Robert Fisk is a rare beacon of light in a dimming world.
Here he provides valuable insights on the geopolitical events going on in Turkey.
“A US trade war with Turkey over a little known pastor? Don’t believe a word of it.
For here’s the real list of Erdogan’s crimes. He is buying the Russian S-400 missile system for Turkey. He refuses to accept US support for America’s Kurdish YPG allies. He allowed Islamist fighters to pour over Turkey’s border into Syria along with a lot of weapons, mortars and missiles – to which Washington had no objections at the time since the US was trying to knock Erdogan’s former friend Bashar al-Assad off his perch. Then, after shooting down a Russian aircraft along the Syrian border in November 2015 – for which he was immediately boycotted by Moscow – Erdogan cuddled up to Putin. It was thus the Russians and the Iranians who first warned Erdogan of the impending “Gulen coup” against him in July 2016. They had been listening in to the Turkish military’s internal radio traffic – and tipped off the Sultan of Istanbul.
And now Erdogan is helping Iran to dodge US sanctions which were imposed after Trump flagrantly tore up the 2015 nuclear agreement, and – in a decision demonstrating the cowardly response of the EU’s own oil conglomerates to Trump’s insanity – has announced that he will continue to import Iranian oil. Thus will Washington’s further threat of increased oil sanctions against Iran be blunted. Sunni Saudi Arabia, one of Trump’s closest allies – where religious freedom for the likes of Pastor Brunson has never existed – is already furious with Erdogan. Not long ago, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman denounced Turkey as part of a “triangle of evil” – the other bits of the “triangle” being Shiite Iran and militant Islamists.
So you can see how things are lining up in the Middle East right now. “
Read the whole article here,
Your daily dose of vaccination against the lies of the msm.
Robert Fisk is a brilliant and highly informed commentator on Middle Easter affairs. His “Great War for Civilisation” is a must read for anyone who wants an in depth analysis of the political situation there, although much has happened since he wrote that tome.
@Ed, “Your daily dose of vaccination against the lies of the msm.”
I Like that.
Isn’t it interesting that most of the most regular and balanced live debates on current affairs come from Press TV (Iran), RT (Russia) and Al Jerezza (Qatar), now I am not saying these countries are beacons of democracy, but they at least these networks offer regular and balanced debates on important world news, which is either almost non existent on MSM or when is presented, so short they they often lack substance and/or context.
And the other thing that RT/Al Jerezzra/Democracy Now/Press TV and The Real News do that MSM don’t do any longer, now that any narrative that doesn’t follow party line is shut down, is give Fisk, John Pilger, Noam Chomsky, Glenn Greenwald and Max Blumenthal (amongst others) a platform to speak.
Perhaps if biosecurity and stock movement rules had been adhered to this step wouldn’t be necessary. You can’t have it both ways. If you want M Bovis sorted you have to accept that regular checks may be necessary. The market was left to police itself. It failed.
I’m getting close to drawing the pension and grew up and worked most of my life around the construction industry. In that game you come across most types and degrees of dodgy bastards. And I got to know, for better or worse quite a few.
Over the last 10 years I’ve been doing a lot of work on and around farms. I always thought agriculture was an honest industry, undertaken by people with integrity and good faith. Some, probably most, farmers I’ve dealt with are people of the highest moral standing with the greatest honesty and integrity you’ll ever meet.
But the dodgy bastards in the industry are in another league all together. And it’s accepted. Total dishonesty, violence when challenged, and you’ll never get anything in writing so there’s never any proof. Stock appearing on a property, then get retagged, plant with illegible identification numbers, but always just enough to get the right parts, and plenty more shit.
The idea that agriculture is some how cleaner than driven snow is utter bullshit. Refusal to obey, and operate under the law is criminality. There’s plenty of evidence from the M. Bovis debacle of farmers operating outside the law by refusing to comply with NAIT, or subverting the intent of NAIT. And really the only reasons to not tag is because they are either too lazy (or cashflow challenged), or having the tag on is going to stuff up their dodgy scheme.
Agriculture is no different to any other struggling industry, some will push the limits for gain at someone else’s cost. In other industries those outside the law feel the sanction of central or local government. Somehow agriculture feels it is exempt from this sanction.
Plenty of agencies can enter a property without a search warrant. Many acts give warrant powers to government officials (both central and local) to gather evidence and enforce. Worksafe and council building, planning and health as examples. MPI already have extensive warrant power.
But if they have been gathering information for some time a standard warrant is not an issue to get.
They can get your phone records/bank records without warrants now , as its done under the ‘maintenance of law and order’. Doesnt even need evidence of a crime in the first place
Any business that serves food can be inspected without notice, will have to have a food safety plan ready upon demand, training notices on staff etc etc. Failure to provide demanded documentation, failure to strict adherence to the food safety plan can and will result in fines, downgrading of the business etc.
that is usually how the non compliant businesses are caught.
Now why should farmers be exempt from this?
Maybe the farmer should welcome this action, so that the ‘rotten apples’ which are only a few here and there of course, can be found and kicked out of the box before all the other apples go rotten too.
Farming is a business and as such you have good an bad farmers. Farmers are no more special then any other proffession in this country. They are no more and no less ‘real NZ’ then any other Kiwi who happens to not work in farming.
They are no more and no less prone to abusing the system then others in other profession.
Maybe its time Farmers understand that they actually demand special status in a country where two thirds of people literally are too poor to buy their butter and milk.
Also how much tax payers moneys is going to be squandered on M Bovis clean up? The very least the taxpayer who is not a farmer but is having funds used to dig them out of their own cow shite is that the farmers might have to open for inspections day and night.
All business people these days are on drugs! The drug is profit, and more profit. Very addictive and many will go the extra mile to get the moolah, on or off farms, Queen Street farmers and lawyers, building companies and anywhere there is money to be made. And if they make a success of their business, they will sell it, because it is the money drug they want, not just a good living for themselves and family.
And that’s without even getting into the Health Act, which is damned near totalitarian. Even the routine admin stuff, rather than the outbreak emergency controls.
It is not an excuse Chris T – it is a reason.
Farmers will have to put up and shut uop. They have consistently gone light on following the right practices, and not taken responsibility for controlling those who have made no or little effort to manage their businesses ethically.
Is it not true that MPI have to observe all rules that cover farms now? That would mean health and safety requirements such as reporting to the farmer first and being excluded from the farmhouse, and so on, as is normal?
Just as Union Officials must do when entering a farm to visit an union member, as Jacinda spent several question times pointing out to Simon in the House over the last two weeks. But I divert … Sorry …
You’ve read the article from “Stuff” published last December then. The protocol seems reasonable to me considering the threat that myrtle rust presents to the horticulture industry. Pity about your language – doesn’t suggest a great range of vocabulary.
“Fuck you labour .giving mpi the right to enter any farm without a warrant??”
That would be under existing biosecurity rules, just as Police can enter without a warrant in certain circumstances -misuse of drugs act etc. and SIS can burgle your place without warrants
Ok, a lot of speculation going on here – including my own in this comment.
I really have not followed this closely but my understanding is that the changes to the National Animal Identification and Tracing Act are to realign it with the Search and Surveillance Act which was adopted under the National Government in 2012. This realignment has become urgent due to the M. Bovis emergency and the lack of compliance – by a few – with the NAIT requirements.
If you only read the The third reading debate, the last item in the list in the link (in particular Damian O’Connor’s background speech), and the first item in the list (the last debate yesterday) this will give a pretty good outline of the situation and the ‘faux’ outrage from the Opposition led by Nathan Guy. In the last item in the list, Mark Patterson of NZF, himself a farmer, gives a good explanation of the need for urgency – as does Gareth Hughes.
The Bill passed its third reading unanimously – with all Parties including National passing it and no Nos – at 1.08 mins in this video.
If a warrant isn’t hard to get, it defeats the purpose of having a warrant system in the first place.
Basically, let’s say an inspector comes to the farm gate looking for noncompliant cows. You say “fuck off”, and while they’re off getting a warrant you truck any non-compliant cows to another location. Not only is a warrant ineffecive, it actually motivates the transmission of diseases the noncompliant cows might have.
Now let’s look at a single parent living alone – the presence of a person doesn’t indicate a cohabiting relationship. That requires a long term pattern to be established. So immediate powers to enter without warrant are a bit pointless in that case, no?
It’s not hypocrisy to recognise that the same protection that prevents unnecessary invasion in one instance is actually counterproductive in another.
Do you have any proof farmers are hiding infected animals?
The main problem with it being traced was caused because young calves could be legally shifted without nait tags .
But hay it’s only farmers and this government got elected by playing the wedge politics card against them so why should I be surprised.
That’s why we have inspectors.
We have a load of proof that farmers won’t control infections by themselves.
No, it’s not only farmers. Several organisations don’t need warrants – the health sector is significantly more powerful than the justice sector in that regard.
You’re just pissed because your industry is being held accountable for its abject failure to protect itself, and now the government needs to clean up the mess.
I think bwaghorn had a very difficult day at work yesterday because he got it for being a leftie and supporting the pretty communist that’s going to chuck farmers off their farms. It wasn’t a good day to be a leftie on a farm yesterday. The bullshit was flowing strong.
But really it was only the seriously dodgy side of framing throwing a spaz that it’s going to be a lot harder to do the dodgy stock sales and movements now that NAIT is much tighter and actually enforced.
The actual political situation was pointed out by veutoviper in 2.8 above /open-mike-17-08-2018/#comment-1514840
The third reading passed unanimously, with all parties speaking in support. Including National.
Nice fantasy chump . .
I’ve been in sheep and beef for 8 years and havent seen any one actively rout nait . Slow to take up yes but every cattle beast I’ve sent off since nait arrived has had a nait tag in its ear . And every one that has come on has had a nait tag in its ear .
But you clowns believe what you hateful little minds want .
In two years labour will realise it’s lost the fight on mb . The chance of stopping it is long gone thanks to the useless nats . .
I’ll have to hope top hangs in their
Actually, from a disease control perspective, unless it has an endemic wildlife vector in the way that TB has, eradication of a virus from a controlled population only requires tracking to identify exposed animals, even without a vaccine.
Do you know how hard mb is to track . Our local very up to date vet told us at a recent meeting it can only be found when an animal is shedding cells . It only sheds cell sporadically.
That only effects the math in the same way a longer incubation time effects the math.
If I have ubiquitous surveillance of a population, any positive test means I can track exactly which individuals had transmission-likely contact with the infected individual. So all of those other individuals get tested or quarantined or (in the case of livestock) culled.
A few iterations of that, and the disease is eradicated. The only factor that changes is the number of iterations – how much effort we put into it.
“Wedge Politics” – what a joke- it was the clowns in Morrinsville, led by the “Jolly old Fed of Farmers” who played the wedge card – will never forget the image of “Worzle Gummige” holding up the “pretty communist” placard. Desperate measures by sore losers. Labour’s Agriculture Ministers from Aubrey Begg and beyond have all been respected by the farming community even though it stuck in ts craw to admit it.
Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity. ~Horace Mann
“Coal is responsible for as much atmospheric carbon dioxide as other fossil fuels combined and it still has far greater reserves. We must stop using it.”
James Hansen
Australia is our closest geographical neighbor, Australia is also our closest cultural cousin.
What we do here in New Zealand, has an impact in Australia.
You better believe it
Sir Peter, (Professor), Gluckman, the government’s top science adviser, has said that New Zealand’s greatest contribution to fighting climate change, will be by “setting an example”.
In my opinion that example must be for New Zealand to strike an iconic death blow against the local coal industry.
If we can’t do it, how can we ask our Australian neighbours and cultural cousins to?
The very least, we need to do, is urgently impose an immediate moratorium on the opening of all new coal mines.
Our other regional neighbours in the Pacific have called on New Zealand and Australia to put a total stop to all coal production.
Pacific leaders call for coal mining to be shut down to save island nations from effects of climate change
Eric Tlozek – ABC News, September 8, 2015
The leaders of some of the world’s smallest nations have called for coal mining — one of Australia’s biggest industries — to be shut down, in a bid to save their countries from the effects of climate change.
The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), which includes Pacific Ocean countries like Tuvalu and Palau, said global warming was already harming their people.
The AOSIS said it wanted a moratorium on new coal mines, but was realistic about its chances of convincing Australia to give up its lucrative fossil fuel assets.
Tuvalu prime minister Enele Sopoaga is the new chair of the group.
“We’re simply seeking for the rights of small island states to survive,” he said.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said that climate change is our Nuclear Free Moment.
Prime Minister Ardern needs to make it our Coal Free Moment.
Anything less, is surrender.
Another great leader once said, “We don’t do these things because they are easy, we do them because they are hard”.
And from an earlier era, another Prime Minister, facing up to existential crisis – Said this:
“You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.”
Winston Churchill, speech in the House of Commons, after taking office as Prime Minister (13 May 1940).
The Uninhabitable Earth
Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak — sooner than you think.
David Wallace-Wells – New York Magazine, July 10, 2017
It is, I promise, worse than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible, even within the lifetime of a teenager today…..
…..absent a significant adjustment to how billions of humans conduct their lives, parts of the Earth will likely become close to uninhabitable, and other parts horrifically inhospitable, as soon as the end of this century.
Yes, it is achievable. “But it will demand a united global effort”.
There is one thing missing….
Leadership…..
……the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has published a study by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, “Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene.” It predicts the strong likelihood of a “Hothouse Earth” with uninhabitable regions and a 10- to 60-metre rise in sea levels — even if we limit temperature rise to 2 C.
The Stockholm study says that should still be enough to trigger other climatic forces, from the melting of ice sheets to the collapse of ocean currents. A “Stabilized Earth” is achievable, they say, but it will demand a united global effort.
re Bridges Expenses And it also forgets, bizarrely, that the car he was in is charged out at a far
Hosking reports this
And it also forgets, bizarrely, that the car he was in is charged out at a far reater rate than it is for government ministers. So if you compared apples with apples the bill probably wasn’t that dramatic at all.
Thats because he likely had a crown limo and driver tag along for his regions tour.
Not only do you get the standard rate but its PLUS accomodation costs
Limos arent in every town and city. Mostly the bigger ones with I think one car based in Dunedin but a few more in Christchurch, more again in Auckland and a big chunk in Wellington. There may be one or 2 in waikato etc.
As well when there isnt a car available they have private limos on call and they might be on a ‘spot’ rate and higher than the standard crown limo rate
Just heard on the wireless… simons crown limo rides are charged out at twice the rate of Ministers. Thanks for explaining a bit more Duke as to why that would be.
Find it hard to believe that he didn’t know this before his ‘road’ trip.
It’s something all of us consider when planning a ‘road trip’ … the cost of the journey.
He could have flown in then asked the local MP to drive him around.
Or were local nat MP’s also enjoying looking fancy in the limo?
Everything Duke said applies equally to Ministers.
If Winston, for example was to turn up in Hastings to go to the races he is certainly going to expect to have a Limo there for him.
It still doesn’t seem to be any rationale for the double rate for the Leader of the Opposition or for the Speaker.
The higher rate is only mentioned in the expenses returns for this year. I wonder if it was put in, probably at Winston’s request, so that it would make the Leader of the Opposition look extravagant? Knowing what Winston is like it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.
It certainly seems to have worked. Look at all the people on this site who are rabbiting on about how Bridges is supposedly more extravagant than Little or Ardern were. He isn’t, it is just a little smear tactic by the current Coalition of Losers who have fiddled the accounting rules to make it look like that..
I’m unable to personally attend. But I’m hopeful there will be discussion on what the Greens are doing to help the poor offset new environmental charges (such as significantly increasing tip fees) the Greens are championing.
There is momentary concern that will die away till the next open complaint.
This will have a contradictory on the call for euthanasia. Instead of bringing in a principled matter for choice, all the authorities involved will resist fiercely saying that what is required is better care and that presently it is a disgrace.
The nostalgic past is our zeitgeist in today’s society. Plus ‘shoulds’ as a way to cope with problems that require action by government in line with expressed wishes from the citizens. And a response to the statistics concerning population bulges and mismatched spending so it is more on the old than the young who are being starved of funding and attention to their needs at the start of what should be their full, active life.
What is also interesting is that the family went to some disputes tribunal to get the award (aka I think it’s their rest home fee’s refunded) but health and disability and the rest home industry are all ok with poor conditions and poorly trained staff even though people (or the state) are paying in excess of $1000 a week for care that they obviously expect to be quality for their loved one? No wonder the rest home industry seem to have one of the highest returns on the share market when you just put a few poorly trained and cheap people in and the regulators seem to say it’s optional to attending to the patients needs promptly.
Speaking of complaints here is the top ten companies complained about to the commerce commission. (from Granny) Other companies like power and banking I think have their own complaints bodies and are regulated to be allowed to rip off customers which is probably why nobody bothers to complain anymore.
Revealed: New Zealand’s most complained about companies
Viagogo
Vodafone
Spark
Foodstuffs
2 Degrees
Woolworths
Air New Zealand
Noel Leeming
Wilsons parking
Sky
vocus
The Warehouse
The corporate portal
Trade Me
Harvey Norman
Brand developers
Ticketmaster
Luxstyle Apps
Contact energy
NZ post
No surprises to see retail telco high up and in numbers on that list.
Vodafone would be probably top if their customers had stayed to complain. The fact they were allowed to Hoover up the fibre links of Telstraclear and drive that into the dust is a total fail in terms of retail v wholesale segregation.
Watch that space as the race to the bottom gathers pace.
Maybe later, if I can organize 240V power supply and access to the internet, I’d really like to to have an in depth discussion about the link between the current wording of the euthanasia bill and the very real possibility that those who need a high level of hands on care will, out of despair, feel obliged to request the blue juice.
I personally believe that all debate about euthanasia should be suspended until we sort out the serious problems with providing safe care for disabled and elderly.
Hi Rosemary, did you hear the two interviews that Kathryn Ryan on Nine to Noon has had in the last two days on the wording of the Euthanasia Bill? Well worth a listen if you can.
Peripherally listened yesterday…was totally engrossed and cheering Paula on as we were hurtling towards Kaitaia this morning.
FWIW, IMHO, Paula Tesoriero has really stepped up to the role of Disabilities Commissioner. She had large shoes to fill, taking over from Paul Gibson.
Over the rattle of the diesel, I’m sure I heard her talk about the despair some living with disability experience when trying to access vital funded supports.
And then some numpty contacted Natrad saying Paula had no place speaking on behalf of all disabled…”and if he were disabled” etc etc…. The short answer to numpty would be stfu until you have actually lived with a significant disability for an appreciable amount of time..then comment.
For many, the thought of being disabled, of being dependent on others for sometimes the most basic of cares, is beyond comprehension and they will state categorically they would rather be dead.
Extrapolating, they would see those who do need that level of support as what? A burden on society? A waste of vital resources? That they should do the ‘decent thing’ and check out? Because they, in their limited experience and even more limited imagination, could not envisage any kind of worthwhile life without all their functions intact.
The situation right now for those who require a reasonably high level of support is dire. And I do not exaggerate. The story of the old lady lying in her own pee is not rare. Stories of disabled and vulnerable elderly being neglected and abused (sometimes unto death) are tragically not unusual or isolated.
And what Robert Love was saying about the inadequacies of the complaints and monitoring processes is sadly correct.
ACC claimants have rights and entitlements enshrined by law. Those with need for supports who are not covered by ACC, who are under MOH:DSS or a DHB, have no entitlements and few rights. A bureaucrat can decide that such and such will not be provided and there is no avenue of complaint. Serious incidents of inadequate care that leads to harm or death can take years to wend their way through the Health and Disability Commission complaints process…and seldom result in prosecution.
(NB…Paula Tesoriero is attached to the Human Rights Commission not the Health and Disability Commission. )
The whole system is dysfunctional and treats users with little or no respect.
The current disability System Transformation which is marketed as solving all such problems is superficial window dressing being rolled out in yet another pilot with a full roll out nationwide not expected for nearly another decade.
And this System Transformation does not, and this is specifically stated in the System Transformation documentation, give users any entitlement to the supports they need.
This is unacceptable in a country that has given a select group of disabled citizens such entitlement.
The disparities, the gross inequities between ACC and others is a stain on New Zealand and until this is addressed, there should be no discussion of euthanasia outside of definite terminal illness at all.
And having said that, I’d be tempted to make it a further condition to progressing this Bill that this crappy little travesty is sorted.
Re Paula Tesoreiro, I too have a lot of respect for her as we worked in the same government department some years ago and worked together on one or two issues. Top notch intellectually, more than able and willing to stand her ground, and a lovely person as well. I knew she would do well as Disability Commissioner (as you say within the HRC) – and sadly despite the recent problems within that agency.
I am well aware and have major concerns re the existing problems for those with disabilities, in poverty etc. As I think I have mentioned before, I too have disabilities and I and my doctors have been hitting our heads against a brick wall in getting me some support.
However, personally I do think we need to have the euthanasia discussion despite these other situations – but I am definitely not convinced that the bill as it is currently drafted is in any way acceptable for many of the reasons raised by Paula, and others including yourself.
‘NZ First’s constitution states any of its MPs who resign or are expelled from the party are personally liable for up to $300,000 if they don’t leave Parliament immediately.
The clause states if the MP is either an electorate MP or a list MP, they have up to three days to vacate their seat in Parliament, or pay up.’
One way to make sure plebs (sorry MPs) toe the line winston wants I guess
Or maybe it’s just a way of ensuring that the voters don’t get their intentions overturned by Nats and Nat cronies throwing their (copious) money around to turn MPs against their own parties?
So in a sense, you could see it as keeping money out of politics. Protecting the voters from National Party money in effect.
Winston, having once been inside the tent, probably has a better understanding of the dark heart of National than most. And this attack on him looks like another nail in the coffin of any future Nat-NZF coalition. Dumb politics from National.
With furrowed brow and tightened sphincter
The little man sat and fretted on the future
If our dark forces are forever in the dark
Then who the hell will hear me when I bark?
With furrowed brow and puckered sphincter
The little rogue sat and fretted on the future
If Judith’s dark forces are forever in the dark
Then who the hell will hear me when I bark?
So this is why I don’t vote the WinnieFirst party… but how is it news exactly? I mean each party has its own internal processes, isn’t that like part of the deal of a democracy? That we have a wide range of ideas that come together and get mixed and debated and we get a good output? I mean who didn’t know that the WinnieFirst party was all about Winston?
next you will be telling us that ACT are a go nowhere party that are too controlled by self-interest business people and are in no way a liberal party, which they have just cottoned onto and want to change to the far-right populist party of the rich
Well when you look at “waka jumping” its mostly (not always) happens to NZFirst, why?
What is about NZFirst that makes this happen, maybe instead of trying to charge someone 300 grand (which I don’t think would stand up in court) maybe NZFirst should see whats happening internally
I think most of us know why, NZF is a populist party, which revolves around Winston. And yes that means what Winston says goes, who doesn’t know that? but then that is how it started and is the basis of policy. I actually trust Winston to do what he says, with the cravat that he really says he will do anything with any real certainty, so he can normally find a way to twist what he said into what he actually did…
Waka-jumping isn’t only NZF of course, and really this is all a bit of a smoke-screen around the troubles of ACT and the inability of National to not look deeply divided.
The weather is affecting land prices, not. Land prices continue to rise with QE.
Actually the Left Party in Germany have made a popularist policy suggestion regarding agricultural lease prices. If there is no income coming from the land due to drought, then farmers should be able to escape paying the full price to the land owner. Govt will have to rule on it, which will be a bit complex. Actually this one goes back to the bible, as an option to just pay a percent of your harvest to the land owner.
What a fundamentally stupid idea. If people can’t make a decent living from the land they need to stop doing what they are doing and do something else.
Yeah, time to reduce herd size a bit and build up feed reserves. Organic requires larger feed reserves, as they usually have less maize and grain which are more market accessible.
Getting one step ahead of the game seems to be the biggest barrier to organic conversion. Similar with cropping, as cropping is generally dependent on manure from animals. Could say the same regarding debt ratio, requiring more reserves to weather conversion.
“This is yet more fake news from Winston Peters. I don’t think I’ve even had a conversation with Ron Mark this year let alone made any suggestions to him.
So, did he make the approach late last year instead. 😉
Edit: I know he wasn’t leader of the Nats until Feb of this year, but that needn’t stop him from having a go.
Notice Bridges is lying by saying didnt have a conversation
Doesnt mean he didnt have a chat or a few words or that other situation: ‘a discussion’
Bridges needs to learn form Trump – lie big, little lies dont change anything
Normally these sort of things arent done by the party leaders, to give them deniability.
But as you mention Bridges was ‘a go to guy’ until he became leader in Feb.
“Ron Mark backs Winston Peters on approach Simon Bridges made to him.”
OOps Simon old chap.
“Ron Mark says National leader Simon Bridges talked to him about a deal during a flight earlier this year, contradicting Bridges’ claim no such approach was made.
“It’s true. Simon and I were next to each other on a flight from Auckland to Wellington in May. He bought it up out of the blue during a conversation we were having.”
NZ First leader Winston Peters is asking why Mark didn’t simply follow the instructions he was given.
Mark isn’t offering any answers. He did not respond to requests for an interview and did not answer questions. A spokesman said: “This matter has now been dealt with and we consider it closed.”
Defence minister Ron Mark was specifically told he was breaking all the rules wearing his military medals but went ahead and did so anyway.
Documents show Mark was told on October 27 – just after being sworn in as Minister of Defence – that his rack of medals was a breach of protocol and rules.
The NZ First deputy leader went on wearing his medals until November 15 when the Herald revealed he was in breach of the regulations governing decorations.
Mark’s medals wrongly placed his Omani service in a position over prominence over his New Zealand service. Also, wearing the Omani medals wrongly suggested he had the required permission from the Governor General’s to wear a foreign decoration.
In the 20 days since Mark learned his medals were a breach of the Crown’s rules on decorations and honours, he wore them while standing in front of veterans, next to the Chief of Defence Force, with foreign leaders and while inspecting troops.
Stop trying to divert attention PR. You’re usually better than that.
Who cared a damm – apart from a bunch of bureaucratic military pin prickers – what medals he wore and where he wore them. What a load of puerile nonsense.
Bridges took a leaf out of Trump’s book and tried to gerrymander the political stability of the country for personal political gain and then lied about it. An infinitely worse offence than a row of medals not in the right order.
Ask him what he would have done if one of the soldiers under him had worn their uniform incorrectly on parade.
He wouldn’t have given a damm – unless they were wearing their jacket inside out or their pants back to front then he might have. 😀
It’s time the medal pin-prickers grew up and looked around them. There’s a big wide world needing urgent attention. My father had a heap of medals from two world wars but never wore them. He was more interested in the here and now.
As an ex member of the NZDF, ADF and a veteran i couldn’t really give a rats ass, how old Ronnie wear his goddam gongs, yes there are grumpy old shell backs (usually they No Mates voters) who don’t have a life outside of the Forces, who have SFA to do but complain but do SFA to fix the problems. All I want from Ronnie is to stop the rot of the 30 odd yrs of under spending, neglect, and to provide better welfare/ conditions of service to Defence personal, Defence families and to the veterans now and into the future as they don’t have union to back them like the every other Government employee has.
If some old grizzle dick came up and told me I was wearing my gongs around the wrong way if I was the NZ MoD, then that I will ask this simple question.
What is more important my medals which I have one NZ gong (NZDM) among my other 9 or 10 gongs or the welfare issues of Defence members, underfunding issues of the NZDF or the welfare of Veterans?
If they say my NZDM is out of place, so you don’t give shit about NZDF or Veterans problems so piss off and get a life.
Had some muppet in NZ try and tell me last year “Your NZDM should be at the front and not a the rear of your row of medals as Foreign Medals are always to the rear etc etc?” My reply was “Ah you must be a National voter then?” He said yes and I’ll it leave to your imagination on the spray I give this muppet and his muppet mates in a pub in Dunedin.
“The awful news that all but two penguin chicks have starved to death out of a colony of almost 40,000 birds is a grim illustration of the enormous pressure Antarctic wildlife is under. The causes of this devastating event are complex, from a changing climate to local sea-ice factors, but one thing penguins, whales and other marine life don’t need is additional strain on food supplies.
Over the next year we have the opportunity to create an Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary – the largest protected area on Earth – which would put the waters off-limits to the industrial fishing vessels currently sucking up the tiny shrimp-like krill, on which all Antarctic life relies.”
I wonder how Australia feels about this, being the home of the CCAMLR.
They seem very ‘upbeat’ about the scientific awesomeness of the management of the fisheries and its sustainability. They seem to have ‘forgotten’ to include a speaker to talk about the wider ecosystem.
“A National Science Week (Australia) public seminar to help people understand the connections between commercially available krill products, human health claims and the biology and ecology of this tiny crustacean.
Find out why Hobart is the global centre of krill science and krill fishery management and how each of the relevant institutions are connected through international scientific and government networks.
Dr So Kawaguchi talked about his research on krill biology and ecology and Dr Laura Laslett discussed her research on the medicinal value of krill oil.
Dr Keith Reid, Science Manager for CCAMLR, outlined how fishing for krill is regulated by this international body and how fishing limits are informed by the best available scientific studies on krill and their ecosystems.”
Meanwhile, figures from the Ministry of Social Development show 26,000 more hardship grants for food were given out compared with the June quarter last year.
Could we (please) link up the super-wealthy food purveyors, the supermarket barons, with the very poor needers of food and just let the former receive the needs of the latter, as an ongoing gesture of thanks for their good fortune, from those rich-listers?
And yet those who have made it to the list that are Pak n Sav owners can achieve this and still sell below the competitors ?
And as someone who has a family member working there they pay above min wage and is treated well.
Perhaps we should be asking their competitors why that is the case ??
Good to hear Pak n Sav pay above min wage and treat staff well. One of the biggest reasons for NZ lack of productivity is that for 30 years the business community has been taught to get employee’s as cheap and subservient as possible, keep them on casual and temporary contracts or subcontractor contracts so there is not much loyalty, rip off customers and ‘confuse’ them and then they wonder why there are worker and skills “shortages” and they are falling behind the rest of the world in productivity and customer services!!! Doh!
Look at Germany, they make things, and they have strong worker rights, pay higher wages and employ educated people (free university education in Germany). Unfortunately NZ decided to go down the Asian path of high inequality and low wages combined with western neoliberalism and government privatisations and deregulation.
Judging from what’s happening the penny hasn’t dropped yet for most NZ business and government that they are about to be out competed due to their incompetence and reliance of lowest common denominator and contempt for both consumer and employee and selling the country off for peanuts over the past decades.
Supermarkets may decide to screw their suppliers instead of their workers.
Also they may limit what brands they will carry, so that turnover ratio targets must be met or you are out. They will drop good lines which are replaced by some from another country. They will copy a good selling line from a company and sell it under their own brand name. It may in fact still be made by the original company, I don’t know, but it is a way to smother innovated products and also prevent the other company from building its own brand and reputation.
They can conduct phony wars against other supermarket chains. This was done a few years ago with milk, and the loss of profit was passed on also to the dairy suppliers. In Australia they have invoked nationalistic emotions and taken other country’s products off their shelves, which included ours.
Everything is calculated, and the giant stores with their convenient parking are hard to compete against by small local business people forming part of the core local business enterprise. The money leaches out of local pockets and most of it flows onwards to others’ capital accretions.
I agree with you greywarshark. Many on this site are very anti farmers, (and some with good reason) but primary producers are also people being screwed over by middle men, like supermarkets.
Also with supermarkets they are cutting costs by for example not employing qualified butchers, but instead ring in orders of meat from a warehouse where it comes pre cut.
The issue with this is, that the meat can be 3 months old and so they use a gas in the packaging to keep it looking fresh. They also have special lights etc so that the food looks better than it actually is in real life.
When they analysed the food with gases which is used in other countries to keep food longer they found that a salad looked fresh, but had lost all it’s nutrition when packaged with the long life gases.
So food can look fresh now, but actually be old and have zero nutritician but the consumers are being fooled.
All this to make more and more profit while people are being ripped off nutrition from their own food!
Good links The Chairman. Interesting so many making a fortune from just owning one supermarket. Maybe the commerce commission are a bit amiss when they dropped their investigation on Countdown – instead they need to search further a field.
Also these firms are creaming the money, while often the employee’s are on poor working conditions and Close to minimum wages, aka the taxpayer (nurses and teachers for example) are then paying taxes like WFF and accomodation benefits for their employees wages while the supermarket owner makes the rich list! Something is wrong. Apparently a family on minimum wages with 2 kids needs a $5000 wage top up per family from the government to cover the short fall of wages.
I’m not against people being rich, but it should not be on having poorly paid employees, corporate welfare and overcharging customers.
I commented on this yesterday, and to Wayne you may find this of interest
How the union is NOT supporting its own members, IMO NZEI your lack of representing “YOUR” members over the last 9 years and letting the Nat govts off lightly and making the current govt appear to be the enemy is highly embarrassing to say the least.
Perhaps there is a need for performance pay for good teachers as the union is not working for them. “She wants to see the pay scale reflective of experience rather than qualification, and said there was a place for performance pay.” These teacher support the union how about the union returning the favour ?
“Of more than 2500 responses, 66 per cent said they earned under $71,000, and dozens of commenters said they had also been locked out of progressing up the pay scale because they only held a diploma.” https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/106321443/teachers-with-40-years-experience-stuck-on-59600-because-of-pay-inequality
Herodotus, I am a secondary school teacher, not an NZEI member. But I doubt that NZEI is going to undergo a membership collapse because of the tendentious argument you put that teacher unions betray good teachers by not approving of performance pay.
All teachers have been underpaid, and before you even speak of performance pay, you need to pay a decent salary to all teachers first. I think tis is what NZEI is aiming at, and you are wasting your breath in trying to sow dissension.
Try all those teachers who are paid $15-$17k below their fellow teachers for doing the same job.
At my local school on Wednesday 40-50% of the teachers were at school. This is a school with a roll excessive of 700 primary students.
It may be an isolated case. but it speaks of the support for the unions, and of those 5 are Q1 or Q2 level.
So you say all teachers are underpaid, what about those who are severely underpaid ?? Or do you agree that Q1-4 should be on a similar pay scale ?
Strikes me that having an “Evening post “to go to as an extra venue for those that have to work in the day time could be good .While its interesting to get home from work switch on the comp and see whats been happening during the day on TS its also hard work scrolling thru whats usually hundreds of comments and half a doz posts .I often think wouldnt it be nice if there was a smaller space for those who only have the time for a couple of hours in the eve .In a sense the days activities and opinions are already “old news” by the end of the day .Might make a few more people come out of the woodwork also .
Thanks for replying vv but as much as open mike is oversubscribed especially by the same people {just saying }you could say daily review is under subscribed …i just thought something new might have the effect of capturing a bit more of the available market so to speak .. in fishermans terms if nothings biting change your bait or your method location etc .Dont get me wrong im in awe of a great many of the regulars and posters here and grateful the site exists and to everyone who makes it happen .
I understand what you are saying re the size of OM vs DR, but it is my impression (rightly or wrongly) that the imbalance is a fairly recent phenomenon. The number of comments on OM certainly seems to be reaching record numbers, while the DR comment numbers seem to have gone down. I am one of those who have been around TS for many years and it is interesting how things change over time. Daily Review was introduced just a couple of years ago – cannot remember when exactly.
Lots of things could have affected the comment distribution in recent months – eg being a post election year, loss of some authors with fewer separate posts, time of year (eg winter). Re the latter, I find that with age and retirement I am going to bed earlier in the evening but then wake up in the early hours and do what you are NOT supposed to do – reach for the IPAD. Hence my reply to you at 4.25am!
Lprent probably has lots of information re changes in patterns etc but he is so hardworking and generous with his time, energy etc to keep TS going I would not like to ask him, especially now that he seems to spend a lot of time overseas with his paid work.
Kris Faafoi is “committed to ensuring the wheels of commerce move smoothly and that New Zealand capitalises on every advantage it can to grow our economy, jobs wages and opportunities.”
Sounds good, but actions speak louder than words and in Parliament he utters a snide, nasty remark about a fellow parliamentarian. His impulse to hurt and offend smudges his reputation as a Labour member.
Let’s get this straight alcohol is run by big business who spend there lobbing mone to distort the true negative fact’s of there prouduct’s .
Here you are It’s a man made chemical drug that will kill you instantly if you drink it to fast it can kill you slowly by over loading your liver the liver is the body’s filter no liver no life it has carcinogenic properties that cause cancer it over load’s our police work load every weekend as well as hospitals firefighters ambulance service and this all cost mone. People are killed every day because of this drug .
Mean while mone talks about how our consumption of this drug has lowered by a quarter since the 1970 but what they have not said is the alcohol % have we drink have has gone up by at least 100% you see the 00.1 Are the fake it till you make it people they don’t care it there profits are directly linked to there products killing people of Papatuanuku and her creatures Ana to kai .
Ka kite ano link is below
Good morning Newshub Nation I totally agree with the lady how fake fact’s fake new’s it’s start’s grabbing te tangata reality the more tangata that are exposed to it and the more that start believing these lies the 00.1% have been doing this to us for century’s
Look at the nose’s being cut off those beautiful statues in Egypt.
And reducing our carbon use to at least – 99% of today’s use will make our country great and wealthy Ka kite ano P.S looking after our moko’s it;s busy time’s Eco supports the Green Party 100%
The reality with these under cover sandfly is that there handler’s like to recruit the young people fresh out of police school why because they are easy to intimidate manipulate and mold there reality into believing that what there handler’s are telling them is true why don’t they hire people in there 30’s + to do this job well they have a better grasps on reality and are not as easy to sell lies to or intimidate into backing there corrupt move’s on te tangata How do I know this well this man’s story’s and a few other’s said they were recruited stright out of police school nice and easy to mold into the undercover system’s Greg O’Connor Ana to kai
Ka kite ano P.S one of these people can not take his flash fishing boat out to sea because he is being Eco Maori shamed lol
You know what they had a soft drink and sweet’s machine all around the hospital what’s worse is they had one right out side the mokopuna’s ward this sugar vending machine’s should be banned from all hospitals Ka kite ano
I see the OIL baron are using there money to attack The Great Visionary Elon Mus credibility all over the media If the OIL baron get there way we will all be in the—–while they swim in there oil mone .
Ka Kaha Elon nobody perfect E hoa you keep up your good work you are one of the many people who are going to change our energy system’s to green electricity carbon free energy
Eco Maori supports you 100 % ka kite ano
P.S unlike some other leader who is championing old failing energy carbon
Because of those wanker sandflys actions my Mokopunas is still suffering in pain do they give a shit no I will be laughing at them in a court house muppets and all these ashole that no what’s going on are just as bad as them
The Justice system serves the Wealthy a free pass or impunity this man bashed people knocked them on the ground and was still hitting them on the ground and he gets to fly back to Britain to play cricket what example does that set for the Mokopunas link below Ka kite ano
Well back get my Mokopuna checked once again at the lakes care and the smart ass sandflys send in one of there muppets red necks I wonder how the can sleep at nite the way they behave O that’s right the Sun shines out there elites ass and We are just savages Ka kite ano
Here is a great leader who we have lost I agree with his last speech at the head of the UN secretary General I see a pattern emerging I will let you know later link below Ka kite ano
The sandflys don’t give a shit about there actions causeing my Mokopunas pain an suffering for weeks I don’t give a shit who get mud in there faces from now on anything I find on the net I’m going to throw it in there faces they are scared – – – – reap what you sow muppets Ana to kai P.S I at the hospital with my Mokopuna at the minute
This is what Aotearoa would have started to look like if we did not ban foreign buyers from buying Property. The real estate mone men say that they were only a minority of buyers yea right Aotearoa real estate market is mone for jam if you can afford to play the games.
Link below Ka kite ano
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There has long been a truism in public broadcasting: don't mess with Concert FM. The theory was that although the station has been in a long-term audience decline, and that audience is steadily ageing out, it has powerful establishment support – and any threat to it would provoke a fury.As ...
This is a re-post from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists The heat absorbed in Earth’s oceans reached a new record in 2019, found a recent study published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. Despite the fact that this has been the case for almost every year over the past decade, this information ...
We are confronted with the spectre of Simon Bridges making clear he cannot, will not, trust Winston Peters – the oft-cited “King Maker” in New Zealand politics.Supporters are lauding it as a master stroke, naturally, because in their eyes, it prevents him being the tail that wags the dog. ...
by Don Franks Under a government claiming empathy with the fine arts, Radio New Zealand ( RNZ) is poised to cut back its classical music station, RNZ Concert. The plan is replacing it on FM radio with music “for a younger audience” as part of a new multimedia music brand. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Applications are now open for the fifth round of the Regional Culture and Heritage Fund Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Grant Robertson announced today. “I am delighted to open this year’s fund which has some $7 million available to support performing arts venues, galleries, museums and whare ...
The Minister of Māori Development, Hon Nanaia Mahuta today congratulated Associate Professor Amokura Kawharu on her appointment as the next President of the Law Commission. “Amokura Kawharu will be a standout in her new role, leading in an innovative and forward looking approach to the law reform process. She will ...
Auckland University legal academic Amokura Kawharu has been appointed as the next President of the Law Commission, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Associate Professor Kawharu will take up her new appointment on 11 May 2020. “I would like to congratulate Associate Professor Kawharu on her appointment,” Andrew ...
A programme for employers to help them engage effectively with younger employees was launched today by Minister of Employment, Willie Jackson. The Youth Ready Employer Programme contains a range of on-line templates that employers can easily access to help with employing and retaining young people in their businesses. The programme ...
Budget 2020 will be delivered on Thursday 14 May, Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “This year’s Budget will continue the Coalition Government’s focus on tackling the long-term challenges facing New Zealand while also preparing the economy for the future. “Those challenges and opportunities cannot be resolved in one budget, ...
I move, That this House place on record its appreciation and thanks for the devoted and distinguished service to New Zealand by the late Rt Hon Michael Kenneth Moore, member of the Order of New Zealand, a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, an Honorary Member of the ...
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, ...
Barnardos is today welcoming the Minister of Social Development’s announcement of a new ‘social wellbeing approach’. Speaking from the official launch of the new approach in Tamaki Makaurau today, Barnardos’ Chief Executive Mike Munnelly ...
A failed Dunedin financial adviser is facing 12 charges relating to fraud and theft over what the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) says is a Ponzi scheme that lost investors $15.7 million. Barry Kloogh appeared in the Dunedin District Court this morning to face charges brought by the SFO over running ...
How to stop procrastinating and actually (finally) get on top of KiwiSaver. Because there’s a good chance that if you’re reading this, you don’t know a single thing about it. Read the full series here.As we learned in part two, being in the right fund can make all the difference: you ...
New Zealand Cricket and media company NZME have failed to reach a deal on radio broadcast rights for next season's international and domestic matches. The current deal expires at the end of April and does not affect the remainder of this summer's broadcast schedule on Radio Sport. Radio Sport has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jianling Xie, Postdoctoral Scientist, South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute Researchers in the United States have unveiled the structure of the “spike protein” of 2019-nCoV – the virus behind the current coronavirus disease outbreak. Despite the fact that researchers have already ...
Australian national airline Qantas is cutting some trans-Tasman flights because of the expected fall in business from the coronavirus. It said it will reduce capacity by 5 percent because of a fall in demand, along with the reduction in services to China, Hong Kong and Japan. Qantas and Jetstar services ...
Dr Bryce Edwards.Is the National Party off the hook over the Serious Fraud Office donations prosecution? That’s what the party is claiming, pointing out that no National official or MP has been charged. But of course, there was a National MP involved – albeit one no longer with the ...
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 contentDonation scandals Bryce Edwards (Guardian): Vested interests in New Zealand politics are too big to ignore – we need ...
Eden Project New Zealand (EPNZ) has announced that it has signed a ‘licence to occupy’ agreement with Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) and the Christchurch City Council (CCC) regarding a new Eden Project in Ōtautahi/Christchurch. ...
Thursday, February 20: South Islanders will be bidding ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ to Austrian oil and gas giant OMV, which has come up empty handed following a controversial deep sea drill in the Great South Basin. Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner, ...
A Southland woman has been prosecuted by SPCA after she docked the tails of eight Rottweiler puppies using docking bands. Taylor Hall pleaded guilty to eight charges of docking the tail of a dog and was sentenced at Invercargill District Court on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jon Piccini, Lecturer, Australian Catholic University Australia has just entered its final year of its membership on the UN Human Rights Council. This position was won on the strength of two key arguments: Australia would be the first Pacific nation to ...
In Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, the titular Zoey starts to hear the thoughts of those around her – but expressed in song. Sam Brooks investigates what would happen if Zoey took a trip across the Pacific to sunny ol’ New Zealand.If you could pick any superpower, what would it be? Flight? ...
Auckland Council is warning government officials of the risks of disastrous housing developments like some seen in the United Kingdom. It is facing off over the way the government plans to get thousands of prefabricated homes built here to tackle the housing crisis. An email sent last week by council ...
By Rambo Talabong in Manila The top lawyer of the Philippine Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) who was a controversial witness in Senate hearings on the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) controversy has been shot dead. According to the police report, lawyer Fredric Santos was gunned down yesterday afternoon by ...
Shane Jones was back in his Northland home patch during the week to announce the serving of another dollop of public money from the Provincial Growth Fund. It was not the first allocation of PGF funding to benefit the region this year. This time the PGF will allocate up to ...
We need to challenge those who minimise the actions of rapists based on the gender or ages of their victims, argues Emily Writes.Content warning: this article contains descriptions of sexual assault.News out of Australia of another college supporting a sexual predator is as unsurprising as it is horrific. Victims of ...
The two recent donations investigations show political party funding rules are not fit for purpose, and politicians cannot be trusted to fix them, Cat MacLennan writes. ...
The legislation setting up a firearms register and introducing tougher licensing controls is a step closer to becoming law, but negotiations with New Zealand First are still ongoing. ...
A year after they went carbon neutral, The Warehouse Group’s chief sustainability officer reflects on the journey so far and the work that is still to be done. It was a year ago that the red shed made its biggest commitment to going green in its 38 year history. The Warehouse ...
Fresh on the heels of this morning’s news about the prime minister handing someone a bottle opener, The Spinoff can reveal that Jacinda Ardern once offered a man a banana. Jacinda Ardern once offered an Auckland man a banana, according to a tweet viewed by The Spinoff.The MP who would go ...
Auckland Airport has reported a flat first-half result, and plans to bring forward the billion-dollar redevelopment of its domestic terminal, and upgrade the international arrivals hall. The company's net profit for the six months to December was unchanged from the year earlier's $147.2 million, reflecting a drop in passenger growth ...
How voters react to the headlines generated by NZ First’s latest financial shenanigans may (or may not) determine the outcome on September 19. The most recent Colmar Brunton poll had NZ First down at 3%, so some commentators are already writing off the party’s chances of survival. But the real ...
Since 2017 New Conservative has been calling for net zero immigration until our housing stocks meet demand. Immigrants must prove they are financially independent so they have the means to pay higher rents which forces those at the ...
Despite more than 40 years of law reform aimed at improving the experience of giving evidence for adult rape complainants, Ministry of Justice research in 2018 re-confirmed that the process remains distressing and re-traumatising. According to experts, more ...
Just like donations to political parties, the justice system should be open and transparent. That is what I believe and have sought. Until now, however, I have been unable to make a public statement regarding these allegations, despite wanting to ...
Himali McInnes looks past the fact that the first black woman to win the Booker had to bloody share it and focuses on the book – in itself a treasure. Girl, Woman, Other is the smart, urbane eighth novel by Bernadine Evaristo. Born in London of Nigerian, German and Irish descent, ...
The Prime Minister clearly hasn’t read the draft bill to legalise recreational cannabis, Road Transport Forum (RTF) chief executive Nick Leggett says. "That was clear after watching her answer a question at Parliament yesterday, on the bill ...
Annabelle Lee-Mather, Ben Thomas and Toby Manhire inhale the stench of donation scandal enveloping NZ First and National. Can the prime minister avoid the pong?Winston Peters, his New Zealand First Party, and whatever the New Zealand First Foundation is are just part of a wider donations controversy that seems set ...
20 February 2020: Steve Abel was selected last night as the Green Party candidate for the New Lynn electorate in West Auckland. The Long time environmental activist and Greenpeace’s former Senior Campaign and Political Adviser stepped down from ...
Jami-Lee Ross is once again proclaiming his innocence, as he heads off to court next week - along with three others - to face Serious Fraud Office charges. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rowan Callick, Industry Fellow, Griffith University Brand “People’s Republic of China” is wobbling, as if the massive picture of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square was swaying with an earthquake tremor. But it can only actually fall if pushed from inside. The handling ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Waling, Research fellow, La Trobe University Older lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI+) people fear discrimination, exclusion and isolation in Australia’s aged care services, we found in our research. With an ageing cohort of LGBTI+ people needing to access, and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin Tolhurst, Hon. Assoc. Prof., Fire Ecology and Management, University of Melbourne When it comes to reducing the extent of bushfires, scientists disagree on the best way to do it. Hazard-reduction burning (also known as “prescribed burning” or “controlled burning”) is controversial ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Stanley, Adjunct Professor, Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, University of Sydney Business School, University of Sydney We were heavily involved in the consultation program for Melbourne’s long-term land-use plan, Plan Melbourne. The idea that resonated most with many participants was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Michael X. Savvas, Senior Lecturer in the Transition Office (PhD in Creative Writing), Flinders University A recent project to encourage South Australian prisoners to write provides insights into how prisoners may benefit from written expression. The project, Life Sentences, gave more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wallace Boone Law, PhD Candidate, University of Adelaide On the night of January 9 2020, my wife and I secured our Kangaroo Island home and anxiously monitored the South Australian Country Fire Service (CFS) website for bushfire advice. After many horrific weeks ...
In today’s edition: Jami-Lee Ross is confirmed as one of four charged by SFO, a damning international report on the NZ housing crisis, and SkyCity cancels a booking for Peter Singer event.SFO–JLR is not just an unlikely long-haul flight from California to India, but the latest instalment in the ...
The author of a novel set in racy, racist Hawke’s Bay writes about the experiences and stories that make up his book. Ten years old and I’m walking with my grandfather to the Farmers Tearooms in Hastings. At the entrance we meet a man whose house has recently burnt down. ...
A major report by the Auditor-General on how councils manage drinking, storm and waste waters found an incoherent, disorganised and stagnant system unprepared for climate change Auditor-General John Ryan found so much lacking in our water management systems he chose to start his final report on it by listing the ...
Child victims of a notorious North Island psychiatric hospital are still doubtful charges will be laid. David Williams reports Police are reviewing their file on Lake Alice psychiatrist Selwyn Leeks in the wake of a landmark decision by a United Nations committee. In December, the Committee against Torture issued a ...
When New Zealand hosts the Rugby World Cup - for the first time in this hemisphere – in 2021, it will mean so much to the Black Ferns, both present and past. To outsiders, it may have been surprising to watch Kendra Cocksedge taking a moment to hold back her ...
Climate change and carbon footprints, political unrest, global epidemics – what does it all mean for the future of tourism? While the crystal ball is murky, futurologist Associate Professor Ian Yeoman from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Management has some ideas about how the sector may change ...
The amount of methane emissions for which humans are responsible could be as much as 40% higher than thought. What does that mean for the fight against climate change? New international research suggests that the volume of methane emissions humans are producing is dramatically higher than previously thought. The findings, which ...
SkyCity yesterday pulled the plug on hosting philosopher and academic Peter Singer’s event after disability rights advocates expressed strong objections to his views. They’re right to be angry with him, but he nevertheless deserves to be heard, argues Danyl Mclauchlan.Athoughtful piece on The Spinoff yesterday explored the disabled community’s ...
There's nearly 10,000 tonnes of potentially toxic waste causing anger and anxiety in a tiny Southland town. We look at the secret deal that put it there, and the battle against a faceless entity to get rid of it. Mataura used to be a paper mill town. Nowadays the old ...
The Prime Minister has tried to relieve mounting pressure on China and New Zealand's bilateral relationship at a Chinese New Year Celebration at Parliament. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Larissa Christensen, Lecturer in Criminology & Justice | Co-leader of the Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit (SVRPU), University of the Sunshine Coast This week’s ABC’s Four Corners exposed an elite Melbourne school for failing to adequately respond to the grooming of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trish Luker, Senior lecturer, University of Technology Sydney Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains the names and voices of deceased people. When was the last time you signed your name? Perhaps you are more familiar with the ...
“Oranga Tamariki have remained silent on their role in this horrific situation,” a Māori leader tells Melanie Reid and Bonnie Sumner. A respected Hawke’s Bay kaumatua, who has been supporting the whānau whānui of a four-year-old boy being treated in hospital for brain injuries, says Oranga Tamariki needs to take responsibility ...
*Watch Melanie Reid's full interview in the video player above* Oranga Tamariki stands accused of returning a four-year-old who had been previously badly injured within a Flaxmere household to the same home, where he has since been severely injured again. It allegedly did so without full consultation with the wider whānau, some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roy Green, Emeritus Professor & UTS innovation adviser, University of Technology Sydney The only surprise about the termination of the Holden brand in Australia was that it caused such surprise. This was the final nail in an already empty coffin, given local ...
The owners of the disputed land at Ihumātao say for seven months they've halted development at the request of the Prime Minister, but that can't continue indefinitely. ...
Big Tech companies like Microsoft have raised the spectre of geo-blocking NZ if the Government proceeds with a bill for classifying streamed content. ...
Open Mike 17/08/2018 
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 ...7 hours ago
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, ...8 hours ago
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 ...9 hours ago
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"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, ...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 ...1 day 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 ...4 days ago
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Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian has penned a column which chastises the left wing of the Labour party for daring to retain principles and ideals, qualities - it seems - that should be jettisoned in pursuit of power.Never mind that Freedland was an ardent Remainer, that is to say, one ...2 weeks ago
We are confronted with the spectre of Simon Bridges making clear he cannot, will not, trust Winston Peters – the oft-cited “King Maker” in New Zealand politics. Supporters are lauding it as a master stroke, naturally, because in their eyes, it prevents him being the tail that wags the dog. ...2 weeks ago
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 ...7 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... ...6 days ago
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 ...4 hours ago
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 ...1 hour ago
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 ...3 hours ago
Exemptions from paying Fringe Benefit Tax for double cab utes could clash with the Government's intentions to cut transport emissions. ...3 hours ago
A failed Dunedin financial adviser is facing 12 charges relating to fraud and theft over what the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) says is a Ponzi scheme that lost investors $15.7 million. Barry Kloogh appeared in the Dunedin District Court this morning to face charges brought by the SFO over running ...4 hours ago
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New Zealand Cricket and media company NZME have failed to reach a deal on radio broadcast rights for next season's international and domestic matches. The current deal expires at the end of April and does not affect the remainder of this summer's broadcast schedule on Radio Sport. Radio Sport has ...4 hours ago
Australian national airline Qantas is cutting some trans-Tasman flights because of the expected fall in business from the coronavirus. It said it will reduce capacity by 5 percent because of a fall in demand, along with the reduction in services to China, Hong Kong and Japan. Qantas and Jetstar services ...4 hours ago
The government has dropped controversial plans to let primary and intermediate school children sit NCEA literacy and numeracy tests. ...5 hours ago
Auckland Council is warning government officials of the risks of disastrous housing developments like some seen in the United Kingdom. It is facing off over the way the government plans to get thousands of prefabricated homes built here to tackle the housing crisis. An email sent last week by council ...6 hours ago
Shane Jones was back in his Northland home patch during the week to announce the serving of another dollop of public money from the Provincial Growth Fund. It was not the first allocation of PGF funding to benefit the region this year. This time the PGF will allocate up to ...7 hours ago
The legislation setting up a firearm’s register and introducing tougher licensing controls is a step closer to becoming law. ...8 hours ago
Auckland Airport has reported a flat first-half result, and plans to bring forward the billion-dollar redevelopment of its domestic terminal, and upgrade the international arrivals hall. The company's net profit for the six months to December was unchanged from the year earlier's $147.2 million, reflecting a drop in passenger growth ...9 hours ago
How voters react to the headlines generated by NZ First’s latest financial shenanigans may (or may not) determine the outcome on September 19. The most recent Colmar Brunton poll had NZ First down at 3%, so some commentators are already writing off the party’s chances of survival. But the real ...10 hours ago
Jami-Lee Ross is once again proclaiming his innocence, as he heads off to court next week - along with three others - to face Serious Fraud Office charges. ...12 hours ago
Motorists are now able to offset their carbon emissions when they fuel up at Z Energy stations. ...12 hours ago
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters will remain Foreign Minister amid SFO investigation; ...12 hours ago
The author of a novel set in racy, racist Hawke’s Bay writes about the experiences and stories that make up his book. Ten years old and I’m walking with my grandfather to the Farmers Tearooms in Hastings. At the entrance we meet a man whose house has recently burnt down. ...15 hours ago
A major report by the Auditor-General on how councils manage drinking, storm and waste waters found an incoherent, disorganised and stagnant system unprepared for climate change Auditor-General John Ryan found so much lacking in our water management systems he chose to start his final report on it by listing the ...15 hours ago
Child victims of a notorious North Island psychiatric hospital are still doubtful charges will be laid. David Williams reports Police are reviewing their file on Lake Alice psychiatrist Selwyn Leeks in the wake of a landmark decision by a United Nations committee. In December, the Committee against Torture issued a ...15 hours ago
When New Zealand hosts the Rugby World Cup - for the first time in this hemisphere – in 2021, it will mean so much to the Black Ferns, both present and past. To outsiders, it may have been surprising to watch Kendra Cocksedge taking a moment to hold back her ...15 hours ago
Climate change and carbon footprints, political unrest, global epidemics – what does it all mean for the future of tourism? While the crystal ball is murky, futurologist Associate Professor Ian Yeoman from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington’s School of Management has some ideas about how the sector may change ...15 hours ago
There's nearly 10,000 tonnes of potentially toxic waste causing anger and anxiety in a tiny Southland town. We look at the secret deal that put it there, and the battle against a faceless entity to get rid of it. Mataura used to be a paper mill town. Nowadays the old ...16 hours ago
Ratings agency S&P has confidence in our councils and their ability to repay debt. ...23 hours ago
“Oranga Tamariki have remained silent on their role in this horrific situation,” a Māori leader tells Melanie Reid and Bonnie Sumner. A respected Hawke’s Bay kaumatua, who has been supporting the whānau whānui of a four-year-old boy being treated in hospital for brain injuries, says Oranga Tamariki needs to take responsibility ...1 day ago
*Watch Melanie Reid's full interview in the video player above* Oranga Tamariki stands accused of returning a four-year-old who had been previously badly injured within a Flaxmere household to the same home, where he has since been severely injured again. It allegedly did so without full consultation with the wider whānau, some ...1 day ago
A media vs media defamation case will go on, after the District Court decides the issues involved should be argued in court. ...1 day ago
Big Tech companies like Microsoft have raised the spectre of geo-blocking NZ if the Government proceeds with a bill for classifying streamed content. ...1 day ago
Robert Fisk is a rare beacon of light in a dimming world.
Here he provides valuable insights on the geopolitical events going on in Turkey.
“A US trade war with Turkey over a little known pastor? Don’t believe a word of it.
For here’s the real list of Erdogan’s crimes. He is buying the Russian S-400 missile system for Turkey. He refuses to accept US support for America’s Kurdish YPG allies. He allowed Islamist fighters to pour over Turkey’s border into Syria along with a lot of weapons, mortars and missiles – to which Washington had no objections at the time since the US was trying to knock Erdogan’s former friend Bashar al-Assad off his perch. Then, after shooting down a Russian aircraft along the Syrian border in November 2015 – for which he was immediately boycotted by Moscow – Erdogan cuddled up to Putin. It was thus the Russians and the Iranians who first warned Erdogan of the impending “Gulen coup” against him in July 2016. They had been listening in to the Turkish military’s internal radio traffic – and tipped off the Sultan of Istanbul.
And now Erdogan is helping Iran to dodge US sanctions which were imposed after Trump flagrantly tore up the 2015 nuclear agreement, and – in a decision demonstrating the cowardly response of the EU’s own oil conglomerates to Trump’s insanity – has announced that he will continue to import Iranian oil. Thus will Washington’s further threat of increased oil sanctions against Iran be blunted. Sunni Saudi Arabia, one of Trump’s closest allies – where religious freedom for the likes of Pastor Brunson has never existed – is already furious with Erdogan. Not long ago, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman denounced Turkey as part of a “triangle of evil” – the other bits of the “triangle” being Shiite Iran and militant Islamists.
So you can see how things are lining up in the Middle East right now. “
Read the whole article here,
Your daily dose of vaccination against the lies of the msm.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/us-turkey-trump-erdogan-trade-war-a8493956.html
Thanks fisk. For pointing out that America is taking non-violent and justified actions. Obama would have gone to war
Stupid
“Obama would have gone to war”
Turkey is a nato country, there is certain difficulties with going to war there.
But you have forgotten Trumps oft repeated questions about a war between US and Venezuela, only a fool would think Trump is less war-monger than Obama
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-asked-if-he-could-invade-venezuela/
How many invasions has trump authorised?
How many invasions has trump led?
How many drone strikes has trump ordered?
actions speak louder than words. I don’t like the ginger fool, but he doesn’t talk out of both sides of his mouth on peace like obama did
None, but Obama also authorised none
None but Obama also led none
Obama did use bombing and drone strikes more than Bush but Trump;
Trump is ordering airstrikes at 5 times the pace Obama did –
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/trump-is-ordering-airstrikes-at-5-times-the-pace-obama-did-2017-4?r=US&IR=T
US counter terror air strikes double in Trump’s first year – https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-12-19/counterrorism-strikes-double-trump-first-year
Under Trump, U.S. Launched 8 Airstrikes Against ISIS in Libya. It Disclosed 4. – https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/world/africa/us-airstrikes-isis-libya.html
The more you know.
touche. the more you know
Robert Fisk is a brilliant and highly informed commentator on Middle Easter affairs. His “Great War for Civilisation” is a must read for anyone who wants an in depth analysis of the political situation there, although much has happened since he wrote that tome.
Yes but he captures the history as it feeds the complexity and paints an excellent picture to that point.
Highly recommend especially his osama bin laden coverage.
Amen Marcus, Fisk’s book is to be recommended.
I have done it twice now and am keen to read it again.
@Ed, “Your daily dose of vaccination against the lies of the msm.”
I Like that.
Isn’t it interesting that most of the most regular and balanced live debates on current affairs come from Press TV (Iran), RT (Russia) and Al Jerezza (Qatar), now I am not saying these countries are beacons of democracy, but they at least these networks offer regular and balanced debates on important world news, which is either almost non existent on MSM or when is presented, so short they they often lack substance and/or context.
And the other thing that RT/Al Jerezzra/Democracy Now/Press TV and The Real News do that MSM don’t do any longer, now that any narrative that doesn’t follow party line is shut down, is give Fisk, John Pilger, Noam Chomsky, Glenn Greenwald and Max Blumenthal (amongst others) a platform to speak.
Fuck you labour .giving mpi the right to enter any farm without a warrant??
You are dead to me .and any party that supports them is dead to me .
Cunts
But unions is ok?
Perhaps if biosecurity and stock movement rules had been adhered to this step wouldn’t be necessary. You can’t have it both ways. If you want M Bovis sorted you have to accept that regular checks may be necessary. The market was left to police itself. It failed.
That is a piss poor excuse to try to justify this change
Police need a warrant to raid a gang pad full of drug dealers, but MPI can now rock on in or undercover surveil, seize property, at the drop of a hat.
This is coming from the same people who went ballistic over the GCSB working with the SIS monitoring kiwis crims.
They are farmers, not criminals
Another sell out by the Greens
I can smell the hypocrisy on their breath
I’m getting close to drawing the pension and grew up and worked most of my life around the construction industry. In that game you come across most types and degrees of dodgy bastards. And I got to know, for better or worse quite a few.
Over the last 10 years I’ve been doing a lot of work on and around farms. I always thought agriculture was an honest industry, undertaken by people with integrity and good faith. Some, probably most, farmers I’ve dealt with are people of the highest moral standing with the greatest honesty and integrity you’ll ever meet.
But the dodgy bastards in the industry are in another league all together. And it’s accepted. Total dishonesty, violence when challenged, and you’ll never get anything in writing so there’s never any proof. Stock appearing on a property, then get retagged, plant with illegible identification numbers, but always just enough to get the right parts, and plenty more shit.
The idea that agriculture is some how cleaner than driven snow is utter bullshit. Refusal to obey, and operate under the law is criminality. There’s plenty of evidence from the M. Bovis debacle of farmers operating outside the law by refusing to comply with NAIT, or subverting the intent of NAIT. And really the only reasons to not tag is because they are either too lazy (or cashflow challenged), or having the tag on is going to stuff up their dodgy scheme.
Agriculture is no different to any other struggling industry, some will push the limits for gain at someone else’s cost. In other industries those outside the law feel the sanction of central or local government. Somehow agriculture feels it is exempt from this sanction.
Plenty of agencies can enter a property without a search warrant. Many acts give warrant powers to government officials (both central and local) to gather evidence and enforce. Worksafe and council building, planning and health as examples. MPI already have extensive warrant power.
It seems to me that BEFORE ANY compensation is paid the farmer HAS to show compliance with NAIT
It was voluntary
Nothing “voluntary” about NAIT chum
“Anyone in charge of cattle or deer must comply with NAIT regulations. The same rules apply whether you have one animal or 1000.”
http://www.nait.co.nz/nait-basics/farmers-and-lifestylers/
It is now, but it wasn’t then
That is why I used the word was
Alway’s been my understanding that it was compulsory on cattle and deer, with an initial phase in period.
Just some people thought it didn’t apply to them
Indeed it was. And compensation should be paid to the farmers who made the responsible choice.
Otherwise we’re just subsidising biological negligence.
I have no doubt there are dodgy ones
But this doesn’t show why there should be entrance and seizure without authority
Entry would be under the authority of the act. Plenty of existing examples of that already.
Police can use Misue of Drugs Act to act without a warrant
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/0116/82.0/DLM436101.html
But if they have been gathering information for some time a standard warrant is not an issue to get.
They can get your phone records/bank records without warrants now , as its done under the ‘maintenance of law and order’. Doesnt even need evidence of a crime in the first place
So you are putting farmers in the same class as drug dealers
Thanks
That’s how they act so doing so seems reasonable.
Any business that serves food can be inspected without notice, will have to have a food safety plan ready upon demand, training notices on staff etc etc. Failure to provide demanded documentation, failure to strict adherence to the food safety plan can and will result in fines, downgrading of the business etc.
that is usually how the non compliant businesses are caught.
Now why should farmers be exempt from this?
Maybe the farmer should welcome this action, so that the ‘rotten apples’ which are only a few here and there of course, can be found and kicked out of the box before all the other apples go rotten too.
Farming is a business and as such you have good an bad farmers. Farmers are no more special then any other proffession in this country. They are no more and no less ‘real NZ’ then any other Kiwi who happens to not work in farming.
They are no more and no less prone to abusing the system then others in other profession.
Maybe its time Farmers understand that they actually demand special status in a country where two thirds of people literally are too poor to buy their butter and milk.
Also how much tax payers moneys is going to be squandered on M Bovis clean up? The very least the taxpayer who is not a farmer but is having funds used to dig them out of their own cow shite is that the farmers might have to open for inspections day and night.
All business people these days are on drugs! The drug is profit, and more profit. Very addictive and many will go the extra mile to get the moolah, on or off farms, Queen Street farmers and lawyers, building companies and anywhere there is money to be made. And if they make a success of their business, they will sell it, because it is the money drug they want, not just a good living for themselves and family.
Labour inspectors have some interesting powers.
And that’s without even getting into the Health Act, which is damned near totalitarian. Even the routine admin stuff, rather than the outbreak emergency controls.
Best you familiarise yourself with the Search and Surveillance Act 2012.
The problem being that many are criminals – they just haven’t been caught yet.
It is not an excuse Chris T – it is a reason.
Farmers will have to put up and shut uop. They have consistently gone light on following the right practices, and not taken responsibility for controlling those who have made no or little effort to manage their businesses ethically.
No. It’s a perfectly valid reason for this change. We need to protect ourselves from these people.
Farmers that didn’t follow the movement rules, to avoid taxes, are criminals.
Currently costing us all, more than the gangs did.
Agree 100% Riffer
Is it not true that MPI have to observe all rules that cover farms now? That would mean health and safety requirements such as reporting to the farmer first and being excluded from the farmhouse, and so on, as is normal?
Just as Union Officials must do when entering a farm to visit an union member, as Jacinda spent several question times pointing out to Simon in the House over the last two weeks. But I divert … Sorry …
Fisheries officers have been doing it for years. What’s the difference?
How does it go….. nothing to hide, nothing to fear…
I think Electricity Providers and Telephone Providers have right of Entry to your home. They used to have that right. Still so?
You’ve read the article from “Stuff” published last December then. The protocol seems reasonable to me considering the threat that myrtle rust presents to the horticulture industry. Pity about your language – doesn’t suggest a great range of vocabulary.
Lol – you are dead to me – ott buddy
“Fuck you labour .giving mpi the right to enter any farm without a warrant??”
That would be under existing biosecurity rules, just as Police can enter without a warrant in certain circumstances -misuse of drugs act etc. and SIS can burgle your place without warrants
Ok, a lot of speculation going on here – including my own in this comment.
I really have not followed this closely but my understanding is that the changes to the National Animal Identification and Tracing Act are to realign it with the Search and Surveillance Act which was adopted under the National Government in 2012. This realignment has become urgent due to the M. Bovis emergency and the lack of compliance – by a few – with the NAIT requirements.
Here is the Bill Digest giving an outline of the Amendment Bill and its purpose:
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-digests/document/52PLLaw25631/national-animal-identification-and-tracing-amendment-bill
A quick troll through the Hansard records of the debates in the House on the Amendment Bill in the last few days seems to confirm my comments above.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/BILL_78997/tab/hansard
If you only read the The third reading debate, the last item in the list in the link (in particular Damian O’Connor’s background speech), and the first item in the list (the last debate yesterday) this will give a pretty good outline of the situation and the ‘faux’ outrage from the Opposition led by Nathan Guy. In the last item in the list, Mark Patterson of NZF, himself a farmer, gives a good explanation of the need for urgency – as does Gareth Hughes.
The Bill passed its third reading unanimously – with all Parties including National passing it and no Nos – at 1.08 mins in this video.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20180816_20180816_12/tab/video?page=2
So, sorry bwaghorn – I don’t know who you are going to vote for in the future.
Why should farmers be allowed to commit criminal acts?
All these lefties would be scanning blue murder if the govt decided winz could rock into a solo parents house to make sure they are living alone
Because benefit fraud is the same as spreading disease throughout the sector?
A warrant would not be hard to get
Fucking hypocrites.
If a warrant isn’t hard to get, it defeats the purpose of having a warrant system in the first place.
Basically, let’s say an inspector comes to the farm gate looking for noncompliant cows. You say “fuck off”, and while they’re off getting a warrant you truck any non-compliant cows to another location. Not only is a warrant ineffecive, it actually motivates the transmission of diseases the noncompliant cows might have.
Now let’s look at a single parent living alone – the presence of a person doesn’t indicate a cohabiting relationship. That requires a long term pattern to be established. So immediate powers to enter without warrant are a bit pointless in that case, no?
It’s not hypocrisy to recognise that the same protection that prevents unnecessary invasion in one instance is actually counterproductive in another.
Do you have any proof farmers are hiding infected animals?
The main problem with it being traced was caused because young calves could be legally shifted without nait tags .
But hay it’s only farmers and this government got elected by playing the wedge politics card against them so why should I be surprised.
That’s why we have inspectors.
We have a load of proof that farmers won’t control infections by themselves.
No, it’s not only farmers. Several organisations don’t need warrants – the health sector is significantly more powerful than the justice sector in that regard.
You’re just pissed because your industry is being held accountable for its abject failure to protect itself, and now the government needs to clean up the mess.
I think bwaghorn had a very difficult day at work yesterday because he got it for being a leftie and supporting the pretty communist that’s going to chuck farmers off their farms. It wasn’t a good day to be a leftie on a farm yesterday. The bullshit was flowing strong.
But really it was only the seriously dodgy side of framing throwing a spaz that it’s going to be a lot harder to do the dodgy stock sales and movements now that NAIT is much tighter and actually enforced.
The actual political situation was pointed out by veutoviper in 2.8 above /open-mike-17-08-2018/#comment-1514840
The third reading passed unanimously, with all parties speaking in support. Including National.
Nice fantasy chump . .
I’ve been in sheep and beef for 8 years and havent seen any one actively rout nait . Slow to take up yes but every cattle beast I’ve sent off since nait arrived has had a nait tag in its ear . And every one that has come on has had a nait tag in its ear .
But you clowns believe what you hateful little minds want .
In two years labour will realise it’s lost the fight on mb . The chance of stopping it is long gone thanks to the useless nats . .
I’ll have to hope top hangs in their
Actually, from a disease control perspective, unless it has an endemic wildlife vector in the way that TB has, eradication of a virus from a controlled population only requires tracking to identify exposed animals, even without a vaccine.
Guinea worm comes to mind.
Do you know how hard mb is to track . Our local very up to date vet told us at a recent meeting it can only be found when an animal is shedding cells . It only sheds cell sporadically.
That only effects the math in the same way a longer incubation time effects the math.
If I have ubiquitous surveillance of a population, any positive test means I can track exactly which individuals had transmission-likely contact with the infected individual. So all of those other individuals get tested or quarantined or (in the case of livestock) culled.
A few iterations of that, and the disease is eradicated. The only factor that changes is the number of iterations – how much effort we put into it.
“Wedge Politics” – what a joke- it was the clowns in Morrinsville, led by the “Jolly old Fed of Farmers” who played the wedge card – will never forget the image of “Worzle Gummige” holding up the “pretty communist” placard. Desperate measures by sore losers. Labour’s Agriculture Ministers from Aubrey Begg and beyond have all been respected by the farming community even though it stuck in ts craw to admit it.
You do understand that that would only work if people were really pissed off with the actions of farmers right?
You know, things like polluting our waterways, getting special treatment from government, not being prosecuted when they should be etcetera.
Basically, the farmers brought it on themselves by being a bunch of self-righteous, self-important and overly entitled arseholes.
Just like you’re being now.
What is it that these farmers are doing with their cows?
lol
They can’t go into the farmer’s house without a warrant.
Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity. ~Horace Mann
Australia Hits Worst Greenhouse Gas Emissions On Record
https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/12/australia-hits-worst-greenhouse-gas-emissions-on-record/
Australia world’s largest coal exporter
US Energy Information Administration, EIA – November 25, 2011
This Must Stop – New Zealand has a role to play.
Australia is our closest geographical neighbor, Australia is also our closest cultural cousin.
What we do here in New Zealand, has an impact in Australia.
You better believe it
Sir Peter, (Professor), Gluckman, the government’s top science adviser, has said that New Zealand’s greatest contribution to fighting climate change, will be by “setting an example”.
In my opinion that example must be for New Zealand to strike an iconic death blow against the local coal industry.
If we can’t do it, how can we ask our Australian neighbours and cultural cousins to?
The very least, we need to do, is urgently impose an immediate moratorium on the opening of all new coal mines.
Our other regional neighbours in the Pacific have called on New Zealand and Australia to put a total stop to all coal production.
Pacific leaders call for coal mining to be shut down to save island nations from effects of climate change
Eric Tlozek – ABC News, September 8, 2015
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said that climate change is our Nuclear Free Moment.
Prime Minister Ardern needs to make it our Coal Free Moment.
Anything less, is surrender.
Another great leader once said, “We don’t do these things because they are easy, we do them because they are hard”.
And from an earlier era, another Prime Minister, facing up to existential crisis – Said this:
The Uninhabitable Earth
Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak — sooner than you think.
David Wallace-Wells – New York Magazine, July 10, 2017
Mum, When you were Prime Minister. What did you do about climate change?
Not sure about sharing from facebook but this map makes very scary viewing, but them im sure its all happened before and its only scaremongering.
if that doesnt work it was from this site , the world seems to be on fire.
https://www.globalforestwatch.org/
When I see how cruelly Australians treat refugees. I can’t help but wonder. How do they think they might be treated when the time comes.
Which on our current trajectory of inaction, it surely will.
https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2018/08/15/Stop-Hothouse-Earth/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=150818
Yes, it is achievable. “But it will demand a united global effort”.
There is one thing missing….
Leadership…..
The immortal Aretha Franklin.
Respect.
I cry a little tear for you
She was epic in the Blues Brothers.
She was awesome when she sang Natural Woman on the national party bus… Oh whoops that was someone else.
Oh bloody hell !… its morning again,… ugh…
re Bridges Expenses And it also forgets, bizarrely, that the car he was in is charged out at a far
Hosking reports this
Oppo’ do pay a higher rate apparently
Have no idea why.
Seems a bit stupid to me
Agree
Thats because he likely had a crown limo and driver tag along for his regions tour.
Not only do you get the standard rate but its PLUS accomodation costs
Limos arent in every town and city. Mostly the bigger ones with I think one car based in Dunedin but a few more in Christchurch, more again in Auckland and a big chunk in Wellington. There may be one or 2 in waikato etc.
As well when there isnt a car available they have private limos on call and they might be on a ‘spot’ rate and higher than the standard crown limo rate
Just heard on the wireless… simons crown limo rides are charged out at twice the rate of Ministers. Thanks for explaining a bit more Duke as to why that would be.
Find it hard to believe that he didn’t know this before his ‘road’ trip.
It’s something all of us consider when planning a ‘road trip’ … the cost of the journey.
He could have flown in then asked the local MP to drive him around.
Or were local nat MP’s also enjoying looking fancy in the limo?
Everything Duke said applies equally to Ministers.
If Winston, for example was to turn up in Hastings to go to the races he is certainly going to expect to have a Limo there for him.
It still doesn’t seem to be any rationale for the double rate for the Leader of the Opposition or for the Speaker.
The higher rate is only mentioned in the expenses returns for this year. I wonder if it was put in, probably at Winston’s request, so that it would make the Leader of the Opposition look extravagant? Knowing what Winston is like it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.
It certainly seems to have worked. Look at all the people on this site who are rabbiting on about how Bridges is supposedly more extravagant than Little or Ardern were. He isn’t, it is just a little smear tactic by the current Coalition of Losers who have fiddled the accounting rules to make it look like that..
Anyone here going to the Green Party AGM?
I understand that all the MPs have been ordered to attend.
The problem they have is getting the 2 other people they need to get a quorum.
Aren’t you thinking of the Association of C*nts and Tossers?
Their broom closet was packed shoulder to shoulder
The first part anyway.
“Association of C*nts”.
Hasn’t the XX chromosome co-leader of the Green’s copyrighted this name for the Green Party?
Relieved to learn you believe in chromysomies wally, they’re not the Devil’s Slinkies after all then.
I’ve never heard of “chromysomies” Gobby.
I presume they are some product of your warped imagination.
I know about chromosomes though.
“Devil’s Slinkies” got a chuckle here 🙂
I’m unable to personally attend. But I’m hopeful there will be discussion on what the Greens are doing to help the poor offset new environmental charges (such as significantly increasing tip fees) the Greens are championing.
Fuck off Chairman we all know you no member.
Save it, egg.
Na stop going when they cancelled the folk dancing and applied a dress, make up, hair and use of deroderant code 😊
A 92 year old in a rest home with little covering urine soaked bedclothes and covered with something fairly thin and window open.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018658500/govt-needs-to-intervene-in-aged-care-patient-s-son
There is momentary concern that will die away till the next open complaint.
This will have a contradictory on the call for euthanasia. Instead of bringing in a principled matter for choice, all the authorities involved will resist fiercely saying that what is required is better care and that presently it is a disgrace.
The nostalgic past is our zeitgeist in today’s society. Plus ‘shoulds’ as a way to cope with problems that require action by government in line with expressed wishes from the citizens. And a response to the statistics concerning population bulges and mismatched spending so it is more on the old than the young who are being starved of funding and attention to their needs at the start of what should be their full, active life.
yet another example of regulatory capture
What is also interesting is that the family went to some disputes tribunal to get the award (aka I think it’s their rest home fee’s refunded) but health and disability and the rest home industry are all ok with poor conditions and poorly trained staff even though people (or the state) are paying in excess of $1000 a week for care that they obviously expect to be quality for their loved one? No wonder the rest home industry seem to have one of the highest returns on the share market when you just put a few poorly trained and cheap people in and the regulators seem to say it’s optional to attending to the patients needs promptly.
Speaking of complaints here is the top ten companies complained about to the commerce commission. (from Granny) Other companies like power and banking I think have their own complaints bodies and are regulated to be allowed to rip off customers which is probably why nobody bothers to complain anymore.
Revealed: New Zealand’s most complained about companies
Viagogo
Vodafone
Spark
Foodstuffs
2 Degrees
Woolworths
Air New Zealand
Noel Leeming
Wilsons parking
Sky
vocus
The Warehouse
The corporate portal
Trade Me
Harvey Norman
Brand developers
Ticketmaster
Luxstyle Apps
Contact energy
NZ post
I wonder if they are the ones who feel that business confidence is down?
If so, maybe their customer service needs addressing instead.
No surprises to see retail telco high up and in numbers on that list.
Vodafone would be probably top if their customers had stayed to complain. The fact they were allowed to Hoover up the fibre links of Telstraclear and drive that into the dust is a total fail in terms of retail v wholesale segregation.
Watch that space as the race to the bottom gathers pace.
Maybe later, if I can organize 240V power supply and access to the internet, I’d really like to to have an in depth discussion about the link between the current wording of the euthanasia bill and the very real possibility that those who need a high level of hands on care will, out of despair, feel obliged to request the blue juice.
I personally believe that all debate about euthanasia should be suspended until we sort out the serious problems with providing safe care for disabled and elderly.
Maybe later.
Hi Rosemary, did you hear the two interviews that Kathryn Ryan on Nine to Noon has had in the last two days on the wording of the Euthanasia Bill? Well worth a listen if you can.
Yesterday was two members of the Australian Advisory Board who are in NZ at present:
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018658341/proposed-euthanasia-bill-in-nz-needs-tweaking
Today it was Paula Tesoriero, the Disability Commissioner, who has very grave concerns re the current wording.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018658517/assisted-dying-bill-undermines-disabled-people
Peripherally listened yesterday…was totally engrossed and cheering Paula on as we were hurtling towards Kaitaia this morning.
FWIW, IMHO, Paula Tesoriero has really stepped up to the role of Disabilities Commissioner. She had large shoes to fill, taking over from Paul Gibson.
Over the rattle of the diesel, I’m sure I heard her talk about the despair some living with disability experience when trying to access vital funded supports.
And then some numpty contacted Natrad saying Paula had no place speaking on behalf of all disabled…”and if he were disabled” etc etc…. The short answer to numpty would be stfu until you have actually lived with a significant disability for an appreciable amount of time..then comment.
For many, the thought of being disabled, of being dependent on others for sometimes the most basic of cares, is beyond comprehension and they will state categorically they would rather be dead.
Extrapolating, they would see those who do need that level of support as what? A burden on society? A waste of vital resources? That they should do the ‘decent thing’ and check out? Because they, in their limited experience and even more limited imagination, could not envisage any kind of worthwhile life without all their functions intact.
The situation right now for those who require a reasonably high level of support is dire. And I do not exaggerate. The story of the old lady lying in her own pee is not rare. Stories of disabled and vulnerable elderly being neglected and abused (sometimes unto death) are tragically not unusual or isolated.
And what Robert Love was saying about the inadequacies of the complaints and monitoring processes is sadly correct.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018658500/govt-needs-to-intervene-in-aged-care-patient-s-son
‘Who watches the watches?’
ACC claimants have rights and entitlements enshrined by law. Those with need for supports who are not covered by ACC, who are under MOH:DSS or a DHB, have no entitlements and few rights. A bureaucrat can decide that such and such will not be provided and there is no avenue of complaint. Serious incidents of inadequate care that leads to harm or death can take years to wend their way through the Health and Disability Commission complaints process…and seldom result in prosecution.
(NB…Paula Tesoriero is attached to the Human Rights Commission not the Health and Disability Commission. )
The whole system is dysfunctional and treats users with little or no respect.
The current disability System Transformation which is marketed as solving all such problems is superficial window dressing being rolled out in yet another pilot with a full roll out nationwide not expected for nearly another decade.
And this System Transformation does not, and this is specifically stated in the System Transformation documentation, give users any entitlement to the supports they need.
This is unacceptable in a country that has given a select group of disabled citizens such entitlement.
The disparities, the gross inequities between ACC and others is a stain on New Zealand and until this is addressed, there should be no discussion of euthanasia outside of definite terminal illness at all.
And having said that, I’d be tempted to make it a further condition to progressing this Bill that this crappy little travesty is sorted.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018618748/hospices-deprived-of-strong-painkillers-due-to-safety-concerns
Re Paula Tesoreiro, I too have a lot of respect for her as we worked in the same government department some years ago and worked together on one or two issues. Top notch intellectually, more than able and willing to stand her ground, and a lovely person as well. I knew she would do well as Disability Commissioner (as you say within the HRC) – and sadly despite the recent problems within that agency.
I am well aware and have major concerns re the existing problems for those with disabilities, in poverty etc. As I think I have mentioned before, I too have disabilities and I and my doctors have been hitting our heads against a brick wall in getting me some support.
However, personally I do think we need to have the euthanasia discussion despite these other situations – but I am definitely not convinced that the bill as it is currently drafted is in any way acceptable for many of the reasons raised by Paula, and others including yourself.
Thanks.
Got a number?
Reply to ChrisT 6.1
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/106338625/nz-first-mps-could-end-up-300k-out-of-pocket-if-they-flout-party-rules
‘NZ First’s constitution states any of its MPs who resign or are expelled from the party are personally liable for up to $300,000 if they don’t leave Parliament immediately.
The clause states if the MP is either an electorate MP or a list MP, they have up to three days to vacate their seat in Parliament, or pay up.’
One way to make sure plebs (sorry MPs) toe the line winston wants I guess
So is that the market price of an MP? I like the transparency of this NZ1st team. If a housing contract has a value of… 😉
Or maybe it’s just a way of ensuring that the voters don’t get their intentions overturned by Nats and Nat cronies throwing their (copious) money around to turn MPs against their own parties?
So in a sense, you could see it as keeping money out of politics. Protecting the voters from National Party money in effect.
Winston, having once been inside the tent, probably has a better understanding of the dark heart of National than most. And this attack on him looks like another nail in the coffin of any future Nat-NZF coalition. Dumb politics from National.
Nice.
Get fired by Winston for not doing what he says and then have three days to leave or get fined 300 grand
I see no way this could possibly have any effect on an MPs actions at all
Smearing again? – not doing what he says? Rubbish – your fear is showing is all.
Fear of what exactly?
You tell me – the list is no doubt long.
Thats nice dear
Puckwit’s wit – there’s hardly even a little bit, but belittling women we find, he’s got energy and time.
Yes dear
I say yes dear to hide my fear
My knees are fairly quivering
The meany Winnie makes me feel queasy
Even my reflection looks withering
Thats nice dear
With furrowed brow and tightened sphincter
The little man sat and fretted on the future
If our dark forces are forever in the dark
Then who the hell will hear me when I bark?
or maybe:
With furrowed brow and puckered sphincter
The little rogue sat and fretted on the future
If Judith’s dark forces are forever in the dark
Then who the hell will hear me when I bark?
Yes dear
Your eyes are cloudy
Is it raining inside you?
You fall for ages.
So this is why I don’t vote the WinnieFirst party… but how is it news exactly? I mean each party has its own internal processes, isn’t that like part of the deal of a democracy? That we have a wide range of ideas that come together and get mixed and debated and we get a good output? I mean who didn’t know that the WinnieFirst party was all about Winston?
next you will be telling us that ACT are a go nowhere party that are too controlled by self-interest business people and are in no way a liberal party, which they have just cottoned onto and want to change to the far-right populist party of the rich
Well when you look at “waka jumping” its mostly (not always) happens to NZFirst, why?
What is about NZFirst that makes this happen, maybe instead of trying to charge someone 300 grand (which I don’t think would stand up in court) maybe NZFirst should see whats happening internally
I think most of us know why, NZF is a populist party, which revolves around Winston. And yes that means what Winston says goes, who doesn’t know that? but then that is how it started and is the basis of policy. I actually trust Winston to do what he says, with the cravat that he really says he will do anything with any real certainty, so he can normally find a way to twist what he said into what he actually did…
Waka-jumping isn’t only NZF of course, and really this is all a bit of a smoke-screen around the troubles of ACT and the inability of National to not look deeply divided.
Heres a list of Winstons bottom lines, well at least some of them, so you can judge for yourself about the veracity of what he says
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/10/the-comprehensive-list-of-winston-peters-bottom-lines.html
“inability of National to not look deeply divided.”
Nationals on 45% so that line will only start to work if/when they hit 35% or o
Almost all of those have a high likelihood of happening. I guess that means Winston’s trustworthy these days.
As for your confusing poll results with internal stability… well, there’s an investigation as to whether the nats have a leaker on their hands.
They haven’t happened yet so no Winston isn’t trustworthy
https://thespinoff.scdn5.secure.raxcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/winston_peters_no-e1455067432260.jpg
Given that there’s no timeframe on most of those other than “this term”, there’s a high likelihood he’s trustworthy, then.
Of course, your attitude is the sort of thing that meant the nats are in opposition rather than government.
Meh, National needed a good clean out anyway, be good for them to have a term or two out of power to remind them what its all about
So they don’t look deeply divided but they need a good clean out.
Sounds legit lol
The cleanout hasn’t finished yet, still a ways to go
I’m sure the ones to be cleaned out are totally happy about it. Otherwise there might be deep division in the nats lol
They’re past their used by date so f**k ’em
lol
You’re really helping the biggest losers present a united front there. Soimon would be proud.
Oh please theres no such thing a political party without divisions but deep divisions, thats another story and when you’re on 45% you’ll keep quiet
Until those percentages start to meaningfully drop
We’ll see if Mallard’s investigator decides whether the nat caucus are keeping quiet 🙂
35% is as good as 45% with no friends.
Has Simon been telling lies?
Ron Mark contradicts Bridges’ claims; who to believe, who to believe?? Mr Pants-on-fire?
Food quality around Europe is mixed, bit down. The cows haven’t got so much grass, but they will be getting feed the dodgy potatoes, ya might say.
The weather is affecting land prices, not. Land prices continue to rise with QE.
Actually the Left Party in Germany have made a popularist policy suggestion regarding agricultural lease prices. If there is no income coming from the land due to drought, then farmers should be able to escape paying the full price to the land owner. Govt will have to rule on it, which will be a bit complex. Actually this one goes back to the bible, as an option to just pay a percent of your harvest to the land owner.
What a fundamentally stupid idea. If people can’t make a decent living from the land they need to stop doing what they are doing and do something else.
Yeah, farmers are better off working in factories where the pay is better. Why eat food, when we could simply eat the poor?
Yeah, time to reduce herd size a bit and build up feed reserves. Organic requires larger feed reserves, as they usually have less maize and grain which are more market accessible.
Getting one step ahead of the game seems to be the biggest barrier to organic conversion. Similar with cropping, as cropping is generally dependent on manure from animals. Could say the same regarding debt ratio, requiring more reserves to weather conversion.
Simon Bridges tried to poach Ron Mark and a couple of other NZ First MPs according to Winston Peters:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12108668
Bridges denies it:
So, did he make the approach late last year instead. 😉
Edit: I know he wasn’t leader of the Nats until Feb of this year, but that needn’t stop him from having a go.
Doing the ground work late last year. Understandable.
Exactly what those who aspire to his job are doing right now.
Judith Collins is loving it. She’s got her… I’m a nice gal too, but I’m better’n stronger than Jacinda hat on.
Awww yeah!
“Mark did not return a call for comment but in a text message said “Wow, how did you find out about that.” ”
LOL – time to stop telling untruths Simon you dumbarse.
Memo to Ron Mark.
Don’t try using Irony.
People like Marty don’t understand it and think you are being serious.
Stick to using your middle finger.
Lol I don’t think you know what irony is – just cos it’s spelt i-ron-y doesn’t mean Ron marks did it.
You could be a Rasta and saying I Ron irie but somehow i doubt that.
Notice Bridges is lying by saying didnt have a conversation
Doesnt mean he didnt have a chat or a few words or that other situation: ‘a discussion’
Bridges needs to learn form Trump – lie big, little lies dont change anything
Normally these sort of things arent done by the party leaders, to give them deniability.
But as you mention Bridges was ‘a go to guy’ until he became leader in Feb.
@Anne, we all know it is only a matter of time before the Natz try to bribe individual MP’s to destable the government. It’s worked for them before.
Interesting that Winston mentions this after the good behaviour bond comes out, diversion by any chance?
“Ron Mark backs Winston Peters on approach Simon Bridges made to him.”
OOps Simon old chap.
“Ron Mark says National leader Simon Bridges talked to him about a deal during a flight earlier this year, contradicting Bridges’ claim no such approach was made.
“It’s true. Simon and I were next to each other on a flight from Auckland to Wellington in May. He bought it up out of the blue during a conversation we were having.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12108791
300 grand hanging over your head would make anyone say whatever Winston wants them to say
No puck it is the dirty filthy wee gnat bumbling idiot simon that has been caught out AGAIN – whats that about 3 times this week so far?
Yeah I’m not particularly interested in what Ron “happy for the media to describe him ex-SAS” Mark has to say
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11956076
NZ First leader Winston Peters is asking why Mark didn’t simply follow the instructions he was given.
Mark isn’t offering any answers. He did not respond to requests for an interview and did not answer questions. A spokesman said: “This matter has now been dealt with and we consider it closed.”
Well did he or didnt he follow unstructions this time – you seem a bit confused.
Defence minister Ron Mark was specifically told he was breaking all the rules wearing his military medals but went ahead and did so anyway.
Documents show Mark was told on October 27 – just after being sworn in as Minister of Defence – that his rack of medals was a breach of protocol and rules.
The NZ First deputy leader went on wearing his medals until November 15 when the Herald revealed he was in breach of the regulations governing decorations.
Mark’s medals wrongly placed his Omani service in a position over prominence over his New Zealand service. Also, wearing the Omani medals wrongly suggested he had the required permission from the Governor General’s to wear a foreign decoration.
In the 20 days since Mark learned his medals were a breach of the Crown’s rules on decorations and honours, he wore them while standing in front of veterans, next to the Chief of Defence Force, with foreign leaders and while inspecting troops.
So what Puck?
Stop trying to divert attention PR. You’re usually better than that.
Who cared a damm – apart from a bunch of bureaucratic military pin prickers – what medals he wore and where he wore them. What a load of puerile nonsense.
Bridges took a leaf out of Trump’s book and tried to gerrymander the political stability of the country for personal political gain and then lied about it. An infinitely worse offence than a row of medals not in the right order.
“Who cared a damm”
It actually matters to a lot of people, it means something plus he ignored all advice when told what he was doing was incorrect
Hes the minister of defence, hes a former serving soldier, he damn well should be getting the absolute bare minimum correct
Ask him what he would have done if one of the soldiers under him had worn their uniform incorrectly on parade
It matters
But did Bridges try to poach Mark?
And later claim he hadn’t??
Ask him what he would have done if one of the soldiers under him had worn their uniform incorrectly on parade.
He wouldn’t have given a damm – unless they were wearing their jacket inside out or their pants back to front then he might have. 😀
It’s time the
medalpin-prickers grew up and looked around them. There’s a big wide world needing urgent attention. My father had a heap of medals from two world wars but never wore them. He was more interested in the here and now.As an ex member of the NZDF, ADF and a veteran i couldn’t really give a rats ass, how old Ronnie wear his goddam gongs, yes there are grumpy old shell backs (usually they No Mates voters) who don’t have a life outside of the Forces, who have SFA to do but complain but do SFA to fix the problems. All I want from Ronnie is to stop the rot of the 30 odd yrs of under spending, neglect, and to provide better welfare/ conditions of service to Defence personal, Defence families and to the veterans now and into the future as they don’t have union to back them like the every other Government employee has.
If some old grizzle dick came up and told me I was wearing my gongs around the wrong way if I was the NZ MoD, then that I will ask this simple question.
What is more important my medals which I have one NZ gong (NZDM) among my other 9 or 10 gongs or the welfare issues of Defence members, underfunding issues of the NZDF or the welfare of Veterans?
If they say my NZDM is out of place, so you don’t give shit about NZDF or Veterans problems so piss off and get a life.
Had some muppet in NZ try and tell me last year “Your NZDM should be at the front and not a the rear of your row of medals as Foreign Medals are always to the rear etc etc?” My reply was “Ah you must be a National voter then?” He said yes and I’ll it leave to your imagination on the spray I give this muppet and his muppet mates in a pub in Dunedin.
no contract can breach the law…its unenforceable
In bad news from Antartica,
“The awful news that all but two penguin chicks have starved to death out of a colony of almost 40,000 birds is a grim illustration of the enormous pressure Antarctic wildlife is under. The causes of this devastating event are complex, from a changing climate to local sea-ice factors, but one thing penguins, whales and other marine life don’t need is additional strain on food supplies.
Over the next year we have the opportunity to create an Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary – the largest protected area on Earth – which would put the waters off-limits to the industrial fishing vessels currently sucking up the tiny shrimp-like krill, on which all Antarctic life relies.”
From
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/13/penguins-starving-death-something-very-wrong-antarctic
Here is a petition to the EU – Russia and China are the two main blockers
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/antarctic_ocean_loc_fr_pa/?slideshow
I wonder how Australia feels about this, being the home of the CCAMLR.
They seem very ‘upbeat’ about the scientific awesomeness of the management of the fisheries and its sustainability. They seem to have ‘forgotten’ to include a speaker to talk about the wider ecosystem.
“A National Science Week (Australia) public seminar to help people understand the connections between commercially available krill products, human health claims and the biology and ecology of this tiny crustacean.
Find out why Hobart is the global centre of krill science and krill fishery management and how each of the relevant institutions are connected through international scientific and government networks.
Dr So Kawaguchi talked about his research on krill biology and ecology and Dr Laura Laslett discussed her research on the medicinal value of krill oil.
Dr Keith Reid, Science Manager for CCAMLR, outlined how fishing for krill is regulated by this international body and how fishing limits are informed by the best available scientific studies on krill and their ecosystems.”
https://www.ccamlr.org/en/fisheries/krill-fisheries-and-sustainability
We are so fucked…
There were 34 newcomers on the NBR Rich List this year – many of which made their fortunes in the grocery trade.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/106288425/supermarket-owners-banking-super-profits-nbr-rich-list-shows
Meanwhile, figures from the Ministry of Social Development show 26,000 more hardship grants for food were given out compared with the June quarter last year.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018658324/surge-in-families-seeking-food-parcels.
It will be interesting to see what impact Labour’s Family Package will have on the demand for hardship grants going forward.
Could we (please) link up the super-wealthy food purveyors, the supermarket barons, with the very poor needers of food and just let the former receive the needs of the latter, as an ongoing gesture of thanks for their good fortune, from those rich-listers?
And yet those who have made it to the list that are Pak n Sav owners can achieve this and still sell below the competitors ?
And as someone who has a family member working there they pay above min wage and is treated well.
Perhaps we should be asking their competitors why that is the case ??
Good to hear Pak n Sav pay above min wage and treat staff well. One of the biggest reasons for NZ lack of productivity is that for 30 years the business community has been taught to get employee’s as cheap and subservient as possible, keep them on casual and temporary contracts or subcontractor contracts so there is not much loyalty, rip off customers and ‘confuse’ them and then they wonder why there are worker and skills “shortages” and they are falling behind the rest of the world in productivity and customer services!!! Doh!
Look at Germany, they make things, and they have strong worker rights, pay higher wages and employ educated people (free university education in Germany). Unfortunately NZ decided to go down the Asian path of high inequality and low wages combined with western neoliberalism and government privatisations and deregulation.
Judging from what’s happening the penny hasn’t dropped yet for most NZ business and government that they are about to be out competed due to their incompetence and reliance of lowest common denominator and contempt for both consumer and employee and selling the country off for peanuts over the past decades.
Supermarkets may decide to screw their suppliers instead of their workers.
Also they may limit what brands they will carry, so that turnover ratio targets must be met or you are out. They will drop good lines which are replaced by some from another country. They will copy a good selling line from a company and sell it under their own brand name. It may in fact still be made by the original company, I don’t know, but it is a way to smother innovated products and also prevent the other company from building its own brand and reputation.
They can conduct phony wars against other supermarket chains. This was done a few years ago with milk, and the loss of profit was passed on also to the dairy suppliers. In Australia they have invoked nationalistic emotions and taken other country’s products off their shelves, which included ours.
Everything is calculated, and the giant stores with their convenient parking are hard to compete against by small local business people forming part of the core local business enterprise. The money leaches out of local pockets and most of it flows onwards to others’ capital accretions.
I agree with you greywarshark. Many on this site are very anti farmers, (and some with good reason) but primary producers are also people being screwed over by middle men, like supermarkets.
Also with supermarkets they are cutting costs by for example not employing qualified butchers, but instead ring in orders of meat from a warehouse where it comes pre cut.
The issue with this is, that the meat can be 3 months old and so they use a gas in the packaging to keep it looking fresh. They also have special lights etc so that the food looks better than it actually is in real life.
When they analysed the food with gases which is used in other countries to keep food longer they found that a salad looked fresh, but had lost all it’s nutrition when packaged with the long life gases.
So food can look fresh now, but actually be old and have zero nutritician but the consumers are being fooled.
All this to make more and more profit while people are being ripped off nutrition from their own food!
One would expect being lower priced than their competitors would see them attract more customers , thus make their money by selling more.
And while they may pay above the minimum wage, they don’t pay the Living Wage.
Good links The Chairman. Interesting so many making a fortune from just owning one supermarket. Maybe the commerce commission are a bit amiss when they dropped their investigation on Countdown – instead they need to search further a field.
Also these firms are creaming the money, while often the employee’s are on poor working conditions and Close to minimum wages, aka the taxpayer (nurses and teachers for example) are then paying taxes like WFF and accomodation benefits for their employees wages while the supermarket owner makes the rich list! Something is wrong. Apparently a family on minimum wages with 2 kids needs a $5000 wage top up per family from the government to cover the short fall of wages.
I’m not against people being rich, but it should not be on having poorly paid employees, corporate welfare and overcharging customers.
Thanks SaveNZ. And as usual, some good points made by greywarshark and yourself.
The sector is basically a duopoly, thus consumers, suppliers and employees are all being squeezed as the two dominant players thrive.
I commented on this yesterday, and to Wayne you may find this of interest
How the union is NOT supporting its own members, IMO NZEI your lack of representing “YOUR” members over the last 9 years and letting the Nat govts off lightly and making the current govt appear to be the enemy is highly embarrassing to say the least.
Perhaps there is a need for performance pay for good teachers as the union is not working for them. “She wants to see the pay scale reflective of experience rather than qualification, and said there was a place for performance pay.” These teacher support the union how about the union returning the favour ?
“Of more than 2500 responses, 66 per cent said they earned under $71,000, and dozens of commenters said they had also been locked out of progressing up the pay scale because they only held a diploma.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/106321443/teachers-with-40-years-experience-stuck-on-59600-because-of-pay-inequality
Herodotus, I am a secondary school teacher, not an NZEI member. But I doubt that NZEI is going to undergo a membership collapse because of the tendentious argument you put that teacher unions betray good teachers by not approving of performance pay.
All teachers have been underpaid, and before you even speak of performance pay, you need to pay a decent salary to all teachers first. I think tis is what NZEI is aiming at, and you are wasting your breath in trying to sow dissension.
Try all those teachers who are paid $15-$17k below their fellow teachers for doing the same job.
At my local school on Wednesday 40-50% of the teachers were at school. This is a school with a roll excessive of 700 primary students.
It may be an isolated case. but it speaks of the support for the unions, and of those 5 are Q1 or Q2 level.
So you say all teachers are underpaid, what about those who are severely underpaid ?? Or do you agree that Q1-4 should be on a similar pay scale ?
Farage is on his way to a gig in Sky City where he will peddle Brexit.
If you want “all I need to know about Brexit” in one video……………here it is:
I see facebook is now censoring the left. Oh well we get what we deserve, right? TeleSUR English page taken down again.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/08/telesur-english-facebook-censorship-news
People more often than not simply do not see the traps…and they walk right into them…
Point out the traps…and get called names, abused or labelled into some or other plagiarized transplanted term…
THE LEFT!
Strikes me that having an “Evening post “to go to as an extra venue for those that have to work in the day time could be good .While its interesting to get home from work switch on the comp and see whats been happening during the day on TS its also hard work scrolling thru whats usually hundreds of comments and half a doz posts .I often think wouldnt it be nice if there was a smaller space for those who only have the time for a couple of hours in the eve .In a sense the days activities and opinions are already “old news” by the end of the day .Might make a few more people come out of the woodwork also .
That is what the Daily Review posts are for, Weston. These go up nightly at about 5.30pm Mon to Friday.
Thanks for replying vv but as much as open mike is oversubscribed especially by the same people {just saying }you could say daily review is under subscribed …i just thought something new might have the effect of capturing a bit more of the available market so to speak .. in fishermans terms if nothings biting change your bait or your method location etc .Dont get me wrong im in awe of a great many of the regulars and posters here and grateful the site exists and to everyone who makes it happen .
I understand what you are saying re the size of OM vs DR, but it is my impression (rightly or wrongly) that the imbalance is a fairly recent phenomenon. The number of comments on OM certainly seems to be reaching record numbers, while the DR comment numbers seem to have gone down. I am one of those who have been around TS for many years and it is interesting how things change over time. Daily Review was introduced just a couple of years ago – cannot remember when exactly.
Lots of things could have affected the comment distribution in recent months – eg being a post election year, loss of some authors with fewer separate posts, time of year (eg winter). Re the latter, I find that with age and retirement I am going to bed earlier in the evening but then wake up in the early hours and do what you are NOT supposed to do – reach for the IPAD. Hence my reply to you at 4.25am!
Lprent probably has lots of information re changes in patterns etc but he is so hardworking and generous with his time, energy etc to keep TS going I would not like to ask him, especially now that he seems to spend a lot of time overseas with his paid work.
Kris Faafoi is “committed to ensuring the wheels of commerce move smoothly and that New Zealand capitalises on every advantage it can to grow our economy, jobs wages and opportunities.”
Sounds good, but actions speak louder than words and in Parliament he utters a snide, nasty remark about a fellow parliamentarian. His impulse to hurt and offend smudges his reputation as a Labour member.
Let’s get this straight alcohol is run by big business who spend there lobbing mone to distort the true negative fact’s of there prouduct’s .
Here you are It’s a man made chemical drug that will kill you instantly if you drink it to fast it can kill you slowly by over loading your liver the liver is the body’s filter no liver no life it has carcinogenic properties that cause cancer it over load’s our police work load every weekend as well as hospitals firefighters ambulance service and this all cost mone. People are killed every day because of this drug .
Mean while mone talks about how our consumption of this drug has lowered by a quarter since the 1970 but what they have not said is the alcohol % have we drink have has gone up by at least 100% you see the 00.1 Are the fake it till you make it people they don’t care it there profits are directly linked to there products killing people of Papatuanuku and her creatures Ana to kai .
Ka kite ano link is below
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/106343048/alcohol-harm-more-than-triple-the-cost-of-all-treaty-claims-so-far–economist
Good morning Newshub Nation I totally agree with the lady how fake fact’s fake new’s it’s start’s grabbing te tangata reality the more tangata that are exposed to it and the more that start believing these lies the 00.1% have been doing this to us for century’s
Look at the nose’s being cut off those beautiful statues in Egypt.
And reducing our carbon use to at least – 99% of today’s use will make our country great and wealthy Ka kite ano P.S looking after our moko’s it;s busy time’s Eco supports the Green Party 100%
The reality with these under cover sandfly is that there handler’s like to recruit the young people fresh out of police school why because they are easy to intimidate manipulate and mold there reality into believing that what there handler’s are telling them is true why don’t they hire people in there 30’s + to do this job well they have a better grasps on reality and are not as easy to sell lies to or intimidate into backing there corrupt move’s on te tangata How do I know this well this man’s story’s and a few other’s said they were recruited stright out of police school nice and easy to mold into the undercover system’s Greg O’Connor Ana to kai
Ka kite ano P.S one of these people can not take his flash fishing boat out to sea because he is being Eco Maori shamed lol
There you go a good story to back up my wrath against The organization that make or use SUGAR in there prouduct’s link below Ka kite ano
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/aug/18/cases-of-type-2-diabetes-among-young-people-rise-41-in-three-years
You know what they had a soft drink and sweet’s machine all around the hospital what’s worse is they had one right out side the mokopuna’s ward this sugar vending machine’s should be banned from all hospitals Ka kite ano
I see the OIL baron are using there money to attack The Great Visionary Elon Mus credibility all over the media If the OIL baron get there way we will all be in the—–while they swim in there oil mone .
Ka Kaha Elon nobody perfect E hoa you keep up your good work you are one of the many people who are going to change our energy system’s to green electricity carbon free energy
Eco Maori supports you 100 % ka kite ano
P.S unlike some other leader who is championing old failing energy carbon
Because of those wanker sandflys actions my Mokopunas is still suffering in pain do they give a shit no I will be laughing at them in a court house muppets and all these ashole that no what’s going on are just as bad as them
The Justice system serves the Wealthy a free pass or impunity this man bashed people knocked them on the ground and was still hitting them on the ground and he gets to fly back to Britain to play cricket what example does that set for the Mokopunas link below Ka kite ano
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/106272398/england-cricketer-ben-stokes-found-not-guilty-in-assault-trial
Well back get my Mokopuna checked once again at the lakes care and the smart ass sandflys send in one of there muppets red necks I wonder how the can sleep at nite the way they behave O that’s right the Sun shines out there elites ass and We are just savages Ka kite ano
Here is a great leader who we have lost I agree with his last speech at the head of the UN secretary General I see a pattern emerging I will let you know later link below Ka kite ano
Kofi Annan, former UN secretary general, dies
The sandflys don’t give a shit about there actions causeing my Mokopunas pain an suffering for weeks I don’t give a shit who get mud in there faces from now on anything I find on the net I’m going to throw it in there faces they are scared – – – – reap what you sow muppets Ana to kai P.S I at the hospital with my Mokopuna at the minute
This is what Aotearoa would have started to look like if we did not ban foreign buyers from buying Property. The real estate mone men say that they were only a minority of buyers yea right Aotearoa real estate market is mone for jam if you can afford to play the games.
Link below Ka kite ano
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/18/san-francisco-poop-problem-inequality-homelessness
P.S I read 15 years ago that Aotearoa was going to be the home for the wealthy and famous it also priditived the homeless problem we got now