Yup, I partly agree with you Matthew about Labour’s TPP positioning.
Labour missed the chance to stand firmly against the TPP.
Chris Trotter nailed it.
‘Why has Andrew Little rejected a winning TPPA strategy for a guaranteed loser?’
Trotter suggests that Labour may no longer be “committed to meaningful social and economic change”.
He could have kicked for touch (waited for text), opposed TPP or declared victory and supported TPP. Any of these would have had internal integrity and been politically ok. He managed to find the one form of words certain to fuck off both pros and antis and make him and his party look ridiculous. Quite an achievement in its own way!
Andrew Little did “kick for touch”, Matthew Hooton, and he’s been descried for doing so ! He’s said he didn’t know all the details, what’s fully in the text, and he’s opposed parts he does know about, and what’s more – he’s also said that if necessary a Labour government would breach parts of the agreement it doesn’t approve of. What more do you all want ?
1. Labour opposes the TPP on principle unless it meets these 5 bottoms lines (list them again).
2. At this stage Labour has no control over whether NZ is part of the TPP, only National does and its allied parties.
3. Labour will not pull out of the TPP when it is government, because we feel that is not in NZ’s best interests (provide an explanation of why this is so).
4. Instead Labour will endeavour to address each of our 5 bottoms lines one by one eg Labour will still pass legislation restricting overseas land ownership.
5. We will then fight any disputes process that happens as a result. (here Labour needs to provide a very clear explanation of what that actually means, including how it will deal with being sued by corporations).
That’s the gist of what they’ve done, but the issues in brackets in 3. and 5. haven’t been explained and sorry, but I don’t trust Labour on those things.
Little and Labour stuffed up its position on the TPP in exactly the same way it did on the flag change fiasco and three bloody peaks or whatever it’s called. It’s either because the people in there have such opposing views on everything that any attempt at a compromise will always fail or they’re just very very stupid when it comes to strategy. Suspect it’s way more than a bit of both.
Clearly the voters don’t give a shit about integrity Matthew or National wouldn’t be in a third term. They forgive lying and misleading regularly if they believe the nonsense about them getting a better life. I mean even you were prepared to dance around the law and its intent for your ideological beliefs and career progression?
You might want to think about the shit show the country has to vote for as an alternative. But hey.. keep saying the public is stupid. Seems to be working.
In April 2002, when the New Zealand Herald cartoonist Malcolm Evans dared to criticize the Holy State for its depradations in the Occupied West Bank (this was just after the Jenin massacre) the Israeli consulate, in concert with influential supporters including David Nathan, Dame Lesley Max and David Zwarz, mounted a sustained campaign of character assassination and vilification against Evans, combined with snarling threats against the Herald‘s editor, Gavin Ellis, a weak character who needed little more than a few swear words down the telephone to frighten him. He sacked Evans eventually, replacing him with the pisspoor Rod Emmerson.
Sterling work, joe! I know how you feel about Max’s comments having disappeared into the ether. That’s the problem with leaving it to the unreliable archivists at Radio New Zealand.
It’s for that reason that I spend so much time committing the words of people like Lesley Max to paper. That way we can confront them with evidence of their villainy whenever we want….
I’ve found Littles views on the tpp easy to understand anyone who is struggling is either listening to the people that have set out to deflect trouble away from the nats pathetic bargaining in the negotiations of the tpp or is one of the shit stirrers
Yep you would think Labour could be bothered clearing up the variation between Littles statements and their TPPA position on their website or FB page at least.
Little’s statements don’t seem in line with their ‘official’ TPPA position which has more holes in it anyway than swiss cheese, and doesn’t even seem to be able to stick with that either.
And b wag horn you can dismiss all the ex Labour supporters as
set out to deflect trouble away from the nats pathetic bargaining in the negotiations of the tpp or is one of the shit stirrers
which maybe Labours official position on anyone who is confused (they are just shit stirrers) but again that 15% of votes they lost last election should be a ring-a-ding moment for understanding that those angry ex supporting ‘shit stirrers’ are voters who are sending them a message that after 7 years you would think they might concede they need to address.
I think Labour’s problem is that had convinced themselves the TPP would be diabolical. When they learned on Monday all five of their bottom lines had been met, they experienced cognitive dissonance that they need to work through. In the meantime, they are stuck in that awful place where ten facts are not the ones you want to believe.
He is probably referring to Little’s briefing from Groser and all the inside information he doesn’t have on TPP which would mean someone is breaching the crucial secrecy which denied the rest of us access to same.
My observation of Matthew is unless he is getting hot under the colour and going all screamy and ad hominem he only pushes hard (and repeatedly) on things he is SURE about (apologies for the mental image that may have produced, not intended). he may not have seen stuff but somebody/s have told him enough for him to feel he is on sure ground… which would also be a breach of the secrecy
I never said they opposed it, my take on it is ;
In the lead up to signing they applied as much pressure on national as they could to get them to not sell us out .
After the signing they have gone for a sensible amount of caution on what they say so as not to be tricked into tight corner by key and co .
While also making it clear they will find away to legislate for protecting nz residents chances of owning there own home.
People need to learn to keep an eye on what the main players are saying and not getting sidetracked by all the chatter coming from likes of hooton .
to Paul @ 1.3.1. on Stuff, 11 October 2015 – at end of story re “bigger gains for dairy from India, Indonesia” –
Andrew Little is quoted as saying ” If it came to walking away from the TPPA to get a better deal elsewhere, Little said a Labour government reserved that right”.
Hi Jenny – reserving your right is not really saying NO to TPP.
I think that is what Labour don’t get. People don’t want to support a party that does not give a clear message on TPP, which is going to affect all part of Kiwi’s lives, heath, housing, law, copywrite, justice, security, transparancy, sovereignty and trade.
The fact it was pushed through so that Obama can have some sort of legacy (after the trillions in US debt and an un win able occupation) is even worse. Obama has hardly left the US or the planet in better shape after his presidency. A last ditch attempt to put US and other countries jobs at risk and the reduction in environmental sovereignty into corporate control under TPP seems to be more of the same.
People have a right to know concrete policy before they support a party. Labour can ‘reserve’ their right to walk away on TPP even the Natz can, but we all know they will not.
“Reserving the right to withdraw” utterly meaningless. All 12 TPP countries “reserve the right to withdraw”. That is why they put the withdrawal provisions in the deal.
Andrew Little is quoted as saying ”If it came to walking away from the TPPA to get a better deal elsewhere, Little said a Labour government reserved that right”.
Yep, better deal elsewhere. Labour don’t have a problem with free market neoliberalism. I don’t think they have any intention of moving left, they’re just going to tinker with the edges a bit. Think Clark government lite.
They are worse than Clark because she at least had the balls to complain about international stuff that was wrong (like Israeli agents stealing disabled NZ identities and be caught) and do something about it. I think both Key and Little would just let any similar incident ride rather than cause an international incident. Key would probably be keen to make money out of passports anyway (finally a return on investment from the disabled – fake international passports).
As for Labour being briefed on the document – it is massive – so as with any agreement the devil is in the detail. I’m sure it all looks rosy in the briefing papers but try to get the whole agreement to see if it is true. No can do as Prof Kelsey has found. And apparently noone can find out for 7 years.
It’s the last few days of the Canadian federal election campaign.
The central issue of the longest campaign in Canadian history has been how to get rid of Stephen Harper.
It looks increasingly likely that Canadians have decided Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party are the means by which that will be achieved.
The Grits have established a 4 to 7% lead over the Tories nationally but more importantly they’re leading by 10 to 13% in Ontario (which accounts for over a third of all the federal ridings). http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/poll-tracker/2015/index.html
I hope today that when John Key meets with Australian PM, he advocates on behalf of law abiding Kiwis living in Australia getting a better deal rather than the sc*m who assulted, robbed, raped and burgled law abiding people and now are claiming they have been discriminated against as they are being deported from a country that opened its door to them.
Tories are, inevitably, ignorant on pretty much everything. It’s that lack of knowledge combined with their inability to think that allows the psychopaths running National to lead them around by the nose.
Take this comment for example. Classic flamebait, calling people “scum”, wishing human rights abuse upon them, and then paying lip service to personal responsibility makes Tory a dull hypocrite.
For his next trick, Tory will vote for the party that always generates more unemployment – yes it does, that’s a fact – and then start hating on poor people.
Lying about your own beliefs and mine. If you had an inkling of personal responsibility you’d know how to form an argument that doesn’t rely on Mr. Strawman.
” I support personal responsibility rather than reliance on the State as a surrogate wet nurse that you and the confused from the left advocate”
Like SCF bailout by the state of business and right wing investors
Like government handouts to farmers for irrigation. Why can’t they stand on their own two feet like grown-ups? If their business cannot attract attention from private investment, then rather than by subsidised by the taxpayer it should be allowed to fail.
Like Rio Tinto getting state welfare in Invercargill.
Like the stock exchange even. That great bastion of personal responsibility – ha ha ha ha. Recall one of the reasons for floating SOE’s was to support the failing private stock exchange. Fucking useless pricks.
Like welfare support for Hollywood and Peter Jackson. Unable to stand on their own two feet either.
Like farmers penchant for all structures socialist – heard of Fonterra? or Ravensdown? Two of NZ’s largest cooperatives – know what cooperation means fulla?
Doesn’t leave much in the world of private personally responsible right wing tory business does it.
you undersdtand that those people you dont like are being sent back here, to live next door to you or your friends… just so long as you are clear.
Oh and the children who have not committed offences and never lived in NZ?
You support personal responsibility from the position of someone who has deluded themselves that everything they have today was down tot heir own hard graft and sheer brilliance…
So you support Hide taking responsibility for the disaster that is the Auckland amalgamation, Bradford for our runaway power bills, Douglas for the increase in working poor since 1984, Key for the loss of nearly 900 million in dividends from power companies, Don Elder and the National party for Solid Energy etc, etc.
“During October support for National rose 5.5% to 50% well ahead of a potential Labour/Greens alliance 40.5% (down 5.5%) according to the latest Roy Morgan New Zealand Poll. If a NZ Election were held now the latest NZ Roy Morgan Poll shows National would be easily re-elected.”
Up and down like a …..’s trousers, but not surprising given Labour’s recent performance.
Yep, is the word NO to TPP is too hard for Labour to comprehend. Also Helen Clarks position beside Key cementing the NatLite relationship will be costing the votes.
So our ‘Tory’ troll does not believe in state education, our state health system or people being free and moving on with their lives once they have done their time and paid for their crimes ……………….
He’s probably all for rich tax cheats though …………………….
So true:
“I think the general consensus is that it’s ironic that we have been able to vote on a flag change which is…”
Trivial.
“Well surface-level stuff, while something like this that’s really representing our country overseas has been kept secret for a long time. Do you think this sets a precedent for the way the New Zealand government will interact with the public in the future?”
The Key Team have found many ways to mislead and distort Demoracy.
But Canadian Harper is even better/worse at it than Key!
As Harper tries for a fourth term in office at the Canadian federal election next week, he is trailed by an extraordinarily long list of allegations. ……
….Some of these allegations have been proved. In the 11 years since he became leader of the country’s Conservatives, the party has been fined for breaking electoral rules, and various members of Team Harper have been caught misleading parliament, gagging civil servants, subverting parliamentary committees, gagging scientists, harassing the supreme court, gagging diplomats, lying to the public, concealing evidence of potential crime, spying on opponents, bullying and smearing. Harper personally has earned himself the rare rebuke of being found to be in contempt of his parliament…..
… the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), which has been described eloquently by the Globe and Mail as “a 90-person juggernaut of political strategists, ‘issues managers’ and party enforcers who exercise strict control over cabinet, the houses of parliament and the bureaucracy….”
Sound familiar? http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/15/stephen-harper-master-manipulator
But what about their opposition – do they stand by and wave the corruption through in Canada – while ineffectually complaining about it- and then agreeing with much of what the conservatives are doing anyway?
That is the true trick of the right. To noble your competition by trickery and they don’t even comprehend you are doing it and then start to join in too (unsuccessfully).
Trickery and getting away with it.
“….a bus full of aboriginal voters, who were very unlikely to vote Conservative, and who were misdirected by calls and ended up not voting at all. That riding – Nipissing-Timiskaming – went to the Conservatives with a majority of only 18.”
And the source of the calls could not be found.
I personally know many Harper supporters.
He has fostered an air of fear in Canada for both financial and personal security. As many western governments do.
It’s a disgrace.
The Liberals are no better….another ultra “centrist” establishment party which these days signifies fear and violence.
…”The site, operated by Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF), was attacked five times in the span of an hour by a C-130 gunship, despite repeated pleas by the MSF to US forces. MSF officials described repeated strafing runs against the main hospital building, which housed the emergency room and the intensive care unit. No surrounding buildings were hit, they say.”
( a question many have been asking themselves)
‘Did Obama Bomb Doctors Without Borders for Opposing TPP?’
…”Had the President of Nobel Peace Prize-winning Doctors Without Borders not warned us of the “imminent threat to global health” posed by the TPP, would these 22 doctors and patients have lost their lives early Saturday?…
Doctors Without Borders Calls Airstrike a War Crime
I don’t think it is to do with TPP, more that Obama has lost control of the military in Iraq, and the US military and private contractors and overseas troops are doing whatever they like, and Obama is reluctant to try to bring his own military and private contractors to account.
Good dose of reality for the anti-TPPA activists here, and results I commented on and fully expected.
National have recovered in October after Labour did them like a dinner in September.
Labour need to forget TPPA entirely, get back to attacking weak Ministers, and back to issues that are both media-positive and resonant with actual citizens’ direct interests.
Portfolios like:
– Social Welfare
– Employment
– Corrections
– Housing
– Economic Development
– Education
And if the existing Labour shadow portfolios aren’t up to making good hits, then either support them with more staff, or reshuffle them.
which is why the Right are keen to promote him to Mayor of Auckland. You understand that when National (and its supporters) are praising Clark and Goff……
sanity is not defined by who agrees with you Matthew.
I agree with what Phil said:
“He denied Labour was “stuck in the dark ages” regarding the TPPA, and said the party had not yet decided whether it would support or oppose the deal.
“I think the party is doing the right thing at the moment – until you read the fine print, you don’t sign the document.
“We’ve had a briefing from Tim Groser and that was really helpful, but there are things that he couldn’t answer…and we’ve got to see the detail of it.”
Once in a blue moon I am moved to comment on one or other of the MSM news sites. The last time was a TV3 news/opinion piece about the axing of Campbell Live. My comment contained critical language concerning Julie Christie and Mark Weldon whom I saw as the principle protagonists in the demise of the show. Ever since I appear to have been barred from the TV3 comments section. I can’t even read them to see what other readers have to say. No problem reading comments elsewhere.
What a pair of lily livered, pouting pratts. I’m happy to see TV3 is going down the gurgler with that pair in charge. Sometimes people do get what they deserve.
actually, depending on power efficiencies it might be good in dedicated areas like warehouses. Ignoring the vertical storage issues, of course.
Theme parks… maybe. Or they could just upscale an air hockey table, for less.
But the thing about skate parks is that they’re largely created to try to get skateboarders out of public spaces, particularly because of the damage they can cause to benches etc. But skateboards are a valid (if dickish, and not just because one almost hit me today) form of transport outside of parks. And boards are relatively cheap, not requiring batteries or liquid nitrogen.
So yeah, might be a fad for rich kids, but not for long and not widespread.
Very disappointing from Little.
Labour members and supporters, as well as progressive voters, should take a leaf from the approach of Little and his entourage by flouting requests for donations and help.
We’re in 2015, and the Labour Party is not ever reverting to some prelapsarian Socialist form. (That question was asked in 2014, and the answer was resoundingly: NO).
US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq to bring in democracy, freedom of speech, human rights and because of 9/11. (Yeah right).
Why are they attacking the wrong countries then?
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Canan Kaftancioglu is a Turkish politician and member of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). Like most modern politicians, she tweets, and uses the platform to criticise the Turkish government. She has criticised them over the death of a 14-year-old boy who was hit by a tear gas grenade during ...
Hi there, just call me Tim.We face tough problems, and I’d like to help, because there are solutions.An Auckand District Health Board member has nominated me for as a candidate for the ADHB, because her MS-related pain and fatigue is reduced with hemp products from Rotorua. Nothing else helped her. If I ...
The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security has published their report on whether the SIS and GCSB had any complicity in American torture. And its damning. The pull quote is this:The Inquiry found both agencies, but to a much greater degree, the NZSIS, received many intelligence reports obtained from detainees who, ...
Bewhiskered Cassandra? Professor Hugh White’s chilling suggestion, advanced to select collections of academic, military and diplomatic Kiwi experts over the course of the past week, is that the assumptions upon which Australia and New Zealand have built their foreign affairs and defence policies for practically their entire histories – are ...
For most of the time I was a British MP, my party was out of government – these were the Thatcher years, when it was hard for anyone else to get a look-in. As a front-bencher and shadow minister, I became familiar with the strategies required in a parliamentary democracy ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh On August 29th a video in which veteran FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) commander Iván Márquez announced that they had taken up arms again was released. There was no delay in the reaction to it, from longtime Liberal Party figure and former president Uribe, for ...
Air New Zealand couldn’t believe its luck that this seemingly ideal piece of real estate had so far gone entirely unnoticed. Air New Zealand’s search for a site to build a second Auckland Airport may have made a breakthrough this afternoon, after employees scanning Google satellite imagery spotted a huge, ...
No-one on the anti-capitalist left in this country today puts forward a case that Labour is on the side of the working class. There are certainly people who call themselves ‘socialist’ who do, but they are essentially liberals with vested interests in Labourism – often for career reasons. Nevertheless, there ...
When National was in government and fucking over the poor for the benefit of the rich, foodbanks were a growth industry. And now Labour is in charge, nothing has changed: A huge demand for emergency food parcels means the Auckland City Mission is struggling to prepare for the impending arrival ...
Gayford, pictured here on The Project, before things got wildly out of control. A bold public relations move by the Government to encourage parents to vaccinate their children has gone horribly wrong. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appeared on tonight’s episode of Three’s The Project, where the plan was for her ...
Mr. Whippy’s business model has driven it down a dark road of intimidation. Residents in major centres around the country are becoming disgruntled by the increasingly aggressive actions of purported ice cream company Mr. Whippy, who have taken to parking on people’s front lawns and doorsteps in a desperate attempt ...
Today the government released its Action Plan for Healthy Waterways, aimed at cleaning up our lakes and rivers. Its actually quite good. There will be protection for wetlands, better standards for swimming spots, a requirement for continuous improvement, and better standards for wastewater and stormwater. But most importantly, there's a ...
Today I appeared before the Environment Committee to give an oral submission on the Zero Carbon Bill. Over 1,500 people have asked to appear in person, so they've divided into subcommittees and are off touring the country, giving people a five minute slot each. The other submitters were a mixed ...
Anti-fluoride activists have some wealthy backers – they are erecting billboards misrepresenting the Canadian study on many New Zealand cities – and local authorities are ordering their removal because of their scaremongering. Many New Zealanders ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is questioning why, for the second time, Jacinda Ardern has appointed a Crown-owned company Chief Executive to Chair her “Business Advisory Council”, following her announcement that Mercury CEO Fraser Whineray ...
Responding to the Government’s decision to give around $300 million to Amazon as a sweetener for filming a TV series in New Zealand, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says: “As a matter of simple waste, this is striking, ...
I am very pleased with Air New Zealand’s Decision to backdown and withdraw their application to trademark into a logo Kia Ora. I said at the time that it was an ill conceived idea and poorly thought out – more importantly it should never have been ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa members will be joining with others across the union movement by wearing black and white in support of pay equity on Suffrage Day tomorrow, and urging the Government to commit to a settlement for teacher aides this year. ...
Yesterday’s announcement from the Minister for Immigration, to improve temporary work visas for migrant workers, provides some positive changes but more detail is needed. The Council of Trade Unions fundamentally supports the principle of making ...
FIRST Union today welcomed Westpac’s public admission of the significant gender pay gap in its workforce and reiterated its call for employers to work with unions to close this disparity, arguing that this work must begin at the bottom of the pay ...
Changes to the work visa system announced by the Minister of Immigration are not all positive for employers or migrants, comments Ms June Ranson, chair of the New Zealand Association for Migration and Investment (NZAMI) , a leading voice in the ...
The Dairy Workers Union (DWU) has welcomed the announcement from dairy company, Synlait, that they will be boosting parental leave entitlements significantly for working parents. ...
In June, the Children’s Commissioner announced a thematic review into Oranga Tamariki’s policies, processes and practice relating to care and protection issues for tamariki Māori aged 0-3 months. Today the Children’s Commissioner has released the full ...
“Closing the Gap” Tauranga, one of the area groups of Income Equality Aotearoa NZ Inc., has surveyed all candidates in the three local body elections to discover attitudes to some basic issues of the Western Bay region. We believe that this is ...
In response to DairyNZ's attempt to dismiss an economic report that highlighted dairy's role in the New Zealand economy is only three per cent of GDP, Fish & Game New Zealand Chief Executive Martin Taylor says: "If DairyNZ wishes to reject a report ...
Kiingi Tuuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has successfully guided the mana whenua of lhumaatao to reach a consensus on the future of their whenua. ...
Two activists disguised as shareholders interrupted the AGM of a gold mining company in central Auckland this morning to inform shareholders their plans to mine for gold in conservation estate in the Karangahake Gorge were unwelcome. ...
The Capital and Coast District Health Board (CCDHB) has been labelled ‘NATO’ (no action, talk only) when it comes to child mental health, with just 0.6 full time staff (24 hours per week) for inpatient child psychology and just 0.8 full time staff ...
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL has awarded three New Zealand climate youth groups with its Ambassador of Conscience award, its highest recognition for human rights work, previously given to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Ai Weiwei and Malala Yousafzai. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union , in partnership with the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance , has today published this year's Ratepayers' Report – online local government league tables – at www.ratepayersreport.nz . ...
NZUS Council executive director Jordan Small welcomes the news New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will meet with US President Donald Trump in New York next week. ...
The recent NZIER report trivialises the significant role the dairy sector plays in New Zealand’s economy – and fails to look at the specifics of the Government’s freshwater package, according to DairyNZ. DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle said ...
This week, the New Zealand Parliament and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) will jointly host a seminar on tackling the global spread of illicit weapons. ...
In a landmark judgment issued this morning, the Court of Appeal confirmed that the Southern Response Concealment Class Action will proceed issued on an "opt out” basis. ...
Mainstream media, as the purveyors of truth and source of balanced information, took another backward step today with the announcement by Stuff that most New Zealand organisations had joined 170 media outlets from around the world in the “Covering ...
The goal of one million Kiwis having basic conversations in te reo by 2040 is unrealistic if more is not done to get serious about reo acquisition says the Māori Party. “While small steps have been taken to bolster efforts to increase the numbers of speakers, ...
Changes announced today by the Immigration Minister to employer-assisted visas will help businesses, but more work is needed to boost economic growth says Business Central. ...
DairyNZ Chief Executive Dr Tim Mackle is welcoming today’s announcement that the Government will be streamlining the employer assisted work visa process to help businesses and farms fill skills shortages. ...
Lawrence Yule MP wrote to our Office with concerns about the Department of Corrections' approach to procuring design and build services for rapid deployment of prison accommodation. We have published our response to Mr Yule on our website . ...
That from the chair of the Wellington Region of the College of Midwives, Siobhan Connor, following the news that Hutt Valley District Health Board is targeting midwives from overseas to help fill gaps in maternity units. ...
70% of New Zealand’s surface water take is allocated to Meridian’s Manapouri Power Scheme. But when Environment Minister David Parker asked to exempt the Scheme from his Freshwater Action Plan, he didn’t tell Cabinet that. ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that officers responded in a timely and appropriate manner as soon as they were aware that a fleeing driver had hit a pedestrian. ...
prevention and intervention. Following Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s post-Cabinet press conference we are encouraged to see the acknowledgement of the mistakes made and the need to address this. The five points outlined in the action plan, which ...
A surge in teen vaping rates and a series of deaths being linked to vaping has resulted in a number of bans on the sales of flavoured Vape juice products in the United States. Though it is widely acknowledged that vaping is far less harmful than smoking tobacco, ...
The governments’ new environmental proposals will further accentuate the move of good, productive farmland into forestry according to environmental lobby group 50 Shades of Green. ...
17 September 2019: New Zealanders are acutely aware of the impact food production processes have on our planet according to new research released today by the 5+ A Day Charitable Trust. ...
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL is awarding three New Zealand climate youth groups with its Ambassador of Conscience award, its highest recognition for human rights work, previously given to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Ai Weiwei and Malala Yousafzai. ...
On 14 September 2017, the pipeline that brings diesel, petrol, and jet fuel from Marsden Point Oil Refinery into Auckland ruptured. It leaked jet fuel into rural properties and stopped the transmission of fuels into Auckland for 10 days. The rupture ...
Victims Advocate Louise Nicholas - Labour should have brought in “specialist support” “When there is a complaint especially a serious complaint of sexual assault, the first thing that should have happened was specialist support brought in to ensure ...
Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods says New Zealand is ‘not close’ to bringing in oil reserves after the attack on Saudi fields. “We would have to see prices rise by about $20 per barrel in order for some of those strategic reserves ...
New Zealand's new fresh water regulation rules will have no major impacts on the national economy, according to an independent report just out. The report by independent economic consultancy New Zealand Institute of Economic Research shows that dairying ...
Fish & Game New Zealand has welcomed the findings of a New Zealand Institute of Economic Research report, which rejects claims the Government’s freshwater proposals will have a significant economic impact. ...
The Council of Licensed Firearms Owners (COLFO) says the Government should take its proposed firearms legislation to the people with a touring Select Committee, as it just has with the Zero Carbon bill. ...
Water reforms and the long term sustainability of water will be a key focus at the Water New Zealand conference and expo this week (18-20 September) in Hamilton. ...
“Kiwi ex-smokers are mobilising against the Government’s plans to drastically limit vaping flavours. Flavours have been key to them quitting tobacco and they now just want other smokers to have the same chance,” says Jonathan Devery, co-owner ...
Oil company Tamarind Resources has reportedly halted drilling at its Tui oil field off the Taranaki coast after the first of the three planned wells came up dry and bad weather caused delays. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the left-wing campaign group “ActionStation” to front up and be transparent about how much taxpayer funding it takes from the Government to underwrite its activism activities. Earlier in the month, the Taxpayers’ ...
The ‘ Unplanned ’ movie is here and Family First has secured one of the first screenings in New Zealand tonight. ‘Unplanned’ brings an eye-opening look inside the abortion industry from a woman who was once its most passionate advocate. All ...
James Renwick claim that NZ is failing on climate change is valid, and since James has been receiving widespread media coverage that we outline most of it again here now as we gear up for the ‘Global climate change conference’ beginning next week. ...
Protestors will be outside the venue of the fourth hearing for Operation Burnham Inquiry on Monday morning from 8.30am to give a message to former and current military officers as they arrive to speak about the ongoing coverup of the 2010 attack on ...
People in central and eastern Europe take a different view on climate change than many in the west, writes the Hungarian news site Index, for the Covering Climate Now project. ...
The power balance of the incoming Auckland Council could be decided by two overheated local debates about a golf course and a carpark. Hayden Donnell reports.The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here.Albert-Eden local ...
Covering Climate Now:Carys Goodwin reflects on giving up, and what convinced her to take up the fight again. The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!Four years ago, while working for the Green Party in parliament, I did a brief stint ...
By RNZ Pacific Vanuatu and Solomon Islands have raised the issue of human rights abuses against West Papuans at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The two governments made a statement which also noted that Indonesia had not yet given access to Papua for the UN Human Rights ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Rogue construction union boss John Setka is already in fights with the Labor party and the ACTU leadership. Now he faces a battle with parliament. Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick is moving to refer an ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paxton Loke, Paediatric Allergist and Immunologist, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Spring has sprung and if you’re one of the one in five Australians who get hay fever, you’ve probably noticed some of those pesky symptoms: sneezing; an itchy, runny or stuffy nose; ...
Covering Climate Now: Alex Casey watches 2040, a climate change documentary determined to let the light in. I’ve seen enough documentaries about climate change to know what I don’t want to see anymore. I don’t want Leonardo DiCaprio stroking his goatee on a sheet of ice and saying “folks: it’s bad”. ...
Covering Climate Now: We need to broaden our measures of success if we want to have any chance of reaching blunt targets for reducing emissions, writes Catherine Leining.The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!Since 1992, multiple rounds of greenhouse gas ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has acknowledged the Labour sexual assault scandal risks hurting New Zealand's reputation on the world stage as she heads abroad. ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has acknowledged the Labour sexual assault scandal risks hurting New Zealand's reputation on the world stage as she heads abroad. ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk Thousands of forest fires have been burning across Indonesian Borneo and Sumatra, disrupting air travel, closing schools and sickening thousands of people, reports the New York Times. Officials have said that about 80 per cent of the fires were intentionally set to make room for lucrative ...
After over a month of discussions, Kiingitanga has announced that mana whenua at Ihumātao want to keep the land. Fletcher Buildings still owns it, so what comes next in the movement to protect Ihumātao?After over a month of discussion between divided mana whenua over the land at Ihumātao, the Māori ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Climate change Sharon Murdoch (Stuff): 4000 Days: A climate change story where you choose the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin Orrman-Rossiter, PhD Research Student, History & Philosophy of Science, University of Melbourne If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au.How big is the International Space Station? – Isla, aged 6, Australia. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle O’Shea, Lecturer Sport Management, Western Sydney University In March this year, photographer Michael Willson captured an image of AFL footballer Tayla Harris kicking for a goal. The image shows Harris in athletic flight, right leg extended skyward and muscles flexed as ...
It’s a hard road getting attention for outsider candidates in local elections. Alex Braae, writer of The Bulletin and stout defender of the political little guy, thought he’d lend a hand by moderating a rebel Wellington mayoral debate.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The SpinoffMembers. For more ...
Covering Climate Now: A midweek update from the Spinoffers who have ditched dairy (and eggs, and meat, and fish…) for the week. The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!Read this for the background on what this plant-based palaver is all about.Three ...
Auckland mayoral candidate John Tamihere is defending his use of the words "sieg heil" during last night's lively political debate with Phil Goff, despite being lambasted for it on social media. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Belinda Xie, Scientia PhD Scholar, School of Psychology, UNSW This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. This Friday in the lead-up to the United Nations ...
Covering Climate Now: It’s easy to indulge in the idea that individual actions can’t have an impact on climate change. But a few simple ideas from economics show how wrong that is, argues Waikato University lecturer in environmental economics Zach Dorner.The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Renwick, Professor, Physical Geography (climate science), Victoria University of Wellington CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Laurenceson, Acting Director and Professor, Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI), University of Technology Sydney Last week’s Asian-Australian Leadership Summit in Melbourne saw the release of valuable new survey data on the discrimination some Australians face. A survey conducted by the Australian National ...
Last night Auckland mayoral contender John Tamihere said “sieg heil” when answering a question on diversity. Sadly that has forced us to put together a cheat sheet on how not to say Nazi phrases in debates.About one hour and 18 minutes into a pub politics debate at Chapel Bar on ...
In a special video interview ahead of the big UN Climate Action Summit, UN Secretary General Antonion Guterres says he is hopeful rather than desperate in the face of the climate emergency. ...
The Future of Work at Hutt City’s Dowse Art Museum makes visible our changing work conditions. Mark Amery took a tour, and even got some work done himself while he was there.I’ve gone to work at the gallery. And I’m making an exhibition of myself. Making my labour visible. I’m ...
The Bay of Plenty Regional Council was the first in New Zealand to vote in Māori ward seats. This election, the region’s longest-standing Māori councillor is up against some fierce competition from a former broadcaster who’s already put his skills to use in a viral video.The Spinoff local election coverage ...
With only a few more sleeps until the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Tara Ward looks at the variety of ways you can watch the tournament from the comfort of your own home.Set your clocks, sound the alarms and gird your scrum-loving loins for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, which kicks ...
Covering Climate Now: As part of The Spinoff’s commitment to Covering Climate Now, the food section has gone vegan. Today, a delicious recipe to herald the arrival of spring. The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!Roman-style vignarolahas great appeal at ...
Covering Climate Now: Connecting your everyday choices at the supermarket to a crisis half a world away might be a hard concept get your head around, but we all have power to effect change, writes Hannah McGowan.The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Haskell-Dowland, Associate Dean (Computing and Security), Edith Cowan University When we think of a bank robbery, we might imagine a safe with the door blown open. But nowadays it might be more accurate to picture criminals accessing our bank account online ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Senior Fellow, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University In the hit biopic Rocket Man, the ambitious young Reginald Dwight is counselled to hide his working-class roots if he wants to make it in “showbiz”: You gotta kill the person ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Senior Lecturer, University of Western Australia Countries around the world, including Australia, are using different ways to get parents to vaccinate their children. Our new research, published this week in the journal Milbank Quarterly, looks at diverse mandatory vaccination policies ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bill Hare, Director, Climate Analytics, Adjunct Professor, Murdoch University (Perth), Visiting scientist, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research This piece is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. ...
Open mike 16/10/2015 
Open mike is your post.
Patrick Gower is good value when he's high. Not that I've ever, you know, got stoned with him. But in the second part of his documentary Patrick Gower on Weed, he does what you'd expect in a modern weed documentary and immerses himself – first with a doctor, then a ...8 hours ago
We surveyed candidates on their attitudes to issues facing the Western Bay Region, find out what they think: “Closing the Gap” Tauranga, one of the area groups of Income Equality Aotearoa NZ Inc., has surveyed all candidates in the three local body elections to discover attitudes to some basic issues ...15 hours ago
Please spread widely, and sign, to support science and rationalism over the new irrationalism sweeping universities and institutions. PROJECT NETTIE Sexual reproduction, the generation of offspring by fusion of genetic material from two different individuals, evolved over 1 billion years ago. It is the reproductive strategy of all higher animals ...16 hours ago
Just when I was thinking that Palmerston North's mayoral race (which includes a convicted child molester / public wanker and a convicted child beater) was the worst in the country, Auckland mayoral candidate John Tamihere opened his mouth:Auckland mayoral candidate John Tamihere is being slammed for using the words "sieg ...16 hours ago
Why is New Zealand climate change policy so crap? The Herald this morning has a long article on the twists and turns of climate change policy in New Zealand [paywalled / depaywall script], which shows where we've been. The short version is that the government first began worrying about this ...20 hours ago
The All Blacks have been, for more than a century, arguably the most successful International sports team in the world. But they are more than that; even for those Kiwis who are immune to the charms of rugby (and there are more than a few), the All Blacks are ambassadors ...22 hours ago
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In times of hysteria about the “World coming to an end” and “rising sea levels” so-called ‘Journalists’ who can barely spell words longer than four letters are having a ball! Though the majority of the Public have worked out that manmade climate change is nothing short of pseudo-science, and the ...2 days ago
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Dangerous Foes: For those readers of Bowalley Road who feel disposed to dismiss any prospect of an Israeli destabilisation of New Zealand politics, the example of the United Kingdom repays close attention. Ever since the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the British Labour Party, the Israelis have sanctioned, funded and ...3 days ago
Make It 16, the youth-led campaign to lower New Zealand's voting age, is holding an official campaign launch at Parliament this Friday from 16:30. If you'd like to attend, you can register using EventBrite here. ...3 days ago
by Don Franks It was a lovely sunny Wellington afternoon with blue skies above the beaches. In Courtenay Place, political activists packed out a stuffy upstairs room for an important meeting. The assembled pacifists, anarchists, communists and independent young radicals of Peace Action Wellington felt the need for a mission ...3 days ago
From the Wall Street Journal:Inside a room of the ornately decorated Hotel du Palais during last month’s Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, President Trump awaited a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Mr. Trump looked over a gathering of American and Egyptian officials and called out in ...4 days ago
. . This blogpost is different to my usual format of reporting on issues… Since July 1011, I have blogged on a variety of political issues; near always political and/or environmental; mostly highly critical of the previous National Government. Other issues included Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and repression of ...5 days ago
Those close to the Police Minister believe the initiative may be the result of Nash “seeing a great deal” on AliExpress. In a move that comes seemingly out of nowhere, Police Minister Stuart Nash announced this afternoon that he expects all frontline staff to don bearskin hats, famously worn by ...6 days ago
Moving And Shaking: There was a time when people spoke matter-of-factly about the “labour movement” – a political phenomenon understood to embrace much more than the Labour Party. Included within the term’s definition was the whole trade union movement – many of whose members looked upon the Labour Party as ...6 days ago
By Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern I am every bit as angry as you are. I am every bit as disappointed as you must be. The people with power, oversight and the ability to do something about these processes within the Labour Party should be ashamed. Whoever those people are, I ...7 days ago
Two-Faced? Labour insiders' commitment to the neoliberal status quo puts them at odds with their party’s membership; its trade union affiliates; and a majority of Labour voters, but this only serves to strengthen the perception they have of themselves as a special elite. Among the lesser breeds, they’ll talk up a ...7 days ago
By Simon Bridges. The following is a press release from the office of Simon Bridges, leader of The National Party. Key ora, New Zealand. Happy Maori Language Week. Look, I’m writing to you today because I want to clear something up. There’s been a lot of kerfuffle around some things ...1 week ago
Dr. Christopher Labos and Jonathan Jarry discuss the recent Canadian fluoride/IQ research. They provide an expert analysis of the paper and its problems. Click on image to go to podcast. The critical debate about the recent ... 1 week ago
An ambitious plan to fly to Los Angeles petered out into a brief sight-seeing trip and a desire to return home and get some sleep before work tomorrow. Air New Zealand has confirmed a flight to Los Angeles last night was turned back about a quarter of the way into ...1 week ago
There appears to be consensus – by omission – that the concept of indigenous futures should be accepted at face value. So I scavenged the internet to see if I could locate an academic descriptor or a framework around how we think about it as a concept, and whether it ...1 week ago
Here’s another novelty chocolate to shove in your gob, New Zealand Cadbury could be seeking to make itself great again with a rumoured new release: Pineapple Trumps, a spin on its classic chocolate-encased pineapple treat and do-it-yourself tooth remover. The global confectionery manufacturer and bumbling “before” character in an infomercial, ...1 week ago
During my time in the Pentagon I had the privilege of sitting down with military leaders and defence and security officials from a variety of Latin American nations. Sometimes I was present as a subordinate assistant to a senior US defence department official, sometimes as part of a delegation that ...1 week ago
Kia ora, Aotearoa. It’s that magical time of year. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. In English, the week that frightens talk radio. As you probably know by now, all your favourite media outlets are participating, some more successfully than others. Stuff has changed its name to Puna for the ...1 week ago
Lost In Political Space: The most important takeaway from this latest Labour sexual assault scandal, which (if I may paraphrase Nixon’s White House counsel’s, John Dean’s, infamous description of Watergate) is “growing like a cancer” on the premiership, is the Labour Party organisation’s extraordinary professional paralysis in the face of ...1 week ago
Bewhiskered Cassandra? Professor Hugh White’s chilling suggestion, advanced to select collections of academic, military and diplomatic Kiwi experts over the course of the past week, is that the assumptions upon which Australia and New Zealand have built their foreign affairs and defence policies for practically their entire histories – are ...1 week ago
Air New Zealand couldn’t believe its luck that this seemingly ideal piece of real estate had so far gone entirely unnoticed. Air New Zealand’s search for a site to build a second Auckland Airport may have made a breakthrough this afternoon, after employees scanning Google satellite imagery spotted a huge, ...2 weeks ago
Gayford, pictured here on The Project, before things got wildly out of control. A bold public relations move by the Government to encourage parents to vaccinate their children has gone horribly wrong. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appeared on tonight’s episode of Three’s The Project, where the plan was for her ...2 weeks ago
Mr. Whippy’s business model has driven it down a dark road of intimidation. Residents in major centres around the country are becoming disgruntled by the increasingly aggressive actions of purported ice cream company Mr. Whippy, who have taken to parking on people’s front lawns and doorsteps in a desperate attempt ...2 weeks ago
Anti-fluoride activists have some wealthy backers – they are erecting billboards misrepresenting the Canadian study on many New Zealand cities – and local authorities are ordering their removal because of their scaremongering. Many New Zealanders ... 2 weeks ago
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is questioning why, for the second time, Jacinda Ardern has appointed a Crown-owned company Chief Executive to Chair her “Business Advisory Council”, following her announcement that Mercury CEO Fraser Whineray ...13 hours ago
People in central and eastern Europe take a different view on climate change than many in the west, writes the Hungarian news site Index, for the Covering Climate Now project. ...1 hour ago
The power balance of the incoming Auckland Council could be decided by two overheated local debates about a golf course and a carpark. Hayden Donnell reports.The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here.Albert-Eden local ...2 hours ago
Covering Climate Now: Carys Goodwin reflects on giving up, and what convinced her to take up the fight again. The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!Four years ago, while working for the Green Party in parliament, I did a brief stint ...2 hours ago
By RNZ Pacific Vanuatu and Solomon Islands have raised the issue of human rights abuses against West Papuans at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The two governments made a statement which also noted that Indonesia had not yet given access to Papua for the UN Human Rights ...6 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Rogue construction union boss John Setka is already in fights with the Labor party and the ACTU leadership. Now he faces a battle with parliament. Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick is moving to refer an ...8 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paxton Loke, Paediatric Allergist and Immunologist, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Spring has sprung and if you’re one of the one in five Australians who get hay fever, you’ve probably noticed some of those pesky symptoms: sneezing; an itchy, runny or stuffy nose; ...11 hours ago
Covering Climate Now: Alex Casey watches 2040, a climate change documentary determined to let the light in. I’ve seen enough documentaries about climate change to know what I don’t want to see anymore. I don’t want Leonardo DiCaprio stroking his goatee on a sheet of ice and saying “folks: it’s bad”. ...11 hours ago
Jacinda Ardern flies to New York with hope of action on the Christchurch Call and climate change. ...12 hours ago
A Christchurch mayoral candidate is campaigning on environmental sustainability, but some of his hospitality businesses doesn't recycle. ...13 hours ago
Without targets, the Government will have a difficult task in defining whether the gun buyback is successful. Some say it’s impossible. ...13 hours ago
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk Thousands of forest fires have been burning across Indonesian Borneo and Sumatra, disrupting air travel, closing schools and sickening thousands of people, reports the New York Times. Officials have said that about 80 per cent of the fires were intentionally set to make room for lucrative ...14 hours ago
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Clever cartoon in Herald today by Rod Emmerson on Labour’s current leader. Little is right up there (down there?) with Bill English in 2002/3.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11529860
Yup, I partly agree with you Matthew about Labour’s TPP positioning.
Labour missed the chance to stand firmly against the TPP.
Chris Trotter nailed it.
‘Why has Andrew Little rejected a winning TPPA strategy for a guaranteed loser?’
Trotter suggests that Labour may no longer be “committed to meaningful social and economic change”.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/10/14/flouting-the-rules-why-has-andrew-little-rejected-a-winning-tppa-strategy-for-a-guaranteed-loser/
He could have kicked for touch (waited for text), opposed TPP or declared victory and supported TPP. Any of these would have had internal integrity and been politically ok. He managed to find the one form of words certain to fuck off both pros and antis and make him and his party look ridiculous. Quite an achievement in its own way!
Andrew Little did “kick for touch”, Matthew Hooton, and he’s been descried for doing so ! He’s said he didn’t know all the details, what’s fully in the text, and he’s opposed parts he does know about, and what’s more – he’s also said that if necessary a Labour government would breach parts of the agreement it doesn’t approve of. What more do you all want ?
1. Labour opposes the TPP on principle unless it meets these 5 bottoms lines (list them again).
2. At this stage Labour has no control over whether NZ is part of the TPP, only National does and its allied parties.
3. Labour will not pull out of the TPP when it is government, because we feel that is not in NZ’s best interests (provide an explanation of why this is so).
4. Instead Labour will endeavour to address each of our 5 bottoms lines one by one eg Labour will still pass legislation restricting overseas land ownership.
5. We will then fight any disputes process that happens as a result. (here Labour needs to provide a very clear explanation of what that actually means, including how it will deal with being sued by corporations).
That’s the gist of what they’ve done, but the issues in brackets in 3. and 5. haven’t been explained and sorry, but I don’t trust Labour on those things.
Little and Labour stuffed up its position on the TPP in exactly the same way it did on the flag change fiasco and three bloody peaks or whatever it’s called. It’s either because the people in there have such opposing views on everything that any attempt at a compromise will always fail or they’re just very very stupid when it comes to strategy. Suspect it’s way more than a bit of both.
…and that’s why Labour’s fucked.
Clearly the voters don’t give a shit about integrity Matthew or National wouldn’t be in a third term. They forgive lying and misleading regularly if they believe the nonsense about them getting a better life. I mean even you were prepared to dance around the law and its intent for your ideological beliefs and career progression?
You might want to think about the shit show the country has to vote for as an alternative. But hey.. keep saying the public is stupid. Seems to be working.
Emmerson?!!??!??
In April 2002, when the New Zealand Herald cartoonist Malcolm Evans dared to criticize the Holy State for its depradations in the Occupied West Bank (this was just after the Jenin massacre) the Israeli consulate, in concert with influential supporters including David Nathan, Dame Lesley Max and David Zwarz, mounted a sustained campaign of character assassination and vilification against Evans, combined with snarling threats against the Herald‘s editor, Gavin Ellis, a weak character who needed little more than a few swear words down the telephone to frighten him. He sacked Evans eventually, replacing him with the pisspoor Rod Emmerson.
http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/protest-against-former-herald-editor/5/141168
Your mentioning Dame Lesley Max had me search TS to find this and sure enough, her dreadful comments have disappeared into the ether.
Sterling work, joe! I know how you feel about Max’s comments having disappeared into the ether. That’s the problem with leaving it to the unreliable archivists at Radio New Zealand.
It’s for that reason that I spend so much time committing the words of people like Lesley Max to paper. That way we can confront them with evidence of their villainy whenever we want….
I’ve found Littles views on the tpp easy to understand anyone who is struggling is either listening to the people that have set out to deflect trouble away from the nats pathetic bargaining in the negotiations of the tpp or is one of the shit stirrers
Can you point me to a link showing his unqualified opposition to TPP?
I really want to see the Labour Party standing against it.
Yep you would think Labour could be bothered clearing up the variation between Littles statements and their TPPA position on their website or FB page at least.
Little’s statements don’t seem in line with their ‘official’ TPPA position which has more holes in it anyway than swiss cheese, and doesn’t even seem to be able to stick with that either.
And b wag horn you can dismiss all the ex Labour supporters as
set out to deflect trouble away from the nats pathetic bargaining in the negotiations of the tpp or is one of the shit stirrers
which maybe Labours official position on anyone who is confused (they are just shit stirrers) but again that 15% of votes they lost last election should be a ring-a-ding moment for understanding that those angry ex supporting ‘shit stirrers’ are voters who are sending them a message that after 7 years you would think they might concede they need to address.
And like me, are still giving Labour their electorate vote so stop National getting it.
It can still get a lot worse for Labour – they are antagonising their voters who still give their electoral vote to them.
I think Labour’s problem is that had convinced themselves the TPP would be diabolical. When they learned on Monday all five of their bottom lines had been met, they experienced cognitive dissonance that they need to work through. In the meantime, they are stuck in that awful place where ten facts are not the ones you want to believe.
“all five of their bottom lines had been met”
how do you know that?
He is probably referring to Little’s briefing from Groser and all the inside information he doesn’t have on TPP which would mean someone is breaching the crucial secrecy which denied the rest of us access to same.
heh, I was wondering if Hooton was a fly on the wall, or simply spinning.
My observation of Matthew is unless he is getting hot under the colour and going all screamy and ad hominem he only pushes hard (and repeatedly) on things he is SURE about (apologies for the mental image that may have produced, not intended). he may not have seen stuff but somebody/s have told him enough for him to feel he is on sure ground… which would also be a breach of the secrecy
I guess some here need to decide what’s more important getting a new government or killing labour and hoping something better rises from the ruins.
I never said they opposed it, my take on it is ;
In the lead up to signing they applied as much pressure on national as they could to get them to not sell us out .
After the signing they have gone for a sensible amount of caution on what they say so as not to be tricked into tight corner by key and co .
While also making it clear they will find away to legislate for protecting nz residents chances of owning there own home.
People need to learn to keep an eye on what the main players are saying and not getting sidetracked by all the chatter coming from likes of hooton .
to Paul @ 1.3.1. on Stuff, 11 October 2015 – at end of story re “bigger gains for dairy from India, Indonesia” –
Andrew Little is quoted as saying ” If it came to walking away from the TPPA to get a better deal elsewhere, Little said a Labour government reserved that right”.
Hi Jenny – reserving your right is not really saying NO to TPP.
I think that is what Labour don’t get. People don’t want to support a party that does not give a clear message on TPP, which is going to affect all part of Kiwi’s lives, heath, housing, law, copywrite, justice, security, transparancy, sovereignty and trade.
The fact it was pushed through so that Obama can have some sort of legacy (after the trillions in US debt and an un win able occupation) is even worse. Obama has hardly left the US or the planet in better shape after his presidency. A last ditch attempt to put US and other countries jobs at risk and the reduction in environmental sovereignty into corporate control under TPP seems to be more of the same.
People have a right to know concrete policy before they support a party. Labour can ‘reserve’ their right to walk away on TPP even the Natz can, but we all know they will not.
“Reserving the right to withdraw” utterly meaningless. All 12 TPP countries “reserve the right to withdraw”. That is why they put the withdrawal provisions in the deal.
“get a better deal ”
Does that mean more money? Cos I don’t see any major party judging this on anything other than $$$$. Not on erosion of rights or sovereignty etc.
Also, has he laid out which law changes Labour would oppose, he clearly has some in mind?
Andrew Little is quoted as saying ”If it came to walking away from the TPPA to get a better deal elsewhere, Little said a Labour government reserved that right”.
Yep, better deal elsewhere. Labour don’t have a problem with free market neoliberalism. I don’t think they have any intention of moving left, they’re just going to tinker with the edges a bit. Think Clark government lite.
They are worse than Clark because she at least had the balls to complain about international stuff that was wrong (like Israeli agents stealing disabled NZ identities and be caught) and do something about it. I think both Key and Little would just let any similar incident ride rather than cause an international incident. Key would probably be keen to make money out of passports anyway (finally a return on investment from the disabled – fake international passports).
As for Labour being briefed on the document – it is massive – so as with any agreement the devil is in the detail. I’m sure it all looks rosy in the briefing papers but try to get the whole agreement to see if it is true. No can do as Prof Kelsey has found. And apparently noone can find out for 7 years.
Sounds transparent and fair – NOT.
It’s the last few days of the Canadian federal election campaign.
The central issue of the longest campaign in Canadian history has been how to get rid of Stephen Harper.
It looks increasingly likely that Canadians have decided Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party are the means by which that will be achieved.
The Grits have established a 4 to 7% lead over the Tories nationally but more importantly they’re leading by 10 to 13% in Ontario (which accounts for over a third of all the federal ridings).
http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/poll-tracker/2015/index.html
I hope today that when John Key meets with Australian PM, he advocates on behalf of law abiding Kiwis living in Australia getting a better deal rather than the sc*m who assulted, robbed, raped and burgled law abiding people and now are claiming they have been discriminated against as they are being deported from a country that opened its door to them.
No you don’t. You don’t care a damn about anyone other than yourself.
You’re ignorant on this issue too aren’t you… keep that talkback radio turned up
+ 1 VTO
Tories are, inevitably, ignorant on pretty much everything. It’s that lack of knowledge combined with their inability to think that allows the psychopaths running National to lead them around by the nose.
No. Just the left being incoherent dumb asses who think they know better than everyone else.
Why do you hangout with so called dumb asses so often then and complain about the site being full of whingers when you’re whinging most of the time?
I thought you had turned a corner and right now I feel a bit let down.
Take this comment for example. Classic flamebait, calling people “scum”, wishing human rights abuse upon them, and then paying lip service to personal responsibility makes Tory a dull hypocrite.
For his next trick, Tory will vote for the party that always generates more unemployment – yes it does, that’s a fact – and then start hating on poor people.
Go smash a ten-year-old rugby player, trash.
+111
Describing tour comments to a t.
OAB, no I support personal responsibility rather than reliance on the State as a surrogate wet nurse that you and the confused from the left advocate
So you would reject the SFC bail out, the 30mill to comalco etc
Tory will pretend to yes.
Lying about your own beliefs and mine. If you had an inkling of personal responsibility you’d know how to form an argument that doesn’t rely on Mr. Strawman.
And somewhat hypocritically “tory” will refuse to take personal responsibility for being such a fucking moron.
Tory will just blame us for failing to pretend they made the insightful coup de gras that, as the smartest guy in the room, they must have made…
” I support personal responsibility rather than reliance on the State as a surrogate wet nurse that you and the confused from the left advocate”
Like SCF bailout by the state of business and right wing investors
Like government handouts to farmers for irrigation. Why can’t they stand on their own two feet like grown-ups? If their business cannot attract attention from private investment, then rather than by subsidised by the taxpayer it should be allowed to fail.
Like Rio Tinto getting state welfare in Invercargill.
Like the stock exchange even. That great bastion of personal responsibility – ha ha ha ha. Recall one of the reasons for floating SOE’s was to support the failing private stock exchange. Fucking useless pricks.
Like welfare support for Hollywood and Peter Jackson. Unable to stand on their own two feet either.
Like farmers penchant for all structures socialist – heard of Fonterra? or Ravensdown? Two of NZ’s largest cooperatives – know what cooperation means fulla?
Doesn’t leave much in the world of private personally responsible right wing tory business does it.
Wake up idiot.
you undersdtand that those people you dont like are being sent back here, to live next door to you or your friends… just so long as you are clear.
Oh and the children who have not committed offences and never lived in NZ?
You support personal responsibility from the position of someone who has deluded themselves that everything they have today was down tot heir own hard graft and sheer brilliance…
Tory doesn’t support personal responsibility: all you have to do is read the lying comments he sprays around the place.
Of course, even if he weren’t lying, right wing personal responsibility doesn’t exist. So that would make him a dupe.
Which is it? Who cares?
So you support Hide taking responsibility for the disaster that is the Auckland amalgamation, Bradford for our runaway power bills, Douglas for the increase in working poor since 1984, Key for the loss of nearly 900 million in dividends from power companies, Don Elder and the National party for Solid Energy etc, etc.
Personal responsibility. LOL.
Latest Roy Morgan is out.
“During October support for National rose 5.5% to 50% well ahead of a potential Labour/Greens alliance 40.5% (down 5.5%) according to the latest Roy Morgan New Zealand Poll. If a NZ Election were held now the latest NZ Roy Morgan Poll shows National would be easily re-elected.”
Up and down like a …..’s trousers, but not surprising given Labour’s recent performance.
Up and down like…a Roy Morgan poll. “Bouncy” is the term usually employed.
Yep, is the word NO to TPP is too hard for Labour to comprehend. Also Helen Clarks position beside Key cementing the NatLite relationship will be costing the votes.
+1
So our ‘Tory’ troll does not believe in state education, our state health system or people being free and moving on with their lives once they have done their time and paid for their crimes ……………….
He’s probably all for rich tax cheats though …………………….
The worst kind of bludger, when’s he going to pay back his education, health and policing costs.
-maui
He had an education?
No wonder why he rejects socialism.
His Teachers failed him!
What happened to “personal responsibility”.
EXCLUSIVE: Kelsey response to the Official Information Act win against the TPPA
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/10/16/exclusive-my-response-to-the-official-information-act-win-against-the-tppa/#comment-308300
An interesting opinion piece by Bryan Gould
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11529757
http://www.vice.com/read/we-asked-nicky-hager-what-the-tpp-means-for-new-zealand-democracy
So true:
“I think the general consensus is that it’s ironic that we have been able to vote on a flag change which is…”
Trivial.
“Well surface-level stuff, while something like this that’s really representing our country overseas has been kept secret for a long time. Do you think this sets a precedent for the way the New Zealand government will interact with the public in the future?”
smoke and mirrors. Let the population feel like they’ve been consulted. Meanwhile, over here, do evil as you can.
The Key Team have found many ways to mislead and distort Demoracy.
But Canadian Harper is even better/worse at it than Key!
As Harper tries for a fourth term in office at the Canadian federal election next week, he is trailed by an extraordinarily long list of allegations. ……
….Some of these allegations have been proved. In the 11 years since he became leader of the country’s Conservatives, the party has been fined for breaking electoral rules, and various members of Team Harper have been caught misleading parliament, gagging civil servants, subverting parliamentary committees, gagging scientists, harassing the supreme court, gagging diplomats, lying to the public, concealing evidence of potential crime, spying on opponents, bullying and smearing. Harper personally has earned himself the rare rebuke of being found to be in contempt of his parliament…..
… the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), which has been described eloquently by the Globe and Mail as “a 90-person juggernaut of political strategists, ‘issues managers’ and party enforcers who exercise strict control over cabinet, the houses of parliament and the bureaucracy….”
Sound familiar?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/15/stephen-harper-master-manipulator
But what about their opposition – do they stand by and wave the corruption through in Canada – while ineffectually complaining about it- and then agreeing with much of what the conservatives are doing anyway?
That is the true trick of the right. To noble your competition by trickery and they don’t even comprehend you are doing it and then start to join in too (unsuccessfully).
Trickery and getting away with it.
“….a bus full of aboriginal voters, who were very unlikely to vote Conservative, and who were misdirected by calls and ended up not voting at all. That riding – Nipissing-Timiskaming – went to the Conservatives with a majority of only 18.”
And the source of the calls could not be found.
At least some, of the Canadian media, appear to have their critical faculties intact, unlike their NZ counterparts.
I personally know many Harper supporters.
He has fostered an air of fear in Canada for both financial and personal security. As many western governments do.
It’s a disgrace.
The Liberals are no better….another ultra “centrist” establishment party which these days signifies fear and violence.
and booom
https://theintercept.com/drone-papers
so 90% who where killed by drone bombings were not target? Say it ain’t so.
One can’t just make that shit up.
Why did this happen?…was it an accident?…the other side of the story:
‘US forces in Afghanistan knew Kunduz site was hospital – report’
https://www.rt.com/usa/318786-us-analysts-kunduz-hospital/
…”The site, operated by Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF), was attacked five times in the span of an hour by a C-130 gunship, despite repeated pleas by the MSF to US forces. MSF officials described repeated strafing runs against the main hospital building, which housed the emergency room and the intensive care unit. No surrounding buildings were hit, they say.”
( a question many have been asking themselves)
‘Did Obama Bomb Doctors Without Borders for Opposing TPP?’
http://theantimedia.org/doctors-without-borders-bombing-tpp/
…”Had the President of Nobel Peace Prize-winning Doctors Without Borders not warned us of the “imminent threat to global health” posed by the TPP, would these 22 doctors and patients have lost their lives early Saturday?…
Doctors Without Borders Calls Airstrike a War Crime
I don’t think it is to do with TPP, more that Obama has lost control of the military in Iraq, and the US military and private contractors and overseas troops are doing whatever they like, and Obama is reluctant to try to bring his own military and private contractors to account.
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/6506-roy-morgan-new-zealand-voting-intention-october-2015-201510150600
D’oh!
Ouch! Not to worry: Jacinda to the rescue.
That made me literally lol
Wow….what the hell.
Good dose of reality for the anti-TPPA activists here, and results I commented on and fully expected.
National have recovered in October after Labour did them like a dinner in September.
Labour need to forget TPPA entirely, get back to attacking weak Ministers, and back to issues that are both media-positive and resonant with actual citizens’ direct interests.
Portfolios like:
– Social Welfare
– Employment
– Corrections
– Housing
– Economic Development
– Education
And if the existing Labour shadow portfolios aren’t up to making good hits, then either support them with more staff, or reshuffle them.
Great comments by Phil Goff on TPP. Some sanity seems to be returning within Labour.http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/73073182/labour-unlikely-to-breach-tppa-over-concerns–phil-goff
which is why the Right are keen to promote him to Mayor of Auckland. You understand that when National (and its supporters) are praising Clark and Goff……
sanity is not defined by who agrees with you Matthew.
I agree with what Phil said:
“He denied Labour was “stuck in the dark ages” regarding the TPPA, and said the party had not yet decided whether it would support or oppose the deal.
“I think the party is doing the right thing at the moment – until you read the fine print, you don’t sign the document.
“We’ve had a briefing from Tim Groser and that was really helpful, but there are things that he couldn’t answer…and we’ve got to see the detail of it.”
Once in a blue moon I am moved to comment on one or other of the MSM news sites. The last time was a TV3 news/opinion piece about the axing of Campbell Live. My comment contained critical language concerning Julie Christie and Mark Weldon whom I saw as the principle protagonists in the demise of the show. Ever since I appear to have been barred from the TV3 comments section. I can’t even read them to see what other readers have to say. No problem reading comments elsewhere.
What a pair of lily livered, pouting pratts. I’m happy to see TV3 is going down the gurgler with that pair in charge. Sometimes people do get what they deserve.
Oh my God oh my God!! Finally.
http://au.pcmag.com/consumer-electronics-reviews-ratings/39134/news/hendo-20-hoverboard-goes-back-to-the-future-on-oct
wake me when they don’t need a track
Skate parks are going to be developed and some theme are jumping aboard also.
actually, depending on power efficiencies it might be good in dedicated areas like warehouses. Ignoring the vertical storage issues, of course.
Theme parks… maybe. Or they could just upscale an air hockey table, for less.
But the thing about skate parks is that they’re largely created to try to get skateboarders out of public spaces, particularly because of the damage they can cause to benches etc. But skateboards are a valid (if dickish, and not just because one almost hit me today) form of transport outside of parks. And boards are relatively cheap, not requiring batteries or liquid nitrogen.
So yeah, might be a fad for rich kids, but not for long and not widespread.
Tough article from Trotter on Little.
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2015/10/with-friends-like-these.html
Very disappointing from Little.
Labour members and supporters, as well as progressive voters, should take a leaf from the approach of Little and his entourage by flouting requests for donations and help.
Trotter is such a Splitter.
He’s stuck in 1984.
We’re in 2015, and the Labour Party is not ever reverting to some prelapsarian Socialist form. (That question was asked in 2014, and the answer was resoundingly: NO).
Well John Key he wanted to close the gap with Australia
http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/australias-middle-class-no-longer-the-worlds-wealthiest-20151013-gk7pwa.html
Another reason it’ll be three more years for John Key
We’re not as selfish as we think we are. Here’s the proof
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/14/selfish-proof-ego-humans-inherently-good
US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq to bring in democracy, freedom of speech, human rights and because of 9/11. (Yeah right).
Why are they attacking the wrong countries then?
Mother of Saudi Teen Sentenced to Crucifixion Urges Obama: ‘Rescue My Son’
Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was sentenced to death at the age of 17 after taking part in a rally for equal Shia rights in Saudi Arabia
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/10/14/mother-saudi-teen-sentenced-crucifixion-urges-obama-rescue-my-son?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork
Does Ad support privatisation or is it just me?