It is long accepted by many that the pay rates for MPs has gotten well out of hand and i am sorry but $400,000 to have the honour of being your country’s Prime Minister is more than sufficient.
If you want to earn big bucks go work in the private sector.
If you want to serve your country why should it matter what the private sector are paying?
p.s. you will also notice comments are not turned on for this article.
So let me get this straight: Instead of actually looking at the information presented in Labour’s ad, determining the depth of truth and then putting questions to the National Party, Danya Levy asked “Do you agree?” to which the predictable response is “No” from Steven Joyce. (Then they wrap Joyce’s response as the headline – I notice the headline as written on the main page is “Labour’s new ad ‘short on facts'” without quoting the source of that comment. Interesting.)
Surely if there was an ounce of journalism in this, they would have at least investigated whether Labour’s claims were fact and presented them to Joyce in a robust way, rather than just phoning him up and saying “hey give us something to write to make you look good.”
The media in this country let us down something remarkable – especially FairFax.
If anyone wants to see how to do proper political journalism, watch practically any interview done by Stephen Sackur of the BBC. The John Key HardTalk interview is a good start.
Fairfax has also shown bias in its handling of recent Labour advertising in Auckland. At some expense Labour has purchased the footer on the front page of all of the Fairfax owned Suburban Newspapers. In at least three of these papers the same piece of “editorial” by John Key about Surf Lifesaving is placed immediately above the Labour ad on the front page. There is no promoter statement and stating Key’s support for surf lifesaving is the sort of copy money normally cannot buy. It reads like something his PR department wrote.
It is long accepted by many that the pay rates for MPs has gotten well out of hand and i am sorry but $400,000 to have the honour of being your country’s Prime Minister is more than sufficient.
I agree with the Alliance. All MPs should get the same rate and that rate should be the same as what teachers get paid.
richard # 10 threw in a very interesting bunch of questions
“Richard #10 08:44 am Nov 17 2011
‘Opposition Leader’ is an interesting concept these days. Do all opposition party leaders get that, or just the leader of the biggest one? Does signing a coalition agreement cost you the bonus? A memorandum of understanding? And what if the opposition party has co-leaders – do they all get it, or have to split the difference from the backbencher salary?”
can any of the experts out there offer any clarity for the befuddled masses?
Yesterday I was on the Vinny Eastwood show and had the chance to ask one of my heroes some questions about the international finance world and John Key.
Gordon Duff is the senior editor of Veterans today, an online publication which dwarfs many conventional media outlets and has millions of followers and which addresses many controversial issues such as international finance and banking corruption (Gordon Duff has been in the banking business and is a whistleblower) 911 and the ongoing criminal wars. Here is what he had to say and about 20 minutes in hear what he has to say about John Key. the total interview is about 1:25.
Added to that here is a copy of an email exchange I had with Gordon Duff after the show:
Hi Gordon,
I was on Vinnies show with you and that more or less cancels out the previous email I send you.
I am left with one question with regards to our National debt. When John Key took power we were in the plus. No huge debt. Now three years later we are $ 40 billion (only four million people here) in debt. Does this mean that John Key just made a fortune for his former bosses?
His answer:
yes
but also…there will be “off the books” debt which will be migrated into the public sector…
this would be his “tasking”
g
The “off the books debt” he is referring to is the tactic of keeping risky financial investments out of the normal day to day bookkeeping such as this example but when they collapse into no value at all try to get them reinbursed dollar for dollar from the taxpayer.
All you politicians out there bank the yearly pay rise, while workers lose jobs and get told to take 25% pay cuts at Marton meatworks.
Fletchers, the largest construction outfit in the country and responsible for Chch rebuild, fires loads of workers due to the downturn, while Fletchers directors pocket increased pay packets of $500,000.
National govt cuts funding to DOC and increases funding to the Mining dept.
National govt sells the people’s power stations and gives the money to farmers for irrigation.
National govt increases taxes on the poor and gives tax breaks to the rich.
.
.
.
can anyone see a pattern here? A pattern so heavy that if it continues at this rate for another three years all those gated communities and houses may find their gates on the street. Bullshit arseholes.
This worried me though “The puzzle is why someone who handled the Pike River mine disaster and the Christchurch earthquakes with aplomb is tripping up on something trivial in comparison.”. It’s obvious what the problem is, this is about Key and, egomaniacal sociopath that he is, can’t cope with criticism or looking bad,
I saw a big long interview with Key in the paper sometime during the world cup, didn’t read it but glanced at a little of it. In it he said that he came very close to resigning as PM after the Feb 22nd quake, when on that night or the next day he said something like 90 people were dead, when there was no actual evidence for it at the time. Subsequent events eclipsed his statement so he was ok, but he said that if it turned out he was wrong, that he would have resigned.
That doesn’t seem like he “handled [it] with aplomb” to me. He was making shit up as he went along and managed to get away with it.
See also: “money is no object”, and yet the bodies are still down there.
The problem is that all those business leaders are castigating National and Key for not doing the slash and burn through NZ society, for their convenience of profit.
New Plymouth’s history as a litmus test on election day looks set to continue.
In a surprise result after last night’s Taranaki Daily News candidate debate, an exit poll of those attending gave Labour’s Andrew Little a resounding thumbs-up for his performance.
TV3′s political editor, Duncan Garner, has been on Firstline describing how the prime minister he knew has changed. It’s like I don’t even know him any more, he almost says. Will they air the tapes? “Where we stand is this: we are reviewing our decisions daily. We understand the law, and this stage we have decided not to run the tapes. But of course there’s today and tomrorow and Saturday and Sunday, so we will just see. I mean the level of public interest has really become quite immense … There are some legitimate questions here … Yes, John Key is trying to create a wedge between the public and the media, so people don’t like the media, but I think there’s enough public interest in these tapes now to come out.”
And on Banks? “I believe John Banks is now misleading the New Zealand public.”
The fickleness of fame
Has left Liar Key very lame
While he ducks now for cover
Its the Media which once loved him is to blame
A lot of pain for a man so vain
This is clip with Garner. He also says that an invitation for Key to appear on the Nation to talk about the big issues stands – but that Key will no doubt be a no show.
The media are looking out for themselves as they always do.
While I welcome the newfound criticism of Shonkeys duck and dive, I cannot purge my mind of the weeks and weeks of duplicity from some members of the press and branches of the MSM. What is certain is that in the eyes of many this debacle ‘proves’ that the MSM is not biased – well I am not convinced. Instead I will be taking a different realization from these recent events – I believe that the MSM and it’s owners are actually quite sensitive to accusations of complicity. The Herald for example had been doing a rather poor job of countering accusations of bias, relying on ‘letters’ to the editor to argue their innocence.
One only has to contemplate the ramifications of a controlled and contrived MSM and the implications on democracy to realize that if a case is made against one then the evidence damns both. The media has chosen to sacrifice the credibility of Shonkey rather than loose their own. Should they be applauded for that?
A much larger game is being played here – the publics perception of a free press is necessary prerequisite for the MSM to have any influence.
My guess is that this recent fiasco was intended to reassure people that the Media did not exhibit favoritism towards the Nats but unintentionally has gone too far, actually damaging brand Shonkey.
The meaningless sound bites uttered by our so called PM are becoming so weird sounding an repetitive that i’m sure that a parrot could inject more human emotion into the words – but still the MSM records and rebroadcasts them with nary a mention or a challenge in regard to this peculiar affectation – people don’t speak like that. It needs to be challenged.
Garner seems genuinely surprised. From the above clip just prior to the invitation:
” . . . I’ve never seen him like this to be honest, when we’ve asked questions in the past
the access has always been good, he’s always been pretty upfront, in my view, started to lose it a bit a few weeks ago ’round Standard and Poors and the credit downgrade and since then I think we’re starting to see the changing face of the Prime Minister and that’s what you see with stress.”
You’ve seen the Ed Miliband clip these strikes are wrong that is the perfect example of politicians as spammers? It is also makes clear that yesterday’s stunt by Key was managed by the same type of PR ‘gurus’
the debate last night highlighted some interesting aspects
Hone is a rangatira, a leader and what’s more he stays on message and that message is all about the poor and disadvantaged in our society. Sure some will still not like him but others will be realising the spin that they have accepted about hone is just not the reality. Anyone serious about advancing social justice and equality issues must surely now be considering a Mana Party vote and if so – do it!
I can understand the affection still between tariana and hone – I feel it too – when I watch tariana I feel like I’m watching a auntie, a relly, kin. I am hopeful that the two parties can sort it out after the vote – they will, but the tuākana/taina relationship may not be as expected.
The SPLC winter edition with articles about the hate groups gathering in Montana, the American Family Association’s hate and the resurgence of the neo-confederates.
And now Labour release the Letterman Top Ten list Key didn’t read out on the show:
LABOUR’S LATEST TOP TEN – NATIONAL’S BROKEN PROMISES
1. GST was increased to 15 per cent.
2. The wage gap with Australia has increased by $32 a week.
3. 100,000 New Zealanders have left for Australia.
4. Budget 2011 cut over $400 million from Working for Families by reducing payments through changing abatement rates and thresholds.
5. National is already spending the money from their partial asset sales policy and Treasury has already hired an Australian investment banking firm as an adviser on the asset sales.
6. The underclass has grown with 32,000 more children living in benefit dependent households over the past three years.
7. National passed legislation that halved the KiwiSaver member tax credit in year starting 1 July 2011.
8. Only a fraction of the jobs promised from the national cycleway have materialised.
9. Early Childhood Education subsidies were changed.
10. The 2010 ”tax switch” has not been fiscally neutral, as promised.
However this should have been on boards and on tv for the past month. These kind of facts haven’t been presented to the public in a n effective way and I fear there is now not enough time for them to sink in.
Memorise this list people and remind your mates of theses facts before they vote next week.
Election issues….dictatorship in Canterbury. Remember Key and crew taking over ECAN with a commissioner????? All powerful and ready to go and gift whatever to the vested interests?
Talking to a buddy today he told me that the Conservation Order on the Rakaia was in Madam Bazleys (the Commisioner) hands and that submissions close tomorrow. He basically reckoned (and I dont doubt he is going to be proven correct) that the existing Conservation order would be overturned and water extraction below current minimum flows would be allowed 20 days per year. This is all in favour of providing dairy farmers water on dry country.
The powers given Bazley cannot be challenged, it is a dictatorship. That is the real nature of Nacts approach to the environment.
For the record the downstream effects: higher groundwater pollution in the Selwyn catchment, and the further endangering of a very rare bird that lives on the Rakaia river bed (wrybill plover), stuffing up the river as a fishery. Its a great example of power and money driving environmental destruction and species extinction. All for a few more cows.
I have given up on the Canterbury Plains. This is now a highly developed and barren wasteland industrial zone. Quite why farmers think how lovely it is working in the natural environment I do not know. Go into the mid-Plains and there aint a single drop of nature – it is all foreign grasses, no native bush, polluted groundwater (Dunsandel water supply now requires treatment courtesy of Hubbard’s cows next door), metallic irrigation machinery, roads, houses and hedges of gorse and gum tree.
It is a wasteland. As is, in fact, most of NZ’s countryside courtesy of our farming sector who have had to totally wreck the natural environment in order for them to make more and more money.
It is the great shame.
And yep, the Ecan dicactorship is pure evil. Sent in to do a job. The job is being done. The Canterbury Plains are all over. It’s fucked.
Actually I laughed like crazy at people who were describing the Rena oil spills in the BoP as NZs biggest environmental disaster, and all the media focus it got. I told them to go to Lake Ellesmere and have a good hard look. I should have said Canterbury, or Manawatu etc etc. You are so right, its fucked.
while I agree re: water quality etc, I’ve never understood the fixation on “native” vs “exotic” plants. Yes, native species needs to be preserved and NZ is the best/only place to preserve them, but gorse and oak and pine etc are just as nice (it’s just a pity some types have a tendency to crowd out everything else).
My issue is more that in a garden or a field apparently native species are “good”, but imported species are “bad” (regardless of noxious status in the area). I just don’t get it. Oak is just as nice a pohutakawa
Mr McFlock my point was about the wholesale destruction of the NZ biosphere so more and more money can be made from farming (which we all bear responsibility for given its 100 year timeframe). One-off trees, sure, oaks and willows are lovely jubbly but they don’t even come close to thousands of square kilometres of NZ goodness.
Good luck in trying to replace the entire flora and fauna using oak trees and cuckoos …..
My point is perhaps assisted by explanation. I sometimes head out to bays and beaches on Banks Peninsula (lordy I give away so much personal info someone’s going to spring me one day) and they are generally completely devastated. Nearly all surface area is bare foreign grassland. Now, imagine if these bays were still resplendent in the full regalia of untouched aotearoan wilderness. And then multiply that across the country. Much of NZ’s biospehere has been wiped out in order to support a few uneconomic sheep. May have seemed the right thing to do at the time but in hindsight no way.
And this entire outlook imo applies, or rather should apply, to the current continuing biospherical destruction of the Canterbury Plains and its rivers for what will, after the boom, be uneconomic moo cows. We are just eating it up for no genuine benefit. The Canterbury Plains is the country’s largest industrial zone. Check it out. Drive down the roads. Try walking across the paddocks. You will get no sense of nature but you will get a sense of industrial food production and an environment laid to waste.
what is wrong with grassland or tussock?
You’ll get no argument about the quality of the waterways, or the use of fossil hydrocarbons to make fertilizers. But green fields are just as nice as a bit of bush.
But green fields are just as nice as a bit of bush.
No, they aren’t. Bush has far more boo-diversity in it and is thus much nicer. Then there’s the fact that bush is the natural filter that keeps the streams and rivers clean.
Excuse me for disagreeing but there aint no comparison between large scale grass from the northern hemisphere and large scale full blown virgin NZ bush. In both quantity and quality terms. When the first peoples (white and brown) made it to these shores the dawn chorus of birdsong each and every morning was apparently deafening. You know, so loud that you had to yell to hear yourself speak. So imagine the birdlife, for one part, that would abound in, say a 500ha patch of dirt. Now, walk into a 500ha grass paddock. See the difference? And that is even before starting on the giant kauir, matai, rimu, etc and on it goes and goes and goes…
I would hazard a guess that the bio life in a grass paddock would be less than 1% of the bio life in a wilderness bush.
I am not addressing the obvious follow question – namely, what would NZ have done if it had not farmed, but I’m sure the people would not have starved. I am merely painting a picture of background to provide some context for the destruction being wrought on the Canterbury Plains.
well what about the high country tussock lands, e.g. central otago?
Although I will say that part of keeping the rivers clean with farming going on is planting tree and wetlands along the edges – and willows seem to do quite nicely for that.
Actually I laughed like crazy at people who were describing the Rena oil spills in the BoP as NZs biggest environmental disaster, and all the media focus it got.
Well, I didn’t laugh at the assertion but I did question it. Our biggest environmental disaster is farming.
The Great Earth Monster lurking under Christchurch just shat its pants again seemingly right under our house. Aint had a good rattle like that for a while. What a drainer this ongoing shaking is ……….
If Key really wants to declare war on something then how about this mega-sized monster?
As you might be aware, the Jackal has been running a weekly asshole award. Recipients of this prestigious award are automatically nominated for something you’ve all been waiting for…
Winston to reveal teapot tape contents at 2pm meeting in Invercargill but as David slack tweets “A reminder to listeners: Peters recited most of War and Peace before his Nats coalition announcement. Make yourselves comfortable.”
Fossil-fuel consumers worldwide received about six times more government subsidies than were given to the renewable-energy industry, according to the chief adviser to oil-importing nations.
I was staggered to hear on TV3, John Key say that while he was ‘not entirely unhappy’ with MMP he intended to vote for change because while he likes proportionality he ‘slightly prefers the characteristics of Supplementary Member’ (SM).
Those last two statements are mutually exclusive, of course, because SM is not classed as a proportional representation electoral system. Key cannot have it both ways.
So, Jonkey has finally admitted that he wants to go back to the same failed system that we got rid of 20 years ago.
NewstalkZB’s ridiculous “Huddle” goes from dismal to rock-bottom
Thursday 17 November 2011
Larry Williams’ abysmal Drivetime programme is notorious for its extreme views and its lack of intelligent debate. Tonight, though, it’s sunk lower than it ever has before. Joining Williams tonight is not only Bill Ralston, but Leighton “ummmm, Errrr, Ahhhhh” Smith.
NewstalkZB has obviously dispensed with the idea of intelligent debate.
With the appointment of Smith to the Huddle, the NewstalkZB “Fair and Balanced” slogan (stolen from the equally ludicrous Fox News) looks more absurd than it ever did.
WTF!!! There’s me out delivering Labour pamphlets (as a favour to a mate since I’m voting Green) all chuffed about John Key making a twat of himself, turn on the news and . . . this!! Tell me its a blip!
Both major parties are falling as support goes to minor. In the 3 News poll the Nats are at their lowest since they were elected. It’s usual and expected for major parties to fall and minors to rise at this stage – don’t panic!
Herald Poll was out of kilter with all other major reliable polls last time…so it will be interesting. when it was showing 49% for nats, the ROy Morgan, 3News Poll, One news poll and the Fairfacpoll all had Nats at 53-54% They did however have Labs trending Down like all other polls.
I hope you are right, as I am utterly downcast and conflicted after seeing this last round of polls. Conflicted because Labour candidates appear to be doing well in particular places – Andrew Little for instance, and Jacinda Adern, while the polls remain roughly the same. Where are the teachers, the sacked and threatened-with-the-boot public servants,etc? Downcast because I do not think I can stand another three years of this duplicitous circus.
Perhaps the election will deliver a different result from what the polls are telling us, as happened with Len Brown. But given our large private debt, perhaps a lot of New Zealanders feel OK about feeding the poor to the minotaur so long as they themselves are left alone and their property retains its value.
no one is “lying”….clearly you dont keep up with the polls…they are never 100% agreeable. what they BOTH show is the trend for Labour is DOWN…not Up as you might expect by this timeof the election cycle.
Soon people will get over their Key-derangement syndrome….but at the rate Labour are going they will learn too late that people hate nasty petty gutter politics.
I believe that is why the greens are up so much…they focus on policy and dont turn nasty like the Labs have (do).
Interesting, National will not govern alone. Voters do not like their asset sales policy, this coupled with Key’s meltdown will ensure this.
Also Labour will not be decimated.
Private Prisons, An awesome profit making Opportunity:-
Prisoners held in this remote facility depend on the prison’s phones to communicate with their lawyers and loved ones. Exploiting inmates’ need, CCA charges detainees here $5 per minute to make phone calls. Yet the prison only pays inmates who work at the facility $1 a day. At that rate, it would take five days to pay for just one minute.
So, why is NAct so interested in putting them in place in NZ when they’ve already been proven to be more expensive government run prisons?
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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 ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
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 Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joel Garrett, Lecturer in Exercise Science and Physiology, Griffith University Australia’s love affair with the major football codes – the Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL) – is well documented. However, one aspect that stands out to many observers, ...
The White Lotus is back for season three. Here’s what we made of episode one. The third White Lotus season rinses and repeats – and thank God for that. Turns out there is enough comedic and dramatic juice in resort-set ensemble satires on privilege in the modern world, ...
Founder, journalist and author Tim Burrowes joins Duncan Greive to discuss a torrid decade in Australian media and whether there are reasons to be optimistic amid the carnage. Tim Burrowes is the author of a book and a Substack called Unmade, which are truly essential guides to media in ...
The self-appointed apostle says he could be to Christopher Luxon what Elon Musk is to Donald Trump, and his track record speaks for itself.Who is New Zealand’s answer to Elon Musk? The Herald’s tech insider, Chris Keall, put the question to his LinkedIn acolytes the other day. “If Luxon ...
The last good thing at the supermarket is gone. Mad Chapman mourns the Cadbury mini egg cartons. When life is overwhelming and it feels like every story around you is a bad news story, there are a few things that can be relied upon to instil a sense of calm, ...
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As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a 36-year-old tertiary adviser and bartender shares her approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female. Age: 36. Ethnicity: Pākehā. Role: Tertiary adviser, ...
The change allows for devices that do screening, similar to at drink-drive checkpoints, rather than having to test oral fluid to an evidentiary standard. ...
Almost 40% of those departing NZ long-term are aged 18 to 30. What sort of country will they leave behind, asks Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Young people leading the charge out the door Last year saw ...
New Health Minister Simeon Brown is presiding over a list of resignations from high-ranking health officials that some say is a "bloodbath". What's going on? ...
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The passage of time hasn’t been kind to Ngāi Tahu.When its High Court hearing over wai māori (freshwater) commenced last week, 52 months after the claim was filed, the tribe mourned the loss of two named first plaintiffs – Bishop Richard Wallace, of Makaawhio, and Theo Bunker, of Wairewa – ...
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Asia Pacific Report Two Palestinian resistance groups have condemned “the brutal assault” on prisoners at Ofer Prison, saying it was “barbaric criminal behaviour that reflects the fascist and terrorist nature of” Israel. In the joint statement, Hamas and Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) called the attack a “miserable attempt” by Israel ...
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http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/5981284/MPs-get-pay-rise-package-of-7000
If one of the Parties had a social conscience they would be smart and pool all their members ‘pay raises’ and donate it to charity or simply return it to the people of NZ. A token yes, but one with value.
It is long accepted by many that the pay rates for MPs has gotten well out of hand and i am sorry but $400,000 to have the honour of being your country’s Prime Minister is more than sufficient.
If you want to earn big bucks go work in the private sector.
If you want to serve your country why should it matter what the private sector are paying?
p.s. you will also notice comments are not turned on for this article.
I also notice they’re not turned on for this bit of National propaganda from Stuff:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5982733/Labours-new-ad-short-on-facts-Joyce
So let me get this straight: Instead of actually looking at the information presented in Labour’s ad, determining the depth of truth and then putting questions to the National Party, Danya Levy asked “Do you agree?” to which the predictable response is “No” from Steven Joyce. (Then they wrap Joyce’s response as the headline – I notice the headline as written on the main page is “Labour’s new ad ‘short on facts'” without quoting the source of that comment. Interesting.)
Surely if there was an ounce of journalism in this, they would have at least investigated whether Labour’s claims were fact and presented them to Joyce in a robust way, rather than just phoning him up and saying “hey give us something to write to make you look good.”
The media in this country let us down something remarkable – especially FairFax.
If anyone wants to see how to do proper political journalism, watch practically any interview done by Stephen Sackur of the BBC. The John Key HardTalk interview is a good start.
Fairfax has also shown bias in its handling of recent Labour advertising in Auckland. At some expense Labour has purchased the footer on the front page of all of the Fairfax owned Suburban Newspapers. In at least three of these papers the same piece of “editorial” by John Key about Surf Lifesaving is placed immediately above the Labour ad on the front page. There is no promoter statement and stating Key’s support for surf lifesaving is the sort of copy money normally cannot buy. It reads like something his PR department wrote.
I have blogged about it here.
I cannot believe how appallingly bad this is. I hope Labour demands its money back.
It’s beyond ridiculous, and it surprises me how few people actually notice the bias until someone points it out, loud and clear.
Speaking of which, Neil Watts does some excellent analysis of the FairFax bias over at http://fearfactsexposed.wordpress.com/
That’s pretty shite.
Why are they publishing what is obviously a PR piece by the PM anyway? Is it being included in his party’s election spend?
addendum: Stuff have now switched comments on
I agree with the Alliance. All MPs should get the same rate and that rate should be the same as what teachers get paid.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/5981284/MPs-get-pay-rise-package-of-7000
richard # 10 threw in a very interesting bunch of questions
“Richard #10 08:44 am Nov 17 2011
‘Opposition Leader’ is an interesting concept these days. Do all opposition party leaders get that, or just the leader of the biggest one? Does signing a coalition agreement cost you the bonus? A memorandum of understanding? And what if the opposition party has co-leaders – do they all get it, or have to split the difference from the backbencher salary?”
can any of the experts out there offer any clarity for the befuddled masses?
National circus versus good old fashioned election meetings going strong in Dunedin.
Now you’ll be greasing up labour supporters and not the hair piece
Yesterday I was on the Vinny Eastwood show and had the chance to ask one of my heroes some questions about the international finance world and John Key.
Gordon Duff is the senior editor of Veterans today, an online publication which dwarfs many conventional media outlets and has millions of followers and which addresses many controversial issues such as international finance and banking corruption (Gordon Duff has been in the banking business and is a whistleblower) 911 and the ongoing criminal wars. Here is what he had to say and about 20 minutes in hear what he has to say about John Key. the total interview is about 1:25.
Added to that here is a copy of an email exchange I had with Gordon Duff after the show:
Hi Gordon,
I was on Vinnies show with you and that more or less cancels out the previous email I send you.
I am left with one question with regards to our National debt. When John Key took power we were in the plus. No huge debt. Now three years later we are $ 40 billion (only four million people here) in debt. Does this mean that John Key just made a fortune for his former bosses?
His answer:
The “off the books debt” he is referring to is the tactic of keeping risky financial investments out of the normal day to day bookkeeping such as this example but when they collapse into no value at all try to get them reinbursed dollar for dollar from the taxpayer.
Interesting interview.
Shame the presenter is a bit of a tool.
All you politicians out there bank the yearly pay rise, while workers lose jobs and get told to take 25% pay cuts at Marton meatworks.
Fletchers, the largest construction outfit in the country and responsible for Chch rebuild, fires loads of workers due to the downturn, while Fletchers directors pocket increased pay packets of $500,000.
National govt cuts funding to DOC and increases funding to the Mining dept.
National govt sells the people’s power stations and gives the money to farmers for irrigation.
National govt increases taxes on the poor and gives tax breaks to the rich.
.
.
.
can anyone see a pattern here? A pattern so heavy that if it continues at this rate for another three years all those gated communities and houses may find their gates on the street. Bullshit arseholes.
and the biggest shareholder in Fletchers is……
Total Number of Shares: 680739504 Extensive Shareholding:Yes
Allocation 1: 296215920 shares
NEW ZEALAND CENTRAL SECURITIES DEPOSITORY LIMITED
2 The Terrace, Wellington ,
National must really be losing control, if they are even losing control of Armstrong
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10766622
This worried me though “The puzzle is why someone who handled the Pike River mine disaster and the Christchurch earthquakes with aplomb is tripping up on something trivial in comparison.”. It’s obvious what the problem is, this is about Key and, egomaniacal sociopath that he is, can’t cope with criticism or looking bad,
I saw a big long interview with Key in the paper sometime during the world cup, didn’t read it but glanced at a little of it. In it he said that he came very close to resigning as PM after the Feb 22nd quake, when on that night or the next day he said something like 90 people were dead, when there was no actual evidence for it at the time. Subsequent events eclipsed his statement so he was ok, but he said that if it turned out he was wrong, that he would have resigned.
That doesn’t seem like he “handled [it] with aplomb” to me. He was making shit up as he went along and managed to get away with it.
See also: “money is no object”, and yet the bodies are still down there.
Welcome to the socialist society of big business CEOs.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10766423
And that piece links to 80 ‘business leaders’ muttering vague dis-satisfaction under the heading ‘Party Time Over Prime Minister’.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10766493
Something ain’t gelling 🙂
The problem is that all those business leaders are castigating National and Key for not doing the slash and burn through NZ society, for their convenience of profit.
Note that the article does not say when the survey was conducted.
Little getting favourable coverage:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/campaign-trail/5981888/Labours-Little-in-poll-jolt
Steven Joyce pipes up
After largely remaining silent during the election campaign, Steven Joyce has finally piped up and made a press release on National’s website today…
Yet another odd twist to the ACT saga today with Boscawen indicating an about-face to his retirement.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/election-2011/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503012&objectid=10766591
Maybe there will be another cuppa in Tamaki, given how well the first one worked.
Lol!
Reading this the theme tune to Prisoner kept popping into my head (swapping inside for outside):
http://www.listener.co.nz/nz-election-2011-live/thursday-17-november-what-really-matters/
TV3′s political editor, Duncan Garner, has been on Firstline describing how the prime minister he knew has changed. It’s like I don’t even know him any more, he almost says. Will they air the tapes? “Where we stand is this: we are reviewing our decisions daily. We understand the law, and this stage we have decided not to run the tapes. But of course there’s today and tomrorow and Saturday and Sunday, so we will just see. I mean the level of public interest has really become quite immense … There are some legitimate questions here … Yes, John Key is trying to create a wedge between the public and the media, so people don’t like the media, but I think there’s enough public interest in these tapes now to come out.”
And on Banks? “I believe John Banks is now misleading the New Zealand public.”
The fickleness of fame
Has left Liar Key very lame
While he ducks now for cover
Its the Media which once loved him is to blame
A lot of pain for a man so vain
He used to buy me rosé,
I wish he would again.
But I was on the inside,
And things were different then
http://www.3news.co.nz/VIDEO-Duncan-Garner-on-the-teapot-tapes/tabid/370/articleID/233018/Default.aspx
This is clip with Garner. He also says that an invitation for Key to appear on the Nation to talk about the big issues stands – but that Key will no doubt be a no show.
Wow.
Nice for a change to see Key now screwing the media.
Maybe the media might now develop a tinge of empathy for Key and Warner Bros?
/sarc
The media are looking out for themselves as they always do.
While I welcome the newfound criticism of Shonkeys duck and dive, I cannot purge my mind of the weeks and weeks of duplicity from some members of the press and branches of the MSM. What is certain is that in the eyes of many this debacle ‘proves’ that the MSM is not biased – well I am not convinced. Instead I will be taking a different realization from these recent events – I believe that the MSM and it’s owners are actually quite sensitive to accusations of complicity. The Herald for example had been doing a rather poor job of countering accusations of bias, relying on ‘letters’ to the editor to argue their innocence.
One only has to contemplate the ramifications of a controlled and contrived MSM and the implications on democracy to realize that if a case is made against one then the evidence damns both. The media has chosen to sacrifice the credibility of Shonkey rather than loose their own. Should they be applauded for that?
A much larger game is being played here – the publics perception of a free press is necessary prerequisite for the MSM to have any influence.
My guess is that this recent fiasco was intended to reassure people that the Media did not exhibit favoritism towards the Nats but unintentionally has gone too far, actually damaging brand Shonkey.
The meaningless sound bites uttered by our so called PM are becoming so weird sounding an repetitive that i’m sure that a parrot could inject more human emotion into the words – but still the MSM records and rebroadcasts them with nary a mention or a challenge in regard to this peculiar affectation – people don’t speak like that. It needs to be challenged.
Some intersting points there worth thinking about, Campbell. Think we will get a better idea as things play out.
And, having five parrots, I agree re your comments about them!
Garner seems genuinely surprised. From the above clip just prior to the invitation:
” . . . I’ve never seen him like this to be honest, when we’ve asked questions in the past
the access has always been good, he’s always been pretty upfront, in my view, started to lose it a bit a few weeks ago ’round Standard and Poors and the credit downgrade and since then I think we’re starting to see the changing face of the Prime Minister and that’s what you see with stress.”
LOL
Politicians as spammers
You’re not talking to a human being; you’re talking to a pre-programmed spambot wearing a meat-puppet.
You’ve seen the Ed Miliband clip these strikes are wrong that is the perfect example of politicians as spammers? It is also makes clear that yesterday’s stunt by Key was managed by the same type of PR ‘gurus’
the debate last night highlighted some interesting aspects
Hone is a rangatira, a leader and what’s more he stays on message and that message is all about the poor and disadvantaged in our society. Sure some will still not like him but others will be realising the spin that they have accepted about hone is just not the reality. Anyone serious about advancing social justice and equality issues must surely now be considering a Mana Party vote and if so – do it!
I can understand the affection still between tariana and hone – I feel it too – when I watch tariana I feel like I’m watching a auntie, a relly, kin. I am hopeful that the two parties can sort it out after the vote – they will, but the tuākana/taina relationship may not be as expected.
Key’s strategy of pissing off the media takes a new turn with the Police demanding 4 news organisations dob in their sources for the tea tape stories.
Oh well if that doesn’t work out maybe the filth could try contacting blubber blog’s “Snitchline” kiwi curtain twitchers club.
Blubber boy poses.
The SPLC winter edition with articles about the hate groups gathering in Montana, the American Family Association’s hate and the resurgence of the neo-confederates.
And now Labour release the Letterman Top Ten list Key didn’t read out on the show:
LABOUR’S LATEST TOP TEN – NATIONAL’S BROKEN PROMISES
1. GST was increased to 15 per cent.
2. The wage gap with Australia has increased by $32 a week.
3. 100,000 New Zealanders have left for Australia.
4. Budget 2011 cut over $400 million from Working for Families by reducing payments through changing abatement rates and thresholds.
5. National is already spending the money from their partial asset sales policy and Treasury has already hired an Australian investment banking firm as an adviser on the asset sales.
6. The underclass has grown with 32,000 more children living in benefit dependent households over the past three years.
7. National passed legislation that halved the KiwiSaver member tax credit in year starting 1 July 2011.
8. Only a fraction of the jobs promised from the national cycleway have materialised.
9. Early Childhood Education subsidies were changed.
10. The 2010 ”tax switch” has not been fiscally neutral, as promised.
Brilliant List
However this should have been on boards and on tv for the past month. These kind of facts haven’t been presented to the public in a n effective way and I fear there is now not enough time for them to sink in.
Memorise this list people and remind your mates of theses facts before they vote next week.
Election issues….dictatorship in Canterbury. Remember Key and crew taking over ECAN with a commissioner????? All powerful and ready to go and gift whatever to the vested interests?
Talking to a buddy today he told me that the Conservation Order on the Rakaia was in Madam Bazleys (the Commisioner) hands and that submissions close tomorrow. He basically reckoned (and I dont doubt he is going to be proven correct) that the existing Conservation order would be overturned and water extraction below current minimum flows would be allowed 20 days per year. This is all in favour of providing dairy farmers water on dry country.
The powers given Bazley cannot be challenged, it is a dictatorship. That is the real nature of Nacts approach to the environment.
For the record the downstream effects: higher groundwater pollution in the Selwyn catchment, and the further endangering of a very rare bird that lives on the Rakaia river bed (wrybill plover), stuffing up the river as a fishery. Its a great example of power and money driving environmental destruction and species extinction. All for a few more cows.
I have given up on the Canterbury Plains. This is now a highly developed and barren wasteland industrial zone. Quite why farmers think how lovely it is working in the natural environment I do not know. Go into the mid-Plains and there aint a single drop of nature – it is all foreign grasses, no native bush, polluted groundwater (Dunsandel water supply now requires treatment courtesy of Hubbard’s cows next door), metallic irrigation machinery, roads, houses and hedges of gorse and gum tree.
It is a wasteland. As is, in fact, most of NZ’s countryside courtesy of our farming sector who have had to totally wreck the natural environment in order for them to make more and more money.
It is the great shame.
And yep, the Ecan dicactorship is pure evil. Sent in to do a job. The job is being done. The Canterbury Plains are all over. It’s fucked.
Actually I laughed like crazy at people who were describing the Rena oil spills in the BoP as NZs biggest environmental disaster, and all the media focus it got. I told them to go to Lake Ellesmere and have a good hard look. I should have said Canterbury, or Manawatu etc etc. You are so right, its fucked.
while I agree re: water quality etc, I’ve never understood the fixation on “native” vs “exotic” plants. Yes, native species needs to be preserved and NZ is the best/only place to preserve them, but gorse and oak and pine etc are just as nice (it’s just a pity some types have a tendency to crowd out everything else).
Which is why they’re a problem – that crowding out destroys the native plants.
My issue is more that in a garden or a field apparently native species are “good”, but imported species are “bad” (regardless of noxious status in the area). I just don’t get it. Oak is just as nice a pohutakawa
Mr McFlock my point was about the wholesale destruction of the NZ biosphere so more and more money can be made from farming (which we all bear responsibility for given its 100 year timeframe). One-off trees, sure, oaks and willows are lovely jubbly but they don’t even come close to thousands of square kilometres of NZ goodness.
Good luck in trying to replace the entire flora and fauna using oak trees and cuckoos …..
My point is perhaps assisted by explanation. I sometimes head out to bays and beaches on Banks Peninsula (lordy I give away so much personal info someone’s going to spring me one day) and they are generally completely devastated. Nearly all surface area is bare foreign grassland. Now, imagine if these bays were still resplendent in the full regalia of untouched aotearoan wilderness. And then multiply that across the country. Much of NZ’s biospehere has been wiped out in order to support a few uneconomic sheep. May have seemed the right thing to do at the time but in hindsight no way.
And this entire outlook imo applies, or rather should apply, to the current continuing biospherical destruction of the Canterbury Plains and its rivers for what will, after the boom, be uneconomic moo cows. We are just eating it up for no genuine benefit. The Canterbury Plains is the country’s largest industrial zone. Check it out. Drive down the roads. Try walking across the paddocks. You will get no sense of nature but you will get a sense of industrial food production and an environment laid to waste.
That’s why I say it’s fucked.
what is wrong with grassland or tussock?
You’ll get no argument about the quality of the waterways, or the use of fossil hydrocarbons to make fertilizers. But green fields are just as nice as a bit of bush.
No, they aren’t. Bush has far more boo-diversity in it and is thus much nicer. Then there’s the fact that bush is the natural filter that keeps the streams and rivers clean.
Excuse me for disagreeing but there aint no comparison between large scale grass from the northern hemisphere and large scale full blown virgin NZ bush. In both quantity and quality terms. When the first peoples (white and brown) made it to these shores the dawn chorus of birdsong each and every morning was apparently deafening. You know, so loud that you had to yell to hear yourself speak. So imagine the birdlife, for one part, that would abound in, say a 500ha patch of dirt. Now, walk into a 500ha grass paddock. See the difference? And that is even before starting on the giant kauir, matai, rimu, etc and on it goes and goes and goes…
I would hazard a guess that the bio life in a grass paddock would be less than 1% of the bio life in a wilderness bush.
I am not addressing the obvious follow question – namely, what would NZ have done if it had not farmed, but I’m sure the people would not have starved. I am merely painting a picture of background to provide some context for the destruction being wrought on the Canterbury Plains.
well what about the high country tussock lands, e.g. central otago?
Although I will say that part of keeping the rivers clean with farming going on is planting tree and wetlands along the edges – and willows seem to do quite nicely for that.
Well, I didn’t laugh at the assertion but I did question it. Our biggest environmental disaster is farming.
Ohau river not much better m8
Police are executing search warrants on News Media re any evidence to do with the tea party fiasco
Wonder if after this the MSM will be up Keys ass like they are @ the moment or go after the bastard
Mammoth fail DonKey
Fantastic to see the 1% love Key and want votes to go his way!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10766423
The 99% know what to do next.
Gloria Steinem: ‘I think we need to get much angrier’
The Great Earth Monster lurking under Christchurch just shat its pants again seemingly right under our house. Aint had a good rattle like that for a while. What a drainer this ongoing shaking is ……….
If Key really wants to declare war on something then how about this mega-sized monster?
Hang in there vto. Must call my folks…
so after key called the cops did they discover if there were any clues?
to anything.
As you might be aware, the Jackal has been running a weekly asshole award. Recipients of this prestigious award are automatically nominated for something you’ve all been waiting for…
…without further adiue, here is the coveted Asshole of the Year Award prize giving ceremony.
Hurray!
jeez, more contenders than you can shake a wireless mic at… Good onya.
As of fact John Key’s Parliamentary salary goes to Charity (and always has done).
Yeah, the charity being National’s Waitemata Trust.
you seem so confident Fortran, do you have a shred of proof?
a skerrit of informative data?
or just the PM’s word?
Proof. I want to see receipts here and not just some RWNJs word.
Enjoy that Tui Beer Fortran.
Winston to reveal teapot tape contents at 2pm meeting in Invercargill but as David slack tweets “A reminder to listeners: Peters recited most of War and Peace before his Nats coalition announcement. Make yourselves comfortable.”
2.28pm: Winston Peters disappoints listeners and reveals nothing.
Typical Winston!
Fact du jour, fossil fuel subsidies: Six Times More Than Renewable Energy
Fossil-fuel consumers worldwide received about six times more government subsidies than were given to the renewable-energy industry, according to the chief adviser to oil-importing nations.
Jon Johansson: Key cannot have it both ways
So, Jonkey has finally admitted that he wants to go back to the same failed system that we got rid of 20 years ago.
NewstalkZB’s ridiculous “Huddle” goes from dismal to rock-bottom
Thursday 17 November 2011
Larry Williams’ abysmal Drivetime programme is notorious for its extreme views and its lack of intelligent debate. Tonight, though, it’s sunk lower than it ever has before. Joining Williams tonight is not only Bill Ralston, but Leighton “ummmm, Errrr, Ahhhhh” Smith.
NewstalkZB has obviously dispensed with the idea of intelligent debate.
With the appointment of Smith to the Huddle, the NewstalkZB “Fair and Balanced” slogan (stolen from the equally ludicrous Fox News) looks more absurd than it ever did.
Labour hits ten year low in latest poll
WTF!!! There’s me out delivering Labour pamphlets (as a favour to a mate since I’m voting Green) all chuffed about John Key making a twat of himself, turn on the news and . . . this!! Tell me its a blip!
Both major parties are falling as support goes to minor. In the 3 News poll the Nats are at their lowest since they were elected. It’s usual and expected for major parties to fall and minors to rise at this stage – don’t panic!
Also – Herald Digipol tomorrow may be better.
Herald Poll was out of kilter with all other major reliable polls last time…so it will be interesting. when it was showing 49% for nats, the ROy Morgan, 3News Poll, One news poll and the Fairfacpoll all had Nats at 53-54% They did however have Labs trending Down like all other polls.
Its a blip …
; )
Whew! Thanks fellas.
I hope you are right, as I am utterly downcast and conflicted after seeing this last round of polls. Conflicted because Labour candidates appear to be doing well in particular places – Andrew Little for instance, and Jacinda Adern, while the polls remain roughly the same. Where are the teachers, the sacked and threatened-with-the-boot public servants,etc? Downcast because I do not think I can stand another three years of this duplicitous circus.
Perhaps the election will deliver a different result from what the polls are telling us, as happened with Len Brown. But given our large private debt, perhaps a lot of New Zealanders feel OK about feeding the poor to the minotaur so long as they themselves are left alone and their property retains its value.
tvone – Guyonasslicker– said Labour on 26%
tv3-Garner– 27.5%
err whose lying here??
was great to see Key basically ignored by the workers in Whangerei hahahahahah
no one is “lying”….clearly you dont keep up with the polls…they are never 100% agreeable. what they BOTH show is the trend for Labour is DOWN…not Up as you might expect by this timeof the election cycle.
Oh….what a shame…no bump for Labour in the polls
http://tvnz.co.nz/election-2011/labour-hits-ten-year-low-in-latest-poll-4548044
and
http://www.3news.co.nz/NZ-First-climb-polls-on-back-of-teapot-tapes/tabid/370/articleID/233104/Default.aspx
Sad really…. NOT.
I can genuinely say i am happy for the greens to be going up. Good on them. They have worked hard to gain in the polls.
At this rate Nats will govern alone.
My prediciton for election:
Nats will govern alone.
Act will just scrape in.
Greens will gainmany MPs.
Labs will be desemated.
Winne the pooh WONT get back in.
Dirty tricks, gutter politics and gutter journalism DONT work:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/polls/5988186/National-maintains-lead-despite-tape-saga
Soon people will get over their Key-derangement syndrome….but at the rate Labour are going they will learn too late that people hate nasty petty gutter politics.
I believe that is why the greens are up so much…they focus on policy and dont turn nasty like the Labs have (do).
Interesting, National will not govern alone. Voters do not like their asset sales policy, this coupled with Key’s meltdown will ensure this.
Also Labour will not be decimated.
So why do you think NAct are using them then?
Private Prisons, An awesome profit making Opportunity:-
So, why is NAct so interested in putting them in place in NZ when they’ve already been proven to be more expensive government run prisons?
Cronyism?
Pictures from Epsom candidates’ meeting on 17 Nov.
John Banks (what a fine head of hair!)
http://i39.tinypic.com/2eo8ms2.jpg
Paul Goldsmith (Vote for me!)
http://i44.tinypic.com/kdjszc.jpg