Colin craig thinks of a catfight as rankin goes up against bennett. Stuff puts it in their headline. Craig could have stopped and strong and determined. What would be the equivalent male comment and when did we last see it in print?
[I think you meant cat fight Tracey. Corrected – MS]
2 single mothers who used to be on the DPB, who struggled to get by financially, who then turned around and now support political parties that want to take money off people who are in the EXACT SAME position as they were, and replace it with intangible abstract concepts like “aspiration” and “oppurtunity”. Well, I hate to break it to you ladies, but you cannot buy food or pay for your rent and power with “aspiration” and “oppurtunity”. The “dream” of working in a high paid job 5-10 years down the track isnt going to help a woman having to choose between paying the power bill or buying formula for her baby.
Its pretty simple really
“And another thing”: You cannot train people for jobs that dont exist. All this talk of “education” being the only way out of poverty is crap.
It’s worse than that @ millsy – these two ‘ladies’ seem to think they can force such aspirational outcomes by making people have to struggle even harder than they had to. (Pulling up the ladder as DC puts it). A good way for them to ease their nasty little consciences whilst allowing themselves the luxury of their holier than thou, control freak behaviour.
Dreadful memories come back of Rankin and that Destiny Church parasite, Hannah Tamaki saying poverty was the fault of the parents.
Is there an adjective stronger than repulsive to describe these views?
It is not at all obvious that Paula Bennett ever struggled to get by financially at all. In fact, with the support she had from her parents and the government money she was able to access, she would have been better off materially than many working people are today. Of course, she has obviously always suffered from great poverty of the spirit.
As for Christine Rankin, I don’t know.
Twenty odd years ago I went through a similar experience as the two long serving Foreign Affairs officers in MFAT only my case wasn’t played out in the media. As a much less important employee in another Public Service area, my superiors saw fit to have a caveat placed on me preventing me from publicly revealing anything, or even being able to clear my name of wrong doing. The above link shows that the psychopathic, bully boy/girl modus operandi inside the Public Service has returned with a vengeance under this Nat. govt.
I have a similar experience Anne – VERY similar. My ‘bottom line’ however is/was that under NO circumstances was I going to STFU should the need arise.
For me, what’s changed in the PS is down to its corporatisation which allows the administration to run as little ‘fiefdoms’ (as I’ve mentioned elsewhere) – easily manipulated by the political class by way of various rewards.
Its a system whereby the vast majority of diligent and committed public servants are subjugated (some even in an environment of fear) by their politically-appointed, generally incompetent, master of the Universe overlord. So much for all that efficiency and effectveness, accountability and transparency we were all promised when the doddering old Douglas had an ideologically-driven brain fart.
Its a system whereby the vast majority of diligent and committed public servants are subjugated (some even in an environment of fear) by their politically-appointed, generally incompetent, master of the Universe overlord.
Spot on Tim. The climate of fear was so palpable in my PS office that at one point my colleagues didn’t dare speak with me.
If I had my way the Rebstock bitch (sorry, but it’s true) would be sent back to America from whence she came, and Iain Rennie develop a sudden desire to “spend more time with his family” and resign.
+1. Yep. Similar experience in the PS for me. The corporate style of “professional manager – don’t need to know what the staff do, just set the vision and the targets” management has led to incredible wastage of effort and money as well. Most of the good talent in the PS has left IMO.
What’s up vto
Can I go to France with you? Richard Wolff was talking about how they still run their country, people still have time to be people there. It sounds like heaven compared to us.
I thought it might’ve just been the headline but Craig said it. Says a lot about the man. Not a great start for his political relationship with Rankin. He invites her to stand then says that – charming. While I’ve got no time for Rankin publicly she’ll shrug it off but privately she won’t be pleased. The good thing is that Craig’s hard wired to say such silly things so they’ll just keep coming. The right-wing deserve him.
still this was a bit of a laugh from Kerre McIvor.
Cunliffe needs to up his good bloke chops. Laughed it up- the headline Labour up to 40% (which seems largely a re-distribution of the left vote) and the picture? Key drinking with prince Wills….go figure…
Hmmm. I think Rodney is actually being quite honest there. His position, unlike John Key’s, is entirely believable in the circumstances as described. In fact it’s almost the opposite of what Key expects us to swallow.
1. Hide wasn’t engaged with NZ socially or politically at the time because he was off around the world no doubt seeking his fortune and having adventures. Fair enough. Not every young person’s life is highly politicised.
But compare and contrast that position with the facts as stated by John Key.
Key was living in NZ.
He was at University.
He had wanted to be Prime Minister since he was ten years old.
He had strong political views and debated them vigourously around the dinner table.
The man he describes as his political role model, Muldoon, was PM.
He expects us to believe all of that and simultaneously believe that the events around the 1981 tour didn’t really register with him at the time. Hilarious.
That position of Hide’s is not available to Key unless he withdraws and reverses all that stuff in his official back-story, and he can’t do that because it would make a liar of him.
2. Hide doesn’t know whether sporting and trade boycotts are better or worse than engagement. Fair enough, who does? Hide has a strong belief in free trade and the supremacy of markets for making important decisions. I think he’s a dogmatic extremist in this regard but nevertheless it’s a debatable question and one that merits more serious discussion than a budget herald column can be expected to offer.
Key also has a strong belief in free trade and the supremacy of markets. But unlike Hide, he won’t say it in so many words because it would frighten many of those who vote for the sanitised, inoffensive, non-threatening Brand Key™ . The gulf between the publicly and privately held views is demonstrated by the fact that behind our backs, when he thinks no-one is listening, he describes NZers as having a “socialist streak” that would prevent him from acting as he wishes.
So this position of Hide’s is also unavailable to Key unless he wants to place himself far further to the right than Brand Key™ can be seen to be.
3. Hide couldn’t give a damn about rugby, so he wasn’t interested on the selfish level of thinking he had a right to see the all blacks play SA. Fair enough, I couldn’t give a damn who the all blacks play either.
And maybe neither does Key. But he has invested a lot of time, money, and energy in portraying himself as a guy who BBQs with the blokes and drinks piss with the All Blacks and grandstands at the RWC. The whole narrative falls down if he reveals that he couldn’t give enough of a crap about rugby to want to see the All Blacks play SA, rugby at the highest level in 1981.
So that position of Rodney’s is also unavailable to Key unless he blows his carefully constructed bought and paid for good kiwi bloke image.
Hide’s column really does highlight the utter impossibility of what Key expects people to believe about him. It might be crediting Rodney too much to suggest that it is deliberately nuanced to do so, but it does so regardless.
I don’t have much time for a lot of his views. I think he’s naive to believe much of what he believes, but I’ve never really doubted that he believes it.
Nice to see the first couple of candidates being confirmed by Labour yesterday. Given the likelihood of a snap election after Banks is jailed, its important both Labour and the Greens are ready to go as early as possible.
So congrats to Deborah Russell, Rangitikei and Rob McCann, Otaki. The first of many!
I agree totally TRP that Labour and the Greens need to be ‘ready to go’ at any time!
“What I would say” (to use a Nickey Kaye-ism) is that DC needs to knock a few of the old guard’s heads together and remind them he wants to win – whereas they’re quite comfortable in either gubbamint OR opposition. I would say it – but I decided to give up on Labour until 2017 where we’ll all be able to see if they’ve actually decided to return to founding principles.
Fair enough, Tim, but I’d suggest that if you want a return to ‘founding principles’ you could actually play a part by joining Labour. The party needs to more than a caucus mindset upgrade for a real change in direction, it needs more activists in every branch, LEC and the affiliates. Perhaps it’s time the next conference put term limits on our MP’s? Say 3 terms unless a majority of members approve a fourth? As a member, you can help make that happen.
@TRP
I’ll consider REjoining when I see signs that the Party (all MP’s) show they’re more responsive to their membership – i.e. not weighed down by an old guard who only want to pay lip service and with all that “I paid my dues and I’m therefore entitled” attitude) AND when they unambiguously state their opposition to neoliberalism
They’re getting there admittedly and hopefully there’s a DC knocking a few heads together in the background.
The thing is that there are NOW alternatives that are more responsive to their membership.
…. as I said – maybe around 2017.
I think a record of having voted for them even when they chose to have a little lay down and do SFA (a least worst option) shows that I was committed to what Labour supposedly (and once) stood for.
I no longer have a blind faith that only serves to advance certain politician’s careers and preserve a comfy little status quo. The best evidence of all that is to just look at the National Party.
Well, I’m still keen to hear what Labour candidate will go into Ohariu. I’ve asked several times here, but no replies so far – maybe it’s an unknown or maybe it’s a secret?!……..
Also, is it really likely that we would go to a snap election if Bank’s is found guilty? If so, that would be truly awesome!
I don’t think the candidate has been selected yet Rosie. Probably sometime in the New Year. Actually, Labour is leaving it a bit late for the selection process. Especially if there is an early election.
Despite Key’s denials (which mean nothing coming from him) speculation is rife he’ll go early if he can get away with it. The polls show he’s still on a high with the voting public but he knows they’re slowly waking up to him. It makes sense to get the election out of the way before the rot really sets in.
It is getting a little late for the selection for Ohariu isn’t it. Charles Chauvel, in the 2011 election, got more votes than the previous election and decreased the gulf between himself and Dunne, with Shanks (resigning from parliament in Jan) straggling along behind in the electorate vote.
I’m wondering if Labour worked at it, whether they could win the Ohariu seat next year, on Dunnes 30th anniversary of holding it! Encouraging to see a 65% NO vote coming this electorate with a 49% turnout. Maybe, just maybe Dunne may have had his day.
It would excellent to see BOTH Banks and Dunne gone
A classic Herald article softening up the public for further draconian labour laws and creating a public perception that all our problems stem from lazy workers, not corrupt, incompetent and greedy corporations.
They do this all the time.
For example, education.
Article after article on teachers to create a public perception that they are bad people.
Hardly ever a positive story..always reports to prepare the population for charter schools and an attack on teachers’ unions.
Also, judges are increasingly being targeted for their lack of support for the government’s draconian and undemocratic laws.
Nothing about;
The employers who expect employees to turn up 15 minutes early every day, without extra pay.
The employers who steal employees breaks and lunch hours.
Employers who want part time employees available at 12 to 6 hours notice, so they cannot take another part time job, but do not want to pay extra for it.
Employers who routinely take a little from each pay packet, knowing employees have little redress, even if they notice.
Employers who take all of an employees first months pay, to pay for their work gear.
Employers who pay so little that other tax payers, and employers, have to subsidise their business.
“The Wellington City Council’s living wage is the worst possible decision. …. Third world countries are a hand-brake on the efforts of the rich industrialized capitalist countries to protect the environment….” [drones on in wandery fashion for several minutes]…
—Jordan Williams, speaking as one of three “Young Activists” on Radio NZ National’s “Ideas” segment, Sunday 15 December 2013. It is worth noting that stand-in host Finlay Macdonald was clearly appalled by Williams’ comments and that another guest (Heleyni Pratley) openly snickered in derision as Williams vapoured on.
Mediocrity Watch aims to keep you informed of—or, to quote the epically mediocre Simon Dallow, to be “right across”—the shoddiest, least professional, most insulting journalism and taxpayer-subsidised-sensitive-singer-songwriting from all over the world, but especially New Zealand. It is produced by DeakerWatch®, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
More mediocrities….
No. 9 Andrew Clay: ““After a comedy show, one is often mobbed by the ladies.”
No. 8 Ed Sheeran: “I See Dire” http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-071113/#comment-723312
No. 7 Paul Little: [Russell Brand] is “petulant, ungracious and unfunny” and a “cut-rate Chomsky”.
No. 6 David Farrar: “Things were generally very relaxed in this area.”
No. 5 Jordan Williams: “Capping rents seems like a recipe for disaster.”
No. 4 Prof. Robert Patman: “Hezbollah is totally a creature of the Iranian regime.”
No. 3 Jeremy Wells: “What evidence is there that secondhand smoking does any harm? Where is the evidence? WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE?”
No. 2 Gavin Gray: “…never been any problems associated with the name King George.”
No. 1 Susie Ferguson: “If, as you say, this has all been done before, why do it all again?”
Goodness those libertarians get a lot of publicity on RNZ considering their share of the vote is so small. Wonder how the bosses at the station can justify that?
Here’s a little thread from earlier this year about that hapless loon Jordan Williams. Note also that an even more hapless Standardista jumps in and flounders embarrassingly as he tries to defend Williams….. http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-17042013/#comment-620413
Posting the audio of what was actually said, which shows the difference between your version of events and the one that actually happened, is haplessly defending Williams.
🙄
Our foes are the same foes, Mozz, but we won’t beat them with lies. We’ll beat them with the truth.
Posting the audio of what was actually said, which shows the difference between your version of events and the one that actually happened, is haplessly defending Williams.
Thanks for posting it; what it actually shows—as you know perfectly well—is how accurate my post is in tone and substance, if not in every detail. I don’t make stuff up; the only problem is that my transcription speed is not good enough to get me a job as a secretary for a Fortune 500 company—-not yet anyway. If you had chided me for the errors, and the odd exaggeration—yes, I do add the odd bit of gratuitous laughter or an extra “ummm” or “errr” to underline the vacuity of certain guests—that would be a fair and reasonable critique.
But you have not done that: what you have done here, and done on several other occasions, is to allege that I deliberately distorted and even falsified the cruel and irresponsible words of Mora and his guests. I have not, and you know it. Your inept pursuit of me started after I came out in support of the dissenting journalist Julian Assange; you unwisely chose, like several others on this forum, to side with his state-backed tormentors.
Our foes are the same foes, Mozz, but we won’t beat them with lies. We’ll beat them with the truth.
There you go again, saying I tell lies. Others on this forum, who do not share your agenda of character assassination and dissenter-bashing, but who do listen to those shockingly depraved radio shows, have attested to the accuracy and integrity of my transcripts. Hell, someone even called me “the Diana Wichtel of the Standard.” Maybe you could launch a campaign against her next; after all, she makes the odd slip-up as well.
No Mozz, when you say someone said something that they didn’t say, that’s a lie.
And when someone points this out to you, and you insist, in the face of the audio evidence, that your report is accurate (word perfect is the term you used) that’s a lie.
And when you turn on that person and accuse them of all sorts of nefarious motivations for insisting on honesty (Assange? Seriously you stupid fuck, find me a quote to back that up) that’s a lie.
But I don’t need to argue with the ghosts in your mind. For all I know when someone says something once, you hear them screaming it several times. But the audio tells the true story and your reports stand in stark contrast, and the ultimate dishonesty is that you refuse to listen to the audio and make an honest side by side comparison
1.) No Mozz, when you say someone said something that they didn’t say, that’s a lie.
I reported, accurately and without exaggeration, that Jordan Williams had been provoked into a furious ranting denial of the fact that Lord Monckton is regarded as a loon by all serious thinkers. You, as you often do, launched into a nutty defence of Williams, pretending that he had not ranted and shouted. He had, and the recording matches my transcript/rendition of the cringe-inducing episode.
2.) And when someone points this out to you, and you insist, in the face of the audio evidence, that your report is accurate (word perfect is the term you used) that’s a lie.
Now you are distorting—and I fear it stems from malice, not simply bewilderment as I originally thought—what I have written on several occasions. I have always conceded that my transcriptions, which are always done without the use of a tape recorder, are not always perfect but they ARE true to the nature and tone of the people I pin down for posterity. Often, the most important bits of my transcripts are indeed word perfect; you are quibbling, trivially and dishonestly, over a few misplaced/transposed/added snickers or ummms and ahs, and contesting my interpretation of the often uncomfortable pauses that are a feature of these radio discussions. If you left it at that, your criticism would be valid; unfortunately you seem to lack a certain degree of proportion, or common sense—and you have accused me not of the odd inaccuracy or error (which is fair) but of lying (which is not fair).
3.) And when you turn on that person and accuse them of all sorts of nefarious motivations for insisting on honesty (Assange? Seriously you stupid fuck, find me a quote to back that up) that’s a lie.
I’ve just conducted an archive search of your postings and it’s clear that you have not been one of the denigrators of Assange. I apologise to you, and acknowledge my speculation was wrong and unfair. Now, if I was a liar, I would simply keep repeating my original allegation, but I will not. Your allegations about my occasional slip-ups constitute a calculated insult, an extreme attack on my integrity, and a deliberate distortion—and I have repeatedly refuted them. It is time you did the decent thing and acknowledged that your attacks on me have far exceeded robust criticism and long ago degenerated into nothing more than foul personal abuse, and all the worse for being untrue.
4.)But I don’t need to argue with the ghosts in your mind.
That’s a nasty but rather limp effort at trying to marginalise me as some kind of deluded crackpot. Keep trying, then after that try walking through a brick wall; you’ll have about as much chance of success.
5.) For all I know when someone says something once, you hear them screaming it several times. But the audio tells the true story and your reports stand in stark contrast, and the ultimate dishonesty is that you refuse to listen to the audio and make an honest side by side comparison.
The audio shows a young Wellington lawyer out of his intellectual depth, falling back on the oldest trick in the lexicon to cope with being shown up as a fraud: he shouts, stutters and stammers, and denies that the person he has been defending is a fool and a charlatan.
Kind of reminds me of some of the people around here.
Now THAT is a classically lazy and content-free post. If you’re going to tell lies, my friend, your rhetoric would need to be much better than that. And you’d need major support by a criminal organisation to protect you. I don’t think you’re quite that powerful yet, and you’re way too emotional to engender anything but contempt, but in case you grease your way right up that academic ladder, here’s the level of cold-hearted indifference to morality you need to aim at…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt5RZ6ukbNc
You’re only part way there. Empty abuse is fine, if you have some institutional muscle to back it up. You haven’t, unfortunately.
Up to what – persuading a deluded individual that his massive ego blinds him to his lamentable terminological inexactitudes? Nah mate, you need a shrink for that, and I’m not qualified.
telling lies? What lie? That you repeatedly claim accuracy in your transcripts when the words you attribute to speakers seem to be missing from the audio recordings available online?
I’m being charitable and just assuming that you’re clinically delusional, rather than suggesting that you’re even more incompetent as a liar than John Banks.
..being at the bottom of the wage-pyramid..(university students forced into working for $11 per hr/youth-rates..how fucked/fucken oppressive/unfair is that..?)
..how’s that all for starters/getting on with..?
..and williams then used that one-legged stool to stand on to say this is why the young are not engaged in the political system..
..and he does have a point about low engagement..
..but i wd put that low engagement in part down to a sense of powerlessness..
..of not wanting to get their legs/trousers drenched..
..from what can easily be seen as pissing into the wind..
..and i wd argue that desire for engagement is out there..
..but the forum/means has not yet been established..
..the internet has opened many doors..
..but those energies are yet to coalesce in a meaningful manner..
..so.basically..williams was just lowest-orifice-plucking..
..with his farcical ‘nothing to worry about’ claims..
Williams doesn’t get on to these programmes because he has anything interesting or intelligent to say. He gets on because he’s not only very pushy but (more importantly) also well connected: he is an office junior for S.S. lawyer Stephen Franks. He imitates Franks perfectly: the slow pretentious delivery as well as the banality of his statements.
I wonder that too (How does Franks ….etc.)
Mora likes his ‘eloquence’ I think, and the fact that he comes from the ‘cultured’ department of the right wing (kind of like the 1% of the 1%) – which of course is very esprayshnul – especially if you’re the nicest man on Earth.
It always amuses me when I see RNZ accused of being a bunch of lefties.
There’s a dinky little band of 1%ers all comfy and cosy, nicely ‘work-life balanced’ and ‘fair and balanced’, with credentials they think we all should die for pulling the strings.
We should really be grateful they exist I suppose – otherwise under the current junta it’d be “Afternoons with the Nicest Man on Earth – brought to you by Watties Baked Beans”, and “Nine to Noon with the World’s Most Regalr Gal – brought to you by Sanitarium Allbran”.
There’s always RNZ weekends and weekday evenings that (so far) don’t seem to have been infected.
Btw … Franks should patent himself. We sometimes watch in awe as he manages to defy gravity and slip up an uphill Hawker Street. I’m trying to discover how his gentrification engine works – it sure as Hell doesn’t have spark plugs but its causing havoc in the Mt Vic neighbourhood.
Hah, as a student nearly 40 years ago lived in Hawker Street four doors from the top. Magnificent view. Fell over uphill numerous times in various levels of sobriety on that steep street. Thing is I never had the nasty blow to the head as clearly has friend Stephen. Must’ve been a hoot to watch Tim . “Key”stoned Cops.
LOON WATCH
No. 2: Illegal “settlers” in the Occupied West Bank
As you watch these clips, bear in mind that Barack Obama, who hijacked the Mandela memorial service for a great anti-apartheid leader, is a piously defiant advocate for these people….
‘cept for the potential of loss of more jobs in even Agriculture arisng from technology ; saw the potential when there was a documentary on a similar product developed for pasture inspection by a New Zealand school-boy recently. (somebody no longer needs to travel and open and close 30 gates a day).
XOX
RNZ is slipping. Nine to Noon, and Afternoons sliding in relevance and quality. Needs a serious refurbishment.
Weekends are better quality but right wing ‘market’ forces are increasingly apparent. Hoping Finlay MacDonald gets the nod to replace Chris Laidlaw.
Prof Richard Wolff is talking about how the Democrats tried to get Bill through in USA setting 0.7% tax on incomes over US$1 million to raise extra tax to employ the unemployed. There are 350,000 tazpayers who average US$2.9 million would have been $13,500 each extra. This was an outrage and the Republicans prevented that Bill going through that was to raise money for creating employment!! I have put up links earlier but just google Wolff.
They did pass some law that was going to put a lot of money into repairing highways!@!
Thanks RT have been pondering about it for a while. Cosmetics for women are hegemonic and pervasive and constant use undermines the move towards women’s real self-acceptance.
“For a nation with the dubious distinction of having one of the highest rates of imprisonment in the western world, we’re remarkably reluctant to lock up anyone from the big end of town”
“This may have something to do with the fact that those whose collar is more white than blue are more likely to be able to afford lawyers with the letters QC after their name. It’s also partly because criminal cases involving corporate types tend to be complicated, drawn-out and expensive.”
“But it’s also due to the fact that our laws – particularly the 1961 Crimes Act – are not just inadequate but biased in favour of those who either swindle investors out of their life savings or bring about the injury or death of their employees through negligence.”
I see in the rag this a.m. the sensible sentencing trust claiming that they dont care how much it costs to imprison as many as people as possible.
Do they have shares in the private prison companies.
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It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
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The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
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Colin craig thinks of a catfight as rankin goes up against bennett. Stuff puts it in their headline. Craig could have stopped and strong and determined. What would be the equivalent male comment and when did we last see it in print?
[I think you meant cat fight Tracey. Corrected – MS]
Yeah, I thought it was a bit sexist from him. I guess it displays his true-blue “women exist to serve men” sort of viewpoint.
2 single mothers who used to be on the DPB, who struggled to get by financially, who then turned around and now support political parties that want to take money off people who are in the EXACT SAME position as they were, and replace it with intangible abstract concepts like “aspiration” and “oppurtunity”. Well, I hate to break it to you ladies, but you cannot buy food or pay for your rent and power with “aspiration” and “oppurtunity”. The “dream” of working in a high paid job 5-10 years down the track isnt going to help a woman having to choose between paying the power bill or buying formula for her baby.
Its pretty simple really
“And another thing”: You cannot train people for jobs that dont exist. All this talk of “education” being the only way out of poverty is crap.
It’s worse than that @ millsy – these two ‘ladies’ seem to think they can force such aspirational outcomes by making people have to struggle even harder than they had to. (Pulling up the ladder as DC puts it). A good way for them to ease their nasty little consciences whilst allowing themselves the luxury of their holier than thou, control freak behaviour.
Dreadful memories come back of Rankin and that Destiny Church parasite, Hannah Tamaki saying poverty was the fault of the parents.
Is there an adjective stronger than repulsive to describe these views?
“Bennett and Rankin have similar back stories; both grew up in households without much money, had children at a young age and raised them alone on the domestic purposes benefit.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9519067/Catfight-looms-in-hot-seat
What Stuff did not add was..
Both don’t want people with their back story to have the support they got now.”
Funny that; failure to do any journalism by the corporate media.
It is not at all obvious that Paula Bennett ever struggled to get by financially at all. In fact, with the support she had from her parents and the government money she was able to access, she would have been better off materially than many working people are today. Of course, she has obviously always suffered from great poverty of the spirit.
As for Christine Rankin, I don’t know.
all gender should be deleted from the planet. drones, we should all be…..
I’m going to france, at least they have a maturity about life
Last night I posted this link on Open Mike. I’m re-posting it because it’s an important issue:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/2579871
Twenty odd years ago I went through a similar experience as the two long serving Foreign Affairs officers in MFAT only my case wasn’t played out in the media. As a much less important employee in another Public Service area, my superiors saw fit to have a caveat placed on me preventing me from publicly revealing anything, or even being able to clear my name of wrong doing. The above link shows that the psychopathic, bully boy/girl modus operandi inside the Public Service has returned with a vengeance under this Nat. govt.
I have a similar experience Anne – VERY similar. My ‘bottom line’ however is/was that under NO circumstances was I going to STFU should the need arise.
For me, what’s changed in the PS is down to its corporatisation which allows the administration to run as little ‘fiefdoms’ (as I’ve mentioned elsewhere) – easily manipulated by the political class by way of various rewards.
Its a system whereby the vast majority of diligent and committed public servants are subjugated (some even in an environment of fear) by their politically-appointed, generally incompetent, master of the Universe overlord. So much for all that efficiency and effectveness, accountability and transparency we were all promised when the doddering old Douglas had an ideologically-driven brain fart.
Spot on Tim. The climate of fear was so palpable in my PS office that at one point my colleagues didn’t dare speak with me.
If I had my way the Rebstock bitch (sorry, but it’s true) would be sent back to America from whence she came, and Iain Rennie develop a sudden desire to “spend more time with his family” and resign.
+1. Yep. Similar experience in the PS for me. The corporate style of “professional manager – don’t need to know what the staff do, just set the vision and the targets” management has led to incredible wastage of effort and money as well. Most of the good talent in the PS has left IMO.
The neoliberal cult of (un)professional managerialism – which both Labour and National subscribe to – has gutted this nation.
Have you read Václav Havel’s essay “The Power of the Powerless”?
I think everyone on the Left needs to know about the ideas he wrote about from the deep dark days of Soviet domination of Czeckoslovakia.
Thanks for the recommendation.
With the record of so many of their Presidents as an example I think that Len Brown should go there. He would fit in beautifully wouldn’t he?
What’s up vto
Can I go to France with you? Richard Wolff was talking about how they still run their country, people still have time to be people there. It sounds like heaven compared to us.
unless you are black or muslim
Hi Tracey
You would rain on my parade. I hope there will be more positives for you to look at and enjoy in 2014.
I thought it might’ve just been the headline but Craig said it. Says a lot about the man. Not a great start for his political relationship with Rankin. He invites her to stand then says that – charming. While I’ve got no time for Rankin publicly she’ll shrug it off but privately she won’t be pleased. The good thing is that Craig’s hard wired to say such silly things so they’ll just keep coming. The right-wing deserve him.
thanks MS
Colon Craig is seriously creepy and weird. Every time he opens his mouth it becomes more apparent.
A great gift to the left.
Do the Herald actually pay Hide to write this garbage?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11172652
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11172656
still this was a bit of a laugh from Kerre McIvor.
Cunliffe needs to up his good bloke chops. Laughed it up- the headline Labour up to 40% (which seems largely a re-distribution of the left vote) and the picture? Key drinking with prince Wills….go figure…
Hmmm. I think Rodney is actually being quite honest there. His position, unlike John Key’s, is entirely believable in the circumstances as described. In fact it’s almost the opposite of what Key expects us to swallow.
1. Hide wasn’t engaged with NZ socially or politically at the time because he was off around the world no doubt seeking his fortune and having adventures. Fair enough. Not every young person’s life is highly politicised.
But compare and contrast that position with the facts as stated by John Key.
Key was living in NZ.
He was at University.
He had wanted to be Prime Minister since he was ten years old.
He had strong political views and debated them vigourously around the dinner table.
The man he describes as his political role model, Muldoon, was PM.
He expects us to believe all of that and simultaneously believe that the events around the 1981 tour didn’t really register with him at the time. Hilarious.
That position of Hide’s is not available to Key unless he withdraws and reverses all that stuff in his official back-story, and he can’t do that because it would make a liar of him.
2. Hide doesn’t know whether sporting and trade boycotts are better or worse than engagement. Fair enough, who does? Hide has a strong belief in free trade and the supremacy of markets for making important decisions. I think he’s a dogmatic extremist in this regard but nevertheless it’s a debatable question and one that merits more serious discussion than a budget herald column can be expected to offer.
Key also has a strong belief in free trade and the supremacy of markets. But unlike Hide, he won’t say it in so many words because it would frighten many of those who vote for the sanitised, inoffensive, non-threatening Brand Key™ . The gulf between the publicly and privately held views is demonstrated by the fact that behind our backs, when he thinks no-one is listening, he describes NZers as having a “socialist streak” that would prevent him from acting as he wishes.
So this position of Hide’s is also unavailable to Key unless he wants to place himself far further to the right than Brand Key™ can be seen to be.
3. Hide couldn’t give a damn about rugby, so he wasn’t interested on the selfish level of thinking he had a right to see the all blacks play SA. Fair enough, I couldn’t give a damn who the all blacks play either.
And maybe neither does Key. But he has invested a lot of time, money, and energy in portraying himself as a guy who BBQs with the blokes and drinks piss with the All Blacks and grandstands at the RWC. The whole narrative falls down if he reveals that he couldn’t give enough of a crap about rugby to want to see the All Blacks play SA, rugby at the highest level in 1981.
So that position of Rodney’s is also unavailable to Key unless he blows his carefully constructed bought and paid for good kiwi bloke image.
Hide’s column really does highlight the utter impossibility of what Key expects people to believe about him. It might be crediting Rodney too much to suggest that it is deliberately nuanced to do so, but it does so regardless.
Beautifully comprehensive review imo.
Also, Hide worked on North Sea oil rigs for a good deal of his time out of NZ.
His background is more working class than most of Parliament.
Yep.
I don’t have much time for a lot of his views. I think he’s naive to believe much of what he believes, but I’ve never really doubted that he believes it.
The above being no exception.
Been a lot of worthwhile and informative reading on TS these past few days. Very stimulating.
… why wouldn’t Hide make this admission until Mandela had gone though? Bit cowardly in my opinion.
Dunno. I guess it didn’t come up because no-one ever asks him what he thinks.
top drawer
Do you know how he ended up under Alan Gibbs wing, given his background?
“..If you were going to predict which country would jumpstart the counter-culture movement of the 1960s, it wouldn’t be Switzerland.
In Switzerland nothing seems out of place.
Sitting in the Lindenhof overlooking the river Limmat – the capital of Zurich looks like the perfect Mittel-European small city.
It is the essence of picturesqueness –
– that is of course – if you ignore the heroin addicts strewn all over the Spitzplatz behind the Hauptbahnhof..”
(cont..)
http://www.salon.com/2013/12/14/timothy_learys_liberation_and_the_cias_experiments_lsds_amazing_psychedelic_history/
phillip ure..
Nice to see the first couple of candidates being confirmed by Labour yesterday. Given the likelihood of a snap election after Banks is jailed, its important both Labour and the Greens are ready to go as early as possible.
So congrats to Deborah Russell, Rangitikei and Rob McCann, Otaki. The first of many!
Also Glenda Alexander for Waitaki, and today, the Clutha Southland candidate will be confirmed. Congrats to them!
I agree totally TRP that Labour and the Greens need to be ‘ready to go’ at any time!
“What I would say” (to use a Nickey Kaye-ism) is that DC needs to knock a few of the old guard’s heads together and remind them he wants to win – whereas they’re quite comfortable in either gubbamint OR opposition. I would say it – but I decided to give up on Labour until 2017 where we’ll all be able to see if they’ve actually decided to return to founding principles.
Yup vote Green to ensure no backsliding by the Labour caucus.
Fair enough, Tim, but I’d suggest that if you want a return to ‘founding principles’ you could actually play a part by joining Labour. The party needs to more than a caucus mindset upgrade for a real change in direction, it needs more activists in every branch, LEC and the affiliates. Perhaps it’s time the next conference put term limits on our MP’s? Say 3 terms unless a majority of members approve a fourth? As a member, you can help make that happen.
Why can’t/don’t existing members do that?
It’s not an either/or.
@TRP
I’ll consider REjoining when I see signs that the Party (all MP’s) show they’re more responsive to their membership – i.e. not weighed down by an old guard who only want to pay lip service and with all that “I paid my dues and I’m therefore entitled” attitude) AND when they unambiguously state their opposition to neoliberalism
They’re getting there admittedly and hopefully there’s a DC knocking a few heads together in the background.
The thing is that there are NOW alternatives that are more responsive to their membership.
…. as I said – maybe around 2017.
I think a record of having voted for them even when they chose to have a little lay down and do SFA (a least worst option) shows that I was committed to what Labour supposedly (and once) stood for.
I no longer have a blind faith that only serves to advance certain politician’s careers and preserve a comfy little status quo. The best evidence of all that is to just look at the National Party.
Well, I’m still keen to hear what Labour candidate will go into Ohariu. I’ve asked several times here, but no replies so far – maybe it’s an unknown or maybe it’s a secret?!……..
Also, is it really likely that we would go to a snap election if Bank’s is found guilty? If so, that would be truly awesome!
I don’t think the candidate has been selected yet Rosie. Probably sometime in the New Year. Actually, Labour is leaving it a bit late for the selection process. Especially if there is an early election.
Despite Key’s denials (which mean nothing coming from him) speculation is rife he’ll go early if he can get away with it. The polls show he’s still on a high with the voting public but he knows they’re slowly waking up to him. It makes sense to get the election out of the way before the rot really sets in.
Thanks for your thoughts on both queries Anne.
It is getting a little late for the selection for Ohariu isn’t it. Charles Chauvel, in the 2011 election, got more votes than the previous election and decreased the gulf between himself and Dunne, with Shanks (resigning from parliament in Jan) straggling along behind in the electorate vote.
I’m wondering if Labour worked at it, whether they could win the Ohariu seat next year, on Dunnes 30th anniversary of holding it! Encouraging to see a 65% NO vote coming this electorate with a 49% turnout. Maybe, just maybe Dunne may have had his day.
It would excellent to see BOTH Banks and Dunne gone
@ rosie “if banks is found guilty’ you must be joking, he will probably finish up with a knighthood for services to John Key.
we can only hope rod………………be interesting to see how the bets are going closer to the time.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11172720
Wonder what the reverse is – the benefit to coys of employees being expected to work when sick and the burden that places on the employee to struggle on.
IMO somewhat blinkered vision on the topic.
A classic Herald article softening up the public for further draconian labour laws and creating a public perception that all our problems stem from lazy workers, not corrupt, incompetent and greedy corporations.
+1
It was all about what the bosses and corporations wanted and nothing about what the workers actually need.
They do this all the time.
For example, education.
Article after article on teachers to create a public perception that they are bad people.
Hardly ever a positive story..always reports to prepare the population for charter schools and an attack on teachers’ unions.
Also, judges are increasingly being targeted for their lack of support for the government’s draconian and undemocratic laws.
Nothing about;
The employers who expect employees to turn up 15 minutes early every day, without extra pay.
The employers who steal employees breaks and lunch hours.
Employers who want part time employees available at 12 to 6 hours notice, so they cannot take another part time job, but do not want to pay extra for it.
Employers who routinely take a little from each pay packet, knowing employees have little redress, even if they notice.
Employers who take all of an employees first months pay, to pay for their work gear.
Employers who pay so little that other tax payers, and employers, have to subsidise their business.
Etc Etc Etc.
Au revoir vto.
Mediocrity Watch
No. 10: JORDAN WILLIAMS
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“The Wellington City Council’s living wage is the worst possible decision. …. Third world countries are a hand-brake on the efforts of the rich industrialized capitalist countries to protect the environment….” [drones on in wandery fashion for several minutes]…
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
—Jordan Williams, speaking as one of three “Young Activists” on Radio NZ National’s “Ideas” segment, Sunday 15 December 2013. It is worth noting that stand-in host Finlay Macdonald was clearly appalled by Williams’ comments and that another guest (Heleyni Pratley) openly snickered in derision as Williams vapoured on.
Mediocrity Watch aims to keep you informed of—or, to quote the epically mediocre Simon Dallow, to be “right across”—the shoddiest, least professional, most insulting journalism and taxpayer-subsidised-sensitive-singer-songwriting from all over the world, but especially New Zealand. It is produced by DeakerWatch®, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
More mediocrities….
No. 9 Andrew Clay: ““After a comedy show, one is often mobbed by the ladies.”
No. 8 Ed Sheeran: “I See Dire” http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-071113/#comment-723312
No. 7 Paul Little: [Russell Brand] is “petulant, ungracious and unfunny” and a “cut-rate Chomsky”.
No. 6 David Farrar: “Things were generally very relaxed in this area.”
No. 5 Jordan Williams: “Capping rents seems like a recipe for disaster.”
No. 4 Prof. Robert Patman: “Hezbollah is totally a creature of the Iranian regime.”
No. 3 Jeremy Wells: “What evidence is there that secondhand smoking does any harm? Where is the evidence? WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE?”
No. 2 Gavin Gray: “…never been any problems associated with the name King George.”
No. 1 Susie Ferguson: “If, as you say, this has all been done before, why do it all again?”
Goodness those libertarians get a lot of publicity on RNZ considering their share of the vote is so small. Wonder how the bosses at the station can justify that?
Here’s a little thread from earlier this year about that hapless loon Jordan Williams. Note also that an even more hapless Standardista jumps in and flounders embarrassingly as he tries to defend Williams…..
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-17042013/#comment-620413
Yeah.
Posting the audio of what was actually said, which shows the difference between your version of events and the one that actually happened, is haplessly defending Williams.
🙄
Our foes are the same foes, Mozz, but we won’t beat them with lies. We’ll beat them with the truth.
Posting the audio of what was actually said, which shows the difference between your version of events and the one that actually happened, is haplessly defending Williams.
Thanks for posting it; what it actually shows—as you know perfectly well—is how accurate my post is in tone and substance, if not in every detail. I don’t make stuff up; the only problem is that my transcription speed is not good enough to get me a job as a secretary for a Fortune 500 company—-not yet anyway. If you had chided me for the errors, and the odd exaggeration—yes, I do add the odd bit of gratuitous laughter or an extra “ummm” or “errr” to underline the vacuity of certain guests—that would be a fair and reasonable critique.
But you have not done that: what you have done here, and done on several other occasions, is to allege that I deliberately distorted and even falsified the cruel and irresponsible words of Mora and his guests. I have not, and you know it. Your inept pursuit of me started after I came out in support of the dissenting journalist Julian Assange; you unwisely chose, like several others on this forum, to side with his state-backed tormentors.
Our foes are the same foes, Mozz, but we won’t beat them with lies. We’ll beat them with the truth.
There you go again, saying I tell lies. Others on this forum, who do not share your agenda of character assassination and dissenter-bashing, but who do listen to those shockingly depraved radio shows, have attested to the accuracy and integrity of my transcripts. Hell, someone even called me “the Diana Wichtel of the Standard.” Maybe you could launch a campaign against her next; after all, she makes the odd slip-up as well.
No Mozz, when you say someone said something that they didn’t say, that’s a lie.
And when someone points this out to you, and you insist, in the face of the audio evidence, that your report is accurate (word perfect is the term you used) that’s a lie.
And when you turn on that person and accuse them of all sorts of nefarious motivations for insisting on honesty (Assange? Seriously you stupid fuck, find me a quote to back that up) that’s a lie.
But I don’t need to argue with the ghosts in your mind. For all I know when someone says something once, you hear them screaming it several times. But the audio tells the true story and your reports stand in stark contrast, and the ultimate dishonesty is that you refuse to listen to the audio and make an honest side by side comparison
1.) No Mozz, when you say someone said something that they didn’t say, that’s a lie.
I reported, accurately and without exaggeration, that Jordan Williams had been provoked into a furious ranting denial of the fact that Lord Monckton is regarded as a loon by all serious thinkers. You, as you often do, launched into a nutty defence of Williams, pretending that he had not ranted and shouted. He had, and the recording matches my transcript/rendition of the cringe-inducing episode.
2.) And when someone points this out to you, and you insist, in the face of the audio evidence, that your report is accurate (word perfect is the term you used) that’s a lie.
Now you are distorting—and I fear it stems from malice, not simply bewilderment as I originally thought—what I have written on several occasions. I have always conceded that my transcriptions, which are always done without the use of a tape recorder, are not always perfect but they ARE true to the nature and tone of the people I pin down for posterity. Often, the most important bits of my transcripts are indeed word perfect; you are quibbling, trivially and dishonestly, over a few misplaced/transposed/added snickers or ummms and ahs, and contesting my interpretation of the often uncomfortable pauses that are a feature of these radio discussions. If you left it at that, your criticism would be valid; unfortunately you seem to lack a certain degree of proportion, or common sense—and you have accused me not of the odd inaccuracy or error (which is fair) but of lying (which is not fair).
3.) And when you turn on that person and accuse them of all sorts of nefarious motivations for insisting on honesty (Assange? Seriously you stupid fuck, find me a quote to back that up) that’s a lie.
I’ve just conducted an archive search of your postings and it’s clear that you have not been one of the denigrators of Assange. I apologise to you, and acknowledge my speculation was wrong and unfair. Now, if I was a liar, I would simply keep repeating my original allegation, but I will not. Your allegations about my occasional slip-ups constitute a calculated insult, an extreme attack on my integrity, and a deliberate distortion—and I have repeatedly refuted them. It is time you did the decent thing and acknowledged that your attacks on me have far exceeded robust criticism and long ago degenerated into nothing more than foul personal abuse, and all the worse for being untrue.
4.)But I don’t need to argue with the ghosts in your mind.
That’s a nasty but rather limp effort at trying to marginalise me as some kind of deluded crackpot. Keep trying, then after that try walking through a brick wall; you’ll have about as much chance of success.
5.) For all I know when someone says something once, you hear them screaming it several times. But the audio tells the true story and your reports stand in stark contrast, and the ultimate dishonesty is that you refuse to listen to the audio and make an honest side by side comparison.
The audio shows a young Wellington lawyer out of his intellectual depth, falling back on the oldest trick in the lexicon to cope with being shown up as a fraud: he shouts, stutters and stammers, and denies that the person he has been defending is a fool and a charlatan.
Kind of reminds me of some of the people around here.
and so Morrissey’s brain has completely scabbed over the yawning chasm between what he wrote that people said, and what they actually said.
Now THAT is a classically lazy and content-free post. If you’re going to tell lies, my friend, your rhetoric would need to be much better than that. And you’d need major support by a criminal organisation to protect you. I don’t think you’re quite that powerful yet, and you’re way too emotional to engender anything but contempt, but in case you grease your way right up that academic ladder, here’s the level of cold-hearted indifference to morality you need to aim at….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt5RZ6ukbNc
You’re only part way there. Empty abuse is fine, if you have some institutional muscle to back it up. You haven’t, unfortunately.
By the way, that government functionary had the integrity (too late, but that’s another story) to admit that he had lied…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU6KMYlDyWc
At the moment, you’re way below that bloke on the integrity scale. Which should be very embarrassing for you.
Should.
whatever, Don Quixote.
whatever, Don Quixote.
Again, a substandard and lazy response. You really are not up to this—at all.
Moz has OD’d on the wanker pills. Somebody call the whambulance.
Up to what – persuading a deluded individual that his massive ego blinds him to his lamentable terminological inexactitudes? Nah mate, you need a shrink for that, and I’m not qualified.
I’m not qualified.
No you’re not. As I said, you lack the credentials, if not the inclination, to keep telling lies like you are doing.
“and coming up round the outside is………..Beeeeetalllbomb!”
telling lies? What lie? That you repeatedly claim accuracy in your transcripts when the words you attribute to speakers seem to be missing from the audio recordings available online?
I’m being charitable and just assuming that you’re clinically delusional, rather than suggesting that you’re even more incompetent as a liar than John Banks.
i thought the total jaw-dropper from willams was his claim that young people now have none of the worries of their parents/grandparents generations..
..yes..we had nukes being rattled/waved at will..
..but..um..!..climate-change/global-warming/mass youth unemployment/huge debts from/for education..
..being at the bottom of the wage-pyramid..(university students forced into working for $11 per hr/youth-rates..how fucked/fucken oppressive/unfair is that..?)
..how’s that all for starters/getting on with..?
..and williams then used that one-legged stool to stand on to say this is why the young are not engaged in the political system..
..and he does have a point about low engagement..
..but i wd put that low engagement in part down to a sense of powerlessness..
..of not wanting to get their legs/trousers drenched..
..from what can easily be seen as pissing into the wind..
..and i wd argue that desire for engagement is out there..
..but the forum/means has not yet been established..
..the internet has opened many doors..
..but those energies are yet to coalesce in a meaningful manner..
..so.basically..williams was just lowest-orifice-plucking..
..with his farcical ‘nothing to worry about’ claims..
..phillip ure..
Says so much about this vile young man.
Williams doesn’t get on to these programmes because he has anything interesting or intelligent to say. He gets on because he’s not only very pushy but (more importantly) also well connected: he is an office junior for S.S. lawyer Stephen Franks. He imitates Franks perfectly: the slow pretentious delivery as well as the banality of his statements.
So how does Franks have so much influence?
I wonder that too (How does Franks ….etc.)
Mora likes his ‘eloquence’ I think, and the fact that he comes from the ‘cultured’ department of the right wing (kind of like the 1% of the 1%) – which of course is very esprayshnul – especially if you’re the nicest man on Earth.
It always amuses me when I see RNZ accused of being a bunch of lefties.
There’s a dinky little band of 1%ers all comfy and cosy, nicely ‘work-life balanced’ and ‘fair and balanced’, with credentials they think we all should die for pulling the strings.
We should really be grateful they exist I suppose – otherwise under the current junta it’d be “Afternoons with the Nicest Man on Earth – brought to you by Watties Baked Beans”, and “Nine to Noon with the World’s Most Regalr Gal – brought to you by Sanitarium Allbran”.
There’s always RNZ weekends and weekday evenings that (so far) don’t seem to have been infected.
Btw … Franks should patent himself. We sometimes watch in awe as he manages to defy gravity and slip up an uphill Hawker Street. I’m trying to discover how his gentrification engine works – it sure as Hell doesn’t have spark plugs but its causing havoc in the Mt Vic neighbourhood.
Hah, as a student nearly 40 years ago lived in Hawker Street four doors from the top. Magnificent view. Fell over uphill numerous times in various levels of sobriety on that steep street. Thing is I never had the nasty blow to the head as clearly has friend Stephen. Must’ve been a hoot to watch Tim . “Key”stoned Cops.
…the total jaw-dropper from willams was his claim that young people now have none of the worries of their parents/grandparents generations…
Yes I heard that, Phillip. It comes under the rubric of “drones on in wandery fashion for several minutes.”
I never quite believed him but it seems my Polish uncle was right.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/12/ivan-okhlobystin-russian-scrubs-gay-people-burn-alive-ovens
http://www.vice.com/read/a-russian-gay-rights-activist-won-her-fight-against-deportation-for-now
LOON WATCH
No. 2: Illegal “settlers” in the Occupied West Bank
As you watch these clips, bear in mind that Barack Obama, who hijacked the Mandela memorial service for a great anti-apartheid leader, is a piously defiant advocate for these people….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdeqXQPW7TM
http://vimeo.com/42568730
Another really frightening loon….
No. 1 Philippe Karsenty: http://thestandard.org.nz/26052011/#comment-334310
prime news is having their biggest clusterfuck/meltdown ever..
..they started with no sound..seemingly blissfully unaware for some time..then they flicked to ads/promos..
..it is now ten minutes into the bulletin..and still the ads/promos..
..heh..!..back on..but with a new/different (australian) announcer to the one who started the bulletin..
phillip ure..
You watch Prime news! Why?
“and Jade Rabbit is in third place, coming up round the outside…”
Must be Christmas the preceding from Paula and the MSD
not much else in The Herald today.
‘cept for the potential of loss of more jobs in even Agriculture arisng from technology ; saw the potential when there was a documentary on a similar product developed for pasture inspection by a New Zealand school-boy recently. (somebody no longer needs to travel and open and close 30 gates a day).
oops, Stone the crows, Agricultural Drones
Mandela funeral stream.
http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nbcnews.com/53822324
#Qunu
#Qunu photos
The man is now dead and buried ( or soon will be). So is much that he hoped for. All there is left is nostalgia.
XOX
RNZ is slipping. Nine to Noon, and Afternoons sliding in relevance and quality. Needs a serious refurbishment.
Weekends are better quality but right wing ‘market’ forces are increasingly apparent. Hoping Finlay MacDonald gets the nod to replace Chris Laidlaw.
It is Sunday… John 5:25 . Good Night. Let tomorrow be good. gonna watch this interesting film about the Emperor Barbarossa now.
Prof Richard Wolff is talking about how the Democrats tried to get Bill through in USA setting 0.7% tax on incomes over US$1 million to raise extra tax to employ the unemployed. There are 350,000 tazpayers who average US$2.9 million would have been $13,500 each extra. This was an outrage and the Republicans prevented that Bill going through that was to raise money for creating employment!! I have put up links earlier but just google Wolff.
They did pass some law that was going to put a lot of money into repairing highways!@!
that piece you applied on cosmetics was worth reading imo and valued.
Thanks RT have been pondering about it for a while. Cosmetics for women are hegemonic and pervasive and constant use undermines the move towards women’s real self-acceptance.
oh well, back to the oxalis 😀
Good article by Espiner about white collar crime and how our society is structured to deal with it leniently.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/columnists/9519424/Espiner-Lessons-of-Pike-River
Some highlights…
“For a nation with the dubious distinction of having one of the highest rates of imprisonment in the western world, we’re remarkably reluctant to lock up anyone from the big end of town”
“This may have something to do with the fact that those whose collar is more white than blue are more likely to be able to afford lawyers with the letters QC after their name. It’s also partly because criminal cases involving corporate types tend to be complicated, drawn-out and expensive.”
“But it’s also due to the fact that our laws – particularly the 1961 Crimes Act – are not just inadequate but biased in favour of those who either swindle investors out of their life savings or bring about the injury or death of their employees through negligence.”
I see in the rag this a.m. the sensible sentencing trust claiming that they dont care how much it costs to imprison as many as people as possible.
Do they have shares in the private prison companies.
Putting resources into helping kids out at the start seem to have escaped their small narrow brains.