Nice to see Mana displaying expected political maturity and tory annoying tactics in Waitakere. Sue Bradford is seeking party votes for Mana while endorsing Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni as electorate candidate. Sue and Carmel will hopefully give “ladder pull” Bennett a good going over in the course of the campaign.
Tory reaction via the Maori Party’s Te Tai Tokerau candidate Waihoroi Shortland was swift. Shortland has said Ms Bradford was trying to get a “free ride to Parliament on the backs of [Te Tai Tokerau] people”.
Hello shithead, it is known as MMP the system that also enables your sellout crew to be represented in parliament along with your ACT friends.
I hope that the message resonates Tiger. I would be pleased to see Sue Bradford back in Parliament via the list. She was a conscientious and capable MP. And I would really like to see Carmel win and take pseudowestie Bennett down.
I just home that Sue’s campaign does not cause too much confusion.
Now all we need is for the Green’s candidate Steve Tollestrup to do the same and it will be all on.
From the looks of it, Mana is going to be a fizzer. We havent heard hide nor hair from Hone since his election to TTT as Mana leader, and they are struggling in the polls.
Dream on millsy, Mana are making a splash just where they should, among the young and politically disengaged. http://www.facebook.com/ManaParty
Hone has been on a virtual non stop road trip since his by election win, good ’ol organising style politics. Tactics are sorted-party vote in general seats to not scare the Labour/Green horses, two ticks in the Māori seats to scare the Māori Party rabbits.
The amount of Mana groups on there is astonishing; I really think they will exceed the 5% threshold too; in the Tuhoe region (where Maori Party president Pem Bird lives) they appear to be having a major impact – always helped when you have a hapless PM who considers them as cannibals.
clicking ‘Like’ on a facebook page is one thing, ticking the ‘like’ that matters on the voting form is another.
Dont get me wrong, I quite like some (but not all) of Mana’s policies, but I just think that they are going to struggle to get off the ground, and Hone’s brand is not going to endear them too well to some people, and anyway, I always belive that he sees himself as Maori first, and left a distant second – remember, he chose to stay with the Maori party, even when it was clear that they were going to hook up with National.
If you are exceeding the speed limit, presumably you are considered to be driving dangerously. For many drivers this is an exception rather than a deliberate flouting of the law.
One of the most effective ways of warning drivers has been the installation of the speed indicators, advising them to slow down or at least giving an indication of what speed they are driving at.
As for being caught by a camera, you are going to receive the warning some weeks after the event in the form of a fine. In the meantime you may have driven some distance at a speed considered by the “authorities” as unsafe or dangerously.
One can only draw the conclusion therefore that hidden cameras are a revenue gatherer, and not a road safety device…
Agree, but the speed factor is always considered the primary issue affecting the level of road fatalities, but people forget several factors, such as when speed limits were originally set. Modern vehicles, in the main, have major safety features that never existed when the roads were built – ABS, traction control, radial tyres, etc.
The problem really though is this – in NZ we have the following
terrible drivers – the standard of driving is poor, poor lane etiquette, poor handling of the vehicle, limited unsderstanding of the drivers responsibilities
badly surfaced roads
a fleet of geriatric cars – very old Jap imported with minimal safety features – this escalates the more rural you are
a tolerance of unacceptable behaviour, e.g. drink driving, driving with no licence, running a car in an illegal state
I can drive fast safely, I know my limits, but regrettably in the town where I live about 20% (I kid you not) of the cars do not have a WOF or rego; the two page weekly pull out in the local paper of those done for drink driving – most with multiple offences – is a joy to behold.
Total revenue gatherer (you could argue they are a way of redeploying the fat cops to productive activities). The hypocrisy in the article from both Crusher Collins and Ryall is indicative of this government.
To the person you killed because you were speeding, it doesn’t matter if you were speeding deliberately, accidentally, or because you had a flash car and a good driver so you thought you could do it.
I’ve only ever got 1 speeding ticket in 6 or so years of driving, being earlier this year.
ANd it was from a parked car, catching me doing 63 in a 50 area (so 60 is the limit).
It was right as i was driving down a small steep ditch about to climb a small steep hill.
I still can’t think of that car as doing anything but collecting revenue, as there were plenty of places to catch real speeders, but setting up at that place if you’d catch people who’d temporally exceed the speed limit far more then actual constant speeders.
I’d of loved to have contested the ticket in court, and berate the office for sleazy practices, but alas apparently i’m the evil one for being 3km faster then acceptable for about 10 seconds.
But go on and be narrow minded over speeding. Because obviously you believe that if anyone ever goes past the speed limit they deserve a ticket 100% of the time.
I’d like to believe speed tickets are about deterring reckless drivers and encouraging better driving, this ticket did nothing of the sort, other then fill me with contempt to the police [ticketing] system, and empty my wallet.
My driving hasn’t changed a bit, other then if i ever go past that hill again, i’ll be sure to look for arsehole cops parked there to fill what i expect is a ticket quota.
It’s not that difficult to avoid speeding. By your own admission you were well over the limit (where the hell you got the *if the limit was 50km/hr then the real limit is 60* logic from I don’t know). You got caught. And you’re pissed off about it.
I guess it’s not just drunk uni students who think rules apply to other people, and are outraged when proved wrong.
The other point is that, from what I’ve observed in a variety of contexts (from IT to public safety), nobody but nobody says “oh, I know I’m doing X unsafely, my equipment isn’t up to the task of dealing with it reliably, and I have no idea of where the my personal limit of competency lies, so actually I’m really sorry you caught me doing [bloody stupid thing X]”.
Everyone is convinced that they know what they’re doing, and if there is a risk they are the only ones in danger and nobody else will be affected.
If you make e.g. 300 trips at a speed which increases your chance of an accident (or serious injury resulting from an accident) by .3%, you’ve got a good chance of an accident. If, by trip 100, you get 3 tickets in the post and it’s getting a bit painful, then there’s a good chance you’ll lower your speed and thereby lower your chance of serious accident.
Cameras aren’t after the 200km/hr drunk driving hoon – that’s what police cars are for – they’re about lowering the probabilities overall rather than responding to individual cases. It’s not revenue gathering, it’s a population-based approach.
Kindly explain why the stats for countries like Germany, where the Autobahn speed limits are immense, have lower road fatalities?
I’d say quality of vehicles, quality of driver training and quality of driver performance. We have yet to tackle obesity by fining people for eating too much junk, yet that causes far more death – so why are we taxing drivers in this way?
Not to mention exceptional road design and incredibly over-engineered roads. But they also aggressively enforce road rules with heavy fines and have a fairly low BAC level for drunk driving. And if you’re speeding on or off the autobahn, they have speed traps.
Your obesity analogy generally doesn’t involve hitting a school bus, although there is a lobby to levy fast foods and sugar waters.
Nail on the head firmly hit; we do NOT deal with repeat offenders and we allow piece of shit wrecks on our roads. The standard of road building is pathetic. Fix these and the accidents will decrease – maybe use the fine revenue?
Re. the obesity one, I am all for a $1 per burger tax on every McD’s, BK and KFC purchsed, if only to pay cor the collection of discarded rubbish (and as a disincentive of sorts)
re: roading, my impression is that transit NZ has an extensive “to do” list that is at the mercy of funding constraints (special projects with ministerial hat-tips notwithstanding). E.g. the progressive installation of median barriers of various kinds at black spots competes with standard road maintenance and emergency repairs after flooding/landslips (either of which might have been mitigated by more prompt maintenance, but what the hell).
Basically, they seem to be on the back foot simply because they don’t have enough money – and in a recession repairing/upgrading infrastructure is an excellent plan for multi-region stimulus. Not just new highways, but widening, addressing reverse-camber corners, median strips/barriers, retaining walls, and so on.
But I still think speed cameras are a useful and valid tool in the road safety box – and so do the Germans.
Part of the problem is a catch-all speed limit isn’t it? 100kph on a motorway as well as on a narrow rural road. I doubt the accident rate would go up if the motorway limit was increased to 120 and suspect it would go down substantially if some of the difficult to drive bits of the state-highway system were reduced to 80kph.
Practical speed limits are essentially arbitrary – the only thing stoping someone choosing a limit and then designing road and WoF specs around it is money.
Enforcement of rules is another matter – but then I tend towards being an authoritarian bastard in the face of arrogant stupidity.
“Kindly explain why the stats for countries like Germany, where the Autobahn speed limits are immense, have lower road fatalities?”
Because they invest money in their Autobahns. Unlike most roads in NZ that are diabolical to drive on. There are some between Levin and Palmy Nth that undulate like mad and then dip suddenly left or right, quite scary to drive on, and even scarier to see oncoming traffic having probs and lurching towards the opposite lane. In this country the Revenue is snatched by the Govt for Bullshit roads like the Holiday highway and tax cuts for their mates. and the pot holed roads in the smaller areas are just forgotten, or ignored, until there is a huge head on with fatalities, then they may fix a few of the worst holes.
Modern vehicles, in the main, have major safety features that never existed when the roads were built – ABS, traction control, radial tyres, etc.
Yeah, so? Going slower saves fuel and thus the environment. In fact, the highway speed limit should be lowered back to 80km/h. Around town driving needs to be slow because of pedestrians.
Modern cars are also more fuel efficient thanks to better fuel management systems and aerodynamic design features.
Car usage is excessive in NZ thanks to a lack of public transport and peoples reluctance to cycle or walk. Seriously, people drive from shop to shop in malls like the Hub in Hamilton.
Modern cars are also more fuel efficient thanks to better fuel management systems and aerodynamic design features.
Yes they are but that doesn’t change the basic physics. Going faster decreases the fuel efficiency. Actually, according to that article, the drag coefficient hasn’t changed much either.
0.36 Citroën CX (named after the term for Cd) 1974
0.36 Citroën DS 1955
0.36 Chrysler Sebring 1996
0.29 Mazda 3 2010
@ Lanthanide – Got to love the Holier than thou attitude on this thread. Thought you were less of a reactionary than that …
Most New Zealand drivers who pick up a speeding ticket, have got it because of a momentary lapse of concentration. If there was a visible (other than the speedo) warning just indicating that your vehicle is travelling near or over the limit, most or all drivers would immediately throttle back. If the driver ignores that warning, then clearly the consequences are deserved.
When children were available to monitor the driving from the back seat of the holiday car, there was a ready warning or reminder of all road conditions.
On the holiday highway I have noticed many drivers randomly flash, whether there is a camera lurking or not, and that has an instant affect on the overtaking maneuvers of many.
Guess the holy rollers don’t care if a car on the open road flashes them because they never inadvertently exceed the speed limit do they? If they have ever exceeded the speed limit they are as deserving as all others in being ticketed – just because they weren’t caught does not make it right. And driving too slowly in busy traffic is also an offense and deserves to be ticketed for inconsiderate driving. Just because there were no police around does not make that right.
Really well I have found out that my Speedometer is out by between 10 and 15 kph, So if i am doing 50 by my speedo I am actually doing somewhere around 40-43kph So you tell me how I can not speed when I have a line of cars behind me?? And I am not the only one with this problem, anyone with an older model car has it to some extent or other. So your inane Don’t Speed is pretty much a moot point, So maybe you could maybe engage brain, before letting your fingers walk.
Support for United Future has experienced a steady decline from the heady days when its fortune was tied to that of an electronic worm. The coiffured one has become an irritating and insignificant part of New Zealand politics.
That’s an interesting “opinion gathering” comment MS. Clearly it bears no relation to any opinion of your own that I might, quite unfairly, try to infer.
Concerning your interesting and provocative question, my fuzzy little feeling in the pit of my guts tells me that the correct level would be a tad lower.
Of course, that’s just me – though I have to say that my opinion does seem to line up with common sense and reasonableness.
Your question is not the right one. I used to work closely with one of NZ’s most successful people and one of the things I learned during that time is that having the right answer is not the important thing – the right answer can usually be found easily enough. The important thing is having the right question – once you have that determined then you can go out and find the answer.
I don’t think your question even has any relevance. Maori has been resurgent and it is fantastic for them/us and for the country as a whole. It is to be encouraged. I suspect the area you’re questioning has more to do with whether its resurgence impinges on other cultural mores or standards etc. What, precisely, are you trying to evaluate mr pete?
I kept the question deliberately “imprecise” because I wanted to hear what people thought, part of the opinion gathering process. There are various ways different people might look at this.
Oh, fair enough. My 2c says that there is almost certainly no “correct level”. However, like any individual person or wider collective group or sector, that person group or sector can go “too far” when it impinges others reasonable rights, cultural mores, expectations, etc. Otherwise go for it I say – the sky is the limit.
Good grief, that’s a change for being criticised for not saying anything of substance.
Why a low? I know there are some people that think we now get too much imposed Maori culture. Maybe it’s a small minority that should just pull their heads in. Or maybe it’s something that should be talked about openly rather than being afraid to mention it in case you get jumped on by reverse rascists.
I would say the opposite, that there is too much imposed ‘paakehaa culture’ Remember, before colonisation there was only ‘Maaori culture.’ Therefore, everything else since then has been an imposition. Look to Te Tiriti (the Maaori version of the Treaty) to gauge what is ‘correct’ in terms of the relationship between the two worldviews.
Sheesh Adele, I think we are on the same wave length for a change. Agreed, such impositions are the issue – both you and Pete raise the same issue, each with a different set of circumstances. Resolving this is at the heart of this entire subject in NZ.
And the only way to try and resolve it is to discuss it without fear of being labelled.
Adele – I acknowledge that in the past Maori culture was suppressed and discouraged, I think that’s a shame. It’s good to see people proudly demonstrating their culture now.
I suggest, Pete, that raising the issue the day after some nutbar is reported as sending a racist email to a school over a few flags simply screams “bandwagon, jumping onto”.
“It’s good to see people proudly demonstrating their culture now.”
However as with religion, it should not be pushed down everyone’s throat.
It’s like the 8am bang on the front door only to open it to about 3 people trying to push into the house, whilst trying to give you some magazine. God help you if you let them in, it’s easier to remove a red wine stain from a white shagpile carpet using nothing but a dirty rag, than to dislodge them in full cry. However I digress.
I have some family members that are Maori, and me I am English and some of the stories my auntie tells me of growing up in a NZ that tried it’s best to stamp out the Maori culture makes me really sad, not so much that it happened, but for what has been lost. Some of the stories that are only dimly remembered and many more forgotten and lost forever.
But also when I went to Polytech it was compulsory to do Maori studies no matter what you studied, and that did not go down well at all, and so almost vacant classes were held, mainly because it was forced upon the class. About 2 of us turned up, it was great because we go the other good thing about the culture is the love of food, I must admit to be a poor struggling student it was great to be able to eat and get invites to other cultural things like hāngi, singsongs, and beer drinking. Ahh the 70’s were great.
So yes by all means be proud and demonstrate the dances the carvings the language, But if someone is not interested then that is their decision and their loss. So don’t force it upon them, just feel a little sorry for them because they know not what they are missing.
Actually Pete, you’ve said nothing of substance in this post as well. The whole point of dogwhistling is to avoid directly saying what you think, but to cloak the idea in a veneer of reasonable debate. It’s a new low, because you have at least shown some hints of decency and understanding on occasions. Playing the race card is definitely poor form.
You’ve proven in your dogwhistling comments over at the Sewer what your motive was in posting this question, Pete George. So don’t try and pretend you were doing anything else than jump on the racist bandwagon. Talk about a troll. You must know you aren’t going to get much sympathy for your racist Dunedin views on this blog.
PG – I don’t know that your views are racist or just ignorance – but you make no attempt to discuss, or maybe even see, what is behind disparities between Maori and Pakeha. You’ve spent enough time on this blog that you should have some understanding. All you’ve done is put on a frown as soon as Maori getting good press, and are at the forefront of the culture of New Zealand for one particular event. That’s pretty whiny really.
Rosy, it started here when some people got whiny about John Key not appeasing every nitpicker in his speech last Friday.
I haven’t “put on a frown as soon as Maori getting good press”. I give Maori good press when I want to. I posted an open question here because I wanted to hear what other people felt about the issue generally. Mostly they seem to feel like attacking the person and avoid the issue.
Pete, John Key is the Prime Minister last time I looked. The Queen’s representative in right of NZ. ie THE CROWN. Maori are tangata whenua and in partnership with the Crown via the Treaty of Waitangi. The least the ignorant so and so could have done was speak one of the two languages of that partnership when welcoming the world to NZ. If you can’t see that, then there’s no point in even debating any issues of Maori culture with you any further.
The first thing I posted today was: “Maori culture has experienced a resurgence and has become a significant part of New Zealand processes and events.”
And later: “I acknowledge that in the past Maori culture was suppressed and discouraged, I think that’s a shame. It’s good to see people proudly demonstrating their culture now.”
That statement wasn’t made until after you were beaten up about ‘Maori Correctness’. And talking about avoiding the issue – it seems to me that statement was simply avoiding an explanation of what ‘Maori Correctness’ means.
I have a picture in my head of the people who would use that phrase to dismiss Maori progress, and it’s not pleasant. You really shouldn’t want to be associated with it unless you agree with Don Brash IMO.
It doesn’t sound like you are happy to be corrected.
I don’t agree much with Don Brash. I disagreed strongly with his and John Ansell’s advertisement and directly challenged Ansell on it’s innaccuracies. They are extreme and misrepresent how things are.
I’m talking about a degree of disquiet amongst middle New Zealand. It’s not anti-Maori, it’s saying “we’re happy for Maori culture to be expressed, we just don’t want it forced on us too much”.
Frida’s post just above provides a good example of the pressure being applied to toe the cultural line. And she refuses to discuss it. Demands don’t go down well with many people – especially when that event was a major Maori cultural showpiece as it was.
Surely we should be open and talk about it without being called names? If we don’t deal with it it could lead to widespread grumpification.
I am happy to be corrected. I was looking forward to saying ‘Well done, I stand corrected.’ But that is not the case.
Stating that there is a Maori resurgence is a neutral statement, you didn’t say “and that’s a good thing” did you? You went on to make a negative statement about Maori correctness, whatever that means…. and then you talked about the ‘imposition’ of Maori culture! You backtracked only when the original comment was taken negatively (and I don’t know why you would have expected any other response).
And Pete, you’re not discussing it. You just want others to … how about you say what parts of Maori resurgence you like? Why is Maori Correctness a reasonable term? Why shouldn’t the PM say a simple ‘kia ora’ to an international audience? Why is it a shame that Maori culture was suppressed? What did that suppression cause? When do you think this resurgence is gone too far? etc, etc.
Otherwise I agree with Frida, you’re sounding passive-aggressive.
you’re not discussing it. You just want others to …
I’ve already explained that, I wanted to hear what others thought about it. That’s a part of getting electorate feedback, not stating my views but prompting others to give theirs.
Why shouldn’t the PM say a simple ‘kia ora’ to an international audience?
He should say it if he wants to, and he needn’t if he doesn’t want to. Presumably it’s not part of his normal vocabulary. Mine niehter – if someone greets me in a different language I often just say Hi back.
Why is it a shame that Maori culture was suppressed?
I think it’s a shame that people think that is was cultural suppression. There was a heap of cultural expression at the opening.
What did that suppression cause?
Nothing that I’m aware of, apart from a few people geting precious and hissy about it.
When do you think this resurgence is gone too far?
I think it gets borderline and sometimes too much now (from what I hear others are less tolerant). As I’ve said elsewhere it’s partly due to media overkill, I was interested to see international teams arriving in New Zealand but got a bit jaded by yet another Maori welcome.
Some of it is easy to avoid, for example I don’t usually settle down to a test match until the first whistle. The New Zealand anthem does little for me – I actually prefer the Maori verse, it sounds better, but I don’t like the English version words or sound/feel.
I’m over the pre-game haka performance, I think it’s become an overhyped media marketing exercise more than anything. I’m also concerned that the haka represents male aggression and violence, something there’s far too much of in our society.
I’ll just make one eurocentric, pragmatic comment and leave the rest to others that know more about cultural suppression than I do.
The RWC is putting NZ on the world stage. There is a heap of research that shows international visitors expect 2 things when they come to NZ – natural beauty and Maori culture. If you’re a bit jaded, just think about what our invited guests want – and put it in $$ terms if you like, you’ll feel much better about having to sit through it and if you’re really money oriented (for the country), you might even promote it.
Don’t you think international visitors (and potential international visitors) would have been far more interested in the waka part of the ceremony than Key’s speech? I was. I remember the grand visuals well. And I don’t remember what Key said.
How many would have noticed or cared if he included a token Maori phrase? I don’t think many come here to see him, and even less come to hear him mash some Maori.
Sorry Pete, but I fundamentally disagree with your tactics here of “opinion gathering” (which is why I was happy to go along with mickysavage’s parody of your initial comment – above).
For me, politics is about the contestation of ideas and values. This notion that someone can act as an “empty vessel” into which others’ desires and wishes can be poured is either ignorant of the realities of being human or deceptive. You are not an empty vessel “gathering opinions”.
Before I vote for anyone I want to know what they believe in, what they support, etc.. On touchstone issues (e.g., here in NZ that includes cultural and Treaty issues) I want them to be very clear about what their lifetime of experience leads them to think.
I’m not interested in them gathering my opinion, I’m interested in me gathering their opinion.
Tell me honestly, Pete – and without any distractions into other issues – do you think that Maori ‘resurgence’ has gone too far? And why or why not?
Sorry Pete, but I fundamentally disagree with your tactics here of “opinion gathering” (which is why I was happy to go along with mickysavage’s parody of your initial comment – above).
I fundamentally disagree with you about “opinion gathering” – to represent people one of the basics is listening to them. I thought your parody was well done.
For me, politics is about the contestation of ideas and values.
To an extent but if a party get’s too obsessed with that they get out of touch with the people and get punished in the polls for it.
This notion that someone can act as an “empty vessel” into which others’ desires and wishes can be poured is either ignorant of the realities of being human or deceptive. You are not an empty vessel “gathering opinions”.
I’ve never claimed to be an “empty vessel” – I’ve obviously got a lot of my own ideas and preferences – but I enhance those by listening to other people.
Before I vote for anyone I want to know what they believe in, what they support, etc…
It’s hard to portray that properly on a forum that where much attacking and misinformation goes on. This isn’t where I intend for people to learn that about me.
Tell me honestly, Pete – and without any distractions into other issues – do you think that Maori ‘resurgence’ has gone too far? And why or why not?
From my point of view it seems mostly to be about right but with some excesses – as there probably always will. The quibbling over Key’s speech seemed bizarre to me.
You’d have to ask Maori if they think it’s gone far enough, a few on here seem to think it hasn’t but there are a lot more out there. And they also have to respect the place for otheer cultures here.
From what I hear some non-Maori (it’s hard to quantify but it’s common to hear grizzles) think things Maori have taken over too much, especially when it is insisted on like it’s compulsory or a distinct quota.
Some refer to English or colonial culture – non Maori Kiwi culture has always been an evolving mixture of different cultures, many of which came here to get away from the English class ridden colonial culture. Kiwi culture is now an even bigger mixture, it includes some Maori culture, and there are a number of variations around the country. Plus new cultures are adding to the mix.
Even Maori culture has evolved and adapted and integrated. A choreographed high tech waka themed televised light show in a rugby stadium is an example of that.
My position on culture more than anything is tolerance and acceptance of different cultures. And I don’t think I or any New Zealander should be coerced or forced or shamed or guilted into greeting anyone in any particular way, it should be a personal choice.
Thanks Pete. You think things are about right at the moment on this issue, though with some excesses. That’s all I wanted to know. (I won’t ‘contest’ that here too much – as I’ll focus on the rest of your comment – but one point that raises for me is the extent to which those excesses are about government policy as opposed to just what some people, in some places, organisations, workplaces, etc. decide they will do?)
“I fundamentally disagree with you about “opinion gathering” – to represent people one of the basics is listening to them.”
Yes, indeed. That’s the work of MPs once elected – perhaps particularly electorate MPs who represent not just those who voted for their party but all their electorate constituents.
Prior to an election, however, the main direction of opinion gathering should be the way I suggest – candidates expressing their opinions/policies on various significant topics and people deciding, on that basis, who they would most want to represent them.
And, so far as listening goes, of course listening matters. But, by the time an election comes around and candidates have been chosen they (the candidates) should have had plenty of time – in their lives – to have listened to others, to the arguments doing the rounds, etc. in the formation of their opinions and then to have come to some sense of the policies they support. Listening is one important way to form beliefs – it should not be a market research exercise once someone is trying to get elected.
“I thought your parody was well done.”
Thanks – I enjoyed writing it.
“To an extent but if a party get’s too obsessed with that [the contest of ideas and values] they get out of touch with the people and get punished in the polls for it.”
Not really. If you mean getting too ‘closed-minded’ then I’d agree. But, for me, it is through the contesting of ideas and values expressed clearly and without reticence that those same ideas can be changed. Uncontested ideas are the ones that don’t change, which is why I don’t like the ‘idea’ that ‘everyone’s opinions are of equal value’ – that’s a huge disincentive to ever consider changing one’s views, even to improve them while keeping them substantively the same.
“I’ve never claimed to be an “empty vessel” – I’ve obviously got a lot of my own ideas and preferences – but I enhance those by listening to other people.”
My guess is that you’d enhance them far more effectively by stating your views clearly and then listening to others’ responses. In that way, their responses will be more directly relevant to your views and help to provide ‘angles’ that your view may not incorporate. That’s what I get from this and other sites at any rate.
“It’s hard to portray that properly on a forum that where much attacking and misinformation goes on.”
Well, yes, that does happen sometimes – but, Pete, haven’t you noticed that it happens in ‘real life’ too? It’s hard to avoid and part of discussing things with others. If I think ‘misinformation’ is present then I try to show why I think it’s misinformation. As for ‘attacking’ – attacking arguments (or lack of) I have no problems with. Attacking people – to the point of abuse – I don’t like. Then again, if done with wit and out of frustration or some other understandable (even reasonable) cause, it bothers me far less. I don’t expect people to be saints.
“This isn’t where I intend for people to learn that about me.”
I think that might be what irritates people. I remember one of my early comments was met with “Yes, but what do you think?”
TVOR, you expose the exact issue which most people in NZ cannot understand;
A person asks whether a culture / race within a multi-cultural society is at the correct level e.g. Margaret Mutu, and that is deemed not racist by some.
Another person asks whether a culture / race within a multi-cultural society is at the correct level e.g. Pete George, and that is deemed racist by those same some.
Pete is just dogwhistling after aracist Dunedin businessmoron noticed maori flags flying at a local primary schools and got up on his hind legs to have a bleat about it. I find Mutu’s comments equally vacuous so I’m not in a position to opine on your conundrum, VTO.
I was talking about your Maori Correctness post, where you did not ‘speak up’, you sucked up. To racists. The newer ‘flag’ post is a more substantial explanation of your position, but I think you should have been less coy with the phrase ‘some people’. Just call them racists, it’s more honest.
oh FFS I can’t believe I got suckered into reading that linked drivel.
1: clarification – The school doesn’t just fly “Maori” flags – there are at least half a dozen there every day.
2: as for asking people to be “tolerant” of Maori “embracing some of their own culture” – besides being patronizing in an almost Victorian way, it was the school decision to fly some flags that reflected, among some other things, its own cultural mix. Not “Dunedin”, not “National”, but the damned school decided on flags that it felt described it. It’s not a Maori thing, it’s a school thing, and just because one small-minded bigot takes offense you thought you sniffed a winner. Well you didn’t.
One problem is that when you see racism (or sexism etc.) as a kind of level-playing-field, those who are at the coalface of racism everyday are effectively silenced in speaking out about it because the dominant and dominating group claims that these main victims of racism are being equally racist in calling them out on their racism. You start playing a game of pretend in which everyone and every group is just as at fault as every other, and all people are equally victimised by racism. Which makes a mockery of the whole concept imo.
I’ll have a good look later (it’s long) but I think I’d generaly disagree with it. I don’t wish I was a Maori or anything other than who I am. I agree with dealing properly with the ToW. I like to see a good Maori representation in parliament. I work with Maori people on things. I enjoy and am sometimes moved by Maori cultural events.
But I think I should be able to raise issues that are definitely out there. And if I get criticisd for daring to raise them then too bad. I also get criticised for not saying enough.
it’s a thing people do – struggle against seemingly insurmountable odds – it’s rewarding in a funny human way – no merging for me even if resistance is futile. Your utopia is heinous to me – the opposite of what I want.
It’s not my utopia. It’s merely the way things are. Cultures will change over time especially when two or more co-mingle. We can either direct that change and bring about what we want or try to resist it which will leave us open to the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Thing is, like most conservatives, you’re looking to the past through rose tinted glasses – what you’re trying to hold onto never existed.
Just when you are looking forward to a nice cruisy Friday tory Pete appears with another inane highly subjective question. How would we know Pete? in constantly changing human societies what is the ‘correct level’ for anything behaviour related apart from breathing? Take up philosophy or something.
It is something that you say exists, so what is it?
When someone is being ‘Maori correct’ what are they doing?
It seems to me that the phrase ‘Maori correctness’, which you have invented as far as I can tell, and which you are posting about in numerous comment threads, carries a negative emotional tone.
I’d like to have that aspect of it addressed in your explanation of what it means.
Why did you choose that phrase to capture whatever it is you want to talk about?
Seems obvious to me that it is related to political correctness right?
That’s a negative phrase as well, don’t you think?
So it looks to me that your invention and use of that phrase tells us what you think about what that phrase describes.
“Maori correctness” sounds like a synonym for “Maorification” to me. Says it all, Pete. That’s why none of us can be bothered to engaged with your question. It’s loaded. And you’re a passive aggressive racist.
Its surprising you have offended any body at any time as your super sensitive to offending any body wig worm, I though people would be complaining about be bored to death with his lack of conviction.
A left-wing in Denmark. Congratulations to new PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the Social Democrats, Social Liberal party and the Red-Green Alliance. Maybe the tide is turning…
Well this one should come as no surprise… Murray McCully has once again shown what a complete A hole he really is. After failing to ensure Aucklands infrastructure could cope with a huge influx of people, McCully declares himself emperor of the waterfront, in some sort of delusional Machiavellian take over bid. The Minister for the Rugby World Cup didn’t even have the courtesy to inform Len Brown, effectively giving the two-fingered salute to the Mayor of Auckland…
George Clooney is better than us, he is
a better and bigger man than all of us
put together, and he has let us know
this in an interview he did at the Toronto
film festival.
Oh by us, I mean all of us, not blogger’s or
reporters, I mean everybody.
You see this reporter by the name of Paul Chi,
asked this innocent question, about how he
balances his personal and professional life in
the spotlight. Fair enough question I thought.
Not fair enough for George Clooney who went
on and tried to embarrass him.
Clooney laughed and sneered and said “I knew
someone would ask that question” he went on to
ask this guy’s name, Paul Chi told him, but Clooney
kept on asking about half a dozen times.
He then added, everybody remember the name Paul Chi,
he asks the questions that has to be asked. He also told
Paul that he should tell his editor that he asked the question.
To his credit Mr Chi remain professional, unlike
Mr Clooney who afterwards went on to tell
the media, he likes it when people ask him dumb
questions, because it makes him laugh.
What got me, was how the rest of the press core
just sat there laughing, and clapping like trained
circus seals.
I found it to be bullying behavior on a high school
level, where the cool kid, berates the nerd kid and
the whole class laughs at the Nerd, while the cool
kid sits there superior.
If I was at the press conference, I would of asked
George, “Why do you have to be a jerk?”
Lets hope one day people don’t tolerate bullies
anymore.
and every journalist and editor (he probably knew exactly which editor that was) has been told many, many times that he will not talk about his private life, and if they don’t like that, don’t turn up.
I think you need to read a bit of his history with the press before you accuse him of bullying, and watch the video. Also remember his father is a well-respected journalist – he knows how the gossip press works and he has every right to protect his private life.
The study found that the introduction of the New Entrants (NE) minimum wage was largely ignored by businesses and that most 16 and 17 year old workers were moved on to the adult minimum wage. Combined with a 75 cent increase in the adult minimum wage at the same time, this led to a 28.2 percent increase in the effective minimum wage for 16 and 17 year old workers.
This research found that this minimum wage increase accounted for approximately 20–40 percent of the fall in the proportion of 16 and 17 year olds in employment by 2010.
Good to see businesses acting responsibly.
Bad to see that the 2008 minimum wage reform has contributed so heavily to youth unemployment.
Do you own rental property? If so, did you raise your rent this year? If yes, then you are a fucking hypocrite.
I get sick and tired of people like you who think that wages should be just held down. Young people slog their guts out making burgers for people like you and you think they should be paid a subsistance?
Tell me, what is your opinion on the labour market in the US before 1865?
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 9.1.1
“The research found that the minimum wage increase lowered the proportion of 16 and 17 year olds in employment by between 3 and 6 percentage points in the subsequent two years (there was no impact on employment immediately following the policy change), which accounted for between 20 and 40 percent of the fall in the proportion of 16 and 17 year olds in work over this period (a loss of 4,500–9,000 jobs). The remaining 60 to 80 percent of the fall in employment can be attributed to the deteriorating economic conditions.” (My bold)
What the report is actually saying is that it improved the incomes of most young people and had a minor impact on their overall employment rate. In other words, overall, it is a good thing.
Nice try Joe, it’s pretty clear that the main reason that the main reason that the new entrants minimum wage was not significantly exploited by employers was the time/ hours limit placed upon it and the additional admin that would have been required.
To assert that businesses acted responsibly out of the goodness of their hearts is just plain laughable.
Up to 80% of the so called ‘losses’ were attributable to the recession – not the moves designed to remove discrimination on the basis of age.
It is not the job of NZs young people to prop up the bottom line of companies who do not want to pay even the current pitiful minimum wage.
New Zealand’s minimum wage is still close to the highest it has been, as a proportion of the average wage, since the late 1970s.
It is also the second-highest of any developed country in relation to the median wage. So we have one of the highest minimum wages in the world, and people want to make it even higher.
The 2008 reforms have already priced youth out of the employment market.
Perhaps a better focus would have been on family or household income instead of individual income.
Wages in NZ are by and large terrible, and for those on the minimum this means that affording a life is practically impossible, and debt is almost inevitable.
The only reason our minimum wage is second highest to anything is because our median wage is so low.
You may want to be a cheerleader for the inspired plan of ‘catching up with the third world’ but the thing that needs to be addressed is greed of the people at the top, and of businesses.
Paying people below, or even the minimum wage is not helping them – it’s exploiting them.
Paying people below, or even the minimum wage is not helping them – it’s exploiting them.
Work’s work Campbell – if a lower minimu wage means that unemployed youth have work opportunities then that’s a better outcome for them than no work and no wages.
Fair pay is fair pay Joe.
The study you quoted proved that wage rates were not the predominant reason why young people were out of work and thus your magical solution of paying them less is not going to achieve SFA. Of course it will make McDonalds and progressive enterprises richer – yipee.
Now if you are so concerned about the youth how about you go back to the drawing board and come up with a solution that doesn’t involve stripping them of their rights, rather than just pushing tired old lines from The Nact propaganda machine.
I bet plantation owners in the antebellum South used the same arguments regarding the abolishment of slavery.
“If we end slavery there would cost too much to pay them niggers and they would be doing nothing”.
Tell me Joe, how much would you pay your workers if the minium wage was scrapped totally. And do you accept that would lead to workers not being able to afford basic expenses?
Tell me Joe, how much would you pay your workers if the minium wage was scrapped totally.
If I had workers working for me – which I don’t – I would pay them whatever it took to retain their services. In other words a little more than the next best offer that they could get from another employer on the open market.
My sixteen year old son has found work by successfully circumventing the minimum wage provisions. He has offered hiomself to employers as an independent contractor, contracting himnself out at a rate that’s $1.50 below the minimum hourly wage. He has more had offers of work than he can cope with and he is very happy with the fact that he has work. Incidentally he came up with this approach entirely by himself – showing a bit of entrepreurial flair and respect for the dictum that he has responsibilities as well as rights.
Your son didn’t even need you to tell him to sell himself short – he came up with it himself – says a lot about your gene pool and parenting skills.
What’s next for him? Chimney sweep?
Sounds like he should be spending more time at school and less time trying to circumvent labour laws designed to preserve the dignity and livelihoods of NZers trying to raise their own families.
‘dictum’ etc – still preaching from the Nact spin bible I see – responsibility goes two ways buddy, something you might want to consider as you dance and shake your pom poms on behalf of a government who doesn’t understand that it has responsibility to activly manage the economy on behalf of the people it is supposed to serve.
Thats the sort of thinking that will catch us up with Australia.He can’t be that bright if he has to be working for less than the minimum wage. He obviously gets that from you bloggs!
All it says is that the allegations against 4 of the 18 were serious enough to allow illegally-obtained evidence. Of coure the allegations are serious – that’s why the cops used AOS and dawn raids. But on the face of it the allegations are also a bit fantastic – although that’s what a trial is to determine.
The “evidence” was illegally obtained, you don’t know what it is or its context, and the most they had were “firearms” charges, yet you’ve immediately gone to “oh they were obviously guilty of something they should be in jail for”. There are reasons we have rules of evidence, they aren’t just “technicalities”. And cameras in the real world aren’t like CSI – you can’t just say “enhance” and it’s suddenly a perfect, unequivocal image. There can be many interpretations to a single image, and I’m pretty sure that the police are grasping at straws on this one. The number of people released without charge is pretty interesting – if the cameras were all they had in the way of “actual” evidence, then it’s pretty piss poor.
The warrant they had did not allow video recording.
I can buy a day/night aut sensor video that runs off D cells for $600. Perfect image quality and takes 10,000 shots.. I am sure the cops had plenty of perfect images of what was going on.
Compare the “training” of this group to Anders Berivik’s preperation.
ASSUMING they were acting like “military-style” training, a picture cannot prove whether it was terrorism planning, training as “security” for private contractors in Iraq, intensive method-acting rehearsals for a play or movie, or even just a bit of fun in the forest.
Fuck sake – cameras are frequently debatable at sporting events, prepared environments with 360 degree unobstructed coverage. Cameras are vulnerable to distance, field width, obstruction, light, glare, weather, and context.
But you’re comparing the few remaining charged people to a right-wing mass gunman simply because you read the word “camera”.
I dont need a camera to know that they possessed and were traing with illegal military semi auto rifles and shotguns. The police were forced to leave their watchpost because of the large volume of gunfire.
69 dead Norwegians because of whackjobs like these.
Again, You’re comparing them to a spree-killer based on a few one-sided lines in a paper, when even a judge or jury need to hear a bit more than that and from both sides.
You’re the sort of nutjob who, I dunno, gets the evidence first and worries about warrants later, then complains that the DA is a pussy for not going ahead with the case. And votes for the nice austrian corporal who promises to do away with such political correctness in the justice system, not because you agree with his other policies, just because you’re too dumb to figure out the consequences of a legal system that lacks impulse control..
I have been around firearms all of my life, I have shot in various forms of competition for 35 years.
It is beyond question that this group had illegal semi auto military style firearms and were using them.
It is because I have a respect for firearms and legal firearms owners that I want this group punished.
I only wish the Police had stayed within the warrant they held so that the other 13 would not have escaped prosecution also.
“beyond question”? Isn’t that for a trial to determine?
Like I say, the antihero in a bad ’80s cop film, just before he starts killing everyone he assumes is a bad guy.
Heh grumpy – you mean a major technicality like the police are not allowed to take either audio, video or pictures from private property without authority to be on the property? Or electronic survelliance of phones. They either have to have warrants, court approval, or due cause under one of several acts.
What is steadily becoming clearer as the charges steadily get dropped is that the police teams who were collecting evidence had none of the above. What they are left with right now are 4 people charged on the basis of the results of searches where the warrants were issued to the officers making the application to the court, where they probably lied in and certainly inflated the statements to get them issued. It would not be the first time that I have seen it happen with some of the cowboys amongst the ‘special’ units of the local police.
I would expect that the next round of legal arguments going to have an interesting look at the basis on which search warrants were issued. As far as I can see there is no suppression of those statements seeking a search warrant. Does anyone have them? Or can tell me why I cannot read and report on them?
“New Zealand’s minimum wage is still close to the highest it has been, as a proportion of the average wage, since the late 1970s”
Hourly rate or weekly earnings? If we’re talking hourly rate you are most certainly wrong. If it’s weekly earnings, then that’s a red herring because 30% of jobs are part-time now, as opposed to 15% back in the 1970s.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 14.1
Only if you’re an irritable pedant with nothing of substance to contribute. In any case i changed it to “red herring” – though you probably won’t be happy with that either.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 15.1
“This Saturday, September 17th, tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people will take to the streets and squares of financial districts in dozens of cities around the world in a global day of action against the excessive power of the banking sector — and for a more just, more stable, and more sustainable global financial system”
I might try and repeat this comment tomorrow but Pete secret squirrel coiffured one admirer would be UF MP George managed to spark 58 comments today and it was all about a calculated banal yet racist comment.
And he then did that wriggle where he maintains that he was not being a racist but actually a progressive tolerant leftie and the comments about him were really unfair and he was being misunderstood. He then debated by being banal and not debating.
The man is a troll. He is the most effective disrupter of posts and discussions the Standard has ever seen. And he wants to get Dunne reelected, AND there is the outside possibility that good old peety could be an MP.
I am going to try and post this again tomorrow but can I urge everyone to reply to his banal crap with DNFTT? I know how much fun it is to point out the stupidity of his comments but he is not learning and I suspect that all he wants to do is disrupt and confuse.
You’re the one that sounds confused Greg. If you don’t don’t know what I’m talking about here you’re as out of touch with the electorate as your party.
Or maybe you’re just trtying to talk about anything but Roy.
Peety be an MP ???? What’s he standing for?? the price of hair spray and combs to drop?? Must be sucking up to his leader as he’s gotta number 2. but they both got that Politician suck up grin. Look at the pic and header on his site.
The haka is a supreme expression of raw masculinity. Spine tingling stuff. Peter George should give it a go then perhaps he would be less of a sneaky little bitch.
I shouldn’t give it a go, the haka doesn’t do it for me, it’s not a part of my culture. Adele, if I thought that Maori men would use the haka for expressing their raw masculinity and leave it there I would agree that it’s a good way to express it.
A major problem that our society has is that raw masculinity is expressed in too many other ways that are destructive to families, destructive to relationships, destructive to the well being of people. And it’s destructive to the perpetrators of vioolence. You will be as aware as I am of the over-representation of Maori in these statistics. Raw masculinity is far too often a raw and open wound.
Do you think the use of haka is a good outlet for men’s expression and can be left in the performance? Or is it symptom of too much male aggression in other aspects of normal living?
Wrong CV. The haka is obviously a part of All Black culture.
I’m not against them doing the haka, it just doesn’t do anything for me and I usually choose to grab a beer and some chips when the anthems and haka are on. I usually avoid the TV buildup to matches too, but I’m not anti them having a buildup.
I live in a country that has a culture of allowing people to watch the bits they want to watch.
LOL mate so you don’t think the All Blacks represent NZ or represent you internationally?
Well, I don’t think they represent me internationally! I’d rather be represented by skill and brain not fighting, bullying, battles and brawn… Deborah Wai Kapohe for instance… or Allan McDiarmid (even though I see from Wikipedia that he’s dead now).
Violence is not solely the preserve of males nor is it an inherent feature in Māori men.
In Te Ao Māori, Tūmatauenga is the Atua that defines the ultimate expression of ‘masculinity.’ To be dedicated to Tū was to instill within, a set of principles and ethics, and the values of courage, discipline, principled actions, chivalry, charity, mercy, proper knowledge and behaviours. The NZ Army has as its soubriquet ‘Ngāti Tūmatauenga’ or the people of Tūmatauenga.
Raw masculinity is seen in the best of human behaviour – not the worst. It is a masculinity that uses physical and mental strength to protect, preserve and enhance the lives of others. Masculinity, also, is not only a ‘male’ thing. Women can also express masculinity, and can also bind themselves to Tū.
That Maaori feature disproportionately in all adverse indicators speaks to the ongoing effects of colonisation. The insidious nature of dis-inheritance from identity and culture has the effects you now witness. Random acts of violence is not Māoritanga. Rape is not Māoritanga. Bashing and killing children is not Māoritanga. Nor are they the actions of men expressing masculinity.
Our prison system is punitive and largely gives lip-service to rehabilitative measures. However, where there have been efforts towards rehabilitation for Maori prisoners, the most successful (in terms of reducing recidivism rates) have been those programmes that teach identity through whakapapa (what it means to be Māori) mau rakau (martial arts) and the haka.
A haka performed by an emasculated male is sore to the eyes. Flailing and undisciplined limbs, floppy gestures, and droopy expressionless features are not the stuff of ‘raw masculinity.’ I suggest you stick to Morris dancing.
Once proud? Gee, many thanks for the advice bruvver boy, but I can assure you that the Labour movement’s still very proud of its achievements, and the fact that ignorant scum such as yourself will bite the very hand that has succoured you, will not diminish that pride.
In fact, great optimism stems from the performance of your very own flip-flop lad over the past three years. Hels (and now Chris) have been released to perform important functions for progression and enhance our reputation on the global stage, while your wee boy has basically held the fort: an embarrassing, cringe-inducing grinny-do-nothing retard admittedly, but besides putting our children and grandchildren on terrorists’ lists temporarily, a totally ineffectual nonentity in the grander scheme of things. Our very own John W. Palin for the times.
So yes, gloat like a goat if it floats your boat, wee bruv, but know that you are less than nothing: and if “winnng” is your all, reflect on the Warriors tonight: written-off by pundits, commentators, punters, pundits and press; yet resplendent in glory. She works in mysterious ways old son, but always, inevitably, for the good.
Unite Union’s “utu squad” today said Burger Fuel in Auckland’s Mission Bay had sacked a young staff member on the 89th day of the 90-day trial period after she asked for her work break entitlements to be better respected.
Hey, look at that, exactly what we on left said would happen. Scum would hire people and then, on the 89th day, fire them.
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The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
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For the past 12 years, Georgia-Rose Brown has balanced on the brink of making an Olympic Games – but always landed gracefully on the wrong side. Reaching the Olympics is a dream the gymnast has harboured since she was a six-year-old; a dream that would dwindle every four years, yet ...
Late one afternoon in March 1860 a man in a thin green velveteen jacket and a wide-awake hat arrived on foot at a sheep station named Glenmark, about 65 kilometres north of Christchurch. The man was in his mid-fifties but he looked older. Several people who met him that day ...
If building one of Auckland’s possible waterfront stadiums was funded privately, it would need to hold a sold-out Ed Sherran concert every weekday for 25 years. That’s Rob Hamlin’s finding – he’s a senior marketing lecturer at the University of Otago. “It’s not going to happen; forget about it,” he ...
Comment: The debate over the future relationship between news and social media is bringing us closer to a long-overdue reckoning. Social media isn’t trying to kill journalism, because social media has never really cared about journalism. Social media is resolutely in the attention business. News propels some attention — perhaps ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A new Commonwealth Prac Payment will provide students with $319.50 a week when they are on clinical and professional placements. The payment will be means tested and start from July 1 next year, which ...
Asia Pacific Report About 500 people honoured Palestinian journalists in the heart of the New Zealand city of Auckland today for their brave coverage of Israel’s War on Gaza, now in its seventh month with almost 35,000 people killed, mostly women and children. Marking the annual May 3 World Press ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
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Nice to see Mana displaying expected political maturity and tory annoying tactics in Waitakere. Sue Bradford is seeking party votes for Mana while endorsing Labour’s Carmel Sepuloni as electorate candidate. Sue and Carmel will hopefully give “ladder pull” Bennett a good going over in the course of the campaign.
Tory reaction via the Maori Party’s Te Tai Tokerau candidate Waihoroi Shortland was swift. Shortland has said Ms Bradford was trying to get a “free ride to Parliament on the backs of [Te Tai Tokerau] people”.
Hello shithead, it is known as MMP the system that also enables your sellout crew to be represented in parliament along with your ACT friends.
I hope that the message resonates Tiger. I would be pleased to see Sue Bradford back in Parliament via the list. She was a conscientious and capable MP. And I would really like to see Carmel win and take pseudowestie Bennett down.
I just home that Sue’s campaign does not cause too much confusion.
Now all we need is for the Green’s candidate Steve Tollestrup to do the same and it will be all on.
And Steve has done the right thing …
Great stuff, I hope we see the parties of the left working together more and more.
But unfortunately Pudding Bennet will still bounce in on the List,
tautoko – very good news indeed
From the looks of it, Mana is going to be a fizzer. We havent heard hide nor hair from Hone since his election to TTT as Mana leader, and they are struggling in the polls.
Dream on millsy, Mana are making a splash just where they should, among the young and politically disengaged. http://www.facebook.com/ManaParty
Hone has been on a virtual non stop road trip since his by election win, good ’ol organising style politics. Tactics are sorted-party vote in general seats to not scare the Labour/Green horses, two ticks in the Māori seats to scare the Māori Party rabbits.
The amount of Mana groups on there is astonishing; I really think they will exceed the 5% threshold too; in the Tuhoe region (where Maori Party president Pem Bird lives) they appear to be having a major impact – always helped when you have a hapless PM who considers them as cannibals.
clicking ‘Like’ on a facebook page is one thing, ticking the ‘like’ that matters on the voting form is another.
Dont get me wrong, I quite like some (but not all) of Mana’s policies, but I just think that they are going to struggle to get off the ground, and Hone’s brand is not going to endear them too well to some people, and anyway, I always belive that he sees himself as Maori first, and left a distant second – remember, he chose to stay with the Maori party, even when it was clear that they were going to hook up with National.
Funny. Don Trash is unelectable and is desperately wanting a free ride on the backs of donkey and john wanks.
Collins and Speed Cameras.
If you are exceeding the speed limit, presumably you are considered to be driving dangerously. For many drivers this is an exception rather than a deliberate flouting of the law.
One of the most effective ways of warning drivers has been the installation of the speed indicators, advising them to slow down or at least giving an indication of what speed they are driving at.
As for being caught by a camera, you are going to receive the warning some weeks after the event in the form of a fine. In the meantime you may have driven some distance at a speed considered by the “authorities” as unsafe or dangerously.
One can only draw the conclusion therefore that hidden cameras are a revenue gatherer, and not a road safety device…
If you don’t want to be fined by a speed camera, don’t speed. Pretty simple.
Agree, but the speed factor is always considered the primary issue affecting the level of road fatalities, but people forget several factors, such as when speed limits were originally set. Modern vehicles, in the main, have major safety features that never existed when the roads were built – ABS, traction control, radial tyres, etc.
The problem really though is this – in NZ we have the following
terrible drivers – the standard of driving is poor, poor lane etiquette, poor handling of the vehicle, limited unsderstanding of the drivers responsibilities
badly surfaced roads
a fleet of geriatric cars – very old Jap imported with minimal safety features – this escalates the more rural you are
a tolerance of unacceptable behaviour, e.g. drink driving, driving with no licence, running a car in an illegal state
I can drive fast safely, I know my limits, but regrettably in the town where I live about 20% (I kid you not) of the cars do not have a WOF or rego; the two page weekly pull out in the local paper of those done for drink driving – most with multiple offences – is a joy to behold.
Total revenue gatherer (you could argue they are a way of redeploying the fat cops to productive activities). The hypocrisy in the article from both Crusher Collins and Ryall is indicative of this government.
To the person you killed because you were speeding, it doesn’t matter if you were speeding deliberately, accidentally, or because you had a flash car and a good driver so you thought you could do it.
Speeding kills.
If you don’t want a speeding fine, don’t speed.
I’ve only ever got 1 speeding ticket in 6 or so years of driving, being earlier this year.
ANd it was from a parked car, catching me doing 63 in a 50 area (so 60 is the limit).
It was right as i was driving down a small steep ditch about to climb a small steep hill.
I still can’t think of that car as doing anything but collecting revenue, as there were plenty of places to catch real speeders, but setting up at that place if you’d catch people who’d temporally exceed the speed limit far more then actual constant speeders.
I’d of loved to have contested the ticket in court, and berate the office for sleazy practices, but alas apparently i’m the evil one for being 3km faster then acceptable for about 10 seconds.
It’s called a “brake”.
Its called “being fair”.
But go on and be narrow minded over speeding. Because obviously you believe that if anyone ever goes past the speed limit they deserve a ticket 100% of the time.
I’d like to believe speed tickets are about deterring reckless drivers and encouraging better driving, this ticket did nothing of the sort, other then fill me with contempt to the police [ticketing] system, and empty my wallet.
My driving hasn’t changed a bit, other then if i ever go past that hill again, i’ll be sure to look for arsehole cops parked there to fill what i expect is a ticket quota.
It’s not that difficult to avoid speeding. By your own admission you were well over the limit (where the hell you got the *if the limit was 50km/hr then the real limit is 60* logic from I don’t know). You got caught. And you’re pissed off about it.
I guess it’s not just drunk uni students who think rules apply to other people, and are outraged when proved wrong.
The other point is that, from what I’ve observed in a variety of contexts (from IT to public safety), nobody but nobody says “oh, I know I’m doing X unsafely, my equipment isn’t up to the task of dealing with it reliably, and I have no idea of where the my personal limit of competency lies, so actually I’m really sorry you caught me doing [bloody stupid thing X]”.
Everyone is convinced that they know what they’re doing, and if there is a risk they are the only ones in danger and nobody else will be affected.
If you make e.g. 300 trips at a speed which increases your chance of an accident (or serious injury resulting from an accident) by .3%, you’ve got a good chance of an accident. If, by trip 100, you get 3 tickets in the post and it’s getting a bit painful, then there’s a good chance you’ll lower your speed and thereby lower your chance of serious accident.
Cameras aren’t after the 200km/hr drunk driving hoon – that’s what police cars are for – they’re about lowering the probabilities overall rather than responding to individual cases. It’s not revenue gathering, it’s a population-based approach.
Kindly explain why the stats for countries like Germany, where the Autobahn speed limits are immense, have lower road fatalities?
I’d say quality of vehicles, quality of driver training and quality of driver performance. We have yet to tackle obesity by fining people for eating too much junk, yet that causes far more death – so why are we taxing drivers in this way?
Not to mention exceptional road design and incredibly over-engineered roads. But they also aggressively enforce road rules with heavy fines and have a fairly low BAC level for drunk driving. And if you’re speeding on or off the autobahn, they have speed traps.
Your obesity analogy generally doesn’t involve hitting a school bus, although there is a lobby to levy fast foods and sugar waters.
Nail on the head firmly hit; we do NOT deal with repeat offenders and we allow piece of shit wrecks on our roads. The standard of road building is pathetic. Fix these and the accidents will decrease – maybe use the fine revenue?
Re. the obesity one, I am all for a $1 per burger tax on every McD’s, BK and KFC purchsed, if only to pay cor the collection of discarded rubbish (and as a disincentive of sorts)
re: roading, my impression is that transit NZ has an extensive “to do” list that is at the mercy of funding constraints (special projects with ministerial hat-tips notwithstanding). E.g. the progressive installation of median barriers of various kinds at black spots competes with standard road maintenance and emergency repairs after flooding/landslips (either of which might have been mitigated by more prompt maintenance, but what the hell).
Basically, they seem to be on the back foot simply because they don’t have enough money – and in a recession repairing/upgrading infrastructure is an excellent plan for multi-region stimulus. Not just new highways, but widening, addressing reverse-camber corners, median strips/barriers, retaining walls, and so on.
But I still think speed cameras are a useful and valid tool in the road safety box – and so do the Germans.
Part of the problem is a catch-all speed limit isn’t it? 100kph on a motorway as well as on a narrow rural road. I doubt the accident rate would go up if the motorway limit was increased to 120 and suspect it would go down substantially if some of the difficult to drive bits of the state-highway system were reduced to 80kph.
Practical speed limits are essentially arbitrary – the only thing stoping someone choosing a limit and then designing road and WoF specs around it is money.
Enforcement of rules is another matter – but then I tend towards being an authoritarian bastard in the face of arrogant stupidity.
“Kindly explain why the stats for countries like Germany, where the Autobahn speed limits are immense, have lower road fatalities?”
Because they invest money in their Autobahns. Unlike most roads in NZ that are diabolical to drive on. There are some between Levin and Palmy Nth that undulate like mad and then dip suddenly left or right, quite scary to drive on, and even scarier to see oncoming traffic having probs and lurching towards the opposite lane. In this country the Revenue is snatched by the Govt for Bullshit roads like the Holiday highway and tax cuts for their mates. and the pot holed roads in the smaller areas are just forgotten, or ignored, until there is a huge head on with fatalities, then they may fix a few of the worst holes.
Yeah, so? Going slower saves fuel and thus the environment. In fact, the highway speed limit should be lowered back to 80km/h. Around town driving needs to be slow because of pedestrians.
Modern cars are also more fuel efficient thanks to better fuel management systems and aerodynamic design features.
Car usage is excessive in NZ thanks to a lack of public transport and peoples reluctance to cycle or walk. Seriously, people drive from shop to shop in malls like the Hub in Hamilton.
Yes they are but that doesn’t change the basic physics. Going faster decreases the fuel efficiency. Actually, according to that article, the drag coefficient hasn’t changed much either.
@ Lanthanide – Got to love the Holier than thou attitude on this thread. Thought you were less of a reactionary than that …
Most New Zealand drivers who pick up a speeding ticket, have got it because of a momentary lapse of concentration. If there was a visible (other than the speedo) warning just indicating that your vehicle is travelling near or over the limit, most or all drivers would immediately throttle back. If the driver ignores that warning, then clearly the consequences are deserved.
When children were available to monitor the driving from the back seat of the holiday car, there was a ready warning or reminder of all road conditions.
On the holiday highway I have noticed many drivers randomly flash, whether there is a camera lurking or not, and that has an instant affect on the overtaking maneuvers of many.
Agreed!
Guess the holy rollers don’t care if a car on the open road flashes them because they never inadvertently exceed the speed limit do they? If they have ever exceeded the speed limit they are as deserving as all others in being ticketed – just because they weren’t caught does not make it right. And driving too slowly in busy traffic is also an offense and deserves to be ticketed for inconsiderate driving. Just because there were no police around does not make that right.
Really well I have found out that my Speedometer is out by between 10 and 15 kph, So if i am doing 50 by my speedo I am actually doing somewhere around 40-43kph So you tell me how I can not speed when I have a line of cars behind me?? And I am not the only one with this problem, anyone with an older model car has it to some extent or other. So your inane Don’t Speed is pretty much a moot point, So maybe you could maybe engage brain, before letting your fingers walk.
Maori culture has experienced a resurgence and has become a significant part of New Zealand processes and events.
Is it now at about the correct level? Or has “Maori correctness” gone too far?
Support for United Future has experienced a steady decline from the heady days when its fortune was tied to that of an electronic worm. The coiffured one has become an irritating and insignificant part of New Zealand politics.
Is its support now at about the correct level??
That’s an interesting “opinion gathering” comment MS. Clearly it bears no relation to any opinion of your own that I might, quite unfairly, try to infer.
Concerning your interesting and provocative question, my fuzzy little feeling in the pit of my guts tells me that the correct level would be a tad lower.
Of course, that’s just me – though I have to say that my opinion does seem to line up with common sense and reasonableness.
Consider my opinion gathered.
Your question is not the right one. I used to work closely with one of NZ’s most successful people and one of the things I learned during that time is that having the right answer is not the important thing – the right answer can usually be found easily enough. The important thing is having the right question – once you have that determined then you can go out and find the answer.
I don’t think your question even has any relevance. Maori has been resurgent and it is fantastic for them/us and for the country as a whole. It is to be encouraged. I suspect the area you’re questioning has more to do with whether its resurgence impinges on other cultural mores or standards etc. What, precisely, are you trying to evaluate mr pete?
Maori has been resurgent and it is fantastic for them/us and for the country as a whole. It is to be encouraged
+1
I kept the question deliberately “imprecise” because I wanted to hear what people thought, part of the opinion gathering process. There are various ways different people might look at this.
Oh, fair enough. My 2c says that there is almost certainly no “correct level”. However, like any individual person or wider collective group or sector, that person group or sector can go “too far” when it impinges others reasonable rights, cultural mores, expectations, etc. Otherwise go for it I say – the sky is the limit.
Hope you don’t scrape your shins jumping onto the racist bandwagon, Pete. I’ve gotta say, this is a new low for you.
Good grief, that’s a change for being criticised for not saying anything of substance.
Why a low? I know there are some people that think we now get too much imposed Maori culture. Maybe it’s a small minority that should just pull their heads in. Or maybe it’s something that should be talked about openly rather than being afraid to mention it in case you get jumped on by reverse rascists.
I would say the opposite, that there is too much imposed ‘paakehaa culture’ Remember, before colonisation there was only ‘Maaori culture.’ Therefore, everything else since then has been an imposition. Look to Te Tiriti (the Maaori version of the Treaty) to gauge what is ‘correct’ in terms of the relationship between the two worldviews.
Sheesh Adele, I think we are on the same wave length for a change. Agreed, such impositions are the issue – both you and Pete raise the same issue, each with a different set of circumstances. Resolving this is at the heart of this entire subject in NZ.
And the only way to try and resolve it is to discuss it without fear of being labelled.
Adele – I acknowledge that in the past Maori culture was suppressed and discouraged, I think that’s a shame. It’s good to see people proudly demonstrating their culture now.
I suggest, Pete, that raising the issue the day after some nutbar is reported as sending a racist email to a school over a few flags simply screams “bandwagon, jumping onto”.
“It’s good to see people proudly demonstrating their culture now.”
However as with religion, it should not be pushed down everyone’s throat.
It’s like the 8am bang on the front door only to open it to about 3 people trying to push into the house, whilst trying to give you some magazine. God help you if you let them in, it’s easier to remove a red wine stain from a white shagpile carpet using nothing but a dirty rag, than to dislodge them in full cry. However I digress.
I have some family members that are Maori, and me I am English and some of the stories my auntie tells me of growing up in a NZ that tried it’s best to stamp out the Maori culture makes me really sad, not so much that it happened, but for what has been lost. Some of the stories that are only dimly remembered and many more forgotten and lost forever.
But also when I went to Polytech it was compulsory to do Maori studies no matter what you studied, and that did not go down well at all, and so almost vacant classes were held, mainly because it was forced upon the class. About 2 of us turned up, it was great because we go the other good thing about the culture is the love of food, I must admit to be a poor struggling student it was great to be able to eat and get invites to other cultural things like hāngi, singsongs, and beer drinking. Ahh the 70’s were great.
So yes by all means be proud and demonstrate the dances the carvings the language, But if someone is not interested then that is their decision and their loss. So don’t force it upon them, just feel a little sorry for them because they know not what they are missing.
I totally concur vto, It’s rather nice being on the same page for a change.
Actually Pete, you’ve said nothing of substance in this post as well. The whole point of dogwhistling is to avoid directly saying what you think, but to cloak the idea in a veneer of reasonable debate. It’s a new low, because you have at least shown some hints of decency and understanding on occasions. Playing the race card is definitely poor form.
How is this “playing the race card”? It’s raising an issue I hear a lot of people talking about privately. Should what they think be ignored?
Are you playing the “don’t dare criticise anything Maori” card?
You’ve proven in your dogwhistling comments over at the Sewer what your motive was in posting this question, Pete George. So don’t try and pretend you were doing anything else than jump on the racist bandwagon. Talk about a troll. You must know you aren’t going to get much sympathy for your racist Dunedin views on this blog.
What’s racist about my views?
I mean specifically, and not just jumping on the “call him a racist because he dared raise a significant issue” bandwagon.
PG – I don’t know that your views are racist or just ignorance – but you make no attempt to discuss, or maybe even see, what is behind disparities between Maori and Pakeha. You’ve spent enough time on this blog that you should have some understanding. All you’ve done is put on a frown as soon as Maori getting good press, and are at the forefront of the culture of New Zealand for one particular event. That’s pretty whiny really.
Rosy, it started here when some people got whiny about John Key not appeasing every nitpicker in his speech last Friday.
I haven’t “put on a frown as soon as Maori getting good press”. I give Maori good press when I want to. I posted an open question here because I wanted to hear what other people felt about the issue generally. Mostly they seem to feel like attacking the person and avoid the issue.
Pete, John Key is the Prime Minister last time I looked. The Queen’s representative in right of NZ. ie THE CROWN. Maori are tangata whenua and in partnership with the Crown via the Treaty of Waitangi. The least the ignorant so and so could have done was speak one of the two languages of that partnership when welcoming the world to NZ. If you can’t see that, then there’s no point in even debating any issues of Maori culture with you any further.
“I give Maori good press when I want to”
So you’ve never wanted to then, at least not on this blog.
Edit: I’m happy to be corrected…
The first thing I posted today was: “Maori culture has experienced a resurgence and has become a significant part of New Zealand processes and events.”
And later: “I acknowledge that in the past Maori culture was suppressed and discouraged, I think that’s a shame. It’s good to see people proudly demonstrating their culture now.”
That statement wasn’t made until after you were beaten up about ‘Maori Correctness’. And talking about avoiding the issue – it seems to me that statement was simply avoiding an explanation of what ‘Maori Correctness’ means.
I have a picture in my head of the people who would use that phrase to dismiss Maori progress, and it’s not pleasant. You really shouldn’t want to be associated with it unless you agree with Don Brash IMO.
It doesn’t sound like you are happy to be corrected.
I don’t agree much with Don Brash. I disagreed strongly with his and John Ansell’s advertisement and directly challenged Ansell on it’s innaccuracies. They are extreme and misrepresent how things are.
I’m talking about a degree of disquiet amongst middle New Zealand. It’s not anti-Maori, it’s saying “we’re happy for Maori culture to be expressed, we just don’t want it forced on us too much”.
Frida’s post just above provides a good example of the pressure being applied to toe the cultural line. And she refuses to discuss it. Demands don’t go down well with many people – especially when that event was a major Maori cultural showpiece as it was.
Surely we should be open and talk about it without being called names? If we don’t deal with it it could lead to widespread grumpification.
I am happy to be corrected. I was looking forward to saying ‘Well done, I stand corrected.’ But that is not the case.
Stating that there is a Maori resurgence is a neutral statement, you didn’t say “and that’s a good thing” did you? You went on to make a negative statement about Maori correctness, whatever that means…. and then you talked about the ‘imposition’ of Maori culture! You backtracked only when the original comment was taken negatively (and I don’t know why you would have expected any other response).
And Pete, you’re not discussing it. You just want others to … how about you say what parts of Maori resurgence you like? Why is Maori Correctness a reasonable term? Why shouldn’t the PM say a simple ‘kia ora’ to an international audience? Why is it a shame that Maori culture was suppressed? What did that suppression cause? When do you think this resurgence is gone too far? etc, etc.
Otherwise I agree with Frida, you’re sounding passive-aggressive.
you’re not discussing it. You just want others to …
I’ve already explained that, I wanted to hear what others thought about it. That’s a part of getting electorate feedback, not stating my views but prompting others to give theirs.
Why shouldn’t the PM say a simple ‘kia ora’ to an international audience?
He should say it if he wants to, and he needn’t if he doesn’t want to. Presumably it’s not part of his normal vocabulary. Mine niehter – if someone greets me in a different language I often just say Hi back.
Why is it a shame that Maori culture was suppressed?
I think it’s a shame that people think that is was cultural suppression. There was a heap of cultural expression at the opening.
What did that suppression cause?
Nothing that I’m aware of, apart from a few people geting precious and hissy about it.
When do you think this resurgence is gone too far?
I think it gets borderline and sometimes too much now (from what I hear others are less tolerant). As I’ve said elsewhere it’s partly due to media overkill, I was interested to see international teams arriving in New Zealand but got a bit jaded by yet another Maori welcome.
Some of it is easy to avoid, for example I don’t usually settle down to a test match until the first whistle. The New Zealand anthem does little for me – I actually prefer the Maori verse, it sounds better, but I don’t like the English version words or sound/feel.
I’m over the pre-game haka performance, I think it’s become an overhyped media marketing exercise more than anything. I’m also concerned that the haka represents male aggression and violence, something there’s far too much of in our society.
I’ll just make one eurocentric, pragmatic comment and leave the rest to others that know more about cultural suppression than I do.
The RWC is putting NZ on the world stage. There is a heap of research that shows international visitors expect 2 things when they come to NZ – natural beauty and Maori culture. If you’re a bit jaded, just think about what our invited guests want – and put it in $$ terms if you like, you’ll feel much better about having to sit through it and if you’re really money oriented (for the country), you might even promote it.
As for me – I think it’s fantastic 🙂
Don’t you think international visitors (and potential international visitors) would have been far more interested in the waka part of the ceremony than Key’s speech? I was. I remember the grand visuals well. And I don’t remember what Key said.
How many would have noticed or cared if he included a token Maori phrase? I don’t think many come here to see him, and even less come to hear him mash some Maori.
Sorry Pete, but I fundamentally disagree with your tactics here of “opinion gathering” (which is why I was happy to go along with mickysavage’s parody of your initial comment – above).
For me, politics is about the contestation of ideas and values. This notion that someone can act as an “empty vessel” into which others’ desires and wishes can be poured is either ignorant of the realities of being human or deceptive. You are not an empty vessel “gathering opinions”.
Before I vote for anyone I want to know what they believe in, what they support, etc.. On touchstone issues (e.g., here in NZ that includes cultural and Treaty issues) I want them to be very clear about what their lifetime of experience leads them to think.
I’m not interested in them gathering my opinion, I’m interested in me gathering their opinion.
Tell me honestly, Pete – and without any distractions into other issues – do you think that Maori ‘resurgence’ has gone too far? And why or why not?
Sorry Pete, but I fundamentally disagree with your tactics here of “opinion gathering” (which is why I was happy to go along with mickysavage’s parody of your initial comment – above).
I fundamentally disagree with you about “opinion gathering” – to represent people one of the basics is listening to them. I thought your parody was well done.
For me, politics is about the contestation of ideas and values.
To an extent but if a party get’s too obsessed with that they get out of touch with the people and get punished in the polls for it.
This notion that someone can act as an “empty vessel” into which others’ desires and wishes can be poured is either ignorant of the realities of being human or deceptive. You are not an empty vessel “gathering opinions”.
I’ve never claimed to be an “empty vessel” – I’ve obviously got a lot of my own ideas and preferences – but I enhance those by listening to other people.
Before I vote for anyone I want to know what they believe in, what they support, etc…
It’s hard to portray that properly on a forum that where much attacking and misinformation goes on. This isn’t where I intend for people to learn that about me.
Tell me honestly, Pete – and without any distractions into other issues – do you think that Maori ‘resurgence’ has gone too far? And why or why not?
From my point of view it seems mostly to be about right but with some excesses – as there probably always will. The quibbling over Key’s speech seemed bizarre to me.
You’d have to ask Maori if they think it’s gone far enough, a few on here seem to think it hasn’t but there are a lot more out there. And they also have to respect the place for otheer cultures here.
From what I hear some non-Maori (it’s hard to quantify but it’s common to hear grizzles) think things Maori have taken over too much, especially when it is insisted on like it’s compulsory or a distinct quota.
Some refer to English or colonial culture – non Maori Kiwi culture has always been an evolving mixture of different cultures, many of which came here to get away from the English class ridden colonial culture. Kiwi culture is now an even bigger mixture, it includes some Maori culture, and there are a number of variations around the country. Plus new cultures are adding to the mix.
Even Maori culture has evolved and adapted and integrated. A choreographed high tech waka themed televised light show in a rugby stadium is an example of that.
My position on culture more than anything is tolerance and acceptance of different cultures. And I don’t think I or any New Zealander should be coerced or forced or shamed or guilted into greeting anyone in any particular way, it should be a personal choice.
What is your understanding of the definition of the word “culture” in the context of your initial question, Pete?
Thanks Pete. You think things are about right at the moment on this issue, though with some excesses. That’s all I wanted to know. (I won’t ‘contest’ that here too much – as I’ll focus on the rest of your comment – but one point that raises for me is the extent to which those excesses are about government policy as opposed to just what some people, in some places, organisations, workplaces, etc. decide they will do?)
“I fundamentally disagree with you about “opinion gathering” – to represent people one of the basics is listening to them.”
Yes, indeed. That’s the work of MPs once elected – perhaps particularly electorate MPs who represent not just those who voted for their party but all their electorate constituents.
Prior to an election, however, the main direction of opinion gathering should be the way I suggest – candidates expressing their opinions/policies on various significant topics and people deciding, on that basis, who they would most want to represent them.
And, so far as listening goes, of course listening matters. But, by the time an election comes around and candidates have been chosen they (the candidates) should have had plenty of time – in their lives – to have listened to others, to the arguments doing the rounds, etc. in the formation of their opinions and then to have come to some sense of the policies they support. Listening is one important way to form beliefs – it should not be a market research exercise once someone is trying to get elected.
“I thought your parody was well done.”
Thanks – I enjoyed writing it.
“To an extent but if a party get’s too obsessed with that [the contest of ideas and values] they get out of touch with the people and get punished in the polls for it.”
Not really. If you mean getting too ‘closed-minded’ then I’d agree. But, for me, it is through the contesting of ideas and values expressed clearly and without reticence that those same ideas can be changed. Uncontested ideas are the ones that don’t change, which is why I don’t like the ‘idea’ that ‘everyone’s opinions are of equal value’ – that’s a huge disincentive to ever consider changing one’s views, even to improve them while keeping them substantively the same.
“I’ve never claimed to be an “empty vessel” – I’ve obviously got a lot of my own ideas and preferences – but I enhance those by listening to other people.”
My guess is that you’d enhance them far more effectively by stating your views clearly and then listening to others’ responses. In that way, their responses will be more directly relevant to your views and help to provide ‘angles’ that your view may not incorporate. That’s what I get from this and other sites at any rate.
“It’s hard to portray that properly on a forum that where much attacking and misinformation goes on.”
Well, yes, that does happen sometimes – but, Pete, haven’t you noticed that it happens in ‘real life’ too? It’s hard to avoid and part of discussing things with others. If I think ‘misinformation’ is present then I try to show why I think it’s misinformation. As for ‘attacking’ – attacking arguments (or lack of) I have no problems with. Attacking people – to the point of abuse – I don’t like. Then again, if done with wit and out of frustration or some other understandable (even reasonable) cause, it bothers me far less. I don’t expect people to be saints.
“This isn’t where I intend for people to learn that about me.”
I think that might be what irritates people. I remember one of my early comments was met with “Yes, but what do you think?”
I look at it as more like web site trolling, to his site.
Jesus Pete. Nobody’s forcing you to get a full face Moko are they?
Go crawl back under your master’s wig.
Worms squirm back under rocks Mutante
Whoever accused you of not saying anything of substance was misinformed.
Bovine excrement is a substance.
Looks like Pete’s finally found his election issue (too much mowree stuff) and a snappy catchphrase to repeat (mowree correctness).
Now it just needs Peter Dunne’s endorsement.
Who’s Peter Dunne? Oh, he’s that funny old man with grey hair that works at the Beehive. United who???
I bet some of Pete’s best friends are Maaarreees and maybe his wife is from Singapore?
TVOR, you expose the exact issue which most people in NZ cannot understand;
A person asks whether a culture / race within a multi-cultural society is at the correct level e.g. Margaret Mutu, and that is deemed not racist by some.
Another person asks whether a culture / race within a multi-cultural society is at the correct level e.g. Pete George, and that is deemed racist by those same some.
Tell the bulk of NZ how that works…
Pete is just dogwhistling after aracist Dunedin businessmoron noticed maori flags flying at a local primary schools and got up on his hind legs to have a bleat about it. I find Mutu’s comments equally vacuous so I’m not in a position to opine on your conundrum, VTO.
Speaking up about something is dogwhistling? I have said something about the flag flying here:
http://yourdunedin.org/2011/09/16/flying-the-flag-%e2%80%93-friday-16-september-2011/
I was talking about your Maori Correctness post, where you did not ‘speak up’, you sucked up. To racists. The newer ‘flag’ post is a more substantial explanation of your position, but I think you should have been less coy with the phrase ‘some people’. Just call them racists, it’s more honest.
oh FFS I can’t believe I got suckered into reading that linked drivel.
1: clarification – The school doesn’t just fly “Maori” flags – there are at least half a dozen there every day.
2: as for asking people to be “tolerant” of Maori “embracing some of their own culture” – besides being patronizing in an almost Victorian way, it was the school decision to fly some flags that reflected, among some other things, its own cultural mix. Not “Dunedin”, not “National”, but the damned school decided on flags that it felt described it. It’s not a Maori thing, it’s a school thing, and just because one small-minded bigot takes offense you thought you sniffed a winner. Well you didn’t.
One problem is that when you see racism (or sexism etc.) as a kind of level-playing-field, those who are at the coalface of racism everyday are effectively silenced in speaking out about it because the dominant and dominating group claims that these main victims of racism are being equally racist in calling them out on their racism. You start playing a game of pretend in which everyone and every group is just as at fault as every other, and all people are equally victimised by racism. Which makes a mockery of the whole concept imo.
correct for who?
Have you had anything to do with this email pete – just asking
“I wish I was a Maori………
I have been wondering …
http://mars2earth.blogspot.com/2011/09/i-wish-you-werent-so-dull.html
sounds like your view to me or do you disagree with it
I’ll have a good look later (it’s long) but I think I’d generaly disagree with it. I don’t wish I was a Maori or anything other than who I am. I agree with dealing properly with the ToW. I like to see a good Maori representation in parliament. I work with Maori people on things. I enjoy and am sometimes moved by Maori cultural events.
But I think I should be able to raise issues that are definitely out there. And if I get criticisd for daring to raise them then too bad. I also get criticised for not saying enough.
Nope, need to go further until there is not two clearly defined cultures but just one – NZ culture.
what does your sentence mean? – it sounds like your usual assimilist borg talk but just checking
The two cultures will merge – nothing you can do will stop that and trying is actually preventing the necessary changes to both cultures.
yeah yeah doesn’t your programming allow a different response sometimes – you know – to trick the humans
Why do you try to prevent that which will happen no matter what you do?
it’s a thing people do – struggle against seemingly insurmountable odds – it’s rewarding in a funny human way – no merging for me even if resistance is futile. Your utopia is heinous to me – the opposite of what I want.
It’s not my utopia. It’s merely the way things are. Cultures will change over time especially when two or more co-mingle. We can either direct that change and bring about what we want or try to resist it which will leave us open to the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Thing is, like most conservatives, you’re looking to the past through rose tinted glasses – what you’re trying to hold onto never existed.
LOL – at least you didn’t use your preprogrammed “RWNJ”
“Never existed”- rejig your probes they are picking up false information.
Just when you are looking forward to a nice cruisy Friday tory Pete appears with another inane highly subjective question. How would we know Pete? in constantly changing human societies what is the ‘correct level’ for anything behaviour related apart from breathing? Take up philosophy or something.
If only Pete would have the honesty to complete the question so it could be considered rationally.
Lol.
And I thought the Brash/Ansell ‘Maorification’ thing was the clumsiest piece of dogwhistling fail I’d see this year.
Yeah I’m no longer convinced that Pete George isn’t Brash or Ansell. Certainly worships at their altar clearly
Frida, what’s racist about what I’ve said?
Some people have complained I haven’t said anything. Some people have complained I’ve said things that are apparently forbidden to be talked about.
Explain “maori correctness’.
Be thorough.
It is something that you say exists, so what is it?
When someone is being ‘Maori correct’ what are they doing?
It seems to me that the phrase ‘Maori correctness’, which you have invented as far as I can tell, and which you are posting about in numerous comment threads, carries a negative emotional tone.
I’d like to have that aspect of it addressed in your explanation of what it means.
Why did you choose that phrase to capture whatever it is you want to talk about?
Seems obvious to me that it is related to political correctness right?
That’s a negative phrase as well, don’t you think?
So it looks to me that your invention and use of that phrase tells us what you think about what that phrase describes.
“Maori correctness” sounds like a synonym for “Maorification” to me. Says it all, Pete. That’s why none of us can be bothered to engaged with your question. It’s loaded. And you’re a passive aggressive racist.
Its surprising you have offended any body at any time as your super sensitive to offending any body wig worm, I though people would be complaining about be bored to death with his lack of conviction.
A left-wing in Denmark. Congratulations to new PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the Social Democrats, Social Liberal party and the Red-Green Alliance. Maybe the tide is turning…
Then they will turn round and implement austerity measures, like the socialists in Greece, Spain and Portugal.
Be careful what you wish for darl…
The Social Democrats campaigned on tax rises and increased public spending.
Good news.
Denmark’s been the most right-wing of Scandanavian countries in recent years. Great to see a swing to the Left.
Aye sf.
I fear that Danes are more discerning than kiwis …
Asshole of the Week Award – Murray McCully
Well this one should come as no surprise… Murray McCully has once again shown what a complete A hole he really is. After failing to ensure Aucklands infrastructure could cope with a huge influx of people, McCully declares himself emperor of the waterfront, in some sort of delusional Machiavellian take over bid. The Minister for the Rugby World Cup didn’t even have the courtesy to inform Len Brown, effectively giving the two-fingered salute to the Mayor of Auckland…
George Clooney is better than us, he is
a better and bigger man than all of us
put together, and he has let us know
this in an interview he did at the Toronto
film festival.
Oh by us, I mean all of us, not blogger’s or
reporters, I mean everybody.
You see this reporter by the name of Paul Chi,
asked this innocent question, about how he
balances his personal and professional life in
the spotlight. Fair enough question I thought.
Not fair enough for George Clooney who went
on and tried to embarrass him.
Clooney laughed and sneered and said “I knew
someone would ask that question” he went on to
ask this guy’s name, Paul Chi told him, but Clooney
kept on asking about half a dozen times.
He then added, everybody remember the name Paul Chi,
he asks the questions that has to be asked. He also told
Paul that he should tell his editor that he asked the question.
To his credit Mr Chi remain professional, unlike
Mr Clooney who afterwards went on to tell
the media, he likes it when people ask him dumb
questions, because it makes him laugh.
What got me, was how the rest of the press core
just sat there laughing, and clapping like trained
circus seals.
I found it to be bullying behavior on a high school
level, where the cool kid, berates the nerd kid and
the whole class laughs at the Nerd, while the cool
kid sits there superior.
If I was at the press conference, I would of asked
George, “Why do you have to be a jerk?”
Lets hope one day people don’t tolerate bullies
anymore.
Hats off to Paul Chi for keeping his dignity.
Just for the record, this is the actual question asked:
“Which is harder, directing or dating in the spotlight?”
It’s a pretty lame question, imho.
and every journalist and editor (he probably knew exactly which editor that was) has been told many, many times that he will not talk about his private life, and if they don’t like that, don’t turn up.
Lame question, but Clooney didnt have to bully the reporter and have a whole room of people laughing at him.
See rosy’s post at 8.1.1.
Given that, I think his response was entirely warranted.
Don’t diss Clooney. You’re talking about the man I love.
I call it as I see it, no matter who did it, this was a case of bullying at it’s lowest level.
But he’s just so handsome. You can see that, right Brett?
As my old Mum used to say, Gormless, ‘handsome is as handsome does’. I am scared but it’s true, I agree with Brett!
I think you need to read a bit of his history with the press before you accuse him of bullying, and watch the video. Also remember his father is a well-respected journalist – he knows how the gossip press works and he has every right to protect his private life.
.
Interesting findings from the Department of Labour’:
The study found that the introduction of the New Entrants (NE) minimum wage was largely ignored by businesses and that most 16 and 17 year old workers were moved on to the adult minimum wage. Combined with a 75 cent increase in the adult minimum wage at the same time, this led to a 28.2 percent increase in the effective minimum wage for 16 and 17 year old workers.
This research found that this minimum wage increase accounted for approximately 20–40 percent of the fall in the proportion of 16 and 17 year olds in employment by 2010.
Good to see businesses acting responsibly.
Bad to see that the 2008 minimum wage reform has contributed so heavily to youth unemployment.
Joe,
Do you own rental property? If so, did you raise your rent this year? If yes, then you are a fucking hypocrite.
I get sick and tired of people like you who think that wages should be just held down. Young people slog their guts out making burgers for people like you and you think they should be paid a subsistance?
Tell me, what is your opinion on the labour market in the US before 1865?
Yeah, Joe.
Do you own a sweetcorn cannery? If so, did you raise the price of the sweetcorn this year? Fucking hypocrite.
Hey, Joe,
Do you run a boutique floral arrangement service? If so, did you put up your rates for decorative arrangements you sell this year? Fucking hypocrite.
😀
No rental properties, no sweetcorn factories, no boutique floral arrangement services…
… hate to burst your bubble millsy but I’m just another impoverished worker-bee who refuses to parasitically leech off a welfare system.
But in my own defense I’ve helped create jobs for 22 people in the last 12 months, plus set up a small home business for myself – despite the GFC
Oh. What about a kebab shop? Fucking hypocrite.
Well I eat kebabs… does that count?
😀
You’re a bit selective in your quotes, JB.
“The research found that the minimum wage increase lowered the proportion of 16 and 17 year olds in employment by between 3 and 6 percentage points in the subsequent two years (there was no impact on employment immediately following the policy change), which accounted for between 20 and 40 percent of the fall in the proportion of 16 and 17 year olds in work over this period (a loss of 4,500–9,000 jobs). The remaining 60 to 80 percent of the fall in employment can be attributed to the deteriorating economic conditions.” (My bold)
What the report is actually saying is that it improved the incomes of most young people and had a minor impact on their overall employment rate. In other words, overall, it is a good thing.
Nice try Joe, it’s pretty clear that the main reason that the main reason that the new entrants minimum wage was not significantly exploited by employers was the time/ hours limit placed upon it and the additional admin that would have been required.
To assert that businesses acted responsibly out of the goodness of their hearts is just plain laughable.
Up to 80% of the so called ‘losses’ were attributable to the recession – not the moves designed to remove discrimination on the basis of age.
It is not the job of NZs young people to prop up the bottom line of companies who do not want to pay even the current pitiful minimum wage.
New Zealand’s minimum wage is still close to the highest it has been, as a proportion of the average wage, since the late 1970s.
It is also the second-highest of any developed country in relation to the median wage. So we have one of the highest minimum wages in the world, and people want to make it even higher.
The 2008 reforms have already priced youth out of the employment market.
Perhaps a better focus would have been on family or household income instead of individual income.
Wages in NZ are by and large terrible, and for those on the minimum this means that affording a life is practically impossible, and debt is almost inevitable.
The only reason our minimum wage is second highest to anything is because our median wage is so low.
You may want to be a cheerleader for the inspired plan of ‘catching up with the third world’ but the thing that needs to be addressed is greed of the people at the top, and of businesses.
Paying people below, or even the minimum wage is not helping them – it’s exploiting them.
Paying people below, or even the minimum wage is not helping them – it’s exploiting them.
Work’s work Campbell – if a lower minimu wage means that unemployed youth have work opportunities then that’s a better outcome for them than no work and no wages.
Fair pay is fair pay Joe.
The study you quoted proved that wage rates were not the predominant reason why young people were out of work and thus your magical solution of paying them less is not going to achieve SFA. Of course it will make McDonalds and progressive enterprises richer – yipee.
Now if you are so concerned about the youth how about you go back to the drawing board and come up with a solution that doesn’t involve stripping them of their rights, rather than just pushing tired old lines from The Nact propaganda machine.
Paying people less than it costs to live and work is theft and that is what you’re asking to be legal.
Paying people less than it costs to live and work is theft..
How do you figure?
I pay the guy who mows my lawn once a fortnight $40 a go. I doubt he could live on that for two weeks. Am I stealing from him?
Ah, the normal RWNJ lack of logic put forward as an argument.
I bet plantation owners in the antebellum South used the same arguments regarding the abolishment of slavery.
“If we end slavery there would cost too much to pay them niggers and they would be doing nothing”.
Tell me Joe, how much would you pay your workers if the minium wage was scrapped totally. And do you accept that would lead to workers not being able to afford basic expenses?
Tell me Joe, how much would you pay your workers if the minium wage was scrapped totally.
If I had workers working for me – which I don’t – I would pay them whatever it took to retain their services. In other words a little more than the next best offer that they could get from another employer on the open market.
My sixteen year old son has found work by successfully circumventing the minimum wage provisions. He has offered hiomself to employers as an independent contractor, contracting himnself out at a rate that’s $1.50 below the minimum hourly wage. He has more had offers of work than he can cope with and he is very happy with the fact that he has work. Incidentally he came up with this approach entirely by himself – showing a bit of entrepreurial flair and respect for the dictum that he has responsibilities as well as rights.
Joe,
I hope you are not subsidizing him at home.
Your son didn’t even need you to tell him to sell himself short – he came up with it himself – says a lot about your gene pool and parenting skills.
What’s next for him? Chimney sweep?
Sounds like he should be spending more time at school and less time trying to circumvent labour laws designed to preserve the dignity and livelihoods of NZers trying to raise their own families.
‘dictum’ etc – still preaching from the Nact spin bible I see – responsibility goes two ways buddy, something you might want to consider as you dance and shake your pom poms on behalf of a government who doesn’t understand that it has responsibility to activly manage the economy on behalf of the people it is supposed to serve.
Thats the sort of thinking that will catch us up with Australia.He can’t be that bright if he has to be working for less than the minimum wage. He obviously gets that from you bloggs!
Thats why every body is leaving in droves for Australia.Selective statistics are not the truth
Paging ianmac: Over is Right, Under is Wrong (illustrated).
Put simply, there is a right way to hang the toilet paper, and a wrong way. Read on to determine the status of your own roll.
For a moment there i thought Whaleoil had been caught out…..
http://facecrooks.com/Blog/Creeps-of-the-Week/Internet-Troll-Jailed-18-Weeks-for-Abusive-Message-and-Taunting-Death-of-Teens.html
Big Bruv more like, I imagine he would enjoy doing nasty stuff like that.
Thank you for that great link. Such a pleasure to see such a just reward for trolling.
Picture looked a bit like him.
The Friday social????? Please, theres some gardening and rugby to discuss
PS A political comment: the fekker cant organise a Cycleway…..what the hell do you expect for a RWC party?
Thank you for letting me be demanding. I know its voluntary so thanks again.
So the news is out…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10752214
Makes interesting reading and makes a lot of commentators here look very silly.
How?
All it says is that the allegations against 4 of the 18 were serious enough to allow illegally-obtained evidence. Of coure the allegations are serious – that’s why the cops used AOS and dawn raids. But on the face of it the allegations are also a bit fantastic – although that’s what a trial is to determine.
Seems like all the rest were serious too but the videos are not allowed due to a technicality.
What are you – an 80s cop movie?
The “evidence” was illegally obtained, you don’t know what it is or its context, and the most they had were “firearms” charges, yet you’ve immediately gone to “oh they were obviously guilty of something they should be in jail for”. There are reasons we have rules of evidence, they aren’t just “technicalities”. And cameras in the real world aren’t like CSI – you can’t just say “enhance” and it’s suddenly a perfect, unequivocal image. There can be many interpretations to a single image, and I’m pretty sure that the police are grasping at straws on this one. The number of people released without charge is pretty interesting – if the cameras were all they had in the way of “actual” evidence, then it’s pretty piss poor.
The warrant they had did not allow video recording.
I can buy a day/night aut sensor video that runs off D cells for $600. Perfect image quality and takes 10,000 shots.. I am sure the cops had plenty of perfect images of what was going on.
Compare the “training” of this group to Anders Berivik’s preperation.
Pure projection.
ASSUMING they were acting like “military-style” training, a picture cannot prove whether it was terrorism planning, training as “security” for private contractors in Iraq, intensive method-acting rehearsals for a play or movie, or even just a bit of fun in the forest.
Fuck sake – cameras are frequently debatable at sporting events, prepared environments with 360 degree unobstructed coverage. Cameras are vulnerable to distance, field width, obstruction, light, glare, weather, and context.
But you’re comparing the few remaining charged people to a right-wing mass gunman simply because you read the word “camera”.
I dont need a camera to know that they possessed and were traing with illegal military semi auto rifles and shotguns. The police were forced to leave their watchpost because of the large volume of gunfire.
69 dead Norwegians because of whackjobs like these.
What an ass. No comparison mate.
Wannabe rambo’s training with slr’s no comparrison? Home made explosives no comparrison?
Tell me then why would anyone do live fire squad training with a military semi auto if they dont have intention of killing humans?
You really are a sad small minded hypocrite.
dc you’ve never been on a hunting trip with off duty police. or other hunters
Ever been on a firing range?
Again, You’re comparing them to a spree-killer based on a few one-sided lines in a paper, when even a judge or jury need to hear a bit more than that and from both sides.
You’re the sort of nutjob who, I dunno, gets the evidence first and worries about warrants later, then complains that the DA is a pussy for not going ahead with the case. And votes for the nice austrian corporal who promises to do away with such political correctness in the justice system, not because you agree with his other policies, just because you’re too dumb to figure out the consequences of a legal system that lacks impulse control..
I have been around firearms all of my life, I have shot in various forms of competition for 35 years.
It is beyond question that this group had illegal semi auto military style firearms and were using them.
It is because I have a respect for firearms and legal firearms owners that I want this group punished.
I only wish the Police had stayed within the warrant they held so that the other 13 would not have escaped prosecution also.
“beyond question”? Isn’t that for a trial to determine?
Like I say, the antihero in a bad ’80s cop film, just before he starts killing everyone he assumes is a bad guy.
Heh grumpy – you mean a major technicality like the police are not allowed to take either audio, video or pictures from private property without authority to be on the property? Or electronic survelliance of phones. They either have to have warrants, court approval, or due cause under one of several acts.
What is steadily becoming clearer as the charges steadily get dropped is that the police teams who were collecting evidence had none of the above. What they are left with right now are 4 people charged on the basis of the results of searches where the warrants were issued to the officers making the application to the court, where they probably lied in and certainly inflated the statements to get them issued. It would not be the first time that I have seen it happen with some of the cowboys amongst the ‘special’ units of the local police.
I would expect that the next round of legal arguments going to have an interesting look at the basis on which search warrants were issued. As far as I can see there is no suppression of those statements seeking a search warrant. Does anyone have them? Or can tell me why I cannot read and report on them?
Mr Bloggs:
“New Zealand’s minimum wage is still close to the highest it has been, as a proportion of the average wage, since the late 1970s”
Hourly rate or weekly earnings? If we’re talking hourly rate you are most certainly wrong. If it’s weekly earnings, then that’s a red herring because 30% of jobs are part-time now, as opposed to 15% back in the 1970s.
You are using “misnomer” incorrectly. This is very annoying and serves to undermine anything else you might be saying.
Only if you’re an irritable pedant with nothing of substance to contribute. In any case i changed it to “red herring” – though you probably won’t be happy with that either.
No. I am very happy with that. Well done.
http://takethesquare.net/2011/09/16/roar-why-we-are-marching-on-september-17/
“This Saturday, September 17th, tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of people will take to the streets and squares of financial districts in dozens of cities around the world in a global day of action against the excessive power of the banking sector — and for a more just, more stable, and more sustainable global financial system”
I might try and repeat this comment tomorrow but Pete secret squirrel coiffured one admirer would be UF MP George managed to spark 58 comments today and it was all about a calculated banal yet racist comment.
And he then did that wriggle where he maintains that he was not being a racist but actually a progressive tolerant leftie and the comments about him were really unfair and he was being misunderstood. He then debated by being banal and not debating.
The man is a troll. He is the most effective disrupter of posts and discussions the Standard has ever seen. And he wants to get Dunne reelected, AND there is the outside possibility that good old peety could be an MP.
I am going to try and post this again tomorrow but can I urge everyone to reply to his banal crap with DNFTT? I know how much fun it is to point out the stupidity of his comments but he is not learning and I suspect that all he wants to do is disrupt and confuse.
You’re the one that sounds confused Greg. If you don’t don’t know what I’m talking about here you’re as out of touch with the electorate as your party.
Or maybe you’re just trtying to talk about anything but Roy.
Pete, no one can work out what you are talking about, that is the problem.
And Roy? Well Labour’s support was 52 times UF’s support. And your point is?
Peety be an MP ???? What’s he standing for?? the price of hair spray and combs to drop?? Must be sucking up to his leader as he’s gotta number 2. but they both got that Politician suck up grin. Look at the pic and header on his site.
http://www.unitedfuture.org.nz/pete-george-dunedin-north/
He’s just worming his way around as usual
Despite that I’ll no doubt catch hell for saying so, I agree, Pete. 🙂
The haka is a supreme expression of raw masculinity. Spine tingling stuff. Peter George should give it a go then perhaps he would be less of a sneaky little bitch.
Who sounds bitchy?
I shouldn’t give it a go, the haka doesn’t do it for me, it’s not a part of my culture. Adele, if I thought that Maori men would use the haka for expressing their raw masculinity and leave it there I would agree that it’s a good way to express it.
A major problem that our society has is that raw masculinity is expressed in too many other ways that are destructive to families, destructive to relationships, destructive to the well being of people. And it’s destructive to the perpetrators of vioolence. You will be as aware as I am of the over-representation of Maori in these statistics. Raw masculinity is far too often a raw and open wound.
Do you think the use of haka is a good outlet for men’s expression and can be left in the performance? Or is it symptom of too much male aggression in other aspects of normal living?
Looks like PG doesn’t believe that the All Blacks doing the haka represents his culture or that of our country.
Which country’s culture does the All Blacks haka represent, then, Pete?
Thanks for letting the voters know.
Wrong CV. The haka is obviously a part of All Black culture.
I’m not against them doing the haka, it just doesn’t do anything for me and I usually choose to grab a beer and some chips when the anthems and haka are on. I usually avoid the TV buildup to matches too, but I’m not anti them having a buildup.
I live in a country that has a culture of allowing people to watch the bits they want to watch.
LOL mate so you don’t think the All Blacks represent NZ or represent you internationally?
(Ummmm regardless of whether or not you watch them, this is not a question about TV viewing preferences!)
??
Of course the All Blacks represent NZ at rugby, in a commercial sort of way. Internationally they are one of the best known symbols of the country.
Well, I don’t think they represent me internationally! I’d rather be represented by skill and brain not fighting, bullying, battles and brawn… Deborah Wai Kapohe for instance… or Allan McDiarmid (even though I see from Wikipedia that he’s dead now).
Violence is not solely the preserve of males nor is it an inherent feature in Māori men.
In Te Ao Māori, Tūmatauenga is the Atua that defines the ultimate expression of ‘masculinity.’ To be dedicated to Tū was to instill within, a set of principles and ethics, and the values of courage, discipline, principled actions, chivalry, charity, mercy, proper knowledge and behaviours. The NZ Army has as its soubriquet ‘Ngāti Tūmatauenga’ or the people of Tūmatauenga.
Raw masculinity is seen in the best of human behaviour – not the worst. It is a masculinity that uses physical and mental strength to protect, preserve and enhance the lives of others. Masculinity, also, is not only a ‘male’ thing. Women can also express masculinity, and can also bind themselves to Tū.
That Maaori feature disproportionately in all adverse indicators speaks to the ongoing effects of colonisation. The insidious nature of dis-inheritance from identity and culture has the effects you now witness. Random acts of violence is not Māoritanga. Rape is not Māoritanga. Bashing and killing children is not Māoritanga. Nor are they the actions of men expressing masculinity.
Our prison system is punitive and largely gives lip-service to rehabilitative measures. However, where there have been efforts towards rehabilitation for Maori prisoners, the most successful (in terms of reducing recidivism rates) have been those programmes that teach identity through whakapapa (what it means to be Māori) mau rakau (martial arts) and the haka.
A haka performed by an emasculated male is sore to the eyes. Flailing and undisciplined limbs, floppy gestures, and droopy expressionless features are not the stuff of ‘raw masculinity.’ I suggest you stick to Morris dancing.
Tired of the surveillance shtick?
Nice pisstakes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIan6woglrA&feature=related
Any comment on the latest Roy Morgan poll?
Come on guys, it is time that you rolled Goff and got somebody in who can at least save face for the once proud Labour party.
Once proud? Gee, many thanks for the advice bruvver boy, but I can assure you that the Labour movement’s still very proud of its achievements, and the fact that ignorant scum such as yourself will bite the very hand that has succoured you, will not diminish that pride.
In fact, great optimism stems from the performance of your very own flip-flop lad over the past three years. Hels (and now Chris) have been released to perform important functions for progression and enhance our reputation on the global stage, while your wee boy has basically held the fort: an embarrassing, cringe-inducing grinny-do-nothing retard admittedly, but besides putting our children and grandchildren on terrorists’ lists temporarily, a totally ineffectual nonentity in the grander scheme of things. Our very own John W. Palin for the times.
So yes, gloat like a goat if it floats your boat, wee bruv, but know that you are less than nothing: and if “winnng” is your all, reflect on the Warriors tonight: written-off by pundits, commentators, punters, pundits and press; yet resplendent in glory. She works in mysterious ways old son, but always, inevitably, for the good.
Burger Fuel defends 90-day firing
Hey, look at that, exactly what we on left said would happen. Scum would hire people and then, on the 89th day, fire them.