Trade Minister Tim Groser, on New Zealand-China relationships, as our meat rots on Chinese wharves, Chinese fears grow about DCD residues in our dairy products, and a double-invoicing scandal has seriously affected our kiwifruit exports. (TV1, Q+A, Sunday 16 June 2013) http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/tim-groser-interview-5465968
See also….
No. 20 John Key: “But if the question is do we use the United States or one of our other partners to circumvent New Zealand law then the answer is categorically no.”
No. 19 Matthew Hooton: “It is ridiculous to say that unions deliver higher wages! They DON’T!”
No. 18 Ant Strachan: “The All Blacks won the RWC 2011 because of outstanding defence!”
No. 17 Stephen Franks: “Peter has been such a level-headed, safe pair of hands.”
No. 16 Phil Kafcaloudes: “Tony Abbott…hasn’t made any mistakes over the past eighteen months.”
No. 15 Donald Rumsfeld: “I did not lie… Colin Powell did not lie.”
No. 14 Colin Powell: “a post-9/11 nexus between Iraq and terrorist organizations…connections are now emerging…”
No.13 Barack Obama: “Simply put, these strikes have saved lives.” http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-27052013/#comment-638881
No. 12 U.K. Ministry of Defence: “Protecting the Afghan civilian population is one of ISAF and the UK’s top priorities.”
No. 11 Brendan O’Connor: “Australia’s approach to refugees is compassionate and generous.”
No. 10 Boris Johnson: “Londoners have… the best police in the world to look after us and keep us safe.”
No. 9 NewstalkZB PR dept: “News you NEED! Fast, fair, accurate!”
No. 8 Simon Bridges: “I don’t mean to duck the question….”
No. 7 Nigel Morrison: “Quite frankly, they’ve been VERY tough.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15052013/#comment-633295
No. 6 NZ Herald PR dept: “Congratulations—you’re reading New Zealand’s best newspaper.”
No. 5 Rawdon Christie: “…a FORMIDABLE replacement, it seems, is Claudette Hauiti.” http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-13052013/#comment-632594
No. 4 Willie and J.T.: “The X-Factor. Nah, nah, there’s some GREAT talent there!”
No. 3 John Key: “Yeah we hold MPs to a higher standard.”
No. 2 Colin Craig: “Oh, I have a GREAT sense of humour.”
No. 1 Barack Obama: “Margaret Thatcher was one of the great champions of freedom and liberty.”
I have no idea of how these receivership-to-takeover deals work. But it all seems like a bit of a scam to me: corproate fails, big corporate picks up the pieces to their advantage.
Selling the assets to a new entity often means that unsecured creditors of the old entity whistle. The Government’s very generous deferral of payments for licenses offered to Mediaworks is going to need a bit of a look into.
“Debts saddled on to MediaWorks as part of the Ironbridge purchase have weighed heavily on the business, and on several occasions debt covenants have been broken. In 2010 the company sought, and was granted, a $43m loan from the Government to pay for radio spectrum licence renewals. That loan was repaid in October 2012. “
You know how it works….Fox News goes to the Reciever, after having taken the shares off the owners for $1, pays off the creditors, gives the previous owners 20% holding with no voting rights and walks away with the whole shooting match for bugger all.
Fair and balanced just in time for next year’s election!
700M of debt, interest sucked it. Private equity firms / banks (offshore) to take the bulk of the Hits. Julie Christie, sigh, there go production values.
RNZ: The NZ Special Effects industry: in contrast to the superior conditions overseas, only 3% locally are working a 40 hour week, majority working 50-80 and up to 100 hours. Hollywood driving down wages, putting companies out of business and many are leaving the occupation.
Excellent Industry development from Peter and John Key, just climactic!
Gee I hope the government made sure that all those sweetheart deals were secured. There is a $43 million dollar loan that may be under threat – http://blog.greens.org.nz/?p=17018
Its been in the poo for a long time and unfortuantly is a current trend of large private equity purchases going bad due to the very leveraged nature of the transaction. Just as a beside this explains why the key team from Korda Mentha and various senior M&A trading bank reps were all out to dinner last Sat , they must have got all their plans that they had been working on for many months signed off with permision to procede.
The equity firms are paying the price for trying to profit off too-good-to-be-true loans used to buy assets that weren’t destined for long-term increases in profitability.
The way the stuff article reads it looks like they are likely to lose their case of rorting the tax payer of $400 million and are restructuring to carry over all the debt apart from what is likely to be owed to the tax payer.
The debt naturally will belong to the old company.
As I commented in 3.2.1.1.1 above, the Stuff article also states towards the bottom, that Mediaworks repaid the $43m loan to the government last October.
Right you are Veuto. I bet Joyce is happy it was repaid. The detail on this will be interesting though and the proposal to pay all creditors is somewhat unusual. The treatment of tax will be one of those issues as noted by DoS.
It seems that this is a construct to not pay the tax they will likely be found to owe.
They are making it quite clear other debt will be carried over.
So having already evaded the tax once they now seek to evade it again.
The smirk on the receivers face as he talked about not carrying that debt over was nauseating.
I can see no good reason why they shouldn’t have to reduce costs, restructure, etc in order to repay their debt.
Surely given the stated intention to repay debt other than the potential IRD debt this can mainly be seen as a tax rort.
Notice the Company who did the some of the SCF receivership, the Solid Energy report, the Sky City report for the government, the Crafar farms deal i.e. the receivers and Sky City pop up again with the past executive to go on the new board.
. It ‘s such a small group of people ripping us off they keep tripping over themselves. Just waiting for Shipley to turn up.
Always, always the PAYE tax payer gets screwed. And in this country, with so many loopholes and no tax on property dealings. And no taxes on the sale of businesses. The PAYE worker gets screwed.
Not that John Key or Davis Shearer gives a rats arse. They will still get invites to warm boxes.
As sure as night follows day, as sure as water runs own hill, the structure of this transfer of assets from bad company to BS company will reduces the amount of tax NZ gets.
No I dont think so Nick, there has been a large degree of planning behind this to ensure that it continues as a going concern. Evidently they want to retain all staff as well as the business at an operating level does well but unfortunatly is so highly levearged that its overall earnings are poor. The key idea is the banks want to get rid of the PE owners and get a better functioing board on.
Another day, another ridiculous post by Martyn Bradbury on the dailyblog, which he is turning into another vanity project for his personal fantasies. Already, I have noticed the frequency of posts from his more credible bloggers is dropping.
Someone ought to take him aside and tell him making shit up and pretending it is based on some sort of inside information is not smart politics, it is just pathetic and slightly cringe worthy, but I suspect Mr. Bradbury is man whose ears are painted on.
Which post of Bomber’s are you referring to: the one on the by-election? The one on Dunne-Vance?
I don’t always agree with Bomber, but I most often do, and I like his rhetorical flair. And he has been doing a great service to the left in providing platforms, online & on TV, for a range of significant left wingers.
I’m picking its the Dunne-Vance thing. HOWEVER there are a couple of things to do with ‘the leak’ that may have been overlooked. e.g. The motivation for the leak – the threat that it was going to be sanitised/further sanitised.
Dunne three strikes. No asset sales said Dunne in election mode, membership fiasco meanig Dunne jumped before he was pushed, and now disclosing all his emails in a Nationals security investigation.
The Dunne-Vance post is not really off the wall. There’s always been the possibility of someone else having done the leak. Bomber seems to have taken the substance of the post from comments coming into TDB’s tip line.
Indeed. I’m suggesting that report actually got ‘leaked’ pretty bloody early on in the proceedings – if you know what I mean, and I suspect you do. (Before/during all that numbering schema, and all that other spook crap was applied).
The trap people have fallen into is that they’ve assumed that any response to its findings (interim or otherwise) being ‘leaked, were going to be immediate.
Oh, and NOR am I suggesting that the person closest to its production was necessarily responsible. There are of course friends/family/others who do things thinking they’re acting in a person’s best interests.
Anyway …. it doesn’t really matter that much now, except in the sense that the various machinations going on now are only of use to those wanting political scoring points, and those that are claiming knowlwdge of what went on are all as bad as each other in any event.
Thankfully, it saw the light of day BEFORE it could be sanitised and manipulated further – which (I think) was reason for its ‘leak’
Andrea Vance is friendly with Jordan Williams, to the point of helping him make some contacts in London. Jordan Williams is, of course, Simon Lusk’s minion. I’m surprised no one has picked up on this.
So – why has Martyn Bradbury BANNED me from commenting on his Daily Blog?
As an ‘investigative activist’ / Public Watchdog – I’ve done research that no one else has done on a number of topics, and helped to initiate ACTION to help fix the discovered problem.
He has NEVER interviewed me on his show.
So – sorry but I don’t share your view:
“And he has been doing a great service to the left in providing platforms, online & on TV, for a range of significant left wingers.”
erk!
How the hell did that happen RT? What’s his skills?
(I would genuinely like to know btw). I mean I’ve seen the various attempts on TVNZ7, but I wasn’t actually that convinced. I’m aware of course of the regime UNDER which he had to operate but…Please – convince me!
Another day, another ridiculous post by Martyn Bradbury on the dailyblog, which he is turning into another vanity project for his personal fantasies. Already, I have noticed the frequency of posts from his more credible bloggers is dropping.
Someone ought to take him aside and tell him making shit up and pretending it is based on some sort of inside information is not smart politics, it is just pathetic and slightly cringe worthy, but I suspect Mr. Bradbury is man whose ears are painted on.
I also don’t know which post you are referring to. Why not be clear instead of maligning the man without showing what you are actually upset about?
Yes, it would be interesting to see a current comparison of site stats for TS and TDB.
(certainly learn more from reading TS, maybe there is a vanity publishing aspect to TDB)
An odd thing; on TDB I made a reply comment commending a contributors comment and from four votes resulted a net 0 for my encouragement of them. Not that what other people think should matter too much, but hey, it was only a comment of support for their efforts.
Hey Roguey. Well its a thumbs up from me to you. I have noticed the voting on the Daily Blog is a little inconsistent but like you say, how much does it really matter?
I suspect however that the RWNJ’s do a daily troll through and down vote everyone who has anything positive or intelligent to say.
that gave me a smile Rosie, although, there are many sharp posters and commentors at TDB,
QoT, John Minto, Keith Locke, Lynn, Matt Robson, Mike Treen, Jane Kelsey (now, I wonder about those initials), The Jackal, Wayne Butson. Great comments from AFKTT, Countryboy, Adam White, Ovicula, Draco et al;
Chris Trotter writes some comprehensive essays, yet, personally, I am never certain if his conviction matches his creativity, but then, what would I know, I’m only a gardener with a penchant for Loud Rock Music and a craving, right now, for some hot chips. 😀
Ah – OK. Besides me thinks you’re a bit younger than I anyway.
(I once drove buses in Wgtn – albeit managing to get a licence before it was truely legit). THought you might have been a WCT “shiftman”.
Apparently not.
At least you didn’t have to suffer the indignity of having a job title of
“standby gripman” (old cable car stuff)
Mmmm. Hot chips. Now you’re talking. Especially if you’ve grown the tatties yourself….And music, we can never get enough of the stuff. I recently read an interesting article in MOJO about the “Red Wedge”, a group of left British musicians (inc Paul Weller, Billy Bragg, The Communards etc who raged against Thatcherism in the 80’s. Where is that spirit now?
I digress and ramble. Re Chris Trotter. I have mixed feelings. I always learn something from his historical references including material to be found in chapters in No Left Turn, as well as online but I wonder how much of this glorious past is romanticised by him.
Ultimately though, and said with a sigh, I’m tired of words and arguments and going nowhere. Until we, as a people, people meaning fed up and disadvantaged NZer’s unify and react meaningfully to the multitude of issues mowing us down nothing will change. Dreary I know but most likely true.
We can put our hope in various opposition parties but it’s not enough.
Enjoy your gardening. That is a useful, self sufficient and rewarding activity:-)
Assuming that Sactuary is talking about the by-election post, I’m in total agreement. The article is opinion masquerading as fact. No cites, no links to actual polling to back up the ‘fingertips’ fantasy, no quotes from anyone in any of the parties. It wouldn’t make the grade as a TS post because of the lack of substance, but I suppose it’s his site and he can put up whatever waffle he wants.
It’ll be interesting when the counting is done. From the tone of the post, I’m guessing that whatever the size of the eventual winning Labour vote, Bomber will claim he was ‘right all along, Labour have no mandate, the Greens can now win electorate seats’ etc.
Edit: just as an aside, there are many, many more comments about the post in this thread on TS than in the actual TDB site. That’s Bomber’s real problem, right there.
I’ve had my issues with Bomber but that article is opinion and not pretending to be anything else. The problem is you don’t like the opinion or the conclusions but really does that matter?
As for the voting, yes the day will tell the story and I live in hope that labour’s terror campaign fails and that Mana and the Greens come through – I’ll be loving that alright!!! Kia kaha Mana and Greens – resist the terror campaign Ikaroa-Rāwhiti voters and vote for the future not the past.
“…that article is opinion and not pretending to be anything else”.
Not so, Marty. Bomber doesn’t qualify these statements as opinion, but presents them as facts:
“Their candidate has been very difficult on the electoral trail and lacks any of the charisma necessary to enthuse turn out.”
“Other factions view her win using her Brothers vote as shonky and have taken their toys home pulling any real support beyond lip service.”
“Their internal polling is gloomy and Labour have sent their entire caucus into the electorate this week in a last minute attempt to pull the election around.”
“Labour insiders believe Te Hamua has the momentum.”
Ok, they’re not actually facts, and I’m guessing Bomber has lazily tried to make speculation and wishful thinking look like something of substance, but it’s a dishonest way to write. A few ‘I thinks’ and ‘I’m tolds’ would make it clearer that this is just opinion based on hope, rather than commentary based on facts.
I took it as given seeing as how his main source of information seems to be the ‘tip line’ at TDB. All his posts today seem sloppily written. I don’t know if the information is wishful thinking, or if it has some substance. What makes you think you know?
The reason I’m sure it’s wishful thinking, weka, is that he has no cites of any kind. No quotes from any of the parties involved, no detail of the internal polling etc. He’s pulled it out of his nether regions and dressed it up to sound legit, IMHO.
@marty: I agree its a continuation of his personal style, but that style is often grating, fanciful and bombastic. I don’t think the kiwi left needs a version of the right’s Alex Jones or, more to the point, a local version of Cameron ‘tipline’ Slater.
That’s harsh TRP and not accurate imo. What the left need is to accept the differences we all have that make us who we are and concentrate on those opposite who constantly try to divide us. And we also need labour and its supporters to stop trying to terrorise their political opponents and instead to concentrate their wrath on the righties in and out of their party ffs.
Yes, well put marty. And believe me, there is a lot of wrath at the righties inside the party right about now. The Skycity debacle has really clarified things for a lot of members and I expect the moderation committee is going to be asked by the rank and file to deliver a list free of deadwood for the next election. However, it’s going to be a lot harder to rid ourselves of electorate based liabilities and non performers like Faa foi, Mallard and, well, it’s a long list so I won’t go on.
For the electorate MPs: time to start working with their LECs and branches, finding support for good quality potential candidates willing to stand up for a hard Selection fight against the sitting MP.
You can’t imagine the shock I feel at seeing a man universally known as “Bomber” being described as “bombastic”.
Perhaps you should learn to fact check, not just Bomber; but everyone! Though his particular tendency to let a turn of phrase obscure, rather than reveal; the truth, can admittedly get a bit wearying.
Still, I do find his broadcasts on “Citizen A” (and once upon a time “Bomber’s Blog”) always brilliant: Sometimes a pure diamond brilliance, but often; merely the flash of rhinestones as a master magician controls your attention. If it’s entertaining and provoking, then he has succeeded in his trick. Just don’t ever try repeating anything he has produced without checking for yourself that you are sure how it was done!
I’m not sure if it is dishonest considering he generally always writes like that but I can see why labour supporters would be pissed off with it. Personally as a Mana member I find he is a double edged sword but I take what he writes as an extension of how he speaks and just accept it for what it is, a particular style if you like.
It would be interesting to get another post from jenny to hear what she has found out there whilst campaigning for labour (hopefully not another sarcastic one though) and of course everything will sort itself out on the (voting) day.
And if the Greens win, then that may just be the kick up the arse that the morons in charge of Labour need to make some much needed changes, to personnel.
“Assuming that Sactuary is talking about the by-election post, I’m in total agreement. The article is opinion masquerading as fact. No cites, no links to actual polling to back up the ‘fingertips’ fantasy, no quotes from anyone in any of the parties. It wouldn’t make the grade as a TS post because of the lack of substance, but I suppose it’s his site and he can put up whatever waffle he wants.”
I found the quality of the three posts by Bradbury today pretty poor. But I don’t see the by-election one as too different than some of the posts on ts, where people like Eddie post from inside knowledge and don’t give any citations or backup. We are left to make our decisions about the validity of the information.
With Bomber, at one end of the spectrum is Sanctuary (who thinks he is full of shit), and at the other are… well I don’t know if anyone believes that Bomber’s information is pure gold. But most of us I suspect sit in the middle somewhere, don’t really care that much about the ego/style issues, and just add Bomber’s views to the mix in making up our minds about what is going on.
…another ridiculous post… vanity project… personal fantasies… frequency of posts from his more credible bloggers is dropping… making shit up and pretending it is based on some sort of inside information… pathetic… cringe-worthy… ears are painted on
You’ve used a lot of adjectives and told us precisely nothing. Why all this animosity against Bradbury? Could you be specific?
Right now, this looks like nothing more than a personal grudge against one of this country’s more principled and eloquent critics of the Key regime.
I was just trying to annoy our friend “Sanctuary”. I knew he couldn’t be Hooton, or any other National Party drone, because a quick perusal of his other recent posts show that Sanctuary is an intelligent, thoughtful and humane person.
I just can’t believe, though, how he has attacked Bomber. It has to be something personal.
You said “try reading the criticism at face value”. So I did. I can’t see the basis for the criticism (not saying there isn’t one, just that it’s not obvious).
To be clear, what I mean is that my comment wasn’t actually about Bomber’s post. It was about Morrissey’s reaction to it and the assumptions contained within.
Fair enough. I suppose I responded because it’s hard to read a criticism at face value (rather than judge it as a personal grudge), when it’s unclear what the actual criticism is. I agree with you in principal though.
(for what it’s worth Sanctuary’s comment came across to me as a mix of potentially legit criticism and just plain dislike of the man).
I read it that he is, in sanc’s opinion, annoying sanc and embarrassing the more important ‘left’ bloggers that sanc likes by continuing to blog in his well known ‘excitable bullshitting’ way which sanc seems to think should have changed when he set up TDB. Oh and sanc doesn’t like the ‘wild and grandiose’ postings on Mana because that isn’t ‘uniting’ or ‘achieving’ the mission statement of TDB as stated. But I’ve just written that to help clarity based on the incomplete information in sanc’s posting to date.
Slater’s been running a campaign saying that Bomber is getting paid by Mana and therefore he’s as bad as Lusk/Farrar/Hooten et al. As if Mana had the kind of money business has to throw around, eh?
Yep, it is a stretch. Bomber is open and honest about who he works for, whereas Hooten lives in the shadows with the Hollow Men. Slater, of course, is happy to post anything, anytime, from anyone, as long as a cheque comes attached.
There is a world of difference between a cash strapped minor party paying a pittance for some occasional political advice and an orchestrated rorting of the political process.
“…. posts show that Sanctuary is an intelligent, thoughtful and humane person.”
Aye to that
+1 and all that kinda kaka.
….and @ Morissey – I hope you didn’t put yourself through all that ‘nicest man on Earth’ Mora puff shit not long after 1pm. ” A-her a-her a-her a-her (forced laugh) Rotary sensitive crap.
Is RNZ’s retention of the guy an attempt to display they’re fair and balanced?
If that’s the reason, I’ll put up with it because I’ve no doubt the junta has the knives out looking for an excuse.
Watch as reporters try to get an honest answer out of this PR flack. The highlight—or lowlight—comes when she asserts, with a completely straight face, that the U.S. government is “always concerned about attacks on innocent civilians.”
That brazen lie is uttered at the 4:00 mark in the video….
QUESTION: Do you have a comment on the increased attack by settlers against Palestinian farmers and villagers?
MS. PSAKI: I don’t – I’m not sure which report you’re referring to.
QUESTION: I mean, they are constant. They happen almost every day within – they double every month. Talk about doubling. I mean, it doubles every month. Are you concerned, or do you raise this issue with the Israelis? Do you demand that they bring these attackers to justice?
MS. PSAKI: I don’t – I’m not sure what report you’re referring to. We’re always concerned about attacks on innocent civilians, but beyond that I’m not sure I have much more to add.
QUESTION: Okay. Do you expect both sides to hold the aggressors from their side accountable to justice? Do you call on both sides that they do that, including the Israelis?
MS. PSAKI: I think we’ve probably done what we can here on this topic, Said.
It just annoys me that he take me and others for fools. He has no need to make things up to appear more important or more knowledgable than he is. He has a profile. But no one will ever take him seriously until he gets his ego and wishful thinking masquerading as fact under a bit more control. The other issue is that by making wild and grandiose claims in a clearly partisan way for Mana you are hardly achieving the mission statement of the site, which was presumably written by Bradbury, and says “…The Daily Blog Unites Top Left-Wing Political Commentators and Progressive Opinion Shapers…” Unite? Hardly. Unless of course for Martyn the “left” starts and ends with the Mana party, in which case he ought to have been more honest with his contributors instead of allowing his excitable bullshitting to embarass the more important of them by their association with his blog.
“Unless of course for Martyn the “left” starts and ends with the Mana party, in which case he ought to have been more honest with his contributors instead of allowing his excitable bullshitting to embarass the more important of them by their association with his blog.”
He has Marama Davidson blogging on TDB too (thinking about the by-election). I think you are confusing Bradbury’s role as founder and owner of TDB with his personal views as a blogger. Sure he supports Mana, that’s hardly a secret, so why shouldn’t he blog from that position? Unless he is actively refusing to publish material from people who support other parties I can’t see what the problem is.
Unfortunately Sanct, his ego is probably the (his) biggest problem – I find it fukn intolerable at times too. (I mean for me – I could get the hate on David Slack – or a number of others that have a certain appeal in many ways – but who do so from priviledged positions – tarnished silver spoons – whatever).
When you think about it though – it’s no worse, and probably a shitload better than most of his adversaries, and it shouldn’t be used as an impediment to his getting a load of noble messages across.
Look at it this way – by and large, they’re all up themselves (I mean the ‘media-obsessed folk’) – some so far up themselves any attempt at a 3 point turn would see them heading for their liver, or kidneys.
TDB needs support, AS DOES TS.
Pick your battles.
The Manufacturing Enquiry report is out, main recommendations are:
1) a fairer and less volatile exchange rate through reforms to monetary policy;
2) refocusing capital investment into the productive economy, rather than housing speculation;
3) lowering structural costs in the economy, such as electricity prices.
ah, now, I’d like to have a quick chat over a cuppa about the Sunday article, realtor and economic commentary of the housing market. Madness, it appears, absolute madness.
The locals interviewed were spending all their spare time driving all over Ak to view properties and spectate at auctions to secure “the perfect house”- deep sigh. Emotional buying.
The Fear of Missing Out (on Easy Money) over-riding even investment returns for some speculators.
The return of ‘Investment Seminars’, $8000 a show, where you are introduced to establishing your property portfolio with no up-front cash deposit required.
Peter Barfoot- 40% of Auction sales ARE going to Asian bidders.
-20 of Barfoot’s highest grossing sales-people are Asian, who work more conscientiously and longer hours than their non-asian colleagues.
Didn’t get his surname but ‘David’ claims a further 30% growth in prices is possible; the immigration influence is just coming on stream now!
Shamubeel Eaqub- an objective Economist.
-people are not thinking through their commitments.
-need to allow for a 3% hike in interest rates
-yet some are committed to 70-80% of their incomes; 100K income permits 700K mortgage.
-Shamubeel does not own a home and receives greater returns from renting and a managed investment portfolio.Will buy a home in the future, but for domestic motivations.
He says it is inevitable we will see a crisis , similar to the sub-prime, and that a 30% devaluation in your investment will be painful.
And given that manipulated economic data out of China is now the norm (as it is becoming in other countries), sharp analysts are looking at things like power consumption and trash collection volumes as measures of real economic performance. (Ironic confirmation for the environmentalists – the better the global economy is doing the more rubbish we produce as a civilisation).
so, further lowering of growth in China, Poission, and the rest of the nations exporting there, seeing that in Germany now.
Devaluation, more domestic capital flight to countries like New Zealand, to invest primarily in residential property, a further drop in the coal price. hmmm, looks favourable for the implementation of the Report into Manufacturing recommendations Not being realised.
Firstly, it drives unsustainable growth and consumption. Corporations must produce and sell more to pay interest and repay loans. Easy credit encourages more and more unsustainable consumption.
Secondly, this way of creating money increases the cost of everything and fuels the nation’s escalating debt.
and Russel Norman’s excellent article on the same happening here in NZ:
The first point to note is that all of this huge increase in the money supply, what Key would call ‘money printing’, happened without the government engaging in any kind of government led increase in the money supply. It was private led increase in money supply.
Anybody saying that the government shouldn’t just print money obviously either a) has NFI how money is created in the first place or b) knows exactly how it’s created and wants to keep it going that way.
If we wish to become an equitable and sustainable society then we must take back the creation of money from the banks. No economic reform is possible until we do.
Inflation is designed by the ruling class to delay repayment of debt, while devaluing it, and at the same time shift the debt burden onto future generations of workers to pay.
Interestingly enough it will be a race between starvation of oxygen and food to give our children and grandchildren debt relief.
Rrrrrrruuuuuuussssssssssssssseeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllll even in his inflated existence should be calling for the destruction of capitalism and salvation of human life.
This insistence that the availability of money limits public action stands reality on its head. Money is the way that resources are mobilised. Libraries are closed for lack of money when all the resources, buildings, books, staff and the demand are there and all that is needed is the money.
That people must be kept unemployed and services cut because they are unaffordable for lack of money makes no sense. Only by mobilising resources fully can anything be afforded.
Taking the money creation off of the private banks and putting it back with government would allow for better use of our resources.
The Commerce Committee has reported back on Te Ururoa Flavell’s Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill. But while they’ve recommended that it be passed with amendments, the bill has basically been gutted, turned from a tool to reduce gambling harm to one to increase it.
Yeah, about what I’d expect from this government. I/S sums it nicely:
These amendments were imposed by the National majority on the committee. The conclusion? That party is the bought-and-paid-for servant of the gambling industry.
Corruption: Alive and well in NZ and living in the Beehive.
The issue is still who is the alternative, from the same I/S post:
Meanwhile, the Labour Party did not issue a minority report on the bill, and instead “reserve[d] its position”. Clayton Cosgrove was on the committee. Clayton Cosgrove was also in SkyCity’s corporate box last week. You can draw your own conclusions from that.
Until the Greens can convince more of NZ they should be in power we seem stuck.
Auckland Public Transport- “Third World”, “increasingly erratic”and “deteriorating” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10890937
“lack of serviceable vehicles” -NZ BUS.
coincidentally, chatting with a Mechanical Foreman recently, he stated, that they just cannot get diligent experienced staff. 😉
During the housing boom from 2001 to 2007, house prices rose 123% (87% in real terms), including 24% in 2003, 12.5% in 2004, 14.5% in 2005, 9.6% in 2006, and 7.7% in 2007.
House prices started to fall in early 2008, as the global crisis spread to New Zealand. During 2008, house prices fell 8.95% (-11.93% in real terms). Then in 2009, house prices rebounded by 5.42% (3.4% in real terms). However in 2010, house prices fell again by 1.65% (-5.45% in real terms). In 2011, house prices recovered slightly, rising by 2.8% (0.93% in real terms).
But all people with low deposits can just b…ger off because they haven’t got a hope in hell anyway and just muck up the economics of it all. After all these figures represent the only really active financial opportunities open to investors in NZ today.
They’ve lost gay marriage. Contraception and abortion is now their key rallying topics. In other words, expect more misogyny from this lot. A lot more.
C&A have been their targets though for a couple of decades, as the local crowd have been drawing their rhetoric from the USA following the political ascendency of the religious right in the 1980’s and the failures of the the local Dutch inspired religious right to have any real political impact.
that is interesting NickS; personal experience of the failures of the local Dutch religious right (that explains some sightings) , still stuck into the literal creeds etc. Reform or perish.Although, some lovely genetic endowments among the meid.
Key to devalued Auckland home values, by building on reserves; while ignoring why reserves exist because much of the land was hard to build on in the first place, hard to get at – steep – and so costly both to build but also for owners over the lifetime of the homes.
“In response to this NZ Herald on Sunday article dated 16 June 2013, entitled “The $340-a-week houses with million-dollar views” – these State houses were constructed for 2000 pounds each, are freehold and have been paid for by State tenants many times over,” says Housing Lobby Spokesperson Sue Henry.
“The ironic contradiction here is that the day before this story went to print it was ‘World Elder Abuse Awareness Day’. ”
Elder abuse and neglect needs to stop and it is up to all of us to work together to prevent it, says Senior Citizens Minister Jo Goodhew.
Saturday 15 June 2013 marks the eighth World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.
“World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is about acknowledging older people as integral to strong families, and affirming that there is no place for elder abuse,” says Mrs Goodhew.
“The prevention of elder abuse and neglect is one of my key priorities and something I personally feel very strongly about.”
Elder abuse can take many forms, and includes behaviours or lack of action which causes physical, psychological, sexual or financial harm or distress to an older person.
“Older people are entitled to make their own decisions, feel safe and live free of fear. They have the right to dignity and care in a supportive environment,” Mrs Goodhew says. ………..
“It’s disgusting how this National/ACT Government has sanctioned greedy property developers to abuse the vulnerable, elderly folk who have worked hard, law-abiding lives, paid for and built for a significant amount of amenities in the Glen Innes area which the property developers are now endeavouring to ransack,”
“These elderly State tenants are not being given eviction notices – they’re being effectively given death sentences.”
“Is this the thanks that Returned Servicemen, and widows of those deceased, particularly those allocated permanent State homes in the Glen Innes area, are getting? ”
“The Housing Lobby are calling for, in the first instance, tenure protection to be reinstated forthwith .for these elderly State tenants.
We also want their exemption from intimidating, stressful reviews,” she concluded.
She is not doing a good job with her press releases, however. She has the idea in her head that each sentence requires its own paragraph. That press release is full of interesting information, but there is no development or flow to it. Even people who are interested in Housing policy would not be tempted to read that handout, simply because it has not been put together with much care or attention to presentation.
Well, she’s presumably writing for the MSM, which also tend to make each sentence a paragraph on its own, at least online. I’ve often wondered why they do that. Is it meant to be easier on the eye? Or is it,a s you say, a way of avoiding the development of a comprehensive theme or argument?
Just brilliant. It depresses me. He should be at the front of the queue not the back. Also, he’s not afraid to show real emotion – anger in this case – when the subject matter is so important.
I agree. Why is one of the performers in the caucus stuck at the back. Enough already. Good to see someone actually shows some passion still. Something that is sorely lacking in the Labour Party at the moment. Too busy going to corporate boxes it seems.
Mallard’s criticism of Deputy Police Commissioner well justified
Police Minister’s riposte ignores evidence-planting findings of royal commission.
by BRYAN GOULD, New Zealand Herald, Monday 17 June 2013
Trevor Mallard may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Even his friends might concede that he occasionally betrays a lack of judgment. But, in his criticism of Deputy Police Commissioner Mike Bush when the senior policeman appeared recently before a select committee, he was entirely justified.
[Deleted – don’t copy paste]
Just over a year ago……
I worry for Cameron, if collapsing a piss ant security firm had him in the foetal position rocking in the dark and crying for 5 years then I hate to think what sinking a newspaper with a 125 year history will do.
Probably but Slater has really annoyed me through the years where he has done his utmost to ruin people’s lives who weren’t even in the public eye, online nes aggregation start ups, commenters etc.
Yeah, but it’s not just about him tho is it? There are staff, and their families, and, well, a masthead with over a 100 years of history. Dudes a dick no doubt, & jokes are fucking begging to be made at his expense, but it’s a sad thing.
I am certain the NZ public would lap it up in spades…..especially once Mediaworks is dead & buried for good!
Since you have ruled politics out then it is time to rule the media world eh Cameron – you’ve already dropped the expletives in the titles of your posts on here so swoop in & take advantage of the Tv3/4 established audience…show them that news can actually contain facts & no BS.
A very significant post from Jane Kelsey today, on the rise social democratic government in Iceland since the GFC, the subsequent re-election of “the old guard”.:
There are many unnerving commonalities for New Zealand in the background to the crisis, but that is a much longer story than can be written here. In particular, stories about how the intimate network of well placed businessmen and politicians reminded me of the 1980s, as well as recent back room deals, the way the executive is bypassing and binding the hands of future of Parliaments, and the scrutiny of parliamentary officials and judicial review is being removed. Iceland shows how easy it is for the conditions for crisis to be created through these networks and be shielded from public view until it is too late. –
She raises an important point about the post-GFC Iceland social democratic government lacking a clear plan:
The composition of the government was also crucial. The SDP and Left-Greens had no clear game plan, but their instincts and core values drove a progressive policy. Iceland’s neoliberalism never directly attacked the welfare state. There remains a very strong cultural commitment to Nordic style welfare policies and gender equality. It may be imperfect in the eyes of locals, but it remains much stronger than countries with a less robust commitment to anglo-style welfarism. –
It also shows up some differences from the NZ culture.
And considering where the Iceland social democrat government went wrong:
So why did the left government get kicked out so resoundingly in the September elections? There seem to be three main reasons. First, they did not have a clear ongoing strategy to address the flow on impacts for households.
Second reason: support of the European Community, even though it backed austerity measures.
And, again, the need for a clear plan:
The third factor is the lack of any clear analysis of the systemic causes of the crisis. Popular opposition was initially prompted by a sense of betrayal; since then, attacks have focused on individuals rather than financialisation and its consequences. The SCP contained a spectrum of positions and the Left-Greens were more comfortable in critique from outside the government. It remains to be seen which direction the new governing coalition of the Progressive and Independence parties will go, and whether the neoliberal vanguard can resume control.
Iran sends 4000 troops to help Assad in Syria with Russia also supporting; US now fully allied with Sunni Muslims in 1400 year conflict against Shia Islam
Well, what could possibly go wrong with a proxy war in the Middle East. Does someone really want to cause an upset of, ahem, biblical/Q’uranic proportions?
For the Russians, of course, the ‘Middle East’ is not in the ‘east’ at all, but to the south of Moscow; and statistics are all-important. The Chechen capital of Grozny is scarcely 500 miles from the Syrian frontier. Fifteen per cent of Russians are Muslim. Six of the Soviet Union’s communist republics had a Muslim majority, 90 per cent of whom were Sunni. And Sunnis around the world make up perhaps 85 per cent of all Muslims. For a Russia intent on repositioning itself across a land mass that includes most of the former Soviet Union, Sunni Islamists of the kind now fighting the Assad regime are its principal antagonists.
old-school justice, an eye for an eye. Even the MSM journos have been pointing out the long memories of China, and Russia, and then there are the Islamists of course. Must give one a sense of security and all that, being an American Idiot.
Given how long it has functioned as an exploitational empire I somewhat doubt it as well. I think it will be US uber alles for some time yet. Even any economic recovery there would be still predicated on predating on other countries and their resources, because it can.
These crazed, war industry sponsored operations, have been going on more than half a century, and yet co2 is taking the blame The blatant stench of distraction, reeks, and has always been a trap for the punters to despise their own existence, and agonize over.
CFC’s ozonze hole (since the 70’s), nah, its the war machine paid, scientists looking for for new weapons, that’s heavily responsible for the damage to our planets atmospheric layers!
People don’t want to blame the science, I have no problem pointing the middle finger , right at it!
Joe, are you saying Argus, S-Prime and D1,2 did not happen, or that perhps all the nuclear detonations over the decades, land, sea, air, inluding the reactor meltdows, could not be a contributing factor to the messed up state of the weather, via the damage in the atmospheric layers etc?
Your links are getting weak mate, too long on the net, or too tied to the science trip, to see it for what it really has become!
Looks like you have a friend in Pop, who can;t divorce himself from anything which might taint his view of, *AMERICAN*.!
Which of course the scientists involved, mostly, were not!
Whoa Muzza. Dalziel would be a damned fine mayor and Christchurch have had a few over the years, for instance Buck and Moore. She would be just what Christchurch needs, someone who would stand up against the Government and promote real development of the area.
The link in the Ellis reference is tenuous in the extreme.
Oh look a 10 year old, repeat 10 year old, report where a public servant with a bit of humour and a sense of satire who made a comment that went *whoosh* over the head of the right is somehow conclusive evidence that Lianne, and the link is not established except she was a Minister at the time, is not fit for public office despite a life history of public service.
Is that all you have Muzza. Don’t hold back, don’t imply, just slander to your heart’s content.
Its not slander Mickey – LD, might well be a good thing for ChCh, but then again, anyone who lined up against that pest , Parker, would be!
These people are wrong-uns, they get given too much leeway, the standards are too low these days, and what concerns me, is the way that many are comfortable with it all, and happy to *give them a go*!
Yeah, nah, its time to clear decks, very few exceptions of the current crop would remain, LD, would not be one of them!
You mean Muzza that no public servant should ever show the slightest shred of humour ever again?
I thought the “lying in unison” was a wonderfully crafted phrase. When I saw it I knew that the poor old public servant was taking the piss but a bunch of RWNJs without a humour chip jumped up and down about it.
So I am failing to see the problem. Even if I take out my humour chip I still can’t see what this has to do with Dalziel.
Please enlighten us.
Or are you an adherent to the Cameron Slater if you smear enough excrement some of it is sure to stick school of political discourse?
“Edit – The Ellis link, is direct, via her sister, and husband, nothing *tenuous in the extreme* about it.”
So now being related to someone taints you? WTF?
I read the first link you gave and as far as I can see Dalziel acted with integrity – she exempted herself from a process because of conflicts of interest. How exactly is she tainted?
A great interview on National Radio on Sunday morning about Christchurch. It confirmed for me that the current government has betrayed the trust of New Zealanders – not once but multiple times:
1. EQC was supposed to look after us and pay for the effects of a major disaster – it has been white-anted by penny pinching and fights with insurance companies and owners, but the most obvious aspect was only offering 50% of land to many Christchurch owners not able to return to their homes. The level of funding of EQC is only part of the story – arbitrary levy limits and lower funding has happened under both National and Labour governments (except under Cullen some of that was reversed), but the underlying commitment promised by the scheme has not ever previously been as cynically compromised.
2. The forcing through of projects for the monuments to politicians in a stadium and conference centre and other large buildings before homes for people.
3. The lack of consultation by Brownlee over planning, and the arrogant over-riding of the local Council
4. The unwillingness to engage with insurers to provide a system that does not require multiple expert reports for assessments and negotiations, and does not require even the level of service expected by insured residents – the profits before people attitude always won despite rhetoric that sounded nice, but in reality resulted in insurers recovering reserve levels at the expense of their ‘clients’.
The worms will live in every hostIt's hard to pick which one they eat the mostThe horrible people, the horrible peopleIt's as anatomic as the size of your steepleCapitalism has made it this wayOld-fashioned fascism will take it awaySongwriter: Twiggy Ramirez Read more ...
Hi,It’s almost Christmas Day which means it is almost my birthday, where you will find me whimpering in the corner clutching a warm bottle of Baileys.If you’re out of ideas for presents (and truly desperate) then it is possible to gift a full Webworm subscription to a friend (or enemy) ...
This morning’s six standouts for me at 6.30am include:Rachel Helyer Donaldson’s scoop via RNZ last night of cuts to maternity jobs in the health system;Maddy Croad’s scoop via The Press-$ this morning on funding cuts for Christchurch’s biggest food rescue charity;Benedict Collins’ scoop last night via 1News on a last-minute ...
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 15, 2024 thru Sat, December 21, 2024. Based on feedback we received, this week's roundup is the first one published soleley by category. We are still interested in ...
Well, I've been there, sitting in that same chairWhispering that same prayer half a million timesIt's a lie, though buried in disciplesOne page of the Bible isn't worth a lifeThere's nothing wrong with youIt's true, it's trueThere's something wrong with the villageWith the villageSomething wrong with the villageSongwriters: Andrew Jackson ...
ACT would like to dictate what universities can and can’t say. We knew it was coming. It was outlined in the coalition agreement and has become part of Seymour’s strategy of “emphasising public funding” to prevent people from opposing him and his views—something he also uses to try and de-platform ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Are we heading ...
So the Solstice has arrived – Summer in this part of the world, Winter for the Northern Hemisphere. And with it, the publication my new Norse dark-fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens at Eternal Haunted Summer: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2024/as-our-power-lessens/ As previously noted, this one is very ‘wyrd’, and Northern Theory of Courage. ...
The Natural Choice: As a starter for ten percent of the Party Vote, “saving the planet” is a very respectable objective. Young voters, in particular, raised on the dire (if unheeded) warnings of climate scientists, and the irrefutable evidence of devastating weather events linked to global warming, vote Green. After ...
The Government cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political ...
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashEvery morning I get up at 3am to go around the traps of news sites in Aotearoa and globally. I pick out the top ones from my point of view and have been putting them into my Dawn Chorus email, which goes out with a podcast. ...
Over on Kikorangi Newsroom's Marc Daalder has published his annual OIA stats. So I thought I'd do mine: 82 OIA requests sent in 2024 7 posts based on those requests 20 average working days to receive a response Ministry of Justice was my most-requested entity, ...
Welcome to the December 2024 Economic Bulletin. We have two monthly features in this edition. In the first, we discuss what the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury and the Budget Policy Statement from the Minister of Finance tell us about the fiscal position and what to ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
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Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
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In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
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AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Kiwis planning a swim or heading out on a boat this summer should remember to stop and think about water safety, Sport & Recreation Minister Chris Bishop and ACC and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “New Zealand’s beaches, lakes and rivers are some of the most beautiful in the ...
The Government is urging Kiwis to drive safely this summer and reminding motorists that Police will be out in force to enforce the road rules, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“This time of year can be stressful and result in poor decision-making on our roads. Whether you are travelling to see ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...
Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...
The Government today released a request for information (RFI) to seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value (excluding National Parks) Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood ...
Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...
A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...
The Government has confirmed how it will provide redress to survivors who were tortured at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (the Lake Alice Unit). “The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that many of the 362 children who went through the Lake Alice Unit between 1972 and ...
It has been a busy, productive year in the House as the coalition Government works hard to get New Zealand back on track, Leader of the House Chris Bishop says. “This Government promised to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and reduce the cost of living. Our record this ...
“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...
Mehemea he pai mō te tangata, mahia – if it’s good for the people, get on with it. Enhanced reporting on the public sector’s delivery of Treaty settlement commitments will help improve outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders, Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka says. Compiled together for the ...
Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...
More building consent and code compliance applications are being processed within the statutory timeframe since the Government required councils to submit quarterly data, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “In the midst of a housing shortage we need to look at every step of the build process for efficiencies ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is proud to announce the first three recipients of the Government’s $10 million Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund which will enable more Kiwis faster access to mental health and addiction support. “This fund is part of the Government’s commitment to investing in ...
New Zealand is providing Vanuatu assistance following yesterday's devastating earthquake, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. "Vanuatu is a member of our Pacific family and we are supporting it in this time of acute need," Mr Peters says. "Our thoughts are with the people of Vanuatu, and we will be ...
The Government welcomes the Commerce Commission’s plan to reduce card fees for Kiwis by an estimated $260 million a year, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says.“The Government is relentlessly focused on reducing the cost of living, so Kiwis can keep more of their hard-earned income and live a ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour has welcomed the Early Childhood Education (ECE) regulatory review report, the first major report from the Ministry for Regulation. The report makes 15 recommendations to modernise and simplify regulations across ECE so services can get on with what they do best – providing safe, high-quality care ...
The Government‘s Offshore Renewable Energy Bill to create a new regulatory regime that will enable firms to construct offshore wind generation has passed its first reading in Parliament, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.“New Zealand currently does not have a regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy as the previous government failed ...
By Emma Andrews, Henare te Ua Māori Journalism Intern at RNZ News The New Zealand fuel company Z Energy is swapping out street names for “correct” kupu on service stops around the country, with the help of local hapū. When Z took over 226 fuel sites from Shell in 2010, ...
Summer reissue: Was it a false measurement, a full-blown conspiracy or just some mild incompetence? Mad Chapman uncovers the truth of Maddi Wesche’s final throw. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Old, Associate Professor, Biology, Zoology, Animal Science, Western Sydney University Dmitry Chulov, Shutterstock At this time of year, images of reindeer are everywhere. I’ve had a soft spot for reindeer ever since I was a little girl. Doesn’t everyone? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grozdana Manalo, Career Services Manager (Education), University of Sydney hedgehog94/Shutterstock Getting casual work over summer, or a part-time job that you might continue once your tertiary course starts, can be a great way to get workplace experience and earn some extra ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ty Ferguson, Research associate in exercise, nutrition and activity, University of South Australia Peera_Stockfoto/Shutterstock It’s never been easier to stay connected to work. Even when we’re on leave, our phones and laptops keep us tethered. Many of us promise ourselves we ...
The NZ Media Council upheld the complaint under principle four: comment and fact On 5 September 2024, The Spinoff published a brief article titled Made in Palestine, found in 1970s Hastings, which highlighted an upcoming art exhibition featuring photographs of vintage cosmetic products labelled “Made in Palestine.” The piece, described ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kasey Symons, Lecturer of Communication, Sports Media, Deakin University We are well and truly in cricket season. The Australian men’s cricket team is taking centre stage against India in the Border Gavaskar Trophy series while the Big Bash League is underway, as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Woods, Lecturer, Nursing, Faculty of Health, Southern Cross University FTiare/Shutterstock Summer is here and for many that means going to the beach. You grab your swimmers, beach towel and sunscreen then maybe check the weather forecast. Did you think to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Saman Khalesi, Senior Lecturer and Discipline Lead in Nutrition, School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences, CQUniversity Australia Dean Clarke/Shutterstock The holiday season can be a time of joy, celebration, and indulgence in delicious foods and meals. However, for many, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame Australia Late Night With The Devil. Maslow Entertainment Marketing is critical to the success of commercial films, and companies will often spend half as much again on top of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Francisco Jose Testa, Lecturer in Earth Sciences (Mineralogy, Petrology & Geochemistry), University of Tasmania The Conversation As a kid, it was tough for me to grasp the massive time scale of Earth’s history. Now, with nearly two decades of experience as ...
Te Pāti Māori has had to adopt a new way of debating, operating and even thinking in Parliament in response to the Government’s “onslaught” against te ao Māori, co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says.In an end-of-year interview with Newsroom, the Te Tai Hauauru MP reflected on how 2024 has differed from her ...
Opinion: The latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science report was announced earlier this month, yet it didn’t get the flurry of media attention and political hand-wringing that typically accompanies these announcements. This might be because it presented good news, or you could argue, no news; the results paint a ...
NewsroomBy Dr Lisa Darragh, Dr Raewyn Eden and Dr David Pomeroy
At long last, The Spinoff shells out for a nut ranking. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member today.It recently came to The Spinoff’s attention ...
I was one of hundreds of people who lost my government job this week. Here’s exactly how it played out. The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a ...
Summer reissue: One anxiously attentive passenger pays attention to an in-flight safety video, and wonders ‘Why can’t I pick up my own phone?’ The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up ...
Summer reissue: Why do those Lange-Douglas years cast such a long shadow 40 years on? The Spinoff needs to double the number of paying members we have to continue telling these kinds of stories. Please read our open letter and sign up to be a member today. First published June ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Monday 23 December appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The Government’s social housing agency has backed out of a billion-dollar infrastructure alliance that would have built about 6000 new homes in Auckland – less than 18 months after signing a five-year extension.Labour says the decision to rip up the contract and sell off existing state houses could lead to ...
An unrelenting faith in “swift transition” has driven Tauranga Whai to their first Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa championship. At a boisterous Queen Elizabeth Youth Centre, the visiting Tokomanawa Queens were blown away 90-71 in the final.Whai led by 20 points at halftime as their urgent movement and unflinching faith in three-point shooting from anywhere ...
ByKoroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor New Zealand’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) says impending bad weather for Port Vila is now the most significant post-quake hazard. A tropical low in the Coral Sea is expected to move into Vanuatu waters, bringing heavy rainfall. Authorities have issued warnings to people ...
Cosmic CatastropheThe year draws to a close.King Luxon has grown tired of the long eveningsListening to the dreary squabbling of his Triumvirate.He strolls up to the top floor of the PalaceTo consult with his Astronomer Royal.The Royal Telescope scans the skies,And King Luxon stares up into the heavensFrom the terrestrial ...
Spinoff editor Mad Chapman and books editor Claire Mabey debate Carl Shuker’s new novel about… an editor. Claire: Hello Mad, you just finished The Royal Free – overall impressions? Mad: Hi Claire, I literally just put the book down and I would have to say my immediate impression is ...
Christmas and its buildup are often lonely, hard and full of unreasonable expectations. Here’s how to make it to Jesus’s birthday and find the little bit of joy we all deserve. Have you found this year relentless? Has the latest Apple update “fucked up your life”? Have you lost two ...
Despite overwhelming public and corporate support, the government has stalled progress on a modern day slavery law. That puts us behind other countries – and makes Christmas a time of tragedy rather than joy, argues Shanti Mathias. Picture the scene on Christmas Day. Everyone replete with nice things to eat, ...
Asia Pacific Report “It looks like Hiroshima. It looks like Germany at the end of World War Two,” says an Israeli-American historian and professor of holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University about the horrifying reality of Gaza. Professor Omer Bartov, has described Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza as an ...
The New Zealand government coalition is tweaking university regulations to curb what it says is an increasingly “risk-averse approach” to free speech. The proposed changes will set clear expectations on how universities should approach freedom of speech issues. Each university will then have to adopt a “freedom of speech statement” ...
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – COMMENTARY: By Caitlin Johnstone New York prosecutors have charged Luigi Mangione with “murder as an act of terrorism” in his alleged shooting of health insurance CEO Brian Thompson earlier this month. This news comes out at the same time as ...
Pacific Media Watch The union for Australian journalists has welcomed the delivery by the federal government of more than $150 million to support the sustainability of public interest journalism over the next four years. Combined with the announcement of the revamped News Bargaining Initiative, this could result in up to ...
MONDAY“Merry Xmas, and praise the Lord,” said Sheriff Luxon, and smiled for the camera. There was a flash of smoke when the shutter pressed down on the magnesium powder. The sheriff had arranged for a photographer from the Dodge Gazette to attend a ceremony where he handed out food parcels to ...
It’s a little under two months since the White Ferns shocked the cricketing world, deservedly taking home the T20 World Cup. Since then the trophy has had a tour around the country, five of the squad have played in the WBBL in Australia while most others have returned to domestic ...
Comment: If we say the word ‘dementia’, many will picture an older person struggling to remember the names of their loved ones, maybe a grandparent living out their final years in an aged care facility. Dementia can also occur in people younger than 65, but it can take time before ...
LIARS OF OUR TIME
No. 21: Tim Groser
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“I think the relationship is genuinely in outstanding form.”
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Trade Minister Tim Groser, on New Zealand-China relationships, as our meat rots on Chinese wharves, Chinese fears grow about DCD residues in our dairy products, and a double-invoicing scandal has seriously affected our kiwifruit exports. (TV1, Q+A, Sunday 16 June 2013)
http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/tim-groser-interview-5465968
See also….
No. 20 John Key: “But if the question is do we use the United States or one of our other partners to circumvent New Zealand law then the answer is categorically no.”
No. 19 Matthew Hooton: “It is ridiculous to say that unions deliver higher wages! They DON’T!”
No. 18 Ant Strachan: “The All Blacks won the RWC 2011 because of outstanding defence!”
No. 17 Stephen Franks: “Peter has been such a level-headed, safe pair of hands.”
No. 16 Phil Kafcaloudes: “Tony Abbott…hasn’t made any mistakes over the past eighteen months.”
No. 15 Donald Rumsfeld: “I did not lie… Colin Powell did not lie.”
No. 14 Colin Powell: “a post-9/11 nexus between Iraq and terrorist organizations…connections are now emerging…”
No.13 Barack Obama: “Simply put, these strikes have saved lives.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-27052013/#comment-638881
No. 12 U.K. Ministry of Defence: “Protecting the Afghan civilian population is one of ISAF and the UK’s top priorities.”
No. 11 Brendan O’Connor: “Australia’s approach to refugees is compassionate and generous.”
No. 10 Boris Johnson: “Londoners have… the best police in the world to look after us and keep us safe.”
No. 9 NewstalkZB PR dept: “News you NEED! Fast, fair, accurate!”
No. 8 Simon Bridges: “I don’t mean to duck the question….”
No. 7 Nigel Morrison: “Quite frankly, they’ve been VERY tough.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-15052013/#comment-633295
No. 6 NZ Herald PR dept: “Congratulations—you’re reading New Zealand’s best newspaper.”
No. 5 Rawdon Christie: “…a FORMIDABLE replacement, it seems, is Claudette Hauiti.” http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-13052013/#comment-632594
No. 4 Willie and J.T.: “The X-Factor. Nah, nah, there’s some GREAT talent there!”
No. 3 John Key: “Yeah we hold MPs to a higher standard.”
No. 2 Colin Craig: “Oh, I have a GREAT sense of humour.”
No. 1 Barack Obama: “Margaret Thatcher was one of the great champions of freedom and liberty.”
The man who wasted millions trying to further his own career.
No sign of the privatisation juggernaut stopping in the UK.
Probation next.
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=cclXIdneMmU
Mediaworks is in receivership
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8804077/MediaWorks-to-enter-receivership
Mediaworks is in receivership
It would be a good start if they closed down those useless radio stations, and made sure that Mitch Harris never got another job in broadcasting.
And these two press releases from Scoop.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1306/S00521/tv3-owner-to-be-put-into-receivership-today.htm
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1306/S00522/new-company-excited-by-opportunities-for-mediaworks.htm
A media confence is due to take place at 10.15am according to RNZ National.
I have no idea of how these receivership-to-takeover deals work. But it all seems like a bit of a scam to me: corproate fails, big corporate picks up the pieces to their advantage.
Selling the assets to a new entity often means that unsecured creditors of the old entity whistle. The Government’s very generous deferral of payments for licenses offered to Mediaworks is going to need a bit of a look into.
I seem to remember that they had repaid the loan last year.
An updated article on the Stuff site appears to confirm that the loan was repaid in October 2012.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8804077/MediaWorks-to-enter-receivership
“Debts saddled on to MediaWorks as part of the Ironbridge purchase have weighed heavily on the business, and on several occasions debt covenants have been broken. In 2010 the company sought, and was granted, a $43m loan from the Government to pay for radio spectrum licence renewals. That loan was repaid in October 2012. “
You know how it works….Fox News goes to the Reciever, after having taken the shares off the owners for $1, pays off the creditors, gives the previous owners 20% holding with no voting rights and walks away with the whole shooting match for bugger all.
Fair and balanced just in time for next year’s election!
700M of debt, interest sucked it. Private equity firms / banks (offshore) to take the bulk of the Hits. Julie Christie, sigh, there go production values.
RNZ: The NZ Special Effects industry: in contrast to the superior conditions overseas, only 3% locally are working a 40 hour week, majority working 50-80 and up to 100 hours. Hollywood driving down wages, putting companies out of business and many are leaving the occupation.
Excellent Industry development from Peter and John Key, just climactic!
Gee I hope the government made sure that all those sweetheart deals were secured. There is a $43 million dollar loan that may be under threat – http://blog.greens.org.nz/?p=17018
Sure sign of John Key’s economic recovery kicking in.
Its been in the poo for a long time and unfortuantly is a current trend of large private equity purchases going bad due to the very leveraged nature of the transaction. Just as a beside this explains why the key team from Korda Mentha and various senior M&A trading bank reps were all out to dinner last Sat , they must have got all their plans that they had been working on for many months signed off with permision to procede.
This.
The equity firms are paying the price for trying to profit off too-good-to-be-true loans used to buy assets that weren’t destined for long-term increases in profitability.
Muwahahahahaha…
Sadly though this doesn’t mean the end of More FM or The Rock (aka “not more pop-rock crap”).
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8804077/MediaWorks-to-dispute-tax-payment
The way the stuff article reads it looks like they are likely to lose their case of rorting the tax payer of $400 million and are restructuring to carry over all the debt apart from what is likely to be owed to the tax payer.
The debt naturally will belong to the old company.
Unless IRD grows a spine and does the legal equivalent of a colony drop on them to recover the owed taxes.
According to RNZ National news, the tax amount in dispute is $22 million – not $400m.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/137826/tv3's-owners-in-receivership
As I commented in 3.2.1.1.1 above, the Stuff article also states towards the bottom, that Mediaworks repaid the $43m loan to the government last October.
Right you are Veuto. I bet Joyce is happy it was repaid. The detail on this will be interesting though and the proposal to pay all creditors is somewhat unusual. The treatment of tax will be one of those issues as noted by DoS.
It seems that this is a construct to not pay the tax they will likely be found to owe.
They are making it quite clear other debt will be carried over.
So having already evaded the tax once they now seek to evade it again.
The smirk on the receivers face as he talked about not carrying that debt over was nauseating.
I can see no good reason why they shouldn’t have to reduce costs, restructure, etc in order to repay their debt.
Surely given the stated intention to repay debt other than the potential IRD debt this can mainly be seen as a tax rort.
Notice the Company who did the some of the SCF receivership, the Solid Energy report, the Sky City report for the government, the Crafar farms deal i.e. the receivers and Sky City pop up again with the past executive to go on the new board.
. It ‘s such a small group of people ripping us off they keep tripping over themselves. Just waiting for Shipley to turn up.
MS,
Always, always the PAYE tax payer gets screwed. And in this country, with so many loopholes and no tax on property dealings. And no taxes on the sale of businesses. The PAYE worker gets screwed.
Not that John Key or Davis Shearer gives a rats arse. They will still get invites to warm boxes.
As sure as night follows day, as sure as water runs own hill, the structure of this transfer of assets from bad company to BS company will reduces the amount of tax NZ gets.
Fools and Crooks.
More on Mediaworks from Winnie Peters.
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/17650625/mediaworks-how-crony-capitalism-works-peters/
No I dont think so Nick, there has been a large degree of planning behind this to ensure that it continues as a going concern. Evidently they want to retain all staff as well as the business at an operating level does well but unfortunatly is so highly levearged that its overall earnings are poor. The key idea is the banks want to get rid of the PE owners and get a better functioing board on.
“Sadly though this doesn’t mean the end of More FM or The Rock”
Sadly no, if anything goes it’ll be KiwiFM.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10891114
What, the taxpayer will be out of pocket so Mediaworks can go on? I say we take it out in NZOA funding.
🙁
It’s pretty much the only mainstream radio station mediaworks owns that isn’t irritating as hell.
Tune in radio is a good friend
Punk stations, alt rock, flower power, sport, childrens, elvis, radio stations from all over the world…….
Failing that a MP3 DVD with 2000 songs set to random play or streaming from your PC.
Radio without ads!
Streaming radio killed the advertising star!
More youtube did it (and a HDD with 20+gigs of music) 😛
Racking up the stuff they no longer play on Hauraki is probably why my net usage is so high lawl.
Or the abysmal radio Live with Plonker and co.
more ‘over the Hill’ jockeying for position.
Another day, another ridiculous post by Martyn Bradbury on the dailyblog, which he is turning into another vanity project for his personal fantasies. Already, I have noticed the frequency of posts from his more credible bloggers is dropping.
Someone ought to take him aside and tell him making shit up and pretending it is based on some sort of inside information is not smart politics, it is just pathetic and slightly cringe worthy, but I suspect Mr. Bradbury is man whose ears are painted on.
Which post of Bomber’s are you referring to: the one on the by-election? The one on Dunne-Vance?
I don’t always agree with Bomber, but I most often do, and I like his rhetorical flair. And he has been doing a great service to the left in providing platforms, online & on TV, for a range of significant left wingers.
I’m picking its the Dunne-Vance thing. HOWEVER there are a couple of things to do with ‘the leak’ that may have been overlooked. e.g. The motivation for the leak – the threat that it was going to be sanitised/further sanitised.
Dunne three strikes. No asset sales said Dunne in election mode, membership fiasco meanig Dunne jumped before he was pushed, and now disclosing all his emails in a Nationals security investigation.
The Dunne-Vance post is not really off the wall. There’s always been the possibility of someone else having done the leak. Bomber seems to have taken the substance of the post from comments coming into TDB’s tip line.
Indeed. I’m suggesting that report actually got ‘leaked’ pretty bloody early on in the proceedings – if you know what I mean, and I suspect you do. (Before/during all that numbering schema, and all that other spook crap was applied).
The trap people have fallen into is that they’ve assumed that any response to its findings (interim or otherwise) being ‘leaked, were going to be immediate.
Oh, and NOR am I suggesting that the person closest to its production was necessarily responsible. There are of course friends/family/others who do things thinking they’re acting in a person’s best interests.
Anyway …. it doesn’t really matter that much now, except in the sense that the various machinations going on now are only of use to those wanting political scoring points, and those that are claiming knowlwdge of what went on are all as bad as each other in any event.
Thankfully, it saw the light of day BEFORE it could be sanitised and manipulated further – which (I think) was reason for its ‘leak’
Andrea Vance is friendly with Jordan Williams, to the point of helping him make some contacts in London. Jordan Williams is, of course, Simon Lusk’s minion. I’m surprised no one has picked up on this.
Vance did a recent article on Lusk.
So – why has Martyn Bradbury BANNED me from commenting on his Daily Blog?
As an ‘investigative activist’ / Public Watchdog – I’ve done research that no one else has done on a number of topics, and helped to initiate ACTION to help fix the discovered problem.
He has NEVER interviewed me on his show.
So – sorry but I don’t share your view:
“And he has been doing a great service to the left in providing platforms, online & on TV, for a range of significant left wingers.”
Kind regards
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption /anti-privatisation’ campaigner
2013 Auckland Mayoral candidate
Come to think of it, he has never interviewed me on his show, either.
Connect the dots.
prefer Jose Barbosa, now there is a jolly chap.
erk!
How the hell did that happen RT? What’s his skills?
(I would genuinely like to know btw). I mean I’ve seen the various attempts on TVNZ7, but I wasn’t actually that convinced. I’m aware of course of the regime UNDER which he had to operate but…Please – convince me!
quick : Media 360
So – why has Martyn Bradbury BANNED me from commenting on his Daily Blog?
Might be just that he doesn’t have enough space. Have you asked him?
lolz
+1
I take it Sanctuary, that you are talking about this post in which he is talking up Mana’s chances in Ikaroa-Rawhiti http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/06/17/ikaroa-rawhiti-update-labour-are-worried/ I do not know enough about what is happening on the ground there to make a judgement.
Another day, another ridiculous post by Martyn Bradbury on the dailyblog, which he is turning into another vanity project for his personal fantasies. Already, I have noticed the frequency of posts from his more credible bloggers is dropping.
Someone ought to take him aside and tell him making shit up and pretending it is based on some sort of inside information is not smart politics, it is just pathetic and slightly cringe worthy, but I suspect Mr. Bradbury is man whose ears are painted on.
I also don’t know which post you are referring to. Why not be clear instead of maligning the man without showing what you are actually upset about?
Yes, it would be interesting to see a current comparison of site stats for TS and TDB.
(certainly learn more from reading TS, maybe there is a vanity publishing aspect to TDB)
An odd thing; on TDB I made a reply comment commending a contributors comment and from four votes resulted a net 0 for my encouragement of them. Not that what other people think should matter too much, but hey, it was only a comment of support for their efforts.
Hey Roguey. Well its a thumbs up from me to you. I have noticed the voting on the Daily Blog is a little inconsistent but like you say, how much does it really matter?
I suspect however that the RWNJ’s do a daily troll through and down vote everyone who has anything positive or intelligent to say.
that gave me a smile Rosie, although, there are many sharp posters and commentors at TDB,
QoT, John Minto, Keith Locke, Lynn, Matt Robson, Mike Treen, Jane Kelsey (now, I wonder about those initials), The Jackal, Wayne Butson. Great comments from AFKTT, Countryboy, Adam White, Ovicula, Draco et al;
Chris Trotter writes some comprehensive essays, yet, personally, I am never certain if his conviction matches his creativity, but then, what would I know, I’m only a gardener with a penchant for Loud Rock Music and a craving, right now, for some hot chips. 😀
Make sure they’re trans-fat free RT. Where was that bus maintenance stuff I saw somewhere on here on another thread? Not WCT by any chance?
Redbus
Ah – OK. Besides me thinks you’re a bit younger than I anyway.
(I once drove buses in Wgtn – albeit managing to get a licence before it was truely legit). THought you might have been a WCT “shiftman”.
Apparently not.
At least you didn’t have to suffer the indignity of having a job title of
“standby gripman” (old cable car stuff)
no, yet I had a less-than-salubrious strip of a title as an apprentice diesel mechanic, and it wasn’t Strontium Dog 😉
Hehe nice 2000AD reference
Mmmm. Hot chips. Now you’re talking. Especially if you’ve grown the tatties yourself….And music, we can never get enough of the stuff. I recently read an interesting article in MOJO about the “Red Wedge”, a group of left British musicians (inc Paul Weller, Billy Bragg, The Communards etc who raged against Thatcherism in the 80’s. Where is that spirit now?
I digress and ramble. Re Chris Trotter. I have mixed feelings. I always learn something from his historical references including material to be found in chapters in No Left Turn, as well as online but I wonder how much of this glorious past is romanticised by him.
Ultimately though, and said with a sigh, I’m tired of words and arguments and going nowhere. Until we, as a people, people meaning fed up and disadvantaged NZer’s unify and react meaningfully to the multitude of issues mowing us down nothing will change. Dreary I know but most likely true.
We can put our hope in various opposition parties but it’s not enough.
Enjoy your gardening. That is a useful, self sufficient and rewarding activity:-)
When all else fails, garden!
“I’m tired of words and arguments and going nowhere.”
Me too.
ditto
When all else fails, garden!
ABOSULTELY! Save the fucking seeds as well.
It’s a therapeutic pass-time as well that more often than not produces results.
Assuming that Sactuary is talking about the by-election post, I’m in total agreement. The article is opinion masquerading as fact. No cites, no links to actual polling to back up the ‘fingertips’ fantasy, no quotes from anyone in any of the parties. It wouldn’t make the grade as a TS post because of the lack of substance, but I suppose it’s his site and he can put up whatever waffle he wants.
It’ll be interesting when the counting is done. From the tone of the post, I’m guessing that whatever the size of the eventual winning Labour vote, Bomber will claim he was ‘right all along, Labour have no mandate, the Greens can now win electorate seats’ etc.
Edit: just as an aside, there are many, many more comments about the post in this thread on TS than in the actual TDB site. That’s Bomber’s real problem, right there.
Thats cos’ The Standard Rocks and Rules.
\m/
I’ve had my issues with Bomber but that article is opinion and not pretending to be anything else. The problem is you don’t like the opinion or the conclusions but really does that matter?
As for the voting, yes the day will tell the story and I live in hope that labour’s terror campaign fails and that Mana and the Greens come through – I’ll be loving that alright!!! Kia kaha Mana and Greens – resist the terror campaign Ikaroa-Rāwhiti voters and vote for the future not the past.
“…that article is opinion and not pretending to be anything else”.
Not so, Marty. Bomber doesn’t qualify these statements as opinion, but presents them as facts:
“Their candidate has been very difficult on the electoral trail and lacks any of the charisma necessary to enthuse turn out.”
“Other factions view her win using her Brothers vote as shonky and have taken their toys home pulling any real support beyond lip service.”
“Their internal polling is gloomy and Labour have sent their entire caucus into the electorate this week in a last minute attempt to pull the election around.”
“Labour insiders believe Te Hamua has the momentum.”
Ok, they’re not actually facts, and I’m guessing Bomber has lazily tried to make speculation and wishful thinking look like something of substance, but it’s a dishonest way to write. A few ‘I thinks’ and ‘I’m tolds’ would make it clearer that this is just opinion based on hope, rather than commentary based on facts.
I took it as given seeing as how his main source of information seems to be the ‘tip line’ at TDB. All his posts today seem sloppily written. I don’t know if the information is wishful thinking, or if it has some substance. What makes you think you know?
The reason I’m sure it’s wishful thinking, weka, is that he has no cites of any kind. No quotes from any of the parties involved, no detail of the internal polling etc. He’s pulled it out of his nether regions and dressed it up to sound legit, IMHO.
@marty: I agree its a continuation of his personal style, but that style is often grating, fanciful and bombastic. I don’t think the kiwi left needs a version of the right’s Alex Jones or, more to the point, a local version of Cameron ‘tipline’ Slater.
That’s harsh TRP and not accurate imo. What the left need is to accept the differences we all have that make us who we are and concentrate on those opposite who constantly try to divide us. And we also need labour and its supporters to stop trying to terrorise their political opponents and instead to concentrate their wrath on the righties in and out of their party ffs.
Yes, well put marty. And believe me, there is a lot of wrath at the righties inside the party right about now. The Skycity debacle has really clarified things for a lot of members and I expect the moderation committee is going to be asked by the rank and file to deliver a list free of deadwood for the next election. However, it’s going to be a lot harder to rid ourselves of electorate based liabilities and non performers like Faa foi, Mallard and, well, it’s a long list so I won’t go on.
I wish you all the best with that endeavor.
Yes, I’m beginning to think the SC debacle may prove to be a blessing in disguise. Might help to put the wheat back into the mix.
For the electorate MPs: time to start working with their LECs and branches, finding support for good quality potential candidates willing to stand up for a hard Selection fight against the sitting MP.
@ TRP
You can’t imagine the shock I feel at seeing a man universally known as “Bomber” being described as “bombastic”.
Perhaps you should learn to fact check, not just Bomber; but everyone! Though his particular tendency to let a turn of phrase obscure, rather than reveal; the truth, can admittedly get a bit wearying.
Still, I do find his broadcasts on “Citizen A” (and once upon a time “Bomber’s Blog”) always brilliant: Sometimes a pure diamond brilliance, but often; merely the flash of rhinestones as a master magician controls your attention. If it’s entertaining and provoking, then he has succeeded in his trick. Just don’t ever try repeating anything he has produced without checking for yourself that you are sure how it was done!
I’m not sure if it is dishonest considering he generally always writes like that but I can see why labour supporters would be pissed off with it. Personally as a Mana member I find he is a double edged sword but I take what he writes as an extension of how he speaks and just accept it for what it is, a particular style if you like.
It would be interesting to get another post from jenny to hear what she has found out there whilst campaigning for labour (hopefully not another sarcastic one though) and of course everything will sort itself out on the (voting) day.
And if the Greens win, then that may just be the kick up the arse that the morons in charge of Labour need to make some much needed changes, to personnel.
“Assuming that Sactuary is talking about the by-election post, I’m in total agreement. The article is opinion masquerading as fact. No cites, no links to actual polling to back up the ‘fingertips’ fantasy, no quotes from anyone in any of the parties. It wouldn’t make the grade as a TS post because of the lack of substance, but I suppose it’s his site and he can put up whatever waffle he wants.”
I found the quality of the three posts by Bradbury today pretty poor. But I don’t see the by-election one as too different than some of the posts on ts, where people like Eddie post from inside knowledge and don’t give any citations or backup. We are left to make our decisions about the validity of the information.
With Bomber, at one end of the spectrum is Sanctuary (who thinks he is full of shit), and at the other are… well I don’t know if anyone believes that Bomber’s information is pure gold. But most of us I suspect sit in the middle somewhere, don’t really care that much about the ego/style issues, and just add Bomber’s views to the mix in making up our minds about what is going on.
Bradbury can get a bit tedious at times, and TDB is starting to be more about him posting than anyone else.
His idea about RNZ2 is interesting though, and deserves looking into.
…another ridiculous post… vanity project… personal fantasies… frequency of posts from his more credible bloggers is dropping… making shit up and pretending it is based on some sort of inside information… pathetic… cringe-worthy… ears are painted on
You’ve used a lot of adjectives and told us precisely nothing. Why all this animosity against Bradbury? Could you be specific?
Right now, this looks like nothing more than a personal grudge against one of this country’s more principled and eloquent critics of the Key regime.
Are you Matthew Hooton?
Very unlikely to be Hooton as Bradbury often has him on Citizen A
I was just trying to annoy our friend “Sanctuary”. I knew he couldn’t be Hooton, or any other National Party drone, because a quick perusal of his other recent posts show that Sanctuary is an intelligent, thoughtful and humane person.
I just can’t believe, though, how he has attacked Bomber. It has to be something personal.
Yeah there is a few Bomber haters on the standard. Most of the criticism I’ve seen is based on his style more than his content though.
“I just can’t believe, though, how he has attacked Bomber. It has to be something personal.”
Doesn’t have to be personal at all. A great many people are far from enamoured with Bomber’s methods.
Try reading the criticism at face value and forget for a moment that no-one is supposed to disagree with you.
Well what is the criticism exactly?
That Bomber has a vanity project? (am sure there are no egos at ts or any other blog)
That Bomber supports Mana?
That he has painted ears?
That he is making shit up and pretending that he has inside information? About what?
The first three are irrelevant beyond personal opinion. The last one might be interesting if we knew what it was actually referring to.
Sorry, I didn’t realise I was supposed to be rating Sanctuary’s criticism on the basis of how interesting and/or relevant it was to you.
You said “try reading the criticism at face value”. So I did. I can’t see the basis for the criticism (not saying there isn’t one, just that it’s not obvious).
Not my problem.
Right. Never mind then.
To be clear, what I mean is that my comment wasn’t actually about Bomber’s post. It was about Morrissey’s reaction to it and the assumptions contained within.
Fair enough. I suppose I responded because it’s hard to read a criticism at face value (rather than judge it as a personal grudge), when it’s unclear what the actual criticism is. I agree with you in principal though.
(for what it’s worth Sanctuary’s comment came across to me as a mix of potentially legit criticism and just plain dislike of the man).
I read it that he is, in sanc’s opinion, annoying sanc and embarrassing the more important ‘left’ bloggers that sanc likes by continuing to blog in his well known ‘excitable bullshitting’ way which sanc seems to think should have changed when he set up TDB. Oh and sanc doesn’t like the ‘wild and grandiose’ postings on Mana because that isn’t ‘uniting’ or ‘achieving’ the mission statement of TDB as stated. But I’ve just written that to help clarity based on the incomplete information in sanc’s posting to date.
“That Bomber gets paid by Mana?”
FIFY
Who is that a reply to?
Slater’s been running a campaign saying that Bomber is getting paid by Mana and therefore he’s as bad as Lusk/Farrar/Hooten et al. As if Mana had the kind of money business has to throw around, eh?
Well Hooten paid Bomber so is it that much of a stretch?
Yep, it is a stretch. Bomber is open and honest about who he works for, whereas Hooten lives in the shadows with the Hollow Men. Slater, of course, is happy to post anything, anytime, from anyone, as long as a cheque comes attached.
There is a world of difference between a cash strapped minor party paying a pittance for some occasional political advice and an orchestrated rorting of the political process.
Try reading the criticism at face value and forget for a moment that no-one is supposed to disagree with you.
???? When have I given the impression that no-one is supposed to disagree with me?
“…. posts show that Sanctuary is an intelligent, thoughtful and humane person.”
Aye to that
+1 and all that kinda kaka.
….and @ Morissey – I hope you didn’t put yourself through all that ‘nicest man on Earth’ Mora puff shit not long after 1pm. ” A-her a-her a-her a-her (forced laugh) Rotary sensitive crap.
Is RNZ’s retention of the guy an attempt to display they’re fair and balanced?
If that’s the reason, I’ll put up with it because I’ve no doubt the junta has the knives out looking for an excuse.
“We’re always concerned about attacks on innocent civilians….”
U.S. State Dept. PR woman assures reporters
If you want to see a gruesome example of just how the scofflaw Israeli state is allowed to literally get away with murder every day, then click on the following….
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2013/worth-listening-until-the-end/
Watch as reporters try to get an honest answer out of this PR flack. The highlight—or lowlight—comes when she asserts, with a completely straight face, that the U.S. government is “always concerned about attacks on innocent civilians.”
That brazen lie is uttered at the 4:00 mark in the video….
QUESTION: Do you have a comment on the increased attack by settlers against Palestinian farmers and villagers?
MS. PSAKI: I don’t – I’m not sure which report you’re referring to.
QUESTION: I mean, they are constant. They happen almost every day within – they double every month. Talk about doubling. I mean, it doubles every month. Are you concerned, or do you raise this issue with the Israelis? Do you demand that they bring these attackers to justice?
MS. PSAKI: I don’t – I’m not sure what report you’re referring to. We’re always concerned about attacks on innocent civilians, but beyond that I’m not sure I have much more to add.
QUESTION: Okay. Do you expect both sides to hold the aggressors from their side accountable to justice? Do you call on both sides that they do that, including the Israelis?
MS. PSAKI: I think we’ve probably done what we can here on this topic, Said.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2013/06/210603.htm#ISRAEL
It just annoys me that he take me and others for fools. He has no need to make things up to appear more important or more knowledgable than he is. He has a profile. But no one will ever take him seriously until he gets his ego and wishful thinking masquerading as fact under a bit more control. The other issue is that by making wild and grandiose claims in a clearly partisan way for Mana you are hardly achieving the mission statement of the site, which was presumably written by Bradbury, and says “…The Daily Blog Unites Top Left-Wing Political Commentators and Progressive Opinion Shapers…” Unite? Hardly. Unless of course for Martyn the “left” starts and ends with the Mana party, in which case he ought to have been more honest with his contributors instead of allowing his excitable bullshitting to embarass the more important of them by their association with his blog.
So your issue is with the Mana Movement then?
“Unless of course for Martyn the “left” starts and ends with the Mana party, in which case he ought to have been more honest with his contributors instead of allowing his excitable bullshitting to embarass the more important of them by their association with his blog.”
He has Marama Davidson blogging on TDB too (thinking about the by-election). I think you are confusing Bradbury’s role as founder and owner of TDB with his personal views as a blogger. Sure he supports Mana, that’s hardly a secret, so why shouldn’t he blog from that position? Unless he is actively refusing to publish material from people who support other parties I can’t see what the problem is.
“Sure he’s paid by Mana”
FIFY
Unfortunately Sanct, his ego is probably the (his) biggest problem – I find it fukn intolerable at times too. (I mean for me – I could get the hate on David Slack – or a number of others that have a certain appeal in many ways – but who do so from priviledged positions – tarnished silver spoons – whatever).
When you think about it though – it’s no worse, and probably a shitload better than most of his adversaries, and it shouldn’t be used as an impediment to his getting a load of noble messages across.
Look at it this way – by and large, they’re all up themselves (I mean the ‘media-obsessed folk’) – some so far up themselves any attempt at a 3 point turn would see them heading for their liver, or kidneys.
TDB needs support, AS DOES TS.
Pick your battles.
The G8 starts this week,the great game continues
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Great_Game_cartoon_from_1878.jpg
and Putin back-foots Cameron and his relationships with eaters of the dead.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/syria-sketch-dead-eyed-putin-asks-do-you-want-to-supportpeople-who-eat-the-guts-of-their-enemies-8661050.html
The Hague/ Kerry Putz with Obama has been derailed.
The Manufacturing Enquiry report is out, main recommendations are:
1) a fairer and less volatile exchange rate through reforms to monetary policy;
2) refocusing capital investment into the productive economy, rather than housing speculation;
3) lowering structural costs in the economy, such as electricity prices.
http://manufacturinginquiry.org.nz/report/
ah, now, I’d like to have a quick chat over a cuppa about the Sunday article, realtor and economic commentary of the housing market. Madness, it appears, absolute madness.
The locals interviewed were spending all their spare time driving all over Ak to view properties and spectate at auctions to secure “the perfect house”- deep sigh. Emotional buying.
The Fear of Missing Out (on Easy Money) over-riding even investment returns for some speculators.
The return of ‘Investment Seminars’, $8000 a show, where you are introduced to establishing your property portfolio with no up-front cash deposit required.
Peter Barfoot- 40% of Auction sales ARE going to Asian bidders.
-20 of Barfoot’s highest grossing sales-people are Asian, who work more conscientiously and longer hours than their non-asian colleagues.
Didn’t get his surname but ‘David’ claims a further 30% growth in prices is possible; the immigration influence is just coming on stream now!
Shamubeel Eaqub- an objective Economist.
-people are not thinking through their commitments.
-need to allow for a 3% hike in interest rates
-yet some are committed to 70-80% of their incomes; 100K income permits 700K mortgage.
-Shamubeel does not own a home and receives greater returns from renting and a managed investment portfolio.Will buy a home in the future, but for domestic motivations.
He says it is inevitable we will see a crisis , similar to the sub-prime, and that a 30% devaluation in your investment will be painful.
And Labour’s say on it:
It seems that Labour still hasn’t woken up to reality even though they mention it in the same press release:
When every country can manufacture the same stuff and do it cheaper than by importing (which is inevitable) then there are no exports.
The massive trade surpluses posted by oil exporting nations and by China have to be paid for by deficits everywhere else. This is not rocket science.
Further, exporting ones way to wealth is a formula for the 1970’s and 1980’s. (And for China, the 1990’s). These are vastly different times.
And when the rice bubble pops?
http://au.businessinsider.com/fitch-chinas-credit-bubble-is-a-record-2013-6
Ahhhh, I really think the present tense should be used.
But who do you believe? Is Chinese industry rocketing or collapsing?
http://www.perthnow.com.au/business/iron-ore-miners-face-glut-warns-morgan-stanley/story-fnhocr4x-1226614054253
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/05/australia-hedland-ironore-idUSL3N0EH0YX20130605
And given that manipulated economic data out of China is now the norm (as it is becoming in other countries), sharp analysts are looking at things like power consumption and trash collection volumes as measures of real economic performance. (Ironic confirmation for the environmentalists – the better the global economy is doing the more rubbish we produce as a civilisation).
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/tracking-economy-and-gdp-through-trash
so, further lowering of growth in China, Poission, and the rest of the nations exporting there, seeing that in Germany now.
Devaluation, more domestic capital flight to countries like New Zealand, to invest primarily in residential property, a further drop in the coal price. hmmm, looks favourable for the implementation of the Report into Manufacturing recommendations Not being realised.
The way money is created is at the root of the environmental and economic crisis
and Russel Norman’s excellent article on the same happening here in NZ:
Anybody saying that the government shouldn’t just print money obviously either a) has NFI how money is created in the first place or b) knows exactly how it’s created and wants to keep it going that way.
If we wish to become an equitable and sustainable society then we must take back the creation of money from the banks. No economic reform is possible until we do.
That is a balance discussion by Russel.
Inflation is designed by the ruling class to delay repayment of debt, while devaluing it, and at the same time shift the debt burden onto future generations of workers to pay.
Interestingly enough it will be a race between starvation of oxygen and food to give our children and grandchildren debt relief.
Rrrrrrruuuuuuussssssssssssssseeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllll even in his inflated existence should be calling for the destruction of capitalism and salvation of human life.
And this is another good article on money creation by governments:
Taking the money creation off of the private banks and putting it back with government would allow for better use of our resources.
Hooten has just said on 9 to noon that he would not be surprised if an alternative dunne leakage appears this week
That the leak was from those in the nats that leaked to to hager is the the hollow men!!!
Gutted
Yeah, about what I’d expect from this government. I/S sums it nicely:
Corruption: Alive and well in NZ and living in the Beehive.
The issue is still who is the alternative, from the same I/S post:
Meanwhile, the Labour Party did not issue a minority report on the bill, and instead “reserve[d] its position”. Clayton Cosgrove was on the committee. Clayton Cosgrove was also in SkyCity’s corporate box last week. You can draw your own conclusions from that.
Until the Greens can convince more of NZ they should be in power we seem stuck.
Host a Hive
Rivers in Otago have reached record levels
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/261289/heavy-rain-brings-flooding
Auckland Public Transport- “Third World”, “increasingly erratic”and “deteriorating”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10890937
“lack of serviceable vehicles” -NZ BUS.
coincidentally, chatting with a Mechanical Foreman recently, he stated, that they just cannot get diligent experienced staff. 😉
Business lobbyists passes to parliament double under Carter
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10890993
soooo panicky.
On Femme Fatale journalists
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10890912
Hi Mods. I’m been in moderation for two hours. All OK?
That’s a bit long for the Naughty Corner.
They apparently know what you did in the weekend 😛
The GCSB told them.
Or Winston Peters.
Well played, Philosoraptor.
http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3usegz/
Here are some figures on housing prices that you could break your teeth on. (Warning do not grit or grind teeth, or bite down hard on tongue.)
from http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Pacific/New-Zealand/Price-History
But all people with low deposits can just b…ger off because they haven’t got a hope in hell anyway and just muck up the economics of it all. After all these figures represent the only really active financial opportunities open to investors in NZ today.
Bob McCroskie’s Penis is back at it again, teaming up with that complete hack of doctor Miriam Grossman, who can’t science to save their life:
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/sexual-advice-teens-seriously-flawed-expert-5466779
See the ever awesome Queen of Thorns for some background:
http://ideologicallyimpure.wordpress.com/tag/miriam-grossman-is-gross/
They’ve lost gay marriage. Contraception and abortion is now their key rallying topics. In other words, expect more misogyny from this lot. A lot more.
C&A have been their targets though for a couple of decades, as the local crowd have been drawing their rhetoric from the USA following the political ascendency of the religious right in the 1980’s and the failures of the the local Dutch inspired religious right to have any real political impact.
that is interesting NickS; personal experience of the failures of the local Dutch religious right (that explains some sightings) , still stuck into the literal creeds etc. Reform or perish.Although, some lovely genetic endowments among the meid.
Thanks for the link, Nick!
No problem 😀 also you came on the second page of google results for Grossman /evilgrin
Key to devalued Auckland home values, by building on reserves; while ignoring why reserves exist because much of the land was hard to build on in the first place, hard to get at – steep – and so costly both to build but also for owners over the lifetime of the homes.
Seen this?
FYI
______________________________________________________________________________
Press Release: Sue Henry Housing Lobby Spokesperson:
“Eviction notices for elderly State tenants are effectively death sentences.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10890782
“In response to this NZ Herald on Sunday article dated 16 June 2013, entitled “The $340-a-week houses with million-dollar views” – these State houses were constructed for 2000 pounds each, are freehold and have been paid for by State tenants many times over,” says Housing Lobby Spokesperson Sue Henry.
“The ironic contradiction here is that the day before this story went to print it was ‘World Elder Abuse Awareness Day’. ”
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/we-all-have-role-play-preventing-elder-abuse
Elder abuse and neglect needs to stop and it is up to all of us to work together to prevent it, says Senior Citizens Minister Jo Goodhew.
Saturday 15 June 2013 marks the eighth World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.
“World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is about acknowledging older people as integral to strong families, and affirming that there is no place for elder abuse,” says Mrs Goodhew.
“The prevention of elder abuse and neglect is one of my key priorities and something I personally feel very strongly about.”
Elder abuse can take many forms, and includes behaviours or lack of action which causes physical, psychological, sexual or financial harm or distress to an older person.
“Older people are entitled to make their own decisions, feel safe and live free of fear. They have the right to dignity and care in a supportive environment,” Mrs Goodhew says. ………..
_______________________________________________________________
“Elder abuse is also a criminal offence in this country,” continued Sue Henry.
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2011/0079/latest/DLM3650013.html
“It’s disgusting how this National/ACT Government has sanctioned greedy property developers to abuse the vulnerable, elderly folk who have worked hard, law-abiding lives, paid for and built for a significant amount of amenities in the Glen Innes area which the property developers are now endeavouring to ransack,”
“These elderly State tenants are not being given eviction notices – they’re being effectively given death sentences.”
“Is this the thanks that Returned Servicemen, and widows of those deceased, particularly those allocated permanent State homes in the Glen Innes area, are getting? ”
“The Housing Lobby are calling for, in the first instance, tenure protection to be reinstated forthwith .for these elderly State tenants.
We also want their exemption from intimidating, stressful reviews,” she concluded.
Sue Henry
Spokesperson
Housing Lobby
Sue Henry, doing an excellent job re-Glen Innes and the wider issues of state housing.
She is not doing a good job with her press releases, however. She has the idea in her head that each sentence requires its own paragraph. That press release is full of interesting information, but there is no development or flow to it. Even people who are interested in Housing policy would not be tempted to read that handout, simply because it has not been put together with much care or attention to presentation.
Well, she’s presumably writing for the MSM, which also tend to make each sentence a paragraph on its own, at least online. I’ve often wondered why they do that. Is it meant to be easier on the eye? Or is it,a s you say, a way of avoiding the development of a comprehensive theme or argument?
It’s to make it easier to read. If you want arguments read the opinion section
It’s to make it easier to read.
Exactly. Well said, my academic friend!
http://inthehouse.co.nz/node/19362
Government Motion on Notice No 1 – 13th June, 2013
The Hon. David Cunliffe MP for New Lynn.
This speech on the intrusions into our privacy by spy agencies is excellent.
A stellar performance by Cunliffe.
Just brilliant. It depresses me. He should be at the front of the queue not the back. Also, he’s not afraid to show real emotion – anger in this case – when the subject matter is so important.
I agree. Why is one of the performers in the caucus stuck at the back. Enough already. Good to see someone actually shows some passion still. Something that is sorely lacking in the Labour Party at the moment. Too busy going to corporate boxes it seems.
Mallard’s criticism of Deputy Police Commissioner well justified
Police Minister’s riposte ignores evidence-planting findings of royal commission.
by BRYAN GOULD, New Zealand Herald, Monday 17 June 2013
[Deleted – don’t copy paste]
Just over a year ago……
Read more….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz-police/news/article.cfm?o_id=131&objectid=10890924
TV3 has reported that Truth is ceasing publication.
How *unexpected*. Looks like the Hortons gave up.
Deets:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8806303/The-Truth-newspaper-to-stop-publishing
Having a cup of tea. Rightio
Even whale oil slick stopped linking to his own production the ‘Truth’ long ago. He has a history of failed enterprises.
He blames it all on mayhem caused by David and Steve Crow
So much for personal responsibility, well after the affair what can you expect..
not linking to him, but you can gazoogle…
Shit has gone sideways in the comments on whalefail. You know its a bad day when Steve Crow (noted pornographer) has the moral high ground.
Sorry but…its comedy gold…
Whale must be due for a melt down/ another extra marital affair or P habit after this episode..
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2013/06/yup-its-true-the-truth-gig-is-over/#more-99311
repelling enquiries.
A great blow for intelligent and thoughtful media analysis in New Zealand.
🙂
Actually, the article says it “may” be about to stop publishing, following the news that it will not be publishing a print edition on Thursday.
Still too early to dance on its remnants.
I worry for Cameron, if collapsing a piss ant security firm had him in the foetal position rocking in the dark and crying for 5 years then I hate to think what sinking a newspaper with a 125 year history will do.
that’s going too far imo, KK.
Probably but Slater has really annoyed me through the years where he has done his utmost to ruin people’s lives who weren’t even in the public eye, online nes aggregation start ups, commenters etc.
yep, it’s good to see him fail 🙂
Yeah, but it’s not just about him tho is it? There are staff, and their families, and, well, a masthead with over a 100 years of history. Dudes a dick no doubt, & jokes are fucking begging to be made at his expense, but it’s a sad thing.
That said, his commenters are delusional.
I am certain the NZ public would lap it up in spades…..especially once Mediaworks is dead & buried for good!
Since you have ruled politics out then it is time to rule the media world eh Cameron – you’ve already dropped the expletives in the titles of your posts on here so swoop in & take advantage of the Tv3/4 established audience…show them that news can actually contain facts & no BS.
Oh yes.
fair enough, too.
At least it’s less depressing than the layoffs in Blenheim, though.
“No More Tears”, back to Purex.(just a little post-chinese, retire to the smoking-parlour humour. 🙂
But it’s playing out like a self-destructive farce:
A very significant post from Jane Kelsey today, on the rise social democratic government in Iceland since the GFC, the subsequent re-election of “the old guard”.:
She raises an important point about the post-GFC Iceland social democratic government lacking a clear plan:
It also shows up some differences from the NZ culture.
And considering where the Iceland social democrat government went wrong:
Second reason: support of the European Community, even though it backed austerity measures.
And, again, the need for a clear plan:
thnx karol, was going to read that article earlier, did later.
Iran sends 4000 troops to help Assad in Syria with Russia also supporting; US now fully allied with Sunni Muslims in 1400 year conflict against Shia Islam
Well, what could possibly go wrong with a proxy war in the Middle East. Does someone really want to cause an upset of, ahem, biblical/Q’uranic proportions?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-to-send-4000-troops-to-aid-president-assad-forces-in-syria-8660358.html
across the line in the sand.
a red line in the sand apparently
well, here we are brother, spectators, for now; as I commented on Jane’s article, likely to be when, not if. (Left. the -red- light on.)
well, you’re a spectator right up to the moment the gladiator hurls the javelin into Caesar’s corporate box. Then it gets personal very rapidly.
old-school justice, an eye for an eye. Even the MSM journos have been pointing out the long memories of China, and Russia, and then there are the Islamists of course. Must give one a sense of security and all that, being an American Idiot.
I wonder if the true spirit of that nation will awaken again, and in time. Sadly I think it is not likely.
Given that “the true spirit of that nation” was founded on the idea of limitless resources and unlimited expansion, I doubt it some how.
Given how long it has functioned as an exploitational empire I somewhat doubt it as well. I think it will be US uber alles for some time yet. Even any economic recovery there would be still predicated on predating on other countries and their resources, because it can.
Democracy never counts the cost.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Argus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Dominic_I_and_II
These crazed, war industry sponsored operations, have been going on more than half a century, and yet co2 is taking the blame The blatant stench of distraction, reeks, and has always been a trap for the punters to despise their own existence, and agonize over.
CFC’s ozonze hole (since the 70’s), nah, its the war machine paid, scientists looking for for new weapons, that’s heavily responsible for the damage to our planets atmospheric layers!
People don’t want to blame the science, I have no problem pointing the middle finger , right at it!
Science & war- symbiotic!
.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_INFEKTION
What? No Purple Rain?
Joe, are you saying Argus, S-Prime and D1,2 did not happen, or that perhps all the nuclear detonations over the decades, land, sea, air, inluding the reactor meltdows, could not be a contributing factor to the messed up state of the weather, via the damage in the atmospheric layers etc?
Your links are getting weak mate, too long on the net, or too tied to the science trip, to see it for what it really has become!
Looks like you have a friend in Pop, who can;t divorce himself from anything which might taint his view of, *AMERICAN*.!
Which of course the scientists involved, mostly, were not!
Nope, it was the naive burning fossil fuels on an unprecedented and asymptotic scale – but you believe whatever you can deal with.
Whoa! Lianne Dalziel expected to quit parliament & run for Christchurch mayoralty.
http://www.peterellis.org.nz/2004/2004-0311_ThePress_DalzielPullsOut.htm
http://www.peterellis.org.nz/2004/2004-0311_peterellis-org_DalzielPullsOut.htm
Tainted, like any other MP!
Whoa Muzza. Dalziel would be a damned fine mayor and Christchurch have had a few over the years, for instance Buck and Moore. She would be just what Christchurch needs, someone who would stand up against the Government and promote real development of the area.
The link in the Ellis reference is tenuous in the extreme.
MS – All I implied, was that LD is tainted.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3515393
Edit – The Ellis link, is direct, via her sister, and husband, nothing *tenuous in the extreme* about it.
Some seriously wrng shit, happens in that part of the country, and the history on NZ politicians in and around the smell, is deep!
Integrity, MIA, in NZ!
Oh look a 10 year old, repeat 10 year old, report where a public servant with a bit of humour and a sense of satire who made a comment that went *whoosh* over the head of the right is somehow conclusive evidence that Lianne, and the link is not established except she was a Minister at the time, is not fit for public office despite a life history of public service.
Is that all you have Muzza. Don’t hold back, don’t imply, just slander to your heart’s content.
Its not slander Mickey – LD, might well be a good thing for ChCh, but then again, anyone who lined up against that pest , Parker, would be!
These people are wrong-uns, they get given too much leeway, the standards are too low these days, and what concerns me, is the way that many are comfortable with it all, and happy to *give them a go*!
Yeah, nah, its time to clear decks, very few exceptions of the current crop would remain, LD, would not be one of them!
You mean Muzza that no public servant should ever show the slightest shred of humour ever again?
I thought the “lying in unison” was a wonderfully crafted phrase. When I saw it I knew that the poor old public servant was taking the piss but a bunch of RWNJs without a humour chip jumped up and down about it.
So I am failing to see the problem. Even if I take out my humour chip I still can’t see what this has to do with Dalziel.
Please enlighten us.
Or are you an adherent to the Cameron Slater if you smear enough excrement some of it is sure to stick school of political discourse?
“Edit – The Ellis link, is direct, via her sister, and husband, nothing *tenuous in the extreme* about it.”
So now being related to someone taints you? WTF?
I read the first link you gave and as far as I can see Dalziel acted with integrity – she exempted herself from a process because of conflicts of interest. How exactly is she tainted?
Not a big surprise, Whaleoils been saying that for a long time
A great interview on National Radio on Sunday morning about Christchurch. It confirmed for me that the current government has betrayed the trust of New Zealanders – not once but multiple times:
1. EQC was supposed to look after us and pay for the effects of a major disaster – it has been white-anted by penny pinching and fights with insurance companies and owners, but the most obvious aspect was only offering 50% of land to many Christchurch owners not able to return to their homes. The level of funding of EQC is only part of the story – arbitrary levy limits and lower funding has happened under both National and Labour governments (except under Cullen some of that was reversed), but the underlying commitment promised by the scheme has not ever previously been as cynically compromised.
2. The forcing through of projects for the monuments to politicians in a stadium and conference centre and other large buildings before homes for people.
3. The lack of consultation by Brownlee over planning, and the arrogant over-riding of the local Council
4. The unwillingness to engage with insurers to provide a system that does not require multiple expert reports for assessments and negotiations, and does not require even the level of service expected by insured residents – the profits before people attitude always won despite rhetoric that sounded nice, but in reality resulted in insurers recovering reserve levels at the expense of their ‘clients’.