The UK Government Manufacture of False Sexual Allegations
by CRAIG MURRAY, Jan. 9, 2019
…. mud sticks, and the smear was used to discredit my evidence on torture and extraordinary rendition, and has been so used ever since.
Alex Salmond is far more of a threat to the British establishment than I ever was. So is Julian Assange and so is Tommy Sheridan. Anybody who looks at any of these examples, and does not understand that the state will actually fabricate allegations and fabricate evidence to back them, is a fool.
Yes Morrisey, it is the horrible kind of political expediency.
Or worse, what happened to a certain reporter in an embassy.
Governments practice it to degrees. Here we had a unionist killed by a bomb, and in Britain a Kiwi protester went that way under the truncheon of a horseback Bobbie.
Being discredited pulls political teeth, being sexually discredited by rumour or innuendo removes the chance of being believed.
Being killed to prevent the truth coming out happens. It depends on the material and the power of the threatened.
All governments have methods of dealing with opposition, most ok but some not so.
Thanks for that reminder, patricia. The National government, in concert with the “Defence” chiefs and their usual media accomplices, led a campaign of lies against Jon Stephenson and Nicky Hager. I’m extremely upset with this Labour government bowing to those “Defence” chiefs and covering up the “inquiry” into the SAS raids in Afghanistan.
It’s also worth remembering that it’s not only Saudi Arabia that holds the concept of “embassy” in contempt: the rogue U.K. regime at one stage considered raiding the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
Thanks for reminding us of last year’s news, Naki Man. I suspect it would be really helpful for these tourists if one of them could enter into a relationship with a National party hack and drip feed titbits to the media over a period of months in an attempt to embarrass the Immigration Minister.
That worked so well in the Sroubek affair that the Minister was forced to, er, stay on as Minister.
One faced court after a night in the cells. The Police acted on a report by a Hamilton business.
The group were met by Police and had to buy two child restraint seats.
Why are you saying Police action happened after publication, when clearly events were published after court and police action. Your point was?
Apparently they reside in Liverpool and have UK passports, but listening to those vids on the news sites, it’s sounds very much like mrs brown’s boys to me. But who knows?
I did read a report on stuff (I think) from an ex pad Irish who was doing their best to distance themselves from these tourists, claiming they were likely to be first or second generation traveller imports to England.
Either way, not the best both nations have to offer from what I’ve seen and read.
Lucky for them their old fella is the tenth richest man in blighty. He’ll be able to pay all the fines and cost with ease 😆
They have not been instantly deported but have been issued with a Deportation Liability Notice, according the Newshub report link below:
When officers arrived at the scene, immigration officers were with them, ready to serve the tourists with a Deportation Liability Notice (DLN)
“You have 14 days to appeal to Immigration NZ on why you should remain in New Zealand or 28 to appeal to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal,” they were told.
Peter Devoy, Assistant General Manager for Immigration New Zealand, told Newshub that Section 157(5) of the Immigration Act 2009 meant temporary visa holders could be issued with a DLN on several grounds, including for matters relating to character.
Simon Laurent, principal for Laurent Law, told Newshub the section of the Act referring to “other matters relating to character” could be applied if complaints had been raised about the visitors.
“It’s open door for [Immigration NZ] to say ‘they haven’t been charged with anything but they are undesirables, we think they might have committed offences, they might have been disturbing the peace’ even if they haven’t been taken to court,” said Mr Laurent.
Temporary visa holders could also be served a notice under a “criminal offending” provision.
“That means they say that ‘we feel there has been criminal offending, the courts haven’t decided that finally, but we believe this offending has taken place because there is a weight of evidence behind it’ or whatever it might be.”
If individuals served with a DLN were deported “there would be a prohibition on them coming back into the country, there is a five year ban,” said Mr Laurent.
“Whenever they apply for a visa for anywhere else, or they try to enter some other country and they’re asked if they have ever been deported, well they’re going to have to say yes, and they could be stopped at the border,” he said.
Mr Laurent said technically the Minister of Immigration was the individual empowered to deport someone, but decisions of this nature were often delegated out to appropriate level immigration staff.
The article also provides more details of damage, aggression etc in both Auckland and Hamilton – just astonishingly bad behaviour.
———————–
Oops – almost missed these details at the end of the article:
“Another member of the group, David, also denied the travellers were Irish gypsies and were instead English citizens in New Zealand for a two week holiday.
But those plans now seem to have been cut short, with the group planning to head off on Wednesday.”
So, if they leave today as now planned, that probably means that they will not have officially been deported and will be free to take their bad behaviour elsewhere in the future. In the meantime, what likelihood of their paying for all the damage etc they have caused?
——————-
Here is a link to a TVNZ article on the group:
RNZ News have reported that the 26 yr old woman from the group arrested in Hamilton has been convicted on two shoplifting charges of stealing $55 worth of goods from a petrol station in Albany, Auckland.
“She was accused of stealing Red Bull energy drinks, rope and a pair of sunglasses totalling $55 from a Caltex service station in Albany in late December and early January. …
“She was convicted and ordered to pay reparation in court today, appearing for a second time after the case was stood down pending an application for legal aid.
“Ms Cash was described in court documents as having no fixed abode.”
“In sentencing, Community Magistrate Ngaire Marcelle gave Cash credit for her early plea and took into account that she had spent the night in police cells.
“Ms Marcelle described the night in custody as a significant penalty for a first offence.”
While I also think good riddance to the Irish travellers, the mind boggles why some disorderly behaviour managed to get them deported so quickly and the police and immigration involved without even a prosecution, while we have so many criminals living in NZ who break the law and actually destroy other people’s lives with their crimes and they are still here or their crimes un noticed for decades, often even being granted permanent residency? Personally find those that ask $40k for a fake job, import in 40k of crystal meth or give out fake drivers licenses are more dangerous to NZ society than littering and doing a runner on a meal from an obnoxious family.
If only more visitors and residents could be deported or asked to leave by authorities, after being convicted so promptly and exhibiting antisocial/criminal behaviour, we might have a much nicer society and many less Kiwis in poverty and our prisons not overflowing and shorter times to receive medical attention.
Just a few high profile migrant criminals that are in jail costing Kiwis hundreds of thousands of dollars who ‘eventually’ got deported or are still here fighting deportation or not deported at all… Sroubek, Joanne Harrison, Ka Kit Yim alias Chris Yim, Virgil Balajadia, Gurpreet Singh, Faroz Ali to name but a few making headlines…
Maybe if the government were more interested in stopping and protecting and deporting scammers and criminals who were not born here and trying to get permanent residency or citizenship, we might have a better society and not people queuing up at the food banks and living in overcrowded accommodation with so many people who do not deserve to reside in NZ, having the priority rather than the safety and fairness and welfare of those who do.
Every time someone makes a dollar, speculators arrive to mess things up. It’s the fear of missing out that drives the pile on. It’s ‘competition’ say the business folk who, never thinking always acting, jostle for position on the gravy train; and fuck our ecology again.
This is the plight of starving bees with newcomers piling on trying to make manuka honey.
I have a hive. And to have this hive I have to register said hive. This means there is somewhere a central authority with the numbers of hives in each region. This also means there is someone, somewhere, approving the overstocking of our lands for business interests, again.
I’ve got an issue with bees. I have hardly seen any this year. Last year there was plenty. Not many wasps, only a few bumblebees, seen no frogs, or tadpoles, few flys.
Im one of those people who let there lawn go to flower. At one property the lawn was still pretty short but was a near perfect white lawn. To me it was buitifull, but the landlord disagreed. This Christmas the lawn was a mix of white and yellow. But hardly any bees.
The thing with bees is the don’t know about our on paper boarders. Unlike humans, not even walls stop them. So it’s not possible to ban a person putting bees on land they own, or expect those bees will not come on your land. They may grow a crop that needs bees themselves. The registering system is not an opproval system.
We could significantly increase bees as a small Buisiness model in NZ, within co-operatives to enable products and high value exports. So registering bees is a good idea. Opposite to overstocking as an intent, it exposes overstocking, it exposes shortages and areas needing investment in small buisinesses in those areas.
Somebody may have land that grows Manuka and the neighbor brings in bees to take advantage. How do you stop it? I may get honey from my lawn, and the neighbor sees that and puts a hive at my fence, themselves mowing there own lawn all the time, having no flowers.
” may get honey from my lawn”
Wow!
You want to ring-fence the pollen from the flowers that grow in your garden?
Have you considered patenting the colour of your flowers?
Some people might be looking over your fence and soaking it up with their eyes; exploiters!!!
I think you got the wrong end of the stick. I can understand why people who plant land for honey production only for next door profiting are complianing. I was pointing out reality is it’s impossible to prevent.
Unless you make having a bee hive a resource consent event. You could create a Beehive Bureaucracy just for subservience to the state and protection of preferred landowners.
I think I prefer the flaws of freedom.
In my own lawn example, I would encourage others to do the same if they want to keep bees, as well as flowering bushes, trees. The mowed lawn is a desert. A lawn allowed to flower supports many more insects and the things that feed on them. Then it can be mowed and you get a great composting crop.
DJ you should do a post on bees and the rural economy of honey.
My family own a reasonable sized drystock farm south of Kaitaia, and most everywhere around it has reverted to Manuka. Plenty of very, very competitive apiarists up there now. And a fair few jobs.
Personally I could see the family farm just hold their nose for four years and let the whole thing revert, then go straight to honey production. Much better return, whole bunch more viable, and good for the land.
Yes I watched a documentary a year or so on a family as you described up north.
I don’t do it myself because I’m a bit allergic to them. My best friend has a close friend who is involved with bee keeping in an urban setting for himself as well as having worked in the industry overseas. Plus a workmate did it for awhile as well. So I have had quite a few conversations, helped make things, and relaxed in his backyard while watching the hives in action.
IIRC someone (one of the admin/moderators? ) mentioned in passing some weeks ago that he and someone else(?) were “on sabbatical” – but cannot find the comment.
My sincere apologies for snapping at you re PG – was trying to be open minded about other commenters such as PG being able to comment here – and then did exactly to you what I accused you of. Mea culpa.
All good – I did feel sad – but that was because I ‘made’ you and Robert comment to me like that not sad actually about your comment which was fair enough.
I agree that I miss Bill’s opinions which I also rarely agreed with but they nevertheless were valid and needed to be considered even if not agreed with. But I do not miss his moderation … Less said the better, but I know it drove some people away, including me, on occasions. I have a fairly thick skin, but his attacks were well over the top sometimes.
Moderation is always problematic, vv, and it takes a toll on the person doing the mahe too. None of the authors want to see people removed from the site, however, that’s often the best thing to keep the place ticking along.
Bill put in place a really good system where we authors can keep track of moderation decisions and the reasoning for them. It means that when making the big calls on a misbehaving commenter, there is a record of previous attempts to get an improvement from them. That really helps with consistency.
Each moderator has their own style, but I can tell you, it gets incredibly frustrating when people don’t take the hint. It can be really, really hard to be diplomatic in those circumstances.
I certainly don’t disagree with any of that, trp. And I am interested that it was Bill who set up the recording system for moderation decisions and similar.
From time to time I am a moderator/administrator on a worldwide blog of a completely different nature, subject etc to this one, so know from personal experience the problems etc. Each instance requiring moderation is different in some aspect to similar instances in the past, and it is a tightrope walk as I know. But I still stand by my comments above from observation and personal experience. But lets leave it at that.
+1.
I know/am related to a Scottish Maori just like him. Much we can agree on, a lot we cannot.
Could have used him when entertaining the family Tory faction Christmas lunch time
Ed was one of the best at taking moderation on board and not getting banned for the same thing, while others continue to be banned for the same behaviour.
The truth is Ed was not wanted on this board by certain parts, and that is why he is banned.
Maui. Please don’t be a goose. This thread has been pretty good till now and the conversation has been an adult discussion about what was a genuinely difficult moderation decision. I know you don’t like the facts of the matter, but the truth is Ed (and his many alternative names) never learned a fucken thing. For whatever reason, he just kept coming back, doing the same dumb shit day after day. Which is why he was repeatedly banned by multiple moderators.
And, no, I don’t want to get into a discussion about it. Suck it up and move on.
He tried a couple of comments on TDB on Jan 11 also, complaining about TS, but haven’t seen any since (although I have not really checked since). Wonder whether he has been blocked there? [Rhetorical question only … ]
ED says:
JANUARY 11, 2019 AT 10:22 AM
I was attacked and abused on the Standard for stating this about Russia.
Joe90, Stuart Munro, Andre and Te Reo Putake are cheerleaders for war against Russia on that centrist chattering club.
(A few other familar TS commenters also on that thread.)
ED says:
JANUARY 11, 2019 AT 10:19 AM
I was silenced by Te Reo Putake for suggesting radical solutions to climate change.
The Standard has become a centrist chattering club with tints of Mccarthyism.
I agree with your moderation TRP but purely for entertainment Ed was gold, I know that’s not the purpose of the site but I am sure that’s why a lot of people come here, sorry not high brow but the left wing punch ups are way more entertaining than dealing to RWnJ like me😊
Dead right, Bewildered. That’s one of the reasons why it was a hard call. There’s an old saying ‘no grit, no pearl’, which suggests that the occasional irritation can lead to a beautiful outcome. However, this situation felt more like ‘all grit, no pearl’.
Is it to do with phases of the moon or something? There seems to be even more frenzy than usual going on on the trademe message board site.
I see there the Prime Minister is lazy and is on holiday recovering from all the days she didn’t turn up to work , etc., etc. School’s out I suppose and kids have to occupy themselves doing something.
I miss Ed too. I found that his links were very informative. I think that his banning was something of an ego trip. (lefter than thou?) If you are not well educated and somewhat inarticulate , it can be really intimidating to comment on The Standard. I think it has become something of an echo chamber. Where are the working class/beneficiaries voices? I gave up commenting after a sarcastic response from Bill because I posted something that had already posted. James takes over threads with his bullshit and gets away with all sorts of shit. ‘Birds of a feather” etc.
beatie
You make te point that James takes over threads and so does Ed. To my mind that was one of his main disadvantages. his isn’t a place for people’s entertainment by the way. We might make our comments in entertaining ways
and if you want to comment about serious matters and got put off by Bill, have another go with some detail and not just your moans about how bad things are and opinions which is what Ed did.
I agree with you. Now with Ed, Bill and CV gone there is a large chasm with the ‘alt-left’ voice pretty much wiped out from here. Whoever fills the void won’t last long I suspect.
KIRK HOPE: China is an example of a rapidly industrializing country which is also rapidly digitizing. It’s replaced the fulltime jobs of an industrial economy with trading. That’s the secret behind the success of Ali Baba! One or two people on line.
MEGAN WHELAN:[clearly dubious] That’s significantly less secure, though.
KIRK HOPE: I’m not sure it is. We have to think about what it will look like. There’s a LOT of work to go on in the education system; our funding models, what’s happening at the secondary level.
MEGAN WHELAN: Another thing with Richard—-I realize I’m sounding like a socialist revolutionary, and I don’t mean to, ha ha ha ha!—but he was worried about workers’ rights.
KIRK HOPE: People will have more flexibility. They might want to take six months off and travel.
MEGAN WHELAN: Yeah but not a lot of people have this option. It’s different when it’s thrust on them. …. Anyway, what’s the last song you’ve chosen?
Yes, and thank you Totally off topic but may give some a laugh
Hubby and I turn up to pre-op hospital education session.
After meeting 5 team members, we were given a ‘Grabber” to pick things up after the hip op.
We were most interested in the talk about easy ways to get into the car.
So we get out there, we successfully try their method.. Yay!!
N packs everything in and we are off.
Get home… where is the grabber?
Oh heck, put it on the roof of the car didn’t we!! N goes back …no luck.
We ring to explain. Much laughter from the desk. Half hour later, ‘phone goes
“Don’t worry, it was handed in, and no-one had driven over it. The team was delighted to hear you were so keen to practice what you were taught!! Further you made their day..they had a right old laugh… see you Friday.”
They already have my number I think!!
I liked the warning of Kirk Hope that if the government was too thorough in its changes, businesses wouldn’t want to do government work. That is so funny.
The whole trend for neo-liberals is to bad-mouth the government’s effectiveness and efficiency so that business gets to do and make a profit from providing government services, mainly by cutting wages and staff, and showing bad faith to the citizens in their dealings and practices.
No way are they going to want to stop milking the government, no matter how it tightens its teats.
yep. Well I guess we’re all the product of the bubbles we choose to operate in, and the degree to which we’re prepared to sacrifice principles.
Seems like in Kirk’s case, and many others, principles come cheap.
(That is until they don’t and it all goes tits up)
“The first video shows Chang’e-4’s descent into the Von Karman crater. The CLEP chose the crater as its landing site because of the crater’s depth. Von Karman is a crater-within-a-crater, and it’s possible that the impact event blasted away the crust and exposed some of the Moon’s mantle. The CLEP is using Chang’e-4 to examine the chemical and geological nature of the area, and to try and discover more about the Moon’s formation and interior.”
The New Zealand Prime Ministers’ office comments:
“They discussed the detention and legal treatment of Canadian citizens in China.
“Although the cases are a consular matter between Canada and China – as the extradition case relates to a Huawei executive in Canada – there are principles at stake that concern us all,” the spokeswoman said.
She added that the Government closely monitors international developments which may affect the safety of New Zealanders abroad, but advice for travel to China was to exercise normal safety and security precautions.
Earlier, Trudeau’s office confirmed to the Herald the pair had spoken.
“The prime ministers discussed the detention and legal treatment of Canadian citizens in China and the need for all countries to respect judicial procedure and rule of law,” a spokesperson said.
“The leaders also exchanged perspectives on shared priorities, including their commitment to promoting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.”
Interesting to see non-Five Eyes countries such as Japan and Poland make similar moves against Huawei on security grounds.
But for Canada and New Zealand, nothing like something as basic to New Zealand as Commonwealth justice concepts coming up against Chinese ones.
Sooner or later Xi Jinping is going to have to bend.
Well let’s hope Petey Dutto and Scottie Morro and Grayo RIcho and Mattey Cormmo, and even Joolie Bisho and Petey Credo and Petey Gleeso, not to mention Ashey Gillo and Andy Bolto and Davo Speersy and Kerry Gilbo and a shitload of others are right in amongst it.
Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie Oi Oi OI
And the big debate at the moment is some people choosing to ingest some herb thats been around and ingested since dawn of time. Gives some perspective to what really matters.
Watched the video and had a look at what the wingnutosphere is saying about 5G tech.
And of course they can’t can’t make up their minds about whether 5G is an eat your brain cancer causing mind control plot or a nefarious, deep state/google socialistic watching me plot. Or Jews.
Deep State Mobile: Google Helps Lead the Charge For Socialized 5G That Would Eliminate Internet Privacy https://t.co/8RQ3cA44dr
Thanks for the video Bruce. I’m really concerned about this. I’ve just had a smart meter installed (against my wishes) and it happens to be outside my bedroom . Unfortunately when I read the small print of my power contract it allowed for smart meter installation. It’s all about the money eh? I have an autoimmune disease and over the years (25) I have found that environmental factors have a huge impact, yet Big Pharma rules I don’t believe assurances from the telecom industry that every thing will be OK, because again it’s all about the money and fuck the consumer.
“I feel a bit sorry for Theresa May”…”I think she’s acted honorably.”
Mora’s gone, but The Panel is still bedeviled with bland and brainless blather. The Panel, Wednesday 16 January 2019
Wallace Chapman, Joe Bennett, Emma Espiner, Caitlin Cherry
This tired light chat show has been shaken up a little over the holiday period. They’ve rejigged the format a bit. And as we saw yesterday, Wallace Chapman seems a little bit more rigorous than Jim Mora, and seems to have at long last developed a backbone, in contrast to his supine behaviour in 2014, when he let he-man author Lee Child rhasodize insanely about how in real life “we all” want to see violent thugs like Jack Reacher torture and murder people.
Sadly, however, the vapid chatter of the Mora era has not gone away.
The first discussion topic in today’s pre-show chat was the vexed question of how to get boys and men to read books. This was the chance for perky producer Caitlin Cherry to put in her two cents worth:
CAITLIN CHERRY: You just have to introduce them to Lee Child books!
….Awkward silence….
EMMA ESPINER:[awkwardly] Ha ha ha.
CAITLIN CHERRY: Well, he’s a manly man.
….Awkward silence….
JOE BENNETT:[grimly] “Lee Child book” is an oxymoron.
Significantly, perhaps, Wallace Chapman did not spring to the defence of the man he had allowed, unchallenged, to spout such disgusting bilge four and a half years ago.
After that encouraging moment, it was back to the baloney. The subject was the Brexit vote in the U.K. parliament, and the Panellists competed for the most banal and brainless utterance of the day….
EMMA ESPINER: I feel a bit sorry for Theresa May.
JOE BENNETT: I think she’s acted honorably.
Then he burbled that “it’s a KNOWN FACT that Russia interfered in Brexit.” Wallace Chapman demurred at that: “Are you sure?” And Bennett doubled down pompously: “Oh YES….”
Morrissey you should put your name forward and suggest that they have a regular spot for a stirrer of some sort who might make some outrageous, to the bland,
comment. There wouls be a circular wheel which the stirrers could hop on for a swing and be replaced so they never appeared more than once. And offer yourself for the first. That would ginger it up.
He didn’t last long, but Michelle Boag will never forget being humiliated by him on the program. You can be sure she lobbied fearsomely for his removal when the opportunity presented itself. That opportunity was, of course, his display of lèse majesté in 2011, when he foolishly dared to point out the Prime Minister’s loutish imbecility in the House.
Been there, Shark, and done it. Back in 2013 I was an excruciatingly incompetent, utterly tongue-tied, nervous, giggling, useless Panellist. It was an April afternoon that will go down in infamy…
CHRISTINE RANKIN: Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
MORRISSEY BREEN: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Um.
JIM MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha! It’s time to find out what our Panelists have been thinking about. Christine Rankin, what’s been on YOUR mind lately?
CHRISTINE RANKIN: Well, Jim, look, I’ve been so busy working for the reintroduction of corporal punishment for the under-fives that I haven’t had TIME to do any thinking at all for several years now. I really can’t think of one thing to talk about.
JIM MORA:[long, irritated silence] Mmmmm-kay. Morrissey, have YOU got something on your mind?
MORRISSEY BREEN: Ummm, ahhhh, I’m going to abandon my, uh, carefully prepared speech about foreign policy, and comment on Christine’s failure to ummm, errr, honour her, ummmm, commitments to your show.
CHRISTINE RANKIN: [indignant] I’ve been BUSY.
MORRISSEY BREEN: Ummmm, ahhhh, yeah. Ummm…to paraphrase Dr. Johnson, I will say this about Christine: “This woman’s thinking is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”
JIM MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! That’s very funny! I think he’s talking about you Christine!
MORRISSEY BREEN: And that’s all I have to say, Jim. Um.
JIM MORA: Short and sweet. That’s the way we like them on the Panel! Okay, next up, Lanthanide will tell us why he thinks a nuclear reactor in the middle of Christchurch would be a good idea. First, though, what do the Panelists think of this?
RANKIN:[fervently] That’s a SPLENDID idea. At last, somebody talking some sense….
“However FIRST Union General Secretary Dennis Maga claims worker shortages are due to low pay.
“There’s a reason no one wants to work in these jobs, their time isn’t worth the money and they often cannot afford to live on what some of these businesses choose to offer,” he said.
He cited horticulture as an example of a sector which has the money to pay.
“Horticulture is one of our highest export earners,” he said.
“If you want people to do the work, pay them fairly, pay them what they’re worth to you and stop crying out for migrant workers to exploit.”
He said New Zealanders are hard workers and they will do the work, as long as they feel it’s fair pay for the work.
“It’s important that we red-flag companies that claim to have a worker shortage to ensure they’re not exploiting migrants due to their low pay not attracting workers who already live here.”
The reality is that we have allowed a situation to develop across practically every work space in NZ under neoliberalism of ‘subcontracting’ out the responsibility of employees.
From hospital meals to Spotless, NZ has constantly contracted out to third parties taking a profit while driving wages and conditions down, to Chorus subcontractors going through 3 – 4 companies and 92% of these workers being paid below minimum wages.
Then we have the horticulture industry with unliveable wages and temporary jobs at those low wages not attracting normal people who used to work there 20 years ago, now not welcome or they just don’t have the money to work there after paying for accomodation and transport down!
Industry in NZ has become used to giving a cheque to a middle man to bring in 100 workers because it is easier (and cheaper) to do so.
Part of the issue is the work safe issues which have become non sensical when Pike river is ok and work safe never prosecuted, but teachers are now responsible for kids safety at a micro level.
Our laws have become impractical and as well as the appearance of cost savings and ease of contracting out responsibility there is also real reasons why employers want to contract out due to impractical rules on safety and responsibility.
Absolutely. I have broken a number on farm picking and pruning records for kiwifruit, blueberries, grapes, pears and apples, and can supervise a gang to go fast alongside me. You want your crop cared for or brought in fast I can do it. I even love the work.
But they won’t pay me right so they can sod off and whine about their problems elsewhere.
Yep @ WTB. You posted a video the other day (recovering from desertification, etc).
In your experiences, did you ever witness one of those immigration raids on orchards?
Not so long ago, even one of the cops (of long experience) that had to accompany a LI/INZ raid told me how bloody embarrassed he felt. He knew that the victims of all the exploitation were about to be tipped out while the perpetrator was just going for another round, and another, and another………..
(see 13.1 below as well)
I also don’t think it is so much as migrant exploitation but a cozy relationship between migrants trying to game the system to enter NZ and become a permanent resident or citizen here, when they do not have the necessary job skills or criteria to get in legally. Hence a plethora of ways, from marriage to paying for a fake job or paying to do a useless qualification here (often at a private institution) has emerged.
Most of the migrants are not being exploited but are willing participants in it, so it has become a symbiotic relationship to make the NZ government grant citizenship/residency in return for a cheap or free worker , a fake course or a speedy marriage or child being conceived in NZ to help get the points.
Some of the migrants are exploited but plenty have a clear path to try and get the permanent visa or citizenship so they can give up the pretence and have access to (by world standards) very generous social welfare in NZ.
If it costs you $100k to buy your way in NZ but you then get 2 new countries to work in including OZ , free health, education and super and social welfare, accomodation supplements and child allowances and can bring your relatives in in many cases too, it sounds like a good deal for many.
You probably need to ask yourself @SaveNZ how it all started. You’re not wrong about all the scheming and scamming in many cases, however the system we implemented (immigration policies, false promises made, complete lack of monitoring and oversight of tertiary education providers, charlatan immigration advisors with cosy little links offshore – “vertically integrated”, labour hire companies et al).
The saddest thing is that it has affected the truly genuine immigrants with a commitment to the place.
Any legit immigration lawyer will tell you the number of cases they have on file due to some or all of the above. Some of them have been screaming about it for several years and it’s only now things are starting to happen (SLOWLY).
I could tell you of a number of cases where we’ve lost the skills and commitment we’re supposedly after because lack of oversight, incompetence and under-resourcing has enabled the genuine to be confused with the dross and scammers by INZ. I could give you examples where lil ole Nu Zull has lost some really skilled and committed people to places like Canada and a few European countries.
I’m not just talking about horticulturalists whose green credentials are second nature to them, but also IT professionals, and even one that Rocket LAb would love to have gotten their hands on.
Oh Dear – too bad
but if only INZ, the Labour Inspectorate, IAA and associated had listened to a few people at the coal face (Immigrant Workers’ Assoc, legit Immigration Lawyers, Unions, etc. they probably could have prevented a lot of this and saved themselves a lot of trouble. They chose not to and kept with the policies and enforcement that just kept all the churn going – good business and a bloody good earn for some.
Scientist Brad Lister returned to Puerto Rican rainforest after 35 years to find 98% of ground insects had vanished
“We knew that something was amiss in the first couple days,” said Brad Lister. “We were driving into the forest and at the same time both Andres and I said: ‘Where are all the birds?’ There was nothing.”
His return to the Luquillo rainforest in Puerto Rico after 35 years was to reveal an appalling discovery. The insect population that once provided plentiful food for birds throughout the mountainous national park had collapsed. On the ground, 98% had gone. Up in the leafy canopy, 80% had vanished. The most likely culprit by far is global warming.
[…]
Since Lister’s first visits to Luquillo, other scientists had predicted that tropical insects, having evolved in a very stable climate, would be much more sensitive to climate warming. “If you go a little bit past the thermal optimum for tropical insects, their fitness just plummets,” he said.
As the data came in, the predictions were confirmed in startling fashion. “The number of hot spells, temperatures above 29C, have increased tremendously,” he said. “It went from zero in the 1970s up to something like 44% of the days.” Factors important elsewhere in the world, such as destruction of habitat and pesticide use, could not explain the plummeting insect populations in Luquillo, which has long been a protected area.
Data on other animals that feed on bugs backed up the findings. “The frogs and birds had also declined simultaneously by about 50% to 65%,” Lister said. The population of one dazzling green bird that eats almost nothing but insects, the Puerto Rican tody, dropped by 90%. Not due to destruction of habitat or pesticide use etc. Pure climate change outcomes.
Poor Ozzies getting the brunt of Climate change already. Just too damn hot to function so there goes productivity…
A heatwave will greatly reduce farm production here too I’d say. Only a matter of time. farmers ought to get planting. Fast growing nitrogenous species and crop trees they support. Get on it!
It only takes a minute walking around the city to see how bad all the concrete and tarseal is for heating the place up – offset it with trees, plant now for everyone’s comfort.
Northern Australia is feeling it atm, with a lack of rain during the “Wet Season. Darwin and including its rural area where the wife and I live has have the driest December in record since 1991. Atm we have had about a quarter of our wet season rain (about 300mm) which is going to cause problems for a number of people who still run off bores or use rain water tanks for storage. The gap between a good wet season and a bad (dry) wet season is getting smaller and some us are starting think this wet season is going to be dry one, which is going to cause issues this coming dry season/ fire season.
From an environment POV, a lot of estuarine fish species have disappeared to deeper water and other main fish species have move further of offshore. The real sad thing is our sea turtles and sea cows have disappeared or those that have sighted are in sort of distress. It’s the same for our min crabs as well.
Move over Gilets Jaunes. Last week an estimated 150-200 million Indian workers went on strike in protest against what they describe as the anti-labour policies of Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party government.
(I’ll keep an eye out but nothing much in English language media about outcomes)
Right to Strike
This strike, like the 17 before it, is about livelihood issues and about the right to strike. A new trade union law sits in the legislature. It would mean the death of trade unionism in India. Tapan Sen’s statement about enslavement seems less hyperbolic in this context. If workers have no power, then they are effectively enslaved to the firm. This is already the case in factories that operate almost like concentration camps.
Walking through factories along the Chennai-Coimbatore corridor or in the Manesar area gives you a sense of the power of these new factories. They are a fortress, difficult to breach. Or a prison. Either way, trade unions are not welcome there. They are kept out by force—either violence or political muscle. Workers are often brought in from far away, migrants with few roots in the area. No workers stay long. As soon as they appear settled, they are removed.
Footloose workers and harassed trade unionists make for a harsh work environment. The culture of working-class solidarity erodes, social violence grows—the seedbed of neofascist politics.
Trying to register on Kiwiblog. Why? I know little about life but I do know about fight. Resistance from’m. Maybe I do matter.
You have a regular 100 comments, they have a regular 300. Everyone here has to be ‘correto’, in fact and opinion, they allow the whole field. A certain openness.
My b.a. Christian brother is scouring-of-the-centre-of-the-earth sceptical of everything outside what he swallowed whole without looking.
The Left regard reality as their bedrock, the Right have regard for fairy tales.
Are country’s getting loose with the ways they treat people crossing their borders.
The Iran English language tv channel says that its anchorwoman flew to the USA and was then arrested, and no-one knows why or can find out where she is.
Labour MP and former Police Association president Greg O’Connor has been hit with a $150 fine and 20 demerit points after a member of the public photographed him driving on the wrong side of the road…
…Last week, Mr O’Connor said he had no memory of driving in a way that would warrant police attention, and he repeated that when contacted yesterday.
But he had been shown photographs of his car crossing the centreline.
“I’ve accepted that I crossed the line and I’ve paid the ticket,” Mr O’Connor said…
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...
Why do so many people mistrust the police? Because they pull shit like this:The police are flouting the rules on breath testing, carrying out tests in people's homes to catch them out sometimes up to two hours after they were ...
I have been reading and listening to the aftermath of Trump’s comments about the four female first term Democratic representatives, all of whom are “people of color.” I found the US coverage interesting both as evidence of partisanship and the ...
The Herald reports that the housing shortage / bubble has hit a new level:New Zealand is short of 130,000 homes, the tally having risen lately by 30,000, two economists say. Jarrod Kerr and Jeremy Couchman, Kiwibank economists said: "This time ...
Milk producer Fonterra is one of New Zealand's biggest coal-users, using it to power all its South Island (and a few of its North Island) dairy factories. They'd previously "committed" to not building any new coal boilers after 2030. Now, ...
The proposed Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill treats biogenic methane emissions differently from all other carbon emissions. The latter are to be measured net so that emissions from fossil fuels can be offset by carbon stored in trees. ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...
Yesterday the government released its discussion document on action on agricultural emissions. As sadly usual, it proposed enormous subsidies for farm emissions, including for nitrogen-based fertiliser. This is a huge mistake. In addition to being one of the chief drivers ...
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act (this replaced their previous plans to hold a secret consultation with handpicked people). 285 people submitted on ...
Always Playing Catch-Up: Throughout the 1970s, the purchasing power of the ordinary worker’s pay packet – the only meaningful measure of his or her wealth – was being eaten away every passing year by seemingly inexorable rises in the cost-of-living. ...
The Interim Climate Change Committee's report on Action on agricultural emissions: Evidence, analysis and recommendations was finally released today, and as you might guess from the title, it is recommending that we actually act, rather than let farmers keep ...
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...
Agriculture is our biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for 48% of the total. It follows that meeting any credible emissions reduction target requires cutting agricultural emissions, most likely by having fewer cows. But National thinks people shouldn't be ...
How scummy is the UK Home Office? This scummy:The Home Office lied to EU member states to remove victims of human trafficking and modern slavery in breach of European law, according to whistleblowers. Legal experts have said the practice is ...
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...
“We wuz robbed!” is the classic cry of the disappointed losers of a closely contested sporting contest – it is very much to the credit of the Black Caps that we heard no such sentiment from them following the stunning ...
The Youth Parliament is being held this week, and some of the youth MPs are campaigning for a lower voting age:Molly Doyle, 17, is one Youth MP who wants this to change. She is part of a non-partisan campaign run ...
Up till now, Australia has made its living by digging up coal and exporting it to other countries, destroying the global climate in the process. But now they have a new option: exporting solar power:The desert outside Tennant Creek, deep ...
Later this month, thousands of people are expected to march to parliament as part of the #HandsOffOurTamaraki movement. At its heart, the movement is about preserving whānau and demanding that the state stop removing children from their whānau, hapū and iwi. ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh The recent statements made by the former FARC commander, Carlos Lozada (legal name Julian Gallo), where, from his seat in Congress, he praised the Colombian Army demonstrate how low the farianos have sunk. Lozada began by ...
A Woman’s Place is on the Podium was a public meeting in London on 10 July to discuss women’s sports and the impact of transwomen competing against women. The venue was sold out with a packed hall of 750 people. ...
Last month I talked about the no-fly movement: people who refuse to fly or limit it to absolute necessity to avoid destroying the climate. Now, that movement has a somewhat surprising new member: Dutch airline KLM:Dutch airline KLM has launched ...
In the 1960's, humanity faced a terrible threat: global thermonuclear war. Nuclear weapons were uniquely destructive and dangerous, and if more countries got them, the logic of MAD and the pre-emptive strike would put us on a hair-trigger to destruction. ...
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...
Matariki has been and gone, but this year we saw a couple of op-eds arguing that it should be a public holiday, replacing the foreign monarch's fake birthday. And now, New Zealand Republic - a group which campaigns for an ...
The discussion on the quality of economic advice, which we reported last week, has spilled over into a discussion about whether so many senior appointments should be of non-New Zealanders. Recall I discussed the failure to develop career paths within ...
When Nicky Hager revealed US footage of the Operation Burnham raid, obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act, one of the obvious questions was whether Ministers had seen it - and in particular, whether they'd been told that it ...
Northern Ireland is the Alabama of the UK: a backwards region where women and gay people are denied fundamental rights. But Westminster has just decided to fix that:MPs have voted resoundingly to extend same-sex marriage and access to abortion to ...
There's a problem with "synthetic cannabis", and not just the one you think. It's the name.We're in the midst of a wave of news stories that link synthetic drugs to serious harm, through deadly road accidents and accidental overdoses (which ...
Ranjit Kauri, The Dancing Maharani and Other Stories, Swansea, Head and Heart, 2019, £6.99; reviewed by Don Franks Working people are not the same country to country. Our struggles for a better life take place in surroundings of very different ...
Let's Do Them! All Jacinda Ardern has to do to clinch the 2020 General Election is frighten the bejesus out of the electorate by describing in the most graphic terms imaginable what will happen to all the positive beginnings her ...
It may be that we have all misinterpreted the somewhat surprising “bromance” between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. It has been all too easy to assume that it is Kim who is cosying up to Trump rather than the ...
by Michael Roberts So the full circle is completed. The corrupt pro-business conservative New Democracy party in Greece that was ousted by the anti-capitalist Syriza party in 2015 has been returned to office in yesterday’s general election, with an outright ...
When the Australian government passed a series of new spy laws over the last few years, they pinky-promised that they wouldn't use them to spy on journalists and subvert freedom of the press. They lied:The anti-encryption laws passed by the ...
From 1975 to 1989, the spy agencies of South America's right-wing military dictatorships cooperated in Operation Condor, a joint campaign of extermination against the continent's left. Roughly 400,000 people were imprisoned, 30,000 disappeared, and 60,000 murdered - kidnapped, tortured, executed, ...
When she was standing for office, Jacinda Ardern promised she would take abortion out of the Crimes Act. And to be fair, there was some early action on that, with an immediate referral of the issue to the Law Commission ...
When the government introduced the Zero Carbon Bill, people rightly asked what they planned to do to reduce transport emissions, which basicly had no policy at all other than the ETS. Today, they responded, announcing a "feebate" system which would ...
At almost every level, the problem with medicinal cannabis is a lack of good information. In the US, FDA regulations make it hard to research. Most doctors aren't familiar with what research there is and most patients don't know either. ...
Redline is critical of Corbyn for his political weaknesses, but he’s no anti-Semite. There is no substance to the McCarthyist witch-hunt being run by the right wing, and the pro-Israel lobby inside and outside the Labour Party in the UK. ...
The government's billion trees program is the sort of policy which could make a real difference to our emissions and the fight against climate change. But climate scientist Jim Salinger isn't convinced:The Forestry Minister Shane Jones' one billion trees won't ...
Last month the government was celebrating another surplus. Meanwhile, children are starving:One in five children are living in households where putting food on the table is a struggle, according to a new report from the Ministry of Health. It found ...
Show Me The Money! The alternative to state funding of infrastructure is, of course, to fund it by taking on massive amounts of private debt. On this issue, at least, Auckland mayoral challenger, Tamihere, has some solid points to make. ...
If we are to avoid making the earth uninhabitable, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to practically nothing over the next decade. But that will still leave us with the problem of the carbon we have already emitted, which ...
Former Waikato DHB CEO Nigel Murray allegedly misused public funds, spending more than $120,000 of public money on unjustified travel. He was forced to resign and the Serious Fraud Office began an investigation. But despite the SFO finding that the ...
Jeremy Corbyn, we are told, is being advised – not least by his deputy (as well as by some of his would-be successors) – that he must come “off the fence” on the Brexit issue if he wants to bolster ...
The End of Life bill has been read a second time and is now heading for the House for further debate. Personally, I support the proposal. I don't ever epect to take advantage of the Bill's provisions myself, but as ...
Before the substantive issue which this column is about – whether there has been a deterioration in the economic advice given to the government – a paragraph about the budget leaks.read more ...
Below is a translation of the editorial in the June 24 round of weekly workplace bulletins issued all over France by the revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvriere. Last Saturday, 8,000 people took to the streets of Belfort (eastern France) to ...
Why hasn't Parliament followed the lead set by our local authorities and declared a climate emergency? The answer is the National Party:The Prime Minister’s admission that she is open to the idea of declaring a climate change emergency is nothing ...
Back in May the government released its Zero Carbon Bill. While much of the bill was welcome, there was one big exception: it contained a secrecy clause, requiring the Climate Change Commission to maintain secrecy over practically everything it does. ...
by Phil Duncan This past week has marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Stonewall Inn riots in Christopher Street, New York, the event generally regarded as kicking off the gay liberation movement. Quite a few articles have ...
Southland - land of coal-burning dairy farmers - has become the first region in the country to explicitly vote against declaring a climate emergency. Their reason? They didn't want to "devalue" the word "emergency". Its an argument addressed powerfully in ...
New Zealand has a problem with police chases: officers going after fleeing drivers like rabid dogs, without any consideration for proportionality or public safety, often with fatal results. And according to an in-depth article in the Guardian today, the UK ...
Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...
Holly Lawford-Smith is a senior lecturer in political philosophy at the University of Melbourne. She’s currently writing a book about radical feminism. This article appeared on Feminist Current Academics should be standing together in defence of universities’ fundamental values: the ...
The Otago Daily Times has an in-depth article about the future of wind energy in New Zealand, and it is looking bright:The news that wind will play the leading role in New Zealand’s energy future was put up in lights ...
If the sight of schoolkids striking for a future has been filling you with hope, good news: they want you to join them on September 27:Students will take to the streets again demanding action on climate change, and this time ...
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...
The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...
I have been working my way through a 47,000 document tranche of declassified US government communications related to Argentina and the “Dirty War” of 1976-83. I grew up in Argentina in the period leading up to the March 24, 1976 ...
To express concern about foreign ownership and control in New Zealand is often to invite accusations of xenophobia and economic illiteracy. It is worthwhile, therefore, to rehearse the grounds for that concern, and to explore the various forms it can ...
It must be a day ending in Y because the Guardian - remember when it used to be a good paper1 - is running another spurious story about Corbyn's leadership being threatened over anti-Semitism.The headline the Guardian runs is: "MPs tell ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Jun 23 through Sat, June 29, 2019 Editor's Pick When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met Greta Thunberg: 'Hope is contagious'Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and ...
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...
Million-dollar start to gun collection eventsPolice Minister Stuart Nash says a solid start has been made to the gun buyback and amnesty after the first weekend of community collection events. “Gun owners will walk away with more than ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash has praised Police and gun owners after the first firearms collection event saw a busy turnout at Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch. “Police officers and staff have put a tremendous effort into planning and logistics for the ...
Seventy-eight new Police constables are heading out to the regions following today’s graduation of a new recruit wing from the Royal New Zealand Police College. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the record high number of new Police officers being recruited, ...
July 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government is looking to tighten control and impose harsher penalties after the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed cracks in the country's stock management system. ...
Kia Anga Mua Ngā Hapū o Ngāpuhi (KAM) has reached a pivotal milestone following a hui yesterday at Waitangi with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the Government spent $133,530 on producing its ‘Wellbeing Budget’ document, a cost blowout largely driven by spending on graphic design and photography. The $133,530 price tag compares to $86,268 ...
Kahungunu Māori Language Awards. Nominations closed on 5 July 2019, and were judged by the Senior Management Team of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated. The judges wish to acknowledge the very high calibre of all nominations received making it a very ...
High Court of Australia Judge, Justice Stephen Gageler, will address recent criticism of court judgment delays in Australia, at the University of Canterbury (UC) on 23 July at 6.15pm. ...
This summary is provided to assist in the understanding of the Inquiry’s proceedings but does not constitute the official record. The full Minute is available at the link below. ...
The Tertiary Education Commission is laying charges under section 292A of the Education Act 1989 against three individuals for making a false representation for the purpose of receiving, or continuing to receive, free tertiary education from a tertiary education ...
New Zealand food businesses today welcomed a trio of new food safety tools, designed to make it faster, easier and more affordable to follow the rules and keep consumers safe. ...
AUT research shows that Māori children are almost four times more likely than those of European descent to be placed out of home by child protection services ...
The Government announced today that grants of up to $2,500 for energy efficient heaters are now available as part of the Government’s Warmer Kiwi Homes programme. ...
Fonterra’s use of coal has been the target of numerous grassroots campaigns in recent years. Last year 350 Aotearoa affiliated groups, Fossil Free Aoraki and 350 Nelson launched a petition dismissing the dairy giant’s initial target of no new ...
Information sessions on proposals for The Medicinal Cannabis Scheme take place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch over the next fortnight. The sessions are open to anyone with an interest in learning more about the proposed scheme. ...
“Our children are our most vulnerable, most innocent victims and we do not want to see any more children harmed by these ‘known sex offenders’. The safety of our community must be the paramount consideration.” ...
“The announcement that Fonterra will immediately stop installing any new coal boilers or increasing capacity to burn coal is the signal that the biomass fuel supply industry welcomes” said Brian Cox, Executive Officer of the Bioenergy Association. ...
18 July 2019-- Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA) today welcomed Fonterra’s commitment to build no new coal plants, a “no brainer” for the climate crisis the world faces. The group has been urging this transition for six years now and ...
The increase in demand for cage-free eggs is set to continue according to animal rights organisation SAFE, who says the egg industry should expect this and prepare. ...
Wellington, New Zealand – 350 Pacific made a formal submission to the New Zealand Government’s Environment Parliamentary Select Committee on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, led by the Pacific Climate Warriors (PCWs) based in ...
There used to be a school of thought on the centre right side of politics that the best way to neuter the Greens as a political force would be to let them have a spell in government. Then, according to ...
Today (18 July) is Nelson Mandela International Day when the United Nations highlights the importance of humane conditions of imprisonment. In New Zealand our prisons are overcrowded and understaffed. At 214 prisoners per 100,000 people, we have the fifth ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa will take legal action over the lengthy delay in implementing pay increases for teachers. Novopay announced yesterday that teachers would have to wait until 11 September to see pay increases that they won when they settled ...
EDS has filed its submission on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill. The Bill sets targets for greenhouse gas reductions, provides for the government to set a series of carbon budgets, and sets up a new, independent, Climate ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has identified an absurd case of mission creep at Wellington City Council: the decision to spend $21,750 on two Consumer NZ investigations into different brands of bike lights. ...
The Motor Trade Association is welcoming the release of the Government’s new draft road safety strategy. MTA Chief Executive Craig Pomare says the association is pleased to see vehicle safety has been made a priority in the Road to Zero ...
The Department of Conservation continue to repeat the same old story about attacks on staff and how it is affecting their role in protecting our precious wildlife. NZ herald https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12249704 ...
The government's silence on the fact that the country's second-largest milk processor is on the brink of becoming 25% Chinese Government owned has been deafening. ...
School Strike 4 Climate NZ welcomes the coalition Government’s endeavour to take action on reducing agricultural emissions but is disappointed at the weak stance that the Government has taken on the issue. ...
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has issued a formal warning under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act) to seven reporting entities within the Regus Management Limited (RNZML) designated business ...
The Northland Regional Council (NRC) has voted to exclude all GM/GE precautionary provisions in its regional plan, despite years of community engagement showing support for such protection. There is a sense of betrayal following the way the NRC Chairman ...
New Zealand’s ‘mission-driven’ charities working in international aid are showing early signs of changing the way they work, in particular prioritising building the capacity and resilience of local communities to do their own development. ...
Teachers will have to wait until 11 September for pay increases won as part of their collective agreement negotiations settled in June, according to an update sent to schools today from Novopay. ...
July 16 (BusinessDesk) - Energy Minister Megan Woods says the government “won’t die in a ditch” if its goal of 100 percent renewable electricity generation isn't reached by 2035. ...
The Electricity Networks Association (ENA) is welcoming the Government’s response to the Interim Climate Change Committee (ICCC) Report released today. Graeme Peters, chief executive of the ENA, said one of the key recommendations, endorsed by the ...
An article* published this month in the Journal of Health Organization and Management raises questions over the way health board members are elected and whether the boards are even needed. ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa's kindergarten teacher members will vote on a proposed settlement to their collective agreement after four days of negotiations with the Ministry of Education and kindergarten employers. ...
Vector has today welcomed the ICCC’s report on Accelerated Electrification . Vector agrees that accelerating the electrification of transport and process heat will play a major role in reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Initiatives to ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Porirua City Council to cancel its underwriting of a proposed Canadian-led privately owned adventure park slated for public land after a similar project created a huge liability for Christchurch ...
Youth climate change campaigners Generation Zero welcome the Interim Climate Change Committee’s (ICCC’s) reports: Accelerated Electrification and Action on agricultural emissions ; which were finally released by the Government today, almost three months ...
Fish & Game New Zealand notes the announcement today that the Government and the intensive agriculture leadership have reached a ‘historic consensus’ and are exploring using a formal sector-government agreement instead of bringing agriculture ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report on Accelerated Electrification was released today by the Minister for Energy and Resources, Hon Dr Megan Woods. ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report Action on agricultural emissions was released today by the Minister for Climate Change, Hon James Shaw and the Minister of Agriculture, Hon Damien O’Connor. ...
Please find attached embargoed copies of two media statements from the Interim Climate Change Committee http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1907/Embargoed_Interim_Climate_Change_Committee_Accelerated_electrification_MEDIA_STATEMENT.pdf ...
Greenpeace Executive Director, Dr Russel Norman, has reacted with disbelief that the Government’s latest climate proposal includes an option for dairy to voluntarily deal with their emissions over the next six years. ...
This week’s “Youth Parliament” is an expensive waste of time that promotes taxpayer-funded junketeering, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . “We shouldn’t be training kids on the joys of the trough,” says Taxpayers’ Union spokesperson ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones admitted on Q+A tonight that the state of New Zealand’s infrastructure planning is “dismal” and the government needs to get on with building “rather than writing more reports about it.” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan – one with a reduced pace, despite the 24 ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and ...
Jacinda Ardern’s Melbourne trip wrapped up with nothing to show on longstanding trans-Tasman concerns, but was a potent reminder of her international appeal. ...
Pricing agricultural emissions first at the processor level - such as Fonterra - rather than right down at farm level stacks up as a gap measure says Catherine Leining. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne Orlando, Researcher: Children and Technology, Western Sydney University Instagram is running a social media experiment in Australia and elsewhere to see what happens when it hides the number of likes on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Cross, Research Fellow, Curtin University Sign up to the Beating Around the Bush newsletter here, and suggest a plant we should cover at batb@theconversation.edu.au. Billabongs in the northern Kimberley are welcome ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling You’ve probably heard that this week marks 50 years since humans first set foot on the Moon – a feat that still boggles the mind given ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis Gentilin, Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University As strange as it might sound, whistleblowers in Australia have reason to rejoice – so long as they are in the private sector. Thanks to new ...
The fourth season of Queer Eye drops today on Netflix. Sam Brooks reflects on his difficult relationship with the show, and where it sits in mainstream culture.For depressingly many people, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was an introduction not just to ...
The collapse of a multi-billion dollar deal to sell AMP's life insurance division to a British company for $3.6 billion is the fault of the companies, according to the Reserve Bank. ...
A poem by Miramar poet Geoff Cochrane.Channel HoppingStupa or Stuka?Weet-Bix or Welsh rabbit?Galactic aerodrome or Matchbox truck?*I’m young in my dreams, still young.*Beautiful Keanu’s wearing shades—antique shades with iodine-coloured lenses.*I’m young in my dreams, still young,and I still have some ...
For the month of July, Josie Adams is taking on the challenge of being low-waste. That means minimising plastics, emissions, and even recyclables. Each week we release her diary. This is week two.Read week one here.I’ll be honest, week two ...
By Royson Willie in Port Vila Two Vanuatu Daily Post journalists were literally given a pat-down by the police criminal investigation unit yesterday over a story they had written about the vehicle of the Chairman of the Public Service ...
By Gorothy Kenneth in Port Moresby Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape will visit Australia this weekend for a week-long state visit and the Bougainville independence referendum in less than three months is expected to be high on ...
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...
Wtf did we just watch?That sound you heard was a million furries screaming in ecstasy as their fantasy and everyone else’s nightmare came to life in the form of the first trailer for the live action version of Cats.Is it ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Three Women by Lisa Taddeo (Bloomsbury, $35)Fucking ...
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...
As we mark the fiftieth anniversary the July 20th Moon landing Dr Nick Long reflects on what that's meant for New Zealand and considers the space 'gold rush' ahead. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Griebsch, Specialist and Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Medicine, University Veterinary Teaching Hospital Sydney, Sydney School of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney Recently reported cases of the often fatal bacterial infection ...
My selection of the eight best morning news links from here and overseas, along with eight lunchtime lean-back long reads. Also, the full list of links, including Jacinda Ardern's trip to Australia, the big emissions report, Fonterra's coal move and a new ...
Heaven is a place on earth, and June is saving the world one ’80s pop hit at a time. Tara Ward recaps season 4, episode 9 of The Handmaid’s Tale. Praise be, for there was a tiny bit of good news ...
Finance companies say they shouldn’t have to be ‘fit and proper’ even though in some cases they charge more than the planned clampdown on high cost lending. A group of finance companies that charges well over the government’s proposed cap on ...
An ANZ shareholder is demanding the bank disclose more information about the sale of an Auckland residential property to its former chief executive and his family. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentForeign Affairs and trade Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): The new, ...
Tara Ward sets out on a valiant quest to find the best apple in Aotearoa. The idea that every apple is a good apple is fake news. We’ve all got stories about shit experiences with apples, when it looked good on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Sarkissian, Operations Scientist, CSIRO The role Australia played in relaying the first television images of astronaut Neil Armstrong’s historic walk on the Moon 50 years ago this July features in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lyndal Sleep, Research Fellow, Griffith University In Australia’s social security laws, the “couple rule” is used to determine if a person is in a relationship, tying access to Centrelink payments to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Walker, Lecturer (Management), Victoria University of Wellington We live in a society obsessed with performance. For both young and old, competitions, awards and rankings are an inescapable feature of life. How ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan O’Connell, Honorary Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne One-third of all preschools may lack a qualified teacher in the next four years if nothing changes, my new modelling shows. Currently, half of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kirsty Volz, PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Of all the mantras for modernism, the one I think most befitting for Australian mid-century modern houses is L’esprit Nouveau – The New Spirit. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Skifield snowmaking a sign of the future, vaccination rates fall alarmingly, and construction industry encouraged to lower emissions.Snowmaking has saved the ski industry from disaster this year, after the weather ...
Joel Rindelaub explains why it's so important for those weighing on climate science to be transparent about their funding sources and conflicts of interest. ...
Neil Armstrong may have been the first man on the moon, but if we define the ‘space race’ as spaceflight capability, the Soviets won it hands down, writes Jennifer Frost. ...
Our government and leaders are (still) divided on the question of compulsory te reo Māori. Who’s for it, who’s against it, and who’s flip flopping around in the middle?Under article two of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the government pledges to ...
When teenagers today are being called upon to solve the problems of tomorrow, why aren’t they given the right to participate in democracy? Fourteen-year-old Oli Morphew makes the case for lowering the voting age. If you’re going to deprive someone of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Walker, Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe University Australia’s relations with China will be further complicated by the news that Australian citizen Yang Hengjun is set to be charged with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Kyne, Senior Research Fellow in conservation biology, Charles Darwin University More than 28,000 species around the world are threatened, according to the Red List of Threatened Species compiled by the International ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clive Hamilton, Professor of Public Ethics, Centre For Applied Philosophy & Public Ethics (CAPPE), Charles Sturt University Two Australian universities, University of Technology Sydney and Curtin University, are conducting internal reviews of ...
Open Mike 16/01/2019 
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...3 hours ago
This week, in the wake of National's opposition to even talking about reducing agricultural emissions and Simon Bridges' refusal to recognise that there is a climate emergency, I've been saying that National is unfit to govern. And it looks like ...5 hours ago
Something I missed: not only did Youth MPs declare a climate emergency; they also launched a campaign to lower the voting age to 16:Youth Parliament week in Parliament has seen the establishment of Make it 16, a campaign to ...8 hours ago
I have been reading and listening to the aftermath of Trump’s comments about the four female first term Democratic representatives, all of whom are “people of color.” I found the US coverage interesting both as evidence of partisanship and the ...1 day ago
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As we mark the fiftieth anniversary the July 20th Moon landing Dr Nick Long reflects on what that's meant for New Zealand and considers the space 'gold rush' ahead. ...9 hours ago
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan O’Connell, Honorary Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne One-third of all preschools may lack a qualified teacher in the next four years if nothing changes, my new modelling shows. Currently, half of ...13 hours ago
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The UK Government Manufacture of False Sexual Allegations
by CRAIG MURRAY, Jan. 9, 2019
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/01/the-uk-government-manufacture-of-false-sexual-allegations/
Yes Morrisey, it is the horrible kind of political expediency.
Or worse, what happened to a certain reporter in an embassy.
Governments practice it to degrees. Here we had a unionist killed by a bomb, and in Britain a Kiwi protester went that way under the truncheon of a horseback Bobbie.
Being discredited pulls political teeth, being sexually discredited by rumour or innuendo removes the chance of being believed.
Being killed to prevent the truth coming out happens. It depends on the material and the power of the threatened.
All governments have methods of dealing with opposition, most ok but some not so.
Thanks for that reminder, patricia. The National government, in concert with the “Defence” chiefs and their usual media accomplices, led a campaign of lies against Jon Stephenson and Nicky Hager. I’m extremely upset with this Labour government bowing to those “Defence” chiefs and covering up the “inquiry” into the SAS raids in Afghanistan.
It’s also worth remembering that it’s not only Saudi Arabia that holds the concept of “embassy” in contempt: the rogue U.K. regime at one stage considered raiding the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
Deported. https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/380201/tourists-served-deportation-notices-at-hamilton-burger-king
Be interesting to see if the airline will let them fly. As they could be a danger to the flight?
And the deportation could come to haunt them when they want to travel again.
Sedation appeals.
They should have sedated this violent old rogue.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11455637
May have to go in smaller groups on different flights?
It seems strange that such a group can get away with pretty obnoxious behaviour for so long. “Public Nuisance” if it was you or I behaving badly.
Pale skin may have confused the authorities. I’m impressed they eventually got deported on the spot rather than faffing around with court etc.
I think that they have 28 days in which to Appeal. Very appealing I don’t think.
If they are deported ahead of when they were booked to leave the country ? who pays for the airtickets?
The Government may have decided it was cheaper to change their tickets than host them further lol.
No doubt they will claim they are in danger if they return home and Galloway will grant them residency.
See 2.4 below. Unlikely to go to the Minister of Immigration, but they apparently have decided to cut their holiday short and leave today.
Thanks for reminding us of last year’s news, Naki Man. I suspect it would be really helpful for these tourists if one of them could enter into a relationship with a National party hack and drip feed titbits to the media over a period of months in an attempt to embarrass the Immigration Minister.
That worked so well in the Sroubek affair that the Minister was forced to, er, stay on as Minister.
We facitious comment TRP that’s the sort of comment you regularly get on Kiwibog.
They should have donated a $100k to the nats and got one of them on to the list .
Not serious enough offences for the NZ Police to take any action until it got to the media ?
One faced court after a night in the cells. The Police acted on a report by a Hamilton business.
The group were met by Police and had to buy two child restraint seats.
Why are you saying Police action happened after publication, when clearly events were published after court and police action. Your point was?
NZ goes full ‘Snatch’
Dya loik dags?
Lol – apparently they’re from Liverpool I heard.
Apparently they reside in Liverpool and have UK passports, but listening to those vids on the news sites, it’s sounds very much like mrs brown’s boys to me. But who knows?
I did read a report on stuff (I think) from an ex pad Irish who was doing their best to distance themselves from these tourists, claiming they were likely to be first or second generation traveller imports to England.
Either way, not the best both nations have to offer from what I’ve seen and read.
Lucky for them their old fella is the tenth richest man in blighty. He’ll be able to pay all the fines and cost with ease 😆
There Tinkers ( Irish gypsies) ran across a lot of them on my OE, as per Hillary Clinton they truly are deplorables
They have not been instantly deported but have been issued with a Deportation Liability Notice, according the Newshub report link below:
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/01/rowdy-tourists-group-served-deportation-notice-may-be-banned-from-new-zealand-for-5-years.html
The article also provides more details of damage, aggression etc in both Auckland and Hamilton – just astonishingly bad behaviour.
———————–
Oops – almost missed these details at the end of the article:
“Another member of the group, David, also denied the travellers were Irish gypsies and were instead English citizens in New Zealand for a two week holiday.
But those plans now seem to have been cut short, with the group planning to head off on Wednesday.”
So, if they leave today as now planned, that probably means that they will not have officially been deported and will be free to take their bad behaviour elsewhere in the future. In the meantime, what likelihood of their paying for all the damage etc they have caused?
——————-
Here is a link to a TVNZ article on the group:
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/tourists-served-deportation-notices-immigration-new-zealand-after-incident-hamilton-burger-king?variant=tb_v_1
LATEST NEWS on TOURIST GROUP
RNZ News have reported that the 26 yr old woman from the group arrested in Hamilton has been convicted on two shoplifting charges of stealing $55 worth of goods from a petrol station in Albany, Auckland.
“She was accused of stealing Red Bull energy drinks, rope and a pair of sunglasses totalling $55 from a Caltex service station in Albany in late December and early January. …
“She was convicted and ordered to pay reparation in court today, appearing for a second time after the case was stood down pending an application for legal aid.
“Ms Cash was described in court documents as having no fixed abode.”
“In sentencing, Community Magistrate Ngaire Marcelle gave Cash credit for her early plea and took into account that she had spent the night in police cells.
“Ms Marcelle described the night in custody as a significant penalty for a first offence.”
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/380201/court-convicts-woman-from-unruly-tourist-group
While I also think good riddance to the Irish travellers, the mind boggles why some disorderly behaviour managed to get them deported so quickly and the police and immigration involved without even a prosecution, while we have so many criminals living in NZ who break the law and actually destroy other people’s lives with their crimes and they are still here or their crimes un noticed for decades, often even being granted permanent residency? Personally find those that ask $40k for a fake job, import in 40k of crystal meth or give out fake drivers licenses are more dangerous to NZ society than littering and doing a runner on a meal from an obnoxious family.
1. They have not been deported but may have left or may be leaving NZ today of their own accord. See 2.4 above.
2. One of them was prosecuted on two charges of shoplifting today and convicted. See 2.5 above.
3. It has not been confirmed that they are Irish (travellers, tinkers or not) and it has been reported they are from Liverpool.
4. Their obnoxious behaviour was far more than “littering and doing a runner on a meal”.
There Tinkers 100pc
This not Irish or English to there way of thinking any way
If only more visitors and residents could be deported or asked to leave by authorities, after being convicted so promptly and exhibiting antisocial/criminal behaviour, we might have a much nicer society and many less Kiwis in poverty and our prisons not overflowing and shorter times to receive medical attention.
Just a few high profile migrant criminals that are in jail costing Kiwis hundreds of thousands of dollars who ‘eventually’ got deported or are still here fighting deportation or not deported at all… Sroubek, Joanne Harrison, Ka Kit Yim alias Chris Yim, Virgil Balajadia, Gurpreet Singh, Faroz Ali to name but a few making headlines…
Maybe if the government were more interested in stopping and protecting and deporting scammers and criminals who were not born here and trying to get permanent residency or citizenship, we might have a better society and not people queuing up at the food banks and living in overcrowded accommodation with so many people who do not deserve to reside in NZ, having the priority rather than the safety and fairness and welfare of those who do.
Every time someone makes a dollar, speculators arrive to mess things up. It’s the fear of missing out that drives the pile on. It’s ‘competition’ say the business folk who, never thinking always acting, jostle for position on the gravy train; and fuck our ecology again.
This is the plight of starving bees with newcomers piling on trying to make manuka honey.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12190479
I have a hive. And to have this hive I have to register said hive. This means there is somewhere a central authority with the numbers of hives in each region. This also means there is someone, somewhere, approving the overstocking of our lands for business interests, again.
I’ve got an issue with bees. I have hardly seen any this year. Last year there was plenty. Not many wasps, only a few bumblebees, seen no frogs, or tadpoles, few flys.
Im one of those people who let there lawn go to flower. At one property the lawn was still pretty short but was a near perfect white lawn. To me it was buitifull, but the landlord disagreed. This Christmas the lawn was a mix of white and yellow. But hardly any bees.
The thing with bees is the don’t know about our on paper boarders. Unlike humans, not even walls stop them. So it’s not possible to ban a person putting bees on land they own, or expect those bees will not come on your land. They may grow a crop that needs bees themselves. The registering system is not an opproval system.
We could significantly increase bees as a small Buisiness model in NZ, within co-operatives to enable products and high value exports. So registering bees is a good idea. Opposite to overstocking as an intent, it exposes overstocking, it exposes shortages and areas needing investment in small buisinesses in those areas.
Somebody may have land that grows Manuka and the neighbor brings in bees to take advantage. How do you stop it? I may get honey from my lawn, and the neighbor sees that and puts a hive at my fence, themselves mowing there own lawn all the time, having no flowers.
” may get honey from my lawn”
Wow!
You want to ring-fence the pollen from the flowers that grow in your garden?
Have you considered patenting the colour of your flowers?
Some people might be looking over your fence and soaking it up with their eyes; exploiters!!!
I think you got the wrong end of the stick. I can understand why people who plant land for honey production only for next door profiting are complianing. I was pointing out reality is it’s impossible to prevent.
Unless you make having a bee hive a resource consent event. You could create a Beehive Bureaucracy just for subservience to the state and protection of preferred landowners.
I think I prefer the flaws of freedom.
In my own lawn example, I would encourage others to do the same if they want to keep bees, as well as flowering bushes, trees. The mowed lawn is a desert. A lawn allowed to flower supports many more insects and the things that feed on them. Then it can be mowed and you get a great composting crop.
DJ you should do a post on bees and the rural economy of honey.
My family own a reasonable sized drystock farm south of Kaitaia, and most everywhere around it has reverted to Manuka. Plenty of very, very competitive apiarists up there now. And a fair few jobs.
Personally I could see the family farm just hold their nose for four years and let the whole thing revert, then go straight to honey production. Much better return, whole bunch more viable, and good for the land.
Yes I watched a documentary a year or so on a family as you described up north.
I don’t do it myself because I’m a bit allergic to them. My best friend has a close friend who is involved with bee keeping in an urban setting for himself as well as having worked in the industry overseas. Plus a workmate did it for awhile as well. So I have had quite a few conversations, helped make things, and relaxed in his backyard while watching the hives in action.
I’ll have look at the subject, and a think.
I’ll put something on, How do we get there.
Miss You Ed:
Heh! I raise you one John Waite:
I miss Bill a bunch more.
He was a grumpy fuck but he was our grumpy fuck.
Too right, Ad. I rarely agreed with Bill’s opinions, but I loved the way he expressed them.
Where is he?
Edit I think Anne means ed.
Really missing ED.
Me not so much but I was wondering what has happened to bill.
IIRC someone (one of the admin/moderators? ) mentioned in passing some weeks ago that he and someone else(?) were “on sabbatical” – but cannot find the comment.
My sincere apologies for snapping at you re PG – was trying to be open minded about other commenters such as PG being able to comment here – and then did exactly to you what I accused you of. Mea culpa.
All good – I did feel sad – but that was because I ‘made’ you and Robert comment to me like that not sad actually about your comment which was fair enough.
I agree that I miss Bill’s opinions which I also rarely agreed with but they nevertheless were valid and needed to be considered even if not agreed with. But I do not miss his moderation … Less said the better, but I know it drove some people away, including me, on occasions. I have a fairly thick skin, but his attacks were well over the top sometimes.
Moderation is always problematic, vv, and it takes a toll on the person doing the mahe too. None of the authors want to see people removed from the site, however, that’s often the best thing to keep the place ticking along.
Bill put in place a really good system where we authors can keep track of moderation decisions and the reasoning for them. It means that when making the big calls on a misbehaving commenter, there is a record of previous attempts to get an improvement from them. That really helps with consistency.
Each moderator has their own style, but I can tell you, it gets incredibly frustrating when people don’t take the hint. It can be really, really hard to be diplomatic in those circumstances.
I certainly don’t disagree with any of that, trp. And I am interested that it was Bill who set up the recording system for moderation decisions and similar.
From time to time I am a moderator/administrator on a worldwide blog of a completely different nature, subject etc to this one, so know from personal experience the problems etc. Each instance requiring moderation is different in some aspect to similar instances in the past, and it is a tightrope walk as I know. But I still stand by my comments above from observation and personal experience. But lets leave it at that.
A song for Bill – here is Willie Nelson Always on my Mind.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7f189Z0v0Y
and a bit more nostalgia
Crosby Stills Nash Young
It’s been a Long Time
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVW9sOsXAjU
And I’ll throw in Woodstock with lyrics.
And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g25DlXOWmMo
Yes, where is Bill? Oh Anne I see.
+1.
I know/am related to a Scottish Maori just like him. Much we can agree on, a lot we cannot.
Could have used him when entertaining the family Tory faction Christmas lunch time
Well, if he had learnt from his mistakes and played by the rules of the site he would still be here maui.
He did learn Anne, as I stated here (/open-mike-10-01-2019/#comment-1570382) and no-one disagreed.
Ed was one of the best at taking moderation on board and not getting banned for the same thing, while others continue to be banned for the same behaviour.
The truth is Ed was not wanted on this board by certain parts, and that is why he is banned.
Maui. Please don’t be a goose. This thread has been pretty good till now and the conversation has been an adult discussion about what was a genuinely difficult moderation decision. I know you don’t like the facts of the matter, but the truth is Ed (and his many alternative names) never learned a fucken thing. For whatever reason, he just kept coming back, doing the same dumb shit day after day. Which is why he was repeatedly banned by multiple moderators.
And, no, I don’t want to get into a discussion about it. Suck it up and move on.
Silence != agreement
Important lesson to learn, that one.
Bring back Ed
Ed’s trying to come back, Bewildered. Lots of comments in the trash from his sockpuppets 😉
He tried a couple of comments on TDB on Jan 11 also, complaining about TS, but haven’t seen any since (although I have not really checked since). Wonder whether he has been blocked there? [Rhetorical question only … ]
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/01/11/3-under-the-news-radar-2018-so-about-all-the-russia-hysteria/#comment-449736
ED says:
JANUARY 11, 2019 AT 10:22 AM
I was attacked and abused on the Standard for stating this about Russia.
Joe90, Stuart Munro, Andre and Te Reo Putake are cheerleaders for war against Russia on that centrist chattering club.
(A few other familar TS commenters also on that thread.)
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/01/11/5-under-the-news-radar-2018-the-brutal-occupation-of-palestine-brutal-saudi-fuelled-civil-war-in-yemen-the-magnitude-of-climate-catastrophe/#comment-449735
ED says:
JANUARY 11, 2019 AT 10:19 AM
I was silenced by Te Reo Putake for suggesting radical solutions to climate change.
The Standard has become a centrist chattering club with tints of Mccarthyism.
LOL
Crikey, that last comment reassures me that I made the correct decision. Still, Tints of McCarthy would make a great name for an emo band 😉
Exactly! ROFL. “Tints of McCarthy” is wonderful!
I agree with your moderation TRP but purely for entertainment Ed was gold, I know that’s not the purpose of the site but I am sure that’s why a lot of people come here, sorry not high brow but the left wing punch ups are way more entertaining than dealing to RWnJ like me😊
Dead right, Bewildered. That’s one of the reasons why it was a hard call. There’s an old saying ‘no grit, no pearl’, which suggests that the occasional irritation can lead to a beautiful outcome. However, this situation felt more like ‘all grit, no pearl’.
Is it to do with phases of the moon or something? There seems to be even more frenzy than usual going on on the trademe message board site.
I see there the Prime Minister is lazy and is on holiday recovering from all the days she didn’t turn up to work , etc., etc. School’s out I suppose and kids have to occupy themselves doing something.
KIwiblog very vicious on Winston today. Laugh a minute, very disrespectful though, they have a feeding frenzy over there at times.
They refer to Jacinda as SLG.
lol totally not an echo chamber. /sarc
I don’t even want to know how they get to “SLG”, it just means that nobody else knows what they’re wanking on about.
I miss Ed too. I found that his links were very informative. I think that his banning was something of an ego trip. (lefter than thou?) If you are not well educated and somewhat inarticulate , it can be really intimidating to comment on The Standard. I think it has become something of an echo chamber. Where are the working class/beneficiaries voices? I gave up commenting after a sarcastic response from Bill because I posted something that had already posted. James takes over threads with his bullshit and gets away with all sorts of shit. ‘Birds of a feather” etc.
beatie
You make te point that James takes over threads and so does Ed. To my mind that was one of his main disadvantages. his isn’t a place for people’s entertainment by the way. We might make our comments in entertaining ways
and if you want to comment about serious matters and got put off by Bill, have another go with some detail and not just your moans about how bad things are and opinions which is what Ed did.
“My ‘moans’ about how bad things are” are my reality greywarshark. I apologise if that makes you uncomfortable.
Well I’m not on an ego trip. That’s my reality. I don’t know about yours.
I agree with you. Now with Ed, Bill and CV gone there is a large chasm with the ‘alt-left’ voice pretty much wiped out from here. Whoever fills the void won’t last long I suspect.
We have still got Mozz leading from the front thank the almighty
Good on you, wilde Breed. Best wishes, mon ami.
https://tenor.com/view/bear-hug-love-huggable-cute-bear-gif-8094447
Jesus Christ, mauī!?!?!?!?!?
Ed Shareen?!?!?!? Hasn’t Ed been punished enough?
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/04/godawful-new-hobbit-song-fails-to.html
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/380206/ethics-code-may-see-mega-ministry-contracts-lost-lobby-group-says
Well done MoBIE – at last, and on one of the issues it faces. Lets hope it signals an overall change in culture.
But what is Kirk Hope saying/threatening here?
That businesses should only have to be ‘pretty ethical’, ‘pretty legal’?
Kirk Hope? Shallow, complacent, doltishly doctrinaire. Utterly despicable.
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/04/megan-whelan-interviews-kirk-hope-jan.html
Sounds like if we hadn’t had a change in junta from the gNats, Kirk would have been a shoo-in for Smol’s replacement as MoBIE CEO
We had a lucky escape, and the gNats china arm was ready to be installed.
Off topic, but is Friday the big day IIRC?
If so, my very best wishes and I will be sending good vibes for an excellent outcome.
Yes, and thank you Totally off topic but may give some a laugh
Hubby and I turn up to pre-op hospital education session.
After meeting 5 team members, we were given a ‘Grabber” to pick things up after the hip op.
We were most interested in the talk about easy ways to get into the car.
So we get out there, we successfully try their method.. Yay!!
N packs everything in and we are off.
Get home… where is the grabber?
Oh heck, put it on the roof of the car didn’t we!! N goes back …no luck.
We ring to explain. Much laughter from the desk. Half hour later, ‘phone goes
“Don’t worry, it was handed in, and no-one had driven over it. The team was delighted to hear you were so keen to practice what you were taught!! Further you made their day..they had a right old laugh… see you Friday.”
They already have my number I think!!
Somebody above loves you.
I liked the warning of Kirk Hope that if the government was too thorough in its changes, businesses wouldn’t want to do government work. That is so funny.
The whole trend for neo-liberals is to bad-mouth the government’s effectiveness and efficiency so that business gets to do and make a profit from providing government services, mainly by cutting wages and staff, and showing bad faith to the citizens in their dealings and practices.
No way are they going to want to stop milking the government, no matter how it tightens its teats.
yep. Well I guess we’re all the product of the bubbles we choose to operate in, and the degree to which we’re prepared to sacrifice principles.
Seems like in Kirk’s case, and many others, principles come cheap.
(That is until they don’t and it all goes tits up)
Cool
“The first video shows Chang’e-4’s descent into the Von Karman crater. The CLEP chose the crater as its landing site because of the crater’s depth. Von Karman is a crater-within-a-crater, and it’s possible that the impact event blasted away the crust and exposed some of the Moon’s mantle. The CLEP is using Chang’e-4 to examine the chemical and geological nature of the area, and to try and discover more about the Moon’s formation and interior.”
https://www.universetoday.com/141197/incredible-descent-video-of-the-chinese-lander-to-the-lunar-far-side/#more-141197
Well well, the Prime Minister of Canada Mr Trudeau asks Prime Minister Ardern with assistance in the Huawei-China digital security issue.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12191245
The New Zealand Prime Ministers’ office comments:
“They discussed the detention and legal treatment of Canadian citizens in China.
“Although the cases are a consular matter between Canada and China – as the extradition case relates to a Huawei executive in Canada – there are principles at stake that concern us all,” the spokeswoman said.
She added that the Government closely monitors international developments which may affect the safety of New Zealanders abroad, but advice for travel to China was to exercise normal safety and security precautions.
Earlier, Trudeau’s office confirmed to the Herald the pair had spoken.
“The prime ministers discussed the detention and legal treatment of Canadian citizens in China and the need for all countries to respect judicial procedure and rule of law,” a spokesperson said.
“The leaders also exchanged perspectives on shared priorities, including their commitment to promoting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.”
Interesting to see non-Five Eyes countries such as Japan and Poland make similar moves against Huawei on security grounds.
But for Canada and New Zealand, nothing like something as basic to New Zealand as Commonwealth justice concepts coming up against Chinese ones.
Sooner or later Xi Jinping is going to have to bend.
Japan and Poland…
Both are ‘under management’ by ‘The West’…
Values based foreign policy
It’s a cover story…
Any serious discussion about radio frequency networks would include ‘safety’…
Not just security…
The canary in the coalmine is looking a bit ‘peaky’ again.
Is there anywhere a bigger moron than ScoMo?
Well let’s hope Petey Dutto and Scottie Morro and Grayo RIcho and Mattey Cormmo, and even Joolie Bisho and Petey Credo and Petey Gleeso, not to mention Ashey Gillo and Andy Bolto and Davo Speersy and Kerry Gilbo and a shitload of others are right in amongst it.
Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie Oi Oi OI
And the big debate at the moment is some people choosing to ingest some herb thats been around and ingested since dawn of time. Gives some perspective to what really matters.
Watched the video and had a look at what the wingnutosphere is saying about 5G tech.
And of course they can’t can’t make up their minds about whether 5G is an eat your brain cancer causing mind control plot or a nefarious, deep state/google socialistic watching me plot. Or Jews.
Thanks for the video Bruce. I’m really concerned about this. I’ve just had a smart meter installed (against my wishes) and it happens to be outside my bedroom . Unfortunately when I read the small print of my power contract it allowed for smart meter installation. It’s all about the money eh? I have an autoimmune disease and over the years (25) I have found that environmental factors have a huge impact, yet Big Pharma rules I don’t believe assurances from the telecom industry that every thing will be OK, because again it’s all about the money and fuck the consumer.
“I feel a bit sorry for Theresa May”…”I think she’s acted honorably.”
Mora’s gone, but The Panel is still bedeviled with bland and brainless blather.
The Panel, Wednesday 16 January 2019
Wallace Chapman, Joe Bennett, Emma Espiner, Caitlin Cherry
This tired light chat show has been shaken up a little over the holiday period. They’ve rejigged the format a bit. And as we saw yesterday, Wallace Chapman seems a little bit more rigorous than Jim Mora, and seems to have at long last developed a backbone, in contrast to his supine behaviour in 2014, when he let he-man author Lee Child rhasodize insanely about how in real life “we all” want to see violent thugs like Jack Reacher torture and murder people.
Sadly, however, the vapid chatter of the Mora era has not gone away.
The first discussion topic in today’s pre-show chat was the vexed question of how to get boys and men to read books. This was the chance for perky producer Caitlin Cherry to put in her two cents worth:
CAITLIN CHERRY: You just have to introduce them to Lee Child books!
….Awkward silence….
EMMA ESPINER: [awkwardly] Ha ha ha.
CAITLIN CHERRY: Well, he’s a manly man.
….Awkward silence….
JOE BENNETT: [grimly] “Lee Child book” is an oxymoron.
Significantly, perhaps, Wallace Chapman did not spring to the defence of the man he had allowed, unchallenged, to spout such disgusting bilge four and a half years ago.
After that encouraging moment, it was back to the baloney. The subject was the Brexit vote in the U.K. parliament, and the Panellists competed for the most banal and brainless utterance of the day….
EMMA ESPINER: I feel a bit sorry for Theresa May.
JOE BENNETT: I think she’s acted honorably.
Then he burbled that “it’s a KNOWN FACT that Russia interfered in Brexit.” Wallace Chapman demurred at that: “Are you sure?” And Bennett doubled down pompously: “Oh YES….”
ad nauseam….
[1] /open-mike-15-01-2019/#comment-1571765
Morrissey you should put your name forward and suggest that they have a regular spot for a stirrer of some sort who might make some outrageous, to the bland,
comment. There wouls be a circular wheel which the stirrers could hop on for a swing and be replaced so they never appeared more than once. And offer yourself for the first. That would ginger it up.
Bomber tried that. Didn’t last long!
He didn’t last long, but Michelle Boag will never forget being humiliated by him on the program. You can be sure she lobbied fearsomely for his removal when the opportunity presented itself. That opportunity was, of course, his display of lèse majesté in 2011, when he foolishly dared to point out the Prime Minister’s loutish imbecility in the House.
Gordon Campbell, another eloquent critic of the Key regime and therefore banned from The Panel, wrote an admirable account of the censoring….
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2011/10/10/gordon-campbell-on-rnz%E2%80%99s-banning-of-bomber-bradbury/
Been there, Shark, and done it. Back in 2013 I was an excruciatingly incompetent, utterly tongue-tied, nervous, giggling, useless Panellist. It was an April afternoon that will go down in infamy…
Ummmm. Hahahah. Morrissey – have you ever been on Jim Mora’s show?
Yes or no.
At last some sensible commentary on the issue…
“However FIRST Union General Secretary Dennis Maga claims worker shortages are due to low pay.
“There’s a reason no one wants to work in these jobs, their time isn’t worth the money and they often cannot afford to live on what some of these businesses choose to offer,” he said.
He cited horticulture as an example of a sector which has the money to pay.
“Horticulture is one of our highest export earners,” he said.
“If you want people to do the work, pay them fairly, pay them what they’re worth to you and stop crying out for migrant workers to exploit.”
He said New Zealanders are hard workers and they will do the work, as long as they feel it’s fair pay for the work.
“It’s important that we red-flag companies that claim to have a worker shortage to ensure they’re not exploiting migrants due to their low pay not attracting workers who already live here.”
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/rural/2019/01/union-fires-broadside-at-worker-shortage-claims.html
The reality is that we have allowed a situation to develop across practically every work space in NZ under neoliberalism of ‘subcontracting’ out the responsibility of employees.
From hospital meals to Spotless, NZ has constantly contracted out to third parties taking a profit while driving wages and conditions down, to Chorus subcontractors going through 3 – 4 companies and 92% of these workers being paid below minimum wages.
Then we have the horticulture industry with unliveable wages and temporary jobs at those low wages not attracting normal people who used to work there 20 years ago, now not welcome or they just don’t have the money to work there after paying for accomodation and transport down!
Industry in NZ has become used to giving a cheque to a middle man to bring in 100 workers because it is easier (and cheaper) to do so.
Part of the issue is the work safe issues which have become non sensical when Pike river is ok and work safe never prosecuted, but teachers are now responsible for kids safety at a micro level.
Our laws have become impractical and as well as the appearance of cost savings and ease of contracting out responsibility there is also real reasons why employers want to contract out due to impractical rules on safety and responsibility.
Absolutely. I have broken a number on farm picking and pruning records for kiwifruit, blueberries, grapes, pears and apples, and can supervise a gang to go fast alongside me. You want your crop cared for or brought in fast I can do it. I even love the work.
But they won’t pay me right so they can sod off and whine about their problems elsewhere.
Pot bellied pigs = NZ hort business owners.
Yep @ WTB. You posted a video the other day (recovering from desertification, etc).
In your experiences, did you ever witness one of those immigration raids on orchards?
Not so long ago, even one of the cops (of long experience) that had to accompany a LI/INZ raid told me how bloody embarrassed he felt. He knew that the victims of all the exploitation were about to be tipped out while the perpetrator was just going for another round, and another, and another………..
(see 13.1 below as well)
I also don’t think it is so much as migrant exploitation but a cozy relationship between migrants trying to game the system to enter NZ and become a permanent resident or citizen here, when they do not have the necessary job skills or criteria to get in legally. Hence a plethora of ways, from marriage to paying for a fake job or paying to do a useless qualification here (often at a private institution) has emerged.
Most of the migrants are not being exploited but are willing participants in it, so it has become a symbiotic relationship to make the NZ government grant citizenship/residency in return for a cheap or free worker , a fake course or a speedy marriage or child being conceived in NZ to help get the points.
Some of the migrants are exploited but plenty have a clear path to try and get the permanent visa or citizenship so they can give up the pretence and have access to (by world standards) very generous social welfare in NZ.
If it costs you $100k to buy your way in NZ but you then get 2 new countries to work in including OZ , free health, education and super and social welfare, accomodation supplements and child allowances and can bring your relatives in in many cases too, it sounds like a good deal for many.
You probably need to ask yourself @SaveNZ how it all started. You’re not wrong about all the scheming and scamming in many cases, however the system we implemented (immigration policies, false promises made, complete lack of monitoring and oversight of tertiary education providers, charlatan immigration advisors with cosy little links offshore – “vertically integrated”, labour hire companies et al).
The saddest thing is that it has affected the truly genuine immigrants with a commitment to the place.
Any legit immigration lawyer will tell you the number of cases they have on file due to some or all of the above. Some of them have been screaming about it for several years and it’s only now things are starting to happen (SLOWLY).
I could tell you of a number of cases where we’ve lost the skills and commitment we’re supposedly after because lack of oversight, incompetence and under-resourcing has enabled the genuine to be confused with the dross and scammers by INZ. I could give you examples where lil ole Nu Zull has lost some really skilled and committed people to places like Canada and a few European countries.
I’m not just talking about horticulturalists whose green credentials are second nature to them, but also IT professionals, and even one that Rocket LAb would love to have gotten their hands on.
Oh Dear – too bad
but if only INZ, the Labour Inspectorate, IAA and associated had listened to a few people at the coal face (Immigrant Workers’ Assoc, legit Immigration Lawyers, Unions, etc. they probably could have prevented a lot of this and saved themselves a lot of trouble. They chose not to and kept with the policies and enforcement that just kept all the churn going – good business and a bloody good earn for some.
A bottom up collapse, and we’re done.
.
Scientist Brad Lister returned to Puerto Rican rainforest after 35 years to find 98% of ground insects had vanished
“We knew that something was amiss in the first couple days,” said Brad Lister. “We were driving into the forest and at the same time both Andres and I said: ‘Where are all the birds?’ There was nothing.”
His return to the Luquillo rainforest in Puerto Rico after 35 years was to reveal an appalling discovery. The insect population that once provided plentiful food for birds throughout the mountainous national park had collapsed. On the ground, 98% had gone. Up in the leafy canopy, 80% had vanished. The most likely culprit by far is global warming.
[…]
Since Lister’s first visits to Luquillo, other scientists had predicted that tropical insects, having evolved in a very stable climate, would be much more sensitive to climate warming. “If you go a little bit past the thermal optimum for tropical insects, their fitness just plummets,” he said.
As the data came in, the predictions were confirmed in startling fashion. “The number of hot spells, temperatures above 29C, have increased tremendously,” he said. “It went from zero in the 1970s up to something like 44% of the days.” Factors important elsewhere in the world, such as destruction of habitat and pesticide use, could not explain the plummeting insect populations in Luquillo, which has long been a protected area.
Data on other animals that feed on bugs backed up the findings. “The frogs and birds had also declined simultaneously by about 50% to 65%,” Lister said. The population of one dazzling green bird that eats almost nothing but insects, the Puerto Rican tody, dropped by 90%. Not due to destruction of habitat or pesticide use etc. Pure climate change outcomes.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/15/insect-collapse-we-are-destroying-our-life-support-systems
If anyone is interested in the evidence being brought against Manafort, this article in the Guardian has the actual charge sheet before the court:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/15/paul-manafort-robert-mueller-russia-trump-2016-campaign
Poor Ozzies getting the brunt of Climate change already. Just too damn hot to function so there goes productivity…
A heatwave will greatly reduce farm production here too I’d say. Only a matter of time. farmers ought to get planting. Fast growing nitrogenous species and crop trees they support. Get on it!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12191268
It only takes a minute walking around the city to see how bad all the concrete and tarseal is for heating the place up – offset it with trees, plant now for everyone’s comfort.
Northern Australia is feeling it atm, with a lack of rain during the “Wet Season. Darwin and including its rural area where the wife and I live has have the driest December in record since 1991. Atm we have had about a quarter of our wet season rain (about 300mm) which is going to cause problems for a number of people who still run off bores or use rain water tanks for storage. The gap between a good wet season and a bad (dry) wet season is getting smaller and some us are starting think this wet season is going to be dry one, which is going to cause issues this coming dry season/ fire season.
From an environment POV, a lot of estuarine fish species have disappeared to deeper water and other main fish species have move further of offshore. The real sad thing is our sea turtles and sea cows have disappeared or those that have sighted are in sort of distress. It’s the same for our min crabs as well.
Move over Gilets Jaunes. Last week an estimated 150-200 million Indian workers went on strike in protest against what they describe as the anti-labour policies of Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party government.
(I’ll keep an eye out but nothing much in English language media about outcomes)
Right to Strike
This strike, like the 17 before it, is about livelihood issues and about the right to strike. A new trade union law sits in the legislature. It would mean the death of trade unionism in India. Tapan Sen’s statement about enslavement seems less hyperbolic in this context. If workers have no power, then they are effectively enslaved to the firm. This is already the case in factories that operate almost like concentration camps.
Walking through factories along the Chennai-Coimbatore corridor or in the Manesar area gives you a sense of the power of these new factories. They are a fortress, difficult to breach. Or a prison. Either way, trade unions are not welcome there. They are kept out by force—either violence or political muscle. Workers are often brought in from far away, migrants with few roots in the area. No workers stay long. As soon as they appear settled, they are removed.
Footloose workers and harassed trade unionists make for a harsh work environment. The culture of working-class solidarity erodes, social violence grows—the seedbed of neofascist politics.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/01/08/heres-what-real-strike-looks-150-million-say-no-despotism-india?amp
Trying to register on Kiwiblog. Why? I know little about life but I do know about fight. Resistance from’m. Maybe I do matter.
You have a regular 100 comments, they have a regular 300. Everyone here has to be ‘correto’, in fact and opinion, they allow the whole field. A certain openness.
My b.a. Christian brother is scouring-of-the-centre-of-the-earth sceptical of everything outside what he swallowed whole without looking.
The Left regard reality as their bedrock, the Right have regard for fairy tales.
In real fairy tales there is a lot of instructive stuff about human behaviour though.
Are country’s getting loose with the ways they treat people crossing their borders.
The Iran English language tv channel says that its anchorwoman flew to the USA and was then arrested, and no-one knows why or can find out where she is.
There have been stressed relations recently between the countries.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12191542
What the hell was o’connor thinking???
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/oconnor-promises-keep-left-after-crossing-line
Silly. Probably either distraction or fatigue, neither should have been occurring.
Crossing the centreline sounds less hairy than driving on the wrong side of the road. He’s lucky someone didn’t throw his keys in the bush.