“The richest 10 per cent of New Zealanders are wealthier than the rest of the population combined, according to figures cited by Oxfam NZ.”
So there it is, in black and white. But Bill English is still peddling the tired old trickle-down lie: “The best contribution the Government can make to support lower income families is to support a growing economy that provides more jobs and higher incomes.”
So whats new amirite? That in the starkest terms is the core of the Left Right divide, the old old debate about who gets what and why? And the continuation of the 10%ers domination is the starkest reminder that the “Centre” so beloved of the major parties is so easily bribed by “crumbs from the rich mans table” so long as they get first cut of the aforesaid “crumbs”.
In a nut shell the above is why I despise “centrist” politics.
The Oxfam report is on the wealth gap. English is presumably talking about the income gap. The wealth gap is the major problem, with the housing bubble leading the way.
I do not object to the wealthy having their wealth … but wish they paid a fair share from the results of their ability to help those without the ability …. Thomas Piketty makes a good suggestion in his book IMO
Have you read Picketty’s book?
He says National Debt would be quickly piad back so there would then be plenty for your dole Dumrse and all the other support programmes we believe in ….DTB is so mindset on the current situation that he cannot envisage where while covering everybody there is opportunity for those to improve on that if they have the opportunity and energy.
We need to stop valuing peoples worth to society and community by the mere dollars they pull in, to what they actually contribute to the lives of others in terms of learning and caring.
As opposed to what? Direct transfers whereby say the work and wealth generated by 90% of the population is directly redistributed to the top 10% of the population, as it is now?
The entire wealth distribution structure in place at the moment is woeful and does not serve the needs of the New Zealand community. At all. It needs changing.
I doubt very much doubt if it was ‘designed into the system’ as it is a natural progression for those who are fortunate to have a bit to spare over their daily needs and wisely invest it and it naturally compounds if not spent on immediate luxuries whathaveyou.
If you have a well thought out progressive taxation system there is plenty to support the socialistic values of ensuiring everybody is looked after to a reasonable level … that is the modification to the capitalistic system that is needed.
Though I imagine that a lot here would like to see the capitalistic system go to the wall and people would be enslaved by the beaurocratic regulations ensuring that nobody can improve themselves … aa very dull world indeed.
That is the lessons of history and Piketty’s research. Taxation doesn’t pay for anything, it’s people actually working that pays for everything. This also applies to the rich – they don’t pay for anything either and they also don’t produce any wealth.
The capitalist system does need to go to the wall simply because it doesn’t work. Will this end up with a boring world? Nope. If anything, I figure it would be far more interesting.
A world where the focus is on relationships, on people and on culture in communities. Nothing more interesting than that. Nothing more fucking boring and lifeless than the latest Bugatti.
Though I imagine that a lot here would like to see the capitalistic system go to the wall and people would be enslaved by the beaurocratic regulations ensuring that nobody can improve themselves … aa very dull world indeed.
Oddly enough, standardisation is absolutely demanded and required by the corporate world. From logo colours to memo character spacing. To the way employees are dressed to how the phone is answered.
No one complains of that being bureaucratic or stifling. It’s just the way its done.
That’s the way we need to push back towards, to find the path of being fully human beings again, nice thing is that people tend towards that way anyways – when they aren’t being misled and distracted by endless commercial, economic (and dare I say it – political) crap.
That is truly depressing. For two reasons – one, it makes life unbearably difficult for the bulk of the population relative to their neighbours; and two, it leads to the destruction of society (French revolution anyone?).
People that support that sort of system are scum bastards.
and two, it leads to the destruction of society (French revolution anyone?).
Seems to me like the US authorities are on to it, anticipating the likely rise of civil unrest when the combination of austerity, climate change disasters and oligarchy become irresistable.
Hence surveillance of everyone all the time, militarisation of the police, enabling US military to be deployed on US streets against US citizens, etc.
Oh, and then there’s the Minerva Research Initiative as described by Zero Hedge:
Such war-games are consistent with a raft of Pentagon planning documents which suggest that National Security Agency (NSA) mass surveillance is partially motivated to prepare for the destabilising impact of coming environmental, energy and economic shocks.
But that is just more lunacy. What do the authorities think such repression of already repressed people will do? Make the population bow down to their guns and jackboots?
Lunacy. Gns and jackboots are not the solution – all they will do is exacerbate the problem.
And any Americans thinking they can just uplift their wealth and relocate to somewhere “safe” like NZ backblocks better think again. They would be, and are, entirely unwelcome…
What a vision. I suppose you could couple that with phil Ure’s desire to have grass distributed to all on a daily basis, and then we could all sit around in our pyjama’s all day passing the bong around. No chance of any civilian uprising then eh.
Great messaage for kids entering the work force, don’t be too successul in what you do as we will just take it all from you in 10 years. Stirling stuff eh. In fact dont even bother about qualifing in anything as its easy just to sit on your arse and get a pay out. By the way the burger and liquor shops are going great guns.
Great messaage for kids entering the work force, don’t be too successul in what you do as we will just take it all from you in 10 years.
And there’s the problem right there – success measured in monetary terms. Meaning that future generations are herded and goaded into a reality where the systems surrounding production and distribution (ie, the market) will ensure their continued relative impoverishment.
Way to go.
Ever reflected on why it is that so many kids are told not to pursue their passion? Y’know, the passions, valuable as they may be, that can’t be monetised?
You are correct Bill . I agree that success should not be measured in only monetary terms.
I am looking at it from a tax perspective & redistribution perspective. You would like the Govt to redistribute wealth to the segments that do not have much. That requires people to generate wealth. If there is no wealth being created then it is very difficult for anyone to distribute anything.
For some strange reason you seem to think that the rich create wealth. They don’t. The poor do but the rich take that wealth from them because our present system is set up to allow them to do that.
What I did say is that some wealth is required if you wish to redistribute it.
You only need redistribution if the wealth wasn’t correctly distributed in the first place and the only place that it could possibly be redistributed from would be the rich.
Pretty childish of me I suppose but I thought I’d get a bite from a ‘Rob’ or a ‘Gosman’ or a ‘Srylands’ etc with that little lure. An’ I wuz rite!
You hang the bait in the water and the frothing misanthropes like Rob can’t help themselves.
(Watch this…)
Hey Rob, beneficiaries should be paid the living wage ay?
That’s very biblical of you Hamish, but you’re a little off on your numbers as according to Leviticus 25, debt is to be reset, slaves freed and property returned to the original owners every 50 years.
It was really scary “shit” a friend told me yesterday, about his recent medical review by WINZ. They are hard as nails now, and want to get sick and disabled into work, no matter what conditions. So he had a horrible experience a few years back, got another 2 years “grace”, and now they though it is time to “check” on his PERMANENT conditions again, whether Jesus may have appeared in his third coming, to heal him from all ailments.
The case manager did at first refuse all other info and records apart from the person’s GP’s medical certificate, now UK style called “Work Capacity Medical Certificate”. And the GP did this time not present too clear and conclusive info. So the case manager tried to question every entitlement, and was preparing the poor soul, desperate and scared to hell, given mental health issues, to basically move him onto the “jobseeker” benefit.
It took my mate a hell of an effort, to present all kinds of records, also a trusted psychologist’s one, to finally convince the manager, albeit rather reluctantly, as it sounded. Hell, there are things going on that scare me, it is not right what WINZ are doing to sick, injured and disabled now. If you can lift your hand and arm, they think you are “fit” to work, no matter what other condition. It comes back to David Bratt, WINZ’s Principal Health Advisor, likening benefit dependence to “drug dependence”, and that “mad” UK professor Mansel Aylward, who actually claims, most sickness is just in people’s minds. He calls it “illness belief”, all being just “psychological” fantasy, so to say, and the best “medicine” is work in open employment, competing with the fit and healthy. Do we live in a humane and honest society, or am I living a bloody nightmare here? Who else had bad experiences with WINZ in this area, I really would like to know. Study the following for your own well being:
‘WORK ABILITY ASSESSMENTS DONE FOR WORK AND INCOME – PARTLY FOLLOWING ACC’s APPROACH: A REVEALING FACT STUDY’
You and others may be interested to know that it is perfectly (?) legal for the Medical Appeals Board not to look at notes in coming to their decision around whether or not a person qualifies for Jobseeker (sickness with reduced work assessment), Supported Living, or Child Disability Allowance.
And I trust you have been here writehanded.org
ACCforum has a higher level of nutters than the average forum, mainly due I suspect to the abusive system forum members are subjected to.
Yes, ACC Forum has issues, and went downhill a bit, because of some there not being that honest and also getting at each other’s collars. I know what is going on there, and I ignore the bad stuff and read what is worth reading.
As for MABs, they have always had their own “rules”, being appointed by an appeals coordinator employed by MSD and WINZ, and of course always making sure at least 2 on a panel are “designated doctors”, chosen by Bratt and WINZ, and being favourable to WINZ.
This is nothing new, the whole system stinks, and what makes me so bloody angry is, that so many just shrug things off, and put up with all the BS, while people, no matter how sick and disabled, should get together with their fitter compatriots, to fight the damned injustice.
I know someone who has now the Ombudsmen Office on the attack line, as even they refused to even look at totally blunt evidence, of what goes on. It seems this country is with the upper echelons of admin and “public offices” so damned corrupt, it is not funny!
And yes, writehanded.org raised a fair bit, and justifiably, so I support Sarah Wilson, as I think her name is, she is due to her challenges still too cautious about it all, we need a full blown challenge and attack of the WINZ approach we now have. Who is “ready” for it, I ask?
@ xtasy…this may sound naive ….but …maybe there needs to be a Bill brought before the House to protect the rights of those with chronic mental health and physical health issues NOT to be harassed by WINZ into work….and where such people have been pressurized illegitimately with adverse and sometimes dire effects …WINZ can be sued! ( legal fees paid for by a publicly funded forensic health watch dog)
for example a person with schizophenia … who once would have been in sheltered care, which the state has now disestablished…but is now on compulsory medication and forced onto the streets with a health disability benefit ….is then pressurized by WINZ to be taken off their compulsory medication ( pressure brought on psychiatrists and mental health workers to get people off their lists, who seem to be coping and hence certified as capable of work)…. and this person is then by WINZ taken off their disability benefit and forced to hunt for work
….this can lead to a personal and public crisis…it can set chronically ill people back years…it could lead to suicide …..and in some cases such people forced into stress and work which they are not capable of by WINZ …could be a danger to the public as well
imo WINZ and the State has to be held accountable for the consequences of pressurizing chronically ill people off their disability benefits and to hunt for work
Depends on how it was set up and whether it was tory-proofed into the future. Prejudice against people with disabilities who are perceived as being blugers is entrenched in parts of NZ culture, including civil servants and NGOs. A UBI is not going to solve that issue for people with illness and disability who are dependent on the state for income, unless maybe the UBI is set higher for them. If they have to apply to any agency for a topup, then there are still going to be criteria that need to be met, and those criteria will be set by govt departments that currently practice discrimination (health or welfare). Even if the UBI was higher, it would still require testing for eligibility.
While I think that the UBI is impertative, we need to be careful not to think it will be an automatic panacea for people with disabilities. The work of dismantling prejudice could be done within WINZ and the health system as it is now, and it’s not, so what guarantees are there that a UBI scheme would be done differently?
…however another angle is enough free half way housing/homes/shelters which would go a long way to alleviating the problem for people with long term chronic disabilities…this seems to be a crucial area of need that needs addressing
eg in Christchurch they have had to requisition an acute mental health patient ward at Hillmorton…just to cater for the homeless with long term chronic health disabilities…seems like the need for free or affordable housing for people with long term chronic diasabilites is huge
Chooky, for those able to live in the community, still having manageable mental health issues, one would think that Housing NZ should look after them.
But learning a couple of years back, how they treated another mate of mine, also having mental and physical health issues leading to disability, they were at first damned anti his application, meaning they did not “trust” he was a genuinely deserving case.
He stayed in a cockroach infested, overcrowded and damp boarding house, and they still tried to argue he was “suitably housed”!
As he was close to breaking point, I assisted where I could, and we went to their regional head office and took other action, which they were not happy about. Only when he finally had a NZ Herald journalist take up his story and write about it, then suddenly, Housing NZ obliged with an offer within a week.
That is what we are up against, there is NO honest appreciation of person’s circumstances, it is all treated with one brush for all, and you have to basically end up in the gutter in too many cases, until the system kicks in and takes action. Ask the cops, they are dealing with endless misery stories all the time, expected to pick up the pieces at the bottom of the cliff, when it is often too bloody late. This government has NO HEART and NO SPIRIT, it dishonest and uncaring, and since Key and Nats got into power, things really turned nasty, we only do not hear much about it, because the media are bought off also, and happy to work with keeping this government happy and protected from too much criticism.
What we have is a situation, where doctors get off most malpractice and wrong decisions, as the HDC (Health and Disability Commissioner) is so far the ONLY institution to go to and make any complaint about breaches of the Code they are supposed to enforce and monitor. But last year’s report showed they had over 1,600 complaints, of which only just about 60 were “formally” investigated, and of those 42 had valid complaints about breaches by medical and health practitioners established.
Most cases are never seriously investigated, are dealt with through “advocacy” and “consultation” and “training” and so forth. The offending practitioners get at worst a kind of slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket “punishment”, and recommendations are made to “review” practice, and in some cases to “apologise” to the affected.
The ACC legislation does take away a lot of opportunities for affected to take action against doctors and other practitioners, as the right to sue was abolished. We have a situation where the Medical Council won’t usually act unless the rather useless HDC makes a referral to have a case investigated by them, and actions taken. Few cases ever go to the Director of Proceedings, and it is truly a disgrace what goes on.
What we need is to change the HDC Act to give the Commissioner some “teeth”, and to basically put in a requirement for investigations to be made, and certain sanctions being possible. As New Zealand has always struggled to maintain and afford a functioning health work force, the government is rather bending over backwards to not punish medicals too harshly. They need them, and they forgive too easily in too many cases.
As for assessors, like designated WINZ doctors, they are not strictly delivering treatment, so that gets them off the hook. They are not covered by the code for consumers of health and disability services that the HDC deal with. The same applies to persons like Principal Health Advisor for MSD Bratt, he is just an “advisor”, and thus does not even provide health services, so he gets away with comments and more, that are not what a usual doctor would get away with. The HDC also have a “memorandum of understanding” with ACC and probably MSD, so no serious actions will ever result in assessors making flawed assessments. It is indeed a gap in the law, so to say, why designated WINZ assessors and others get away with what they do.
It stinks, but even the opposition parties seem too damned inexperienced with medico legal matters, and too scared to take action in this area. So we have the status quo of “Gods” in white coats doing whatever they see fit, and one Mansel Aylward, the extreme UK professor, he even delivers them ideologically driven “science” to do what they wish to do, like tell sick and disabled, hey, you can still lift your arm, you can be a “signal giver” in roadworks then.
FFS I had enough of all this, but it seems at times it is a lost battle, as politicians are always just focused on the usual headline stuff, often trivial, and will do nothing to help people treated unfairly and disgustingly by WINZ and their “experts”!
“You and others may be interested to know that it is perfectly (?) legal for the Medical Appeals Board not to look at notes in coming to their decision around whether or not a person qualifies for Jobseeker (sickness with reduced work assessment), Supported Living, or Child Disability Allowance.”
So what are they basing their decision on?
Does anyone know if the review doctors and the appeal process are covered by the Health and Disability Act? I know WINZ itself isn’t, not being a health provider, but am curious how they’ve classified assessors.
Oh yeah, slightly off topic but there is a tender from an Australian insurance company for the ACC sensitive claims (% impairment) assessments. More oz crap contractors taking/attempting to take work from our specialised sexual abuse services.
Awww – yes, stuff to be worried about, and that is just the beginning, look at what they have done in the UK, and what they are planning there for the future, it is not getting easier or better.
If you do actually read the stuff on “work ability assessments”, that post on ACC Forum, also soon to be published (in bits) on nzsocialjusticeblog2013, you will see what is already happening here, how we get it all privatised, and it involves Australian players too.
People should take this bloody seriously, but sadly so many are not bothering to study and read stuff, they still rely their own GP, who is though, due to the AFOEM new policy on the “health benefits of work” (introduced by Mansel Aylward there, well received by former ATOS President of AFOEM, Dr David Beaumont, who also got a “reputation” with ACC claimants AND runs his own “rehab” outfit “Pathways to work”!) also being indoctrinated now.
GPs are now being trained to follow the new agenda, and Bratt and Aylward made sure, the NZ College of General Practitioners and the Medical Schools all adopted the dogma, and we have it taught there now, believe it or not, and most do not even get any idea of what goes on!
Had an email from an Opposition M.P. regarding some queries I posed earlier, and he said a lot of the G.P.’s were also being driven by policy from the DHB’s, which comes straight from the Minister. We are truly being shafted. This Government is the most corrupt in the history of this nation.
10% are wealthier than the combined wealth of the rest of the country. Not a virtue to be proud of. And none of that was done by hard work, just pure speculation.
Yes, talk about GPs, they are ALL now pressured or “convinced” to tow the ideologically driven “new approach” to work ability. It comes now in this part of the world from the AFOEM (Australaisian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine), who are also part of the RACP (Royal Australasian College of Physicians), and they invite the top propagator of the ideology, about the “health benefits of work” (paid open employment!), Mr Mansel Aylward from the UK, in 2010 to give them the pseudo scientific justification for all cost saving.
If only more would open eyes, ears and braincells, and start reading stuff of relevance, publicly available:
And yes, the CTU themselves fell for this propaganda approach, about the “work will set you free” mantra, and even one Helen Kelly signed it!
As I kept on challenging her and the CTU on this, she had a comment by me deleted on one of her posts. Fair enough, it may have been a bit “off topic”, but she has never answered to any challenges.
This whole stuff is now being drummed into each GP’s brain, and hence the government can faithfully rely on the collaboration of medical professionals in all this. The DHBs are very concerned about costs, so they will embrace it just to have another justification to save costs. The sick and disabled are told to “toughen up”, as Dr Bratt, Principal Health Advisor at WINZ and MSD says, benefit dependence is like “drug dependence”, I presented plenty of info on that before.
NZ is indeed corrupt, as this stuff was also presented to the Health and Disability Commissioner and is before the Office of Ombudsmen now, but it seems they want nothing to do with it!?
What kind of society has this country become? Are there any daring to speak up and out, and challenge all this? Too many just think of “number one” and are too scared to rock the boat, I am afraid.
With such vested interests and his background, also having “advised” ACC and MSD before, no wonder he loved to have Aylward come here and sell the UNUM Provident paid “research” presented here!
Professor Norman Finkelstein’s analysis of latest developments in the John Kerry-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian “Peace Talks”.
“If Kerry succeeds or if Kerry fails – either way, it’s a disaster for the Palestinians, who are caught between U.S.-brokered capitulation and the miserable status quo.”
So you believe williamson called the cops cos of a donation, that collins went out of her way to promote oravida cos of a donation, you cant have it both ways.
But the Herald can reveal Liu, 53, also paid $15,000 at a Labour Party auction in 2007 for a book signed by Helen Clark, the Prime Minister at the time, according to a party source.
All we fought for in Iraq is on the cusp of vanishing.
That’s what Mitt Romney says.
We fought for. We fought for. We.
Oh, so it’s we now, is it, Mitt?
We.
I must have missed you over there, but it was a busy place. We. The guy who helped set up “pro-draft” rallies and yet somehow managed to avoid service in Vietnam is upset about losing what “we” fought for? We.
Yeah, fuck you, Mitt.
And you’re all welcome to quote me on that.
Somebody stepped into my office yesterday and asked how I felt about it. He wanted to know how I felt about “losing” Iraq.
The reality is that the whole of the Middle East and beyond is going through a huge, agonising and protracted transition. We have to liberate ourselves from the notion that ‘we’ have caused this. We haven’t. We can argue as to whether our policies at points have helped or not; and whether action or inaction is the best policy and there is a lot to be said on both sides. But the fundamental cause of the crisis lies within the region not outside it.
Why the media still give that talking head airtime is beyond me. In fact, I’m still slightly amazed he’s avoided being prosecuted for war crimes but nonetheless..
Minor event happening in Ukraine in the next few hours. The “junta” (I wont give them any credit for their legitimacy) are laying bare the vacuity of EU backing of their cause. They are demanding Russia sells gas to them at a discount of over 35% of what the EU buys for. If they don’t get it they are threatening to walk away from their massive debt to their suppliers.
The Russia Gazprom are saying that they will cut the supply and demand pre-payment, the “junta” are threatening to cut supplies to EU as they transit Ukraine. The Kremlin are keeping quiet, a bad sign…..my suspicion is that the “bear” may just wake up angry and walk on in.
Russia is playing this very gradually step by step. Given that they have essentially been supplying Ukraine with free natural gas for many many months now they are being very patient – why? Because they want to demonstrate to Germany and other key EU states that they are giving their ‘valued commercial partner’ Ukraine the benefit of the doubt and all the due process available – and then some.
Which completely stymies US provocations aiming for Putin to militarily act rashly and justify a NATO move into Ukraine.
Very true: one wonders how the EU would react to the “puppet” regime denying them gas? It would really lay bare the disparity in interests between the Whitehouse and European economies.A true hot potato. As you say Putin very likely will just sit, all the cards are falling his way.
This is a recent interview where French media grilled Putin, during his visit to the Normandy commemorations. Over half an hour long of tough questions non-stop. Covering many topics, on Syria, on Ukraine, on Crimea, on Russia itself.
You got to hand it to Putin, he plays a very straight, statesman-like line in public.
Interestingly it’s only the period of her time as Minister for oravida that Collins didnt register overseas trips and their funding, in previous years she did so quite happily.
10 Overseas travel costs
Australia – joint Cabinet meeting and bilateral meetings. Contributor to
accommodation: Australian Government.
Her colleagues also happily declared their Chinese government funded trips.
I guess she is just too busy with her new portfolio
I have thought for some time there is a conflict/hypocracy in the Ukraine situation where it seemed that a demonstration led to the current Ukraine regime in a simular manner to how the Crimea changed hands … all very puzzling.
Further south it seems the abitary by western power[s] setting up of Iraq is now going to split into its natural parts with any luck despite the anguish of the west.
”Vote to end ACT Party rort in Epsom”, so says, apparently a Labour Party election pamphlet delivered to letter-boxes in the Epsom electorate, according to the Herald’s Clare Trevett that’s ”code” that Labour voters should vote for the National Party candidate,
If it were, ”code” that is, and i have my doubts, it would be pretty lame don’t you think, a real waste of paper, Labour would better serve it’s voters in Epsom, the Party, and, the country by simply telling Labour voters that a electorate vote for the National Candidate will rid them and us of the ACT Party and have Labour halfway to the Treasury Benches,
Micheal Wood, the Labour Party candidate for Epsom seems to know what is required having been quoted in the Trevett piece in today’s Herald as saying He is ”not campaigning for the National Party candidate yet”,
My opinion says that He should be tho, and openly, the sooner the ”party strategists” give Him the nod to do so the better…
Never gonna happen, Bad. A nod and a wink is as good at will get because the NZLP is never going to publicly support a Tory candidate. And nor should we.
Good O Te Reo, stuff the head back in the sand and pretend you can win the election while National ”gifts” electorates here, there, and, everywhere,
Dense seems a mild epithet to attach to such ”thinking”, Labour will not publicly support tactical voting to (a) get rid of ACT, and (b) ensure that they are more likely to be the next Government,
Is Te Reo tho saying that not ”publicly supporting” a tactical vote in Epsom means that it will do so via ”coded statements”,
Dishonest i would suggest could be added to Dense if that were the case…
As usual, you haven’t got a clue. Still, no doubt you’ll be equally appalled at the other party’s failure to endorse Paul Goldsmith. Looking forward to reading your condemnation of Hone’s dishonest and dense silence on the matter.
Neither Mana or in its new guise InternetMana have a presence of any size in the electorate that could sway the outcome in any way, the same cannot tho be said of Labour,
Your dragging into the conversation InternetMana vis a vis Epsom is simply more of your personal dishonesty, and, an unkind person would suggest that such personal dishonesty as you display is exhibited on a Party wide basis vis a vis the Epsom electorate…
Ooooh, hypocrisy alert! It’s only dense and dishonest if you’re a big party? Really? Presumably you think the Greens are are half dense and half dishonest. Doofus.
Te Reo, you need a name change, i suggest ‘Te Tupeke Pine’ as your debate consists of leaping from pin-head to pin-head,
If Labour cannot convince it’s voters in the Epsom electorate to vote for the National candidate then it is odds on that come September they will still be the opposition,
Sit down, man. Take control. You have done something to your brain. You have made it high. If I lay ten mils of Diazepam on you, you will do something else to your brain, You will make it low. Why trust one drug and not the other?
Hey Phil, stop whining and get out there and campaign.
If you’re out to change the government rather than sitting on your couch inhaling, great. But if you’re trying to tell any party what to do without some skin in this game, at this point you’re wasting your breath.
Never gonna happen, Bad. A nod and a wink is as good at will get because the NZLP is never going to publicly support a Tory candidate. And nor should we.
Yeah but there was plenty of public support for Douglas, Caygill, Prebble, et al
one of the people living at our address got a letter from john key. The other two did not. I wonder how they decide who in the epsom electorate to send the mailout to?
“Labour would better serve it’s voters in Epsom, the Party, and, the country by simply telling Labour voters that a electorate vote for the National Candidate will rid them and us of the ACT Party and have Labour halfway to the Treasury Benches”
Nope. Labour is simultaneously sending a message:
a) to Labour voters to back Goldsmith in order to help Labour, and
b) to National voters to reject ACT
Your suggestion only achieves one of those objectives.
The bouncer who tackled the streaker at the Dunedin test should be charged with assault. It was outrageous. Bouncers routinely assault and even kill people in NZ. They are a pseudo-police force and are out of control. The police need to investigate and charge imo as this sort of behaviour by bouncers is not even remotely reasonable.
It was a vicious unnecessary tackle and the employer of that bouncer should also be sued for negligence resulting in physical harm.
Also looking at how the streaker was dragged away from the field – what was that about – the streaker did not appear to put up any resistance whatsoever but looked like he was getting roughed up any way.
“It was a vicious unnecessary tackle and the employer of that bouncer should also be sued for negligence resulting in physical harm”
What an ignorant comment. It was a vicious unnecessary tackle but to suggest that it was his employers fault is typical left thinking. You are assuming this thug was instructed to do a vicious tackle. It is common knowledge that if you do an unsafe act at work that it is serious misconduct and if there is an injury you can be fined as well as fired.
“It was a vicious unnecessary tackle but to suggest that it was his employers fault is typical left thinking”
Remind never to contract you to provide me any type of service. Apparently you believe that once you employ someone to provide the service to me on your behalf that you are no longer responsible for the work.
Oh nakiman, I think that you’re assuming that the employer correctly trained the bouncer in question and had a full set of proper policies in place governing the use of physical force.
But I’m going to guess that there are big gaps there and the employer has liability.
Further, if it comes out that the employer at any time stated to the bouncers that a hard line was to be taken against any pitch intrusion, then the legal fun really begins.
You seen the sad on-line poll results? 70+% reflecting pathetic ‘macho’ opinions. Doubt those numbers would stack up the same if a streaking woman had been similarly tackled by a female security guard. I don’t quite get it though seeing as how there’s no homophobia in NZ these days.
Yep. Simple boofheads who don’t even realise what they are advocating, namely vigilante justice and the establishment of anarchy. Boofheads who don’t think is what they are … I hope they don’t get a vote at the election – imagine the sort of idiotic damage they could do ….
With the exit of its former leader John Banks, the Act Party is currently in what might charitably be called a rebuilding phase. Mind you, it still appears to be preaching the old time religion of plucky self-reliance – which is pretty amusing, given that its own survival in Parliament has long been reliant on electorate handouts from the National Party, a form of welfare set to continue in Epsom this year. How on earth Act rationalizes its policy stance on welfare with its own modus operandi in Epsom is anyone’s guess.
borne out of former labour cabinet ministers, preaching personal responsibility, particularly for law breakers, they are the definition of contradiction.
I hear that there is a new party being set up to oppose the use of 1080. I think it would be a good idea to start one that bans the use of private cars. Every day there are hurtful accidents, injuries and even deaths through the use of cars. People using them run over little children and kill them. They spread pollution and result in the high use of imported oil which has to be paid for from our precious export returns. Almost every holiday results in deaths, sometimes of adults and children, even whole families. Cars should be limited in availability just for taxi use, with more buses available, more frequently and good train services. Then more room for bikes, giving safer use of them.
So what about starting a Facebook campaign and build up interest and support to ban cars as death-causing bad technology causing untold harm. There is as much a case for this than that for banning 1080.
national will try and run a non campaign.
rely on photo ops and pr bullshit + crosby textor tricks and ruses.
Its going to be very subtle but very powerful.
get ready for the ride!
amy adams has begun by blaming auckland council for aucklands housing problems.
When the supercity was being pimped, cos we didnt get to vote, it was that as a single behemouth we could make our own decisions. Of course the truth was the nacts wanted a single entity to impose its will on, rather than going through 8.
It is the councils fault, I heard Penny H say that Auckland house’s are expensive because its a great place to live and lots of people want to live here. These councillors want to become wealthy from a housing shortage and over priced housing that is why they don’t want to make more land available to build on.
The Internet Party has a petition up to:
“I agree that our Party Votes should have equal value. This means lowering the 5% threshold and removing the one-seat (coat-tails) threshold.”
This appeals to me regardless of Party loyalty. https://internet.org.nz/petition
New Zealand manufacturing activity fell for a second consecutive month in May to the lowest level in 17 months, with a decline in new orders and a rise in inventory suggesting demand is waning.
Yep, a ‘rockstar’ economy with no crisis in manufacturing | Tui.
Late yesterday there was a post up about the Kiwiassurance. I was sure it was on the NS??? There is now no sign of it. Am I going mad/senile?
Please someone release me from my doubt.
I must be senile Weka. I meant here on the The Standard. There was a post I am sure about Kiwiassure and a followup of DC giving speech. There is nothing in the comments or anywhere.
Would appreciate it if it could be confirmed that it had existed.
Coat-tailing should be removed.
*Threshold should be reduced to 3 % (or at most to 4%)
All the electoral commission recommendations should be implemented.
COMMISSION RECOMMENDATIONS
Abolishing the rule that allows MPs to bring in other members after winning one electorate seat.
Lowering the party vote threshold from five to four per cent.
That there be a statutory requirement for the commission to review four per cent threshold after three elections.
Abolishing the overhang provision.
The ratio of electorate seats be fixed at 60:40.
Political parties continue to have responsibility for the selection and ranking party lists.
List MPs should be able to contest by-elections.
Candidates should be able to stand on the list and in an electorate.
Political parties should have to give a statutory declaration that
they have complied with their rules in selecting and ranking their list
candidates.
The government should not allow the immediate political interests of any single party get in the way of changes that strengthen our electoral system in the long term.
In its report the commission said,
“Relatively few changes were needed to the electoral system. but those we recommend are important. They would enhance public
confidence in the fairness and operation of our MMP voting system and
parliamentary democracy.”
CV, prefer 1%=1 seat, thus the issues on the periphery would get a full airing in the Parliament, Phillips animal rights and dope decriminalization being two where i see most here would be in agreement with that have no specific voice,
i am sure when thought about there are quite a few issues that while parties might have specific policies that address these such are always ”on the slide” in terms of importance as the various Parties look at what their various coalition options are and what each component of such a coalition might react like in the face of the peripheral issues,
my view is stuff the present political parties, true MMP would consign them to the same fate as the Dinosaur…
Why even have a threshold? It’s just a way of keeping out parties that have enough support to warrant 1-6 seats in parliament – elections therefore less accurately represent voter choice with a threshold than without.
The coat-tailing clause at least mitigates that somewhat – but then makes first-past-the-post electorate contests have undue relevance to the outcome of the election. I would also advocate preferential voting in electorates to make those seats also a fairer representation of voter preference.
Funny when the power went out in Auckland for a day back in 2006 the Troy scum screamed blue bloody murder. Well some of us in West Auckland have either no power or no hot water for a week – the Tory press does bugger all. Yesterday finally something said in Herald but only on full outage – http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11274099
The problem with hot water not being available is still on going for many. Funny they just can’t get the hot water to work properly again. This is a major structural flaw. I have asked around and many tradesmen fell Auckland is a ticking time bomb, especially it’s power and sewage.
I remember some slimy opposition MP back in 06 ranting for weeks on the telly about how the power outage was a crime for all New Zealanders and a disaster for Auckland. It 2014 and these Tory slime are in power and the power is still fubar, and getting worse. Once again political advantage is, who can steal the most off the working folk of this country. Thanks Len and thanks National the party of sell and hope – I would say pray, but you are so self absorbed god would struggle to hear you through all that petty self congratulations.
Well,as well as it now happening under the Nats’ watch, the continuing outages seem to be a West Auckland problem. The central part of Auckland has been increasingly colonised by the well off, while parts of West Auckland, since 2010, are becoming increasingly ghettoised.
Folks in Parnell, Remmers, etc, probably don’t care much about the trials and struggles of Westies.
(b) National Party Values
We believe this will be achieved by building a society based on the
following values:
• Loyalty to our country, its democratic principles and our Sovereign as
Head of State
• National and personal security
• Equal citizenship and equal opportunity
• Individual freedom and choice
• Personal responsibility
• Competitive enterprise and rewards for achievement
• Limited government
• Strong families and caring communities
• Sustainable development of our environment
National = Equal opportunity Green/Labour/Internet Mana = Equal income
National = Rewards for achievement Green/Labour/Internet Mana = Tax for achievement
National = Sustainable development of our environment Green/Labour/Internet Mana = no development, industry closure and killing of cows
National = competitive enterprise Green/Labour/Internet Mana = nationalisation
Is it any wonder that National id polling so high?
I’m guessing because the last two Roy Morgan polls were good for National and bad for the left but don’t worry you’ll know if its good for the left if it gets its own thread:
If its still bad for the left it’ll get a mention in open mike 😉
[lprent: This has come up before. But usually in non-election year polls only get posts every 2-3 months because that is how long it takes before a trend becomes clear outside of the noise. Obviously the frequency increases in a election year. The probability that a poll is relatively good or bad for the left in a post seems to to unrelated. When I have time I often pull the graphs through in OpenMike.
However I really don’t like people attempting to say what we do and just lying about it. You know this. 2 week ban for stupidity. ]
So when national cabinet ministers signed off on novopay with at least one “mission critical” target unachieved (after renegotiating it twice and possibly with six other critical targets unachieved) and all are still in cabinet, how is that consistent with the value of “Personal responsibility”?
You are an idiot. Look at the history of the governments led by National and Labour. Every one of the great progressive achievements on economic and social issues were all instituted and delivered by Labour administrations because Labour represents the bulk of the society while National primarily represents the wealthy and the privileged. Fact! Open your eyes.
Labour does NOT represent the bulk of the nation and can barely hold over 31% support for the last couple of years, even as the economic situation gets grimmer and grimmer, and 300,000 kids live in poverty.
The polling figures and support may be low, but the policies and programmes of Labour help the bulk of the country, the workers, the families and ordinary people. That is the point.
Former National Business Review owner Barry Colman recently gave over $50,000 to the National Party in what is the wealthy publisher’s first contribution to the party that’s required to be disclosed.
Mr Colman paid $50,000 to the party earlier this month, on top of previous donations of $600 and $1520 in recent months according to recent filings of party donations over $30,000 on the Electoral Commission’s website.
Mr Colman’s previous donations to National were revealed in journalist Nicky Hager’s book the Hollow Men but were done in a way that didn’t require disclosure at the time.
The website also shows Conservative Party Leader Colin Craig sank a further $100,000 into his party earlier this month taking his total donations since the last election to $876,000.
He has said he intends funding the bulk of his party’s projected $1.5 million campaign costs.
A donation of just under $1.7 million shortly after the last election was the write-off of loans he made to the party during its 2011 election campaign.
NEWSFLASH! Barry Corbett is now OPPOSED to knife attacks The Panel, Radio NZ National, Monday 16 June 2014
Jim Mora, Barry Corbett, Finlay Macdonald
One night in January 2008, a Manurewa resident called Bruce Emery took a knife in his hand and chased 15-year-old Pihema Cameron down a street. Pihema Cameron, a Māori, had been tagging the fence of Emery, a Pākehā. When Emery caught the boy, he stabbed him repeatedly. The killing was shocking, and was regarded with horror and condemned by all decent people. But a significant and shameless minority took the opportunity to praise the killer. The leading cheerleaders for this exercise in depravity were most—not all, but most—of the hosts on the notorious right wing radio station NewstalkZB, who ran a campaign of denigration, night after night after night, for months on end, against the dead boy and his family. They took their lines almost verbatim from the demonic partnership of Emery’s lawyer Chris Comesky and the Sensible Sentencing Trust’s Imperial Wizard Garth “The Knife” McVicar, who insisted truculently that the killer was a “decent citizen” who had been pushed over the brink by the low-life scum that infested his neighbourhood.
The brutal campaign even made it onto National Radio for a short time. The day after the killing of Pihema Cameron, Christchurch city councillor Barry Corbett expressed his concern and sympathy—not for the victim, but for the killer. A chorus of outrage led to Corbett making a vapid apology, and a mealy-mouthed “clarification” of his statement.
But no disciplinary action of any kind was taken against him by Radio New Zealand. Bomber Bradbury was permanently banned after committing the monumental crime of criticizing the behaviour of the Prime Minister—but Corbett, who actually spoke out in favour of a knife-killer, faced no such sanctions, and indeed has continued to regularly appear on The Panel.
As anyone who listened to today’s show will have noted, Corbett is as vacuous and reactionary as ever, and judging by his unstinting support for the thuggish behaviour by a security guard at the football in Dunedin on Saturday night, he still supports extremely violent behaviour. But he seems to have somewhat lost his enthusiasm for knife attacks.
Just to show him that some of us haven’t forgotten what Corbett said six years ago, I sent Jim Mora the following….
Barry Corbett’s dishonesty and hypocrisy
Dear Jim,
Barry Corbett predictably came out in support of that brutal hit on the streaker. But he claimed that the violence happened because the victim “stopped suddenly”. In fact, the victim was standing still for some time before the security guard hit him. Corbett’s words were entirely misleading; whether or not they were deliberately misleading is not clear.
It’s perfectly acceptable for Corbett to voice his endorsement of a high-velocity assault on an unsighted man—but he is not entitled to his own facts.
It was also intriguing to hear Barry Corbett try to bolster his argument by invoking the stabbing of Monica Seles by a crazed spectator. What a difference to Corbett’s attitude in 2008, when he loudly spoke out in FAVOUR of the frenzied knife-killing of a teenage boy in Auckland.
Yours in concern at the quality of your guests, Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
At 5:07 p.m. I received the following reply:
Thank you Morrissey; when Barry mentioned that the streaker had been on the move I wished I’d looked at the video again. Jim
Moz, while Corbett was clearly lying when he claimed to have watched the video several times and that he was convinced the security guard couldn’t have pulled out of the ‘tackle’, you don’t don’t do yourself any favours by referring to the Emery stabbing as frenzied or repeated. It was a single stab wound, and did not penetrate the full length of the blade. That fact is probably what saved Emery from an otherwise deserved murder conviction.
Moz, …you don’t don’t do yourself any favours by referring to the Emery stabbing as frenzied or repeated. It was a single stab wound, and did not penetrate the full length of the blade. That fact is probably what saved Emery from an otherwise deserved murder conviction.
Thanks for that, Te Reo. I guess I’ve just gotten into the pattern of describing it as a frenzied killing because no one has bothered to correct me before, and it’s become a pat formula by now. As you point out, it does no good to anyone to exaggerate like I have done here.
Anyway, it’s not Emery that disgusts me about this whole sordid business. Certainly, he committed a violent act, but he was remorseful and there seems to be little or no likelihood he will do it again. His vicious and cynical cheerleaders on the other hand, like Corbett, McVicar, Larry “Lackwit” Williams, Bruce Russell, “Whaleoil” and the rest of them, are beneath contempt.
It gives me a slight degree of pleasure to note that Emery’s rotten lawyer, Chris Comeskey, was eventually struck off for corrupt practices, and is now selling false teeth in the Australian outback.
Watch the tide turning on the “dietary fat is bad” mantra of the past handful of decades. Time magazine has front paged that the scientists were wrong, but appears to lay correct blame on the politicians and media who manufactured the mantra in the first place in the actual article (which is behind a paywall).
Sarcasm aside, your statement is still wrong. Medical science has its own set of flaws, both in terms of bias/corruption, and the mere fact that it can’t study everything. It also lacks the capacity to study things that fall outside its current models of understanding. There is evidence of many things that have never been studied. To say that the only valid medicine is that which has been through an RCT is daft beyond belief.
On the other hand, you are right, it’s all medicine, which is why there are such things as herbal medicine, or medicine wo/men ;-p
CV, you do medicine a disservice. It’s not just iatrogenesis that makes McFlock wrong, it’s that many alternatives models work better than mainstream ones 😉
Get your facts right. Increasing lifespan coincides with raised standards of living (better shelter, less over-crowding, better hygiene, better diet etc). Obviously medical science has helped on some areas, but much of the improvement is down to coal, gas and oil.
The irony of course is that had we combined alternative and mainstream approaches (the smart thing to do) we would have much better outcomes and would haven’t major fuckups like MRSA within half a century of the discovery of penicillin.
Get your facts right. Increasing lifespan coincides with raised standards of living (better shelter, less over-crowding, better hygiene, better diet etc).
Also, income levels as an independent factor separate from better access to healthcare or nutrition, is also a noted factor in improving longevity.
As you have so aptly described, it’s nothing to do with the myth (i.e. conceit) that modern scientific medicine has been the major demographic explanation to living longer.
But as income levels fall across the world, we can expect this to reverse as well.
Of course for individuals or very specific populations, modern medicine is indeed a life saver. But on a population basis, taking into account benefits as well as iatrogenesis and adverse effects, it doesn’t work out wholly positively.
Perhaps marginally so, except burning sage doesn’t screw you over with a limb losing hospital acquired infection (that’s the fat tail downside I’ve been mentioning).
The move from cut-throats to safety razors are what has prevented the most infections from shaving cuts since 1900. That’s health benefits due to industrial design and product technology improvement, in other words. Not medical care or antibiotics.
Just another little example of how medical care may have had some minor positive impact, but much less than other often overlooked non-medical factors.
Have to agree with CV on the statins McFlock. There should be some very red faces and big bloody lawsuits over the whole dietary fat = high cholestorol = heart diseases/diabetes thing. Anyone that values science should be appalled at what has been done with both the advice on diet, and the prescribing of statins.
Start with the link above, or Gary Taubes’ NYT article ‘What if it’s all been a big fat lie?’ and follow the trail.
My point is that I don’t particularly give a shit that science progresses and maybe changes direction in some cases. That’s how it works. And corporate involvement is a major kick in the nuts to scientific advancement.
But the fact remains that more evidence eventually overrules corporate influence. Asbestos, lead in fuel, CFCs, car safety – all evidence overcoming corporate influence.
So on balance, I won’t be suddenly giving medical-doctor-grade credibility to a certified pyramid therapiser who thinks tying a cat to my head will cure my cancer.
Calling modern primary care medicine “merely passable to crap” is just a fucking lie. It’s a lot better, as I said, than the alternatives that had us rebalancing humours or praying.
You obviously haven’t read. This isn’t about science progresseing and perhaps changing direction, unless you call an about turn progress. When Ancel Keys pushed the fat hypothesis, scientists at the time said he was wrong. Politicians followed the Keys’ line and then subsequent science fucked up. For decades. We now have 30 or 40 years of people having been given the wrong advice and this having led to a public health epidemic. You can downplay it all you like, but it just makes you look like a fundamentalist when the evidence is there to see. I’m kind of gobsmacked at your dismissal of the fat hypothesis issue given your involvement in public health promotion.
As for your criticism of alternative health, if you think this is about a certified pyramid therapiser, then you’re either incredibly ignorant, or extremely disingenuous. I’d actually go for the former because you come across as generally balanced in your understanding of information. The same fundy arguments you use were previously used against things like acupuncture that are now routinely available in the mainstream. It’s ok though, because thankfully people are still free to choose alternatives and don’t have to wait for the sanctioning from medical science when other bodies of knowledge are already leading the way.
Much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong. So why are doctors—to a striking extent—still drawing upon misinformation in their everyday practice?
Studies which were preceded by practitioners practicing competently within their own body of knowledge and patients going to acupuncturists and medical doctors seeing that their patients were getting better and eventually studies being done. Which kind of proves my point: medical science drags the chain on this, alternative medicine leads the way. If medical science wasn’t so full of itself, we would be a lot further along.
But until those studies were done, acupuncture was indistinguishable from whatever therapy steve jobs chose to delay actual treatment for.
Consider this analogy:
in front of me is a plate of small granules. There are slight differences in colour, shape and texture. Some granule types are a wonder food that will cure my ills and make me an Adonis. Other granule types don’t do a damned thing. A third type might actually slowly kill me. A variety of folk with varying degrees of eye-glaze insist that different granules are the wonder food.
Calling modern primary care medicine “merely passable to crap” is just a fucking lie. It’s a lot better, as I said, than the alternatives that had us rebalancing humours or praying.
Oh FFS McFlock, what % of primary care medicine procedures are evidenced based on RCTs on meta-analyses?
25%? If you are lucky?
By your own standards you should be calling for 75% of primary care medicine to be ditched, right here, right now.
Do your own research. Like try and find out how much proven benefit an annual medical check provides (clue: next to none) vs how many doctors keep doing them.
But I suppose that suggesting an assertion without evidence means I should just believe you is good enough for someone who thinks medicine doesn’t need evidence.
Anybody esss wotchin Kemble Loive tunoite?
Re chasing Crims and the devasshun on ear mota ways?
Tork abeart stupudityt fuck!
We shud be fankful thet the only thung thet saves us from devastayshun is thet the crims (crumbs) are a wee bit fucker than the Police! )Or Please es Greffie calls ’em)
( Ans of course they’ve got the likes of Jude, en Greg, en an “Indy” Please Kwoiry Thority ta bek em all up.
mmmm – that 3rd whurl bolt hole is looking more trektuv by the day goan forwid (especially knowing Key and Co hav it nex on their genda to cum grovling for FTA’s and the like loik.
[loik loik hoik hoik)
I really should be thinking farts and funnies – except that it’s ekshully quite serious (goan forwid).
20 – 30 years ago when I used to have to attend the dad-in-laws Saturfay morning Gardeninf Sess in the local – listening him reminisce about Al Alamein and various other campaigns – and the individuals barious legacies in the Nu Zull Please, I never expected I’d have to be laughing like fuck about their 21st legacy of cowardice, lying, woosiness, – you frikken name it.
Gref Fuckn O’Connor eh? (I mean JUST for starters!)
Pardon the fuk fingers
‘g’s ken pear es ‘f’s en the loik – but you get the idea.
I’ve not changed the channel (3), and I’m now witnessing another round of stupid.
I feel really sorry for Joe Average policeman! Really I do. Their own worst enema is their supposed representative and foreskin of their welfare (Greg).
fisianis said he was going and not coming back.
did hooton get an order from crosby textor to keep sending this machine manufacted crap down the line.
national only believes in one thing and that is ling their own pockets.
I can here the shredders buzzing, the hard drive being nuked on the 9th floor from here
Conspiring to defeat justice
Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years who conspires to obstruct, prevent, pervert, or defeat the course of justice in New Zealand or the course of justice in an overseas jurisdiction.
Compare: 1908 No 32 s 137
Section 116: amended, on 18 June 2002, by section 6(1) of the Crimes Amendment Act 2002 (2002 No 20).
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Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
“The ACT Party can’t be bothered putting an MP on one of the Justice subcommittees hearing submissions on their own Treaty Principles Bill,” Labour Justice Spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
Comment: Crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are making it easier for people to invest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum without having to handle digital wallets or private keys. These allow investors to buy and sell cryptocurrency through their regular brokerage accounts.This has opened the door for billions of dollars ...
The New Zealand Government says the Cook Islands must share more information about the deals it has signed with China, following the release of an ‘action plan’ in the face of protests in the Pacific nation’s capital.The Cook Islands government has also revealed plans to spend $3 million on a ...
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Comment: The recent attack by Destiny Church front groups on a Drag science show at Te Atatū library crossed a line. This wasn’t the first time that Brian Tamaki, the multimillionaire self-appointed ‘apostle’, has ordered acts of aggression against the queer community. Last year, Drag Story Time events were targeted, ...
Martina Salmon is well versed in the fast-paced action on a netball court, but even she was caught by surprise with the speed at which her career changed tack last year.Staying in the fast lane is only part of her drive this season.Fresh off a nine-day camp in Sydney with ...
Last night I may as well have been in Taihape. Or, closer to home, for me at least, somewhere in the Wairarapa. Or Tūrangi, even – which is near where we used to spend the summer when I was a child. For there was that same gorgeous small town feeling ...
Having Auckland’s food scraps dumped onto your rural backyard sounds scandalous, but in the North Island town of Reporoa there’s no fuss about the thousands of tonnes carted here every week.From the same site as one truck drops the waste, another truck picks up fertiliser to spread on local sheep ...
Negotiating rights over freshwater in Treaty settlement negotiations could have extended negotiations a decade, a Ngāi Tahu leader says.Tribal leaders, and its umbrella body, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, have taken the Attorney-General to court in a bid to have the Crown recognise its rangatiratanga (chiefly authority) over wai māori ...
Analysis: Poor safeguarding of New Zealanders’ data could be a widespread practice within the public service and certainly within the health system, according to the findings of an independent inquiry into allegations of misused census and Covid-19 vaccination information.The Public Service Commission’s review, led by consultant Pania Gray and former ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Stone, Principal Research Fellow, School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock Having dense breasts is a clear risk factor for breast cancer. It can also make cancers hard to spot on mammograms. Yet you ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The National Anti-Corruption Commission will finally investigate whether six people referred to it by the royal commission into Robodebt engaged in corrupt conduct. This follows an independent reconsideration by former High Court judge Geoffrey ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University Last week in Europe, the United States sent some very strong messages it is prepared to upend the established global order. US Vice President JD Vance warned a stunned Munich ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Reserve Bank has delivered the expected modest rate cut of a quarter of a percentage point, and we’re set for the predictable frenzy of speculation about an April election. The cut is unlikely to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra The Reserve Bank cut official interest rates on Tuesday, the first decrease in four years, saying inflationary pressures are easing “a little more quickly than expected”. However, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Reserve Bank has delivered the expected modest rate cut of a quarter of a percentage point, and we’re set for the predictable frenzy of speculation about an April election. The cut is unlikely to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allan Fels, Professor Allan Fels, Professor of Law, Economics and Business at the University of Melbourne and Monash University., The University of Melbourne Australia is creeping towards adding a divestiture power to its Competition and Consumer Act. Under such a law, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arjen Vaartjes, PhD Student, Quantum Physics, UNSW Sydney Dmitriy Rybin / Shutterstock What makes something quantum? This question has kept a small but dedicated fraction of the world’s population – most of them quantum physicists – up at night for decades. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Anne Kenny, Associate Professor, School of Law, Murdoch University Australia’s minister for home affairs announced on Sunday that the federal government has struck a deal with Nauru to “resettle” three non-citizens from what’s come to be known as the “NZYQ cohort”. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt Fitzpatrick, Professor in International History, Flinders University (From left to right): Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano before signing the Munich Agreement, which gave the Sudetenland to Germany.German Federal Archives/Wikimedia Commons Ukraine ...
The purpose was to establish the facts and provide an independent assessment of government agency activity in relation to allegations that personal data may have been misused during the 2023 General Election. ...
Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster said he is carefully reviewing the referrals raised in the two reports. That work will be done in the context the Privacy Act and the need to ensure individuals’ rights to privacy is protected and respected. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bhavna Middha, ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University The average Australian household size has decreased from 4.5 people per household in 1911 to 2.5 people in 2024. At the same time, the average house size has increased, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Page Jeffery, Lecturer in Media and Communications, University of Sydney suriyachan/Shutterstock When the Australian government passed legislation in November last year banning young people under 16 from social media, it included exemptions for platforms “that are primarily for the purposes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leslie Roberson, Postdoctoral research fellow, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland If you’ve ever been stopped by quarantine officers at the airport, you might think Australia’s international border is locked down like a fortress. But when it comes ...
Duncan Sarkies’ latest novel, Star Gazers, is about the collapse of democracy in a society of alpaca breeders. Here are some things his intensive research revealed. 1 How greed works, psychologicallyYes, I guess I already understood greed, but I could never understand why people who already have everything they ...
The proposed cuts would see only two full time Telehealth data and digital roles, and one Planning, Funding and Outcomes (PFO) role remain, reduced from 17 Telehealth support roles (including vacant roles). Roles proposed to be cut include Telehealth ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is calling for Ministers to end funding for Te Kurahuna programmes and workshop grifters that have received millions in taxpayer funding, despite the Government’s supposed focus on cutting costs. ...
“The richest 10 per cent of New Zealanders are wealthier than the rest of the population combined, according to figures cited by Oxfam NZ.”
So there it is, in black and white. But Bill English is still peddling the tired old trickle-down lie: “The best contribution the Government can make to support lower income families is to support a growing economy that provides more jobs and higher incomes.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11274603
So whats new amirite? That in the starkest terms is the core of the Left Right divide, the old old debate about who gets what and why? And the continuation of the 10%ers domination is the starkest reminder that the “Centre” so beloved of the major parties is so easily bribed by “crumbs from the rich mans table” so long as they get first cut of the aforesaid “crumbs”.
In a nut shell the above is why I despise “centrist” politics.
Out of the top 10% it’s the 0.1% who run and own the nation
the other 9.9% are simply the paid professional lackeys, servants and careerists who enable that.
The Oxfam report is on the wealth gap. English is presumably talking about the income gap. The wealth gap is the major problem, with the housing bubble leading the way.
I do not object to the wealthy having their wealth … but wish they paid a fair share from the results of their ability to help those without the ability …. Thomas Piketty makes a good suggestion in his book IMO
I do as we can’t afford the rich.
So, let’s get rid of all of the nett tax payers? Who will fund my dole ?
You won’t need the dole, the government will provide you with a living wage job instead, building wind farms and railways.
I suspect that we’d get more taxes if we didn’t have the rich – about $5b dollars more in fact. And that’s without even changing the tax laws.
Have you read Picketty’s book?
He says National Debt would be quickly piad back so there would then be plenty for your dole Dumrse and all the other support programmes we believe in ….DTB is so mindset on the current situation that he cannot envisage where while covering everybody there is opportunity for those to improve on that if they have the opportunity and energy.
That fails to make any sense.
We need to stop valuing peoples worth to society and community by the mere dollars they pull in, to what they actually contribute to the lives of others in terms of learning and caring.
Radical concept, I know.
As opposed to what? Direct transfers whereby say 5 percent of the wealth of the top 10 percent is directly redistributed to the other 90 percent?
Not 5% of their wealth but 7% of their annual income with those at the bottom paying 0.5%
No, those ten percent shouldn’t have the level of wealth that they have in the first place as it’s detrimental for society.
It’s also very concentrated at the top, 1% having more than the bottom 70%.
As opposed to what? Direct transfers whereby say the work and wealth generated by 90% of the population is directly redistributed to the top 10% of the population, as it is now?
The entire wealth distribution structure in place at the moment is woeful and does not serve the needs of the New Zealand community. At all. It needs changing.
+1
A flaw in the monetary system
There’s no way that you can say that that channeling of the wealth to the few hasn’t been designed into the system.
I doubt very much doubt if it was ‘designed into the system’ as it is a natural progression for those who are fortunate to have a bit to spare over their daily needs and wisely invest it and it naturally compounds if not spent on immediate luxuries whathaveyou.
If you have a well thought out progressive taxation system there is plenty to support the socialistic values of ensuiring everybody is looked after to a reasonable level … that is the modification to the capitalistic system that is needed.
Though I imagine that a lot here would like to see the capitalistic system go to the wall and people would be enslaved by the beaurocratic regulations ensuring that nobody can improve themselves … aa very dull world indeed.
Hmmm
Wouldn’t beaurocratic regulations dictate how everyone will look beautiful?
btw, the “capitalism or 100% planned economy/communism” dichotomy is false. There are different flavours of anarchism and communitarianism, too
The capitalist system:
That is the lessons of history and Piketty’s research. Taxation doesn’t pay for anything, it’s people actually working that pays for everything. This also applies to the rich – they don’t pay for anything either and they also don’t produce any wealth.
The capitalist system does need to go to the wall simply because it doesn’t work. Will this end up with a boring world? Nope. If anything, I figure it would be far more interesting.
A world where the focus is on relationships, on people and on culture in communities. Nothing more interesting than that. Nothing more fucking boring and lifeless than the latest Bugatti.
Oddly enough, standardisation is absolutely demanded and required by the corporate world. From logo colours to memo character spacing. To the way employees are dressed to how the phone is answered.
No one complains of that being bureaucratic or stifling. It’s just the way its done.
+111
Uniformity has become the new norm. I remember when life was so much more interesting, diverse and people tended to help others.
That’s the way we need to push back towards, to find the path of being fully human beings again, nice thing is that people tend towards that way anyways – when they aren’t being misled and distracted by endless commercial, economic (and dare I say it – political) crap.
Also gosman, this line here “the wealth of the top 10 percent ” ….
is total bullshit. It is not the wealth of the top 10%, it is the wealth of the nation that the top 10% have managed to grab for themselves.
You are coming up short on the thinking stakes again. Quelle surprise…
What percentage would be acceptable?
In a survey of 5000 Americans, 9 out of 10 had this preference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vttbhl_kDoo
But who cares about the opinions of people who don’t have any money?
That is truly depressing. For two reasons – one, it makes life unbearably difficult for the bulk of the population relative to their neighbours; and two, it leads to the destruction of society (French revolution anyone?).
People that support that sort of system are scum bastards.
yep
Seems to me like the US authorities are on to it, anticipating the likely rise of civil unrest when the combination of austerity, climate change disasters and oligarchy become irresistable.
Hence surveillance of everyone all the time, militarisation of the police, enabling US military to be deployed on US streets against US citizens, etc.
Oh, and then there’s the Minerva Research Initiative as described by Zero Hedge:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-14/meet-minerva-research-initiative-pentagons-preparation-mass-civil-breakdown
But that is just more lunacy. What do the authorities think such repression of already repressed people will do? Make the population bow down to their guns and jackboots?
Lunacy. Gns and jackboots are not the solution – all they will do is exacerbate the problem.
And any Americans thinking they can just uplift their wealth and relocate to somewhere “safe” like NZ backblocks better think again. They would be, and are, entirely unwelcome…
The situation will eventually descend into insanity IMO.
Have a look at what they were willing to do with peaceful, young Occupy protestors.
http://www.theblaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Davis.jpg
then think about what the authorities would be willing to do if a real and substantial challenge to their position came up.
Hint – the USA were quite happy to do it to their own Japanese citizens in WWII
http://robledo.fromthefog.com/upstanders/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/related6.jpg
Every 10 years there should be a reset.
All wealth distributed evenly amongst everyone and then let people go for it for another ten years.
Reset all debt too.
What a vision. I suppose you could couple that with phil Ure’s desire to have grass distributed to all on a daily basis, and then we could all sit around in our pyjama’s all day passing the bong around. No chance of any civilian uprising then eh.
Great messaage for kids entering the work force, don’t be too successul in what you do as we will just take it all from you in 10 years. Stirling stuff eh. In fact dont even bother about qualifing in anything as its easy just to sit on your arse and get a pay out. By the way the burger and liquor shops are going great guns.
And there’s the problem right there – success measured in monetary terms. Meaning that future generations are herded and goaded into a reality where the systems surrounding production and distribution (ie, the market) will ensure their continued relative impoverishment.
Way to go.
Ever reflected on why it is that so many kids are told not to pursue their passion? Y’know, the passions, valuable as they may be, that can’t be monetised?
You are correct Bill . I agree that success should not be measured in only monetary terms.
I am looking at it from a tax perspective & redistribution perspective. You would like the Govt to redistribute wealth to the segments that do not have much. That requires people to generate wealth. If there is no wealth being created then it is very difficult for anyone to distribute anything.
For some strange reason you seem to think that the rich create wealth. They don’t. The poor do but the rich take that wealth from them because our present system is set up to allow them to do that.
Ragged Trousered Philanthropists all.
🙂
Draco , I did not say that rich create wealth at all. What I did say is that some wealth is required if you wish to redistribute it.
There is plenty of great entrepreneurial endeavours of great acheivers and great givers in society.
Its pretty bleak for everyone if there is no wealth anywhere.
You only need redistribution if the wealth wasn’t correctly distributed in the first place and the only place that it could possibly be redistributed from would be the rich.
Pretty childish of me I suppose but I thought I’d get a bite from a ‘Rob’ or a ‘Gosman’ or a ‘Srylands’ etc with that little lure. An’ I wuz rite!
You hang the bait in the water and the frothing misanthropes like Rob can’t help themselves.
(Watch this…)
Hey Rob, beneficiaries should be paid the living wage ay?
That’s very biblical of you Hamish, but you’re a little off on your numbers as according to Leviticus 25, debt is to be reset, slaves freed and property returned to the original owners every 50 years.
Every 7 years or 49 years are the classical interpretations.
It was really scary “shit” a friend told me yesterday, about his recent medical review by WINZ. They are hard as nails now, and want to get sick and disabled into work, no matter what conditions. So he had a horrible experience a few years back, got another 2 years “grace”, and now they though it is time to “check” on his PERMANENT conditions again, whether Jesus may have appeared in his third coming, to heal him from all ailments.
The case manager did at first refuse all other info and records apart from the person’s GP’s medical certificate, now UK style called “Work Capacity Medical Certificate”. And the GP did this time not present too clear and conclusive info. So the case manager tried to question every entitlement, and was preparing the poor soul, desperate and scared to hell, given mental health issues, to basically move him onto the “jobseeker” benefit.
It took my mate a hell of an effort, to present all kinds of records, also a trusted psychologist’s one, to finally convince the manager, albeit rather reluctantly, as it sounded. Hell, there are things going on that scare me, it is not right what WINZ are doing to sick, injured and disabled now. If you can lift your hand and arm, they think you are “fit” to work, no matter what other condition. It comes back to David Bratt, WINZ’s Principal Health Advisor, likening benefit dependence to “drug dependence”, and that “mad” UK professor Mansel Aylward, who actually claims, most sickness is just in people’s minds. He calls it “illness belief”, all being just “psychological” fantasy, so to say, and the best “medicine” is work in open employment, competing with the fit and healthy. Do we live in a humane and honest society, or am I living a bloody nightmare here? Who else had bad experiences with WINZ in this area, I really would like to know. Study the following for your own well being:
‘WORK ABILITY ASSESSMENTS DONE FOR WORK AND INCOME – PARTLY FOLLOWING ACC’s APPROACH: A REVEALING FACT STUDY’
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/16092-work-ability-assessments-done-for-work-and-income-%E2%80%93-partly-following-acc%E2%80%99s-approach-a-revealing-fact-study/
Also essential material to study is found here:
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/15463-designated-doctors-%e2%80%93-used-by-work-and-income-some-also-used-by-acc/
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/15188-medical-and-work-capability-assessments-based-on-the-bps-model-aimed-at-disentiteling-affected-from-welfare-benefits-and-acc-compo/
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/15264-welfare-reform-the-health-and-disability-panel-msd-the-truth-behind-the-agenda/
And also try a newer website, a forum with lots of similar info, search:
‘nzsocialjusticeblog2013’!
Link: http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/
You and others may be interested to know that it is perfectly (?) legal for the Medical Appeals Board not to look at notes in coming to their decision around whether or not a person qualifies for Jobseeker (sickness with reduced work assessment), Supported Living, or Child Disability Allowance.
And I trust you have been here writehanded.org
ACCforum has a higher level of nutters than the average forum, mainly due I suspect to the abusive system forum members are subjected to.
Yes, ACC Forum has issues, and went downhill a bit, because of some there not being that honest and also getting at each other’s collars. I know what is going on there, and I ignore the bad stuff and read what is worth reading.
As for MABs, they have always had their own “rules”, being appointed by an appeals coordinator employed by MSD and WINZ, and of course always making sure at least 2 on a panel are “designated doctors”, chosen by Bratt and WINZ, and being favourable to WINZ.
This is nothing new, the whole system stinks, and what makes me so bloody angry is, that so many just shrug things off, and put up with all the BS, while people, no matter how sick and disabled, should get together with their fitter compatriots, to fight the damned injustice.
I know someone who has now the Ombudsmen Office on the attack line, as even they refused to even look at totally blunt evidence, of what goes on. It seems this country is with the upper echelons of admin and “public offices” so damned corrupt, it is not funny!
And yes, writehanded.org raised a fair bit, and justifiably, so I support Sarah Wilson, as I think her name is, she is due to her challenges still too cautious about it all, we need a full blown challenge and attack of the WINZ approach we now have. Who is “ready” for it, I ask?
@ xtasy…this may sound naive ….but …maybe there needs to be a Bill brought before the House to protect the rights of those with chronic mental health and physical health issues NOT to be harassed by WINZ into work….and where such people have been pressurized illegitimately with adverse and sometimes dire effects …WINZ can be sued! ( legal fees paid for by a publicly funded forensic health watch dog)
for example a person with schizophenia … who once would have been in sheltered care, which the state has now disestablished…but is now on compulsory medication and forced onto the streets with a health disability benefit ….is then pressurized by WINZ to be taken off their compulsory medication ( pressure brought on psychiatrists and mental health workers to get people off their lists, who seem to be coping and hence certified as capable of work)…. and this person is then by WINZ taken off their disability benefit and forced to hunt for work
….this can lead to a personal and public crisis…it can set chronically ill people back years…it could lead to suicide …..and in some cases such people forced into stress and work which they are not capable of by WINZ …could be a danger to the public as well
imo WINZ and the State has to be held accountable for the consequences of pressurizing chronically ill people off their disability benefits and to hunt for work
a UBI would solve this problem as well
“a UBI would solve this problem as well”
Depends on how it was set up and whether it was tory-proofed into the future. Prejudice against people with disabilities who are perceived as being blugers is entrenched in parts of NZ culture, including civil servants and NGOs. A UBI is not going to solve that issue for people with illness and disability who are dependent on the state for income, unless maybe the UBI is set higher for them. If they have to apply to any agency for a topup, then there are still going to be criteria that need to be met, and those criteria will be set by govt departments that currently practice discrimination (health or welfare). Even if the UBI was higher, it would still require testing for eligibility.
While I think that the UBI is impertative, we need to be careful not to think it will be an automatic panacea for people with disabilities. The work of dismantling prejudice could be done within WINZ and the health system as it is now, and it’s not, so what guarantees are there that a UBI scheme would be done differently?
Ok agreed about the UBI
…however another angle is enough free half way housing/homes/shelters which would go a long way to alleviating the problem for people with long term chronic disabilities…this seems to be a crucial area of need that needs addressing
eg in Christchurch they have had to requisition an acute mental health patient ward at Hillmorton…just to cater for the homeless with long term chronic health disabilities…seems like the need for free or affordable housing for people with long term chronic diasabilites is huge
Chooky, for those able to live in the community, still having manageable mental health issues, one would think that Housing NZ should look after them.
But learning a couple of years back, how they treated another mate of mine, also having mental and physical health issues leading to disability, they were at first damned anti his application, meaning they did not “trust” he was a genuinely deserving case.
He stayed in a cockroach infested, overcrowded and damp boarding house, and they still tried to argue he was “suitably housed”!
As he was close to breaking point, I assisted where I could, and we went to their regional head office and took other action, which they were not happy about. Only when he finally had a NZ Herald journalist take up his story and write about it, then suddenly, Housing NZ obliged with an offer within a week.
That is what we are up against, there is NO honest appreciation of person’s circumstances, it is all treated with one brush for all, and you have to basically end up in the gutter in too many cases, until the system kicks in and takes action. Ask the cops, they are dealing with endless misery stories all the time, expected to pick up the pieces at the bottom of the cliff, when it is often too bloody late. This government has NO HEART and NO SPIRIT, it dishonest and uncaring, and since Key and Nats got into power, things really turned nasty, we only do not hear much about it, because the media are bought off also, and happy to work with keeping this government happy and protected from too much criticism.
Too many vacant paper pushers on $45K pa and too many vacuous target setting line managers on $55K pa.
Anyone on staff who shows too much empathy or caring, they organisationally beat it out of you until you conform.
Chooky – if you ever have time, read some stuff under this link:
http://accforum.org/forums/index.php?/topic/14923-health-and-disability-commissioner/
What we have is a situation, where doctors get off most malpractice and wrong decisions, as the HDC (Health and Disability Commissioner) is so far the ONLY institution to go to and make any complaint about breaches of the Code they are supposed to enforce and monitor. But last year’s report showed they had over 1,600 complaints, of which only just about 60 were “formally” investigated, and of those 42 had valid complaints about breaches by medical and health practitioners established.
Most cases are never seriously investigated, are dealt with through “advocacy” and “consultation” and “training” and so forth. The offending practitioners get at worst a kind of slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket “punishment”, and recommendations are made to “review” practice, and in some cases to “apologise” to the affected.
The ACC legislation does take away a lot of opportunities for affected to take action against doctors and other practitioners, as the right to sue was abolished. We have a situation where the Medical Council won’t usually act unless the rather useless HDC makes a referral to have a case investigated by them, and actions taken. Few cases ever go to the Director of Proceedings, and it is truly a disgrace what goes on.
What we need is to change the HDC Act to give the Commissioner some “teeth”, and to basically put in a requirement for investigations to be made, and certain sanctions being possible. As New Zealand has always struggled to maintain and afford a functioning health work force, the government is rather bending over backwards to not punish medicals too harshly. They need them, and they forgive too easily in too many cases.
As for assessors, like designated WINZ doctors, they are not strictly delivering treatment, so that gets them off the hook. They are not covered by the code for consumers of health and disability services that the HDC deal with. The same applies to persons like Principal Health Advisor for MSD Bratt, he is just an “advisor”, and thus does not even provide health services, so he gets away with comments and more, that are not what a usual doctor would get away with. The HDC also have a “memorandum of understanding” with ACC and probably MSD, so no serious actions will ever result in assessors making flawed assessments. It is indeed a gap in the law, so to say, why designated WINZ assessors and others get away with what they do.
It stinks, but even the opposition parties seem too damned inexperienced with medico legal matters, and too scared to take action in this area. So we have the status quo of “Gods” in white coats doing whatever they see fit, and one Mansel Aylward, the extreme UK professor, he even delivers them ideologically driven “science” to do what they wish to do, like tell sick and disabled, hey, you can still lift your arm, you can be a “signal giver” in roadworks then.
FFS I had enough of all this, but it seems at times it is a lost battle, as politicians are always just focused on the usual headline stuff, often trivial, and will do nothing to help people treated unfairly and disgustingly by WINZ and their “experts”!
“You and others may be interested to know that it is perfectly (?) legal for the Medical Appeals Board not to look at notes in coming to their decision around whether or not a person qualifies for Jobseeker (sickness with reduced work assessment), Supported Living, or Child Disability Allowance.”
So what are they basing their decision on?
Does anyone know if the review doctors and the appeal process are covered by the Health and Disability Act? I know WINZ itself isn’t, not being a health provider, but am curious how they’ve classified assessors.
Oh yeah, slightly off topic but there is a tender from an Australian insurance company for the ACC sensitive claims (% impairment) assessments. More oz crap contractors taking/attempting to take work from our specialised sexual abuse services.
It’s high time we looked after our own.
Awww – yes, stuff to be worried about, and that is just the beginning, look at what they have done in the UK, and what they are planning there for the future, it is not getting easier or better.
If you do actually read the stuff on “work ability assessments”, that post on ACC Forum, also soon to be published (in bits) on nzsocialjusticeblog2013, you will see what is already happening here, how we get it all privatised, and it involves Australian players too.
People should take this bloody seriously, but sadly so many are not bothering to study and read stuff, they still rely their own GP, who is though, due to the AFOEM new policy on the “health benefits of work” (introduced by Mansel Aylward there, well received by former ATOS President of AFOEM, Dr David Beaumont, who also got a “reputation” with ACC claimants AND runs his own “rehab” outfit “Pathways to work”!) also being indoctrinated now.
GPs are now being trained to follow the new agenda, and Bratt and Aylward made sure, the NZ College of General Practitioners and the Medical Schools all adopted the dogma, and we have it taught there now, believe it or not, and most do not even get any idea of what goes on!
Had an email from an Opposition M.P. regarding some queries I posed earlier, and he said a lot of the G.P.’s were also being driven by policy from the DHB’s, which comes straight from the Minister. We are truly being shafted. This Government is the most corrupt in the history of this nation.
10% are wealthier than the combined wealth of the rest of the country. Not a virtue to be proud of. And none of that was done by hard work, just pure speculation.
Yes, talk about GPs, they are ALL now pressured or “convinced” to tow the ideologically driven “new approach” to work ability. It comes now in this part of the world from the AFOEM (Australaisian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine), who are also part of the RACP (Royal Australasian College of Physicians), and they invite the top propagator of the ideology, about the “health benefits of work” (paid open employment!), Mr Mansel Aylward from the UK, in 2010 to give them the pseudo scientific justification for all cost saving.
If only more would open eyes, ears and braincells, and start reading stuff of relevance, publicly available:
http://www.racp.org.nz/page/afoem-health-benefits-of-work
http://www.racp.org.nz/page/racp-faculties/australasian-faculty-of-occupational-and-environmental-medicine/realising-the-health-benefits-of-work/may-2010-video-presentation-professor-sir-mansel-aylward/
http://www.racp.org.nz/page/racp-faculties/australasian-faculty-of-occupational-and-environmental-medicine/realising-the-health-benefits-of-work/october-2010-stakeholder-meeting-professor-dame-carol-black/
Their “President Elect” is a former ATOS man, a convinced one, who has with some others facilitated to get all this introduced “Down Under”:
http://www.racp.org.nz/page/racp-faculties/australasian-faculty-of-occupational-and-environmental-medicine/realising-the-health-benefits-of-work/latest-news/
Their idea of the role of GPs:
http://www.racp.org.nz/index.cfm?objectid=E1D5428F-B1BF-2C2F-7A247F80DC4F363C
The Position Statement on the Health Benefit of Work:
http://www.racp.org.nz/index.cfm?objectid=F07790EC-0F2D-D1EB-4298E5D44500162A
The Consensus Statement:
http://www.racp.org.nz/index.cfm?objectid=57063EA7-0A13-1AB6-E0CA75D0CB353BA8
And yes, the CTU themselves fell for this propaganda approach, about the “work will set you free” mantra, and even one Helen Kelly signed it!
As I kept on challenging her and the CTU on this, she had a comment by me deleted on one of her posts. Fair enough, it may have been a bit “off topic”, but she has never answered to any challenges.
This whole stuff is now being drummed into each GP’s brain, and hence the government can faithfully rely on the collaboration of medical professionals in all this. The DHBs are very concerned about costs, so they will embrace it just to have another justification to save costs. The sick and disabled are told to “toughen up”, as Dr Bratt, Principal Health Advisor at WINZ and MSD says, benefit dependence is like “drug dependence”, I presented plenty of info on that before.
NZ is indeed corrupt, as this stuff was also presented to the Health and Disability Commissioner and is before the Office of Ombudsmen now, but it seems they want nothing to do with it!?
What kind of society has this country become? Are there any daring to speak up and out, and challenge all this? Too many just think of “number one” and are too scared to rock the boat, I am afraid.
Dr David Beaumont, from the UK, another bought “expert”, formerly working for ATOS and thus serving the DWP and so there:
His LinkedIn profile:
http://nz.linkedin.com/pub/david-beaumont/2a/780/943
His business Pathways to Work:
http://www.pathwaystowork.co.nz/category/general-news
His ‘Fit for Work’ involvement:
http://www.fitforwork.co.nz/team
With such vested interests and his background, also having “advised” ACC and MSD before, no wonder he loved to have Aylward come here and sell the UNUM Provident paid “research” presented here!
NaziYahoo accuses Hamas……..80 Palestinians arrested……..remind me again how many Palestinian kids rot in IDF detention……..average stay etc etc. For throwing stones.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/15/israel-raids-hamas-kipdnapping-netanyahu
Love your work NaziYahoo……..against throwing stones.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.592352
All’s well……..Zionist ‘exceptionalism’ makes it so……..and the US Congress agrees……..so yeah, all’s well.
http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-04-22/west-bank-israeli-and-palestinian-kids-who-throw-stones-face-unequal-justice
Professor Norman Finkelstein’s analysis of latest developments in the John Kerry-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian “Peace Talks”.
“If Kerry succeeds or if Kerry fails – either way, it’s a disaster for the Palestinians, who are caught between U.S.-brokered capitulation and the miserable status quo.”
http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/the_kerry_initiative_the_next_round
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11274606
“Mr Cunliffe doubted there was any connection between Liu’s residency bid and his donation two years later.”
Actually, it sounds like the truth, Chris. However, I can understand why you might not be familiar with that concept.
Sounds like National’s ‘Research Unit’ has been furiously trying to dig up some dirt.
How many Labour MPs interfered with a police investigation?
So you believe williamson called the cops cos of a donation, that collins went out of her way to promote oravida cos of a donation, you cant have it both ways.
Jesus chris, talk about burying the lede:
..a book she DIDN’T EVEN WRITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lol felix
chuckle
Is that sort of like the painting she didn’t paint?
And surprise surprise, chris73 was spreading bullshit. According to Checkpoint, Labour has no record of any donation from Mr Liu.
Some people never learn !
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11274748
A mighty fine fuck you by Jim Wright.
.
All we fought for in Iraq.
All we fought for in Iraq is on the cusp of vanishing.
That’s what Mitt Romney says.
We fought for. We fought for. We.
Oh, so it’s we now, is it, Mitt?
We.
I must have missed you over there, but it was a busy place. We. The guy who helped set up “pro-draft” rallies and yet somehow managed to avoid service in Vietnam is upset about losing what “we” fought for? We.
Yeah, fuck you, Mitt.
And you’re all welcome to quote me on that.
Somebody stepped into my office yesterday and asked how I felt about it. He wanted to know how I felt about “losing” Iraq.
How do I feel about losing all we fought for?
I don’t know.
http://www.stonekettle.com/2014/06/absolutely-nothing.html
.
And Blair’s weaseling.
The reality is that the whole of the Middle East and beyond is going through a huge, agonising and protracted transition. We have to liberate ourselves from the notion that ‘we’ have caused this. We haven’t. We can argue as to whether our policies at points have helped or not; and whether action or inaction is the best policy and there is a lot to be said on both sides. But the fundamental cause of the crisis lies within the region not outside it.
http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/news/entry/iraq-syria-and-the-middle-east-an-essay-by-tony-blair/
He’s learned fine – he took the UK into an illegal war and has been richly rewarded for doing so.
Why the media still give that talking head airtime is beyond me. In fact, I’m still slightly amazed he’s avoided being prosecuted for war crimes but nonetheless..
A crisis is Iraq, John Key visits Obama, and a new NATO treaty signed in June 2012. What could go wrong?
Minor event happening in Ukraine in the next few hours. The “junta” (I wont give them any credit for their legitimacy) are laying bare the vacuity of EU backing of their cause. They are demanding Russia sells gas to them at a discount of over 35% of what the EU buys for. If they don’t get it they are threatening to walk away from their massive debt to their suppliers.
The Russia Gazprom are saying that they will cut the supply and demand pre-payment, the “junta” are threatening to cut supplies to EU as they transit Ukraine. The Kremlin are keeping quiet, a bad sign…..my suspicion is that the “bear” may just wake up angry and walk on in.
Russia is playing this very gradually step by step. Given that they have essentially been supplying Ukraine with free natural gas for many many months now they are being very patient – why? Because they want to demonstrate to Germany and other key EU states that they are giving their ‘valued commercial partner’ Ukraine the benefit of the doubt and all the due process available – and then some.
Which completely stymies US provocations aiming for Putin to militarily act rashly and justify a NATO move into Ukraine.
Very true: one wonders how the EU would react to the “puppet” regime denying them gas? It would really lay bare the disparity in interests between the Whitehouse and European economies.A true hot potato. As you say Putin very likely will just sit, all the cards are falling his way.
This is a recent interview where French media grilled Putin, during his visit to the Normandy commemorations. Over half an hour long of tough questions non-stop. Covering many topics, on Syria, on Ukraine, on Crimea, on Russia itself.
You got to hand it to Putin, he plays a very straight, statesman-like line in public.
So did Rick Barker declare the trip to Chongqing in the pecuniary interests register. I assume he just went to Chongqing on the way to the airport.
Is Barker’s partner on the board of Liu’s cement company?
I believe so.
He was on holiday, so, no, he wouldn’t have put it on the register. Does Key put the rounds of golf the American taxpayer shouts him on the register?
Yes he does.
Barker was at the time not traveling as a Government Minister, He was traveling as a private citizen…
so was Collins….oh wait a minute
Interestingly it’s only the period of her time as Minister for oravida that Collins didnt register overseas trips and their funding, in previous years she did so quite happily.
10 Overseas travel costs
Australia – joint Cabinet meeting and bilateral meetings. Contributor to
accommodation: Australian Government.
Her colleagues also happily declared their Chinese government funded trips.
I guess she is just too busy with her new portfolio
I have thought for some time there is a conflict/hypocracy in the Ukraine situation where it seemed that a demonstration led to the current Ukraine regime in a simular manner to how the Crimea changed hands … all very puzzling.
Further south it seems the abitary by western power[s] setting up of Iraq is now going to split into its natural parts with any luck despite the anguish of the west.
”Vote to end ACT Party rort in Epsom”, so says, apparently a Labour Party election pamphlet delivered to letter-boxes in the Epsom electorate, according to the Herald’s Clare Trevett that’s ”code” that Labour voters should vote for the National Party candidate,
If it were, ”code” that is, and i have my doubts, it would be pretty lame don’t you think, a real waste of paper, Labour would better serve it’s voters in Epsom, the Party, and, the country by simply telling Labour voters that a electorate vote for the National Candidate will rid them and us of the ACT Party and have Labour halfway to the Treasury Benches,
Micheal Wood, the Labour Party candidate for Epsom seems to know what is required having been quoted in the Trevett piece in today’s Herald as saying He is ”not campaigning for the National Party candidate yet”,
My opinion says that He should be tho, and openly, the sooner the ”party strategists” give Him the nod to do so the better…
Never gonna happen, Bad. A nod and a wink is as good at will get because the NZLP is never going to publicly support a Tory candidate. And nor should we.
Good O Te Reo, stuff the head back in the sand and pretend you can win the election while National ”gifts” electorates here, there, and, everywhere,
Dense seems a mild epithet to attach to such ”thinking”, Labour will not publicly support tactical voting to (a) get rid of ACT, and (b) ensure that they are more likely to be the next Government,
Is Te Reo tho saying that not ”publicly supporting” a tactical vote in Epsom means that it will do so via ”coded statements”,
Dishonest i would suggest could be added to Dense if that were the case…
As usual, you haven’t got a clue. Still, no doubt you’ll be equally appalled at the other party’s failure to endorse Paul Goldsmith. Looking forward to reading your condemnation of Hone’s dishonest and dense silence on the matter.
Neither Mana or in its new guise InternetMana have a presence of any size in the electorate that could sway the outcome in any way, the same cannot tho be said of Labour,
Your dragging into the conversation InternetMana vis a vis Epsom is simply more of your personal dishonesty, and, an unkind person would suggest that such personal dishonesty as you display is exhibited on a Party wide basis vis a vis the Epsom electorate…
Ooooh, hypocrisy alert! It’s only dense and dishonest if you’re a big party? Really? Presumably you think the Greens are are half dense and half dishonest. Doofus.
Te Reo, you need a name change, i suggest ‘Te Tupeke Pine’ as your debate consists of leaping from pin-head to pin-head,
If Labour cannot convince it’s voters in the Epsom electorate to vote for the National candidate then it is odds on that come September they will still be the opposition,
Take some responsibility wont you…
it horrifies me that u may be ‘somebody’ in labour..t.r.p..
..and that you could somehow be indicative of their mindset..
..dumb as..!
Have you got the fear, Phil?
Sit down, man. Take control. You have done something to your brain. You have made it high. If I lay ten mils of Diazepam on you, you will do something else to your brain, You will make it low. Why trust one drug and not the other?
That’s politics, isn’t it?
Hey Phil, stop whining and get out there and campaign.
If you’re out to change the government rather than sitting on your couch inhaling, great. But if you’re trying to tell any party what to do without some skin in this game, at this point you’re wasting your breath.
Yeah but there was plenty of public support for Douglas, Caygill, Prebble, et al
Yeah, good call, CV 🙂 Though technically, Actoids aren’t tories.
one of the people living at our address got a letter from john key. The other two did not. I wonder how they decide who in the epsom electorate to send the mailout to?
“Labour would better serve it’s voters in Epsom, the Party, and, the country by simply telling Labour voters that a electorate vote for the National Candidate will rid them and us of the ACT Party and have Labour halfway to the Treasury Benches”
Nope. Labour is simultaneously sending a message:
a) to Labour voters to back Goldsmith in order to help Labour, and
b) to National voters to reject ACT
Your suggestion only achieves one of those objectives.
Iceland’s President on capitalism vs democracy (short video)
The bouncer who tackled the streaker at the Dunedin test should be charged with assault. It was outrageous. Bouncers routinely assault and even kill people in NZ. They are a pseudo-police force and are out of control. The police need to investigate and charge imo as this sort of behaviour by bouncers is not even remotely reasonable.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/10160784/Streaker-tackle-out-of-character-for-moonlighting-No-8
It was a vicious unnecessary tackle and the employer of that bouncer should also be sued for negligence resulting in physical harm.
Also looking at how the streaker was dragged away from the field – what was that about – the streaker did not appear to put up any resistance whatsoever but looked like he was getting roughed up any way.
“It was a vicious unnecessary tackle and the employer of that bouncer should also be sued for negligence resulting in physical harm”
What an ignorant comment. It was a vicious unnecessary tackle but to suggest that it was his employers fault is typical left thinking. You are assuming this thug was instructed to do a vicious tackle. It is common knowledge that if you do an unsafe act at work that it is serious misconduct and if there is an injury you can be fined as well as fired.
“It was a vicious unnecessary tackle but to suggest that it was his employers fault is typical left thinking”
Remind never to contract you to provide me any type of service. Apparently you believe that once you employ someone to provide the service to me on your behalf that you are no longer responsible for the work.
Oh nakiman, I think that you’re assuming that the employer correctly trained the bouncer in question and had a full set of proper policies in place governing the use of physical force.
But I’m going to guess that there are big gaps there and the employer has liability.
Further, if it comes out that the employer at any time stated to the bouncers that a hard line was to be taken against any pitch intrusion, then the legal fun really begins.
Wow………Naki’ launches furious attack on ‘vicarious liability’.
Unwittingly mind. He not having a fucking clue what it is……..obviously.
Well done Naki’ you poor thick bastard !
You seen the sad on-line poll results? 70+% reflecting pathetic ‘macho’ opinions. Doubt those numbers would stack up the same if a streaking woman had been similarly tackled by a female security guard. I don’t quite get it though seeing as how there’s no homophobia in NZ these days.
Yep. Simple boofheads who don’t even realise what they are advocating, namely vigilante justice and the establishment of anarchy. Boofheads who don’t think is what they are … I hope they don’t get a vote at the election – imagine the sort of idiotic damage they could do ….
Superb lines from Gordon Campbell:
With the exit of its former leader John Banks, the Act Party is currently in what might charitably be called a rebuilding phase. Mind you, it still appears to be preaching the old time religion of plucky self-reliance – which is pretty amusing, given that its own survival in Parliament has long been reliant on electorate handouts from the National Party, a form of welfare set to continue in Epsom this year. How on earth Act rationalizes its policy stance on welfare with its own modus operandi in Epsom is anyone’s guess.
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2014/06/16/gordon-campbell-on-obamas-need-to-engage-with-iran-and-acts-need-to-engage-with-reality/
borne out of former labour cabinet ministers, preaching personal responsibility, particularly for law breakers, they are the definition of contradiction.
Heh, stalker economy.
http://pando.com/2014/06/11/al-gore-says-silicon-valley-is-a-stalker-economy/
I hear that there is a new party being set up to oppose the use of 1080. I think it would be a good idea to start one that bans the use of private cars. Every day there are hurtful accidents, injuries and even deaths through the use of cars. People using them run over little children and kill them. They spread pollution and result in the high use of imported oil which has to be paid for from our precious export returns. Almost every holiday results in deaths, sometimes of adults and children, even whole families. Cars should be limited in availability just for taxi use, with more buses available, more frequently and good train services. Then more room for bikes, giving safer use of them.
So what about starting a Facebook campaign and build up interest and support to ban cars as death-causing bad technology causing untold harm. There is as much a case for this than that for banning 1080.
national will try and run a non campaign.
rely on photo ops and pr bullshit + crosby textor tricks and ruses.
Its going to be very subtle but very powerful.
get ready for the ride!
amy adams has begun by blaming auckland council for aucklands housing problems.
When the supercity was being pimped, cos we didnt get to vote, it was that as a single behemouth we could make our own decisions. Of course the truth was the nacts wanted a single entity to impose its will on, rather than going through 8.
It is the councils fault, I heard Penny H say that Auckland house’s are expensive because its a great place to live and lots of people want to live here. These councillors want to become wealthy from a housing shortage and over priced housing that is why they don’t want to make more land available to build on.
What did you think of the unitary plan?
amy adams is a prune.
aye..!..if you had politicians as fruit/veges….she wd be a prune..
..whereas brownlee wd be the prize-winning giant pumpkin @ the country fete…
..bennett an over-boiled beetroot…
..and key a stick of rancid celery…
Spoken like a true veggie 🙂
Collins would be a lemon…
craig a limp stick of rhubarb..
..finlayson is a martini olive..
.and joyce wd b something sour..
..ryall is one of those strange pomegranete things..
..that everyone looks at..but no-one wants to eat…
..and of course english..as some form of lumpen-turnip…
..(only good for (slow-cooked) veggie-stews..)
Collins would be a sweet, juicy peach…
way past its’ eat/use-by date..
The Internet Party has a petition up to:
“I agree that our Party Votes should have equal value. This means lowering the 5% threshold and removing the one-seat (coat-tails) threshold.”
This appeals to me regardless of Party loyalty.
https://internet.org.nz/petition
despite being a likely beneficiary they want it gone. Cf ACT UF and national
the threshold should be lowered to 3%…
..i’ll start the animal-rights party then..
..neither left nor right..
..just there for the animals..
..people from right across the spectrum welcomed..
..they just have to want to end animal-slavery..
..it’s time to get cracking on that one..i reckon..
start it now. John banks is looking for a job in public service
heh..!
..first target:..
..the vivisectors..
NZ manufacturing falls for second month as new orders decline
Yep, a ‘rockstar’ economy with no crisis in manufacturing | Tui.
Late yesterday there was a post up about the Kiwiassurance. I was sure it was on the NS??? There is now no sign of it. Am I going mad/senile?
Please someone release me from my doubt.
What’s the NS?
I must be senile Weka. I meant here on the The Standard. There was a post I am sure about Kiwiassure and a followup of DC giving speech. There is nothing in the comments or anywhere.
Would appreciate it if it could be confirmed that it had existed.
Lower threshold to 3 percent – Harre
http://www.3news.co.nz/Lower-threshold-to-3-percent—Harre/tabid/1607/articleID/348719/Default.aspx#disqus_thread
In my opinion, the
*Threshold should be reduced to 3 % (or at most to 4%)
COMMISSION RECOMMENDATIONS
they have complied with their rules in selecting and ranking their list
candidates.
The government should not allow the immediate political interests of any single party get in the way of changes that strengthen our electoral system in the long term.
In its report the commission said,
“Relatively few changes were needed to the electoral system. but those we recommend are important. They would enhance public
confidence in the fairness and operation of our MMP voting system and
parliamentary democracy.”
The threshold should be dropped to the equivalent of 1 seat in Parliament. Someone has posted that figure on TS before but I can’t find it.
From memory it was around 25,000 votes which would be the equivalent of 1 seat in Parliament, although I could be wrong.
A 3 to 4 seat caucus = 2.5% of the vote is a practical, productive grouping of MPs in Parliament.
That should be what the threshold is set at.
Multiple 1 MP caucuses will fragment Parliament too much.
CV, prefer 1%=1 seat, thus the issues on the periphery would get a full airing in the Parliament, Phillips animal rights and dope decriminalization being two where i see most here would be in agreement with that have no specific voice,
i am sure when thought about there are quite a few issues that while parties might have specific policies that address these such are always ”on the slide” in terms of importance as the various Parties look at what their various coalition options are and what each component of such a coalition might react like in the face of the peripheral issues,
my view is stuff the present political parties, true MMP would consign them to the same fate as the Dinosaur…
“..true MMP would consign them to the same fate as the Dinosaur…..”
..+ 1..
One other comment – a 3-4 seat caucus would prevent “single issue” parties from gaining Parliamentary traction.
If a political party wants into Parliament, it will have to stand for a broad range of policies, and not just a single issue.
as harre pointed out..3% is preferable for giving more a voice in parliament..
..and she noted the 4% in germany was only put in just after ww2..’cos of a fear of a resurgance of the far-right/nazis..
..there would be no more need for coat-tailing..
.and all ideas wd go out and argue/stand on their merits..
..and a 3% threshold would be a major strengthening of democracy..
..and would give us a much more representitive-parliament..
.and yes..the likes of craig wd likely b there.
..but if 3% of the population doubt the moon-landings happened..fear chem-trails..and think the earth is 10,000 yrs old..
..well i guess democracy dictates they too get a voice..
Why even have a threshold? It’s just a way of keeping out parties that have enough support to warrant 1-6 seats in parliament – elections therefore less accurately represent voter choice with a threshold than without.
The coat-tailing clause at least mitigates that somewhat – but then makes first-past-the-post electorate contests have undue relevance to the outcome of the election. I would also advocate preferential voting in electorates to make those seats also a fairer representation of voter preference.
Funny when the power went out in Auckland for a day back in 2006 the Troy scum screamed blue bloody murder. Well some of us in West Auckland have either no power or no hot water for a week – the Tory press does bugger all. Yesterday finally something said in Herald but only on full outage – http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11274099
The problem with hot water not being available is still on going for many. Funny they just can’t get the hot water to work properly again. This is a major structural flaw. I have asked around and many tradesmen fell Auckland is a ticking time bomb, especially it’s power and sewage.
I remember some slimy opposition MP back in 06 ranting for weeks on the telly about how the power outage was a crime for all New Zealanders and a disaster for Auckland. It 2014 and these Tory slime are in power and the power is still fubar, and getting worse. Once again political advantage is, who can steal the most off the working folk of this country. Thanks Len and thanks National the party of sell and hope – I would say pray, but you are so self absorbed god would struggle to hear you through all that petty self congratulations.
paula used to care but she isnt a westie anymore she is an Upper T now.
You also have fewer judder bars than remuera epsom or mt eden. Your children and pets just arent as valuable
Well,as well as it now happening under the Nats’ watch, the continuing outages seem to be a West Auckland problem. The central part of Auckland has been increasingly colonised by the well off, while parts of West Auckland, since 2010, are becoming increasingly ghettoised.
Folks in Parnell, Remmers, etc, probably don’t care much about the trials and struggles of Westies.
oh they LOVE paula, even more now they know she was never a real Westie 😉
West of Auckland meet the East of Christchurch. Entitled to be ignored by those in power.
(b) National Party Values
We believe this will be achieved by building a society based on the
following values:
• Loyalty to our country, its democratic principles and our Sovereign as
Head of State
• National and personal security
• Equal citizenship and equal opportunity
• Individual freedom and choice
• Personal responsibility
• Competitive enterprise and rewards for achievement
• Limited government
• Strong families and caring communities
• Sustainable development of our environment
National = Equal opportunity Green/Labour/Internet Mana = Equal income
National = Rewards for achievement Green/Labour/Internet Mana = Tax for achievement
National = Sustainable development of our environment Green/Labour/Internet Mana = no development, industry closure and killing of cows
National = competitive enterprise Green/Labour/Internet Mana = nationalisation
Is it any wonder that National id polling so high?
how do you know roy morgan poll results in advance
I’m guessing because the last two Roy Morgan polls were good for National and bad for the left but don’t worry you’ll know if its good for the left if it gets its own thread:
http://thestandard.org.nz/latest-roy-morgan/
If its still bad for the left it’ll get a mention in open mike 😉
[lprent: This has come up before. But usually in non-election year polls only get posts every 2-3 months because that is how long it takes before a trend becomes clear outside of the noise. Obviously the frequency increases in a election year. The probability that a poll is relatively good or bad for the left in a post seems to to unrelated. When I have time I often pull the graphs through in OpenMike.
However I really don’t like people attempting to say what we do and just lying about it. You know this. 2 week ban for stupidity. ]
i didnt realise you and fisiani were the same person.
I’ve never been shy about jumping into a thread
So bad it wont get a mention.
so good Stuff and the herald haven’t even mentioned it yet… /sarc
So when national cabinet ministers signed off on novopay with at least one “mission critical” target unachieved (after renegotiating it twice and possibly with six other critical targets unachieved) and all are still in cabinet, how is that consistent with the value of “Personal responsibility”?
Fisi haw-haw. Sounds catchy…
Apia Rose…
You are an idiot. Look at the history of the governments led by National and Labour. Every one of the great progressive achievements on economic and social issues were all instituted and delivered by Labour administrations because Labour represents the bulk of the society while National primarily represents the wealthy and the privileged. Fact! Open your eyes.
Labour does NOT represent the bulk of the nation and can barely hold over 31% support for the last couple of years, even as the economic situation gets grimmer and grimmer, and 300,000 kids live in poverty.
The polling figures and support may be low, but the policies and programmes of Labour help the bulk of the country, the workers, the families and ordinary people. That is the point.
(speaking to the lies from fisi.)
..the greens are going into the election promising tax cuts..
..but don’t let facts get in the way of yr steaming-bullshit-fantasies….eh..?
and ‘sustainable development’..eh..?..national admit their policies will see out emissions increase by 50% over the next decade..
..and drill-baby-drill..!..mine-baby-mine..!..eh..?
..so that’s more steaming-bullshit from you..isn’t it..?
..and for ‘competitive-enterprise’..read ‘corporate-welfare’..for ‘friends-of-national’..
..so that’s three for three…eh..?
..you really are fucken full of it..aren’t ya..?
Granny herald reports today…
Former National Business Review owner Barry Colman recently gave over $50,000 to the National Party in what is the wealthy publisher’s first contribution to the party that’s required to be disclosed.
Mr Colman paid $50,000 to the party earlier this month, on top of previous donations of $600 and $1520 in recent months according to recent filings of party donations over $30,000 on the Electoral Commission’s website.
Mr Colman’s previous donations to National were revealed in journalist Nicky Hager’s book the Hollow Men but were done in a way that didn’t require disclosure at the time.
The website also shows Conservative Party Leader Colin Craig sank a further $100,000 into his party earlier this month taking his total donations since the last election to $876,000.
He has said he intends funding the bulk of his party’s projected $1.5 million campaign costs.
A donation of just under $1.7 million shortly after the last election was the write-off of loans he made to the party during its 2011 election campaign.
NEWSFLASH! Barry Corbett is now OPPOSED to knife attacks
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Monday 16 June 2014
Jim Mora, Barry Corbett, Finlay Macdonald
One night in January 2008, a Manurewa resident called Bruce Emery took a knife in his hand and chased 15-year-old Pihema Cameron down a street. Pihema Cameron, a Māori, had been tagging the fence of Emery, a Pākehā. When Emery caught the boy, he stabbed him repeatedly. The killing was shocking, and was regarded with horror and condemned by all decent people. But a significant and shameless minority took the opportunity to praise the killer. The leading cheerleaders for this exercise in depravity were most—not all, but most—of the hosts on the notorious right wing radio station NewstalkZB, who ran a campaign of denigration, night after night after night, for months on end, against the dead boy and his family. They took their lines almost verbatim from the demonic partnership of Emery’s lawyer Chris Comesky and the Sensible Sentencing Trust’s Imperial Wizard Garth “The Knife” McVicar, who insisted truculently that the killer was a “decent citizen” who had been pushed over the brink by the low-life scum that infested his neighbourhood.
The brutal campaign even made it onto National Radio for a short time. The day after the killing of Pihema Cameron, Christchurch city councillor Barry Corbett expressed his concern and sympathy—not for the victim, but for the killer. A chorus of outrage led to Corbett making a vapid apology, and a mealy-mouthed “clarification” of his statement.
But no disciplinary action of any kind was taken against him by Radio New Zealand. Bomber Bradbury was permanently banned after committing the monumental crime of criticizing the behaviour of the Prime Minister—but Corbett, who actually spoke out in favour of a knife-killer, faced no such sanctions, and indeed has continued to regularly appear on The Panel.
As anyone who listened to today’s show will have noted, Corbett is as vacuous and reactionary as ever, and judging by his unstinting support for the thuggish behaviour by a security guard at the football in Dunedin on Saturday night, he still supports extremely violent behaviour. But he seems to have somewhat lost his enthusiasm for knife attacks.
Just to show him that some of us haven’t forgotten what Corbett said six years ago, I sent Jim Mora the following….
Barry Corbett’s dishonesty and hypocrisy
Dear Jim,
Barry Corbett predictably came out in support of that brutal hit on the streaker. But he claimed that the violence happened because the victim “stopped suddenly”. In fact, the victim was standing still for some time before the security guard hit him. Corbett’s words were entirely misleading; whether or not they were deliberately misleading is not clear.
It’s perfectly acceptable for Corbett to voice his endorsement of a high-velocity assault on an unsighted man—but he is not entitled to his own facts.
It was also intriguing to hear Barry Corbett try to bolster his argument by invoking the stabbing of Monica Seles by a crazed spectator. What a difference to Corbett’s attitude in 2008, when he loudly spoke out in FAVOUR of the frenzied knife-killing of a teenage boy in Auckland.
Yours in concern at the quality of your guests,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
At 5:07 p.m. I received the following reply:
Thank you Morrissey; when Barry mentioned that the streaker had been on the move I wished I’d looked at the video again. Jim
Moz, while Corbett was clearly lying when he claimed to have watched the video several times and that he was convinced the security guard couldn’t have pulled out of the ‘tackle’, you don’t don’t do yourself any favours by referring to the Emery stabbing as frenzied or repeated. It was a single stab wound, and did not penetrate the full length of the blade. That fact is probably what saved Emery from an otherwise deserved murder conviction.
Moz, …you don’t don’t do yourself any favours by referring to the Emery stabbing as frenzied or repeated. It was a single stab wound, and did not penetrate the full length of the blade. That fact is probably what saved Emery from an otherwise deserved murder conviction.
Thanks for that, Te Reo. I guess I’ve just gotten into the pattern of describing it as a frenzied killing because no one has bothered to correct me before, and it’s become a pat formula by now. As you point out, it does no good to anyone to exaggerate like I have done here.
Anyway, it’s not Emery that disgusts me about this whole sordid business. Certainly, he committed a violent act, but he was remorseful and there seems to be little or no likelihood he will do it again. His vicious and cynical cheerleaders on the other hand, like Corbett, McVicar, Larry “Lackwit” Williams, Bruce Russell, “Whaleoil” and the rest of them, are beneath contempt.
It gives me a slight degree of pleasure to note that Emery’s rotten lawyer, Chris Comeskey, was eventually struck off for corrupt practices, and is now selling false teeth in the Australian outback.
Nicely put, mon ami. And good news about Comeskey; a laugh out loud bit of imagery that one!
Watch the tide turning on the “dietary fat is bad” mantra of the past handful of decades. Time magazine has front paged that the scientists were wrong, but appears to lay correct blame on the politicians and media who manufactured the mantra in the first place in the actual article (which is behind a paywall).
http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/commentary-time-magazine-pushes-fat-myths-offers-mea-culpa-in-2014/22899
tl;dr dietary fat does not cause heart disease, obesity etc, refined carbohyrdates do. If you want to eat fat, eat it with veges not carbs.
And what about the bloody statins
Western conventional medicine, great when you are in a crisis, ranges from merely passable to crap every other instance.
still better than the alternatives.
Nah you’re wrong, and the reason that you are wrong is a fat probability tail of iatrogenics.
based on more evidence.
You know what they call alternative and complementary medicines that have evidence of efficacy? “Medicine”.
That would explain why Cam on Pubmed exists 🙄
Sarcasm aside, your statement is still wrong. Medical science has its own set of flaws, both in terms of bias/corruption, and the mere fact that it can’t study everything. It also lacks the capacity to study things that fall outside its current models of understanding. There is evidence of many things that have never been studied. To say that the only valid medicine is that which has been through an RCT is daft beyond belief.
On the other hand, you are right, it’s all medicine, which is why there are such things as herbal medicine, or medicine wo/men ;-p
CV, you do medicine a disservice. It’s not just iatrogenesis that makes McFlock wrong, it’s that many alternatives models work better than mainstream ones 😉
Yeah. That’s why lifespan has plummeted since scientific medical research started.
Get your facts right. Increasing lifespan coincides with raised standards of living (better shelter, less over-crowding, better hygiene, better diet etc). Obviously medical science has helped on some areas, but much of the improvement is down to coal, gas and oil.
The irony of course is that had we combined alternative and mainstream approaches (the smart thing to do) we would have much better outcomes and would haven’t major fuckups like MRSA within half a century of the discovery of penicillin.
Also, income levels as an independent factor separate from better access to healthcare or nutrition, is also a noted factor in improving longevity.
As you have so aptly described, it’s nothing to do with the myth (i.e. conceit) that modern scientific medicine has been the major demographic explanation to living longer.
But as income levels fall across the world, we can expect this to reverse as well.
Of course for individuals or very specific populations, modern medicine is indeed a life saver. But on a population basis, taking into account benefits as well as iatrogenesis and adverse effects, it doesn’t work out wholly positively.
who the fuck said “wholly positively”? It’s just a lot better than burning sage.
Perhaps marginally so, except burning sage doesn’t screw you over with a limb losing hospital acquired infection (that’s the fat tail downside I’ve been mentioning).
until you burn the house down 🙂
night night
“Some areas”.
Like everything from infant mortality to geriatric care.
MRSA? I’d rather cut myself shaving today than in 1900. Much less risky.
The move from cut-throats to safety razors are what has prevented the most infections from shaving cuts since 1900. That’s health benefits due to industrial design and product technology improvement, in other words. Not medical care or antibiotics.
Just another little example of how medical care may have had some minor positive impact, but much less than other often overlooked non-medical factors.
what bollocks.
Have to agree with CV on the statins McFlock. There should be some very red faces and big bloody lawsuits over the whole dietary fat = high cholestorol = heart diseases/diabetes thing. Anyone that values science should be appalled at what has been done with both the advice on diet, and the prescribing of statins.
Start with the link above, or Gary Taubes’ NYT article ‘What if it’s all been a big fat lie?’ and follow the trail.
read. Meh.
My point is that I don’t particularly give a shit that science progresses and maybe changes direction in some cases. That’s how it works. And corporate involvement is a major kick in the nuts to scientific advancement.
But the fact remains that more evidence eventually overrules corporate influence. Asbestos, lead in fuel, CFCs, car safety – all evidence overcoming corporate influence.
So on balance, I won’t be suddenly giving medical-doctor-grade credibility to a certified pyramid therapiser who thinks tying a cat to my head will cure my cancer.
Calling modern primary care medicine “merely passable to crap” is just a fucking lie. It’s a lot better, as I said, than the alternatives that had us rebalancing humours or praying.
You obviously haven’t read. This isn’t about science progresseing and perhaps changing direction, unless you call an about turn progress. When Ancel Keys pushed the fat hypothesis, scientists at the time said he was wrong. Politicians followed the Keys’ line and then subsequent science fucked up. For decades. We now have 30 or 40 years of people having been given the wrong advice and this having led to a public health epidemic. You can downplay it all you like, but it just makes you look like a fundamentalist when the evidence is there to see. I’m kind of gobsmacked at your dismissal of the fat hypothesis issue given your involvement in public health promotion.
As for your criticism of alternative health, if you think this is about a certified pyramid therapiser, then you’re either incredibly ignorant, or extremely disingenuous. I’d actually go for the former because you come across as generally balanced in your understanding of information. The same fundy arguments you use were previously used against things like acupuncture that are now routinely available in the mainstream. It’s ok though, because thankfully people are still free to choose alternatives and don’t have to wait for the sanctioning from medical science when other bodies of knowledge are already leading the way.
Something for you weka
Oct 4, 2010.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/lies-damned-lies-and-medical-science/308269/
sort of proves my point.
What was the reason for why it’s now routinely available in the mainstream? I seem to recall something about studies on its effectiveness…
Studies which were preceded by practitioners practicing competently within their own body of knowledge and patients going to acupuncturists and medical doctors seeing that their patients were getting better and eventually studies being done. Which kind of proves my point: medical science drags the chain on this, alternative medicine leads the way. If medical science wasn’t so full of itself, we would be a lot further along.
But until those studies were done, acupuncture was indistinguishable from whatever therapy steve jobs chose to delay actual treatment for.
Consider this analogy:
in front of me is a plate of small granules. There are slight differences in colour, shape and texture. Some granule types are a wonder food that will cure my ills and make me an Adonis. Other granule types don’t do a damned thing. A third type might actually slowly kill me. A variety of folk with varying degrees of eye-glaze insist that different granules are the wonder food.
Fuck ’em all. I’ll wait for the evidence.
Oh FFS McFlock, what % of primary care medicine procedures are evidenced based on RCTs on meta-analyses?
25%? If you are lucky?
By your own standards you should be calling for 75% of primary care medicine to be ditched, right here, right now.
cite pls.
Do your own research. Like try and find out how much proven benefit an annual medical check provides (clue: next to none) vs how many doctors keep doing them.
whatever, dude. You made the assertion.
But I suppose that suggesting an assertion without evidence means I should just believe you is good enough for someone who thinks medicine doesn’t need evidence.
Edit: I’m off to bed.
Easy way out.
Well, yeah. I’m not going to support his assertions for him when I don’t have any basis to believe them in the first place.
Anybody esss wotchin Kemble Loive tunoite?
Re chasing Crims and the devasshun on ear mota ways?
Tork abeart stupudityt fuck!
We shud be fankful thet the only thung thet saves us from devastayshun is thet the crims (crumbs) are a wee bit fucker than the Police! )Or Please es Greffie calls ’em)
( Ans of course they’ve got the likes of Jude, en Greg, en an “Indy” Please Kwoiry Thority ta bek em all up.
mmmm – that 3rd whurl bolt hole is looking more trektuv by the day goan forwid (especially knowing Key and Co hav it nex on their genda to cum grovling for FTA’s and the like loik.
[loik loik hoik hoik)
I really should be thinking farts and funnies – except that it’s ekshully quite serious (goan forwid).
20 – 30 years ago when I used to have to attend the dad-in-laws Saturfay morning Gardeninf Sess in the local – listening him reminisce about Al Alamein and various other campaigns – and the individuals barious legacies in the Nu Zull Please, I never expected I’d have to be laughing like fuck about their 21st legacy of cowardice, lying, woosiness, – you frikken name it.
Gref Fuckn O’Connor eh? (I mean JUST for starters!)
Pardon the fuk fingers
‘g’s ken pear es ‘f’s en the loik – but you get the idea.
I’ve not changed the channel (3), and I’m now witnessing another round of stupid.
I feel really sorry for Joe Average policeman! Really I do. Their own worst enema is their supposed representative and foreskin of their welfare (Greg).
Oh well …. more fool ’em eh?
Good shit OWT – I couldn’t understand a lot of it but you know most of our communications are non-verbal so… and I enjoyed trying to understand it.
Minister officially a waste of time and space…says same minister. 🙂
“Ms Adams said her Government had said all it needed to and she did not believe talking in person would add any weight to their arguments.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/247309/dismay-at-criticism-of-auckland-plan
fisianis said he was going and not coming back.
did hooton get an order from crosby textor to keep sending this machine manufacted crap down the line.
national only believes in one thing and that is ling their own pockets.
John Key charged at the Auckland District Court with Conspiring to defeat justice.
lol wow.
Anyone else I’d say they were overreaching. McCready though – he’s as unpredictable success-wise as Winston Peters 🙂
I can here the shredders buzzing, the hard drive being nuked on the 9th floor from here
Conspiring to defeat justice
Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years who conspires to obstruct, prevent, pervert, or defeat the course of justice in New Zealand or the course of justice in an overseas jurisdiction.
Compare: 1908 No 32 s 137
Section 116: amended, on 18 June 2002, by section 6(1) of the Crimes Amendment Act 2002 (2002 No 20).
Enjoying the world cup ?
a lot of Brazilians certainly are not !
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/video