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.
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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span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
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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 https://thestandard.org.nz/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.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10160742604065300&set=pcb.10160742604325300&type=3&theater&ifg=1
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.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=STKkWj2WpWM
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:
https://youtu.be/znmjnEMqHeg
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