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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This is one of the (extra) weekly columns on music or movies. Plenty of solid analyses of Possession exist online and most of them – inevitably – contain spoilers. This column is more in the way of a first-timer’s aid to getting your initial bearings. You don’t need to have ...
I am painting in oil, a portrait of a manWho has taken all the heart aches,And all the pain he can stand.I am using all the colors of blue,I have here on my stand.I am painting in oil, a portrait of a man.This has been an interesting week for me. ...
Helen Clark joins the Hoon as a special guest talking whether Aotearoa should join Aukus II, and her views on the fast track legislation and how Luxon and the new Government are performing. File Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts ...
With an election due in less than nine months, Britain’s embattled PM, Rishi Sunak, gave a useful speech earlier this week. He made a substantial case for his government, perhaps as compelling as is possible in the current environment. Quite an achievement. His overall theme was security, first pulling ...
Open access notablesPublicly expressed climate scepticism is greatest in regions with high CO2 emissions, Pearson et al., Climatic Change:We analysed a recently released corpus of climate-related tweets to examine the macro-level factors associated with public declarations of climate change scepticism. Analyses of over 2 million geo-located tweets in the U.S. showed that climate ...
You can be all negative about these charter schools if you want, but I’m here to accentuate the positive. You can get all worked up, if you want to, by the contradiction of Luxon saying We’re going to make sure that every school in the country is teaching exactly the same ...
Losing The Room: One can only speculate about what has persuaded the Coalition Government that it will pay no electoral price for unreasonably pushing ahead with policies that are so clearly against the national interest. They seem quite oblivious to the risk that by doing so they will convince an increasing ...
Name suppression decisions can be tough sometimes. No matter your views on free speech, you have to be hard-hearted not to be torn by the tug of the competing arguments. I think you can feel the Supreme Court wrestling with that in M v The King. The case for ...
The Merchants of Menace: The Coalition Government has convinced itself that the “Brahmins’” emollient functions have become much too irksome and expensive. Those who see themselves as the best hope of rebuilding New Zealand’s ailing capitalist system, appear to have convinced themselves that a little bit of blunt trauma is what their mollycoddled ...
When National first proposed its Muldoonist "fast-track" law, they were warned that it would inevitably lead to corruption. And that is exactly what has happened, with Resources Minister Shane Jones taking secret meetings with potential applicants:On Tuesday, in a Newsroom story, questions were raised about a dinner Jones ...
Buzz from the Beehive One day – hopefully – we will push that Russian rascal, Vladimir Putin, beyond breaking point. Perhaps it will happen today, when he learns that Foreign Minister Winston Peters is again tightening the thumbscrews. Peters announced further sanctions, this time on 28 individuals and 14 entities ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought New Zealand to the brink of economic and cultural chaos.TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition Government’s failure to retain, and build upon, the public ...
“Members of Parliament don’t work for us, they represent us, an entirely different thing. As with so much that has turned out badly, the re-organising of MPs’ responsibilities began with the Fourth Labour Government. That’s when they began to be treated like employees – public servants – whose diaries had ...
It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a third medical school in New Zealand, ...
Time To Choose: Like it or not, the Kiwis are either going into AUKUS’s “Pillar 2” – or they are going to China.HAD ZHENG HE’S FLEET sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks ...
Henry Ergas writes – When in Randall Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution, a college president is accused of being a hypocrite, the novel’s narrator retorts that the description is grossly unfair. After all, the man is still far from the stage of moral development at which the charge ...
David Farrar writes – Radio NZ reports: The Education Review Office says too many new teachers feel poorly prepared for their jobs. In a report published on Monday, the review office said 60 percent of the principals it interviewed said their new teachers were not ready. ...
New Zealand’s economic performance and the PM’s vision Michael Reddell writes – When I wrote yesterday morning’s post, highlighting how poorly both New Zealand and its Anglo peer countries have been doing in respect of productivity in recent times (ie, in the case of New ...
Hi all,Firstly - thank you! You guys are awesome. The response I’ve received to last night’s mail has been quite overwhelming. It’s a ghastly day outside, but there are no clouds in here.In case you didn’t read my email and are wondering what on earth I’m talking about you can ...
If there was still any doubt as to who is actually running this government – and it isn’t the buffoon from Botany – then this week’s announcement of a huge spend up on charter schools has settled the matter. While jobs and public services continue to be cut in the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gaye Taylor As widespread drought raises expectations for a repeat of last year’s ferocious wildfire season, response teams across Canada are grappling with the rapidly changing face of fire in a warming climate. No longer quenched by winter, nor quelled by the ...
Half of Christchurch City Holdings Ltd’s directors and its chair resigned en masse last night in protest at Christchurch City Council’s demand to front-load dividends File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The chair of Christchurch City Council’s investment company and four of its independent directors resigned in protest last ...
The University of Waikato has reworded an advertisement that begins the tender process for its new $300 million-plus medical school even though the Government still needs to approve it. However, even the reworded ad contains an architect’s visualisations of what the school might look like. ACT leader David Seymour told ...
As a follow-up to the Rings of Power trailer discussion, I thought I needed to add something. There has been some online mockery about the use of the same actor for both the Halbrand and Annatar incarnations of Sauron. The reasoning is that Halbrand with a shave and a new ...
This isn’t quite as dramatic as the title might suggest. I’m not going anywhere, but there is something I wanted to talk to you about.Let’s start with a typical day.Most days I send out a newsletter in the morning. If I’ve written a lot the previous evening it might be ...
Buzz from the Beehive The promise of tax relief loomed large in his considerations when the PM delivered a pre-Budget speech to the Auckland Business Chamber. The job back in Wellington is getting government spending back under control, he said, bandying figures which show that in per capita terms, the ...
Yesterday de facto Prime Minister David Seymour announced that his glove puppet government would be re-introducing charter schools, throwing $150 million at his pet quacks, donors and cronies and introducing an entire new government agency to oversee them (the existing Education Review Office, which actually knows how to review schools, ...
Seeing that, in order to discredit the figures and achieve moral superiority while attempting to deflect attention away from the military assault on Rafa, Israel supporters in NZ have seized on reports that casualty numbers in Gaza may be inflated … Continue reading → ...
David Farrar writes – Newstalk ZB report: The man responsible for a horror hit and run in central Wellington last year was on a suspended licence and was so drunk he later asked police, “Did I kill someone?” Jason Tuitama injured two women when he ran a red ...
Muriel Newman writes – Former US President Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.” The fight for ...
Why Courts should have said Waitangi Tribunal could not summons Karen Chhour Gary Judd writes – In the High Court, Justice Isacs declined to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal to compel Minister for Children, Karen Chhour, to appear before it to be ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The number of voices raising concerns about the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill is rapidly growing. This is especially apparent now that Parliament’s select committee is listening to submissions from the public to evaluate the proposed legislation. Twenty-seven thousand submissions have been made to Parliament ...
An average of 166 New Zealand citizens left the country every day during the March quarter, up 54% from a year ago.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The economy and housing market is sinking into a longer recession through the winter after a slump in business and consumer confidence in ...
The government has made it abundantly clear they’re addicted to the smell of new asphalt. On Tuesday they introduced a new term to the country’s roading lexicon, the Roads of Regional Significance (RoRS), a little brother for the Roads of National (Party) Significance (RoNS). Driving ahead with Roads of Regional ...
School is outAnd I walk the empty hallwaysI walk aloneAlone as alwaysThere's so many lucky penniesLying on the floorBut where the hell are all the lucky peopleI can't see them any moreYesterday morning, I’d just sent out my newsletter on Tama Potaka, and I was struggling to make the coffee. ...
Hi,I wanted to check in and ask how you’re doing.This is perhaps a selfish act, of attempting to find others feeling a similar way to me — that is to say, a little hopeless at the moment.Misery loves company, that sort of deal.Some context.I wish I could say I got ...
I have hitherto been fairly quiet on the new season of Rings of Power, on the basis that the underwhelming first season did not exactly build excitement – and the rumours were fairly daft. The only real thing of substance to come out has been that they have re-cast Adar ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
“The thing is,” Chris Luxon says, leaning forward to make his point, “this has always been my thing.”“This goes all the way back to the first multinational I worked for. I was saying exactly the same thing back then. The name of our business needs to be more clear; people ...
Buzz from the Beehive It’s been a momentous few days for Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court decision which blocked a summons order from the Waitangi Tribunal for her. And today she has announced the Government is putting children first by introducing to ...
In 2014 former Australian army lawyer David McBride leaked classified military documents about Australian war crimes to the ABC. Dubbed "The Afghan Files", the documents led to an explosive report on Australian war crimes, the disbanding of an entire SAS unit, and multiple ongoing prosecutions. The journalist who wrote the ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – According to the respected Pew Research Centre, “In seven of eight [European] countries surveyed, the most trusted news outlet asked about is the public news organization in each country”. For example, “in Sweden, an overwhelming majority (90%) say they trust the public broadcaster SVT”. ...
David Farrar writes – Kata MacNamara reports: Details of Tony Blakely’s involvement in the New Zealand Government’s response to the pandemic raise serious questions about the work of the Covid-19 Royal Commission of Inquiry over which he presides. It has long been clear that Blakely, a ...
Chris Trotter writes – Are you a Brahmin or a Merchant? Or, are you merely one of those whose lives are profoundly influenced by the decisions of Brahmins and Merchants? Those are the questions that are currently shaping the politics of New Zealand and the entire West. ...
RNZ reports – It’s supposed to be a haven of healing and spiritual awakening but residents of the Kawai Purapura community say they’ve been hurt and deceived. It’s the successor to the former Centrepoint commune, and has been on the bush block opposite Albany shopping centre since 2008. It ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. Usually we have a video chat to go with this wrap, but were unable to do one this week. We’ll be back next week.Several reports ...
The Transport Minister has set a hard 'fiscal envelope' of $6.54 billion for transport capital spending. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The economy is settling into a state of suspended animation as the Government’s funding freezes and job cuts chill confidence and combine with stubbornly high interest rates to ...
To be precise, the term “anti- Zionism” refers to (a) criticism of the political movement that created a modern Jewish state on the historical land of Israel, and to (b)the subjugation of Palestinians by the Israeli state. By contrast, the term “anti-Semitism” means bigotry and racism directed at Jewish people, ...
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Because hurricanes are one of the big-ticket weather disasters that humanity has to face, climate misinformers spend a lot of effort muddying the waters on whether climate change is making hurricanes more damaging. With the official start to the hurricane ...
Yesterday the Mayor released what he calls his “plan to save public transport” which is part of his final proposal for the Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP). This comes following consultation on the draft version that occurred in March which showed, once again, that people want more done on transport, especially ...
And it's a pleasure that I have knownAnd it's a treasure that I have gainedAotearoa’s coalition government is fragile. It’s held together by the obsequious sycophancy of Christopher Luxon, who willingly contorts his party into the fringe positions of his junior coalition partners and is unwilling to contradict them. The ...
The Select Committee hearing submissions on the fast-track consenting legislation is starting to become a beat-up of regional councils. The inflexibility and slow workings of the Councils were prominent in two submissions yesterday. One, from the Coromandel Marine Farmers Association, simply said that the Waikato Regional Council’s planning decisions were ...
Back in April, the High Court surprised everyone by ruling that Ministers are above the law, at least as far as the Waitangi Tribunal is concerned. The reason for this ruling was "comity" - the idea that the different branches of government shouldn't interfere with each other's functions. Which makes ...
Buzz from the BeehiveTolling was mentioned when Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced the government was re-introducing the Roads of National Significance (RoNS) programme, with 15 “crucial” projects to support economic growth and regional development across New Zealand. All RoNS would be four-laned, grade-separated highways, and all funding, financing, and ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick used this year's State of the Planet to call on the Government to prioritise people and planet as the delivery of the Budget approaches. A full transcript of their speeches can be found below. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have used their State of the Planet speeches to challenge the Government to prioritise people and planet over profit as the delivery of the Budget approaches. ...
The Government’s introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced that the Government will make it easier for lines firms to take action to remove vegetation from obstructing local powerlines. The change will ensure greater security of electricity supply in local communities, particularly during severe weather events. “Trees or parts of trees falling on ...
Wairarapa Moana ki Pouakani were the top winners at this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy awards recognising the best in Māori dairy farming. Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced the winners and congratulated runners-up, Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board, at an awards celebration also attended by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister ...
"On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Department’s correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,” says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “I raised my concerns after being ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on students’ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools. “The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stobo’s appointment is for a five-year term. “The FMA plays ...
Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “Heading to the beach for ...
New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,” says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019. “It is my pleasure ...
New Zealand is gravely concerned about the situation in New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The escalating situation and violent protests in Nouméa are of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “The immediate priority must be for all sides to take steps to de-escalate the ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met today with Samoa’s O le Ao o le Malo, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, who is making a State Visit to New Zealand. “His Highness and I reflected on our two countries’ extensive community links, with Samoan–New Zealanders contributing to all areas of our national ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced that he has approved Waiheke Island ferry operator Island Direct to be eligible for SuperGold Card funding, paving the way for a commercial agreement to bring the operator into the scheme. “Island Direct started operating in November 2023, offering an additional option for people ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further sanctions on 28 individuals and 14 entities providing military and strategic support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia is directly supported by its military-industrial complex in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, attacking its sovereignty and territorial integrity. New Zealand condemns all entities and ...
A year on from the tragedy at Loafers Lodge, the Government is working hard to improve building fire safety, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I want to share my sincere condolences with the families and friends of the victims on the anniversary of the tragic fire at Loafers ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here in the lead up to my Government’s first Budget. Before I get started can I acknowledge: Simon Bridges – Auckland Business Chamber CEO. Steve Jurkovich – Kiwibank CEO. Kids born ...
New Zealand and Vanuatu will enhance collaboration on issues of mutual interest, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “It is important to return to Port Vila this week with a broad, high-level political delegation which demonstrates our deep commitment to New Zealand’s relationship with Vanuatu,” Mr Peters says. “This ...
Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk will travel to Peru this week to represent New Zealand at a meeting of trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific region on behalf of Trade Minister Todd McClay. The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade meeting will be held on 17-18 May ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford will head to the United Kingdom this week to participate in the 22nd Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) and the 2024 Education World Forum (EWF). “I am looking forward to sharing this Government’s education priorities, such as introducing a knowledge-rich curriculum, implementing an evidence-based ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford has today thanked outgoing New Zealand Qualifications Authority Chair, Hon Tracey Martin. “Tracey Martin tendered her resignation late last month in order to take up a new role,” Ms Stanford says. Ms Martin will relinquish the role of Chair on 10 May and current Deputy ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and President Emmanuel Macron of France today announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Call’s work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. This change gives effect to the outcomes of the November 2023 Call Leaders’ Summit, ...
Distinguished public servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten Wevers will lead the independent review into the disability support services administered by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. The review was announced by Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston a fortnight ago to examine what could be done to strengthen the ...
Today’s announcement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster of a National Gang Unit and district Gang Disruption Units will help deliver on the coalition Government’s pledge to restore law and order and crack down on criminal gangs, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. “The National Gang Unit and Gang Disruption Units will ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today expressed regret at North Korea’s aggressive rhetoric towards New Zealand and its international partners. “New Zealand proudly stands with the international community in upholding the rules-based order through its monitoring and surveillance deployments, which it has been regularly doing alongside partners since 2018,” Mr ...
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies MNZM is the new Chief of Defence Force, Defence Minister Judith Collins announced today. The Chief of Defence Force commands the Navy, Army and Air Force and is the principal military advisor to the Defence Minister and other Ministers with relevant portfolio responsibilities in the defence ...
Legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been introduced to Parliament. The Bill’s introduction reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the safety of children in care, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour. “While section 7AA was introduced with good intentions, it creates a conflict for Oranga ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week travel to the UK and Italy to meet with her defence counterparts, and to attend Battles of Cassino commemorations. “I am humbled to be able to represent the New Zealand Government in Italy at the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of what was ...
The upcoming Budget will include funding for up to 50 charter schools to help lift declining educational performance, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced today. $153 million in new funding will be provided over four years to establish and operate up to 15 new charter schools and convert 35 state ...
“The results of the public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has now been received, with results indicating over 13,000 submissions were made from members of the public,” Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “We heard feedback about the extended lockdowns in ...
Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, other Members of Parliament Acting Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence Distinguished Guests Defence and Diplomatic Colleagues Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon, tēna koutou, apinun tru It’s a pleasure to be back in Port Moresby today, and to speak here at the Kumul Leadership ...
Health, infrastructure, renewable energy, and stability are among the themes of the current visit to Papua New Guinea by a New Zealand political delegation, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Papua New Guinea carries serious weight in the Pacific, and New Zealand deeply values our relationship with it,” Mr Peters ...
The coalition Government is launching Roads of Regional Significance to sit alongside Roads of National Significance as part of its plan to deliver priority roading projects across the country, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The Roads of National Significance (RoNS) built by the previous National Government are some of New Zealand’s ...
A high-level New Zealand political delegation in Honiara today congratulated the new Government of Solomon Islands, led by Jeremiah Manele, on taking office. “We are privileged to meet the new Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet during his government’s first ten days in office,” Deputy Prime Minister and ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestine’s participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealand’s ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Government’s focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
Kia ora, welcome to Windbag, The Spinoff’s new Wellington issues column, written by me, Joel MacManus. In this first edition, I take a closer look at the first half of Tory Whanau’s term as mayor. If you want to understand Wellington’s local political landscape, you need to start in 2013 ...
A taonga going under the hammer at an Auckland auction house tonight is expected to fetch thousands. But concerns have been raised about its unclear provenance – and about the law that’s meant to protect it. Eda Tang reports. When Tamatea* received the huia feather they bought from a licensed ...
Uncertainty is an overwhelming theme for two seabed mining projects aiming to use the Government’s controversial fast-track regime The post Seabed miners: What we know and what we don’t appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s the 38th birthday present Jo Aleh never expected to receive. Last Monday, Aleh and her sailing partner, Molly Meech, flew home to Auckland from Marseille, where they’d been training for their Paris Olympics campaign in the 49erFX. Within a couple of hours of touching down, they were out on ...
“It might feel like the country is slogging it up the hill at the moment,” Finance Minister Nicola Willis tells party faithful in Palmerston North on Sunday, “But we’re gonna get to the top of the hill, and it’s downhill on the other side. And the reason it’s downhill is ...
One issue that all the leaders of the coalition Government have agreed on is the expansion of the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme. Established in 2007, the scheme allows workers from participating Pacific countries to come to New Zealand to take up roles on a short-term basis. For the government, it’s ...
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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 🙁