NSA tipped Key off in advance of Greenwald’s revelations about the GCSB. Andrea Vance reports:
Ferguson’s admission backs up Snowden’s evidence about XKeyscore – but Greenwald argued Key cannot confirm it because he promised to resign in the event the GCSB was found to be carrying out mass surveillance.
‘‘The reason that John Key won’t admit what Mr Ferguson himself admitted … is because XKeyscore by its nature is a system of mass surveillance,’’ he said.
Greenwald also said he believed the NSA tipped off the National-led Government about what was coming. The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer took his information to the US spy agency on Sunday.
Following this, Key admitted the GCSB had proposed a programme of mass surveillance, which he canned in March 2013.
‘‘He clearly learned about the documents that we intended to publish that show that this had gone beyond the proposal stage and was partially implemented,’’ Greenwald said.
In the digital age “taking it to” can mean contact via email, txt, phone, etc. Also, it could just have easily been “taken there” by people in other parts of the world working with Greenwald – Intercept people/editors/lawyers, etc.
I don’t know if thishas been discussed already but the Herald is reporting that
“Questions from the Herald saw a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister saying the new GCSB law passed last year had nothing to do with “Initiative 7418″, the New Zealand name for Project Speargun.”
Can someone direct me to the public statement that connects 7418 to “Project Speargun”, other than this one?
Option I: extends NCSC protection to the core. public-sector, critical national infrastructure and organisations of national significance, provides an automated investigation capability and an “effects” defence option;
11.2 Option 2 (includes Option I above), and the development of a Detailed Business case, the high-speed detection and defence capabilities to protect government and industry and potentially extends a degree of protection to allNew Zealanders to be developed in consultation with unD and the National Cyber Policy Office onCo);
12 noted that the implementation of Option 2 is preferred, .but requires significant
Scoping and consultation in order to identify…z
. 13 agreed to extend the scope of the NCSC to cover central government, critical national infrastructure operators and specified organisations of national significance;
14 agreed to proceed with Option I in paragraph 11.1 above ;
Present: in HonJohn Key Hon Bill English (Chair) HDiiJudith Collins HDn Tony Ryall Hon David Carter Hon Panla Bennett Hon Craig EOSs Hon John Banks Distribution: Cabinet Conimittee
2 Sept 2013
noted that in 2012… directsd the GCSB to develop a detailed business case for implementation of Option 2 in 2013
..rescinded thle decision referred to in patagraph I above on the development of a detailed business case for Option 2; …..
Karol
When Key says he told them to stop in March 2013, do you know what he is referring to, cos this suggests he didnt rescind option 2 until September 2013? The gscb bill was passed in August 2013.
It also means that the gcsb had been told to prepare a business case on option 2 in 2013. Key seems to be saying today that by September 2013, when they were told to stop, they had produced nothing?
When is someone in power going to impeach Key and his office for continuing to lie about his role as head of security and intelligence and his seedy record of widespread NZ intelligence harvesting & vague lack of details and TPPA agreements?
This is another classic Nixon affair, where Nixon at least defended himself by continually kept saying “I have never lied” this sad sack of a man hides behind his power of his office and the MSM does nothing.
Here was Key, in defence of the reason he hadn’t told us they were planning and partly implementing mass collection of data saying … “blah blah blah governments look at all sorts of stuff all the time and I don’t think its feasible for a govt to explain everything it is considering and looking at to the public- I mean that just doesn’t make sense I reckon” …
… useless Pugh then completely and utterly missed the obvious … “but this wasn’t just some everyday mundane matter was it Prime Minister, there was a review and implementation of new spy legislation so that information that you withheld was entirely relevant and intensely in the public interest. Wasn’t it Prime Minister.?”
useless Pugh just went “yep”
These useless interviewers actually make things worse. They allow the news to become distorted away from the truth.
Social media may become ( as it has in Scotland) the way to make the MSM irrelevant.
We would still need investigative journalists. Probably ones that are funded by government rather than employed by media companies. They’d be fully independent and would report through the internet and broadcast.
Just so long as the government doesn’t have any say about what the journalists investigate or publish and there’s no advertising involved it shouldn’t be.
And, yes, private corporations do have a say in what journalists investigate and publish as admitted by Rupert Murdock.
No one is denying private companies manipulate the news.
And having the government fund journalists is a terrible idea. There would be immense pressure to give good reporting on the government of the day. If you think otherwise you are terribly naive
I’d have to say that the reporting of Brent Edwards on (publicly funded) RNZ comes as close to objective in the MSM as anyone I’ve heard (or read).
He always lays out the logic of his analysis clearly and, if anything, is more likely to be critical of the current government, when warranted, than just about any MSM journalist from a private media outlet.
I take your point about purse strings but it’s perfectly possible to keep publicly funded institutions independent of the government of the day.
If it weren’t possible it would make you wonder why we trust publicly appointed judiciary in NZ. Perhaps there should be judges appointed by private interests to prevent government interference or pressure over their decisions?
And having the government fund journalists is a terrible idea.
No it’s not. In fact, it’s the only logical solution for journalism due to the fact that the corporations manipulate the news for their own ends.
There would be immense pressure to give good reporting on the government of the day.
Pressure that the journalists could then write about because the top down dictatorial control that we have now in the MSM and previously in NZBC just wouldn’t be there (Yes, I’m quite aware of how our broadcasting used to be manipulated by the government). I’m sure that real time reporting of such manipulation would result in the said government collapsing.
If you think otherwise you are terribly naive
Nope.
Oh, and I’m pretty sure that I’ve have seen people say that the private corporations don’t manipulate the news. Usually Actoid types exclaiming that privatisation and competition fixes everything.
But although I see your point, a government entity with ringfenced funding and statutory independence will always be less biased than an entity funded by corporate dollars and.or advertising revenue.
Neither will be perfect, but (even with hosking) tvnz is still miles better than fox news.
If we’ve set up the funding right the same as if a Labour or Greens or Mana government were in place as the government wouldn’t be able to do anything to pressure the journalists without it becoming public knowledge.
All you really show here is your stupidity as you exclaim that something that obviously can be done can’t be done.
When is someone in power going to impeach Key and his office for continuing to lie about his role as head of security and intelligence and his seedy record of widespread NZ intelligence harvesting & vague lack of details and TPPA agreements?
See, this is why we need the power of recall. So that protecting our democracy isn’t left solely in the hands of those that would corrupt it.
John Key on TV1 this morning (clip heard on RadioNZ newsclip with Guyon Espinor)
In context of not disclosing work on the business case, WHILE debate raged in Parliament on the GCSB Bill.
JK: “are we really saying the new standard now is every time I consider something, and ask a department to look at something, and then ultimately rest on this, we would have a public discussion about this? (this) is really a bit silly”
Director, Product Management (Advertising), Shazam Entertainment Ltd
Menlo Park, California (San Francisco Bay Area) Online Media
The two most obvious questions would be when did Till come into the country (i.e. did he come here at the same time as Key) and why does there seem to be seamless career path from NZ National Party propagandising to the Californian Entertainment industry.
“Shazam Entertainment Limited is a media engagement company that connects people to the media through their mobile devices. The company offers Shazam, an application that connects people to the music, TV shows, and brands they love, as well as enables them to discover, explore, buy, and share; and allows them to share their discoveries on Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Pinterest, and Google+”
So Key is nothing more than a messenger/facilitator set up to parrot (coached through US Corporations) to sell NZ?
So his first goal was take over and shell out a continual spin from these sources while cushioning our economy with a constant borrowing of $300 Million weekly while he paves the way for his rich Corporates to steal and gut the country?
in similar vein, karol — who is the short-haired blonde woman, about same height, but maybe younger than Key, who is always at his side in interviews and appearances and usually leaves in same car with him?
Again, Hill Cone up to her neck in the dirt. She’s not as high profile as the awful Glucina but Hill Cone gifted Slatee a media award so arguably worse.
Side note: covenient that Slater gets a ‘prestigious’ award at the very time he’s trying to be classed as legitimate media… You’d almost think it was planned. Or even paid for. Hill Cone was the only judge of Best Blog.
Greenwald exposes the way Key tried to mislead with the release of the CORTEX documents.
What was implemented in its place was Cortex, a ‘‘bespoke’’ service offered to certain firms and government departments.
Key has said this allows the GCSB to monitor only online communications into and out those organisations, and does not involve wholesale interception of the Southern Cross cable. This is the undersea link that carries all New Zealand’s internet traffic.
[..]
‘‘There is no separate cable that carries communications only for certain parties in New Zealand.
‘‘Even if you believe the prime minister that this programme is limited – as he wants to claim it is – the only way that you could make any progress at all in guarding against cyber attacks or detecting malware is if you were monitoring vast amounts of traffic, which is a form of mass surveillance by definition.’’
[…]
Greenwald points to Key’s suggestion, at the weekend, that the ‘‘bespoke’’ system involved new technology.
However, the documents Key declassified on Monday night say that under Cortex the GCSB was not proposing to ‘‘procure or develop bespoke systems’’ and say ‘‘all of the technology has been in use for some time.’’
Greenwald knows how to ask the right questions and just doesn’t uncritically accept every word out of Key’s slippery, slurry mouth.
Later today I will quote Option 1 here in full because it begun implementation in 2012 and was not rescinded the way Option 2 was.
Option one talks about the “automated investigative capacity”
Then there is Key deciding that the documents werent so secret anyway, not when his “reputation” was at stake… which means he could have released them during the GCSB Bill debate, but didn’t…
“It also emerged yesterday the documents which Mr Key said he made public to protect his reputation threatened massive damage to New Zealand’s wellbeing if made public without permission, going by the GCSB’s own threat estimates.
The four documents were previously marked at the “Secret” level of classification. The GCSB guide to security classifications says the “compromise” of “Secret” information could “damage the security, defence or international relations of New Zealand and/or friendly governments”.
Mr Key’s office refused to explain the process for making the documents public but said the Prime Minister wasn’t concerned about danger arising from their losing “secret” classification”
“Greenwald knows how to ask the right questions and just doesn’t uncritically accept every word out of Key’s slippery, slurry mouth”.
It’s been a real treat having him here in NZ, he is breath of fresh air and oasis of rational questioning and reporting. I hope our “journalists” are paying attention to what a real journalist looks and sounds like.
On 9 November 2012 an “unauthorised and un-notified software change” to the “to the wavelength switching platform” was made on the Sydney side of the Southern cross cable. It caused a “catastrophic” internet outage. Was this when the software was implemented needed to spy on all of us?
+1 @T
This is but one of the reasons I find Ferguson’s claims, and the CEO of Southern Cross Cable just a little hollow. (I.e. the need for ‘deep sea divers’; and “I’d know about it”, etc.). I can’t remember when, but I do recall a contractor accidently ‘damaging’ the cable north of Auckland in the past. Elsewhere I commented on WDM (wavelength division multiplexing), thinking that with refinement some sort of like-technology (and with NSA’s investment in R&D etc.) a passive tap is not beyond the realms of possibility. Souther Cross also claim the cable is configured in a ‘self-healing’ configuration, so that minor interruptions (perhaps except at a couple of key points) can go unnoticed as long as customers are unaffected.
The claims by both Ferguson and the CEO by their nature mean (if they’re genuine in there being ‘NO tapping’) assume they know what goes on by ALL their staff 24/7; or that they’re also being disingenuous and complicit. Aside from all that, tapping at router level …. the fact that elsewhere in the world it’s already acknowledged …. the coincidences of various visitors to the country …. the recent claim by Peters that an NSA presence in Auckland is certain and that he knows the address …. the fact that its in both Ferguson and the CEO’s interests to make such statements (in Ferguson’s case – his legacy; in the CEO’s – for business reasons) ….
In short – hollow and deceitful – but then I guess they’re ‘protecting’ us aren’t they ??
To be fair to Ferguson, he stepped away from his job as GCSB director in 2011 and this happened in November 2012. I always suspected a bust up between him and John Key about the legality of spying on New Zealanders and Dotcom that made him step down before that happened. When that happened he was blamed but in fact it was Hugh Wolfensohn, who was the acting director, who authorized the illegal spying.
Increasingly Key’s feet have the appearance of clay. Increasingly the personal demeanour is anything but relaxed. Increasingly the emperor has no clothes. Resort to “loser” and “rather large butt” is pretty pathetic really. True, worshippers at The Temple of TheGodKey won’t be phased. Who cares ? Reflecting their own realities they’re in thrall to “selfie” in its fuller definition and it’s tribal.
Of greater importance is the evergrowing sense across the nation at large that here’s a prevaricating wide boy who can’t be trusted. Check out the journalist’s robust “Why not ?” in the clip below. The manufactured gloss is tarnishing daily. ‘Challenege’ is in the air. That’s what matters electorally.
If Saturday doesn’t see sufficient ‘YawnKey’ to scotch the specious royal honorific for strutting in Hawaii…….imagine the howls of derision when that does occur. Poor Madge. Expect she’s not gonna see it as a decent quid pro quo for Scotland……
What is it you are all so desperately trying to hide that you are prepared to sacrifice NZ’s security for? The current biggest security threat to NZ is already in Australia and maybe here, but you all want to ignore that & knobble our security service?
The Left will be the first to cry “why didn’t the government do something to protect us” if we are subject to an act of terror in NZ.
Sorry to burst your fearmonger bubble: the people who’ve been telling you it’s all about terrorism, in private, among themselves, they discuss economic espionage and intellectual property.
They don’t give a toss if you get beheaded so long as they get paid.
We have already been subjected to a real act of terror (as opposed to just the government trying to terrify us) in New Zealand which the GCSB did nothing to protect us from.
What makes NZ more likely to be a location for an act of terror?
– Primarily acting as a stooge for the US which has committed long and sustained acts of terror against sovereign states for immoral and illegitimate reasons,
– spying on other sovereign states that we are not in conflict with and using our location and access to allow others to do so;
– sending our defence forces in at the request of the US despite there being no credible intelligence that indicates this approach will improve the living conditions of those countrymen or women. In fact, historical evidence shows that it usually results with deterioration of living conditions and increases the likelihood of extremist groups taking power;
– using intelligence systems to spy on and target those who disagree with the government of the time, and use intimidation techniques to get them to change behaviours – even if they are legitimate and peaceful. When you remove the right to disagree by legitimate and peaceful means, you increase the likelihood that desperation will result in ramping up actions.
In essence, failing to act like a sovereign state that upholds values such as human rights for all, and avoidance of unnecessary or ineffective conflict – is what is going to make us vulnerable to acts of terrorism.
Mike, why are you promoting thugs and criminals to the role of terrorist? As they are thugs and criminals should not good old fashioned police work sort out the problem, where is the money for that solution? But no, lets go for fear, mixed with just a little xenophobia, and the desire to keep an addiction to snooping into people’s lives so we can spy. Life is not a James Bond novel – the cold war is over, criminals will say any old shit to make themselves look good. FFS grow up – this is about your rights and your freedoms – I thought the right wing supported those ideas.
1. If we remain neutral and ethical we won’t be subject to acts of terror
2. John Key’s and National’s kowtowing to what the US wants is increasing the chance of being subjected to acts of terror and other acts of retaliation from other states
3. Mass surveillance doesn’t actually increase the chances that the police will intercept terrorists. It does mean that the government can pick up on people who disagree with them though which I’m sure you’re more than happy with (while the government is National).
Phillip, he also said he knows the address because he used to ‘oversee them as Deputy Prime Minister’, what is he doing overseeing the NSA? He is old and confused.
Lurgee,
Funny your lack-shitless bullshit leader Lie-key has changed his position on the spooking-base/ surveillance issue daily.
Key even forgot to tell us Kiwis he attends the shadow ops global Nazi founded Bilderberg group with a one world Government agenda controlled by them also?
I had no idea the right wing concept of a one world government with Bilderberg associated would be so popular with someone commenting on a Labour (so kind of left) blog in New Zealand. Am I missing something?
[lprent: Yes, you are about to start missing writing on our site after maligning it.
Banned 8 weeks for stupidity. Read the about and the policy. I really can’t be bothered indulging lazy fools who don’t read the house rules. ]
It seems that you may be in error about rich maligning the site, when all he called it was; “a Labour (so kind of left) blog in New Zealand”.
Note that he did not say a “Labour Party blog”, and the about you referred him to states; “it’d be fair to say that all of us share a commitment to the values and principles that underpin the broad labour movement” (under; “What’s your political ‘angle’?”, with similar elsewhere). Plus the site does proclaim itself; “The New Zealand voice of the labour movement”, in the hometab.
When I saw this earlier, I thought that the maligning must have occurred in a different comment, but have not been able to see anything objectionable thus far.
[lprent: Do I care? It isn’t a “Labour” blog. It has always been a “labour movement” blog which is and always has been a hell of a lot larger than a single political party.
If someone is too stupid to read the about then I will educate them the hard way. That is because invariably people that open their mouths on a blog and presume to know what it is are arrogant fuckwits who really need to understand the consequences of not investigating the social media that they are using. It is really bad manners.
My experience has been that the only reason that people say variations on that theme is because they then proceed either smear the Labour party with our sins or try to smear us. Either way I’ll give them bans of anything from a few days to a year or two the first time I see it – depends on how cranky I feel. They tend to get a bit more cautious at the next site. For some reason this semi-arbitrary sentencing behaviour never seems to constrain the growth of people commenting or the numbers of comments that they leave. I suspect that it enhances it.
I view it as a requirement to running a blog – educating the pig-ignorant ]
@ Pasupial
It seems to me to be about the meaning that relates to a word having either a capital or a lower case start. The difference between Labour (which can be used as a single word referring to the Labour Party) which these days is full of nice middle class people on good incomes, with a few lower-income asperashunal ones sprinkled on the top like tasty, poppy seeds,
and, labour which stands for the generalised working class often unskilled, low skilled, semi-skilled and with wages that generally match. So big difference between Labour and labour. Capisce?
I would have thought that a thoughtful person like yourself would have picked that up. Rich was just suffering from being a new-ish guy on the site, and put his foot in it. There is quite a lot of deliberate misinformation about the site and sometimes one more is the last straw with our sysop.
Now that it’s pointed out, I can see the difference between the two. Though it didn’t strike me on first reading, and since I just C&Pd the offending portion I missed it when I made my comment as well.
I guess rich was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with that one. Maybe the attempted deflections from the Dirty Politics crew (with their; TS is just the same as WO, nonsense) have put our fine sysop a bit on edge.
Have you got a postage stamp? If so key should be able to list all of Nationals policies on it for you.
Have to agree in large with you. The one major down fall of everything that is happening is that Policy gets drowned out. As much as I think the Dirty Polotics, GCSB information is important and should rightfully influence voters, in the end people need to know policy to make an informed decision as to who to vote for.
Actually the first part was to point out National’s policy is almost non existant. I thought that was pretty clear.
Unfortunately because of all the coverage of the admitidly important revelations I mentioned there has been very little coverage of the poilicies from other parties. As someone who voted IMP yesterday I would have liked a little more information around the differences between them and say the Greens. If the wider public are shifting away from the NAT’s and their corrupt practices it allows them to make a more informed decision about which party they want to vote for. We can’t just assume they would all vote Labour.
The honesty of the NAT’s only discredits them. It doesn’t help you decide which of the other parties you will vote for. Policy does.
So worrying about the nat’s policies being the size of a postage stamp is pretty irrelevant, if they’ve already been shown up as dishonest.
Which is more important: covering the blatant lying of our pm, or covering the policy manifestos of half a dozen other parties? I reckon that those who are interested in policy would find it themselves, e.g. party websites, but those who are more interested in character issues and baby-kissing photos will rely 100% on the msm.
Why does it have to be one or the other. My point the whole time is that they are both important. I could equally argue that those who care about Dirty Politics could go and read the book.
Not sure how you can dismiss the importance of defining the difference between parties especially on the left where we have a plethora of choice. With out clear communication of those poicies through an easily accessable medium those moving away from the NAT’s are just as likely to tick the Conservative box as say Winston Peter’s and not understand that not only will that lead to a whole lot fo crazy but it will also help return the NAT’s to power.
It’s all well and good for those who can be bothered taking the time to go and read up on different polocies. However for the large number of people who form their opinioin’s from the MSM (and they are the ones we want to influence with the coverage of Dirty Politics) they will also make their choice on change based on what they hear in the MSM.
it’s not “one or the other”, the issue is relative importance.
I don’t kjnow I care about the contents of a book if I haven’t read the book – it could be bunk for all I know, or misleading title/cover.
If I care about preschool access or water quality, I know to try to find policy on it.
And frankly, people who care more about character are likely to switch off the msm if it ignores character for policy descriptions.
It’s about trust and ethics, which are at the core of the contract between the electorate and the elected. If we cannot trust our representatives, then it doesn’t matter what the hell their policies are.
Perhaps you could take this up with the MSM. One day in the last three weeks the front page lead of a major daily, story covering the full page was ” a story and a picture (which I didn’t want to look at as being too gruesome) of somebody who had had their face bitten by a dog” which I am sure was horrible and painful. But this story and others like it occupied the front page quite consisitently over the whole period. NAct had no policy that they could discuss perhaps?
Here are some questions for Clare Curran (Labour IT spokes person at the time) who seemed to know that unauthorized changes made to the software handling the Sydney side of the Southern Cross cable crashed the internet connection for NZ on 9 October 2012.
If you want to do it yourself you might want to copy past this in your twitter message box en tweet it to them:
@clarecurranmp @DavidCunliffeMP @nzlabour What did Clare Curran know about the SC Cable outage on 9 Nov 2012 http://wp.me/p638n-4tX
Question for Lynn: How likely is it that unauthorized software changes can be made without notification by an unauthorized individual in what is the only connection of NZ to the rest of the world?
I thought it weird that that article on the outage quoted Curran so much when she was in opposition. I don’t think there was any comment from the govt.
Ah the house of cards is crumbling. I think the meme is now gently shifting to “it’s only surveillance if you look at the information – not if you just collect it’.
With more to come from Greenwald and even Craig talking about issues of trust Slippery is possibly having his last slither.
Whatever the outcome on Saturday Key is now, and will increasingly become, severely damaged goods.
Honeymoon long over. He will be a lame duck shitting bricks everyday for fear something else will come out. And he knows he is in Government on borrowed time! Can’t be nice. Looks like Winston Peters is a real alternative for those who hate labor and green but want to breakaway from National’s poisoned well and who don’t want to kowtow to the International Corps by signing the TTPA.
Local Kiwi – Thanks I do know the policies. I am committed t o Cunliffe and Labour and have ticked Labour twice..no question.
I want to HEAR the politicians and their policies not for me but because the wavering voters are the ones who need to hear them….free doctors visits for over 65s and kids…raising the Minimum wage…preventing the sale of further assets… shutting John Banks’ s ridiculous charter schools…re-establishing a public TV channel..etc etc.
Most people know the Key corporation is deceitful but the positive Labour and Greens..(grudgingly he said) policies and Winston’s ideas are getting submersed in the high profile scandals about John Key.
Incidentally, nice to hear that 10% of voters (300,000 or so have already voted- Big turnout augurs well for the left.
I would like to hear the unequivocal positions of all parties as to their definition of mass surveillance.
Do they define mass surveillance as (a) capturing and storing data without the permission of the private citizen?, or (b) do they not consider that to be surveillance until they look at that information?
It is clear that the Sleazy Dirty Politics Party is hoping to redefine mass surveillance as in (b) above.
Brian, for what it’s worth, David Cunliffe spoke at a public talk about the TICS Bill last year in August on your point:
“Labour will repeal and replace the GCSB law after an independent inquiry in to New Zealand’s intelligence services”.
He spoke at length and spoke with conviction about NZer’s right to privacy. He was sincerely and strongly opposed to the government mass spying on its citizens. Its hard to imagine however that a Labour govt will throw out intelligence sharing relationships NZ has had with allies post WW2 but we can only hope the way in which they operate will be part of the review.
As for your last question at 14. Didn’t Dotcom say the Internet Party would take one eye out of the five eyes alliance? (or did I imagine that?)
It is unlikely that New Zealand can influence the four big eyes in the Axis to dump their desires to continue with mass surveillance.
So the question will be for all New Zealanders whether we want to continue with intelligence sharing relationships we have had with allies since WW2, if the price of that intelligence is that we have to accept mass surveillance.
You say it is hard to imagine that Labour will want to stop the relationship. Which I agree with, since I have heard Cunliffe say (sorry cannot recall source) that Labour would stay with Five eyes.
It looks like an important point of differentiation between Labour and their possible coalition partners. From your comment above, I am pleased that the Internet Party may be willing to remove an eye, and say so now. The Green Party have also been very concerned about surveillance issues, although I do not know what they are thinking about continuing with 5 eyes.
It’s an issue that I wish to resolve before I vote. What I desire is a party that can provide a clear assurance that mass surveillance will not be tolerated, and that NZ will not participate in any alliance if the price for that alliance is Orwellian.
Maori Television is now feeling the effect of publishing stories that do not suit the spin of the Sleazy Dirty Politics Party.
John Key already will front up to National Radio (presumably fearing Guyon Espiner) as little as possible?
In this climate, how safe is National Radio from being “restructured” so that Guyon Espiner will no longer have a job (sending a message to all others), if the Sleazy Dirty Politics Party gets another term in Parliament?
Compelling summary by lawyer Denis Tegg with graphics on the issues of mass surveillance…questions to be asked now… and time for John key to come clean:
‘GUEST BLOG – Denis Tegg – The NSA slides that prove mass surveillance’
By The Daily Blog / September 17, 2014
“The evidence presented by Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden on The Intercept of mass surveillance of New Zealanders by the GCSB is undeniable, and can stand on its own….
News today. WINZ is closing regional offices, such as the one in Raglan
The Heartless Sleazy Dirty Politics Party (HSDPP) now expects those without work to have to pay to travel to Hamilton to a WINZ office.
If they cannot afford the travel, presumably they will lose the benefit they are entitled to; and the HSDPP will be able to trumpet that the number of people receiving the benefit is less under their watch. Do they care about poverty? The HSDPP must have been the only group in New Zealand who smiled and saw an “opportunity” from the Ashburton tragedy.
Oh Goodie! Expect more crime, more despair, more alcohol and violence. Poor Rags. I live near it. They just want people to move out of small places into the big cities. This is just pure Agenda 21 shit.
In Kawhia you don’t even get the dole if you live there because they say you clearly are not interested in a job if you want to live there. Never mind the family breakups, more lack of family support.
You poor? You rot in a burp in old leaky cold houses if you’re lucky without any hope for the future or a family life.
“In Kawhia you don’t even get the dole if you live there because they say you clearly are not interested in a job if you want to live there. Never mind the family breakups, more lack of family support. “
Kawhia is a beautiful place… wonder how much of that restriction is based on “why should the unemployed live in such an area of natural beauty when I have to work in the urban jungle?”
Sustainable regional development is required – imagine how local economies can be supported by those on benefits spending their money there instead of on high rentals in forced moves to cities.
A ridiculous policy in terms of long-term benefits to people and communities.
An unemployed person has to live somewhere while they are looking for a job. If whanau are in Kawhia, that would seem a good place to stay temporarily. I’m reading from your comment, that the same thing will happen for those who live in Raglan.
New policy. “If you are unemployed and wish a benefit, you will be required to live within walking distance of any WINZ office that has not yet closed”
I wish more emphasis was placed on the carrot and not the stick
And how much further the benefit would go in terms of providing the basics of life, and the opportunity to make changes if you are not required to live in an overpriced, unhealthy rental in a city where you don’t have a support system?
My apology: Where I wrote “New Policy ….If you are….” I did not make it clear that this was not a serious comment. I should have. The quotation marks invited your reasonable query.
Oh, FFS*, Agenda 21 is a voluntary code for societies and nations to follow to become sustainable. It includes combating poverty. As such I think we can assume that what National is doing is completely against Agenda 21 as they’re increasing poverty.
National probably see small communities as a cost on everyone else and thus they seek to get rid of them to further lower taxes. This is completely delusional but that does seem to describe National accurately.
* I get really fucked off with this conspiracy theory BS that’s been spread by, as far as I can make out, the Koch Brothers. Being sustainable does mean not using oil any more and the Koch Brothers do produce a lot of oil.
There’s a whole load more to A21 than simply sustainability DtB 🙂 Sustainability is the Trojan Horse to make it palatable.. (And I think all of us would agree with the virtue of sustainability).
That is probably because I haven’t referred to Agenda 21 as a “conspiracy theory”. It’s very real and relates to significantly more than simply “sustainability”. IMO a good video on the topic is here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GykzQWlXJs and it’s also worth reading Gro Harlem Brundtland’s book “Our Common Future” which was the precursor to Agenda 21. Your mileage may of course vary.
Disclaimer – I fully support the notion of “sustainable” development and living within our environmental means and that resources are finite. I don’t support A21 as the embodiment of this however 🙂
I do too. If anyone reads the actual Agenda 21 documents, they’re pretty innocuous. For those who rely on Alex Jones, it’s the scariest thing since chemtrails.
“If they cannot afford the travel, presumably they will lose the benefit they are entitled to;”
Pretty sure WINZ has an obligation to ensure access. So if someone can’t travel, then WINZ need to make their service accessible in another way eg by email/ph, or by sending a staffer to the area. Of course WINZ staffers will tell beneficiaries that the bene has to travel, but this should be challengeable.
National in trouble, time to call in Super Paula with a distraction, only don’t think it will work this time. What with the election so close and all that.
No,no,no. It’s alright. Franny has said that ‘john key wins’ and has kept his integrity intact. So it’s on to the final debate (which key will triumph in of course) and business as usual. I was never aware that he has any integrity.
Notice how Hudson talks about places while Virginia talks about people.
Things V People. Go Virginia and perhaps offer that jaded looking Pete a cup of coffee or something.
Yes, there is a big difference between Brett Hudson and Ginny Andersen. Notice how Hudson mainly puts up Natz terrible empty policy (eg slave labour in prisons) and talks very little about the electorate on his fb and you’re right Ginny Andersen is very people focused, and in a genuine way.
He has referred several times to his the positive feedback he is getting about the Nat govt, when door knocking but that is all. I’m sure he is only focusing on the safe wealthier looking suburbs lol. Not a peep about the poverty in the community which Ginny has covered well.
What he hasn’t said is how he has been literally laughed out loud at, at several candidates meetings (he didn’t go down well at the one I went to) and that he’s out early every morning checking damage to his hoardings.
URGENT : Request for an Inquiry by the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security, Cheryl Gwyn – re matters arising from the Snowden GCSB/ NSA ‘revelations’.
Dear Inspector-General,
Yesterday, I emailed the following URGENT ‘Open Letter/ OIA request to NZ Prime Minister John Key regarding questions arising from the Edward Snowden GCSB/ NSA ‘revelations’:
I have yet to even have an emailed acknowledgment of receipt of this urgent correspondence.
In order for the public to have confidence in both the NZ Prime Minister, and the NZ Intelligence and Security services, in my opinion, we need to know that we have not been lied to regarding the mass surveillance of New Zealand citizens.
Please conduct an urgent inquiry into the following questions that I have asked of the Prime Minister, as you are empowered to do under s.11 (1) (b) (i) of the ‘Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act 1996:
(1)Subject to the provisions of this Act, the functions of the Inspector-General shall be—
(a)to inquire, of the Inspector-General’s own motion or at the request of the Minister, into any matter that relates to the compliance by an intelligence and security agency with the law of New Zealand:
(b)to inquire into any complaint by—
(i)a New Zealand person; or
(ii)a person who is an employee or former employee of an intelligence and security agency,—
that that person has or may have been adversely affected by any act, omission, practice, policy, or procedure of an intelligence and security agency:
(ba)to inquire into any complaint made by the Speaker of the House of Representatives on behalf of 1 or more members of Parliament:
(c)to inquire at the request of the Minister or the Prime Minister or of the Inspector-General’s own motion into any matter where it appears that a New Zealand person has been or may be adversely affected by any act, omission, practice, policy, or procedure of an intelligence and security agency:
(ca)to inquire at the request of the Minister or the Prime Minister or of the Inspector-General’s own motion into the propriety of particular activities of an intelligence and security agency:
(d)without limiting paragraph (a), to review at intervals of not more than 12 months—
(i)the effectiveness and appropriateness of the procedures adopted by each intelligence and security agency to ensure compliance with its governing legislation in relation to the issue and execution of warrants and authorisations; and
(ii)the effectiveness and appropriateness of compliance systems concerning operational activity, including all supporting policies and practices of an intelligence and security agency relating to—
(A)administration; and
(B)information management; and
(C)risk management; and
(D)legal compliance generally:
(da)to conduct unscheduled audits of the procedures and compliance systems described in paragraph (d):
(e)to prepare and submit to the Minister from time to time for his or her approval programmes for the general oversight and review of each intelligence and security agency and for the discharge by the Inspector-General, in relation to each intelligence and security agency, of the particular functions specified in this section:
(f)to carry out any programme or amended programme or substituted programme approved by the Minister under paragraph (e).
(2)[Repealed]
(3)In carrying out any inquiry in accordance with the provisions of subsection (1)(ca), it shall not be a function of the Inspector-General to inquire into any action taken by the Minister.
(4)Except to the extent strictly necessary for the performance of his or her functions under subsection (1), the Inspector-General shall not inquire into any matter that is operationally sensitive, including any matter that relates to intelligence collection and production methods or sources of information.
(5)The Inspector-General shall not conduct an inquiry into a complaint made under subsection (1) by an employee or former employee of an intelligence and security agency unless—
(a)all established internal remedies have been exhausted; or
(b)the employee or former employee and the chief executive of the relevant intelligence and security agency otherwise agree in writing.
(6)Where an inquiry has been conducted by the Inspector-General following a complaint, the Inspector-General may make such recommendations for the redress of that complaint as the Inspector-General thinks fit (including remedies that involve the payment of compensation).
__________________________________________
16 September 2014
‘Open Letter/ OIA request to NZ Prime Minister John Key regarding questions arising from the Edward Snowden GCSB/ NSA ‘revelations’
Dear Prime Minister,
Under the ‘urgency’ and ‘public interest’ provisions of the NZ Official Information Act, please provide answers to the following by 5pm Thursday 18 September 2014:
Please provide the following information that explains:
1) Why did you inform the public that the GCSB Amendment Bill would not lead to an expansion of powers when at the same time you were planning the Speargun mass surveillance initiative?
2) Why was phase one of the Speargun project completed if it was, as you have claimed, something that never made it past the “business case”?
3) Why New Zealanders were not informed about the Cortex project until the NZ Government’s hand was forced by disclosures based on documents from Snowden?
4) How much data is collected on a daily basis by GCSB under the Cortex project, and how does the agency ensure this data does not “incidentally” include the content or metadata of citizens’ communications?
5) What technology is this, referred to in the Cortex documents, that “has been around for some time”?
6) Is any information collected by GCSB under Cortex — or any other program that accesses internet data — shared with the NSA and/or other Five Eyes agencies through systems such as XKEYSCORE?
7) Does GCSB have access to XKEYSCORE and, if so, for how long has this been the case?
8) Does GCSB use its access to internet data streams — under initiatives like Cortex or similar — to launch active/offensive cyber operations that involve hacking computer systems to collect information?
9) When will you declassify documents detailing the Speargun project and showing that it was not completed?
I think his declassifying secret documents to save his own skin is what will ultimately finish him. Those documents were either 1) made secret to hide what Key was doing from New Zealand or 2) made secret for the safety of New Zealand, and so to release them to save his own political reputation is treasonous. Either way, he cannot stay as Prime MInister. Everyone has been looking for the smoking gun that will finally incriminate Key, but I think that decision he took to release those documents was him pulling the trigger on his own political demise.
Yes DTB, it has always been clear that Key is a liar out to line his own pockets. The National voters seem to understand and respect that for some reason only known to themselves. But Key has now stepped over the line into behavior that is treasonous, and that is a very different story.
Why have the Main Stream Media not published the last information given to them by Whaledump?
Why is their inaction being forgotten?
Why did Whaledump not dump his final dump to the public in the same way that previous information was dumped?
Why has Whaledump not been resurrected to rectify the disappointing response of the Media?
This election campaign has exposed the sorry state of New Zealand journalism. We once could expect our journalists to provide accurate reporting of events, regardless of their own political views. (We still can for a few journalists)
We now have far too many ‘Media Stars’ who appear to believe that they are more important than their stories. I do not want media stars giving patsy questions to the politicians they favour. I want information. And credibility (for both ‘Media Star’ and politician) that can only come from searching and thoughtful questions. And I certainly do not want, what appears to be Whaledump censorship.
A MUST LISTEN with great relevance to foreign companies buying up New Zealand land eg Goldman Sachs
In her new book, Expulsions, Columbia University sociology professor Saskia Sassen offers a chilling analysis of the dynamics shaping the global economy, including their effects of income inequality, expanding populations of the displaced, and accelerating destruction of land and water bodies.
Dr Sassen has led several multi-year projects into the forces of globalisation, and says technological and economic advances of our time have seen a sharp growth in the number of people expelled from the core social and economic orders.
Today’s Nine till Noon interview on ‘minority government’ certainly covered a lot of ground but yet again the content of the interview raised obvious questions that never get addressed.
eg: If [National] try to form a minority Government without fixed partners and/or C&S agreements and they ask the Governor General to allow a confidence vote in the House, should MP’s/Parties have a right to abstain on that vote?
To continue the Judge/Jury analogy that was being framed – where the GG is the Judge and the newly elected MPs are the Jury – ask yourself, are Jurors allowed to abstain from making a verdict decision? No! So why should Members of our Parliament be allowed to abstain when deciding who will govern?
Russell Brown’s interview with Glenn Greenwald today in Public Address is worth reading. Looks like it was GG’s request that KDC not talk about his email, as it would distract from the spying issues.
I think Mr Greenwald underestimated how much our media had fallen. How our media love the story to be about themselves. And how much our media are partisan hacks. With a few, too few, exceptions.
A final question: you dissociated yourself from Kim Dotcom’s Warner email at the press conference last night. Did you go so far as to veto it being presented on the night?
No, I wouldn’t say I vetoed it. I didn’t really have the power to veto what he wanted to do or say. But we did talk about the fact that in the scheme of what we might talk about, that the time would probably be used a lot more constructively to focus on the questions of mass surveillance and the truthfulness of the Prime Minister, and the trade agreement that Mr Amsterdam spent quite some time talking about, as opposed to the particulars of Mr Dotcom’s case. That it would probably be a better use of the time of the event. I think we came to a consensus about it and I felt very comfortable with that.
Apparently interviewing KDC, too. This sort of programme, bound to have been in the pipeline for a while, shows why it was good sense to separate the Greenwald-Snowden MoT from KDC’s issues.
I’m no fan of the guy: don’t expect him to come across as Mr Nice Guy.
I’m not expecting much from this evening’s debate. 30 minutes (22 after ads), with around 5 minutes being opening and closing remarks. Another few minutes being Hosking blathering on. It will be full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
It’s supposed to be about coalition partners and forming the government, so Hosking is likely to ask Key about his plans to cause a constitutional crises by trying to form a government without a majority in Parliament.
Things aren’t looking too good for the worlds second largest ice sheet.
This year, Greenland’s ice sheet was the darkest Box (or anyone else) has ever measured. Box gives the stunning stats: “In 2014 the ice sheet is precisely 5.6 percent darker, producing an additional absorption of energy equivalent with roughly twice the US annual electricity consumption.”
Perhaps coincidentally, 2014 will also be the year with the highest number of forest fires ever measured in Arctic.
[…]
Earlier this year, Box made headlines for a strongly worded statement along these lines:
Jason Box @climate_ice
If even a small fraction of Arctic sea floor carbon is released to the atmosphere, we’re f’d.
I have become so disillusioned and cynical by the mans lies, that after reading that headline, my next thought is that if he’s conceding to that one there must be something even worse being hidden from us now 🙁
So now we know why Paula Bennett was dishing out all the hugs and sickly sweet comments in Ashburton a few days ago…. she was just softening up staff for her next jackboot onslaught.
Typically cynical of a woman with the ethics of an alley cat.
Marcus Lush compares and contrasts Labour vs National campaign meeting in Mangere and Mt Albert.
Both Labour and National leaders were in Auckland over the weekend: On Saturday, Marcus Lush took a trip to Mangere to see David Cunliffe appear before party supporters and media, while on Sunday, John Key appeared at a daycare centre in Mount Albert.
You are welcome. The National’s ‘clinical’ approach made me laugh! Those poor little kids were brought to school on a Sunday morning, (Yes, Sunday!) like for a quiet respectful funeral service conducted by their holiness, King Key and patron saint of kids, Paula Bennett! What a disgrace!
Armstrong – what is this increasingly shrill wishful thinking from New Zealand’s premier GodKey shill ? Sure ain’t journalism. This from the “time to resign – 11 year old form letter” man:
Amongst all the sleaze and covers up from National I wonder if anyone who knows how too has checked on the Conservatives election expensives .The huge post office delivery expense must be very big.The Cons seem to be spending money nonstop. Their election bill needs to be explained.
xox
With all this spying ( information hoovering) capacity, surely the head spy knows the game is over, and his master’s will tell him so. The high priest has been defrocked.
Again, still too close to call. National-led Government: National Party, Maori Party, ACT NZ, United Future on 49% (up from 46.5% in August 31 poll)
Opposition Parties: Labour Party, Green Party, Internet-Mana Party alliance, NZ First; down to 46.5 (from 49% in August 31 poll)
Nothing more than an old switcherooni.
National is up 1.5
Labour down 2
Greens down 2.5
NZ1st up 2
Maori Party up 1
No real change for everyone else.
Even so, based on those numbers, assuming Dunne is gone from Ohariu, and even with Seymour in Epsom, it still leaves National short. Have assumed conservatives get 4.5% and are out of parliament. The percentage signs relate to the party vote gained on the day.
I am worried that Labour will get less overall, particularly as the weather on the day is shaping up to be nasty.
I have modified the results as RM is usually out by a little bit (not much) so figures are my predictions on what the votes are likely to be on the date.
ACT New Zealand 1.50% 2 MPs (1 electorate + 1.5% PV)
Green Party 16.00% 21 MPs (no electorates)
Internet MANA 2.00% 3 MPs (1 electorate +2% PV)
Labour Party 26.00% 34 MPs (29 Electorates+ 5 list)
Māori Party 1.00% 2 Mps (2 electorates)
National Party 39.00% 50 Mps (37 electorates + 13 list)
New Zealand First Party 7.00% 9 Mps (no electorates)
121 seats total.
Using the numbers:
National + Act + MP = 54 seats
Even if Dunne gets in, that still only gives them 55 seats
Labour + Green + NZ1st = 64 seats, if Dunne gets in, that makes it 63 seats for the left block. I have factored in the probability of Ginny winning Ohariu.
I can’t see Winston wanting to be part of a four headed monster, or even in a Nat+NZ1+Act/MP/Dunne configuration.
However, If National got 42% and Labour got 23% on Saturday in their respective party votes (n/c to electorates won), then the left block would likely need IMP to be part of a formal coalition, or in a confidence and supply arrangement.
Other alternative is that Lab+Grn+NZ1 combined on a 60 seat bloc in 121 seat parliament could run a minority government.
A national+act+uf+mp bloc is only 58 seats in a 121 seat parliament.
I haven’t done any configurations with Conservatives as I believe people will shy away from them at the last minute and switch to Winsome Winnie instead of Crazy Colon.
Overall conclusion? This election is coming down to the wire.
You’re not taking in to account the traditional 3-4% swing left in the actual voting (even with Roy Morgan being the most accurate). Take in to account that and the high volatility this time and I think National have to be very worried.
Yep, if this poll is like the one taken before the last election, the only difference between this poll and the actual election would be that the right bloc had 2% less on the day. So National probably on 44%, Labour + Greens + NZFirst on 46% at the moment. It is going to be very close.
Laila Harré @lailaharre 2 hrs
#InternetMANA will make #TPPA a top target in post-election negs. Party vote for certainty on where we will stand: http://bit.ly/1mcHC5l
Blimming heck! What on earth is Soper on. On prime, giving Cunliffe grief for not turning up to some tinpot radio station wanting to know “is Cunliffe serious about wanting to lead the country” Has anybody heard if key is going to debate the whole hour as Cunliffe has requested??
Exactly my thoughts. Any shit these right wing turds can throw at the left they will do. Did you see Armstrong’s heap of shit today along with Frankfurter’s? Do they honestly believe the crap they write or are they, just like Soper insulting our intelligence or taking the piss.
..on a day when key admits there is mass-surveillance of nz’ers..barry ‘i’m barry soper..!..and i know s.f.a..!’ soper..the political editor of sky news..
Advance voting looks like it’ll comprise over a third of total votes this election. The running total blew past the 2008 numbers on Monday, and 2011 yesterday:
It looks set to top 410,000 tonight. In 2008 51% of advance votes were cast in the final three day period, in 2011 that was 55%. I predict that the total advance vote will be over 800 000, and if we treat the 2011 proportion as predictive then the total would be 40% of the 2011 total vote. Though I think that the total vote will be up this time too, so the advance vote proportion of that will be around 35%.
A key advantage of advance voting is that you are less susceptible to caging-list strategies that have been employed in the US as a key part of dirty political strategy. There is a nationwide need for scrutineers to monitor the advance count (downside; you’ll be locked in from 1:30-7pm with no phone access, upside; that’s shorter than the 9am-9pm that polling station scutineers are expected to stick around, and there’s only one required per party per electorate, as opposed to the dozens of polling stations). If you haven’t planned to contribute to the election day in any other way yet, this might be something to consider (get in touch with your favoured party and offer your time – the candidate has to sign off on it).
Re the polls………….not sure what this means but did some figures when the Roy Morgan came out today.
2011 RM last poll before election Result 2011…………..Last RM poll before 2014
Nat 49.5 47.31 46.5
Lab 23.5 27.48 24.00
Green 14.5 11.06 13.5
NZ 1st 6.59 6.59 8
UF .6 .6 .5
Maori 1.4 1.43 .5
Mana 1 1 (IMP)
Cons 2.65 2.65 3.5
Act 1.5 1.07 .5
Not sure what this all means, except Nats down 3% from last RM poll and then down 2% in actual election. Will check to make sure got figures right. Sorry didn’t get Mana’s actual election result.
CV’s on to it, weka. Last election, this poll had the Nats on 50.8% (3% higher than the actual result). Labour 26% (down 1.5%). Even if the overestimation is narrower this time, Key can’t form a Government without NZF on these numbers. No other option.
They also showed what would happen if Craycray sneaks in. Again, no show without Winnie (and ACT, MP, UF). The dreaded 5 headed monster!
Try running it through the calculator. I just put those TV3 figures in but adjusted down to CV’s figures for National and Craig, and it looks like National and Peters can form govt with no-one else.
True enough, weka. But why would Winnie go with National? NZF’s entire policy package (except Laura Norder) is a close fit with Labour’s. And I’m picking the opportunity to knock Key off his perch would be irresistible to a man with a big ego and a bitter memory of 3 years in the wilderness.
ok, leaving the past in the past, do you think that Labour would let a party on 7% dictate that a party on 13% couldn’t be part of govt inside cabinet?
That’s actually not quite as bad as the 2005 situation, weka! Back then, NZF and UF would not support the Greens getting any kind of cabinet posting at all. For mine, I’m not fussed. Probably the same for the Greens, too. They know they will get more policy wins under a Labour led Government, in it or out of it, so it’s in their interest to give C&S.
It would be a shame, because the Greens are ready for leadership roles, but getting Key gone is the immediate issue.
..i have written/warned of the dangers of a vote for peters..
..and i stand by all that..
..but the reality is that he is there..and he will likely hold the balance of power..
..but weighing up all the various factors/imperatives leads me to the conclusion that i wd be very surprised if he decided to prop up this corrupt/mass-surveilling aberration of the party he once belonged to..
Watching the Cunliffe Key debate. Cunliffe is knowledgeable and competent.
Key full of cliches (‘What I do know…I can say this… the point is…at the end of the day…”.)and a typical money trader…Good at gambling a profit for himself but couldn’t pass economics 101 ( or even high school home economics )
My gripe: Cunliffe’s voice was not clear enough in the final lap. He seemed to be talking almost inwardly which made his voice come across as muffled. I kept yelling at him (from the sofa) to speak more clearly but he took no notice. 😡
Put yourself in a foreign country without a passport subject to vindictive and subjective innuendo i to would be peeved and slag the natural inhabitant off …..KDC is not all bad nor is he all good he is just a natural human being, who has contributed and his interests are in part shared for change…..I sincerely hope the Scots are left to exercise free will away from the emotions behaviors influences and manipulations..
Cunliife -integrity,, intelligent visionary and super sincere. A man of substance.
Key – less intelligent- lacking vision and mainlining his reptilian insincere cliches.No real substance.
if there was any substance in anything Key said, could the right wingers elucidate? I know I’m biased but was there any sincerity or integrity in Key’s “performance”?
The Hosking – Key – Cunliffe debate was a waste of time.
FFS, if Hosking starts asking about polls and predictions for election night, the answer is not to play his game.
“The people hire, the people fire, the people are in charge on September 20 – not you Mike, not the commentators, but the people. And that’s a great day for democracy Wouldn’t you agree?”
There’s a bunch of votes right there. But sadly … we just got same old insider to insider talk, and the (dwindling) audience wouldn’t have cared.
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Last week various of the great and good of New Zealand economics and public policy trooped off to Hamilton (of all places) for the annual Waikato Economics Forum, one of the successful marketing drives of university’s Vice-Chancellor. My interest was in the speeches delivered by the Minister of Finance and ...
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It’s one of New Zealand’s great sustaining myths: the spirit of ANZAC, our mates across the ditch, the spirit of Earl’s Court, Antipodeans united against the world. It is also a myth; it is not reality. That much was clear from a series of speakers, including a former Australian Prime ...
Many people have been unsatisfied for years that things have not improved for them, some as individuals, many more however because their families are clearly putting in more work, for less money – and certainly far less purchase on society. This general discontent has grown exponentially since the GFC. ...
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 9, 2025 thru Sat, February 15, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report shows worsening food poverty and housing shortages mean more than 400,000 people now need welfare support, the highest level since the 1990s. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and ...
You're just too too obscure for meOh you don't really get through to meAnd there's no need for you to talk that wayIs there any less pessimistic things to say?Songwriters: Graeme DownesToday, I thought we’d take a look at some of the most cringe-inducing moments from last week, but don’t ...
Please note: I’ve delayed my “What can we do?” article for this video.The video above shows Destiny Church members assaulting staff and librarians as they pushed through to a room of terrified parents and young children.It was posted to social media last night.But if you read Sinead Boucher’s Stuff, you ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is sea level rise exaggerated? Sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate, not stagnating or decreasing. Warming global temperatures cause land ice ...
Here is a scenario, but first a historical parallel. Hitler and the Nazis could well have accomplished everything that they wanted to do within German borders, including exterminating Jews, so long as they confined their ambitious to Germany itself. After all, the world pretty much sat and watched as the ...
I’ve spent the last couple of days in Hamilton covering Waikato University’s annual NZ Economics Forum, where (arguably) three of the most influential people in our political economy right now laid out their thinking in major speeches about the size and role of Government, their views on for spending, tax ...
Simeon Brown’s Ideology BentSimeon Brown once told Kiwis he tries to represent his deep sense of faith by interacting “with integrity”.“It’s important that there’s Christians in Parliament…and from my perspective, it’s great to be a Christian in Parliament and to bring that perspective to [laws, conversations and policies].”And with ...
Severe geological and financial earthquakes are inevitable. We just don’t know how soon and how they will play out. Are we putting the right effort into preparing for them?Every decade or so the international economy has a major financial crisis. We cannot predict exactly when or exactly how it will ...
Questions1. How did Old Mate Grabaseat describe his soon-to-be-Deputy-PM’s letter to police advocating for Philip Polkinghorne?a.Ill-advisedb.A perfect letterc.A letter that will live in infamyd.He had me at hello2. What did Seymour say in response?a.What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff has called on OJI Fibre Solutions to work with the government, unions, and the community before closing the Kinleith Paper Mill. “OJI has today announced 230 job losses in what will be a devastating blow for the community. OJI needs to work with ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is sounding the alarm about the latest attack on workers from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden, who is ignoring her own officials to pursue reckless changes that would completely undermine the personal grievance system. “Brooke van Velden’s changes will ...
Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
“The ACT Party can’t be bothered putting an MP on one of the Justice subcommittees hearing submissions on their own Treaty Principles Bill,” Labour Justice Spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University BaLL LunLa/Shutterstock Sleep is the holy grail for new parents. So no wonder many tired parents are looking for something to help their babies sleep. A TikTok trend claims ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ranjana Gupta, Senior Lecturer, Accounting Department, Auckland University of Technology Jirsak/Shutterstock The profit made on every breakfast bowl of weet-bix is tax exempt, giving Sanitarium Health Food Company, owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, an advantage over other breakfast food companies. ...
A closer look at some of the homegrown talent currently commanding television screens around the globe. The new season of The White Lotus hit our screens this week, and with it a familiar face in New Zealand actor Morgana O’Reilly. To secure a role in one of the world’s most ...
"This is a crisis of the Government’s own making and the unit is another sign of desperation," said PSA acting national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Francesca Perugia, Senior Lecturer, School of Design and the Built Environment, Curtin University Australia’s housing crisis has created a push for fast-tracked construction. Federal, state and territory governments have set a target of 1.2 million new homes over five years. Increasing housing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ash Watson, Scientia Fellow and Senior Lecturer, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock When we’re uncomfortable we say the “vibe is off”. When we’re having a good time we’re “vibing”. To assess the mood we do a “vibe check”. And when the atmosphere in ...
What’s up with the man from Epsom? The leader of the Act Party has been in plenty of headlines in the last two weeks, ranging from a controversial letter to police on behalf of constituent Philip Polkinghorne (written before David Seymour was a minister) to an attempt to drive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Stephenson, Deputy Director, Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, Australian National University Newly published research has found clear evidence that openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and queer+ (LGBTIQ+) Australian politicians were disproportionately targeted with personal abuse on social media at the ...
Gilmore Girls, Schitt’s Creek, even The Vampire Diaries – they’re all set in tight-knit neighbourhoods where everyone knows everyone. So what is it like to actually know your neighbours? My favourite television shows are set in tight-knit neighbourhoods where everyone knows everyone. Characters attend town meetings where they debate local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yanyan Hong, PhD Candidate in Communication and Media Studies, University of Adelaide IMDB On the surface, Ne Zha 2: The Sea’s Fury (2025), the sequel to the 2019 Chinese blockbuster Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child, is a high-octane, action-packed and ...
Wellington travellers say their buses are so hot they’re often forced to get off early and walk. Shanti Mathias explores the impact of non-functioning air conditioning on public transport. When Bella, a young professional living in Wellington, thinks about taking the bus, her first thought is “Ugh”. The bus might ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Annette Kroen, Research Fellow Planning and Transport, RMIT University The cleanup is underway in northern Queensland following the latest flooding catastrophe to hit the state. More than 7,000 insurance claims have already been lodged, most of them for inundated homes and other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Subha Parida, Lecturer in Property, University of South Australia Carl Oberg/Shutterstock Houses and fire do not mix. The firestorm which hit Los Angeles in January destroyed nearly 2,000 buildings and forced 130,000 people to evacuate. The 2019–20 Australian megafires destroyed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Bowman, Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania Tasmania has been burning for more than two weeks, with no end in sight. Almost 100,000 hectares of bushland in the northwest has burned to date. This includes the Tarkine rainforest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martin Loosemore, Professor of Construction Management, University of Technology Sydney This week, the Productivity Commission released its much-awaited report into productivity growth in Australia’s housing construction sector. It wasn’t a glowing appraisal. The commission found physical productivity – the total number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pascale Lubbe, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Molecular Ecology, University of Otago Royal spoonbills are among several new species that have crossed the Tasman and naturalised in New Zealand. JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA When people arrived on the shores of Aotearoa ...
Stats NZ’s head is stepping down over the agency’s failure to safeguard census data, and more officials may soon be in the firing line, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. An ‘absolutely unacceptable’ failure Stats NZ chief ...
Health NZ is under greater government scrutiny, with the new health minister setting up a unit he says will "drive greater accountability and performance". ...
Manurewa Marae acknowledges should have done better at handling completed census forms, following an inquiry into steps government agencies took to protect data. ...
Police failed to protect people from protesters at a high-profile rally and made unlawful arrests at another, the Independent Police Conduct Authority says. ...
Comment: Crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are making it easier for people to invest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum without having to handle digital wallets or private keys. These allow investors to buy and sell cryptocurrency through their regular brokerage accounts.This has opened the door for billions of dollars ...
Two long-awaited reports into alleged personal data misuse, centred on census collection and Covid-19 vaccination efforts at Manurewa Marae, were released yesterday. Here’s what you need to know.“Very sobering reading” was how public service commissioner Sir Brian Roche described his organisation’s long-awaited report into the alleged misuse of census ...
Backbench MPs reached new levels of patsy questions in an extraordinarily dull question time on Tuesday. Echo Chamber is The Spinoff’s dispatch from the press gallery, recapping sessions in the House. Columns are written by politics reporter Lyric Waiwiri-Smith and Wellington editor Joel MacManus. “MPs ask questions to explore key issues ...
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The New Zealand Government says the Cook Islands must share more information about the deals it has signed with China, following the release of an ‘action plan’ in the face of protests in the Pacific nation’s capital.The Cook Islands government has also revealed plans to spend $3 million on a ...
NSA tipped Key off in advance of Greenwald’s revelations about the GCSB. Andrea Vance reports:
Well how did Greenwald ‘take’ his information to the US spy agency on Sunday?
Was he not here at the time?
In the digital age “taking it to” can mean contact via email, txt, phone, etc. Also, it could just have easily been “taken there” by people in other parts of the world working with Greenwald – Intercept people/editors/lawyers, etc.
But on a sunday (or Saturday) in the US?
You think the NSA won’t get out of bed or off the golf course for things like this? Pretty sure the NSA has staff 24/7 😉
The more interesting question is why Greenwald took it to them, and the timing.
and working across every major time zone, I would say
The Lidless Eye of Sauron never sleeps.
I don’t know if thishas been discussed already but the Herald is reporting that
“Questions from the Herald saw a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister saying the new GCSB law passed last year had nothing to do with “Initiative 7418″, the New Zealand name for Project Speargun.”
Can someone direct me to the public statement that connects 7418 to “Project Speargun”, other than this one?
More lies from the PM’s office/PM.
He never won a Pulitzer Prize.
Please show a link to him on doing this.
The newspaper he worked for did though.
He just regurgitated stolen information
Same ilk as Hager
Of course in the public interest.
Lets see if the public are interested on Saturday.
LOL
April 2012
noted the two options: 11.1
Option I: extends NCSC protection to the core. public-sector, critical national infrastructure and organisations of national significance, provides an automated investigation capability and an “effects” defence option;
11.2 Option 2 (includes Option I above), and the development of a Detailed Business case, the high-speed detection and defence capabilities to protect government and industry and potentially extends a degree of protection to allNew Zealanders to be developed in consultation with unD and the National Cyber Policy Office onCo);
12 noted that the implementation of Option 2 is preferred, .but requires significant
Scoping and consultation in order to identify…z
. 13 agreed to extend the scope of the NCSC to cover central government, critical national infrastructure operators and specified organisations of national significance;
14 agreed to proceed with Option I in paragraph 11.1 above ;
Present: in HonJohn Key Hon Bill English (Chair) HDiiJudith Collins HDn Tony Ryall Hon David Carter Hon Panla Bennett Hon Craig EOSs Hon John Banks Distribution: Cabinet Conimittee
2 Sept 2013
noted that in 2012… directsd the GCSB to develop a detailed business case for implementation of Option 2 in 2013
..rescinded thle decision referred to in patagraph I above on the development of a detailed business case for Option 2; …..
Karol
When Key says he told them to stop in March 2013, do you know what he is referring to, cos this suggests he didnt rescind option 2 until September 2013? The gscb bill was passed in August 2013.
It also means that the gcsb had been told to prepare a business case on option 2 in 2013. Key seems to be saying today that by September 2013, when they were told to stop, they had produced nothing?
“.Key has said he canned a plan for mass surveillance in March 2013 because it was too intrusive. ”
His own documents show the decision for a business plan for option 2 was rescinded in September 2013.
Option two is what he must be relying on as being “project spearhead”, otherwise those documents do his claim no good.
So, given option 2 wasnt rescinded until September 2013, the next question is
If he canned the plan for mass surveillance in March 2013… What were the documents he released referring to?
lol
😉
It probably doesnt matter nearly as much as whether Greenwald won a pulitzer prize
When is someone in power going to impeach Key and his office for continuing to lie about his role as head of security and intelligence and his seedy record of widespread NZ intelligence harvesting & vague lack of details and TPPA agreements?
This is another classic Nixon affair, where Nixon at least defended himself by continually kept saying “I have never lied” this sad sack of a man hides behind his power of his office and the MSM does nothing.
MSM are a growing part of the problem don’t expect them to step up as they are owned.
MSM the third ‘track’ of Dirty Politics.
Social media may become ( as it has in Scotland) the way to make the MSM irrelevant.
the latest jaw-dropping example was key on tvone breakfast..(a few mins ago..)
..interviewed by the female co-compere..
..she got in a couple of fringe-flicks..and lotsa giggles..and blushes..
(i half-expected her to rip her bodice open..and to offer herself up to key..)
..and it should be short-listed for softest-interview-of-the-year award..
10000% Philip, shocking sop of host- Journo she Ali Pugh rates worst so far, shame on her.
i think the world needs a dedicated ‘the wisdoms of ali pugh’ youtube-channel..
Yep Pugh was useless.
Here was Key, in defence of the reason he hadn’t told us they were planning and partly implementing mass collection of data saying … “blah blah blah governments look at all sorts of stuff all the time and I don’t think its feasible for a govt to explain everything it is considering and looking at to the public- I mean that just doesn’t make sense I reckon” …
… useless Pugh then completely and utterly missed the obvious … “but this wasn’t just some everyday mundane matter was it Prime Minister, there was a review and implementation of new spy legislation so that information that you withheld was entirely relevant and intensely in the public interest. Wasn’t it Prime Minister.?”
useless Pugh just went “yep”
These useless interviewers actually make things worse. They allow the news to become distorted away from the truth.
useless
Media repeaters, reinforcers and spokespeople for John Key
I wonder if the electoral commissioner will look into all the aggrandisement stories national are getting from the private media outlets?
Nah silly me, electoral commission just likes banning songs.
A question on Stuff
Should the Planet Key song be allowed, especially so close to the election?
just shy of 60% said – Yes, it’s free speech and artistic expression
only 20% wanted it banned.
With almost 12% just not caring.
Mmmmmmmmmm – out of touch, fixing an election, writing the rules to suit one side over another?
We would still need investigative journalists. Probably ones that are funded by government rather than employed by media companies. They’d be fully independent and would report through the internet and broadcast.
“Probably ones that are funded by government rather than employed by media companies.”
I think that would be just as problematic as being funded by private media organisations.
Just so long as the government doesn’t have any say about what the journalists investigate or publish and there’s no advertising involved it shouldn’t be.
And, yes, private corporations do have a say in what journalists investigate and publish as admitted by Rupert Murdock.
No one is denying private companies manipulate the news.
And having the government fund journalists is a terrible idea. There would be immense pressure to give good reporting on the government of the day. If you think otherwise you are terribly naive
Hi TheContrarian,
I’d have to say that the reporting of Brent Edwards on (publicly funded) RNZ comes as close to objective in the MSM as anyone I’ve heard (or read).
He always lays out the logic of his analysis clearly and, if anything, is more likely to be critical of the current government, when warranted, than just about any MSM journalist from a private media outlet.
I take your point about purse strings but it’s perfectly possible to keep publicly funded institutions independent of the government of the day.
If it weren’t possible it would make you wonder why we trust publicly appointed judiciary in NZ. Perhaps there should be judges appointed by private interests to prevent government interference or pressure over their decisions?
No it’s not. In fact, it’s the only logical solution for journalism due to the fact that the corporations manipulate the news for their own ends.
Pressure that the journalists could then write about because the top down dictatorial control that we have now in the MSM and previously in NZBC just wouldn’t be there (Yes, I’m quite aware of how our broadcasting used to be manipulated by the government). I’m sure that real time reporting of such manipulation would result in the said government collapsing.
Nope.
Oh, and I’m pretty sure that I’ve have seen people say that the private corporations don’t manipulate the news. Usually Actoid types exclaiming that privatisation and competition fixes everything.
You have a terrible naive view of the state as a necessarily benevolent entity, Draco.
How about if the National Government were publicly funding journalists? What do you think the outcome would be?
hosking? 🙂
But although I see your point, a government entity with ringfenced funding and statutory independence will always be less biased than an entity funded by corporate dollars and.or advertising revenue.
Neither will be perfect, but (even with hosking) tvnz is still miles better than fox news.
If we’ve set up the funding right the same as if a Labour or Greens or Mana government were in place as the government wouldn’t be able to do anything to pressure the journalists without it becoming public knowledge.
All you really show here is your stupidity as you exclaim that something that obviously can be done can’t be done.
See, this is why we need the power of recall. So that protecting our democracy isn’t left solely in the hands of those that would corrupt it.
nah.
Although an ostracism ballot at the same time as each general election might be useful 🙂
Sadly Dotcom would win.
I reckon there’d be enough candidates to split the vote 🙂
Impeachment is a US constitutional mechanism. To my knowledge it doesnt exist here.
I dont know on what basis the GG could step in, but not a few days from the election.
John Key on TV1 this morning (clip heard on RadioNZ newsclip with Guyon Espinor)
In context of not disclosing work on the business case, WHILE debate raged in Parliament on the GCSB Bill.
JK: “are we really saying the new standard now is every time I consider something, and ask a department to look at something, and then ultimately rest on this, we would have a public discussion about this? (this) is really a bit silly”
At around 30 seconds in
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/20149924/it-specialist-discusses-nsa-request-to-have-wellington-office
Key, joyce, banks and a couple of others authorised a business case into option 2 on or about 2012.
In December 2013 the same group rescinded that decision…
Key is telling us not a single document was produced by the GCSB between those times. I dont believe that.
I think there’s more to one of the issues raised over on the Flashback story, so I’m going to put it here to give it some air to breathe.
7 years ago on the Standard this was asked;
http://thestandard.org.nz/national-on-free-speech/#comment-1243
Bryce Edwards 10
15 October 2007 at 1:03 pm
“Who are Francis Till, Jason Ede, Rhiannon White?
It looks like they work for National MPs in Parliament. But shouldn’t this be a extra-parliamentary issues for the Party HQ?”
I’m going to ignore Jason Ede for the moment but the other two are;
Francis Till
https://web.archive.org/web/20050212173229/http://till.co.nz/tillnet
The working journal of Francis Till,
an American writer freelancing
in New Zealand and web editor of
the National Business Review
http://nz.linkedin.com/pub/francis-till/0/713/4aa
Interesting list on his “Viewers of this profile also viewed…”
Rhiannon White (linked from Francis Till’s linkedIN page)
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rhiannon-white/11/2a1/542?trk=pub-pbmap
Director, Product Management (Advertising), Shazam Entertainment Ltd
Menlo Park, California (San Francisco Bay Area) Online Media
The two most obvious questions would be when did Till come into the country (i.e. did he come here at the same time as Key) and why does there seem to be seamless career path from NZ National Party propagandising to the Californian Entertainment industry.
“Shazam Entertainment Limited is a media engagement company that connects people to the media through their mobile devices. The company offers Shazam, an application that connects people to the music, TV shows, and brands they love, as well as enables them to discover, explore, buy, and share; and allows them to share their discoveries on Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Pinterest, and Google+”
Thanks. Edwards gave the wrong url for his blog.
So Key is nothing more than a messenger/facilitator set up to parrot (coached through US Corporations) to sell NZ?
So his first goal was take over and shell out a continual spin from these sources while cushioning our economy with a constant borrowing of $300 Million weekly while he paves the way for his rich Corporates to steal and gut the country?
I’d say that this is correct, but we need a little more to back it up.
It really does look that way Local Kiwi.
Apparently so.
and so far at least, he has done quite well, and almost delivered the TPPA just as ‘they’ have delivered it to him ….. huge sigh …
waiting to exhale on Sunday morning.
In 2001, Francis Till was working for PC World NZ.
In 2005 Francis Till was working for NBR
In 2007 Francis Till, as John key’s web designer, complained to TS for using an altered pic of John Key.
When Key was elected in 2008, Till was working for John Key as his web designer, as indicated in an interesting article by Deborah Hill Cone. In the article, Cone seems to have the inside running on the VRWC – Slater, Odgers, Franks, et al.
Is this the same Francis Till that is nowhead of web services for Otago Uni?
And does he use the twitter handle “Miss Francis Till”?
Rhiannon White has a qualification from Otago Uni.
Is there an Otago connection, and is this how Bryce Edwards knows something about them?
in similar vein, karol — who is the short-haired blonde woman, about same height, but maybe younger than Key, who is always at his side in interviews and appearances and usually leaves in same car with him?
Yes it looks like you’ve got Francis to rights. The twitter handle has a reference to his american parents and it connects him to Otago as well.
Again, Hill Cone up to her neck in the dirt. She’s not as high profile as the awful Glucina but Hill Cone gifted Slatee a media award so arguably worse.
Side note: covenient that Slater gets a ‘prestigious’ award at the very time he’s trying to be classed as legitimate media… You’d almost think it was planned. Or even paid for. Hill Cone was the only judge of Best Blog.
Andrea Vance has a second story out today, based on Greenwald interview:
Greenwald exposes the way Key tried to mislead with the release of the CORTEX documents.
Greenwald knows how to ask the right questions and just doesn’t uncritically accept every word out of Key’s slippery, slurry mouth.
Later today I will quote Option 1 here in full because it begun implementation in 2012 and was not rescinded the way Option 2 was.
Option one talks about the “automated investigative capacity”
Then there is Key deciding that the documents werent so secret anyway, not when his “reputation” was at stake… which means he could have released them during the GCSB Bill debate, but didn’t…
“It also emerged yesterday the documents which Mr Key said he made public to protect his reputation threatened massive damage to New Zealand’s wellbeing if made public without permission, going by the GCSB’s own threat estimates.
The four documents were previously marked at the “Secret” level of classification. The GCSB guide to security classifications says the “compromise” of “Secret” information could “damage the security, defence or international relations of New Zealand and/or friendly governments”.
Mr Key’s office refused to explain the process for making the documents public but said the Prime Minister wasn’t concerned about danger arising from their losing “secret” classification”
“Greenwald knows how to ask the right questions and just doesn’t uncritically accept every word out of Key’s slippery, slurry mouth”.
It’s been a real treat having him here in NZ, he is breath of fresh air and oasis of rational questioning and reporting. I hope our “journalists” are paying attention to what a real journalist looks and sounds like.
On 9 November 2012 an “unauthorised and un-notified software change” to the “to the wavelength switching platform” was made on the Sydney side of the Southern cross cable. It caused a “catastrophic” internet outage. Was this when the software was implemented needed to spy on all of us?
+1 @T
This is but one of the reasons I find Ferguson’s claims, and the CEO of Southern Cross Cable just a little hollow. (I.e. the need for ‘deep sea divers’; and “I’d know about it”, etc.). I can’t remember when, but I do recall a contractor accidently ‘damaging’ the cable north of Auckland in the past. Elsewhere I commented on WDM (wavelength division multiplexing), thinking that with refinement some sort of like-technology (and with NSA’s investment in R&D etc.) a passive tap is not beyond the realms of possibility. Souther Cross also claim the cable is configured in a ‘self-healing’ configuration, so that minor interruptions (perhaps except at a couple of key points) can go unnoticed as long as customers are unaffected.
The claims by both Ferguson and the CEO by their nature mean (if they’re genuine in there being ‘NO tapping’) assume they know what goes on by ALL their staff 24/7; or that they’re also being disingenuous and complicit. Aside from all that, tapping at router level …. the fact that elsewhere in the world it’s already acknowledged …. the coincidences of various visitors to the country …. the recent claim by Peters that an NSA presence in Auckland is certain and that he knows the address …. the fact that its in both Ferguson and the CEO’s interests to make such statements (in Ferguson’s case – his legacy; in the CEO’s – for business reasons) ….
In short – hollow and deceitful – but then I guess they’re ‘protecting’ us aren’t they ??
To be fair to Ferguson, he stepped away from his job as GCSB director in 2011 and this happened in November 2012. I always suspected a bust up between him and John Key about the legality of spying on New Zealanders and Dotcom that made him step down before that happened. When that happened he was blamed but in fact it was Hugh Wolfensohn, who was the acting director, who authorized the illegal spying.
Increasingly Key’s feet have the appearance of clay. Increasingly the personal demeanour is anything but relaxed. Increasingly the emperor has no clothes. Resort to “loser” and “rather large butt” is pretty pathetic really. True, worshippers at The Temple of TheGodKey won’t be phased. Who cares ? Reflecting their own realities they’re in thrall to “selfie” in its fuller definition and it’s tribal.
Of greater importance is the evergrowing sense across the nation at large that here’s a prevaricating wide boy who can’t be trusted. Check out the journalist’s robust “Why not ?” in the clip below. The manufactured gloss is tarnishing daily. ‘Challenege’ is in the air. That’s what matters electorally.
If Saturday doesn’t see sufficient ‘YawnKey’ to scotch the specious royal honorific for strutting in Hawaii…….imagine the howls of derision when that does occur. Poor Madge. Expect she’s not gonna see it as a decent quid pro quo for Scotland……
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11325926
Watch Key’s mouth. His eyes don’t dart as much when he lies now, clearly been trained, but his mouth is doing lots of odd stuff.
What is it you are all so desperately trying to hide that you are prepared to sacrifice NZ’s security for? The current biggest security threat to NZ is already in Australia and maybe here, but you all want to ignore that & knobble our security service?
The Left will be the first to cry “why didn’t the government do something to protect us” if we are subject to an act of terror in NZ.
Sorry to burst your fearmonger bubble: the people who’ve been telling you it’s all about terrorism, in private, among themselves, they discuss economic espionage and intellectual property.
They don’t give a toss if you get beheaded so long as they get paid.
We have already been subjected to a real act of terror (as opposed to just the government trying to terrify us) in New Zealand which the GCSB did nothing to protect us from.
What makes NZ more likely to be a location for an act of terror?
– Primarily acting as a stooge for the US which has committed long and sustained acts of terror against sovereign states for immoral and illegitimate reasons,
– spying on other sovereign states that we are not in conflict with and using our location and access to allow others to do so;
– sending our defence forces in at the request of the US despite there being no credible intelligence that indicates this approach will improve the living conditions of those countrymen or women. In fact, historical evidence shows that it usually results with deterioration of living conditions and increases the likelihood of extremist groups taking power;
– using intelligence systems to spy on and target those who disagree with the government of the time, and use intimidation techniques to get them to change behaviours – even if they are legitimate and peaceful. When you remove the right to disagree by legitimate and peaceful means, you increase the likelihood that desperation will result in ramping up actions.
In essence, failing to act like a sovereign state that upholds values such as human rights for all, and avoidance of unnecessary or ineffective conflict – is what is going to make us vulnerable to acts of terrorism.
+100 Molly
+100 molly
+100 Molly
Damn right.
Mike, why are you promoting thugs and criminals to the role of terrorist? As they are thugs and criminals should not good old fashioned police work sort out the problem, where is the money for that solution? But no, lets go for fear, mixed with just a little xenophobia, and the desire to keep an addiction to snooping into people’s lives so we can spy. Life is not a James Bond novel – the cold war is over, criminals will say any old shit to make themselves look good. FFS grow up – this is about your rights and your freedoms – I thought the right wing supported those ideas.
1. If we remain neutral and ethical we won’t be subject to acts of terror
2. John Key’s and National’s kowtowing to what the US wants is increasing the chance of being subjected to acts of terror and other acts of retaliation from other states
3. Mass surveillance doesn’t actually increase the chances that the police will intercept terrorists. It does mean that the government can pick up on people who disagree with them though which I’m sure you’re more than happy with (while the government is National).
+100 DTB
Please post your full name, address occupation and phone number. Then i will answer your question.
[lprent: No pestering the
trollsother commenters to out themselves. It is against house rules. ]peters is just confirming on tv3 that the americans have a spooking-base in auckland..
..he knows the address..
..and he calls greenwald/snowden ‘totally credible’..
..and that key is lying..
..(he is 9.1% for preferred prime minister in reid research poll out this morn..three points behind cunnliffe..bloody hell.!..)
Ah, Winston, forever confused by the difference between what he wants to know, what he thinks he knows, and what he really knows …
Still, this story is bubbling along nicely.
he says he knows this from his time in government..
..and that is how he is so certain that key also knows all about it..
..and so once again..is lying to the people of nz..
someone should keep a list of the claims that Peters makes, and how many of them pan out in the way he implies
Phillip, he also said he knows the address because he used to ‘oversee them as Deputy Prime Minister’, what is he doing overseeing the NSA? He is old and confused.
Lurgee,
Funny your lack-shitless bullshit leader Lie-key has changed his position on the spooking-base/ surveillance issue daily.
Key even forgot to tell us Kiwis he attends the shadow ops global Nazi founded Bilderberg group with a one world Government agenda controlled by them also?
Who did you say was confused?
I had no idea the right wing concept of a one world government with Bilderberg associated would be so popular with someone commenting on a Labour (so kind of left) blog in New Zealand. Am I missing something?
[lprent: Yes, you are about to start missing writing on our site after maligning it.
Banned 8 weeks for stupidity. Read the about and the policy. I really can’t be bothered indulging lazy fools who don’t read the house rules. ]
lprent
It seems that you may be in error about rich maligning the site, when all he called it was; “a Labour (so kind of left) blog in New Zealand”.
Note that he did not say a “Labour Party blog”, and the about you referred him to states; “it’d be fair to say that all of us share a commitment to the values and principles that underpin the broad labour movement” (under; “What’s your political ‘angle’?”, with similar elsewhere). Plus the site does proclaim itself; “The New Zealand voice of the labour movement”, in the hometab.
When I saw this earlier, I thought that the maligning must have occurred in a different comment, but have not been able to see anything objectionable thus far.
[lprent: Do I care? It isn’t a “Labour” blog. It has always been a “labour movement” blog which is and always has been a hell of a lot larger than a single political party.
If someone is too stupid to read the about then I will educate them the hard way. That is because invariably people that open their mouths on a blog and presume to know what it is are arrogant fuckwits who really need to understand the consequences of not investigating the social media that they are using. It is really bad manners.
My experience has been that the only reason that people say variations on that theme is because they then proceed either smear the Labour party with our sins or try to smear us. Either way I’ll give them bans of anything from a few days to a year or two the first time I see it – depends on how cranky I feel. They tend to get a bit more cautious at the next site. For some reason this semi-arbitrary sentencing behaviour never seems to constrain the growth of people commenting or the numbers of comments that they leave. I suspect that it enhances it.
I view it as a requirement to running a blog – educating the pig-ignorant ]
The crux seems to be in the capitalisation – lower denoting a broad and imprecise description, upper denoting a specific entity’s name…
@ Pasupial
It seems to me to be about the meaning that relates to a word having either a capital or a lower case start. The difference between Labour (which can be used as a single word referring to the Labour Party) which these days is full of nice middle class people on good incomes, with a few lower-income asperashunal ones sprinkled on the top like tasty, poppy seeds,
and, labour which stands for the generalised working class often unskilled, low skilled, semi-skilled and with wages that generally match. So big difference between Labour and labour. Capisce?
I would have thought that a thoughtful person like yourself would have picked that up. Rich was just suffering from being a new-ish guy on the site, and put his foot in it. There is quite a lot of deliberate misinformation about the site and sometimes one more is the last straw with our sysop.
greywarbler
Now that it’s pointed out, I can see the difference between the two. Though it didn’t strike me on first reading, and since I just C&Pd the offending portion I missed it when I made my comment as well.
I guess rich was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with that one. Maybe the attempted deflections from the Dirty Politics crew (with their; TS is just the same as WO, nonsense) have put our fine sysop a bit on edge.
@ Pasupial 5.17
Yes he is a fine sysop, and does get a bit testy when too many oddities mount up in the day. I think you are right about all.
* Wonders if I should go off and read them, nah, too lazy* 😈
Mostly they just say “don’t be a fool on our site and waste our time dealing with it”.
You’re just argumentative 😈
😆 funny how things can turn eh?
i’ll let you know the answer to that on sunday..
I want to hear about the policies of all parties in the few days before election day and see and hear the candidates .
Sick of the media’s obsession with poor maligned Key, mass surveillance, Kimdottycom, CGSB etc ad-nauseum.
Key has high profile and all others have low profile. Couldn’t have stage managed it better myself.
Have you got a postage stamp? If so key should be able to list all of Nationals policies on it for you.
Have to agree in large with you. The one major down fall of everything that is happening is that Policy gets drowned out. As much as I think the Dirty Polotics, GCSB information is important and should rightfully influence voters, in the end people need to know policy to make an informed decision as to who to vote for.
To be honest, I actually think that knowing a political party is honest or not is more important than their policies.
true. If they might be lying, then their policies are worthless.
Actually the first part was to point out National’s policy is almost non existant. I thought that was pretty clear.
Unfortunately because of all the coverage of the admitidly important revelations I mentioned there has been very little coverage of the poilicies from other parties. As someone who voted IMP yesterday I would have liked a little more information around the differences between them and say the Greens. If the wider public are shifting away from the NAT’s and their corrupt practices it allows them to make a more informed decision about which party they want to vote for. We can’t just assume they would all vote Labour.
The honesty of the NAT’s only discredits them. It doesn’t help you decide which of the other parties you will vote for. Policy does.
So worrying about the nat’s policies being the size of a postage stamp is pretty irrelevant, if they’ve already been shown up as dishonest.
Which is more important: covering the blatant lying of our pm, or covering the policy manifestos of half a dozen other parties? I reckon that those who are interested in policy would find it themselves, e.g. party websites, but those who are more interested in character issues and baby-kissing photos will rely 100% on the msm.
Why does it have to be one or the other. My point the whole time is that they are both important. I could equally argue that those who care about Dirty Politics could go and read the book.
Not sure how you can dismiss the importance of defining the difference between parties especially on the left where we have a plethora of choice. With out clear communication of those poicies through an easily accessable medium those moving away from the NAT’s are just as likely to tick the Conservative box as say Winston Peter’s and not understand that not only will that lead to a whole lot fo crazy but it will also help return the NAT’s to power.
It’s all well and good for those who can be bothered taking the time to go and read up on different polocies. However for the large number of people who form their opinioin’s from the MSM (and they are the ones we want to influence with the coverage of Dirty Politics) they will also make their choice on change based on what they hear in the MSM.
it’s not “one or the other”, the issue is relative importance.
I don’t kjnow I care about the contents of a book if I haven’t read the book – it could be bunk for all I know, or misleading title/cover.
If I care about preschool access or water quality, I know to try to find policy on it.
And frankly, people who care more about character are likely to switch off the msm if it ignores character for policy descriptions.
It’s about trust and ethics, which are at the core of the contract between the electorate and the elected. If we cannot trust our representatives, then it doesn’t matter what the hell their policies are.
Perhaps you could take this up with the MSM. One day in the last three weeks the front page lead of a major daily, story covering the full page was ” a story and a picture (which I didn’t want to look at as being too gruesome) of somebody who had had their face bitten by a dog” which I am sure was horrible and painful. But this story and others like it occupied the front page quite consisitently over the whole period. NAct had no policy that they could discuss perhaps?
Here are some questions for Clare Curran (Labour IT spokes person at the time) who seemed to know that unauthorized changes made to the software handling the Sydney side of the Southern Cross cable crashed the internet connection for NZ on 9 October 2012.
If you want to do it yourself you might want to copy past this in your twitter message box en tweet it to them:
@clarecurranmp @DavidCunliffeMP @nzlabour What did Clare Curran know about the SC Cable outage on 9 Nov 2012 http://wp.me/p638n-4tX
Question for Lynn: How likely is it that unauthorized software changes can be made without notification by an unauthorized individual in what is the only connection of NZ to the rest of the world?
I thought it weird that that article on the outage quoted Curran so much when she was in opposition. I don’t think there was any comment from the govt.
key on breakfast tvone:..
“..we can’t just go and look..we have to get a warrant to go into that database..’
..question:..which/what ‘database’..?
..the one that snowden detailed accessing from hawaii..?
..(has key involuntarily admitted something here..?..)
Ah the house of cards is crumbling. I think the meme is now gently shifting to “it’s only surveillance if you look at the information – not if you just collect it’.
With more to come from Greenwald and even Craig talking about issues of trust Slippery is possibly having his last slither.
Whatever the outcome on Saturday Key is now, and will increasingly become, severely damaged goods.
i think you can further synthesise it down to:
..we don’t collect it..they do…
..and re yr ‘damaged-goods’ comment..
..should the unthinkable happen..and key get back in..
..it will be open warfare from day one..
..he will have the shortest political-honeymoon period on record..
Honeymoon long over. He will be a lame duck shitting bricks everyday for fear something else will come out. And he knows he is in Government on borrowed time! Can’t be nice. Looks like Winston Peters is a real alternative for those who hate labor and green but want to breakaway from National’s poisoned well and who don’t want to kowtow to the International Corps by signing the TTPA.
as in, I break into your house and steal your television. ekshully, at the end of the day, it’s not stolen until I turn it on.
Clever
Rodel – I want to hear about other parties policy you said.
Look up Other parties policy of the web?
They all have it laid out, as update as you can get.
NZ First has a very good policy on regional rail if you are interested better than every other party.
“Rails of National significance”
They have very well thought out policies.
I am Labour but fringe NZF and Green, so good combination we think.
the policy-comparison that has me gobsmacked..(and perhaps distills my disquiet at/with labour..)
..is that the twenty grand tax-free policy of rightwing-nutjob/moon-landing-denier craig..
..would do more for the childless-poor..
..than anything labour has on offer..
..which is exactly diddly-fucken-squat..
(when pressed cunnliffe said a ‘financial surplus’ was more important for labour..than any idea of raining benefit rates at all..)
..and so..the poorest of the poor..will just be left to rot by labour..again..
..’far-right party does more for the poor than labour’
..(how is that for a headline..?..)
..anyone with strong beliefs/desires to right those wrongs..
..must look past labour..
..to internet/mana and the greens..
..labour is still too in the thrall of its’ neo-libbers..
.none of whom have ever cared very much for the poor..
(ahem..!..’raising’ benefit rates..not ‘raining’..
Local Kiwi – Thanks I do know the policies. I am committed t o Cunliffe and Labour and have ticked Labour twice..no question.
I want to HEAR the politicians and their policies not for me but because the wavering voters are the ones who need to hear them….free doctors visits for over 65s and kids…raising the Minimum wage…preventing the sale of further assets… shutting John Banks’ s ridiculous charter schools…re-establishing a public TV channel..etc etc.
Most people know the Key corporation is deceitful but the positive Labour and Greens..(grudgingly he said) policies and Winston’s ideas are getting submersed in the high profile scandals about John Key.
Incidentally, nice to hear that 10% of voters (300,000 or so have already voted- Big turnout augurs well for the left.
Definition of Mass surveillance:
I would like to hear the unequivocal positions of all parties as to their definition of mass surveillance.
Do they define mass surveillance as (a) capturing and storing data without the permission of the private citizen?, or (b) do they not consider that to be surveillance until they look at that information?
It is clear that the Sleazy Dirty Politics Party is hoping to redefine mass surveillance as in (b) above.
Political Response to Mass surveillance
The Sleazy Dirty Politics Party will obviously stay in the Five Evil Eyes Axis
David Cunliffe has indicated that the Labour Party will also stay in the FEEA
Is there any party of decency remaining?
I’ve possibly been too harsh on Labour:
“Labour will repeal and replace the GCSB law after an independent inquiry in to New Zealand’s intelligence services”
Still a niggling doubt. Why has David Cunliffe also said that Labour will stay in the Axis? Surely that position should follow the inquiry above
Brian, for what it’s worth, David Cunliffe spoke at a public talk about the TICS Bill last year in August on your point:
“Labour will repeal and replace the GCSB law after an independent inquiry in to New Zealand’s intelligence services”.
He spoke at length and spoke with conviction about NZer’s right to privacy. He was sincerely and strongly opposed to the government mass spying on its citizens. Its hard to imagine however that a Labour govt will throw out intelligence sharing relationships NZ has had with allies post WW2 but we can only hope the way in which they operate will be part of the review.
As for your last question at 14. Didn’t Dotcom say the Internet Party would take one eye out of the five eyes alliance? (or did I imagine that?)
It is unlikely that New Zealand can influence the four big eyes in the Axis to dump their desires to continue with mass surveillance.
So the question will be for all New Zealanders whether we want to continue with intelligence sharing relationships we have had with allies since WW2, if the price of that intelligence is that we have to accept mass surveillance.
You say it is hard to imagine that Labour will want to stop the relationship. Which I agree with, since I have heard Cunliffe say (sorry cannot recall source) that Labour would stay with Five eyes.
It looks like an important point of differentiation between Labour and their possible coalition partners. From your comment above, I am pleased that the Internet Party may be willing to remove an eye, and say so now. The Green Party have also been very concerned about surveillance issues, although I do not know what they are thinking about continuing with 5 eyes.
It’s an issue that I wish to resolve before I vote. What I desire is a party that can provide a clear assurance that mass surveillance will not be tolerated, and that NZ will not participate in any alliance if the price for that alliance is Orwellian.
How safe is National Radio?
Maori Television is now feeling the effect of publishing stories that do not suit the spin of the Sleazy Dirty Politics Party.
John Key already will front up to National Radio (presumably fearing Guyon Espiner) as little as possible?
In this climate, how safe is National Radio from being “restructured” so that Guyon Espiner will no longer have a job (sending a message to all others), if the Sleazy Dirty Politics Party gets another term in Parliament?
espiner is an admitted rightwinger..
..in part he was chosen for that reason..
..by the rightwinger griffin who runs nat-rad..
I really miss Geoff Robinson on RadioNZ. He had a quiet dignity, and could ask questions.
Compelling summary by lawyer Denis Tegg with graphics on the issues of mass surveillance…questions to be asked now… and time for John key to come clean:
‘GUEST BLOG – Denis Tegg – The NSA slides that prove mass surveillance’
By The Daily Blog / September 17, 2014
“The evidence presented by Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden on The Intercept of mass surveillance of New Zealanders by the GCSB is undeniable, and can stand on its own….
– See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/09/17/guest-blog-denis-tegg-the-nsa-slides-that-prove-mass-surveillance/#sthash.uq22KklT.dpuf
Kicking the boot into the Poor.
News today. WINZ is closing regional offices, such as the one in Raglan
The Heartless Sleazy Dirty Politics Party (HSDPP) now expects those without work to have to pay to travel to Hamilton to a WINZ office.
If they cannot afford the travel, presumably they will lose the benefit they are entitled to; and the HSDPP will be able to trumpet that the number of people receiving the benefit is less under their watch. Do they care about poverty? The HSDPP must have been the only group in New Zealand who smiled and saw an “opportunity” from the Ashburton tragedy.
Oh Goodie! Expect more crime, more despair, more alcohol and violence. Poor Rags. I live near it. They just want people to move out of small places into the big cities. This is just pure Agenda 21 shit.
In Kawhia you don’t even get the dole if you live there because they say you clearly are not interested in a job if you want to live there. Never mind the family breakups, more lack of family support.
You poor? You rot in a burp in old leaky cold houses if you’re lucky without any hope for the future or a family life.
“In Kawhia you don’t even get the dole if you live there because they say you clearly are not interested in a job if you want to live there. Never mind the family breakups, more lack of family support. “
Kawhia is a beautiful place… wonder how much of that restriction is based on “why should the unemployed live in such an area of natural beauty when I have to work in the urban jungle?”
Sustainable regional development is required – imagine how local economies can be supported by those on benefits spending their money there instead of on high rentals in forced moves to cities.
A ridiculous policy in terms of long-term benefits to people and communities.
An unemployed person has to live somewhere while they are looking for a job. If whanau are in Kawhia, that would seem a good place to stay temporarily. I’m reading from your comment, that the same thing will happen for those who live in Raglan.
New policy. “If you are unemployed and wish a benefit, you will be required to live within walking distance of any WINZ office that has not yet closed”
I wish more emphasis was placed on the carrot and not the stick
Agree.
And how much further the benefit would go in terms of providing the basics of life, and the opportunity to make changes if you are not required to live in an overpriced, unhealthy rental in a city where you don’t have a support system?
brian, what source are you quoting from?
My apology: Where I wrote “New Policy ….If you are….” I did not make it clear that this was not a serious comment. I should have. The quotation marks invited your reasonable query.
thanks, i suspected it was ‘paraphrasing’ an idea and was not an actual statement but thought it best to clarify.
Don’t want the concern tr_lls skim reading and mis-quoting 😎
Oh, FFS*, Agenda 21 is a voluntary code for societies and nations to follow to become sustainable. It includes combating poverty. As such I think we can assume that what National is doing is completely against Agenda 21 as they’re increasing poverty.
National probably see small communities as a cost on everyone else and thus they seek to get rid of them to further lower taxes. This is completely delusional but that does seem to describe National accurately.
* I get really fucked off with this conspiracy theory BS that’s been spread by, as far as I can make out, the Koch Brothers. Being sustainable does mean not using oil any more and the Koch Brothers do produce a lot of oil.
There’s a whole load more to A21 than simply sustainability DtB 🙂 Sustainability is the Trojan Horse to make it palatable.. (And I think all of us would agree with the virtue of sustainability).
Well then, you should be able to point out where it’s all a conspiracy to have an unelected few ruling the world.
That’s not what I said DtB 🙂
You haven’t actually said what you mean and yet every time I’ve seen the Agenda 21 conspiracy theory mentioned that’s what’s meant.
That is probably because I haven’t referred to Agenda 21 as a “conspiracy theory”. It’s very real and relates to significantly more than simply “sustainability”. IMO a good video on the topic is here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GykzQWlXJs and it’s also worth reading Gro Harlem Brundtland’s book “Our Common Future” which was the precursor to Agenda 21. Your mileage may of course vary.
Disclaimer – I fully support the notion of “sustainable” development and living within our environmental means and that resources are finite. I don’t support A21 as the embodiment of this however 🙂
I do too. If anyone reads the actual Agenda 21 documents, they’re pretty innocuous. For those who rely on Alex Jones, it’s the scariest thing since chemtrails.
If anyone relies on Alex Jones as the sole arbiter of truth they have bigger issues than either Agenda 21 OR chemtrails 🙂
“If they cannot afford the travel, presumably they will lose the benefit they are entitled to;”
Pretty sure WINZ has an obligation to ensure access. So if someone can’t travel, then WINZ need to make their service accessible in another way eg by email/ph, or by sending a staffer to the area. Of course WINZ staffers will tell beneficiaries that the bene has to travel, but this should be challengeable.
Where is Jason Ede?
National in trouble, time to call in Super Paula with a distraction, only don’t think it will work this time. What with the election so close and all that.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/policies/10508263/Nats-promise-cut-to-benefit-numbers
No,no,no. It’s alright. Franny has said that ‘john key wins’ and has kept his integrity intact. So it’s on to the final debate (which key will triumph in of course) and business as usual. I was never aware that he has any integrity.
If facebook likes were votes:
https://www.facebook.com/bretthudson.national
Vs.
https://www.facebook.com/virginia.andersen.ohariu
and if Stuff votes were real:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10507529/Dunne-gets-the-nod-from-Nationals-candidate
We’d have a new MP for Ohariu come Saturday………………..
Fingers crossed and prayers said Rosie. Keep up the good work!
+100 Rosie…good luck!
Notice how Hudson talks about places while Virginia talks about people.
Things V People. Go Virginia and perhaps offer that jaded looking Pete a cup of coffee or something.
Yes, there is a big difference between Brett Hudson and Ginny Andersen. Notice how Hudson mainly puts up Natz terrible empty policy (eg slave labour in prisons) and talks very little about the electorate on his fb and you’re right Ginny Andersen is very people focused, and in a genuine way.
He has referred several times to his the positive feedback he is getting about the Nat govt, when door knocking but that is all. I’m sure he is only focusing on the safe wealthier looking suburbs lol. Not a peep about the poverty in the community which Ginny has covered well.
What he hasn’t said is how he has been literally laughed out loud at, at several candidates meetings (he didn’t go down well at the one I went to) and that he’s out early every morning checking damage to his hoardings.
FYI
17 September 2014
URGENT : Request for an Inquiry by the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security, Cheryl Gwyn – re matters arising from the Snowden GCSB/ NSA ‘revelations’.
Dear Inspector-General,
Yesterday, I emailed the following URGENT ‘Open Letter/ OIA request to NZ Prime Minister John Key regarding questions arising from the Edward Snowden GCSB/ NSA ‘revelations’:
I have yet to even have an emailed acknowledgment of receipt of this urgent correspondence.
In order for the public to have confidence in both the NZ Prime Minister, and the NZ Intelligence and Security services, in my opinion, we need to know that we have not been lied to regarding the mass surveillance of New Zealand citizens.
Please conduct an urgent inquiry into the following questions that I have asked of the Prime Minister, as you are empowered to do under s.11 (1) (b) (i) of the ‘Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act 1996:
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1996/0047/latest/DLM392526.html
11Functions of Inspector-General
(1)Subject to the provisions of this Act, the functions of the Inspector-General shall be—
(a)to inquire, of the Inspector-General’s own motion or at the request of the Minister, into any matter that relates to the compliance by an intelligence and security agency with the law of New Zealand:
(b)to inquire into any complaint by—
(i)a New Zealand person; or
(ii)a person who is an employee or former employee of an intelligence and security agency,—
that that person has or may have been adversely affected by any act, omission, practice, policy, or procedure of an intelligence and security agency:
(ba)to inquire into any complaint made by the Speaker of the House of Representatives on behalf of 1 or more members of Parliament:
(c)to inquire at the request of the Minister or the Prime Minister or of the Inspector-General’s own motion into any matter where it appears that a New Zealand person has been or may be adversely affected by any act, omission, practice, policy, or procedure of an intelligence and security agency:
(ca)to inquire at the request of the Minister or the Prime Minister or of the Inspector-General’s own motion into the propriety of particular activities of an intelligence and security agency:
(d)without limiting paragraph (a), to review at intervals of not more than 12 months—
(i)the effectiveness and appropriateness of the procedures adopted by each intelligence and security agency to ensure compliance with its governing legislation in relation to the issue and execution of warrants and authorisations; and
(ii)the effectiveness and appropriateness of compliance systems concerning operational activity, including all supporting policies and practices of an intelligence and security agency relating to—
(A)administration; and
(B)information management; and
(C)risk management; and
(D)legal compliance generally:
(da)to conduct unscheduled audits of the procedures and compliance systems described in paragraph (d):
(e)to prepare and submit to the Minister from time to time for his or her approval programmes for the general oversight and review of each intelligence and security agency and for the discharge by the Inspector-General, in relation to each intelligence and security agency, of the particular functions specified in this section:
(f)to carry out any programme or amended programme or substituted programme approved by the Minister under paragraph (e).
(2)[Repealed]
(3)In carrying out any inquiry in accordance with the provisions of subsection (1)(ca), it shall not be a function of the Inspector-General to inquire into any action taken by the Minister.
(4)Except to the extent strictly necessary for the performance of his or her functions under subsection (1), the Inspector-General shall not inquire into any matter that is operationally sensitive, including any matter that relates to intelligence collection and production methods or sources of information.
(5)The Inspector-General shall not conduct an inquiry into a complaint made under subsection (1) by an employee or former employee of an intelligence and security agency unless—
(a)all established internal remedies have been exhausted; or
(b)the employee or former employee and the chief executive of the relevant intelligence and security agency otherwise agree in writing.
(6)Where an inquiry has been conducted by the Inspector-General following a complaint, the Inspector-General may make such recommendations for the redress of that complaint as the Inspector-General thinks fit (including remedies that involve the payment of compensation).
__________________________________________
16 September 2014
‘Open Letter/ OIA request to NZ Prime Minister John Key regarding questions arising from the Edward Snowden GCSB/ NSA ‘revelations’
Dear Prime Minister,
Under the ‘urgency’ and ‘public interest’ provisions of the NZ Official Information Act, please provide answers to the following by 5pm Thursday 18 September 2014:
Please provide the following information that explains:
1) Why did you inform the public that the GCSB Amendment Bill would not lead to an expansion of powers when at the same time you were planning the Speargun mass surveillance initiative?
2) Why was phase one of the Speargun project completed if it was, as you have claimed, something that never made it past the “business case”?
3) Why New Zealanders were not informed about the Cortex project until the NZ Government’s hand was forced by disclosures based on documents from Snowden?
4) How much data is collected on a daily basis by GCSB under the Cortex project, and how does the agency ensure this data does not “incidentally” include the content or metadata of citizens’ communications?
5) What technology is this, referred to in the Cortex documents, that “has been around for some time”?
6) Is any information collected by GCSB under Cortex — or any other program that accesses internet data — shared with the NSA and/or other Five Eyes agencies through systems such as XKEYSCORE?
7) Does GCSB have access to XKEYSCORE and, if so, for how long has this been the case?
8) Does GCSB use its access to internet data streams — under initiatives like Cortex or similar — to launch active/offensive cyber operations that involve hacking computer systems to collect information?
9) When will you declassify documents detailing the Speargun project and showing that it was not completed?
_________________________________________________________
Please be advised that I have based this OIA request upon information contained in the following article:
“THE QUESTIONS FOR NEW ZEALAND ON MASS SURVEILLANCE”
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/15/questions-new-zealand-mass-surveillance/
I believe that these are fair questions to which the New Zealander voting public need true and accurate answers.
Yours sincerely,
Penny Bright
………………………
Cool story Penny
Zzzzzz TLDR
Wall of text. Get your own blog!!
Key’s reputation is more important than NZ’s foreign relations or trade. That’s why he had to declassify top secret documents. Irresponsible fuckwit
I think his declassifying secret documents to save his own skin is what will ultimately finish him. Those documents were either 1) made secret to hide what Key was doing from New Zealand or 2) made secret for the safety of New Zealand, and so to release them to save his own political reputation is treasonous. Either way, he cannot stay as Prime MInister. Everyone has been looking for the smoking gun that will finally incriminate Key, but I think that decision he took to release those documents was him pulling the trigger on his own political demise.
Agreed, this is a rushed move with desperation written all over it. A new low from the dirtiest PM in living memory.
The smoking gun has been there since at least 2008.
Yes DTB, it has always been clear that Key is a liar out to line his own pockets. The National voters seem to understand and respect that for some reason only known to themselves. But Key has now stepped over the line into behavior that is treasonous, and that is a very different story.
If only….
https://twitter.com/KoalaRabies/status/511904807020265472
Why have the Main Stream Media not published the last information given to them by Whaledump?
Why is their inaction being forgotten?
Why did Whaledump not dump his final dump to the public in the same way that previous information was dumped?
Why has Whaledump not been resurrected to rectify the disappointing response of the Media?
This election campaign has exposed the sorry state of New Zealand journalism. We once could expect our journalists to provide accurate reporting of events, regardless of their own political views. (We still can for a few journalists)
We now have far too many ‘Media Stars’ who appear to believe that they are more important than their stories. I do not want media stars giving patsy questions to the politicians they favour. I want information. And credibility (for both ‘Media Star’ and politician) that can only come from searching and thoughtful questions. And I certainly do not want, what appears to be Whaledump censorship.
..@ brian..
..+ 1..
Hear, hear.
A MUST LISTEN with great relevance to foreign companies buying up New Zealand land eg Goldman Sachs
In her new book, Expulsions, Columbia University sociology professor Saskia Sassen offers a chilling analysis of the dynamics shaping the global economy, including their effects of income inequality, expanding populations of the displaced, and accelerating destruction of land and water bodies.
Dr Sassen has led several multi-year projects into the forces of globalisation, and says technological and economic advances of our time have seen a sharp growth in the number of people expelled from the core social and economic orders.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/20149953/how-global-economic-forces-increase-disparity
http://www.kontext-tv.de/broadcast/10102013/saskia-sassen-expulsion/land-grabbing
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/saskia-sassen/
(Thankyou to Kathryn Ryan for this interview)
Today’s Nine till Noon interview on ‘minority government’ certainly covered a lot of ground but yet again the content of the interview raised obvious questions that never get addressed.
eg: If [National] try to form a minority Government without fixed partners and/or C&S agreements and they ask the Governor General to allow a confidence vote in the House, should MP’s/Parties have a right to abstain on that vote?
To continue the Judge/Jury analogy that was being framed – where the GG is the Judge and the newly elected MPs are the Jury – ask yourself, are Jurors allowed to abstain from making a verdict decision? No! So why should Members of our Parliament be allowed to abstain when deciding who will govern?
A very sad indictment on what NZ has become
https://nz.news.yahoo.com/opinion/post/-/blog/25003999/our-worst-fears-proven-true/
Russell Brown’s interview with Glenn Greenwald today in Public Address is worth reading. Looks like it was GG’s request that KDC not talk about his email, as it would distract from the spying issues.
I think Mr Greenwald underestimated how much our media had fallen. How our media love the story to be about themselves. And how much our media are partisan hacks. With a few, too few, exceptions.
@ adam..
..+ 1..
The interview.
Duncan garner and 3rd degree tonight interview former dotcom employees with nothing nice to say…
Key and Joyce must be due to call tv3 out for focusing on non policy issues…
Apparently interviewing KDC, too. This sort of programme, bound to have been in the pipeline for a while, shows why it was good sense to separate the Greenwald-Snowden MoT from KDC’s issues.
I’m no fan of the guy: don’t expect him to come across as Mr Nice Guy.
Which puts a bit of a lie to the notion they were all just paid patsies of dotcom
I’m not expecting much from this evening’s debate. 30 minutes (22 after ads), with around 5 minutes being opening and closing remarks. Another few minutes being Hosking blathering on. It will be full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
It’s supposed to be about coalition partners and forming the government, so Hosking is likely to ask Key about his plans to cause a constitutional crises by trying to form a government without a majority in Parliament.
Things aren’t looking too good for the worlds second largest ice sheet.
This year, Greenland’s ice sheet was the darkest Box (or anyone else) has ever measured. Box gives the stunning stats: “In 2014 the ice sheet is precisely 5.6 percent darker, producing an additional absorption of energy equivalent with roughly twice the US annual electricity consumption.”
Perhaps coincidentally, 2014 will also be the year with the highest number of forest fires ever measured in Arctic.
[…]
Earlier this year, Box made headlines for a strongly worded statement along these lines:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/09/16/jason_box_s_research_into_greenland_s_dark_snow_raises_more_concerns_about.html
What an ‘on-to-it’ (not) guy is John Key ! Snowden “may well be right” now.
Anyone get the feeling that Key changes his tune and his tone according to directives from far away ? Which is the whole troubling point ‘akshilly’.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11326387
The question late last week was
Are loads of NZers being spied upon
?..
If you follow his answers through to today we have now reached
Yes
But in such a way the media can pretend he didnt.
I have become so disillusioned and cynical by the mans lies, that after reading that headline, my next thought is that if he’s conceding to that one there must be something even worse being hidden from us now 🙁
Dear Prime Minister,
Does the Five Eyes Alliance have the ability to fix on-line lotteries ?
If so, could you please put in a good word for me for this weekend ?
Regards,
Raa.
http://archive.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-03/wp_quant?currentPage=all
http://archive.fortune.com/2008/09/30/magazines/fortune/varchaver_derivatives_short.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008093012
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.co.nz/2008/09/dallas-federal-reserve-bank-president.html
http://www.3news.co.nz/politics/national-promises-25-pct-less-beneficiaries-2014091709
So now we know why Paula Bennett was dishing out all the hugs and sickly sweet comments in Ashburton a few days ago…. she was just softening up staff for her next jackboot onslaught.
Typically cynical of a woman with the ethics of an alley cat.
My god she’s had the Shipley make over! So factionional warfare has broken out in National. Long may it last.
I’ve met alley cats – believe me, they’ve got more ethics.
Marcus Lush compares and contrasts Labour vs National campaign meeting in Mangere and Mt Albert.
Both Labour and National leaders were in Auckland over the weekend: On Saturday, Marcus Lush took a trip to Mangere to see David Cunliffe appear before party supporters and media, while on Sunday, John Key appeared at a daycare centre in Mount Albert.
Here’s how each event went.
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Marcus-Lush-on-the-hustings-Comparing-Labour-in-Mangere-with-National-in-Mount-Albert/tabid/439/articleID/54777/Default.aspx
Wow, that was good – thanks for that Clem
You are welcome. The National’s ‘clinical’ approach made me laugh! Those poor little kids were brought to school on a Sunday morning, (Yes, Sunday!) like for a quiet respectful funeral service conducted by their holiness, King Key and patron saint of kids, Paula Bennett! What a disgrace!
Armstrong – what is this increasingly shrill wishful thinking from New Zealand’s premier GodKey shill ? Sure ain’t journalism. This from the “time to resign – 11 year old form letter” man:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/john-armstrong/news/article.cfm?a_id=3&objectid=11325925
Amongst all the sleaze and covers up from National I wonder if anyone who knows how too has checked on the Conservatives election expensives .The huge post office delivery expense must be very big.The Cons seem to be spending money nonstop. Their election bill needs to be explained.
xox
With all this spying ( information hoovering) capacity, surely the head spy knows the game is over, and his master’s will tell him so. The high priest has been defrocked.
Latest roy morgan poll is out
Again, still too close to call. National-led Government: National Party, Maori Party, ACT NZ, United Future on 49% (up from 46.5% in August 31 poll)
Opposition Parties: Labour Party, Green Party, Internet-Mana Party alliance, NZ First; down to 46.5 (from 49% in August 31 poll)
Nothing more than an old switcherooni.
National is up 1.5
Labour down 2
Greens down 2.5
NZ1st up 2
Maori Party up 1
No real change for everyone else.
Even so, based on those numbers, assuming Dunne is gone from Ohariu, and even with Seymour in Epsom, it still leaves National short. Have assumed conservatives get 4.5% and are out of parliament. The percentage signs relate to the party vote gained on the day.
I am worried that Labour will get less overall, particularly as the weather on the day is shaping up to be nasty.
I have modified the results as RM is usually out by a little bit (not much) so figures are my predictions on what the votes are likely to be on the date.
ACT New Zealand 1.50% 2 MPs (1 electorate + 1.5% PV)
Green Party 16.00% 21 MPs (no electorates)
Internet MANA 2.00% 3 MPs (1 electorate +2% PV)
Labour Party 26.00% 34 MPs (29 Electorates+ 5 list)
Māori Party 1.00% 2 Mps (2 electorates)
National Party 39.00% 50 Mps (37 electorates + 13 list)
New Zealand First Party 7.00% 9 Mps (no electorates)
121 seats total.
Using the numbers:
National + Act + MP = 54 seats
Even if Dunne gets in, that still only gives them 55 seats
Labour + Green + NZ1st = 64 seats, if Dunne gets in, that makes it 63 seats for the left block. I have factored in the probability of Ginny winning Ohariu.
I can’t see Winston wanting to be part of a four headed monster, or even in a Nat+NZ1+Act/MP/Dunne configuration.
However, If National got 42% and Labour got 23% on Saturday in their respective party votes (n/c to electorates won), then the left block would likely need IMP to be part of a formal coalition, or in a confidence and supply arrangement.
Other alternative is that Lab+Grn+NZ1 combined on a 60 seat bloc in 121 seat parliament could run a minority government.
A national+act+uf+mp bloc is only 58 seats in a 121 seat parliament.
I haven’t done any configurations with Conservatives as I believe people will shy away from them at the last minute and switch to Winsome Winnie instead of Crazy Colon.
Overall conclusion? This election is coming down to the wire.
You’re not taking in to account the traditional 3-4% swing left in the actual voting (even with Roy Morgan being the most accurate). Take in to account that and the high volatility this time and I think National have to be very worried.
Zorr – I have taken it into account. I’ve attributed more of the left swing to IMP and Greens rather than to Labour.
The final Roy Morgan poll before the last election had Labour at 23.5% but they actually got 27.5%. The Greens were overestimated by 3% however.
Yep, if this poll is like the one taken before the last election, the only difference between this poll and the actual election would be that the right bloc had 2% less on the day. So National probably on 44%, Labour + Greens + NZFirst on 46% at the moment. It is going to be very close.
What about the undecideds?
Your optimism is appreciated.
Here’s hoping the TV3 one tonight has a similar trend.
The TV3 poll was off by quite a bit last time. This is a useful graph, it shows the final polls from the different polling companies and the actual election result
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/4726-new-zealand-2011-election-accuracy-201312032254
You have given National 39%…based on what?
Yes James but National in 2011 last RM poll = 49.5
2011 election result = 47.31
last Rm poll 2014 = 46.5
John Key is trying to discredit Snowden’s information by calling him a ‘hacker’.
“Edward Snowden hacked into the NSA. He downloaded illegally millions of documents, some of which related to New Zealand.”
Which is a gross misrepresentation of what happened. He was an NSA contractor with high level clearance, he didn’t need to hack into them.
FFS are there any journalists in this country who aren’t happy to let Key just make shit up like this?
This is good though. Key and his team being tied up having to make shit up that looks a big credible, instead of being out there campaigning.
What you said about the MSM +1000 There seem to be a few that are getting it right this week. I assume he is avoiding them.
Damn, Laila has me wanting to vote IMP again,
Laila Harré @lailaharre 2 hrs
#InternetMANA will make #TPPA a top target in post-election negs. Party vote for certainty on where we will stand: http://bit.ly/1mcHC5l
https://internet.org.nz/news/89
Blimming heck! What on earth is Soper on. On prime, giving Cunliffe grief for not turning up to some tinpot radio station wanting to know “is Cunliffe serious about wanting to lead the country” Has anybody heard if key is going to debate the whole hour as Cunliffe has requested??
Exactly my thoughts. Any shit these right wing turds can throw at the left they will do. Did you see Armstrong’s heap of shit today along with Frankfurter’s? Do they honestly believe the crap they write or are they, just like Soper insulting our intelligence or taking the piss.
Cunliffe didn’t request it, TVNZ did. Cunliffe said yes, Key said no.
And we know why. 30mins with ads is fk all time each. Not enough to cover all the issues, and 5 eyes.
@ floyd..
..on a day when key admits there is mass-surveillance of nz’ers..barry ‘i’m barry soper..!..and i know s.f.a..!’ soper..the political editor of sky news..
..chooses to run with a cunnliffe hatchet-job..
..he really is one of the worst..that soper…
..such a craven tory lackey/lickspittle..
Advance voting looks like it’ll comprise over a third of total votes this election. The running total blew past the 2008 numbers on Monday, and 2011 yesterday:
http://www.elections.org.nz/events/2014-general-election/advance-voting-statistics
It looks set to top 410,000 tonight. In 2008 51% of advance votes were cast in the final three day period, in 2011 that was 55%. I predict that the total advance vote will be over 800 000, and if we treat the 2011 proportion as predictive then the total would be 40% of the 2011 total vote. Though I think that the total vote will be up this time too, so the advance vote proportion of that will be around 35%.
A key advantage of advance voting is that you are less susceptible to caging-list strategies that have been employed in the US as a key part of dirty political strategy. There is a nationwide need for scrutineers to monitor the advance count (downside; you’ll be locked in from 1:30-7pm with no phone access, upside; that’s shorter than the 9am-9pm that polling station scutineers are expected to stick around, and there’s only one required per party per electorate, as opposed to the dozens of polling stations). If you haven’t planned to contribute to the election day in any other way yet, this might be something to consider (get in touch with your favoured party and offer your time – the candidate has to sign off on it).
Re the polls………….not sure what this means but did some figures when the Roy Morgan came out today.
2011 RM last poll before election Result 2011…………..Last RM poll before 2014
Nat 49.5 47.31 46.5
Lab 23.5 27.48 24.00
Green 14.5 11.06 13.5
NZ 1st 6.59 6.59 8
UF .6 .6 .5
Maori 1.4 1.43 .5
Mana 1 1 (IMP)
Cons 2.65 2.65 3.5
Act 1.5 1.07 .5
Not sure what this all means, except Nats down 3% from last RM poll and then down 2% in actual election. Will check to make sure got figures right. Sorry didn’t get Mana’s actual election result.
National stuffed in 3news poll. 44.5% Labour 25.6 Greens 14.4 Winston 7.
(Conservatives 4.9%!!!)
how does that make National stuffed?
Because National will probably poll 2% lower and the Conservatives with end up scraping together just over 4%.
does that mean you believe that ACT, UF and Mp will be gone from parliament?
you would then also need to believe that Peters won’t go with National.
http://dimpost.wordpress.com/2014/09/17/brief-winston-peters-predictions-for-the-record ;-(
ACT UF and MP may all get one MP in each, but with Key scraping together 54 National MP’s himself, what is he going to do with them?
And you are right this is pivotal – but I reckon there’s no way in hell. (Fingers crossed…)
“no way/fingers crossed”
lolz, 🙁
CV’s on to it, weka. Last election, this poll had the Nats on 50.8% (3% higher than the actual result). Labour 26% (down 1.5%). Even if the overestimation is narrower this time, Key can’t form a Government without NZF on these numbers. No other option.
They also showed what would happen if Craycray sneaks in. Again, no show without Winnie (and ACT, MP, UF). The dreaded 5 headed monster!
Try running it through the calculator. I just put those TV3 figures in but adjusted down to CV’s figures for National and Craig, and it looks like National and Peters can form govt with no-one else.
please check my figures though
and either way, how is National stuffed when they can still use Peters?
True enough, weka. But why would Winnie go with National? NZF’s entire policy package (except Laura Norder) is a close fit with Labour’s. And I’m picking the opportunity to knock Key off his perch would be irresistible to a man with a big ego and a bitter memory of 3 years in the wilderness.
Et tu Winstus?
Two words: Green Party.
Or one word: bauble.
On the other hand, Labour are quite capable of shafting the GP again and allowing Peters to force a L/NZF govt with C and S from the Greens.
Harsh description of the process on that occasion, and it wasn’t a L/NZF government anyway. NZF only gave C&S as I recall. The Greens did the same.
ok, leaving the past in the past, do you think that Labour would let a party on 7% dictate that a party on 13% couldn’t be part of govt inside cabinet?
That’s actually not quite as bad as the 2005 situation, weka! Back then, NZF and UF would not support the Greens getting any kind of cabinet posting at all. For mine, I’m not fussed. Probably the same for the Greens, too. They know they will get more policy wins under a Labour led Government, in it or out of it, so it’s in their interest to give C&S.
It would be a shame, because the Greens are ready for leadership roles, but getting Key gone is the immediate issue.
i agree with trp..
..i have written/warned of the dangers of a vote for peters..
..and i stand by all that..
..but the reality is that he is there..and he will likely hold the balance of power..
..but weighing up all the various factors/imperatives leads me to the conclusion that i wd be very surprised if he decided to prop up this corrupt/mass-surveilling aberration of the party he once belonged to..
great, so he will screw over the GP instead. Can’t wait until the man is gone, MMP will function so much better without him
I think Key is going to try a dodgy constitutional wag the dog trick with his mate Jerry Mateparae.
HERALD: John Key ‘comfortable’ that NSA is not spying on NZ
Comfortable? He must be perched on a cushion the size of the Beehive..
@ inky..
..he has rubber butt-implants..
Greenwald vs the PM on Campbell Live tonight.
stream http://www.3news.co.nz/Video/3NewsLiveStream
“Greenwald vs the PM on Campbell Live tonight.”
Campbell hype. It’s actually just alternating cut and pastes of recaps.
This gem though, when asked which partners have access to the SC cable,
Key “I don’t understand the technical aspects, you’d have to ask the GCSB about that”
Yes. Key, as usual, being very clear on what he (allegedly) knows is not happening, then being fuzzy and passing the buck on crucial points.
Yes. Not a lot that’s new there.
X-Key-Whore-At-The-White-House-Door.
Fuck-Off-New-Zealand !
That’s what it means.
Half time. A theatre worthy of Fauxnews.
cunnliffe has done ok in the final debate..
Key looks like a corpse who hasn’t realised he’s died.
Watching the Cunliffe Key debate. Cunliffe is knowledgeable and competent.
Key full of cliches (‘What I do know…I can say this… the point is…at the end of the day…”.)and a typical money trader…Good at gambling a profit for himself but couldn’t pass economics 101 ( or even high school home economics )
I didn’t watch. Have been reading the tweets. Couldn’t face watching any more of the
liarbambozzler in chief.My gripe: Cunliffe’s voice was not clear enough in the final lap. He seemed to be talking almost inwardly which made his voice come across as muffled. I kept yelling at him (from the sofa) to speak more clearly but he took no notice. 😡
Put yourself in a foreign country without a passport subject to vindictive and subjective innuendo i to would be peeved and slag the natural inhabitant off …..KDC is not all bad nor is he all good he is just a natural human being, who has contributed and his interests are in part shared for change…..I sincerely hope the Scots are left to exercise free will away from the emotions behaviors influences and manipulations..
Hoskings (gritting my teeth) was pretty good.
Cunliife -integrity,, intelligent visionary and super sincere. A man of substance.
Key – less intelligent- lacking vision and mainlining his reptilian insincere cliches.No real substance.
if there was any substance in anything Key said, could the right wingers elucidate? I know I’m biased but was there any sincerity or integrity in Key’s “performance”?
The Hosking – Key – Cunliffe debate was a waste of time.
FFS, if Hosking starts asking about polls and predictions for election night, the answer is not to play his game.
“The people hire, the people fire, the people are in charge on September 20 – not you Mike, not the commentators, but the people. And that’s a great day for democracy Wouldn’t you agree?”
There’s a bunch of votes right there. But sadly … we just got same old insider to insider talk, and the (dwindling) audience wouldn’t have cared.
now..we all know what a pile of putrescent-crap three degrees is..
..2nite they did their hatchet-job on dotcom..
..pathetic..
..that was it..?
..no kitten-murdering..?