…..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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In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of a pretty flower, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a cute animal video. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 2: Day eight of living in lock-down… Today, my work day starts late. Our rosters and clients have been dramatically changed, lessening (theoretically) the number of people in our work “bubble”. If just one of us catches covid19 the impact could be considerable as Grey Base Hospital ...
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Lenin Don’t we all know that feeling now.
Prospect Magazine alerted me to this particularly apt quote. It is a much more evocative quote than Hemingway’s “gradually then suddenly” which is also doing ...
Yesterday was the day the consequences of the lockdown suddenly got very real for many. Firms have been closing and laying people off since the outset of the quarantine but this has mostly been happening out of the public eye. The mass closure of a number of iconic New Zealand ...
Brian Williamson1, Prof Nick Wilson2 (1Economic consultant, UK; 2University of Otago Wellington)In this blog, we outline how a win-win social contract could be forged to address the major dimensions of response to the COVID-19 pandemic when using a mitigation strategy: the particular need to protect older people from high ...
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...
No Free Society Without A Free And Functioning News Media: If we are to surrender our civil rights to the broader cause of defeating Covid-19, then foreign corporations must, likewise, surrender their right to inflict immense economic and cultural harm on New Zealanders simply because it improves their bottom line.I’M ...
by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...
The swan politicians may be gliding on the water, occasionally snapping at one another. Meanwhile, as the Covid19 crisis illustrates, the officials are desperately paddling below providing the real locomotion. One of the most fatuous recent grandstanding comments (of about a week ago), adding to the public’s anxieties, was ...
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...
Today has felt surreal. I was all set to touch base online with my science communication students when a colleague shared the news that Bauer Media would be shutting down its publications immediately. The first link I saw implied it was Woman’s Weekly affected, and even that shocked me. But ...
Bogeymen, Real And Imagined: Is the number of psychopathic and sociopathic individuals in any given society truly as vanishingly small as we like to tell ourselves? Isn’t it more likely that the mass-shooters and serial-killers filling the headlines represent only the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of frightfulness? ...
Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee today, who asked him for the rules police are using to enforce the lockdown. He refused:Police Commissioner Mike Bush has admitted the advice given to Kiwis about what they're able to do during the lockdown hasn't been clear enough. ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 1: Day seven of living in lock-down… This morning I had a brief chat with one of my neighbours, “D” (social distance between us, a good three or four metres). I learned he had resigned from his previous job and had been hired by another company – ...
Funnily enough, my thought as I start this post is whether it will be well written enough. Or should that be well enough written? Because so much of what I know about good writing came from my two stints at The Listener, which this morning was shut down due to ...
With normal democratic procedures in abeyance, there were two ways to go. First, it was open for the government to dissolve itself and invite the National Party to join a ministry of national salvation. That would have lessened the democratic deficit of the times by having a team of rivals without ...
Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up ...
Hungary has been a virtual dictatorship for a decade now, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gradually eroded its democracy. But now, its official, with the passage of an indefinite emergency law allowing rule by decree:Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for ...
While the economy is on pause under lockdown, the government is beginning to plan how to cope with the post-lockdown, post-tourism, post-export education world we will eventually find ourselves in. They're planning a lot of infrastructure spending as economic stimulus, and have asked for proposals which can start the moment ...
It's my distraction, setting up tiny scenes to photograph. I've got stuck on the Babushka dolls for now. Something about their bubble shape. Something about their never changing, smiling features, suggesting persistent equanimity. Can we get through everything that is being thrown at us and keep at least a tiny ...
. . March 31: Day six of living in lock-down… This time I managed to sleep a little longer and the alarm woke me at the pre-set time: 6.55am. Then remembered I was working a later shift and could’ve slept in. Oh well, there are things to do at home. ...
Image credit:Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ...
Yesterday's Horizon poll showing support for a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum sliding into the majority for the first time in a year looked like good news for reformers – and it probably is. But the result warrants some scrutiny.The poll is the fifth in a series commissioned ...
For almost a week now, every one of us who isn’t an essential worker has been confined to their bubble. We are allowed to go shopping for groceries, to visit the doctor, and to get a bit of exercise if we stay local. The reason we are doing this is ...
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...
In the absence of a vaccine or a cure for a deadly disease, staying home in your bubble is what you do, the concept is not new. To the best of my knowledge last time we did this in NZ was for polio, in the years before a vaccine came ...
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...
This has been a terrible summer for Hector’s dolphins. The first indication was very low numbers of dolphin sightings during late spring and early summer. The Otago University Marine Mammal Research Team has carried out routine dolphin surveys at Banks Peninsula for more than 30 years. In all that time, ...
On March 17, Finance Minister Grant Robertson was quick out of the blocks with an economic rescue package to help businesses through the inevitable recession resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Robertson had pulled together a scheme in short order that so far seems to have saved many jobs. In his ...
The purpose of the lockdown is to save lives, by reducing the spread of covid-19. We won't know if its really working for another week, but given the devastation that will result if it doesn't - 14,000 dead is the optimistic scenario - its definitely worth trying. But pausing the ...
. . March 30: Day five of living in lock-down… Woke up still in darkness. Alarm hadn’t gone off. Turn to radio clock; it’s a few minutes after 6am… I lie there in the dark, waiting to drift off to sleep… but it ain’t happening. Clock ticks over to 6.55 ...
The story of Les Gray, the public sector psychologist who told the truth about his use of cannabis and set off a storm, has a special place in the lore of cannabis reform in New Zealand.When Paul Shannon interviewed Gray for the 'Dope and Hope' issue of Planet magazine in ...
by Phil Duncan For Marxists, a key concern about social trends is their context – not just their causes, but why they happen when they do. Events and phenomena have causes, but they also are time or period-specific. While much of the left have capitulated recently to postmodernism, most notably ...
Since the lockdown began, we've all suddenly been reminded who the actually essential workers in our society are: not the people at the top who pay themselves the big bucks and rort the perks, but the people at the bottom they screw over and squeeze: cleaners, warehouse staff, truck drivers ...
Kia ora! As I've watched nearly all my remaining work vanish over the past couple of days, it has occured to me that one good way to keep me away from arguing with fools on Twitter all the time (in the knowledge that all we're really doing is processing our ...
Aotearoa New Zealand has committed to trying to extirpate the virus that causes COVID-19 from its shores. To do that, as a society we’ve moved to “Level 4”. That means adapting to unprecedented restrictions on our personal freedoms, particularly to our rights to move freely and associate with friends and ...
When the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency last week, she handed the police powers to enforce it. And almost immediately, we started hearing about heavy-handed, arbitrary "enforcement" by police who (at best) cared more about order than law, or (more likely) had no idea what the rules were ...
. . Lock Down: Day 4 – A photo essay with observations . March 29: Usual wake up routine as RNZ snaps on my radio-clock. Jim Mora’s voice slowly enters my conciousness; there’s talk of a second wave of covid19 taking hold in South Korea; the week in Parliament – ...
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... ‘Misinformation kills’: The link between coronavirus conspiracies and climate denialGrist / Rob Kim / Stringer / CSA Images Scientific ...
The kids did surprisingly well today – meltdown count was about 3, and mostly fairly short ones. (And a fourth while I was writing.) Game-wise I had a go at Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark. It’s a fairly standard RPG with turn-based combat and what they call a “mature storyline” (it ...
by Don Franks Hi David, Nice hearing from you, I’m glad to hear you’re getting by okay in these grim times. You asked how’s it going for us back here in New Zealand. You would have heard that the whole country is locked down and with breaks for exercise and ...
. . Lock Down: Day 3 – A photo essay with observations . March 28: First day of the first weekend in Lock Down. It feels like it’s been weeks since only Level 3 was declared last Tuesday, only four days ago. Woke up this morning to RNZ; coffee; toast, ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 22, 2020 through Sat, Mar 28, 2020Articles Linked to on FacebookSun, Mar 22, 2020In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters by Chelsea Harvey, ...
I’m here in lockdown with my flatmate and her two girls (6 and 2) and it. is. a time. They’re usually really active so to start with the only boardgame in the house is the copy of Guess Who that the 6 year old got for her birthday. Flatmate commented ...
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...
. . Lock Down: Day 2 – A photo essay with observations . March 27 – Day 2 of our Strange New World. The Park and Ride near my suburb, usually filled with hundreds of vehicles, had just… four; . . Another drive into Wellington City on a highway nearly ...
Fortune's Children: Under extraordinary pressure, the leader of the Government and the leader of the Opposition will each show us what they are made of. Have they been blessed with intelligence, grace, wit, poise, toughness, empathy and humour – and in what measure? More importantly, to what extent have they ...
If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having to rent a property on the open market in New Zealand, which is one of the most expensive in the entire world, you’ll likely be keenly aware of just how arrogant and entitled landlords and their real estate agents can be.Unfortunately for ...
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has striven to provide calm, clear and consistent communication, including daily press conference updates from the Prime Minister. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world".Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...
The domestic travel ban has been lifted for stranded foreign tourists trying to get to international airports to fly home, after the Coalition Government announced a plan to help the tens of thousands of foreigners stranded here. Foreign Minister Rt. Hon. Winston Peters spoke with RNZ's Susie Ferguson said foreign ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters believes the country is rediscovering its resilience and self-reliance through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.He says he is heartened that the mass majority of New Zealanders are following lockdown rules and that the government looking at the future, including paying to keep much ...
New Zealand can emulate the success of the US after the Great Depression by exploiting our own resources to turn the economy around quickly, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr. Peters told Magic Talk that New Zealand has an opportunity to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic a "superior, ...
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
Ground-breaking law has passed that will decriminalise abortion and ensure women and pregnant people seeking abortions have compassionate healthcare. ...
The Green Party says that the measures announced by the Government today will help families and businesses to prioritise our collective health and wellbeing in the response to COVID-19. ...
The New Zealand Government has made arrangements to charter a flight for New Zealanders stranded in Peru to depart the country, following agreement with the Chilean government to allow the necessary transit through Chile, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced today. “Like many travellers around the world at the moment, ...
Hospital preparations for COVID-19 are well advanced says Health Minister David Clark. “Hospitals across New Zealand are repurposing buildings and training staff to get ready for COVID-19 patients. This gives me confidence that we are well prepared for any potential increase in COVID-19 patients needing hospital level care,” said David ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
New Zealand’s ability to go hard and go early in the fight against COVID-19 has been underpinned by strong Government finances and the growing economy heading into this global pandemic, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown financial statements for the eight months to the end ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
Farmers whose herds were culled in response to the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis will be able to minimise the tax treatment of their income in some circumstances. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says Cabinet has agreed to change the law. It means farmers may be eligible to spread their income over ...
A $27 million dollar package, effective immediately, is being provided to social sector services and community groups to ensure they can continue to provide essential support to communities as we stay at home as a nation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni announced. “At ...
“The guilty plea today will provide some relief to the many people whose lives were shattered by what happened on March 15,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “These guilty pleas and conviction bring accountability for what happened and also save the families who lost loved ones, those who were injured, ...
The Prime Minister is holding daily press conferences to update New Zealanders on the Government's response to COVID-19. Links to videos and transcripts of these updates below. These transcripts also include All of Government press conferences led by Director Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. 25 March: Live update from the Prime ...
Frontline Police numbers have broken through the 10,000 mark for the first time in history as officers step forward to keep the community safe during the COVID19 lockdown. “Two Police graduations in Auckland and Wellington in the past week have been conducted in unprecedented circumstances,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said. ...
Urgent legislation has been passed to support the package of economic and social measures needed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill will cushion New Zealanders from the worst economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Revenue Minister ...
From tomorrow, Government support for farmers and growers affected by drought will be expanded and extended across the country, with access to Rural Assistance Payments (RAPS) available throughout the North Island, parts of the South Island and the Chatham Islands, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced. “These challenging conditions have ...
Parliament has passed amendments to legislation that give the Secretary of Education stronger powers to act in the fight to limit the spread of COVID-19, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “They are part of a suite of changes passed under the COVID-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Legislation Bill,” Chris ...
Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar have joined forces with New Zealand and Singapore by committing to keep supply chains open and remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker today welcomed ...
Immediate freeze on rent increases Tenancies will not be terminated during the lock-down period, unless the parties agree, or in limited circumstances Tenants who had previously given notice can stay in their if they need to stay in the tenancy during the lock-down period Tenants will still be able to ...
As New Zealand unites to lock-down in the fight against COVID-19, the Finance Minister is urging all businesses and workers to stay connected over the next four weeks. “We understand the extreme pressure many businesses are under right now. I know most business owners think of their workers as family ...
A State of National Emergency has been declared across the country as the Government pulls out all the stops to curtail the spread of COVID-19. “Today we put in place our country’s second ever State of National Emergency as we fight a global pandemic, save New Zealanders’ lives and prevent ...
Mr Speaker I wish to make a Ministerial Statement under Standing Order 347 in relation to the recent declaration of a State of National Emergency. Having considered the advice of the Director Civil Defence Emergency Management, the Minister of Civil Defence declared a State of National Emergency for the whole of ...
Analysis: New Zealand has dedicated itself to going hard and going early against Covid-19. When compared with other countries, how did we do? When Jacinda Ardern announced a requirement for everyone entering the country to self-isolate for 14 days, she told the nation what New Zealand's strategy for the months ...
Covid-19 quickly put Vodafone NZ to the test, but CEO Jason Paris - working out of his son's bedroom - tells Rod Oram the telco is in good shape, with the crisis giving it the opportunity "to accelerate to our digital future" Vodafone New Zealand got an early start preparing ...
Inland Revenue (IR) will turn off its computer systems for seven days from this Thursday to implement the latest round of planned transformation changes. All phone and online services will be unavailable from 3pm on 9 April until 16 April. That ...
Taxis drivers working during lockdown are facing challenges to keep themselves and their passengers safe, and rideshare service drivers face extra problems. The Taxi Federation's John Hart says most companies are asking callers who request a taxi whether the travel is allowed under the lockdown rules. "If they don't meet ...
Auckland Airport is the latest big company to rush to strengthen its finances to counter the impact of the Covid-19 virus. The company is to raise more than $1.2 billion through a share issue to big institutional investors and existing shareholders, including the Auckland Council which has a 22 percent ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ilan Noy, Professor and Chair in the Economics of Disasters, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Governments across the world have rolled out extensive financial packages to support individuals, businesses and large corporations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Equally, central ...
Pacific Media Watch From the second week of lockdown in New Zealand, to Covid-19 in the Pacific and an “authoritarianism creep” by governments in the Asia-Pacific region provided a fast-changing landscape on the Pacific Media Centre’s Southern Cross radio programme on 95bFM today. New Zealand had crossed the 1000-case ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union is urging the Government to halt its non-essential legislative agenda, including the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Bill, until the worst of COVID-19 has passed. Taxpayers' Union spokesperson Islay ...
Fuel sales have dropped dramatically and stocks are building up, creating pressure on storage facilities globally and in New Zealand. Z Energy's chief executive Mike Bennetts told Morning Report that there are many storage tanks throughout the country and at the Marsden Point Oil Refinery. "The issue for us is more about ...
Join us for our eighth live Q&A session with Dr Ayesha Verrall, a senior lecturer at Otago University who specialises in infectious diseases. Ayesha Verrall is an infectious diseases physician and senior lecturer at Otago University's Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine (Wellington). Dr Verrall has been monitoring the spread and impact of Covid-19 ...
SkyCity has broken the law by sacking hundreds of workers as of today with no consultation or discussion. Salaried managers at SkyCity were told on Friday that their jobs would finish today. Their letter of notice states clearly that the decision has already ...
The latest in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersThese posts collate the most recent statistics and presents them as charts and maps. The Ministry of Health typically publishes data updates in the early ...
Mark Jennings writes on some of the good things to have come out of lockdown - and the tough times that lie ahead. We are well into our second week of lockdown and, for me, our old world already feels strangely remote. I’ve learned that working from home is fine, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Sharpe, Associate Professor in Philosophy, Deakin University Some weeks ago, I got an email from a student who had returned to Northern Italy over Christmas to see family. Unable to return to Australia, they were in lockdown. The hospitals were filling ...
The Taranaki-Whanganui Conservation Board (TWCB) has welcomed its latest victory in a long-running court battle to prevent seabed mining off the Taranaki coast. The TWCB has been working with iwi, seafood and other environmental organisations to ...
If you’re a movie-lover but don’t feel like funnelling more money to a giant global corporation right now, good news: there are plenty of free – and legal – streaming options out there. You just have to know where to look.The number of people with access to linear television is ...
The face mask question is more complicated than it might at first seem, explains Siouxsie Wiles.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 crisis is only possible because of the support of members. If you can, please consider joining Spinoff Members here. Read Toby Morris’s new Side Eye comic, created with Siouxsie Wiles, here. ...
In times of economic uncertainty, good information can be an invaluable commodity. So we’ve been working on a way to channel it to you.For many people, knowing what to do in our radically changing economy is like trying to figure out what to do when the power in your house ...
3 April 2020: The Auditor-General has written to the chief executives of a range of public agencies about important governance matters to consider during the response to the pandemic. The contents of this letter are useful matters for all chief executives ...
Cries that coronavirus lockdown was interfering with “essential pest control” were scare-mongering not unlike supermarket panic buying says a hunting organisation the Sporting Hunters Outdoor Trust. The comment was in response to an Auckland University ...
The Chief High Court judge’s decision to step down has triggered a question bluntly expressed in a headline on Asian Invasion 2019 – What The Hell Is Going On In The New Zealand Judiciary? First, the blogger says, the judiciary was accepting debate sparked by a newly appointed Supreme Court ...
The daily growth in Covid-19 cases in New Zealand continues to slump as the number of tests carried out yesterday reached a record high, Marc Daalder reports The continuing stagnation in the number of new Covid-19 cases on Monday is encouraging, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said. Monday saw just 67 ...
Laura Jean McKay is hunkered down in Palmerston North but her much-hyped novel The Animals in That Country is out there in the world – earlier than expected, too, because it’s about a strange new flu. Two women stand close to each other in an aisle labelled CANS. They’re young, ...
She’s not a teacher or a fluent speaker – she just wants to practise with you. Join Leonie Hayden as she works through the first four weeks of Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy.Today we’re making it count – from 0 to 1000!Most of us learned tahi, rua, toru, whā when ...
Human rights lawyer Kingsley Abbott warns that Kiwis should not be too complacent about the restrictions being placed upon them In New Zealand, swimming at the beach is prohibited, an activity so entrenched in the Kiwi psyche that for many it is like being asked to go without oxygen. The ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet ...
Gareth Morgan believes if current trends continue, the Government could "open the jail" in another week Each week we’re locked up imparts irreparable harm to the economy, people’s livelihoods and not least our health. We all know why it’s been necessary and the Government is to be congratulated for moving ...
The Reserve Bank will buy up local government bonds in a major move to support the smooth functioning of the market in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic The Reserve Bank has heeded the call of economists and the country's largest council to expand its multi-billion dollar asset-purchasing programme to include bonds issued by ...
Today President Trump again touted hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for Covid-19, despite a lack of good evidence that it is safe or effective against the coronavirus. Here’s what we do know about the drug Trump calls a ‘game changer’.On Saturday the US Food and Drug Administration approved the use ...
Simon Bridges supports the start of discussions about a possible exit plan from level-4 restrictions, as long as the government remains focused on enforcing an effective lockdown. ...
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY:By Sri Krishnamurthi, self-isolating in Auckland under New Zealand’s Covid-19 lockdown as part of a Pacific Media Watch series. As New Zealand edges toward the third week of lockdown having passed 1000 cases threshold (1039) with 89 new cases, 12 clusters and one death on day ...
It’s a more complicated issue than simply whether one company should control the majority of the market, writes regulatory law expert Edward Willis.The closure of Bauer Media’s operations in New Zealand, along with many well-loved magazine titles, is devastating. The broad impact of the closure, coupled with the realisation that ...
Pacific Media Watch Authorities are cracking down to try and stop the spread of the coronavirus in Fiji, which already has 12 cases, reports TVNZ One News. Police have arrested more than 240 people in the last two days for breaching curfew. “This level of lawlessness is irresponsible, un-Fijian ...
‘When you reach for the exact same thing day after day, your grasp on everything else in the world loosens.’Read more Lockdown Letters hereAt the end of 2001, my brother JP and I picked cherries and thinned apples at an orchard just outside Blenheim. It was hot and tiring work ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin USA still far from worst. Chart by Keith Rankin. Looking at known cases of Covid19, as for Friday 3 April, we still see the dominance of the jetsetter enclaves – including the tax shelters of Europe. We also see the Norse ‘viking’ cluster of Norway, ...
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 contentPublic health strategy Charlie Mitchell (Stuff): How hard, how early? The numbers behind New Zealand’s quick lockdown David Fisher ...
Alex Casey talks to a physiotherapist about how we can all save our necks and backs from a world of pain while working from home during the lockdown. As we enter another week of lockdown, you might be starting to feel a new twinge at the nape of your neck, or ...
The country's three major IT groups have been left out of the loop by the Government in the race to speed up critical contact tracing of virus carriers. ...
America faces 'Pearl Harbour moment' this week; Trump still promoting anti-malaria drug; Irish PM to work as doctor as wellA million cases is so last week, huge doubt over data: A weekend is a long time for an exponential epidemic to do its mathematical work. Early today, New Zealand time, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suze Wilson, Senior Lecturer, Executive Development, Massey University Imagine, if you can, what it’s like to make decisions on which the lives of tens of thousands of other people depend. If you get things wrong, or delay deciding, they die. Your decisions ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hewson, Professor and Chair, Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Climate deniers have been hanging out for the United Nations’ next big summit to fail. In a sense, the coronavirus and its induced policy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Giancaspro, Lecturer in Law, University of Adelaide You’ve lost income because of the coronavirus crisis and finding it hard to pay the bills. What if you can’t pay your rent? The short answer, if you live in Australia, is that rules ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aaron Burton, Lecturer in Media Arts, University of Wollongong Being in isolation might be a great time to try something new. In this series, we get the basics on hobbies and activities to start while you’re spending more time at home. ...
The prime minister has pushed back on comments made by an Australian government minister telling New Zealanders to go home if they have no means of support. ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Safe harbour for directors; Virgin Australia shuts NZ base; Z Energy cancels dividend and talks to banks; Serko bounces on cost cutsSafe harbour: Company directors might be sleeping a little easier now that the Government has provided clarity around the issue of reckless trading or trading while insolvent. The ...
Covid 19 coronavirus: Foreign Minister Winston Peters says up to 100,000 foreign nationals may be heading home; and pressure on Government to bring forward capital projects as part of infrastructure injection. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Debate over leaving lockdown fires up, how the tax system could change after Covid-19, and concerns as cyclone bears down on Vanuatu.Over the last few days, a debate has started to fire up about leaving level four restrictions, and restarting some ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Queenstown author Jane Bloomfield on a writing compeition which unlocks kids' imaginations during the lockdown. Encouraging young minds to roam wild is what drives myself and nine other children’s authors to run the online story-writing competition, Fabostory. With the current lockdown in place, we invite writers aged 7–13 to unlock ...
Newsroom wanted to find out why so many small shops still don’t want us to use paywave. And the answer hasn’t changed - bank fees. Suddenly, surfaces are scary. Door handles, taps, light switches, lift buttons, eftpos machines. These days they aren't just useful inanimate objects we touch without a ...
Should all New Zealanders wear face masks in public to reduce the spread of Covid-19? Farah Hancock looks at the science. The success of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore in keeping Covid-19 levels low has seen a call for widespread mask-wearing. In the United States, the message from officials has ...
The Global Financial Crisis badly hurt the employment prospects of young people about to enter the workforce. Roger Smyth writes that Covid-19 will have a deeper impact, and the Government needs to respond better this time. Recessions hit the young hardest. Employers stop recruiting. Those without qualifications and those without experience end ...
March 16, 2020 is a day that any share market investor is likely to remember for a long time. That’s the day that the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index that tracks the top 30 companies listed on US stock exchanges, lost 2997 points, nearly 13 percent of its value. ...
The University of Otago's Patrick Boudreau explains how 'adventure psychology' can help you cope with self-isolation Imagine being halfway up a sheer vertical face of rock. Gripping ledges smaller than the width of your iPhone with the tips of your fingers and edge of your toes. If the rock gives ...
After 15 years on the world pro tennis circuit, Marina Erakovic is chasing a new dream in sports medicine and mentoring young tennis stars. Marina Erakovic can’t run anymore. She didn’t really like it anyway, but still, it’s a measure of the toll a 15-year career at the highest level of tennis has ...
Scientists hope to seek evidence of the coronavirus, or its absence, in wastewater. Mirjam Guesgen explains.The fight against Covid-19 is headed for the sewers, with New Zealand scientists hoping to analyse wastewater samples for signs of the coronavirus.Tests would allow health authorities to see whether New Zealand’s elimination strategy has ...
Since the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment relaxed the rules around the supply of essential non-food items last week, more businesses are announcing that their online stores are up and running. Some things, however, are not what leaps to mind as ‘essential’.Under the new policy allowing essential non-food items ...
By Jane Patterson, political editor of RNZ News Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it’s too early to claim success against the spread of Covid-19 but 11 days into lockdown, New Zealand has made a good start. At today’s media briefing, Ardern was reluctant to draw too many conclusions from ...
By Stefan Armbruster of SBS News in Brisbane Refugees and asylum seekers in Brisbane have begun daily protests urging for their release after doctors and human rights lawyers flagged fears that a repurposed hotel could become a coronavirus infection hotspot. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the UN Human ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it's too early to claim success against the spread of Covid-19 but 11 days into lockdown, New Zealand has made a good start. ...
Sam Brooks, a lifelong Studio Ghibli fan, presents a guide to the Japanese studio’s animated films, including which ones to show your kids when.Just heard ‘Let It Go’ for the billionth time? Sick of those class-traitor dogs that make up the cast of Paw Patrol? Look no further than the ...
Alan Simmons co-leader of the NZ Outdoors Party says tensions are at breaking point around New Zealand. “I cannot keep up with the calls and messages from New Zealanders who are extremely stressed, distressed and frustrated by dramatic changes imposed ...
Welcome back to Papercuts, our monthly books podcast hosted by Louisa Kasza, Jenna Todd and Kiran Dass.Well, we’ve all said we wish we had more time to read and now we’ve got what we wished for. Jenna, Kiran and Louisa delve into some book news (that’s not too heavy for ...
The prime minister says she expects the health minister to continue doing his job, including media interviews, after he broke the lockdown rules last week to go mountain biking. ...
There have been calls for major institutions like Auckland Art Gallery to do better in identifying queer or queer-associated artists. New Auckland Art Gallery director Kirsten Paisley believes it’s ‘a conversation that needs to happen’. Writer Samuel Te Kani digs into the complications below the surface of the erasures of ...
Ardern says the role of planning for moving out of lockdown is not the Government's alone Businesses should plan how they will operate in an environment where intensive contact tracing would be needed post-lockdown, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today. The Government was working on additional guidance for the move to Level 3 ...
Netflix’s four-part series Unorthodox traces a woman’s escape from a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn. Emily Writes considers the lessons we can all learn from her journey. There was a moment watching Netflix’s miniseries Unorthodox when I felt like I was actually in Berlin, where much of the show is ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...
Open mike 16/05/2011 
Last month I wrote my blog on covid-19 pointing out the in our pre Alert Level 4 days that a subject no one had heard here months ago was now dominating the media. An amazing feature of this crisis is how quickly it has swept every other issue aside worldwide. ...1 hour ago
Nick Wilson,1 Ayesha Verrall,1,2 Len Cook,3 Alistair Gray,3 Amanda Kvalsvig,1 Michael Baker,1 (1epidemiologists, 2infectious disease physician, 3statisticians) In this blog, we raise ideas for how New Zealand might optimise testing to both identify cases in the community as part of the COVID-19 elimination strategy, and to confirm when the virus ...1 hour ago
Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... North Atlantic's capacity to absorb CO2 overestimated, study suggests Research into ocean’s plankton likely to lead to ...5 hours ago
The Treaty on Open Skies is one of the most effective mechanisms for preventing war curently in force. By letting countries make surveillance flights over each others' territory, it eliminates fears that they are secretly preparing for war. So naturally, the US is planning to withdraw from it: The Trump ...6 hours ago
. . April 5: Day eleven of living in lock-down… My one day of rest for the week, and an opportunity to mow my lawns – which I’d been delaying for about three weeks. (On the plus side, the damp micro-climate in my back yard yielded three lovely fresh mushrooms ...6 hours ago
Paul Connett is putting all his eggs in one basket. He says “you only have to read four studies” to find community after fluoridation harmful. Image credit: Fluoride Action Network newsletter. For part 1 of this series see Anti-fluoridation propaganda now relies on only four studies. 1: Bashash et al (2018). Paul Connett, ...9 hours ago
As far as anyone can say, New Zeaand still has a general election scheduled for September 19 this year. The election will be accompanied by two referenda, one of which will ask voters:Do you support the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill?The official campaign period for the cannabis referendum begins ...9 hours ago
As the world economy slides rapidly towards deep recession there are growing calls for a Universal Benefit coming from some leftists and rightists. Now Finance Minister Grant Robertson is saying it is on the table. This article by a French party Workers Struggle provides analysis of various forms of universal ...24 hours ago
This is the advice from the very top of the anti-fluoride movement – Paul Connett, director of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). Don’t worry about reading up on all the scientific information “You only have ... 1 day ago
Comfortably, in the very first round, with an impressive 56% of the votes.I wonder, did members of the Shadow Cabinet start tweeting their resignations during Starmer's victory speech, or is that only a trick the right pull?It is odd how all the talk of how the next leader "needs to ...1 day ago
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...2 days ago
We must root out the traitors among us! ...3 days ago
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...3 days ago
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...4 days ago
Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 5 days ago
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...5 days ago
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...6 days ago
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...1 week ago
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...1 week ago
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has striven to provide calm, clear and consistent communication, including daily press conference updates from the Prime Minister. ...1 day ago
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world". Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...3 days ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...2 weeks ago
The New Zealand Government has made arrangements to charter a flight for New Zealanders stranded in Peru to depart the country, following agreement with the Chilean government to allow the necessary transit through Chile, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced today. “Like many travellers around the world at the moment, ...2 hours ago
Analysis: New Zealand has dedicated itself to going hard and going early against Covid-19. When compared with other countries, how did we do? When Jacinda Ardern announced a requirement for everyone entering the country to self-isolate for 14 days, she told the nation what New Zealand's strategy for the months ...5 mins ago
Covid-19 quickly put Vodafone NZ to the test, but CEO Jason Paris - working out of his son's bedroom - tells Rod Oram the telco is in good shape, with the crisis giving it the opportunity "to accelerate to our digital future" Vodafone New Zealand got an early start preparing ...15 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Komesaroff, Professor of Medicine, Monash University Although recent encouraging news suggests the rate of new coronavirus cases in Australia is slowing, our medical facilities could still be overwhelmed at some point. One modelling study has suggested that, if public health measures ...33 mins ago
Inland Revenue (IR) will turn off its computer systems for seven days from this Thursday to implement the latest round of planned transformation changes. All phone and online services will be unavailable from 3pm on 9 April until 16 April. That ...1 hour ago
Taxis drivers working during lockdown are facing challenges to keep themselves and their passengers safe, and rideshare service drivers face extra problems. The Taxi Federation's John Hart says most companies are asking callers who request a taxi whether the travel is allowed under the lockdown rules. "If they don't meet ...1 hour ago
Auckland Airport is the latest big company to rush to strengthen its finances to counter the impact of the Covid-19 virus. The company is to raise more than $1.2 billion through a share issue to big institutional investors and existing shareholders, including the Auckland Council which has a 22 percent ...2 hours ago
Fuel sales have dropped dramatically and stocks are building up, creating pressure on storage facilities globally and in New Zealand. Z Energy's chief executive Mike Bennetts told Morning Report that there are many storage tanks throughout the country and at the Marsden Point Oil Refinery. "The issue for us is more about ...2 hours ago
Join us for our eighth live Q&A session with Dr Ayesha Verrall, a senior lecturer at Otago University who specialises in infectious diseases. Ayesha Verrall is an infectious diseases physician and senior lecturer at Otago University's Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine (Wellington). Dr Verrall has been monitoring the spread and impact of Covid-19 ...2 hours ago
The latest in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersThese posts collate the most recent statistics and presents them as charts and maps. The Ministry of Health typically publishes data updates in the early ...2 hours ago
Mark Jennings writes on some of the good things to have come out of lockdown - and the tough times that lie ahead. We are well into our second week of lockdown and, for me, our old world already feels strangely remote. I’ve learned that working from home is fine, ...2 hours ago
The Chief High Court judge’s decision to step down has triggered a question bluntly expressed in a headline on Asian Invasion 2019 – What The Hell Is Going On In The New Zealand Judiciary? First, the blogger says, the judiciary was accepting debate sparked by a newly appointed Supreme Court ...4 hours ago
The daily growth in Covid-19 cases in New Zealand continues to slump as the number of tests carried out yesterday reached a record high, Marc Daalder reports The continuing stagnation in the number of new Covid-19 cases on Monday is encouraging, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said. Monday saw just 67 ...4 hours ago
Human rights lawyer Kingsley Abbott warns that Kiwis should not be too complacent about the restrictions being placed upon them In New Zealand, swimming at the beach is prohibited, an activity so entrenched in the Kiwi psyche that for many it is like being asked to go without oxygen. The ...4 hours ago
The opposition leader is defending his decision to commute between Wellington and his home in Tauranga during the Covid-19 lockdown. ...4 hours ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet ...5 hours ago
The National Party leader Simon Bridges supports the start of discussions about a possible exit plan from level-4 restrictions. ...5 hours ago
Gareth Morgan believes if current trends continue, the Government could "open the jail" in another week Each week we’re locked up imparts irreparable harm to the economy, people’s livelihoods and not least our health. We all know why it’s been necessary and the Government is to be congratulated for moving ...5 hours ago
The Reserve Bank will buy up local government bonds in a major move to support the smooth functioning of the market in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic The Reserve Bank has heeded the call of economists and the country's largest council to expand its multi-billion dollar asset-purchasing programme to include bonds issued by ...5 hours ago
The country's three major IT groups have been left out of the loop by the Government in the race to speed up critical contact tracing of virus carriers. ...9 hours ago
America faces 'Pearl Harbour moment' this week; Trump still promoting anti-malaria drug; Irish PM to work as doctor as well A million cases is so last week, huge doubt over data: A weekend is a long time for an exponential epidemic to do its mathematical work. Early today, New Zealand time, ...9 hours ago
Cabinet ministers will today consider whether New Zealand is ready to come out of lockdown in another 16 days. ...9 hours ago
Safe harbour for directors; Virgin Australia shuts NZ base; Z Energy cancels dividend and talks to banks; Serko bounces on cost cuts Safe harbour: Company directors might be sleeping a little easier now that the Government has provided clarity around the issue of reckless trading or trading while insolvent. The ...11 hours ago
Covid 19 coronavirus: Foreign Minister Winston Peters says up to 100,000 foreign nationals may be heading home; and pressure on Government to bring forward capital projects as part of infrastructure injection. ...11 hours ago
Queenstown author Jane Bloomfield on a writing compeition which unlocks kids' imaginations during the lockdown. Encouraging young minds to roam wild is what drives myself and nine other children’s authors to run the online story-writing competition, Fabostory. With the current lockdown in place, we invite writers aged 7–13 to unlock ...12 hours ago
Newsroom wanted to find out why so many small shops still don’t want us to use paywave. And the answer hasn’t changed - bank fees. Suddenly, surfaces are scary. Door handles, taps, light switches, lift buttons, eftpos machines. These days they aren't just useful inanimate objects we touch without a ...12 hours ago
Should all New Zealanders wear face masks in public to reduce the spread of Covid-19? Farah Hancock looks at the science. The success of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore in keeping Covid-19 levels low has seen a call for widespread mask-wearing. In the United States, the message from officials has ...12 hours ago
The Global Financial Crisis badly hurt the employment prospects of young people about to enter the workforce. Roger Smyth writes that Covid-19 will have a deeper impact, and the Government needs to respond better this time. Recessions hit the young hardest. Employers stop recruiting. Those without qualifications and those without experience end ...12 hours ago
March 16, 2020 is a day that any share market investor is likely to remember for a long time. That’s the day that the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index that tracks the top 30 companies listed on US stock exchanges, lost 2997 points, nearly 13 percent of its value. ...12 hours ago
The University of Otago's Patrick Boudreau explains how 'adventure psychology' can help you cope with self-isolation Imagine being halfway up a sheer vertical face of rock. Gripping ledges smaller than the width of your iPhone with the tips of your fingers and edge of your toes. If the rock gives ...12 hours ago
After 15 years on the world pro tennis circuit, Marina Erakovic is chasing a new dream in sports medicine and mentoring young tennis stars. Marina Erakovic can’t run anymore. She didn’t really like it anyway, but still, it’s a measure of the toll a 15-year career at the highest level of tennis has ...12 hours ago
Ardern says the role of planning for moving out of lockdown is not the Government's alone Businesses should plan how they will operate in an environment where intensive contact tracing would be needed post-lockdown, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today. The Government was working on additional guidance for the move to Level 3 ...1 day ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet of ...1 day ago
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