Bill yesterday gave Grant Robertson the nick name “log jam”, I suppose for holding the balance of votes on whether or not there is a change in Labour Leadership before Conference. I hope that Robertson can see that the only way to ensure a Labour victory in 2014 is to get agreement amongst his colleagues that a change in leadership is needed and is needed now. Shearer should be assured that there is a Cabinet post waiting for him in 2014 in any new Labour govt. Stepping down is the smart move and would be respected throughout the party as a move with Labour’s best interests at heart.
Prefer they did what is right by the majority of people of this country, forget doing what’s right by the co-opted party, of which Robertson, is one who has been, co-opted!
So much to twist those rubber arms of his with, he won’t have his grubby mitts out of the cookie jar, anytime soon!
@ CV
I’ve never considered the possibility of Shearer standing down of his own volition for the good of the country. It would indeed be; “the smart move and would be respected throughout the party as a move with Labour’s best interests at heart”, which I guess is why it seems so unlikely.
Would Robertson then become leader permanently (barring a challenge by 40% of caucus)? Or would there be an automatic vote for new leader with Robertson holding interim authority? Either way would seem to be Robertson’s last best chance of becoming leader. A better scenario than Goff pulling a Rudd anyway.
@ Muzza
I too would: “Prefer they did what is right [left?] by the majority of people of this country, forget doing what’s right by the co-opted party”. But I’m not a member of the party so even if there is a leadership vote, won’t be having a say in it.
Now that there has been a change in Australia Labor, it would be opportune to think again about change here. There’s still time and if an approach as CV referred to, was followed, then I think there would be an exponential rise, with the mood in the country about the NACTs and Key as unhappy as it is.
Get over it , your’e all playing into the rights hand. Gower and Garner are stirring so that in the unlikelyhood of a spill they can claim you heard it from them first, dishonest and despicable.Also they are probably on a promise of some sort.
There is NOT 40% of caucus who want a blood-on-the-floor shit-fight over leadership to start with so it is never going to get any traction before the next election so STFU and work to win in ’14. P.s no personal agenda , I favoured and argued for DC but this have sufficient maturity to go with the decision made under the rules as the stood at the time.
And you bypass those of us that don’t particularly care about the leadership issue until you get some policies that are more left and help both those at the bottom and workers.
State housing
A decent increase in minimum wage
Increased taxation
Increased benefit rates
A general wage order for those earning under $50,000
8 hour working day, 40 hour working week
Government jobs to both take back work the government used to do and to create jobs
Universal FB so you stop pitting one set of parents against the other
Decent bus and rail services with decent bus depots to pick up and drop off passengers
Seems to me that Shearer is just incompetent enough to have an enormous ego/ overblown sense of his own importance. I think that’s something the jokers who put him in as a short term patsy overlooked. He won’t jump. He has a position and he’s entitled duntyaknow…he’s the ‘big man’.
It’s come out time and time again when he speaks. If it’s policy or opinion he’s vague. If it’s to do with himpreserving his position, he’s focussed and assertive.
Sounds like the Peter Principle might have some relevance here – this from The Peter Principle on google –
In the article Inverse Promotions…
’employees continue to win promotions until they reach a level where they simply cannot do the work required of that position. These employees end up desperately unhappy, struggling to survive and at the same time costing the company money in lost productivity, lowered morale, and less innovation.” Because of the high cost of [that] smart managers look for ways to beat The Peter Principle.’
@Bill comments ‘If it’s policy or opinion he’s vague. If it’s to do with himpreserving his position, he’s focussed and assertive.’
That fits in with the unhappy person and having less innovation from them. These are comments made about moving on from that situation:
1 Demoting people who have reached their level of incompetence may sound harsh, but it is often the only way. And it can be a win-win situation, because the individual who is at their level of incompetence isn’t happy there….
2 …With each promotion the person has to give up some of the things they have done before and take on new tasks, responsibilities and perspectives (including work values). What they did before will not ensure their success in the present. However, if the person doesn’t get good mentoring, training and a manager who can support the shift, they are not given the tools to succeed.
Is Shearer receptive to advice and retraining? He isn’t now a little king of aid distribution and development with clear activities to improve the lot of people needing bottom-up assistance – our needs are as pressing, but come from a base that’s more complex, further up the development hierarchy.
I think Labour is so effed up that they don’t stand a chance in 2014 no matter who the leader is.
The party needs a damn good clean out, starting with the retirements of Goff, King and Mallard and continuing on to the rest of the spiteful idiots who put their own self-interest above the interests of the party and the country.
At this point I’d prefer a placeholder leader who does enough to keep up-and-coming talent in Parliament but then gets the boot along with the other deadwood after the election. Then bring in a new broom to knock the party into shape and win in 2017.
Wrong Blue.
Planning to loose is not an option.
Under the right leader we can win.
The third iteration of an Interim leader is not an option. The party will collapse/split.
Cunliffe was ready to be leader last year and he still is.
What has happened since the last Conference?
1. The ABCs have lost currency, massively.
2. Cunliffe has gained massively
3. The Gap between the Party (members and Councils) has exploded to untenable proportions.
Since the last conference, Cunliffe has lost one caucus supporter – Charles Chauvel, and is about to lose another – Lianne Dalziel. He didn’t have the numbers even with their votes and having lost them now is the final blow to his leadership ambitions.
Down two MPs on his side is certainly a major blow. Which is why keeping his head down, acting as an excellent electorate MP, and letting all of this mess blow past in 2014 is also a good one.
“1. The ABCs have lost currency, massively.
2. Cunliffe has gained massively
3. The Gap between the Party (members and Councils) has exploded to untenable proportions.”
1: Nah, not massively. They remain in control of caucus and senior party leadership. And will do at least until the election.
2: After the flop at conference last year, Cunliffe is not going to be leader any time soon. His support within caucus has collapsed and there is no mechanism to test his support in the wider party. Otheer options will leave him as just a footnote in history, I’m afraid.
3: There’s no evidence of the gap ‘exploding’. There aren’t mass resignations, for example and the recent by-election had a solid turnout of volunteers. So, no, I don’t think you’re right there.
I notice you didn’t mention Shearer even once in your analysis 😉
With the status quo in place Labour has two possible outcomes in 2014 – a loss (which I currently see as being fairly likely) or a one term Shearer as PM government.
Well, as I’ve said before, CV, the less we hear from (or about) Shearer, the better Labour’s chances of victory! I heard some commentator on the radio making the point that he is almost untouchable in caucus now, given that no other candidate has any where near the numbers to win a ballot. We are stuck with him unless the poll numbers drop dramatically and the current crop of MP’s start to feel that their own jobs are on the line. Most seem to be OK with limping to victory, when we should be romping home.
“With the status quo in place Labour has two possible outcomes in 2014 – a loss (which I currently see as being fairly likely) or a one term Shearer as PM government.”
What you neglect to say CV, is that IF it’s a loss – it’s the demise of the Labour Party as we, and any other factions – sentimentalists et al, currently know it.
Still – if it comes down to that – there’ll be 4 or 5 egotists that will go down in history as being responsible. (And so much for their 15 minutes of fame – cudda shudda wudda not be in their shoes)
1. Goff Cosgrave King have lost the respect of MPs and Party for their attendance at the Skybox. Jones Goff n others alienated everyone in the party with their words on the ManBan.
2. Cunliffe is smelling of roses and the contrast of his profile with that of the ABC rump would have won him Caucus support IMHO.
3. Either you have not met with party activists lately or the ones you meet are fobbing you off for some reason. The support for the leaders in the party itself is close to single digits.
We will not resign. We believe we can win. It is our party. We will appoint a new leader.
No offence, but using words and phrases like ‘massively’ and ‘alienated everyone’ isn’t helping your argument. There is no way to quantify whether you are right or wrong, short of a party wide ballot. And that isn’t go to happen. Shearer, and, by extension, the ABCers, are going to lead us into the next election for better or worse.
It’s over for Cunliffe after the hamfisted constitutional change last year, which actually destroyed his chances, rather than enhancing them. This time last year, there were only two leadership possibilities, Cunliffe and Shearer. Now, Cunliffe is just one name among many and his support in caucus has dwindled to match the new reality. He’s not smelling of roses, he’s smelling of tumbleweed.
Now that’s tough to write, because DC would have been my preferred leader. But life and politics move on. If Shearer does go for some reason, it won’t be Cunliffe that takes over. Me, I’d go for Little because he likes a good argument, comes across fine on telly and isn’t afraid to promote left wing policies. Labour under Little would bolt home in the next election. But, I guess we have to settle for a one or two seat majority under Shearer instead.
…But it’s not just that: it’s that much of what’s written online is better. To take Ashleigh Young’s points a little further: one of the best essays of the decade, on the national event of the decade, was written on a blog; the best columnist in the country is a blogger; the best political commentary (as opposed to reporting) is to be found online, on sites too numerous to mention. Poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction thrive on the New Zealand web. While it is sometimes not as polished or technically accomplished, or the product of what Wilson would likely regard as our ‘top writers’, I would strongly argue that these kinds of online writing are consistently bolder, hence more relevant, than what one reads in print.
(Lest this claim is turned into a strawman: there are, of course, exceptions going both ways. But my single main complaint is this: that in spite of the book pages and the talent available to our mainstream magazines, together they give the picture of a country with little or no intellectual ferment, that runs on self-satisfaction, as if metaphorically stuck on page 94 of The Listener, listening to Bill Ralston drone on about ‘life’. Whilst with all its flaws the country that one can piece together from the blogs and the independent journals and magazine is, if absolutely nothing else, alive.)
On this grim midwinter’s day, I’d like to say a big THANK YOU to the writers. From the bottom of my heart.
“Kim Dotcom claims the Prime Minister wants to change the law to make GCSB spying on him lawful. John Key claims it would still be illegal for the GCSB to spy on him under proposed changes to the GCSB law.Political editor Audrey Young sets out here who is right after talking to Wellington lawyer and blogger Graeme Edgeler about the law.”
And further down in the article
“They can’t both be right, can they?
The verdict is that Key would be right if the exact same circumstances were applied, but Dotcom could also be right under certain circumstances…..”
Language used further down in the article continues in the same vein – eg “the fact is’ etc.
The article provides useful analysis of the two points of view – but IMO should have been presented as an opinion – not a judgment.
Meantime, with the deadline of 26 July looming for the Bill to be reported back to Parliament, the Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee is enjoying a week’s holiday in Singapore with his family – and presumably his Dip Corp police minders.
EDIT – bold in the above quotes for Young’s article are mine.
…
Both arguments are simply unprincipled, moralistic and emotive appeals, with no place in any of this. They fail to recognise that governments cannot and should not be trusted.
We don’t elect them on trust, although they think we do. We elect them to govern competently and to be accountable.
Where does it say that we have agreed to other people listening in on our calls or looking at text messages and emails? Not even the carrier is permitted to do that. Even where the target is metadata, which simply means the fact of communication, from who to whom, when and for how long but without content, it is still a gross invasion of privacy. Why on earth should anyone be allowed to collect that?
“What is it about, then? Somehow, one of our nation’s two great parties has become infected by an almost pathological meanspiritedness, a contempt for what CNBC’s Rick Santelli, in the famous rant that launched the Tea Party, called “losers.” If you’re an American, and you’re down on your luck, these people don’t want to help; they want to give you an extra kick. I don’t fully understand it, but it’s a terrible thing to behold”
Paul Krugman NYT
It seems the ‘right’ is following the same path here in NZ with latest ‘welfare’ rules.
I got a negative tip within seconds of posting the above guess where 🙂
Larger than life Government Minister Gerry Brownlee is reported in the Herald on-line this morning as being unhappy that Parliamentary security staff used a ‘sniff test’ to declare an envelope of ‘white powder’ sent to the Minister’s office to be safe,
Gerry says that the security guard simply sniffed the contents of the envelope declaring it to be filled with washing powder and that this was a ‘micky mouse’ system of testing,
For health and safety in employment reasons i tend to agree with the Minister and Parliamentary security should have told Brownlee to stick His own nose in the envelope so as to ascertain the nature of it’s contents…
Brownlee sounded like a bully on nine to noon this morning when talking about transport funding in Akl. Katherine Ryan, Tory though she clearly is, is starting to do a much better job with her interviews. Maybe she has been taking lessons from Kim Hill/Mary Wilson.
Love this!….practical Parliamentary Security Guard puts ‘terrorism’ scaremongering in perspective… Suspicious envelope?…..no problem! …try the ‘sniff test’…ah “just washing powder ” …move it right along …
Conclusion: No need for the ‘micky mouse’ GCSB snoop bill.
This piece of handy work must considerably lessen Morrison’s chances at the mayoralty. Just hope the people of Wellington get to see properly what sort of a guy Morrison really is so they can decide whether they want an underhand lying piece of slime in charge of the council: “Yes we will get rid of Garry [but we will say to him] you will survive…we will keep you”.
Thanks for that link, Mary. I have not taken much interest in the ‘race’ as yet, despite being a Wellintonian. But that has given me an insight into who I won’t be voting for.
PUBLIC NOTICE
We consider John “Mystery” Morrison to be a tiresome dunce who labours under the impression he is “droll” and even “witty”. He is, in fact, neither.
John “Mystery” Morrison is a shame and a curse and an embarrassment and a blight on all those whose names begin with MOR.
We urge the citizens of Wellington to NOT vote for this unfunny, witless, right wing drone.
We herewith condemn this fool to the dustbin of history.
Signed:
Jim Mora (Auckland)
Morrissey Breen (Northcote Point)
Morgan Freeman (Santa Monica, California)
Benny Morris (Be’er Sheva, Israel)
Morris Gleitzman (Sydney)
Morton Downey Jr. (New York City)
Mohamed Morsi (somewhere in Cairo)
Morrin Rout (Christchurch)
Mork (Ork)
Morwenna Banks (London)
Moriah Corey
There was simply not enough demand for goods and services produced by Auckland firms for many to be taking on staff, with 73.8 per cent reporting demand as the main constraint
Um, yeah, and there will be more of this, as the great sucking sounds of crushing debt repayments/gauged profits, remove even greater amounts of cash and energy!
Still, should force wages lower while ensuring that people in jobs, will work even longer hours out of fear, added bonus of people being knocked off early by primary and secondary effects!
Life has really improved for blacks during a black Presidency, hasn’t it.
Indeed. A president who inserts long chunks of Martin Luther King’s oratory into his own speeches, and who insists that Nelson Mandela “inspired” him. He’s doing a great job, all right.
“In short, the Right treats humanity like cattle and individual human-beings like princes, while the Left loves humanity with a passion but treats individuals like shit.”
Run away, dopey. None of us has forgotten your bloodthirsty statements of support for mass killings in Gaza. Why are you pretending to be concerned about the killing of one young man in America?
I’m calling bullshit on this Herald article which claims that a former invalid’s beneficiary is $30 – $40 down since she took a 25 hour a week job. It says that although her income is higher, her accommodation and disability allowance have been cut off.
The article makes it clear that she is still significantly disabled (the reason she is not working fulltime) and makes no mention of suddenly lower income costs, so why would she lose these two benefits which are available to all low income citizens?
This particular myth is a big favourite with the talkback taliban, that benefit levels are so high that workers get less money than beneficiaries, when in fact, the top-ups like AS are keeping a large part of the paid workforce afloat (some of them at higher rates if memory serves).
Has something changed, or have I misunderstood something, or is this article pure dog-whistle hate speech designed to settle any qualms that those amongst the comfortably off in possession of a consicence might be starting to feel about the latest chapter in what amounts to a terror campaign against beneficiaries?
Sure transport, clothes etc. But are you saying that low income working people cannot qualify for the accommodation supplement or the disability allowance?
WINZ take off things like AS or DA if your getting it before they cut into your benefit if she cancelled her benefit she get the AS and DA back since the cut off for them is a lot higher than main benefits but would she be better off doing that properly not.
Yeah, there is something very wrong with that story. She should be getting DA and AS still. WINZ’s response is to a completely different issue (the trial where she kept her IB for a period of time).
If you’re on an invalids benefit (as it was called just the other day) then you’re also entitled to accomm.benefit and disability allowance – if you can prove poverty/extreme hardship. But when you get a job – even a part-time job – I’m pretty sure the accom.benefit gets cut. So that, by the time the person has paid for bus fares, whatever to get to work, and you deduct the accom.benefit – its quite possible the person has less in the hand to pay rent, food, power, etc etc – than if they’d stayed solely on the invalids benefit plus accom and disability allowances.
I’ve just tried going thru the WINZ calculator to work out if that is what happens, but its not at all clear.
Does anyone else know ?
I understood that qualification for DA and AS were determined by disability and accomodation costs according to a standard formula, (for those on a low enough income which she surely is).
There’s nothing in that story that suggests her costs have reduced.
edit: btw, being on a benefit does not necessarily qualify a beneficiary for DA or AS. They have to demonstrate a particular level of costs to qualify, as do, or so I understood, low-paid workers.
Ta Weka,
Just as I thought, she is well below the income threshold for both the AS and the DA for non-beneficiaries, yet the article gives no explanation for their being discontinued.
I notice there are no comments allowed, unlike the articles where a beneficiary is saying his or her benefit is inadequate for his or her needs which are like the opening day of duck shooting season, for right wing arseholes.
“Ha ha ha ha! They can’t get RID of him!”
Snickering and guffawing at the victims of state vengeance The Panel, Radio NZ National, Tuesday 16 July 2013
Noelle McCarthy, Linda Clark, Tony Doe
NOELLE McCARTHY: Good afternoon to Linda Clark in Wellington! LINDA CLARK: Oh good afternoon! Ha ha ha ha ha! I’ve just come up to the studio in Radio New Zealand’s new lift! They’re spending some serious money on this place! There’s a new mural in the foyer! There’s a g-r-r-r-r-reat view of Wellington! ZOE FERGUSON: That’s Wellington on a good day. The weather’s been so bad for the last two days that we haven’t seen any view. NOELLE McCARTHY:[grimly] Heh, heh, heh. Well someone else with not such a good view is Edward Snowden. [snicker] Looks like he’s STILL in the airport. ZOE FERGUSON: Ha ha ha ha ha! They can’t get RID of him! LINDA CLARK: Ha ha ha ha ha! NOELLE McCARTHY: All the other countries that might have taken him have been spooked by the United States. ZOE FERGUSON: And Vladimir Putin really doesn’t seem to have much of an idea at all about the whole case. TONY DOE: If he’d been required to sign an online contract, he would have just ticked the box, “Terms and Conditions”. NOELLE McCARTHY: Huh? TONY DOE: The box that says “I have read everything and understand it fully.” Only nobody does! NOELLE McCARTHY:[coldly] Oh yes. Ha ha.
…..[Awkward silence]….
NOELLE McCARTHY: And something on the impending royal birth? ZOE FERGUSON: Yes, Brits are spending more than £243 million on celebrations for the birth of William and Kate’s first child! NOELLE McCARTHY:We laugh, but that is serious money! LINDA CLARK: Incidentally, that’s the topic for The Vote on TV3 tomorrow night: “Should New Zealand ditch the Monarchy”? NOELLE McCARTHY: Sounds intriguing! Are you going to give us a preview? LINDA CLARK: Well, no, except to say that we filmed the program on Sunday evening and that Sir Robert Jones took part. And for a Knight of the Realm, he was behaving VERY badly indeed! NOELLE McCARTHY: Heh, heh, heh! Can’t wait!
Later in the program, the following highly revealing exchange took place…..
LINDA CLARK: Here I am, an intelligent woman, and yet I know EVERYTHING about the Kardashians and NOTHING about Syria! TONY DOE: You’re going to the wrong sites. You should read go to the Atlantic website. That’s really good. LINDA CLARK: Well, I get the New Yorker in hard copy at home, and that’s my long read.
A visiting economist has accused Finance Minister Bill English of “bullying” and “menace” after a heated encounter in a TV studio.
Professor Robert Wade of the London School of Economics said Mr English made a stabbing motion with his finger towards his chest and berated him in between their separate appearances on TVNZ’s Q+A programme at the weekend. There was no physical contact.
Mr English disagreed with his remarks on inequality and capital gains tax and told him: “Don’t you say that again”, Prof Wade said.
“I was surprised by the sort of menace in his voice,” the academic said yesterday. “He was like a schoolmaster and he sort of jabbed his finger in the direction of my chest like a school master wagging the finger. I just thanked him for his kind advice and proceeded on out.”
Prof Wade is on a New Zealand- wide lecture tour to promote Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis, a book to which he has contributed.
He was interviewed on the current affairs show ahead of Mr English, and asserted: “Over the past two decades or so, economic policy in the US, the UK and New Zealand has increasingly been set by the top 1 per cent or so for the top 1 per cent.”
It was this comment to which Mr English took exception – and Prof Wade says he was later told the Clutha-Southland MP “just sort of exploded like a volcano out in the anteroom”.
Bill English’s bullying of visiting academic Professor Robert Wade shows how out of touch and arrogant the National Government has become, Grant Robertson, Labour’s Deputy Leader, says.
“It’s disgraceful that the Deputy Prime Minister would make such threatening comments and gestures towards a respected academic. Using a menacing tone and saying “Don’t you say that again” is straight out bullying, and is unacceptable. On behalf of other New Zealanders I would like to apologise to Professor Wade for Bill English’s actions.
“Following on from John Key’s comments last week that appeared to threaten the Human Rights Commission’s funding after it called for an inquiry into New Zealand’s intelligence agencies, this kind of bullying is now typical of a government that is arrogant and out of touch.
The worrying thing is that English’s popularity probably rose among that section of voters who would see this as putting a pommy ivory tower academic in their place. Ironically, the same fools wouldn’t notice that government policies are worship of Friedman, Hayek, and Monckton, not to mention the disgraceful academics Paula Benefit drags over.
I see intermediate schools’ achievements on national standards is lower than that of full primary schools.
If the government still believes there is validity in these standards then can we expect Ms Parata to close down all intermediate schools forthwith? and perhaps replace them with intermediate charter schools?
I see nova pay is still having issues. For any teachers out there expecting a refund from over paid taxes then you will have to wait as from the ird as “some of your myIR online details may not be available until 31 July while we (ird) reconcile your account.”
So yet again teachers are paying the cost for this system.
Just when I thought it wasn’t going to get worse.There are so many things wrong with this I don’t know where to begin.
IS on how beneficiaries will have to pay for their own drug tests
Beneficiaries will be forced to pay for their own drug tests
When the government announced that it would be requiring beneficiaries to pass pre-employment drug-tests, I thought it was a waste of money which would cost twice as much as it was supposed to save. But the government seems to have found a way around the latter bit: they’re going to force beneficiaries to pay for the tests, and extract it from their benefits.
It’s all there in the tender document for Pre-employment Drug Testing for Work and Income Beneficiaries with Work Obligations (GETS Reference: 39654; login required). According to that,
The tender document notes that WINZ will not actually be entering into a contract with the drug-testing agency, and that they will not be demanding results directly. It will all be handled directly between the agency and the beneficiary, with WINZ acting only as a payment source via a letter of credit as required.
This differs considerably from the scheme originally described by the Minister, debated by Parliament and envisioned in the legislation. That scheme assumed that prospective employers will pay and that WINZ “may” reimburse them for failed tests (s102C(3)), and that beneficiaries would pay only if they challenge a test and fail it (s102D(9)). I am not sure if it is even legal. But it is certainly not moral. Quite apart from charging people for their own persecution, no-one should be forced to pay a charge to receive their statutory entitlements.
But this does make drug-testing a far better mechanism for throwing people off benefits. Previously, Bennett only get to evict those who couldn’t pass a test; now she’ll get to evict the debt-averse as well. Present people with an up-front charge of a weeks’ benefit or more, and some of them will decide that they can’t pay and hence “fail” the test. And who cares what ultimately happens to them? What’s important for the government’s re-election is to get those benefit numbers down (and donations from drug-testing agencies grateful at being funnelled benefit money won’t hurt).
This is a vile policy. But isn’t it so very, very National?
AFAIK testing locally is carried out on employers premises so it’ll be interesting to see details of how and particularly where it’ll be done in the provinces.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some businessman very close to the NAct government was importing the drug testing kits. Seems to be how things work in our kumara republic these days.
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You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
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This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
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Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
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1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
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The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
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Bill yesterday gave Grant Robertson the nick name “log jam”, I suppose for holding the balance of votes on whether or not there is a change in Labour Leadership before Conference. I hope that Robertson can see that the only way to ensure a Labour victory in 2014 is to get agreement amongst his colleagues that a change in leadership is needed and is needed now. Shearer should be assured that there is a Cabinet post waiting for him in 2014 in any new Labour govt. Stepping down is the smart move and would be respected throughout the party as a move with Labour’s best interests at heart.
Prefer they did what is right by the majority of people of this country, forget doing what’s right by the co-opted party, of which Robertson, is one who has been, co-opted!
So much to twist those rubber arms of his with, he won’t have his grubby mitts out of the cookie jar, anytime soon!
@ CV
I’ve never considered the possibility of Shearer standing down of his own volition for the good of the country. It would indeed be; “the smart move and would be respected throughout the party as a move with Labour’s best interests at heart”, which I guess is why it seems so unlikely.
Would Robertson then become leader permanently (barring a challenge by 40% of caucus)? Or would there be an automatic vote for new leader with Robertson holding interim authority? Either way would seem to be Robertson’s last best chance of becoming leader. A better scenario than Goff pulling a Rudd anyway.
@ Muzza
I too would: “Prefer they did what is right [left?] by the majority of people of this country, forget doing what’s right by the co-opted party”. But I’m not a member of the party so even if there is a leadership vote, won’t be having a say in it.
Now that there has been a change in Australia Labor, it would be opportune to think again about change here. There’s still time and if an approach as CV referred to, was followed, then I think there would be an exponential rise, with the mood in the country about the NACTs and Key as unhappy as it is.
No need for David Shearer to consider the possibility of resigning the leadership. He needs to appear firmer, that’s all.
lolz
Get over it , your’e all playing into the rights hand. Gower and Garner are stirring so that in the unlikelyhood of a spill they can claim you heard it from them first, dishonest and despicable.Also they are probably on a promise of some sort.
There is NOT 40% of caucus who want a blood-on-the-floor shit-fight over leadership to start with so it is never going to get any traction before the next election so STFU and work to win in ’14. P.s no personal agenda , I favoured and argued for DC but this have sufficient maturity to go with the decision made under the rules as the stood at the time.
You would actually need 50% of caucus to agree to a leadership change process, since it’s mid term and not just after an election.
It might surprise you, but a lot of Labour activists and ex-activists don’t think that this message is going to resonate with campaigning teams.
And you bypass those of us that don’t particularly care about the leadership issue until you get some policies that are more left and help both those at the bottom and workers.
State housing
A decent increase in minimum wage
Increased taxation
Increased benefit rates
A general wage order for those earning under $50,000
8 hour working day, 40 hour working week
Government jobs to both take back work the government used to do and to create jobs
Universal FB so you stop pitting one set of parents against the other
Decent bus and rail services with decent bus depots to pick up and drop off passengers
Take your pick……
All of them.
http://mana.net.nz/policy/
Aye.
Most likely where my vote will now end up.
Labour would need to seriously change their attitude away from their current policy path.
This would be the first time I won’t have voted Labour.
Seems to me that Shearer is just incompetent enough to have an enormous ego/ overblown sense of his own importance. I think that’s something the jokers who put him in as a short term patsy overlooked. He won’t jump. He has a position and he’s entitled duntyaknow…he’s the ‘big man’.
It’s come out time and time again when he speaks. If it’s policy or opinion he’s vague. If it’s to do with himpreserving his position, he’s focussed and assertive.
Sounds like the Peter Principle might have some relevance here – this from The Peter Principle on google –
In the article Inverse Promotions…
’employees continue to win promotions until they reach a level where they simply cannot do the work required of that position. These employees end up desperately unhappy, struggling to survive and at the same time costing the company money in lost productivity, lowered morale, and less innovation.” Because of the high cost of [that] smart managers look for ways to beat The Peter Principle.’
@Bill comments ‘If it’s policy or opinion he’s vague. If it’s to do with himpreserving his position, he’s focussed and assertive.’
That fits in with the unhappy person and having less innovation from them. These are comments made about moving on from that situation:
Is Shearer receptive to advice and retraining? He isn’t now a little king of aid distribution and development with clear activities to improve the lot of people needing bottom-up assistance – our needs are as pressing, but come from a base that’s more complex, further up the development hierarchy.
I think Labour is so effed up that they don’t stand a chance in 2014 no matter who the leader is.
The party needs a damn good clean out, starting with the retirements of Goff, King and Mallard and continuing on to the rest of the spiteful idiots who put their own self-interest above the interests of the party and the country.
At this point I’d prefer a placeholder leader who does enough to keep up-and-coming talent in Parliament but then gets the boot along with the other deadwood after the election. Then bring in a new broom to knock the party into shape and win in 2017.
Wrong Blue.
Planning to loose is not an option.
Under the right leader we can win.
The third iteration of an Interim leader is not an option. The party will collapse/split.
Cunliffe was ready to be leader last year and he still is.
What has happened since the last Conference?
1. The ABCs have lost currency, massively.
2. Cunliffe has gained massively
3. The Gap between the Party (members and Councils) has exploded to untenable proportions.
Shearer and Robertson will be gone in weeks.
I’m sure Gower has a letter to that effect…
Since the last conference, Cunliffe has lost one caucus supporter – Charles Chauvel, and is about to lose another – Lianne Dalziel. He didn’t have the numbers even with their votes and having lost them now is the final blow to his leadership ambitions.
Down two MPs on his side is certainly a major blow. Which is why keeping his head down, acting as an excellent electorate MP, and letting all of this mess blow past in 2014 is also a good one.
“1. The ABCs have lost currency, massively.
2. Cunliffe has gained massively
3. The Gap between the Party (members and Councils) has exploded to untenable proportions.”
1: Nah, not massively. They remain in control of caucus and senior party leadership. And will do at least until the election.
2: After the flop at conference last year, Cunliffe is not going to be leader any time soon. His support within caucus has collapsed and there is no mechanism to test his support in the wider party. Otheer options will leave him as just a footnote in history, I’m afraid.
3: There’s no evidence of the gap ‘exploding’. There aren’t mass resignations, for example and the recent by-election had a solid turnout of volunteers. So, no, I don’t think you’re right there.
I notice you didn’t mention Shearer even once in your analysis 😉
With the status quo in place Labour has two possible outcomes in 2014 – a loss (which I currently see as being fairly likely) or a one term Shearer as PM government.
Well, as I’ve said before, CV, the less we hear from (or about) Shearer, the better Labour’s chances of victory! I heard some commentator on the radio making the point that he is almost untouchable in caucus now, given that no other candidate has any where near the numbers to win a ballot. We are stuck with him unless the poll numbers drop dramatically and the current crop of MP’s start to feel that their own jobs are on the line. Most seem to be OK with limping to victory, when we should be romping home.
“With the status quo in place Labour has two possible outcomes in 2014 – a loss (which I currently see as being fairly likely) or a one term Shearer as PM government.”
What you neglect to say CV, is that IF it’s a loss – it’s the demise of the Labour Party as we, and any other factions – sentimentalists et al, currently know it.
Still – if it comes down to that – there’ll be 4 or 5 egotists that will go down in history as being responsible. (And so much for their 15 minutes of fame – cudda shudda wudda not be in their shoes)
1. Goff Cosgrave King have lost the respect of MPs and Party for their attendance at the Skybox. Jones Goff n others alienated everyone in the party with their words on the ManBan.
2. Cunliffe is smelling of roses and the contrast of his profile with that of the ABC rump would have won him Caucus support IMHO.
3. Either you have not met with party activists lately or the ones you meet are fobbing you off for some reason. The support for the leaders in the party itself is close to single digits.
We will not resign. We believe we can win. It is our party. We will appoint a new leader.
No offence, but using words and phrases like ‘massively’ and ‘alienated everyone’ isn’t helping your argument. There is no way to quantify whether you are right or wrong, short of a party wide ballot. And that isn’t go to happen. Shearer, and, by extension, the ABCers, are going to lead us into the next election for better or worse.
It’s over for Cunliffe after the hamfisted constitutional change last year, which actually destroyed his chances, rather than enhancing them. This time last year, there were only two leadership possibilities, Cunliffe and Shearer. Now, Cunliffe is just one name among many and his support in caucus has dwindled to match the new reality. He’s not smelling of roses, he’s smelling of tumbleweed.
Now that’s tough to write, because DC would have been my preferred leader. But life and politics move on. If Shearer does go for some reason, it won’t be Cunliffe that takes over. Me, I’d go for Little because he likes a good argument, comes across fine on telly and isn’t afraid to promote left wing policies. Labour under Little would bolt home in the next election. But, I guess we have to settle for a one or two seat majority under Shearer instead.
And Winston
Is it possible to put forward a remit at this years conference that states that the leadership must be voted on by the whole party process every year?
This might be a way to force a vote say in Feb 2014 and negate the effect of the ABC club?
Why do you even give a shit about a labour victory, even if you cared to define what it would be under MMP?
Winter is coming mate, for our whole civilisation.
A much better analogy than “the end is nigh”, in my opinion.
Although it does tend to add an enveloping meta-why to my original question.
big lebowski anyone?
edit – wow that’s a long way down the comments list..so much for log jam…
Yep, that was my thought, too! The alternative can be found in the urban dictionary, and it ain’t nice. But it also features laying cable, so maybe …
http://bat-bean-beam.blogspot.co.nz/2013/07/on-not-making-living.html
Giovanni Tiso (who writes like an angel).
Excerpt:
…But it’s not just that: it’s that much of what’s written online is better. To take Ashleigh Young’s points a little further: one of the best essays of the decade, on the national event of the decade, was written on a blog; the best columnist in the country is a blogger; the best political commentary (as opposed to reporting) is to be found online, on sites too numerous to mention. Poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction thrive on the New Zealand web. While it is sometimes not as polished or technically accomplished, or the product of what Wilson would likely regard as our ‘top writers’, I would strongly argue that these kinds of online writing are consistently bolder, hence more relevant, than what one reads in print.
(Lest this claim is turned into a strawman: there are, of course, exceptions going both ways. But my single main complaint is this: that in spite of the book pages and the talent available to our mainstream magazines, together they give the picture of a country with little or no intellectual ferment, that runs on self-satisfaction, as if metaphorically stuck on page 94 of The Listener, listening to Bill Ralston drone on about ‘life’. Whilst with all its flaws the country that one can piece together from the blogs and the independent journals and magazine is, if absolutely nothing else, alive.)
On this grim midwinter’s day, I’d like to say a big THANK YOU to the writers. From the bottom of my heart.
So is Audrey Young of the Herald now a judge – on the basis of only one legal opinion?*
* No disrespect to Graeme Edgeler intended.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10898501
“Kim Dotcom claims the Prime Minister wants to change the law to make GCSB spying on him lawful. John Key claims it would still be illegal for the GCSB to spy on him under proposed changes to the GCSB law.Political editor Audrey Young sets out here who is right after talking to Wellington lawyer and blogger Graeme Edgeler about the law.”
And further down in the article
“They can’t both be right, can they?
The verdict is that Key would be right if the exact same circumstances were applied, but Dotcom could also be right under certain circumstances…..”
Language used further down in the article continues in the same vein – eg “the fact is’ etc.
The article provides useful analysis of the two points of view – but IMO should have been presented as an opinion – not a judgment.
I had also been wondering about the perceived silence from the Privacy Commission on the proposed GCSB Bill. It appears that they did make a submission calling for delay as reported by the Herald here.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10898611
Meantime, with the deadline of 26 July looming for the Bill to be reported back to Parliament, the Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee is enjoying a week’s holiday in Singapore with his family – and presumably his Dip Corp police minders.
EDIT – bold in the above quotes for Young’s article are mine.
And an excellent article in the Timaru Herald today on the GCSB Bill
http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/opinion/comment/8922798/GCSB-spy-law-a-threat-to-our-freedom
…
Both arguments are simply unprincipled, moralistic and emotive appeals, with no place in any of this. They fail to recognise that governments cannot and should not be trusted.
We don’t elect them on trust, although they think we do. We elect them to govern competently and to be accountable.
Where does it say that we have agreed to other people listening in on our calls or looking at text messages and emails? Not even the carrier is permitted to do that. Even where the target is metadata, which simply means the fact of communication, from who to whom, when and for how long but without content, it is still a gross invasion of privacy. Why on earth should anyone be allowed to collect that?
[lprent: removed duplicate quote. ]
Oops – didn’t realise I had repeated the quote until after edit function time expired.
Thanks lprent. But you are supposed to be having a holiday – hope it is going well and you have the mozzies sorted.
“What is it about, then? Somehow, one of our nation’s two great parties has become infected by an almost pathological meanspiritedness, a contempt for what CNBC’s Rick Santelli, in the famous rant that launched the Tea Party, called “losers.” If you’re an American, and you’re down on your luck, these people don’t want to help; they want to give you an extra kick. I don’t fully understand it, but it’s a terrible thing to behold”
Paul Krugman NYT
It seems the ‘right’ is following the same path here in NZ with latest ‘welfare’ rules.
I got a negative tip within seconds of posting the above guess where 🙂
PK is refering to the confirmation of farming subsidies and cutting of food stamps.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/opinion/krugman-hunger-games-usa.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130715&_r=0
Larger than life Government Minister Gerry Brownlee is reported in the Herald on-line this morning as being unhappy that Parliamentary security staff used a ‘sniff test’ to declare an envelope of ‘white powder’ sent to the Minister’s office to be safe,
Gerry says that the security guard simply sniffed the contents of the envelope declaring it to be filled with washing powder and that this was a ‘micky mouse’ system of testing,
For health and safety in employment reasons i tend to agree with the Minister and Parliamentary security should have told Brownlee to stick His own nose in the envelope so as to ascertain the nature of it’s contents…
Brownlee sounded like a bully on nine to noon this morning when talking about transport funding in Akl. Katherine Ryan, Tory though she clearly is, is starting to do a much better job with her interviews. Maybe she has been taking lessons from Kim Hill/Mary Wilson.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/2562229
Maybe Brownlee wants to do a USA and fund a million dollar anti-terrorism emergency hazmat lab response team?
Kiwis getting the job done in time for a cuppa. Brilliant.
Love this!….practical Parliamentary Security Guard puts ‘terrorism’ scaremongering in perspective… Suspicious envelope?…..no problem! …try the ‘sniff test’…ah “just washing powder ” …move it right along …
Conclusion: No need for the ‘micky mouse’ GCSB snoop bill.
This piece of handy work must considerably lessen Morrison’s chances at the mayoralty. Just hope the people of Wellington get to see properly what sort of a guy Morrison really is so they can decide whether they want an underhand lying piece of slime in charge of the council: “Yes we will get rid of Garry [but we will say to him] you will survive…we will keep you”.
http://static.stuff.co.nz/files/JohnMorrisonEmail.pdf
Thanks for that link, Mary. I have not taken much interest in the ‘race’ as yet, despite being a Wellintonian. But that has given me an insight into who I won’t be voting for.
PUBLIC NOTICE
We consider John “Mystery” Morrison to be a tiresome dunce who labours under the impression he is “droll” and even “witty”. He is, in fact, neither.
John “Mystery” Morrison is a shame and a curse and an embarrassment and a blight on all those whose names begin with MOR.
We urge the citizens of Wellington to NOT vote for this unfunny, witless, right wing drone.
We herewith condemn this fool to the dustbin of history.
Signed:
Jim Mora (Auckland)
Morrissey Breen (Northcote Point)
Morgan Freeman (Santa Monica, California)
Benny Morris (Be’er Sheva, Israel)
Morris Gleitzman (Sydney)
Morton Downey Jr. (New York City)
Mohamed Morsi (somewhere in Cairo)
Morrin Rout (Christchurch)
Mork (Ork)
Morwenna Banks (London)
Moriah Corey
No Mor please 😉
How about toMORrow?
Geddit?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/auckland-city-council/news/article.cfm?o_id=13&objectid=10898558
Um, yeah, and there will be more of this, as the great sucking sounds of crushing debt repayments/gauged profits, remove even greater amounts of cash and energy!
Still, should force wages lower while ensuring that people in jobs, will work even longer hours out of fear, added bonus of people being knocked off early by primary and secondary effects!
Splendid!
Twenty years for firing a warning shot:
They’re tough on crime in Florida
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/florida-mom-marissa-alexander-serve-20-years-firing-warning-shot-while-george-zimmerman
She was black, she deserved to go to jail
Life has really improved for blacks during a black Presidency, hasn’t it.
Life has really improved for blacks during a black Presidency, hasn’t it.
Indeed. A president who inserts long chunks of Martin Luther King’s oratory into his own speeches, and who insists that Nelson Mandela “inspired” him. He’s doing a great job, all right.
MLK: I had a dream
BHO: I killed your dream
“In short, the Right treats humanity like cattle and individual human-beings like princes, while the Left loves humanity with a passion but treats individuals like shit.”
– Its one way of looking at thingass
Its one way of looking at thingass [sic]
Fool. You do nothing but repeat slogans—not very clever ones at that.
Thinking and reading is a lot harder, I know, but why don’t you give it a try?
Yes, it’s the right-wing way of looking at things otherwise known as the wrong way.
Add your name!
New York Times ad to declare: We are Bradley Manning
http://www.bradleymanning.org/featured/nyt-ad
JurorB37 currently on CNN, just wow oh wow, she makes the pakeha party
look like Te Mana.
Surly there has to be another trial?
not sure of the quote, I had just tuned in, but apparently she thinks
Zimmerman is a man with a gentle heart
I hope her book deal includes a ticket out of america.
” she makes the pakeha party look like Te Mana”
What does that mean?
I’m trying to figure that one out too.
Brett, what does it mean? Do you mean she’s a racist?
just wow oh wow
Run away, dopey. None of us has forgotten your bloodthirsty statements of support for mass killings in Gaza. Why are you pretending to be concerned about the killing of one young man in America?
Does anderson cooper have transcripts of his show?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10898604
I’m calling bullshit on this Herald article which claims that a former invalid’s beneficiary is $30 – $40 down since she took a 25 hour a week job. It says that although her income is higher, her accommodation and disability allowance have been cut off.
The article makes it clear that she is still significantly disabled (the reason she is not working fulltime) and makes no mention of suddenly lower income costs, so why would she lose these two benefits which are available to all low income citizens?
This particular myth is a big favourite with the talkback taliban, that benefit levels are so high that workers get less money than beneficiaries, when in fact, the top-ups like AS are keeping a large part of the paid workforce afloat (some of them at higher rates if memory serves).
Has something changed, or have I misunderstood something, or is this article pure dog-whistle hate speech designed to settle any qualms that those amongst the comfortably off in possession of a consicence might be starting to feel about the latest chapter in what amounts to a terror campaign against beneficiaries?
I hope MSD is getting permission to discuss clients cases with HEARLD reporters.
Yup, you can be worse off especially if you have higher than normal costs.
Sure transport, clothes etc. But are you saying that low income working people cannot qualify for the accommodation supplement or the disability allowance?
WINZ take off things like AS or DA if your getting it before they cut into your benefit if she cancelled her benefit she get the AS and DA back since the cut off for them is a lot higher than main benefits but would she be better off doing that properly not.
Yeah, there is something very wrong with that story. She should be getting DA and AS still. WINZ’s response is to a completely different issue (the trial where she kept her IB for a period of time).
I’m not so sure its bullshit, Just Saying.
If you’re on an invalids benefit (as it was called just the other day) then you’re also entitled to accomm.benefit and disability allowance – if you can prove poverty/extreme hardship. But when you get a job – even a part-time job – I’m pretty sure the accom.benefit gets cut. So that, by the time the person has paid for bus fares, whatever to get to work, and you deduct the accom.benefit – its quite possible the person has less in the hand to pay rent, food, power, etc etc – than if they’d stayed solely on the invalids benefit plus accom and disability allowances.
I’ve just tried going thru the WINZ calculator to work out if that is what happens, but its not at all clear.
Does anyone else know ?
I understood that qualification for DA and AS were determined by disability and accomodation costs according to a standard formula, (for those on a low enough income which she surely is).
There’s nothing in that story that suggests her costs have reduced.
edit: btw, being on a benefit does not necessarily qualify a beneficiary for DA or AS. They have to demonstrate a particular level of costs to qualify, as do, or so I understood, low-paid workers.
Yes js that’s my understanding of it too, the relevant factors are income and accommodation – not the source of the income.
And I’m not just agreeing with you because we’re dressed the same.
DA qualifications for non-beneficiaries (click on the income limit link)
http://www.workandincome.govt.nz/manuals-and-procedures/income_support/extra_help/disability_allowance/disability_allowance-18.htm
AS qualifications (click on non-beneficiaries link and income limit link)
http://www.workandincome.govt.nz/manuals-and-procedures/income_support/extra_help/accommodation_supplement/accommodation_supplement-01.htm
Ta Weka,
Just as I thought, she is well below the income threshold for both the AS and the DA for non-beneficiaries, yet the article gives no explanation for their being discontinued.
I notice there are no comments allowed, unlike the articles where a beneficiary is saying his or her benefit is inadequate for his or her needs which are like the opening day of duck shooting season, for right wing arseholes.
“Ha ha ha ha! They can’t get RID of him!”
Snickering and guffawing at the victims of state vengeance
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Tuesday 16 July 2013
Noelle McCarthy, Linda Clark, Tony Doe
NOELLE McCARTHY: Good afternoon to Linda Clark in Wellington!
LINDA CLARK: Oh good afternoon! Ha ha ha ha ha! I’ve just come up to the studio in Radio New Zealand’s new lift! They’re spending some serious money on this place! There’s a new mural in the foyer! There’s a g-r-r-r-r-reat view of Wellington!
ZOE FERGUSON: That’s Wellington on a good day. The weather’s been so bad for the last two days that we haven’t seen any view.
NOELLE McCARTHY: [grimly] Heh, heh, heh. Well someone else with not such a good view is Edward Snowden. [snicker] Looks like he’s STILL in the airport.
ZOE FERGUSON: Ha ha ha ha ha! They can’t get RID of him!
LINDA CLARK: Ha ha ha ha ha!
NOELLE McCARTHY: All the other countries that might have taken him have been spooked by the United States.
ZOE FERGUSON: And Vladimir Putin really doesn’t seem to have much of an idea at all about the whole case.
TONY DOE: If he’d been required to sign an online contract, he would have just ticked the box, “Terms and Conditions”.
NOELLE McCARTHY: Huh?
TONY DOE: The box that says “I have read everything and understand it fully.” Only nobody does!
NOELLE McCARTHY: [coldly] Oh yes. Ha ha.
…..[Awkward silence]….
NOELLE McCARTHY: And something on the impending royal birth?
ZOE FERGUSON: Yes, Brits are spending more than £243 million on celebrations for the birth of William and Kate’s first child!
NOELLE McCARTHY:We laugh, but that is serious money!
LINDA CLARK: Incidentally, that’s the topic for The Vote on TV3 tomorrow night: “Should New Zealand ditch the Monarchy”?
NOELLE McCARTHY: Sounds intriguing! Are you going to give us a preview?
LINDA CLARK: Well, no, except to say that we filmed the program on Sunday evening and that Sir Robert Jones took part. And for a Knight of the Realm, he was behaving VERY badly indeed!
NOELLE McCARTHY: Heh, heh, heh! Can’t wait!
Later in the program, the following highly revealing exchange took place…..
LINDA CLARK: Here I am, an intelligent woman, and yet I know EVERYTHING about the Kardashians and NOTHING about Syria!
TONY DOE: You’re going to the wrong sites. You should read go to the Atlantic website. That’s really good.
LINDA CLARK: Well, I get the New Yorker in hard copy at home, and that’s my long read.
et cetera et cetera, ad nauseam…..
Bully for you…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/8922539/English-denies-bullying-academic
Grant Robertson has written a post on it.
The worrying thing is that English’s popularity probably rose among that section of voters who would see this as putting a pommy ivory tower academic in their place. Ironically, the same fools wouldn’t notice that government policies are worship of Friedman, Hayek, and Monckton, not to mention the disgraceful academics Paula Benefit drags over.
I see intermediate schools’ achievements on national standards is lower than that of full primary schools.
If the government still believes there is validity in these standards then can we expect Ms Parata to close down all intermediate schools forthwith? and perhaps replace them with intermediate charter schools?
Linda Clark…….another of the mouthy wannabees. Never forget how she used to nearly cream herself while interviewing that fool tau henare.
I see nova pay is still having issues. For any teachers out there expecting a refund from over paid taxes then you will have to wait as from the ird as “some of your myIR online details may not be available until 31 July while we (ird) reconcile your account.”
So yet again teachers are paying the cost for this system.
I expect there’ll be more.
http://freakoutnation.com/2013/07/15/stevie-wonder-announces-he-will-not-perform-in-states-with-the-stand-your-ground-law-until-abolished/
Calling LPrent.
I’d like to nominate this small blog to the blogroll on the right:
http://www.thelittlepakeha.net/
There is some good stuff and I think the writer deserves to be included.
+1
Just when I thought it wasn’t going to get worse.There are so many things wrong with this I don’t know where to begin.
IS on how beneficiaries will have to pay for their own drug tests
Beneficiaries will be forced to pay for their own drug tests
When the government announced that it would be requiring beneficiaries to pass pre-employment drug-tests, I thought it was a waste of money which would cost twice as much as it was supposed to save. But the government seems to have found a way around the latter bit: they’re going to force beneficiaries to pay for the tests, and extract it from their benefits.
It’s all there in the tender document for Pre-employment Drug Testing for Work and Income Beneficiaries with Work Obligations (GETS Reference: 39654; login required). According to that,
WINZdrugtesting [jpeg with details] http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2013/07/beneficiaries-will-be-forced-to-pay-for.html
The tender document notes that WINZ will not actually be entering into a contract with the drug-testing agency, and that they will not be demanding results directly. It will all be handled directly between the agency and the beneficiary, with WINZ acting only as a payment source via a letter of credit as required.
This differs considerably from the scheme originally described by the Minister, debated by Parliament and envisioned in the legislation. That scheme assumed that prospective employers will pay and that WINZ “may” reimburse them for failed tests (s102C(3)), and that beneficiaries would pay only if they challenge a test and fail it (s102D(9)). I am not sure if it is even legal. But it is certainly not moral. Quite apart from charging people for their own persecution, no-one should be forced to pay a charge to receive their statutory entitlements.
But this does make drug-testing a far better mechanism for throwing people off benefits. Previously, Bennett only get to evict those who couldn’t pass a test; now she’ll get to evict the debt-averse as well. Present people with an up-front charge of a weeks’ benefit or more, and some of them will decide that they can’t pay and hence “fail” the test. And who cares what ultimately happens to them? What’s important for the government’s re-election is to get those benefit numbers down (and donations from drug-testing agencies grateful at being funnelled benefit money won’t hurt).
This is a vile policy. But isn’t it so very, very National?
AFAIK testing locally is carried out on employers premises so it’ll be interesting to see details of how and particularly where it’ll be done in the provinces.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some businessman very close to the NAct government was importing the drug testing kits. Seems to be how things work in our kumara republic these days.