The party leadership today met more than 100 business representatives behind closed doors.
Fairfax News
Meanwhile in other news:
Two flax roots Glen Innes housing activists organising against the National Government’s eviction of state tenants and the removal and demolition of state homes in Glen Innes. Have had the invitation extended to them to attend the Labour Party conference, crudely canceled at the last minute.
Why?
Are the neo liberals behind the withdrawal of the housing activist’s invitation to conference?
Will David Shearer’s highly hyped Sunday speech on housing be advancing market solutions to homelessness?
Will GI state tenant Evonne Sainty’s message of protecting state provision of secure long term government tenancies, which build secure communities,* conflict with David Shearer’s views on state provision of housing?
*(Sainty’s vision is in direct conflict with National’s view of state housing as a short term band aid for for homelessness, extended only for a limited period before you are shifted out to find a home in the private sector.)
So almost first thing we see them disappearing behind closed doors with business leaders. What does that tell us? Can this action be”corrected” by a fancy speech tomorrow? Remember, Shearer has stated his intention to focus on the economy and not social issues (like poverty, I imagine).
According to Congressional hearings on illegal lobbying activities ’46 was the year that Milton Friedman and his U Chicago cohort George Stigler arranged an under-the-table deal with a Washington lobbying executive to pump out covert propaganda for the national real estate lobby in exchange for a hefty payout, the terms of which were never meant to be released to the public.
Which goes along quite well with my idea that the free-market is just justification for capitalism rather than a viable economic theory.
Who were the attendees on the “Labour leadership” side?
Were they fully representative of the Labour leadership, or just a section?\
What did the “business representatives” want?
And who were they?
Where they fully representative of the business community, or just a section?
What assurances, if any, were they given?
Why was the meeting held behind closed doors?
Why have all the identities of those involved not been revealed?
Was monetary donations from business for Labour’s election campaign one of the things discussed?
What else was discussed?
Will any of the subjects discussed behind closed doors between anonymous Labour Party leaders and anonymous business leaders be revealed to the membership?
Secret discussions being held prior to conference between unnamed senior Labour Party and Business leaders behind “closed doors” surely is not a good look, does this sort of behaviour by the Labour leadership risk undermining the public’s confidence that the Labour Party conference is the supreme democratic policy making body of the party?
PS. Interesting how Rogue Trooper tried to divert the thread. Someone feeling a little bit sensitive about this issue being raised?
If this is what we can expect from Labour in opposition, what can we expect from them in government? More secret “closed door” meetings with business interests, while social activists are locked out and ignored?
No wonder the non-vote is on its way to becoming the majority.
Today is the day for all members and delegates who want to change how the Labour Party selects its leader. The 40:40:20 remit looks likely to pass. But remember that’s not the critical vote. The trigger within the caucus to start the leadership selection process is your most important vote today. The current remits are focused on 2/3rds, 55%, 51%. You need to understand 51% is the status quo, the current caucus trigger. The trigger needs to be lower if members are going to have real involvement in selecting their leader. In the UK it’s 20%.
If, for example, you want to have the opportunity to choose between Shearer and alternatives such as Cunliffe, that can only happen with a 40% caucus trigger.
Mallard and King have a lock on too many MP’s and if the trigger remains at 51% (or is increased) only they will hold the power to begin a leadership selection process. They can stick with Shearer until they are ready to install Robertson (probably far too close to an election). And where’s the membership involvement there! If you think Cunliffe should just suck it up and wait, think again. If 40% fails today, it’s time for four years of white anting by Mallard and King to stop. Cunliffe’s talents should be used more productively outside the Labour Party. That’s what Mallard and King want. What do you members want today?!
Sorry Ianmac, it was shorthand for Remit 297(d). This is the remit that could finally give members some say on who our leader is. Presently only the caucus decides. The split most likely to be passed is that the vote for the leader will be weighted 40% for caucus, 40% for members, and 20% for affiliated unions.
Goff got pretty good during the election campaign. The problem was the brain-dead policies they were running with – extending “working” for families to people that don’t work and borrowing money to invest in the superannuation fund. CGT was good but people didn’t seem to understand it and seemed to have a lot of exclusions.
I ended up voting Labour, but was seriously tempted to just vote Green.
Imagine the filth that King/Mallards controllers have on them to still be propping them up the way they are, Labour supporters need to have a good hard look in the mirror!
To be honest Cunliffe has no chance of saving NZ unless be fancies a car accident, or getting “sick”, as he has been around long enough to understand the consequences of becoming a genuine “saviour” of NZ.
So all you Cunliffe fans out there, time to get some reality in ya, and accept that he is just another part of the establishment, nothing more!
Tactic: While moving the “left to the center”, all the while moving the center to the right, you in fact succeed in deleting even faded memories of what “left” ever looked or sounded like!
Hence why those still supporting Labour have to be some of the most blinkered, read blindly ignorant people in the country, either that or they’re actually National voters in drag!
Well when Labour go down in a screaming heap in 2014. Coming in 2 nd after the greens with Mallard and co given the well deserved boot. If they’re trying to get back in on the List, then I pity Labour, If dinosaurs like them get back in.
And back on planet earth, one third of kiwi voters still prefer Labour. More after today, I imagine. And even more after the 13th of February.
Still, I wouldn’t be overly concerned if Labour did come second to the Greens, as you suggest. In that fantasy scenario, I’d guess National come third. Fine by me!
well, J T was carrying on like an abandoned ” little Boy” not allowed another piece of cake on the MSM last night; the character of the politically aspirant: I despair. J T and Maggie Barry would make a lovely photogenic couple.
First part – does OK, deals with Smalley (TV’s best interviewer?) well, not too defensive about the economy, he’s comfortable on that turf. Would eat Shearer alive.
Second part – on education, has to defend Parata and Foss, which nobody could, so he struggles. Parata is “outstanding” … hmmm. Gets tetchy on Kim Dotcom. Smalley attacks.
Overall, Key shows that he can still deflect easily with his prepared lines, but gets riled when he comes under sustained pressure.
But let’s not kid ourselves. He’s streets ahead of Shearer as an interviewee.
The United Nations needs to reform to resolve global problems such as conflict in Syria and climate change, former Prime Minister Helen Clark says
“Around the world, people are exposed to media reporting of the human toll of the Syrian crisis, and are asking why the UN cannot act to protect innocent civilians,” Miss Clark said.
She said it was a good time to consider reform of the council, in particular the veto power held by its five permanent members.
Miss Clark also spoke about the risks in failing to co-ordinate a global response to climate change.
“It would be a tragedy for future generations if today’s leaders and decision-makers prove incapable of taking the bold decisions which are necessary to stop catastrophic and irreversible change to the world’s climate (good to see helen has picked up the new buzzword catastrophic, and is repeating if for the start struck auther to quote on!)
She said there was limited accountability for the agreements that had been reached on carbon emissions, and no meaningful consequences for failing to reach reduction targets.
You would like meangingful consequences, and full accountability for those “agreements” though wouldn’t you Stalin, woops I mean Helen!
MOST SHAMELESS LIES OF THE WEEK
Week ending Saturday 17/11/2012
Lie No. 1…. “Israel takes every measure to avoid civilian casualties.” Binyamin Netanyahu, Thursday, 15/11/2012
Lie No. 2….
Reporter: What mark out of ten would you give David Shearer for his performance so far? David Parker: Ahhhhhhhmmmm… ten.
Radio New Zealand National, Focus on Politics, 16/11/2012
Lie No. 3….
“Hekia Parata has done an OUTSTANDING job as minister.” John Key, on The Nation, TV3, 17/11/2012
Lie No. 4….
“Nick Smith has an enormous brain. Sure, he made a few mistakes on the margin…” John Key, on The Nation, TV3, 17/11/2012
Back in the old days when I used to talk to “Directors”, the one thing they all said was they couldn’t delegate, always have too oversee people.
John Keys rhetoric is identical to all those directors’ responses to systemic failure.
The one difference obviously being that the Gnats’ are running our country not a business whos “reputation” may be damged by calling the person responsible an ignoramus.
What business would tolerate someone as substandard as John Banks? Or Hekia Parata?
All right, all right, all right, I know what you’re going to say: there’s the Herald, NewstalkZB, Television New Zealand, the New Zealand Rugby Union, Radio Live….
Temporary employment entry for skilled workers under the New Zealand – China Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
The FTA includes commitments for skilled workers from China to enter New Zealand for temporary employment, without labour market testing (but subject to specified qualifications and work experience requirements, registration if required, and the requirement for a bona fide job offer), if they work in one of the following occupations:
Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners
Chinese chefs
Mandarin teachers’ aides
Wushu martial arts (including tai chi) coaches
Chinese tour guides.
For more information, see China Special Work Category.
In addition, a maximum of 1000 skilled Chinese workers at any one time may be granted temporary employment for up to three years, in specified occupations where New Zealand has a skills shortage. Entry is limited to no more than 100 workers in each occupation at any one time.
The list of occupations (which all have specific qualification and experience requirements) is as follows:
Auditor
Automotive Electrician
Boatbuilder
Computer Application Engineer
Design Engineer – Electronics / Product Engineer
Diesel Mechanic
Early Childhood Teacher
Electrician
Electronics Technician
Film Animator
Fitter and Turner
Fitter / Welder
Medical Diagnostic Radiographer / Medical Radiation Therapist
Motor Mechanic
Plumber
Registered Nurse
Senior Test Analyst
Structural Engineer
University or Higher Education Lecturer/Tutor
Veterinarian.
For more information, see China Skilled Workers Category.
This is the solution offered to appease the Chinese and plug the hole that the abysmal education has left over the last 15 years. I suppose that this ought to help getting NZ on a similar productive level as its pacific rim neighbors. Problem is the cultural divide in terms of employment conditions. NZ had enjoyed a rather civilized arrangement with the British influence but this is going to slowly lean towards modern slavery under the new dogma. The ones that will leave and can do so will and others will just have to endure.
Of cause there are alternative solutions which fit with the current economic and social make up of NZ (as it still is) that makes far more sense and has the same outcome with none of the social reconstruction. But maybe this is not what is wanted.
Heard some excerpts of the PM debating the other day on radio.Thought, ‘who does he sound like?’
Then it hit me.He sounds remarkably like Paul Henry when excited. Listen next time.
Remit #121: End the process of union affiliation and return control of the party to the party members and return transparency of the party direction to the voters.
While thinking about how many ways this story could have “innocently” gone wrong, and consdiering the many ideological laws it broke, the deciding vote – for me – went in favour of writing errors.
James/Jamie, listen, there are more perspectives than just your own in this world, you know that. You hold a priviledged place in our society, yet you’re ignoring the impact a singular perspective can do to groups within that society when the overall message of your words – the theme – is ignored, by you, the writer. Let’s skip past the ins and outs of readily available protection myths that you obviously don’t or can’t know about and concentrate on sources. No one’s asking you to become a feminist ideologue, just approach it from a perspective of good writing.
When this story was formed, did you consider the environment and attitude of the people offering the information and how, if it remained unchecked, it would alter the central message? Did you agree with the basic ideas of the people you met? Do you admire and defer to authority? Do you know your place? Do you believe you are essentially a good person, a team player? Do you believe you can write well without examining these influences? Did you have no choice but to generalise, because the raw information covered such a large group of individuals? Did it not matter, because you wanted to do good? Did you sincerely try for balance by talking to representatives of an alternate viewpoint?
Imagine how the story would have read if it was just about one person – what questions would you have asked in order to explain the whole picture? How far back would you have gone, how far below the surface would you have scratched, which side-tracks would you have trimmed out? Would you investigate the influence of intoxication separately or in parallel? How would that make a difference to the overall message? How many issues are contained in this story, James/Jamie? Would you be able to see everything and not have an opinion about what you saw? Where would you choose to cast the final vote – on the side of the victim, the aggressor, to uphold societal beliefs or attempt a reflection?
Best of luck to you Jamie/James. Take care with the power you have been awarded.
I thought the crux of the story was that if you get so pissed you don’t know what’s going on around you and you then get raped, society will say it’s your own fault (even if they try and say it more neutrally than they used to).
What the article should have done is introduce the policing issue and then focus on Kim McGregor’s statement about the need to look at the behaviour of rapists/offenders (see the pathetic amount of space given to her statement at the end vs the rest of the article). I’m sure she had lots more to say.
They could also have done a completely separate article on the Massey research, looking at all the issues around young women binge drinking, and when they got to the bit bit about rape, again focus on the behaviour of rapists towards drunk women and link to the other article.
In Auckland, Hamilton and other centres, police and other agencies are out in the streets at night, pushing campaigns designed to prevent sexual assault.
Hamilton police are giving the message, among others, that intoxicated or inebriated people who are slurring their words or stumbling around can’t properly consent to having sex.
Great, but who is the message being given to and how? Jamie and James, instead of telling us more about what that actually means, your whole article has just informed rapists and potential rapists that if they rape really drunk women they’re likely to get away with it.
Oh, and Jamie and James and editors of the Herald, rape is not sex, so don’t call it that. Wish I had time to redo the whole article, but here’s a rewrite of the headline
Please produce some evidence that the high levels of rape we have now have always been.
And if you think that the responsibility is on women to avoid rape, please tell me what undrunk women who are unable to give consent or protect themselves should do.
Then tell me what responsibility you think men have in this.
Yes, we all know rape is bad and it’s not the fault of the man/woman/child who gets raped and in a perfect society any one could walk the streets at any time of the day and night, in any state and not get raped or beaten up.
Unfortunately we don’t live in this perfect world and I doubt we ever will,so a bit of personal responsibility needs to happen if you want to stay safe and out of harms way.
BM, you were asked Please produce some evidence that the high levels of rape we have now have always been.
You responded with a Wiki article on rape during war.
Either you’re a disingenuous fuckhead with a vested interest in not confronting societal attitudes which allow rapists to go unpunished, or you’re just a kindly-hearted confused little dweeb who doesn’t understand the circumstances in which the majority of rapes occur.
Sadly for you, I am all out of Benefit Of The Doubt.
Oh, BM. So sad how you can’t even back up your assertions. First you try re-defining things (rape vs. rape during war) and then you claim to be a realist when I’m the one arguing from actual statistics! It’s fucking adorable, to be honest.
You might want to consider why you believe that high levels of rape in society is the norm (despite there being no evidence), and how that relates to what you think can be done about it.
How about you tell me how we could achieve this totally safe society where any woman could walk around at any time of the night without fear of being attacked and raped.
The smarter woman takes steps to reduce the chances of rape happening
I agree, BM. That’s why I live in an underground bunker and refuse to have contact with all men.
After all, the statistics tell us I’m most likely to be attacked by someone I know in my own home, so being a “smarter woman”, I’ve taken the necessary steps to reduce that risk.
The smarter society realises and supports the idea that people should be able to walk around anywhere and not be attacked rather defending the attackers and blaming the victims as you’re doing.
what I often ponder, considering my experiential knowledge of the field, is the neurological damage that this culture of binge-drinking among young people will have, which takes time to heal, and the proportion of these young people who, statistically speaking, will develop “alcohol abuse” and “alcohol dependence” health histories; the DSM IV covers these matters at length, along with narcissism.
People drink to fit in. People fear difference. Intelligent people are different, and can cause huge social angst when they put average citizens down (loss of status). So why is it hard to fathom, that young people fear coming off as intelligent, want to fit in, and so abuse their brains.
Fearful people join groups in order to maintain security.
so the question is why is there so much wealth created by fear mongering? Well simple,
greedy crony capitalism distorts to make money, and creating a society of inequity,
fear of inequity, fear of being isolated, fear of being thrown out of society, being
made a non-citizen, will inevitable lead to gangs, to drinking to fit in, to…
There’s an old saying, what comes around goes around, and I think it means, that if you push values of supremacy then inevitably you are enslaved by your own dealings. Take the recent ponsi collapse, the trusting investors did not appreciate the GFC, National were not explaining the GFC, saying growth is just around the corner, so of course it was easier for investors to think the above market returns were realistic. You see it, National spin turns into shit hitting the fan for National, as Key promised to clear up the investment industry!
As a nation we are peddling lies about the weak taking over, destroying the economy, but in fact the weak are the National party and all hangers on who cannot stand on their own feet but neew no tax on CGT, need the socialism for the wealthy to be successful, be economically drunk and in need of a bonus on the board of a company, because they joined a group out of fear, not for positive reasons.
The need for alcohol or for profit, its all the same, security. Whethe r it be drinking to fit in, or joining a gang, or even supporting the current clueless National fear mongers in the Beehive.
I mean seriously, the rich made vast amounts gaming the system to produce huge indebtedness, and people really think they deserve to avoid tax increases, but this meme is a regular appearance on the news. It was tax decreases that got us into this mess!!!
you often, coherently, make reasonable points, now.
somebody , Tane, from memory, the other day referred to post-structuralist deconstruction as the necessary tools. They are certainly useful tools; what social policy advice influences policy is political, it appears, however, this deconstructive stuff is being written and published everyday; we can but spread the Word.
It is encouraging that young-ish people are likely to read and / or comment here as that is who we who are older are here for, aren’t we?
Now, I been following Chinese politics lightly, (too much audio-visual may be desensitizing, it certainly blows me away when I haven’t seen the bleeding and limp-dead children for a couple of days)
anyway, one quote from a citizen, maybe from the village where the new Leader spent Seven years of his youth living in a cave, said the Party aim is to make every Chinese person wealthy; well I can see they have certainly made some progress towards that aim since The Cultural Revolution. Thing is, where is all that wealth / resource gonna come from in a “finite” system? Maybe from the West, I’m thinking.
And, the new Central Committee members are all very good at One thing; being in a Committee.
very helpful
The potential for this conflict to escalate even further is there, with the Israelis calling up 30,000 reservists and amassing troops and tanks near the Gaza border. Despite a warning from Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Israeli rocket and airstrikes have continued unabated, entirely dwarfing the retaliatory strikes coming from Palestine for the assassination of Hamas military leader Ahmed al-Jabari…
And Israel sits in morbid fear of Iran because of it as well.
They really need to open their eyes to one simple fact “Torture results in Torture”.
If they keep the element white hot simply to justify the “Self Defence” stance then it’s simply an engineered excuse for a fear perspectived suppression.
(i.e Israel starts talking “Terrorists” again )
Thanks Rogue Trooper. It’s good to have some agreement and I think Israel and the United States need to know that not everybody in the west supports such an unjust war on the Palestinians. I think very few people would if they were made aware of the facts of the matter.
It will escalate as there is no solution to the fact that out of 70 odd water wells in Palestinian country more than 50% have been taped from the Israelis leaving the Palestinians – without water. Now you tell me, what solution is there? You can actually say that the Israelis deliberately undermine the survival of the Palestinians with these actions. So what solution would you offer? Albeit the information is accessible, not many report on it. Why? http://www.ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/water.html
The solution is simple and easily achieved: the United States must cease funding and supporting Israel’s illegal aggression and settlement programs, just as it was eventually persuaded to cease funding and supporting Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, apartheid South Africa, and the Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia.
Overthrew a democratically elected Government.
Murdered between 700 thousand and a million of his own citizens to get into power.
Brutally squashed two independence movements. Now engaged in squashing a third.
Keeps about 2/3 of his country in poverty.
Allows foreign companies to repatriate almost 100% of their profits. Especially Western oil companies.
Has the worst environmental record in the Pacific..
Allows abuse of workers in virtual slave labour.
Sends troops in to kill unionists.
Country has unsustainable debt.
Streets of beggars and homeless.
This Dictator of an oil rich country.
Left his country with no external debt.
Gave interest free loans to citizens.
Had Western standards of living.
Increased literacy from 25% to 83%.
Had the Highest Standard of living in Africa.
A proportion of all oil sales was credited to every citizens bank account.
No beggars in the streets and no homeless.
Guess which one was helped into place by the US Government and is supported by other Western Governments, including ours”.
The United States exists in mortal fear of the large number of its rich and powerful Israeli-born citizens. No President will dare to defy Israel, being so beholden to the vicious politicians in that country.
DODGY JOHN BANKS ….GOING……….GOING………….???
What happens if Graham McCready is successful in his private prosecution of John Banks under s.134(1) of the Local Electoral Act? http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2001/0035/latest/DLM94799.html
134 False return
(1) Every candidate commits an offence who transmits a return of electoral expenses knowing that it is false in any material particular, and is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to a fine not exceeding $10,000.
_________________________________________________
If you want to read Judge Mill’s decision on the granting of a witness summons for John Banks – and not rumour and heresay – a full copy of her decision is available on http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com
Seen this folks?
17 November 2012
Media Release:
Protest against Israeli attacks on Gaza – today 2pm, Aotea Square.
As Israeli troops mass at the Gaza border Global Peace and Justice Auckland is organising a march this Saturday to protest Israel’s assassination of a Palestinian leader in the Gaza strip and the deadly rocket attacks in which many Palestinians have lost their lives.
We will be calling on Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully to speak out for New Zealand and urge Israel to stop the carnage it started.
With our silence New Zealand is part of the Israeli killing machine.
Around the world the mainstream media has given an appalling pro-Israeli version of how and why the latest violence started. (See postscript to this release)
We hope to begin to redress the misinformation with a live link to kiwi activist Roger Fowler who is in Gaza on a solidarity mission for the New Zealand group Kia Ora Gaza. Call me for Roger’s international phone if you want to talk to him – and we hope you do.
Todays’ protest will include a mass throwing of old shoes at the US consulate. Throwing shoes is a traditional way of showing disgust at US/Israeli policies in the Middle East following the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at the then US President George Bush in a 2008 media conference.
These latest Israeli attacks continue the brutal victimisation of the Palestinian people of Gaza who are effectively locked in the largest open air prison in the world and treated like animals through an inhuman Israeli blockade.
Israeli justifications for the attacks are hollow. It is Israel’s racist policies and vicious mistreatment of Palestinians which are at the heart of this conflict. Israel policies alone pose the greatest threat to peace in the Middle East and in the world.
As well and blockading Palestinians in Gaza Israel maintain a military occupation of the West Bank while destroying Palestinian homes and farms to make way for Jewish-only settlements. These vicious de-humanising apartheid policies against Palestinians are in defiance of international law and numerous UN resolutions.
yes. the war for the leadeship of the NZ Labour party may in Remembrance of Things Past, be overshadowed by the initiation of a much more significant War…
(go on “ask me ask me ask me..”)
The daily bombardment of Gaza is a “war”? Be careful of your terminology. This is a “war” in the sense the blockading of the Warsaw Ghetto was a war. One side has a massive and overwhelming advantage, the other side is almost entirely unarmed, penned in, and at the mercy of its tormentor.
Clearly the media statements National made following the release of the Pure Advantage Green growth: opportunities for New Zealand report (PDF) were entirely false. The contradictions between them and what Bill English said in parliament on Thursday couldn’t be more apparent…
well, while the “gangs” all here (speaking of scouts, and other conservative establishments, how much more of this sexual manipulation of children by “respectable” persons is gonna be revealed)
I have seen and experienced a lot in my life, and when I was younger and establishing relationships with the opposite gender, I was continuously disturbed by the revelations of “partners” of the sexual abuse that had been visited upon them; now, regretably, in some ways, I had a disproportionate amount of partners for the time, yet, I would estimate at least half had been taken advantage of for the sexual gratification of an older male.
The most disturbing example was a young women, who had become quite “experimental” for the time, sharing with me how her Father, a former school teacher and MoE School Inspector, before he became self-employed, had systematically formed and developed sexual relationships with all Four of his daughters from primary school through to their teens (he is dead now);consequently, they all had deep psycho-social “issues”
anyway
BBC News is in turmoil. Having last year dropped a report on claims of sexual abuse against the late DJ and television presenter Jimmy Savile, the flagship Newsnight programme this month wrongly implicated Tory peer Lord McAlpine in child abuse. As a result, after just 54 days in his job, the BBC director-general, George Entwistle, ‘stepped down’ on November 10. The BBC’s head of news, Helen Boaden, and her deputy, Stephen Mitchell, were then also ‘asked’ to ‘step aside’. Peter Rippon, the Newsnight editor responsible for the Savile decision, had already ‘stepped aside’.
The Lord Patten-led BBC Trust, which is supposed to ensure that the BBC is run in the public interest, has once again been revealed as a useless, dangling appendage.
Newsnight’s journalistic failures on child abuse are bad enough, rightly heaping pressure on the broadcaster. But there was no comparable pressure for senior staff to ‘step aside’ over the BBC’s truly catastrophic failure to challenge US-UK propaganda on Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction and the country’s supposed ‘threat’ to the West. This failure paved the way to war in Iraq and the subsequent brutal and bloody occupation at a cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. As Media Lens noted recently on Twitter: ‘If you think Newsnight failed badly now, compare with anchor Jeremy Paxman’s 2009 confession on Iraq’: namely, that he and his media colleagues were ‘hoodwinked’ by propaganda about Iraq. Paxman made these extraordinary comments….
Sounds like a lot of antisemitism rubbish to me. Not surprised though. Socialists hate success. The State of Israel is very successful in both defending itself and in making money. Therefore the nasty State of Israel should be kinder to the poor wee Palestinians.
Oh, do grow up, Monique. It’s not anti-semitic to oppose the bullying of the powerless by the powerful. It’s a sign of character. And us socialists love success, we just define it differently from righties. Socialists want success for the majority, your lot see success as entirely personal and something only the minority should enjoy.
The State of Israel shouldn’t exist as people, specifically the Palestinians, already occupied the territory that the Zionists wanted. It came into being as a declaration from the UN and terrorism by the Zionists.
BTW, Palestinians are Semitic as well so where’s the anti-Semitism?
Monique, I will not write what I am sorely tempted to, instead I will let this image illuminate your hate. Your vile sanctimonious wastrel of a comment shows that you seem oblivious to or proud of how ignorant you are, and I cannot decide which is the more pitiful. http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/converted_islam/35446474/13326/13326_original.jpg
I pity her ignorance the most, mainly because if Monique Yea or Nay [sic] Watson actually bothered to learn the truth about the Israeli Palestinian conflict, she wouldn’t have displayed such sanctimonious drivel.
I know nothing about political conferences and this post is probably loaded with naivety but here goes.
Somehow a lot of the remits seemed so last century – where is there anything about taking the fight to the opposition, using some of their tactics against them. It takes time to build up what the last labour government did, but no time to wreck it. Destroying it needs to be made a lot harder.
Take PPP, a left government could sign a contract with the teacher’s unions to provide services to state schools with the appropriate standards and some large break clauses, sort of Serco in reverse,
which would make it more difficult to divert funds to the private sector.
Asset sales. At the moment all the shares in the companies are held by the Minister of finance. Put a block of these shares into a trust for the employees and customers of the company. Most of the time it won’t matter but if something large comes up then the minority provisions of the Companies Act click in and the trustees are bound by their duties which should slow things down considerably.
Groups excluded by National. (Everybody but rich white males) Don’t let the framing be around a “more Interventionist” left but one of leveling a tilted playing field so that all citizens are able to contribute. Look at the benefits we will all gain from Maori stance on water , thanks from us all.
Lastly, I didn’t think David Shearer’s comments about bloggers were smart. If words didn’t matter then why the drive to control MSM by the right. Social media is a way for those not involved or incensed by the MSM to bring otherwise hidden opinions and actions to light. Of course the MSM hate and belittle this, because of the loss of control by them over the discourse but a wise political party should see the benefits.
People who take the time to blog are I suspect likely to be influencers and opinion formers out there in the real world. Just because I blog here doesn’t mean that I don’t try to influence opinions out there in real life on a case by case basis and sometimes I believe I suceed.
I personally, have no idea who the other bloggers on here are apart from some mental pictures and I never will unless Lprent throws a party…..
I can tolerate Shearer but I think he needs to use everything and everybody he has to the maximum capacity not sledge likely supporters.
I don’t think Shearer has “the fire in the belly” (I was going to say, balls, but QOT would then have mine) or the inclination, to lead Labour both into reversing the neo-liberal crap which has failed us to date, and deal with the third way advocates in Labour.
I agree to you both; When Shearer said on tele, a little red-faced, that he will be leader, and lead the party to win in 2014, I thought, hmmm, a little presumptious, but maybe he is a committee man 🙂
Should have expanded. What would it have cost Shearer to
1. Have a punt at the MSM ” Labour values all forms of discourse and social media has a big place in forming and voicing emerging opinion and preventing complacency and the status quo from ruling as the Nacts would like”
2. and keeping the heat off himself ” this may not mean that we agree with everything said but respect right to say it , and of course I’ve been voted in as the man for the job by the party” [small smile on face]
Yes, he could have shown good political judgement. Except – he hasn’t got any.
He is only listening to those he wants to hear, which is usually the kind of thing that happens when politicians have been in power for ages and have lost touch. But – incredibly – Shearer is showing the same disconnect from reality at the start of his leadership. And that’s why he’s doomed.
You know, from a purely tactical point of view, I would say of everything Shearer has been saying lately about his position, something like this:
Of course that’s what he has to say – to say otherwise would be to admit an error or to play into his opponents’ hands.
Really, he can’t say something like this:
Yes indeed, there is a serious threat to my so-called leadership.
Or:
All those bloggers and columnists are longtime Labour supporters and they have legitimate concerns that I really must address.
Let alone:
Yep, when Fran O’Sullivan with the piss-tinted spectacles, Matthew Hooton, Richard Long, David Farrar – AKA The Penguin – and all those other goons are supporting me and respected left-of-centre writers think I’m a pile of dingoes kidneys, I’ve got to admit that I’m probably not the man for the job after all.
He can’t say anything other than what he’s saying because he’s painted himself into a corner and it’s too late.
When the time comes, what he will not say is “Et tu, Brute,” because it will be a surprise to no-one – not even himself. You see, despite the strong resemblance, he’s just a wee, tiny, little bit (but not much) smarter than Dilbert’s pointy-haired boss.
Bye bye Dave. Maybe you should swap that guitar for a violin or maybe in your spare time you could paint your roof.
The present National Party that has been hijacked by banksters, money launderers, gamblers, Big Corporates, and the 1%, extract unfair advantage from the tilted playing field, and they continue to tilt the playing field even more in their own favour and interest.
I saw David Shearer on TV this morning and I while I’m sure he’s a very nice chap, I just wish he’d do the following:
A. Keep his mouth closed at all times except when speaking; and
B. Stop licking his lips all the time. The lizard-like tongue constantly darting out makes him look very nervous and besides that just looks a bit icky.
You cannot tell him because it is highly questionable that he is in fact “a very nice chap” (look how he regards critics from his own party; consider his openly expressed egotism). Regardless, I am rather suspicious of these “very nice chaps” (particularly of the Key variety!) This “very nice chap” phrase has by now become a well worn-out and meaningless cliche.
Yeah, I never got that “Key is a nice guy” thing at all. He always seemed revoltingly smarmy – and likewise, I don’t get the “Shearer is a nice guy” thing either. Sure, you can be a bumbling, incompetent nice guy who ultimately wins through in an Adam Sandler film, but in real life you can be a bumbling incompetent, vain, tin-eared, inarticulate, unsuitable, ignorant, cynical, spineless, focus group-driven, dull, passionless, visionless, unprincipled, egotistical and fundamentally stupid arsewipe of a puppet who’s a sad waste of space too.
People have their tells – Key has that hiss of indrawn breath to show that he knows he’s lying (yes, OK, lips moving and words coming out is a tell that he’s lying, but I mean deliberately since lying is a matter of reflex for him) and Shearer has the lip-licking to show that he’s scared.
With the 2013 elections just months away, Barak sees polls for his now rapidly vanishing party sending him to early retirement, and just like in Hanukkah 2008, Israel decided to break a ceasefire and assassin the Hamas senior military persona, Ahmad Jaberi. Hamas, as expected, responded with firing rockets on Israel’s southern regions, and to the great satisfaction of both Hamas and Israel, a full-scale war is being evolved.
I spoke with an expert on the Israeli military shortly after “Operation Cast Lead,” and when I told him that many argued that the operation was a reaction to Hamas rocket-fire, he laughed. He said that Hamas rocket-fire was deliberately provoked when Israel broke the cease-fire so that Israel could do a little “spring cleaning,” deplete Hamas’s arsenal of weapons. He told me that this happens every few years, and that I should expect it to happen in another few years. Israel will assassinate a Hamas leader, Hamas will have to respond (wouldn’t Israel, under those circumstances?) and Israel will perform a “clean up” operation. If Hamas is smart and doesn’t play into Israel’s hands, then Israel will also come out ahead, because it will be weakened in the eyes of the Palestinian public. It’s win-win for Israel. That’s what having control means.
The assassination of Jaabari was a pre-emptive strike against the possibility of a long term ceasefire. Netanyahu has acted with extreme irresponsibility. He has endangered the people of Israel and struck a real blow against the few important more pragmatic elements within Hamas. He has given another victory to those who seek our destruction, rather than strengthen those who are seeking to find a possibility to live side-by-side, not in peace, but in quiet.
I know not everyone here always thinks particularly highly of Messrs Trotter and Bradbury, but together with Wayne Hope they had a good discussion on Citizen A the other day.about where Labour is at, among other things.
Recent media coverage of The Standard comes up in the discussion.
Searching documentary about the anti-semitic question that I was fortunate to see recently.
Try watching the trailer. Very questioning, and shows some people are thinking seriously about Israel and Jewish attitudes. One thing comes across – how hypersensitive to negative feelings about them, no matter how fleeting or isolated, some Jews are. Doc is called Defamation. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1377278/
People just take a ganders at how the religious racial state was signed up for, and the powers behind making it happen, then take a look at the “peace” in the middle east since then to understand that the Israel story is nothing like what the media or recent history want to paint it as being about!
It is a sick joke on humanity, and like the political correctness movement, if one dares even questions Israel, one is labelled as anti-semetic, and any discusion shut down. What needs to be rememebed is that many Jewish people were sacrificed in odrer to create the State, so in some ways the Jewish people, mostly those who were poor, and hoping to return were those who were sacrificed.
Looking at it, to me the situation is entirely manufactured to serve the purpose, that has been the 64 years of ME war since, which has of course spilled out into Africa, and beyond, its all part of the same game. The planet is living with the pre and post formation of Israel every day, one just needs look at our shameless pro israel media to see the powers behind the story telling, and how will that change!
Only by people waking up and challenging what they believe to know about history, because we are not living in history, we are ALL living in the lies created by others, and passed of as history!
Kierkegaard’s work presents a viable contrast to the “Hegelian” historical determinism of particular peoples that is so often deferred to by the status quo
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Asia Pacific Report A Pacific civil society alliance has condemned French neocolonial policies in Kanaky New Caledonia, saying Paris is set on “maintaining the status quo” and denying the indigenous Kanak people their inalienable right to self-determination. The Pacific Regional Non-Governmental Organisations (PRNGOs) Alliance, representing some 15 groups, said in ...
Koi Tū New Zealand cannot sit back and see the collapse of its Fourth Estate, the director of Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures, Sir Peter Gluckman, says in the foreword of a paper published today. The paper, “If not journalists, then who?” paints a picture of an industry ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Foreign investment proposals with implications for Australia’s strategic or economic security will face tougher scrutiny, under a policy overhaul to be announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesday. At the same time, the government ...
A Waitangi Tribunal inquiry report has warned government that a repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act could cause harm to children in care. ...
The Treasury has published today three new papers covering government consumption multipliers, automatic stabilisers and the impacts of global shocks on New Zealand’s economy. ...
Asia Pacific Report The Pacific state of Hawai’i’s House of Representatives has joined the state’s Senate in calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, becoming the first state to pass such a resolution, reports Hawaii News Now. In March, the Senate passed a ceasefire resolution with a 24–1 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Ferrie, A/Prof, UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research and ARC DECRA Fellow, University of Technology Sydney PsiQuantum The Australian government has announced a pledge of approximately A$940 million (US$617 million) to PsiQuantum, a quantum computing start-up company based in Silicon Valley. Half ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia Cameron Prins/Shutterstock If you spend a lot of time exploring fitness content online, you might have come across the concept of heart rate zones. Heart rate zone training has become more ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Eugene Doyle He is the most popular Palestinian leader alive today — and yet few people in the West even know his name. Absolutely no one in Gaza or the West Bank does not know him. That difference speaks volumes about who dominates the media narrative that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Will McCallum, PhD Candidate – School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University Earlier this year, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of not supporting Operation Sovereign Borders – the military-led border security operation that has “closed Australia’s borders ...
By Melyne Baroi in Port Moresby A Papua New Guinea MP, Peter Isoaimo, who had been ousted by the National Court in an alleged bribery case, has been reinstated by the Supreme Court on appeal. A three-member Supreme Court bench found that the National Court had erred in finding that ...
Publisher Chris Holdaway reflects on the unique project of collecting the work of the late, terrific poet Schaeffer Lemalu. One of the nice things you can do as a truly independent publisher is to make the books that writers want to make, whatever they happen to be. That’s how I’ve ...
Those profiled in the stamp series served on overseas deployments from 1995 onwards, and all have been awarded theNew Zealand Operational Service Medal. ...
Last night’s dismal poll result for the coalition government shows the limits of trying to govern as an opposition, argues Joel MacManus. There’s a quote from the American political activist Barbara Deming: “Vengeance is not the point; change is. But the trouble is that in most people’s minds, the thought ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shireen Morris, Associate Professor and Director of the Radical Centre Reform Lab at Macquarie University Law School, Macquarie University Leonid Andronov/Shutterstock Foreign interference in Australian democracy poses a growing risk to our national sovereignty. It refers to coercive, corrupt or ...
A defendant charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining by deception in relation to a mortgage fraud scheme. Sentencing has been scheduled for 14 August 2024. ...
What to say when pesky journalists ask gotcha questions like ‘can you name a single book you’ve ever read?’ and ‘did you read it, or did you just see the movie?’This week, Act Party arts spokesperson Todd Stephenson foolishly agreed to an interview with Newsroom’s Steve Braunias regarding his ...
Explainer - What will a ban on cellphones in schools achieve? Can students use them during lunch breaks? And what happens if you need to contact your child? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodi Rowley, Curator, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Biology, Australian Museum, UNSW Sydney Jodi Rowley, CC BY-NC-ND In winter 2021, Australia’s frogs started dropping dead. People began posting images of dead frogs on social media. Unable to travel to investigate the deaths ...
In the year ended March 2024, 0.4 percent of home transfers were to people who didn’t hold New Zealand citizenship or a resident visa, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wasay Majid, Research Assistant , University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau New Zealand’s accommodation supplement scheme is facing scrutiny, with Social Development Minister Louise Upston recently saying “there is merit in considering whether the current settings are fair and sustainable long-term”. The ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor The first prime ministerial candidate has been announced in Solomon Islands and it is not Manasseh Sogavare. The man of the hour is Jeremiah Manele, the MP for Hograno/Kia/Havulei constituency in Isabel Province, who served as minister of foreign affairs in the last government. ...
Protesting the removal of bins by leaving piles of your dog’s shit for others to deal with doesn’t make you a hero – it’s precious and entitled behaviour. You haven’t truly lived until you’ve stood on the shoreline of Auckland’s Cheltenham beach, desperately trying to scoop increasingly liquid dog shit ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon will be alert to the factors driving the dire polling, but won't be waving the white flag just yet, RNZ political editor Jo Moir writes. ...
Writer, teacher and academic Vincent O’Sullivan died on Sunday 28 April. Here we gather tributes from friends, colleagues, and students who remember his extraordinary contributions. I went down to the garage tonight. There was a bird shrieking out in the bush, in the dark, maybe a kākā. Miraculously, through the ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a burnt-out corporate escapee explains how she gets by ‘working as little as possible’. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female Age: 31 Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: Contractor in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Schmidt, Professor of Chemistry, UNSW Sydney Albert Russ / Shutterstock The icebreaker of many a barbeque conversation is something like “what do you do for a crust?” “I teach chemistry at university,” is what we usually reply. Then silence. Our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Asher Flynn, Associate Professor of Criminology, Monash University Shutterstock Sexual harassment is often considered to be a person-to-person act, but new research shows Australians are also experiencing and perpetrating workplace harassment in large numbers through technology. Our latest study shows one ...
A petition signed by more than 16,500 people, demanding the government take stronger action to halt the genocide of Palestinians by the State of Israel, is being presented to the House of Representatives today by Hon Phil Twyford. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Burnett, Honorary Associate Professor, ANU College of Law, Australian National University jenmartin/Shutterstock April has been a bad month for the Australian environment. The Great Barrier Reef was hit, yet again, by intense coral bleaching. And Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek delayed ...
Winston Peters might not give a ‘rat’s derriere’ about last night’s poll, but it revealed the unusual absence of a honeymoon period and little payoff for the government’s action plan approach, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marco de Jong, Lecturer, Law School, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Details released by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under the Official Information Act reveal New Zealand officials have been considering involvement in AUKUS from the outset. ...
The government's treatment of Māori raised eyebrows, with countries saying New Zealand needed to do more to reduce health, education and justice inequities. ...
The age of criminal responsibility was one of numerous human rights issues raised during Aotearoa New Zealand’s UPR. Other key themes were racism and discrimination, the disproportionate representation of Māori in prison, and to uphold the UN Declaration ...
In a sitdown interview ahead of his final day at Parliament this week, the former Green Party co-leader tells RNZ about his lowest point during 2017's rough election campaign. ...
Is the fringe radio station really in a financial crisis, or is it just running a hyped-up donation drive? Fringe internet radio station Reality Check Radio was launched by the anti-vaccine mandates group Voices for Freedom in March 2023. For the next year, it undertook probably the most aggressive promotional ...
Above the Fold: On Monday, the biggest Māori screen production company faced down the biggest funder of Māori content at the High Court. It was an incredibly tense moment – then, just as quickly, it resolved. Duncan Greive breaks down a strange day in the screen sector.Yesterday morning, Māori ...
Opinion: The debate over single gender versus co-educational schooling has long been controversial. I went to a co-ed school and was inspired by a remarkable woman who was my maths teacher, and because of her deep knowledge and passion for the subject, I knew that maths was definitely an option ...
He won everything and he earned a knighthood and he was a senior literary figure to the point that he was a living monument to himself until his death in the weekend at 86, but there was something about Vincent O’Sullivan that flew under the radar, that was independent and ...
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It’s a ride that’s lasted almost 30 years for mother and daughter BMX riders Nancy and Toni James, and the next stop is the World Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Almost 27 years ago, Nancy and her husband Gerrard took their oldest child, Daniel, to the Waitākere BMX Club. ...
When it comes to talking about the Government’s controversial fast-track consenting process, political scientist Richard Shaw refers to the famous Chinese sci-fi novel Three-Body Problem, while RNZ’s In Depth journalist Farah Hancock talks about zombie projects. Shaw is referring to the three-party coalition Government and how the proposed legislation is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Emeritus Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia The rate of women killed by their partners in Australia grew by 28% from 2021–22 to 2022–23, according to new statistics released today by the Australian Institute of Criminology ...
Ministry of Disabled People employees were promised a permanent role, but were told to start packing three weeks before their fixed term contract finished, says a former employee. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Blakers, Professor of Engineering, Australian National University Clean Energy Council / Neoen As Australia’s rapid renewable energy rollout continues, so too does debate over land use. Nationals Leader David Littleproud, for example, claimed regional areas had reached “saturation point” and ...
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By Mark Rabago, RNZ Pacific Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas correspondent The US Department of Justice is being urged to condemn and cease its reliance on the “Insular Cases” — a series of US Supreme Court opinions on US territories, which have been labelled racist. Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kara Dadswell, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Victoria University Ask your son or daughter, niece, or nephew to draw you a picture of a sport coach. They will most probably draw a man. Why? Our latest research published in the Psychology of Sport ...
Neo liberals in ascension?
Labour leaders meet business leaders in private and state housing activists nowhere.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7962380/Shearer-to-lead-Labour-into-election
Meanwhile in other news:
Two flax roots Glen Innes housing activists organising against the National Government’s eviction of state tenants and the removal and demolition of state homes in Glen Innes. Have had the invitation extended to them to attend the Labour Party conference, crudely canceled at the last minute.
Why?
Are the neo liberals behind the withdrawal of the housing activist’s invitation to conference?
Will David Shearer’s highly hyped Sunday speech on housing be advancing market solutions to homelessness?
Will GI state tenant Evonne Sainty’s message of protecting state provision of secure long term government tenancies, which build secure communities,* conflict with David Shearer’s views on state provision of housing?
*(Sainty’s vision is in direct conflict with National’s view of state housing as a short term band aid for for homelessness, extended only for a limited period before you are shifted out to find a home in the private sector.)
The Return to Egypt; the role of The Islamic Brotherhood for Hamas
meanwhile, back in the Bat/ $hit cave, China have the Formula to rule the world.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10848015
(Flash…ahhh ahhh, he’ll save every one of us…)
So almost first thing we see them disappearing behind closed doors with business leaders. What does that tell us? Can this action be”corrected” by a fancy speech tomorrow? Remember, Shearer has stated his intention to focus on the economy and not social issues (like poverty, I imagine).
I meant to return to dear old Shakespeare with regard to the coming SPEECH:
And ’tis a kind of good deed to say well:
And yet words are no deeds.
hah, this is perhaps more topical than I thought:
Which goes along quite well with my idea that the free-market is just justification for capitalism rather than a viable economic theory.
That’s really depresssing Jenny, but thanks for the information.
Some questions need to be asked.
Who were the attendees on the “Labour leadership” side?
Were they fully representative of the Labour leadership, or just a section?\
What did the “business representatives” want?
And who were they?
Where they fully representative of the business community, or just a section?
What assurances, if any, were they given?
Why was the meeting held behind closed doors?
Why have all the identities of those involved not been revealed?
Was monetary donations from business for Labour’s election campaign one of the things discussed?
What else was discussed?
Will any of the subjects discussed behind closed doors between anonymous Labour Party leaders and anonymous business leaders be revealed to the membership?
Secret discussions being held prior to conference between unnamed senior Labour Party and Business leaders behind “closed doors” surely is not a good look, does this sort of behaviour by the Labour leadership risk undermining the public’s confidence that the Labour Party conference is the supreme democratic policy making body of the party?
PS. Interesting how Rogue Trooper tried to divert the thread. Someone feeling a little bit sensitive about this issue being raised?
If this is what we can expect from Labour in opposition, what can we expect from them in government? More secret “closed door” meetings with business interests, while social activists are locked out and ignored?
No wonder the non-vote is on its way to becoming the majority.
Today is the day for all members and delegates who want to change how the Labour Party selects its leader. The 40:40:20 remit looks likely to pass. But remember that’s not the critical vote. The trigger within the caucus to start the leadership selection process is your most important vote today. The current remits are focused on 2/3rds, 55%, 51%. You need to understand 51% is the status quo, the current caucus trigger. The trigger needs to be lower if members are going to have real involvement in selecting their leader. In the UK it’s 20%.
If, for example, you want to have the opportunity to choose between Shearer and alternatives such as Cunliffe, that can only happen with a 40% caucus trigger.
Mallard and King have a lock on too many MP’s and if the trigger remains at 51% (or is increased) only they will hold the power to begin a leadership selection process. They can stick with Shearer until they are ready to install Robertson (probably far too close to an election). And where’s the membership involvement there! If you think Cunliffe should just suck it up and wait, think again. If 40% fails today, it’s time for four years of white anting by Mallard and King to stop. Cunliffe’s talents should be used more productively outside the Labour Party. That’s what Mallard and King want. What do you members want today?!
“The 40:40:20 remit looks likely to pass. ”
What does that mean Benghazi?
Sorry Ianmac, it was shorthand for Remit 297(d). This is the remit that could finally give members some say on who our leader is. Presently only the caucus decides. The split most likely to be passed is that the vote for the leader will be weighted 40% for caucus, 40% for members, and 20% for affiliated unions.
Thanks Ben.
Stick with Shearer just as they did Goff before him. Great! I almost wish Goff would return, nothing much worse could happen.
Goff got pretty good during the election campaign. The problem was the brain-dead policies they were running with – extending “working” for families to people that don’t work and borrowing money to invest in the superannuation fund. CGT was good but people didn’t seem to understand it and seemed to have a lot of exclusions.
I ended up voting Labour, but was seriously tempted to just vote Green.
Imagine the filth that King/Mallards controllers have on them to still be propping them up the way they are, Labour supporters need to have a good hard look in the mirror!
To be honest Cunliffe has no chance of saving NZ unless be fancies a car accident, or getting “sick”, as he has been around long enough to understand the consequences of becoming a genuine “saviour” of NZ.
So all you Cunliffe fans out there, time to get some reality in ya, and accept that he is just another part of the establishment, nothing more!
Tactic: While moving the “left to the center”, all the while moving the center to the right, you in fact succeed in deleting even faded memories of what “left” ever looked or sounded like!
Hence why those still supporting Labour have to be some of the most blinkered, read blindly ignorant people in the country, either that or they’re actually National voters in drag!
Well when Labour go down in a screaming heap in 2014. Coming in 2 nd after the greens with Mallard and co given the well deserved boot. If they’re trying to get back in on the List, then I pity Labour, If dinosaurs like them get back in.
And back on planet earth, one third of kiwi voters still prefer Labour. More after today, I imagine. And even more after the 13th of February.
Still, I wouldn’t be overly concerned if Labour did come second to the Greens, as you suggest. In that fantasy scenario, I’d guess National come third. Fine by me!
well, J T was carrying on like an abandoned ” little Boy” not allowed another piece of cake on the MSM last night; the character of the politically aspirant: I despair. J T and Maggie Barry would make a lovely photogenic couple.
educated, articulate, compassionate school principal mentors charming young male teacher up North
male teacher’s girlfriend advises principal teacher sleeping and showering with boy students
principal notifies local “bobby”
local “bobby” roughs up teacher and unsettles him
teacher informs fellow staff, and parents, principal informed on him
principal is ostracised and targeted
teacher is transferred; parents take around 40 children out of current school to follow teacher to new position
teacher is found some years later to have interferred sexually with over 40 children
principal now teaches in Nigeria amidst civil conflict and other African realities
Principal concludes; “Children are safer in Nigeria than they are in New Zealand”
(these parents may be the “electorate” the “centrist”- appealing pollies are trying to appeal to)
-the cynical prosecution rests it’s case.
Key on the Nation (Tv3):
First part – does OK, deals with Smalley (TV’s best interviewer?) well, not too defensive about the economy, he’s comfortable on that turf. Would eat Shearer alive.
Second part – on education, has to defend Parata and Foss, which nobody could, so he struggles. Parata is “outstanding” … hmmm. Gets tetchy on Kim Dotcom. Smalley attacks.
Overall, Key shows that he can still deflect easily with his prepared lines, but gets riled when he comes under sustained pressure.
But let’s not kid ourselves. He’s streets ahead of Shearer as an interviewee.
Re Paratas outstanding job.
That is probably fair in terms of Keys standards.
And Key probably can’t understand what she says anyway.
Fancy that, Comrade Helen talking about global government via the UN
You would like meangingful consequences, and full accountability for those “agreements” though wouldn’t you Stalin, woops I mean Helen!
MOST SHAMELESS LIES OF THE WEEK
Week ending Saturday 17/11/2012
Lie No. 1….
“Israel takes every measure to avoid civilian casualties.”
Binyamin Netanyahu, Thursday, 15/11/2012
Lie No. 2….
Reporter: What mark out of ten would you give David Shearer for his performance so far?
David Parker: Ahhhhhhhmmmm… ten.
Radio New Zealand National, Focus on Politics, 16/11/2012
Lie No. 3….
“Hekia Parata has done an OUTSTANDING job as minister.”
John Key, on The Nation, TV3, 17/11/2012
Lie No. 4….
“Nick Smith has an enormous brain. Sure, he made a few mistakes on the margin…”
John Key, on The Nation, TV3, 17/11/2012
“enormous brain”? Key really is an ignoramus.
Yup,
Back in the old days when I used to talk to “Directors”, the one thing they all said was they couldn’t delegate, always have too oversee people.
John Keys rhetoric is identical to all those directors’ responses to systemic failure.
The one difference obviously being that the Gnats’ are running our country not a business whos “reputation” may be damged by calling the person responsible an ignoramus.
Well said Lanthanide (-:
What business would tolerate someone as substandard as John Banks? Or Hekia Parata?
All right, all right, all right, I know what you’re going to say: there’s the Herald, NewstalkZB, Television New Zealand, the New Zealand Rugby Union, Radio Live….
Ae Morissey, It’s a really big problem, these “Underlings” that climb to positions of incompetence.
They “Believe M8!” 😈
POAL!
Temporary employment entry for skilled workers under the New Zealand – China Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
The FTA includes commitments for skilled workers from China to enter New Zealand for temporary employment, without labour market testing (but subject to specified qualifications and work experience requirements, registration if required, and the requirement for a bona fide job offer), if they work in one of the following occupations:
Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners
Chinese chefs
Mandarin teachers’ aides
Wushu martial arts (including tai chi) coaches
Chinese tour guides.
For more information, see China Special Work Category.
In addition, a maximum of 1000 skilled Chinese workers at any one time may be granted temporary employment for up to three years, in specified occupations where New Zealand has a skills shortage. Entry is limited to no more than 100 workers in each occupation at any one time.
The list of occupations (which all have specific qualification and experience requirements) is as follows:
Auditor
Automotive Electrician
Boatbuilder
Computer Application Engineer
Design Engineer – Electronics / Product Engineer
Diesel Mechanic
Early Childhood Teacher
Electrician
Electronics Technician
Film Animator
Fitter and Turner
Fitter / Welder
Medical Diagnostic Radiographer / Medical Radiation Therapist
Motor Mechanic
Plumber
Registered Nurse
Senior Test Analyst
Structural Engineer
University or Higher Education Lecturer/Tutor
Veterinarian.
For more information, see China Skilled Workers Category.
For more information about the FTA, visit http://www.ChinaFTA.govt.nz.
been saying Welcome The Chinese all year; they are coming and politicians will be handing over the keys.
And what’s he gonna do (Keys’) …. Put on the money blinkers ….. Deal Deal Deal …. wins another $50 ….. Onya DunnoKeyo!
😀
This is the solution offered to appease the Chinese and plug the hole that the abysmal education has left over the last 15 years. I suppose that this ought to help getting NZ on a similar productive level as its pacific rim neighbors. Problem is the cultural divide in terms of employment conditions. NZ had enjoyed a rather civilized arrangement with the British influence but this is going to slowly lean towards modern slavery under the new dogma. The ones that will leave and can do so will and others will just have to endure.
Of cause there are alternative solutions which fit with the current economic and social make up of NZ (as it still is) that makes far more sense and has the same outcome with none of the social reconstruction. But maybe this is not what is wanted.
Heard some excerpts of the PM debating the other day on radio.Thought, ‘who does he sound like?’
Then it hit me.He sounds remarkably like Paul Henry when excited. Listen next time.
Remit #121: End the process of union affiliation and return control of the party to the party members and return transparency of the party direction to the voters.
Amendment to Remit #121
Agree to do the above, as soon as National and their proxies embrace complete “transparency” in their funding.
Never ever envisaged saying it, but reckon John Armstrong pretty well nails it this morning…..
Link: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10847973
If women didn’t get so drunk, police would be able to catch the people who attack them.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/james-ihaka/news/article.cfm?a_id=315&objectid=10848010
While thinking about how many ways this story could have “innocently” gone wrong, and consdiering the many ideological laws it broke, the deciding vote – for me – went in favour of writing errors.
James/Jamie, listen, there are more perspectives than just your own in this world, you know that. You hold a priviledged place in our society, yet you’re ignoring the impact a singular perspective can do to groups within that society when the overall message of your words – the theme – is ignored, by you, the writer. Let’s skip past the ins and outs of readily available protection myths that you obviously don’t or can’t know about and concentrate on sources. No one’s asking you to become a feminist ideologue, just approach it from a perspective of good writing.
When this story was formed, did you consider the environment and attitude of the people offering the information and how, if it remained unchecked, it would alter the central message? Did you agree with the basic ideas of the people you met? Do you admire and defer to authority? Do you know your place? Do you believe you are essentially a good person, a team player? Do you believe you can write well without examining these influences? Did you have no choice but to generalise, because the raw information covered such a large group of individuals? Did it not matter, because you wanted to do good? Did you sincerely try for balance by talking to representatives of an alternate viewpoint?
Imagine how the story would have read if it was just about one person – what questions would you have asked in order to explain the whole picture? How far back would you have gone, how far below the surface would you have scratched, which side-tracks would you have trimmed out? Would you investigate the influence of intoxication separately or in parallel? How would that make a difference to the overall message? How many issues are contained in this story, James/Jamie? Would you be able to see everything and not have an opinion about what you saw? Where would you choose to cast the final vote – on the side of the victim, the aggressor, to uphold societal beliefs or attempt a reflection?
Best of luck to you Jamie/James. Take care with the power you have been awarded.
The crux of the story is,
If your going to get so pissed that you have no idea what’s going on around you, the police can’t help you.
I thought the crux of the story was that if you get so pissed you don’t know what’s going on around you and you then get raped, society will say it’s your own fault (even if they try and say it more neutrally than they used to).
What the article should have done is introduce the policing issue and then focus on Kim McGregor’s statement about the need to look at the behaviour of rapists/offenders (see the pathetic amount of space given to her statement at the end vs the rest of the article). I’m sure she had lots more to say.
They could also have done a completely separate article on the Massey research, looking at all the issues around young women binge drinking, and when they got to the bit bit about rape, again focus on the behaviour of rapists towards drunk women and link to the other article.
Great, but who is the message being given to and how? Jamie and James, instead of telling us more about what that actually means, your whole article has just informed rapists and potential rapists that if they rape really drunk women they’re likely to get away with it.
Oh, and Jamie and James and editors of the Herald, rape is not sex, so don’t call it that. Wish I had time to redo the whole article, but here’s a rewrite of the headline
Out-of-it victims stymie sex cases
should be
Men raping women who are unable to give consent
Facts are, rape has been around since human beings got up and walked, It’s not going away.
The smarter woman takes steps to reduce the chances of rape happening, getting so trolleyed you have no idea of what’s going on is not one of them.
Please produce some evidence that the high levels of rape we have now have always been.
And if you think that the responsibility is on women to avoid rape, please tell me what undrunk women who are unable to give consent or protect themselves should do.
Then tell me what responsibility you think men have in this.
Rape and pillage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_rape#Antiquity
Yes, we all know rape is bad and it’s not the fault of the man/woman/child who gets raped and in a perfect society any one could walk the streets at any time of the day and night, in any state and not get raped or beaten up.
Unfortunately we don’t live in this perfect world and I doubt we ever will,so a bit of personal responsibility needs to happen if you want to stay safe and out of harms way.
BM, you were asked Please produce some evidence that the high levels of rape we have now have always been.
You responded with a Wiki article on rape during war.
Either you’re a disingenuous fuckhead with a vested interest in not confronting societal attitudes which allow rapists to go unpunished, or you’re just a kindly-hearted confused little dweeb who doesn’t understand the circumstances in which the majority of rapes occur.
Sadly for you, I am all out of Benefit Of The Doubt.
I’m just a realist, unlike yourself.
Oh, BM. So sad how you can’t even back up your assertions. First you try re-defining things (rape vs. rape during war) and then you claim to be a realist when I’m the one arguing from actual statistics! It’s fucking adorable, to be honest.
You might want to consider why you believe that high levels of rape in society is the norm (despite there being no evidence), and how that relates to what you think can be done about it.
You haven’t answered my other questions.
How about you tell me how we could achieve this totally safe society where any woman could walk around at any time of the night without fear of being attacked and raped.
What steps should be taken, what’s your ideas?
Mmm, your attempted deflection from backing up your own statements is delicious. May I have some more?
“What steps should be taken, what’s your ideas?”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-17112012/comment-page-1/#comment-548925
thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-17112012/comment-page-1/#comment-548927
Start with those.
The smarter woman takes steps to reduce the chances of rape happening
I agree, BM. That’s why I live in an underground bunker and refuse to have contact with all men.
After all, the statistics tell us I’m most likely to be attacked by someone I know in my own home, so being a “smarter woman”, I’ve taken the necessary steps to reduce that risk.
The smarter society realises and supports the idea that people should be able to walk around anywhere and not be attacked rather defending the attackers and blaming the victims as you’re doing.
+1 Draco T Bastard
What a load of misogynistic crap BM.
what I often ponder, considering my experiential knowledge of the field, is the neurological damage that this culture of binge-drinking among young people will have, which takes time to heal, and the proportion of these young people who, statistically speaking, will develop “alcohol abuse” and “alcohol dependence” health histories; the DSM IV covers these matters at length, along with narcissism.
People drink to fit in. People fear difference. Intelligent people are different, and can cause huge social angst when they put average citizens down (loss of status). So why is it hard to fathom, that young people fear coming off as intelligent, want to fit in, and so abuse their brains.
Fearful people join groups in order to maintain security.
so the question is why is there so much wealth created by fear mongering? Well simple,
greedy crony capitalism distorts to make money, and creating a society of inequity,
fear of inequity, fear of being isolated, fear of being thrown out of society, being
made a non-citizen, will inevitable lead to gangs, to drinking to fit in, to…
There’s an old saying, what comes around goes around, and I think it means, that if you push values of supremacy then inevitably you are enslaved by your own dealings. Take the recent ponsi collapse, the trusting investors did not appreciate the GFC, National were not explaining the GFC, saying growth is just around the corner, so of course it was easier for investors to think the above market returns were realistic. You see it, National spin turns into shit hitting the fan for National, as Key promised to clear up the investment industry!
As a nation we are peddling lies about the weak taking over, destroying the economy, but in fact the weak are the National party and all hangers on who cannot stand on their own feet but neew no tax on CGT, need the socialism for the wealthy to be successful, be economically drunk and in need of a bonus on the board of a company, because they joined a group out of fear, not for positive reasons.
The need for alcohol or for profit, its all the same, security. Whethe r it be drinking to fit in, or joining a gang, or even supporting the current clueless National fear mongers in the Beehive.
I mean seriously, the rich made vast amounts gaming the system to produce huge indebtedness, and people really think they deserve to avoid tax increases, but this meme is a regular appearance on the news. It was tax decreases that got us into this mess!!!
you often, coherently, make reasonable points, now.
somebody , Tane, from memory, the other day referred to post-structuralist deconstruction as the necessary tools. They are certainly useful tools; what social policy advice influences policy is political, it appears, however, this deconstructive stuff is being written and published everyday; we can but spread the Word.
It is encouraging that young-ish people are likely to read and / or comment here as that is who we who are older are here for, aren’t we?
Now, I been following Chinese politics lightly, (too much audio-visual may be desensitizing, it certainly blows me away when I haven’t seen the bleeding and limp-dead children for a couple of days)
anyway, one quote from a citizen, maybe from the village where the new Leader spent Seven years of his youth living in a cave, said the Party aim is to make every Chinese person wealthy; well I can see they have certainly made some progress towards that aim since The Cultural Revolution. Thing is, where is all that wealth / resource gonna come from in a “finite” system? Maybe from the West, I’m thinking.
And, the new Central Committee members are all very good at One thing; being in a Committee.
very helpful
People who drink first have to acknowledge that it is THEM who has the problem – not the rest of society.
AA has personal acknowledgement as part of their Oath.
Addicts don’t abide by laws and regulations so it is then rather pointless to increase ‘barriers’ to alcohol.
Thou shalt not kill
The potential for this conflict to escalate even further is there, with the Israelis calling up 30,000 reservists and amassing troops and tanks near the Gaza border. Despite a warning from Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Israeli rocket and airstrikes have continued unabated, entirely dwarfing the retaliatory strikes coming from Palestine for the assassination of Hamas military leader Ahmed al-Jabari…
And Israel sits in morbid fear of Iran because of it as well.
They really need to open their eyes to one simple fact “Torture results in Torture”.
If they keep the element white hot simply to justify the “Self Defence” stance then it’s simply an engineered excuse for a fear perspectived suppression.
(i.e Israel starts talking “Terrorists” again )
On-To-It
many of your writings are very succinct and timely and timely Jackal
Thanks Rogue Trooper. It’s good to have some agreement and I think Israel and the United States need to know that not everybody in the west supports such an unjust war on the Palestinians. I think very few people would if they were made aware of the facts of the matter.
It will escalate as there is no solution to the fact that out of 70 odd water wells in Palestinian country more than 50% have been taped from the Israelis leaving the Palestinians – without water. Now you tell me, what solution is there? You can actually say that the Israelis deliberately undermine the survival of the Palestinians with these actions. So what solution would you offer? Albeit the information is accessible, not many report on it. Why?
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/water.html
Pure freakin evil, probably defines the entire problem from Day 1 of the Zionists.
Now you tell me, what solution is there?
The solution is simple and easily achieved: the United States must cease funding and supporting Israel’s illegal aggression and settlement programs, just as it was eventually persuaded to cease funding and supporting Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, apartheid South Africa, and the Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia.
Stopped supporting the dictatorship in Indonesia. When?
They are still selling them arms. training their military and helping with repressive police tactics.
In fact, so is New Zealand.
http://kjt-kt.blogspot.co.nz/2011/10/kia-ora-this-dictator-of-oil-rich.html
“This Dictator of an oil rich country.
Overthrew a democratically elected Government.
Murdered between 700 thousand and a million of his own citizens to get into power.
Brutally squashed two independence movements. Now engaged in squashing a third.
Keeps about 2/3 of his country in poverty.
Allows foreign companies to repatriate almost 100% of their profits. Especially Western oil companies.
Has the worst environmental record in the Pacific..
Allows abuse of workers in virtual slave labour.
Sends troops in to kill unionists.
Country has unsustainable debt.
Streets of beggars and homeless.
This Dictator of an oil rich country.
Left his country with no external debt.
Gave interest free loans to citizens.
Had Western standards of living.
Increased literacy from 25% to 83%.
Had the Highest Standard of living in Africa.
A proportion of all oil sales was credited to every citizens bank account.
No beggars in the streets and no homeless.
Guess which one was helped into place by the US Government and is supported by other Western Governments, including ours”.
The United States exists in mortal fear of the large number of its rich and powerful Israeli-born citizens. No President will dare to defy Israel, being so beholden to the vicious politicians in that country.
Actual Link
DODGY JOHN BANKS ….GOING……….GOING………….???
What happens if Graham McCready is successful in his private prosecution of John Banks under s.134(1) of the Local Electoral Act?
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2001/0035/latest/DLM94799.html
134 False return
(1) Every candidate commits an offence who transmits a return of electoral expenses knowing that it is false in any material particular, and is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to a fine not exceeding $10,000.
_________________________________________________
If you want to read Judge Mill’s decision on the granting of a witness summons for John Banks – and not rumour and heresay – a full copy of her decision is available on http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’.
Thanks 4 the update Penny 🙂
When is Banks going to get charged with false finance company statements?
I see they charged some housewife who was probably not aware of what her husband was doing.
What about Banks.
Seen this folks?
17 November 2012
Media Release:
Protest against Israeli attacks on Gaza – today 2pm, Aotea Square.
As Israeli troops mass at the Gaza border Global Peace and Justice Auckland is organising a march this Saturday to protest Israel’s assassination of a Palestinian leader in the Gaza strip and the deadly rocket attacks in which many Palestinians have lost their lives.
We will be calling on Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully to speak out for New Zealand and urge Israel to stop the carnage it started.
With our silence New Zealand is part of the Israeli killing machine.
Around the world the mainstream media has given an appalling pro-Israeli version of how and why the latest violence started. (See postscript to this release)
We hope to begin to redress the misinformation with a live link to kiwi activist Roger Fowler who is in Gaza on a solidarity mission for the New Zealand group Kia Ora Gaza. Call me for Roger’s international phone if you want to talk to him – and we hope you do.
Todays’ protest will include a mass throwing of old shoes at the US consulate. Throwing shoes is a traditional way of showing disgust at US/Israeli policies in the Middle East following the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at the then US President George Bush in a 2008 media conference.
These latest Israeli attacks continue the brutal victimisation of the Palestinian people of Gaza who are effectively locked in the largest open air prison in the world and treated like animals through an inhuman Israeli blockade.
Israeli justifications for the attacks are hollow. It is Israel’s racist policies and vicious mistreatment of Palestinians which are at the heart of this conflict. Israel policies alone pose the greatest threat to peace in the Middle East and in the world.
As well and blockading Palestinians in Gaza Israel maintain a military occupation of the West Bank while destroying Palestinian homes and farms to make way for Jewish-only settlements. These vicious de-humanising apartheid policies against Palestinians are in defiance of international law and numerous UN resolutions.
John Minto
Mike Treen
So you think nothing and nobody can revolt you?
You haven’t seen ALEX SELSKY in action….
Go to YouTube and type in the following:
“Gaza War Spiral: RT talks to Israeli PM spokesman”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8VbtRk5ufo&feature=player_embedded
If you are not disgusted by Mr Alex Selsky, there is something wrong with you.
yes. the war for the leadeship of the NZ Labour party may in Remembrance of Things Past, be overshadowed by the initiation of a much more significant War…
(go on “ask me ask me ask me..”)
The daily bombardment of Gaza is a “war”? Be careful of your terminology. This is a “war” in the sense the blockading of the Warsaw Ghetto was a war. One side has a massive and overwhelming advantage, the other side is almost entirely unarmed, penned in, and at the mercy of its tormentor.
National fails the environmental test
Clearly the media statements National made following the release of the Pure Advantage Green growth: opportunities for New Zealand report (PDF) were entirely false. The contradictions between them and what Bill English said in parliament on Thursday couldn’t be more apparent…
well, while the “gangs” all here (speaking of scouts, and other conservative establishments, how much more of this sexual manipulation of children by “respectable” persons is gonna be revealed)
I have seen and experienced a lot in my life, and when I was younger and establishing relationships with the opposite gender, I was continuously disturbed by the revelations of “partners” of the sexual abuse that had been visited upon them; now, regretably, in some ways, I had a disproportionate amount of partners for the time, yet, I would estimate at least half had been taken advantage of for the sexual gratification of an older male.
The most disturbing example was a young women, who had become quite “experimental” for the time, sharing with me how her Father, a former school teacher and MoE School Inspector, before he became self-employed, had systematically formed and developed sexual relationships with all Four of his daughters from primary school through to their teens (he is dead now);consequently, they all had deep psycho-social “issues”
anyway
Big Fat Lies
http://sweetpoison.com.au/?page_id=458
Fetish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_Fetish
now, I better do the garden to reimburse for my time wasted, on the internet that is
🙂
November 16, 2012
Gaza Blitz – Turmoil And Tragicomedy At The BBC
by David Cromwell and David Edwards
http://www.medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=706:gaza-blitz-turmoil-and-tragicomedy-at-the-bbc&catid=25:alerts-2012&Itemid=69
BBC News is in turmoil. Having last year dropped a report on claims of sexual abuse against the late DJ and television presenter Jimmy Savile, the flagship Newsnight programme this month wrongly implicated Tory peer Lord McAlpine in child abuse. As a result, after just 54 days in his job, the BBC director-general, George Entwistle, ‘stepped down’ on November 10. The BBC’s head of news, Helen Boaden, and her deputy, Stephen Mitchell, were then also ‘asked’ to ‘step aside’. Peter Rippon, the Newsnight editor responsible for the Savile decision, had already ‘stepped aside’.
The Lord Patten-led BBC Trust, which is supposed to ensure that the BBC is run in the public interest, has once again been revealed as a useless, dangling appendage.
Newsnight’s journalistic failures on child abuse are bad enough, rightly heaping pressure on the broadcaster. But there was no comparable pressure for senior staff to ‘step aside’ over the BBC’s truly catastrophic failure to challenge US-UK propaganda on Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction and the country’s supposed ‘threat’ to the West. This failure paved the way to war in Iraq and the subsequent brutal and bloody occupation at a cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. As Media Lens noted recently on Twitter: ‘If you think Newsnight failed badly now, compare with anchor Jeremy Paxman’s 2009 confession on Iraq’: namely, that he and his media colleagues were ‘hoodwinked’ by propaganda about Iraq. Paxman made these extraordinary comments….
Read more….
http://www.medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=706:gaza-blitz-turmoil-and-tragicomedy-at-the-bbc&catid=25:alerts-2012&Itemid=69
Sounds like a lot of antisemitism rubbish to me. Not surprised though. Socialists hate success. The State of Israel is very successful in both defending itself and in making money. Therefore the nasty State of Israel should be kinder to the poor wee Palestinians.
Yeah, Syrkin, Ben-Gurion, Katznelson, and Meir, all success hating socialists.
Oh, do grow up, Monique. It’s not anti-semitic to oppose the bullying of the powerless by the powerful. It’s a sign of character. And us socialists love success, we just define it differently from righties. Socialists want success for the majority, your lot see success as entirely personal and something only the minority should enjoy.
Shooting 30 or more non-involved Palestinians for every Israeli killed seems to me to be too reminiscent of certain German methods in the 40’s.
Far from being anti Semitic, I know there is a large number of Jewish people who think that Israel should be better than that.
You’re utterly ignorant. You need to read the piece and then think. So far you’ve done neither.
The State of Israel shouldn’t exist as people, specifically the Palestinians, already occupied the territory that the Zionists wanted. It came into being as a declaration from the UN and terrorism by the Zionists.
BTW, Palestinians are Semitic as well so where’s the anti-Semitism?
Monique, I will not write what I am sorely tempted to, instead I will let this image illuminate your hate. Your vile sanctimonious wastrel of a comment shows that you seem oblivious to or proud of how ignorant you are, and I cannot decide which is the more pitiful.
http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/converted_islam/35446474/13326/13326_original.jpg
I pity her ignorance the most, mainly because if Monique Yea or Nay [sic] Watson actually bothered to learn the truth about the Israeli Palestinian conflict, she wouldn’t have displayed such sanctimonious drivel.
I know nothing about political conferences and this post is probably loaded with naivety but here goes.
Somehow a lot of the remits seemed so last century – where is there anything about taking the fight to the opposition, using some of their tactics against them. It takes time to build up what the last labour government did, but no time to wreck it. Destroying it needs to be made a lot harder.
Take PPP, a left government could sign a contract with the teacher’s unions to provide services to state schools with the appropriate standards and some large break clauses, sort of Serco in reverse,
which would make it more difficult to divert funds to the private sector.
Asset sales. At the moment all the shares in the companies are held by the Minister of finance. Put a block of these shares into a trust for the employees and customers of the company. Most of the time it won’t matter but if something large comes up then the minority provisions of the Companies Act click in and the trustees are bound by their duties which should slow things down considerably.
Groups excluded by National. (Everybody but rich white males) Don’t let the framing be around a “more Interventionist” left but one of leveling a tilted playing field so that all citizens are able to contribute. Look at the benefits we will all gain from Maori stance on water , thanks from us all.
Lastly, I didn’t think David Shearer’s comments about bloggers were smart. If words didn’t matter then why the drive to control MSM by the right. Social media is a way for those not involved or incensed by the MSM to bring otherwise hidden opinions and actions to light. Of course the MSM hate and belittle this, because of the loss of control by them over the discourse but a wise political party should see the benefits.
People who take the time to blog are I suspect likely to be influencers and opinion formers out there in the real world. Just because I blog here doesn’t mean that I don’t try to influence opinions out there in real life on a case by case basis and sometimes I believe I suceed.
I personally, have no idea who the other bloggers on here are apart from some mental pictures and I never will unless Lprent throws a party…..
I can tolerate Shearer but I think he needs to use everything and everybody he has to the maximum capacity not sledge likely supporters.
Here ends today’s rant.
+1
I don’t think Shearer has “the fire in the belly” (I was going to say, balls, but QOT would then have mine) or the inclination, to lead Labour both into reversing the neo-liberal crap which has failed us to date, and deal with the third way advocates in Labour.
I agree to you both; When Shearer said on tele, a little red-faced, that he will be leader, and lead the party to win in 2014, I thought, hmmm, a little presumptious, but maybe he is a committee man 🙂
in person
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personalist
Should have expanded. What would it have cost Shearer to
1. Have a punt at the MSM ” Labour values all forms of discourse and social media has a big place in forming and voicing emerging opinion and preventing complacency and the status quo from ruling as the Nacts would like”
2. and keeping the heat off himself ” this may not mean that we agree with everything said but respect right to say it , and of course I’ve been voted in as the man for the job by the party” [small smile on face]
Yes, he could have shown good political judgement. Except – he hasn’t got any.
He is only listening to those he wants to hear, which is usually the kind of thing that happens when politicians have been in power for ages and have lost touch. But – incredibly – Shearer is showing the same disconnect from reality at the start of his leadership. And that’s why he’s doomed.
You know, from a purely tactical point of view, I would say of everything Shearer has been saying lately about his position, something like this:
Of course that’s what he has to say – to say otherwise would be to admit an error or to play into his opponents’ hands.
Really, he can’t say something like this:
Yes indeed, there is a serious threat to my so-called leadership.
Or:
All those bloggers and columnists are longtime Labour supporters and they have legitimate concerns that I really must address.
Let alone:
Yep, when Fran O’Sullivan with the piss-tinted spectacles, Matthew Hooton, Richard Long, David Farrar – AKA The Penguin – and all those other goons are supporting me and respected left-of-centre writers think I’m a pile of dingoes kidneys, I’ve got to admit that I’m probably not the man for the job after all.
He can’t say anything other than what he’s saying because he’s painted himself into a corner and it’s too late.
When the time comes, what he will not say is “Et tu, Brute,” because it will be a surprise to no-one – not even himself. You see, despite the strong resemblance, he’s just a wee, tiny, little bit (but not much) smarter than Dilbert’s pointy-haired boss.
Bye bye Dave. Maybe you should swap that guitar for a violin or maybe in your spare time you could paint your roof.
“but one of leveling a tilted playing field”
– spot on.
The present National Party that has been hijacked by banksters, money launderers, gamblers, Big Corporates, and the 1%, extract unfair advantage from the tilted playing field, and they continue to tilt the playing field even more in their own favour and interest.
I saw David Shearer on TV this morning and I while I’m sure he’s a very nice chap, I just wish he’d do the following:
A. Keep his mouth closed at all times except when speaking; and
B. Stop licking his lips all the time. The lizard-like tongue constantly darting out makes him look very nervous and besides that just looks a bit icky.
Can’t someone just tell him?
The nervous fixed grin doesn’t help other.
You cannot tell him because it is highly questionable that he is in fact “a very nice chap” (look how he regards critics from his own party; consider his openly expressed egotism). Regardless, I am rather suspicious of these “very nice chaps” (particularly of the Key variety!) This “very nice chap” phrase has by now become a well worn-out and meaningless cliche.
Yeah, I never got that “Key is a nice guy” thing at all. He always seemed revoltingly smarmy – and likewise, I don’t get the “Shearer is a nice guy” thing either. Sure, you can be a bumbling, incompetent nice guy who ultimately wins through in an Adam Sandler film, but in real life you can be a bumbling incompetent, vain, tin-eared, inarticulate, unsuitable, ignorant, cynical, spineless, focus group-driven, dull, passionless, visionless, unprincipled, egotistical and fundamentally stupid arsewipe of a puppet who’s a sad waste of space too.
People have their tells – Key has that hiss of indrawn breath to show that he knows he’s lying (yes, OK, lips moving and words coming out is a tell that he’s lying, but I mean deliberately since lying is a matter of reflex for him) and Shearer has the lip-licking to show that he’s scared.
The reality.
http://www.juancole.com/2012/11/wagging-the-dog-in-gaza-netanyahus-skirmish-of-fear-sternfeld.html
With the 2013 elections just months away, Barak sees polls for his now rapidly vanishing party sending him to early retirement, and just like in Hanukkah 2008, Israel decided to break a ceasefire and assassin the Hamas senior military persona, Ahmad Jaberi. Hamas, as expected, responded with firing rockets on Israel’s southern regions, and to the great satisfaction of both Hamas and Israel, a full-scale war is being evolved.
http://www.jeremiahhaber.com/2012/11/israels-pre-election-war.html
I spoke with an expert on the Israeli military shortly after “Operation Cast Lead,” and when I told him that many argued that the operation was a reaction to Hamas rocket-fire, he laughed. He said that Hamas rocket-fire was deliberately provoked when Israel broke the cease-fire so that Israel could do a little “spring cleaning,” deplete Hamas’s arsenal of weapons. He told me that this happens every few years, and that I should expect it to happen in another few years. Israel will assassinate a Hamas leader, Hamas will have to respond (wouldn’t Israel, under those circumstances?) and Israel will perform a “clean up” operation. If Hamas is smart and doesn’t play into Israel’s hands, then Israel will also come out ahead, because it will be weakened in the eyes of the Palestinian public. It’s win-win for Israel. That’s what having control means.
edit: This too.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/15/assassinating-the-chance-for-calm.html
The assassination of Jaabari was a pre-emptive strike against the possibility of a long term ceasefire. Netanyahu has acted with extreme irresponsibility. He has endangered the people of Israel and struck a real blow against the few important more pragmatic elements within Hamas. He has given another victory to those who seek our destruction, rather than strengthen those who are seeking to find a possibility to live side-by-side, not in peace, but in quiet.
I know not everyone here always thinks particularly highly of Messrs Trotter and Bradbury, but together with Wayne Hope they had a good discussion on Citizen A the other day.about where Labour is at, among other things.
Recent media coverage of The Standard comes up in the discussion.
http://youtu.be/FcjopHGLnwU
Searching documentary about the anti-semitic question that I was fortunate to see recently.
Try watching the trailer. Very questioning, and shows some people are thinking seriously about Israel and Jewish attitudes. One thing comes across – how hypersensitive to negative feelings about them, no matter how fleeting or isolated, some Jews are. Doc is called Defamation.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1377278/
Hi Prism.
People just take a ganders at how the religious racial state was signed up for, and the powers behind making it happen, then take a look at the “peace” in the middle east since then to understand that the Israel story is nothing like what the media or recent history want to paint it as being about!
It is a sick joke on humanity, and like the political correctness movement, if one dares even questions Israel, one is labelled as anti-semetic, and any discusion shut down. What needs to be rememebed is that many Jewish people were sacrificed in odrer to create the State, so in some ways the Jewish people, mostly those who were poor, and hoping to return were those who were sacrificed.
Looking at it, to me the situation is entirely manufactured to serve the purpose, that has been the 64 years of ME war since, which has of course spilled out into Africa, and beyond, its all part of the same game. The planet is living with the pre and post formation of Israel every day, one just needs look at our shameless pro israel media to see the powers behind the story telling, and how will that change!
Only by people waking up and challenging what they believe to know about history, because we are not living in history, we are ALL living in the lies created by others, and passed of as history!
Kierkegaard’s work presents a viable contrast to the “Hegelian” historical determinism of particular peoples that is so often deferred to by the status quo