Lets face facts shall we, labour voted with national more times than the Māori party. Labour stole more land from Māori than any time since the wars. Labour wimped out on closing the gaps because they have no spine. The Māori party got more major initiatives than the greens have been able to.
That said, at worst the Māori party held national in check. At best they stopped them from going full ideological wing nut.
But more importantly, the Māori party will be back in parliament this time round.
Fair analysis (although I disagree on the comparison with the Greens).
I hope they do get back in this time. They've still got too much right wing positioning for me but I think NZ is still way better off with them in the political scene and Māori should have direct representation.
they have lots of good policy (always have done). I was more thinking of Tamihere being elected co-leader. I don't know if that's reflected in the rest of the party.
I would be careful confusing John's social conservatism with his understanding of economics. John gets the need to lift Māori out of the quagmire created for them by 180 odd years of liberalism.
So his staff should have been safe and tested being in the front line.
They should have tested everyone who worked in the front line.
"How’s that positive for Māori?" Good question, I think he there to out the House Negroes which infest NZ politics. A major positive for Māori. He puts Māori front and centre – another positive. Māui, another positive.
On a personal level I like him, he always been nice to the wife and I – he treats disabled people like human beings. Which is more inclusive than many in the labour and NZ1st caucus, and pretty much the whole of the national caucus. Even a couple of ex-greens were a bit shit in that regard.
No, the point is how someone claiming to be left wing, anti neo lib and equality for all, etc. voted for a national support party.
It's not my idea of being anti by voting pro.
Talk of being a handbrake on national is very much bollocks, when they had the votes of act and Dunne to fall back on, and the poverty stats and housing crisis after their nine years sort of say not really.
Both. As all election results are unknown before the votes are cast and counted, but knowing a vote for the maori party, as it was their intention to carry on supporting national, was a vote to keep the status quo and national in power.
Sure it wouldn't have switched the result if they suddenly refused to work with the then government, but no one knew that on the Saturday of the vote.
Presumably National was planning on making the transport announcement sometime in the actual election campaign in the hope of winning a day of that campaign. The fact they’ve been compelled to do it now in order to try and stop the polling slide just shows what a disaster the last few weeks have been for them.
So National plans a busway from Onehunga to the city centre. We all know what that will end up like, there’s one that Labour built on the North Shore. It’s basically a little motorway. So National needs to front up and say which parts of some of the loveliest old heritage suburbs across the isthmus will be wrecked to build their project?
Rail (single track to Penrose) exists into the CBD. Go on MSM ask them which parts of Epsom they'll carve up…btw bus lanes exist last I looked when in akl.
The stupid is off and running akl has much bigger transport fish to fry.
Haven't had a close look at the Nats plan for the Airport but basically it's rail from Puhinui to airport then later light rail from airport to Onehunga.
You are correct that Onehunga to Penrose is single track so that will have to be two-tracked and a heap of level crossings removed if it is to take airport traffic to the CBD. There are no Remuera houses in the way though which is probably why they have proposed it.
Also can't see how they will get around twin changes, at the airport (rail to light rail) and Onehunga (light rail to rail)???
Wasn't the heavy rail option from Puhinui to Airport abandoned because it became too hard / expensive, which is how the light rail proposal came to be the preferred option?
At least with National supporting the Puhinui line Government can get into it straight away. Same with a lot of National's transport 'policy'
Not sure. There was a link put up yesterday to a 2018 GA article pulling apart the proposals for the Puhinui spur.
I got the impression they didn't really attack the idea itself, rather the details around the Wiri interchange, servicing and the expense of tunnelling under the airport itself. Both seem to be resolvable to me. For instance instead of tunnelling, have a raised railway instead.
"Wasn't the heavy rail option from Puhinui to Airport abandoned because it became too hard / expensive, which is how the light rail proposal came to be the preferred option?"
Christ! if that's the case it just shows the extent to which we've fallen.
But no surprises there really – we can't even restore a rail link to Gisborne, or do the obvious basics, the needs of which will become an inevitability in this future space going forward (such as rail to the Earports in places like Christ's Church, Dunny Din, Tear Ranga, The Tron). Even given things like the original MTL, the Managweka deviation, various power projex.
Christ! we can't even get a bloody Transmission Gully done without a load of ticket clippers, risk analysts, consultants and all their hanger's looking for their cut, and then screaming mummy when things start to show up a few people as being the bullshit artists they are.
By the way ( …. that's BTW these days), but does anyone know where the details of the Dominion Road light rail option are? I'd put money on their being incompatible with various future options – things like an inability to use existing infrastructure because of guage differences – that sort of shit.
I'd put money on their being incompatible with various future options – things like an inability to use existing infrastructure because of guage differences – that sort of shit.
There is an issue because they will be two separate systems but they can be connected to the same stations where you simply change trains. This is quite normal in cities with extensive PT coverage.
I believe that's why it's important to have linear solutions which minimise these transfers.
So let's take for instance a hypothetical light rail 'Central Line' running from the airport to Orewa through the CBD. Those carriages would not be able to travel on the CRL but they can run past the CRL stations and be connected to them.
A major flaw with Collins’ plan, if you can call it that, is rail from Wiri to airport, then light rail from airport to Onehunga, then rail again from Onehunga to the CBD. Madness.
Actually, according to Collins when making the announcement with the other caucus members standing behind her, she said "My plan" etc. Then at the end she addressed the media gathered in front of her with this bit of cringe "Are you stunned". OK I admit that I am biased, but that was a very lame performance and unconvincing.
During that presentation yesterday Iwas intrigued at the clapping from people out of sight. Journalists don't usually clap. So was it all Tova O'Brian, or were there other supporters there?
There was a range of people there, mostly Nat MPs and candidates, but also Auckland business types.
And give the Tova-bashing a rest. It's tedious and wrong. She did her job this morning, getting Collins on the record, with a series of self-incriminating statements.
It's not her job to then wake up Labour's campaign team on a Saturday morning and make them use the material Tova's interview has provided. That's up to Collins' opponents.
Compare the stories on Newshub now with the rebuttals by Labour in the last 48 hours (good luck finding them, Grant did one, that's about it, who's the f***ing Transport Minister?), and then tell me who is doing their job better.
Whose job? Labour Ministers? Labour MPs? Labour Comms? Labour Campaign Team? Obviously, whoever it is, they’re missing in action, like a ‘homeless man’ living it up large in a managed hotel.
What are the jobs of the Fourth Estate and Press Gallery in NZ? Are they doing their job well?
Some are, some aren't. Generalising about "The Media" is stupid.
As for Labour, I expect them to grasp the fact that things have changed. This is not Muller, lost at sea. Collins will lie and lie, because that's what she does.
If lies are not rebutted, they win. Anyone who doesn't get that has not been paying attention to modern politics.
If lies are not rebutted, they win. Anyone who doesn't get that has not been paying attention to modern politics.
When/where are these lies uttered? On Twitter or FB? In the Debating Chamber? When lies don’t get exposed immediately, they’ll get a life of their own very quickly, like a virus; they spread and infect others – some are super spreaders.
Lying is a deliberate strategy to control the narrative; rebut the lie and you buy into the narrative and down the rabbit hole. When you do this in public, people will see you go down that (rabbit) hole and thus the hole is real, not imaginary. Job done, mission accomplished.
Come on, there's an obvious difference between magnifying a lie in the way you describe, and responding to something which is already all over the news headlines. It's not about dead cats on the table or a political version of the Streisand effect. Brian Tamaki rants and lies? Sure, ignore, don't give him oxygen. Leader of the opposition launches flagship policy? Very different.
Today was a good example, Collins lied (if only by omission) in her infrastructure speech – they've done no costings for these tunnels through the mountains. Grant Robertson responded, and wins on the 6 pm news:
As the bible says, there's a time for every purpose under heaven. The time for that strategic political action will be if the polls close sufficiently that Labour is risking a loss by not doing so. If! If Judith is a miracle worker… 😒
You are bringing almost poetic touches to the brouhaha swordfish. We can do with your style and novelty and if it can raise consciousness in the soporific in Nuzilland we will be doing a flamboyant flamenco.
I sincerely hope Claire Czabo and her comrades down at Labour Party HQ in Wellington have a word with the people at The Standard. Just a little pep talk about loose lips not only sinking ships, but also deep-sixing the trust and confidence of potentially vital coalition partners.
Last para.
Not many on the left have done as much over that last decade to deep-six the left’s cause than Chris Trotter.
Collins on TV3 "Nation" gives many hostages to fortune. Everything from cost of her road plans (she admits she doesn't know) to her own polling and caucus leaking – even telling her own MPs to leave.
If only Labour had people writing this stuff down and telling the voters. That's not "attack politics", Jacinda. That's Labour's job. Don't let Collins get away with it.
Judith Collins says … "I trust Winston Peters" (link up later).
National leader contradicts front bench spokesman and former leader live on television.
But nobody will notice, because the well-funded Labour comms team won't put it all over social media or put out press statements, because they're under orders to be nice. FFS.
edit
I was impressed by the strong masculine surety of Bishop discussing the plans for infrastructure spending in NZ which will be the (road) making of us.
And he is explaining to citizens again how government works. I am sure I remember Bill English telling us they have to balance their budgets just like householders do. Now Chris Bishop:
He said the programme of works would be paid for by making a significant change in the way the NZ Transport Agency paid for its projects. Currently it's pay as you go – the NZTA takes money in from fuel tax and road user charges and then pays it out for what it wants to build.
This was not the way most businesses and households operated, Bishop said.
National would encourage NZTA to borrow on its own balance sheet. It has an asset base of $26 billion a year in state highways and revenue of $4b a year in fuel tax. Under National's plan they would borrow and pay back the debt over 20 to 30 years, like a household taking out a mortgage.
"That provides quite a significant chunk for the programme we've announced today."
The land and roads that NZTA oversees creates an 'asset base' on which they can borrow. And if they don't pay back the debt then what will happen – will some overseas entity take ownership of our road surfaces? However there is actual money in fuel taxes, and if government told NZTA to charge road tolls that allow for untolled roads for the many poor people, that would mean that the roads could become user-pays and give a financial push towards using rail.
It sounds like that dumb accounting swindle the government have played on hospitals, making the boards pay a tax or something on the land (and buildings?) that we use for physical buildings to provide the health services from. This of course is to ensure efficiency!
Go home Treasury bods and financiers, back to Mont Pelerin or wherever the mythical temple of pure management economics is situated.
I can see the populist appeal but you don’t run the NZ economy like “most businesses and households” and Government borrowing is not “like a household taking out a mortgage”.
It shows a fundamental misunderstanding but it’s more likely deliberately misleading and spreading disinformation. Either way, it is gobsmacking.
Calling for business people who like to comment here to point out the many flaws (AKA BS) but I expect them to stay cowardly silent.
Observer, I really appreciate your comments. I do think that Labour have to be careful with their strategy. I suggest they get a psychologist (Nigel Latta??) on how to deal with a narcissist. Jacinda in depriving of Judith of attention to date, may be the way to go.
Narcissist hate not getting attention. She's out to provoke Ardern. Really important not to be provoked. I saw Parker on the Duncan Garner show with Bridges yesterday. Bridges all upbeat and chirpy. He even called Parker Davo (shades of David Brent). Parker said Davo, no that doesn't work.
Everything Bridges said he said, No that's not true. Simple. Not a lie or fake news….Parker kept smiling. Re Judith's nomination to the leadership he said, something like No that's not going to work.
Look I don't know what Labours strategy should be……….But I do remember the first budget and Bridges got up in parliament and ranted. At the end of it Ardern got up and said "well that was a lot of shouting"
I definitely do not want Ardern to get into a slanging match. She handled both Bridges and Muller well.
But I do want Labour (not Ardern) to point out simple facts.
Bridges says he did not vote for Collins as leader. Bridges says National can't trust Winston. But Collins says she can. Those are all statements on the record. We don't need leaks to find them.
In the last 48 hours we have the usual culprits screeching "Russia hacking and stealing covid research, Russia hacking and stealing covid research" which is completely shot down by the reality of cooperation between many countries.
Russia on Friday unveiled a deal with AstraZeneca to manufacture a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the pharmaceuticals giant and Oxford University, a move its wealth fund head said showed Moscow had no need to steal vaccine data.
The multiple talks confirm the bloc’s more assertive stance on procuring potential COVID-19 shots and drugs after early U.S. moves in securing promising treatments and vaccines. “We are in talk with several companies on possible COVID-19 vaccines,” a spokesman for the Commission said on Friday, declining to comment on specific firms as negotiations were confidential. More than 150 possible vaccines are being developed and tested around the world to try to stop the pandemic. Of 23 in human clinical trials, at least three are in final Phase III testing – including candidates from China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac Biotech (SVA.O) and AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
Shooting your self in the foot, Nats & Act, economic disaster our children & grand children will be paying this off forever. Judith we are going to build 31b of new roads and 7b is coming out of the covid recovery fund the the prudent govt have not yet spent
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has boosted the popularity of the Liberals, who would likely form a majority government if an election were held today. The Conservatives have taken the biggest hit in the polls since the October election, while the New Democrats have held steady. The Bloc Québécois and Greens have experienced only a modest dip in support.
The Canadian electoral system has a significant element of PR within it. It is a million times better than the FPP system in the UK.
On the basis of the (supposedly terrible) election results in 2019 Corbyn would be PM as head of an SNP/LibDem/Green/Labour coalition if there was MMP in the UK
You are right Scott-I retract that. Canada has a crap FPP system. For some reason I was confusing Canada with the Spanish electoral system which does have a PR element, though not as pure as NZ or Germany.
But my comment re the UK system and Corbyn, above, remains valid.
A big debate going on here in Oz over suppression versus elimination. Most states and territories have in effect eliminated Covid-19 despite state and federal governments having a suppression strategy. The success in most parts of Oz is now threatened by the accelerating upsurge in Victoria whih has spilled over into NSW (which didn't have any border closures with Victoria until last week.) Victoria, NSW and ScoMo are all dithering over more severe restrictions as the numbers of infections and deaths are rising. The debate between eliminationists (pointing to Taiwan and NZ's success) and the suppressionists (claiming that elimination is impossible and economically damaging) is hotting up and the longer the debate goes on with no resolution it's only likely that more damage will be done.
Incidentally, it seems that Victoria's upsurge (over 400 new cases yesterday) was caused by lax quarantine facilities at one or two particular hotels and the use of poorly paid untrained security workers – unlike more rigorous quarantine measures used in other states. NZ has probably dodged a bullet and I'm sure the NZ government is keeping a very wary eye on theVictorian situation.
Collins has also announced a National government would repeal the Resource Management Act completely, and replace it with two new pieces of law.
Just think about that for a moment.
No plan to manage NZ's resources.
Just allow civil engineering contractors, foresters, and farmers to completely trash the environment in the pursuit of more profit. Believe me – I have worked in the industry alongside someone who worked in the civil engineering industry before the RMA, and some of the stories he has to tell of environmental recklessness carried out prior to the RMA are horrifying.
Indeed I see the effects of open slather on the environment by unthinking engineers, miners, foresters, and farmers every day from my lounge window at low tide. Prior to the 1890's the Firth of Thames was navigable up to the town and there were a number of Jetties and wharfs built out into the Firth from the town to receive freight and passengers off the numerous vessels that sailed to and from Auckland as that was the mode of transportation then. The discharge of silt from the mines, and from the land, as foresters and farmers cut down the hillside and riverside trees, has resulted in extensive mudflats that now prohibit navigation in all states of the tide, except high tide. This is but one example of thoughtless behaviour by industries whose only concern is the pursuit of profit.
The thinking by Collins and her cronies is muddled and fallacious. They simply perceive that the environment is a subset of the economy. Nothing could be more removed from the truth.
"I want to hear how Collins would prevent and manage eliminating Covid-19 were it to transmit into the community."
Same here, but so far no mention of any Covid19 policies or plans re community transmission from Collins, despite how highly contagious the disease is. I believe Amy Adams as former National shadow minister of the CovidV19 portfolio was in the process of putting together a Covid19 policy prior to the leadership change. However on becoming leader, Collins killed it off and as far as I know to date, no National MP has taken over Adams' portfolio. These points say Covid19 does not rate a priority for Collins or National! Not good at all.
I have just started reading the Roman themed novels of Lindsey Davis with a smart spy called Marcus Falco getting about like Superman, or Batman? The types of problems he deals with in the book I've read aren't too far away from our present selection. He gets to win obviously, as their have been a large number in the series. That winning, or surviving, makes for good light reading with a positive outcome, to combat the negatives so constant.
There are many ways of ‘dying’ and only one involves actual medical/biological death. In order to survive, everything is allowed, even self-defence. When people feel their livelihood is under threat, e.g. they might lose their job & status, their house & status, or their business & status, it feels to them as if they’re ‘dying’. They will act accordingly and in line with the threat(s). National is very good at tapping into this raw emotion that includes fear & anger and they don’t shy away from fuelling it.
Anne Salmond is a credible voice from the real world.
Does the Opposition realise that our country is in lethal danger, and that a global pandemic is raging? Do they understand that at present, New Zealanders need calm, intelligent, trustworthy leadership, focused on the future and our collective survival?
Below are the parts of the RMA that Collins hates because they give significant protection to natural resources, especially landscape values.
It would be a disaster if she were to be elected-all of these protections would be thrown on the scrap heap in order to help Collins' money hungry developer mates.
5 Purpose
(1) The purpose of this Act is to promote the sustainable management of natural
and physical resources.
(2) In this Act, sustainable management means managing the use, development,
and protection of natural and physical resources in a way, or at a rate, which
enables people and communities to provide for their social, economic, and cultural
well-being and for their health and safety while—
(a) sustaining the potential of natural and physical resources (excluding
minerals) to meet the reasonably foreseeable needs of future generations;
and
(b) safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soil, and ecosystems;
and
(c) avoiding, remedying, or mitigating any adverse effects of activities on
the environment.
6 Matters of national importance
In achieving the purpose of this Act, all persons exercising functions and
powers under it, in relation to managing the use, development, and protection
of natural and physical resources, shall recognise and provide for the following
matters of national importance:
(a) the preservation of the natural character of the coastal environment (including
the coastal marine area), wetlands, and lakes and rivers and their
margins, and the protection of them from inappropriate subdivision, use,
and development:
(b) the protection of outstanding natural features and landscapes from inappropriate
subdivision, use, and development:
(c) the protection of areas of significant indigenous vegetation and significant
habitats of indigenous fauna:
(d) the maintenance and enhancement of public access to and along the
coastal marine area, lakes, and rivers:
(e) the relationship of Maori and their culture and traditions with their ancestral
lands, water, sites, waahi tapu, and other taonga:
(f) the protection of historic heritage from inappropriate subdivision, use,
and development:
(g) the protection of protected customary rights:
(h) the management of significant risks from natural hazards.
7 Other matters
In achieving the purpose of this Act, all persons exercising functions and
powers under it, in relation to managing the use, development, and protection
of natural and physical resources, shall have particular regard to—
(a) kaitiakitanga:
(aa) the ethic of stewardship:
(b) the efficient use and development of natural and physical resources:
(ba) the efficiency of the end use of energy:
(c) the maintenance and enhancement of amenity values:
(d) intrinsic values of ecosystems:
(e) [Repealed]
(f) maintenance and enhancement of the quality of the environment:
(g) any finite characteristics of natural and physical resources:
(h) the protection of the habitat of trout and salmon:
(i) the effects of climate change:
(j) the benefits to be derived from the use and development of renewable
energy.
There's nothing muddled or fallacious about her and her cronies' callous indifference.
Ms Collins said she had no idea environmentalists were concerned about digging up wetland areas.
While it is illegal to export raw native timber, 3 News understands Oravida is planning to set up a processing plant so it can send the Kauri offshore as a finished product.
Ms Collins said the concerns have nothing to do with her.
"Does that have anything to do with me? Am I the minister of wetlands? Go and find someone who actually cares about this, because I don't," she said.
"There's a large number of our birds that depend on wetlands for their survival," said Dr Smith.
"It's not my issue. I don't like wetlands – they're swamps," said Ms Collins.
This is all comes less than a month after the Victoria Forest Park controversy, when Energy Minister Simon Bridges signed off the biggest forest park in the country for oil exploration, despite never having heard of it.
⚠️All COVID hospital data on CDC site is now gone!!! It is now managed by a private contractor who got a $10 million no-bid deal awarded in April. Now it’s all directly controlled by HHS political heads. #COVID19
Oravida ( old Mrs Collins says she knows nothing about it) is going to export miles of native timbers to China.
As well, Simon Bridges is going to dig up the largest Wet Lands in Aoteroa and sell the oil off for himself and his national idiots. the Wet Lands will disappear.
I'm quite fond of Krugman, generally speaking. He's scientist enough to be swayed by evidence. I wonder if our Treasury can claim as much.
Krugman writes that he and other mainstream economists “missed a crucial part of the story” in failing to realize that globalization would lead to “hyperglobalization” and huge economic and social upheaval, particularly of the industrial middle class in America. And many of these working-class communities have been hit hard by Chinese competition, which economists made a “major mistake” in underestimating, Krugman says. It was quite a “whoops” moment, considering all the ruined American communities and displaced millions of workers we’ve seen in the interim.
“A peaceful protester in Portland was shot in the head by one of Donald Trump’s secret police,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote in a Thursday tweet that also called out acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf. “Now Trump and Chad Wolf are weaponizing the DHS as their own occupying army to provoke violence on the streets of my hometown because they think it plays well with right-wing media.”
Civil rights advocates suggested the Trump administration is testing the limits of its executive power.
“I think Portland is a test case,” Zakir Khan, a spokesman for the Oregon chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told The Post. “They want to see what they can get away with before launching into other parts of the country.”
Jann Carson, interim executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, called the recent arrests “flat-out unconstitutional” in a statement shared with The Post.
“Usually when we see people in unmarked cars forcibly grab someone off the street, we call it kidnapping,” Carson said. “Protesters in Portland have been shot in the head, swept away in unmarked cars, and repeatedly tear-gassed by uninvited and unwelcome federal agents. We won’t rest until they are gone.”
I have been worried about something like this happening for over a month now since the beginning of the protests in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. That teams of Federal law enforcement, with the majority coming from the Bureau of Prisons Disturbance Response Units (they’re trained to go in one on top of each other into cells or areas of Federal prisons and use maximum force to achieve compliance) and C&BP’s equivalents of Rapid Response Units would be deployed to all the major urban areas, especially those with majority or plurality minority populations (African American, Latinx, or a combination of the two). Specifically, that they will be used in an increasingly visible manner over the next 100 days or so culminating in widespread visible use of them during early voting periods and on election day in or near voting precincts, as well as near mail in ballot drop boxes at municipal facilities. A program of voter suppression under color of law. While the mayors and governors of these states who are Democrats will push back, and the Democratic governors won’t allow their National Guard to be pulled into these operations, the states that have Republican governors aligned with the President like Florida, Georgia, Texas, Ohio, etc, even if the cities being targeted have Democratic leadership (Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Cincinnati, etc), will play ball with the President, the Attorney General, and the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security.
[…]
Now that the Republican National Committee is out from under the Federal court imposed requirement not to use paid election monitors, I have long predicted that they would hire off duty law enforcement to work as election monitors while in uniform. While this is what got them in trouble to begin with in the 1980s and resulted in the Federal court order that was finally lifted last year, the RNC knows it works and paired with an escalating use of Federal law enforcement within urban areas between now and the election in November would go along way to suppressing the vote under the color of law.
Much of Pull No Punches is a litany of bland little certainties. But one of the enduring appeals of Collins as a politician is the way she seems animated by rage and bitterness, and these hostilities are expressed throughout the book towards its dark stain, its bad dream – John Key. Here, then, is the joy and the catharsis she felt as an author: utu, served cold.
Briefly, or intermittently, the book comes to life; but it’s only a half-life. Collins omits to deal in any detail with the hacked emails between her and Slater that Hager published in Dirty Politics. Slater’s name is mentioned only in passing in Pull No Punches. She blathered to Andrea Vance of Stuff this weekend, “I mean, honestly, I got about six pages [in Dirty Politics]. John Key and John Key’s office got chapters.” Actually she got 10 pages, and an entire chapter; her name features in the book’s index as heavily as the other goons and operatives implicated in Dirty Politics – Jason Ede, David Farrar, Jordan Williams, Simon Lusk.
She was thick as thieves with Slater for years. Hager writes, "They were drawn together by …a shared attraction to aggressive and often petty attack politics.” Some of their exchanges are actually kind of funny. Their name for Ardern: “My Little Pony.” I think it’s only fair to appreciate Collins as a humourist.
Earlier Steve had this to say in respect of her literary style, following with a prescient comment on the timing of publication:
She declared war on the comma. “Never did I feel so attached to anything I have written as I do to this book. It has been the most cathartic experience.” And then a terrible threat: “I have enjoyed it so much that I will keep on writing.” It’s really not necessary.
What joy, what catharsis? I don’t know if Pull No Punches is intended as a job application as such – you know, to take over as National leader if the hapless Muller fails in September – but it certainly provides a bland and joyless mission statement. The mission is to present herself as invulnerable and impeccable.
I found his review intriguing, inasmuch as he makes a strong analytic case for how the autobiography reveals her character. More one-dimensional than I expected…
Whilst pulicising her book "Pull No Punches" I heard Judith Collins say she was writing another book but needed a good punchy title. After the election maybe "On The Ropes Again" could be a goer ?
😊 Would imply acceptance of defeat though. She'd be more likely to frame it to herself as a temporary glitch. Surprising that she's writing another so soon eh? I suspect she will struggle to find motivation to finish it…
I'm a bit puzzled by this. Canadian whose original intention was a 6 week stay here then moving on to London. Then applied for a work visa and wondering why a work visa hasn't been issued pronto but as far as I can see there are now flights available to both Canada and London so he can continue his journey. Also seems to want to undermine just about any working conditions available locally.
Why is there no push back in the story? He has choices other than a work visa.
Conflicting opinions confuse readers, fatal mistake if you want to win elections. Follow a consolidated message so close to an election. Standing 2 progressive candidates in Auckland Central is stupid. Split the vote and National win. Happened in 3 or four electorates in 2017. No wonder the left is viewed as incompetent, they can not even consolidate their election strategy. Sigh, you have a duty of care re Kiwi's, dont confuse. But then it is said "you cant fix stupid" how true. Seems progressives in NZ a bit slow to comprehend.
[Please pick one user name and stick to it – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
You're new here, so I'll spell it out for you. The site exists to provide space for robust debate. Authors are free to write what they want (there is no editorial control), and frequently disagree with each other. The value in this is that ideas get hashed out and in a strong debate culture the stupid/unhelpful ones tend to torn apart. The useful/interesting ones also get pulled apart and made better. This is normal political process.
Please read the Policy and About so you understand the purpose of the site.
btw, I tend to take a dim view of people who comment in such a way that makes me think they didn't bother to read the post, especially people who then want to use my post to slag off a political party or the left.
Sure, voters like clarity and consistency, which doesn’t mean simple or easy; they’re clever enough and they don’t like being patronised.
So, “the left” is viewed as “incompetent”, presumably by ‘the right’? What do you consider “the left”? Should they talk & act with one voice and pretend they represent ‘the left voters’, whoever those are?
BTW, thanks for picking a different user name but I reckon this could tricky to get exactly right each time; one minor difference/typo will be picked up by the system and your comment will end up pending in Pre-Moderation until a Moderator releases it. Moderators don’t like extra work, least of all in Pre-Election time.
"You have a duty of care re Kiwi's, don't confuse"…………………..how confusing do you think it has been for Kiwis to see the billboards "strong team" and then see three different leaders in less than three months, one who swanned in telling us he was going to be the next PM and now, it seems not…….Bennett, Adams and Kaye gone within weeks……………Shadow health minister criticising Labour for the privacy breaches, then whoops a daisy, turns out he knew that his own team had done the leaking all along……
Very confusing of Adams to say retiring for family reasons then shes back! Now she's gone!!!!!
Labour/Ardern…….completely clear……….Ardern clear about the arrangements re gifting seats……..
You are new here. Feel free to stick around and note the calibre of the debate. So far your contribution falls well below the standard here. You will be shot down every time you contribute unless you lift your game……….but maybe you can't fix stupid
Commenters and readers here do understand that the latest face of the National Party is not one that will change anything at all with regards the future and direction Jacinda Ardern and her team have set for the country – don't you? The bellowing and posturing from the boiled-down National Party leadership will achieve … nothing at all.
We humans are so easily spooked. If you feel that honesty, sincerity and kindness will prevail, the whipped-up "latest developments" will seem like a light rain on your umbrella.
Judith Collins, weka? Have you so little faith in Jacinda's abilities, her support and the circumstances we find ourselves in to fear the actions of a person like Judith Collins? I see a mangy old tomcat, hissing and spitting with people noticing the rank odour of an animal long past it's prime
Good point, which means that the Left wants to hear and talk about stories from the Left. Where is the overarching story for our future from the progressive Left? Till we have one, we will be tempted, forced almost, to look at S & M show put on for us by the Right. Not only are we a willing audience of (paying) spectators, there’s never a shortage, it seems, of willing volunteers to join in.
we appear to be too busy poking a stick at each other, or ostracising each other, to have a coherent and useful overarching story.
And yep about the audience. The posts about the reactionary stuff will garner more engagement, almost every time.
But that too is a self-defeating narrative and I tend to agree with Robert about confidence and how we choose to position ourselves. Will have to think about this.
" not one that will change anything at all with regards the future and direction Jacinda Ardern and her team have set for the country "
National/Collins certainly won't achieve anything for the country. The question is, can their scorched earth, destructive campaign succeed in its real goal: saving enough Nat MPs to force Ardern to cobble together a government she doesn't really want, instead of a clear win.
We can say "impossible", but then that would be ignoring the lessons of Trump, Brexit, ScoMo, etc.
It won't work here. We can only speculate from this point in time but buying into a nervous, insecure story is a personal choice. Nothing is set in stone, all predictions are ephemeral stories. We seem to enjoy insecurity, but my encouragement is to choose confidence and surety. Whipped-up froth can be blown away by the breath of a person secure in their deep belief; there will always be constant erosion from agencies that thrive on insecurity and you know who clasps those to their bosom.
"No" might reflect the population's position and not surprisingly. It's a big stretch and people aren't inclined to go beyond their cultural boundaries. If you don't act with measured, considered confidence, you are agreeing to swirl and twirl with whatever currents are directed your way. What kind of player do you want to be – one at the beck and call of the "other side" or one that chooses a position, intelligently and clearly, then follows that line?
I agree. It's a time of great potential change and the stories we tell determine which way the change goes. Lots of opportunity here. Collins is going to troll the left with everything she's got, best the left find a better story than that reactionary one. What you call measured, considered confidence I might call grounding and knowing our own truth worth.
Why don't you just go fund the lincoln project then?
They'd happily take your money.
And past what, all having to be limited to arguing in the small small ideological world of liberalism. – Yeah I'd like to be past that too, but you and your ilk keep limiting the debate.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[I have no patience for this shit. Don’t tell me what to do under my own post, and don’t make out I believe something I don’t. If you’re too stupid or caught up in your bah humbug that you can’t see I’m not supporting liberalism, then stay out of my posts.
You do that sly, manipulative, poking at people shit in a conversation with me one more time and I will ban you, no matter where on site it happens. I opened a door to a conversation with you and you just spit in my face. I’m done.
To make it *really* clear, this is entirely an issue of behaviour not politics. You are quite capable of making political arguments, so make them without flaming and then I will respect you again even if I disagree. – weka].
I think Australia has had 16 deaths since they’d ‘eliminated’ and cases surged. Very sad, but a clear indicator you toy with this Coronavirus at your peril.
Today Labour responds with a minor upgrade of Auckland's northwestern motorway for buses, and a cycleway with little transport network use being built on a swamp that will be underwater in most spring tides – and next to impossible to build.
Labour are already very electorally weak on transport, so Collins knows to go for Twyford very hard.
Methinks Labour better have more fuel in the tank of their transport policy if they think they are going to outflank National on transport.
Yeah or you could just turn on the radio or TV news.
Seriously if it deserved a blog post it would have got one. They were all well established projects, just re-released since the Auckland Council cut them. Both Greens and Labour need a better plan this.
It is good form to include a link so that others can read it too and follow up if they wish. People forget here all the time and we remind them here all the time. Without exceptions 😉
A point you will get to see when someone releases his comments from the filter. Or he could just do what four moderators have asked and change his email address and then you would have seen his comments immediately.
Indeed, and they have just had to raise the NW motorway 5m for that reason. 2m of that was because the road had dropped either side of the Oakley Estuary Bridge.
The new bit on the city side of that bridge is already sinking but that is probably due to Steven Joyce cutting corners.
I imagine the Whau River path would be designed to an accepted profile of what is to come.
I released his two comments about 4 hours after they were submitted because I had been away and nobody else was around, it seems. Ad’s not stupid so I don’t know what his problem is.
On a different note:
Boardwalk Height
Here’s our best attempt to describe the boardwalk height in plain English. We hope this will help with your submission.
The standard height of the boardwalk is 2.9m above mean sea level (i.e. the Auckland Vertical Datum, AVD). The seabed on the western bank of the Whau River is slightly above this mean sea level and therefore the boardwalk deck would actually be about 2.8m above the seabed. This will vary as the seabed level changes along the route of the board walk. The boardwalk deck is approximately 1.38m above water level at mean high tide.
However, NZ doesn’t have cycling in its blood or genes like the Dutch, it is not part of the NZ culture and therefore not of the NZ infrastructure, sadly. Maybe with e-bikes and e-scooters it will change, slowly. In Amsterdam, you can easily beat a car or PT on a bicycle with no gears and leg-power only on a short-distance trip. When traffic is shite, the bicycle wins on medium-distance trips too. And it is free!
it is beautiful but the first thing I see is taking twice as long to get somewhere. Please tell me the curvy path is because of the landscape, access and engineering, not because someone wanted to make a curvy path?
form following function and other form? I don't know the area so don't have a grasp of why they would build it like that. A curve is more interesting, unless you are walking to work and it takes you 20 mins instead of 15. Some people won't mind, others will.
If you want your commenting privilege back, you need to write a nice and compelling apology to Lprent. Let us know if you want/need the link to when/where things went pear-shaped.
Crikey. Times are tough in Australia. Back to where we were weeks ago.
Acting on the advice of Australia’s acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly, Morrison has written to the Speaker of the House of Representatives to request that the sitting fortnight commencing August 4 not be held.
Well there are many here discussing JC. (Not the biblical fellow.)
I would like to discuss the difference between the two Leaders.
Jacinda Ardern has proven herself here and overseas as caring and informed, and is much admired.
JC was given a role that involved going overseas, and true to type she used that occasion to promote her husband's business and herself.
For that and other mis-steps she was demoted by John Key. WOW!!
She hopes we will forget that and trust her with our sick Kauri Covid and Recovery.
Sorry Judith, you just haven't got it, and Tova should have said "You are not a 10..
but you don't listen do you? !!’
Today I have a hoarding on our section for Labour Jacinda and Claire in Rotorua. The stop sign has been shifted or we would have had one for Tamati as well. Go Labour!! I am biased.. Go the Greens as well!!
Everyone should have opportunity's to own a whare.
That's correct the system has been screwed in favour of the people who have asset whena at the expense of the people who don't the renters next minute they tell you it's better to rent and quote the trickle down effects year right.
One point I would like to make is there should not be a dividing things like baby boomers millennials race we are all on motherearth together and need to make great choices for our future.
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Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has ridiculed the National Party "circus", with the politician saying it was in "chaos" after the resignation of another MP.Rangitata MP Andrew Falloon announced on Monday he would retire from politics after he allegedly sent inappropriate pornographic images to a young woman. Following a ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters today outlined what he saw as the requirements to re-open New Zealand's borders for tourists and travellers. If New Zealand was dealing solely with an Australian state such as Tasmania, we wouldn't need a vaccine, said Mr Peters, but these moves were complicated by the ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters appears to have prompted last-minute alterations to proposed legislation for commercial landlords and their tenants. Mr Peters told reporters on Wednesday said that he was making sure the proposed bill was in step with what the parties had actually agreed to. He said he ...
Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprise and New Zealand First List MP Shane Jones attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the new NZ Post "super depot" in Wellington. The state-owned postal service, which got $280 million from the Coalition Government last month, is expanding its operations to handle surging parcel volumes. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First CHECK AGAINST DELIVERYIntroduction Good afternoon. Welcome to you all here today and party supporters watching from around the country. We appreciate your hard work keeping New Zealand First strong; thank you for keeping the faith. Sixty-three days out from Election Day, ...
The diversity of conservation boards around Aotearoa is increasing with 47 appointments to 14 of the 15 conservation boards across New Zealand announced today by the Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage. ...
The Green Party is honoured to be remembering former co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons today at a public memorial service in the heart of Wellington at the Cathedral of St. Paul’s. Following her passing in March, this celebration of her life brings together her friends, family and colleagues to honour her life ...
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage has announced a $2.5 million boost for South Westland to help a regional alliance of local businesses and government agencies provide nature based jobs. ...
The Government has re-affirmed its commitment to supporting the hosting of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, which the ICC has delayed from 2021 to 2022. “This is obviously a disappointing decision for cricket players and fans around the world and for the White Ferns and their supporters here at ...
Cyclists and walkers will now have a safer way to get around Taupō, Tūrangi, and between Hamilton and Cambridge, with funding for shared paths and Te Awa River Ride, Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter announced today. “The Te Awa River Ride is the latest part of massive growth ...
Six major cycle routes will be completed in Christchurch thanks to funding from the Government’s investment in shovel-ready infrastructure as part of the COVID-19 recovery Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter announced today. $125 million will be invested to kick-start construction and fund the completion of the following cycleway ...
Plans are underway for a brand new state-of-the-art hub for Whanganui’s justice and social agencies, following confirmation the ageing Whanganui Central Police Station is to be replaced. Police Minister Stuart Nash has announced $25 million in new infrastructure spending to improve facilities for the wider community, and for staff who ...
An adjustment payment has been made to Waikato-Tainui and Ngāi Tahu under the relativity mechanisms in their 1995 and 1997 Treaty of Waitangi settlements, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little announced today. The latest payments to Waikato-Tainui and Ngāi Tahu are $2,700,000 and $2,600,000 respectively to ensure the ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Transport Minister Phil Twyford today kicked off the start of the Auckland NZ Upgrade Programme rail projects which will support over 400 jobs and help unlock our biggest city. Both ministers marked the start of enabling works on the third main rail line project ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) investment of $3.78 million in Wairoa will create much needed economic stimulus and jobs, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. PGF projects announced today include: $200,000 loan to Nuhaka Kiwifruit Holdings Ltd (operated by Pine Valley Orchard Ltd) to increase the productivity ...
Tenants in public and Māori housing may be benefiting from their own affordable renewable energy in future – a fund to trial renewable energy technology for public and Māori housing has today been announced by Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods and Associate Minister for Housing (Māori Housing) Nanaia Mahuta. ...
Hokianga will receive $2.7 million to redevelop four of its wharves and upgrade its water supply, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Far North District Council will receive $1.8 million from the Provincial Growth Fund for the work on the wharves. “The work will include the construction of ...
A $350 million Residential Development Response Fund is being established to support the residential construction sector and to minimise the economic impact from COVID-19, the Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods has announced. “The Residential Development Response Fund will help to progress stalled or at-risk developments that support our broader housing ...
As part of a broader plan to divert waste from landfill, the Government today announced $10.67 million for new infrastructure as part of the Resource Recovery Network across the Auckland region. “This key investment in Auckland’s community recycling network is part of the Government’s Infrastructure Reference Group ‘shovel ready’ projects ...
The Government is investing $45 million in the first stage of an ambitious urban development project for Tauranga that will employ up to 250 people and help the region grow, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says the funding has been allocated out of the $3 billion ...
Getting low-emission trucks on the road is a step closer with investment in infrastructure to support hydrogen vehicles, the Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods has announced. The Infrastructure Reference Group has provisionally approved $20 million for New Plymouth company Hiringa Energy to establish a nationwide network of hydrogen-fuelling stations. ...
A new trades training centre to upskill the local workforce will be built in the South Waikato town of Tokoroa through funding from the Government’s COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund, Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones have announced. The Government will contribute $10.84 million from ...
The Government has agreed to repeal part of the Oranga Tamariki Act subsequent children provisions, Minister for Children Tracey Martin announced today. “There are times when children need to go into care for their safety – the safety and care of children must always be paramount,” Minister Martin said. “But ...
A $1.5 million boost to grow primary mental health and addiction services for Pacific peoples in Auckland, Hamilton and Canterbury will lead to better outcomes for Pacific communities, Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa says. Pasifika Futures has received funding to expand services through The Fono, Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest by ...
Twenty-two projects to boost the sustainability and climate resilience of New Zealand’s food and fibres sector have been announced today by Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. The $18m funding will deliver practical knowledge to help farmers and growers use their land more sustainably, meet environmental targets, remain prosperous, and better understand ...
Employment Minister Willie Jackson welcomes an initiative that assists employers to get mature workers into New Zealand small businesses. The disadvantages that older people face in the workplace was highlighted in the whole of Government Employment Strategy. In order to address this, a Mature Workers Toolkit has been developed and ...
New Zealand and Australia reaffirmed today the need for the closest possible collaboration as they tackle a global environment shaped by COVID-19, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said. “In these challenging times, our close collaboration with Australia is more vital than ever,” said Mr Peters. Mr Peters and his Australian ...
The recovery and forensic examination of the loader driven by survivor Russell Smith means the underground team are now moving into an area of the Pike River Mine that has not been seen since the explosion, Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little said. “The fifth and last robot ...
The Government has confirmed a community-wide trial of CovidCard technology as it explores options for COVID-19 contact tracing. “Effective contact tracing is a vital part of the COVID-19 response,” Minister of Health Chris Hipkins said. “While manual processes remain the critical component for contact tracing, we know digital solutions can ...
The government is proposing changes to aquaculture legislation to improve the process for allocating and transferring aquaculture assets to iwi. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash has introduced the Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Amendment Bill to Parliament. It proposes a limited new discretionary power for Te Ohu Kaimoana Trustee Limited (ToKM). ...
The Minister of Justice has today introduced the Family Court (Supporting Children in Court) Legislation Bill – the next step in the ongoing programme of work to fix the failed 2014 Family Court reforms led by then Justice Minister Judith Collins. The Bill arises from the report of the Independent ...
A new Department of Conservation (DOC) action plan tackles the impacts of climate change on New Zealand’s biodiversity and DOC managed infrastructure including tracks, huts and cultural heritage. Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage says extreme weather events around the country have really brought home our vulnerability to changing weather patterns. ...
A heavily scaled back international Antarctic season will commence this week, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods have confirmed. “Antarctica is the only continent that is COVID-19 free,” Mr Peters said. “Throughout the global pandemic, essential operations and long-term science have continued at ...
The Government is providing up to $30 million to help fund the NZ Campus of Innovation and Sport in Upper Hutt - an investment that will create 244 jobs. “The sports hub is designed to be a world-leading shared service for a range of sports, offering the level of facilities ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today transport projects currently in construction will continue at pace due to extra Government support for transport projects to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. To keep the $16.9 billion 2018-21 National Land Transport Programme going the Government has allocated funding from the COVID Response and ...
$50 million for further rural broadband digital connectivity has been allocated from the $3 billion infrastructure fund in the COVID Response and Recovery Fund has been announced by Shane Jones, Minister for Infrastructure and Kris Faafoi, Minister for Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media. The investment will go to boosting broadband ...
The Minister for Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media has congratulated the Ultra-fast Broadband (UFB) programme on its major milestone of connecting more than 1 million New Zealand households and businesses to UFB. “This milestone has been 10 years in the making and demonstrates the popularity of the UFB network. “Uptake ...
Landmark legislation passed today puts New Zealand on track to saving thousands of lives and having a smokefree generation sooner rather than later, Associate Health Minister, Jenny Salesa says. The Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Bill regulates vaping products and heated tobacco devices. “There has long been concern ...
A discriminatory law that has been a symbol of frustration for many people needing and providing care and support, has been scrapped by the Government. “Part 4A of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill (No 2) was introduced under urgency in 2013 by a National Government,” Associate ...
Kiwi motorists are set to reap the benefits of a more competitive fuel market following the passing of the Fuel Industry Bill tonight, Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods says. “This Act is where the rubber meets the road in terms of our response to the recommendations made in the ...
The Government has delivered on its promise to New Zealanders to modernise tenancy laws with the passing of the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill 2020 today, says Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing), Kris Faafoi. “The Residential Tenancies Act 1986 was out-dated and the reforms in the RTA modernise our ...
New rules to protect and restore New Zealand’s freshwater passed into law today. Environment Minister David Parker and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor welcomed the gazetting of the new national direction on freshwater management. “These regulations deliver on the Government’s commitment to stop further degradation, show material improvements within five years and ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced the appointment of Jeremy Clarke-Watson as New Zealand’s new Consul-General in Los Angeles. “New Zealand and the United States share a close and dynamic partnership, based on a long history of shared values and democratic traditions,” Mr Peters said. “Mr Clarke-Watson is a ...
Victims of family violence can end a tenancy with two days’ notice Landlords can terminate tenancies with 14 days’ notice if tenants assault them Timeframe brought forward for limiting rent increases to once every 12 months Extension of time Tenancy Tribunal can hear cases via phone/video conference Reform of New ...
Two employment schemes – one new and one expanded – going live today will help tens of thousands of people continue training on the job and support thousands more into work, the Government has announced. Apprenticeship Boost, a subsidy of up to $12,000 per annum for first year apprentices and ...
The Government is funding a significant infrastructure package at Omokoroa which will create 150 new jobs and help transform the Western Bay of Plenty peninsula, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says the Government is investing $14 million towards the $28 million roading and water package. This ...
The Bill allowing the Government to recover some costs for managed isolation and quarantine passed its third reading today, with charges coming into force as soon as regulations are finalised. Putting regulations into force is the next step. “The COVID-19 Public Health Response Amendment Bill and its supporting regulations will ...
Today’s unemployment data shows the Government’s plan to protect jobs and cushion the blow for businesses and households against the economic impact of COVID-19 was the right decision, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. Stats NZ said today that New Zealand’s unemployment rate in the June quarter – which includes the ...
Welcome to Election Live for August 9, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other breaking news. For key dates in the election seasonclick here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. 7.15am: Labour tax policy coming ...
New Zealand's unofficial poet laureate Victor Billot pens topical verse every Sunday. This week: the rotten egg laid by the outgoing coalition governmentLet’s keep moving I was sitting in my cheap motel room next to the window, smelling petrol fumes when on the TV came a lady in red ...
She’s Cheryl West, she’s Ellen Crozier, she’s the woman who makes headlines for throwaway jokes online. Sam Brooks talks to Robyn Malcolm, actor and activist.There’s nothing more compelling on a New Zealand screen than Robyn Malcolm wanting something. Whether it’s Cheryl West trying to get a lingerie business off the ...
The Labour leader returned yesterday to the Auckland Town Hall, where she was last seen riding the Jacindamania wave towards government. Toby Manhire went along to see how this campaign launch compared to the 2017 edition.A lot was the same. The big wash of red light bouncing off the Town ...
REVIEW: JACINDAMANIA: THE SEQUELWritten, directed and starring: Jacinda ArdernGenre: Political love story Classification: General ReleaseRunning Time: Six weeksShowing: NationwideRating: * * * * starsReviewer: Tim Murphy We've waited three years but the sequel to the 2017 blockbuster Jacindamania has finally arrived, debuting Saturday at the ...
Judith Collins is still shy of a month into the job but in her media blitz she and her arched eyebrows are everywhere, along with the party slogan "Strong team, More Jobs, Better Economy". ...
New Zealand First is pleased to announce the next tranche of candidates that will represent our values and spread our message across the country at this year’s election. We thank these hardworking New Zealanders for putting their hand up to take on the ...
A high-ranking Chinese candidate promoted over more than a dozen incumbent MPs is the biggest surprise in an otherwise orthodox National Party list for the 2020 election, as Sam Sachdeva reports The National Party has released its list rankings for the 2020 election, with the ascent of new candidate Nancy ...
The National Party is pleased to announce the appointment of Nancy Lu to the National Party’s List for the 2020 General Election, President Peter Goodfellow says. “Nancy Lu is a Chartered Accountant with a background in accounting and business working ...
Headline: A crisis of governance. – 36th Parallel Assessments [embedded content] The Port of Beirut warehouse explosion, involving 2.7 kilotons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate negligently stored in an unsecured area, crystalizes in one national tragedy a much wider trend: the crisis and decline of democratic governance world-wide.For a ...
National’s 2020 Party List is a strong mix of experience coming up through our Caucus, and new and exciting talent joining our team from communities across New Zealand, Party President Peter Goodfellow says. “The National Party is incredibly ...
Latest from the Beehive – It looked (at first blush) like Christchurch would gobble up around half the money earmarked by the government for projects to get us on our bikes. Julie Anne Genter, Associate Minister of Transport and a Green with a fondness for two-wheeled, pedal-driven transport, today banged ...
The suggestion of putting border exemptions up for auction so large companies can bring in overseas executives and key workers is naïve and totally unfair,” says Ms June Ranson, chair of the New Zealand Association of Migration and Investment ...
Looking for a wonderfully trashy movie to watch? TVNZ OnDemand now have some of Lifetime’s best dramas for your viewing pleasure. In a world of serious and credible television, the arrival of Lifetime to TVNZ OnDemand is joyous news. Lifetime is an American cable channel that churns out emotional drama after emotional drama, ...
The introduction of a $3,100 fee for returning New Zealanders will disadvantage Māori disproportionately, Phoebe Carr (Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tūhoe)and Max Harris argue.The government has once again failed to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi by rushing through legislation to introduce exorbitant managed isolation fees for returning New Zealanders. This ...
7 August 2020: The Team of Six Million, a campaign group established to oppose the imposition of quarantine fees by the New Zealand Government, has expressed disappointment at the Government's urgent passing of the Public Health Response Amendment Bill to ...
In July support for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party was at 53.5% down 1% since June, but still more than double the support for National on 26.5%, down 0.5%, with just over a month to go before the election in mid-September. If ...
Welcome to Election Live for August 7, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other breaking news. For key dates in the election season click here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Policy launching soon. Get in touch ...
After initial concerns about low testing rates in South Auckland, Counties Manukau DHB has the second-highest testing rate in the country. Ōtara Health chief executive Sosefina Paletaoga explains her organisation’s role in achieving this. Covid-19 has affected us all in different ways, and for us in Ōtara, it has highlighted existing ...
Oranga Tamariki's Chief Executive appeared before the Waitangi Tribunal a day after a report from the Chief Ombudsman found the agency had used its draconian powers to uplift babies too readily in many cases A Waitangi Tribunal hearing has seen Oranga Tamariki chief executive Gráinne Moss concede her organisation harmed families during ...
"A resident of the boarding house disappeared the same day Mrs Bethany’s body was discovered": provincial gothic, with astrology, by Auckland writer Mandy McMullin. I moved into the tearooms the day I turned sixteen, 23 December 2006. The same day I met Garth. It was Saturday, a lucky day for ...
The resignation of Westland Milk Products chief executive Tony Brendish almost a year to the day the company was sold to Chinese conglomerate Yili makes a mockery of assurances that there was no conflict of interest in top management preparing ...
*Watch the video in the player below*The wheels of progress turn frustratingly slow in Christchurch’s Red Zone. Frank Film asks, is anything going to happen? Hayley Guglietta is honest about her group’s activities on vacant land bordering Christchurch’s Avon River. She admits the groundwork was commenced without official ...
On this week's Extra Time podcast: After significant investigations into cycling, football and hockey in New Zealand, now gymnastics is in the spotlight around their athletes' welfare. Allegations of multiple New Zealand gymnasts suffering from verbal and physical abuse, bullying and unsafe training methods have surfaced over the past week. And ...
She’s a lone wolf, a team player, a rebel, a leader and the nicest lady around. But what combination of those do you need to survive in government?On a cold July morning, I found myself driving around Totara Park in Manurewa in the dark. I had been invited to a ...
All around the country, people are asking ‘what’s going to happen in the 2020 general election campaign?’ That’s because they haven’t read this guide, which reveals exactly what will happen in the 2020 general election campaign.Someone has finally put this term of parliament out of its misery. We’ve had three ...
The UK car industry has run a good race in the post-Brexit lobbying stakes. But Britain’s chemical industry looks to be making a late run, if recent coverage in the Financial Times is accurate.The issue for the industry is the post-Brexit regulatory regime and how this is to be ...
Latest from the Beehive – We had just finished digesting an outpouring of announcements from the Beehive over the previous 24 hours or so when the Point of Order Trough Monitor shrieked an alert. A new trough had been established. While we were inspecting the contents of this new trough, ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Chart 1, Historical: Australian much lower than Spain, Belgium and Sweden. Chart by Keith Rankin. The known incidences of Covid19 in Spain, Belgium and Sweden are similar, although Sweden lagged for a while before overtaking the other two. In deaths, Sweden is slightly lower than ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The good news in the Reserve Bank’s latest quarterly set of forecasts is that the recession won’t be as steep as it thought last time. The bad news is it ...
Analysis: National entices voters with big infrastructure projects, Judith Collins rips into Jacinda Ardern and Parliament passes a bill that could affect every tenant in the country. ...
By RNZ Pacific France’s new overseas minister Sebastien Lecornu says New Caledonia’s restrictions over the covid-19 pandemic will not affect the preparations for the October referendum on independence. Lecornu gave the assessment during a visit to New Caledonia House in Paris. Paris is expected to send dozens of officials and ...
Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa descendants are overjoyed they can do up their wharenui, while also attracting their rangatahi back to their marae, with more than $1.5 million from the Provincial Growth Fund. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Griffith University National crises, like the pandemics that can provoke them, come in stages. Each stage presents leaders with unique problems that require mental, moral and emotional agility to manage. Change is the only constant, as ...
How is New Zealand faring in during the Covid-19 pandemic? Newsroom is taking a weekly look at the latest numbers related to the virus and the impact on the economy.Excess deaths Overseas the death toll in some countries has risen sharply, with the ...
Justice campaign organisation JustSpeak has outlined a vision for a society without prisons in its 2020 election campaign ‘ Our Justice Our Future ’. The campaign was launched last night in Wellington, to a sold out audience of supporters and volunteers. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vasso Apostolopoulos, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research Partnerships, Victoria University During the COVID-19 pandemic we’re constantly being reminded to practise good hygiene by frequently washing our hands and regularly cleaning the spaces where we live and work. These practices aim to remove or kill ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and University of Canberra Assistant Professor Caroline Fisher discuss the week in politics. This week Michelle and Caroline discuss the closure of ‘non-essential’ businesses in Melbourne under stage ...
Labour's campaign slogan "Let's Keep Moving" is hardly the most inspirational but reflects the conservative game plan - trade on the Covid response and stay on track. ...
By granting a permit to OceanaGold to mine under DOC land in the Coromandel, the government is not only threatening an endangered species, says Catherine Delahunty – it’s threatening future generations.I woke up angry. The government has given a 40-year permit to OceanaGold to mine under DOC land behind Whangamatā. ...
How come, after numerous condemnatory reports, Oranga Tamariki chief executive Grainne Moss holds on to her job? Aaron Smale wonders if those harmed by her tenure aren't a big enough voting bloc So, what happens when a government department breaks the law and breaches its own policies? Nothing, apparently. The latest ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame Australia Review: The Meddler, screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival For movie scholars and enthusiasts, one of the worst things about the COVID-19 pandemic has been the shutting down of ...
The combination of solar panels, electricity storage batteries, smart household gadgets, and a boring looking black box is set to change forever how our electricity system works. But do we need subsidies? ...
The New Zealand Bar Assocation says misinformed criticism of a South Island judge’s sentencing of a sex offender has the potential for disturbing consequences for the justice system and society generally. The Bar Association’s President Kate Davenport ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Royal Commission into Aged-Care Quality and Safety delivered it’s interim report in October 2019. Titled ‘Neglect’, it provided a scathing insight into the aged care industry – finding it centred around transactions not care. ...
By Tom Peters, Socialist Equality Group More than one year after the March 15, 2019 terrorist attack, an official inquiry into the mass shooting that killed 51 people and injured 49 in two Christchurch mosques has still not released any information ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Damien Manuel, Director, Centre for Cyber Security Research & Innovation (CSRI), Deakin University Australia’s long-awaited cybersecurity strategy, released yesterday, pledges to spend A$1.67 billion over the next ten years to improve online protection for businesses, individuals and the country as a whole. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roxana Diamond, PhD Candidate, Flinders University This article has links that contain graphic content Many industries and employees have been hurt by COVID-19. But sex workers, who face stigma and discrimination at the best of times, have been hit particularly hard by ...
By Lulu Mark in Port Moresby Port Moresby may need to expand its covid-19 isolation facilities quickly and effectively in case a big spike in cases occurs, a doctor says. Rita Flynn isolation facility manager Dr Gary Nou said it would be a disaster if the spread of covid-19 in ...
Paige Tapara is a fast-rising young singer-songwriter whose debut EP explores themes of sexuality, coming of age, mental health and relationships. We asked her how it came together, and why she thinks it’s so important for NZ music to include voices like hers.Paige swoops into the room, a cream doughnut in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cathy Foley, Chief Scientist, CSIRO Universities and other research organisations in Australia have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. In May, a group led by Australia’s Chief Scientist Alan Finkel forecasted severe impacts for our research workforce. These included the loss ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Carnt, Scientia Senior Lecturer, School of Optometry and Vision Science, UNSW, Sydney, UNSW You’re rushing and accidentally drop a contact lens on the bathroom floor. Should you: a) run it under the tap and pop it in? b) spit on it ...
The Māori Party is celebrating World Indigenous Day the Māori way, surrounded by friends and whānau at a Meet-the-Candidates at the Third Place Café in Rotorua this weekend. To mark World Indigenous Day, the Māori Party wants to remind Aotearoa ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Wayland, Lecturer, University of Sydney As part of new research into missing persons in Australia, I have been asking people who return after disappearing what they needed or wanted. Mary, who has gone missing four times in the last few years, ...
Forest & Bird is calling for all political parties to back an end to mining conservation land, after a permit was issued to mine the home of a critically-endangered native animal. This week Oceana Gold was granted a 40-year mining permit from the ...
Here’s a snapshot of a single day in parliament. A day where changes were made to laws that govern everything from the milk in your refrigerator to the speed you can drive your car, and to Netflix, and war crimes, and who tests your water. It was a big day.The ...
*This article was first published on RNZ and is republished with permission* Māori leaders say they have no faith in Oranga Tamariki and the chief executive needs to go after the latest report into the organisation found it was routinely taking newborns without whānau consultation. The Chief Ombudsman's report He Take Kōhukihuki, ...
So is the government succeeding in steering the country through the Covid-19 crisis and what it calls a “one-in-100-year shock”. And just what is it costing? These are questions which will be uppermost in the minds of voters when they cast their ballots in next month’s general election. Finance Minister ...
Peddlethorp calls on other businesses that cancelled events due to Covid to donate now when need is greatest Peddlethorp Architects is calling on businesses that cancelled events due to Covid-19 to donate event catering or funding to those in need, if circumstances ...
A poem by Rhian Gallagher from her new collection Far-Flung.At the Boatshedfor Sonja MitchellWe carried the day through the door the harbour had earned its keep light laid its hands on each contourthe shed held abreast with the shore spreading the waves in pleats we carried the day through the ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man by Mary L. Trump ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alistair Sisson, Postdoctoral Research Associate, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Social and public housing is intensely stigmatised in Australia and has been for several decades. Estates in particular are often labelled “ghettos”, framed as places of danger, drugs and vice. This stigma ...
National is promising to spend $20 million over four years on increasing testing rates and accessibility to clinical trials for gynaecological cancer if elected. ...
The National Party is criticising the government's list of "shovel-ready projects", meant to kickstart the economy, for not generating enough jobs for women. ...
Wedged between punitive commercial law and an ineffective government, a once-thriving business is dying a slow and expensive death.It was one of the most acclaimed backpackers in New Zealand.Perched at the top of the Elliot Stables building in central Auckland, it was voted by Hostelworld as the city’s most popular ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW One of the many things COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on is the way many of us work. Those fortunate enough to be able to work from home have been able to adapt to this ...
Open mike 18/07/2020 
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Aug 2, 2020 through Sat, Aug 8, 2020 Editor's Choice Five Years After Speaking Out on Climate Change, Pope Francis Sounds an Urgent Alarm The encyclical ‘Laudato Si’ motivated many people ...3 hours ago
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From some quarters, incessant scaremongering. From others, it’s a full-on tilt into touching the alarmist buttons a little too readily (uncertain times make for very captive audiences with this angle of attack). The (so-called) Opposition (and merely regarding them as that seems to be a far looser term now ...16 hours ago
National Party leader - Judith CollinsElections often bring out the best and worst in politicians. Some rise to the occasion and provide us with a clear vision for the future. While others wallow in resentment and controversy, over-relying on attack politics to try to attain the interest of voters.That’s been ...22 hours ago
The attempts to sabotage Corbyn's leadership seems likely to do more damage than Corbyn supposedly ever could have done, even if all the stories about him were true: I was reluctant to say anything but this is too important, the full story needs to be told.Don’t let anyone ever tell ...23 hours ago
Good day to everyone. I’ve been asked by Mr Thinks to come here and talk to you all about my concerns regarding the government response to Covid-19. We’ve been living through this pandemic for, what seems like, years. Years and years and years. Why else would the National Party have ...1 day ago
‘Good Economics for Hard Times’ should be on your reading list. New Zealand does not have a Minister of Labour. It has Ministers of Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety but there is no minister with responsibility for the labour market. That responsibility was abolished in 2012 when ...2 days ago
Back in the Kyoto era, the international climate change regime included a Clean Development Mechanism to fund emissions reduction projects in developing nations. Essentially someone would certify that a project - e.g. building a windfarm, or installing energy-efficient lightbulbs - would reduce emissions over and above "business-as-usual". The project would ...2 days ago
By Geoffrey Miller Prominent refugee advocate Murdoch Stephens says he is disappointed by Judith Collins’ reaction to Immigration New Zealand’s decision to grant refugee status to Kurdish-Iranian writer Behrouz Boochani. Judith Collins told media last month that “there’s a lot of concern in New Zealand about what they see as ...2 days ago
That was clearly a huge explosion. Just after the explosion, we see a cloud of ‘fog’ moving outwards at high speed. This is a shockwave, rather similar to that which causes a sonic boom. The ‘fog’ is caused by water condensing from the atmosphere in areas of intense low pressure ...3 days ago
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Be nice of people to win votes rather than do the usual and expect them to be delivered votes.
I think the labour party are little better than national, so there is no way in hell I'd vote for them.
Why is there a collection of people who think people should vote for them? And go on to try and shame anyone who dares question them?
Arrogance? Purity? Smug middle class condescension? Or did the Russians do it?
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
And yet you voted for national's support partner the maori party.
And I will again
lol
At least this time they've said they won't work with national, unlike the last time, when you voted to keep them in power.
Lets face facts shall we, labour voted with national more times than the Māori party. Labour stole more land from Māori than any time since the wars. Labour wimped out on closing the gaps because they have no spine. The Māori party got more major initiatives than the greens have been able to.
That said, at worst the Māori party held national in check. At best they stopped them from going full ideological wing nut.
But more importantly, the Māori party will be back in parliament this time round.
Genuine Q: which electorate(s) are they most likely to win?
Fair analysis (although I disagree on the comparison with the Greens).
I hope they do get back in this time. They've still got too much right wing positioning for me but I think NZ is still way better off with them in the political scene and Māori should have direct representation.
I would have thought this was the most left wing policy announced by any party so far
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/06/21/whanau-first-maori-party/
they have lots of good policy (always have done). I was more thinking of Tamihere being elected co-leader. I don't know if that's reflected in the rest of the party.
I would be careful confusing John's social conservatism with his understanding of economics. John gets the need to lift Māori out of the quagmire created for them by 180 odd years of liberalism.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/liberalism
"John gets the need to lift Māori out of the quagmire created for them by 180 odd years of liberalism"
are his approaches to that left or neoliberal? Kaupapa Māori?
Have you never got past his bombastic rhetorical style?
Have you missed what being happen at waipareira trust?
This might help
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/06/21/maori-party-announce-whanau-first-policy-on-covid-19-economic-recovery/
JT doesn’t unite, he polarises and divides, which is one reason why he is good as a shock jock. How’s that positive for Māori?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/413791/maori-doctor-accuses-john-tamihere-of-telling-staff-to-lie-for-covid-19-test
Good on him!
So his staff should have been safe and tested being in the front line.
They should have tested everyone who worked in the front line.
"How’s that positive for Māori?" Good question, I think he there to out the House Negroes which infest NZ politics. A major positive for Māori. He puts Māori front and centre – another positive. Māui, another positive.
On a personal level I like him, he always been nice to the wife and I – he treats disabled people like human beings. Which is more inclusive than many in the labour and NZ1st caucus, and pretty much the whole of the national caucus. Even a couple of ex-greens were a bit shit in that regard.
are you saying that if the Mp hadn't done a deal with National that Labour would have formed government?
No, the point is how someone claiming to be left wing, anti neo lib and equality for all, etc. voted for a national support party.
It's not my idea of being anti by voting pro.
Talk of being a handbrake on national is very much bollocks, when they had the votes of act and Dunne to fall back on, and the poverty stats and housing crisis after their nine years sort of say not really.
so when you said,
"At least this time they've said they won't work with national, unlike the last time, when you voted to keep them in power."
who is 'them', National or Mp?
Both. As all election results are unknown before the votes are cast and counted, but knowing a vote for the maori party, as it was their intention to carry on supporting national, was a vote to keep the status quo and national in power.
Sure it wouldn't have switched the result if they suddenly refused to work with the then government, but no one knew that on the Saturday of the vote.
With reference to the Natz more roads, saw this interesting video on twitter – not sure if I know how to transfer it over – but here goes:
https://twitter.com/urbanthoughts11/status/1191295205187686400
Should be compulsory viewing for all RW road lovers.
Edit – it works – isn’t technology wonderful!
Nice one Tony
Presumably National was planning on making the transport announcement sometime in the actual election campaign in the hope of winning a day of that campaign. The fact they’ve been compelled to do it now in order to try and stop the polling slide just shows what a disaster the last few weeks have been for them.
I get the feeling it is going to be forgotten pretty quickly.
So National plans a busway from Onehunga to the city centre. We all know what that will end up like, there’s one that Labour built on the North Shore. It’s basically a little motorway. So National needs to front up and say which parts of some of the loveliest old heritage suburbs across the isthmus will be wrecked to build their project?
A Bus Rapid Transit between Onehunga and the CBD is not in Greater Auckland's CFN2.
New Zealand, eh? Everyone rowing in different directions.
Rail (single track to Penrose) exists into the CBD. Go on MSM ask them which parts of Epsom they'll carve up…btw bus lanes exist last I looked when in akl.
The stupid is off and running akl has much bigger transport fish to fry.
Haven't had a close look at the Nats plan for the Airport but basically it's rail from Puhinui to airport then later light rail from airport to Onehunga.
You are correct that Onehunga to Penrose is single track so that will have to be two-tracked and a heap of level crossings removed if it is to take airport traffic to the CBD. There are no Remuera houses in the way though which is probably why they have proposed it.
Also can't see how they will get around twin changes, at the airport (rail to light rail) and Onehunga (light rail to rail)???
Wasn't the heavy rail option from Puhinui to Airport abandoned because it became too hard / expensive, which is how the light rail proposal came to be the preferred option?
At least with National supporting the Puhinui line Government can get into it straight away. Same with a lot of National's transport 'policy'
Not sure. There was a link put up yesterday to a 2018 GA article pulling apart the proposals for the Puhinui spur.
I got the impression they didn't really attack the idea itself, rather the details around the Wiri interchange, servicing and the expense of tunnelling under the airport itself. Both seem to be resolvable to me. For instance instead of tunnelling, have a raised railway instead.
"Wasn't the heavy rail option from Puhinui to Airport abandoned because it became too hard / expensive, which is how the light rail proposal came to be the preferred option?"
Christ! if that's the case it just shows the extent to which we've fallen.
But no surprises there really – we can't even restore a rail link to Gisborne, or do the obvious basics, the needs of which will become an inevitability in this future space going forward (such as rail to the Earports in places like Christ's Church, Dunny Din, Tear Ranga, The Tron). Even given things like the original MTL, the Managweka deviation, various power projex.
Christ! we can't even get a bloody Transmission Gully done without a load of ticket clippers, risk analysts, consultants and all their hanger's looking for their cut, and then screaming mummy when things start to show up a few people as being the bullshit artists they are.
By the way ( …. that's BTW these days), but does anyone know where the details of the Dominion Road light rail option are? I'd put money on their being incompatible with various future options – things like an inability to use existing infrastructure because of guage differences – that sort of shit.
There is an issue because they will be two separate systems but they can be connected to the same stations where you simply change trains. This is quite normal in cities with extensive PT coverage.
I believe that's why it's important to have linear solutions which minimise these transfers.
So let's take for instance a hypothetical light rail 'Central Line' running from the airport to Orewa through the CBD. Those carriages would not be able to travel on the CRL but they can run past the CRL stations and be connected to them.
A major flaw with Collins’ plan, if you can call it that, is rail from Wiri to airport, then light rail from airport to Onehunga, then rail again from Onehunga to the CBD. Madness.
Don't panic, anyone – in Northland we're still waiting for 9 of our 10 bridges!
You have to admit though, they did build one, the Taipa Bridge, oh, wait a minute, that was completed only 7 months ago.
Actually, according to Collins when making the announcement with the other caucus members standing behind her, she said "My plan" etc. Then at the end she addressed the media gathered in front of her with this bit of cringe "Are you stunned". OK I admit that I am biased, but that was a very lame performance and unconvincing.
A couple of clips I've seen if her ,shes looked daft . Trying hard to be something she isnt.
During that presentation yesterday Iwas intrigued at the clapping from people out of sight. Journalists don't usually clap. So was it all Tova O'Brian, or were there other supporters there?
The sound of one hand clapping.
Just saw a photo on Audrey's column and those in the audience seem to be media. Clapping from the media???
Maybe they were promised a nice cuppa with a biscuit afterwards 😉
A "cuppa and biscuit" puts me in mind of taxes and getting blood from stones…
“I know, but you can't always get 'em”
I watched the Q & A with media live. Collins left very early and journalists complained about that – live.
Then Bishop stepped in and took the questions, at greater length.
Again, the reporters did their job. They usually do, but they are not the editors and publishers.
There was a range of people there, mostly Nat MPs and candidates, but also Auckland business types.
And give the Tova-bashing a rest. It's tedious and wrong. She did her job this morning, getting Collins on the record, with a series of self-incriminating statements.
It's not her job to then wake up Labour's campaign team on a Saturday morning and make them use the material Tova's interview has provided. That's up to Collins' opponents.
Compare the stories on Newshub now with the rebuttals by Labour in the last 48 hours (good luck finding them, Grant did one, that's about it, who's the f***ing Transport Minister?), and then tell me who is doing their job better.
Whose job? Labour Ministers? Labour MPs? Labour Comms? Labour Campaign Team? Obviously, whoever it is, they’re missing in action, like a ‘homeless man’ living it up large in a managed hotel.
What are the jobs of the Fourth Estate and Press Gallery in NZ? Are they doing their job well?
Some are, some aren't. Generalising about "The Media" is stupid.
As for Labour, I expect them to grasp the fact that things have changed. This is not Muller, lost at sea. Collins will lie and lie, because that's what she does.
If lies are not rebutted, they win. Anyone who doesn't get that has not been paying attention to modern politics.
If lies are rebutted they win. Anyone who doesn't get that has not been paying attention to modern politics.
If that was true, Steven Joyce would now be Finance Minister.
The $11 billion hole was the Big Lie of the 2017 campaign. And you think Labour were wrong to rebut. OK …
When/where are these lies uttered? On Twitter or FB? In the Debating Chamber? When lies don’t get exposed immediately, they’ll get a life of their own very quickly, like a virus; they spread and infect others – some are super spreaders.
Lying is a deliberate strategy to control the narrative; rebut the lie and you buy into the narrative and down the rabbit hole. When you do this in public, people will see you go down that (rabbit) hole and thus the hole is real, not imaginary. Job done, mission accomplished.
Come on, there's an obvious difference between magnifying a lie in the way you describe, and responding to something which is already all over the news headlines. It's not about dead cats on the table or a political version of the Streisand effect. Brian Tamaki rants and lies? Sure, ignore, don't give him oxygen. Leader of the opposition launches flagship policy? Very different.
Today was a good example, Collins lied (if only by omission) in her infrastructure speech – they've done no costings for these tunnels through the mountains. Grant Robertson responded, and wins on the 6 pm news:
Was he right to hit back, or should he have said nothing? Watch and decide for yourselves.
observer I must admit that watching Tova conduct her interviews this morning she did her job pretty well.
Tova is pretty even handed, her bombastic trying to catch them out style she uses on Lab & Nat, I give her credit for that.
Good comments, Observer. And today we have this desperate nonsense https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/07/willie-jackson-goes-for-judith-collins-jugular-over-racially-divisive-remarks.html. Thigs have changed all right.
Quick scan on Twitter and the RWs are convinced Tova O'Brien is working for Labour, she really gets under people's skin.
old predictable Judith
Judith has been in Parliament 18 controversial years and achieved nothing.
Those that know of her have mostly hung up their caucus boots and departed. Because they do not want to play a useless, empty attack game.
The remarkably young, and world renowned Jacinda Ardern is the person Judith Collins has stupidly declared she intends to Crush.
Judith is not bright. Not at all. She is an old quirky aggressive. Cuddling up with a Tazzer Weapon.
Collins is like a retread tyre.
Chris Trotter (with rose stem between clenched teeth) passionately dances the foxtrot with a demure TRP to the music of MMP:
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/07/17/auckland-central-the-importance-of-acting-strategically/
As the bible says, there's a time for every purpose under heaven. The time for that strategic political action will be if the polls close sufficiently that Labour is risking a loss by not doing so. If! If Judith is a miracle worker… 😒
You are bringing almost poetic touches to the brouhaha swordfish. We can do with your style and novelty and if it can raise consciousness in the soporific in Nuzilland we will be doing a flamboyant flamenco.
Last para.
Not many on the left have done as much over that last decade to deep-six the left’s cause than Chris Trotter.
Even worse, he does it for the cash.
Collins on TV3 "Nation" gives many hostages to fortune. Everything from cost of her road plans (she admits she doesn't know) to her own polling and caucus leaking – even telling her own MPs to leave.
If only Labour had people writing this stuff down and telling the voters. That's not "attack politics", Jacinda. That's Labour's job. Don't let Collins get away with it.
For example: Simon Bridges said …
"I can't trust Winston Peters"
Judith Collins says … "I trust Winston Peters" (link up later).
National leader contradicts front bench spokesman and former leader live on television.
But nobody will notice, because the well-funded Labour comms team won't put it all over social media or put out press statements, because they're under orders to be nice. FFS.
And again: "I have not sacked Michael Woodhouse" (verbatim quote)
Headlines, 2 days ago: "Collins sacks Michael Woodhouse".
My meme about National has become, they are too unstable to govern now
See the Peter's interview on the Nation, Peter's is in the know about National disgruntled MPs.
I think more National MPs will resign and another cabinet reshuffle, the weekend will be good for reflection. I cannot see another leadership coup.
I think if any more National MPs resign that will be the final nail in the coffin for them
On Newshub Nation, I just saw this by-line:
She’s received a lot of positive (good) press in the last few days and now some less fawning pieces emerge. The pattern in MSM is so predictable.
edit
I was impressed by the strong masculine surety of Bishop discussing the plans for infrastructure spending in NZ which will be the (road) making of us.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/421465/national-s-31b-transport-plan-pricey-but-worth-it-bishop
And he is explaining to citizens again how government works. I am sure I remember Bill English telling us they have to balance their budgets just like householders do. Now Chris Bishop:
He said the programme of works would be paid for by making a significant change in the way the NZ Transport Agency paid for its projects. Currently it's pay as you go – the NZTA takes money in from fuel tax and road user charges and then pays it out for what it wants to build.
This was not the way most businesses and households operated, Bishop said.
National would encourage NZTA to borrow on its own balance sheet. It has an asset base of $26 billion a year in state highways and revenue of $4b a year in fuel tax. Under National's plan they would borrow and pay back the debt over 20 to 30 years, like a household taking out a mortgage.
"That provides quite a significant chunk for the programme we've announced today."
The land and roads that NZTA oversees creates an 'asset base' on which they can borrow. And if they don't pay back the debt then what will happen – will some overseas entity take ownership of our road surfaces? However there is actual money in fuel taxes, and if government told NZTA to charge road tolls that allow for untolled roads for the many poor people, that would mean that the roads could become user-pays and give a financial push towards using rail.
It sounds like that dumb accounting swindle the government have played on hospitals, making the boards pay a tax or something on the land (and buildings?) that we use for physical buildings to provide the health services from. This of course is to ensure efficiency!
Go home Treasury bods and financiers, back to Mont Pelerin or wherever the mythical temple of pure management economics is situated.
I can see the populist appeal but you don’t run the NZ economy like “most businesses and households” and Government borrowing is not “like a household taking out a mortgage”.
It shows a fundamental misunderstanding but it’s more likely deliberately misleading and spreading disinformation. Either way, it is gobsmacking.
Calling for business people who like to comment here to point out the many flaws (AKA BS) but I expect them to stay cowardly silent.
Observer, I really appreciate your comments. I do think that Labour have to be careful with their strategy. I suggest they get a psychologist (Nigel Latta??) on how to deal with a narcissist. Jacinda in depriving of Judith of attention to date, may be the way to go.
Narcissist hate not getting attention. She's out to provoke Ardern. Really important not to be provoked. I saw Parker on the Duncan Garner show with Bridges yesterday. Bridges all upbeat and chirpy. He even called Parker Davo (shades of David Brent). Parker said Davo, no that doesn't work.
Everything Bridges said he said, No that's not true. Simple. Not a lie or fake news….Parker kept smiling. Re Judith's nomination to the leadership he said, something like No that's not going to work.
Look I don't know what Labours strategy should be……….But I do remember the first budget and Bridges got up in parliament and ranted. At the end of it Ardern got up and said "well that was a lot of shouting"
I definitely do not want Ardern to get into a slanging match. She handled both Bridges and Muller well.
But I do want Labour (not Ardern) to point out simple facts.
Bridges says he did not vote for Collins as leader. Bridges says National can't trust Winston. But Collins says she can. Those are all statements on the record. We don't need leaks to find them.
Parker was brilliant, and Garner too, the Nats aren't used to being held to account for the things they say.
In the last 48 hours we have the usual culprits screeching "Russia hacking and stealing covid research, Russia hacking and stealing covid research" which is completely shot down by the reality of cooperation between many countries.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-cyber-russia-exclu-idUSKCN24I15L
Shooting your self in the foot, Nats & Act, economic disaster our children & grand children will be paying this off forever. Judith we are going to build 31b of new roads and 7b is coming out of the covid recovery fund the the prudent govt have not yet spent
Trudeau's pandemic leadership has bounced the Libs up to 40%: https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/elections/poll-tracker/canada/
Sad how 40% is enough for a comfortable majority in Canada. No wonder Trudeau walked back his promise of proportional representation
The Canadian electoral system has a significant element of PR within it. It is a million times better than the FPP system in the UK.
On the basis of the (supposedly terrible) election results in 2019 Corbyn would be PM as head of an SNP/LibDem/Green/Labour coalition if there was MMP in the UK
Care to share which elements of the Canadian electoral system are proportional? As far as I can tell it’s a straight up FPP Westminster system.
You are right Scott-I retract that. Canada has a crap FPP system. For some reason I was confusing Canada with the Spanish electoral system which does have a PR element, though not as pure as NZ or Germany.
But my comment re the UK system and Corbyn, above, remains valid.
A big debate going on here in Oz over suppression versus elimination. Most states and territories have in effect eliminated Covid-19 despite state and federal governments having a suppression strategy. The success in most parts of Oz is now threatened by the accelerating upsurge in Victoria whih has spilled over into NSW (which didn't have any border closures with Victoria until last week.) Victoria, NSW and ScoMo are all dithering over more severe restrictions as the numbers of infections and deaths are rising. The debate between eliminationists (pointing to Taiwan and NZ's success) and the suppressionists (claiming that elimination is impossible and economically damaging) is hotting up and the longer the debate goes on with no resolution it's only likely that more damage will be done.
Incidentally, it seems that Victoria's upsurge (over 400 new cases yesterday) was caused by lax quarantine facilities at one or two particular hotels and the use of poorly paid untrained security workers – unlike more rigorous quarantine measures used in other states. NZ has probably dodged a bullet and I'm sure the NZ government is keeping a very wary eye on theVictorian situation.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/the-fight-of-our-lives-doctors-call-for-virus-elimination-strategy-as-stage-four-restrictions-loom-20200717-p55d5g.html#comments
Nats to repeal the RMA.
Just think about that for a moment.
No plan to manage NZ's resources.
Just allow civil engineering contractors, foresters, and farmers to completely trash the environment in the pursuit of more profit. Believe me – I have worked in the industry alongside someone who worked in the civil engineering industry before the RMA, and some of the stories he has to tell of environmental recklessness carried out prior to the RMA are horrifying.
Indeed I see the effects of open slather on the environment by unthinking engineers, miners, foresters, and farmers every day from my lounge window at low tide. Prior to the 1890's the Firth of Thames was navigable up to the town and there were a number of Jetties and wharfs built out into the Firth from the town to receive freight and passengers off the numerous vessels that sailed to and from Auckland as that was the mode of transportation then. The discharge of silt from the mines, and from the land, as foresters and farmers cut down the hillside and riverside trees, has resulted in extensive mudflats that now prohibit navigation in all states of the tide, except high tide. This is but one example of thoughtless behaviour by industries whose only concern is the pursuit of profit.
The thinking by Collins and her cronies is muddled and fallacious. They simply perceive that the environment is a subset of the economy. Nothing could be more removed from the truth.
Anne Salmond calls it “a Roman circus”.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/anne-salmond-a-roman-circus
First job for any political party is to crush Covid-19 before it crushes you.
Collins wants to crush the government which has a differcult ongoing task to prevent the virus from returning into the community.
I want to hear how Collins would prevent and manage eliminating Covid-19 were it to transmit into the community.
Come 19 September who has better control and management policy over Covid-19 is the winner.
Treetop @ (13.1.1)
"I want to hear how Collins would prevent and manage eliminating Covid-19 were it to transmit into the community."
Same here, but so far no mention of any Covid19 policies or plans re community transmission from Collins, despite how highly contagious the disease is. I believe Amy Adams as former National shadow minister of the CovidV19 portfolio was in the process of putting together a Covid19 policy prior to the leadership change. However on becoming leader, Collins killed it off and as far as I know to date, no National MP has taken over Adams' portfolio. These points say Covid19 does not rate a priority for Collins or National! Not good at all.
Gerry B. is in charge of National’s charge on COVID-19 Border Response. Enough said.
Even if I had a cat I would not ask him to look after it in my absence.
I have just started reading the Roman themed novels of Lindsey Davis with a smart spy called Marcus Falco getting about like Superman, or Batman? The types of problems he deals with in the book I've read aren't too far away from our present selection. He gets to win obviously, as their have been a large number in the series. That winning, or surviving, makes for good light reading with a positive outcome, to combat the negatives so constant.
Collins is also thin on Covid-19 response money.
Survivors are winners. It is the what needs to happen to survive that is the issue for me.
And
To remember that better days are ahead and today I am surviving.
There are many ways of ‘dying’ and only one involves actual medical/biological death. In order to survive, everything is allowed, even self-defence. When people feel their livelihood is under threat, e.g. they might lose their job & status, their house & status, or their business & status, it feels to them as if they’re ‘dying’. They will act accordingly and in line with the threat(s). National is very good at tapping into this raw emotion that includes fear & anger and they don’t shy away from fuelling it.
I get it that a full life is so much better than just existing.
I will settle for surviving for the time being and have control over what I can control.
Anne Salmond is a credible voice from the real world.
Covid-19 needs to be taken seriously, otherwise it will be so serious for the country.
Brownlee was criticising Adern for her planning, the regional lockdowns, as scaremongering.
Does he say that too about earthquake drills and strengthening of buildings against earthquakes? Just asking, for a friend.
It's either here orr the Checkpoint later in the day, unless it was in the Bridges Garner thing. https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/07/duncan-garner-gerry-brownlee-butt-heads-over-national-s-policy-announcements.amp.html
Think of the economic growth when the next lot of leaky building need to be fixed. (Sarc)
I wasn't aware they'd finished repairing the last lot
The never ending story.
Below are the parts of the RMA that Collins hates because they give significant protection to natural resources, especially landscape values.
It would be a disaster if she were to be elected-all of these protections would be thrown on the scrap heap in order to help Collins' money hungry developer mates.
5 Purpose
(1) The purpose of this Act is to promote the sustainable management of natural
and physical resources.
(2) In this Act, sustainable management means managing the use, development,
and protection of natural and physical resources in a way, or at a rate, which
enables people and communities to provide for their social, economic, and cultural
well-being and for their health and safety while—
(a) sustaining the potential of natural and physical resources (excluding
minerals) to meet the reasonably foreseeable needs of future generations;
and
(b) safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soil, and ecosystems;
and
(c) avoiding, remedying, or mitigating any adverse effects of activities on
the environment.
6 Matters of national importance
In achieving the purpose of this Act, all persons exercising functions and
powers under it, in relation to managing the use, development, and protection
of natural and physical resources, shall recognise and provide for the following
matters of national importance:
(a) the preservation of the natural character of the coastal environment (including
the coastal marine area), wetlands, and lakes and rivers and their
margins, and the protection of them from inappropriate subdivision, use,
and development:
(b) the protection of outstanding natural features and landscapes from inappropriate
subdivision, use, and development:
(c) the protection of areas of significant indigenous vegetation and significant
habitats of indigenous fauna:
(d) the maintenance and enhancement of public access to and along the
coastal marine area, lakes, and rivers:
(e) the relationship of Maori and their culture and traditions with their ancestral
lands, water, sites, waahi tapu, and other taonga:
(f) the protection of historic heritage from inappropriate subdivision, use,
and development:
(g) the protection of protected customary rights:
(h) the management of significant risks from natural hazards.
7 Other matters
In achieving the purpose of this Act, all persons exercising functions and
powers under it, in relation to managing the use, development, and protection
of natural and physical resources, shall have particular regard to—
(a) kaitiakitanga:
(aa) the ethic of stewardship:
(b) the efficient use and development of natural and physical resources:
(ba) the efficiency of the end use of energy:
(c) the maintenance and enhancement of amenity values:
(d) intrinsic values of ecosystems:
(e) [Repealed]
(f) maintenance and enhancement of the quality of the environment:
(g) any finite characteristics of natural and physical resources:
(h) the protection of the habitat of trout and salmon:
(i) the effects of climate change:
(j) the benefits to be derived from the use and development of renewable
energy.
Link: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1991/0069/latest/DLM230265.html
There's nothing muddled or fallacious about her and her cronies' callous indifference.
Ms Collins said she had no idea environmentalists were concerned about digging up wetland areas.
While it is illegal to export raw native timber, 3 News understands Oravida is planning to set up a processing plant so it can send the Kauri offshore as a finished product.
Ms Collins said the concerns have nothing to do with her.
"Does that have anything to do with me? Am I the minister of wetlands? Go and find someone who actually cares about this, because I don't," she said.
"There's a large number of our birds that depend on wetlands for their survival," said Dr Smith.
"It's not my issue. I don't like wetlands – they're swamps," said Ms Collins.
This is all comes less than a month after the Victoria Forest Park controversy, when Energy Minister Simon Bridges signed off the biggest forest park in the country for oil exploration, despite never having heard of it.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/environmentsci/collins-wetlands-comments-outrage-environmentalists-2014050617
Collins is NZ's Ch
Trump.The Nats have been environmental vandals since Simon Upton left politics.
At least we know why she wants to ‘drain the swamp’.
Winston Peters has a good memory and hasn’t forgotten that that company that used to call itself Oravida Kauri Ltd dug up the fuel pipeline to Auckland Airport: https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansS_20190925_054675000/peters-winston
I don't know why, but one of many "c" words come to mind.
And was never held to account for that, despite the impact of rescheduling international flights for 3 days.
That was in 2014 Joe. Would be interesting for her to be asked now about her attitude.
The coverup has begun…
No testing = No covid, magic!!!
& Palantr got the contract!
To: Beared Git
Thank you for your Article.
Oravida ( old Mrs Collins says she knows nothing about it) is going to export miles of native timbers to China.
As well, Simon Bridges is going to dig up the largest Wet Lands in Aoteroa and sell the oil off for himself and his national idiots. the Wet Lands will disappear.
For such is the criminality of National Idiots.
I'm quite fond of Krugman, generally speaking. He's scientist enough to be swayed by evidence. I wonder if our Treasury can claim as much.
Krugman writes that he and other mainstream economists “missed a crucial part of the story” in failing to realize that globalization would lead to “hyperglobalization” and huge economic and social upheaval, particularly of the industrial middle class in America. And many of these working-class communities have been hit hard by Chinese competition, which economists made a “major mistake” in underestimating, Krugman says. It was quite a “whoops” moment, considering all the ruined American communities and displaced millions of workers we’ve seen in the interim.
Looks like 'Murica's dirty war has kicked off.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1284173475771412480.html
“A peaceful protester in Portland was shot in the head by one of Donald Trump’s secret police,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote in a Thursday tweet that also called out acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf. “Now Trump and Chad Wolf are weaponizing the DHS as their own occupying army to provoke violence on the streets of my hometown because they think it plays well with right-wing media.”
Civil rights advocates suggested the Trump administration is testing the limits of its executive power.
“I think Portland is a test case,” Zakir Khan, a spokesman for the Oregon chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told The Post. “They want to see what they can get away with before launching into other parts of the country.”
Jann Carson, interim executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, called the recent arrests “flat-out unconstitutional” in a statement shared with The Post.
“Usually when we see people in unmarked cars forcibly grab someone off the street, we call it kidnapping,” Carson said. “Protesters in Portland have been shot in the head, swept away in unmarked cars, and repeatedly tear-gassed by uninvited and unwelcome federal agents. We won’t rest until they are gone.”
http://archive.vn/79fPg (wapo)
Going full Pinochet.
I have been worried about something like this happening for over a month now since the beginning of the protests in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. That teams of Federal law enforcement, with the majority coming from the Bureau of Prisons Disturbance Response Units (they’re trained to go in one on top of each other into cells or areas of Federal prisons and use maximum force to achieve compliance) and C&BP’s equivalents of Rapid Response Units would be deployed to all the major urban areas, especially those with majority or plurality minority populations (African American, Latinx, or a combination of the two). Specifically, that they will be used in an increasingly visible manner over the next 100 days or so culminating in widespread visible use of them during early voting periods and on election day in or near voting precincts, as well as near mail in ballot drop boxes at municipal facilities. A program of voter suppression under color of law. While the mayors and governors of these states who are Democrats will push back, and the Democratic governors won’t allow their National Guard to be pulled into these operations, the states that have Republican governors aligned with the President like Florida, Georgia, Texas, Ohio, etc, even if the cities being targeted have Democratic leadership (Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Cincinnati, etc), will play ball with the President, the Attorney General, and the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security.
[…]
Now that the Republican National Committee is out from under the Federal court imposed requirement not to use paid election monitors, I have long predicted that they would hire off duty law enforcement to work as election monitors while in uniform. While this is what got them in trouble to begin with in the 1980s and resulted in the Federal court order that was finally lifted last year, the RNC knows it works and paired with an escalating use of Federal law enforcement within urban areas between now and the election in November would go along way to suppressing the vote under the color of law.
https://www.balloon-juice.com/2020/07/17/the-federal-police-operations-will-not-stay-in-portland/
Steve Braunias reviewed JC's autobiography: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/readingroom/judith-joylessly
Earlier Steve had this to say in respect of her literary style, following with a prescient comment on the timing of publication:
I found his review intriguing, inasmuch as he makes a strong analytic case for how the autobiography reveals her character. More one-dimensional than I expected…
Whilst pulicising her book "Pull No Punches" I heard Judith Collins say she was writing another book but needed a good punchy title. After the election maybe "On The Ropes Again" could be a goer ?
😊 Would imply acceptance of defeat though. She'd be more likely to frame it to herself as a temporary glitch. Surprising that she's writing another so soon eh? I suspect she will struggle to find motivation to finish it…
She crushes those commas!
I'm a bit puzzled by this. Canadian whose original intention was a 6 week stay here then moving on to London. Then applied for a work visa and wondering why a work visa hasn't been issued pronto but as far as I can see there are now flights available to both Canada and London so he can continue his journey. Also seems to want to undermine just about any working conditions available locally.
Why is there no push back in the story? He has choices other than a work visa.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/122149438/jobseeking-canadian-stranded-by-covid19-struggles-to-get-visa-clarity
Conflicting opinions confuse readers, fatal mistake if you want to win elections. Follow a consolidated message so close to an election. Standing 2 progressive candidates in Auckland Central is stupid. Split the vote and National win. Happened in 3 or four electorates in 2017. No wonder the left is viewed as incompetent, they can not even consolidate their election strategy. Sigh, you have a duty of care re Kiwi's, dont confuse. But then it is said "you cant fix stupid" how true. Seems progressives in NZ a bit slow to comprehend.
[Please pick one user name and stick to it – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
mod note for you above.
"Conflicting opinions confuse readers"
You're new here, so I'll spell it out for you. The site exists to provide space for robust debate. Authors are free to write what they want (there is no editorial control), and frequently disagree with each other. The value in this is that ideas get hashed out and in a strong debate culture the stupid/unhelpful ones tend to torn apart. The useful/interesting ones also get pulled apart and made better. This is normal political process.
Please read the Policy and About so you understand the purpose of the site.
btw, I tend to take a dim view of people who comment in such a way that makes me think they didn't bother to read the post, especially people who then want to use my post to slag off a political party or the left.
Sure, voters like clarity and consistency, which doesn’t mean simple or easy; they’re clever enough and they don’t like being patronised.
So, “the left” is viewed as “incompetent”, presumably by ‘the right’? What do you consider “the left”? Should they talk & act with one voice and pretend they represent ‘the left voters’, whoever those are?
BTW, thanks for picking a different user name but I reckon this could tricky to get exactly right each time; one minor difference/typo will be picked up by the system and your comment will end up pending in Pre-Moderation until a Moderator releases it. Moderators don’t like extra work, least of all in Pre-Election time.
"Split the vote and National win. Happened in 3 or four electorates in 2017."
Sure. That's why National are in government now. They won some electorates.
Lol.
Username = "P.e..?.e….r the other one"
Complains 'the left' is confusing him.
Ok, champ.
Re P.e….?.e…r
"You have a duty of care re Kiwi's, don't confuse"…………………..how confusing do you think it has been for Kiwis to see the billboards "strong team" and then see three different leaders in less than three months, one who swanned in telling us he was going to be the next PM and now, it seems not…….Bennett, Adams and Kaye gone within weeks……………Shadow health minister criticising Labour for the privacy breaches, then whoops a daisy, turns out he knew that his own team had done the leaking all along……
Very confusing of Adams to say retiring for family reasons then shes back! Now she's gone!!!!!
You are new here. Feel free to stick around and note the calibre of the debate. So far your contribution falls well below the standard here. You will be shot down every time you contribute unless you lift your game……….but maybe you can't fix stupid
Commenters and readers here do understand that the latest face of the National Party is not one that will change anything at all with regards the future and direction Jacinda Ardern and her team have set for the country – don't you? The bellowing and posturing from the boiled-down National Party leadership will achieve … nothing at all.
I hope that's true 🙂 (I fear that JC will create some shit and make politics worse, but maybe that will just backlash against her, fingers crossed)
We humans are so easily spooked. If you feel that honesty, sincerity and kindness will prevail, the whipped-up "latest developments" will seem like a light rain on your umbrella.
Judith Collins, weka? Have you so little faith in Jacinda's abilities, her support and the circumstances we find ourselves in to fear the actions of a person like Judith Collins? I see a mangy old tomcat, hissing and spitting with people noticing the rank odour of an animal long past it's prime
A tomcat??
Sure – and a stinker to boot! Tufts of fur missing, mad eye, the whole package.
lol. I have been starting to roll my eyes a bit at all the lefties wanting to talk about National so much. I'm sure she will make good use of that.
Good point, which means that the Left wants to hear and talk about stories from the Left. Where is the overarching story for our future from the progressive Left? Till we have one, we will be tempted, forced almost, to look at S & M show put on for us by the Right. Not only are we a willing audience of (paying) spectators, there’s never a shortage, it seems, of willing volunteers to join in.
we appear to be too busy poking a stick at each other, or ostracising each other, to have a coherent and useful overarching story.
And yep about the audience. The posts about the reactionary stuff will garner more engagement, almost every time.
But that too is a self-defeating narrative and I tend to agree with Robert about confidence and how we choose to position ourselves. Will have to think about this.
" not one that will change anything at all with regards the future and direction Jacinda Ardern and her team have set for the country "
National/Collins certainly won't achieve anything for the country. The question is, can their scorched earth, destructive campaign succeed in its real goal: saving enough Nat MPs to force Ardern to cobble together a government she doesn't really want, instead of a clear win.
We can say "impossible", but then that would be ignoring the lessons of Trump, Brexit, ScoMo, etc.
They do this sh*t because it works.
It won't work here. We can only speculate from this point in time but buying into a nervous, insecure story is a personal choice. Nothing is set in stone, all predictions are ephemeral stories. We seem to enjoy insecurity, but my encouragement is to choose confidence and surety. Whipped-up froth can be blown away by the breath of a person secure in their deep belief; there will always be constant erosion from agencies that thrive on insecurity and you know who clasps those to their bosom.
I like confidence, a lot. But … experience too. For example –
Polls (so far) suggest that for the referendum on legalising cannabis, "No" is leading.
That's based on a fear campaign, not reason and evidence. So I don't think we're really that different from other democracies, unfortunately.
"No" might reflect the population's position and not surprisingly. It's a big stretch and people aren't inclined to go beyond their cultural boundaries. If you don't act with measured, considered confidence, you are agreeing to swirl and twirl with whatever currents are directed your way. What kind of player do you want to be – one at the beck and call of the "other side" or one that chooses a position, intelligently and clearly, then follows that line?
I agree. It's a time of great potential change and the stories we tell determine which way the change goes. Lots of opportunity here. Collins is going to troll the left with everything she's got, best the left find a better story than that reactionary one. What you call measured, considered confidence I might call grounding and knowing our own truth worth.
Agreed Observer
So since the storm in 2011 we had another once in 500 year event.
https://www.teaomaori.news/storm-floods-northland-over-250mm-rain-24-hrs?_ga=2.27954553.498985619.1595039930-1989521011.1595039930
The evening before Muller resigned as leader it crossed my mind that he could.
I am 50/50 about him resigning from the National Party next week. Were Muller to do so I think he would be a good fit for NZ First.
Why don't you just go fund the lincoln project then?
They'd happily take your money.
And past what, all having to be limited to arguing in the small small ideological world of liberalism. – Yeah I'd like to be past that too, but you and your ilk keep limiting the debate.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[I have no patience for this shit. Don’t tell me what to do under my own post, and don’t make out I believe something I don’t. If you’re too stupid or caught up in your bah humbug that you can’t see I’m not supporting liberalism, then stay out of my posts.
You do that sly, manipulative, poking at people shit in a conversation with me one more time and I will ban you, no matter where on site it happens. I opened a door to a conversation with you and you just spit in my face. I’m done.
To make it *really* clear, this is entirely an issue of behaviour not politics. You are quite capable of making political arguments, so make them without flaming and then I will respect you again even if I disagree. – weka].
Well done for proving my point of limiting debate to what you decide what that is – a very small area of liberalism indeed.
Unless your chanting trump bad, trump bad. Your a arsehole and a trump supporter. Downright depressing stuff as it is so fucking juvenile.
No wonder the debate can’t move anywhere. You either have to shut up or nod like a right idiot.
mod note for you above. I suggest you read the Policy to refresh your memory on how to talk to authors.
It's not tiddlywinks.
that we can agree on.
I think Australia has had 16 deaths since they’d ‘eliminated’ and cases surged. Very sad, but a clear indicator you toy with this Coronavirus at your peril.
380 new cases today, 0ver 10500 cases altogether.
The US had 75000 new cases yesterday.
But as Trump says, "it's only cos we do more testing than any other country"
Solution, don't do any testing and the virus will disappear.
So 24 hours ago Judith Collins proposes a full-sized mnotorway from Whangarei to Tauranga, with tunnels and tolls.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2007/S00159/speech-delivering-infrastructure.htm
Today Labour responds with a minor upgrade of Auckland's northwestern motorway for buses, and a cycleway with little transport network use being built on a swamp that will be underwater in most spring tides – and next to impossible to build.
Labour are already very electorally weak on transport, so Collins knows to go for Twyford very hard.
Methinks Labour better have more fuel in the tank of their transport policy if they think they are going to outflank National on transport.
Even though you clearly don’t think much of it, you could at least have provided a link to the Government announcement by two Ministers of which only one is Labour: https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/auckland-transport-infrastructure-revealed
Yeah or you could just turn on the radio or TV news.
Seriously if it deserved a blog post it would have got one. They were all well established projects, just re-released since the Auckland Council cut them. Both Greens and Labour need a better plan this.
It is good form to include a link so that others can read it too and follow up if they wish. People forget here all the time and we remind them here all the time. Without exceptions 😉
That shared path along the Whau River looks amazing.
All projects do at dusk. It's an unlit pathway within 2 metres high mangroves barely above high tide. It's a sea level rise joke.
Ta
Ad doesn’t like it, apparently, but his dislike seems to be more for political than intrinsic reasons although only he could tell us
I thought the right wing were all about choice. It seems that doesn't apply to means of transport to and from work and play.
Thou shalt drive!
Are you referring to Collins and the Nat Party? They like toll roads a lot, apparently, because that gives people a choice. She said so yesterday: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/07/national-s-transport-plan-road-tolls-proposed-congestion-charging-on-the-cards.html
Pretty much.
apparently he doesn't think cycling is transport.
he does have a point about sea level rise though.
A point you will get to see when someone releases his comments from the filter. Or he could just do what four moderators have asked and change his email address and then you would have seen his comments immediately.
Indeed, and they have just had to raise the NW motorway 5m for that reason. 2m of that was because the road had dropped either side of the Oakley Estuary Bridge.
The new bit on the city side of that bridge is already sinking but that is probably due to Steven Joyce cutting corners.
I imagine the Whau River path would be designed to an accepted profile of what is to come.
Maybe it's an easy fix too, unlike a motorway.
I released his two comments about 4 hours after they were submitted because I had been away and nobody else was around, it seems. Ad’s not stupid so I don’t know what his problem is.
On a different note:
https://tewhaupathway.org.nz/have-your-say/
Ad is correct, cycling is not a mode of transport unless you live in the Netherlands.
how do you figure that?
Oops, I forgot the /sarc
However, NZ doesn’t have cycling in its blood or genes like the Dutch, it is not part of the NZ culture and therefore not of the NZ infrastructure, sadly. Maybe with e-bikes and e-scooters it will change, slowly. In Amsterdam, you can easily beat a car or PT on a bicycle with no gears and leg-power only on a short-distance trip. When traffic is shite, the bicycle wins on medium-distance trips too. And it is free!
I think we are getting better but it seems a slog. We'll probably see a freeing up and things moving faster and easier if we get a L/G govt in Sept.
it is beautiful but the first thing I see is taking twice as long to get somewhere. Please tell me the curvy path is because of the landscape, access and engineering, not because someone wanted to make a curvy path?
Artist's impression, perhaps? Design-wise some departure from a straight line is more interesting and might in this case reflect the landscape.
It is an interesting form/function question.
form following function and other form? I don't know the area so don't have a grasp of why they would build it like that. A curve is more interesting, unless you are walking to work and it takes you 20 mins instead of 15. Some people won't mind, others will.
Probably following the tide line.
I don't see a division down the middle of it so that foot and wheeled traffic can keep out of each others way.
It will probably just be the painted line as is the case with other shared paths.
No dividing lines these days – like shared car/pedestrian spaces, the idea is that it makes faster-moving people pay more attention to slower ones.
I see AT is separating that traffic in higher use zones.
https://at.govt.nz/projects-roadworks/northwestern-path-upgrade/
That one is a commuting highway combined with schoolkids walking to school, so yes.
is that cycle way fenced in?
Is there a good reason there'd be a motorway with tunnels and tolls from Whangarei but not tolls at the Waterview tunnel and motorway?
No good policy reason at all.
@ Puckish Rogue,
If you want your commenting privilege back, you need to write a nice and compelling apology to Lprent. Let us know if you want/need the link to when/where things went pear-shaped.
You're advertising for trolls now?
How strange is that!!!
more like we're trolling the troll 😈
I doubt that PR will take up the invitation, I suspect his professed love for the Joker is feigned.
We offer good money to trolls to avoid TS turning into an echo chamber as the shareholders don’t like that 😉 Troll lives matter too
John Lewis has died.
John Lewis, US civil rights hero and Democratic congressman, dies at 80
Lewis helped Martin Luther King organise the March on Washington in 1963 and once suffered a broken skull at the hands of state troopers
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/18/john-lewis-us-civil-rights-hero-and-democratic-congressman-dies-at-80
NZSteel goes into 'strategic review' from its Australian owner.
https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/nz-steel-next-up-for-strategic-review-by-aussie-owner
The review will be released weeks from the election.
First Tiwai Point aluminium, then Marsden Point refinery, now NZSteel. Nearly 10,000 jobs.
This government appears to have no answers to the full decline of our remaining heavy industry, in the course of two months.
Three regions, thousands of well paid jobs. Come on government, do something.
Crikey. Times are tough in Australia. Back to where we were weeks ago.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/300060209/coronavirus-parliament-scrapped-australian-pm-scott-morrison-warned-of-significant-risk
What can be achieved for climate. NZ is a long way behind.
https://interestingengineering.com/south-korea-commits-61-billion-for-net-zero-society-by-2025
I'm liking all these Sooty Shearwaters lining up!
Well there are many here discussing JC. (Not the biblical fellow.)
I would like to discuss the difference between the two Leaders.
Jacinda Ardern has proven herself here and overseas as caring and informed, and is much admired.
JC was given a role that involved going overseas, and true to type she used that occasion to promote her husband's business and herself.
For that and other mis-steps she was demoted by John Key. WOW!!
She hopes we will forget that and trust her with our sick Kauri Covid and Recovery.
Sorry Judith, you just haven't got it, and Tova should have said "You are not a 10..
but you don't listen do you? !!’
Today I have a hoarding on our section for Labour Jacinda and Claire in Rotorua. The stop sign has been shifted or we would have had one for Tamati as well. Go Labour!! I am biased.. Go the Greens as well!!
On a lighter note, wonder if Labour have thought of changing their campaign slogan and billboards to
Strong team, stable leadership
tv add including the blue team jogging in teal, losing team members and pushing each other out of the way, cheating
UK and Aussie bookies have firmed up Ardern slightly since Collins took over…
Kia Ora
The Am Show.
Everyone should have opportunity's to own a whare.
That's correct the system has been screwed in favour of the people who have asset whena at the expense of the people who don't the renters next minute they tell you it's better to rent and quote the trickle down effects year right.
One point I would like to make is there should not be a dividing things like baby boomers millennials race we are all on motherearth together and need to make great choices for our future.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora
Newshub.
Wai Wai every were scientists predicted this but the deniers in the lead decided to ignore the advice.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
Te Ao Maori Marama.
That's is cool teaching tamariki there local Maori history.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora
Newshub.
People working from home will be good for the environment.
I'm sure our government will come up with a fair system for our border quarantine system charging.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora
Newshub.
I think it's a good idea to restrict people going to beaches with indangered creatures.
Ka kite Ano.