Good to see an MSM article that focuses on the actual working poor. In comparison there’s been some articles (especially on the NZ Herald) where they use some of the middle-class and least precarious of the precariat to represent the least well off.
This Stuff article focuses on a couple of families struggling with little or no pay rises: “Rock stars or roadies?” – ref to NZ’s (alleged) rock star economy.
The article adds in some stats from Helen Kelly & the CTU:
Tairawhiti and Manson are not alone – almost half of workers did not receive a pay rise last year, according to the latest Fairfax Media-Ipsos poll.
For the majority (40 per cent) the increase was between 1 and 2 per cent. One in five got 3-4 per cent, and a quarter of us picked up 5 per cent or higher.
Despite forestry and dairying booming, driven by strong demand out of China, wages are low – and stagnant – in these industries, according to the Council of Trade Unions.
“Trickle down? Only the shit trickles down on a dairy farm,” says president Helen Kelly, who says it is “extraordinary” that 300,000 workers are on or near the minimum wage of $13.75 an hour.
“This excuse ‘that it is all we can afford’ . . . you can’t use it in dairy, forestry, supermarkets – who are making a fortune – and you can’t use it in banks. Some of our industries that pay the lowest wages are the most profitable. It is not a coincidence.”
Unfortunately the article then goes on to an optimistic note, with quotes from Phil O’Reilly and a focus on a graduate on the up.
Just had a read of that.
Let me guess, the families are union members Helen Kelly put forward to try and bad mouth National because It certainly reads like that.
I seriously doubt the level of “struggle” these people are “suffering”.
If the unions are going to do these stories of woe, don’t use the $5 a bottle of milk story, it’s nonsense.
i like the success story they include at the end, he gets help from his parents to make ends meet, but hes confident about the future. ok. & phil oreilly, who supports working for families topping up poor pay.
Reminds me of something i listened to on RadioNZ National a week or month ago, out of England the story was highlighting the fact that the young were leaving home in pursuit of the Uni degree as usual,
Having gained the degree tho, with the price of property over there, both to rent and to buy, more and more of them, even with good employment,were being forced back to live with mum and dad…
Big Mouth
BadMouthing
Your right wings effort at balanced News.
The very same polls you were crowing about yesterday has more information than you can handle Blinkered Monetarist.
World wide since the GFC the only people who have benefited are the top 10 or 20%.
These are Banksters Capital gaingsters(tax free of course) CEO’s
Have all done extemely well.
While the other 80% havehad to bite the bullet.
And the bottom 20% are doing it really tough as well as being used as a distraction by the sadistic elite blaming them for the ills creayed by the Ponzi scheming of the elite who put us in this situation.
Actually, it isn’t. I don’t buy milk myself, but, I checked around online: while there are some cheaper buys if you shop around, $5.00 for a 2 litre bottle of milk seems fairly average.
February 2014: 1 litre of milk average price – 2.42 NZ$
Bill english… rning and effectively acknowledge that Michael Cullen had done something right in his stewardship of the Government’s finances in the past nine years.
Having condemned his predecessor for many years for paying off debt too quickly, English said: “I want to stress that New Zealand starts from a reasonable position in dealing with the uncertainty of our economic outlook.”
“In New Zealand we have room to respond. This is the rainy day that Government has been saving up for,” he told reporters at the Treasury briefing on the state of the economy and forecasts.
English pointed to a graph of the debt track since 1972 and projected five years out from today.
The recent low was 17 per cent of GDP and the ghastly projection for 2013 is 33.1 per cent and possibly worse, under what Treasury calls a “downside scenario” – 38.6 per cent.
Unemployment is forecast to rise to 6.4 per cent in 2010 and deficits forecast to be $2.4 billion to $3.5 billion larger over the 2010 to 2013 years than forecast just before the election.
In the midst of the horrible outlook and depressing uncertainty about how bad it might get, English was forced to change his message about his inheritance from Labour because it was more important to inject some sense of positivity into the situation. He needed to do it for both political reasons and for real financial reasons.
As Labour finance spokesman David Cunliffe said yesterday, too much negativity could drive confidence down even further.
Of the plan that Cunliffe demanded of English today, the Finance Minister said: “The plan in essence is quite simple, that is to maintain significant short-term stimulus in the economy, to protect people from the sharp edge of recession and secondly to get on with the job of raising our longer term growth prospects…with some urgency.”
Tax cuts are on the way; decisions will be made in the New Year on which infrastructure projects will be brought forward and English and Prime Minister John Key will be meeting chief executives of Government departments this afternoon to give them the bad news: don’t ask for any more money in Budget 2009 because you won’t get it.
@ karol…as others have been saying on this site Labour is not preforming well in advocating for its core constituents………the working poor, beneficiaries, children…those struggling at the bottom of the economic heap…imo for what it is worth:
Labour needs to be taking serious professional advice from a top Advertising/PR Agency on how to get this message about the NACT poor across;
( no time now to be sweet and middle class…Labour needs to get mean and take the gloves off and punch out Nact)
The concept of Key as a REPTILE is brilliant!……it should be played for all its worth visually and verbally …ie concept /visuals/posters /talk of a Reptile leading a Reptilian Nact Party which is sucking NZ dry!!!! …
( one of those old fashioned 1950s muted colour posters)……….a Reptile octopus with many arms….eg. 1.) one arm squeezing the working poor to death 2) killing beneficiaries 3.) sucking the life blood from children 4.)another could be sucking the life out of NZ State education with Charter Schools …
Lets face it…..Sue Morroney ( Social Development ) and Jacinda Adern ( Children) are not cutting the mustard against Paula Bennett( and in comparison with Sue Braford and Metiria Turei)
…they may know a lot but Labour needs HIGH PROFILE SPOKESPEOPLE on these CORE issues of Labour ….not too late to change and get people who are not afraid to get nasty, get their hands dirty, swing the lead…. and are CREDIBLE to the struggling poor!!!!( ie look like they have been there or have relatives who are there!) ….Spokespeople who are CAPABLE of ATTRACTING MEDIA ATTENTION like Shane Jones has recently
…what about Louisa Wall ( Social Development ) and Poto Williams ( Children)…?….or any other Passionate MPS willing to take on and do what Shane Jones is doing?.
worth repeating this comment from Tombstone yesterday
Tombstone 25
15 February 2014 at 9:39 pm
… Labour’s brand is boring. It’s just National in red. Create a brand / visual campaign that really gets people excited and watch what happens. Suddenly people become interested in the message because they like what they see or they feel compelled to understand the message behind what they’re seeing. Like a photograph that speaks a thousand words – something that can’t be denied. Reality caught in a single shot. Powerful images without the need to cover them in statistics – the image speaks for itself. I live in Christchurch. I survived the quakes. I see the heartache every day that surrounds me and it’s not something that can be described in mere words but a single photograph can on the other hand be more powerful than the sum of all words combined. I work as a freelance graphic artist in my free time and do a lot of low brow art and so I guess I tend to see the world from a very visual perspective and the weak point I see in the National Party is Brand Key – that is the weak point in their armor. That is where you drive the spear home. Fuck the MSM. Let them gorge themselves on Key’s bullshit. What counts most is that you get the people excited and wanting more. Do that and the MSM will follow. Bye bye Key. Bye bye National.
NACT is Reptile Octopus with Many EYES…..which has and is sucking out the life blood of NZs economy…..STATE ASSETS!….WATER!….TOURISM!…BIG DEBTS ..unneccessary PRIVATISED MOTORWAYS
….it disguises itself and its real intentions by muddying the waters with its inky smoke screens and flag waving diversions
Bullshit, what high ground, do you think Key cares about the high ground – Key needs to be shown for what he is; how else do you do that without getting personal? The problem is Labour has NOT played the man enough. Hound him constantly until he breaks and shows more of his true colours.
The time for being nice to Key is long gone. Gloves off time.Time to get serious if you want to win the election.
Agree about the need for ‘street fighters’ as shadow ministers/portfolio holders.
“The problem is Labour has NOT played the man enough.”
If the left do this, they will lose the election. How can you not see that? John Key is immensely popular, and thoroughly likable. He is the kind of guy people just want to be around.
Focus on policies that will deliver prosperity. Otherwise this election is lost for you already. Ipredict stocks on “PM Labour” have been sliding again this week. And before someone tells me this is all a conspiracy by one rich guy to drive down the stock, the order book shows otherwise. The stock is being dumped by small traders in droves.
SSLands, ”stocks on PM Labour have been sliding”, you really are a fucking brainless fucking idiot aren’t you,
What was ex-PM Helen Clark’s polled popularity befor She became a 3 term Prime Minister, 3 or 6%, or something ridiculously s low,
If you place an ounce of faith in the ability of the gambling sit you refer to as being in any way accurate you would have to add that faith in accuracy to all the other gambles/predictions on that site,
Be a good little dear wont you and trot of back there and have a good read of the Party %’s which last time i had a squizz had National polling 42%, Labour 33%, Green 10% and for a gut-busting screamer DotComs Internet Party 8%,
Once you have had the little squizz over there SSLands, stay there, your masterbating all over these pages is at the least unseemly…
““The problem is Labour has NOT played the man enough.”
If the left do this, they will lose the election. How can you not see that? John Key is immensely popular, and thoroughly likable. He is the kind of guy people just want to be around”
…if you say this then the opposite must st be the case…i am encouraged this is the way to go
@ McFlock…not talking about lying with hogs ….rather ST George spearing an Octopus Reptilian NACT Party that has NZ in its grip
….could be wrong….but i do think Labour needs to get a professional Adevertisng/PR Agency to give professional independent advice on how to get their message out there…because it doesn’t seem as if it is working
btw ….i thought you were a rather good hog wrestler with Chris 73…..it was gobsmackingly awe inspiring the insults on yesterdays Open Mike
It’s on the level of traditional propaganda. Not something the next government should be doing, IMO – that’s why the nactoids use the cetacean for it, and why key admitting a connection between himself and the cetacean was an error.
Me, I’m not connected with labgrns. And I did like “fustilarian”.
Let’s say key is a reptilian overlord who eats babies. Currently, a whole chunk of people still like him. That means that they either don’t know or don’t care. But he’s pretty obviously a reptile (isn’t one for blinking too much), so the people who don’t know are in denial.
They won’t be persuaded by anyone else that key is a reptile.
They might see it for themselves and be revolted, though.
So keep applying pressure on issues and so on, so he gets stressed and the mask slips, but calling him a reptile would just A) make you as bad as the stalkers in the other camp; and B) make the deniers entrench further into their position.
@ McFlock…..i didnt know you were sweet with middle class refined sensibilities
….i am thinking more of an octopus style reptile with many eyes and arms crushing the living blood and spirit out of things…more visual than verbal ….eg old fashioned 1950s style monotone posters to be stuck to lamp posts and reach those who dont watch tv or read newspapers
Rino Tirikatene and Meke Whaitiri are other potential spokespeople for these crucial Labour campaign Spokesperson roles
…it is no use waiting until after the election …it important to get kicking with the toughest boots into the fracas now ( there are 800,000 votes to woo)
…it should approached professionally ( ie an outside agency should decide … like an actor casting agency ) …no cronyism in the hunt for the best charismatic spokespeople that the voters can IDENTIFY with.
( this is no bad reflection on policy making skills which are equally important ….but lets be frank they are completely different skills and it is rare to get them in the same person)
Chooky @ 9.59 am, I think maybe you’ve mistaken me for a Labour Party Member and/or voter or an election campaign strategist.
I’m none of those things, nor am I a member of any political party. I will leave it to the Labour Partyy – its members, and those able to provide excellent advice, to get their campaign in order.
Winning at all costs, to end up with just Nat lite in government is not a good prospect. There needs to be a multi-pronged approach, in diverse ways.
I’m with what Bill says on the front page of his “Positive Things” post today:
Change becomes embedded when it emanates from and across many quarters and traditions.
Grass roots change, changes in the media (entertainment as well as serious media) etc are needed. I am very much behind the kinds of grass roots actions that Sue Bradford has been involved in. And Turei is one of the few current MPs who have come from a workign class background – our parliament needs more from diverse low income backgrounds.
The media needs on-going critique and challenges – not just so they change, but so that more people become aware of the, often subtle, ways the media can be politically slanted.
That’s what I was doing with my comment on the above Stuff article. Highlighting that it was at least an improvement on too many other articles of seen on Stuff and the NZ Herald’s website – but also indicating one of its shortcomings.
no i did not mistake you for those…i know you vote Green
…i just saw an opportunity( presumptuous and forward of me i know) to help Labour with is PR…. ha ha….but seems like others here do not agree…although some do! …..that Labour is not doing well with its PR
Ah. Sneaky, Chooky. I’m more concerned about the overall focus of parliamentary Labour. Until they clearly have shifted away from soft neoliberalism, and have less managerial type MPs, I may consider voting for them again – the problems go deepr than their PR, I think.
Karol I seem to have mistaken you for someone who gives a shit..
[deleted]
[lprent: Don’t abuse the authors – that is policy and always a bad mistake.
I’d have to say that you remind me of a vicariously shared dose of thrush and about as useful to the left. Just a pain to have around because of frustrated scratching, and a lot of whining. I’d point out that I’ve been a member of Labour party for about 35 years and volunteered for them for even longer. So you’re getting the benefit of an opinion by a genuine Labour party member – in case you think that being a party member is still important after I’ve explained exactly how much of a jerk you look to me.
I’ve helped organise many moderately large campaigns for the NZLP. Typically usually less than a third of the volunteers have been NZLP members. I’d have to say that much of the time that many of the volunteers from outside the party are more useful than the ones who bore the hell out of me at NZLP meetings. That is why all parties play nice to people who are active even when they are not members. You never know when you might need them.
So having some moronic fuckwit like yourself coming along and acting holier than thou about people who are active just makes me want to kick your arse off this site as being just another useless jerkoff more concerned with pleasuring yourself than doing any actual work. Being more concerned about your own self-righteousness than doing anything of any use is a characteristic of a person that I’d prefer not to be in any organisation I’m helping. Basically you impress me as being a waste of bandwidth with a ego backed by shallow opinions and a skill at being supremely stupid.
Of course that is just my opinion. But it would also be the opinion of damn near every other activist from almost any political party or activist group that I have ever worked with.
Banned for 3 weeks for stupidity and I’d advise you to read the policy so I don’t have to notice you again. ]
ooops sorry to have caused trouble for ecossemaid…..i do think there are many people out there who are genuinely frustrated with Labour’s fighting PR image though
….however we can always vote Green or Mana…and it will have the same end result
Lowest paid is around $38K + free house + free meat/milk
Highest paid is $47K + free house + free meat/milk + 3 free yearling bulls reared
All of them have 1 hour breakfast breaks, + 1 & 1/2 hour lunch breaks.
They work the equivalent of 5 & 1/3 days a week, no more than 9 hours in a day (5 hours for week end days)
Can’t tell me that employment on dairy farms has no trickle down affect.
The couple we had working for us last season drove an 2005 Ford XR8 and bought themselves a nice 14ft boat and went fishing on most of their days off.
Our 2ic this year we are helping to step up into either managing or share milking next year (giving her financial and business backing in order to do this)
So perhaps Ms Kelly’s pushing of a dairying stereotype of rich farm owners and destitute workers is nothing more than propaganda to push her own political/union barrow.
Oh and yes, these conditions of employment were all negotiated between us and our staff – no union required.
Or – possibly – other farms are run differently from yours and so the workers with different experiences are those engaging with Helen Kelly?
Perhaps your workers – while living within their means – via free house/milk – are purchasing items they can afford instead of those they can’t? – their own house, farm etc. Whilst your support for your 2ic means that you are aware of this and is admirable, it is an acknowledgement that this is true.
You seem to be relating honestly your lived experiences as a farmer, but that does not automatically mean that those workers who report otherwise are dishonest.
You are probably also likely to be aware of others in your farming community who are not as scrupulous – those are the ones whose workers needs advocates such as Helen Kelly.
So you are trying to tell me that they chose to buy the XR8 and boat simply because they could never buy a house?
Rubbish. In this situation the money they put into the car and boat was more than enough to use as a deposit on a house.
That wasn’t their goal. They wanted to drive a V8 and go fishing all the time. Full stop.
I know coz they told me about it for the two years prior to buying them. I said to them they were better off buying a house and paying it off by renting it out while they lived rent free.
Jimmie, you sound like a hardworking and ethical businessman who has a good relationship with his staff and treats them with dignity and honesty. That’s really cool, and it’s very heartening to read. However, you know as well as I do that every profession (mine’s early childhood teaching, by the way) has the good, the bad and the ugly and farming is no exception. People working on farms are more isolated than most of the population and if they are poorly treated they need the support that a good union can give them. You don’t need to get defensive as though the whole farming industry is being damned – town/country relationships are bad enough as it is. 🙂
I agree with you. Just pisses me off when the like of Ms Kelly deliberately paint a negative picture of a whole industry to suit her own political agenda.
The same when the msm (and the greens) go on about dairy farmers polluting waterways when the reality is that probably around 99% of dairy farmers dispose of farm effluent in a legal and sustainable manner.
However when you have stories like the ferry in auckland discharging raw human effluent into the harbour nobody says anything or councils allow raw human effluent to discharge into the sea during rain storms – oh well can’t be helped.
“when the reality is that probably around 99% of dairy farmers dispose of farm effluent in a legal and sustainable manner.”
[citation needed]
I agree that it’s not good to damn all dairy farmers. But let’s not pretend that almost all are doing the right things, when all the evidence and our own eyes suggests otherwise.
The New Zealand media rarely feature stories about bad employers in the dairy sector, yet horror stories about poor treatment of farm employees are rife.
I have to say farmer Jimmie Brown, while I agree not all you cockys are lousy employers, actually have a healthy respect with people working the land. The figure of 99% of farmers being clean is a stretch. I see unfenced waterways each and every week. Had a enough of it to tell the truth as a responsible Kiwi might need to start complaining to Fonterra shortly. The beef guys are alot worst as the law allows them to flaunt it.
It’s high time it was a level playing field with buying meat too while I’m having a gripe. Why should you guys be allowed homekill, when the rest of us city folk can’t openly rock up buy a beast and get in processed the same as you, without having to jump thru hoops with the paddock holding blockade that is.
And those rental cottages that some farmers rent out, (and they do) cash in back pocket. If only this Country had some decent investigative reporters left to show up life on the farm for the true blue National rural supporter is.
Now you get back on here and give us some answers please cobber, as I know it will be the farm boy pulling tits, probably hosing the cow shit by now, while your setting up to BBQ those tender fat scotch fillets that we never get at pak’ n slave!
Yes, I think all pollutants need the hard word + put on them – it’s not ok. I live in the country in Northland and a few kilometres down the road from me there’s a dry stock farm, heavily populated, and most of the cattle have free access to a stream – it makes my blood boil. No worse, though, than when I lived in Auckland and my friend’s dog came home dyed blue because he’d been in a creek polluted by industry. Makes a joke of clean and green, doesn’t it!
I didn’t know about the ferry – that’s awful – mind you I’ve never liked Fuller’s business practices – I left Waiheke Island mainly because of them
Fonterra are well aware of Northland farmers polluting Jen, but hey Fonterra is just fArmers looking after farms, blind eye..wink wink. Anyway there are votes in it if Labour & the Green get their shit together. Nothing like a bit of ‘lucky farmer’ envy to get some city votes off National.
I am happy to admit there are many farmers who pay their employees fairly, allow them reasonable time off, fence their waterways and deal with effluent properly.
My son works for one.
Usually the same ones do both.
Good on you, for being one of them.
If all employers were fair and reasonable, we would not need Unions.
However from observation of a great many farms in our area, you are in the minority.
The reality is more like half a dozen underpaid and overworked Filipino migrants, cows in the streams and the effluent pond emptied into the river at midnight.
You should be pleased that people like Helen Kelly are holding dodgy operators feet to the fire. It prevents them from undercutting, and pricing out of business, the business’s of those, like you, who want to do things properly.
Some of my long gone farming relatives, who took pride in how they looked after the land and waterways, would be disgusted if they could see those same waterways, now.
Great to hear that you treat your workers well and dispose of waste in a way that is sustainable. (Not sure if that is in an environmentally sustainable way or not)
But I would encourage you to talk with your farming mates and find out what their practices are and encourage them to practice good labour and environmental management as well.
Jimme. And your cows still shit, and pollute our rivers and streams. Makes them unsafe for our children to swim in, whilst you just chase the mighty dollar, and blindly kiss Key’s arse.
Free housing and meat/milk FFS what a rort. That has to be worth what, at least 10k a year?
I hate to be mean Jimmie but your lowest paid worker then is on $14.61 per hour and the highest oon $18 which may just not be enough to save for a house even rent free. It is a great shame to me that this level of wage can now be defended as good in this country. On another point – the rent is not really “rent free” as I think it is part of the salary package but regardless, I have the Federated Farmers report which is an extensive survey of wages in the sector. $19.49 is the average hour rate (total value package inlcuding rent, meat, power, and other benefits included and even training) for the whole dairy farming workforce, with Dairy Assistant roles (the most common role) appearing to have stagnant wages since 2010 despite record milk prices and an average total value package of just $17.02 per hour. So maybe you pay a bit above the average but I wouldn’t go to bed feeling to smug about your generosity. The reality is that in one of our very productive sectors the wages are very low and expectations high. 54% of those surveyed had been in the job less than a year. I do hear from farm workers very distressed at their working conditions and I think the industry would greatly benefit from collective bargaining. No political or hidden agenda there my friend!
Jimmie your a gem but you are a rarity amongst dairy farmers I habe visited and worked on many dairy farms as well I have interviewed many dairy workers outside the work place 90% of those IN spoke to are being under paid made to work unpaid hours over and above hours contracted.
Wage theft.
Along with abusive treatment from sharemilkers.
Animals on these farms are also mistreated.
Wacked with alkathene pipes,left milking for to long on milking table damaging udders very common.
Not seperating antibiotic treated cows.
Not keeping rearing areas clean allowing cows to become infected with clyptosporidiam.
Workers not vaccinated for clyptosporidium.
Workets not provided with clean drinking water.
Cows not rotated the full 35 days of fresh grass
Pregnant cows left in paddocks without proper shelter and no feed.
The list goes on.
Don’t want to seem flippant after Karol’s more serious comment, but I got a good laugh from Steve Braunias’ latest on Stuff this morning. before focusing on more weighty issues.
Billy Bragg’s misplaced praise of Bruce Springsteen
Radio NZ National, Sunday 16 February 2014
Listeners to this morning’s Sunday programme no doubt enjoyed Richard Langstone’s interview with Billy Bragg. Most of it was actually very good, albeit a tad worshipful and slightly embarrassing because of that. Billy Bragg is a thoughtful and serious person, who has a lot of valuable things to say. However, one of his comments raises a question about his judgement of character. I sent the following email to Richard Langstone….
Billy Bragg’s misplaced praise of Bruce Springsteen
Dear Richard,
Billy Bragg praised Bruce Springsteen as “a hero of mine”, but noted that he was “no Pete Seegar”, because he had not stood up to the House Un-American Activities Committee. This seems to imply that Springsteen would have stood up to HUAC if only he had had the opportunity.
In fact, if Springsteen had any of the courage and integrity of people like Pete Seegar and Woody Guthrie, he would not have done THIS…..
I trust/believe billy bragg more than you moz therefore his praise is not misplaced at all. i think springsteen has had a positive influence and he started young…
“In September 1979, Springsteen and the E Street Band joined the Musicians United for Safe Energy anti-nuclear power collective at Madison Square Garden for two nights, playing an abbreviated set while premiering two songs from his upcoming album. The subsequent No Nukes live album, as well as the following summer’s No Nukes documentary film, represented the first official recordings and footage of Springsteen’s fabled live act, as well as Springsteen’s first tentative dip into political involvement.”
..’cos though disillusioned by them..myself and many others held onto the hope that once over the hurdle of re-election..that obama would go gangbusters..
..and do what he promised..
…(and tho’ a fucken drone-head killer..obama still has time..(some..!..)
..and romney was the other option..?..really..?
..and as an aside..i predict obama will announce full federal legalisation of cannabis..
..shortly after the mid-term elections..later this yr..)
..so..in/with that context..
..i reckon ‘harsh’ describes yr springsteen-condemnation..
Pete Seeger supported Obama, by the way, which kinda renders your email to RNZ a little null and void. He even shared the stage with Springsteen at Obama’s inauguration which makes your line about courage and conviction unintentionally funny. Close, but no Seegar.
Is that at the 2009 inauguration or the 2013 one? You could forgive people—naïve and poorly informed people like Hollywood “liberals” and TV talkback hosts—who obviously didn’t know anything about Obama, being full of hope in early 2009. But after four years of his administration, to sing that song is an exercise carried out in a spirit of deepest cynicism and darkest irony.
What’s the bet that if Seegar were younger and full of the energy he had in the 1950s, he would have spoken out against Obama’s war on dissent at home, and his campaign of terror abroad? He was in his 90s, and his activism was over by the time of this clip.
What excuse does Springsteen, much younger and much richer, have for this display of Obama worship? (The answer lies in the fact that he’s much richer.)
He later withdrew his ill-advised support for that blood-stained fraud, but his naïve comments about Springsteen show that he is still liable to misjudge people.
I think you “trust” your hero Billy Bragg in the same way his hero Springsteen “trusts” Obama—it’s blind, uncritical adulation. Springsteen joined in a cutely named “No Nukes” protest in 1979; so why is he supporting a politician who shamelessly promotes the use of nuclear power, as well as extrajudicial killing of American citizens and the persecution of political dissidents?
yeah yeah I know you hate them all with a vengeance moz – death, a slow excruciating painful and prolonged death to the fools who supported the fraudster!!! Do you know what fraud means? I’ve always liked billy bragg personally.
Marty, I like Billy Bragg too. I forgive him all his misjudgements, like supporting that fraudster, because I respect him. It’s just that I felt it was necessary to remind people that Bruce Springsteen—someone else I respect and admire—is also prone to misjudgements, and is certainly no Pete Seegar. When Billy Bragg stated that Springsteen had never confronted HUAC in 1954, many people might think he would have if he had been around then.
God save us from “Liberals” who think Obama, Gore and (Gor Blimey !!!) even Hillary “Rosie-the-Riveter” Clinton are the great progressives of our time.
Morrissey Springsteen was to young for that era.
Born in the USA an anti vietnam war song.
To more recently Banksters song .
Morrissey time to start reading some lyrics.
Certainly he was too young to speak out in a 1954 HUAC meeting, as Pete Seegar did. However, he is NOT too young to speak out against the regime that holds power in his country right now.
What has Springsteen said or done to support protestors and dissidents today?
Morrissey no relation to meat is murder Morissey who happens to be touring with Sir Cliff Richard.
Billy Bragg is more radical tha springsteen no doubt.
But springsteens message get to many times more people.
He’s My Home Town hero.
So don’t be Blinded by the Light.
Your insults hurt like a freight train runniing through the middle of my heart.
I’m On Fire.
Morrissey no relation to meat is murder Morissey who happens to be touring with Sir Cliff Richard.
Billy Bragg is more radical tha springsteen no doubt.
But springsteens message get to many times more people.
He’s My Home Town hero.
So don’t be Blinded by the Light.
Your insults hurt like a freight train runniing through the middle of my heart.
I’m On Fire.
It would be good for me to see a post that gives summary of what has been learned from this Dotcom, GCSB leaks, and so on that have dominated people’s thoughts here for, is it a week? There must be something to learn, that Labour can make use of either by drawing attention to, or avoiding or… I’m a bit confused. When will the revelations end?
It’s like watching Limmy’s Show. Have everyone else seen it? Revelations of the thought process emerge slowly, with a Scottish accent there. I prefer Philomena Cunk actually, such a seeker after truth, on Charlie Booker’s Show. But both as informative as any Herald jonolism.
I listened to Radionz this morning on Media Watch and am less anxious about the changes though still have a few questions in mind. Have to taste the pudding and check the flavour.
Just listening now and while it sounds ok?! I think he is being disingenuous is stating his reason for putting Mora in with Mary Wilson. It may well be that Mora has a longish contract and they had to bury him somewhere but surely we could have done that by giving him something like Hymns for Sunday.
No matter how you look at it Mora’s Panel Show is an event looking for excuses to publice right wing commentators. You could easily have a panel show that used people other than political hacks and it would be fine. I see Mora as watering down Checkpoint and introducing a political slant into a show that has in the past been scrupulously honest.
I am hoping that we do not see in a short time the resignation of Mary Wilson and the promotion of Mora to being the face of Checkpoint. Now that Ferguson has been moved to Morning Report RNZ has a serious lack of good journalists.
I never thought I would see it. A mainstream TV programme, this one made by Australian channel ABC, that shows the occupation in all its inhuman horror.
The 45-minute investigative film concerns the Israeli army’s mistreatment of Palestinian children. Along the way, it provides absolutely devastating evidence that the children’s abuse is not some unfortunate byproduct of the occupation but the cornerstone of Israel’s system of control and its related need to destroy the fabric of Palestinian society.
Omar Barghouti has spoken of Israelis’ view of Palestinians as only “relatively human”. Here that profound racism is on full show.
There are, of course, concessions to “balance” – in the hope of minimising the backlash from Israel – but they do nothing to dilute the power of the message.
This is brave film-making of the highest order.
It is an indication of quite how exceptional this film is that it has cornered Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, into expressing her “deep concern“. That’s the same Bishop who last month doubted that the settlements in the West Bank were illegal.
If the video above is removed, you can also watch the film here:
That first line says it all ABC
As a national Channel it really does try to present provocative intelligent overview of the news. It also manages to create some brilliant television.
Of course Abbott is now to set about dismantling ABC and doing what National has so successfully done in New Zealand.
If you want good television these days you will have to rely on the four great public services.
BBC, CBC, PBS and ABC.
I could maybe throw in DW as well.
I hope like hell if Labour gets in power that they will set about rebuilding not only our state broadcasters but resurrecting a state film industry like we had once with Nation Film. I think the rebuild should have one of the highest priority of all the tasks that Labour would have to do. If we don’t have a good public television service to inform and educate our people we may as well forget all the rest. What good a full stomach and a cheap house if all we get in the media is right wing propaganda
I never thought I would see it. A mainstream TV programme, this one made by Australian channel ABC,
Look closely, Ron: the BBC is also under attack. It’s never recovered from the Blair government’s furious attack on it after it had the temerity to point out that the case for attacking Iraq was completely false.
And PBS is, despite its grand sounding name, anything but a public broadcasting station.
If you want decent, intelligent reporting from the United Kingdom, read the BBC site, sure, but there are any number of better, more trustworthy sites.
Yes I am aware that BBC is being attacked, and also know about democracynow which also broadcasts on PBS channels just in case you are unaware, What I like about PBS is the wide variety of docos they provide some of which we pick up here. Unfortunately anything too touchy doesn’t get played here. They have some great investigations into money & medicine recently which could do with a play on NZTV
It is absolutely hopeless to attempt to minimise any backlash from Israel. They are on a full scale propaganda offensive, all over the world. I’m pretty sure they use at least some of the money they get from the US government to pay people to sit on Facebook full time, disseminating their propaganda. Their latest tactic, which almost makes me vomit, is to portray Zionist Israelis as indigenous people who have succeeded in reasserting their rights.
Unfortunately, a lot of the conspiracy theory crap about the Rothschilds and Bilderberg makes the task of anyone putting the Palestinian case disappear under a lot of white noise. It frustrates the crap out of me.
Go Matt McCarten you good thing, purveyor of the State’s propaganda par excellence, Matt’s taken to discussing health matters in His latest column,
Titillating us with the little ‘gem’ that using tobacco products kills half of those who partake, yes Matt heard it all befor, but, the problem with simply using the States Propaganda is given a deeper look into the facts an entirely different story can be told,
Fact: 29% of annual deaths in New Zealand are ’caused’ by cancer.
Fact: 40% of annual deaths in New Zealand are caused by heart disease.
Fact: 20% of the New Zealand population uses tobacco products*.
(the * is for a reason i will explain),
SO, fact: 69% of annual deaths in New Zealand are caused by cancer and heart disease, now for the purposes of a piece of blunt mathematics subtract the 20% of smokers from the 69% of deaths,
What this tells me is that at least 49% of us will die of cancer or heart disease who are not smokers, laughably when compared to the 50% of smokers who are supposed to die of the same disease solely upon the basis of the fact that they used tobacco products the diff is 1%,
Of course i could theorize that as smokers make up 20% of the population and the supposed data says that smoking will kill 50% of them, then the ‘real’ figure i should be calculating off of should be half that 20%, which would simply make the figures for those who do not smoke and die of cancer and heart disease look even worse coz if i only subtract 10%,(half of the population of smokers),from the total deaths annually from both cancer and heart disease the equation becomes 50% of smokers supposedly snuff it from the addiction as opposed to 59% of those who do not smoke going the same route by the same diseases,
And the asterisk*, Statistics NZ in a celebratory news release claim that 16% of the population are now smokers, yay what a victory for the anti tobacco zealots, or is it,
If you run the StatisticsNZ 16% figure through the blunt mathematical calculation i use above then the numbers for those who don’t smoke and die of cancer and heart disease climb even further above the supposed 50% of those who die from using tobacco products…
“SO, fact: 69% of annual deaths in New Zealand are caused by cancer and heart disease, now for the purposes of a piece of blunt mathematics subtract the 20% of smokers from the 69% of deaths,”
You are being ridiculous. The people who are dying of smoking related cancer now, are doing so as a result of smoking rates over the last three or four decades, when smoking rates were much higher. Yes your mathematics is “blunt” alright. It is stupid. There are many many more ex smokers than current smokers.
Smoking imposes costs on society. It also provides benefits to its users. But it is a classic public policy problem of all the benefits being private and all the costs being socialised (the main one is health costs but there is also the vileness of simply being near smokers). The excise raised is designed to do two things – 1. Compensate society for the socialised costs and 2. Bring smoking rates down.
I quite enjoyed watching an econofuck trying to do epidemiology.
Although in the end he continued the myth that smoking has a net monetary cost to the nation (which hasn’t been true for 20 years), I laughed at the idea that vileness should be taxed. SSpylands would be taxed into bankruptcy within a week.
Neoliberal economics imposes costs on society. It also provides benefits to a very small number of its users. But it is a classic public policy problem of all the benefits being private and all the costs being socialised (the main one is health costs but there is also the vileness of simply being near right wingers). The excise foregone is designed to do two things – 1. Compensate the filthy rich for being disgusting and 2. Destroy any sense of community and/or society.
Very poorly informed comment. 10 years off your life is the number to remember. Everyone used to love smoking – the problem was we found out it seemed to be killing people. A lot. Think about it – if the government’s plan was to keep raking in tax from cigarette sales then WHY ON EARTH would it celebrate smoking rates dropping?
Heart disease is our biggest and cancer our second biggest killer regardless of whether you smoke – we all have to die of something, right, RIGHT? The point is that smoking is associated with around 10 years less life overall – if you’ve made the decision that it improves your life enough to keep poisoning yourself then FINE but don’t spout that nonsense and try to convince other people to harm themselves in that way too.
Not only will it mean you die much SOONER but if you’re unlucky also much more painfully – think of chronic obstructive lung disease and being unable to breathe to the point where your body is chronically low on oxygen and you start to waste away and are in and out of hospital every other week and needing to leave with an oxygen tank.
There is obviously a cost to society with hospital bills but that’s exactly what hospitals are there for. The tax on cigarettes is mainly to discourage people from buying but also to balance those losses – and it seems to work somewhat. Although I don’t agree with targeting of certain groups (like prisoners) and saying that only those people cannot smoke.
My advice to you: talk to your family and your doctor about nicotine replacement therapy.
What a load of sanctimonious twaddle from one of the i want to live forever brigade, as if people who never smoke escape the indignity of the pain and suffering that goes along with death by cancer or heart disease,
You might want to live another 10 years having to be spoon fed your food with the excrement wiped off of your leaking arse by someone hired to do such a job, you might even get lucky and be one of the very small number who have good health until they die,
For 50+% of non-smokers though they will suffer just as much as those that smoke so climb down off of your high-horse,
Your comment is simply moralistic bullshit, your ten years of extra life is simply fantasizing bullshit, your replacement therapy for nicotine is simply bullshit i am not interested in,
And, do not start me on that ten years of extra life bullshit because it is simply arrived at by playing with %’s, what causes the supposed 5-10 years of extra life in the statistics is simply the lung cancer stats show a high amount of people dying of lung cancer, 20% of whom have been nowhere near tobacco products, at age 45 and under, those 1300 or so that do this very year simply distort the overall picture of longevity when applied across all cancers,
i have no fucking intention of quitting and the more bullshit i am force fed by the anti-amoking fanatics both paid and unpaid like i assume you to be the more i am determined to enjoy my use of tobacco….
I also urge you to talk to your doctor about nicotine replacement therapy. You sound in a bad way. Even if you reject the health arguments, smoking is disgusting.
SSLands, hang about a minute, i am just lighting another rolly, is that the best you can do SSLands, more moralistic nazism albeit shorter than that absolute twat above sprouts without a fact in sight in its whole weak diatribe,
Why would i stop, it cost me 5 or 6 bucks a week and there is as much chance of you getting cancer or snuffing it from heart disease as there is of me doing the same,
So all in all being a moralistic wanker gives you a 50% chance of snuffing it from the above mentioned diseases, i think i will take another puff and leave my fate in the hands of the various deity, same odds as you have got SSLands…
Lprent, fair comment, but such a fright is likely to bias your thinking in any direction, stressful job at the time???,
My point is this, and, i cannot say this with any certainty about the heart conditions that people survive as i havn’t dragged my tiny wee mind through the data, but, the rates of death scream out to me that 50% of those who do not/never smoke will die of cancer or heart disease, which makes the anti tobacco argument based around deaths of the same nature more than a little spurious,
Such is suggestive to me that there was a 50/50 chance of you having that heart attack whether you smoked or not…
My jobs are seldom stressful since I managed to sneak out of doing the management side of it (which I am really good at but find to be an appalling waste of my time). They certainly weren’t in 2010.
What deficiency in will power is this you speak of Phillis, laughably that accusation comes form an obvious poly-addict claiming to have quit Heroin only to take up various other drugs, now that i would call piss weak,
Yes four year olds have little toy tossing moments like claiming days ago that i am to be ignored only to be unable to resist having another look in the mirror by engaging bitterly and without an iota of fact in the following days,
Conclusion, a filthy fucking junky too piss weak to quit the habit so becomes a whining poly-addict who’s intellect has regressed to the point of equality with the average four year old…
Wheatbix tri. with all that is currently happening, great to see our youth in a positive manner and for many in Auckland giving their time freely. Thanks to all those volunteers.
Kiwi kids are Sanitorium (sic) kids… certainly lost in an ethnocentric silo, failing to learn languages other than their native tongues at an “alarming rate”; implications for ongoing international trade development; Wordly? Mate reckons that misunderstanding rests on the obligatory Kiwi OE…, before the return home to raise an Edmonds family…
I agree that seeing the community out running a sporting event is great, even though I have my doubts about corporate involvement. Sports clubs all over the country rely on the community and can foster a sense of organisation and action which we don’t see much in other areas. Well, except for the top Union clubs. They just get everything given to them by government, both local and national.
I have looked through the Standard’s archives to find a post I remember from the last couple of years analysing net profit outflows offshore from NZ by sector, and cannot find it. If the author of that post, or anyone else, could point me to it I would be very grateful.
In a related issue that might become of interest while hunting out various links to the figures i have used in the above comment i came across something really really interesting,
i first looked at the various web-pages detailing deaths from cancer and heart disease vis a vis the smoking issue about a year ago,
i did the trip again today starting afresh with a Google search asking the usual multiple questions so as to drag in the widest array of answers from the web,
In an ”It’s a modern miracle moment” i came across one page that claims the death rate from heart disease was down to 30%, go the Doctors and Nurses you good things, to have altered the upward spiral of heart disease by a full 10 or so % over the course of just 1 year would have to be truly a modern miracle,
Makes me wonder a couple of things, (1), being it seems a bit fucking strange that the rate of deaths from heart disease can fall 10% in a year and not a peep about such a miracle in the mass media???,
(2), of course has me wondering if our health authorities wishing to have the data reflect their zealism against the use of tobacco products would have them manipulating the figures???,
Nah couldn’t happen here in little old Noo Ziland right, the other 100 or so pages found on the web reporting a death rate for heart disease of 40% must have got it wrong, snigger…
“(2), of course has me wondering if our health authorities wishing to have the data reflect their zealism against the use of tobacco products would have them manipulating the figures???,
Nah couldn’t happen here in little old Noo Ziland right,”
No exactly it could not happen in New Zealand. So why are you raising it?
Bad 12 just about every smoker I know wants to quit but can’t because its highly addictive.
Your statistics are very dodgy you have grabbed a whole lot of percentages no hard numbers .
Percentages mean nothing without number.
Now since tariana turia has pushed for huge changes to tobacco taxes and and stopping marketing aimed at”Children” .
NZ’s smoking rates have dropped dramatically from 25% to lrss than 16%.
Those stats can’t be fudged or ignored.
Tricledown, please provide me and the other readers these other ‘numbers’ that proves what you are trying to impart is Fact and not some knee-jerk fiction,
The sum total of your comment is devoid of fact simply an emotive bluster, and where have i denied that the rate of those using tobacco products has not dropped,
Your spurious comment about ‘averages’ when applied to the annual % of those who die annually from both cancer and heart diseases is simply rubbish, if i were discussing the age at which these deaths occur then making a comparison would be based upon averages…
Ooooh look it’s Phillis… stalking me across the web…without a fact…nor a clue…just the normal filthy junkies whine…hardly bothering to address the comment…instead using snide low level abuse as the means of discourse…all the while unable to rise above the mediocre in ‘its’ chosen medium…
Phillis the filthy whinging junky has a certain ring to it…tell us all Phillis…your use of multiple drugs…ever heard of poly-addiction…that’s where the filthy whining junky aka you swaps one addiction for another depending on the availability of supply and whether the means of purchase is at hand…
You havn’t kicked the smack habit Phillis…you simply swapped it for dope which is easier to access and is affordable from your current income…i have seen this befor among many other junkies i know…given a suitably large wad of cash Phillis…you would be round at the nearest dealers place stocking up large on enough smack to ping up your arm to satisfy that craving that just wont go away…and…fucks up everything you say or do…that’s why Phillis…the sum total of originality in anything you have written in ten years…is totally zero…
Smoking tobacco Phillis…i fucken love it…can’t give up is only your latest of stupidly wrong comments…the truth is i have never bothered to try…the addiction cost me fuck-all except for rolly papers and lighters…so why would i want to give up…
You better stay impoverished Phillis for the reasons i point out above…and…with the purity of some of the shit going round these days i could well imagine you shooting up a spoonful which would seriously blow your mind…soon after tho…it would also stop what’s left of your heart…
Bad 12 just about every smoker I know wants to quit but can’t because its highly addictive.
Your statistics are very dodgy you have grabbed a whole lot of percentages no hard numbers .
Percentages mean nothing without number.
Now since tariana turia has pushed for huge changes to tobacco taxes and and stopping marketing aimed at”Children” .
NZ’s smoking rates have dropped dramatically from 25% to lrss than 16%.
Those stats can’t be fudged or ignored.
Actually Tricledown, your wee whine,laughable as you decry my use of %’s and then trot out a couple of your own, has just reminded me that my next large time consuming search through Google will be for the import/export figures for tobacco coming into and out of New Zealand,
Such figures might tell us all, by tonnage, just how much tobacco is currently being used in New Zealand, as apposed to that which is being imported, turned into cigarettes etc and then being re-exported…
PS, the current 16% figure for users of tobacco is from the census figures, i am pretty sure i accidently ticked the non-smoker box on my census form when i am in fact a heavy smoker, wonder how many other accidents occurred when others filled out theirs…
One More Time (don’t miss the bus, or the train) : No-Dig Gardening – mucho gracias Murray Olsen,
Building Depth, rather than remaining in The Shallows ; as competent as the Weather forecast
(memory being “the fundamental characteristic of life”- Samuel Butler). Where was he from ;).
Politicians aye?
Don’t
Even
Notice
I
Am
Lying
may be a fitting epaulette. Such are the questions addressed by the field of Theodicy …”the cravings of […] man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does”…, yet, it is The Year of The Snake!
On a related subject, we may notice the frequency the synonyms of catastrophic are being Heralded in the MSM…, conditions for beast and man becoming less favourable,
not back bad12, just a ‘birthday bash’, in tune one prays:
Simply put
Mow or Weed-spray
Cardboard or woolen carpet
Manure Fert Compost
Grass Clippings, Leaves, Hay or similar
Manure Fert Compost
Grass Clippings, Leaves, Hay or similar
and so on, reproducing forest floor texture.
For a number of reasons I prefer making own compost, collecting neighbor’s grass, NPK, Lime as required and chicken manure. Only ‘plants of joy’ out the window though 😉
Tah much Rogue, seems a lot of work, not necessarily for someone just starting a garden, but, i have all mine as raised boxes of soil, makes the digging that much easier,
i compost using the plastic bags that used to hold bought compost, stuff em full of weeds and clippings off of the plants, bush’s, and trees, wait awhile and hey presto ready to go into the soil,
Lolz, one of my neighbours throws all His weeding into a wheelie bin that He pays to have emptied once a week for 4 or 5 bucks, then moans about the soil being so poor in His garden , Lolz, He’s a redneck hypocrite so i have never bothered any attempt at enlightenment,
One of the other neighbor’s in the street has just started dropping off all His food scraps which go straight in the garden along with a suitable pile of my compost…
on to it bad12; I’m building up to improve soil, overcome oxalis, convolvulus, drainage issues, ease on back; no hurry, just a little at a time as materials are afforded. All the best, gonna be an interesting, yet sad year out there in the big wide world all media present to us spectator / visionaries.
Over, and, out!
Here’s a hint Rogue, don’t look at a garden as a whole area that has to be dug over at once, form a daily habit,
What i do is dig across one fork width of garden most days, the top foot of soil i dig out laying it on top of the rest of the garden, the bottom foot i just dig in place to make sure its nice and loose, then i throw in the compost and rake the dug out soil back into place,
i do tho have the luxury of only planting the one crop a year, but, the system still works well if you have multiple boxes and can leave a couple un-planted…
Solar power is one of the greenest forms of electricity generation we have. It gives families independence from the big electricty companies. With no fuel cost, it insulates families against future power price rises.
Under the Greens’ Solar Homes initiative, Kiwi families and households will be able to get low-cost loans from the government to pay for solar power installation, repay the loan via their rates, and enjoy free, sustainable power for decades.
The loans will be cost neutral to the Crown, with an estimated administration cost to Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) of less than a million dollars a year.
Once the low-interest loan is repaid, the family will own their solar power system outright. Families will be able to earn money by selling excess electricity back to the grid.
This is an example of smarter, greener economics in action.
Looks like a smart, well thought out policy. I can pick some holes in it (esp around solar batteries), but for the mainstream it’s a good start, and a good example of holistic thinking getting into mainstream politics (the policy works at multiple, interrelated levels across many areas).
Yes. A positive step but the battery storage problem has not been solved yet has it? I think that the cost of solar panels has been tumbling downwards as new technology comes into force. Sunny Marlborough might be a good place to be.
my view is that this is a big step in the right direction, But, i think that far far more ‘thinking’ need be done around solar energy,
(1), A standard solar power kit need be designed so that all installations are basically a carbon copy of each other, where it is made easy to simply plug in more solar panels should space allow and the initial installation proved a financial success
(2),i am of the belief that such solar installations should be without the capacity to store energy, i see the use of batteries as a means of storage when we have a National Grid as a total waste of resources,
The power from solar installations should just be fed straight though a smart meter into the grid with the proposed ‘kiwi-power’ scheme of the Government as the single buyer of wholesale electricity buying all the generated electricity from households generating solar energy at wholesale rates on a preferential basis ahead of the commercial generators, thus a smart meter would measure house-hold use against household solar generation and a discount at the wholesale rate would occur at the point of billing the household…
Good idea bad12. Straight into the grid and avoid the need for batteries. However the Electricity Providers might be unhappy as thousands and thousands of solar panels would undermine their strangle hold.
Seriously ianmac???, as far s the major generators go i would simply say ‘tough’, it’s our dams and grid that my parents and grandparents built off of the back of being taxed and some very hard labour,
If the retailers start to go broke again i say tough, the insertion of these retailers into the ‘market’ which has been the cause of the rising price of electricity in many instances,and, as many of these retailers are in fact owned by the major generators who ‘kaching’ demand two lots of profit from the same generation, there would be no sad loss, how long would it take for the state to set up an electricity retailer…
Not a bad idea, but like others have said the batteries are the main problem.
I read some where the batteries need replacing every 10 -15 years and they aren’t cheap and also where do you stick them.
Also the panels do not last for ever, 20 -25 years seem to be the life expectancy.
Having said that I do like Bad12 idea of selling electricity into the grid.
So you like the Green Party’s policy of selling power to the grid, good for you.
“also where do you stick them.”
Think about all that space used to installing heat pumps. Most houses have room to spare. You can put them outside (although there are frost issues). Installers will help solve these problems just like they do with other technologies.
The price of panels and batteries will drop once more people are buying them. That’s part of the GP plan, to boost the solar industry in NZ.
I’m a capitalist, being able to make a bit of money selling power appeals greatly.
Photovoltaic panels I’m fairly meh about, their efficiency is rather poor and return to cost ratio isn’t great.
The only really question I have is how the electrical grid would cope with 30,000+ people randomly injecting various amounts of power into the grid.
Would that be an issue?
Distributed input is much easier to handle than the current model where power from large South Island generators has to be transported the length of the country to Auckland.
BM, i will have you eating mung beans and lentils yet, the final straw will be when you go into the office that you sell yourself to as an indentured serf muttering peace, love, happiness, and joyful times for all while counting your hippy beads,
The Green Party can expect your vote this year then???, the switch wont be a lonely one, a 58% rise in the Green party vote from within the Auckland electorates held by National was apparent in the data from the 2011 election…
Unfortunately I’m not quite ready to go out there and purchase a Morris dancing outfit, as tempting as it is.
Seriously though this is where the greens really trip up, good idea but it’s only one idea and very few people(hopefully) cast their vote purely on one issue or idea.
This is why I think the Greens need to be a more neutral party, take a leaf out of Switzerland’s book and learn to work with every one.
The greens have been around a long time, yet they’re still considered extremist nut bars by a large proportion of kiwis.
Until they actually work with National they always will be the 10% mung bean , hippy party.
Greens need to get sharper, they’re a business and sometimes you have work with other businesses you don’t particularly like, but you do it because you get something good out of it.
The fact that they’re still political virgins with no track record after all these years speaks volumes about how poor the greens political strategy is.
“Seriously though this is where the greens really trip up, good idea but it’s only one idea and very few people(hopefully) cast their vote purely on one issue or idea.”
Dude, read Norman’s speech. The standard even published the whole thing so you don’t have to go looking. One idea, my arse. At least base your criticisms on something even half way real.
On the contrary, if the greens ever go into coalition with national, it would be proof that they elevate mung beans above child welfare, employment and human suffering.
That’s different to working with individual nats on individual legislation, but they already try that.
“Guess ACT need to learn to work with Labour then. Unless they want to carry on as the fringe extremist nut bar sub-1% party that is.”
Now that ACT has ejected Banks and they have an intelligent, thoughtful leader, their vote will progressively recover. They will have 2 MPs in the next Parliament.
BM, ummm, the most educated eloquent answer my tiny little mind can formulate in answer to that is, sorry, fuck off with your lolly pops save them for National after the election, another 9 in opposition means they will need cheering up…
“another 9 in opposition means they will need cheering up…”
Thankfully, that is looking increasingly unlikely.
And the foul mouthed language .. if you and CV are indicative (“shit head”) it is a worrying indicator of Your mindset and of Him. i wonder for Your future and His if You keep behaving in this way.
SSLands, you sound like you need cheering up, why not slither off to that wee gambling site and console yourself with a good long drool over the ”next PM gamble”,
What scares you off from sitting and spitting your rubbish into the forum over there SSLands is the fact that those with a couple of working neurons and actual money, as opposed to you pretending to have some, is the fact that they would see through your rubbish in 2 seconds right,
Or have they already given you the message to stop masterbating in their forum…
Human trafficking, loan sharking, it is a desperate and miserable situation – and what do the corporate sponsors and others care as long as the event makes them money.
A quick comparative analysis of 2008 and 2011 Opinion Polls suggests that a little more than 50% of the time, Fairfax results are skewered about 3-6 percentage points to the Right in comparison with other polls taken around the same time (the rest of the time their results closely align with the other polls. Fairfax never favours the Left in comparison to other polls).
The last Fairfax poll of 08 overestimated National support by 4 points (and underestimated Labour by 3) in comparison with the Election results while the last Fairfax poll of 11 overestimated National support by 7 points (and underestimated Labour by 2).
The February 2013 document shows that the Indonesian government had retained the law firm for help in trade talks, the Times reported in a story posted on its website Saturday. The law firm was not identified in the document, but the Chicago-based firm Mayer Brown was advising the Indonesian government on trade issues at the time, according to the newspaper.
The document itself is a monthly bulletin from an NSA liaison office in Canberra, the capital of Australia. The NSA’s Australian counterpart, the Australian Signals Directorate, had notified the NSA that it was conducting surveillance of the talks, including communications between Indonesian officials and the American law firm, and offered to share the information, the Times reported.
Liaison officials asked the NSA general counsel’s office, on behalf of the Australians, for guidance about the spying. The bulletin notes only that the counsel’s office “provided clear guidance” and that the Australian eavesdropping agency “has been able to continue to cover the talks, providing highly useful intelligence for interested U.S. customers,” according to the Times story.
“Part of my TEDx Queenstown talk next week is about mass surveillance online. How governments are building the modern Panopticon.
I was therefore quite surprised yesterday when Prime Minister John Key said he has no reason to believe the NSA has undertaken mass surveillance on New Zealanders. To help the Prime Minister, let’s look at what we know about it and whether an objective person should come to the same conclusion…”
@Karol. Just a small point and this probably does not irk others. Please when you start an article of yours do not dive straight into the acronym of MSM. I understand what it means, yet others may not or have an educated guess. Perhaps in future to start your MSM article, then give it a one line, name check as to what it means “Mainstream Media” then revert to acronymsville? Otherwise it can lead to confusion. Is MSM like BDSM yet a lite version of it? Am I meant to eat M&M’s whilst indulging in NeoLiberal BDSM whilst glancing at Shortland Street on The MSM? I like reading the posts on The Standard aka TS. I dont want to have to invest in an Enigma machine to unravel the gobbledegook under the assumption that because the author knows what something stands for, therefore all the readers do. I just want to read the articles. Rest In Peace. Rip Msm/BdsmLite/NeoM&M’s/Fubar!
BDSM is usually practised by more than one consenting adult at a time, unless it’s a Tory with an asphyxiation fetish. MSM is forced on us. The two should not be compared.
The government released its Action for Healthy Waterways package today, ostensibly with the goal of cleaning up our rivers and making them swimmable within a generation. Doing that, of course, requires confronting the cow in the room: the dairy industry which causes most of the pollution. But while they've imposed ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzI would like to know if New Zealand’s carbon emissions ...
Remember KiwiBuild? Previously the government's flagship policy, it was supposed to build thousands of new homes every year for kiwi families. But instead of flooding the market, we've got a pathetic dribble: The Government's former flagship housing policy is so far behind schedule it will take more than 400 years ...
Don Franks Now Covid-19 restrictions allow gatherings of a hundred, an urgent hui needs calling. A special conference of the Council of Trade Unions. Today, workers face the greatest attack on employment, pay and conditions since the depression, we need a strong united union voice. As it stands now, organised ...
George Henderson New Zealand schools have introduced a climate change resource that suggests children “eat less meat and dairy”, even though teachers will not know how much meat or dairy any child in their care has eaten. Opinion pieces in the papers have called for the reduction of meat and ...
Questioning the number of district health boards in New Zealand has got to the extent that “too many DHBs” has become a perceived truth requiring no further elaboration. It is rarely challenged by policy advisers, academics, and journalists. But when one drills down further it becomes clear that the number ...
The emergence of a new National party leader, seemingly out of nowhere, has – not surprisingly – raised a number of questions as to who Todd Mulller actually is and what makes him tick. He has been an MP for some time but seems to have hidden his light under ...
Costa Rica has become the first country in Central America to recognise same-sex marriage: The first same-sex weddings have taken place in Costa Rica, the first Central American country to equalise its marriage legislation. A lesbian couple became the first to tie the knot in a ceremony that took ...
There's a new twist in the Winston Peters secret donation story. It appears that a significant chunk of NZ First's secret laundered donations goes straight into the pockets of the people administering the scheme: Tens of thousands in donor's funds given to the New Zealand First Foundation were spent paying ...
Is Todd Muller the Ned Flanders of the National Party? This is how he’s been characterised by political commentator Gordon Campbell, who suggests the change in leadership is, in Simpsons terms, akin to swapping the scary and cruel Monty Burns for Homer Simpson’s compassionate but conservative neighbour. There’s almost a ...
We all know that many so-called journalists and political commentators in New Zealand work directly or indirectly for political parties or for certain political factions. This was obviously the case when pundit for hire Matthew Hooton launched a campaign against then National Party leader, Simon Bridges, over their numerous polling ...
Let's Roll! The easy victory over a Bridges-led National Party which the Left had every cause to anticipate just a few days ago is no longer in the offing. Our enemy’s position has changed. His numbers are swelling. A rapid thrust to the left, followed by an audacious outflanking manoeuvre ...
New National Party leader Todd Muller has been interviewed about his policies, and has promised to restart offshore fossil fuel exploration if elected: The Bay of Plenty MP rolled former leader Simon Bridges last week, but says the party has not changed its stance on previous promises. "That is ...
Anyone who keeps an eye on evidence around cannabis and public health will be familiar with the Christchurch Health and Development Study. It's one of two local longitudinal studies frequently cited with respect to cannabis and youth development. But in a new article in the New Zealand Medical Journal, it is ...
In the age of covid we are Jacinda’s team of five million, except for some. There has rarely been a more blatant case of discrimination against beneficiaries than Grant Robertson’s announcement yesterday that people who have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus will receive weekly payments of $490 per week for 12 weeks and $250 per week for part time ...
It was 75 years ago this month that Germany surrendered and the Allies celebrated VE (Victory in Europe) Day. Millions of people around the world had been killed and many more injured or captured. It was an end to war not just for Europeans, but their allies too, in countries across Africa. But its impact is ...
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...
Watching Todd Muller make his first speech as the newly minted Leader of the Opposition after Simon Bridges’ defenestration on Friday brought to mind a headmaster addressing a school assembly. He showed no particular desire to ingratiate himself with his audience although the occasional flash of self-deprecating humour indicated a ...
The government has announced another income support scheme for people affected by the economic aftershocks of the pandemic: a $490 a week tax-free payment for the newly unemployed, which you can get even if you have a working partner. Which is great, because its supporting people who need help, but ...
The Greens have released their party list, and it contains a few surprises. The one that's getting all the news is that the membership are clearly fans of Chlöe Swarbrick, and she has worked hard to earn that. But they've also favoured incumbent protection over new blood, and in the ...
age credit:Science and Politics – Skeptically.org It seems impossible to keep politics out of science. It’s a pity because politics can end up forcing science to produce the results desired by ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Matthew Parry, Dr Ayesha Verrall, Prof Michael Baker, Prof Martin Eichner (author details*)This blog details a recent modelling study we conducted. In it we estimated that it would take between 27 and 33 days of no new detected cases of COVID-19 for there to be ...
The 2015 Schol Bio paper included a question about a group of birds known as honeycreepers, specifically, the 56 species endemic to the Hawaiian islands. (Or, were endemic: 18, or perhaps 19, are still living; the others are extinct.) Students who’ve already had a look at this paper as part of ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... What a Week’s Disasters Tell Us About Climate and the PandemicExtreme weather presents an even bigger threat ...
Todd Muller has made a good start to his leadership, though it would obviously be pretty stupid to extrapolate too much from the first couple of days. Nevertheless, as a matter of speculation, it is interesting to think what success on his part might say about the preferences of the ...
A guest post by Hamish Price.“A leader is a dealer in hope.”— Napoléon BonaparteCatholics have a name for potential successors to a dead pope. Papabile. The small coterie of distinguished cardinals who have what it takes to step up. Todd Muller has always been one.I first met Muller at a National ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 17 through Sat, May 23, 2020Editor's ChoiceMore than 80 killed in India and Bangladesh as Cyclone Amphan heaps misery on coronavirus-hit areasA man salvages items from ...
Two poor political polls within the same week had seen National for the first time in over a decade dropping major support in the face of a competent and assured COVID-19 health response from the Coalition government. Step forward the relatively unknown Todd Muller, who by Friday afternoon had secured ...
SUNDAY MAY 24The Luminaries (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). There are an awful lot of indeterminate accents in The Luminaries; even lead Eve Hewson seems undecided about being Irish, and she is Irish. Fair play, accents can go badly wrong, so perhaps not over-egging was a consideration. Marton Csokas, always impeccable, and Himesh Patel ...
Let’s be honest; Simon Bridges was a disaster of a political leader. If he wasn’t attempting to criticise the Government’s perfectly good policy initiatives that the public generally supported, he was fudging his lines after getting caught out in yet another lie. When Jami-Lee Ross said Bridges “is a flawed individual ...
The media treat budgets as bit of a circus: lots of theatre and soon forgotten. For a serious economist they show how a team of economists is thinking about the wider economy. The 2020 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) was the most difficult forecasting exercise in the history of ...
Air NZ shed 1,300 workers, Fletchers about to sack 1000. Economists Strateg.Ease predict over 12,400 jobs gone by March next year in central Auckland alone. Here’s Don Franks during the 2008 election campaign when he stood for the Workers Party. He’s talking about fightback strategies, ideas that he believes are ...
One of these MPs is the new leader of the National party. Can you pick which? (Source: Office of the Clerk/Parliamentary Service) National has chosen its new leader, and as expected, it is an old bald white man. Totally representative of modern New Zealand, then. But its not ...
Five years ago, Know Your Stuff didn't have a name. They were just a group of people from the festival community who began testing party drugs onsite because they'd seen the consequences of people taking substances they couldn't identify or didn't understand. They didn't want to see people in their ...
Last week, an article on Newsroom made it clear how the funder / provider split - a core part of our public service - was used to enable underfunding. The government holds the purse strings, but dumps responsibility for its decisions on providers, so they get the blame for poor ...
Dr Jaijus Pallippadan-Johny1, Dr John McDermott2, Rodney Jones1 and Michael Duddin1 (1 Wigram Capital Advisors, Auckland; 2Motu Economic and Policy Research, Wellington)In this blog, we introduce our modelling approach to estimating the transmissibility of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. We demonstrate the usefulness of ...
The Illusions Of Power: Does Jacinda Ardern, like Abraham Lincoln, wake in the dark watches of the night still enveloped in the terrors of life-and-death decision-making? Maybe – maybe not. She’s a twenty-first century prime minister, not so susceptible, perhaps, to the deep religious feeling and romanticism that was such ...
Well, that seals it. The supposedly more National sympathetic One News-Colmar Brunton poll has tonight delivered Simon Bridges’ National Party a worst result than the Newshub-Reid Research three days agoi.On tonight’s numbers Labour sits at an “unprecedented” 59 percent, while National has slumped 17 percent to 29 percent. Anything in ...
The National Party are quite simply a party out of time…Literally, insofar as the 2020 Election is concerned, and certainly in terms of their ideological positioning which has grown far more trenchantly extreme in the last few years in particular, under the leadership of both Simon Bridges, and Paula ...
If tonight’s 1News-Colmar Brunton poll result is anywhere near the 31% recorded in Monday’s Newshub-Reid Research poll, Simon Bridges will surely be dog tucker when his caucus colleagues meet tomorrow to vote on the National Party leadership. The momentum is with newcomer Todd Muller, who seems likely to be installed ...
At last year's Splore festival Listening Lounge sessions, one of the most popular discussions was the one on psychedelic therapy. So for this year's festival, I brought back two of the participants from that panel – Dr Will Evans and Amadeus Diamond – and was delighted to be able to ...
The government is reportedly looking at "helicopter money" - giving cash directly to people to spend - as a way of stimulating the economy in the wake of the pandemic. But its not just central government: Palmerston North City Council is looking at the same thing, though on a much ...
Mahmoud Elkhodr, CQUniversity AustraliaNew Zealanders finally have access to the government’s new tracing app to help people monitor their movements as lockdown continues to ease. As businesses can now open, the NZ COVID Tracer app allows people to keep a register of the places they visit. This “digital diary” ...
Eyes Left! On the face of it, the election of Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye is a no-brainer. New Zealanders are clearly in no mood for a “dirty little street-fighter” and, if the polls are any indication, resent strongly Bridges’ implication that they are. To be at all competitive with ...
Tahu Kukutai, University of Waikato; Helen Moewaka Barnes, Massey University; Tim McCreanor, Massey University, and Tracey McintoshAs schools and businesses reopen and attention shifts to the longer-term repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical that Māori be involved in decision making more equitably than has so far happened. ...
Dane Giraud from The Free Speech Coalition talks with Redline writer and editor Daphna Whitmore on cancel culture, gender ideology, postmodernism and irrationalism. They look at the free speech implications of issues like the Twitter mob, the Government’s proposed emergency police powers, and the Israel-Palestine conflict. The Free Speech interview ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzAlmost every threat to modern humanity can be traced simply ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee is holding an inquiry into the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 which was rushed through Parliament last week, and has called for submissions. Submissions are due by Sunday, 28 June 2020. You can either submit online through the form above, or by posting dead ...
While the world is currently struggling with the pandemic, we have another crisis to deal with as well: climate change. Fortunately, not everyone has forgotten about it, with Spain announcing ambitious plans to go net-zero by 2050: Under the law, which still needs to be approved by Parliament, the government ...
Children used in this study were from Lintingkou town (a normal-fluoride/control area) and Dakoutun town (a high-fluoride area) in Baodi district of Tianjin, China. The towns are 25 km apart. Anti-fluoridation activists on ...
When we see how the pandemic is being handled in the rest of the world, we can thank our lucky stars that we live here, in New Zealand, and under our current government, led by Jacinda Ardern. The latest polls suggest that this is exactly how Kiwis feel. But the ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Sophie Febery, Dr Ling Chan, Dr Jennifer Summers, Prof Michael BakerThe concepts of an Alert Level system, household “bubbles”, and social event size limits are all valuable pandemic control measures. Nevertheless, better “source control” of COVID-19 at various Alert Levels by requiring masks in ...
This is a repost from the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund blog, by CSLDF Executive Director Lauren Kurtz The COVID-19 pandemic illuminates the crucial role scientists at university, state, and local laboratories in the United States and abroad play in protecting public health and safety—and shows that global research must be done ...
Arguments by religious folk that they are being discriminated against under the Level 2 pandemic restrictions in NZ, which limit church services to ten people or less when schools, restaurants, malls and other service outlets are allowed to host many more people under voluntary self-distancing protocols, got me to think ...
Now that the initial wave has passed, and we are (hopefully) safe in our national bubble, the government is thinking about how to keep the economy ticking over, and how to salvage the bits (like tourism) that are now useless. And for that particular industry, she has mentioned a great ...
There’s been a lot of conjecture concerning the reasons behind the National Party’s fall to 30% in the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll. Some commentators have correctly ascertained that the current leader, Simon Bridges, has been consistently getting his tone wrong! Others believe that the shift in support is all about ...
It probably was too good to last. The blessed peace on the roads that I wrote about here began eroding even before we left Level 4 of the Covid-19 restrictions – and on day one of Level 3, with the tradies rushing to catch upon their work, the double-cab utes ...
Missing From The Electoral Action: The radical Left's last forlorn hope, the "Missing Million", is generally despised by mainstream New Zealand and mistrusted by the respectable members of their own communities. They have moved well beyond the reach of conventional electoral politics.TO SAY the Left’s reaction to Grant Robertson’s “Recovery ...
by Don Franks As we face new unknowns against Covid 19, there’s something reassuring about level 2’s basic rules. “Physical distancing- keep your distance when out and about. Two metres in public and in retail stores, like supermarkets. One metre in most other environments like workplaces, cafes, restaurants, and gyms.” ...
Richard Shaw, Massey UniversityOnce upon a very different time, British cabinet minister Michael Gove sneered that “people have had enough of experts from organisations with acronyms saying that they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong.” But that was then and this is now. One or two ...
From its name, you would think the Environmental protection Authority was there to protect the environment. But we've had another reminder that nothing could be further from the truth, with its decision to allow a toxic, burned-out Korean fishing boat to be dumped at sea: The ship's owner, Dong Won ...
Story of the Week... El Niño/La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Graphic of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... The Largest Arctic Science Expedition in History Finds Itself on Increasingly ...
It was just a month ago that the chief executive of Rotorua Lakes Council, Geoff Williams, described suggestions his executive team should consider taking pay cuts as “immoral”. Williams told the NZ Herald: “I am very fortunate to have around me an extremely committed, dedicated and hardworking executive team who ...
“Every day, we see the powers that promulgate laws that oblige one to take certain routes and [those] that do not follow these indications or do not want them to be part of their legislation, are accused and politely persecuted” – Pope Francis What does the Government’s decision to limit ...
In a previous post I noted that futures thinking usually tries to identify what people think will change and what they think needs to change. As lockdown constraints ease, we are seeing a lot of opinions about both. There is no shortage of shovel ready points of view ...
And so it came pass that a great plague swept the face of all the Earth. Some say it came from the East, others say it came from gloomy caverns of the bat or jungles of the civet. From whence it came, who can say? But come it did.In the ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 10 through Sat, May 16, 2020Editor's ChoiceThese 6 books explore climate change science and solutionsRecent books about climate change tackle science and offer visions of the ...
The Green Party says major freshwater reforms announced today provide the strongest ever protections of our waterways, to help ensure the next generation can swim in the rivers of Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party has begun the process for a Select Committee inquiry into student accommodation, which has been exposed during COVID-19 as an under-regulated sector that straddles students with unfair debt. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Megan Woods, Minister of Research, Science and Innovation Hon Dr David Clark, Minister of Health Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods, and Health Minister David Clark today announced a COVID-19 vaccine strategy, ...
Budget 2020 is about rebuilding together, supporting jobs, getting business moving and the books back into the black. It’s an integral part of our COVID-19 economic response, and our plan to grow our economy and get New Zealand moving again.Here’s a quick look at the five top things you ...
The Coalition Government has approved $206 million in essential upgrades at Ōhakea Air Base. Defence Minister Ron Mark said the money would be spent on improving old infrastructure. He said safety issues would be addressed, as well as upgrades to taxiways, accommodation and fresh, storm and waste water systems. "This ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First “I am not persisting with this case just for myself, but for all people who have had their privacy breached. Privacy of information is a cornerstone of our country’s democracy. Without it our society truly faces a bleak future. We now ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones has introduced a Bill to Parliament that he says will "force more transparency, integrity and respect" for the domestic wood-processing sector through the registration of log traders and practice standards. The Forests (Regulation of Log Traders and Forestry Advisers) Amendment Bill had its first reading in ...
Green MP Golriz Ghahraman is joining over 300 lawmakers from around the world in calling on the big banks and the IMF to forgive the debt of developing countries, in the wake of the COVID crisis. ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones says concerns that carbon foresters are planting pine trees that will never be harvested are the result of "misinformation". "The billion tree strategy is an excellent idea, unfortunately from time to time it's tainted by misinformation spread by the National Party or their grandees, hiding in scattered ...
The Green Party welcomes funding in the budget to reunite more refugees with their families, ensuring they have the best chance at a new life in Aotearoa New Zealand. ...
This year’s Budget is about rebuilding New Zealand together in the face of COVID-19. Jobs are central to how we’re going to do that.There’s a lot of targeted investment for employment in this year’s Budget, with announcements on creating new jobs, training people for the jobs we have, and supporting ...
Speaking to Stuff's Coronavirus NZ podcast, Foreign Minister Winston Peters revealed China tried to dissuade New Zealand from going into lockdown.“Without speaking out of turn, they wanted a discussion as to why we were doing it, because they thought it was an overreaction,” Mr Peters told Stuff’s Coronavirus NZ podcast.He also ...
The Coalition Government is making changes to the Overseas Investment Act to ensure New Zealand assets don't fall into the hands of foreign ownership in the economic aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Associate Minister of Finance David Parker announced the Act will be amended to bring forward a national interest ...
A quick start to a trans-Tasman bubble could see the tourism industry make a swift recovery, according to Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters. "I believe tourism will turn around dramatically faster than people think," Mr Peters told reporters after Thursday's Budget. "Why? Because I think the Tasman bubble is [going ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First Please check against deliveryhttps://vimeo.com/418303651 Budget 2020: Jobs, Business and Balance Introduction Acknowledgements to all Cabinet colleagues, and party ministers Tracey Martin, Shane Jones and Ron Mark, Under-Secretary Fletcher Tabuteau and to caucus colleagues. Thank you for your support, your ...
The 2020 Budget includes significant support to stabilise New Zealand’s family violence services, whose work has been shown to be so essential throughout the COVID-19 lockdown. ...
The Green Party says huge new investment in public and transitional housing will get thousands more families into the warm, safe homes they deserve. ...
The Green Party says the $1.1 billion environmental investment in this year’s budget to create thousands of green jobs will help jump start a sustainable recovery from the COVID crisis. ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said today the Coalition Government told foreigners at the start of the Covid-19 crisis that if their circumstances had changed dramatically, they should go home. "And 50,000 did," Mr Peters said. Official advice to Cabinet revealed there is potentially 380,000 foreigners and migrant workers in ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First welcomes the decision today to go to Alert Level 2 from midnight Wednesday, says Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters. Alert Level 2 will mean a return to work for the vast majority of New Zealand’s businesses. A return ...
Nurses now look set to get more protection from violence at work, under a proposed new law.This after NZ First MP Darroch Ball's "Protection for First Responders Bill", which introduces a six-month minimum sentence for assaults on first responders, will now also cover emergency department healthcare workers. The ...
Darroch Ball MP, New Zealand First Law and Order Spokesperson An amendment to the ‘Protection of First Responders Bill’ is being tabled which will see emergency department healthcare workers included in the legislation. “During this COVID-19 crisis we have seen reports of violence and specifically increased incidents of spitting towards ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones is breathing new life into the proposal to move Auckland's port to Whangārei to help in the economic recovery post Covid-19 pandemic.If New ZealandFirst was returned in the September general election, Minister Jones said a priority would be development of an "economic haven" at Northport, ...
The plan to build a memorial to the SS Ventnor, and those who were lost when it sank off the Hokianga coast in 1902, has been granted $100,000 from the Provincial Growth Fund.Originally planned for a site near Rāwene cemetery, the memorial will now be built at the new Manea ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First LeaderLeader of New Zealand First, Rt Hon Winston Peters said: “Today is the 75th anniversary of VE Day – marking the end of World War II in Europe."Millions died in the six years of war, and families were torn apart. 75 years ...
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has committed to providing calm, clear, and consistent communication, including regular press conference updates from the Prime Minister. While New Zealand is at Alert Level 3, we're making sure that New Zealanders are kept informed and up-to-date with all the latest ...
Setting higher health standards at swimming spots Requiring urban waterways to be cleaned up and new protections for urban streams Putting controls on higher-risk farm practices such as winter grazing and feed lots Setting stricter controls on nitrogen pollution and new bottom lines on other measures of waterway health Ensuring ...
The Government is on the verge of reaching its target of state sector boards and committees made up of at least 50 percent women, says Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter and Minister for Ethnic Communities Jenny Salesa. For the first time, the Government stocktake measures the number of Māori, ...
The Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister and Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Minister, Kris Faafoi, has today announced the appointment of Tristan Gilbertson as the new Telecommunications Commissioner and member of the Commerce Commission. “Mr Gilbertson has considerable experience in the telecommunications industry and a strong reputation amongst his peers,” ...
The Ministry of Education and NZEI Te Riu Roa have agreed to settle the pay equity claim for teacher aides, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. This will see more than 22,000 teacher aides, mostly women, being valued and paid fairly for the work they do. “Teacher aides are frontline ...
Subcontractors will have greater certainty, more cashflow support and job security with new changes to retention payments under the Construction Contracts Act says Minister for Building and Construction, Jenny Salesa. A recent review of the retentions money regime showed that most of the building and construction sector is complying with ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong have marked the first anniversary of the New Zealand-Singapore Enhanced Partnership with a virtual Leaders’ Meeting today. The Enhanced Partnership, signed on 17 May 2019, provides the framework for cooperation across the four main areas of trade, defence and ...
On 17 May 2019, New Zealand and Singapore established an Enhanced Partnership to elevate our relations. The Enhanced Partnership – based on the four pillars of trade and economics, security and defence, science, technology and innovation, and people-to-people links – has seen the long-standing relationship between our countries strengthen over the ...
State-Owned Enterprises Minister Winston Peters has welcomed KiwiRail’s announcement that it is seeking a preferred shipyard to build two new rail-enabled ferries for the Cook Strait crossing. “This Government is committed to restoring rail to its rightful place in New Zealand. Bigger, better ships, with new technology are yet another ...
Better protection for seabirds is being put in place with a new National Plan of Action to reduce fishing-related captures, Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced today. The National Plan of Action for Seabirds 2020 outlines our commitment to reduce fishing-related captures and associated seabird ...
Almost $1 billion in interest-free loans for small businesses More than 55,000 businesses have applied; 95% approved Average loan approx. $17,300 90% of applications from firms with ten or fewer staff A wide cross-section of businesses have applied, the most common are the construction industry, accommodation providers, professional firms, and ...
Thousands of children will have healthier lungs after the Government’s ban on smoking in cars with kids becomes law, says Associate Minister of Health Jenny Salesa. This comes after the third reading of Smoke-free Environments (Prohibiting Smoking in Motor Vehicles Carrying Children) Amendment Bill earlier today. “This law makes it ...
The special Epidemic Response Committee (ERC) has successfully concluded its role, Leader of the House Chris Hipkins said today. The committee was set up on 25 March by the agreement of Parliament to scrutinise the Government and its actions while keeping people safe during levels 4 and 3 of lockdown. ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced four diplomatic appointments: New Zealand’s Ambassador to Belgium, High Commissioners to Nauru and Niue, and Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism. “As the world seeks to manage and then recover from COVID-19, our diplomatic and trade networks are more important than ever,” Mr Peters said. “The ...
New Zealanders will be better protected from online harm through a Bill introduced to Parliament today, says Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin. “The internet brings many benefits to society but can also be used as a weapon to spread harmful and illegal content and that is what this legislation targets,” ...
New Zealand’s world-first plan to eradicate the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis is on track the latest technical data shows, says Agriculture and Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor. “Two years ago the Government, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb New Zealand and industry partners made a bold decision to go hard and commit ...
Further support for New Zealanders affected by 1-in-100 year global economic shock 12-week payment will support people searching for new work or retraining Work programme on employment insurance to support workers and businesses The Government today announced a new temporary payment to support New Zealanders who lose their jobs due ...
The Provincial Growth Fund will play a vital role in New Zealand’s post-COVID-19 recovery by creating jobs in shorter timeframes through at least $600 million being refocused on projects with more immediate economic benefits, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The funding is comprised of repurposed Provincial Growth ...
Government exempts some home improvements from costly consents Homeowners, builders and DIYers will soon have an easier time making basic home improvements as the Government scraps the need for consents for low-risk building work such as sleep-outs, sheds and carports – allowing the construction sector to fire back up quicker ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says the New Zealand Government has reacted with concern at the introduction of legislation in China’s National People’s Congress relating to national security in Hong Kong. “We have a strong interest in seeing confidence maintained in the ‘one country, two systems’ principle under which Hong ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio, says the theme for the 2020 Samoa Language Week is a perfect fit for helping our Pacific communities cope with the unfolding COVID-19 crisis, and to prepare now for the journey ahead as New Zealand focuses on recovery plans and rebuilding New ...
A nearly 40-year programme to protect one of New Zealand’s most critically endangered birds is paying off, with a record number of adult kakī/black stilt recently recorded living in the wild, the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. “Thanks to the team effort involved in the Department of Conservation’s ...
The story of the Waikato-Tainui Treaty process and its enduring impact on the community is being told with a five-part web story launched today on the 25th anniversary of settlement, announced Associate Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni. “I am grateful to Waikato-Tainui for allowing us to help capture ...
Taita College in the Hutt Valley will be redeveloped to upgrade its ageing classrooms and leaky roofs, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. “The work is long overdue and will make a lasting difference to the school for generations to come,” Chris Hipkins said. “Too many of our schools are ...
The Government is allocating $36.72 million to projects in regions hard hit economically by COVID-19 to keep people working, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. Projects in Hawke’s Bay, Northland, Rotorua and Queenstown will be funded from the Government’s $100 million worker ...
A $35m boost to financial capability service providers funded by MSD will help New Zealanders manage their money better both day to day and through periods of financial difficulty, announced Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni. “It’s always been our position to increase support to key groups experiencing or at risk ...
Dunedin barrister Melinda Broek has been appointed as a District Court Judge with Family Court jurisdiction to be based in Rotorua, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. Ms Broek has iwi affiliations to Ngai Tai. She commenced her employment in 1996 with Scholefield Cockroft Lloyd in Invercargill specialising in family and ...
The Coalition Government has approved a business case for $206 million in upgrades to critical infrastructure at Royal New Zealand Air Force Base Ohakea, with the first phase starting later this year, Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. The investment will be made in three phases over five years, and ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today released the Ministry of Transport’s review of the organisational culture at the Civil Aviation Authority. Phil Twyford says all employees are entitled to a safe work environment. “I commissioned this independent review due to the concerns I had about the culture within the CAA, and ...
Ensuring that Stats NZ’s direction and strategy best supports government policy decisions will be a key focus for a new Governance Advisory Board announced today by the Minister for Statistics, James Shaw. The new Governance Advisory Board will provide strategic advice to Stats NZ to ensure it is meeting New ...
Environment Judge David Kirkpatrick of Auckland has been appointed as the Principal Environment Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. Judge Kirkpatrick was appointed an Environment Judge in February 2014. From December 2013 to July 2016 he was Chair of the Auckland Unitary Plan Independent Hearings Panel. Prior to appointment he ...
A programme to connect marae around the country to the internet has received $1.4 million to expand to include urban marae in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Minister Kris Faafoi and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. The funding for the Marae Connectivity Programme ...
The Government will provide $500,000 to the Hawke’s Bay Mayoral Drought Relief Fund to help farmers facing one of the worst droughts in living memory, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “Yesterday afternoon I received a letter from Hawke's Bay's five local Government leaders asking me to contribute to the Fund. ...
Budget 2020 provides a major investment in New Zealand’s documentary heritage sector, with a commitment to leasing a new Archives Wellington facility and an increase in funding for Archives and National Library work. “Last year I released plans for a new Archives Wellington building – a purpose-built facility physically connected ...
Government Ministers are asking significant private enterprises to adopt prompt payment practices in line with the state sector, as a way to improve cashflow for small businesses. The Ministers of Finance, Small Business, Commerce and Consumer Affairs have written to more than 40 significant enterprises and banking industry representatives to ...
Maori Arts and Crafts will continue to underpin the heart of the tourism sector says Minister for Maori Development Nanaia Mahuta. “That’s why we are making a core investment of $7.6 million to Te Puia New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute, over two years, as part of the Government’s ...
The Government is funding more pathways to jobs through training and education programmes in regional New Zealand to support the provinces’ recovery from the economic impacts of COVID-19, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson have announced. “New Zealand’s economic recovery will be largely driven by ...
Minister for Veterans Ron Mark has announced the launch of a national conversation that aims to find out whether New Zealanders think there should be a formal agreement between service people, the Government, and the people of New Zealand. “This year marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World ...
The Government’s drive to improve the quality of early childhood education (ECE) is taking another step forward with the reintroduction of a higher funding rate for services that employ fully qualified and registered teachers, Education Minister Chris Hipkins has announced. “Research shows that high-quality ECE can improve young people’s learning ...
The Sport and Recreation sector will receive a multi-million dollar boost as part of the COVID-19 response funded at Budget 2020. Grant Robertson says the Sport and Recreation Sector contributes about $5 billion a year to New Zealand’s GDP and employs more than 53,000 people. “Sport plays a significant role ...
A major increase in funding and availability of support will improve the incomes and reduce the pressure on 14,000 caregivers looking after more than 22,000 children. Children’s Minister Tracey Martin says that caregivers – all those looking after someone else’s children both in and outside the state care system – ...
The calls for public health specialists for more taxpayer funding could be taken more seriously if they stopped wasting money on pointless public relations campaigns under the guise of public health, says the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union . Union Executive ...
The New Zealand College of Midwives is calling on the Government to release details of the funding allocated to maternity services in this year’s budget, and is supporting their GP colleagues in asking the Minister of Health to immediately release Heather ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Esterman, Professor of Biostatistics, University of South Australia Australia’s chief medical officer Brendan Murphy told a senate inquiry earlier this week our COVID-19 public health response had avoided about 14,000 deaths. This is in contrast to his deputy Paul Kelly, who ...
By Sri Krishnamurthi, contributing editor Pacific Media Watch Homegrown Australian television shows to the tune of $17.1 million will be broadcast in the Pacific in a bid believed intended to stymie China’s diplomatic and media rise in the region. Shows such as The Voice, Border Security, Neighbours and are to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nik Thompson, Senior Lecturer, Curtin University Data is the new oil, and online platforms will siphon it off at any opportunity. Platforms increasingly demand our personal information in exchange for a service. Avoiding online services altogether can limit your participation in society, ...
By RNZ News New Zealand has reported no new cases of covid-19 coronavirus today, but the death toll has risen to 22 to include a woman who died after recovering from the disease. Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said there were only eight active cases in the country and ...
Fisheries New Zealand is seeking public feedback on a draft Pāua Fisheries Plan and a proposed subdivision of the pāua fishery along the Kaikōura and Canterbury coasts, known as the PAU3 quota management area. “Splitting the quota management ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jarrod Haar, Professor of Human Resource Management, Auckland University of Technology When New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said recently, “I’ve heard lots of people suggesting we should have a four-day week”, she inevitably ignited debate. Ardern was not, as some critics ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Bricknell, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Health, CQUniversity Australia Now we have fewer cases of COVID-19, and restrictions are lifting, many of us are thinking of rejuvenating our social lives by heading to our local cafe or favourite restaurant. What can we ...
Former Race Relations Commissioner, Gregory Fortuin says he agrees with Judith Collins that no one should be superficially judge on skin colour and ethnicity . Fortuin was responding to Collins’ reported outburst about "sick of being demonised" ...
The government says it allowed the Avatar film crew back into New Zealand in spite of the current border closures because the making of the film offers “significant economic value” to our country. But this criterion is being applied unevenly. What ...
New Zealand Defence Force bases in Auckland are attacking their water use as the region battles one of the worst droughts in recent history. The taps are being turned off at Devonport Naval Base, RNZAF Base Auckland at Whenuapai, Papakura Military ...
The Kahui Wai Maori Advisory group welcomed the announcement made by the Hon David Parker, Minister for the Environment today of the new rules designed to clean up our waterways. At the heart of the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management ...
Water New Zealand says the Government’s Action for Healthy Waterways package provides a sensible and realistic way forward and will result in much-needed improvements in freshwater quality. Acting CEO John Mackie says it’s vital that there is no ...
When Claire Freeman became a wheelchair user at age 17, the questions she had about how she might enjoy sex were dismissed and she was made to feel like that part of her life was over. Here she flips the script with some advice on how to find pleasure on ...
As companies in New Zealand’s property development and building sectors digest opportunities presented by the Budget, what they need most urgently to move forwards is Resource Management Act and policy reform in order to rebuild together, says the ...
“We are pleased to see that the Government’s freshwater reforms announced today respond to some of the issues raised, and recommendations made, by the irrigation sector,” says Elizabeth Soal, Chief Executive of IrrigationNZ. “But there is ...
The government is imposing tough rules on water quality despite over 17,000 submissions, many of them complaining the move would impose a huge financial burden. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Dickinson, Professor, Public Service Research, UNSW COVID-19 has had a significant impact on all Australians, but there are very good reasons why the impact might be more keenly felt by people with disability and their carers. Our new research on behalf ...
Freshwater campaigners are frustrated the Government has delayed a crucial decision on nitrogen pollution for a further 12 months until after the election. “We have urged the Government many times to put in place clear and unequivocal limits for ...
The government has just announced a whole lot of new rules and policies for freshwater with the aim of urgently stopping degradation and cleaning up rivers over the long term.What’s all this then? A massive package of work on freshwater quality has just been announced in an attempt to halt further ...
The Environmental Defence Society (EDS) has welcomed the announcement by Ministers David Parker, Damien O’Connor and James Shaw this morning of the much-awaited freshwater reforms. “This package of changes to the present regulatory settings largely delivers ...
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) has welcomed the Government’s announcement of a set of targeted tools to improve the quality of freshwater. LGNZ is the peak body representing New Zealand’s 78 local councils, providing a unified voice for ...
Many families facing newfound financial hardship due to COVID-19 may not be seeking help – believing they should be able to manage on their own or unaware they qualify for support, according to Good Shepherd NZ. The charitable organisation provides ...
Changes to central government Essential Freshwater regulations reflect farmer feedback, Federated Farmers says. "While we’re still working through the detail, the high level policy decisions indicate the government has heeded some of the rural ...
The Council of Trade Unions is congratulating teacher aides in achieving an historic pay equity offer from the government to settle their long standing concerns. "What this offer from the government does is acknowledge the historic under valuation of ...
Freshwater reforms a significant step forward The Government's policy announced today is a significant step forward in reducing pollution in our rural and our urban waterways caused by intensive farming and through council's neglect. However, there ...
Thursday, 28th May: Greenpeace is today welcoming the Government’s move to place a cap on synthetic nitrogen fertiliser, but says more controls are needed to protect freshwater. The fertiliser cap was announced today as part of the Government’s ...
Following today’s announcements on the government’s response to the future of freshwater, it appears that despite the chorus of calls for a change in how the post-COVID future of Aotearoa is shaped - and following many months of engagement, consultation ...
Horticulture New Zealand says the Government’s decisions around freshwater recognise the importance of growing fresh fruit and vegetables in this country. ‘We applaud the Government for the pragmatic approach it is taking to meeting the long-term freshwater ...
NZ’s primary exports held up well in April, again proving the country’s farming industries are sustaining the economy despite many sectors being stricken by the Covid-19 pandemic. Almost coincidentally, a UMR probe of public opinion about farming revealed a sharp swing in perception. Instead of the negativity that had been ...
In a world where players have unfettered access to fans through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, it raises the question of whether traditional media still has a role to play. But as Scotty Stevenson explains, a player-driven model powered by social media can only go so far. Among the many weird and ...
Two statements from the Beehive yesterday were enlightening for taxpayers trying to keep tabs on the burgeoning billions being spent on facilitating the economic recovery. One statement told us how much is being handed out to small businesses. Correction. One statement told us how much is being loaned to small ...
Emily Writes celebrates wholesome shows and the rise of cosy television.The world is frightening right now. From Covid-19 to climate change, just watching the news can be overwhelming let alone going outside. This horror is the perfect environment for what I call Soft TV to flourish. Wholesome reality TV isn’t ...
While many areas of the workforce have been shaken by the effects of Covid-19, a Ngāi Tahu futures lab has been working to give rangatahi Māori the opportunity to decide their own futures.Futurists have thought up myriad strategies for how the world should look post-Covid. For all its hurt, the ...
Pacific Media Centre The dramatic daily increase of covid-19 coronavirus cases in West Papua poses a “great threat” to Papua New Guinea, says the country’s deputy emergency chief. State of Emergency Deputy Controller and Acting Secretary for Health Dr Paison Dakulala said the Indonesian-ruled Papua region had seen an increase ...
Recent public opinion polls are revealing some very interesting, if somewhat contradictory, insights into New Zealanders’ current thinking about the Covid19 crisis and the national response. The most recent 1News Colmar Brunton poll reported that 92% of ...
Trucking companies have missed out on the Government’s Covid-19 money lolly scramble and this will mean increased costs across the already damaged economy, Road Transport Forum (RTF) chief executive Nick Leggett says. "Despite working through the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania Since last summer’s bushfire crisis, there’s been a quantum shift in public awareness of Aboriginal fire management. It’s now more widely understood that Aboriginal people used landscape burning to sustain biodiversity ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct Professor of Architecture, University of Adelaide A return to face to face teaching at universities and technical colleges “where possible” is one of the goals of the Morrison government’s three step framework for a COVIDsafe Australia. A look at ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hazel Easthope, Scientia Associate Professor, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW We’re building a lot of apartments in Australia. High-density precincts are being developed across our major cities. But these buildings and neighbourhoods are often not designed and managed in ways that meet ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Kaine, Associate Professor UTS Centre for Business and Social Innovation, University of Technology Sydney Workers everywhere are feeling the impact of COVID-19 and the restrictions necessitated by COVID-19. In Australia, retail and hospitality workers have been particularly hard hit. In other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Forsyth, Professor of Workplace Law, RMIT University Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week proposed a new deal in industrial relations, bringing together the government, employers and unions to agree on reforms to create jobs and lift the economy in the post-CIVD-19 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ray Markey, Emeritus Professor, Macquarie University In a bid to repair the economy, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced an industrial relations overhaul. Business groups and unions will be brought together to try to change a system that Morrison says is “not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathon Hutchinson, Senior Lecturer Online Communication and Media, University of Sydney The constraints of coronavirus isolation have closed down most recreational activities, but some creative industries are responding in innovative ways. I have been researching “digital first personalities” – content producers who ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this ...
Mainfreight's revenues have risen since April 1 despite Covid-19 as it reports higher annual profit and stable dividend, and repays $10.6m wage subsidy. NZX 50 back to March 9 level ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Lamb, Associate Professor in Geophysics, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Back in the 1970s, scientists came up with a revolutionary idea about how Earth’s deep interior works. They proposed it is slowly churning like a lava lamp, with ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Kiwibuild buyers left facing years of delays, calls for relaxation of alert levels and travel, and new details emerge in NZ First Foundation saga.Despite a reset of the policy last year, Kiwibuild is still proving to be problematic. A disastrous new ...
Dr Emily Henderson Last night, the Labour Party named Whangarei Family Court lawyer, Dr Emily Henderson, as its candidate to contest the Whangarei seat in the September general election. Emily has lived in Whangarei since she was seven years old, attending ...
Lockdown shut down an overseas couple's bid to walk the length of the country. When freed again, they returned from Auckland to the deep south to complete the task. Dressed in handmade ninja turtle costumes, hikers Becca Rolon and Diarmuid McInerney finally reached Bluff - finishing a 3000km walk the length ...
An essay by Martin Edmond in response to the monumental second volume by Peter Simpson on artist Colin McCahon.I. Bro Aspect I first met Peter Simpson at Sally and Alan’s place in Coromandel Street, Newtown, Wellington, 1988. Alan Brunton and Sally Rodwell, the founders of Red Mole. They ...
As we emerge from the last of lockdown and begin to look beyond our borders again, let’s not forget the vital role language skills play in strengthening our economic, political and cultural connections to the rest of the world, writes Sally Hill. This week is Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa ...
Quarantine-free travel between NZ and Pacific Islands should be our priority, ahead of plans to extend our bubble to include Australia, writes the University of Auckland's Dr Collin Tukuitonga Much has been made of the desirability of a ‘trans-Tasman’ bubble with quarantine-free air travel as a priority. There are compelling reasons ...
We can't decouple growth from its adverse effects and it's becoming clear that the same economic thinking that got us here won't get us out. A cultural shift to ‘enoughness’ and non-consumptive means of happiness could be the way forward after Covid-19, argues Lucie Greenwood. Talk of economic transition in a post-Covid-19 world ...
The return of intra-coalition dissent, on the speed of New Zealand’s move out of lockdown and freshwater policy measures, is a useful reminder that National is not the only party with political headaches, Sam Sachdeva writes For a politician who often trumpets the importance of due process when he wants ...
With the Black Ferns Sevens back in camp after lockdown, long-time star Kelly Brazier returns as a new mum, with a new rugby plan. Kelly Brazier is used to having crowds cheer her on in stadiums around the world. But with countries shutting down, sport being cancelled and ...
Diversifying the export economy is a worthy goal – but let’s be realistic about what throwing away a critical relationship with China would mean for New Zealand, writes Stephen Jacobi of the NZ International Business Forum.In a 2018 study of 183 economies’ dependence on China, undertaken by the Australian Department ...
New Zealanders might like to think of our country as relatively equitable in many ways. But in the boardroom, we have a long way to go. As James Brown sings, it’s a man’s world, designed by, and often unconsciously for, men. One recent example – a month ago when ...
By Philip Cass of Kaniva News Recognised seasonal employee workers in New Zealand rarely have a voice in the New Zealand media, new research at Massey University has found. Researcher Dr Angelynne Enoka said coverage of the RSE scheme by regional media tended to focus on official sources and employers’ ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Hepburn, Director of the Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Law, Deakin Law School, Deakin University In the expansion of its iron ore mine in Western Pilbara, Rio Tinto blasted the Juukan Gorge 1 and 2 – Aboriginal rock shelters dating ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Climie, Exercise Physiologist and Research Fellow, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute In Australia, more than 1.1 million people currently have type 2 diabetes. A host of potential complications associated with the disease mean a 45-year-old diagnosed with type 2 diabetes will ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Adams, Postdoctoral Biomedical Engineering Researcher, Deakin University During the frenzy of the past few months to secure resources for the fight against COVID-19, the demand for technologies that promise to detect symptomatic individuals has been sky-high. However, not all proposed solutions ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brooke Collins-Gearing, Senior Lecturer, University of Newcastle Review: The Beach, created and directed by Warwick Thornton Watching Warwick Thornton’s The Beach is a journey into place and self. It made me want to breathe deeper and smell the salty air. It made ...
“The Government is undermining democracy by progressing 15 bills in the space of just 17 hours,” according to ACT Leader David Seymour. “The Government has put Parliament into urgency this evening and asked it to consider 15 pieces of legislation ...
By RNZ News New opposition National leader Todd Muller is backing his front bench, saying he chose the shadow cabinet line-up on merit and talent. While three out of National’s top four ranked MPs are women, there are no Māori MPs on the front bench, or of any other ethnicity. ...
Civil society and tech industry stakeholders are split over a provision in new legislation that would grant the Government the ability to filter the internet. ...
National Party leader, Todd Muller. Is Todd Muller the Ned Flanders of the National Party? This is how he’s been characterised by political commentator Gordon Campbell, who suggests the change in leadership is, in Simpsons terms, akin to swapping the scary and cruel Monty Burns for Homer Simpson’s compassionate ...
Open mike 16/02/2014 
The government released its Action for Healthy Waterways package today, ostensibly with the goal of cleaning up our rivers and making them swimmable within a generation. Doing that, of course, requires confronting the cow in the room: the dairy industry which causes most of the pollution. But while they've imposed ...2 hours ago
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz I would like to know if New Zealand’s carbon emissions ...3 hours ago
Don Franks Now Covid-19 restrictions allow gatherings of a hundred, an urgent hui needs calling. A special conference of the Council of Trade Unions. Today, workers face the greatest attack on employment, pay and conditions since the depression, we need a strong united union voice. As it stands now, organised ...8 hours ago
67 Articles Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Dramatic decline of Arctic sea ice linked to global warming A rising trend of double tropopauses over South Asia in a warming environment: implications for moistening of the lower stratosphere Determining the anthropogenic greenhouse gas contribution to ...23 hours ago
Questioning the number of district health boards in New Zealand has got to the extent that “too many DHBs” has become a perceived truth requiring no further elaboration. It is rarely challenged by policy advisers, academics, and journalists. But when one drills down further it becomes clear that the number ...1 day ago
The emergence of a new National party leader, seemingly out of nowhere, has – not surprisingly – raised a number of questions as to who Todd Mulller actually is and what makes him tick. He has been an MP for some time but seems to have hidden his light under ...1 day ago
We all know that many so-called journalists and political commentators in New Zealand work directly or indirectly for political parties or for certain political factions. This was obviously the case when pundit for hire Matthew Hooton launched a campaign against then National Party leader, Simon Bridges, over their numerous polling ...2 days ago
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Anyone who keeps an eye on evidence around cannabis and public health will be familiar with the Christchurch Health and Development Study. It's one of two local longitudinal studies frequently cited with respect to cannabis and youth development. But in a new article in the New Zealand Medical Journal, it is ...2 days ago
In the age of covid we are Jacinda’s team of five million, except for some. There has rarely been a more blatant case of discrimination against beneficiaries than Grant Robertson’s announcement yesterday that people who have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus will receive weekly payments of $490 per week for 12 weeks and $250 per week for part time ...2 days ago
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...3 days ago
age credit: Science and Politics – Skeptically.org It seems impossible to keep politics out of science. It’s a pity because politics can end up forcing science to produce the results desired by ... 3 days ago
The National Party are quite simply a party out of time… Literally, insofar as the 2020 Election is concerned, and certainly in terms of their ideological positioning which has grown far more trenchantly extreme in the last few years in particular, under the leadership of both Simon Bridges, and Paula ...7 days ago
Children used in this study were from Lintingkou town (a normal-fluoride/control area) and Dakoutun town (a high-fluoride area) in Baodi district of Tianjin, China. The towns are 25 km apart. Anti-fluoridation activists on ... 1 week ago
Arguments by religious folk that they are being discriminated against under the Level 2 pandemic restrictions in NZ, which limit church services to ten people or less when schools, restaurants, malls and other service outlets are allowed to host many more people under voluntary self-distancing protocols, got me to think ...1 week ago
The Green Party says major freshwater reforms announced today provide the strongest ever protections of our waterways, to help ensure the next generation can swim in the rivers of Aotearoa. ...3 hours ago
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Megan Woods, Minister of Research, Science and Innovation Hon Dr David Clark, Minister of Health Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods, and Health Minister David Clark today announced a COVID-19 vaccine strategy, ...2 days ago
Budget 2020 is about rebuilding together, supporting jobs, getting business moving and the books back into the black. It’s an integral part of our COVID-19 economic response, and our plan to grow our economy and get New Zealand moving again. Here’s a quick look at the five top things you ...3 days ago
Setting higher health standards at swimming spots Requiring urban waterways to be cleaned up and new protections for urban streams Putting controls on higher-risk farm practices such as winter grazing and feed lots Setting stricter controls on nitrogen pollution and new bottom lines on other measures of waterway health Ensuring ...2 hours ago
The calls for public health specialists for more taxpayer funding could be taken more seriously if they stopped wasting money on pointless public relations campaigns under the guise of public health, says the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union . Union Executive ...13 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Esterman, Professor of Biostatistics, University of South Australia Australia’s chief medical officer Brendan Murphy told a senate inquiry earlier this week our COVID-19 public health response had avoided about 14,000 deaths. This is in contrast to his deputy Paul Kelly, who ...13 mins ago
When Claire Freeman became a wheelchair user at age 17, the questions she had about how she might enjoy sex were dismissed and she was made to feel like that part of her life was over. Here she flips the script with some advice on how to find pleasure on ...3 hours ago
The government is imposing tough rules on water quality despite over 17,000 submissions, many of them complaining the move would impose a huge financial burden. ...4 hours ago
NZ’s primary exports held up well in April, again proving the country’s farming industries are sustaining the economy despite many sectors being stricken by the Covid-19 pandemic. Almost coincidentally, a UMR probe of public opinion about farming revealed a sharp swing in perception. Instead of the negativity that had been ...5 hours ago
Two statements from the Beehive yesterday were enlightening for taxpayers trying to keep tabs on the burgeoning billions being spent on facilitating the economic recovery. One statement told us how much is being handed out to small businesses. Correction. One statement told us how much is being loaned to small ...6 hours ago
Mainfreight's revenues have risen since April 1 despite Covid-19 as it reports higher annual profit and stable dividend, and repays $10.6m wage subsidy. NZX 50 back to March 9 level ...9 hours ago
Immigration 'mayhem' is building as migrants travel to and from Coronavirus-afflicted countries to bring their partners home. ...10 hours ago
Lockdown shut down an overseas couple's bid to walk the length of the country. When freed again, they returned from Auckland to the deep south to complete the task. Dressed in handmade ninja turtle costumes, hikers Becca Rolon and Diarmuid McInerney finally reached Bluff - finishing a 3000km walk the length ...10 hours ago
An essay by Martin Edmond in response to the monumental second volume by Peter Simpson on artist Colin McCahon. I. Bro Aspect I first met Peter Simpson at Sally and Alan’s place in Coromandel Street, Newtown, Wellington, 1988. Alan Brunton and Sally Rodwell, the founders of Red Mole. They ...11 hours ago
As we emerge from the last of lockdown and begin to look beyond our borders again, let’s not forget the vital role language skills play in strengthening our economic, political and cultural connections to the rest of the world, writes Sally Hill. This week is Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa ...11 hours ago
Quarantine-free travel between NZ and Pacific Islands should be our priority, ahead of plans to extend our bubble to include Australia, writes the University of Auckland's Dr Collin Tukuitonga Much has been made of the desirability of a ‘trans-Tasman’ bubble with quarantine-free air travel as a priority. There are compelling reasons ...11 hours ago
We can't decouple growth from its adverse effects and it's becoming clear that the same economic thinking that got us here won't get us out. A cultural shift to ‘enoughness’ and non-consumptive means of happiness could be the way forward after Covid-19, argues Lucie Greenwood. Talk of economic transition in a post-Covid-19 world ...11 hours ago
The return of intra-coalition dissent, on the speed of New Zealand’s move out of lockdown and freshwater policy measures, is a useful reminder that National is not the only party with political headaches, Sam Sachdeva writes For a politician who often trumpets the importance of due process when he wants ...11 hours ago
With the Black Ferns Sevens back in camp after lockdown, long-time star Kelly Brazier returns as a new mum, with a new rugby plan. Kelly Brazier is used to having crowds cheer her on in stadiums around the world. But with countries shutting down, sport being cancelled and ...11 hours ago
New Zealanders might like to think of our country as relatively equitable in many ways. But in the boardroom, we have a long way to go. As James Brown sings, it’s a man’s world, designed by, and often unconsciously for, men. One recent example – a month ago when ...12 hours ago
Civil society and tech industry stakeholders are split over a provision in new legislation that would grant the Government the ability to filter the internet. ...23 hours ago
Good to see an MSM article that focuses on the actual working poor. In comparison there’s been some articles (especially on the NZ Herald) where they use some of the middle-class and least precarious of the precariat to represent the least well off.
This Stuff article focuses on a couple of families struggling with little or no pay rises: “Rock stars or roadies?” – ref to NZ’s (alleged) rock star economy.
The article adds in some stats from Helen Kelly & the CTU:
Unfortunately the article then goes on to an optimistic note, with quotes from Phil O’Reilly and a focus on a graduate on the up.
Just had a read of that.
Let me guess, the families are union members Helen Kelly put forward to try and bad mouth National because It certainly reads like that.
I seriously doubt the level of “struggle” these people are “suffering”.
If the unions are going to do these stories of woe, don’t use the $5 a bottle of milk story, it’s nonsense.
I also like to put my fingers in my ears and say ‘lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala!!!’, very loudly when I get told something I don’t want to hear.
i like the success story they include at the end, he gets help from his parents to make ends meet, but hes confident about the future. ok. & phil oreilly, who supports working for families topping up poor pay.
So its a good economic outlook if your parents can afford to bail you out until the econony gets… whT? Gooder?
Reminds me of something i listened to on RadioNZ National a week or month ago, out of England the story was highlighting the fact that the young were leaving home in pursuit of the Uni degree as usual,
Having gained the degree tho, with the price of property over there, both to rent and to buy, more and more of them, even with good employment,were being forced back to live with mum and dad…
And ceos never lie and bankers never get foung guilty of deceipt.
Do you play golf?
Big Mouth
BadMouthing
Your right wings effort at balanced News.
The very same polls you were crowing about yesterday has more information than you can handle Blinkered Monetarist.
World wide since the GFC the only people who have benefited are the top 10 or 20%.
These are Banksters Capital gaingsters(tax free of course) CEO’s
Have all done extemely well.
While the other 80% havehad to bite the bullet.
And the bottom 20% are doing it really tough as well as being used as a distraction by the sadistic elite blaming them for the ills creayed by the Ponzi scheming of the elite who put us in this situation.
BM I May get banned for this..
But why don’t you just FUCK OFF!
I am just so sick of your negativity!
+1
Would you like a tissue David H?
Now David don’t be so negative.
Expressing one’s honest feelings about obvious mendacity is not negative, it is liberating.
Actually, it isn’t. I don’t buy milk myself, but, I checked around online: while there are some cheaper buys if you shop around, $5.00 for a 2 litre bottle of milk seems fairly average.
February 2014: 1 litre of milk average price – 2.42 NZ$
This website has it a $2.65 per 1 litre.
And the example in the article was comparing milk prices with cheap fizzy drinks.
Go into any dairy in NZ, 2 liters for $3.50, or $6.50 for 2x 2 liters been like that for years.
Even supermarkets are doing their house brands for roughly the same price, the only milk around $5.00 is your expensive Anchor blends.
Bill english… rning and effectively acknowledge that Michael Cullen had done something right in his stewardship of the Government’s finances in the past nine years.
Having condemned his predecessor for many years for paying off debt too quickly, English said: “I want to stress that New Zealand starts from a reasonable position in dealing with the uncertainty of our economic outlook.”
“In New Zealand we have room to respond. This is the rainy day that Government has been saving up for,” he told reporters at the Treasury briefing on the state of the economy and forecasts.
English pointed to a graph of the debt track since 1972 and projected five years out from today.
The recent low was 17 per cent of GDP and the ghastly projection for 2013 is 33.1 per cent and possibly worse, under what Treasury calls a “downside scenario” – 38.6 per cent.
Unemployment is forecast to rise to 6.4 per cent in 2010 and deficits forecast to be $2.4 billion to $3.5 billion larger over the 2010 to 2013 years than forecast just before the election.
In the midst of the horrible outlook and depressing uncertainty about how bad it might get, English was forced to change his message about his inheritance from Labour because it was more important to inject some sense of positivity into the situation. He needed to do it for both political reasons and for real financial reasons.
As Labour finance spokesman David Cunliffe said yesterday, too much negativity could drive confidence down even further.
Of the plan that Cunliffe demanded of English today, the Finance Minister said: “The plan in essence is quite simple, that is to maintain significant short-term stimulus in the economy, to protect people from the sharp edge of recession and secondly to get on with the job of raising our longer term growth prospects…with some urgency.”
Tax cuts are on the way; decisions will be made in the New Year on which infrastructure projects will be brought forward and English and Prime Minister John Key will be meeting chief executives of Government departments this afternoon to give them the bad news: don’t ask for any more money in Budget 2009 because you won’t get it.
@ karol…as others have been saying on this site Labour is not preforming well in advocating for its core constituents………the working poor, beneficiaries, children…those struggling at the bottom of the economic heap…imo for what it is worth:
Labour needs to be taking serious professional advice from a top Advertising/PR Agency on how to get this message about the NACT poor across;
( no time now to be sweet and middle class…Labour needs to get mean and take the gloves off and punch out Nact)
The concept of Key as a REPTILE is brilliant!……it should be played for all its worth visually and verbally …ie concept /visuals/posters /talk of a Reptile leading a Reptilian Nact Party which is sucking NZ dry!!!! …
( one of those old fashioned 1950s muted colour posters)……….a Reptile octopus with many arms….eg. 1.) one arm squeezing the working poor to death 2) killing beneficiaries 3.) sucking the life blood from children 4.)another could be sucking the life out of NZ State education with Charter Schools …
Lets face it…..Sue Morroney ( Social Development ) and Jacinda Adern ( Children) are not cutting the mustard against Paula Bennett( and in comparison with Sue Braford and Metiria Turei)
…they may know a lot but Labour needs HIGH PROFILE SPOKESPEOPLE on these CORE issues of Labour ….not too late to change and get people who are not afraid to get nasty, get their hands dirty, swing the lead…. and are CREDIBLE to the struggling poor!!!!( ie look like they have been there or have relatives who are there!) ….Spokespeople who are CAPABLE of ATTRACTING MEDIA ATTENTION like Shane Jones has recently
…what about Louisa Wall ( Social Development ) and Poto Williams ( Children)…?….or any other Passionate MPS willing to take on and do what Shane Jones is doing?.
worth repeating this comment from Tombstone yesterday
Tombstone 25
15 February 2014 at 9:39 pm
… Labour’s brand is boring. It’s just National in red. Create a brand / visual campaign that really gets people excited and watch what happens. Suddenly people become interested in the message because they like what they see or they feel compelled to understand the message behind what they’re seeing. Like a photograph that speaks a thousand words – something that can’t be denied. Reality caught in a single shot. Powerful images without the need to cover them in statistics – the image speaks for itself. I live in Christchurch. I survived the quakes. I see the heartache every day that surrounds me and it’s not something that can be described in mere words but a single photograph can on the other hand be more powerful than the sum of all words combined. I work as a freelance graphic artist in my free time and do a lot of low brow art and so I guess I tend to see the world from a very visual perspective and the weak point I see in the National Party is Brand Key – that is the weak point in their armor. That is where you drive the spear home. Fuck the MSM. Let them gorge themselves on Key’s bullshit. What counts most is that you get the people excited and wanting more. Do that and the MSM will follow. Bye bye Key. Bye bye National.
Because attacking John Key worked so well for the left in the last two elections. Need smarter strategy than that.
@ Sacha …the NACTs hounded Helen Clark and Winston Peters mercilessly
….because they knew they were the Labour Governments greatest political assets…and if they could undermine them they could WIN
…there were no holds barred as they went out like a pack of ferocious dogs to destroy the Queen on the chessboard and her Knight
….Labour Party counter attack was a patsy in comparison…and a patsy protecting their Queen and Knight
Cunliffe just needs to keep on Message. Shonkey will (if left alone) just self destruct
hope so….you may be right…..i dont think Winnie will be going with John Key….after being followed by Key’s spies to MR Dotcoms house
NACT is Reptile Octopus with Many EYES…..which has and is sucking out the life blood of NZs economy…..STATE ASSETS!….WATER!….TOURISM!…BIG DEBTS ..unneccessary PRIVATISED MOTORWAYS
….it disguises itself and its real intentions by muddying the waters with its inky smoke screens and flag waving diversions
…it is a cunning REPTILIAN PREDATOR
As soon as labour plays the man rather than the ball by calling key a reptile, they lose the high ground.
Doesn’t stop individuals from helping to make it a meme, though.
Bullshit, what high ground, do you think Key cares about the high ground – Key needs to be shown for what he is; how else do you do that without getting personal? The problem is Labour has NOT played the man enough. Hound him constantly until he breaks and shows more of his true colours.
The time for being nice to Key is long gone. Gloves off time.Time to get serious if you want to win the election.
Agree about the need for ‘street fighters’ as shadow ministers/portfolio holders.
“The problem is Labour has NOT played the man enough.”
If the left do this, they will lose the election. How can you not see that? John Key is immensely popular, and thoroughly likable. He is the kind of guy people just want to be around.
Focus on policies that will deliver prosperity. Otherwise this election is lost for you already. Ipredict stocks on “PM Labour” have been sliding again this week. And before someone tells me this is all a conspiracy by one rich guy to drive down the stock, the order book shows otherwise. The stock is being dumped by small traders in droves.
SSLands, ”stocks on PM Labour have been sliding”, you really are a fucking brainless fucking idiot aren’t you,
What was ex-PM Helen Clark’s polled popularity befor She became a 3 term Prime Minister, 3 or 6%, or something ridiculously s low,
If you place an ounce of faith in the ability of the gambling sit you refer to as being in any way accurate you would have to add that faith in accuracy to all the other gambles/predictions on that site,
Be a good little dear wont you and trot of back there and have a good read of the Party %’s which last time i had a squizz had National polling 42%, Labour 33%, Green 10% and for a gut-busting screamer DotComs Internet Party 8%,
Once you have had the little squizz over there SSLands, stay there, your masterbating all over these pages is at the least unseemly…
@ srylands
““The problem is Labour has NOT played the man enough.”
If the left do this, they will lose the election. How can you not see that? John Key is immensely popular, and thoroughly likable. He is the kind of guy people just want to be around”
…if you say this then the opposite must st be the case…i am encouraged this is the way to go
unless it’s a double-psych 😉
SSLands, please do not confuse your creepy desires to be around Key, preferably on you knees, with any desire felt by most people.
If you lie with hogs, you get covered in shit.
@ McFlock…not talking about lying with hogs ….rather ST George spearing an Octopus Reptilian NACT Party that has NZ in its grip
….could be wrong….but i do think Labour needs to get a professional Adevertisng/PR Agency to give professional independent advice on how to get their message out there…because it doesn’t seem as if it is working
btw ….i thought you were a rather good hog wrestler with Chris 73…..it was gobsmackingly awe inspiring the insults on yesterdays Open Mike
It’s on the level of traditional propaganda. Not something the next government should be doing, IMO – that’s why the nactoids use the cetacean for it, and why key admitting a connection between himself and the cetacean was an error.
Me, I’m not connected with labgrns. And I did like “fustilarian”.
actually, let me expand on that for a bit.
Let’s say key is a reptilian overlord who eats babies. Currently, a whole chunk of people still like him. That means that they either don’t know or don’t care. But he’s pretty obviously a reptile (isn’t one for blinking too much), so the people who don’t know are in denial.
They won’t be persuaded by anyone else that key is a reptile.
They might see it for themselves and be revolted, though.
So keep applying pressure on issues and so on, so he gets stressed and the mask slips, but calling him a reptile would just A) make you as bad as the stalkers in the other camp; and B) make the deniers entrench further into their position.
Excellent lols McFlock 🙂
@ McFlock…..i didnt know you were sweet with middle class refined sensibilities
….i am thinking more of an octopus style reptile with many eyes and arms crushing the living blood and spirit out of things…more visual than verbal ….eg old fashioned 1950s style monotone posters to be stuck to lamp posts and reach those who dont watch tv or read newspapers
sensibilities have nothing to do with it.
A reptile is cold blooded… thats the important bit
Yes COLD BLOODED!..is the feeling
Rino Tirikatene and Meke Whaitiri are other potential spokespeople for these crucial Labour campaign Spokesperson roles
…it is no use waiting until after the election …it important to get kicking with the toughest boots into the fracas now ( there are 800,000 votes to woo)
…it should approached professionally ( ie an outside agency should decide … like an actor casting agency ) …no cronyism in the hunt for the best charismatic spokespeople that the voters can IDENTIFY with.
( this is no bad reflection on policy making skills which are equally important ….but lets be frank they are completely different skills and it is rare to get them in the same person)
Chooky @ 9.59 am, I think maybe you’ve mistaken me for a Labour Party Member and/or voter or an election campaign strategist.
I’m none of those things, nor am I a member of any political party. I will leave it to the Labour Partyy – its members, and those able to provide excellent advice, to get their campaign in order.
Winning at all costs, to end up with just Nat lite in government is not a good prospect. There needs to be a multi-pronged approach, in diverse ways.
I’m with what Bill says on the front page of his “Positive Things” post today:
Grass roots change, changes in the media (entertainment as well as serious media) etc are needed. I am very much behind the kinds of grass roots actions that Sue Bradford has been involved in. And Turei is one of the few current MPs who have come from a workign class background – our parliament needs more from diverse low income backgrounds.
The media needs on-going critique and challenges – not just so they change, but so that more people become aware of the, often subtle, ways the media can be politically slanted.
That’s what I was doing with my comment on the above Stuff article. Highlighting that it was at least an improvement on too many other articles of seen on Stuff and the NZ Herald’s website – but also indicating one of its shortcomings.
@karol
no i did not mistake you for those…i know you vote Green
…i just saw an opportunity( presumptuous and forward of me i know) to help Labour with is PR…. ha ha….but seems like others here do not agree…although some do! …..that Labour is not doing well with its PR
Ah. Sneaky, Chooky. I’m more concerned about the overall focus of parliamentary Labour. Until they clearly have shifted away from soft neoliberalism, and have less managerial type MPs, I may consider voting for them again – the problems go deepr than their PR, I think.
Karol I seem to have mistaken you for someone who gives a shit..
[deleted]
[lprent: Don’t abuse the authors – that is policy and always a bad mistake.
I’d have to say that you remind me of a vicariously shared dose of thrush and about as useful to the left. Just a pain to have around because of frustrated scratching, and a lot of whining. I’d point out that I’ve been a member of Labour party for about 35 years and volunteered for them for even longer. So you’re getting the benefit of an opinion by a genuine Labour party member – in case you think that being a party member is still important after I’ve explained exactly how much of a jerk you look to me.
I’ve helped organise many moderately large campaigns for the NZLP. Typically usually less than a third of the volunteers have been NZLP members. I’d have to say that much of the time that many of the volunteers from outside the party are more useful than the ones who bore the hell out of me at NZLP meetings. That is why all parties play nice to people who are active even when they are not members. You never know when you might need them.
So having some moronic fuckwit like yourself coming along and acting holier than thou about people who are active just makes me want to kick your arse off this site as being just another useless jerkoff more concerned with pleasuring yourself than doing any actual work. Being more concerned about your own self-righteousness than doing anything of any use is a characteristic of a person that I’d prefer not to be in any organisation I’m helping. Basically you impress me as being a waste of bandwidth with a ego backed by shallow opinions and a skill at being supremely stupid.
Of course that is just my opinion. But it would also be the opinion of damn near every other activist from almost any political party or activist group that I have ever worked with.
Banned for 3 weeks for stupidity and I’d advise you to read the policy so I don’t have to notice you again. ]
ooops sorry to have caused trouble for ecossemaid…..i do think there are many people out there who are genuinely frustrated with Labour’s fighting PR image though
….however we can always vote Green or Mana…and it will have the same end result
Seriously? What would Hellen Kelly know?
We have 4 staff on our dairy farm.
Lowest paid is around $38K + free house + free meat/milk
Highest paid is $47K + free house + free meat/milk + 3 free yearling bulls reared
All of them have 1 hour breakfast breaks, + 1 & 1/2 hour lunch breaks.
They work the equivalent of 5 & 1/3 days a week, no more than 9 hours in a day (5 hours for week end days)
Can’t tell me that employment on dairy farms has no trickle down affect.
The couple we had working for us last season drove an 2005 Ford XR8 and bought themselves a nice 14ft boat and went fishing on most of their days off.
Our 2ic this year we are helping to step up into either managing or share milking next year (giving her financial and business backing in order to do this)
So perhaps Ms Kelly’s pushing of a dairying stereotype of rich farm owners and destitute workers is nothing more than propaganda to push her own political/union barrow.
Oh and yes, these conditions of employment were all negotiated between us and our staff – no union required.
Or – possibly – other farms are run differently from yours and so the workers with different experiences are those engaging with Helen Kelly?
Perhaps your workers – while living within their means – via free house/milk – are purchasing items they can afford instead of those they can’t? – their own house, farm etc. Whilst your support for your 2ic means that you are aware of this and is admirable, it is an acknowledgement that this is true.
You seem to be relating honestly your lived experiences as a farmer, but that does not automatically mean that those workers who report otherwise are dishonest.
You are probably also likely to be aware of others in your farming community who are not as scrupulous – those are the ones whose workers needs advocates such as Helen Kelly.
Seriously?
So you are trying to tell me that they chose to buy the XR8 and boat simply because they could never buy a house?
Rubbish. In this situation the money they put into the car and boat was more than enough to use as a deposit on a house.
That wasn’t their goal. They wanted to drive a V8 and go fishing all the time. Full stop.
I know coz they told me about it for the two years prior to buying them. I said to them they were better off buying a house and paying it off by renting it out while they lived rent free.
But no fishing was calling them.
Jimmie, you sound like a hardworking and ethical businessman who has a good relationship with his staff and treats them with dignity and honesty. That’s really cool, and it’s very heartening to read. However, you know as well as I do that every profession (mine’s early childhood teaching, by the way) has the good, the bad and the ugly and farming is no exception. People working on farms are more isolated than most of the population and if they are poorly treated they need the support that a good union can give them. You don’t need to get defensive as though the whole farming industry is being damned – town/country relationships are bad enough as it is. 🙂
I agree with you. Just pisses me off when the like of Ms Kelly deliberately paint a negative picture of a whole industry to suit her own political agenda.
The same when the msm (and the greens) go on about dairy farmers polluting waterways when the reality is that probably around 99% of dairy farmers dispose of farm effluent in a legal and sustainable manner.
However when you have stories like the ferry in auckland discharging raw human effluent into the harbour nobody says anything or councils allow raw human effluent to discharge into the sea during rain storms – oh well can’t be helped.
“when the reality is that probably around 99% of dairy farmers dispose of farm effluent in a legal and sustainable manner.”
[citation needed]
I agree that it’s not good to damn all dairy farmers. But let’s not pretend that almost all are doing the right things, when all the evidence and our own eyes suggests otherwise.
Mud gets in their eyes! 😀
Rogue Trooper you are back!
Abusive dairy employers “all too common” in NZ
Jimmie is living in a fantasy world.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/opinion/columnists/lyn-webster/7028998/Abusive-employers-all-too-common-in-NZ-dairy-farming-sector
*Most* dairy farmers currently pollute nearby waterways according to Fonterra et al’s own statistics. Nice try, bud.
I have to say farmer Jimmie Brown, while I agree not all you cockys are lousy employers, actually have a healthy respect with people working the land. The figure of 99% of farmers being clean is a stretch. I see unfenced waterways each and every week. Had a enough of it to tell the truth as a responsible Kiwi might need to start complaining to Fonterra shortly. The beef guys are alot worst as the law allows them to flaunt it.
It’s high time it was a level playing field with buying meat too while I’m having a gripe. Why should you guys be allowed homekill, when the rest of us city folk can’t openly rock up buy a beast and get in processed the same as you, without having to jump thru hoops with the paddock holding blockade that is.
And those rental cottages that some farmers rent out, (and they do) cash in back pocket. If only this Country had some decent investigative reporters left to show up life on the farm for the true blue National rural supporter is.
Now you get back on here and give us some answers please cobber, as I know it will be the farm boy pulling tits, probably hosing the cow shit by now, while your setting up to BBQ those tender fat scotch fillets that we never get at pak’ n slave!
Yes, I think all pollutants need the hard word + put on them – it’s not ok. I live in the country in Northland and a few kilometres down the road from me there’s a dry stock farm, heavily populated, and most of the cattle have free access to a stream – it makes my blood boil. No worse, though, than when I lived in Auckland and my friend’s dog came home dyed blue because he’d been in a creek polluted by industry. Makes a joke of clean and green, doesn’t it!
I didn’t know about the ferry – that’s awful – mind you I’ve never liked Fuller’s business practices – I left Waiheke Island mainly because of them
Fonterra are well aware of Northland farmers polluting Jen, but hey Fonterra is just fArmers looking after farms, blind eye..wink wink. Anyway there are votes in it if Labour & the Green get their shit together. Nothing like a bit of ‘lucky farmer’ envy to get some city votes off National.
Jimmie.
I am happy to admit there are many farmers who pay their employees fairly, allow them reasonable time off, fence their waterways and deal with effluent properly.
My son works for one.
Usually the same ones do both.
Good on you, for being one of them.
If all employers were fair and reasonable, we would not need Unions.
However from observation of a great many farms in our area, you are in the minority.
The reality is more like half a dozen underpaid and overworked Filipino migrants, cows in the streams and the effluent pond emptied into the river at midnight.
You should be pleased that people like Helen Kelly are holding dodgy operators feet to the fire. It prevents them from undercutting, and pricing out of business, the business’s of those, like you, who want to do things properly.
Some of my long gone farming relatives, who took pride in how they looked after the land and waterways, would be disgusted if they could see those same waterways, now.
KJT +100
Great to hear that you treat your workers well and dispose of waste in a way that is sustainable. (Not sure if that is in an environmentally sustainable way or not)
But I would encourage you to talk with your farming mates and find out what their practices are and encourage them to practice good labour and environmental management as well.
Mainly I was trying to point out that your anecdote does not accurately describe a whole industry practice.
Also, good luck with your workers saving the required 20% deposit before even going looking for a mortgage on that income – and then being given one.
Jimme. And your cows still shit, and pollute our rivers and streams. Makes them unsafe for our children to swim in, whilst you just chase the mighty dollar, and blindly kiss Key’s arse.
Free housing and meat/milk FFS what a rort. That has to be worth what, at least 10k a year?
How is that a rort?
I hate to be mean Jimmie but your lowest paid worker then is on $14.61 per hour and the highest oon $18 which may just not be enough to save for a house even rent free. It is a great shame to me that this level of wage can now be defended as good in this country. On another point – the rent is not really “rent free” as I think it is part of the salary package but regardless, I have the Federated Farmers report which is an extensive survey of wages in the sector. $19.49 is the average hour rate (total value package inlcuding rent, meat, power, and other benefits included and even training) for the whole dairy farming workforce, with Dairy Assistant roles (the most common role) appearing to have stagnant wages since 2010 despite record milk prices and an average total value package of just $17.02 per hour. So maybe you pay a bit above the average but I wouldn’t go to bed feeling to smug about your generosity. The reality is that in one of our very productive sectors the wages are very low and expectations high. 54% of those surveyed had been in the job less than a year. I do hear from farm workers very distressed at their working conditions and I think the industry would greatly benefit from collective bargaining. No political or hidden agenda there my friend!
Jimmie your a gem but you are a rarity amongst dairy farmers I habe visited and worked on many dairy farms as well I have interviewed many dairy workers outside the work place 90% of those IN spoke to are being under paid made to work unpaid hours over and above hours contracted.
Wage theft.
Along with abusive treatment from sharemilkers.
Animals on these farms are also mistreated.
Wacked with alkathene pipes,left milking for to long on milking table damaging udders very common.
Not seperating antibiotic treated cows.
Not keeping rearing areas clean allowing cows to become infected with clyptosporidiam.
Workers not vaccinated for clyptosporidium.
Workets not provided with clean drinking water.
Cows not rotated the full 35 days of fresh grass
Pregnant cows left in paddocks without proper shelter and no feed.
The list goes on.
Don’t want to seem flippant after Karol’s more serious comment, but I got a good laugh from Steve Braunias’ latest on Stuff this morning. before focusing on more weighty issues.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/blogs/opinion/9701026/The-secret-diary-of-Kim-Dotcom
do you like yr laffs with a dash of politics..?
..bill maher is yr man..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/15/bill-maher-chris-christie_n_4794236.html?ref=topbar
phillip ure..
it’s later than previously promised..
..but here is that porridge-redux recipie..
(excerpt:..)
“….and this all adds up to a really healthy breakfast –
– that actually tastes/feels more like a comfort-dessert…
..and this is what makes it such a hit with kids..”
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/commentwhoar-porridge-redux/
(n.b..the instructions marked with an asterix..are v. important..(..and all guarantees/warranties are void..if ignored..)
phillip ure..
Billy Bragg’s misplaced praise of Bruce Springsteen
Radio NZ National, Sunday 16 February 2014
Listeners to this morning’s Sunday programme no doubt enjoyed Richard Langstone’s interview with Billy Bragg. Most of it was actually very good, albeit a tad worshipful and slightly embarrassing because of that. Billy Bragg is a thoughtful and serious person, who has a lot of valuable things to say. However, one of his comments raises a question about his judgement of character. I sent the following email to Richard Langstone….
Billy Bragg’s misplaced praise of Bruce Springsteen
Dear Richard,
Billy Bragg praised Bruce Springsteen as “a hero of mine”, but noted that he was “no Pete Seegar”, because he had not stood up to the House Un-American Activities Committee. This seems to imply that Springsteen would have stood up to HUAC if only he had had the opportunity.
In fact, if Springsteen had any of the courage and integrity of people like Pete Seegar and Woody Guthrie, he would not have done THIS…..
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
I trust/believe billy bragg more than you moz therefore his praise is not misplaced at all. i think springsteen has had a positive influence and he started young…
“In September 1979, Springsteen and the E Street Band joined the Musicians United for Safe Energy anti-nuclear power collective at Madison Square Garden for two nights, playing an abbreviated set while premiering two songs from his upcoming album. The subsequent No Nukes live album, as well as the following summer’s No Nukes documentary film, represented the first official recordings and footage of Springsteen’s fabled live act, as well as Springsteen’s first tentative dip into political involvement.”
Ahhh the summer of 79… remember that one moz.
@ morrissey..
that’s a bit harsh isn’t it..?
..mix in some historical-context..eh..?
..’cos though disillusioned by them..myself and many others held onto the hope that once over the hurdle of re-election..that obama would go gangbusters..
..and do what he promised..
…(and tho’ a fucken drone-head killer..obama still has time..(some..!..)
..and romney was the other option..?..really..?
..and as an aside..i predict obama will announce full federal legalisation of cannabis..
..shortly after the mid-term elections..later this yr..)
..so..in/with that context..
..i reckon ‘harsh’ describes yr springsteen-condemnation..
..(the song pretty much sucks tho’..
..springsteen-by-numbers..)
..phillip ure..
Yes Phillip, just like you did, I hoped for Obama to defeat the unspeakable alternative in 2012. It was very much a case of the lesser of two evils.
The evil of two lessers?
Pete Seeger supported Obama, by the way, which kinda renders your email to RNZ a little null and void. He even shared the stage with Springsteen at Obama’s inauguration which makes your line about courage and conviction unintentionally funny. Close, but no Seegar.
😎
Nice to see you back in town Roguey 🙂
Is that at the 2009 inauguration or the 2013 one? You could forgive people—naïve and poorly informed people like Hollywood “liberals” and TV talkback hosts—who obviously didn’t know anything about Obama, being full of hope in early 2009. But after four years of his administration, to sing that song is an exercise carried out in a spirit of deepest cynicism and darkest irony.
What’s the bet that if Seegar were younger and full of the energy he had in the 1950s, he would have spoken out against Obama’s war on dissent at home, and his campaign of terror abroad? He was in his 90s, and his activism was over by the time of this clip.
What excuse does Springsteen, much younger and much richer, have for this display of Obama worship? (The answer lies in the fact that he’s much richer.)
Close, but no Seegar.
😀
Good one, Te Reo.
I trust/believe billy bragg more than you moz therefore his praise is not misplaced at all.
Sorry to have to say this my friend, but that statement is the most lamentably illogical thing I’ve seen on this board for some considerable time.
You “trust” Billy Bragg? Did you trust him when he was hobnobbing with a bloke he called “Tony” in the late 1990s and still supporting him as late as 2005?
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/Rockin-the-vote-Billy-Bragg-for/
He later withdrew his ill-advised support for that blood-stained fraud, but his naïve comments about Springsteen show that he is still liable to misjudge people.
I think you “trust” your hero Billy Bragg in the same way his hero Springsteen “trusts” Obama—it’s blind, uncritical adulation. Springsteen joined in a cutely named “No Nukes” protest in 1979; so why is he supporting a politician who shamelessly promotes the use of nuclear power, as well as extrajudicial killing of American citizens and the persecution of political dissidents?
yeah yeah I know you hate them all with a vengeance moz – death, a slow excruciating painful and prolonged death to the fools who supported the fraudster!!! Do you know what fraud means? I’ve always liked billy bragg personally.
Marty, I like Billy Bragg too. I forgive him all his misjudgements, like supporting that fraudster, because I respect him. It’s just that I felt it was necessary to remind people that Bruce Springsteen—someone else I respect and admire—is also prone to misjudgements, and is certainly no Pete Seegar. When Billy Bragg stated that Springsteen had never confronted HUAC in 1954, many people might think he would have if he had been around then.
He would not have.
God save us from “Liberals” who think Obama, Gore and (Gor Blimey !!!) even Hillary “Rosie-the-Riveter” Clinton are the great progressives of our time.
Spot on, Morrissey.
Morrissey Springsteen was to young for that era.
Born in the USA an anti vietnam war song.
To more recently Banksters song .
Morrissey time to start reading some lyrics.
Morrissey Springsteen was to young for that era.
Certainly he was too young to speak out in a 1954 HUAC meeting, as Pete Seegar did. However, he is NOT too young to speak out against the regime that holds power in his country right now.
What has Springsteen said or done to support protestors and dissidents today?
i kinda went off springsteen when this news was going round, tho i thinks hes an incredible song writer & gives a good live show, hes a greedy tax avoider unfortunately. http://www.humanevents.com/2012/03/12/bruce-springsteen-a-taxdodging-farmer/
Yeah, Jason ‘chickenhawk’ Mattera is fair and balanced.
/
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jason_Mattera#Attacks_on_Judy_Shepard
Morrissey no relation to meat is murder Morissey who happens to be touring with Sir Cliff Richard.
Billy Bragg is more radical tha springsteen no doubt.
But springsteens message get to many times more people.
He’s My Home Town hero.
So don’t be Blinded by the Light.
Your insults hurt like a freight train runniing through the middle of my heart.
I’m On Fire.
But springsteens message get to many times more people.
Correct. And the message of him singing in support of Obama, even after four years of Obama’s regime, is…. what, exactly?
Morrissey no relation to meat is murder Morissey who happens to be touring with Sir Cliff Richard.
Billy Bragg is more radical tha springsteen no doubt.
But springsteens message get to many times more people.
He’s My Home Town hero.
So don’t be Blinded by the Light.
Your insults hurt like a freight train runniing through the middle of my heart.
I’m On Fire.
“What has Springsteen said or done to support protestors and dissidents today?”
He asks them to buy his records and keep hope alive by voting for the war party that starts with the letter D.
It would be good for me to see a post that gives summary of what has been learned from this Dotcom, GCSB leaks, and so on that have dominated people’s thoughts here for, is it a week? There must be something to learn, that Labour can make use of either by drawing attention to, or avoiding or… I’m a bit confused. When will the revelations end?
It’s like watching Limmy’s Show. Have everyone else seen it? Revelations of the thought process emerge slowly, with a Scottish accent there. I prefer Philomena Cunk actually, such a seeker after truth, on Charlie Booker’s Show. But both as informative as any Herald jonolism.
I listened to Radionz this morning on Media Watch and am less anxious about the changes though still have a few questions in mind. Have to taste the pudding and check the flavour.
On Sunday mornings at Radionz Wallace Chapman will be starting about end of March.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
The HORROR, the HORROR…..
Wait till you get Israel’s official apologist on the morning show every weekday
Just listening now and while it sounds ok?! I think he is being disingenuous is stating his reason for putting Mora in with Mary Wilson. It may well be that Mora has a longish contract and they had to bury him somewhere but surely we could have done that by giving him something like Hymns for Sunday.
No matter how you look at it Mora’s Panel Show is an event looking for excuses to publice right wing commentators. You could easily have a panel show that used people other than political hacks and it would be fine. I see Mora as watering down Checkpoint and introducing a political slant into a show that has in the past been scrupulously honest.
I am hoping that we do not see in a short time the resignation of Mary Wilson and the promotion of Mora to being the face of Checkpoint. Now that Ferguson has been moved to Morning Report RNZ has a serious lack of good journalists.
Ron +1
😀 Hymns on Sunday. A slot with NZ music for the older person as well?
Aussie TV dares to show the real Israeli occupation
from JONATHAN COOK, in Nazareth, 11 February 2014
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1392193514.html
I never thought I would see it. A mainstream TV programme, this one made by Australian channel ABC, that shows the occupation in all its inhuman horror.
The 45-minute investigative film concerns the Israeli army’s mistreatment of Palestinian children. Along the way, it provides absolutely devastating evidence that the children’s abuse is not some unfortunate byproduct of the occupation but the cornerstone of Israel’s system of control and its related need to destroy the fabric of Palestinian society.
Omar Barghouti has spoken of Israelis’ view of Palestinians as only “relatively human”. Here that profound racism is on full show.
There are, of course, concessions to “balance” – in the hope of minimising the backlash from Israel – but they do nothing to dilute the power of the message.
This is brave film-making of the highest order.
It is an indication of quite how exceptional this film is that it has cornered Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, into expressing her “deep concern“. That’s the same Bishop who last month doubted that the settlements in the West Bank were illegal.
If the video above is removed, you can also watch the film here:
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2014/02/10/3939266.htm
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2014-02-11/aussie-tv-dares-to-show-the-real-occupation/
That first line says it all ABC
As a national Channel it really does try to present provocative intelligent overview of the news. It also manages to create some brilliant television.
Of course Abbott is now to set about dismantling ABC and doing what National has so successfully done in New Zealand.
If you want good television these days you will have to rely on the four great public services.
BBC, CBC, PBS and ABC.
I could maybe throw in DW as well.
I hope like hell if Labour gets in power that they will set about rebuilding not only our state broadcasters but resurrecting a state film industry like we had once with Nation Film. I think the rebuild should have one of the highest priority of all the tasks that Labour would have to do. If we don’t have a good public television service to inform and educate our people we may as well forget all the rest. What good a full stomach and a cheap house if all we get in the media is right wing propaganda
Look closely, Ron: the BBC is also under attack. It’s never recovered from the Blair government’s furious attack on it after it had the temerity to point out that the case for attacking Iraq was completely false.
And PBS is, despite its grand sounding name, anything but a public broadcasting station.
If you want decent, intelligent reporting from the United Kingdom, read the BBC site, sure, but there are any number of better, more trustworthy sites.
If you want decent, intelligent reporting from the United States, go here….
http://www.democracynow.org/
Yes I am aware that BBC is being attacked, and also know about democracynow which also broadcasts on PBS channels just in case you are unaware, What I like about PBS is the wide variety of docos they provide some of which we pick up here. Unfortunately anything too touchy doesn’t get played here. They have some great investigations into money & medicine recently which could do with a play on NZTV
It is absolutely hopeless to attempt to minimise any backlash from Israel. They are on a full scale propaganda offensive, all over the world. I’m pretty sure they use at least some of the money they get from the US government to pay people to sit on Facebook full time, disseminating their propaganda. Their latest tactic, which almost makes me vomit, is to portray Zionist Israelis as indigenous people who have succeeded in reasserting their rights.
Unfortunately, a lot of the conspiracy theory crap about the Rothschilds and Bilderberg makes the task of anyone putting the Palestinian case disappear under a lot of white noise. It frustrates the crap out of me.
Go Matt McCarten you good thing, purveyor of the State’s propaganda par excellence, Matt’s taken to discussing health matters in His latest column,
Titillating us with the little ‘gem’ that using tobacco products kills half of those who partake, yes Matt heard it all befor, but, the problem with simply using the States Propaganda is given a deeper look into the facts an entirely different story can be told,
Fact: 29% of annual deaths in New Zealand are ’caused’ by cancer.
Fact: 40% of annual deaths in New Zealand are caused by heart disease.
Fact: 20% of the New Zealand population uses tobacco products*.
(the * is for a reason i will explain),
SO, fact: 69% of annual deaths in New Zealand are caused by cancer and heart disease, now for the purposes of a piece of blunt mathematics subtract the 20% of smokers from the 69% of deaths,
What this tells me is that at least 49% of us will die of cancer or heart disease who are not smokers, laughably when compared to the 50% of smokers who are supposed to die of the same disease solely upon the basis of the fact that they used tobacco products the diff is 1%,
Of course i could theorize that as smokers make up 20% of the population and the supposed data says that smoking will kill 50% of them, then the ‘real’ figure i should be calculating off of should be half that 20%, which would simply make the figures for those who do not smoke and die of cancer and heart disease look even worse coz if i only subtract 10%,(half of the population of smokers),from the total deaths annually from both cancer and heart disease the equation becomes 50% of smokers supposedly snuff it from the addiction as opposed to 59% of those who do not smoke going the same route by the same diseases,
And the asterisk*, Statistics NZ in a celebratory news release claim that 16% of the population are now smokers, yay what a victory for the anti tobacco zealots, or is it,
If you run the StatisticsNZ 16% figure through the blunt mathematical calculation i use above then the numbers for those who don’t smoke and die of cancer and heart disease climb even further above the supposed 50% of those who die from using tobacco products…
“SO, fact: 69% of annual deaths in New Zealand are caused by cancer and heart disease, now for the purposes of a piece of blunt mathematics subtract the 20% of smokers from the 69% of deaths,”
You are being ridiculous. The people who are dying of smoking related cancer now, are doing so as a result of smoking rates over the last three or four decades, when smoking rates were much higher. Yes your mathematics is “blunt” alright. It is stupid. There are many many more ex smokers than current smokers.
Smoking imposes costs on society. It also provides benefits to its users. But it is a classic public policy problem of all the benefits being private and all the costs being socialised (the main one is health costs but there is also the vileness of simply being near smokers). The excise raised is designed to do two things – 1. Compensate society for the socialised costs and 2. Bring smoking rates down.
Masterbation in public is frowned upon SSLands, please refrain….
I quite enjoyed watching an econofuck trying to do epidemiology.
Although in the end he continued the myth that smoking has a net monetary cost to the nation (which hasn’t been true for 20 years), I laughed at the idea that vileness should be taxed. SSpylands would be taxed into bankruptcy within a week.
Neoliberal economics imposes costs on society. It also provides benefits to a very small number of its users. But it is a classic public policy problem of all the benefits being private and all the costs being socialised (the main one is health costs but there is also the vileness of simply being near right wingers). The excise foregone is designed to do two things – 1. Compensate the filthy rich for being disgusting and 2. Destroy any sense of community and/or society.
There, SSLands, I fixed it for you.
Nice m.o. MO
Very poorly informed comment. 10 years off your life is the number to remember. Everyone used to love smoking – the problem was we found out it seemed to be killing people. A lot. Think about it – if the government’s plan was to keep raking in tax from cigarette sales then WHY ON EARTH would it celebrate smoking rates dropping?
Heart disease is our biggest and cancer our second biggest killer regardless of whether you smoke – we all have to die of something, right, RIGHT? The point is that smoking is associated with around 10 years less life overall – if you’ve made the decision that it improves your life enough to keep poisoning yourself then FINE but don’t spout that nonsense and try to convince other people to harm themselves in that way too.
Not only will it mean you die much SOONER but if you’re unlucky also much more painfully – think of chronic obstructive lung disease and being unable to breathe to the point where your body is chronically low on oxygen and you start to waste away and are in and out of hospital every other week and needing to leave with an oxygen tank.
There is obviously a cost to society with hospital bills but that’s exactly what hospitals are there for. The tax on cigarettes is mainly to discourage people from buying but also to balance those losses – and it seems to work somewhat. Although I don’t agree with targeting of certain groups (like prisoners) and saying that only those people cannot smoke.
My advice to you: talk to your family and your doctor about nicotine replacement therapy.
What a load of sanctimonious twaddle from one of the i want to live forever brigade, as if people who never smoke escape the indignity of the pain and suffering that goes along with death by cancer or heart disease,
You might want to live another 10 years having to be spoon fed your food with the excrement wiped off of your leaking arse by someone hired to do such a job, you might even get lucky and be one of the very small number who have good health until they die,
For 50+% of non-smokers though they will suffer just as much as those that smoke so climb down off of your high-horse,
Your comment is simply moralistic bullshit, your ten years of extra life is simply fantasizing bullshit, your replacement therapy for nicotine is simply bullshit i am not interested in,
And, do not start me on that ten years of extra life bullshit because it is simply arrived at by playing with %’s, what causes the supposed 5-10 years of extra life in the statistics is simply the lung cancer stats show a high amount of people dying of lung cancer, 20% of whom have been nowhere near tobacco products, at age 45 and under, those 1300 or so that do this very year simply distort the overall picture of longevity when applied across all cancers,
i have no fucking intention of quitting and the more bullshit i am force fed by the anti-amoking fanatics both paid and unpaid like i assume you to be the more i am determined to enjoy my use of tobacco….
I also urge you to talk to your doctor about nicotine replacement therapy. You sound in a bad way. Even if you reject the health arguments, smoking is disgusting.
SSLands, hang about a minute, i am just lighting another rolly, is that the best you can do SSLands, more moralistic nazism albeit shorter than that absolute twat above sprouts without a fact in sight in its whole weak diatribe,
Why would i stop, it cost me 5 or 6 bucks a week and there is as much chance of you getting cancer or snuffing it from heart disease as there is of me doing the same,
So all in all being a moralistic wanker gives you a 50% chance of snuffing it from the above mentioned diseases, i think i will take another puff and leave my fate in the hands of the various deity, same odds as you have got SSLands…
“and there is as much chance of you getting cancer or snuffing it from heart disease as there is of me doing the same,”
The evidence to the contrary is extremely compelling.
SSLands, i see no production of this compelling evidence from you, masterbating in public is frowned upon, please refrain…
The correlation of decades of smoking with having early heart attacks is pretty compelling. It didn’t come home to me until I woke up in hospital.
Lprent, fair comment, but such a fright is likely to bias your thinking in any direction, stressful job at the time???,
My point is this, and, i cannot say this with any certainty about the heart conditions that people survive as i havn’t dragged my tiny wee mind through the data, but, the rates of death scream out to me that 50% of those who do not/never smoke will die of cancer or heart disease, which makes the anti tobacco argument based around deaths of the same nature more than a little spurious,
Such is suggestive to me that there was a 50/50 chance of you having that heart attack whether you smoked or not…
My jobs are seldom stressful since I managed to sneak out of doing the management side of it (which I am really good at but find to be an appalling waste of my time). They certainly weren’t in 2010.
the denial runs deep in that one..
..smokers’-excuses – 101…
phillip ure..
What denial Phillis…
didn’t you get the memo..
..you are on ‘ignore’..
..i can’t be fucked any more responding to the drivel you post..
..to try to defend how piss-weak you are in the area of will-power..
phillip ure..
What deficiency in will power is this you speak of Phillis, laughably that accusation comes form an obvious poly-addict claiming to have quit Heroin only to take up various other drugs, now that i would call piss weak,
Yes four year olds have little toy tossing moments like claiming days ago that i am to be ignored only to be unable to resist having another look in the mirror by engaging bitterly and without an iota of fact in the following days,
Conclusion, a filthy fucking junky too piss weak to quit the habit so becomes a whining poly-addict who’s intellect has regressed to the point of equality with the average four year old…
Wheatbix tri. with all that is currently happening, great to see our youth in a positive manner and for many in Auckland giving their time freely. Thanks to all those volunteers.
Kiwi kids are Sanitorium (sic) kids… certainly lost in an ethnocentric silo, failing to learn languages other than their native tongues at an “alarming rate”; implications for ongoing international trade development; Wordly? Mate reckons that misunderstanding rests on the obligatory Kiwi OE…, before the return home to raise an Edmonds family…
Kiwi kids are sanitorium (sick) kids….
Accurate
Pervasive
Terminal
I agree that seeing the community out running a sporting event is great, even though I have my doubts about corporate involvement. Sports clubs all over the country rely on the community and can foster a sense of organisation and action which we don’t see much in other areas. Well, except for the top Union clubs. They just get everything given to them by government, both local and national.
I have looked through the Standard’s archives to find a post I remember from the last couple of years analysing net profit outflows offshore from NZ by sector, and cannot find it. If the author of that post, or anyone else, could point me to it I would be very grateful.
In a related issue that might become of interest while hunting out various links to the figures i have used in the above comment i came across something really really interesting,
i first looked at the various web-pages detailing deaths from cancer and heart disease vis a vis the smoking issue about a year ago,
i did the trip again today starting afresh with a Google search asking the usual multiple questions so as to drag in the widest array of answers from the web,
In an ”It’s a modern miracle moment” i came across one page that claims the death rate from heart disease was down to 30%, go the Doctors and Nurses you good things, to have altered the upward spiral of heart disease by a full 10 or so % over the course of just 1 year would have to be truly a modern miracle,
Makes me wonder a couple of things, (1), being it seems a bit fucking strange that the rate of deaths from heart disease can fall 10% in a year and not a peep about such a miracle in the mass media???,
(2), of course has me wondering if our health authorities wishing to have the data reflect their zealism against the use of tobacco products would have them manipulating the figures???,
Nah couldn’t happen here in little old Noo Ziland right, the other 100 or so pages found on the web reporting a death rate for heart disease of 40% must have got it wrong, snigger…
“(2), of course has me wondering if our health authorities wishing to have the data reflect their zealism against the use of tobacco products would have them manipulating the figures???,
Nah couldn’t happen here in little old Noo Ziland right,”
No exactly it could not happen in New Zealand. So why are you raising it?
SSLands, please refer to my comment at 12.49pm, and refrain…
Bad 12 just about every smoker I know wants to quit but can’t because its highly addictive.
Your statistics are very dodgy you have grabbed a whole lot of percentages no hard numbers .
Percentages mean nothing without number.
Now since tariana turia has pushed for huge changes to tobacco taxes and and stopping marketing aimed at”Children” .
NZ’s smoking rates have dropped dramatically from 25% to lrss than 16%.
Those stats can’t be fudged or ignored.
Tricledown, please provide me and the other readers these other ‘numbers’ that proves what you are trying to impart is Fact and not some knee-jerk fiction,
The sum total of your comment is devoid of fact simply an emotive bluster, and where have i denied that the rate of those using tobacco products has not dropped,
Your spurious comment about ‘averages’ when applied to the annual % of those who die annually from both cancer and heart diseases is simply rubbish, if i were discussing the age at which these deaths occur then making a comparison would be based upon averages…
@ b12..
..the denialist-writhings/obfuscations of the tobacco-addict..
..weak as piss..
..can’t even give up the ciggies..
..’aww!!..paw me..!!.im adwicted..!..’.
..it;s more addwictive than hewoin..!..
..pity me..!
..i ‘can’t help it..!
..awww!!!!!)
phillip ure
Ooooh look it’s Phillis… stalking me across the web…without a fact…nor a clue…just the normal filthy junkies whine…hardly bothering to address the comment…instead using snide low level abuse as the means of discourse…all the while unable to rise above the mediocre in ‘its’ chosen medium…
Phillis the filthy whinging junky has a certain ring to it…tell us all Phillis…your use of multiple drugs…ever heard of poly-addiction…that’s where the filthy whining junky aka you swaps one addiction for another depending on the availability of supply and whether the means of purchase is at hand…
You havn’t kicked the smack habit Phillis…you simply swapped it for dope which is easier to access and is affordable from your current income…i have seen this befor among many other junkies i know…given a suitably large wad of cash Phillis…you would be round at the nearest dealers place stocking up large on enough smack to ping up your arm to satisfy that craving that just wont go away…and…fucks up everything you say or do…that’s why Phillis…the sum total of originality in anything you have written in ten years…is totally zero…
Smoking tobacco Phillis…i fucken love it…can’t give up is only your latest of stupidly wrong comments…the truth is i have never bothered to try…the addiction cost me fuck-all except for rolly papers and lighters…so why would i want to give up…
You better stay impoverished Phillis for the reasons i point out above…and…with the purity of some of the shit going round these days i could well imagine you shooting up a spoonful which would seriously blow your mind…soon after tho…it would also stop what’s left of your heart…
lozenges working for me; 2migs, PRN
Bad 12 just about every smoker I know wants to quit but can’t because its highly addictive.
Your statistics are very dodgy you have grabbed a whole lot of percentages no hard numbers .
Percentages mean nothing without number.
Now since tariana turia has pushed for huge changes to tobacco taxes and and stopping marketing aimed at”Children” .
NZ’s smoking rates have dropped dramatically from 25% to lrss than 16%.
Those stats can’t be fudged or ignored.
Actually Tricledown, your wee whine,laughable as you decry my use of %’s and then trot out a couple of your own, has just reminded me that my next large time consuming search through Google will be for the import/export figures for tobacco coming into and out of New Zealand,
Such figures might tell us all, by tonnage, just how much tobacco is currently being used in New Zealand, as apposed to that which is being imported, turned into cigarettes etc and then being re-exported…
PS, the current 16% figure for users of tobacco is from the census figures, i am pretty sure i accidently ticked the non-smoker box on my census form when i am in fact a heavy smoker, wonder how many other accidents occurred when others filled out theirs…
One More Time (don’t miss the bus, or the train) : No-Dig Gardening – mucho gracias Murray Olsen,
Building Depth, rather than remaining in The Shallows ; as competent as the Weather forecast
(memory being “the fundamental characteristic of life”- Samuel Butler). Where was he from ;).
Politicians aye?
Don’t
Even
Notice
I
Am
Lying
may be a fitting epaulette. Such are the questions addressed by the field of Theodicy …”the cravings of […] man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does”…, yet, it is The Year of The Snake!
On a related subject, we may notice the frequency the synonyms of catastrophic are being Heralded in the MSM…, conditions for beast and man becoming less favourable,
yes, that’s Disorder for ya’s.
-just a little from recent Back Catalogue
Many Kind Regards,
John. ( un- Licensed To Kill)
Rogue, welcome back, a good holiday???, No-Dig gardening, i am all ears, please enlighten us or point in the general direction of,
Of course if you are talking Indo, i is already well versed in that…
not back bad12, just a ‘birthday bash’, in tune one prays:
Simply put
Mow or Weed-spray
Cardboard or woolen carpet
Manure Fert Compost
Grass Clippings, Leaves, Hay or similar
Manure Fert Compost
Grass Clippings, Leaves, Hay or similar
and so on, reproducing forest floor texture.
For a number of reasons I prefer making own compost, collecting neighbor’s grass, NPK, Lime as required and chicken manure. Only ‘plants of joy’ out the window though 😉
Tah much Rogue, seems a lot of work, not necessarily for someone just starting a garden, but, i have all mine as raised boxes of soil, makes the digging that much easier,
i compost using the plastic bags that used to hold bought compost, stuff em full of weeds and clippings off of the plants, bush’s, and trees, wait awhile and hey presto ready to go into the soil,
Lolz, one of my neighbours throws all His weeding into a wheelie bin that He pays to have emptied once a week for 4 or 5 bucks, then moans about the soil being so poor in His garden , Lolz, He’s a redneck hypocrite so i have never bothered any attempt at enlightenment,
One of the other neighbor’s in the street has just started dropping off all His food scraps which go straight in the garden along with a suitable pile of my compost…
on to it bad12; I’m building up to improve soil, overcome oxalis, convolvulus, drainage issues, ease on back; no hurry, just a little at a time as materials are afforded. All the best, gonna be an interesting, yet sad year out there in the big wide world all media present to us spectator / visionaries.
Over, and, out!
Here’s a hint Rogue, don’t look at a garden as a whole area that has to be dug over at once, form a daily habit,
What i do is dig across one fork width of garden most days, the top foot of soil i dig out laying it on top of the rest of the garden, the bottom foot i just dig in place to make sure its nice and loose, then i throw in the compost and rake the dug out soil back into place,
i do tho have the luxury of only planting the one crop a year, but, the system still works well if you have multiple boxes and can leave a couple un-planted…
Greens announce their Solar Homes policy
Solar power is one of the greenest forms of electricity generation we have. It gives families independence from the big electricty companies. With no fuel cost, it insulates families against future power price rises.
Under the Greens’ Solar Homes initiative, Kiwi families and households will be able to get low-cost loans from the government to pay for solar power installation, repay the loan via their rates, and enjoy free, sustainable power for decades.
The loans will be cost neutral to the Crown, with an estimated administration cost to Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) of less than a million dollars a year.
Once the low-interest loan is repaid, the family will own their solar power system outright. Families will be able to earn money by selling excess electricity back to the grid.
This is an example of smarter, greener economics in action.
Full policy and announcements at https://www.greens.org.nz/solarhomes
intriguing
Looks like a smart, well thought out policy. I can pick some holes in it (esp around solar batteries), but for the mainstream it’s a good start, and a good example of holistic thinking getting into mainstream politics (the policy works at multiple, interrelated levels across many areas).
Yes. A positive step but the battery storage problem has not been solved yet has it? I think that the cost of solar panels has been tumbling downwards as new technology comes into force. Sunny Marlborough might be a good place to be.
my view is that this is a big step in the right direction, But, i think that far far more ‘thinking’ need be done around solar energy,
(1), A standard solar power kit need be designed so that all installations are basically a carbon copy of each other, where it is made easy to simply plug in more solar panels should space allow and the initial installation proved a financial success
(2),i am of the belief that such solar installations should be without the capacity to store energy, i see the use of batteries as a means of storage when we have a National Grid as a total waste of resources,
The power from solar installations should just be fed straight though a smart meter into the grid with the proposed ‘kiwi-power’ scheme of the Government as the single buyer of wholesale electricity buying all the generated electricity from households generating solar energy at wholesale rates on a preferential basis ahead of the commercial generators, thus a smart meter would measure house-hold use against household solar generation and a discount at the wholesale rate would occur at the point of billing the household…
Good idea bad12. Straight into the grid and avoid the need for batteries. However the Electricity Providers might be unhappy as thousands and thousands of solar panels would undermine their strangle hold.
Seriously ianmac???, as far s the major generators go i would simply say ‘tough’, it’s our dams and grid that my parents and grandparents built off of the back of being taxed and some very hard labour,
If the retailers start to go broke again i say tough, the insertion of these retailers into the ‘market’ which has been the cause of the rising price of electricity in many instances,and, as many of these retailers are in fact owned by the major generators who ‘kaching’ demand two lots of profit from the same generation, there would be no sad loss, how long would it take for the state to set up an electricity retailer…
Not a bad idea, but like others have said the batteries are the main problem.
I read some where the batteries need replacing every 10 -15 years and they aren’t cheap and also where do you stick them.
Also the panels do not last for ever, 20 -25 years seem to be the life expectancy.
Having said that I do like Bad12 idea of selling electricity into the grid.
So you like the Green Party’s policy of selling power to the grid, good for you.
“also where do you stick them.”
Think about all that space used to installing heat pumps. Most houses have room to spare. You can put them outside (although there are frost issues). Installers will help solve these problems just like they do with other technologies.
The price of panels and batteries will drop once more people are buying them. That’s part of the GP plan, to boost the solar industry in NZ.
I’m a capitalist, being able to make a bit of money selling power appeals greatly.
Photovoltaic panels I’m fairly meh about, their efficiency is rather poor and return to cost ratio isn’t great.
The only really question I have is how the electrical grid would cope with 30,000+ people randomly injecting various amounts of power into the grid.
Would that be an issue?
Distributed input is much easier to handle than the current model where power from large South Island generators has to be transported the length of the country to Auckland.
BM, i will have you eating mung beans and lentils yet, the final straw will be when you go into the office that you sell yourself to as an indentured serf muttering peace, love, happiness, and joyful times for all while counting your hippy beads,
The Green Party can expect your vote this year then???, the switch wont be a lonely one, a 58% rise in the Green party vote from within the Auckland electorates held by National was apparent in the data from the 2011 election…
Unfortunately I’m not quite ready to go out there and purchase a Morris dancing outfit, as tempting as it is.
Seriously though this is where the greens really trip up, good idea but it’s only one idea and very few people(hopefully) cast their vote purely on one issue or idea.
This is why I think the Greens need to be a more neutral party, take a leaf out of Switzerland’s book and learn to work with every one.
They’d have so much more success.
lols
Another desperate stab at a coalition partner for the party with no friends…
Seriously?
The greens have been around a long time, yet they’re still considered extremist nut bars by a large proportion of kiwis.
Until they actually work with National they always will be the 10% mung bean , hippy party.
Greens need to get sharper, they’re a business and sometimes you have work with other businesses you don’t particularly like, but you do it because you get something good out of it.
The fact that they’re still political virgins with no track record after all these years speaks volumes about how poor the greens political strategy is.
Greens are their own worst enemy.
“Seriously though this is where the greens really trip up, good idea but it’s only one idea and very few people(hopefully) cast their vote purely on one issue or idea.”
Dude, read Norman’s speech. The standard even published the whole thing so you don’t have to go looking. One idea, my arse. At least base your criticisms on something even half way real.
On the contrary, if the greens ever go into coalition with national, it would be proof that they elevate mung beans above child welfare, employment and human suffering.
That’s different to working with individual nats on individual legislation, but they already try that.
Hey shit head
This is about politics, not corporations. It’s about people, not corporations. It’s about communities, not corporations.
I know in your style of National led neolib politics it’s all about big corporations and all about big money. But your style of politics can fuck off.
“The greens have been around a long time, yet they’re still considered extremist nut bars by a large proportion of kiwis.
Until they actually work with National they always will be the 10% mung bean , hippy party.”
Guess ACT need to learn to work with Labour then. Unless they want to carry on as the fringe extremist nut bar sub-1% party that is.
“Guess ACT need to learn to work with Labour then. Unless they want to carry on as the fringe extremist nut bar sub-1% party that is.”
Now that ACT has ejected Banks and they have an intelligent, thoughtful leader, their vote will progressively recover. They will have 2 MPs in the next Parliament.
Whoosh
BM, ummm, the most educated eloquent answer my tiny little mind can formulate in answer to that is, sorry, fuck off with your lolly pops save them for National after the election, another 9 in opposition means they will need cheering up…
“another 9 in opposition means they will need cheering up…”
Thankfully, that is looking increasingly unlikely.
And the foul mouthed language .. if you and CV are indicative (“shit head”) it is a worrying indicator of Your mindset and of Him. i wonder for Your future and His if You keep behaving in this way.
SSLands, you sound like you need cheering up, why not slither off to that wee gambling site and console yourself with a good long drool over the ”next PM gamble”,
What scares you off from sitting and spitting your rubbish into the forum over there SSLands is the fact that those with a couple of working neurons and actual money, as opposed to you pretending to have some, is the fact that they would see through your rubbish in 2 seconds right,
Or have they already given you the message to stop masterbating in their forum…
Soccer World Cup blood: 400 Nepalese immigrant workers dead so for for Qatar event
This is beyond a disgrace; why the multi-millionaires who run global soccer allow this to continue is a question every NZ fan must ask.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/feb/16/qatar-world-cup-400-deaths-nepalese
That’s truly astounding
Human trafficking, loan sharking, it is a desperate and miserable situation – and what do the corporate sponsors and others care as long as the event makes them money.
Yeah, as a lifelong football fan who played competitive soccer well into my 30s, I’ve gotta say it’s a bloody disgrace. All-too-typical exploitation of migrant workers. See https://www.amnesty.org/en/news/qatar-end-corporate-exploitation-migrant-construction-workers-2013-11-17 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24980013
Meanwhile, the money-grubbing corruption at the heart of FIFA continues to be a stain on the game.
Further to the latest Fairfax poll.
A quick comparative analysis of 2008 and 2011 Opinion Polls suggests that a little more than 50% of the time, Fairfax results are skewered about 3-6 percentage points to the Right in comparison with other polls taken around the same time (the rest of the time their results closely align with the other polls. Fairfax never favours the Left in comparison to other polls).
The last Fairfax poll of 08 overestimated National support by 4 points (and underestimated Labour by 3) in comparison with the Election results while the last Fairfax poll of 11 overestimated National support by 7 points (and underestimated Labour by 2).
Winning hearts and minds.
The February 2013 document shows that the Indonesian government had retained the law firm for help in trade talks, the Times reported in a story posted on its website Saturday. The law firm was not identified in the document, but the Chicago-based firm Mayer Brown was advising the Indonesian government on trade issues at the time, according to the newspaper.
The document itself is a monthly bulletin from an NSA liaison office in Canberra, the capital of Australia. The NSA’s Australian counterpart, the Australian Signals Directorate, had notified the NSA that it was conducting surveillance of the talks, including communications between Indonesian officials and the American law firm, and offered to share the information, the Times reported.
Liaison officials asked the NSA general counsel’s office, on behalf of the Australians, for guidance about the spying. The bulletin notes only that the counsel’s office “provided clear guidance” and that the Australian eavesdropping agency “has been able to continue to cover the talks, providing highly useful intelligence for interested U.S. customers,” according to the Times story.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/report-document-shows-surveillance-us-law-firm
Let’s do the time warp
The Wall Street Journal’s advice to young women
Susan Patton: A Little Valentine’s Day Straight Talk http://on.wsj.com/1dLV3OS
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11203037
WoW
NSA’s mass surveillance of NZers online – by Vikram Kumar
http://internetganesha.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/nsas-mass-surveillance-of-nzers-online/
“Part of my TEDx Queenstown talk next week is about mass surveillance online. How governments are building the modern Panopticon.
I was therefore quite surprised yesterday when Prime Minister John Key said he has no reason to believe the NSA has undertaken mass surveillance on New Zealanders. To help the Prime Minister, let’s look at what we know about it and whether an objective person should come to the same conclusion…”
@Karol. Just a small point and this probably does not irk others. Please when you start an article of yours do not dive straight into the acronym of MSM. I understand what it means, yet others may not or have an educated guess. Perhaps in future to start your MSM article, then give it a one line, name check as to what it means “Mainstream Media” then revert to acronymsville? Otherwise it can lead to confusion. Is MSM like BDSM yet a lite version of it? Am I meant to eat M&M’s whilst indulging in NeoLiberal BDSM whilst glancing at Shortland Street on The MSM? I like reading the posts on The Standard aka TS. I dont want to have to invest in an Enigma machine to unravel the gobbledegook under the assumption that because the author knows what something stands for, therefore all the readers do. I just want to read the articles. Rest In Peace. Rip Msm/BdsmLite/NeoM&M’s/Fubar!
BDSM is usually practised by more than one consenting adult at a time, unless it’s a Tory with an asphyxiation fetish. MSM is forced on us. The two should not be compared.
Fair enough, Yossarian. Noted.
snafu
PO ecosse
lol