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’.
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
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 in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
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It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Asia Pacific Report A Pacific civil society alliance has condemned French neocolonial policies in Kanaky New Caledonia, saying Paris is set on “maintaining the status quo” and denying the indigenous Kanak people their inalienable right to self-determination. The Pacific Regional Non-Governmental Organisations (PRNGOs) Alliance, representing some 15 groups, said in ...
Koi Tū New Zealand cannot sit back and see the collapse of its Fourth Estate, the director of Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures, Sir Peter Gluckman, says in the foreword of a paper published today. The paper, “If not journalists, then who?” paints a picture of an industry ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Foreign investment proposals with implications for Australia’s strategic or economic security will face tougher scrutiny, under a policy overhaul to be announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesday. At the same time, the government ...
A Waitangi Tribunal inquiry report has warned government that a repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act could cause harm to children in care. ...
The Treasury has published today three new papers covering government consumption multipliers, automatic stabilisers and the impacts of global shocks on New Zealand’s economy. ...
Asia Pacific Report The Pacific state of Hawai’i’s House of Representatives has joined the state’s Senate in calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, becoming the first state to pass such a resolution, reports Hawaii News Now. In March, the Senate passed a ceasefire resolution with a 24–1 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Ferrie, A/Prof, UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research and ARC DECRA Fellow, University of Technology Sydney PsiQuantum The Australian government has announced a pledge of approximately A$940 million (US$617 million) to PsiQuantum, a quantum computing start-up company based in Silicon Valley. Half ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia Cameron Prins/Shutterstock If you spend a lot of time exploring fitness content online, you might have come across the concept of heart rate zones. Heart rate zone training has become more ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Eugene Doyle He is the most popular Palestinian leader alive today — and yet few people in the West even know his name. Absolutely no one in Gaza or the West Bank does not know him. That difference speaks volumes about who dominates the media narrative that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Will McCallum, PhD Candidate – School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University Earlier this year, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of not supporting Operation Sovereign Borders – the military-led border security operation that has “closed Australia’s borders ...
By Melyne Baroi in Port Moresby A Papua New Guinea MP, Peter Isoaimo, who had been ousted by the National Court in an alleged bribery case, has been reinstated by the Supreme Court on appeal. A three-member Supreme Court bench found that the National Court had erred in finding that ...
Publisher Chris Holdaway reflects on the unique project of collecting the work of the late, terrific poet Schaeffer Lemalu. One of the nice things you can do as a truly independent publisher is to make the books that writers want to make, whatever they happen to be. That’s how I’ve ...
Those profiled in the stamp series served on overseas deployments from 1995 onwards, and all have been awarded theNew Zealand Operational Service Medal. ...
Last night’s dismal poll result for the coalition government shows the limits of trying to govern as an opposition, argues Joel MacManus. There’s a quote from the American political activist Barbara Deming: “Vengeance is not the point; change is. But the trouble is that in most people’s minds, the thought ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shireen Morris, Associate Professor and Director of the Radical Centre Reform Lab at Macquarie University Law School, Macquarie University Leonid Andronov/Shutterstock Foreign interference in Australian democracy poses a growing risk to our national sovereignty. It refers to coercive, corrupt or ...
A defendant charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining by deception in relation to a mortgage fraud scheme. Sentencing has been scheduled for 14 August 2024. ...
What to say when pesky journalists ask gotcha questions like ‘can you name a single book you’ve ever read?’ and ‘did you read it, or did you just see the movie?’This week, Act Party arts spokesperson Todd Stephenson foolishly agreed to an interview with Newsroom’s Steve Braunias regarding his ...
Explainer - What will a ban on cellphones in schools achieve? Can students use them during lunch breaks? And what happens if you need to contact your child? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodi Rowley, Curator, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Biology, Australian Museum, UNSW Sydney Jodi Rowley, CC BY-NC-ND In winter 2021, Australia’s frogs started dropping dead. People began posting images of dead frogs on social media. Unable to travel to investigate the deaths ...
In the year ended March 2024, 0.4 percent of home transfers were to people who didn’t hold New Zealand citizenship or a resident visa, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wasay Majid, Research Assistant , University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau New Zealand’s accommodation supplement scheme is facing scrutiny, with Social Development Minister Louise Upston recently saying “there is merit in considering whether the current settings are fair and sustainable long-term”. The ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor The first prime ministerial candidate has been announced in Solomon Islands and it is not Manasseh Sogavare. The man of the hour is Jeremiah Manele, the MP for Hograno/Kia/Havulei constituency in Isabel Province, who served as minister of foreign affairs in the last government. ...
Protesting the removal of bins by leaving piles of your dog’s shit for others to deal with doesn’t make you a hero – it’s precious and entitled behaviour. You haven’t truly lived until you’ve stood on the shoreline of Auckland’s Cheltenham beach, desperately trying to scoop increasingly liquid dog shit ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon will be alert to the factors driving the dire polling, but won't be waving the white flag just yet, RNZ political editor Jo Moir writes. ...
Writer, teacher and academic Vincent O’Sullivan died on Sunday 28 April. Here we gather tributes from friends, colleagues, and students who remember his extraordinary contributions. I went down to the garage tonight. There was a bird shrieking out in the bush, in the dark, maybe a kākā. Miraculously, through the ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a burnt-out corporate escapee explains how she gets by ‘working as little as possible’. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female Age: 31 Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: Contractor in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Schmidt, Professor of Chemistry, UNSW Sydney Albert Russ / Shutterstock The icebreaker of many a barbeque conversation is something like “what do you do for a crust?” “I teach chemistry at university,” is what we usually reply. Then silence. Our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Asher Flynn, Associate Professor of Criminology, Monash University Shutterstock Sexual harassment is often considered to be a person-to-person act, but new research shows Australians are also experiencing and perpetrating workplace harassment in large numbers through technology. Our latest study shows one ...
A petition signed by more than 16,500 people, demanding the government take stronger action to halt the genocide of Palestinians by the State of Israel, is being presented to the House of Representatives today by Hon Phil Twyford. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Burnett, Honorary Associate Professor, ANU College of Law, Australian National University jenmartin/Shutterstock April has been a bad month for the Australian environment. The Great Barrier Reef was hit, yet again, by intense coral bleaching. And Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek delayed ...
Winston Peters might not give a ‘rat’s derriere’ about last night’s poll, but it revealed the unusual absence of a honeymoon period and little payoff for the government’s action plan approach, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marco de Jong, Lecturer, Law School, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Details released by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under the Official Information Act reveal New Zealand officials have been considering involvement in AUKUS from the outset. ...
The government's treatment of Māori raised eyebrows, with countries saying New Zealand needed to do more to reduce health, education and justice inequities. ...
The age of criminal responsibility was one of numerous human rights issues raised during Aotearoa New Zealand’s UPR. Other key themes were racism and discrimination, the disproportionate representation of Māori in prison, and to uphold the UN Declaration ...
In a sitdown interview ahead of his final day at Parliament this week, the former Green Party co-leader tells RNZ about his lowest point during 2017's rough election campaign. ...
Is the fringe radio station really in a financial crisis, or is it just running a hyped-up donation drive? Fringe internet radio station Reality Check Radio was launched by the anti-vaccine mandates group Voices for Freedom in March 2023. For the next year, it undertook probably the most aggressive promotional ...
Above the Fold: On Monday, the biggest Māori screen production company faced down the biggest funder of Māori content at the High Court. It was an incredibly tense moment – then, just as quickly, it resolved. Duncan Greive breaks down a strange day in the screen sector.Yesterday morning, Māori ...
It’s a ride that’s lasted almost 30 years for mother and daughter BMX riders Nancy and Toni James, and the next stop is the World Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Almost 27 years ago, Nancy and her husband Gerrard took their oldest child, Daniel, to the Waitākere BMX Club. ...
When it comes to talking about the Government’s controversial fast-track consenting process, political scientist Richard Shaw refers to the famous Chinese sci-fi novel Three-Body Problem, while RNZ’s In Depth journalist Farah Hancock talks about zombie projects. Shaw is referring to the three-party coalition Government and how the proposed legislation is ...
Opinion: The debate over single gender versus co-educational schooling has long been controversial. I went to a co-ed school and was inspired by a remarkable woman who was my maths teacher, and because of her deep knowledge and passion for the subject, I knew that maths was definitely an option ...
He won everything and he earned a knighthood and he was a senior literary figure to the point that he was a living monument to himself until his death in the weekend at 86, but there was something about Vincent O’Sullivan that flew under the radar, that was independent and ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Emeritus Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia The rate of women killed by their partners in Australia grew by 28% from 2021–22 to 2022–23, according to new statistics released today by the Australian Institute of Criminology ...
Ministry of Disabled People employees were promised a permanent role, but were told to start packing three weeks before their fixed term contract finished, says a former employee. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Blakers, Professor of Engineering, Australian National University Clean Energy Council / Neoen As Australia’s rapid renewable energy rollout continues, so too does debate over land use. Nationals Leader David Littleproud, for example, claimed regional areas had reached “saturation point” and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan C. Walsh, Sessional Academic, The University of Queensland Arrest for witchcraft (1866) by John PettieNGV, CC BY-NC In recent decades, governments the world over have increasingly taken action to address the dark history of witch-hunting. In western Europe, memorials to ...
By Mark Rabago, RNZ Pacific Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas correspondent The US Department of Justice is being urged to condemn and cease its reliance on the “Insular Cases” — a series of US Supreme Court opinions on US territories, which have been labelled racist. Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kara Dadswell, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Victoria University Ask your son or daughter, niece, or nephew to draw you a picture of a sport coach. They will most probably draw a man. Why? Our latest research published in the Psychology of Sport ...
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’.