So political pressure was applied to Immigration NZ to allow Kim Dotcom to STAY in New Zealand even though they knew at the time of the FBI investigation …
I think you will find that nice, honest Mr Key is just a victim of all these people who keep letting him down. The herald waiting til he was away on hols is a coincidence.
Or Key’s sudden decision to go off the NZ grid to Hawaii now explained? When Key’s holiday was suddenly in the news, I wondered what might be coming up.
You seriously think the Prime Minister has gone on vacation to Hawaii because of (yet another) media installment on KDC? Could you say it again so I can be gob smacked again?
Kiwiri
Its amazing jusr how many holidays this playboy PM has ,all in his mansions and classy flats.
When one realises that we in Aotearoa have thousands of homeless and people living in garages it’s an insult to have this PM hoping around the world and staying in houses big enough to accomodate at least four families. What ever happened to our decent fair society .
“The SIS tried to block Kim Dotcom’s residency application but dropped their objection 90 minutes after being told there was “political pressure” to let the tycoon into New Zealand, secret documents from the spy agency reveal.” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11293403
And the Minister in Charge of the SIS is ……John Key
Labour’s associate NZSIS spokesman, Grant Robertson, said the claims of political pressure were “extraordinary”.
“I’ve never heard of a situation like this before. Political pressure means politicians.
“There are serious questions about what John Key knew and when.”
Hmm, indeed, ShonKey’s ‘misremembering’ of when he first knew of Kim Dotcom is going to be revisited. He is the minister of NZSIS. Well sort of, when it suits him.
Was it easier or harder for the FBI to launch its extradition of DotCom if he had PR in NZ? At least with PR he would stay in NZ, and they could target him with a helpful NZ Minister in charge of all things skullduggeryish?
A few weeks ago I posted something my brother had told me about the high roller categoiry and why he thought KDC was SO pissed off with NZ govt, including Banks, namely the Nats had used him as their highroller pin up boy for their new and hurried 2009 policy… but when he wanted a mattress they ran for the hills and colluded with the US.
The article,and papers released to Fisher, also appear to validate KDC’s claims that the lifting of NZSIS opposition to his application for permanent residency in Oct 2010 was tied to knowledge of the impending FBI/NZ Police operations etc – and that the NZSIS head, Warren Tucker, knew. (KDC made the latter claim in a brief tweet in later 2013).
And Key still claims he did not know about KDC until a day before the raid in Jan 2012? I feel a Tui Ad coming on.
I am confused by Laila Harre’s comments in the Herald article (and in her interview on Morning Report about half an hour ago) and cannot yet figure out where she is coming from. IIRC at the time she was appointed as Leader of the IP, she said something to the effect that she would not be getting involved in KEC’s legal issues, but here she is commenting … Could be some interesting discussions KDC/Harre when they start their Internet MANA road trip with Hone Harawira today in the far north.
PS – if anyone missed it, last week KDC’s extradition hearing was again delayed until 16 Feb 2015.
I DID miss it. It was going to be prior tot he election wasn’t it?
Laila Harre is commenting on allegations of a government not following its on constitutional process. She also says she would have denied Mr DotCom PR on the basis of the SIS block. For her to not say something on an important issue such as constitutional abuse would give more pause. IMO.
The extradition hearing was due to start in the North Shore District Court Monday last week, July 7, but all indications from the other legal proceedings currently underway were that a delay was likely. Also KDC took his children to Queenstown about July 4 for 10 days’ holiday so was not ‘in town’ for July 7 – another indicator. (Mona also went to Queenstown – and KDC tweeted a lot of pictures of them all, including Mona’s birthday celebrations there. Apparently, friends still but no reconciliation.)
Other ongoing legal proceedings cover the release of KDC’s computer contents etc, compensation sought by KDC et al, the release of KDC’s assets, and the newer civil claims by Hhollywood moguls to seize his assets. All very confusing and complicated, but there is a hearing on one or other of these due on July 30. Will see what I can dig out in terms of links if I have time later today.
Re Laila Harre’s comments, now I am a bit more awake, I think you are right – she is commenting on the lack of following due process etc and silence would have caused more speculation. This approach is also probably with KDC’s agreement etc.
I agree. Whether you believe it or not, she has today, by implication, stated she is not a DotCom puppet. Guyon struggled with the concept a bit.
Like many he can’t imagine how you can be paid to do something by someone and NOT do everything that person wants you to do, AND assumes that because DotCom bankrolled it he would want to tell Harre what she can and can’t talk about, and enforce it.
From memory, KDC brought this up himself at the CGSB meeting in Auckland town hall. His point was not about whether or not he should be allowed permanent residence, but that the speed with which the decision was made suggested, in hindsight, that he had been set up for all that followed. So I don’t think he would have a problem with Harre’s saying what she has said.
I think you are right about KDC saying that at the GCSB meeting; and I also seem to recall him tweeting about it and/or mentioning it in other interviews etc. Re Harre’s remarks, I was still half asleep when I first read the Herald article, and now agree with Karol etc re Harre’s comments.
Chris Keall has now posted an article on NBR which I have linked to and commented on at the dedicated post, which covers Harre’s comments and is worth reading.
Thanks for re-posting that link. It seems consistent to me that the leader of a party opposed to cronyism should stand up for the principles that constrain governments rather than KDC himself, and I think he would agree with that. Harre is depicted as being in a “tricky position” because she is not acting as the National Party would under equivalent circumstances. Instead of trying to put her finger on the scales in her mate’s favour, as they would, she is looking at how those scales are supposed to work.
xox
Police manipulate the crime data. Is this not a crime? I.e if an engineer, doctor or an accountant did that they would be …. probably promoted. Hey this is wild west noo zeeland! What other government stats can we trust? Health, education, poverty, housing, growth, river polution, foreign ownership ….. There is no corruption in NZ! We are top of the Transparency International non corruption stakes! Doesn’t say much about the standard around the west.
Phillip. I know your dual lifestyle interests are important to you, but with respect, I have to say, it’s a bit much hearing about it every single morning on Open Mike.
I’m not discrediting some of the valid points you raise, but asking if you have considered what it’s like for readers who get the vegan n’ drug news roundup of the day, every day? It’s bordering on the evangelical comrade.
OK phil. That is the response I was expecting, so no surprises there.
I would have thought your own site would be adequate for the promotion of your views and posting of news, so I’m not sure why you feel the need such frequent vegan n drug themed posts here. Nothing stopping you of course. I’ll just continue to scroll on by to the tune of walk on by when you are posting on those two topics.
As for Rodel, he/she has been around for some time, you just haven’t noticed.
Ta Rosie.
I’m sometimes hesitant and potentially embarrassed to recommend to friends that they should read ‘The Standard’ as a left leaning blog site when it’s dominated by people who are focussed on veganism, marihuanism and fuckenism in incoherent language, obsessions which have little to do with what I believe is the main intent of the site.
And yes I usually skip by but was impressed by your kind, considerately worded and respectful rebuke.
Lols Rodel. Go right ahead and proudly recommend TS to your friends! Your friends will quickly come to realise that phil is unique and once they see the almighty rows he has with people that don’t meet his expectations or agree with him, they’ll get the picture, understand that he’s a man going along on his own buzz and not be put off.
Phil and I have had these chats before, so it’s nothing new. I just got a bit annoyed by all the dominant discussion about GE vegan milk over the last few days so felt I had to air that annoyance. Usually I would just ignore it but the soapbox was taking up all the room.
My main issue is with people telling people how to live their lives, and not respecting the choices that others make. Education and gentle encouragement of those of wanting to make healthy changes in their lives is helpful but preaching isn’t – (hence the evangelical reference).
In saying all that I do believe phil has a fine sense of humour and a quick wit. I like the way he delivers his words, once you get past the formatting of them (and when they’re not angry spiteful words) – It’s just those swings into fanaticism that get in the way.
Some posts require zen like amounts of self restraint, but I do try to remember that ultimately we’re all on the same side, brothers and sisters, even when one of us chooses to be the problem child for the day 🙂
A gibbering weirdo Phillip, you are being eloquent today, tho i do fear that you were looking in the mirror when that thought was provoked by the crashing together of your remaining two working neurons,
The ‘proof’, apparently from a study in dear old England, has been published, the misuse of Marijuana over a long term gives you brain damage,(very much evident from the digital scribble you produce),
..which is unusual for a pot-bashing/prohibition-supporting rag like that..
“..Dr Peter McCormick, from the University of East Anglia’s (UEA) school of pharmacy, said THC’s anti-cancer properties have been known for some time – but the study had identified the receptors responsible for fighting tumours.
“Our findings help explain some of the well-known but still poorly understood effects of THC at low and high doses on tumour growth,” he said…”
Heartwarming to see the support for Palestinians at The Standard yesterday, and while some of the apologists happily squawk ‘points of order’ as people (ie Palestinians) die; the international tide does seem to be turning on the Israeli apartheid state.
Show public solidarity;
Rally for all victims of Israeli brutality
Auckland, Saturday July 19, 2pm Aotea Square
Key branded as “a rouge currency trader, applying his shyster traits running Government.” Don’t ya love the thought of Key in the dock, they should charge him with treason.
The actual laws that the charges were brought under were mentioned in the original charges. Essentially, IIRC, it amounts to aiding and abetting Banks in his crime.
A small number of us around the country chatted about conducting a people’s “mock trial” of John Key, broadcast around the country via the internet and Youtubed, that can be launched before the general election.
We are happy for anybody who has the network and contacts to run with this. (Need to check this will be ok with electoral laws.)
If you had read his biography, you would realise he was not a rouge currency trader. They usually end up in prison – although I don’t think you mean rouge ones.
Also, can you please explain which element of the treason provisions you see him being charfed with?
i would say all of these count if you include economic war under the war category
b) levies war against New Zealand; or
(c) assists an enemy at war with New Zealand, or any armed forces against which New Zealand forces are engaged in hostilities, whether or not a state of war exists between New Zealand and any other country; or
(d) incites or assists any person with force to invade New Zealand; or
(e) uses force for the purpose of overthrowing the Government of New Zealand; or
(f) conspires with any person to do anything mentioned in this section.
Srylands, yes it woud be ideal but even the most extreme optimists among us can’t hope for prison. He will probably just head back to his philosophical Homeland.
Climate Voter group to take Electoral Commission to court ( 3′ 9″ )
06:45 A group of environmental organisations are taking the Electoral Commission to court over a decision that would require their “Vote for the Climate” initiative to be subject to electoral rules.
and again – a longer version
Climate campaigners go to high court over classification ( 4′ 49″ )
07:40 A group of climate change campaigners are going to the High Court after their website was ruled an election advertisement.
Their natural lowbrow habitats, drumroll, Slater & Farrar might get SS and Gosman down after a while so The Standard is a refreshing change for them at least.
More than 40,000 people call on BBC to reflect reality of Gaza’s occupation
July 14, 2014
Noam Chomsky, John Pilger and Ken Loach are among more than 40,000 signatories who have signed an open letter to the BBC calling on its journalists to reflect the reality of Gaza’s occupation while reporting on Israel’s current assault.
MPs have also signed the letter which will be delivered to the BBC tomorrow (15th July) during a protest outside its Portland Place, London, headquarters.
The letter reminds the BBC that Israel is bombing a refugee population which is being held under occupation and siege. It is a population which has no army, navy or air force with which to defend itself against the fourth largest military power in the world.
Sarah Colborne, Director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which will be delivering the letter, said: “These are simple facts, none of which have been present in any of the BBC’s coverage so far of Israel’s assault on Gaza.
“However, they are vital facts and their absence results in BBC coverage which is unbalanced and lacking in context. Their omission allows the BBC to present Israel’s assault as a retaliation to Palestinian rockets rather than as an enforcement of its occupation and siege.
“Truly unbiased journalism would allow its consumers to consider both options instead of presenting them with just one viewpoint, as the BBC is doing.”
Protests took place outside BBC studios in Nottingham and Manchester on 10th July, and in Bristol on 11th July, demanding balanced reporting from BBC journalists.
Tuesday’s protest at Portland Place will call on the BBC to report the truth about Israel’s occupation and siege on Gaza, instead of concealing facts from its audiences. It will take place from 5.30pm to 7.30pm.
I agree with you, Phillip—the television presenters on both channels seem to be sympathetic to the aggressors and indifferent to the victims. I presume that is because they are ignorant rather than vicious. Even when they try to say something intelligent and/or humane, they betray their ignorance by calling the killings “disproportionate”, which implies there is a “proportionate” number of Palestinian civilians that they may kill.
However, on the positive side, I must say I was astonished to hear Susan Wood on the notoriously right wing, pro-Israel, pro-Communist China, pro-any-repressive-regime NewstalkZB last night; she was clearly shocked and disgusted by the Israeli actions.
Yeah. It was a problem over the weekend. However Lyn passed on a head cold that had been carefully nurtured by one of her nieces, so I didn’t fix it. Got it yesterday morning.
There still seemed to be the odd dup message later yesterday afternoon. But they were all from Gosman, and I suspect from a cached bad copy of some of the javascript (Shift+Refresh or Shift+F5 is your friend).
Basically, I’d expect any electorate MP to argue for their electorate first in public, the caucus, and parliament. That is their job.
I’d also expect that on the odd occasion that they will cross the floor for their electorate as Damien O’Conner and another Labour MP recently did.
But they’d better have a damn good argument for the caucus room if they do the latter.
In this case, Labour’s policy is to do what I think should happen. The worst points in the current road should be progressively fixed rather throwing a unneeded extension in. First priority amongst them should be getting rid of that bloody useless set of lights at Wellsford, preferably by bypassing the town. Same at Wellsford. That gets rid of half of the weekend congestion problem straight. Secondly fix the known bad corners and straighten the road. Thirdly provide a better way to get up the steep and windy bluff.
But Matt L at transport blog will have a better list.
Yes, provided link to Matt L at transport blog. They have been pretty good there at documenting inconsistencies in Nationals’s planning and previous cost/benefit calculations.
I understand Davis standing up for his electorate, but the assumption that any spending remains good just because it is in the electorate is dubious and naive at best.
Northland would benefit from targeting spending – yes – I agree. But from targeted spending on roads, not so much.
There are always going to be conflicts between electorate MPs and society wide party policies. I’d prefer that they are reasonably open about it, but making damn clear that they are their personal preference
The trouble with that is that it ends up looking like waffle, or even worse for the electorate candidates it looks to their voters like they’re lying about what they’ll actually do.
But it’s happening on enough random policies that a case can be made that Labour electorate candidates are electorate representatives before party apparatchiks. List MPs can push the official party line, but electorate candidates need their local support.
I agree. It really is a hell of an ask for a electorate MP/candidate to commit suicide for the party. Usually there are only a few issues like that in specific electorates.
In this case Davis could easily have said that the upgrades that Labour will do will achieve what Northland needs while costing less and being done quicker. That way he would have been onside with his potential constituents and fully backing Labour’s policy.
Thing is, the only reason he wouldn’t do that is because of ignorance which really doesn’t help show that he’d be a good electorate MP.
not when his constituents are telling him they want that road because the current one keeps getting washed out. It would look like he gets asked a question about a specific need for the region and responds with party waffle. Which is a problem that list-only candidates don’t really face, as they can pivot any specific complaint to a wider issue.
What he did manage to do was talk about Northland mayors being involved in an integrated regional transport plan, which spreads the responsibility and maybe provides an acceptable alternative if the highway isn’t built to the nactoid schedule.
It would look like he gets asked a question about a specific need for the region and responds with party waffle.
Or he could respond with facts. The most important being that National’s Holiday Highway isn’t going to help them anymore than the faster and cheaper upgrades will.
We’re not talking about “facts” here.
We’re talking about the perceptions and desires of voters in his electorate.
And his position [edit:typolol @ “potion”] won’t change a thing either way: if JK is PM in november, the highway gets fast-tracked. If Cunliffe is PM, it won’t.
So Davis can support something knowing that if he’s in a position to oppose it then it won’t go through anyway because his cabinet colleagues will nuke it, and then use that support as a pivot for another issue (in this case local government joining together to form a regional transport plan).
Or he can oppose something his electorate want (for better or worse), and then get bogged down in the hustings arguing about a fucking road that will be constructed or not regardless of electorate outcome.
Frankly, I think his comment was a good move for both his campaign and Labour. Rather than Little or O’Conner just being dicks, it’s become standard Labour practise for electorate MPs to (shock horror) represent their electorates.
These Labour candidates need to weigh up the effect that their comments have on the party vote aswell as their electorate- because they are not working solely for their electorate they are in a nationwide party. If they don’t want to think about such matters then I suggest they choose to be independents.
I, for one, am getting tired of the unclear/conflicting stance these electorate politicians are taking toward their own party policies – this gives me the ‘perception’ that Labour are going to have difficulty with internal harmony in government. I wonder how many others are responding like myself?
The type of discussion that Kelvin and co are raising with the media/public – needs to be had internally first and then a decision needs to be made so that a united message is given to the general public.
Conversely Kelvin &co have the option to stand as an independents – of course it is unlikely that they choose this option because politicians such as Kelvin get a lot of pay-offs for being involved in the 2nd biggest party in New Zealand. If, however, politicians from Labour continue to present a non-united and accordingly unclear message then they won’t belong to the 2nd biggest party in NZ after-all because less and less people will trust that Labour are capable of working in a competent and harmonious fashion.
If the electorate candidates were in conflict with the bulk of Labour policy, I agree: they shouldn’t be Labour candidates.
But when there’s conflict between party policy and one or two issues within an electorate, it’s not a problem. The impact on the party vote would be minimal within the electorate (the voter already dislikes the policy). Outside the electorate, people can understand the conflict the electorate MP faces.
It’s easy to have a consistent message if your policy is meaningless waffle. But people with different geographic perspectives have different priorities, and Davis and the West Coast MPs made it clear they were working in what they felt were the interests of their electorates.
Whereas Little playing to his “afraid to be alone with a woman” base did damage, in my opinion, because it was a local comment about a country-wide issue. He should have kept to a local comment about a local issue.
This issue for me is something that may well stop me voting for Labour.
You assume that ‘people understand’ the conflict. No sorry, I don’t and won’t be putting effort into understanding it – because I doubt people who spend less time and have less interest in politics than myself will; so why would I bother?
i.e. It is up to Labour to present themselves in a manner where less doubt creeps in; it is not for me, you or anyone else to take time to ‘understand’ the poor wee conflicted dears. This is a discussion that needs to be discussed amongst themselves and addressed internally so that they can present a united and clear message as a party.
I was forgiving of a few random comments but this is starting to be a pattern with Labour and as I have already relayed I can only assume that if I react with impatience to such a very clear show of lack of discipline others will.
Labour have to understand and work through the conflicts themselves internally and present a much clearer and united message to us all externally than they have been recently because there are plenty of other parties to vote for.
I think your comment re ‘thinking before they speak’ is becoming the most appropriate response to this increasing trend of Labour candidates/MPs coming out with statements that are inharmonious toward and/or fudging of their own policies. I had initially thought it was an issue over how their statements were being reported – but now, no – there is something wrong with Labour’s messaging skills.
I would have thought the one thing that is very important that Labour convey is that they are working together with a single-minded focus – both internally and externally i.e. that they are cooperative and harmonious amongst themselves and also toward potential coalition partners. This would convey that they will be an effective, stable and competent government.
The other important factor is clear communication.
Neither of these have been soundly achieved recently.
I am strongly supportive of Mr Cunliffe due to the strong support he gained from the Labour party members and the unions – and this is a strong factor that makes Labour an option for my vote – however I am getting fed up with the inconsistent and inharmonious manner the Labour party politicians are presenting the message of their party policies and in the manner they show support (or lack of it) for other like-minded parties.
Surely the most important goal for Labour politicians is to achieve a consistent and clear message of what they represent? The amount of reports coming out about Labour politicians contradicting and/or making unclear statements about their own policies is getting beyond the pail.
I am losing patience with this phenomena. Are Labour politicians completely unable to display some discipline in their messaging or do they simply not see the importance of conveying a clear and consistent message to the general public?
So Kelvin Davis wants the road projects in Northland but the Labour party wants to scrap them?
Kelvin Davis said today: “The Government needs to step up and help local councils fix infrastructure problems highlighted by the recent Northland storms. The bad weather has amplified how susceptible the North really is at times like this. Our roading infrastructure is a major source of concern. This weather event has shown that when the main road in and out of the north fails” Link is here http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1407/S00262/call-for-government-to-step-up-in-north.htm
It seems as the the roading projects are necessary and vital for jobs and economic development in the north but Labour doesn’t want them?
Hi stupid dickhead. The Labour position is in the NZ Herald article that someone else linked to.
Instead of the gold-plated RONS gift for holiday makers, Labour simply wants to fix the existing road. That is something that should have been started 5 years ago. Instead National dumped that for their Road Of Significance for National.
This upgrade is a hell of a lot cheaper, will happen a lot faster, and actually have a return on investment that doesn’t require dubious projections to justify.
So why do you think we should waste a billion plus dollars of taxpayers money for something that could be as easily be done by simply fixing the existing road for a few hundred million.
Wow so that was offensive. If I had made that insult then I would have been kicked off this site quick-smart. No need to get personal.
It is better in this case to do the whole job. Fixing bits and bobs along the road will not fix the underlying problems: travel speeds and wash outs. Both of these are vital for commerical certainty and business growth.
Rather than patching up the existing winding mess that is the current road (a second-world patch up job) as you propose, I believe it is better to do a real first-world job on it. If we want to be a first world country, we need the infrastructure to back it up.
Wow so that was offensive. If I had made that insult then I would have been kicked off this site quick-smart. No need to get personal.
Good. That was the intent. It helps to get fools curled up in a catatonic fetal balls sucking their fingers to pay attention to things outside their own head.
Tick 1 – trolling standard response when challenged. Whine about politeness.
If you act like a stupid arsehole making dumb fact free assertions, then I’ll treat you as one. I find that it helps lazy shitheads like yourself learn to be more cautious and to use google before wasting my time reading your rather obvious lack of attention. Since I read most of the comments on this site you can guarantee if you keep being lazy then I will notice and give you a kick to improve your standard of commenting.
Read the policy. With a few relatively rare exceptions I as a moderator couldn’t give a damn about personal insults, unless they were pointless, or you were off topic, or it was clear that someone was deliberately trying to kick off a flamewar.
Since I do most of the moderation around here, your statement has the ring of a idiot trying to dig himself in deeper in quicksand.
It is better in this case to do the whole job. Fixing bits and bobs along the road will not fix the underlying problems: travel speeds and wash outs. Both of these are vital for commerical certainty and business growth.
Why? We’re only talking between Puhio and Wellsford. Not between Wellsford and Whangarei where much of the washout areas are.
The washouts only happen in a couple of locations up to Wellsford.
The amount of commercial traffic is minimal compared to the number of cars clogging the roads and almost all of it happens in only a few places. What causes issues are congestion problems at a couple of locations with cars which don’t require a whole new road to be built.
Moreover if what you were saying was true, then it would show up immediately on the economic cost benefit analysis. Which it does not because the dickheads from NZTA haven’t published one (which suggests that it is far worse then slender 1.2 for the Wellington Basin reserve flyover).
Moreover they’re projecting a average annual 4.4% growth in traffic to north of Warkworth. However they chose a measurement site inside the Warkworth ‘urban’ area which does show a annual 4.1% growth – of people driving around town. When you measure north of Warkworth on the open road, there is no growth.
So over 9 years there has been a pipsqueak of traffic growth north of Warkworth. So why exactly are we spending a billion plus for this road? To cure a economic problem that doesn’t exist?
I don’t think that there is any economic benefit apart from a few congestion issues for cars going to baches. Most of which can be fixed with a few much easier and cheaper improvements. This road appears to have more to do with National wanting to help their favourite donating property developers than for any economic benefits for the north.
Basically you should probably read the posts about this topic this link over at transportblog. Then you might sound less like a ignorant doofus.
I don’t think Wreckingball has the whole picture. The holiday highway which the Nat Govt intends spending billions on is only going as far as Wellsford (and will take probably a decade or so to build).
It won’t solve the problems Kelvin Davis is talking about – which are : that the road – the State Highway One for gawds sake – north of Whangarei is a mess, its unreliable, it gets flooded too easily and breaks up (as can be seen just south of Kawakawa right now where it is impassable) – and the alternative routes are really non-existent – unless you take the very long old Russell Road out towards Paihia and Opua – adding another couple of hours onto your journey.
The current side roads which traffic is using – such as the Ruapekapeka Road – are now crumbling and disintegrating under the unaccustomed traffic because they are “side roads” – unsealed, narrow, winding, and not built for major traffic use.
So the proposed govt billion-dollar spend on the “holiday highway” is NOT going to do much good for the mid-to Far North. Th e govt needs to spend some serious money on making sure State Highway One from Whangarei to Cape Reinga is well built, well maintained, and has reliable alternative routes around it, if needed in extreme weather events as has just happened – and are likely to happen in the future.
Yeah, the Puhio to Wellsford road will largely only have regular heavier traffic for the foreseeable future to Warkworth. Most will be cars going there on weekends. Wellsford on holidays.
Truck traffic increasing will be bugger all. They have a pretty good port up north, so why would they move the heavy export stuff out of anywhere apart from the port. The population is static or declining so there isn’t a massive need to increase that.
Tourism really doesn’t have an issue apart from the usual Auckland holiday outpouring.
In the meantime the roads up north are getting torn to pieces through a lack of maintenance and upgrades.
Manipulating online polls. No wonder David Farrar is pushing online voting!
Glen Greenwald’s latest gem:
“The secretive British spy agency GCHQ has developed covert tools to seed the internet with false information, including the ability to manipulate the results of online polls, artificially inflate pageview counts on web sites, “amplif[y]” sanctioned messages on YouTube, and censor video content judged to be “extremist.” The capabilities, detailed in documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, even include an old standby for pre-adolescent prank callers everywhere: A way to connect two unsuspecting phone users together in a call.”
I’ve been fuming all morning while listening to RadioLive’s Sean Plunket’s talkshit (I know, I know…) where he shat all over Labour’s policies and tried to minimise the Dotcom scandal evolving. And then he decided to ‘break’ a Whaleoil story about Mike Rowley (who?) who alleges that David Cunliffe promised him a favour in exchange for some dirt on Steven Joyce and his involvement with the Exclusive Brethren. Anyway, he got hoisted by his own petard. The guy proved a total fraud and serves them all right when they take any crap from WhaleSoil as a Gospel.
that is no solution at all.
wailshte is a blot on the country.
a man with no conscience, principles, ethics or morals at all.
this man needs to be exposed for the complete rotten egg that he is.
its seems like he has had two black eyes already this week.
somebody should finish him off with a good kick in the balls.
Computerworld – What if half the men in science, engineering and technology roles dropped out at midcareer? That would surely be perceived as a national crisis. Yet more than half the women in those fields leave — most of them during their mid- to late 30s.
It’s an interesting article but I was most taken by this bit and it’s solution:
The third thing is that, for many women, the career path is all very mysterious because they don’t have mentors or sponsors or folks looking out for them. Some of them can’t begin to map what the career ladder looks like. This mystery adds to the sense of stalling, of being stuck and not knowing where to go or how to get there.
What practical steps should CIOs take to keep women from leaving? It’s the most standard solution in the world: You’ve just got to get mentors to pair with the young talent.
Which, IMO, is where our education system, especially tertiary, is failing. It’s not providing that support and people are left with a What next? It’s not that people choose to fail but that most people don’t have the information and support to choose any other option.
People coming out of tertiary education with IT or commerce degrees aren’t going to graduate prepared to answer questions on what next to do with their lives once they turn 40. Try something in philosophy, theology or the other humanities instead.
A bit testy there Philip, you got withdrawal symptoms my old chum? Benefit day tomorrow, so not long to wait now until the tinny house is open.
Five days at the end of a campaign, when most people have already decided who to vote for, will do nothing to change the political landscape, revelation or not.
You ever heard of rubbing salt into a wound? A clue, it’s like the possum question you won’t answer.
At happy-hour drinks, he and other teachers complained that the legislators who wrote No Child Left Behind must never have been near a school like Parks. He felt as if he and his colleagues were part of a nationwide “biological experiment” in which the variables—the fact that so many children were hungry and transient, and witnessing violence—hadn’t been controlled. David Berliner, the former dean of the school of education at Arizona State University, told me that, with the passage of the law, teachers were asked to compensate for factors outside their control. He said, “The people who say poverty is no excuse for low performance are now using teacher accountability as an excuse for doing nothing about poverty.”
Is see Duncan Garner and his soul mate Cameron Slater are continuing their campaign re: Labour MPs jumping ship.
They cite Trevor Mallard (although I can’t see any evidence he’s departing from the party line), Kelvin Davis, a raw newbie in the Shane Jones mould (we know what a team player Shane is), and Damien O’Conner who made a stand on trees, apparently with the blessing of the caucus.
Mallard and O’Conner have done nothing out of the ordinary which leaves the raw Davis to make some noise that will perversely only resonate with the idle Remuera/Omaha rich set.
That’s right, he wants to go ahead with the holiday highway.
I know that road well. Several hundred million dollars has just been thrown at the East Coast Bays to Puhoi section in the form of a toll road which all ordinary Northlanders are paying for the privilege of using whenever they need to come to Auckland using their own vehicles or by way of increased costs on the goods they have to buy locally, for instance we know petrol is more expensive in Northland. The Puhoi to Wellsford section (lets read Puhoi to Omaha, because that’s what the holiday highway really is about) is not busy at all in normal weekday usage when the bulk of goods travel, it’s just not.
If Kelvin did his homework he’d be able to see that the only bit that needs fixing in the short/medium term is the Warkworth, and perhaps Wellsford, bypasses (something planned by Labour and cancelled by National IIRC). The rest is just the Remuera elite having a bit more road to open up their Audis upon.
Looking further in New Zealand’s case I see Bill English’s brother in 2009, then head of Federated Farmers wanted the the Waterview Connection to be surface only instead of tunnel/surface, the savings of which he proposed be put into irrigation schemes to benefit farmers.
For the love of Christ, how much more do farmers want?
I agree Weepus Beard – Kel Davis needs a bit more info on the holiday highway – its not going to solve the problems of roading north of Whangarei. See my comment at 16.1.1. above.
Meanwhile the gummint grinds on grinding down the fine society we had into ashes which they will later spread surreptitiously somewhere inconsequential.
On the My Thinks blog boonman has announced there is shock at the agreement of the Education and Science Select Committee to allow a Bill to pass so that the government can control the teachers body, the Teachers Council.
Just to clarify what this means: Every single member of the board responsible for the registration and disciplining of teachers across New Zealand is going to be appointed by Hekia Parata….
At present the Teachers’ Council is a partly appointment, partly elected body. When the bill is passed this will be a totally appointed body – a body whose sole aim will be the destruction of the teaching profession (don’t believe me? Have a look at what is happening to professional teaching organisations and unions in the United States). Once you have a subservient profession, then you can mould and manipulate to your heart’s content.
Of course, if National don’t manage to cobble together their various has-beens into a coalition of the desperately willing, then we may not be forced to endure the ignominy of having our profession deconstructed in this way.
Campbell Live doing an expose on Stonewood Homes in Christchurch.
Cowboys in a cowboy country with few regulations.
There is a shortage of builders …due to a lack of planning by our government.
We live in a country where the buck seems to stop anywhere…..
KDC got a good solo run though on TV 3 news. Having JK away might be backfiring
as there was no competing narrative to challenge Dotcom’s. Still thoroughly gutless though. Hopefully John will be having another crisis similar to the one Roughan cited where Key’s fear of losing gives him existential cramps. That will teach him to believe in Neo Darwinist winner takes all bs.
It was always going to happen. Relying upon agriculture to be the driver of an economy has, and always will, result in a country being poor. It doesn’t cost that much to do and every other country can do it for themselves.
As BIS General Manager Jaime Caruana stated when presenting the Annual Report in Basel, “financial booms have led to severe resource misallocation in many economies”. According to Mr Caruana, these booms have also masked an erosion of growth potential while rising private and public debt has created a range of vulnerabilities. To use his words, “as debt increases, the ability of borrowers to repay becomes progressively more sensitive to drops in income and to interest rate rises. Thus, higher debt translates into greater financial fragility and financial cycles that may become increasingly disruptive”.
And yet no country in the world is doing anything to stop growth through the rise in debt despite the lessons of the GFC. Lessons obviously not learned.
Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.It was another ‘SHOCK! HORROR!’ headline from a media increasingly venturing into tabloid-style journalism:Andrea Vance’s article seemed to focus on the "million dollar sums from the Government as the country grapples with a housing ...
Dr Brian Easton writes: It’s the summer break. Everyone settles down with family, books, the sun and some fishing. But the Prime Minister has a pile of briefing papers prepared just before Christmas, which have to be worked through. I haven’t seen them. Here is my guess at some ...
What Was the Prime Minister Reading in the Runup to Election Year?It’s the summer break. Everyone settles down with family, books, the sun and some fishing. But the Prime Minister has a pile of briefing papers prepared just before Christmas, which have to be worked through. I haven’t seen them. ...
In case you hadn't noticed, FYI, the public OIA request site, has been used to conduct a significant excavation into New Zealand's intelligence agencies, with requests made for assorted policies and procedures. Yesterday in response to one of these requests the GCSB released its policy on New Zealand Purpose and ...
Farming leaders are watching closely whether Damien O’Connor keeps the key portfolios of Agriculture and Trade when Prime Minister Chris Hipkins restructures his Cabinet. O’Connor has been one of the few ministers during Labour’s term in office who has won broad support for what he has done ...
South Islands farmers are whining about another drought, the third in three years. If only we knew what was causing this! If only someone had warned them that they faced a drying climate! But we do know what is causing it: climate change. And they have been warned, repeatedly, for ...
Ok, there’s good news and bad news in this week’s inflation figures, but bad > good. Our inflation rate held steady but hey, at a level below the inflation rate in Australia. The main reason for the so/so result here? A fall in petrol prices of 7.2% offset the really ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: Since her shock resignation announcement, Jacinda Ardern has been at pains to point out that she isn’t leaving because of the toxicity directed at her on social media and elsewhere, rebutting journalists who suggested misogyny and hate may have driven her from office. Yet ...
Since her shock resignation announcement, Jacinda Ardern has been at pains to point out that she isn’t leaving because of the toxicity directed at her on social media and elsewhere, rebutting journalists who suggested misogyny and hate may have driven her from office. Yet there have been dozens of columns ...
The Clinical Magus: Of particular relevance to New Zealanders struggling to come to terms with the sudden departure of their prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is Jung’s concept of the anima. Much more than what others have called the feminine principle, the anima is what the human male has made out ...
The Select Committee, considering the proposed RNZ-TVNZ merger, has come back with a report conceding many of the criticisms that were made of the original legislation. In what is one of the most comprehensive demolitions of a Bill submitted to a Select Committee, the Economic Development, Science and Innovation ...
Such are the 2020s, the age when no-one, it seems, actually respects the basic underpinnings of democracy. Even in New Zealand. This week, I stumbled across a pair of lengthy and genuinely serious articles, that basically argue that Something is Rotten in the state of New Zealand democracy. One ...
Buzz from the Beehive Hurrah. Today we found something fresh on the Beehive website, Beehive.govt.nz, which claims to be the best place to find Government initiatives, policies and Ministerial information. It wasn’t from Finance Minister Grant Robertson, whose reaction to the latest inflation figures would have been appreciated. So, too, ...
Smiling And Waiving A Golden Opportunity: Chris Hipkins knew that the day at Ratana would be Jacinda’s day – her final opportunity to bask in the unalloyed love and support of her followers. He simply could not afford to be seen to overshadow this last chance for his former boss ...
Extremism Consumes Itself: The plot of “Act of Oblivion” concerns the relentless pursuit of the “regicides” Edward Whalley and William Goffe – two of the fifty-nine signatories to King Charles I’s death warrant. As with his many other works of historical fiction, Robert Harris’s novel brings to life a period ...
To challenge the Government’s promotion of co-governance, to share power between Maori and public authorities and agencies, is to invite accusations of racism. An example: this article by Martyn Bradbury on The Daily Blog headed Luxon’s race baiting hypocrisy at Ratana. The article was triggered by National leader Christopher Luxon, ...
A very informative video discussion: Are we getting the whole story about Ukraine? | Robert Wright & Ivan Katchanovski Getting objective information on the situation in Ukraine and the cause of this current war is not easy. There is the current censorship and blatant mainstream media bias – which ...
Yesterday the Herald ran an op-ed from Mayor Wayne Brown titled “The case for light rail is lighter than ever” and a few things stood out. However, it’s getting more and more tricky to make a strong economic case for spending up to $29 billion on a single route of ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Samantha Harrington Imagine it’s a cold February night and your furnace breaks. You want to replace it with an electric heat pump because you’ve heard that tax credits will help pay for the switch. And you know that heat pumps can reduce ...
In 2005, then-National Party leader based his entire election campaign on racism, with his infamous racist Orewa speech and racist iwi/kiwi billboards. Now, Christopher Luxon seems to want to do it all again: Fresh off using his platform at this week's Rātana celebrations to criticise the government's approach to ...
Inflation is showing little sign of slowing down, posing a problem for freshly minted PM Chris Hipkins. According to that old campaigner Richard Prebble, Hipkins should call a snap election. If he waits till October, he risks being swept away. The dilemma for the new leader is that fighting an election ...
Buzz from the Beehive A great deal has happened since January 19. Among other things, a new Prime Minister and deputy have been sworn in and our leaders (past, present and aspiring) have delivered speeches at Ratana. Newshub reported that politicians of all stripes had descended upon Rātana for the ...
It’s a big day for New Zealand; our 41st Prime Minister has taken office and the new, “Chippy” era of politics is underway. Or, on the other hand, the Labour Party continues to govern with an overall majority and much the same leadership team in place. Life goes on and ...
New Zealand has another Prime Minister who does not have a basic grasp of the three articles of the Treaty of Waitangi. THOMAS CRANMER writes: It is simply astonishing that New Zealand’s next Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, is unable to give even a brief explanation of the three articles ...
A statue of a semi-naked Nick Smith puts the misogyny debate into perspective. GRAHAM ADAMS writes … In the wake of Ardern’s abrupt resignation, the mainstream media are determined to convince us she was hounded from office mainly because she is a woman and had to fall on her sword ...
A Different Kind Of Vibe: In the days and weeks ahead, as the Hipkins ministry takes shape, the only question that matters is whether New Zealand’s new prime minister possesses both the wisdom and the courage to correct his party’s currently suicidal political course. If Chris “Chippy” Hipkins is ...
An editorial in the NZ Herald last week, titled “Nimbyism goes bananas as housing intensifies“, introduced Herald readers to a couple of acronyms that go along with the now-familiar NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard): “bananas” (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone) “cave” dwellers (citizens against virtually everything). The editorial ...
Back in the dark autumn of 2020, when the prospect of Covid was freaking the country out, Finance Minister Grant Robertson set himself and Treasury a series of questions about what a post-Covid economy might look like. Those were fearful days, and the questions in part reflected a series ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yet another day has passed without Ministers of the Crown posting something to show they are still working for us on the Beehive website. Nothing new has been posted since January 17. Perhaps the ministers are all engaged in the bemusing annual excursion ...
Incoming Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has already indicated he intends making the tax system “fairer”. That points to the route a government facing an election could take to tilt the odds towards winning in its favour, given Labour’s support in the last months of the Ardern era had been ...
NewsHub has a poll on the cost-of-living crisis, which has an interesting finding: the vast majority of kiwis prefer wage rises to tax cuts: When asked whether income has kept up with the cost of living, 54.8 percent of people surveyed said no and according to 58.6 percent of ...
Labour has begun 2023 with the centre-left bloc behind in the polls and losing ground. That being so, did his colleagues choose Chris Hipkins as the replacement for Jacinda Ardern because they think he has a realistic shot at leading them to victory this year, or because he‘s the best ...
Two Flags, Two Masters? Just as it required a full-scale military effort to destroy the first attempt at Māori self-government in the 1850s and 60s (an effort that divided Maoridom itself into supporters and opponents of the Crown) any second attempt to establish tino rangatiratanga, based on the confiscatory policies ...
The first of Kiwirail’s big network shutdowns to fix the foundations on our tracks is now well underway with the Southern Line closed between Otahuhu and Newmarket. This is following on from the network wide Christmas/New Year shutdown, during which Kiwirail say that nearly 1,300 people working across 69 different ...
This is a re-post from the Citizens' Climate Lobby blogIn last year’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Congress included about $20 billion earmarked for natural climate solutions. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for deciding how those funds should be allocated to meet the climate ...
You’ve really got to wonder at the introspection, or lack thereof, from much of the mainstream media post Jacinda Ardern stepping down. Some so-called journalists haven’t even taken a breath before once again putting the boot in, which clearly shows their inherent bias and lack of any misgivings about fueling ...
Over the weekend I was interviewed by a media outlet about the threats that Jacinda Ardern and her family have received while she has been PM and what can be expected now that she has resigned. I noted that the level of threat she has been exposed to is unprecedented ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: The days of the Labour Government being associated with middle class social liberalism look to be numbered. Soon-to-be Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni are heralding a major shift in emphasis away from the constituencies and ideologies of liberal Grey ...
A Different Kind Of Vibe: In the days and weeks ahead, as the Hipkins ministry takes shape, the only question that matters is whether New Zealand’s new prime minister possesses both the wisdom and the courage to correct his party’s currently suicidal political course. If Chris “Chippy” Hipkins is able to steer ...
The days of the Labour Government being associated with middle class social liberalism look to be numbered. Soon-to-be Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni are heralding a major shift in emphasis away from the constituencies and ideologies of liberal Grey Lynn and Wellington Central towards the ...
Following the surprise resignation of Jacinda Ardern last week, her replacement, Chis Hipkins, has said: Over the coming week, Cabinet will be making decisions on reining in some programs and projects that aren’t essential right now That messaging is similar to what Jacinda Ardern said late last year and as ...
Much of what will mark the early days of Chris Hipkins’ Prime Ministership would have happened anyway. By December, the Prime Minister and Finance Minister were making it clear the summer break and early days of this year were going to be spent on a reset of government policy. ...
Going to try to get into the blogging thing again (ha!) what with an election coming up and all that. So today I thought I'd start small and simple, by merely tackling the world's (second) richest man.I'm no fan of Elon Musk. You don't want to know why, but I'll ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 15, 2023 thru Sat, Jan 21, 2023. Story of the Week State of the climate: How the world warmed in 2022With a new year underway, most of the climate data for ...
Well, that was a disappointment. As of today, the New Zealand Labour Caucus opted for Chris Hipkins as our new Prime Minister, and I cannot help but let loose a cynical cackle. ...
Get ready for a major political reset once Chris Hipkins is sworn in as Prime Minister this week. Labour’s new leader is likely to push the Government to the right economically, and do his best to jettison the damaging perceptions that Labour has become “too woke” on social issues. Overall, ...
Things have gone sideways… and it’s only the third week of January? It was political earthquake time. For some the Prime Minister made a truly significant announcement. For others – did you have this on your bingo card? – a body double did so (sit tight, you’ll understand later, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Because our hard-working Ministers of the Crown are engaged in Labour Party caucus stuff in Napier, no doubt jockeying to ensure they keep their jobs or get a better one, Point of Order was not surprised to find no fresh news on the Beehive website this ...
By the end of 2019, Jacinda Ardern was a political superstar heading towards an election defeat. She was an icon, internationally beloved, on track to be an ex-prime minister before the age of forty. It was the year of the Christchurch terror attack when Ardern’s response to the atrocity saw ...
People complain about their jobs being meaningless. Does it matter?David Graeber, author of Bullshit Jobs: The Rise of Pointless Work and What We Can Do About It, would have smiled at Elon Musk’s sacking half the Twitter workforce. Musk seems to be confirming the main thesis of the book, that ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: Should New Zealand have a snap election? That’s one of the questions arising out of the chaos of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation. There’s an increased realisation that everything has changed, and the old plans and assumptions for election year have suddenly evaporated. ...
Should New Zealand have a snap election? That’s one of the questions arising out of the chaos of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation. There’s an increased realisation that everything has changed, and the old plans and assumptions for election year have suddenly evaporated. So, although Ardern has named an ...
I warned about the trap of virtue signaling in my article Virtue signaling over Ukraine. This video is still relevant – but have we moved on since then? The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was universally condemned at the time. Or was it? Certainly, the political atmosphere ...
Earlier this week Point of Order carried a post by Geoffrey Miller on how Japan under a new security blueprint is doubling its defence spending. The plans see Japan buying up advanced weaponry – including long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles from the US – and spending more on ...
Anyone else suffering back-to-work-blues? We’re battling, but still upright. Haere tonu! Today’s cover image is of sunset over Tirohanga Whānui Bridge, sourced from Twitter. The week in Greater Auckland On Monday, Jolisa pondered the fate of AT’s ‘Statements of Imagination’. Tuesday’s post was a guest post by Grady ...
Open access notables Bad news delivered by an all-star cast of familiar researchers: Another Year of Record Heat for the Oceans. From the abstract: In 2022, the world’s oceans, as given by OHC, were again the hottest in the historical record and exceeded the previous 2021 record maximum. According to IAP/CAS data, ...
The resignation of Jacinda Ardern has already made more global headlines than you might expect for that of the PM of a small commonwealth nation like say Sierra Leone (population 6.5 million) or Singapore (population 5.5 million). But international observers might not be too surprised by Ardern’s announcement that ...
One of my earliest political memories is the resignation of Prime Minister David Lange in August 1989. I remember this because of a brown felt-tipped pen drawing I did of the Beehive, the building that houses the Executive of the New Zealand Government. More than thirty years later, we ...
Buzz from the Beehive Hard on the heels of our Buzz from the Beehive earlier today, the PM has made two announcements – the 2023 general election will be held on Saturday 14 October and she will not be campaigning to win a third term as Prime Minister. She will ...
Jacinda Ardern had an outsized impact on New Zealand’s international relations. While all Prime Ministers travel internationally, Ardern’s calendar was fuller than most. Ardern’s first major foreign trip came within weeks of her election in 2017, to the APEC summit in Vietnam. The meeting gave Ardern her first in-person encounter ...
She gave it her all. No New Zealand Prime Minister has ever dominated the political scene at home as she has done, or has established an international profile to match hers. No New Zealand Prime Minister has had to confront such a sequence of domestic and international catastrophes – from ...
Jacinda Ardern's shock resignation announcement today has left a lot of us with a lot of complicated feelings. In my case, while I've been highly critical of Ardern's government, I'm still sorry to see her go. We've had far too many terrible things happen during her term as Prime Minister ...
The decision by Jacinda Ardern to end her term as Prime Minister on February 7 has come as a stunning surprise. It turns the task of a centre-left government winning re-election this year from difficult to nigh on impossible. No-one else among the Labour caucus has Ardern’s ability to explain ...
Jacinda Ardern’s first press conference as Labour leader in August 2017 was a defining moment in the past decade of New Zealand politics. A young woman (by the standards of politics) who had long been tipped for higher office, she had underperformed as a minister and Andrew Little’s noble resignation ...
The tools exist to help families with surging costs – and as costs continue to rise it is more urgent than ever that we use them, the Green Party says. ...
Members of Parliament for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand have today written to Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Khamenei to condemn the ongoing violence and killing of women’s rights and democracy protesters, and to call on him to intervene immediately. ...
As the Mayor of Auckland has announced a state of emergency, the Government, through NEMA, is able to step up support for those affected by flooding in Auckland. “I’d urge people to follow the advice of authorities and check Auckland Emergency Management for the latest information. As always, the Government ...
Ka papā te whatitiri, Hikohiko ana te uira, wāhi rua mai ana rā runga mai o Huruiki maunga Kua hinga te māreikura o te Nota, a Titewhai Harawira Nā reira, e te kahurangi, takoto, e moe Ka mōwai koa a Whakapara, kua uhia te Tai Tokerau e te kapua pōuri ...
Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has activated Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG) in response to flooding and damaged caused by Cyclone Hale in the Tairāwhiti region. Up to $500,000 will be made available to employ job seekers to support the clean-up. We are still investigating whether other parts ...
The 2023 General Election will be held on Saturday 14 October 2023, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “Announcing the election date early in the year provides New Zealanders with certainty and has become the practice of this Government and the previous one, and I believe is best practice,” Jacinda ...
Jacinda Ardern has announced she will step down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Her resignation will take effect on the appointment of a new Prime Minister. A caucus vote to elect a new Party Leader will occur in 3 days’ time on Sunday the 22nd of ...
The Government is maintaining its strong trade focus in 2023 with Trade and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visiting Europe this week to discuss the role of agricultural trade in climate change and food security, WTO reform and New Zealand agricultural innovation. Damien O’Connor will travel tomorrow to Switzerland to attend the ...
The Government has extended its medium-scale classification of Cyclone Hale to the Wairarapa after assessing storm damage to the eastern coastline of the region. “We’re making up to $80,000 available to the East Coast Rural Support Trust to help farmers and growers recover from the significant damage in the region,” ...
The Government is making an initial contribution of $150,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Tairāwhiti following ex-Tropical Cyclone Hale, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “While Cyclone Hale has caused widespread heavy rain, flooding and high winds across many parts of the North Island, Tairāwhiti ...
Rural Communities Minister Damien O’Connor has classified this week’s Cyclone Hale that caused significant flood damage across the Tairāwhiti/Gisborne District as a medium-scale adverse event, unlocking Government support for farmers and growers. “We’re making up to $100,000 available to help coordinate efforts as farmers and growers recover from the heavy ...
A vaccine for people at risk of mpox (Monkeypox) will be available if prescribed by a medical practitioner to people who meet eligibility criteria from Monday 16 January, says Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall. 5,000 vials of the vaccine have been obtained, enough for up to 20,000 ...
RNZ News Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has acknowledged the way Aucklanders have come together and opened their homes to those in need, with the New Zealand government focused on providing the resources needed to get the city back up and running. The new prime minister — just four days into ...
RNZ News Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty has asked for communication on support after the severe thunderstorm in Auckland to be stepped up. It comes after a Civil Defence warning text failed to be sent out, and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown told RNZ they will be reviewing the response, ...
RNZ News Three people are dead and at least one person is missing following the flooding overnight in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. About 1000 people were still stranded today after Auckland Airport was closed last night because of flooding of the arrival and departure foyers. Flights were cancelled for ...
Wayne Brown has doubled down on his decision last night to shun the media until close to midnight and only order a state of emergency at 9.30pm. In a defensive display to the media this afternoon, the Auckland mayor was questioned on comments other councillors made last night, including some ...
Prime minister Chris Hipkins has confirmed there are three deaths linked to the extreme weather event in Auckland over the past 24 hours. There is also at least one person missing. Speaking at a press conference in Auckland, Hipkins said the priority was to make sure Aucklanders were safe, housed ...
*This story was first published on The Conversation and is republished with permission*Until New Zealand's stormwater drain system adapts to our rising climate, it will never be able to cope with the level of flooding seen in Auckland on Friday night, writes James Renwick The extraordinary flood event Auckland experienced ...
Chris Hipkins has experienced his first major event as prime minister, just days into his tenure. He’s spent the day in Auckland alongside emergency services, surveying the damage and assessing next steps. He’s due to speak at 3.15pm alongside Auckland mayor Wayne Brown. Thanks to Stuff, here is a livestream. ...
Due to the “unprecedented weather event” in Auckland, organisers have confirmed the “heartbreaking decision” to cancel this year’s Laneway Festival. “We were so excited to deliver this show to our biggest crowd ever in New Zealand, our team has been working around the clock to do everything they can to ...
With the rain easing for a moment, many will be beginning the arduous task of cleaning out their flooded property. Auckland council has release advice for cleaning up after a flood. Cleaning up after a flood It is important to clean and dry your house and everything in it. Floodwater ...
Air New Zealand Chief Operational Integrity and Safety Officer Captain David Morgan says the airline’s domestic flights in and out of Auckland resumed from 12pm today as Auckland Airport re-opens. But he said with a backlog of flights and customers, the priority is those who need to travel urgently. “Those ...
Festival-goers holding on hope for Laneway, set to take place at Western Springs on Monday, will have to wait a bit longer for an official update. A brief post on Facebook this afternoon stated: “Safety is Laneway Festival’s number one priority. With the large weather event Auckland is currently experiencing, ...
Wayne Brown has defended the timing of a declaration of a state of emergency last night following record rainfall in Auckland. “The state of emergency is a prescribed process, it’s quite formal, and I had to wait until I had the official request from the emergency management centre. The moment ...
After the 11th hour cancellation last night, Elton John has cancelled the second concert of his farewell tour at Mt Smart, which had been scheduled for this evening. In a statement, John said: “Following the instruction of the emergency services, we have no option but to cancel tonight’s show in ...
The member of parliament for Mt Albert, Jacinda Ardern, has posted a message on Facebook following the flooding in Auckland. “I’m very conscious that it’s been a while since I posted, and there have been a few big things happening. But today the most important thing is everyone’s wellbeing and ...
Flooding of the runway, the check-in and arrivals areas on the ground floor and surrounding roads has disrupted operations at Auckland International, halting all departures until at least 5pm today, with no arrivals before 4:30am tomorrow. “People are asked not to come to the International Terminal at this time for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Renwick, Professor, Physical Geography (climate science), Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Victoria Park near the Auckland CBD on January 27.Getty Images The extraordinary flood event Auckland experienced on the night of January 27, the eve of the ...
New Zealand’s largest insurance group, IAG, says it is on track to receive more than 1,100 claims from Aucklanders by lunchtime after the city was deluged in the wettest day on record. Those claims, said the group which includes AMI, State and NZI Insurance, span property damage to homes and ...
The rampant flooding in Auckland didn’t just detonate its provincial public holiday weekend – it coincided with the biggest weekend of the year to date for live events. A pair of Elton John concerts at Mt Smart stadium had a combined capacity of over 80,000, while both Laneway at Western ...
Auckland is beginning a clean-up after its wettest day since records began. “Auckland was clobbered on Friday,” said emergency management duty controller Andrew Clark. “We won’t start to get a good idea of numbers affected until later today and, even then, this will take time, with information still coming in ...
The prime minister, Chris Hipkins, is travelling to Auckland after devastating floods hit the city overnight. With the airport out of operation until at least midday, he is landing at Whenuapai air base on a New Zealand Defence Force Hercules aircraft from Wellington. ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has arrived in Auckland for a daylong visit to the city following its catastrophic flood on Friday night. Flying in an Air Force Hercules to Whenuapai, Hipkins will spend roughly three hours on the ground assessing flood damage in the city before returning. He will receive ...
A quirk of timing left all Auckland’s institutions on the back foot. But social media, particularly TikTok, graphically showed just how bad the situation was. Late afternoon on a Friday is known as time to quietly drop bad news. You have the plausible deniability of it happening during work hours, ...
It’s a common sight during summer. It’s also a recipe for disaster.I recently drove with my family from New Plymouth to Tāmaki Makaurau and, just like how I lost count of how many cows I saw on the way, I lost count of how many cars had a passenger ...
Opinion - Election year has begun with a bang, and already the punditry and speculation are ramping up, but Grant Duncan warns not to treat polls as gospel. ...
New Zealand’s new prime minister, Chris Hipkins, is formally facing down an emergency just a few days after being sworn in, summoning the National Crisis Management Centre to the Beehive. The Beehive Bunker is being stood up to help with coordination of the emergency response in Auckland. I’ve asked ...
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So political pressure was applied to Immigration NZ to allow Kim Dotcom to STAY in New Zealand even though they knew at the time of the FBI investigation …
Wow, just wow …
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11293403
hmmm, and all the way from the top.
*jaws theme plays 😉
I think you will find that nice, honest Mr Key is just a victim of all these people who keep letting him down. The herald waiting til he was away on hols is a coincidence.
“I know you know” ?
😀 +1 Kiwiri
“I know you know”. That was a great line and now the chickens have come home to roost…
Or Key’s sudden decision to go off the NZ grid to Hawaii now explained? When Key’s holiday was suddenly in the news, I wondered what might be coming up.
You seriously think the Prime Minister has gone on vacation to Hawaii because of (yet another) media installment on KDC? Could you say it again so I can be gob smacked again?
You’re right, it’s probably just (yet another) coincidence of Key being home in Hawaii whenever bad news is expected.
You are familar with the OIA process are you not?
Come now karol, only the naive believe nothing is planned and bad news coming out when Key is out of the country is just coincidence.
snap!
spooky
And what now Mr Brainfade Key? Do you still not remember a larger than life millionaire in your own electorate?
Collins has her “oops”, and now this, and all while johnny is on holiday… coincidence?
Time and time again, this government conveniently goes on holiday.
Kiwiri
Its amazing jusr how many holidays this playboy PM has ,all in his mansions and classy flats.
When one realises that we in Aotearoa have thousands of homeless and people living in garages it’s an insult to have this PM hoping around the world and staying in houses big enough to accomodate at least four families. What ever happened to our decent fair society .
“The SIS tried to block Kim Dotcom’s residency application but dropped their objection 90 minutes after being told there was “political pressure” to let the tycoon into New Zealand, secret documents from the spy agency reveal.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11293403
And the Minister in Charge of the SIS is ……John Key
http://www.dpmc.govt.nz/cabinet/portfolios/new-zealand-security-intelligence-service
Labour’s associate NZSIS spokesman, Grant Robertson, said the claims of political pressure were “extraordinary”.
“I’ve never heard of a situation like this before. Political pressure means politicians.
“There are serious questions about what John Key knew and when.”
Hmm, indeed, ShonKey’s ‘misremembering’ of when he first knew of Kim Dotcom is going to be revisited. He is the minister of NZSIS. Well sort of, when it suits him.
Was it easier or harder for the FBI to launch its extradition of DotCom if he had PR in NZ? At least with PR he would stay in NZ, and they could target him with a helpful NZ Minister in charge of all things skullduggeryish?
A few weeks ago I posted something my brother had told me about the high roller categoiry and why he thought KDC was SO pissed off with NZ govt, including Banks, namely the Nats had used him as their highroller pin up boy for their new and hurried 2009 policy… but when he wanted a mattress they ran for the hills and colluded with the US.
Wow indeed.
The article,and papers released to Fisher, also appear to validate KDC’s claims that the lifting of NZSIS opposition to his application for permanent residency in Oct 2010 was tied to knowledge of the impending FBI/NZ Police operations etc – and that the NZSIS head, Warren Tucker, knew. (KDC made the latter claim in a brief tweet in later 2013).
And Key still claims he did not know about KDC until a day before the raid in Jan 2012? I feel a Tui Ad coming on.
I am confused by Laila Harre’s comments in the Herald article (and in her interview on Morning Report about half an hour ago) and cannot yet figure out where she is coming from. IIRC at the time she was appointed as Leader of the IP, she said something to the effect that she would not be getting involved in KEC’s legal issues, but here she is commenting … Could be some interesting discussions KDC/Harre when they start their Internet MANA road trip with Hone Harawira today in the far north.
PS – if anyone missed it, last week KDC’s extradition hearing was again delayed until 16 Feb 2015.
I DID miss it. It was going to be prior tot he election wasn’t it?
Laila Harre is commenting on allegations of a government not following its on constitutional process. She also says she would have denied Mr DotCom PR on the basis of the SIS block. For her to not say something on an important issue such as constitutional abuse would give more pause. IMO.
The extradition hearing was due to start in the North Shore District Court Monday last week, July 7, but all indications from the other legal proceedings currently underway were that a delay was likely. Also KDC took his children to Queenstown about July 4 for 10 days’ holiday so was not ‘in town’ for July 7 – another indicator. (Mona also went to Queenstown – and KDC tweeted a lot of pictures of them all, including Mona’s birthday celebrations there. Apparently, friends still but no reconciliation.)
Other ongoing legal proceedings cover the release of KDC’s computer contents etc, compensation sought by KDC et al, the release of KDC’s assets, and the newer civil claims by Hhollywood moguls to seize his assets. All very confusing and complicated, but there is a hearing on one or other of these due on July 30. Will see what I can dig out in terms of links if I have time later today.
Re Laila Harre’s comments, now I am a bit more awake, I think you are right – she is commenting on the lack of following due process etc and silence would have caused more speculation. This approach is also probably with KDC’s agreement etc.
I think Harre is also taking a step to proactively present herself as being independent of Dotcom re- his legal and extradition cases.
I agree. Whether you believe it or not, she has today, by implication, stated she is not a DotCom puppet. Guyon struggled with the concept a bit.
Like many he can’t imagine how you can be paid to do something by someone and NOT do everything that person wants you to do, AND assumes that because DotCom bankrolled it he would want to tell Harre what she can and can’t talk about, and enforce it.
Actually, Harre’s statements don’t mean in practice she’s totally independent of KDC, just that she is intentionally presenting herself in that way.
She seems fully briefed on all the back evidence of the KDC case, and quick off the mark with a statement.
“Whether you believe it or not…”
That’s probably because he, seemingly, expects everyone to be a puppet of someone rich and powerful.
From memory, KDC brought this up himself at the CGSB meeting in Auckland town hall. His point was not about whether or not he should be allowed permanent residence, but that the speed with which the decision was made suggested, in hindsight, that he had been set up for all that followed. So I don’t think he would have a problem with Harre’s saying what she has said.
[email protected]
..+ 1..
I think you are right about KDC saying that at the GCSB meeting; and I also seem to recall him tweeting about it and/or mentioning it in other interviews etc. Re Harre’s remarks, I was still half asleep when I first read the Herald article, and now agree with Karol etc re Harre’s comments.
Chris Keall has now posted an article on NBR which I have linked to and commented on at the dedicated post, which covers Harre’s comments and is worth reading.
Thanks for re-posting that link. It seems consistent to me that the leader of a party opposed to cronyism should stand up for the principles that constrain governments rather than KDC himself, and I think he would agree with that. Harre is depicted as being in a “tricky position” because she is not acting as the National Party would under equivalent circumstances. Instead of trying to put her finger on the scales in her mate’s favour, as they would, she is looking at how those scales are supposed to work.
Thanks VV. I also missed that info about Dotcoms extradition hearing being delayed until Feb 2015
I think we have nailed the bastard now. This will roll on into the campaign and Key will be faced with continuous questions of why he is a liar.
After nearly 300 documented lies what makes you think that Key will suddenly face questions as to why he lied?
xox
Police manipulate the crime data. Is this not a crime? I.e if an engineer, doctor or an accountant did that they would be …. probably promoted. Hey this is wild west noo zeeland! What other government stats can we trust? Health, education, poverty, housing, growth, river polution, foreign ownership ….. There is no corruption in NZ! We are top of the Transparency International non corruption stakes! Doesn’t say much about the standard around the west.
“..Scientists reveal how THC – found in cannabis – ‘could slow cancer tumour growth’..
New study from University of East Anglia reveals important details of marijuana’s ‘poorly understood’ anti-cancer properties..”
(cont..)
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/scientists-reveal-how-thc–found-in-cannabis–could-slow-cancer-tumour-growth-9605219.html
Ah Phillip, playing the ‘other string’ on your two stringed violin today are we…
Phillip. I know your dual lifestyle interests are important to you, but with respect, I have to say, it’s a bit much hearing about it every single morning on Open Mike.
I’m not discrediting some of the valid points you raise, but asking if you have considered what it’s like for readers who get the vegan n’ drug news roundup of the day, every day? It’s bordering on the evangelical comrade.
Heh, ‘Open Phil’ (TRP) or ‘The Phil ’n’ Bad Show’?
Over exposure can lead to unexpected outcomes as the actor said to the Bishop.
Once Pete George was gone it was all on for the Phil n’ Bad show (or breakfast with Phil n’ Bad).
I admit the show is entertaining, but it is however just one aspect of the morning vegan n’ drug round up.
if on my morning rounds..i find a story proving the cancer-preventing causes of cannabis..i will post it..
..if i don’t nobody will..
..so..y’know..!..stick in in yr pipe..eh..?..rosie..and others..
Rosie
……………..Hear
…………………… hear!
gee rodel..!
..yr name is not at all familiar..
..have you ever said anything here of the slightest fucken interest..?..to anyone..?
..care to link it to us..
..or do you just whine on cue..?
..and that that weirdo bad..and his gibbering sidekick choose to follow me around..
..is not really down to me..
..so..you can just ‘pipe it’ too..eh..?
..and don’t take offence if i now studiously avoid you..
..as you of course can do with my comments..
OK phil. That is the response I was expecting, so no surprises there.
I would have thought your own site would be adequate for the promotion of your views and posting of news, so I’m not sure why you feel the need such frequent vegan n drug themed posts here. Nothing stopping you of course. I’ll just continue to scroll on by to the tune of walk on by when you are posting on those two topics.
As for Rodel, he/she has been around for some time, you just haven’t noticed.
Ta Rosie.
I’m sometimes hesitant and potentially embarrassed to recommend to friends that they should read ‘The Standard’ as a left leaning blog site when it’s dominated by people who are focussed on veganism, marihuanism and fuckenism in incoherent language, obsessions which have little to do with what I believe is the main intent of the site.
And yes I usually skip by but was impressed by your kind, considerately worded and respectful rebuke.
Lols Rodel. Go right ahead and proudly recommend TS to your friends! Your friends will quickly come to realise that phil is unique and once they see the almighty rows he has with people that don’t meet his expectations or agree with him, they’ll get the picture, understand that he’s a man going along on his own buzz and not be put off.
Phil and I have had these chats before, so it’s nothing new. I just got a bit annoyed by all the dominant discussion about GE vegan milk over the last few days so felt I had to air that annoyance. Usually I would just ignore it but the soapbox was taking up all the room.
My main issue is with people telling people how to live their lives, and not respecting the choices that others make. Education and gentle encouragement of those of wanting to make healthy changes in their lives is helpful but preaching isn’t – (hence the evangelical reference).
In saying all that I do believe phil has a fine sense of humour and a quick wit. I like the way he delivers his words, once you get past the formatting of them (and when they’re not angry spiteful words) – It’s just those swings into fanaticism that get in the way.
Rosie
Your self restraint is commendable.
I don’t think the word ‘wit’ is fully appropriate but I admire your therapeutic perspective and persistence.
Some posts require zen like amounts of self restraint, but I do try to remember that ultimately we’re all on the same side, brothers and sisters, even when one of us chooses to be the problem child for the day 🙂
A gibbering weirdo Phillip, you are being eloquent today, tho i do fear that you were looking in the mirror when that thought was provoked by the crashing together of your remaining two working neurons,
The ‘proof’, apparently from a study in dear old England, has been published, the misuse of Marijuana over a long term gives you brain damage,(very much evident from the digital scribble you produce),
i will try and hunt out a link later…
i see the herald is now carrying this story..
..which is unusual for a pot-bashing/prohibition-supporting rag like that..
“..Dr Peter McCormick, from the University of East Anglia’s (UEA) school of pharmacy, said THC’s anti-cancer properties have been known for some time – but the study had identified the receptors responsible for fighting tumours.
“Our findings help explain some of the well-known but still poorly understood effects of THC at low and high doses on tumour growth,” he said…”
Heartwarming to see the support for Palestinians at The Standard yesterday, and while some of the apologists happily squawk ‘points of order’ as people (ie Palestinians) die; the international tide does seem to be turning on the Israeli apartheid state.
Show public solidarity;
Rally for all victims of Israeli brutality
Auckland, Saturday July 19, 2pm Aotea Square
+1 Tiger Mountain.
Key branded as “a rouge currency trader, applying his shyster traits running Government.” Don’t ya love the thought of Key in the dock, they should charge him with treason.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11293264
I cannot for the life of me see what law he is supposed to have broken here?
The actual laws that the charges were brought under were mentioned in the original charges. Essentially, IIRC, it amounts to aiding and abetting Banks in his crime.
how long has key been using heavy-make-up..?
..are you saying since his early days as a money-trader..?
..whoar..!
..who knew..?
@Phillip LOL
A small number of us around the country chatted about conducting a people’s “mock trial” of John Key, broadcast around the country via the internet and Youtubed, that can be launched before the general election.
We are happy for anybody who has the network and contacts to run with this. (Need to check this will be ok with electoral laws.)
If you had read his biography, you would realise he was not a rouge currency trader. They usually end up in prison – although I don’t think you mean rouge ones.
Also, can you please explain which element of the treason provisions you see him being charfed with?
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1961/0043/latest/DLM328520.html
Or are you being absurd for entertainment?
“Or are you being absurd for entertainment?”
And take your job? God forbid.
“charfed”, is that olde english?
no its just moranspeak!
you know.
tories who think they are erudite but the more they open their mouths the more they mangle the language.
history will judge him as a disgrace to the human race.
no matter what he is charfed with!
you mean keys hagiography?
hardly likely to say hes anything but leigt is it
i dont know whats stupider – that you seem to believe such nonsense or that you thought it would carry any weight with… anyone but the love struck
i would say all of these count if you include economic war under the war category
b) levies war against New Zealand; or
(c) assists an enemy at war with New Zealand, or any armed forces against which New Zealand forces are engaged in hostilities, whether or not a state of war exists between New Zealand and any other country; or
(d) incites or assists any person with force to invade New Zealand; or
(e) uses force for the purpose of overthrowing the Government of New Zealand; or
(f) conspires with any person to do anything mentioned in this section.
Obviously, we need to update treason to include:
Working with a foreign nation against the best interests of New Zealand
But as it stands we could probably find something under Part 6.
john oliver has done a piece on inequality…
..well worth the watch…
http://www.alternet.org/video/video-john-oliver-rants-brilliantly-about-income-inequality-and-deluded-american-dream
He is doing a great job making people aware of issues……….
I clicked on the dotcom topic and was redirected to the following link. Is it legit?
__http://freevouchers2014.com/prot/nz/WSD1RE3_index.php?lb=1&engsec=5&keyword=thestandard.org.nz
Shouldn’t have done that unless you accidentally clicked on an advert instead.
From my wireless, the World Health Organization has declared the Ebola Virus ‘out of control’ in Central Africa…
Srylands, yes it woud be ideal but even the most extreme optimists among us can’t hope for prison. He will probably just head back to his philosophical Homeland.
Tory child abuse whistleblower: ‘Margaret Thatcher knew all about underage sex ring among ministers’
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tory-child-abuse-whistleblower-margaret-
this whole Fernbridge, Fairbank & Yewtree situation in the UK is getting pretty serious
John Lydon talks about Jimmy Saville and his ‘seediness’ during an interview recorded for BBC radio
looks like rotten knew what was going on !
Your Thatcher link doesn’t work.
http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/world-news/tory-child-abuse-whistleblower-margaret-3849172
There are allegations there but no substantiated evidence.
Jerry Sadowitz.
Call in Jimmy Savile. You can’t afford to fuck about – bring in an expert. He may have fooled you, not fucking me.’
http://vimeo.com/52162279
Interesting radionz this am.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport
Climate Voter group to take Electoral Commission to court ( 3′ 9″ )
06:45 A group of environmental organisations are taking the Electoral Commission to court over a decision that would require their “Vote for the Climate” initiative to be subject to electoral rules.
and again – a longer version
Climate campaigners go to high court over classification ( 4′ 49″ )
07:40 A group of climate change campaigners are going to the High Court after their website was ruled an election advertisement.
srylands and gosman
The odd couple. Where would we be without them?
In a less frowny brow place?
Their natural lowbrow habitats, drumroll, Slater & Farrar might get SS and Gosman down after a while so The Standard is a refreshing change for them at least.
More than 40,000 people call on BBC to reflect reality of Gaza’s occupation
July 14, 2014
Noam Chomsky, John Pilger and Ken Loach are among more than 40,000 signatories who have signed an open letter to the BBC calling on its journalists to reflect the reality of Gaza’s occupation while reporting on Israel’s current assault.
MPs have also signed the letter which will be delivered to the BBC tomorrow (15th July) during a protest outside its Portland Place, London, headquarters.
The letter reminds the BBC that Israel is bombing a refugee population which is being held under occupation and siege. It is a population which has no army, navy or air force with which to defend itself against the fourth largest military power in the world.
Sarah Colborne, Director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which will be delivering the letter, said: “These are simple facts, none of which have been present in any of the BBC’s coverage so far of Israel’s assault on Gaza.
“However, they are vital facts and their absence results in BBC coverage which is unbalanced and lacking in context. Their omission allows the BBC to present Israel’s assault as a retaliation to Palestinian rockets rather than as an enforcement of its occupation and siege.
“Truly unbiased journalism would allow its consumers to consider both options instead of presenting them with just one viewpoint, as the BBC is doing.”
Protests took place outside BBC studios in Nottingham and Manchester on 10th July, and in Bristol on 11th July, demanding balanced reporting from BBC journalists.
Tuesday’s protest at Portland Place will call on the BBC to report the truth about Israel’s occupation and siege on Gaza, instead of concealing facts from its audiences. It will take place from 5.30pm to 7.30pm.
PSC’s letter to the BBC can be viewed here:
http://www.palestinecampaign.org/sign-open-letter-bbc/
It will be addressed to the BBC’s Director General, Lord Hall.
The letter will remain on the website after Tuesday, allowing more people to sign. New signatures will be delivered to the BBC next week.
here..tvones’ coverage is shocking..in its’ bias..
..on a day of innocent men/women/children being blown to smithereens by the israelis while trapped in their ghetto..
..peter williams repeatedly plays footage of/murmers sympathetic words about the ‘poor israelis’..being bothered by sirens etc..
..and that far-right/capital-punishment-supporting business-trout nadine whoever..
..uses the words ‘the israel government’ in the most respectful tones..
..and the words ‘palestinian-militants’ wih a lip-smacking disdain/contempt so strong u cd almost bottle it..
..so biased she should be carrying a placard…
I agree with you, Phillip—the television presenters on both channels seem to be sympathetic to the aggressors and indifferent to the victims. I presume that is because they are ignorant rather than vicious. Even when they try to say something intelligent and/or humane, they betray their ignorance by calling the killings “disproportionate”, which implies there is a “proportionate” number of Palestinian civilians that they may kill.
However, on the positive side, I must say I was astonished to hear Susan Wood on the notoriously right wing, pro-Israel, pro-Communist China, pro-any-repressive-regime NewstalkZB last night; she was clearly shocked and disgusted by the Israeli actions.
Fixed the Feeds tab
Thanks. TS is running much more smoothly for me today. None of the “no data received” and duplicate notices.
Yeah. It was a problem over the weekend. However Lyn passed on a head cold that had been carefully nurtured by one of her nieces, so I didn’t fix it. Got it yesterday morning.
There still seemed to be the odd dup message later yesterday afternoon. But they were all from Gosman, and I suspect from a cached bad copy of some of the javascript (Shift+Refresh or Shift+F5 is your friend).
Kelvin Davis is either an easy target for Herald reporters – or he doesn’t think before speaking – even on topics that have a wealth of information supporting Labour’s policy stances.
Herald article today: Labour MP backs ‘holiday highway’
I’m always waiting for the boot to drop when watching him on TV.
Basically, I’d expect any electorate MP to argue for their electorate first in public, the caucus, and parliament. That is their job.
I’d also expect that on the odd occasion that they will cross the floor for their electorate as Damien O’Conner and another Labour MP recently did.
But they’d better have a damn good argument for the caucus room if they do the latter.
In this case, Labour’s policy is to do what I think should happen. The worst points in the current road should be progressively fixed rather throwing a unneeded extension in. First priority amongst them should be getting rid of that bloody useless set of lights at Wellsford, preferably by bypassing the town. Same at Wellsford. That gets rid of half of the weekend congestion problem straight. Secondly fix the known bad corners and straighten the road. Thirdly provide a better way to get up the steep and windy bluff.
But Matt L at transport blog will have a better list.
Yes, provided link to Matt L at transport blog. They have been pretty good there at documenting inconsistencies in Nationals’s planning and previous cost/benefit calculations.
I understand Davis standing up for his electorate, but the assumption that any spending remains good just because it is in the electorate is dubious and naive at best.
Northland would benefit from targeting spending – yes – I agree. But from targeted spending on roads, not so much.
There are always going to be conflicts between electorate MPs and society wide party policies. I’d prefer that they are reasonably open about it, but making damn clear that they are their personal preference
The trouble with that is that it ends up looking like waffle, or even worse for the electorate candidates it looks to their voters like they’re lying about what they’ll actually do.
But it’s happening on enough random policies that a case can be made that Labour electorate candidates are electorate representatives before party apparatchiks. List MPs can push the official party line, but electorate candidates need their local support.
I agree. It really is a hell of an ask for a electorate MP/candidate to commit suicide for the party. Usually there are only a few issues like that in specific electorates.
In this case Davis could easily have said that the upgrades that Labour will do will achieve what Northland needs while costing less and being done quicker. That way he would have been onside with his potential constituents and fully backing Labour’s policy.
Thing is, the only reason he wouldn’t do that is because of ignorance which really doesn’t help show that he’d be a good electorate MP.
not when his constituents are telling him they want that road because the current one keeps getting washed out. It would look like he gets asked a question about a specific need for the region and responds with party waffle. Which is a problem that list-only candidates don’t really face, as they can pivot any specific complaint to a wider issue.
What he did manage to do was talk about Northland mayors being involved in an integrated regional transport plan, which spreads the responsibility and maybe provides an acceptable alternative if the highway isn’t built to the nactoid schedule.
But, as has been pointed out, that particular road won’t help with that.
Or he could respond with facts. The most important being that National’s Holiday Highway isn’t going to help them anymore than the faster and cheaper upgrades will.
We’re not talking about “facts” here.
We’re talking about the perceptions and desires of voters in his electorate.
And his position [edit:typolol @ “potion”] won’t change a thing either way: if JK is PM in november, the highway gets fast-tracked. If Cunliffe is PM, it won’t.
So Davis can support something knowing that if he’s in a position to oppose it then it won’t go through anyway because his cabinet colleagues will nuke it, and then use that support as a pivot for another issue (in this case local government joining together to form a regional transport plan).
Or he can oppose something his electorate want (for better or worse), and then get bogged down in the hustings arguing about a fucking road that will be constructed or not regardless of electorate outcome.
Frankly, I think his comment was a good move for both his campaign and Labour. Rather than Little or O’Conner just being dicks, it’s become standard Labour practise for electorate MPs to (shock horror) represent their electorates.
These Labour candidates need to weigh up the effect that their comments have on the party vote aswell as their electorate- because they are not working solely for their electorate they are in a nationwide party. If they don’t want to think about such matters then I suggest they choose to be independents.
I, for one, am getting tired of the unclear/conflicting stance these electorate politicians are taking toward their own party policies – this gives me the ‘perception’ that Labour are going to have difficulty with internal harmony in government. I wonder how many others are responding like myself?
The type of discussion that Kelvin and co are raising with the media/public – needs to be had internally first and then a decision needs to be made so that a united message is given to the general public.
Conversely Kelvin &co have the option to stand as an independents – of course it is unlikely that they choose this option because politicians such as Kelvin get a lot of pay-offs for being involved in the 2nd biggest party in New Zealand. If, however, politicians from Labour continue to present a non-united and accordingly unclear message then they won’t belong to the 2nd biggest party in NZ after-all because less and less people will trust that Labour are capable of working in a competent and harmonious fashion.
If the electorate candidates were in conflict with the bulk of Labour policy, I agree: they shouldn’t be Labour candidates.
But when there’s conflict between party policy and one or two issues within an electorate, it’s not a problem. The impact on the party vote would be minimal within the electorate (the voter already dislikes the policy). Outside the electorate, people can understand the conflict the electorate MP faces.
It’s easy to have a consistent message if your policy is meaningless waffle. But people with different geographic perspectives have different priorities, and Davis and the West Coast MPs made it clear they were working in what they felt were the interests of their electorates.
Whereas Little playing to his “afraid to be alone with a woman” base did damage, in my opinion, because it was a local comment about a country-wide issue. He should have kept to a local comment about a local issue.
This issue for me is something that may well stop me voting for Labour.
You assume that ‘people understand’ the conflict. No sorry, I don’t and won’t be putting effort into understanding it – because I doubt people who spend less time and have less interest in politics than myself will; so why would I bother?
i.e. It is up to Labour to present themselves in a manner where less doubt creeps in; it is not for me, you or anyone else to take time to ‘understand’ the poor wee conflicted dears. This is a discussion that needs to be discussed amongst themselves and addressed internally so that they can present a united and clear message as a party.
I was forgiving of a few random comments but this is starting to be a pattern with Labour and as I have already relayed I can only assume that if I react with impatience to such a very clear show of lack of discipline others will.
Labour have to understand and work through the conflicts themselves internally and present a much clearer and united message to us all externally than they have been recently because there are plenty of other parties to vote for.
Um, LOL?
As much as we like to think that we’re all powerful Mother Nature will surely do whatever She pleases to whatever we build.
@ Molly,
I think your comment re ‘thinking before they speak’ is becoming the most appropriate response to this increasing trend of Labour candidates/MPs coming out with statements that are inharmonious toward and/or fudging of their own policies. I had initially thought it was an issue over how their statements were being reported – but now, no – there is something wrong with Labour’s messaging skills.
I would have thought the one thing that is very important that Labour convey is that they are working together with a single-minded focus – both internally and externally i.e. that they are cooperative and harmonious amongst themselves and also toward potential coalition partners. This would convey that they will be an effective, stable and competent government.
The other important factor is clear communication.
Neither of these have been soundly achieved recently.
I am strongly supportive of Mr Cunliffe due to the strong support he gained from the Labour party members and the unions – and this is a strong factor that makes Labour an option for my vote – however I am getting fed up with the inconsistent and inharmonious manner the Labour party politicians are presenting the message of their party policies and in the manner they show support (or lack of it) for other like-minded parties.
Surely the most important goal for Labour politicians is to achieve a consistent and clear message of what they represent? The amount of reports coming out about Labour politicians contradicting and/or making unclear statements about their own policies is getting beyond the pail.
I am losing patience with this phenomena. Are Labour politicians completely unable to display some discipline in their messaging or do they simply not see the importance of conveying a clear and consistent message to the general public?
So Kelvin Davis wants the road projects in Northland but the Labour party wants to scrap them?
Kelvin Davis said today: “The Government needs to step up and help local councils fix infrastructure problems highlighted by the recent Northland storms. The bad weather has amplified how susceptible the North really is at times like this. Our roading infrastructure is a major source of concern. This weather event has shown that when the main road in and out of the north fails” Link is here http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1407/S00262/call-for-government-to-step-up-in-north.htm
It seems as the the roading projects are necessary and vital for jobs and economic development in the north but Labour doesn’t want them?
Hi stupid dickhead. The Labour position is in the NZ Herald article that someone else linked to.
Instead of the gold-plated RONS gift for holiday makers, Labour simply wants to fix the existing road. That is something that should have been started 5 years ago. Instead National dumped that for their Road Of Significance for National.
This upgrade is a hell of a lot cheaper, will happen a lot faster, and actually have a return on investment that doesn’t require dubious projections to justify.
So why do you think we should waste a billion plus dollars of taxpayers money for something that could be as easily be done by simply fixing the existing road for a few hundred million.
Perhaps the question should be – can you think?
Wow so that was offensive. If I had made that insult then I would have been kicked off this site quick-smart. No need to get personal.
It is better in this case to do the whole job. Fixing bits and bobs along the road will not fix the underlying problems: travel speeds and wash outs. Both of these are vital for commerical certainty and business growth.
Rather than patching up the existing winding mess that is the current road (a second-world patch up job) as you propose, I believe it is better to do a real first-world job on it. If we want to be a first world country, we need the infrastructure to back it up.
Good. That was the intent. It helps to get fools curled up in a catatonic fetal balls sucking their fingers to pay attention to things outside their own head.
Tick 1 – trolling standard response when challenged. Whine about politeness.
If you act like a stupid arsehole making dumb fact free assertions, then I’ll treat you as one. I find that it helps lazy shitheads like yourself learn to be more cautious and to use google before wasting my time reading your rather obvious lack of attention. Since I read most of the comments on this site you can guarantee if you keep being lazy then I will notice and give you a kick to improve your standard of commenting.
Read the policy. With a few relatively rare exceptions I as a moderator couldn’t give a damn about personal insults, unless they were pointless, or you were off topic, or it was clear that someone was deliberately trying to kick off a flamewar.
Since I do most of the moderation around here, your statement has the ring of a idiot trying to dig himself in deeper in quicksand.
Why? We’re only talking between Puhio and Wellsford. Not between Wellsford and Whangarei where much of the washout areas are.
The washouts only happen in a couple of locations up to Wellsford.
The amount of commercial traffic is minimal compared to the number of cars clogging the roads and almost all of it happens in only a few places. What causes issues are congestion problems at a couple of locations with cars which don’t require a whole new road to be built.
Moreover if what you were saying was true, then it would show up immediately on the economic cost benefit analysis. Which it does not because the dickheads from NZTA haven’t published one (which suggests that it is far worse then slender 1.2 for the Wellington Basin reserve flyover).
Moreover they’re projecting a average annual 4.4% growth in traffic to north of Warkworth. However they chose a measurement site inside the Warkworth ‘urban’ area which does show a annual 4.1% growth – of people driving around town. When you measure north of Warkworth on the open road, there is no growth.
So over 9 years there has been a pipsqueak of traffic growth north of Warkworth. So why exactly are we spending a billion plus for this road? To cure a economic problem that doesn’t exist?
I don’t think that there is any economic benefit apart from a few congestion issues for cars going to baches. Most of which can be fixed with a few much easier and cheaper improvements. This road appears to have more to do with National wanting to help their favourite donating property developers than for any economic benefits for the north.
Basically you should probably read the posts about this topic this link over at transportblog. Then you might sound less like a ignorant doofus.
You take yourself far too seriously. You think your bitter communist raving has the effect of causing people to be become fetal?
I see that you are avoiding the intent of the comment.
I guess that is because you are probably a bit too stupid to understand it. Right?
After all traffic patterns are hard data and a ineffectual theorist like yourself can’t handle actual facts.
I don’t think Wreckingball has the whole picture. The holiday highway which the Nat Govt intends spending billions on is only going as far as Wellsford (and will take probably a decade or so to build).
It won’t solve the problems Kelvin Davis is talking about – which are : that the road – the State Highway One for gawds sake – north of Whangarei is a mess, its unreliable, it gets flooded too easily and breaks up (as can be seen just south of Kawakawa right now where it is impassable) – and the alternative routes are really non-existent – unless you take the very long old Russell Road out towards Paihia and Opua – adding another couple of hours onto your journey.
The current side roads which traffic is using – such as the Ruapekapeka Road – are now crumbling and disintegrating under the unaccustomed traffic because they are “side roads” – unsealed, narrow, winding, and not built for major traffic use.
So the proposed govt billion-dollar spend on the “holiday highway” is NOT going to do much good for the mid-to Far North. Th e govt needs to spend some serious money on making sure State Highway One from Whangarei to Cape Reinga is well built, well maintained, and has reliable alternative routes around it, if needed in extreme weather events as has just happened – and are likely to happen in the future.
Yeah, the Puhio to Wellsford road will largely only have regular heavier traffic for the foreseeable future to Warkworth. Most will be cars going there on weekends. Wellsford on holidays.
Truck traffic increasing will be bugger all. They have a pretty good port up north, so why would they move the heavy export stuff out of anywhere apart from the port. The population is static or declining so there isn’t a massive need to increase that.
Tourism really doesn’t have an issue apart from the usual Auckland holiday outpouring.
In the meantime the roads up north are getting torn to pieces through a lack of maintenance and upgrades.
Manipulating online polls. No wonder David Farrar is pushing online voting!
Glen Greenwald’s latest gem:
“The secretive British spy agency GCHQ has developed covert tools to seed the internet with false information, including the ability to manipulate the results of online polls, artificially inflate pageview counts on web sites, “amplif[y]” sanctioned messages on YouTube, and censor video content judged to be “extremist.” The capabilities, detailed in documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, even include an old standby for pre-adolescent prank callers everywhere: A way to connect two unsuspecting phone users together in a call.”
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/07/14/manipulating-online-polls-ways-british-spies-seek-control-internet/
There’s a difference between online polls and online voting. Most notably the fact that the former is anonymous and the latter isn’t.
I’ve been fuming all morning while listening to RadioLive’s Sean Plunket’s talkshit (I know, I know…) where he shat all over Labour’s policies and tried to minimise the Dotcom scandal evolving. And then he decided to ‘break’ a Whaleoil story about Mike Rowley (who?) who alleges that David Cunliffe promised him a favour in exchange for some dirt on Steven Joyce and his involvement with the Exclusive Brethren. Anyway, he got hoisted by his own petard. The guy proved a total fraud and serves them all right when they take any crap from WhaleSoil as a Gospel.
I like Whale – But I would have to agree the current post on this seems (more than) a little thin.
Will be interesting to see if there is more to come (which is often the way of the Whale).
If there isnt – then this will (quite rightly) die. In fact it should not have been done at all.
However – if there is more – some form of evidence or a sworn statement, then it might have to be replied to.
What do you think about all the disgusting creepy innuendo Cameron (Jason) has been feeding and encouraging re: Tania Billingsley?
Some very, very ugly stuff going on there. Horrible to think this guy is so close to our PM.
Radio Live has a 7day audio library here
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Audio.aspx
Tuesday 15/7/ 11:30 am for the item mentioned by amirite above
Solution
Don’t listen to talk hate radio.
that is no solution at all.
wailshte is a blot on the country.
a man with no conscience, principles, ethics or morals at all.
this man needs to be exposed for the complete rotten egg that he is.
its seems like he has had two black eyes already this week.
somebody should finish him off with a good kick in the balls.
Why women quit technology careers
It’s an interesting article but I was most taken by this bit and it’s solution:
Which, IMO, is where our education system, especially tertiary, is failing. It’s not providing that support and people are left with a What next? It’s not that people choose to fail but that most people don’t have the information and support to choose any other option.
+1 DTB
People coming out of tertiary education with IT or commerce degrees aren’t going to graduate prepared to answer questions on what next to do with their lives once they turn 40. Try something in philosophy, theology or the other humanities instead.
“We Have the Right to Defend Ourselves”
No. 1 ….
http://floridamemory.com/fpc/reference/rc11499.jpg
They can delete…
http://web.archive.org/web/20120825163554/http://www.fpif.org/articles/the_fruits_of_racism_in_israel-palestine
https://archive.today/SSdbv
a funny pisstake of that song ‘happy’…
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/14/weird_al_releases_first_of_8_new_videos_tacky_a_parody_of_pharrells_hit_happy/
the dotcom-harawira-harre roadshow kicks off in kaitaia 2nite..
[email protected] 6pm @ the community centre..
..and 2morrow nite in kaikohe..
dotcom has hired the ak town hall for 5 days before the election..
..where he is promising ‘yo drop the bomb’ on key..
..and will release ‘the hard evidence’ that key has lied to parliament..and the nz people…
..woo-hoo..!
Yawn, if he has anything he should release it now.
I’m guessing it’s a fizzer, rather than a banger, if he’s only going to play with it for five days.
your intrinsic dumbness…is as wide as it is long..isn’t it..?
..clearly proven by yr inability to appreciate that timing..
..dumb as a sack of fucken doorknobs…eh..?
A bit testy there Philip, you got withdrawal symptoms my old chum? Benefit day tomorrow, so not long to wait now until the tinny house is open.
Five days at the end of a campaign, when most people have already decided who to vote for, will do nothing to change the political landscape, revelation or not.
You ever heard of rubbing salt into a wound? A clue, it’s like the possum question you won’t answer.
The end of bacon jokes is nigh, but don’t count your chickens just yet 😉
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11293858
Teacher accountability – the magic bullet.
/
At happy-hour drinks, he and other teachers complained that the legislators who wrote No Child Left Behind must never have been near a school like Parks. He felt as if he and his colleagues were part of a nationwide “biological experiment” in which the variables—the fact that so many children were hungry and transient, and witnessing violence—hadn’t been controlled. David Berliner, the former dean of the school of education at Arizona State University, told me that, with the passage of the law, teachers were asked to compensate for factors outside their control. He said, “The people who say poverty is no excuse for low performance are now using teacher accountability as an excuse for doing nothing about poverty.”
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/07/21/140721fa_fact_aviv?currentPage=all&mobify=0
Is see Duncan Garner and his soul mate Cameron Slater are continuing their campaign re: Labour MPs jumping ship.
They cite Trevor Mallard (although I can’t see any evidence he’s departing from the party line), Kelvin Davis, a raw newbie in the Shane Jones mould (we know what a team player Shane is), and Damien O’Conner who made a stand on trees, apparently with the blessing of the caucus.
Mallard and O’Conner have done nothing out of the ordinary which leaves the raw Davis to make some noise that will perversely only resonate with the idle Remuera/Omaha rich set.
That’s right, he wants to go ahead with the holiday highway.
I know that road well. Several hundred million dollars has just been thrown at the East Coast Bays to Puhoi section in the form of a toll road which all ordinary Northlanders are paying for the privilege of using whenever they need to come to Auckland using their own vehicles or by way of increased costs on the goods they have to buy locally, for instance we know petrol is more expensive in Northland. The Puhoi to Wellsford section (lets read Puhoi to Omaha, because that’s what the holiday highway really is about) is not busy at all in normal weekday usage when the bulk of goods travel, it’s just not.
If Kelvin did his homework he’d be able to see that the only bit that needs fixing in the short/medium term is the Warkworth, and perhaps Wellsford, bypasses (something planned by Labour and cancelled by National IIRC). The rest is just the Remuera elite having a bit more road to open up their Audis upon.
re roads..this is from today..
..and relevant to the above..
..(as in just who are ‘the roads of national significance’ being built for..?..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/how-america-built-its-highways-to-serve-the-wealthy-and-white-ed-and-of-course-locally-this-case-is-made-with-the-holiday-highway-eh/
Fascinating. Thanks Phillip.
Looking further in New Zealand’s case I see Bill English’s brother in 2009, then head of Federated Farmers wanted the the Waterview Connection to be surface only instead of tunnel/surface, the savings of which he proposed be put into irrigation schemes to benefit farmers.
For the love of Christ, how much more do farmers want?
Link-whore bypass
lol that deserves a steak
I agree Weepus Beard – Kel Davis needs a bit more info on the holiday highway – its not going to solve the problems of roading north of Whangarei. See my comment at 16.1.1. above.
Meanwhile the gummint grinds on grinding down the fine society we had into ashes which they will later spread surreptitiously somewhere inconsequential.
On the My Thinks blog boonman has announced there is shock at the agreement of the Education and Science Select Committee to allow a Bill to pass so that the government can control the teachers body, the Teachers Council.
Just to clarify what this means: Every single member of the board responsible for the registration and disciplining of teachers across New Zealand is going to be appointed by Hekia Parata….
At present the Teachers’ Council is a partly appointment, partly elected body. When the bill is passed this will be a totally appointed body – a body whose sole aim will be the destruction of the teaching profession (don’t believe me? Have a look at what is happening to professional teaching organisations and unions in the United States). Once you have a subservient profession, then you can mould and manipulate to your heart’s content.
Of course, if National don’t manage to cobble together their various has-beens into a coalition of the desperately willing, then we may not be forced to endure the ignominy of having our profession deconstructed in this way.
Campbell Live doing an expose on Stonewood Homes in Christchurch.
Cowboys in a cowboy country with few regulations.
There is a shortage of builders …due to a lack of planning by our government.
We live in a country where the buck seems to stop anywhere…..
who saw the two government members on telly tonight looking tragic.
KDC got a good solo run though on TV 3 news. Having JK away might be backfiring
as there was no competing narrative to challenge Dotcom’s. Still thoroughly gutless though. Hopefully John will be having another crisis similar to the one Roughan cited where Key’s fear of losing gives him existential cramps. That will teach him to believe in Neo Darwinist winner takes all bs.
LPRENT called it.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-11/milk-output-expansion-poised-to-spur-5-year-world-surplus.html?_ga=1.106995911.432890989.1404940857
It was always going to happen. Relying upon agriculture to be the driver of an economy has, and always will, result in a country being poor. It doesn’t cost that much to do and every other country can do it for themselves.
Bank of International Settlements (BIS) calls for an end of debt-driven growth
And yet no country in the world is doing anything to stop growth through the rise in debt despite the lessons of the GFC. Lessons obviously not learned.
of course, “learning lessons” is not the point, growing profits and maintaining elite privilege is.