…..if you’re a single parent on DPB and want to improve your situation tand employment possibilities hrough study. Greens say the next budget should extend training allowances for such women:
The Greens want the allowance to be available to sickness beneficiaries and for undergraduate, and some postgraduate, courses.
Their plan would cost an extra $40 million on top of the present $19m cost. But Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei said the medium and long-term savings outweighed that.
“For just a very small investment, the same that we’re giving away to the America’s Cup, we can get 10,000 beneficiaries or more into gainful education.”
Ms Turei used the allowance while studying law as a single mother on a benefit.
“I was very surprised that Paula Bennett kicked the ladder out from under her. She knows exactly what it’s like to be a young woman having to care for a child on her own and be dependent on the state.”
….
The Greens also want the minimum wage raised to $15 an hour, a temporary Christchurch rebuilding levy and a capital gains tax.
A move supposed to save taxpayers money has instead seen a rise in the amount spent housing government ministers in Wellington.
Figures seen by the Star-Times show the total cost increased by more than $10,000 a quarter between January 2009 and 2011.
…
Labour’s Pete Hodgson said Key made it clear the changes were meant to save money, and they had failed.
“He has said, in general, that he wants his government to be more transparent… in the case of his own ministers there’s actually less transparency now, because an unknown amount of money is actually disappearing into ministers’ pockets because they are paid an amount of money for accommodation whether they use that amount or not.”
The extra costs include moving Joyce out of Premiere House so the Diplomatic Protection Squad can move in. The government reckons overall, and over time, there will be less admin costs, but it’s hard to tell because there’s less transparency. But there’s now money going to ministers for housing whether they need it or not, and then there’s the DPS to support, both adding extra costs.
Carol “I was very surprised that Paula Bennett kicked the ladder out from under her…
It is interesting about this human penchant. It goes against the idea of empathy and understanding through having experienced and, hopefully overcome, some difficulty. Unfortunately many find higher status and money in disdaining and tut-tutting about the lesser beings milling about below who don’t see a clear pathway to a living and happiness. Their future should be like the words below, but why should the ‘haves’ care.
This from lyrics007 : Bob Marley – I Can See Clearly Now
I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day
Small point – “I Can See Clearly Now” was written and performed by Johnny Nash, not Marley. Some of the songs on the album of the same name were written by and with Marley, and the Wailers helped with backing.
I’m a little confused about the Head of IMF’s politics. He’s championed as a socialist politician in France, but I don’t see a lot of socialism in IMF’s policies. It’s not just men in high rolling positions. I learned long ago that some leftie men, who actively espouse socialist politics and practices, and even know all the right feminist arguments, can treat women badly in their personal relationships.
Not sure there was any mention of political philosophy in my question there Carol. These people are unfortunately, however, in positions of greatly influencing our lives and, worse still, often tell us how we should live ours.
logie97, I was commenting as much in relation to the IMF guy as to your comment. But, I think such things are done by people in power as well as less powerful people of all political affiliations.
Carol, I guess we are singing from the same song sheet. Indeed the initial general comment was as a result of current headlines, though I think we can also look closer to home perhaps … just an observation.
Perhaps calling such people “socialists” is about as accurate as referring to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Rahm Emanuel and the rest of that hideous gang in Washington as “democrats”.
Frank Bananarama makes himself a fool again like so many before him. Takes action through the barrel of a gun and usurps Fijian sovereignty. Then complains when somone takes action against him through the barrel of a gun and usurps Fijian sovereignty. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha what a fool.
I thought the idea was that the top banana was upset because the guy slipped out from under in a covert way instead of staying on to face a trumped up charge. No guns just outmaneouvering the regime. But I have missed some newscasts today.
A Labour led coalition with Hone or Annette winning a seat would have 46.4%, while National –Act-Maori Party –United Future 44.9%.
Maori Party support shall be vital for Mr Key in the General Election. However the need for Act to get votes will impact on votes for the Maori Party, with Mana benefiting, and we may even more United Future voters flow as well.
Pita Sharples has indicated he would work with Brash, silly move now line can be run;
A vote for the Maori Party is a Vote for Act – not a good look for the Maori Party.
The leading candidate for the Maori Party now seems to be Pita Tipene Chairperson of the Ngati Hine Forestry Trust, he is from Ngati Hine.
At best any Maori Party candidate would end up at around10%. Kelvin from Labour at most would sit around 30%, while Hone and Mana would at least be around the 60% mark in the June 25 By Election.
The Maori Party is politically mortally wounded in the North, and shall become of no electoral relevance in the North.
When you stand Hone against Kelvin, Hone and Mana win hands down with the Maori Party candidate performing extremely badly.
The Northern Advocate Newspaper ran an online poll yesterday, it had120 votes.
Hone Mana Party 77%
Kelvin Labour Party 18%
Maori Party Candadiate 5%
The newspaper also under took a street poll through Northland. Mr Brown said “he had not voted in the 2008 general election, but had since grown to admire Mr Harawira”, Ms Mare 63 said she voted for the Maori Party in 2008 “because of Hone.”, “What he says he does,” pledging a switch to Mana. Grace Takimoana said “…I voted for Labour last time, but they haven’t got much hope with their new leader.”
In the last General Election Hone had a resounding 32% majority over Kelvin, Hone’s electorate vote grew about 10% in 2008, while the Maori Party vote decreased by 1.3%. Combine that with the Advocate poll result the trend is clear Hone has grown support while the Maori Party has lost support.
I heard there may have been around 16 at the Maori Party Waitangi hui, that should have been the story of the day. Further the president Pam Bird of the Maori Party dismisses Maori youth our future leaders. In a poll during the last election 70% of the voters in the electorate wanted the Maori Party to work with Labour, not National. Do not forget the New Zealand First backlash for going into government with National, the seats were basically wiped out.
Polling prior to the 2008 election from Maori Television poll had some interesting numbers;
Only 20.6% surveyed said Kelvin Davis could be trusted, 21.2% to deliver on his promises. When you move on to he knows the needs of local people Kevin performs badly again at 16.2%.When it comes to leadership Kevin only manages 19.2%. The survey about who has personality Kelvin scores 11.2%, while Hone scores 71.
Curiously the news headlines are all about Act’s poll improvement under Brash, and some alternative but negative focus on hone & Mana, ignoring how they’ve polled.
A cautionary tale from the NY Times about the role of private prisons in the American economy, that should give us pause as well, since we are second only to them, by most reports, in our incarceration rate. Even as there are moves to reduce the imprisonment rate (due to cost rather than justice) this will not be done on any scale because the prison is so deeply entrenched in the economy.
Two quotable quotes: “If our nation were to return to the rates of incarceration we had in the 1970s, we would have to release 4 out of 5 people behind bars. A million people employed by the criminal justice system could lose their jobs. Private prison companies would see their profits vanish. This system is now so deeply rooted in our social, political and economic structures that it is not going to fade away without a major shift in public consciousness.”
And from Martin Luther King’s 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail: “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice…”
This last, in my opinion can be applied to the lot of all who are poor and effectively disenfranchised.
Crime, corrections, jails, these areas of state control are a lotto win for private enterprise.. Police are supposed to fulfil a number of roles one being keeping order, but an important one is to assist ordinary citizens But that has been fudged in the government target for reduction of deaths. Hence all the road-blocks increasing police surveillance which interfere with ordinary citizens’ freedom of movement. Huge numbers stopped with 10 per cent or less failing the required standards. Also huge cost being put into catching offenders, and fining or charging them. That money should be going on working with the young, education and more positive measures to limit offences, not the reliance on punitive ones.
Reducing drug-drinking hours would limit the intake to more just ‘happy’ levels. Yet the police and citizens have to fight for fewer hours. And this co-ordinated approach with Australia is amazing. Our police have a big budget and their top people should have the expertise along with a forward-looking policy for reducing crime without looking to Oz, or the USA. One point which arose recently was that those under sentence for driving offences have often not received any mandatory driver education. Unbelievable one would think but apparently true.
John Minto is talking about standing in Epsom. Sounds completely insane to me. He should stand in Wigram, and he’d have a fair shot at winning (I’d vote for him). What better way to show that Mana isn’t a Hone vehicle if they go and win a general electorate seat?
The S.S. Trust an “advocate for victims of crime”? Is Kathryn Ryan joking?
Nine to Noon, National Radio, Monday 16 May 2011
Following the government’s malicious decision to remove Greenpeace’s charitable status because of its “political advocacy”, Kathryn Ryan asked a couple of people about just what exactly “political advocacy” means. “What about the Sensible Sentencing Trust? If Greenpeace is political”, she asked, “then what about an organisation that advocates for the victims of crime?”
W-W-W-W-WHA-A-A-A-AT?!???!!!?!?!? The S.S. Trust is a victims’ advocate organisation now? Then who the hell was it that championed Bruce Emery’s knife-killing of a boy on a Manurewa street in 2008? A quick check of the Chez Breen filing cabinet unearthed the following: “Bruce Emery is a different type of offender…I didn’t think he should have gone to jail….” The speaker is…. w-w-w-w-wait for it!…. Garth McVicar. Yes, that’s right: Garth McVicar, “the victims’ advocate”.
I sent a brief e-mail to Kathryn Ryan, questioning her judgement, or lack thereof….
You said: “What about organisations that advocate for the victims of crime?” You seem to be implying that the Sensible Sentencing Trust does that.
Perhaps you’ve forgotten that, following the knife-killing of 15-year-old Pihema Cameron on an Auckland street, the S.S. Trust’s Garth McVicar loudly supported the killer, and poured scorn and vitriol on the victim, and repeatedly defamed the boy’s mother and his extended family.
The S.S. Trust is an “advocate for victims of crime”? Tell that to Leanne Cameron
It’s not only her, unfortunately. Jim Mora continues to let McVicar comment on “law and order” issues, and he regularly has Barry Corbett and Stephen Franks as guests on The Panel. Both Corbett and Franks spoke out in support of the killing of that boy.
Errrr, not quite, Lanthanide. They have every right to praise and defend people who murder Maori teenagers. What I object to is when these people (Corbett, Franks, McVicar) call themselves “victim advocates”. They are anything but.
Your post at 7.1.1 didn’t make it clear that Corbett and Franks also called themselves “victim advocates”. Your response is certainly justified (and I agree).
I’m not sure if Corbett is an S.S. member, but he certainly made repeated statements in support of Bruce Emery’s killing of the boy. He later backtracked, after a storm of public revulsion.
Franks is the “legal adviser” to the S.S. Trust. He regularly pontificates about the way that “wicked” people are “indulged” by what he sneeringly calls “liberals.”
Franks is following in the dead baby identity stealing David Garrett’s illustrious footsteps then, in being “legal adviser” to the SST. Why are these people given any media time at all, they have zero credibility. Racists like Garth McVicar should pull their ugly little heads in. His neighbours tell me his pad is pretty flash, Serco must pay well.
Actually, Franks was a legal adviser to the S.S. Trust long before Garrett was exposed as a felon. A few years ago, Franks went on an infamous trip to the U.S. with McVicar, no doubt funded by money donated in good faith by well-meaning people to help victims of crime. There they met Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who gave them a guided tour of his prison camp.
At one point, Sheriff Joe asked them if New Zealand had many P addicts. There was a significant pause by both McVicar and Franks, and then they said, in unison: “HEAPS!”
Which makes them traitors to New Zealand, as well as liars.
I belive that the Cameron/Emery case is the beginning of a slippery slope that in only a few years will end up in lynching becoming commonplace in this country.
The knifing of Pihema Cameron was a lynching. The subsequent campaign of ridicule and character assassination of the dead boy, led by Emery’s lawyer Chris Comeskey, the S.S. Trust and some radio talkback hosts, was very similar in tone to what followed the killing of a Jew in Germany or a black man in Alabama in the 1930s.
I agree with you Morrissey. One can be fairly sure that if the boy had been killed in the same way, under the same circumstances, and for the same reasons, by a tattooed brown neighbour, with loose gang affiliations but no criminal record, the self same people would have used it as “evidence” to show what “they” are like. The mental attitude propagated by the SST should terrify everyone.
I think, for a start, people should ring up and complain every time a television or radio station either quotes or interviews McVicar or anyone from the S.S. Trust.
Something for our brave SAS troops to ponder
Next time one of our brave Kiwi boys is being bullied and browbeaten by an American thug to (illegally) hand over captives for possible torture and even murder, he might like to show him a copy of this article….
In my years in the anti-torture movement, one of the most moving experience has been getting to know military interrogators, military intelligence professionals, JAGS, and other military members who struggled to behave honorably, often at great personal cost, even when they served an administration that promoted torture and when the American public became convinced by politicians, pundits, and the media that torture was both right and necessary. Below is a recent statement by a veteran Army interrogator and interrogation instructor, 1LT(P) Marcus Lewis, who reminds his fellow interrogators of the folly of the torture promoters. Torture neither “works” nor is it moral, he reminds them.
Lewis is not alone among experienced interrogators. One of the sad facts is that when the Bush administration and the CIA were creating the torture program they ignored the opinions of experienced interrogators….
The dream team for social activists, those that believe in equality and tino rangatiratanga – Harawira, Sykes and Minto – that is why i have sent off my membership form to Mana – it is time to get off the fence and seize the opportunity of a generation, for the next generations.
In this issue of Parliament’s Wall of Shame, the Jackal dishes the dirt on David Garrett, Graham John Capill, Donna Awatere Huata, Trevor Rogers, Nick Smith and Roger McClay.
Sign up to a service? You should be able to post by registering to the site, it is not a service. You can read the privacy policy here. The Jackal was getting too many stupid and derogatory comments with anonymous posting. The #1 on the title denoted that this is the first in a series of Wall of Shame posts. Field is in the list I have drawn up. However I appreciate any further suggestions people might have.
Ruth Dyson
Taito Philip Field
Bob Clarkson
David Butcher
Phil Heatley
Pansy Yu Fong Wong
You don’t need any sort of account with anything to post on the standard. The only one of those that I have is google, and I’m not putting that on your site.
That’s something I’m grateful for Lanthanide. Your often ill conceived and factually incorrect posts will not be missed @ the Jackal. Perhaps you think that making such a childish complaint and comparing the Jackal to other websites will achieve something. Twerp!
I don’t think it’s “childish” to note that you used to allow open comments on your blog, and now don’t.
Calling my comments “factually incorrect” is a bit rich when you were saying the earthquakes in Christchurch were caused by secret American weapons testing and for evidence you linked to a news story from 2005 about a meteor that was seen over the city implying that it happened just days before the September 4th quake.
You’re holding this article up as “From reports people have stated hearing a loud sonic boom prior to the 21 Feb Christchurch earthquake.”
To which I replied: There were reports of sonic boom like noises prior to the 6.3 Magnitude Earthquake in Lyttleton/Christchurch.Here is one of them.
I did not say the Christchurch earthquakes were caused by secret American weapons, however I did provide information about the technology. So again you are being factually incorrect and showing yourself to be a twerp.
The Jackal still allows open comments, however it does not allow anonymous comments.
“I did not say the Christchurch earthquakes were caused by secret American weapons, however I did provide information about the technology.”
No, you didn’t outright say it, you just heavily implied it. If you were just providing “information about the technology”, you wouldn’t have mentioned the CHCH earthquake, or included the lines “Could returning low-frequency waves shift the Earth’s magma, thus moving tectonic plates to cause earthquakes? The mind boggles!”.
That’s exactly the sort of arguing by innuendo that Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh dish out.
I gave the facts of the case as presented. People did hear a large sonic boom sound prior to the Christchurch earthquake, that’s why it was mentioned. Do you now accept that fact Lanthanide?
It’s for the reader to make up their own minds and hopefully look for further answers. I was thanked for the informative article as most readers have the cognitive ability to formulate their own conclusions. My article was especially helpful to those within the community of people trying to get HAARP recognized as a dangerous technology.
Was your comparison to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh meant to be a joke? I am neither fat, ugly or a conservative you twerp! My article stuck to the facts, just as all of my blogs are formulated from relevant information. If you don’t like my writing style, don’t read it.
When people say they heard a sonic boom sound before the Earthquake, that is what I will report. You might note that there are over 400 words between the two paragraphs you cut and paste together to try and discredit the article, which is almost three months old. Your childish, ill conceived and factually incorrect argument is akin to a moron Lanthanide. Get over yourself and grow up twerp!
Here’s a little heads up for those who are wondering about the beatup job currently underway insofar as abortion counsellors and adolescent abortion access are concerned. I found out that counsellor Steve Taylor has strong fundamentalist Christian and male backlash/’fathers rights’ links, as can be seen from his resource section, and is headquartered in the fundamentalist Parents Inc parenting group. Clearly, he isn’t neutral on this subject and I question why no-one else has investigated his background:
So the guy who promise us all North of $50.00 tax cuts in the current term of his government, is now talking up the possibility that wages will rise higher than inflation in the next couple of years:
So the guy who promise us all North of $50.00 tax cuts in the current term of his government
Hmmmm Carol, don’t make the same mistake that everyone is has. When Key talked about tax cuts “North of $50” he was talking directly to National’s core constituency, not to anyone else. Everyone thought he was addressing the general public. Wrong. It was a dog whistle to his base.
And Key delivered on his promise, his base got tax cuts which were net $50/wk or more, even after GST and price increases.
Ah, I think the $39k is the average income, eg including benefits. Something like that, anyway.
“But i’m still confident that he was talking to his core constituency there.”
I think his careful (and since, oft-repeated) use of the term “average wage” is to make it seem like any old average joe in the street. When of course we know that the average is significantly above the median and maybe only 30% of the country earn the ‘average’ or above.
So yeah, I guess it’s a dog-whistle for their core constituency, dressed up like lamb for the average joe-blow who wants to believe that they earn the average wage because they earn the same as all their mates down the pub.
It would have been fair and balanced in they had also noted that John Key believed that the tax cuts would see us “roaring out of recession” last year.
Lee Atwater, in an anonymous interview in 1981, (his identity was revealed in the nineties, after his death):
Atwater: As to the whole Southern strategy that Harry S. Dent, Sr. and others put together in 1968, opposition to the Voting Rights Act would have been a central part of keeping the South. Now [the new Southern Strategy of Ronald Reagan] doesn’t have to do that. All you have to do to keep the South is for Reagan to run in place on the issues he’s campaigned on since 1964 and that’s fiscal conservatism, balancing the budget, cut taxes, you know, the whole cluster.
Questioner: But the fact is, isn’t it, that Reagan does get to the Wallace voter and to the racist side of the Wallace voter by doing away with legal services, by cutting down on food stamps?
Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger” — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”
Newt Gingrich, this month, on the campaign stump in southern states:
I believe the gap between where the people in this room and the vast majority of the people of Georgia would take America and where President Obama would take America is so enormous that this will be the most consequential election since 1860.
You want to be a country that creates food stamps, in which case frankly Obama’s is an enormous success. The most successful food stamp president in American history. Or do you want to be a country that creates paychecks?
“You know, folks often talk about immigration. I always say that to become an American citizen, immigrants ought to have to learn American history. But maybe we should also have a voting standard that says to vote, as a native born American, you should have to learn American history.”
Oh he’s a card all right. Thing is though, as much as the Cons will cry about what the elite liberal media are going to unleash on this sorry sack of shit regarding his personal life, I don’t give a shit.
He was front and centre during the Clinton impeachment attempt, and eventually shut down the government because Clinton didn’t give the little snake oil salesman the respect he felt he deserved. His marks in the rube ridden south might have forgotten but DC is a village, and a company town. They went after Clinton because he was an outsider, and they feted Newt back then because he tried to take him down. But now he is damaged goods, too blatant, too stupid, and attacks the village. They will just slaughter him and I don’t think Fox will be enough to save him.
But to me it’s like there are a bunch of assclowns
that either haven’t read one damn thing about the drivers behind AQ,
or didn’t understand it if they did,
or if they did both read and understand
then are the most cynical hard out sons of bitches since the roman republic collapsed in an orgy of private empire building dressed up as giving a fuck.
At present Radionz announces that there will be a 23 minute interview from BBC Hard Talk programme with our pm Joky Hen aka John Key – if interested in how His Fairy Footsteps sounds to others.
It’s always worth the paper it’s written on. You just have to realise that the value isn’t in what Treasury put there but what it shows which is that Treasury is a bunch of ideological neo-liberal followers who wouldn’t know what the economy was doing if you paid them.
Is our Minister of Tourism writing for the Lonely Planet and did he give the nudge to someone on the Beeb to give us a bit more exposure down here. I can just see someone doing a side trip from The Mount to Stewart Island to sample the fish and chips. Who wrote this stuff? (New Zealand cuisine a gourmet’s delight???)
I can’t reply to the comments above directly, hence this comment here.
Todd, you are wrong. You haven’t posted any evidence that people heard a sonic boom. The actual quote, if I recall correctly, was we heard a sound like a sonic boom. Like. Not actually, but ‘like’. Not surprising to hear a sound ‘like’ a sonic boom during an earthquake, is it? After all, it’s an astonishingly large release of energy in waves across the physical sounding board that is this good earth.
Lanth is right to say you connected the CIA death boom ray and the earthquake. It’s the whole point of the post, eh. And it’s just as hyberbolic as the Brazillian Oil Co. ate my penguin post a few weeks back. If make preposterous juxtapositions like that, you will get called on it.
And, just as an aside, I agree with Lanth’s criticism of your otherwise well organised site. Anyone wanting to comment there has to identify themselves via a third party, yet you remain anonymous. I reckon that’s not an encouragement to engage in debate and might explain why an otherwise interesting blog gets bugger all responses from readers.
I’ve given up visiting your site, todd, because although much of what you write is thoughtful or provocative, some of your speculation is too wild and loose.
I never commented, for the same reasons that Lanthanide stopped commenting.
Your belligerence above does you no favours either.
I’d commend a more adult approach to you, unless your aim is not to be taken seriously.
I’d also like to be able to comment more easily on your blog. I don’t have a google account or OpenID. Blogger should allow you to add a name/URL option without adding the annoymous one.
Just wastng some time checking some posts and see this about sounds like sonic booms at the time of the Feb 22 earthquake….
Well, I have experienced countless quakes and/or aftershocks which have been booming sounds. Sometimes they have a shake with them and sometimes not. It makes total sense – when the earth cracks it must surely go BOOM. I have heard many many – usually very deep and low and not that loud (in fact very low quiet mostly). The shake follows. Without doubt the BOOMS of earthquakes.
Also, wandering one of the port hills last week got a very strong waft of sulphur smell. Also experienced by others with me. Always heard about that phenomenon and finally experienced it.
These earthquakes are quite something extraordinary…
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Everyone was outraged yesterday to learn that the Christchurch shooting accused had been able to send mail from prison to his Nazi fans, apparently pushing more hate. "How could this possibly happen", people asked. Simple: because New Zealand is a civilised country, and so we let prisoners send and receive ...
If we are to avoid dangerous anthropogenic climate change, we need to rapidly decarbonise our transport fleet. The good news: its starting to happen:The number of electric vehicles on New Zealand's roads have nearly tripled in the past two years. There are currently 15,453 registered electric vehicles (EVs), up ...
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...
Most economists agree that a currently slowing economy could do with some stimulus – and they would also agree that there is no shortage of infrastructure projects which could be brought to productive fruition with help from that stimulus. In view of the current practice of sub-contracting economic policy decisions ...
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
AN OPEN LETTER FOR SIGN ON BY ORGANISATIONS AND MOVEMENTS ACROSS THE WORLD, ALLIED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST INEQUALITY. This letter was released at the UN Political Forum on 9 July, where the Sustainable Development Goal on inequality was reviewed. The purpose of the letter is to call out the ...
We asked a young gay science student and critic of trans ideology and the trans activists’ assault on women’s and gay rights to outline his views on Redline. Thanks to him for his article. by Cian Ó Catháin Gender identity ideology (Gender ID) is ripping through western society at full ...
The Environment Committee is currently hearing submissions on the Zero Carbon Bill, and Stuff is reporting on the submissions. Today, they're covering yesterday they heard from "NZ" Steel:NZ Steel has told MPs it may be forced to close with the loss of thousands of jobs if changes aren't made to ...
Students are striking against climate change on September 27. And this time, they're asking everyone to join them:Students are taking to the streets, beaches and parks on 27 September, and we're inviting everyone to join us. That's right, this is an intergenerational issue, and you're all invited to put pressure ...
Peter McKenzie has a piece on Newsroom this morning about how local body politics is awash with property developer cash. 70% of all the donations in the 2016 Wellington mayoral election came from property developers. And its pretty obvious what they want in exchange:That’s particularly important in local government, according ...
Source: Unknown, twitter user Recently, I wrote a (relatively) short paper titled as above, to explore what self-determination could like in a practical sense. Maybe I’m a bit of an international trade truther or something, but I absolutely believe trade is at the heart of achieving peace and self-determination. Since ...
In the 1960s, after I had graduated with a first-class Oxford postgraduate law degree, I joined the British Foreign Office as the top entrant of my year. There, I worked for a couple of years on European affairs and was eventually posted to the Embassy in Brussels. After this exposure ...
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...
I heard a 45 minute interview with Monica Lewinsky talking to TED’s Chris Anderson on BBC Radio 4 over the weekend, and have listened to it another two times out walking. I recommend it. Highly. Man, I am so impressed with how this woman has integrated her life experiences and ...
Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure, London, Penguin, 2019, 352pp; reviewed by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s book The Coddling of the American Mind is a timely book, whose ...
When the Justice Committee reported back on the Administration of Justice (Reform of Contempt of Court) Bill, free speech advocates breathed a sigh of relief. As originally introduced, the Bill reitered the ancient offence of "scandalising the court" - basicly, a special sedition law protecting judges from criticism. The select ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. Since then - crickets. Which raises the obvious question: are they actually going to do this, ...
Back in March, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act. 285 people submitted on it. Now, Stuff has trawled through those submissions, and the case for reform is strong:The Justice Ministry asked Kiwis what they thought was ...
National's prisoner voting ban has gone down as one of the worst laws in New Zealand history. Passed after a farcical debate (including this farcial speech from ACT MP Hilary Calvert), it has subsequently been found to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act by the High Court, Court ...
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...
by Daphna Whitmore US social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt spoke on 1 August in Auckland to a crowd of around one thousand people. He is best known for his bookThe Coddling of the American Mind which examines the new climate of trigger warnings and acute sensitivity of Gen Z. ...
What an extraordinarily depressing experience it is to be compelled to watch, at 12,000 miles distance, the contortions and machinations of the British political class as they set about their determined attempt to overturn the decision taken by the British people that they wish to leave the European Union. The ...
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...
by Don Franks Way back when British guitar virtuoso Joe Brown was a beginning session guy he got to back a visiting American artist. Young Joe was an able technician but had yet to learn some points of professionalism. Part way through “Five foot high and rising” Joe tired of ...
Since scientists started studying climate change, they have warned that it will reduce food production. And now, its happening:The climate crisis is damaging the ability of the land to sustain humanity, with cascading risks becoming increasingly severe as global temperatures rise, according to a landmark UN report compiled by some ...
The Abortion Legislation Bill just passed its first reading, 94-23. Its a far bigger margin than I expected, even allowing for the Winston factor, and it reflects the overwhelming support there is in this country for reform. but that support isn't a new thing - it has existed for literally ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Referendums Framework Bill. The Bill does what it says on the label - establishes a framework for referenda. Things you may want to address in your submission: Whether the bill should apply only at the 2020 election, or whether it should ...
The Thompson and Clark / MBIE spying scandal continues to result in fallout, this time in the form of a report on the implementation of MBIE's "Operation Exploration", its internal operation to enforce the infamous Anadarko Amendment which criminalised protests against the oil industry. MBIE's enforcement operation was tainted by ...
So, Winston Peters is defending his last-minute demand for a referendum on abortion by claiming he was "blindsided" by the bill. Really? The bill is a government bill. It has been working through the cabinet approval process since December last year. As part of that process, NZ First was consulted, ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
Last week, the ongoing democracy protests in Hong Kong saw a pro-Hong Kong student assaulted at the University of Auckland. The Chinese consulate in Auckland followed this up with a press release "express[ing] its appreciation to the students for their spontaneous patriotism" - effectively condoning the assault and inciting further ...
Only those who close their eyes and minds to the evidence can still be in any doubt that we are facing a climate change crisis. The evidence is conclusive that the world is not only getting inexorably hotter, but also that the rising temperatures are creating a number of other ...
Rural communities are wailing about forestry conversions "taking land out of production" and putting it into locking up carbon. Its driven purely by economics: there's more money and lower costs in carbon than in sheep or beef, and if carbon prices rise, there'll be more net money than dairy even. ...
This week, the government introduced its (underwhelming) Abortion Legislation Bill. And despite having negotiated the text of the bill through the coalition process, Winston Peters is now suggesting that he will demand a referendum on it:NZ First leader Winston Peters has hinted that his party may only support the Government's ...
Blowing-Up The House: Is Winston Peters planning to put himself at the head of all those New Zealanders who refuse to countenance the Coalition Government caving-in to the Ihumatao protesters? The most effective way of doing this would be to issue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with an ultimatum. If she ...
Last night the police dramatically incresed their numbers at Ihumātao, shoving over protestors and threatening them with arrest. Despite police talk about the need to maintain "public order" and prevent a "breach of the peace", there appeared to be absolutely no justification for this: the protest camp is, was, and ...
A Cult, that many actors, politicians, and those with a low IQ are joining is sweeping across civilisation, with one main intention – ending humans reign on Earth. Starting as a well meaning though deeply flawed theory, that the Earth was warming due to mankind emitting greenhouse gasses, it was ...
Today's abortion reform announcement is just the latest in a long line of disappointing decisions or outright failures from the Labour government. The 90-day law. KiwiBuild. A capital gains tax. Climate change. Every time they make one of those decisions, we hope for better next time. No repeal of the ...
The Greens used their party conference over the weekend to push for a rent-to-own scheme, where people would be able to work towards home ownership by renting from the government. Its a sensible policy, and one which could make a real difference to home ownership rates. But its also basicly ...
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...
Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says the report of the Small Business Council will help maintain the momentum for innovation and improvements in the sector. Mr Nash has thanked the members of the Small Business Council (SBC) who this week handed over their report, Empowering small businesses to aspire, succeed ...
Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance and its nationwide sister group the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Auckland Mayor Phil Goff for his comments today that John Tamihere would need the Government’s support to ...
A ‘one size fits all’, inflexible and punitive regulatory regime for water quality just gets backs - and costs - up and most importantly will not work, Federated Farmers says. ...
Mediation yesterday between secondary principals and the government has resulted in a deal that the principals' negotiating team is recommending to its members. ...
Clubs New Zealand welcomes the decision of Justice Minister Andrew Little to put forward a bill amending the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act to allow all licensed premises to remain open for Rugby World Cup matches. ...
The Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation has ordered a review looking at labelling of added sugars in food and drinks. An option under investigation is ‘a pictorial approach applied to sugary beverages / sugar-sweetened beverages’ ...
Labour market data released by Statistics New Zealand today indicates that a gender pay gap persists in New Zealand, despite improvement in some areas. ...
In the midst of the 6th Great Extinction Event the coalition, STOP Trashing Our Planet is urging voters to take full responsibility for the legacy we are leaving our children. ...
LGNZ will carefully consider the proposed National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) to assess if it meets the Government’s aim of enabling urban development or simply adds more red tape to the planning process. ...
Statistics out today from the Government show that the gender wage imbalance, or gap, in the average wage is 11.9%, a strong 2 percentage point improvement from 13.9% last year. The gender pay imbalance in the median wage is 9.3%. ...
Newstalk ZB Drive host and Herald on Sunday columnist Heather du Plessis-Allan is taking on the challenge of keeping 2019 Auckland Mayoral contenders Phil Goff and John Tamihere in line and on point in tonight’s live NZ Herald Newstalk ZB debate. ...
After twenty years Napier residents have endured heavy sleep and health disruptive noise and air pollution from freight trucks gridlock operations to and from the Napier port and other regions. ...
The EMA says much is riding on the board and chief executive of the new National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) announced by Infrastructure Minister Hon Shane Jones today, with a difficult task ahead to deliver on its purpose. ...
The Public Service Association welcomes the introduction of workplace standards by the State Services Commission that make it clear public services should expect positive and safe workplaces. ...
The Financial Services Federation (FSF) - the voice of responsible lenders and leasing companies - and FinCap - working with consumers facing financial hardship - are signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) this Thursday 22 August in Auckland. It will ...
Wellington, 20 August 2019 — Lawyers for Vulnerable New Zealanders (LVNZ) has lent its support to the amendments proposed by MP Chris Penk to better protect vulnerable people from being coerced to end their lives under the End of Life Choice Bill, currently ...
The Government’s decision to establish and independent Parliamentary Budget Office, outside of Treasury, is a taxpayer victory and will improve democracy, says the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union . Taxpayers' Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “It's ...
The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the cost-benefit analysis prepared by Ministry of Transport and used to advise Ministers on the Government’s Clean Car Standard and ‘Feebate’ policies has serious flaws which undermine justifications for the ...
The Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) welcomes new proposals for prison reform put forward by the Minister of Corrections and non-government organisations recently. ...
The New Zealand Maori Council has called on the nation to address all forms of racism and not to shy away from an honest conversation about where it’s taking hold. The call comes after the Nelson Club decided to keep a member after his comments became ...
Wellington (20 August 2019): The New Zealand Initiative enthusiastically welcomes the Coalition Government’s announcement of an Independent Parliamentary Budget Office. Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Associate Finance Minister James Shaw ...
Drs Say No agree with Chris Penk’s amendment to protect vulnerable patients from coercion, although the organisation still maintains that no safe euthanasia legislation can ever be drafted and continues to urge MPs to defeat the End of Life Choice Bill. ...
The Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier says the Northland Regional Corrections Facility is persisting with policies that are preventing it from achieving its full potential. ...
The second national hui in the Māori-led Inquiry into Oranga Tamariki concluded yesterday ahead of schedule after a capacity audience formally ratified the terms of reference that determines the scope and purpose of the independent investigation ...
Forest & Bird says WWF-NZ's plan for protecting Māui dolphins is based on testing unproven methods on a species that is almost extinct, and is urging the Government to reject the proposal. ...
Primary and intermediate school principals have voted to accept a new settlement from the Ministry of Education, which includes entrenched pay parity with secondary principals. ...
Police acknowledge the findings of the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) report into the 2014 search of a property belonging to Nicky Hager. ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that the Police's unlawful search of Nicky Hager's property in October 2014 resulted from an unwitting neglect of duty and did not amount to misconduct by any individual officer. Police policy at the ...
Tuesday, August 20: Greenpeace has labeled an overnight announcement by fishing company Sanford as a danger to Māui and Hector’s dolphins, and is calling on the Government to reject the ‘Sanford Plan’ immediately. ...
World Animal Protection describes an overnight announcement (19 August, embargoed until 6am 20 August), by fishing company Sanford as a cynical move to undermine growing support for full habitat protection for Māui and Hector’s dolphins. They called ...
When the combined tax on fuel hits over 50 percent in some parts of the country, it is hypocritical for the Government to blame corporates, says the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union . ...
A leading expert in suicide prevention has urged MPs not to confuse suicide with assisted dying as they consider the second reading of the End of Life Choice Bill. ...
Over the weekend Māoridom arrived in the Waikato for the annual Koroneihana Celebrations. Yesterday almost 300 attended a Hui in Hamilton to continue the Oranga Tamariki Review led by an independent Māori panel to coincide with the Koroneihana. The Hui confirmed ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) says the newly issued ‘price list’ for compensation of banned firearms reveals that haste in preparing the ban has led to an underestimation of the number of affected firearms and their value. ...
Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis has admitted parts of the prison system are “extremely racist” and says that’s why the Government is asking Māori to work with it to make changes. ...
Ongoing drug-test sanctions contradicts Government’s rhetoric on drugs Reports that two-thirds of beneficiaries who fail drug tests are still having their benefit sanctioned contradicts the Government’s so-called health approach to drugs. Auckland ...
An Auckland Homelessness Collective is optimistic extra government support for sustaining tenancies signals a commitment to a multi-pronged approach to tackling homelessness. ...
Wanaka-based trust ONE New Zealand will be hosting six days of talks, workshops and hands-on activities with local and national experts to educate, inspire and enable grassroots action towards a sustainable future. ...
In last week’s episode of Politics in Full Sentences, David, Brooke and Ruwan discussed why Jacinda Ardern has been lecturing our friends overseas, why Andrew Little called ACT's three strikes law “fascism”, whether he will give prisoners the right to ...
“Community safety must be the paramount consideration when releasing an offender, and the only way for that to be achieved is for the offender to acknowledge their crimes.” ...
“District Health Boards are failing to foster a culture of distributed clinical leadership, despite its demonstrated benefits to the sector,” says Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). ...
Ratepayers around Auckland were spitting out their morning coffees listening to Phil Goff’s incredible claims on breakfast radio today that this election is about ‘honesty’ and that Aucklanders can trust him on his promises. Auckland Ratepayers’ ...
Part three of our debate on the state of New Zealand fiction continues as Chris Else, whose opening essay was strongly rebutted last week by Catherine Robertson, returns to put the boot in once more. ...
This morning the five shortlisted songs for the 2019 Silver Scroll Award were announced. Here, exclusively for The Spinoff, the finalists discuss each other’s nominated songs.Tom Scott of Avantdale Bowling Club on ‘The Barrel’ by Aldous Hardingit’s such a beautiful stunt to witness. breaking just before the cliff edge. the ...
A group is currently holding seminars around NZ which appear to be based on misinformation about vaccines. Dr Helen Petousis-Harris fact checks some of their claims. ...
The Football Ferns are at a crossroads - they need to move on from simply being "competitive" to make a serious impression on the world football stage. ...
Countless stories from women who have a right to be safe on campus still go unanswered, writes Kate Hannah, deputy director equity and inclusion, Te Pūnaha MatatiniDespite the hashtags and the headlines, universities in New Zealand seem to have largely avoided facing up to their own “#MeToo moment”. It is ...
The government’s plan to avoid another ‘fiscal hole’ fiasco has an unlikely fan: the chief economist of the corporate think tank New Zealand Initiative. Eric Crampton explains what else it could do.Have you ever driven past one of those stores that mostly sells blinds but calls itself ‘Not Just Blinds’ ...
Over the course of the local elections period, The Spinoff will be publishing primers on some of the most interesting races around the country. Today, Alex Braae casts his eyes over the Otago Regional Council contest.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The SpinoffMembers. For more about ...
By Michael Andrew Journalists across Papua New Guinea have spoken out in support of EMTV news director Neville Choi after his “unacceptable” termination from a role he had held for six years. A public statement released on Monday listed the reasons for his termination, one of which was his ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Camellia Webb-Gannon, Lecturer, University of Wollongong Last weekend, the Indonesian police took 43 West Papuan students into custody for allegedly disrespecting the Indonesian flag during an independence day celebration (an allegation the students deny). Police stormed the students’ dorm and used teargas ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natalie Klein, Professor, UNSW Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed that Australia will lend military support to protect shipping in the Middle East. The commitment has been long expected, with Australia sending a frigate, an aircraft and some headquarters staff as part ...
By Johnny Blades of RNZ Pacific Protests are spreading in Indonesia-ruled West Papua in response to harassment of Papuans during explosive incidents in Javanese cities last week. Indonesia’s president has urged calm after some of the protests turned violent, but he’s been criticised for not directly addressing a festering ...
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the karaoke game that introduced an entire generation to the horrors of ‘Downtown’ by Petula Clark. Jordan Hamel ranks all 30 songs from SingStar v1, from worst to best.Before my generation was old enough to get smashed on reasonably priced Merlot and wander ...
After a decade of making music, Sons of Zion are still refusing to settle into a genre. They sit down to talk about the joys of pop music and te reo Māori, and why a “reggae” band can do both.In 2009 Sons of Zion released their debut album, a self-titled ...
The government is directing councils to loosen up their planning rules, allowing cities to grow both up and out, in a bid to solve the housing crisis. ...
New Zealand’s largest construction company and controversial owner of the disputed Ihumātao land near Auckland airport has made a $164m profit, a big turnaround from its losses last year. Business editor Maria Slade analyses what it all means.What has Fletcher Building announced?The construction and building products company with operations on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Australia will commit a frigate, an aircraft and some headquarters staff to an American-led freedom of navigation operation in the Middle East. Scott Morrison, announcing the long-expected commitment at a Canberra news conference on Wednesday, ...
The local sharemarket has taken an unexpected beating this morning driven by investor disappointment about the performance of the top stock - A2 Milk. ...
Sometimes, less is more. Even when it comes to Quentin Tarantino (Warning: Contains mild spoilers).Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is an impressive film. It’s got great acting, stunning visuals, and a twist ending, all laced with the sort of attention to detail you’d expect from the nuttiest of film ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Beeson, Professor of International Politics, University of Western Australia Populism and environmentalism are words seldom seen in the same sentence. One is associated predominantly with nationalists and charismatic leaders of “real people”, the other with broadly-based collective action to address the ...
Who makes up the royal ‘we’? Lana Lopesi reviews a massive show at ST PAUL St Gallery in Auckland that investigates questions of community, culture and conflict.How to Live Together at ST PAUL St Gallery could hardly have been better timed, opening just days before the protection of Ihumātao in ...
The first week of Celebrity Treasure Island had it all – mud, vomit and coconut brassieres. Alex Casey ranks the celebrity contestants vying to win $100,000 for their chosen charity. It’s 2019 and mostly everything is bad, so I am choosing to focus on the positives of Celebrity Treasure Island NZ. ...
The government is directing councils to loosen up their planning rules, allowing cities to grow both up and out, in a bid to solve the housing crisis. ...
Australia's big banks may have to make do with less money from their New Zealand operations, as Australia's banking regulator moves to improve their financial strength. ...
The anti-1080 lobby has made a martyr out of kea, but that ignores another salient fact: kea survival in large part depends on pest control. Dave Hansford explores on the challenge to balance pest control with conservation.In April this year, Zero Invasive Predators (ZIP) announced that two kea had died ...
Fletcher Building has posted a solid full year profit but continues to be dogged by a weak Australian housing market and underperformance in some of its businesses there. ...
Work obsessed drone Alex Braae assesses whether shutting himself up in a dark room will allow some semblance of normality on a day off.It is a sad fact of life that many of us spend alarmingly large chunks of it working. The relationship is like quicksand: as we spend more ...
Inspired by the ethos of food-rescue organisation Kaibosh, chef Kelda Hains looked to the past to champion unloved ingredients and showcase clever waste-minimising techniques at her All Taste, No Waste dinner during Visa Wellington On a Plate. Ever glanced at those supermarket bags of pre-cut broccoli florets and wondered what happens ...
Dr Bryce EdwardsCould the most interesting aspect of the current local government elections turn out to be generational change? At the moment, there is a surge of media and activist focus on younger candidates standing for office. It suddenly seems to be “cool” again to want to be a ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Petrol prices Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Don’t be surprised if petrol study ends in a deal, ...
Jacinda Ardern’s election campaign was high on hope but this Government should remember that those who encourage what cannot be achieved are quickly found out. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Professor Tim Bentley, Director of Research, professor of Work and Organisation, Massey University According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the workplace can be a positive force for improving mental health. But many workers are exposed to work environments that are damaging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne Alan Jones’s political power is to a large extent based on a self-fulfilling prophecy: politicians believe he can shift votes, so they pay homage to him, which adds ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rosemary Stanton, Visiting Fellow, School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Research Checks interrogate newly published studies and how they’re reported in the media. The analysis is undertaken by one or more academics not involved with the study, and reviewed by another, to make ...
Open mike 16/05/2011 
That's the only way to describe the government's plans for a Parliamentary Budget Office to allow opposition parties to get an independent costing of their policies. When the idea was first floated back in 2016 as an office within Treasury, I thought that wasn't independent enough and argued that it ...16 hours ago
Television advertising has a huge impact on our lives. Even if we don’t recognise that, we know it has to be true, since otherwise why would advertisers spend so much on it? Its significance, however, is greater than simply the influence it has on what we purchase and consume. It ...22 hours ago
by Jan Rivers More than 30 years ago a Commission of Inquiry was held in New Zealand to investigate, amongst other things, whether women with cervical cancer were aware that they had been part of a research project and whether they were properly informed of the treatment options ...2 days ago
Everyone Wants To Be Fuhrer: When fascist groups are discussed, the image conjured-up in the minds of most New Zealanders is one of pathetic misfits. This negative impression is reinforced by the latter’s idiotic embrace of the swastika. Even in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the baleful legacy ...2 days ago
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...4 days ago
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...4 days ago
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...5 days ago
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Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...6 days ago
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...1 week ago
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...1 week ago
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...1 week ago
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...1 week ago
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...1 week ago
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ... 1 week ago
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...1 week ago
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...1 week ago
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So NActs provide less money for you
…..if you’re a single parent on DPB and want to improve your situation tand employment possibilities hrough study. Greens say the next budget should extend training allowances for such women:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5006792/Greens-call-for-training-allowance-extension
The Greens want the allowance to be available to sickness beneficiaries and for undergraduate, and some postgraduate, courses.
Their plan would cost an extra $40 million on top of the present $19m cost. But Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei said the medium and long-term savings outweighed that.
“For just a very small investment, the same that we’re giving away to the America’s Cup, we can get 10,000 beneficiaries or more into gainful education.”
Ms Turei used the allowance while studying law as a single mother on a benefit.
“I was very surprised that Paula Bennett kicked the ladder out from under her. She knows exactly what it’s like to be a young woman having to care for a child on her own and be dependent on the state.”
….
The Greens also want the minimum wage raised to $15 an hour, a temporary Christchurch rebuilding levy and a capital gains tax.
And more for their housing
… if you’re a NAct government minister:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5006058/Housing-cutbacks-fail-to-save-cash
Carol “I was very surprised that Paula Bennett kicked the ladder out from under her…
It is interesting about this human penchant. It goes against the idea of empathy and understanding through having experienced and, hopefully overcome, some difficulty. Unfortunately many find higher status and money in disdaining and tut-tutting about the lesser beings milling about below who don’t see a clear pathway to a living and happiness. Their future should be like the words below, but why should the ‘haves’ care.
This from lyrics007 : Bob Marley – I Can See Clearly Now
I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day
Small point – “I Can See Clearly Now” was written and performed by Johnny Nash, not Marley. Some of the songs on the album of the same name were written by and with Marley, and the Wailers helped with backing.
Ta Pete G – Being familiar with the song and knowing who wrote it don’t go together sometimes. It’s right to give credit where it’s due.
What is it with some high rolling people in positions of influence and their difficulty in managing their relationships?
I’m a little confused about the Head of IMF’s politics. He’s championed as a socialist politician in France, but I don’t see a lot of socialism in IMF’s policies. It’s not just men in high rolling positions. I learned long ago that some leftie men, who actively espouse socialist politics and practices, and even know all the right feminist arguments, can treat women badly in their personal relationships.
Not sure there was any mention of political philosophy in my question there Carol. These people are unfortunately, however, in positions of greatly influencing our lives and, worse still, often tell us how we should live ours.
logie97, I was commenting as much in relation to the IMF guy as to your comment. But, I think such things are done by people in power as well as less powerful people of all political affiliations.
Carol, I guess we are singing from the same song sheet. Indeed the initial general comment was as a result of current headlines, though I think we can also look closer to home perhaps … just an observation.
Could it happen or has it happened here?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/5008982/Sex-lies-and-the-reckless-choices-of-power
Perhaps calling such people “socialists” is about as accurate as referring to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Rahm Emanuel and the rest of that hideous gang in Washington as “democrats”.
Frank Bananarama makes himself a fool again like so many before him. Takes action through the barrel of a gun and usurps Fijian sovereignty. Then complains when somone takes action against him through the barrel of a gun and usurps Fijian sovereignty. ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha what a fool.
Live by the sword die by the sword.
I thought the idea was that the top banana was upset because the guy slipped out from under in a covert way instead of staying on to face a trumped up charge. No guns just outmaneouvering the regime. But I have missed some newscasts today.
Sedition isn’t usually grounds for extradition….though I don’t know what the details of any extradition treaty might be between Fiji and Tonga.
THE MANA PARTY IS HERE
The latest Horizon Poll shows Mana it has 2.3% party vote support nationwide, while the Maori Party is on 2.1%.
http://www.horizonpoll.co.nz/page/122/act-breaks-t
A Labour led coalition with Hone or Annette winning a seat would have 46.4%, while National –Act-Maori Party –United Future 44.9%.
Maori Party support shall be vital for Mr Key in the General Election. However the need for Act to get votes will impact on votes for the Maori Party, with Mana benefiting, and we may even more United Future voters flow as well.
Pita Sharples has indicated he would work with Brash, silly move now line can be run;
A vote for the Maori Party is a Vote for Act – not a good look for the Maori Party.
The leading candidate for the Maori Party now seems to be Pita Tipene Chairperson of the Ngati Hine Forestry Trust, he is from Ngati Hine.
At best any Maori Party candidate would end up at around10%. Kelvin from Labour at most would sit around 30%, while Hone and Mana would at least be around the 60% mark in the June 25 By Election.
The Maori Party is politically mortally wounded in the North, and shall become of no electoral relevance in the North.
When you stand Hone against Kelvin, Hone and Mana win hands down with the Maori Party candidate performing extremely badly.
The Northern Advocate Newspaper ran an online poll yesterday, it had120 votes.
Hone Mana Party 77%
Kelvin Labour Party 18%
Maori Party Candadiate 5%
The newspaper also under took a street poll through Northland. Mr Brown said “he had not voted in the 2008 general election, but had since grown to admire Mr Harawira”, Ms Mare 63 said she voted for the Maori Party in 2008 “because of Hone.”, “What he says he does,” pledging a switch to Mana. Grace Takimoana said “…I voted for Labour last time, but they haven’t got much hope with their new leader.”
In the last General Election Hone had a resounding 32% majority over Kelvin, Hone’s electorate vote grew about 10% in 2008, while the Maori Party vote decreased by 1.3%. Combine that with the Advocate poll result the trend is clear Hone has grown support while the Maori Party has lost support.
I heard there may have been around 16 at the Maori Party Waitangi hui, that should have been the story of the day. Further the president Pam Bird of the Maori Party dismisses Maori youth our future leaders. In a poll during the last election 70% of the voters in the electorate wanted the Maori Party to work with Labour, not National. Do not forget the New Zealand First backlash for going into government with National, the seats were basically wiped out.
Polling prior to the 2008 election from Maori Television poll had some interesting numbers;
Only 20.6% surveyed said Kelvin Davis could be trusted, 21.2% to deliver on his promises. When you move on to he knows the needs of local people Kevin performs badly again at 16.2%.When it comes to leadership Kevin only manages 19.2%. The survey about who has personality Kelvin scores 11.2%, while Hone scores 71.
Curiously the news headlines are all about Act’s poll improvement under Brash, and some alternative but negative focus on hone & Mana, ignoring how they’ve polled.
The MSM don’t want to give the new Mana Party air as it might upset their plans for a second term Nact government.
A cautionary tale from the NY Times about the role of private prisons in the American economy, that should give us pause as well, since we are second only to them, by most reports, in our incarceration rate. Even as there are moves to reduce the imprisonment rate (due to cost rather than justice) this will not be done on any scale because the prison is so deeply entrenched in the economy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/opinion/15alexander.html?_r=2&src=rechp
Two quotable quotes: “If our nation were to return to the rates of incarceration we had in the 1970s, we would have to release 4 out of 5 people behind bars. A million people employed by the criminal justice system could lose their jobs. Private prison companies would see their profits vanish. This system is now so deeply rooted in our social, political and economic structures that it is not going to fade away without a major shift in public consciousness.”
And from Martin Luther King’s 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail: “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice…”
This last, in my opinion can be applied to the lot of all who are poor and effectively disenfranchised.
Crime, corrections, jails, these areas of state control are a lotto win for private enterprise.. Police are supposed to fulfil a number of roles one being keeping order, but an important one is to assist ordinary citizens But that has been fudged in the government target for reduction of deaths. Hence all the road-blocks increasing police surveillance which interfere with ordinary citizens’ freedom of movement. Huge numbers stopped with 10 per cent or less failing the required standards. Also huge cost being put into catching offenders, and fining or charging them. That money should be going on working with the young, education and more positive measures to limit offences, not the reliance on punitive ones.
Reducing drug-drinking hours would limit the intake to more just ‘happy’ levels. Yet the police and citizens have to fight for fewer hours. And this co-ordinated approach with Australia is amazing. Our police have a big budget and their top people should have the expertise along with a forward-looking policy for reducing crime without looking to Oz, or the USA. One point which arose recently was that those under sentence for driving offences have often not received any mandatory driver education. Unbelievable one would think but apparently true.
John Minto is talking about standing in Epsom. Sounds completely insane to me. He should stand in Wigram, and he’d have a fair shot at winning (I’d vote for him). What better way to show that Mana isn’t a Hone vehicle if they go and win a general electorate seat?
The S.S. Trust an “advocate for victims of crime”? Is Kathryn Ryan joking?
Nine to Noon, National Radio, Monday 16 May 2011
Following the government’s malicious decision to remove Greenpeace’s charitable status because of its “political advocacy”, Kathryn Ryan asked a couple of people about just what exactly “political advocacy” means. “What about the Sensible Sentencing Trust? If Greenpeace is political”, she asked, “then what about an organisation that advocates for the victims of crime?”
W-W-W-W-WHA-A-A-A-AT?!???!!!?!?!? The S.S. Trust is a victims’ advocate organisation now? Then who the hell was it that championed Bruce Emery’s knife-killing of a boy on a Manurewa street in 2008? A quick check of the Chez Breen filing cabinet unearthed the following: “Bruce Emery is a different type of offender…I didn’t think he should have gone to jail….” The speaker is…. w-w-w-w-wait for it!…. Garth McVicar. Yes, that’s right: Garth McVicar, “the victims’ advocate”.
I sent a brief e-mail to Kathryn Ryan, questioning her judgement, or lack thereof….
To: ninetonoon@radionz.co.nz
Dear Kathryn,
You said: “What about organisations that advocate for the victims of crime?” You seem to be implying that the Sensible Sentencing Trust does that.
Perhaps you’ve forgotten that, following the knife-killing of 15-year-old Pihema Cameron on an Auckland street, the S.S. Trust’s Garth McVicar loudly supported the killer, and poured scorn and vitriol on the victim, and repeatedly defamed the boy’s mother and his extended family.
The S.S. Trust is an “advocate for victims of crime”? Tell that to Leanne Cameron
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
Man that was stupid of her. Sometimes I wonder what Ryan is thinking most of the time.
It’s not only her, unfortunately. Jim Mora continues to let McVicar comment on “law and order” issues, and he regularly has Barry Corbett and Stephen Franks as guests on The Panel. Both Corbett and Franks spoke out in support of the killing of that boy.
You’re acting like Corbett and Franks aren’t allowed to have an opinion that differs to yours.
Errrr, not quite, Lanthanide. They have every right to praise and defend people who murder Maori teenagers. What I object to is when these people (Corbett, Franks, McVicar) call themselves “victim advocates”. They are anything but.
Your post at 7.1.1 didn’t make it clear that Corbett and Franks also called themselves “victim advocates”. Your response is certainly justified (and I agree).
I’m not sure if Corbett is an S.S. member, but he certainly made repeated statements in support of Bruce Emery’s killing of the boy. He later backtracked, after a storm of public revulsion.
Franks is the “legal adviser” to the S.S. Trust. He regularly pontificates about the way that “wicked” people are “indulged” by what he sneeringly calls “liberals.”
Franks is following in the dead baby identity stealing David Garrett’s illustrious footsteps then, in being “legal adviser” to the SST. Why are these people given any media time at all, they have zero credibility. Racists like Garth McVicar should pull their ugly little heads in. His neighbours tell me his pad is pretty flash, Serco must pay well.
http://www.serco.com/media/pressreleases/mounteden.asp
Actually, Franks was a legal adviser to the S.S. Trust long before Garrett was exposed as a felon. A few years ago, Franks went on an infamous trip to the U.S. with McVicar, no doubt funded by money donated in good faith by well-meaning people to help victims of crime. There they met Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who gave them a guided tour of his prison camp.
At one point, Sheriff Joe asked them if New Zealand had many P addicts. There was a significant pause by both McVicar and Franks, and then they said, in unison: “HEAPS!”
Which makes them traitors to New Zealand, as well as liars.
I belive that the Cameron/Emery case is the beginning of a slippery slope that in only a few years will end up in lynching becoming commonplace in this country.
The knifing of Pihema Cameron was a lynching. The subsequent campaign of ridicule and character assassination of the dead boy, led by Emery’s lawyer Chris Comeskey, the S.S. Trust and some radio talkback hosts, was very similar in tone to what followed the killing of a Jew in Germany or a black man in Alabama in the 1930s.
I agree with you Morrissey. One can be fairly sure that if the boy had been killed in the same way, under the same circumstances, and for the same reasons, by a tattooed brown neighbour, with loose gang affiliations but no criminal record, the self same people would have used it as “evidence” to show what “they” are like. The mental attitude propagated by the SST should terrify everyone.
I think, for a start, people should ring up and complain every time a television or radio station either quotes or interviews McVicar or anyone from the S.S. Trust.
Something for our brave SAS troops to ponder
Next time one of our brave Kiwi boys is being bullied and browbeaten by an American thug to (illegally) hand over captives for possible torture and even murder, he might like to show him a copy of this article….
May 10, 2011
Why It Doesn’t Work: Army Interrogators on Torture
by STEPHEN SOLDZ
http://www.counterpunch.org/soldz05102011.html
In my years in the anti-torture movement, one of the most moving experience has been getting to know military interrogators, military intelligence professionals, JAGS, and other military members who struggled to behave honorably, often at great personal cost, even when they served an administration that promoted torture and when the American public became convinced by politicians, pundits, and the media that torture was both right and necessary. Below is a recent statement by a veteran Army interrogator and interrogation instructor, 1LT(P) Marcus Lewis, who reminds his fellow interrogators of the folly of the torture promoters. Torture neither “works” nor is it moral, he reminds them.
Lewis is not alone among experienced interrogators. One of the sad facts is that when the Bush administration and the CIA were creating the torture program they ignored the opinions of experienced interrogators….
http://www.counterpunch.org/soldz05102011.html
The dream team for social activists, those that believe in equality and tino rangatiratanga – Harawira, Sykes and Minto – that is why i have sent off my membership form to Mana – it is time to get off the fence and seize the opportunity of a generation, for the next generations.
http://mars2earth.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-many-heroes.html
In this issue of Parliament’s Wall of Shame, the Jackal dishes the dirt on David Garrett, Graham John Capill, Donna Awatere Huata, Trevor Rogers, Nick Smith and Roger McClay.
Not commenting on your site since you require to sign up to a service to do so.
Philip Field is conspicuous on his absence on your wall.
Sign up to a service? You should be able to post by registering to the site, it is not a service. You can read the privacy policy here. The Jackal was getting too many stupid and derogatory comments with anonymous posting. The #1 on the title denoted that this is the first in a series of Wall of Shame posts. Field is in the list I have drawn up. However I appreciate any further suggestions people might have.
Ruth Dyson
Taito Philip Field
Bob Clarkson
David Butcher
Phil Heatley
Pansy Yu Fong Wong
You have to use Google, OpenID, LiveJournal, WordPress, TypePad or AIM to comment.
It would appear that you have a WordPress account Lanthanide, as you’ve posted here.
You don’t need any sort of account with anything to post on the standard. The only one of those that I have is google, and I’m not putting that on your site.
That’s fine by me Lanthanide. If you have a problem with the way the posting feature works, might I suggest you take it up with blogger.com.
Other blogs on blogger.com allow you to post with just a name and any email address you like, much as you can here on The Standard.
That option was also available on your blog for a while, which I availed myself of. Since you took it away, I haven’t bothered.
That’s something I’m grateful for Lanthanide. Your often ill conceived and factually incorrect posts will not be missed @ the Jackal. Perhaps you think that making such a childish complaint and comparing the Jackal to other websites will achieve something. Twerp!
I don’t think it’s “childish” to note that you used to allow open comments on your blog, and now don’t.
Calling my comments “factually incorrect” is a bit rich when you were saying the earthquakes in Christchurch were caused by secret American weapons testing and for evidence you linked to a news story from 2005 about a meteor that was seen over the city implying that it happened just days before the September 4th quake.
I presume you’re refering to the What are you all HAARPing on about article I wrote back on 2nd March, in which you comented:
You’re holding this article up as “From reports people have stated hearing a loud sonic boom prior to the 21 Feb Christchurch earthquake.”
To which I replied: There were reports of sonic boom like noises prior to the 6.3 Magnitude Earthquake in Lyttleton/Christchurch. Here is one of them.
I did not say the Christchurch earthquakes were caused by secret American weapons, however I did provide information about the technology. So again you are being factually incorrect and showing yourself to be a twerp.
The Jackal still allows open comments, however it does not allow anonymous comments.
“I did not say the Christchurch earthquakes were caused by secret American weapons, however I did provide information about the technology.”
No, you didn’t outright say it, you just heavily implied it. If you were just providing “information about the technology”, you wouldn’t have mentioned the CHCH earthquake, or included the lines “Could returning low-frequency waves shift the Earth’s magma, thus moving tectonic plates to cause earthquakes? The mind boggles!”.
That’s exactly the sort of arguing by innuendo that Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh dish out.
I gave the facts of the case as presented. People did hear a large sonic boom sound prior to the Christchurch earthquake, that’s why it was mentioned. Do you now accept that fact Lanthanide?
It’s for the reader to make up their own minds and hopefully look for further answers. I was thanked for the informative article as most readers have the cognitive ability to formulate their own conclusions. My article was especially helpful to those within the community of people trying to get HAARP recognized as a dangerous technology.
Was your comparison to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh meant to be a joke? I am neither fat, ugly or a conservative you twerp! My article stuck to the facts, just as all of my blogs are formulated from relevant information. If you don’t like my writing style, don’t read it.
“People did hear a large sonic boom sound prior to the Christchurch earthquake, that’s why it was mentioned.”
When you hear the sound of hoofbeats in the night, think first of horses, not of zebras.
When people say they heard a sonic boom sound before the Earthquake, that is what I will report. You might note that there are over 400 words between the two paragraphs you cut and paste together to try and discredit the article, which is almost three months old. Your childish, ill conceived and factually incorrect argument is akin to a moron Lanthanide. Get over yourself and grow up twerp!
Tau Henare, John Tamihere, Shane Jones, Dover Samuels – they are all morally inept.
Thanks Adele. Looking for past or present MPs with convictions. But I might broaden the scope of the name and shame blogs 🙂
Here’s a little heads up for those who are wondering about the beatup job currently underway insofar as abortion counsellors and adolescent abortion access are concerned. I found out that counsellor Steve Taylor has strong fundamentalist Christian and male backlash/’fathers rights’ links, as can be seen from his resource section, and is headquartered in the fundamentalist Parents Inc parenting group. Clearly, he isn’t neutral on this subject and I question why no-one else has investigated his background:
See: http://www.24-7.org.nz
So the guy who promise us all North of $50.00 tax cuts in the current term of his government, is now talking up the possibility that wages will rise higher than inflation in the next couple of years:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/5010408/Wages-tipped-to-rise-Key-believes
Or maybe not:
But that didn’t stop Tracy Watkins making a headline saying:
Wages tipped to rise, Key believes
Hmmmm Carol, don’t make the same mistake that everyone is has. When Key talked about tax cuts “North of $50” he was talking directly to National’s core constituency, not to anyone else. Everyone thought he was addressing the general public. Wrong. It was a dog whistle to his base.
And Key delivered on his promise, his base got tax cuts which were net $50/wk or more, even after GST and price increases.
Well actually he said “north of $50” for those “earning the average wage”, which is about $39k or so. Not so much a dog-whistle as a blatant lie.
If he said average wage that is closer to $47K p.a. But i’m still confident that he was talking to his core constituency there.
Ah, I think the $39k is the average income, eg including benefits. Something like that, anyway.
“But i’m still confident that he was talking to his core constituency there.”
I think his careful (and since, oft-repeated) use of the term “average wage” is to make it seem like any old average joe in the street. When of course we know that the average is significantly above the median and maybe only 30% of the country earn the ‘average’ or above.
So yeah, I guess it’s a dog-whistle for their core constituency, dressed up like lamb for the average joe-blow who wants to believe that they earn the average wage because they earn the same as all their mates down the pub.
Yes, you’re referring to the median full time working income with that $39K pa figure.
Average income is higher than that, skewed upwards by the rich pricks.
So, when he is hopeful of higher wages in the next couple of years, is that really for the high earners too?
You’d be lucky if it was 25%.
Which means a lot of people earning **under** the average wage are voting National.
Yes, very bizarre little story, that.
It would have been fair and balanced in they had also noted that John Key believed that the tax cuts would see us “roaring out of recession” last year.
Just visited BBC home page and this was the HEADLINE photograph and link …
http://www.bbc.com/travel/gallery/20110513-the-maoris-of-new-zealand
Haven’t watched it and don’t know if it’s the full interview or just a clip:
John Key interviewed by The Economist.
http://video.economist.com/?fr_chl=1257fd4a3f457735719f845205531ed840915d9c
Its a full interview and Key says that we have LOW GOVERNMENT DEBT!
He said that in the hard talk one, too.
The Debt is mostly Private debt and 75% of that is Bank debt and not those spendthrift peasants – like me.
Journalism in the public interest.
http://www.propublica.org/investigations/
Lee Atwater, in an anonymous interview in 1981, (his identity was revealed in the nineties, after his death):
Newt Gingrich, this month, on the campaign stump in southern states:
Newt in his own words, 33 years of bomb throwing.
Oh he’s a card all right. Thing is though, as much as the Cons will cry about what the elite liberal media are going to unleash on this sorry sack of shit regarding his personal life, I don’t give a shit.
He was front and centre during the Clinton impeachment attempt, and eventually shut down the government because Clinton didn’t give the little snake oil salesman the respect he felt he deserved. His marks in the rube ridden south might have forgotten but DC is a village, and a company town. They went after Clinton because he was an outsider, and they feted Newt back then because he tried to take him down. But now he is damaged goods, too blatant, too stupid, and attacks the village. They will just slaughter him and I don’t think Fox will be enough to save him.
.
Also, candidate Ron Paul’s racism and a selection of his greatest hits.
Also, and too; holy fucking shit but this is stupid:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/world/middleeast/15prince.html?_r=2&hp
It’s like, well it’s like all sorts of things.
But to me it’s like there are a bunch of assclowns
that either haven’t read one damn thing about the drivers behind AQ,
or didn’t understand it if they did,
or if they did both read and understand
then are the most cynical hard out sons of bitches since the roman republic collapsed in an orgy of private empire building dressed up as giving a fuck.
Colombians too, they’ll be useful.
At present Radionz announces that there will be a 23 minute interview from BBC Hard Talk programme with our pm Joky Hen aka John Key – if interested in how His Fairy Footsteps sounds to others.
This hasn’t been advertised as much as it should have, but it’s now available on youtube:
Also you might want to watch this one from #14 above:
http://video.economist.com/?fr_chl=1257fd4a3f457735719f845205531ed840915d9c
Joky Hen is relying on Treasury forecasts for his latest “state of whatever” speech.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10726011
When was the last treasury forecast worth the paper it was written on?
It’s always worth the paper it’s written on. You just have to realise that the value isn’t in what Treasury put there but what it shows which is that Treasury is a bunch of ideological neo-liberal followers who wouldn’t know what the economy was doing if you paid them.
Q: Why isn’t Bill English proposing to sell off Treasury to help repay our foreign debt?
A: Because its worthless.
Is our Minister of Tourism writing for the Lonely Planet and did he give the nudge to someone on the Beeb to give us a bit more exposure down here. I can just see someone doing a side trip from The Mount to Stewart Island to sample the fish and chips. Who wrote this stuff? (New Zealand cuisine a gourmet’s delight???)
http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20110513-new-zealands-finest-food-experiences
Todd and Lanthanide, above.
I can’t reply to the comments above directly, hence this comment here.
Todd, you are wrong. You haven’t posted any evidence that people heard a sonic boom. The actual quote, if I recall correctly, was we heard a sound like a sonic boom. Like. Not actually, but ‘like’. Not surprising to hear a sound ‘like’ a sonic boom during an earthquake, is it? After all, it’s an astonishingly large release of energy in waves across the physical sounding board that is this good earth.
Lanth is right to say you connected the CIA death boom ray and the earthquake. It’s the whole point of the post, eh. And it’s just as hyberbolic as the Brazillian Oil Co. ate my penguin post a few weeks back. If make preposterous juxtapositions like that, you will get called on it.
And, just as an aside, I agree with Lanth’s criticism of your otherwise well organised site. Anyone wanting to comment there has to identify themselves via a third party, yet you remain anonymous. I reckon that’s not an encouragement to engage in debate and might explain why an otherwise interesting blog gets bugger all responses from readers.
I’ve given up visiting your site, todd, because although much of what you write is thoughtful or provocative, some of your speculation is too wild and loose.
I never commented, for the same reasons that Lanthanide stopped commenting.
Your belligerence above does you no favours either.
I’d commend a more adult approach to you, unless your aim is not to be taken seriously.
I’d also like to be able to comment more easily on your blog. I don’t have a google account or OpenID. Blogger should allow you to add a name/URL option without adding the annoymous one.
Just wastng some time checking some posts and see this about sounds like sonic booms at the time of the Feb 22 earthquake….
Well, I have experienced countless quakes and/or aftershocks which have been booming sounds. Sometimes they have a shake with them and sometimes not. It makes total sense – when the earth cracks it must surely go BOOM. I have heard many many – usually very deep and low and not that loud (in fact very low quiet mostly). The shake follows. Without doubt the BOOMS of earthquakes.
Also, wandering one of the port hills last week got a very strong waft of sulphur smell. Also experienced by others with me. Always heard about that phenomenon and finally experienced it.
These earthquakes are quite something extraordinary…
2c