Forgiveness is also a Labour value.
Forgiveness is the renunciation or cessation of resentment, indignation or anger as a result of a perceived offence, disagreement, or mistake.
All members of the Labour Party get out of bed in the morning, or go to a Branch meeting or a Conference, with the intent of doing the right thing.
I, or you, may disagree with them. Politics is how we work with these different views.
Agree totally. Forgiveness I read recently is a characteristic of the strong, not of the weak. Especially it is important since it disposes of the crippling effects of resentment, indignation and anger.
An examination of Labour/Left values would help us focus on what is truly important and be a timely reminder of what we seek to achieve, especially for others.
Quite right Khanno. I remember dear old dad telling us how he met the original founder of world Labour once and when pressed for practical instructions, the only single advice he gave them was exactly that. Forgiveness (I think the exact words were “as we forgive those who press arse against us” or summing) The only exception was currency dealers, funnily enough, beat the snot out of them….
What’s all this forgiveness thing. Who to whom?
‘Politics is how we work with these different views’.
Then putting forward different views is how we work at the political coalface.
In a real democracy there needs to be an opportunity for everyone in the country to put forward a reasoned view and have it considered. The views and analysis of performance cannot be contained to those within the mirror city all looking at their own reflections, listening to their own audio feed.
Aha! A sharp eye there, prism. But tell me, this Democracy thing, for who from whom? And reason, what does reason know? Any tips on leaving the Mirror city?
Uturn
Ummmm so confusing. I wonder if a pinhole camera might help here. It was great with the eclipse which would have been otherwise blinding. And we blinding well need to find our way out of where we are.
“I’m called ‘the poorest president’, but I don’t feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more,” he says.
“This is a matter of freedom. If you don’t have many possessions then you don’t need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself,” he says.
Yes, I saw that while I was being randomly nosey over here, and the first article was about this:
“The deal was struck after China Southern (Airlines) told Immigration NZ that its Gold and Silver Card holders were seeking to avoid “the necessity to answer questions relating to financial backing and employment history and to provide evidence of these” ”.
To even be interested in a Sky Pearl Club Silver Card you have to fly the equivalent distance as that of here to London and back, every three years. It could be argued that the agreement with Immigration is one that “rich people” are accepted in good faith and that “poor people” are considered suspicious as default. If frequently flying around the world is not a symptom of being “rich”, then at least it is part of a certain set of middle-class values. If that’s the case, it’s almost predictably boring that favouritism is accepted by supporters of our current style of living. It’s also not a very accurate portrayal of the myriad variations of Chinese cultural beliefs.
While I was at Avondale market last week there was a stand promoting Falun Gong, or more specifically, they were promoting resistance to the Chinese communist party. The banner on the stall read something about truth and goodness, happiness and values, and I thought wow, modern politics has pushed people in a circle back round to pre-Confucianism. I wonder if they’ll drift just a little bit further and drop the values and goodness, maybe even the happiness. Then I lost interest and went back to my banana pancake, which is always very tasty – two for $1.50.
In certain Chinese writings, that were around while competing ideas like Confucianism also vied for dominance, there is the idea that an authentic person can be completely impoverished, while the confused rule, and that outward appearances are worthless. Also, that aligning oneself on the say-so of another, or accepting ingenuine gifts in the style of the prevailing fashion, are ideas that should be strenuously avoided if one seeks to live out all the years given by life. Sun Tzu had departed for his country estate by then, but his ideas on organising the acquisition of other people’s stuff were still in effect. I don’t know if Chinese organised criminals laundering money, or drug mules making deliveries, would carry Sky Pearl Club Silver or Gold cards. It might be a dead giveaway. Whether or not modern cultural beliefs are a threat to NZ is debateable. Probably, it’s just better to screen everyone as they arrive, than guess who is trouble or not by their frequent flyer plans.
More rubbish from the Novopay saga, which should be renamed No-mo(re)-pay.
After Te Puni Kokiri’s mind-numbingly long propaganda being read out yesterday on Morning Report, another tack is taken this morning with yet another lot of shambles unfolding. This time, courtesy of the Education Minister & Ministry. What are their responses?
WTF. You can’t make this shit up even with the strongest satire. It is clear that Minister Hekia has dumped the need to front up onto Assoc Minister Floss who himself is now fast vanishing from office.
As for the Ministry of Education, it should be honest and say it is no longer part of the Public Service, but provides aggravation by way of public disservice.
You missed the part where the MOE has announced that they are already planning to make staff redundant. LOL as if the issues will be solved by next year!
I encourage media to give appropriate air time to opposition MP’s to comment on issues such as this so that if ministers elect not to front interviews with the media at least the public know they are not totally irrelevant. Seems only fair.
Re Hekia Parata and your statement about her lack of fronting up. That lady wears an invisibility cloak. She is one slick ninja. She has repeatedly declined John Campbells requets for interviews regarding the CHCH schools fiasco and the nopay issues. It not the odd request either, theres been several. Instead the poor bedragled and harrased looking secretary for the MOE has to front up.
Is this the type of labour leader we need?
The herald has a write up about the labour conference and it takes it in his office.
One more telling blerb from the annointed one is that he once again refers to bloggers,
saying that the “Bloggers are just a background noise,that, that is all it is worthy of”
Today’s herald folks.
ps,sorry i can’t link.
“The influence of people sitting anonymously in front of computer screens behind darkened curtains is not something I think we should be taking as seriously as we do.”
The problem is that the blogs are accurately reflecting how Labour voters feel about David Shearer. Shooting the messenger doesn’t alter the fact that he has failed to do his job convincingly. He may well end up being an accidental Prime Minister, but that will be because of Nationals failings not his own popularity.
And much as I take heart from the poll trends, Labour should be a damn site closer to National, given the ammunition they have at their disposal. Shearer will survive this conference, but Labour may not survive Shearer.
Again Shearer opted to insult critics from his own Party (plus others). His main interest is (and has been) self-praise. Also, the following in the Herald, “When he’s asked about what differentiates Labour from National, he answers promptly and opts to focus on economic policy rather than social”. That really is something coming from a Labour leader! In short, his goal is exactly the same as National’s. Yet he still maintains that Labour will mean taking the country in a different direction!
Then Mr Shearer suggests Labour will offer “a more intelligent interventionist government”. Well, maybe more interventionist, but where from the intelligence? Surely he is imagining coalition with the Greens (where intelligence truly lies).
The Herald again, “There is a very long pause indeed when Shearer is asked what differentiates him from John Key” – yes, another of those awful long pauses. The Herald continues, “In many ways the two are comparable . . . Shearer is more like Key than he is like Clark. He finally answers he has respect for Key as a ‘communicator’ . . . “. My God, we know only too well the kinds of communications we are receiving from Key!!
Anyway, rest assured, Shearer “does know where he wants to take the country himself and will share that with the rest of us this weekend”. Hurrah! At last it is coming!! (Maybe)
Well as an Irish Catholic republican hater of titles I thought the reinstatement was really silly. Being a QC only allows the chosen few to charge more and serves no practical purpose. And restricting it to the ranks of barristers sole is artificial. There are plenty of good lawyers who practice as barristers and solicitors.
We won’t tell the Chinese anything except welcome them to gamble at our casinos and while you’re here, get a sure bet on our country’s remaining enterprises.
Speaking of John Key selling us out to casinos, gamblers and money launderers:
“New Zealand First is calling for Prime Minister John Key to reveal the full extent of his involvement in the Sky City-China Southern Airlines (CSA) gambler visa deal.”
Clearly the unTRUTH and the NBR are just trying to be controversial in order to gain readership by exploiting the death of Greg King. What a bunch of cretins!
Government needs skin in the game, a deposit guarentee
scheme on savings, basically insurance paid by banks
and other institutions would expose quickly those not
paying and so those running ponsi type schemes, with
the additional incentive that government has justification
for investigation. But National ended the deposit guarentee
by allowing South Canterbury Finance into the scheme and
not doing due diligence, win-win for crooks,
well National don’t believe in
due diligence, the market will do provide that. The
cult of no governance keeps on giving, Pike river, CTV,
SCF, but not Env.Canterbury funny enough, or alledgely fast
tracking Chinese criminals to launder money. And
wait up, why are australian banks deposits guarenteed but
not NZ ones, surely aligning with Australia to remove
inhibitors to businessness is a National policy???
Wonder what Australian regulators have to say about the
ametaur NZ banking system. We don;t need world standards,
rich successful kiwis never make their money criminally,
happens all over the world but not in NZ. Why is parliament
filled with cretins? The senatoral chamber keeps on doing this,
flash new regulation rammed into law that saves business
costs (usually not actively wanted by business) and neo-liberalism
neo-conservatism gets another victory for small incompete
government.
We cannot afford a DGS, WTF, we cannot NOT afford to protect
investors who have been hoodwinked. BUT WAIT, its worse, Key
promised to clear up the financial industry, that’s why the story
comes out on a friday, to protect Key. Key lost a billion in SCF,
then removed the incentive for government to stop further fraud.
Listening to the Dunedin Mayor this morning on the subject of the loss of Hillside engineering was like listening to a NACT robot. He was only interested in fending off Claire Curran.
There was talk about the NZ price for engineering work for Kiwirail being 25% higher than the alternative. No business could ignore that so we had to go with the cheapest – mantra!
When will the effect on our overseas reserves be taken into account. We have to borrow overseas to get the currency to pay for these overseas purchases. That in turn puts us further into hock as a country. What effect does that have on our exchange rate? Someone here will know and might find the time to explain. And in the meantime we are languishing with no jobs and declining business and rising unemployment. Dunedin could do with the money from building that NZrail stock, AND the onflow of spending to the community generally termed the multiplier effect.
The multiplier effect is what grows an economy.
The dry explanation – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplier_(economics)
also http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-expenditure-multiplier.htm
for ‘deep throat’ there is an interview hour on the subject through here http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2011/10/ramey_on_stimul.html
And the thing is that if the price difference was only 25% more expensive for NZ made then it is a false saving to manufacture offshore. The government would easily recoup that cost from the tax take of the workers and suppliers not to mention the obvious cost savings of having those people in the workforce as opposed to on a potential benefit..
False economy and completely disingenuous when solely the up front cost is considered.. What about the overall TCO?
I notice that on the feed column, there is a link to Ruth Dyson release decrying the fact that democracy in Canterbury is poked. I agree with her sentiments. But didn’t Labour vote in favour of giving Gerry Brownlie extra-ordinary powers and wasn’t it Gerry Brownlie who used those powers to replace the elected Regional Council with appointees?
Apologies if I’m remembering this incorrectly. Otherwise, shameful hypocrisy and selective memory or tacit admission of stupidity on the part of Labour.
Bill
You must learn to live in the now! What we said before is well, before. This is now and if you don’t like these principles.. well we’ve got other ones.
Michael Laws: neither fair nor balanced
Radio Live, Friday 16 November 2012
Today, it’s not the “ferals” of the poorest suburbs in Whanganui and Hastings that are the object of Michael Laws’ snarling contempt. Overnight, Israel has stepped up its ongoing brutalisation of Gaza, so it’s incumbent on all unconditional supporters of Israel to express their undying love for the Holy State.
Not all his listeners are as ready to uncritically accept what they are told in the mainstream news broadcasts. A young man called Aidan rings up Laws to remonstrate….
AIDAN: You are siding with the oppressors. LAWS: No they’re not. They are not the oppressors. AIDAN: Palestinians in Israel are discriminated agai— LAWS: Listen Aidan. Listen to me, otherwise I’ll think you’re mad. Israel started in 1948 as a Jewish state. [A long, wandery and incoherent rehash of Israeli propaganda follows.] Anyway, coming up after the news, I’ll be speaking to an EXPERT on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
…11 a.m. NEWS…
LAWS: This latest middle eastern, ahhhh, flashpoint. Joining us to give us a bit of a background to all this is Professor William Harris, from the Political Studies department at Otago University. Bill, this current conflict, with the Israelis firing back at the Palestinians… My understanding is that the Palestinians are bitterly divided between Hamas and Fatah. Is that right? PROFESSOR HARRIS: That is right. In fact they may even be divided more than that. Since their last big operation in 2008-9, things have been desultory. LAWS: From an outsider’s perspective it makes no sense. Why would Hamas fire rockets at Israel? HARRIS: Yes but Gaza has been under a tight siege. LAWS: Yes but hasn’t Egypt been a part of that siege too? HARRIS: Egypt wants to be a mediator too. LAWS: When the U.N. created Israel in 1948, did they create a Palestinian state as well?
In the face of such profound ignorance, Professor Harris managed to politely start educating the host, but this will be an ongoing project. Laws, who clearly knows hardly anything about the situation and has made no effort to do any reading about it, listened politely and asked reasonably intelligent questions.
Encouragingly, Laws indicated that Professor Harris will be coming back on the programme again, so at least someone with a bit of knowledge will occasionally get a hearing.
And Israel says it’s the Orphans that started it by firing rockets at them?
That’s exactly the message spouted by the BBC, Radio New Zealand, NewstalkZB, Radio Live, Television One and TV3. Nearly all of these broadcasters actually used Netanyahu’s fantastical and dishonest words—that Israelis “live under a constant barrage of rockets and missile fire”—and passed it off as their own copywriting.
Who instigated the Blockade then, Let alone enforced it with “Diplomacy”?
Israel instigated it, with the full support of its sponsor, the United States.
Morrissey
Let’s face it Netanyahu is a General and he’s getting old. There’s probably an urgent desire on the part of all old generals to do something vital before they die. Look at the USA ones! And the Israeli just wants to keep the pot boiling and the huge armament supplies and business flooding in.
And the Israelis have set up a political system that allows political power to those who have military power, so they are in permanent war mode. And they haven’t thought out the difficulties even impossibilities, of allowing any and all Jewish believers and sects to flourish. Now in the country they have their own version of the Taliban trying to drag them back into ancient times and sharia-type rules.
And the Palestinians are so bloody irritating with their persistence about their land rights and harrassing and threatening Israel with their armaments and their tunnels and their inadequate leadership that matches Israel’s. And they won’t say that Israel is legit.
So the score of death was three Israelis and fifteen West Bank. Some in Israel would think that’s too low a currency. The going rate has been far higher than that. For every one Israeli killed, it is about 30 Palestinians or perhaps down to 10 but also an olive grove, a strategic building and at least five houses demolished. Israel is mighty and will defend and punish.
And while this country of intelligent, so-called civilised people carries on like this, creating hatred and defiance and suspicion amongst the Palestinians who retaliate in a similar byzantine manner they stoke the fire of contempt and anger amongst a vast population of young men who are ready and willing to attack anyone, given enough encouragement by their holy ones. And we all feel it. If in the back of their minds Israelis are thinking that we deserve it after all they suffered down the centuries and in Nazi Germany, if they don’t make firm moves to peace and demand civil compensation for breaches, if there is some sort of positive outcome for them, it will be a pyrrhic victory.
Obama has spoken to Netanyahu by ‘phone, encouraging him to step up the brutal assault on Gaza. How many Israelis were casualties? Count them on one hand. As usual we behold the massive over-retaliation.
Nah, that’s a good idea OneTrack…but the problem is you said into Israel when you really meant to say into Palestinian land that is occupied by Israel
If Israel moves back to where they should be then the Palestinian rockets might stop…or they can just carry on like this for a couple more decades at most, until the USA can no longer protect Israel, and then we’ll see the brutal end of Israel from all their neighbours…that’s gonna be nasty
Something calling itself “OneTrack” is hopelessly confused.
…another plan would be if the palestinians stopped firing rockets into Israel and killing Israeli civilians.
The ignoramus has confused the Occupied Territories for Israel. Has this poor fool ever wondered why a few Palestinians are firing rockets into illegal settlements? Of course not. It doesn’t know what it’s talking about.
“So how did Republicans keep their House majority despite more Americans voting for the other party—something that has only happened three times in the last hundred years, according to political analyst Richard Winger? Because they drew the lines. ”
“It is impossible to read this as anything other than an attack on Nate Silver, who is by far the most prominent aggregator and analyzer of others’ polls currently operating today. And it simply reeks of sour grapes. During the campaign year, Silver consistently pointed out that Gallup’s results were oddly inconsistent with what other pollsters were finding. And he was right — Gallup got it wrong. It is not inappropriate to point that out. But Gallup presumes too much when it effectively threatens to take its surveys home and just stop playing.”
Brian Edwards. Dim-Post. Imperator Fish. QoT. Giovanni Tiso. Chris Trotter. No Right Turn. Tapu Misa. Probably more I’ve missed. And of course, several on the Standard.
Meanwhile, defending Shearer, those trusted Labour allies …
Fran O’Sullivan. Richard Long (Don Brash’s guy). A Facebook page set up by Nats. Others?
Did I really hear Shearer waxing about future input from ‘the grassroots’? Nah. Couldn’t be. They be utterly dismissable people who spray paint their curtains a dark colour and won’t tell anyone what their name is. (apparently)
And was that Goff praying or saying that ‘everyone’ (ie, caucus) was solidly behind Shearer while dismissing the Party’s grasroot sentiments as National Party tosh? (Headsup to Ph.Goff. – Nobody claimed there was a challenge from within caucus. ‘Everybody’ claimed they are right pissed off and disillusioned.)
Goff should count himself lucky to date for not been subject to the bright light of scrutiny about parachuting Shearer into a safe Labour seat, indeed the seat that the former three-term Prime Minister had just vacated.
There were other very obvious more deserving candidates then.
Rioting in Europe. People are angry and desperate. The leaders are themselves sitting on the golden egg. They had Faberge eggs in Russia before the revolution. Will there have to be another revolution, another war. because the dangerous playboys and autocratic men and women at the top have too little head space for brain?
Terry Pratchett’s character in the Discworld, Havelock Vetinari, Lord Vetinari, Patrician of Ankh-Morpork is a schemer but he does ensure that the place keeps going. He thinks his way past others who have aspirations. He allows for known moral problems, there is an Assassins Guild, a Thieves Guild, etc and they have stern standards to adhere to. Perhaps we need more honesty and less of the greasy promisers that slide away when there’s trouble.
Why is that Bomber thinks he can lie so openly and still taken seriously?
http://tumeke.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/the-problem-for-climate-deniers-like.html
“The reason climate deniers like Slater and Farrar keep the spin lies going is because for them, it’s a cultural war. Slater and Farrar can not ever agree that human pollution is causing the planet to heat because it forces them to reflect upon the free market they slavishly worship.”
Ok…..What say you Farrar?
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2012/07/climate_data.html
“…what my view is, that there is global warming, and human activity is causing it, but that the extent of the warming is debatable and not as large as originally projected.”
So Farrar may disagree with the extent but he quite clearly states he believes it is happening and that humans cause it.
Well you can quibble over who believes what extent (I disagree with Farrar myself) but the fact remains that ” Slater and Farrar can not ever agree that human pollution is causing the planet to heat ” is an utter falsehood. Provably so. A quick search of Kiwiblog has Farrar saying, many times, I believe in climate change and humans are causing it.
I often correct things or quibble over what others see as minor points and many probably think me a pedant, but IMO it’s important to get things correct, and when an error is pointed out to you, admit it.
it may still come through, or they may change the article…Tumeke’s moderation can take up to a day or so sometimes, that’s why I never post there anymore. And Bomber rarely interacts with the comments
looks like you’ve been ignored then. Its not really a site for discussion, just a place to go to read bomber’s thoughts…shame really, more of an online magazine because there is no interaction. Its gotten to the point where you not only know what topics are going to be posted on that blog, but also what is going to be said. Then again, that’s true for almost all blogs to a degree.
It could be better but I guess they are busy. Citizen A and the Union Report are worth a watch though…they’re the only TV shows I bother watching
I’m not worried about being personally ignored but it goes further to my opinion of Bomber being dishonest, disingenuous and focused purely on his own positions at the expense of honesty.
yeah, maybe, or maybe you have taken his words too strongly?…and it depends how you read what Farrar wrote, his last 7 words is what bomber is questioning – and not as large as originally projected That kind of statement leaves most readers thinking that climate change is questionable…check the comments on the post to see how Farrar’s post leads to heavy denial.
Bomber claims that Slater and Farrar are people who try to suggest that human pollution isn’t warming the planet and then says Muddy the waters on the science (there is no direct link between smoking and cancer) and keep repeating that position so people don’t think the science is as settled as it actually is.
Bomber uses the words try to suggest and muddy the waters …hardly claiming that Slater and Farrar flatly deny that warming is not occurring…
And lastly, Bomber uses the term climate deniers…that’s a vague term in itself…does it mean that they deny climate is changing, does it mean that they deny climate change is caused mainly by humans…or does it mean that they deny climate change is caused solely by humans?
Basically, Bomber is as vague as Farrar…and the other hand, Slater is in a league of his own.
I both agree and disagree (who said I’m unbalanced?).
Literally yes, Farrar acknowledges AGC. But he does minimise it and its significance in the quote TC pasted.
BUT I’m not so sure that denying AGC is different in any practical sense from denying its significance. The ship still sinks while Farrar et al argue that it’s just normal rain which has never been a problem before, or that there is a hole but it’s really not letting in as much water as alarmists suggest.
Oh, semantically they are distinct statements and Bomber should be more accurate, but in the practical world Farrar is firmly in the “fuck the planet, my paymasters are okay” camp: the same side as Monckton etc.
Indeed but Bombers post isn’t about Farrar minimizing the effect of AGW (which would be the honest position) but about Farrar expressly denying it to the point of:
“Slater and Farrar can not ever agree that human pollution is causing the planet to heat” when Farrar explicitly states many times, he believes it is caused by humans.
It isn’t just right-wingers that omit facts and/or lie which is what bothers me about Bomber. He gets so barking mad at others for their lies and omissions but then proves himself to be no better.
Farrar doesn’t believe AGC is as significant as the [under]estimates predicted.
You’re getting worked up and throwing words like “integrity” around over the semantic difference between “does not affect” and “does not significantly affect”.
And quite frankly, the difference between:
1) an AGC denier; and
2) an AGC minimiser
is much less significant than the difference between:
3) someone who confuses 1 and 2; and
4) someone who is 1 or 2.
But Bomber gets your nuts in a knot. Have fun with that.
I think Farrar’s position lacks integrity. He’s saying that the science is correct and incorrect at the same time. He’s trying to say well, yes, AGW is happening but we don’t have to do anything about it. Which is a position of denial.
Well, whatever you think Farrar thinks the extent is he does not deny climate change is happening and that humans are causing it which is Bombers incorrect assertion. The honest position is that Farrar denies the extent of the damage being done, not that Farrar denies any damage in the first place.
It’s also a change in tune, with David Farrar often posting climate change denial rubbish. I guess he might have just woken up for a little while in the face of reality, but is still sleepily not really acknowledging the extent of the problem.
You can’t ignore the fact that Farrar makes a number of arguments in favour of the fossil fuel industry and posts articles that try to deny climate change exists just because of one example TC. It’s the overall denying that Bomber is responding to, which makes his argument justified.
The nation has a strong, well-regulated banking sector, but households, businesses and governments do not save enough of their income.
If we ‘save money’ under the present system we actually run out of money and the economy would grind to a halt as the only thing that would be left would be the debt caused by the private banks charging interest on money they created.
It is with regret that I have found confirmation that the comments on this site and forum are largely “navel gazing” types of comments, but the threads for discussion basically enforce this.
Now we have the prospect of full blown, wider, escalating war in the Middle East, and here most are pre-occupied with a “Labour Conference”, which is likely to result in a kind of scenario, similar to the majority votes in former Eastern Bloc ruling parties.
No way will anyone seriously challenge the leadership, and the mostly aged members will cast their votes and utter their support in old, stubborn fashion. There may be a bit of dissent and criticism, but I expect little.
So it is time to move on, and to establish a NEW party on the left, that is inclusive, also stops the divisiveness amongst many activist groups I know, which is more like a “social scene” for some, to battle it out amongst each other. Unity is a distant goal or rather dream, it sometimes seems.
Now why not bear a thought tonight also about what the hell goes on in Gaza and Palestine?
Does anybody give a damn in NZ? I am sure some do, but it is far too few.
Let the Middle East explode, I say, clear the air, let off steam perhaps, fight it out, which will never be cleared and sorted with bogey attempts to negotiate what is not negotiable.
This attack by Israeli forces was well calculated, it happened just before an election, and again, it is the right wing, nationalistic Likud, who started this on purpose. They want to create war to get a “crisis” feeling, so Israelis feel afraid and vote for them. It has worked too many times, and it is tried again.
The usual blame game goes on. Hamas and their supporters are all terrorists, that is the accusation, so we must march in and sort this out, is the addition.
This time though, it may lead to more, and Israelis should be bloody worried, as this may end the existence of this state, which was created in the early post war years, under support by powers, who were still “enjoying” their last years of “colonial dominance” of the world. They did contribute to the creation of the state of Israel, which is a state based on race interests and dominance, and they would not know, that colonialism was to end soon.
So let us see, whether the last remnant of a kind of neo-colonialist state of Zionists will survive, or whether jews will return to the diaspora, or at least learn to live with the natives of centuries of that land, in peace, and to share the land and interest.
I wonder whether anyone here grasps the significance?!
Yes, xtasy there is a lot more risk this time around for Israel.
I find it impossible to reconcile what Israel is doing to the Palestinians in Gaza given their own experience. For as long as they imprison Palestinians, deny a diplomatic solution and sporadically invade, there will be no resolution of this.
The way I see it, sadly, is that from my safe little home there is not an effective thing I can do about this except make my express my opinions to those who support Israeli action and ask our U.S-aligned government to express support for Palestinian aspirations… and our government is not going to do that anytime soon.
The only people who can stop the war in the Middle East is the people in the ME. But, as you point out, there’s some people who don’t want to stop the war and they’re the people in power and they don’t want to stop the war because it keeps them in power.
The Aliyah movement shows the nationalistic side to Israel, which is dominated by the settler movement, and who believe totally in the whole land, also the West Bank and Gaza, to be JEWISH land, that is theirs, and there to be taken and kept forever, as part of the promised land, that they believe God gave them!
The plan of the Aliyah movement, supported by the state of Israel, is to bring as many settlers of Jewish origin into the country, to strengthen the homeland character and solidarity, and to populate the land they believe is theirs.
The Israeli Defence Force and Likud also believe, that the West Bank can never be surrendered to Palestinian rule, as the control of it is essential to Israeli security.
Now this is important stuff, and it highly strategic a situation, so I wonder, where blase NZers stand on this all?!
Better shut up now, as I do not want to upset soft lefties with too radical info and material. I have a library full of stuff, and I suggest to everyone, study, study, study, learn, learn and learn and get real about what goes on. Sadly this country is run by idiots, sadly largely for idiots. If you want to save your country, take a damned bloody stand! That is for ALL Nzers.
Xtasy – The reason most in NZ, even those who do pay some interest, focus on local issues is because they feel there is some degree of input they can have which might one day, lead to directional change.
Sadly this is not going to happen, and there are much closer links between the ME situation, and NZ than people would like to accept. NZ is simply an extension of the powers who control “the west”, dicate wars, and control right down to the local “clubs”
NZ is rooted because the peoople have become fat, lazy, stupid and complicit!
Last Monday SpaceX launched another clutch of Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit, bringing up to 300 the number of these units intended to bring 5G internet to the whole globe. In this post I present a movie showing how all 300 such satellites will be zipping around our planet over ...
The recent floods in Southland have highlighted the issue of Rio Tinto's illegal toxic waste dump in Mataura. But according to Newsroom, there's an even worse mess in Ruakaka near Whangarei:A Northland property stockpiled one million litres of flammable and toxic chemicals. Almost two years since the situation came to ...
It’s amazing just how many attack ads $100,000 buys you these days. The National Party has really been going to town lately, with their latest Twitter campaign making a number of questionable and blatantly false assertions, one being that poverty has worsened under the Labour led Government.The National Party's claim ...
OMV's exploratory drilling in the Great South Basin has failed to find oil. Good. Firstly, because we can't afford to burn the oil and gas we've already found, so there's just no point looking for more. And secondly, because offshore, deep-water drilling poses a risk of an environmental catastrophe, which ...
The government has announced it will strengthen whistleblower protections. The major change is "allowing people to report serious wrongdoing direct to an external authority if they wish", which fixes one of the big flaws in the Act. At present, whistleblowers must generally make their disclosure direct to the body they ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bruce Lieberman CARLSBAD, CA. – When it comes to paying the electric bill, most people don’t give it a second thought – it’s something that in effect is “baked in.” But across California and several other states, local governments increasingly are ...
Excerpts from Being and Being Bought, by Kajsa Ekis Ekman, Spinifex Press, 2013. Part 4 Ekman, a Swedish journalist and critic, brings together a Marxist and feminist analysis of prostitution and surrogacy in this groundbreaking book. This is the fourth part of a synopsis and brief commentary of the book by Daphna ...
The Democracy Virus: China’s authoritarian political system enables a level of social surveillance and control that liberal democratic societies cannot match. The Chinese Government makes full use of the latest digital technology to both punish – and reward – its citizens. The plans it formulates cannot be challenged, or hindered. Where ...
Another day, another IPCA report on criminal conduct by policy. This time they kicked a child in the head when he was handcuffed:Police chased him and yelled out for him to stop. When he turned to face the police, he threatened them with a hammer. That's when the officers tasered ...
The investigation of two of the five parties in Parliament for fraud around their election donations has pushed the issue of party funding back into the spotlight. And while there are obvious things we can do to tighten up the donations regime - a much lower declaration threshold, realtime disclosure ...
While the south of New Zealand has been struggling with too much rain in recent days, here in the north we are so very short of it (though Saturday’s forecast looks promising). Basically, we have had almost none since Christmas.As someone who relies on rain to wash the car, ...
Former National Party MP Jami-Lee RossIt comes as no surprise that Jami-Lee Ross has been named as one of the defendants in the X2 $100,000 National Party donations case currently before the courts. Click bait journalists who were chaffing at the bit to discredit the former senior whip had already ...
Stand Clear! Winston Peters is encouraging voters to think of RNZ as belonging to “The Media Party”. He wants them to see it as a politically partisan institution with its own, vicious attack-dogs in the electoral fight. If he succeeds, it will be, and probably should be, the end of ...
"You're going to need a longer runway" Gratton et al explore the ongoing effects of upward-creeping temperatures on aviation in Greece in the period since 1955 at a range of airports in that country. For longer runways impacts are measurable but with little impact on operations. For airports with shorter runways, ...
In mid-December the Israeli secret police, the Shin Beit, revealed it had arrested dozens of Palestinian left-wing activists, including members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in the previous few months. Among those arrested was one of the central leaders of the PFLP, Khalida Jarrar. As ...
Former National Party chief whip Jami-Lee Ross is one of the four people charged over National's multiple fraudulent donations. How unsurprising. Meanwhile, just days ago National leader Simon Bridges was trying to pretend the charges were nothing to do with his party. Yeah, right. When your chief whip effectively publicly ...
If you've been watching FYI for a while, you'll have noticed that the police have a bad habit of demanding ID from requesters. They have apparently been repeatedly told to stop doing this by the Ombudsman, but we all know what law enforcement thinks of the law, so thye keep ...
Collateral Damage: For the Green Phoenix to be reborn, the funeral pyre so patiently assembled by its identity politicians over the course of many fractious years – but with growing intensity over the past three – first has to be ignited. The terrible probability, of course, is that, in setting ...
If you follow politics in New Zealand you've likely noticed that the right wing have been going on and on about the Coalition Government failing to reduce poverty. In fact they’ve been incessantly claiming, in the absence of any conclusive data, that poverty has been getting worse.Yesterday, NewstalkZB reported:Mike Hosking: ...
The Herald reported over the weekend that an Auckland business owner is being targeted with asset forfeiture laws over a workplace death:A workplace fatality has seen police use a law usually associated with drugs and organised crime to seize millions of dollars in assets from a business owner because of ...
Just days after talking about how people feel "squeezed" and promising tax and service cuts as a "solution", National is talking about cancelling a rise in the minimum wage if elected: National is considering scrapping the Government's planned minimum wage increase if it wins this year's election, the party's finance ...
Nobody thinks about the next century anymore. That at least is Sci-Fi writer William Gibson’s observation (in this BBC 4 short interview, starting at 1:43:50 ). He calls it “Futures Fatigue”, but isn’t judgemental about it. Gibson notes that in the 20th century speculation about the 21st (and beyond) was common. Now ...
A Labour government desperate for the numbers crawls into bed with Winston Peters. Winston ignores the law and secretly takes money under the table from someone. When it is exposed just months out from an election, he is investigated by the Serious Fraud Office. That's what happened back in 2008. ...
So the Serious Fraud Office has another secret $100,050 National Party donation before the Courts in a major scandal that looks set to quash any chances Simon Bridges had of winning the 2020 election.Yesterday, Newsroom reported:The Serious Fraud Office prosecution of four people over donations to the National Party involves ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Iceberg twice the size of Washington, D.C., breaks off Pine Island glacier in Antarctica Story Highlights: The Pine Island ...
Prof Philippa Howden-ChapmanHousing policy is building up to be the key election issue again. In this blog I reflect on the importance of the role of the New Zealand Government in improving access to affordable housing. I look at what the Government has been doing to increase quality public housing ...
Writing on The Spinoff, Danyl Mclauchlan argues that we have a vacuum in our political system, in that there is no longer an anti-establishment party anymore:I think there’s a vacuum in our political system. There are obvious problems with the status quo but no real critics offering reform. It’s a ...
Stuff today has a piece about the government discovering it has been oversubsidising polluters for a decade under the Emissions Trading scheme:The Government is pledging to urgently fix an issue within the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), after it emerged some polluters are likely being over-compensated with taxpayer-funded carbon credits. [...] ...
The Marlborough District Council, tired of public scrutiny, wants to increase the amount it charges for LGOIMA requests:The cost of requesting official information from Marlborough's government agency could almost double after a jump in "fishing expeditions". Charges could be raised from $60 to $100 an hour for information supplied by ...
When Winston Peters was caught money laundering donations and stalking journalists, the Greens were conspicuous by their silence. It was another example of how getting along with their government partners was eroding their values and their own reputation. It was obviously unsustainable, and so now James Shaw has finally spoken ...
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...
With over 69,000 confirmed cases and 1,600 deaths, here’s your round-up of the latest coronavirus news. New disease and virus have now officially been named On the 11th February, the WHO Director General announced a new name for the disease: COVID-19 which is short for coronavirus disease 2019. The naming ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 9, 2020 through Sat, Feb 15, 2020 Editor's Pick ANALYSIS-Climate change opens up 'frontier' farmland, but at what cost to the planet?Climate change could expand farmland globally by ...
After cross-examination Jones knew he would lose the defamation case he took against film maker Renae Maihi. That’s why he threw in the towel. The weight of evidence was clearly against the old tycoon with the defense presenting fifty articles to confirm Jones’ racist views.Being unable to harass somebody into ...
Sprung! Former NZ First president, Lester Gray, chats with RNZ's Guyon Espiner in the carpark of a Tauranga shopping centre.(Photo supplied anonymously to NZ First and The BFD.)IT’S CLEAR THAT an important aspect of Jacinda Ardern’s political success is her willingness to seek – and take – advice. This ...
Ruth Cunningham, Charlotte Paul, Andrew MoorePublic health responses to infectious diseases such as COVID-19 require us to draw on our common humanity and be explicit about our values. Recognising this will help us make good decisions in difficult situations so that, for example, the need to impose restrictive measures ...
The Helen Clark Foundation has released its report on the housing crisis, and found that house-hoarders are to blame for it:Property investors are to blame for New Zealand's high house prices, a new research paper published by the Helen Clark Foundation says. [...] McArthur said previous attempts to address housing ...
The Abortion Legislation Committee has reported back on the Abortion Legislation Bill and recommended that it be passed with some amendments. Unfortunately, the latter include even more hoops to jump through for those seeking abortions after 20 weeks, including a time-wasting requirement to consult a second doctor. No-one casually seeks ...
Brexit is likely to be a disaster for the UK (how sad, never mind). But now that they're out of the EU, the latter has finaly taken the opportunity to blacklist one of their key tax havens:The Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory, is to be put on an EU ...
I’m not quite sure of what to make of the new figures for COVID-19 (as we must now call the novel coronavirus – though I’m not sure the capitalisation is correct) from Hubei province:Image from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51495484The spike yesterday is a consequence of a using a different way of ...
Bob Jones has dropped his defamation case against Renae Maihi. Good. But at the same time, it perfectly exposes what the case was all about: not protecting Jones' reputation, but punishing someone who had dared to criticise him, and deterring others from doing the same. This rich pompous asshat dragged ...
As I've done for the past few years, I'm curating and presenting The Listening Lounge, the talk programme at Splore. On the morning of Saturday the 22nd at the Living Lounge stage, the korero goes like this.Yes, we're talking about drugs again, not just because I'm professionally interested in drug ...
What Were They Thinking? RNZ's CEO Paul Thompson (left) and Jim Mather, Chairman of the RNZ Board of Governors, attempt to justify the debacle arising out of their attempt to downgrade RNZ Concert to the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Select Committee at Parliament on Thursday, 13 February 2020.WHAT IS ...
Dame Tariana Turia with former PM John KeyWhat is it about Tariana Turia’s grudge against the Labour Party? Not content with attacking the Government over Whānau Ora funding, which was increased by $80 million in 2019, she has now made it personal by saying that Jacinda Ardern is out of her ...
Back in 2017, right after being elected, Jacinda Ardern promised that there would be no new mines on conservation land. Since then, her government has done nothing to make that happen, and now the policy has been officially "parked" for the election:West Coast-Tasman MP Damien O'Connor says the "no new ...
So the guy who advocated for public burning and beheading feels offended because someone called him a racist!Perhaps Bob Jones hasn't heard of the very old saying; Live by the sword, die by the sword?I mean for someone who often writes opinionated nonsense about Maori; this is a ridiculous case ...
The government today announced a major support package aimed at reducing homelessness. A thousand new transitional housing places, more support for people to find homes (or not lose them in the first place), all good stuff. The one problem with it is that they're going to start charging people in ...
Courtroom Drama: There is no off-switch in a courtroom. Neither is it possible to turn the page in disgust. Ill-formed and ill-defended opinions will be exposed ruthlessly and unapologetically. As Shakespeare put it: “Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.” Sometimes the ...
As of today, the novel coronavirus spreading in China is called COVID-19. Why does it matter? Around the office, we’ve had several conversations over the past few weeks about how 2019-nCoV needed its own name. First, it was getting annoying calling it by the above designation, and ‘novel coronavirus’ doesn’t ...
by Philip Ferguson Last month B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reported: “In 2019, Israeli security forces killed 133 Palestinians, including 28 minors. Of the casualties, 104 were killed in the Gaza Strip, 26 in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and three within ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Arms (Firearms Prohibition Orders) Amendment Bill (No 2) (Brett Hudson)Its basicly more "tough on crime" nonsense (its already illegal for unlicensed people to own guns) designed to wedge NZ First against its arsehole base. ...
In 2015 the world agreed to the Paris Agreement to fight climate change. Each country would offer a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) "that it intends to achieve", and "pursue domestic mitigation measures, with the aim of achieving [it]". And every five years, they'd improve on it, ratcheting up ambition until ...
In theory, the emissions trading scheme should reduce emissions. Making polluters pay for permits to pollute lets them save money by reducing pollution, giving them a financial incentive to do the right thing. But right from the start the ETS was broken with a system of free allocation, so polluters ...
Irish voters went to the polls on Saturday in parliamentary elections, and perhaps delivered a political revolution. Since independence, Irish politics has been dominated by two parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Basicly patronage networks with indistinguishable policies, their cleavage isn't ideology, but who killed whose father or grandfather in ...
Once again the Aotearoa Bike Challenge is on us, and once again I’m participating. In principle this is not hard because it does not represent a significant switch in behavior for me. I already bike nearly every day. The Bicycle The fascinating thing about cycling is the realisation that this ...
Lately there has been a great deal of misinformation regarding the origins and purpose of Skeptical Science. As John Cook wrote nearly a decade ago, Skeptical Science is primarily a website that debunks climate misinformation with peer-reviewed science. Despite the ever-worsening impacts from climate change, with record after record being broken in ...
Under Attack: By sacking not only RNZ Concert’s presenters, but also its producers and librarians, and reducing the station to an automated purveyor of classical music in-between parliamentary broadcasts, RNZ’s CEO, Paul Thompson, wasn’t simply announcing an operational shake-up, he was declaring war on one of the most important guardians of ...
Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Reviews... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... Australian smoke plume sets recordsThe recent wildfires in Australia sent one of ...
The Global Protest to #FightInequality was powerful – thankyou and what next? Dear allies, We started the decade with a huge protest to #FightInequality that was heard around the world, including the 1% at Davos. Watch and share the highlights on facebook and twitter. A huge thank you. Together we ...
The Ministry of Health have announced a package that might ensure NZ will never experience another measles epidemic. While at the time of writing the details are still limited it appears that the important limitations in our current programme have been acknowledged and the intent is to address them. Great ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Prof Michael BakerIn this blog we briefly summarise our assessment of the highly uncertain new coronavirus threat. Given its potential to become a severe and prolonged global pandemic, a precautionary response now means activating all components of our pandemic plan, with a particular focus on ‘keep ...
When Labour was running for election, Jacinda Ardern famously said that climate change was "my generation's nuclear free moment". The implication was that her government would take the problem seriously, and act swiftly to reduce emissions. The reality:New Zealand will emit a million more tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2020 ...
James Renwick is Professor of Physical Geography at Victoria University of Wellington. He studied at Canterbury and the University of Washington and has worked on diverse aspects of climate science, including global atmospheric circulation and Antarctic sea ice. In December 2019 he was appointed to the New Zealand Climate Change ...
by Philip Ferguson Exit polls are showing a three-way virtual tie between the main parties in the south of Ireland. Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are all on just over 22%. FG on 22.4, SF on 22.3, FF on 22.2. Exit polls indicate that over 30% of 18-24 ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 2, 2020 through Sat, Feb 8, 2020 Editor's Pick New Report Details How Fossil Fuel Industry's Climate Destruction Also Exacerbates Human Rights Abuses"Even in the face of the ...
In a previous post I described briefly when and how the Starlink satellite chains – recent launches by Space-X in a scheme to bring 5G internet connectivity to the whole globe – could be seen from New Zealand with the naked eye. Here I provide an update and predictions for ...
Keeping The Faith: This Government’s broad, new, heavily moderated, progressive faith does not require a prime minister with the powers of a medieval pope. Jacinda’s regime has no need of subterranean torture chambers to ensure compliance. A gift for diplomacy and the ability to inspire her fellow human-beings is all ...
Today New Zealand First made a pledge to campaign at the election to fund St John Ambulance the 90 per cent it has asked for. Government funding would allow St. John’s to achieve fully funded status. Leader of New Zealand First, Rt Hon Winston Peters publicly declared his determination to deliver ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order Newly released Police data shows once again the number of fleeing drivers have continued to skyrocket with a record 512 incidents occurring in December – almost tripling the number of incidents occurring just ten years ago, says New Zealand First Law and ...
While the Provincial Growth Fund has provided $2 million to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia, Regional Economic Minister Shane Jones said he is greatly concerned that there are “issues” in implementing the projects. The Minister said the immediate solution was to pipe water from a bore ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP for Clutha-Southland NZ First is calling on Rio Tinto to accept its responsibilities to the Southland community and enable the immediate removal of the toxic Aluminium Dross from the Mataura Paper Mill site. New Zealand First List MP for Clutha-Southland, Mark Patterson ...
The Coalition Government has announced that a further $500,000 will be given to help residents in Southland and Otago to speed up recovery efforts from the floods. It follows prior government assistance of $200,000 earlier this month where the Southland Mayoral Relief Fund received $100,000 to support communities impacted by ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones was on RNZ’s Morning Report talking about the recent droughts in the Northland region and what the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is doing to alleviate its impact. The PGF recently announced a funding of $2 million for temporary water supplies to Kaikohe and Kaitaia, ...
Speaking to The Country’s Jamie Mackay, New Zealand First MP and Cabinet Minister Shane Jones talks water storage, plant-based meat imitation, and superstar Hollywood director James Cameron. While water storage may have its critics, Minister Jones defended the scheme by saying: “unless we invest and continue to invest” in this ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones is accusing northern iwi leaders of selling out Māori by voting for ideologically-driven court cases rather than practical steps to increase water supply. “I just think that iwi leaders who think that water issues are going to be solved by perpetually fighting in the ...
A dairy owner in St Kilda, Dunedin was delighted to hear that an attempted robbery of his establishment was foiled by a government-funded security system. Sean Lee was delighted at how well the anti-theft smoke system worked. When a knife-wielding man entered the store, the shop assistant immediately pressed a ...
Customs says it stopped more than three tonnes of illegal drugs coming into New Zealand last year. This includes 1,180kg of methamphetamine, 329kg of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine precursors, which could have been converted into 246kg of methamphetamine, 739kg and 6469 pills of MDMA or Ecstasy and 60kg of cocaine. Offshore, ...
Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Up to $2 million will be allocated from the Provincial Growth Fund to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia where drought is biting hard, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Drought conditions in Northland have led to ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Law and Order New Zealand First welcomes the deployment of an Eagle Police helicopter in Christchurch in what is a step towards fulfilling its long-standing goal to increase the use of police helicopters for the front line, particularly in addressing the scourge of fleeing drivers. Christchurch leads ...
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...
In a heated debate in Parliament, National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett claimed that “nearly 1600 patched gang members have been added” since the Coalition Government took power. To illustrate her point, she altered a chart used by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to show her government’s progress in housing to instead ...
Speech by the Rt Hon Winston Peters at Parliament’s Opening 2020 "We all need insurance" This year New Zealanders are going to have a clear choice to make That choice is between: Optimism versus pessimism; More progress versus back to the future; Investment versus divestment; Unity versus division. New Zealand ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has slammed the Board of Auckland Airport following the airport's runway closing twice within two weeks due to maintenance. Around 2,000 passengers were affected by last week’s runway closures, according to 1NEWS. Another maintenance closure on January 24 saw two international flights and three domestic flights ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Broadcasting New Zealand First supports the commissioning of a business case to assess the viability of a new public media entity. “A strong media environment is critical for a healthy democracy. New Zealand First is a strong supporter of a diverse, independent media,” New Zealand First broadcasting spokesperson ...
Pounamou and technology industries in the West Coast region are set to receive more than $2 million in Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) funding. This was announced by the Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau during Waitangi Day commemorations in Hokitika. He said $800,000 would be given to Development West ...
Clayton Mitchell MP, New Zealand First spokesperson for Labour and Industrial Relations Unemployment and wage growth numbers released by Stats NZ today demonstrate a labour market in good shape with unemployment falling to 4.0%, the underutilisation rate falling to an 11 year low, and wage growth at a 10-year high ...
Hon. Ron Mark, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence Ron Mark, welcomes the official opening of Te Rau Aroha, a new museum at Waitangi Treaty Grounds as part of our Coalition Agreement. “It is a great honour to be part of an effective Government ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime MinisterGood morning,Let us start with important acknowledgements.First, this special day, in remembrance of the 28th Maori Battalion, is also to honour all those men and women who have risked their lives in the service of our country.Second, special guest Robert ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand will look to build on its relationship with the United Kingdom and recommit to the European Union, after the country officially left the continental union recently. The Minister said New Zealand already cooperates closely with Britain on defence and security issues and has ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will visit two of New Zealand’s most important Pacific partners, Fiji and Australia, next week. The visit to Fiji will be the first by a New Zealand Prime Minister in four years and comes during the 50th anniversary of Fijian independence and diplomatic relations between our ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little and New Zealand First MP Darroch Ball, have today announced the appointment of the Chief Commissioner of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the location, and the membership of the Establishment Advisory Group. Colin Carruthers QC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of the CCRC for an ...
Māori Development Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta and Agriculture Minister Hon Damien O’Connor co-announced the first horticultural finalists for the Ahuwhenua Trophy celebrating excellence in the Māori agricultural sector. The three finalists are Ngai Tukairangi Trust from Mt Maunganui, Otama Marere Trust from Tauranga, and Hineora Orchard Te Kaha 15B Ahuwhenua ...
A new kete of resources to strengthen support for students with dyslexia will provide extra tools for the new Learning Support Coordinators (LSCs) as they start in schools, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin announced today. The Minister launched the kete in Wellington this morning, at the first of three induction ...
The Government continues to make progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the First Reading of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill and its referral to the Social Services and Community Select Committee. “Now is the opportunity for landlords, tenants and others who want ...
Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Hon James Marape will visit New Zealand from 21-25 February, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “New Zealand and Papua New Guinea have a warm and friendly relationship. I look forward to welcoming Prime Minister Marape here and strengthening the relationship between our two countries,” ...
Thousands of children have begun receiving a free lunch on every day of the school week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. The Government’s free and healthy school lunch programme is under way for 7,000 students at 31 schools in Hawke’s Bay / Tairāwhiti and Bay of Plenty / Waiariki, extending ...
The Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni today announced a new approach that continues to broaden the Government’s social sector focus from a narrow, investment approach to one centred on people and wellbeing. Minister Sepuloni said redefining the previous approach to social investment by combining science, data and lived experience ...
The Government is strengthening the Protected Disclosures Act to provide better protection for whistle blowers, Minister of State Services Chris Hipkins said today. “The Protected Disclosures Act is meant to encourage people to speak up about serious wrongdoing in the workplace and protect them from losing their jobs or being ...
Nǐn hǎo (Hello in Mandarin). Xīn Nián Kuài Lè (Happy New Year in Mandarin) Néi Hóu (Hello in Cantonese). Sun Nin Fai Lok (Happy New Year in Cantonese) Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Thank you for your invitation to attend this celebration today. I would like to acknowledge ...
Kia ora. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa. Nau mai haere mai ki te Whare Pāremata. E ngā mana whenua ki tēnei rohe Taranaki Whānui, Te Upoko o Te Ika, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Raukawa – kei te mihi, kei te mihi, kei te mihi. E ngā mana, e ...
Kia ora. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa. Nau mai haere mai ki te Whare Pāremata. E ngā mana whenua ki tēnei rohe Taranaki Whānui, Te Upoko o Te Ika, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Raukawa – kei te mihi, kei te mihi, kei te mihi. E ngā mana, e ngā ...
Tougher penalties for gun crime are a step closer with the passage of firearms reform legislation through another stage in Parliament. The Arms Legislation Bill has tonight passed its Second Reading. “The changes have one objective - to prevent firearms falling into the wrong hands,” said Police Minister Stuart Nash. ...
Introduction Mr Speaker We all know why we are here today. It has been a long journey. The journey did not actually begin on 15 March 2019. It began on 30 June 1997. Almost 23 years ago, Justice Sir Thomas Thorp told us what was wrong with our firearms legislation. ...
The Government’s work to put trades and vocational education back on the agenda took another major step forward today with the passing of the Education (Vocational Education and Training Reform) Amendment Bill, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said. “This is a watershed day for trades and vocational education. These law changes formalise ...
Speeding up the return of Christchurch regeneration activities to local leadership is behind the Greater Christchurch Regeneration Amendment Bill introduced to Parliament today by Minister Megan Woods. “As we approach nine years since the February 2011 earthquake in Canterbury, and with the transition to local leadership well underway, the time ...
Hundreds of New Zealanders and international visitors will be able to get back out into nature with the Milford Track partially reopening next week, after extensive assessments and repairs, the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. The popular Great Walk has been closed since 3 February after an extreme ...
Up to 110 new EV chargers nationwide in cities and regions 50 electric vehicles for ride-sharing The Government is helping deliver more infrastructure and options for low emissions transport through new projects, Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods says. Tauranga, Nelson, Levin, New Plymouth and Oamaru are just some ...
New Zealanders are increasingly better off under this Government as wages rise and families have more disposable income, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. Stats NZ reported today that average household disposable incomes after housing costs rose 4.9% in 2019. This was the highest rise in four years and came as ...
All New Zealanders need to have their voices heard at work to ensure we have an inclusive and productive economy. Today we introduce a Bill to do this for workers in the New Zealand screen industry, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “The Screen Industry Workers Bill will ...
The Government has announced further help for the Southland and Otago regions to speed up recovery efforts from the floods. “I’ve approved Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG), making $500,000 available to help with the clean-up in Fiordland, Southland, and the Clutha district in Otago,” Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni said. ...
Following the announcement that more than 340 schools will be funded to run events promoting vocational education, the Government has announced it will fund a further 257 events to be run by employers and industry. “These industry-run events will allow more than 30,000 students to connect with more than 2,000 ...
Today the Government is making progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the introduction of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill in Parliament. “This Bill includes a series of reforms to improve the wellbeing of the 609,700 households that live in rented homes, and ...
A Government programme to wipe out pea weevil has achieved a world first, with Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor today announcing the successful eradication of the noxious pest from Wairarapa. This means the nearly four-year ban on pea plants and pea straw was lifted today. Commercial and home gardeners can again grow ...
Southland residents hit by flooding caused by heavy rainfall can now access help finding temporary accommodation with the Government activating the Temporary Accommodation Service, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare announced today. “The Temporary Accommodation Service (TAS) has been activated by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to help ...
“Is that it?” That’s Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s response to Simon Bridges’ much-hyped economic speech today. “Simon Bridges just gave the most over-hyped and under-delivered speech that I can remember during my time in politics,” Grant Robertson said. “It’s not surprising. Simon Bridges literally said on the radio this morning ...
A trial deployment of the Police Eagle helicopter in Christchurch will test whether the aircraft would make a significant difference to crime prevention and community safety. “The Bell 429 helicopter will be based in Christchurch for five weeks, from 17 February to 20 March,” said Police Minister Stuart Nash. “The ...
The Government has kept up the pace of its work to promote New Zealand’s trade interests and diversify our export markets, with visits to Fiji and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker. Building momentum to bring the PACER Plus trade and development agreement ...
The Coalition Government’s investment in a strong border and disrupting transnational organised crime produced record results for stopping drugs in 2019, says Minister of Customs Jenny Salesa. The illegal drugs were seized at the New Zealand border by Customs, and overseas by Customs’ international border partners before the drugs could ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today kicked off construction of a separated cycleway alongside Tamaki Drive. A two-way separated cycleway will be built along the northern side of Tamaki Drive, between the Quay Street Cycleway extension and Ngapipi Road. There will be a separate walking path alongside. Phil Twyford said giving ...
Owner-occupiers of unit and apartments living in earthquake-prone buildings will have certainty about the financial support they’ll be eligible for with the release of criteria for an upcoming assistance scheme, Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa says. The Residential Earthquake-Prone Building Financial Assistance Scheme will help unit owners facing ...
Temporary restrictions on travel from China will remain in place as a precautionary measure to protect against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The restrictions which prevent foreign nationals travelling from, or transiting through, mainland China from entering New Zealand have been extended for a further 8 days. This position ...
Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today that Tairāwhiti rangatahi will benefit from an investment made by the Government’s He Poutama Rangatahi (HPR) scheme. The funding will go to the Tautua Village, Kauneke programme and the Matapuna Supported Employment Programme which will fund 120 rangatahi over two years. “Both programmes work ...
All parents and caregivers need to ensure that their children go to school unless they are sick, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin said today. “The school attendance results for 2019 show, across the board, a drop in the number of students going to school regularly,” the Minister says. “Apart from ...
A Deed of Settlement agreeing redress for historical Treaty claims has been signed by the Crown and Moriori at Kōpinga Marae on Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) today, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little has announced. Moriori have a tradition of peace that extends back over 600 years. This settlement ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today with Māori King Tuheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII officially opened the country’s newest road, the $384 million Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway. The 15km four-lane highway with side and central safety barriers takes State Highway 1 east of Huntly town, across lowlands and streams ...
The rapid uptake of life-saving new hepatitis C medicine Maviret since it was funded by PHARMAC a year ago means the elimination of the deadly disease from this country is a realistic goal, Health Minister David Clark says. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus which attacks the liver, proving fatal ...
Kaupapa Māori will underpin the Government’s new plan to deal with homelessness announced by the Prime Minister in Auckland this morning. “Māori are massively overrepresented among people experiencing homelessness, so, to achieve different outcomes for Māori, we have to do things very differently,” says the Minister of Māori Development ...
1000 new transitional housing places delivered by end of year to reduce demand for emergency motel accommodation. Introduce 25% of income payment, after 7 days, for those in emergency motel accommodation to bring in line with other forms of accommodation support. Over $70m extra to programmes that prevents those at ...
Clear requirements for ensuring customers are treated fairly by banks, insurers and other financial service providers are included in new financial conduct legislation that passed its first reading today. “The recent reviews, by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) and Reserve Bank of New Zealand, into the conduct of banks and ...
RNZ management wants to grow a youth audience without having to build a costly new platform. Anna Dean offers a bunch – none of which involves scrapping RNZ Concert.Over the next few weeks RNZ National Concert staff are set to take part in strategy workshops focused on “growth in audience reach, ...
Today LockerRoom brings you the first episode of Pure As, a mini documentary series on the Silver Ferns' personal journeys to World Cup glory. So much of the magic and composure Silver Ferns captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio brings to the netball court today was learned from years of sitting on the ...
"He was an energy vacuum, a shit magnet, a waste of skin": a black comedy by Nelson writer Grant Smithies. The stars he saw were blue, green, golden. Little lights swam around slowly, then went out one by one. His face felt hot. His left eye wasn’t working. And ...
Yes, it’s still summer and, en route to that final festival or beach bolt-hole, the season of the road trip. Here Spinoff Art co-editor Mark Amery runs down some of the best North Island contemporary art stopovers, and the mavericks behind them. We cross the Cook Strait next year, promise.Back ...
The Star Wars prequels are universally regarded as the nadir of the franchise, but at least they gave us spinoff series The Clone Wars, writes Sam BrooksNobody likes the Star Wars prequels. Though that statement is slightly hyperbolic, it’s not far from the truth. Even if you can make a ...
Jai Breitnauer on what happens when male role models start disappearing from a child’s life.Recently, we saw a ghost from the past. Once a regular visitor to our home, there just after the birth of our first child and a constant presence for more than a decade, this individual disappeared ...
Dragon Quest: Your Story feels like an hour-and-a-half-long highlight reel of an adventure spanning dozens of hours, but it’s damn fun, writes Felix Walton.One of Netflix’s current hustles seems to be grabbing movies with little to no hope of a wide release and publishing them as “Netflix Originals.” The latest ...
The Ministry of Education is proposing a number of changes to NCEA Level One, including the merging of several subjects to be phased in over the next five years. Felix Walton looks into how, and why, these changes are happening.Why are they changing things now?They aren’t changing things now, per ...
Pacific Media Centre Chinese authorities are systematically harassing Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups even after they have left the country, according to new testimonies gathered by Amnesty International. Uyghur New Zealanders were among those interviewed, despite the threat of further intimidation. The case studies, published online today, reveal ...
A victim of the Generate KiwiSaver hack is considering legal action to seek compensation for stress and the risk of identity theft. One of the 26,000 KiwiSavers who had personal information, including their physical address, IRD number, bank statements and identification, stolen by an unknown third party has sought advice ...
Healthcare appliance manufacturer Fisher & Paykel Healthcare has upped its profit forecasts for the third time this year, with increased sales off the back of the coronavirus. The company now expects a full year net profit of between $260 and $270 million, up 1.9 percent on its previous forecast. Chief ...
Power company Genesis Energy has taken a significant financial hit and lowered its guidance, because of lower hydro generation and gas shortages. Net profit for the six months ended December fell 81.4 percent to $9.2 million, from slightly lower revenue of $1.3 billion. Lower inflows for its hydro power stations ...
Kiwibank's first half profit is down on flat revenue growth and increased operations and compliance costs. The New Zealand-owned bank's net profit fell 18 percent to $51 million in the six months to December, compared with the year earlier's $62m. "As expected the bank faced rising operating costs due to ...
The New Zealand Bar Association has urged Parliament to balance carefully the need to reform legislation in respect of sexual violence with the need to ensure that only the guilty are convicted. The Association told the Justice Select Committee ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Michelle Grattan talks with Assistant Professor Caroline Fisher about the week in politics, including the extension of the coronavirus travel ban, the royal commission into the bushfires, and labor’s stance on a compulsory superannuation guarantee ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Steen, Professor of Midwifery, University of South Australia In a new parenting podcast, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, said she used hypnobirthing techniques to help her get through severe morning sickness – a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum. She also used the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samuel Alexander, Research fellow, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne This article is the first in a three-part series on radical ideas to solve the environmental crisis. As the Productivity Commission confirmed this week, Australia’s economy has enjoyed uninterrupted growth for ...
The Nats are accusing Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor of being slow to act on a tuberculosis outbreak in Hawke’s Bay. Is it a fair cop? OSPRI confirmed an outbreak in Hawke’s Bay in April last year, but a disease management response wasn’t put in place until October, National agriculture spokesman ...
Porirua City Council is scratching its head on how it's going to meet the costs of a $2 billion bill to bring its water network up to scratch over the next two to three decades. ...
The sentencing of Grace Millane’s killer to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years marks the end of a judicial process that can only have been extremely harrowing for her family. They had already experienced the loss of their daughter, ...
Twenty years ago, Auckland’s streets were ruled by diesel-hating narcs. Josie Adams looks back at the short-lived 0800 SMOKEY campaign.For five chaotic weeks in 2000, the Auckland Regional Council experimented with extreme, multi-level peer pressure. The goal: to get cleaner-burning fuel into Auckland cars. The method: turning citizens against each ...
The National Party donations scandal that had nothing to do with the National Party was the big news of the week. James Elliott has some thoughts on that. Simon Bridges has climbed into double digits as preferred Prime Minister in the latest political polling which is significant for two reasons. ...
He thought he’d moved on, but the news the Holden brand was being killed off hit Trevor McKewen harder than he expected. Here he reminisces about a youthful infatuation that never quite burned out.A part of me died this week and I didn’t see it coming.Holden has shut up shop ...
Today the unnamed man found guilty of murdering Grace Millane was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 17. “One person has been locked away but are New Zealand women any safer?” asks White Ribbon Manager Rob McCann. “We certainly ...
Pacific Media Watch An Australian federal court decision upholding the legality of the police raid on the Sydney headquarters of the national public broadcaster ABC last June has dealt a major blow to the protection of journalists’ sources and poses a grave danger for the future of public interest ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Picador, $20)What is going on, Auckland? Is it just ...
A poem by US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo.The FightThe rising sun paints the feet of night-crawling enemies. And they scatter into the burning hills. I have fought each of them. I know them by name. From before I could speak. I’ve used every weapon. To make them retreat. Yet they ...
A string of toy companies are facing legal action for selling unsafe toys that pose choking hazards for young children. Yesterday, Cinevan International was fined $81,000 and another four companies are before the courts. Businesses have been using a sticker on the packaging saying 'not suitable for children under three' ...
The Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee, Gareth Hughes, is calling for public submissions on the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, which was referred to the committee on 20 February 2020. The Residential Tenancies Act ...
ANALYSIS:By Johnny Blades of RNZ Pacific Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape has embarked on a state visit to New Zealand. It is the first visit to New Zealand by a sitting PNG prime minister since Marape’s predecessor Peter O’Neill’s trip in 2013. Marape, who rolled O’Neill ...
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 contentDonations scandals Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Who are the people at the centre of the SFO political donation row? Collette ...
Policyholders fear the sale of AMP LIfe to a Bermuda-based 'zombie fund guru' could leave them stranded because a legal gap means the FMA is powerless to protect them ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Giancaspro, Lecturer in Law, University of Adelaide When booking a luxury cruise, you generally expect relaxation and enjoyment, not forced quarantine and distress. Unfortunately, for the thousands of vacationers trapped on cruise ships in Asia the past month, what started as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Courtney Hempton, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University The Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board has this week published a report detailing the first six months of the legislation in action in Victoria. The report reveals 52 people legally ended their lives from the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Blanca del Rosal Rabes, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology Brain temperature is implicated in many common conditions including stroke, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, and headaches. Changes in brain temperature can indicate there is a disease developing, but researchers ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Anthony Albanese will commit a Labor government to adopting a target of zero net emissions by 2050, in a speech titled “Leadership in a New Climate” to be delivered on Friday. The opposition leader’s embrace ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy N. W. Jackson, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian Venom Research Unit, University of Melbourne This is an article from I’ve Always Wondered, a series where readers send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. Send your question to alwayswondered@theconversation.edu.auWho would ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benjamen Franklen Gussen, Lecturer in Law, Swinburne University of Technology In 1971, a Time magazine article, titled “Should New York City Be the 51st State?”, observed: States have not only short-changed and hamstrung their cities but are themselves the least creative ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ida Kubiszewski, Associate professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Labor’s treasury spokesman, Jim Chalmers, wants to follow New Zealand’s example and introduce a “wellbeing budget” alongside the traditional budget that stresses economic growth, when Labor is next in office. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona Andreallo, Honorary research fellow, University of Sydney A sea of oversized hair bows bobs through primary school gates each morning. It might be dismissed as a harmless children’s fad but big bows are back, driven by current fashions, tween influencers and ...
The Government of New Zealand has recognized that the country is facing a housing crisis, said Leilani Farha, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, at the end of her visit to the country . “While the Government has taken important steps ...
Survey results released today by the Helen Clark Foundation and the New Zealand Drug Foundation show that support for cannabis legalisation grows when people know more about the proposed legislation. When respondents were asked how they would vote ...
In today’s edition: Views on cannabis legalisation could hardly be tighter, the Papua New Guinea PM arrives in NZ, and bad light threatens cricket on the radio.A new poll published this morning finds that 46% of those surveyed would vote yes, and 44% no, with 10% undecided. That’s a markedly different ...
Actress Jennifer Ward-Lealand Te Atamira, a long-time champion of the arts, and te reo Māoriis the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year for 2020. Mark Jennings reports on the night that honours the best of us. What does it mean to be a New Zealander? The question was posed by ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by Steve Braunias.FICTION 1 In the Clearing by JP Pomare (Hachette, $34.99) All next week at ReadingRoom is devoted to this brilliant thriller inspired by Australian cult The Family, led by ...
‘A life-changing experience’, ‘The greatest of the great! It must be experienced!’, ‘That show with the dancing lady on the billboard.’ Shen Yun ads are impossible to avoid, but what on earth is it?So what is Shen Yun?According to the Shen Yun website: “It is a brilliant artistic revival ...
"To the girls, to the women, to the mothers, to the daughters who hear the music bubbling within, please speak up. We need to hear your voices." These are the words of Hildur Guðnadóttir, who recently accepted the Oscar for best original score for the film Joker at the 92nd ...
Dr Amanda Landers discusses the stigma associated with palliative care and why the field deserves recognition Scalpels are a powerful tool in medicine, but words can be just as mighty. Some medical specialties are easy to comprehend - they cut, stitch, unblock, restart or fix. Others are just too hard ...
A Northland property stockpiled one million litres of flammable and toxic chemicals. Almost two years since the situation came to the attention of authorities, the poorly stored solvents remain a fire and environmental risk. While Government agencies struggled to get a polluter to clean up his mess, up to one million ...
Georgia Hale's tireless and compassionate work, using her sport of rugby league to create opportunities for many different communities, has earned her the title of Young New Zealander of the Year. As soon as she left high school, Georgia Hale began working with children with intellectual disabilities. It changed her ...
A new, "true green" party hoping to break into Parliament at this year's election has been hit by resignations and allegations of questionable conduct, Newsroom's political editor Sam Sachdeva reports Fledgling political party Sustainable New Zealand has been rocked by a flurry of resignations and allegations of questionable behaviour by its ...
A rare visit by a prime minister of Papua New Guinea to New Zealand highlights a strong friendship, but one which could be closer, writes Johnny Blades for RNZ.Papua New Guinea’s James Marape has embarked on a state visit to New Zealand. It’s the first visit to New Zealand by ...
Plant-based food producers ‘stigmatise and demonise’ traditional agriculture, according to Jones, but those working in the new industry say it should be seen as an opportunity, not a threat. NZ First minister Shane Jones’ suggestion that plant-based food must be “stopped in its tracks” has been labelled concerning, negligent and anti-competitive ...
The prospect of going to the Red Planet is possibly a step closer with the US President's State of the Nation speech, in which he promises we will land there. The chances of anything coming from Mars - according to the 1978 Jeff Wayne musical War of the Worlds - are ...
Jennifer Ward-Lealand’s dedication to acting, directing and te ao Māori saw her named the 2020 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year at a special dinner in Auckland last night. Alice Webb-Liddall speaks to her about how she hopes to nurture the future of the craft that has given her so ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Seen as a political narrative, the Morrison government’s handling of the coronavirus (COVID-19) fits the patterns of its approaches on border security and anti-terrorism. Stressing the central imperative is to “keep Australians safe”, it has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The coronavirus is presenting a major threat to Australia’s education export industry, which is highly dependant upon the China market, and a huge challenge to the universities. Phil Honeywood, CEO of the International Education Association ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The corona virus is presenting a major threat to Australia’s education export industry, which is highly dependant upon the China market, and a huge challenge to the universities. Phillip Honeywood, CEO of the International Education ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stacey L Rowe, PhD candidate, Monash University Today’s evacuation of about 180 passengers from the cruise ship Diamond Princess to serve another period of quarantine back in Australia has raised questions about the best way to control spread of the coronavirus. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tess Hardy, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Melbourne Australian supermarket giant Coles and discount chain Target this week joined an ignominious list of large corporations caught up in “wage theft” scandals. Coles confessed to underpaying salaried employees about A$20 million over ...
Parliament is now seeking public submissions on an international treaty that makes it possible to recover child or spousal support from someone who lives in another country. The Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marissa Parrott, Reproductive Biologist, Wildlife Conservation & Science, Zoos Victoria, and Honorary Research Associate, BioSciences, University of Melbourne Since July last year, bushfires have burned more than 7.7 million hectares of southeast Australia, putting many threatened species at increased risk of extinction. ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Pranav Chopra, founder and CEO of Nemi Teas.On Business is Boring this week, ...
Open mike 16/11/2012 
Last Monday SpaceX launched another clutch of Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit, bringing up to 300 the number of these units intended to bring 5G internet to the whole globe. In this post I present a movie showing how all 300 such satellites will be zipping around our planet over ...10 hours ago
The recent floods in Southland have highlighted the issue of Rio Tinto's illegal toxic waste dump in Mataura. But according to Newsroom, there's an even worse mess in Ruakaka near Whangarei:A Northland property stockpiled one million litres of flammable and toxic chemicals. Almost two years since the situation came to ...19 hours ago
It’s amazing just how many attack ads $100,000 buys you these days. The National Party has really been going to town lately, with their latest Twitter campaign making a number of questionable and blatantly false assertions, one being that poverty has worsened under the Labour led Government.The National Party's claim ...21 hours ago
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bruce Lieberman CARLSBAD, CA. – When it comes to paying the electric bill, most people don’t give it a second thought – it’s something that in effect is “baked in.” But across California and several other states, local governments increasingly are ...23 hours ago
Excerpts from Being and Being Bought, by Kajsa Ekis Ekman, Spinifex Press, 2013. Part 4 Ekman, a Swedish journalist and critic, brings together a Marxist and feminist analysis of prostitution and surrogacy in this groundbreaking book. This is the fourth part of a synopsis and brief commentary of the book by Daphna ...1 day ago
The Democracy Virus: China’s authoritarian political system enables a level of social surveillance and control that liberal democratic societies cannot match. The Chinese Government makes full use of the latest digital technology to both punish – and reward – its citizens. The plans it formulates cannot be challenged, or hindered. Where ...1 day ago
In mid-December the Israeli secret police, the Shin Beit, revealed it had arrested dozens of Palestinian left-wing activists, including members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in the previous few months. Among those arrested was one of the central leaders of the PFLP, Khalida Jarrar. As ...3 days ago
I am among the most pro-free speech people I know. I don’t doubt there are others more strident than me, but I’m certainly up there. And my support for freedom of expression isn’t limited to opposition to government-imposed restrictions. It extends to a belief that employers should have limited powers ...5 days ago
...2 weeks ago
Today New Zealand First made a pledge to campaign at the election to fund St John Ambulance the 90 per cent it has asked for. Government funding would allow St. John’s to achieve fully funded status. Leader of New Zealand First, Rt Hon Winston Peters publicly declared his determination to deliver ...19 hours ago
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...1 week ago
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will visit two of New Zealand’s most important Pacific partners, Fiji and Australia, next week. The visit to Fiji will be the first by a New Zealand Prime Minister in four years and comes during the 50th anniversary of Fijian independence and diplomatic relations between our ...16 hours ago
RNZ management wants to grow a youth audience without having to build a costly new platform. Anna Dean offers a bunch – none of which involves scrapping RNZ Concert.Over the next few weeks RNZ National Concert staff are set to take part in strategy workshops focused on “growth in audience reach, ...52 mins ago
Today LockerRoom brings you the first episode of Pure As, a mini documentary series on the Silver Ferns' personal journeys to World Cup glory. So much of the magic and composure Silver Ferns captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio brings to the netball court today was learned from years of sitting on the ...3 hours ago
"He was an energy vacuum, a shit magnet, a waste of skin": a black comedy by Nelson writer Grant Smithies. The stars he saw were blue, green, golden. Little lights swam around slowly, then went out one by one. His face felt hot. His left eye wasn’t working. And ...3 hours ago
Peter Griffin looks past the rollercoaster ride that is cryptocurrency to find out its true potential. ...18 hours ago
Pacific Media Centre Chinese authorities are systematically harassing Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups even after they have left the country, according to new testimonies gathered by Amnesty International. Uyghur New Zealanders were among those interviewed, despite the threat of further intimidation. The case studies, published online today, reveal ...18 hours ago
A victim of the Generate KiwiSaver hack is considering legal action to seek compensation for stress and the risk of identity theft. One of the 26,000 KiwiSavers who had personal information, including their physical address, IRD number, bank statements and identification, stolen by an unknown third party has sought advice ...19 hours ago
Apple is the latest tech firm to warn that Kiwis may lose access to streaming content if a new parental guidance law goes ahead. ...19 hours ago
Healthcare appliance manufacturer Fisher & Paykel Healthcare has upped its profit forecasts for the third time this year, with increased sales off the back of the coronavirus. The company now expects a full year net profit of between $260 and $270 million, up 1.9 percent on its previous forecast. Chief ...19 hours ago
Power company Genesis Energy has taken a significant financial hit and lowered its guidance, because of lower hydro generation and gas shortages. Net profit for the six months ended December fell 81.4 percent to $9.2 million, from slightly lower revenue of $1.3 billion. Lower inflows for its hydro power stations ...19 hours ago
Kiwibank's first half profit is down on flat revenue growth and increased operations and compliance costs. The New Zealand-owned bank's net profit fell 18 percent to $51 million in the six months to December, compared with the year earlier's $62m. "As expected the bank faced rising operating costs due to ...19 hours ago
The New Zealand Bar Association has urged Parliament to balance carefully the need to reform legislation in respect of sexual violence with the need to ensure that only the guilty are convicted. The Association told the Justice Select Committee ...19 hours ago
The Nats are accusing Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor of being slow to act on a tuberculosis outbreak in Hawke’s Bay. Is it a fair cop? OSPRI confirmed an outbreak in Hawke’s Bay in April last year, but a disease management response wasn’t put in place until October, National agriculture spokesman ...20 hours ago
Porirua City Council is scratching its head on how it's going to meet the costs of a $2 billion bill to bring its water network up to scratch over the next two to three decades. ...20 hours ago
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has landed the first blow in the demolition of a leaky St John call centre in Auckland. ...21 hours ago
The National Party donations scandal that had nothing to do with the National Party was the big news of the week. James Elliott has some thoughts on that. Simon Bridges has climbed into double digits as preferred Prime Minister in the latest political polling which is significant for two reasons. ...22 hours ago
A string of toy companies are facing legal action for selling unsafe toys that pose choking hazards for young children. Yesterday, Cinevan International was fined $81,000 and another four companies are before the courts. Businesses have been using a sticker on the packaging saying 'not suitable for children under three' ...23 hours ago
The number of 14 and 15 year olds who have tried cannabis has fallen by more than a quarter. ...1 day ago
Paid parking on weekends looks set to stay, as Wellington Mayor Andy Foster struggles to find support for his agenda around the council table. ...1 day ago
Southland cleanup highlights climate change threat - Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage; and new taskforce to look at Wellington water issues. ...1 day ago
Policyholders fear the sale of AMP LIfe to a Bermuda-based 'zombie fund guru' could leave them stranded because a legal gap means the FMA is powerless to protect them ...1 day ago
Over the next three weeks Rod Oram will be cycling the length of New Zealand ...1 day ago
Actress Jennifer Ward-Lealand Te Atamira, a long-time champion of the arts, and te reo Māori is the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year for 2020. Mark Jennings reports on the night that honours the best of us. What does it mean to be a New Zealander? The question was posed by ...1 day ago
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by Steve Braunias. FICTION 1 In the Clearing by JP Pomare (Hachette, $34.99) All next week at ReadingRoom is devoted to this brilliant thriller inspired by Australian cult The Family, led by ...1 day ago
"To the girls, to the women, to the mothers, to the daughters who hear the music bubbling within, please speak up. We need to hear your voices." These are the words of Hildur Guðnadóttir, who recently accepted the Oscar for best original score for the film Joker at the 92nd ...1 day ago
Dr Amanda Landers discusses the stigma associated with palliative care and why the field deserves recognition Scalpels are a powerful tool in medicine, but words can be just as mighty. Some medical specialties are easy to comprehend - they cut, stitch, unblock, restart or fix. Others are just too hard ...1 day ago
A Northland property stockpiled one million litres of flammable and toxic chemicals. Almost two years since the situation came to the attention of authorities, the poorly stored solvents remain a fire and environmental risk. While Government agencies struggled to get a polluter to clean up his mess, up to one million ...1 day ago
Georgia Hale's tireless and compassionate work, using her sport of rugby league to create opportunities for many different communities, has earned her the title of Young New Zealander of the Year. As soon as she left high school, Georgia Hale began working with children with intellectual disabilities. It changed her ...1 day ago
A new, "true green" party hoping to break into Parliament at this year's election has been hit by resignations and allegations of questionable conduct, Newsroom's political editor Sam Sachdeva reports Fledgling political party Sustainable New Zealand has been rocked by a flurry of resignations and allegations of questionable behaviour by its ...1 day ago
The prospect of going to the Red Planet is possibly a step closer with the US President's State of the Nation speech, in which he promises we will land there. The chances of anything coming from Mars - according to the 1978 Jeff Wayne musical War of the Worlds - are ...1 day ago
Leaked emails show a 'summer of sewage' has broken the confidence of councillors in the region's shared water services company ...2 days ago
Exemptions from paying Fringe Benefit Tax for double cab utes could clash with the Government's intentions to cut transport emissions. ...2 days ago
Forgiveness is also a Labour value.
Forgiveness is the renunciation or cessation of resentment, indignation or anger as a result of a perceived offence, disagreement, or mistake.
All members of the Labour Party get out of bed in the morning, or go to a Branch meeting or a Conference, with the intent of doing the right thing.
I, or you, may disagree with them. Politics is how we work with these different views.
Agree totally. Forgiveness I read recently is a characteristic of the strong, not of the weak. Especially it is important since it disposes of the crippling effects of resentment, indignation and anger.
An examination of Labour/Left values would help us focus on what is truly important and be a timely reminder of what we seek to achieve, especially for others.
Quite right Khanno. I remember dear old dad telling us how he met the original founder of world Labour once and when pressed for practical instructions, the only single advice he gave them was exactly that. Forgiveness (I think the exact words were “as we forgive those who press arse against us” or summing) The only exception was currency dealers, funnily enough, beat the snot out of them….
😀
What’s all this forgiveness thing. Who to whom?
‘Politics is how we work with these different views’.
Then putting forward different views is how we work at the political coalface.
In a real democracy there needs to be an opportunity for everyone in the country to put forward a reasoned view and have it considered. The views and analysis of performance cannot be contained to those within the mirror city all looking at their own reflections, listening to their own audio feed.
Aha! A sharp eye there, prism. But tell me, this Democracy thing, for who from whom? And reason, what does reason know? Any tips on leaving the Mirror city?
Uturn
Ummmm so confusing. I wonder if a pinhole camera might help here. It was great with the eclipse which would have been otherwise blinding. And we blinding well need to find our way out of where we are.
A nice article about the least pretentious leader in the world, Jose Mujica.
“I’m called ‘the poorest president’, but I don’t feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more,” he says.
“This is a matter of freedom. If you don’t have many possessions then you don’t need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself,” he says.
I love this man! He embodies all I hold dear and is a living example of my own values. Ahh, bless!
What a wonderful link TRP; all is forgiven 🙂
Sounds like a reasonable man.
Government for the casinos, by the casinos, of the casinos.
SkyCity Knew Of Plan To Ease New Zealand Access For Chinese High Rollers-Stuff.co.nz
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/7957580/SkyCity-knew-of-plan-to-ease-access
Yes, I saw that while I was being randomly nosey over here, and the first article was about this:
“The deal was struck after China Southern (Airlines) told Immigration NZ that its Gold and Silver Card holders were seeking to avoid “the necessity to answer questions relating to financial backing and employment history and to provide evidence of these” ”.
To even be interested in a Sky Pearl Club Silver Card you have to fly the equivalent distance as that of here to London and back, every three years. It could be argued that the agreement with Immigration is one that “rich people” are accepted in good faith and that “poor people” are considered suspicious as default. If frequently flying around the world is not a symptom of being “rich”, then at least it is part of a certain set of middle-class values. If that’s the case, it’s almost predictably boring that favouritism is accepted by supporters of our current style of living. It’s also not a very accurate portrayal of the myriad variations of Chinese cultural beliefs.
While I was at Avondale market last week there was a stand promoting Falun Gong, or more specifically, they were promoting resistance to the Chinese communist party. The banner on the stall read something about truth and goodness, happiness and values, and I thought wow, modern politics has pushed people in a circle back round to pre-Confucianism. I wonder if they’ll drift just a little bit further and drop the values and goodness, maybe even the happiness. Then I lost interest and went back to my banana pancake, which is always very tasty – two for $1.50.
In certain Chinese writings, that were around while competing ideas like Confucianism also vied for dominance, there is the idea that an authentic person can be completely impoverished, while the confused rule, and that outward appearances are worthless. Also, that aligning oneself on the say-so of another, or accepting ingenuine gifts in the style of the prevailing fashion, are ideas that should be strenuously avoided if one seeks to live out all the years given by life. Sun Tzu had departed for his country estate by then, but his ideas on organising the acquisition of other people’s stuff were still in effect. I don’t know if Chinese organised criminals laundering money, or drug mules making deliveries, would carry Sky Pearl Club Silver or Gold cards. It might be a dead giveaway. Whether or not modern cultural beliefs are a threat to NZ is debateable. Probably, it’s just better to screen everyone as they arrive, than guess who is trouble or not by their frequent flyer plans.
aahh, left, with the truth; what is truth
After Virtue
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Virtue
-your friendly neighbourhood Solipsist 🙂
More rubbish from the Novopay saga, which should be renamed No-mo(re)-pay.
After Te Puni Kokiri’s mind-numbingly long propaganda being read out yesterday on Morning Report, another tack is taken this morning with yet another lot of shambles unfolding. This time, courtesy of the Education Minister & Ministry. What are their responses?
The Minister’s office is not returning calls and the Ministry is not responding:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport
WTF. You can’t make this shit up even with the strongest satire. It is clear that Minister Hekia has dumped the need to front up onto Assoc Minister Floss who himself is now fast vanishing from office.
As for the Ministry of Education, it should be honest and say it is no longer part of the Public Service, but provides aggravation by way of public disservice.
You missed the part where the MOE has announced that they are already planning to make staff redundant. LOL as if the issues will be solved by next year!
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/absolute-insanity.html
I encourage media to give appropriate air time to opposition MP’s to comment on issues such as this so that if ministers elect not to front interviews with the media at least the public know they are not totally irrelevant. Seems only fair.
They should all quit now with a screw you fix it yourselves.
Good one. Ministry of Aggravation. Very apt, and sounds educated too! How did you do it in NZs ‘faulty’ system?
“once was national” Big ups to you man:-)
Re Hekia Parata and your statement about her lack of fronting up. That lady wears an invisibility cloak. She is one slick ninja. She has repeatedly declined John Campbells requets for interviews regarding the CHCH schools fiasco and the nopay issues. It not the odd request either, theres been several. Instead the poor bedragled and harrased looking secretary for the MOE has to front up.
Getting rid of back room people is backfiring !
on this govt!
Is this the type of labour leader we need?
The herald has a write up about the labour conference and it takes it in his office.
One more telling blerb from the annointed one is that he once again refers to bloggers,
saying that the “Bloggers are just a background noise,that, that is all it is worthy of”
Today’s herald folks.
ps,sorry i can’t link.
Here ’tis. The man is a plonker:
“The influence of people sitting anonymously in front of computer screens behind darkened curtains is not something I think we should be taking as seriously as we do.”
The problem is that the blogs are accurately reflecting how Labour voters feel about David Shearer. Shooting the messenger doesn’t alter the fact that he has failed to do his job convincingly. He may well end up being an accidental Prime Minister, but that will be because of Nationals failings not his own popularity.
And much as I take heart from the poll trends, Labour should be a damn site closer to National, given the ammunition they have at their disposal. Shearer will survive this conference, but Labour may not survive Shearer.
Tend to agree with him. Anyone in this day and age who gets their curtains darkened isn’t worth the trouble.
Thank you for linking 🙂
Does Shearer still have your backing ?
Anyway, he is right about those sitting behind a keyboard posing no threat, they don’t.
Does that mean the opinions are not valid of the bloggers, of course not, but its simply not how change will happen, not from behind a keyboard!
What happens on the internets has influence outside of cyberspace.
I would be cautious about over-estimating that Weka!
behind darkened curtains
What a sad little bit of spin that is.
Again Shearer opted to insult critics from his own Party (plus others). His main interest is (and has been) self-praise. Also, the following in the Herald, “When he’s asked about what differentiates Labour from National, he answers promptly and opts to focus on economic policy rather than social”. That really is something coming from a Labour leader! In short, his goal is exactly the same as National’s. Yet he still maintains that Labour will mean taking the country in a different direction!
Then Mr Shearer suggests Labour will offer “a more intelligent interventionist government”. Well, maybe more interventionist, but where from the intelligence? Surely he is imagining coalition with the Greens (where intelligence truly lies).
The Herald again, “There is a very long pause indeed when Shearer is asked what differentiates him from John Key” – yes, another of those awful long pauses. The Herald continues, “In many ways the two are comparable . . . Shearer is more like Key than he is like Clark. He finally answers he has respect for Key as a ‘communicator’ . . . “. My God, we know only too well the kinds of communications we are receiving from Key!!
Anyway, rest assured, Shearer “does know where he wants to take the country himself and will share that with the rest of us this weekend”. Hurrah! At last it is coming!! (Maybe)
vainglorious plonker.
(who was never an “aid worker” )
The juxtaposition of Khandalla Man’s comment and Starlight’s comment really does sum it all up.
On the one hand, Labour supporters and the broad left saying …
“Let’s talk. Let’s try and work together to resolve our problems, in a positive spirit. We want the same thing.”
In response, the leadership says …
“There isn’t a problem!”
So the positive spirit turns into frustration, then anger.
In response to the anger, the leadership says …
“You’re a right-winger!” or “You’re a lonely sad loser!” (AKA a person with internet access)
And so the anger grows.
Hey mickysavage if you’re around I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the reinstatement of the rank of QC last night.
Well as an Irish Catholic republican hater of titles I thought the reinstatement was really silly. Being a QC only allows the chosen few to charge more and serves no practical purpose. And restricting it to the ranks of barristers sole is artificial. There are plenty of good lawyers who practice as barristers and solicitors.
Phil Goff expressed things very well during the debate on the bill.
He sure did.
Enough
When are we going to tell the Chinese we are not for sale?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/farming/7951798/Chinese-government-eyes-Fonterra-fund
We won’t tell the Chinese anything except welcome them to gamble at our casinos and while you’re here, get a sure bet on our country’s remaining enterprises.
At the same time, of course, we must continue to oblige American aspirations!
I suspect those two entities are one and the same, masquerading as “satisfying America and/or China, as if they in fact are somehow different.
Speaking of John Key selling us out to casinos, gamblers and money launderers:
“New Zealand First is calling for Prime Minister John Key to reveal the full extent of his involvement in the Sky City-China Southern Airlines (CSA) gambler visa deal.”
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1211/S00306/pm-must-come-clean-on-his-role-in-the-gambler-visa-deal.htm
Looking forward to a progressive party in the House to pledge a reversal of the policy for CSA frequent fliers. Might Labour have the guts?
How low can you go?
Clearly the unTRUTH and the NBR are just trying to be controversial in order to gain readership by exploiting the death of Greg King. What a bunch of cretins!
Dude, you need to put a warning about that picture, esp this early in the day.
:-D, Great article Jackal
That line from the “Fly” come to mind ….
“Help Me , Help Me , ….”
LOL Thanks PlanetOrphan, must watch that movie again sometime.
Government needs skin in the game, a deposit guarentee
scheme on savings, basically insurance paid by banks
and other institutions would expose quickly those not
paying and so those running ponsi type schemes, with
the additional incentive that government has justification
for investigation. But National ended the deposit guarentee
by allowing South Canterbury Finance into the scheme and
not doing due diligence, win-win for crooks,
well National don’t believe in
due diligence, the market will do provide that. The
cult of no governance keeps on giving, Pike river, CTV,
SCF, but not Env.Canterbury funny enough, or alledgely fast
tracking Chinese criminals to launder money. And
wait up, why are australian banks deposits guarenteed but
not NZ ones, surely aligning with Australia to remove
inhibitors to businessness is a National policy???
Wonder what Australian regulators have to say about the
ametaur NZ banking system. We don;t need world standards,
rich successful kiwis never make their money criminally,
happens all over the world but not in NZ. Why is parliament
filled with cretins? The senatoral chamber keeps on doing this,
flash new regulation rammed into law that saves business
costs (usually not actively wanted by business) and neo-liberalism
neo-conservatism gets another victory for small incompete
government.
We cannot afford a DGS, WTF, we cannot NOT afford to protect
investors who have been hoodwinked. BUT WAIT, its worse, Key
promised to clear up the financial industry, that’s why the story
comes out on a friday, to protect Key. Key lost a billion in SCF,
then removed the incentive for government to stop further fraud.
We need to defeat the GERM:
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/the-germ-is-infecting-our-schools.html
Roll out the vaccines. GERM is insidious and so destructive. A great article Dave.
People who have the interests of kids must read.
Listening to the Dunedin Mayor this morning on the subject of the loss of Hillside engineering was like listening to a NACT robot. He was only interested in fending off Claire Curran.
There was talk about the NZ price for engineering work for Kiwirail being 25% higher than the alternative. No business could ignore that so we had to go with the cheapest – mantra!
When will the effect on our overseas reserves be taken into account. We have to borrow overseas to get the currency to pay for these overseas purchases. That in turn puts us further into hock as a country. What effect does that have on our exchange rate? Someone here will know and might find the time to explain. And in the meantime we are languishing with no jobs and declining business and rising unemployment. Dunedin could do with the money from building that NZrail stock, AND the onflow of spending to the community generally termed the multiplier effect.
The multiplier effect is what grows an economy.
The dry explanation – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplier_(economics)
also http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-expenditure-multiplier.htm
for ‘deep throat’ there is an interview hour on the subject through here http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2011/10/ramey_on_stimul.html
This Canadian link faulting austerity is interesting. http://rabble.ca/columnists/2012/10/multiplying-mistakes-tallying-economic-costs-austerity
And the thing is that if the price difference was only 25% more expensive for NZ made then it is a false saving to manufacture offshore. The government would easily recoup that cost from the tax take of the workers and suppliers not to mention the obvious cost savings of having those people in the workforce as opposed to on a potential benefit..
False economy and completely disingenuous when solely the up front cost is considered.. What about the overall TCO?
thatguynz
Yes why can’t we have that sort of wide economic thinking instead of being a vulture shopper seeking the cheapest.
Friday on my mind Listen – get tapping http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSowZcvoqr4
Yes indeed prism, from the “Easybeats” one notes!
Dr Terry
Yes. Lots of notes!
I notice that on the feed column, there is a link to Ruth Dyson release decrying the fact that democracy in Canterbury is poked. I agree with her sentiments. But didn’t Labour vote in favour of giving Gerry Brownlie extra-ordinary powers and wasn’t it Gerry Brownlie who used those powers to replace the elected Regional Council with appointees?
Apologies if I’m remembering this incorrectly. Otherwise, shameful hypocrisy and selective memory or tacit admission of stupidity on the part of Labour.
Bill
You must learn to live in the now! What we said before is well, before. This is now and if you don’t like these principles.. well we’ve got other ones.
Michael Laws: neither fair nor balanced
Radio Live, Friday 16 November 2012
Today, it’s not the “ferals” of the poorest suburbs in Whanganui and Hastings that are the object of Michael Laws’ snarling contempt. Overnight, Israel has stepped up its ongoing brutalisation of Gaza, so it’s incumbent on all unconditional supporters of Israel to express their undying love for the Holy State.
Not all his listeners are as ready to uncritically accept what they are told in the mainstream news broadcasts. A young man called Aidan rings up Laws to remonstrate….
AIDAN: You are siding with the oppressors.
LAWS: No they’re not. They are not the oppressors.
AIDAN: Palestinians in Israel are discriminated agai—
LAWS: Listen Aidan. Listen to me, otherwise I’ll think you’re mad. Israel started in 1948 as a Jewish state. [A long, wandery and incoherent rehash of Israeli propaganda follows.] Anyway, coming up after the news, I’ll be speaking to an EXPERT on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
…11 a.m. NEWS…
LAWS: This latest middle eastern, ahhhh, flashpoint. Joining us to give us a bit of a background to all this is Professor William Harris, from the Political Studies department at Otago University. Bill, this current conflict, with the Israelis firing back at the Palestinians… My understanding is that the Palestinians are bitterly divided between Hamas and Fatah. Is that right?
PROFESSOR HARRIS: That is right. In fact they may even be divided more than that. Since their last big operation in 2008-9, things have been desultory.
LAWS: From an outsider’s perspective it makes no sense. Why would Hamas fire rockets at Israel?
HARRIS: Yes but Gaza has been under a tight siege.
LAWS: Yes but hasn’t Egypt been a part of that siege too?
HARRIS: Egypt wants to be a mediator too.
LAWS: When the U.N. created Israel in 1948, did they create a Palestinian state as well?
In the face of such profound ignorance, Professor Harris managed to politely start educating the host, but this will be an ongoing project. Laws, who clearly knows hardly anything about the situation and has made no effort to do any reading about it, listened politely and asked reasonably intelligent questions.
Encouragingly, Laws indicated that Professor Harris will be coming back on the programme again, so at least someone with a bit of knowledge will occasionally get a hearing.
If Israel had a food for orphans of Gaza programme then I might have some time for them.
The blockade on Gaza has been running for how long ?
And Israel says it’s the Orphans that started it by firing rockets at them?
Who instigated the Blockade then, Let alone enforced it with “Diplomacy” ?
Let them build their Muslim Mosques/Temples I say.
And Israel says it’s the Orphans that started it by firing rockets at them?
That’s exactly the message spouted by the BBC, Radio New Zealand, NewstalkZB, Radio Live, Television One and TV3. Nearly all of these broadcasters actually used Netanyahu’s fantastical and dishonest words—that Israelis “live under a constant barrage of rockets and missile fire”—and passed it off as their own copywriting.
Who instigated the Blockade then, Let alone enforced it with “Diplomacy”?
Israel instigated it, with the full support of its sponsor, the United States.
Morrissey
Let’s face it Netanyahu is a General and he’s getting old. There’s probably an urgent desire on the part of all old generals to do something vital before they die. Look at the USA ones! And the Israeli just wants to keep the pot boiling and the huge armament supplies and business flooding in.
And the Israelis have set up a political system that allows political power to those who have military power, so they are in permanent war mode. And they haven’t thought out the difficulties even impossibilities, of allowing any and all Jewish believers and sects to flourish. Now in the country they have their own version of the Taliban trying to drag them back into ancient times and sharia-type rules.
And the Palestinians are so bloody irritating with their persistence about their land rights and harrassing and threatening Israel with their armaments and their tunnels and their inadequate leadership that matches Israel’s. And they won’t say that Israel is legit.
So the score of death was three Israelis and fifteen West Bank. Some in Israel would think that’s too low a currency. The going rate has been far higher than that. For every one Israeli killed, it is about 30 Palestinians or perhaps down to 10 but also an olive grove, a strategic building and at least five houses demolished. Israel is mighty and will defend and punish.
And while this country of intelligent, so-called civilised people carries on like this, creating hatred and defiance and suspicion amongst the Palestinians who retaliate in a similar byzantine manner they stoke the fire of contempt and anger amongst a vast population of young men who are ready and willing to attack anyone, given enough encouragement by their holy ones. And we all feel it. If in the back of their minds Israelis are thinking that we deserve it after all they suffered down the centuries and in Nazi Germany, if they don’t make firm moves to peace and demand civil compensation for breaches, if there is some sort of positive outcome for them, it will be a pyrrhic victory.
Obama has spoken to Netanyahu by ‘phone, encouraging him to step up the brutal assault on Gaza. How many Israelis were casualties? Count them on one hand. As usual we behold the massive over-retaliation.
Or another plan would be if the palestinians stopped firing rockets into Israel and killing Israeli civilians. Shocking idea. Wash your mouth out.
Nah, that’s a good idea OneTrack…but the problem is you said into Israel when you really meant to say into Palestinian land that is occupied by Israel
If Israel moves back to where they should be then the Palestinian rockets might stop…or they can just carry on like this for a couple more decades at most, until the USA can no longer protect Israel, and then we’ll see the brutal end of Israel from all their neighbours…that’s gonna be nasty
Something calling itself “OneTrack” is hopelessly confused.
…another plan would be if the palestinians stopped firing rockets into Israel and killing Israeli civilians.
The ignoramus has confused the Occupied Territories for Israel. Has this poor fool ever wondered why a few Palestinians are firing rockets into illegal settlements? Of course not. It doesn’t know what it’s talking about.
Morisey
This quote seems to apply to Michael Laws discourse – from a past Standard comment. From Monty Python – John Cleese et al.
Nicely put, my friend.
Gerrymandering:
“So how did Republicans keep their House majority despite more Americans voting for the other party—something that has only happened three times in the last hundred years, according to political analyst Richard Winger? Because they drew the lines. ”
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/11/republicans-gerrymandering-house-representatives-election-chart
Gallup attacks Nate Silver.
“It is impossible to read this as anything other than an attack on Nate Silver, who is by far the most prominent aggregator and analyzer of others’ polls currently operating today. And it simply reeks of sour grapes. During the campaign year, Silver consistently pointed out that Gallup’s results were oddly inconsistent with what other pollsters were finding. And he was right — Gallup got it wrong. It is not inappropriate to point that out. But Gallup presumes too much when it effectively threatens to take its surveys home and just stop playing.”
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/13/gallup_is_very_upset_at_nate_silver/
You can’t “Mimick” genius.
If everyone started/tried to emulate Nate they’d be turfed out for being wrong all the time M8!
😈
And futhermore, he’d just start his own polls surely? …. same data folks!
Shearer’s critics are blogs aligned to the National Party, apparently …
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/121016/labour-conference-to-begin-amidst-attacks-on-shearer
So, those National blogs and bloggers …
Brian Edwards. Dim-Post. Imperator Fish. QoT. Giovanni Tiso. Chris Trotter. No Right Turn. Tapu Misa. Probably more I’ve missed. And of course, several on the Standard.
Meanwhile, defending Shearer, those trusted Labour allies …
Fran O’Sullivan. Richard Long (Don Brash’s guy). A Facebook page set up by Nats. Others?
Black is white. White is black.
Did I really hear Shearer waxing about future input from ‘the grassroots’? Nah. Couldn’t be. They be utterly dismissable people who spray paint their curtains a dark colour and won’t tell anyone what their name is. (apparently)
And was that Goff praying or saying that ‘everyone’ (ie, caucus) was solidly behind Shearer while dismissing the Party’s grasroot sentiments as National Party tosh? (Headsup to Ph.Goff. – Nobody claimed there was a challenge from within caucus. ‘Everybody’ claimed they are right pissed off and disillusioned.)
Goff should count himself lucky to date for not been subject to the bright light of scrutiny about parachuting Shearer into a safe Labour seat, indeed the seat that the former three-term Prime Minister had just vacated.
There were other very obvious more deserving candidates then.
We have always been at war with Eurasia.
Rioting in Europe. People are angry and desperate. The leaders are themselves sitting on the golden egg. They had Faberge eggs in Russia before the revolution. Will there have to be another revolution, another war. because the dangerous playboys and autocratic men and women at the top have too little head space for brain?
Terry Pratchett’s character in the Discworld, Havelock Vetinari, Lord Vetinari, Patrician of Ankh-Morpork is a schemer but he does ensure that the place keeps going. He thinks his way past others who have aspirations. He allows for known moral problems, there is an Assassins Guild, a Thieves Guild, etc and they have stern standards to adhere to. Perhaps we need more honesty and less of the greasy promisers that slide away when there’s trouble.
Some clips of the punishment that the rulers of European countries are dealing out on the people they are supposed to be serving. Hah! Some hints – not sure of content. http://mlcastle.net/raisethefist/tactics.html
Spain –
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/nov/14/eurozone-crisis-general-strikes-protest-day-of-action 14/11/12
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/29/spain-riot-police 29/9/12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaIrRU8p6FM 27/5/2011
(Comment under – Is it in a cops genes to be degenerate scum or do they just become that way?)
Greece limited level of confrontation while German delegation was visiting.
http://www.dw.de/greek-protesters-attack-german-official/a-16381676
Why is that Bomber thinks he can lie so openly and still taken seriously?
http://tumeke.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/the-problem-for-climate-deniers-like.html
“The reason climate deniers like Slater and Farrar keep the spin lies going is because for them, it’s a cultural war. Slater and Farrar can not ever agree that human pollution is causing the planet to heat because it forces them to reflect upon the free market they slavishly worship.”
Ok…..What say you Farrar?
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2012/07/climate_data.html
“…what my view is, that there is global warming, and human activity is causing it, but that the extent of the warming is debatable and not as large as originally projected.”
So Farrar may disagree with the extent but he quite clearly states he believes it is happening and that humans cause it.
Where is the integrity?
There’s just no respect any more. Won’t someone think of the children?
No, Felix, don’t despair. At least we have each other
Does anybody think of the children? Most certainly not the Nat’s who in effect voted in favour of their remaining in poverty.
Oooh sarcy.
Yeah, I’d say that was Farrar being a denier as the science clearly shows that the original projections were far below what’s actually happening.
Well you can quibble over who believes what extent (I disagree with Farrar myself) but the fact remains that ” Slater and Farrar can not ever agree that human pollution is causing the planet to heat ” is an utter falsehood. Provably so. A quick search of Kiwiblog has Farrar saying, many times, I believe in climate change and humans are causing it.
It lacks integrity.
I agree with you.
I often correct things or quibble over what others see as minor points and many probably think me a pedant, but IMO it’s important to get things correct, and when an error is pointed out to you, admit it.
Indeed, I pointed it out on Tumeke some hours ago but not only has the article not changed but my comment never made it out of moderation.
To me that is somewhat dishonest if not outright lying
it may still come through, or they may change the article…Tumeke’s moderation can take up to a day or so sometimes, that’s why I never post there anymore. And Bomber rarely interacts with the comments
The comment that is currently on the article was approved sometime after I sent mine.
looks like you’ve been ignored then. Its not really a site for discussion, just a place to go to read bomber’s thoughts…shame really, more of an online magazine because there is no interaction. Its gotten to the point where you not only know what topics are going to be posted on that blog, but also what is going to be said. Then again, that’s true for almost all blogs to a degree.
It could be better but I guess they are busy. Citizen A and the Union Report are worth a watch though…they’re the only TV shows I bother watching
I’m not worried about being personally ignored but it goes further to my opinion of Bomber being dishonest, disingenuous and focused purely on his own positions at the expense of honesty.
The left-wing answer to Cam Sater.
yeah, maybe, or maybe you have taken his words too strongly?…and it depends how you read what Farrar wrote, his last 7 words is what bomber is questioning – and not as large as originally projected That kind of statement leaves most readers thinking that climate change is questionable…check the comments on the post to see how Farrar’s post leads to heavy denial.
Bomber claims that Slater and Farrar are people who try to suggest that human pollution isn’t warming the planet and then says Muddy the waters on the science (there is no direct link between smoking and cancer) and keep repeating that position so people don’t think the science is as settled as it actually is.
Bomber uses the words try to suggest and muddy the waters …hardly claiming that Slater and Farrar flatly deny that warming is not occurring…
And lastly, Bomber uses the term climate deniers…that’s a vague term in itself…does it mean that they deny climate is changing, does it mean that they deny climate change is caused mainly by humans…or does it mean that they deny climate change is caused solely by humans?
Basically, Bomber is as vague as Farrar…and the other hand, Slater is in a league of his own.
I both agree and disagree (who said I’m unbalanced?).
Literally yes, Farrar acknowledges AGC. But he does minimise it and its significance in the quote TC pasted.
BUT I’m not so sure that denying AGC is different in any practical sense from denying its significance. The ship still sinks while Farrar et al argue that it’s just normal rain which has never been a problem before, or that there is a hole but it’s really not letting in as much water as alarmists suggest.
Oh, semantically they are distinct statements and Bomber should be more accurate, but in the practical world Farrar is firmly in the “fuck the planet, my paymasters are okay” camp: the same side as Monckton etc.
Indeed but Bombers post isn’t about Farrar minimizing the effect of AGW (which would be the honest position) but about Farrar expressly denying it to the point of:
“Slater and Farrar can not ever agree that human pollution is causing the planet to heat” when Farrar explicitly states many times, he believes it is caused by humans.
It isn’t just right-wingers that omit facts and/or lie which is what bothers me about Bomber. He gets so barking mad at others for their lies and omissions but then proves himself to be no better.
Farrar doesn’t believe AGC is as significant as the [under]estimates predicted.
You’re getting worked up and throwing words like “integrity” around over the semantic difference between “does not affect” and “does not significantly affect”.
And quite frankly, the difference between:
1) an AGC denier; and
2) an AGC minimiser
is much less significant than the difference between:
3) someone who confuses 1 and 2; and
4) someone who is 1 or 2.
But Bomber gets your nuts in a knot. Have fun with that.
Thanks buddy.
You’ve made 9 comments on the earth-shattering issue that Bomber’s blog omits the word “significant”.
Just saying.
Dude states the Farrar can’t ever admit the humans are causing global warm when he specifically does several times. Its dishonest.
But whatever man, I’m just pointing out that Bomber is the left’s Cam Slater in this respect.
Anyway, time to go get drunk
Where shall we look for integrity Top Cat? (compliment intended)
I think Farrar’s position lacks integrity. He’s saying that the science is correct and incorrect at the same time. He’s trying to say well, yes, AGW is happening but we don’t have to do anything about it. Which is a position of denial.
Well, whatever you think Farrar thinks the extent is he does not deny climate change is happening and that humans are causing it which is Bombers incorrect assertion. The honest position is that Farrar denies the extent of the damage being done, not that Farrar denies any damage in the first place.
It’s also a change in tune, with David Farrar often posting climate change denial rubbish. I guess he might have just woken up for a little while in the face of reality, but is still sleepily not really acknowledging the extent of the problem.
You can’t ignore the fact that Farrar makes a number of arguments in favour of the fossil fuel industry and posts articles that try to deny climate change exists just because of one example TC. It’s the overall denying that Bomber is responding to, which makes his argument justified.
There are a large number of posts on Kiwiblog in which Farrar mentions his belief in AGW
I suggest you go and argue with him about those contradictions TC.
I really don’t know if I should laugh or cry as the normal lies about banking are spread through the nation.
If we ‘save money’ under the present system we actually run out of money and the economy would grind to a halt as the only thing that would be left would be the debt caused by the private banks charging interest on money they created.
It is with regret that I have found confirmation that the comments on this site and forum are largely “navel gazing” types of comments, but the threads for discussion basically enforce this.
Now we have the prospect of full blown, wider, escalating war in the Middle East, and here most are pre-occupied with a “Labour Conference”, which is likely to result in a kind of scenario, similar to the majority votes in former Eastern Bloc ruling parties.
No way will anyone seriously challenge the leadership, and the mostly aged members will cast their votes and utter their support in old, stubborn fashion. There may be a bit of dissent and criticism, but I expect little.
So it is time to move on, and to establish a NEW party on the left, that is inclusive, also stops the divisiveness amongst many activist groups I know, which is more like a “social scene” for some, to battle it out amongst each other. Unity is a distant goal or rather dream, it sometimes seems.
Now why not bear a thought tonight also about what the hell goes on in Gaza and Palestine?
Does anybody give a damn in NZ? I am sure some do, but it is far too few.
Let the Middle East explode, I say, clear the air, let off steam perhaps, fight it out, which will never be cleared and sorted with bogey attempts to negotiate what is not negotiable.
This attack by Israeli forces was well calculated, it happened just before an election, and again, it is the right wing, nationalistic Likud, who started this on purpose. They want to create war to get a “crisis” feeling, so Israelis feel afraid and vote for them. It has worked too many times, and it is tried again.
The usual blame game goes on. Hamas and their supporters are all terrorists, that is the accusation, so we must march in and sort this out, is the addition.
This time though, it may lead to more, and Israelis should be bloody worried, as this may end the existence of this state, which was created in the early post war years, under support by powers, who were still “enjoying” their last years of “colonial dominance” of the world. They did contribute to the creation of the state of Israel, which is a state based on race interests and dominance, and they would not know, that colonialism was to end soon.
So let us see, whether the last remnant of a kind of neo-colonialist state of Zionists will survive, or whether jews will return to the diaspora, or at least learn to live with the natives of centuries of that land, in peace, and to share the land and interest.
I wonder whether anyone here grasps the significance?!
Labour is getting its own house in order before going off on tangents and pontificating about foreign policy
Yes, xtasy there is a lot more risk this time around for Israel.
I find it impossible to reconcile what Israel is doing to the Palestinians in Gaza given their own experience. For as long as they imprison Palestinians, deny a diplomatic solution and sporadically invade, there will be no resolution of this.
The way I see it, sadly, is that from my safe little home there is not an effective thing I can do about this except make my express my opinions to those who support Israeli action and ask our U.S-aligned government to express support for Palestinian aspirations… and our government is not going to do that anytime soon.
The only people who can stop the war in the Middle East is the people in the ME. But, as you point out, there’s some people who don’t want to stop the war and they’re the people in power and they don’t want to stop the war because it keeps them in power.
The Aliyah movement shows the nationalistic side to Israel, which is dominated by the settler movement, and who believe totally in the whole land, also the West Bank and Gaza, to be JEWISH land, that is theirs, and there to be taken and kept forever, as part of the promised land, that they believe God gave them!
http://aliyahmagazine.com/
The Jerusalem Post is the conservative leading paper and written media in Israel, and it also has strong ties with the Aliyah and Likud.
http://www.jpost.com/
Hamas to them are terrorists, and their supports and voters as well. Hence the hard line.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyah
The plan of the Aliyah movement, supported by the state of Israel, is to bring as many settlers of Jewish origin into the country, to strengthen the homeland character and solidarity, and to populate the land they believe is theirs.
The Israeli Defence Force and Likud also believe, that the West Bank can never be surrendered to Palestinian rule, as the control of it is essential to Israeli security.
Now this is important stuff, and it highly strategic a situation, so I wonder, where blase NZers stand on this all?!
HISTORY of revolution:
Better shut up now, as I do not want to upset soft lefties with too radical info and material. I have a library full of stuff, and I suggest to everyone, study, study, study, learn, learn and learn and get real about what goes on. Sadly this country is run by idiots, sadly largely for idiots. If you want to save your country, take a damned bloody stand! That is for ALL Nzers.
Xtasy – The reason most in NZ, even those who do pay some interest, focus on local issues is because they feel there is some degree of input they can have which might one day, lead to directional change.
Sadly this is not going to happen, and there are much closer links between the ME situation, and NZ than people would like to accept. NZ is simply an extension of the powers who control “the west”, dicate wars, and control right down to the local “clubs”
NZ is rooted because the peoople have become fat, lazy, stupid and complicit!