Open mike 17/08/2015

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 17th, 2015 - 133 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

openmikeOpen mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

133 comments on “Open mike 17/08/2015 ”

  • Comments are now closed

    • Draco T Bastard 1.1
      17 August 2015 at 7:25 am

      Wearable technology – be it heart-rate monitors or skin response sensors – can give this underlying influence more visibility, says Coates. “You need to figure out whether you should be trading or whether you should go home. If you are trading, should you double up your position because you’re in the zone?”

      A technology enhanced financial crash coming to a world near you – soon.

      Really, it’s bad enough listening to these psychopaths already without getting them to do more of it faster.

    • Charles 1.2
      17 August 2015 at 10:31 am

      Bank of America used Humanyze’s technology within its call centers to find out what made employees most productive in terms of numbers of completed calls. Yet it found that the biggest predictor of productivity was how staff spoke to their colleagues. Those with the closest ties to others in their group were more productive and less likely to quit than those who worked alone. The bank added a 15-minute shared coffee break to daily routines: productivity increased by 10 per cent and staff turnover dropped by 70 per cent.

      Kinda screws the idea that high staff turnover (90 day trials and such like) or no tea breaks improve productivity. Business as sport. What horseshit. Someone having a heart attack or stroke would show up in their data as “highly productive”. I can’t believe we allow these fools to walk around freely and define our futures. I’d attach the “heartbeat” device to my cock and get a bonus every month. haw haw haw.

  2. Ffloyd 2
    17 August 2015 at 7:30 am

    Just read online by someone that his mother, who is in Greece has just heard monkey being interviewed by CNBC? about the tppa. Where is he and why the secrecy? Didn’t see him rushing onto the paddock to drink from the Bledisoe Cup before anyone else.8

    • b waghorn 2.1
      17 August 2015 at 7:50 am

      He was one TV one this morn will be on delay about 8:15 belittling protesters and saying labour did it to so snafu

  3. Paul 3
    17 August 2015 at 7:30 am

    The neo-liberal capitalist system is destroying the earth.

    “After seeing the impact of rare earth mining myself, it’s impossible to view the gadgets I use every day in the same way,” he writes. “As I watched Apple announce their smart watch recently, a thought crossed my mind: once we made watches with minerals mined from the Earth and treated them like precious heirlooms; now we use even rarer minerals and we’ll want to update them yearly. ”

    More here

    http://inhabitat.com/chinas-massive-toxic-lake-will-make-you-question-buying-another-electronic-device/

    • Draco T Bastard 3.1
      17 August 2015 at 7:38 am

      Trotter had an article on that up on The Daily Blog yesterday. I left a comment:

      Such destruction is not inescapable. Just need to require that the chemicals used are caught and reused.

      Of course, doing that does cost more and will mean that a lot less people will buy cellphones and thus there won’t be as much profit.

      That latter is actually the problem, the prime cause of the destruction caused by capitalism.

      • vto 3.1.1
        17 August 2015 at 9:11 am

        Yep, the problem with capitalism is that it does not take into account all the requirements of people and the planet.

        Capitalism has a very limited use. Unfortunately the trinkets that it has brought to many has blinded them into thinking that capitalism can be used for all sorts of things…. blinded by bling …..

        • Draco T Bastard 3.1.1.1
          17 August 2015 at 10:03 am

          After reading history I’ve come to the conclusion that capitalism is what societies go into before they die. Like people get to old age and then die.

          Life of a person goes: Born, youth, middle age, old age, death.

          Life of a society goes: Communism, expansion, maintenance, capitalism, death.

          • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 3.1.1.1.1
            17 August 2015 at 11:23 am

            Got an example of a society that has followed this cycle?

            • Draco T Bastard 3.1.1.1.1.1
              17 August 2015 at 11:33 am

              Pretty much all of them.

              • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell …
                17 August 2015 at 12:11 pm

                Pick one at random. Show how what it started with was communism. Define “death” as you have used it in this context.

                • In Vino …
                  17 August 2015 at 7:18 pm

                  You forget that Communism has been tried only in poor countries with despotic traditions in government. Russia is still a relatively poor country, and Stalin has been called the most recent of its succession of great but very cruel Tsars.. (A miracle that it got to be a super-power.)

                  Name one heavily industrialised that has tried Socialism, let alone Communism. You cannot. So there was never an even contest between Capitalism and Communism in the first place.

                  Easy to set up silly demands, is it not?

                  • The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell …
                    17 August 2015 at 9:26 pm

                    Draco was quite specific. “Communism, expansion, maintenance, capitalism, death.” he said. Pretty much all societies have followed this course, he reckons. I’m just asking him to name one. Hardly unreasonable.

                    • In Vino …
                      17 August 2015 at 10:21 pm

                      I think that by communism, Draco was not conjuring up Stalin or Mao. He meant ‘primitive’ communities living without as yet notions of private property and profit-gouging..

                      The word Communism is a red rag to a bull for some people, who go viral over it without thinking about what the basic meaning actually is.

                      Your challenge is at loggerheads with what Draco intended.
                      Enough misfires for a while, I think.

          • tinfoilhat 3.1.1.1.2
            17 August 2015 at 12:48 pm

            I don’t think any of your previous history teachers would be very impressed DTB.

          • Stuart Munro 3.1.1.1.3
            17 August 2015 at 1:39 pm

            I suspect that consensus democracy is the early stage of societies – band cultures usually have one.

    • Ad 3.2
      17 August 2015 at 11:19 am

      You people will probably also enjoy this guy:

      http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/

      I got his book of images of large scale industrial impact when it first came out.
      IMHO he is better on some levels than Salgado, but with less of a human touch.

  4. marty mars 4
    17 August 2015 at 7:46 am

    morgan is on the money

    “To reduce the national flag to a brand has to be the most banal, vacuous attempt by Corporate NZ to take over our identity. It shows no respect for who we are, what our national identity is, it’s crass commercialisation, nothing more. He even has the gall to boast of the “billions” we’ll make if we Coca Colarise ourselves.”

    and

    “The Union Jack is a clever compilation of the crosses of three members, the Stars & Stripes tells how 50 states emerged from the original 13, while the Rainbow Nation acknowledges the plethora of tribes that built South Africa. Now compare those to the Canadian maple leaf – it’s very pretty and instantly recognisable much as many corporate logos are. But what an opportunity lost – there is no underlying story, no mention of where those folk came from, who they are, where they’re going. It’s nothing more than a brand.”

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/71124585/the-new-zealand-flag-should-be-more-than-a-brand

    yes we could tell our story, I hope we do, the real story, but somehow I think we will waste this and sell out to a corporate logo – that will fit in with the sellout of this country by TPPA and the rest of the mangey pack of dogs key is running with.

    • Kevin 4.1
      17 August 2015 at 7:53 am

      “To reduce the national flag to a brand has to be the most banal, vacuous attempt by Corporate NZ to take over our identity. It shows no respect for who we are, what our national identity is, it’s crass commercialisation, nothing more. He even has the gall to boast of the “billions” we’ll make if we Coca Colarise ourselves.”

      I’m guessing he’s referring to the PM’s pushing of the silver fern and Morgan is right. The problem is, amongst others. the silver fern has become a logo.

      • BM 4.1.1
        17 August 2015 at 8:20 am

        Well, we’re not going to put the union jack on stuff are we?

        Maybe the Kiwi with the taiaha, but it’s a bit aggressive.

        The stars are a bit nondescript

        Which leaves the silver fern.

        • Kevin 4.1.1.1
          17 August 2015 at 8:25 am

          When I see the silver fern I think All Blacks and our Netball team. It’s become a logo and also has the disadvantage of being difficult to draw. At least the maple leaf has the advantage of being symmetrical.

          I quite like the stars but they need to be placed with careful consideration otherwise we end up with a third world country flag.

          The kiwi emblem I associate with our military.

        • Weepus beard 4.1.1.2
          17 August 2015 at 8:29 am

          You are repeating the line you are told to like a good lapdog. Some people just can’t think for themselves.

          • McFlock 4.1.1.2.1
            17 August 2015 at 11:05 am

            no, BM has honestly held that belief ever since he read the talking points for the day.

        • Draco T Bastard 4.1.1.3
          17 August 2015 at 9:38 am

          I liked the one the other day – the one with the fish hook on it. I feel that it represents NZ well.

        • AB 4.1.1.4
          17 August 2015 at 1:38 pm

          “Well, we’re not going to put the union jack on stuff are we?”

          Well why did Key bring back British honours then? Do you not see the inconsistency? A bloke running the most cravenly sycophantic foreign policy in years pretending to strike a blow for our independent identity by changing the flag?
          Hypocritical twerp.

    • BM 4.2
      17 August 2015 at 7:56 am

      If Morgan wants to keep the flag, he better vote in the referendum.

      Key put out this vid on his face book page explaining his view on the flag, got to hand it to the man, he’s brilliant at getting people to see something his way.

      https://www.facebook.com/pmjohnkey/videos/vb.12635800428/10153534317450429/?type=2&theater

      Already got 563,493 Views.

      • marty mars 4.2.1
        17 August 2015 at 8:05 am

        yep agreed – he is good at that and we are all the poorer because of it. Often substance is more important than appearances but many in this land are just too foolish to get it – key knows this and plays on it, takes advantage of it – a small town preacher with the gift of the glib and everynight the men (and women) come around and lay their money down…

        • infused 4.2.1.1
          17 August 2015 at 8:11 am

          The Left- Telling everyone they are stupid since ages ago.

          • marty mars 4.2.1.1.1
            17 August 2015 at 8:20 am

            foolish is not stupid but you are

          • vto 4.2.1.1.2
            17 August 2015 at 8:23 am

            No. Just pointing out the snake oil salesman.

            Have you never seen anyone taken advantage of by a snake oil merchant infused?

          • adam 4.2.1.1.3
            17 August 2015 at 10:12 am

            No infused, just keeping smug arrogant wankers like yourself in line.

          • Stuart Munro 4.2.1.1.4
            17 August 2015 at 12:59 pm

            We’re trying to help you infused – though as a dyed-in-the-wool righty you present pretty strong evidence for the ‘rightwing are chumps’ hypothesis.

            The Gnats tend instead to present evidence that the rightwing are crooks. Their rightwingery is secondary to their interest in stealing public property.

      • Weepus beard 4.2.2
        17 August 2015 at 8:24 am

        Morgan is simply exercising his right to an opinion, just like John Key is in his Facebook clip.

        Don’t tell me you advocate the silencing of voices like Morgan’s and others.

        • BM 4.2.2.1
          17 August 2015 at 8:30 am

          Not at all.

          Opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one.

          Morgan likes the current flag and wants to keep it, which is hardly surprising because he’s an old boy.

          Myself, I want the flag changed because its naff and unrepresentative of modern NZ.

          • Weepus beard 4.2.2.1.1
            17 August 2015 at 8:37 am

            Tell the truth BM. You want to change the flag to a fern because that’s what John Key has told you you want.

            So transparent.

          • marty mars 4.2.2.1.2
            17 August 2015 at 9:45 am

            “Morgan likes the current flag and wants to keep it”

            which is why he ran a competition for ideas on a new flag…

      • AsleepWhileWalking 4.2.3
        17 August 2015 at 8:31 am

        I doubt there are half a million people who care about the flag debate enough to watch. Clearly fake view count.

    • Charles 4.3
      17 August 2015 at 9:57 am

      “…Now compare those to the Canadian maple leaf – it’s very pretty and instantly recognisable much as many corporate logos are…”

      He thinks it’s about the manufacture of maple syrup? Ok so it’s stuff.co.nz opinion, and Gareth Morgan is either willfully misleading people, or doesn’t have Google, but the Canadian maple leaf has been associated with Canadian heraldry as a symbol of Canada for a hundred or so years before 1965, or whenever it was the red/white maple flag was installed.

      If he wants to argue that the silver fern isn’t traditionally a NZ heraldic symbol then he might have a point, but NZ doesn’t have much heraldic history yet – people create that with their flag/coat of arms-making. Anyone looking at the Canadian flag now knows what it represents because the Canadian people have presented their actions and attitudes under that banner. Is he saying they have no national identity, no standing? Is he either insulting, stupid or condescending? Sheesh. Why be so sloppy about it if it weren’t just a propagation of lies just because he doesn’t want a new flag. Any flag starts out relatively meaningless, as simply a symbol of ideals, aspirations or values. Meaning is applied to it by people’s memories after the fact.

    • b waghorn 4.4
      17 August 2015 at 3:30 pm

      This was in the comments on Morgans Facebook post today I would be interested to know if this guys onto something.??

      “”Hey, don’t mean to to freak y’all out (actually, yes I do!) but there’s a lot more to this NZ flag change malarkey than most people realise…

      I was open to changing the current NZ flag, but I also didn’t understand (like most people) the LEGAL significance of doing so…

      Why not change the flag?

      Here’s why not – its called ‘Due Authority’

      DUE AUTHORITY in a nation like NZ is represented on the NZ flag by the Union Jack and signifies that we are a constitutional monarchy.

      A change of flag means not only that we have taken a major step to removing the DUE AUTHORITY of the crown. It also means we take away the very power which enforces both the 1981 Bill of Rights Act (the closest thing NZ has to an entrenched Constitution) and the founding plank upon which the Treaty of Waitangi has meaning.

      It does not matter if you’re pro or anti monarchy but if you take away the DUE AUTHORITY of law (which includes our flag) you then open the gates of hell, or to be precise the means in which John Key can legally sign the TPPA (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement). Currently if the matter was taken to court it would undoubtedly end up at the Supreme Court.

      The Privy Council is our former chief court and unlike the new US-styled NZ supreme Court, has its legal interpretation interpreted by Judges that are picked by the Law Lords of the Common Wealth.
      In the new system those Judges are picked by parliament – uh oh.

      At the moment it is likely that a legal challenge could be mounted against the TPPA, even if John does sign it, even with the Supreme Court Change, in that it breaches the 1981 Bill of Rights and the Crowns obligation to Iwi as set out in the Treaty of Waitangi.

      However, if the DUE AUTHORITY of the State can be removed then the TPPA can not only be signed but it then means that once signed the DUE AUTHORITY of the TPPA would supersede the power of any NZ laws already in place. Such as the 1981 Bill of Rights etc.””

      Please feel free to copy & paste or share… A lot of people don’t seek education but will take it when offered!

      • McFlock 4.4.1
        17 August 2015 at 3:49 pm

        Given that we only got the flag in 1902, it looks like bollocks to me.

        It reminds me of the militia-types in the US who get in a tizz because the flag in the courtroom has gold trim.

        • b waghorn 4.4.1.1
          17 August 2015 at 7:01 pm

          Yes just goggled “due authority” and it came up with a couple of fringe looking sites one called misty mountain , basically saying the same as the above, someone causing mischief and leading a few astray .

          • McFlock 4.4.1.1.1
            17 August 2015 at 7:23 pm

            Dunno about causing mischief, at least intentionally.

            It’s the standard internet drill: too much overthinking, not enough understanding.

  5. les 5
    17 August 2015 at 8:05 am

    ‘Just on half the country’s directors aren’t happy about their pay as workload piles up and more face the axe for poor performance.

    Directors Institute chief executive Simon Arcus said while there had been a “moderate” 4 per cent increase in the past year, workloads had almost doubled, reflecting an environment where boards are facing more scrutiny and regulation than ever before.

    Survey data shows only 50.6 per cent are satisfied with their remuneration. Median fees for private listed companies were $78,570, up 22 per cent over the past four years.’

    G,Bradley…NZH…..

    doesn’t your heart just bleed for these…unfortunates!

    • infused 5.1
      17 August 2015 at 8:13 am

      Just shows you don’t have a clue.

      As one of these people, your work week is pretty much 80 hours every week. You fuck up and it’s the end of your career. Same with ceos.

      • Weepus beard 5.1.1
        17 August 2015 at 8:27 am

        Jaysus. You work 80 hours/week and still find the time to clog the internet bitching and moaning about the Labour Party.

        • McFlock 5.1.1.1
          17 August 2015 at 11:26 am

          Depending on whom infused works for, the two aren’t completely exclusive 🙂

          The other option is that the effort infused puts in to their “work” is as half-arsed as the effort they put into their thoughts here.

          Poor infused, working 80 hours a week to barely achieve what others do in 40…

      • les 5.1.2
        17 August 2015 at 8:29 am

        you are the one without a clue….there are many professional directors who warm seats on many boards.80hrs a week…what crap…as for fucking up…lets take a look at a few recent cases…Shipley/Mainzeal…now Genesis chair,Withers /Feltex,now at MRP….so you really are quite ignorant ,illinformed or delusional.

      • Draco T Bastard 5.1.3
        17 August 2015 at 9:46 am

        Really? So why is it that so many bank CEOs, directors and other sundries are still in control of our economies after they crashed it?

      • half crown 5.1.4
        17 August 2015 at 10:50 am

        “………… your work week is pretty much 80 hours every week. You fuck up and it’s the end of your career. Same with ceos.”

        Oh diddums my hearts bleeds for them,

        That will be the day I have seen fuck ups by so called “managers” where the remaining staff has to clean up the shit afterwards and nine times out of ten they walk away with a big golden handshake, later to emerge in a top position in another organisation.,

        Try running your own business as a small operator see how many hours you then work, or doing two jobs to make ends meet on very low money.
        Of course if it is too much for them, they can always find a job with a zero hour contract.

        • Gangnam Style 5.1.4.1
          17 August 2015 at 3:15 pm

          Yeah man, all sympathy to you, I only work about 50 hours a week, in a physically demanding job, must be hard sittin’ on your arse for 80s hours a week!@

      • tc 5.1.5
        17 August 2015 at 11:07 am

        Sorry to hear infused but it sounds like you’re not in the ‘Club’ if you work 80+hrs and get shafted.

        btw it’s not a club you get asked to join, you’re born into it or you can aspire to it but never be part of it.

        Hotchin thought he was in the club like Muir, Watson etc are but he gets to hold the can in public like a good south akl boy while others skate away from the hanover/elders collapse.

      • DH 5.1.6
        17 August 2015 at 2:06 pm

        “As one of these people, your work week is pretty much 80 hours every week. ”

        Umm….. directors wouldn’t even do 8hrs per week. It’s not a full time job.

      • Colonial Viper 5.1.7
        17 August 2015 at 2:32 pm

        As one of these people, your work week is pretty much 80 hours every week. You fuck up and it’s the end of your career. Same with ceos.

        LOL who ya kidding

    • Ad 5.2
      17 August 2015 at 11:21 am

      We need progressives to be on Boards.
      And they will have to train and qualify with experience for it, like everyone else.

      • greywarshark 5.2.1
        17 August 2015 at 2:41 pm

        Thinking about what we need to be able to manage our world better. It seems that we are at a crucial point in time. We have had two big wars that have taken us near to the highest point of modern day barbarism, have improved on that with acceptance of torture in fact and spirit, and introduced depleted uranium and agent orange. Our destructiveness and drift from afraid or vengeful human beings to callous, murderous behaviour regarded as a norm is frightening.

        I think some persistent group has to introduce and carry over the years, a Day of Examination of our Souls where we meet and look at all the things that we humans have done in the past year, and find a way how we can collectively and individually do something about that for the next year. That would include approaching others, talking about how we can do something personally and collectively.

        This would be a day for a person’s serious thinking, and not in churches. This is something that needs to come from the heart of people themselves – not diddling around from religions with incense and ritual and asking for forgiveness from the Great Spirit. It’s too late for that. It has happened and we have not been able to stop it. So we need to think, and gather strength from each other, and act on positive ideas put forward.

        (About religion, every year the churches go out and intone the same stuff on Anzac Day. They should include something different each year – a reading of some anti-war poetry, some personal anecdote from a returned service survivor. But hey why fix something while its working smoothly. Stick with the status quo. It gives people confidence.)

        I have the horrible feeling that we have reached the high point in our human time on earth and passed it. But it would be good to be wrong. There are so many wonderful people, lots of ordinary people with good traits, and some very cold, pathological people that we need to look out for and corral. If we look at our politicians and aspirational money and power people who are driven by profit to put life at risk, they are very visible. Less visible are the fellow travellers in our midst, and the weaknesses in our own hearts and minds.

        While we can all criticise others, all of us need to have a strong understanding of ourselves that involves our strengths and our humbling faults. Also, then a workable ideal for how things should be, ready for when the old diseased system breaks down. Dreamers then are not much use, the people who know human weaknesses and how to avoid, manage and survive them in the kindest and fairest ways are the stalwarts, along with those with practical skills plus community spirit.

      • McFlock 5.2.2
        17 August 2015 at 3:29 pm

        Personally I think the main thing we need is diversity: political, cultural, gender, sexual identity… as much as possible of everything.

        Not as a pc platitude, the simple fact is that diversity inhibits groupthink. I was involved in the governance of a reasonable-sized organisation, and one of the most valuable roles was filled by a guy whose job seemed to largely consist of “nope: not possible/legal to do that”. So we’d work our way around the issues until we had a more robust way of actually doing what we wanted. But too many people like that guy would have restricted the variety of ideas we came up with, and we would have been stuck in that narrow “can’t do that” focus, even if the impulse had occurred to us. Different backgrounds mean different skillsets and different ideas.

        Don’t get me wrong, I still think lots of people who disagree with me are dicks, but even dicks have a constructive role to play sometimes 🙂

  6. AsleepWhileWalking 6
    17 August 2015 at 8:32 am

    The damage of inflating one asset class using low cost credit
    http://www.mybudget360.com/the-average-net-worth-by-age-real-estate-boost-housing-net-worth/

    • greywarshark 6.1
      17 August 2015 at 10:48 am

      Interesting that National would support leverage and buying businesses with the intention of stripping its assets and scraping it down to bones to get the money to pay back the lender for the purchase price. Yet they make ACC have money in hand for prophesied costs of the present injured and damaged far into the future. One law for the cowboys and another for the poorer Indians.

  7. Weepus beard 7
    17 August 2015 at 8:34 am

    Key yet again rides the coat tails of the ABs win over the weekend, engineering himself closer to McCaw’s “brand” with a second knighthood offer and by saying he’d make a good prime minister.

    Disgraceful highjacking of the National team.

    • tc 7.1
      17 August 2015 at 10:55 am

      Key is becoming a parody of himself with these displays and nice to see the true intent of knighthoods being put out there by Te kaihokohoko

  8. Kevin 8
    17 August 2015 at 8:47 am

    Why National keeps winning.

    Note: Opinion.

    Because they’ve figured out you don’t have to make everyone happy, you only have to make the majority happy.

    http://parenethical.com/phil140win11/tag/greatest-happiness-principle/

    It’s called utilitarianism. The problem with it is that the worst off end up being even worse off because the government doesn’t have to be concerned about them.

    From the link:

    “The Greatest Happiness principle in general is good, but it has many flaws as any ethical systems does. Due to our inability to perfectly predict the future according to our actions (assuming he future is capable of being altered with our actions), the results we desire are capable of, and often do, fall short of what was intended. If unforeseen parameters caused all of our actions to backfire, even though we were attempting to act in accordance with Utilitarianism, we would all be considered immoral as our results only caused pain. If this happened to everyone in the entire world, then no man could be considered moral. The Greatest Happiness principle also allows for us to cause pain to others as long as a majority of the people become happier. We could essentially just steal resources from smaller foreign countries and drive them to poverty as long as more people benefit than lose. Things such as slavery, bullying, rape, racism, and murder could be justified under Utilitarianism as long as the majority prefers it. Murderers could justify their action by simply killing all of those who opposed them. Once their numbers became the majority, murdering became justifiable as moral. Lastly, the Greatest Happiness principle eliminates the usage of the laws provided by our government. As long as the person’s actions increase general utility, then it does not matter how many laws are broken in the process. We could all go speeding down roads and ignoring traffic signals/signs to our full enjoyment despite there being speed limits as long as few people cared and most people would be having a blast.”

    Question is what strategies do you use against a utilitarian government?

    • Draco T Bastard 8.1
      17 August 2015 at 9:47 am

      National aren’t making the majority happy – they’re only making the rich happy by helping them fuck everybody else over.

    • Weepus beard 8.2
      17 August 2015 at 11:01 am

      Yep. He has spilt society and set us against one another.

      An example this morning was when he trivialised the TPPA protests and compartmentalised the protesters into a box of people who don’t vote for him.

  9. Morrissey 9
    17 August 2015 at 10:10 am

    Paul Henry embarrassed by young caller this morning;
    His mood was not improved by the raucous laughter at his expense.
    Paul Henry, TV3, Monday 17 August 2015, 8:10 a.m.

    Paul Henry is a shameless National Party partisan as well as being John Key’s chief cheerleader. He is a control freak, who demands total obedience from his underlings. Neither his newsreader Hillary Barry nor his dim sports guy Jim Kayes has the ability or the gumption to challenge most of the offensive or ignorant things Henry regularly unloads. Occasionally, as we shall see, they will register their disapproval by falling silent or, as happened with the following phone call from a young viewer, join in with the subversive laughter of the technicians and producers. Henry is all too aware when his authority is undermined like this, and he takes it out on Jim Kayes above all.

    But first, let’s see how a simple phone call derailed him this morning….

    PAUL HENRY: We have Zakaiah from Pahiatua on the phone. How old are you, Zakaiah?

    ZAKARAIAH: I’m eleven.

    PAUL HENRY: All right, Zakaiah, do you think Richie McCaw would make a good prime minister?

    ZAKARAIAH: Yeah, better than John Key!

    EVERYONE IN THE STUDIO EXCEPT HENRY: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

    ….Awkward silence…..

    PAUL HENRY: [grinning awkwardly, like a raccoon eating shit off a wire brush] Oooohhhh.

    ZAKARAIAH: And he doesn’t need to change the flag.

    …..Awkward silence…..

    PAUL HENRY: Well I agree with you there, Zakaiah! But not the bit about John Key; I think he’s doing a good job.

    …..Awkward silence…..

    A little later, Henry reads out the nominations for the New Zealander of the Year award, with his slaves obediently providing the sound effects…

    HENRY: Most of them are shite. Professor Jane Kelsey.
    HILLARY BARRY: Urggghhh!
    HENRY: Nicky Hager.
    JIM KAYES: Groan.
    HILLARY BARRY: Urrrggghh!
    HENRY: Helen Kelly.

    ……Silence. Even these two slaves know that it’s not permissible to slag off the very ill Helen Kelly, even if she is one of those despised creatures, a union activist.

    HENRY: Tim Finn.
    JIM KAYES: Why have they nominated Tim Finn and not Neil?
    HENRY: [suddenly irritated] Oh I don’t know! I’m not up with the minutiae of these things. But the thing is, most of these people are shite. If
    Richie was nominated, they would fall off the list. I’m going to nominate Richie McCaw for New Zealander of the Year.

    ….Awkward pause…..

    JIM KAYES: Have you got a man crush on Richie McCaw?

    ….Awkward pause….

    PAUL HENRY: [speaking evenly and slowly, with an angry edge to his voice] No, I haven’t. But I notice that most of the women removed their wedding rings when he came into the studio. Hillary did.
    HILLARY BARRY: My husband’s watching this….

    • Weepus beard 10.1
      17 August 2015 at 11:53 am

      Excellent piece but Winston had better be prepared for his column to be discontinued for criticising the government.

    • b waghorn 10.2
      17 August 2015 at 12:50 pm

      Voters in rural nz are ripe for the plucking and Winston knows it.
      In today’s farmers weekly there is three new listing, short notice auctions ,if kiwi farmers see a flood of land ownership go off shore look out national.

      • save NZ 10.2.1
        17 August 2015 at 1:05 pm

        It’s already happening. Not just Asian investors either – the whole world knows our country is ripe for the plucking..

        In the US farms are generally only owned by big companies – they control everything – farming are monocultures and collect they collect the subsidies.

        NZ are not selling the milk in these free trade deals they are selling the farms.

        We are giving free access to buy us up, not trade with us.

    • lprent 10.3
      17 August 2015 at 1:25 pm

      Does read like it…

  11. Pat 11
    17 August 2015 at 11:42 am

    A question for any who may know and who listen to Nine to Noon on RNZ.
    Why is Mike Williams unwilling or unable to dispute the propaganda espoused by Matthew Hooton re TPP , particularly noticeable these past 2 weeks. It was left to Kathryn Ryan to bring some semblance of balance and rationale to the topic today…Mr Williams may as well have been absent.

    • Morrissey 11.1
      17 August 2015 at 12:05 pm

      Believe it or not, Williams was there, actually: he backed up Kathryn Ryan by saying “Exactly!” in an emphatic tone of voice after she firmly contradicted one of Hooton’s rants.

      At one other point, he actually had the guts to say: “I think Matt’s also been somewhat unfair to Professor Jane Kelsey.”

      Otherwise it was a typical Mike Williams performance, including: “I’ve got a lot of time for Tim Groser” and (pathetically) “As Matt put it so eloquently…”

      • rhinocrates 11.1.1
        17 August 2015 at 2:21 pm

        I’d have a lot of time for Groser too, to make sure the garlic, stakes, silver and holy water had taken effect. A pity Williams didn’t mean it that way though. “Useless” doesn’t begin to describe him, and I haven’t the energy to finish.

  12. Morrissey 12
    17 August 2015 at 11:50 am

    If he lived in Syria, Grant Smithies would be praising President Assad’s taste in music
    Morning Report, Radio NZ National, 7:56 a.m., Monday 17 August 2015

    adulation n., excessive devotion to someone; servile flattery

    SUSIE FERGUSON: President Obama’s Spotify account includes the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Coldplay—Guyon’s favorite band!—and Al Green. To discuss this, welcome to music critic Grant Smithies. Well, what do you reckon about the President’s taste in music?

    GRANT SMITHIES: I reckon I’d go around to his place for a beer! It sounds like it’s a genuine list, and not one made up to impress the electorate, unlike, say, Gordon Brown, who proclaimed his “deep love” for the Arctic Monkeys a few years ago. It’s a pretty interesting selection, although I am concerned about the presence of Coldplay on the list. But to be fair, he’s had things to do. He’s been busy!

    SUSIE FERGUSON: Ha ha ha ha ha!

    GRANT SMITHIES: I wonder what sort of list George W. Bush would have made. Probably from the cheesiest end of the country spectrum, plus some triumphalist rock tunes. It would be the stuff of nightmares!

    SUSIE FERGUSON: Ha ha ha ha ha!

    For the benefit of people like Grant Smithies, THIS is the stuff of nightmares…..
    http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/24/-sp-us-drone-strikes-kill-1147

  13. greywarshark 13
    17 August 2015 at 11:53 am

    Listening to Guyon and Susie on Radionz early, I have noticed the odd banter being dropped in which makes me shudder. I am particularly sensitive to this as I have grown to hate the crap on television between partner-faces presenting there. Although there are things that I criticise about RadioNZ, I treasure them, and I also tell them so from time to time. They do a good job, and anyone who wants a reliable, truthful, well run public radio station, must listen to it and give feedback about it and its coverage, support it and ensure that it continues. We don’t want it killed by a thousand poison arrows, weak acid weakening its structure, and termites cutting through its supports!
    It already is not being maintained properly as it has a decreasing budget. We don’t want government doing a HousingNZ on our radio, and the whole government house-of-cards decline policy.

    I don’t want to hear on Radio details of what goes through presenters’ minds being broadcast to try connecting with the tiny minds in the youthful community. I fear RadioNZ being dumbed down to satisfy the butterfly minds of the masses and the ‘superior but limited’ interests of our chattering classes. I remember Guy and Sus bantering about fave James Bonds. This morning it was whether Cold Play was good. STFU. For sure, keep a bit of lightness in from the news or some recent event in NZ that deserves comment.

    I can see the extent of the attacks which RadioNZ suffers from the eternal carping of the RW barbarians firing shots in all directions. I found an example in the July 2008 Listener item from Bill Ralston’s Life. I can’t give you a link because the Listener doesn’t put up content it just lists the headings of items.

    His thoughts:’We are currently being served an insipid menu of stewed apple and bananas, admirably suited to the rest home RNZ National has become.” “I am convinced these days RNZ National is broadcasting almost solely to itself and the few dozen people who control its funding.”
    Ralston flicks off RNZ to Auckland Maori Mai FM, a hip-hop station. “Aside from developing a taste for the new R&B, I have no idea why I’ve done so except for the fact the hosts sound as if they still live, breathe and have fun.
    Actually, it does not matter if commercial radio is good or bad: you can simply change stations. It doesn’t cost you a cent. If public radio is bad, it costs you well north of $25 million a year, whether you listen or not.
    The dreadfully smug, hand-wringing liberal contortions of RNZ could originate only from its home in Wellington…” and he has a go at politically-correct politicians. “RNZ National is the voice of Helen Clark’s [NZ]: smug, self-righteous and desperately dull.”

    Strange that, to me, the same comments apply directly to his own output. He and his opinion are irrelevant to a well-functioning society. I feel his spite though, and his complaints about cost to the taxpayer echo those used to get rid of our national television service. A mother was used as a bellwether, complaining that her son needed his tv for other purposes than watching programmes, but being registered as owner, had to pay $60? for the privilege. So of course we had to get rid of taxpayer direct charging from the rest of us, despite many of us not getting much value from our general taxes.

    There was a good comment by Russell Brown on Ralston’s diatribe even touching on his liberal tribe. Brown makes the point that there was at one time a tendency to resist change and need for more youth input, but that no longer applied.
    http://publicaddress.net/hardnews/radio-times/

    • Chooky 13.1
      17 August 2015 at 12:12 pm

      +100… I agree Greywarshark….’Morning Report’ is increasingly nauseating ‘entertainment’ infotainment advertorials for the John Key Nactional Party

      …I find Espiner’s ‘interviews’ with John Key ( invitation to spin and slime on and on… ) to be servile ( an interview lie down PR opportunity for John Key) …and Espiner’s questioning of Professor Jane Kelsey to be personal attacking, repetitive and shallow…only she added depth to the non-interview

      At least Kathryn Ryan tackled Matthew Hooton’s spin and attacks on Jane Kelsey…rather than discussing the substantive issues at hand ….of the downside of the TPPA…and the extent of New Zealanders opposition to it…with its disadvantages to New Zealand re IT industry , copyright, medicines, sovereignty etc…

      • maui 13.1.1
        17 August 2015 at 5:25 pm

        Mora in the afternoons is freakin bad too. Either deliberately nieve, plain stupid or weak, probably all of those, he will not hold anyone to account the best he’s got is a forced cold flanelling, something Key probably got from his mother when he was under the age of 10. He says things like, but they wouldn’t sign the TPPA if they knew it was going to be bad would they?

    • In Vino 13.2
      17 August 2015 at 8:08 pm

      Great post, greywarshark.

      It is to my mind criminal that the marketing industry now rules our media because they fund it, and that even affects State-Owned Enterprises like TVNZ, whose current CEO is a guy from the marketing industry, not from broadcasting.
      So we now have, as you say, the team of two announcers introducing their personal views onto what should be impartially-presented news, where one person is quite enough.
      To make it worse, we now have regular advertising on Radio NZ. After each news-on-the-hour, RNZ advertise their own programmes, with increasingly commercial techniques.
      God in heaven – I take refuge in the National Programme to get away from the vile commercial cacklemush of ads on commercial radio. And what do I find? Radio NZ National is now mimicking its inferiors. (Actually, it should still be called National Radio.)

      Somebody needs to throw the money-changers out of the temple again – the best thing Christ ever supposedly did.
      Are they making RNZ so close to commercial so that nobody will miss it when they finally sell it off?

      • greywarshark 13.2.1
        18 August 2015 at 11:44 am

        @In Vino
        Your opinions are what I feel. I am not absolutist about presentation, it doesn’t have to be totally dry, but I fear that the boffins at the top are hell-bent on matching targets rather than adopting a balanced viewpoint to change of presentation and introducing some ‘lighter’ news. Where is the line in the sand I wonder? And of course such lines can be washed away.

        I fear that they want to dilute the hard NZ news, with world news from a narrow base, and exaggerating the importance of hard news from overseas, ie interviews with officials in the USA about their latest disaster or outrage which then gets repeated in short form every news hour during the day. That fits the mindset of politicians following ‘overseas’ practices when considering new policies, which implies worldwide, but is limited to the 5-Eyes countries only., being the dominant comet USA, trailing in its tail – UK, Canada, Australia and ….panting along, NZ.

        I fear too they wish to bring magazine-type weekend listening into the Kim Hill/Wallace Chapman slot with art, leisure, food and wine, style, with middle class women and men dominating. They represent those on household incomes higher than most, and can consider such pleasant things and fob off concerns that should have time for serious discussion in these slots.

        Yesterday I gave Bill Ralston’s deriding take on the RadioNZ, in 2008. I suggest that now he would come up with a similar cant, except with different targets. No changes would appease his wonky viewpoint. And aligning with him are people like Hosking, whose very expression in today’s post displays a mixture of derisive attitudes.

        Personally, I do know about presentation of content from long interest in consuming it, and some efforts at presentation of facts and discussion of ideas, so when I like something on radio or not, it isn’t some random whim.

    • John Shears 14.1
      17 August 2015 at 12:30 pm

      Heard that but IMO Kathryn needs to be a lot tougher on Hooton he is constantly interrupting and boring us with his right wing rubbish.
      Mike also should crunch Hooton more often.
      Take a leaf out of WC Fields book.
      “Never give a sucker a second break”

      • greywarshark 14.1.1
        17 August 2015 at 2:01 pm

        The object I think is to draw out the right and left approach without dissecting it or boning it for the fillets! It is interesting as stats for employment are interesting – they remain committed to a method, and the differences then show up as attention grabbing and indicative.

    • freedom 14.2
      17 August 2015 at 1:23 pm

      & right at the end, when discussing the flag, Hooton checks his cards
      and plays a ‘do this or the terrorists win!’

      “The only issue against the black flag of course is ISIS.
      The funny thing is are we going to allow ISIS because it happens to have a black flag, determine that we shouldn’t?”
      *Dubya & Cheney wipe away a tear*

  16. Puckish Rogue 16
    17 August 2015 at 2:01 pm

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/71179822/opposition-political-leaders-accusing-mike-hosking-of-political-bias

    Theres no arguement now that Winston Peters is the leader of the opposition

    • Charles 16.1
      17 August 2015 at 2:50 pm

      “The point is that Mike Hosking is extremely influential because of his involvement with Newstalk ZB, TVNZ and the Herald.”

      Shaw said the whole media industry was going through a period of “huge turmoil” and the result was a move away from reporting towards editorialising.

      “Mike is symptomatic of a broader trend.”

      Psychobabble theory says people see the world as containing more of their self-affirming beliefs than it actually does. Shaw has an interest in people being scared by various things, so he’s the opposite of the phenomena, but do people really adjust their lives to suit a Hosking/Herald/radio opinion? I regularly test the absurdity of my opinions by opening my mouth, and no one else holds my views, but what Shaw claims is that a large number – we’re talking millions – slavishly adhere to Hoskings implied commands. None them have preferences, or can choose anything of their own accord. It isn’t a very convincing claim. I’d expect people to be driving off bridges or walking in circles for hours at the supermarket if they were that lost for what to think or do. Hosking is an expression of the environment he works in, and co-incidentally, people would like to own his car. Not sure that is the same as them arriving at the conclusion that thinking like Mike Hosking will get them a Maserati. They could just steal his one, for instance, or go all hopelessly surly and scratch it, out of spite.

    • McFlock 16.2
      17 August 2015 at 3:55 pm

      No, no there isn’t.

      If you want to make that assertion, there might be. What with the seating plan in the House, party votes, and suchlike.

      But then you’re just shitting yourself because the opposition parties are fighting the government rather than each other.

      • Puckish Rogue 16.2.1
        17 August 2015 at 4:24 pm

        Far too early in the election cycle to be worried about anything

        • b waghorn 16.2.1.1
          17 August 2015 at 7:09 pm

          I bet keys thinking about leaving again now things ain’t going so good .
          I just had a vision of you and hoskings hugging his leg and pleading for him not to leave yous behind as he jets off to foreign shores for good.

    • maui 16.3
      17 August 2015 at 5:13 pm

      This is good, now we can openly talk about media bias. Maybe we can see if any parts of the corporate sellout media don’t show a National bias.

  17. Draco T Bastard 17
    17 August 2015 at 2:34 pm

    So, you remember when the Problem Gambling Foundation lost it’s government contract and all the RWNJs, including Peter Dunne, said it was all done above board? Yeah, about that:

    So, to summarise, the High Court has just told us that the PGF lost its government contract after being very vocally critical of government policy through a process that;

    1. Changed the ground-rules as to how the contracts would be awarded after organisations had bid for them;
    2. So wrongly assessed the PGF’s application that the apparent result couldn’t be trusted; and
    3. Used people to assess who should get the contract who were at least apparently biased in favour of some applicants over others.

    Totally corrupt in other words.

  18. esoteric pineapples 18
    17 August 2015 at 3:40 pm

    Federated Farmers complaining about proposed water quality standards in Southland –
    http://www.fedfarm.org.nz/publications/media-releases/article.asp?id=2461#.VdFW_bKqpHw

  19. esoteric pineapples 19
    17 August 2015 at 3:47 pm

    This one is so ironic, it is actually quite funny. I recommend checking out Federated Farmer’s Facebook page to keep abreast of its latest musings.

    Federated Farmers wants government to fast track dairy irrigation projects to help communities hit by the falling price of milk – http://www.fedfarm.org.nz/publications/media-releases/article.asp?id=2455#.VdFYw7KqpHx

  20. Draco T Bastard 20
    17 August 2015 at 4:26 pm

    CrestClean calls for Cleaning Industry Training Standards

    “We believe a CITS would lift the standards of the cleaning industry leading to greater economic productivity, but equally important, provide a sea change in the attitudes and behaviours of cleaners as training provides them with greater skills and opportunities,” Grant says.

    So, I wonder how many RWNJs are going to continue to claim that cleaners don’t have any skills or don’t take any risks.

    • maui 20.1
      17 August 2015 at 5:09 pm

      I can’t stand this certification and having industry standards for literally everything. If you are a good cleaner then you can obviously clean well. Why should a piece of paper represent how good you are at the said skill. Say in IT, I could have all the experience in the world and not be certified, while someone could have zero experience but be certified and be looked at as the better candidate because they’re done a two day training course or something. There’s a whole lot of bullshit going around in our business world.

      • Draco T Bastard 20.1.1
        17 August 2015 at 5:40 pm

        While I agree with you to a large extent my point was that the RWNJS always come out with the idea that cleaners and other under paid people don’t have any skills so a professional body saying that we need to recognise the skill set should put paid to that.

  21. Draco T Bastard 21
    17 August 2015 at 4:30 pm

    China’s yuan move could reignite Asian currency wars

    China’s policy shift to support exporters and stem the deepest economic slowdown since 1990 heightens the risk of competitive currency devaluations as global demand wanes.

    See, this is why you don’t have FTAs that lock you into trading with a country that acts like this.

  22. Draco T Bastard 22
    17 August 2015 at 4:55 pm

    So, RadiolLive had this poll, right, where people voted four their preferred flags, right?

    This person combined them. (Warning for possible damage to sight and mind.)

  23. Morrissey 23
    17 August 2015 at 5:17 pm

    Prof. Al Gillespie: “To a degree we have to trust the government.”
    Why did Jim Mora ask this fellow to talk about the TPPA?
    The Panel, Radio NZ National, Monday 17 August 2015
    Jim Mora, Joe Bennett, Susan Guthrie, Noelle McCarthy

    Jim Mora’s producers try to impart the appearance of credibility to this light chat show by going to a regular stable of academics, to get their thoughts on various issues. This can be a useful and enlightening exercise, but all too often it is neither, as anyone unfortunate enough to have listened to such academic guests as Tim Dare, Robert Patman, Jacqueline Rowarth, or Michael Bassett will testify.

    Today’s big topic was the undemocratic and highly secretive TPPA talks that our government is engaged in. The token academic chosen to comment on it was Professor Al Gillespie from Waikato University. Long time Mora-sufferers will be familiar with Prof. Gillespie, who seems to have earned a doctorate in How To Say Nothing Meaningful. Unlike the formidably intelligent and forthright Jane Kelsey, Professor Gillespie is all wide-eyed optimism: “I think they will learn from this ,” he states in a tone of high seriousness, “and negotiations will not be as secretive in the future.”

    A few minutes later he advises, again in the most scholarly manner he can muster: “To a degree we have to trust the government.”

    Why did their producers go to this mealy-mouthed drip, instead of asking someone who actually knows something about the issue?

    At 4:42 p.m. the host made what was quite possibly the most cynical and ignorant statement of the year so far—even on this dog of a programme. After Susan Guthrie, in her “Soapbox” contribution, had expressed her delight at the popularity of Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders, he posed the following question, in the loftiest tone he could muster….

    JIM MORA: It’s one thing to say Jeremy Corbyn’s lovely and pure, but it’s another thing to make him Prime Minister, isn’t it?

    – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

    On the few occasions there HAVE been decent and rigorous academics on the programme, they are likely to be subjected to ridicule by “comedians” like Gary McCormick….
    http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-11032011/#comment-306974

  24. Byrnz 24
    17 August 2015 at 5:40 pm

    ‘Had enough of Mike Hosking?’ – seventy percent voted to say, yes, he is clearly politically biased.

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/71189005/had-enough-of-mike-hosking

    For what it was worth, I registered my vote along with others who felt the same way.

  25. NZSage 25
    17 August 2015 at 6:34 pm

    Can anyone provide me a link to a UK based blog similar to The Standard? By similar I mean left leaning with a level of intelligent debate?

    I’m keen to see how the Corbyn debate is going.

    • Morrissey 25.1
      17 August 2015 at 7:02 pm

      Go immediately to this site….

      http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/

      If it doesn’t restore your faith in humanity, you would be one of the more than one thousand dolts—give or take a few comedians with a very dark sense of irony—-who clicked on the “He’s an outstanding journalist” option in the Hosking poll over on Stuff.

  26. Blue Horsehoe 26
    17 August 2015 at 7:03 pm

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/08/14/fda-approves-oxycontin-kids/31711929/

    Expanding the oversupply of powerful opiate based drugs to children now

    Whatever could possibly go wrong….

    http://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/overdose.html

    Perhaps the expectation is by expanding the market, the number of opiate over-dose deaths may fall

    • joe90 26.1
      17 August 2015 at 7:12 pm

      Expanding the oversupply of powerful opiate based drugs to children now

      Whatever could possibly go wrong….

      You’re right, pain relief is for adults only, children should suffer….

      //

      • Blue Horsehoe 26.1.1
        17 August 2015 at 7:21 pm

        Perhaps you left the sarcasm tag off, or perhaps you are just a bit thick

        Nothing to note about the powerful painkillers already available to all and sundry

        How about the >16,000 opiate over-doses every year in the USA alone

        I wonder how many orders of magnitude it is for lives ruined / impacted through the addictions and suffering caused by these drugs

        Oh, but the pain Joe, think of all the pain that has been prevented by the drugs…./sarc

        • joe90 26.1.1.1
          17 August 2015 at 7:32 pm

          How about the >16,000 opiate over-doses every year in the USA alone

          Yes, people, and particularly children, should suffer with dignity and die in agony because drugs ….

          //

          • northshoredoc 26.1.1.1.1
            17 August 2015 at 8:24 pm

            @joe90 DNFTT

          • Blue Horseshoe 26.1.1.1.2
            17 August 2015 at 9:51 pm

            Jesus Christ you actually are an idiot

            Apologies, I thought you were joking

            @northshoredic

            Having been called out by Bill a few days back it seems you dont learn

            I appreciate you have a career of endorsing protocols which are collapsing around you, that’s not an easy thing to deal with.

            Either make a comment about the links and comments or take a fucken hike

  27. half crown 27
    17 August 2015 at 7:13 pm

    I see the Fucking Spiv and his pack of crooks are now clamping down on items bought overseas on the internet, and these items are going to be subject to GST. Excellent, first class, as it will “level” the playing field for the struggling retailers. The Fucking Spiv said it will “collect” the millions that is not being paid in GST. When do you think we can expect a similiar “clamp down” on the millions of tax not paid by his spiv mates through tax avoidance and tax evasion

  28. joe90 28
    17 August 2015 at 7:15 pm

    America.

    julia cravenVerified account
    ‏@CurlyCrayy

    Very bad call by NYT. Horrid, actually.

    https://twitter.com/CurlyCrayy/status/633077080037687296

  29. Michael Nolan 29
    17 August 2015 at 8:43 pm

    Storm clouds are gathering

    “Doomsday clock for global market crash strikes one minute to midnight as central banks lose control

    China currency devaluation signals endgame leaving equity markets free to collapse under the weight of impossible expectations”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/11805523/Doomsday-clock-for-global-market-crash-strikes-one-minute-to-midnight-as-central-banks-lose-control.html

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

  • Stories of varying weight

    Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on anything you may have missed. Share Read more ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 hours ago
  • Balancing External Security and the Economy

    New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    17 hours ago
  • Weekly Climate Wrap: The unravelling of the offsets

    The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    22 hours ago
  • What makes us tick

    This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    23 hours ago
  • Foreshore and seabed 2.0

    In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 day ago
  • Gordon Campbell on the Royal Commission report into abuse in care

    Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
    WerewolfBy lyndon
    1 day ago
  • The Kākā’s Pick 'n' Mix for Friday, July 26

    TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Weekly Roundup 26-July-2024

    Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    1 day ago
  • God what a relief

    1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 day ago
  • Trust In Me

    Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago
  • The Hoon around the week to July 26

    TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Care report released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Friday, July 26

    TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced $802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Radical law changes needed to build road

    The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    1 day ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #30 2024

    Open access notables Could an extremely cold central European winter such as 1963 happen again despite climate change?, Sippel et al., Weather and Climate Dynamics: Here, we first show based on multiple attribution methods that a winter of similar circulation conditions to 1963 would still lead to an extreme seasonal ...
    Skeptical Science
    2 days ago
  • First they came for the Māori

    Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    2 days ago
  • Join us for the weekly Hoon on YouTube Live

    Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Will the real PM Luxon please stand up?

    Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    2 days ago
  • Will debt reduction trump abuse in care redress?

    Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Care report in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Olywhites and Time Bandits

    About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Why were the 1930s so hot in North America?

    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters and Bob Henson Those who’ve trawled social media during heat waves have likely encountered a tidbit frequently used to brush aside human-caused climate change: Many U.S. states and cities had their single hottest temperature on record during the 1930s, setting incredible heat marks ...
    Skeptical Science
    2 days ago
  • Throwback Thursday – Thinking about Expressways

    Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    2 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Pick 'n' Mix for Thursday, July 25

    TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • The Possum: Demon or Friend?

    Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    2 days ago
  • Not a story

    Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Thursday, July 25

    TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry published its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • A tougher line on “proactive release”?

    The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 days ago
  • 'Let's build a motorway costing $100 million per km, before emissions costs'

    TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • Lester's Prescription – Positive Bleeding.

    I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago
  • Casey Costello gaslights Labour in the House

    Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone icon on the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    3 days ago
  • Why is the Texas grid in such bad shape?

    This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Headline from 2021 The Texas grid, run by ERCOT, has had a rough few years. In 2021, winter storm Uri blacked out much of the state for several days. About a week ago, Hurricane Beryl knocked out ...
    Skeptical Science
    3 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on a textbook case of spending waste by the Luxon government

    Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
    WerewolfBy lyndon
    3 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Pick 'n' Mix for Wednesday, July 24

    TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • LXR Takaanini

    As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    3 days ago
  • Four kilograms of pain

    Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Wednesday, July 24

    TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive: Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • Luxon gets caught out

    NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    3 days ago
  • A worrying sign

    Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Are we fine with 47.9% home-ownership by 2048?

    Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloitte report for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Let's Win This

    You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • Waimahara: The Singing Spirit of Water

    There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
    Greater AucklandBy Connor Sharp
    4 days ago
  • A major milestone: Global climate pollution may have just peaked

    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
    Skeptical Science
    4 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Pick 'n' Mix for Tuesday, July 23

    TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’s Oliver LewisScoop: Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Tuesday, July 23

    TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announced the Board of Te Whatu Ora- Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • HealthNZ and Luxon at cross purposes over budget blowout

    Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    4 days ago
  • 2500-3000 more healthcare staff expected to be fired, as Shane Reti blames Labour for a budget defic...

    Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    4 days ago
  • Might Kamala Harris be about to get a 'stardust' moment like Jacinda Ardern?

    As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
    PunditBy Tim Watkin
    5 days ago
  • Solutions Interview: Steven Hail on MMT & ecological economics

    TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
    The KakaBy Steven Hail
    5 days ago
  • Reported back

    The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Vandrad the Viking, Christopher Coombes, and Literary Archaeology

    Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell On The Biden Withdrawal

    History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
    WerewolfBy lyndon
    5 days ago
  • Joe Biden's withdrawal puts the spotlight back on Kamala and the USA's complicated relatio...

    This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    5 days ago
  • Why we have to challenge our national fiscal assumptions

    A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Existential Crisis and Damaged Brains

    What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • A speed limit is not a target, and yet…

    This is a guest post from longtime supporter Mr Plod, whose previous contributions include a proposal that Hamilton become New Zealand’s capital city, and that we should switch which side of the road we drive on. A recent Newsroom article, “Back to school for the Govt’s new speed limit policy“, ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    5 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Pick 'n' Mix for Monday, July 22

    TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Monday, July 22

    TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #29

    A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
    Skeptical Science
    6 days ago
  • I'd like to share what I did this weekend

    This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    6 days ago
  • For the children – Why mere sentiment can be a misleading force in our lives, and lead to unex...

    National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Order image, ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    6 days ago
  • A friend in uncertain times

    Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • The Chaotic World of Male Diet Influencers

    Hi,We’ll get to the horrific world of male diet influencers (AKA Beefy Boys) shortly, but first you will be glad to know that since I sent out the Webworm explaining why the assassination attempt on Donald Trump was not a false flag operation, I’ve heard from a load of people ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • It's Starting To Look A Lot Like… Y2K

    Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago
  • Bernard’s Saturday Soliloquy for the week to July 20

    Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • Pharmac Director, Climate Change Commissioner, Health NZ Directors – The latest to quit this m...

    Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    1 week ago
  • Flooding Housing Policy

    The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    1 week ago
  • A Voyage Among the Vandals: Accepted (Again!)

    As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    1 week ago
  • The Kākā's Chorus for Friday, July 19

    An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • The Kākā’s Pick 'n' Mix for Friday, July 19

    TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • Weekly Roundup 19-July-2024

    Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    1 week ago
  • Weekly Climate Wrap: A market-led plan for failure

    TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • Tobacco First

    Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago
  • Trump’s Adopted Son.

    Waiting In The Wings: For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 week ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Friday, July 19

    TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSA announced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • The Hoon around the week to July 19

    TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #29 2024

    Open access notables Improving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society: To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago

  • Joint statement from the Prime Ministers of Canada, Australia and New Zealand

    Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue.  We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    16 hours ago
  • AG reminds institutions of legal obligations

    Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    19 hours ago
  • More young people learning about digital safety

    Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views.  “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    20 hours ago
  • Speech to the Conference for General Practice 2024

    Tēnā tātou katoa,  Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    22 hours ago
  • Employers and payroll providers ready for tax changes

    New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts.  “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    24 hours ago
  • Experimental vineyard futureproofs wine industry

    An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Funding confirmed for regions affected by North Island Weather Events

    The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Indonesian Foreign Minister to visit

    Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced.   “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Strengthening partnership with Ngāti Maniapoto

    He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Transport Minister thanks outgoing CAA Chair

    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Test for Customary Marine Title being restored

    The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says.  “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Opposition united in bad faith over ECE sector review

    Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet.  “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Kiwis having their say on first regulatory review

    After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks.  “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Government upgrading Lower North Island commuter rail

    The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Government moves to ensure flood protection for Wairoa

    Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • PM speech to Parliament – Royal Commission of Inquiry’s Report into Abuse in Care

    Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.  At the heart of this report are the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Government acknowledges torture at Lake Alice

    For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Government acknowledges courageous abuse survivors

    The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Half a million people use tax calculator

    With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis.  “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Paid Parental Leave improvements pass first reading

    Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Rebuilding the economy through better regulation

    Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • ‘Open banking’ and ‘open electricity’ on the way

    New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Charity lotteries to be permitted to operate online

    Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Accelerating Northland Expressway

    The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Sir Don to travel to Viet Nam as special envoy

    Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced.    “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Grant Illingworth KC appointed as transitional Commissioner to Royal Commission

    Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024.  “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • NZ to advance relationships with ASEAN partners

    Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane.    “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says.   “This will be our third visit to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Backing mental health services on the West Coast

    Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • NZ support for sustainable Pacific fisheries

    New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Students’ needs at centre of new charter school adjustments

    Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Commissioner replaces Health NZ Board

    In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today.  “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Minister to speak at Australian Space Forum

    Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum.  While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation.  “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Climate Change Minister to attend climate action meeting in China

    Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan.  “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Oceans and Fisheries Minister to Solomons

    Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago
  • Government launches Military Style Academy Pilot

    The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago
  • Nine priority bridge replacements to get underway

    The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Update on global IT outage

    Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • New Zealand, Japan renew Pacific partnership

    New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says.    “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says.    “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • New infrastructure energises BOP forestry towns

    New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • 'Pacific Futures'

    President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests.    Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone.    Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

Page generated in The Standard by Wordpress at 2024-07-26T23:46:54+00:00