and issued to media.
The Auckland Council’s Chief Planning Officer has said that while Auckland may not grow by one million people by 2041 (the high-growth projection), Auckland Council is preparing for it.
The city has historically met the high-growth projection, and it is therefore prudent for the council to plan accordingly.
He said that the city needs to be prepared for, and infrastructure needs to be able to cope with, growth. He pointed out that the “Unitary Plan”, which is a part of the Auckland Spatial Plan, sets out only rules for development.
We understand that actual development would be undertaken only in response to demand. Regarding the use of alternative projections for higher- and lower-growth scenarios, we note that the council’s Chief Planning Officer has also said that it is prudent for the Auckland Council to provide for the highest likely population growth, and at the same time to be cautious to avoid over-investment.
…….
The Mayor of Auckland has also said that using the high-growth projection was the appropriate thing to do, and that the council should not be too conservative in their assumptions about population growth.
We consider that the response to this issue provided by the council appears reasonable, and therefore have no matters to bring to the attention of the House. ..”
And that was signed by the Deputy Chair, Melissa Lee.
My response was that I didn’t ask whether or not it was ‘reasonable’ – I asked whether or not it was ‘LAWFUL’.
Under the law – spatial planning is supposed to be ‘evidentially based’.
“(a)recognise and describe Auckland’s role in New Zealand; and
“(b)visually illustrate how Auckland may develop in the future, including how growth may be sequenced and how infrastructure may be provided; and
“(c)provide an evidential base to support decision making for Auckland, including evidence of trends, opportunities, and constraints within Auckland; and )
I said to the MPs by telephone conference, I said what was the point of you MPs making the law – if you do not follow it yourselves?
Now what concerns me is that this ‘bubble and fluff’ extra million people coming to Auckland, has generated this ‘Special Housing Areas’, which has acted as the means not to ‘regenerate communities’ – but to dislocate and ruin, wreck and bulldoze through communities, as State housing tenants are being forced out.
Now we have the Tamaki Redevelopment Company, which has morphed from this project that was supposed to help and make things better for State housing tenants, and improve their houses blah blah …
which some tenants picked straight away was actually going to be a form of ‘ethnic cleansing’ of tenants, and they have been absolutely right.
That is the situation.
Who is going to benefit from the transfer of 2,800 Housing New Zealand properties to the Tamaki Redevelopment Company?
Those property developers who have been licking their slobbering chops for years over this prime real estate in Tamaki, for quite some time.
And where it gets really dodgy, is that the question is, how many National Party MPs are investing in property in Auckland?
Because there is a ‘Register of Pecuniary Interests’ for MPs, these things can be tracked.
How many of the Select Committee members on the Social Services Select Committee, who said it was ‘reasonable’ to accept the ‘high population growth projections’ are ones who are investing in Auckland property?
Where is the ‘Register of Pecuniary Interests’ for you elected representatives. for the Boards of (Council Controlled Organisations) CCOs, for the Executive Staff of Auckland Council and and CCOs, when it comes to property?
How can we ‘follow the dollar’, and make sure that you people are doing things in a way that benefits the public majority, unless we have this transparency?
I’m letting you know, that is one thing that I will be doing, is that I will be seeking a law change so that there is a mandatory requirement for local authority elected representatives and staff, CCO Boards, and Executive Staff to complete a full, mandatory ‘Register of Pecuniary Interests’.
So we can see that there isn’t ‘nest-feathering’ going on, and these changes that are happening to the Auckland region are being pushed by people, who are actually not, in my view, working in the interests of the public majority.
As I finish, I’d just like to advise you that I was contacted by Parliament yesterday, and I have been invited by the Local Government and Environment Select Committee to give a 20 minutes presentation, at Parliament next Thursday, to my petition, calling for an urgent inquiry into the alleged failure of the Local Government Commissioners to carry out ‘due diligence’ and exercise their statutory duties arising from the Local Government Act, regarding the Wellington Draft Reorganisation Proposal.
And I will be giving facts and evidence about the purported ‘efficiencies’ arising from this forced Auckland ‘amalgamation’, this Auckland ‘Supercity’, how, to use the vernacular, it has basically been a crock for the public majority.”
“this ‘bubble and fluff’ extra million people coming to Auckland”
Most of that is natural increase of existing Aucklanders having children. The total is entirely credible given the region’s past actual population growth evidence.
So true.
Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don’t have time for all that.
George Carlin
When it comes to mass transit, Europe and Japan are way ahead of the U.S.; in only a handful of American cities is it easy to function without a car. New York City, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, DC are among the U.S.’ more mass transit-oriented cities, but overall, the U.S. remains a car culture—and public transportation is painfully limited in a long list of U.S. cities. Many Americans fail to realize that mass transit has numerous advantages, including less air pollution, less congestion, fewer DUIs and all the aerobic exercise that goes with living in a pedestrian-friendly environment.
Obesity is something we all have an opinion on but is not well understood, even by many health professionals. In part, this is because the causes and effects of overweight/obesity are numerous and complex. Are people obese because they because they eat the wrong type of food, don’t exercise, are poor, or have unfortunate genes? All of the above.
However, the evidence points to a strong correlation between obesity and car dependence
And there’s a few other points on that list that applies to NZ as well.
Eugenie Sage (@EugenieSage)
15/05/15 3:06 pm
Jeanette Fitzsimmons says at #climateconsultation there is enough wind & geothermal capacity consented to be able to close Huntly in a year.
The guy is shitty, the fact they lost him is shitty, his sentence as outlined in the story is shitty (and I’m not usually one for longer sentences), the crime was shitty, and the description by the crown was shitty.
I struggled with that myself and haven’t come up with any answer. I sometimes wonder how people come to those conclusions when the average person would say loudly ‘this action was rape’. However, given that all I know is what is in today’s news report, there may be circumstances in mitigation. Hard to believe though 🙁
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Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
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John Roughan supports the curtailment of democracy in New Zealand.
The rich owners of the Herald told him to write this.
‘Editorial: TVNZ election broadcasts a giant turn off
Political parties need to listen carefully when TVNZ asks to be relieved of its obligation to screen their election broadcasts. These productions, which can take an hour of prime time at the opening and closing of election campaigns, rate very poorly.’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11448845
I think smokeskreen had a good comment about that on 11.05.15
9.47am
When he/her said
“Since when has democracy had anything to do with media ratings?”
He is completely correct. Having these on TVNZ is stupid. I believe last election, there was a rugby game on at the same time.
Instead what they need to do, is play them non-stop 24/7 on Parliament TV, which apart from when Parliament is in session, just has that green sign saying when Parliament will next be in session.
If these things were on repeat 24/7 for the election campaign, anyone who was interested would be able to quickly and easily see the ones they wanted to see.
In my case, it would be re-watching the ACT one over and over again to see how amateur it was (I watched it at least 6 times last year on youtube).
Is Parliamentary TV available everywhere?
If so I think this is a great idea. Just link them all together, with a break between the individual addresses and then run them continuously. The break is so that if you really can’t stand seeing the NZF one you will be able to start after he has finished and before the hair-do that is Peter Dunne pops up.
Then rerun every two hours or so.
The ACT one must have been rather effective actually. You watched it 6 times didn’t you? I couldn’t have watched any of then a second time.
For a while I could get the US equivalent, CSPAN.
Absolutely fascinating – not just the main houses were covered, but committees, seminars, interviews. Absolutely excellent.
Parliament TV at the moment is sorely underutilised.
You can find it here. They seem to put an incredible amount on-line.
http://www.c-span.org/
I fear that running something like this would probably cost half the New Zealand Government’s budget.
only if Joyce or Parata were running it (zing!)
It’s not like everyone’s moving around at these things – fitting out a couple of committee rooms with permanent cameras and audio would be a one-off cost with moderate budget for annual upgrades/repairs. All the IT infrastructure is in place.
Some editing work, but they do that for the House already (ISTR the cuts in the video correspond to progressions through the agenda – you don’t get the videos chopping in mid-sentence).
Piss-all compared to the flag, anyway. Probably less than hospital food consultants.
“The ACT one must have been rather effective actually. You watched it 6 times didn’t you? I couldn’t have watched any of then a second time.”
Er, the goal is to get people to vote ACT. Certainly wasn’t effective on me.
The other reason I watched it so many times was because it was so short – because ACT are such an unpopular party that they aren’t given much screen time.
Own goal much?
It always makes me laugh when people say that all publicity is good publicity.
And then they want their name and the nature of their charges suppressed for as long as possible… 🙂
“Own goal much?”
Not really. I have never voted for ACT and only considered doing so when Prebble was the leader. “Mad-Dog” Richard was quite something, although even he couldn’t get me to vote for the party.
Actually, thinking back I can only think of two of last year’s party opening addresses I watched at all, and even they were snippets as I had recorded them and didn’t watch them right through.
The last good TV Political Ad I saw was the Johnson one where the little girl counting the petals morphed into a countdown to a nuclear explosion. It didn’t mention Goldwater but it didn’t need to. They only showed it once I believe.
Parliament TV is on Freeview, so effectively available everywhere.
I like election broadcasts personally, but based on last year, I suspect we will know the approximate outcome in future elections once the advance vote counts are released.
so those parties who can afford to buy decent ad space/ time will get to make a big impression
@Tracey
You appear to be replying to Lanthanide.
Using Parliamentary TV wouldn’t need to cost anything to the parties.
Lanth also wrote
“He is completely correct. Having these on TVNZ is stupid.”
I should have been clearer that was the part my reply was addressed to.
I grew up in a NZ where party announcements were simulcast. I don’t think it encroached heavily on our human rights and for 30 minutes a day for a few weeks, every 3 years we had to do something else or watch our democracy on our tv screens and on our radios.
That is rather my point. What you *used* to do, no longer applies.
We have more than 1 or 2 TV stations these days. Putting the addresses onto TVNZ (and ONLY TVNZ – they’re only available on YouTube if someone uploads it, they aren’t available on any government website etc) is hardly achieving the reach that it should. Especially when it’s scheduled in the same night as a rugby match playing on a different channel.
I understand that. I just think there are a few times when Democracy deserves the limelight. And a short period of time once every three years is bugger all to ask when you consider the implications of the vote.
Well, basing an entire argument on an occassion when it was cross scheduled to a rugby match is also specious (although *I* know you are not actually doing that.
Simulcast on ALL channels is absolutely do-able. There needs to be a political will to pass the legislation. Will EVERYONE watch? Nope.
Yeah, simul-cast on all channels would be more effective than TVNZ. But I’m not sure that ‘foisting’ such stuff on the public, instead of their regular programming, is particularly effective. Seems like it would piss people off and make them tune-out. Better to allow an opt-in service like watching it on P-TV at any time, and then have little 10 second ads that advertise it on all other channels.
I suppose there’s no reason it can’t be TVNZ + 24/7 on Parliament TV as I’ve suggested.
This is purely for showing the opening and closing arguments, which each party is allocated a set amount of time for. Each party is also given an advertising budget for TV and radio, so they can choose how much of that budget they put into the opening/closing addresses.
It’s based on the size of the party (parties outside Parliament can get some funding/time too, but not much). ACT didn’t get much money and not much time because they’re unpopular. National got the most. Greens were slightly ahead of NZFirst, etc.
Terrible that Mai Chen gets this level of abuse.
But why does the Herald have to use this story to provide oxygen for the ACT Party?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11448915
There’s two problems there. First is the racism in the post and the second is the fact that there’s someone driving on our roads who obviously shouldn’t be. The latter is probably due to our legislation that allows anybody from anywhere in the world to drive on our roads if they have a license in their own country.
TPPA – The ongoing fightback by Obama to get the fast track has made a little progress after the initial no-vote of Tuesday..
“WASHINGTON—The Senate passed a bill to crack down on unfair foreign-trade practices, in a push to ensure that an emerging trade pact sought by President Barack Obama is accompanied by tough enforcement of trade rules.
The vote on the bill, a customs measure that includes provisions aimed at cracking down on currency manipulation and bolstering the enforcement of trade rules, was 78-20. Its passage followed days of rocky negotiations over the path of a measure that would expedite approval of trade deals, most immediately the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an accord between the U.S. and 11 other nations around the Pacific. The measure needed at least 60 votes to pass.
Democrats, even those who favor new trade deals, have been worried about ratifying that pact without also blocking other countries from engaging in unfair practices, such as manipulating their currency, dumping their products in the U.S. at artificially low prices or using other tactics that disadvantage U.S. companies.
“The vote clears a path for the Senate to consider whether to open debate on giving the president trade promotion authority, the power to submit trade pacts to Congress with an up-or-down vote without amendments. The Thursday vote is on a procedural motion to move forward on the bill, but because it has a 60-vote threshold it is considered the higher hurdle for the measure, known as fast-track trade authority. The final Senate fast-track bill is expected to come up for a vote next week before Congress adjourns for a Memorial Day recess.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/senate-passes-bill-to-toughen-enforcement-of-trade-laws-1431622577
What is Tim Groser trying to sign us up to?
you do know that the democrats folded on this yesterday..don’t you..?
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/democrats-fold-on-shady-trans-pacific-partnership-deal/
see yesterdays Open Mike….Jane Kelsey update….she still thinks Obama’s last ditch stand will fail
http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/team-obama-regroups-on-fast-track-still-not-deliverable/
i wish i shared her optimism..
..’cos i don’t..
..too much at stake – and too many big-players involved..
..hold-outs are just holding out for bigger pay-offs..
And you’d probably be amazed at what that will actually include. Pharmac will be gone, Fonterra will have to be broken up and regulations ensuring that food be safe to eat will probably also come under fire.
“Pharmac will be gone, Fonterra will have to be broken up and regulations ensuring that food be safe to eat will probably also come under fire.”.
As you ask me on occasion……….citation needed.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851013002108
http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/opinion/66927785/TPPA-threatens-Pharmacs-right-to-choose-drugs
http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/health-and-pharmac/
http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/th_gallery/geneticmodification/
Can’t find anything on Fonterra ATM but there’s been numerous news reports over the years that show that the US and the EU don’t like the Fonterra monopoly. Please note: I also couldn’t really give a fuck about Fonterra as we really need to decrease the amount of our land that is used for farming and return large swaths of it to the wild.
My personal opinion on fonterra is that now they’ve opened it up to let non farmers in on the shares they will kill it off through greed and self interest .
Yep, I’d agree with that.
@DTB re “we really need to decrease the amount of our land that is used for farming and return large swaths of it to the wild”
….well you are going to have difficulty doing that if there is ‘open immigration’ as Philip Ferguson wants…..NZ will be as full of people as New York or Hong Kong….no space for wilderness then!
…no better to keep farmers and farmland but have strict environmental and sustainability national regulations as they do I think in France
And I told Phil what I thought of that particular idea.
Nope. Better to keep only enough farmland as needed to ensure that the people in NZ are fed with good sustainability regulations and revert all the rest of the land back to wilderness.
well i could almost agree with that but what about exports eg wine….if we had to drink it all…we would be alcoholics or dead….should that go back into punga forest as well?
I tend to look to minimise international trade rather than maximising it as the politicians and economists insist must be done. That said, I’m sure wine is still good as long as we don’t go overboard with it the way we did with lambs and what we’re now doing with dairy.
All those tanilized posts they’ve put in the ground in Marlborough have effected the water I’ve always found it interesting that I’ve never heard any “greenies” attack the wine industry.
“.. Better to keep only enough farmland as needed to ensure that the people in NZ are fed with good sustainability regulations and revert all the rest of the land back to wilderness..”
i totally disagree..the japanese don’t call us ‘the empty islands’ for nothing..
..we have plenty of room..and dying-provinces..
/facepalm
Just because it doesn’t have humans in it doesn’t mean that it’s empty.
DTB +100 agreed…as the Aboriginies and the Maori and the American Indian well know….. and land without people doesnt mean it has no value ( this sounds very anthropocentric Old Testamant ie go forth and multiply and fill up the Earth)
…in fact peopleless places and wilderness areas have always had intrinsic value and humans increasingly see empty spaces as having ecological value as they become rarer….this has been a part of NZ’s charm and attraction for tourism
….pu’s view is a very anthropocentric view…he is certainly no Greenie
chooky..just by being a vegan – i’m more of a ‘greenie’ than you will ever be..
..and more of a ‘greenie’ than a lot of self-regarding ‘greens’..
..and most certainly more so than the carnivorous ones..
..and yeah..fucken dairy/sheep-farms and pine-forests are the best we can now do..eh..?
Ah, but does Phil U even acknowledge that indigenous people were here before his forebears brought all the pest flora and fauna to these islands as well as chopping down and burning trees to sacrifice before the great god of agricultural exports?
crikey..!..are we ignoring the burnings/species-extinctions before the europeans arrived..?
..and yr point is..?..vis a vis empty-islands..?
..and yes – between them – they/we have done a real number on this land – in a very short space of time..
+100 Hateatea…Maori and Aboriginie and American Indians and Pagans are the first conservationists and where the Greens get their inspiration
I think we also have quite romantic views about indigenous cultures that they lived in perfect harmony with the land. I have heard that the polynesian rat (kiore) that was introduced by polynesian settlers wiped out a fair few of our plants and birds just by itself and has been here for much longer to do the damage. Also places like wairarapa and the eastern side of the south island were already burnt off before europeans arrived. It was easier to get food like waterfowl in the more open scrub as well as harvesting bracken root than getting food from dense forests.
Europeans accelerated the whole process and have done a whole heap more damage on an industrial scale, I accept that. But for whatever settlers that came here, the priority was survival first and it’s all done damage in some way.
and for indigenous peoples and pagans and those of primal religions there were no “empty spaces” as such….rather they were inhabited by the spirits of place, animal totems, natural features
Changing the world – one organization at a time
The Ministry of Social Development is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to change its workers from red to blue.
It has hired consulting firm Human Synergistics to introduce a programme of culture change called Building Blue.
The programme aims to change the thinking and behaviour styles of staff, and uses colours to illustrate current operating culture and the preferred culture it wants to achieve.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/better-business/68494982/msd-spends-taxpayer-dollars-on-workplace-change
Thoughts?
Feeding tax payers money to corporate consulting mates
The colour thing is very real.
Labour should be moving to reduce the red element of their party. Perhaps by introducing more black and white, which is more kiwi anyway.
Like death by a thousand cuts – so too is improvement by a thousand small steps.
This is what the Nats have done – constant review and improvement and tweaking of every single aspect. Little bit here, little bit there. Constant improvement towards goals.
those ‘goals’ of mass asset-sell-off/record foreign debt/an out of control property-bubble in ak/chronic poverty for both children and adults/the rich getting ever more rich..the working-poor getting ever more poor..
..the strengthening of both ends of our low-wage/high-cost economy..?
..are these the ‘goals’ of which you speak..?
..yes..he has been very successful in all those areas..
No silly, the goal of winning office. True and noble goals such as those you suggest are well down the list of Nat goals.
i thought it was more labours to lose – which they dutifully did..
..they weren’t able to see off an asset-stripping etc. bunch of useless tory-douchebags..
..perhaps ‘cos they were too much like those they were competing with..?..
..perchance..?
..who could see the difference..?
..same old same old drilling/mining/poor-bashing neoliberl/doing s.f.a. about very much-bullshit clark served up for nine long yrs..
..and still they wonder why people yawned – and then looked away..
Been doing that for years
They got all inspired by the beige brigade at the cricket.
All of our lifetimes I would say.
I remember buying John A Lee’s book “Simple on a Soapbox” when it came out about 1963.
He claimed that in the late 1930’s Savage, Fraser and Nash had emasculated the party. According to him the Labour MPs on the train back to Auckland used to sing a version of the Red Flag that went something like, (and I am doing this from memory).
“The people’s flag is palest pink
It’s not as red as you might think
We’ve been to see and so we know
They’ve gone and changed its colour so”.
Something like that anyway. I no longer own the book so I can’t check.
Responses on yesterday’s O.M. starting with this one:
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14052015/#comment-1014884
Missed that. Thank you.
“Authoritarian hard right – want to change colours in the work place. Bat shit nuts or just plain idiotic? ”
Bet ya won’t see that headline.
Glaring holes in accountability over political appointments to government agencies?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/68559441/auditorgeneral-says-no-to-investigation-into-former-mp-katherine-rich
Thoughts?
I hope she is going to investigate Michael Cullen getting another gig.
Surely it is time to get rid of that old trougher.
Seymour Hersh on Democracy Now about Bin Laden killing and mainstream/establishment backlash to his revelations
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/5/12/seymour_hersh_details_explosive_story_on
Slate has also published an interview with Hersh (via Zero Hedge)
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-14/seymour-hersh-blasts-i-am-not-backing-anything-i-said
Never in the life of any manwoman do more lies get told than when at war.
Note that we are at war now too so simply cannot believe anything goverment says about it. Nothing.
Yes thanks to the US we are in a perpetual global war with no borders, boundaries or limits.
“Never in the life of any manwoman do more lies get told than when at war.”
And those lies beget a history that more lies are built upon.
“Untold History of the United States” contains some excellent evidence of how lies become history.
some homework for the labour party..
http://whoar.co.nz/2015/37-ways-to-reform-the-economy-so-its-not-rigged-for-the-rich-according-to-progressive-economists/
you will all be tested on it @ caucus on mon..
..any dissenters should ponder on what happened to that out-of-step-thinker/sleeper-on-the-job in nth korea..
..i think we still have some anti-aircraft guns..
37 Ways to Reform the Economy So It’s Not Rigged for the Rich, According to Progressive Economists
Really, why didn’t you just link to the Alternet page instead of your own? There’s nothing on your page.
Fucken link whoring.
crime of the fucken century…
..get a grip..!
..i found it..it’s what i do..had i not it wouldn’t be here..
..u didn’t find it..
so..basically..get fucked..
Are you purposefully missing what I said?
There was nothing on your site about the article. No commentary, no opinion, nothing. This means that the link to your site was a waste of time and all that was needed was that you place the link in your comment and not a link to your site.
Such worthless linking is classic link-whoring.
did you not hear what i said..?
And now you’re just trolling.
USA sending B1s to sit in Australia along with personnel because they are going to counter “Chinese destabilisation” in the Pacific. Pot kettle black. Australia to be feared, not given friendly nation status. Build up Kiwibank resources!
I hope that we are soon about to prevent Australians here who are not NZ citizens, from helping themselves to our social services. Someone I know here, who had liaison with someone in the Islands not connected with NZ who had settled in Oz, was thinking of hosting family here if they could get cheaper medical attention here under our system. There are many ways we can be rorted by non-NZs. We can’t afford to be so leaky.
Top international NZ scientist trying to save the Tekapo Observatory ….cant even get an interview with the Minister of Science in this hopeless Jonkey Nact government
…it is a disgrace ( nasty thought: by starving it of funds are they thinking of privatising it and hocking it off to one of their mates?)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201754506/astronomer-fights-to-save-tekapo's-mt-john-observatory
“Professor Gerry Gilmore of the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge. He is the principal investigator on Gaia project – a space observatory launched by the European Space Agency in 2013. Professor Gilmore is currently in New Zealand on a lecture tour for the Royal Astronomical Society, and has written to the Science and Innovation Minister urging him to find new ways to fund Mt John, which he says is a precious resource.”
Listening to the plea to provide adequate funds for the Mt John observatory. The Min in charge of Science is Joyce. Perhaps he can get a perk from the job and get a brain transplant or get his turbo-charged or an add-on. It probably doesn’t look like a candidate for privatising, so why worry. Nothing here, move on.
Tourism boss Kevin Bowler? doesn’t mind that 100% Pure claim for our scenic attractions is actionable. Well we are doing all right as it is, numbers are up, it’s competitive out there you know (so a few lies and fudging is justified). It’s the environment stupid, show them a few trees and a kiwi, wax lyrical about all the hard work on environment and rat-free islands that has been done mainly under other governments. Take credit for it NACts and she’ll be sweet.
You lie in your teeth which are false, Bowler and Kay.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/businessnews/audio/201754522/100-percent-tourism-campaign-changes
Kathryn Ryan very good on environmental issues today
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201754507/new-zealand-co-founder-of-tesla-motors-ian-wright
Ian Wright is a New Zealander engineer who co-founded Tesla Motors with Elon Musk in 2003. But he left after a year to focus on creating a super-fast electric car, which he did, and in recent years has turned his attention to electrifying trucks. His company Wrightspeed, based in Califorina has coverted medium to heavy trucks for Fed Ex and is now applying its technology to heavy-duty rubbish trucks. Ian Wright believes that cleaning up commercial and industrial fleets will make a bigger difference to pollution and fossil fuel problems, than getting commuters into electric vehicles.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201754170/profiting-off-climate-change-investigative-journalist-and-author-mckenzie-funk
The dangerous race for arctic oil.
This petition is doomed to being ignored, but does point to a regional dissatisfaction with the reduction of the UK to a haven for London financial scams (where infinite rehypothecation is somehow legal):
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/the-northerner/2015/may/14/thousands-sign-petition-calling-for-north-of-england-to-be-part-of-scotland
Did you catch this interesting Canadian? guy McKenzie Funk about oil drilling and environment on Radionz. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201754170
10:05 Profitting off climate change: Investigative Journalist and author McKenzie Funk
McKenzie Funk is an author and journalist who has been investigating the ways people are responding to the effects of climate change. His latest book, The Wreck of the Kulluk details how Royal Dutch Shell tried and failed to begin drilling for oil in the Beaufort sea in the Arctic in 2012. Melting sea ice has made the area more accessible, but the exploratory drilling rig, the Kulluk, was battered by storms and its crew had to be rescued. Shell however, is planning to return to the remote Chukchi sea off Northwestern Alaska, and has been granted conditional approval by the US government to begin exploratory drilling.
McKenzie Funk earlier book Windfall looks at how different companies and countries are profitting off climate change.
Gallery: Pictures from Windfall
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201754170/profiting-off-climate-change-investigative-journalist-and-author-mckenzie-funk
They are going to have to put in quite a lot of work aren’t they?
According to the story they have got 12,000 signatures on their petition.
Just counting up the populations of the four cities named, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle and using the “Greater” definition the population of those cities alone come to about 6 million.
Scotland would never allow this merger of course. After you would simply go back to the situation where the “English” population part would exceed the “Scottish” part and the capital would probably move to Manchester. Ms Sturgeon would not be amused.
What is going on?
When this was first put in it was linked to Parsupial’s “New Scotland” petition.
Now it is attached to a different post.
George Orwell’s final warning – don’t let this terrifying future happen – it depends on you
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-14/george-orwells-final-warning
It was liberalism – in all it’s forms, which Orwell was critical of. As we start this century we hopefully waking up to why he was so critical.
I don’t think anyone can really stopping it from happening or has the power to, relying on an economic collapse is probably the only way to restore some sanity.
I think working people have the best humor.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153320821240948&set=a.10150130813665948.323943.567105947&type=1&theater
While John Key returns from hobnobbing with the brutal Saudi dictatorship, Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat calls for solidarity with the people of Yemen, suffering bombing and invasion by Washington’s Saudi proxies: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/14/palestinian-writer-and-activist-khaled-barakat-calls-for-action-against-saudi-invasion-war-crimes-in-yemen/
Yassamine Mather looks at how the change to the Saudi absolute monarchy’s succession line might be linked to an intensification of their war in Yemen: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/saudi-arabia-changing-the-succession-to-intensify-the-war/
Closer to home, Tim Bowron looks at the role of New Zealand and Australian imperialism in East Timor: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/east-timor-and-anzac-imperialism/
Philip Ferguson looks at the issue of whether NZ is a neo-colony itself or a junior imperialist player: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/new-zealand-neo-colony-or-junior-imperialist/
Daphna Whitmore reports on the public meeting in Auckland for Amira Hass, the dissident Israeli writer: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/08/amira-hass-israeli-jewish-dissidence-in-times-of-bantustanisation/
Don Franks looks at how the anti-working class character of the Labour Party is revealed (yet again); this time as their general-secretary wants to have the state take benefit and subsidies money away from people who don’t register to vote: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/10/labour-party-obey-or-starve/
From the excellent Australian Red Flag site, Cathy Lewis looks at the dispossession of Australian Aboriginals and over 200 years of resistance: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/14/australia-capitalism-expropriation-and-aboriginal-resistance/
Philip Ferguson continues his series on the disgraceful ‘White New Zealand’ policies of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Part five examines the parliamentary debates of the early 1890s, as the system of discrimination was being institutionalised: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/14/institutionalising-the-white-new-zealand-policy-the-parliamentary-debates-of-the-early-1890s/
Tim Bowron addresses workers’ need for open borders: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/12/the-case-for-open-borders/
We run a piece by a Baltimore-based socialist group on the anger in the city after the police killing of Freddie Gray: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/the-anger-in-baltimore/
Lastly, we have a string of excellent economic pieces by Michael Roberts:
Business cycles, unit roots and animal spirits: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/business-cycles-unit-roots-and-animal-spirits/
Austerity: has it really worked for the capitalists: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/12/austerity-has-it-really-worked-for-the-capitalists/
IMF discovers low investment is cause of low growth – what a shocker!: https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/imf-discovers-low-investment-is-cause-of-low-growth-what-a-surprise/
Whew! It has been a very busy week.
All the best,
Philip Ferguson
for the Redline blog collective
Excellent articles Philip.
Just a bit like our up coming election – opps I mean budget.
Only 2 years and 4 months to a new Labour/Green government here. They have 5 long years to wait in the UK.
🙂
? optimism is great but it is far too early to tell. The NATs can clearly still take a fourth term at this stage.
Hat tip to Phil Twyford – from whom I first heard about the 22,000 EMPTY private sector houses in the Auckland region.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Media Alert! – Penny Bright: “22,000 EMPTY Auckland houses – while people live in cars and caravans? Where’s the ‘Auckland housing crisis’?”
TRANSCRIPT OF MY PRESENTATION TO THE AUCKLAND COUNCIL DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE MEETING, THURSDAY 14 MAY 2015:
“Thank you Councillors.
What I want to know is why have there not been ‘MAN ON THE MOON’ headlines about the fact that currently in the Auckland region, according to the 2013 census, there is over a city’s worth of EMPTY private sector houses.
Over 22,000 houses are sitting empty in the Auckland region.
They obviously have not been bought to be occupied – by the buyer- or they would not be empty.
They have not been purchased to be rented by those who bought them – or they would not be empty.
22,000 empty houses in the Auckland region while other Aucklanders are living in garages, caravans, cars or sleeping on Queen Street – on the street.
How on earth is this right?
And that was from an Auckland Council report on the census.
( http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/planspoliciesprojects/reports/Documents/aucklanddwellingshouseholdsinitialresults2013census201405.pdf (Pg 9)
So – we have a housing crisis with 22,000 empty houses and then we have this ‘bubble and fluff’ myth that there’s an extra million people coming to Auckland, which I challenged in a petition that was accepted by the Social Services Select Committee and resulted in an inquiry, and Report of that Social Services Select Committee:
( http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50DBSCH_SCR5953_1/9f8a825ae96c25bddf7d0c8bddb58511039a4d16 )
” The Social Services Committee has considered Petition 2011/64 of Penelope Mary Bright, requesting that Parliament decline to proceed with the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill until the lawfulness of the reliance of Auckland Council on the New Zealand Department of Statistics “high” population growth projections, instead of their “medium” population growth projections for the Auckland Spatial Plan, has been properly and independently investigated, taking into consideration that both Auckland Transport and Watercare Services Ltd, have relied upon “medium” population growth projections for their infrastructural asset management plans.
We heard and received evidence from the petitioner, but note that the matters she raised have been addressed publicly by the Auckland Council in statements posted on its website and issued to media.
The Auckland Council’s Chief Planning Officer has said that while Auckland may not grow by one million people by 2041 (the high-growth projection), Auckland Council is preparing for it.
The city has historically met the high-growth projection, and it is therefore prudent for the council to plan accordingly.
He said that the city needs to be prepared for, and infrastructure needs to be able to cope with, growth. He pointed out that the “Unitary Plan”, which is a part of the Auckland Spatial Plan, sets out only rules for development.
We understand that actual development would be undertaken only in response to demand. Regarding the use of alternative projections for higher- and lower-growth scenarios, we note that the council’s Chief Planning Officer has also said that it is prudent for the Auckland Council to provide for the highest likely population growth, and at the same time to be cautious to avoid over-investment.
…….
The Mayor of Auckland has also said that using the high-growth projection was the appropriate thing to do, and that the council should not be too conservative in their assumptions about population growth.
We consider that the response to this issue provided by the council appears reasonable, and therefore have no matters to bring to the attention of the House. ..”
And that was signed by the Deputy Chair, Melissa Lee.
My response was that I didn’t ask whether or not it was ‘reasonable’ – I asked whether or not it was ‘LAWFUL’.
Under the law – spatial planning is supposed to be ‘evidentially based’.
(“http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2010/0036/latest/DLM3016073.html )
(4)The spatial plan must—
“(a)recognise and describe Auckland’s role in New Zealand; and
“(b)visually illustrate how Auckland may develop in the future, including how growth may be sequenced and how infrastructure may be provided; and
“(c)provide an evidential base to support decision making for Auckland, including evidence of trends, opportunities, and constraints within Auckland; and )
I said to the MPs by telephone conference, I said what was the point of you MPs making the law – if you do not follow it yourselves?
Now what concerns me is that this ‘bubble and fluff’ extra million people coming to Auckland, has generated this ‘Special Housing Areas’, which has acted as the means not to ‘regenerate communities’ – but to dislocate and ruin, wreck and bulldoze through communities, as State housing tenants are being forced out.
Now we have the Tamaki Redevelopment Company, which has morphed from this project that was supposed to help and make things better for State housing tenants, and improve their houses blah blah …
which some tenants picked straight away was actually going to be a form of ‘ethnic cleansing’ of tenants, and they have been absolutely right.
That is the situation.
Who is going to benefit from the transfer of 2,800 Housing New Zealand properties to the Tamaki Redevelopment Company?
Those property developers who have been licking their slobbering chops for years over this prime real estate in Tamaki, for quite some time.
And where it gets really dodgy, is that the question is, how many National Party MPs are investing in property in Auckland?
Because there is a ‘Register of Pecuniary Interests’ for MPs, these things can be tracked.
How many of the Select Committee members on the Social Services Select Committee, who said it was ‘reasonable’ to accept the ‘high population growth projections’ are ones who are investing in Auckland property?
Where is the ‘Register of Pecuniary Interests’ for you elected representatives. for the Boards of (Council Controlled Organisations) CCOs, for the Executive Staff of Auckland Council and and CCOs, when it comes to property?
How can we ‘follow the dollar’, and make sure that you people are doing things in a way that benefits the public majority, unless we have this transparency?
I’m letting you know, that is one thing that I will be doing, is that I will be seeking a law change so that there is a mandatory requirement for local authority elected representatives and staff, CCO Boards, and Executive Staff to complete a full, mandatory ‘Register of Pecuniary Interests’.
So we can see that there isn’t ‘nest-feathering’ going on, and these changes that are happening to the Auckland region are being pushed by people, who are actually not, in my view, working in the interests of the public majority.
As I finish, I’d just like to advise you that I was contacted by Parliament yesterday, and I have been invited by the Local Government and Environment Select Committee to give a 20 minutes presentation, at Parliament next Thursday, to my petition, calling for an urgent inquiry into the alleged failure of the Local Government Commissioners to carry out ‘due diligence’ and exercise their statutory duties arising from the Local Government Act, regarding the Wellington Draft Reorganisation Proposal.
And I will be giving facts and evidence about the purported ‘efficiencies’ arising from this forced Auckland ‘amalgamation’, this Auckland ‘Supercity’, how, to use the vernacular, it has basically been a crock for the public majority.”
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
“this ‘bubble and fluff’ extra million people coming to Auckland”
Most of that is natural increase of existing Aucklanders having children. The total is entirely credible given the region’s past actual population growth evidence.
There was a detailed discussion about the reason to use high projection for spatial and transport planning (longer timeframe), but medium for actual infrastructure provision (shorter timeframe) at an event in 2013: http://aucklandconversations.e-cast.co.nz/auckland-conversations/details/28
I trust the wisdom of the ex-head of Statistics for both NZ and the UK on such matters, thanks.
Full discussion of the matter here too: http://transportblog.co.nz/2013/06/17/population-growth-continues-to-be-questioned/
So true.
Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don’t have time for all that.
George Carlin
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/george_carlin.html#UqLWDkedRQHgCjRm.99
9 basic concepts Americans fail to grasp
And over on Auckland transport Blog:
And there’s a few other points on that list that applies to NZ as well.
Eugenie Sage (@EugenieSage)
15/05/15 3:06 pm
Jeanette Fitzsimmons says at #climateconsultation there is enough wind & geothermal capacity consented to be able to close Huntly in a year.
Good. So we are achieving some climate change objectives, despite this government.
I guess smart green economy makes sense – these wind and geothermal plants would only be consented if they were profitable.
That would be very, very good, hope it’s true.
Moscow’s subway system celebrates 80 years (where is Auckland’s?)
http://russia-insider.com/en/history/celebrate-moscow-metros-80th-birthday-journey-through-citys-history-pictures/ri6916
Since when is non-consensual sex “very close” to rape?
every bit of that… is just shitty.
The guy is shitty, the fact they lost him is shitty, his sentence as outlined in the story is shitty (and I’m not usually one for longer sentences), the crime was shitty, and the description by the crown was shitty.
Grrr. Arrgh.
I struggled with that myself and haven’t come up with any answer. I sometimes wonder how people come to those conclusions when the average person would say loudly ‘this action was rape’. However, given that all I know is what is in today’s news report, there may be circumstances in mitigation. Hard to believe though 🙁