Sounds SNP are about to do a deal with May over Brexit.
George Galloway has tweeted.
“Heavy rumour at Westminster the the #SNP has done a deal to save the Tory Government over #Brexit by abstentions in exchange for #IndyRef2 Same old Tories, same old SNP.”
I hope the Waitangi Tribunal have some very strong words in their report so that the inequity and suffering within the system for Māori is addressed.
The perilous state of Māori health has been described as a humanitarian crisis. It’s now under investigation by the Waitangi Tribunal, with more than 200 claimants accusing the Crown of operating a sick, racist system that fails Māori.
… The panel will hear from claimants Māori die earlier and suffer the worst health outcomes
Yep. The strategy has been decided and that is to pile on to the whistle-blower, Jami Lee Ross, framing him as appalling, deranged, a jihadi, etc in the hope any further revelations are met with immediate scepticism and thereby elevating Bridges to higher ground.
Correct and they’ll not recall the hypocrisy/double standards over the last incident of a similar nature.
Except unlike that classic DP smear this is from within with the alleged evidence for police yet granny stands behind the national party line.
An independent public broadcaster would dissect this for the spin it is. You can see why the nats refuse to regulate the media, it’s works just fine for them.
Some people just love kicking another person who’s down. Nobody will come out of this with clean hands and unscathed; even the f-ing useless ‘quiet’ MPs have been complacent if not complicit. Party loyalty and power & control above all and at all cost, it seems …
Paula Bennet comments that she doesn’t know anything then 5:30, then in 20 seconds she knows that the money would go to national sometimes or sometimes not. Whole interview I don’t know then doesn’t throw but shovels dirt e.g. comments on how a married man should behave !!!
Hate to say it BUT PB appears more vicious than Collins.
JLR maybe his worst enemy, BUT the danger to his mental health is alarming
Learning from this Who would enter politics ? So we are left with missing out on great people to lead and support this country of ours.
Jones’s comment about the using of personal MP behaviour being off limits included a reference to those who throw the mud (Bennett) should not be giving advice on marriage. (Paraphrased)Then he walked away. So is Paula being hypocritical?
What Jones actually said, “Marriage discussions in politics are a quagmire, and the notion that Paula, of all people, should be offering marital advice, is dangerous territory,” NZ First MP Shane Jones said.
The description fits him pretty well though, don’t you think? His job seems to have been to hoover up money from ethnic communities which were well-disposed to National in his part of Auckland.
I know there is the “my enemy’s enemies are my friends” rationale and all that but underneath it all JRL is the archetypal grubby Nat politician.
Yeah, she just told Duncan Garner that on-air. Gives it authenticity, for sure! So we aren’t in a good guy, bad guy scenario. More like worse & worser.
Melanie Reid is also a very good investigative journalist and has done some good stuff. She and other woman journos have been working on uncovering sexual harassment for a while now.
JLR is not a hero. He’s as nasty as Bennett, Bridges and Collins – but more brutally ruthless, and is working with a pretty nasty right wing strategist.
See my further comments about Bridges and Bennett under Micky’s post today. Bridges and Bennett do not come out of this looking good. And the history of Collins and her associations with Lusk faction dirty politics don’t make her look that good.
I remember the joe90 tv series it became something of a cult classic.
Ok so if it was an open secret, then why was Paula taken to task for “bringing MP’s personal lives into it”?
Micksavage post from yesterday
“There is an equivalent theory in politics, that you leave other MPs personal lives out of arguments because otherwise you could be subject to a comparable response. There are far too many skeletons in far too many political closets for this to be a viable option.”
They didn’t confront him about his appalling behaviour towards the four women though did they? They didn’t do anything until it became useful to use his behaviour as a weapon in the broader scheme of things.
This exactly. Ross’ alleged behaviour was not sufficiently bad enough to warrant any action (in fact he was promoted to number seven) which might damage the image of stability and unity, until Ross himself began to damage the image of stability and unity.
Convenient that this is coming out now. Makes you wonder the depth of the rot in the National Party that when concerns about Ross were taken to the leadership nothing was done. Or that no-one said anything for fear of damaging the party.
I guess that’s what National’s famed discipline and rock solid unity looks like…
So soimon and Pullya were willing to sweep this under the carpet if JLR did as instructed ? Is this what he meant by natural justice ?
That’s some due process there mr ex crown prosecuter as one even states she brought it to senior party figures awhile back and it’s been going on for years.
Meanwhile back at the alleged electoral act breach……..
“So soimon and Pullya were willing to sweep this under the carpet if JLR did as instructed ? Is this what he meant by natural justice ?”
Maybe you need to have another coffee to wake up tc…If the women did not want to make official complaints there was no more Bridges could do than what he did. Make it clear to JLR he had no future with National.
…here was no more Bridges could do than what he did. Make it clear to JLR he had no future with National. Keep hold of the information until such time as he needed a fall guy for some fuckup of his own…
yeah right.
Bridges didnt act until 3 weks ago till he was pretty sure Ross was the leaker…meanwhile Melanie Reid has had some parts of her story for nearly a year.
So how was Reid to know all this stuff while Bennett or Bridges were all starry eyed and giving Ross some huge promotions
Bridges acted as soon as he was made aware of the allegations 3 weeks ago. JLR going to the back benches.
Even then he was not aware of just how bad it was until the women went public this morning. To which Bridges said JLR would have been booted out weeks ago.
Melanie Reid to her credit obviously sat on the story, until her sources gave the green light after watching JLR bullshit yesterday afternoon.
Totally agree with you, Carolyn_Nth. And interestingly, few people seem to be picking up on Lusk’s entry into all this. But I really do wonder whether JL Ross has bitten off more than he can handle ….. he HAS to win that by-election and the Nats will throw everything at it to make sure he doesn’t.
What identity politics drives… remove ‘fucking useless’ of the wrong ethnicity and from the provinces and instead put forward ethnicities who are more “valuable”.
Discussing party donations, the pair also talked about ethnicities of potential MPs.
“Two Chinese would be nice, but you then know would it be one Chinese and one Filipino, or you know, what do we do,” Mr Bridges said.
“Two Chinese would be more valuable than two Indians, I’d have to say,” Mr Ross said.”
“What is more surprising in the supposedly private conversation between Mr Ross and his Leader Mr Bridges, which has gone public now, is the audacity with which two politicians agree that two Chinese MP’s are better than two Indian MPs, and the fact that someone donating $100,000 to the party seems to have the discretionary right of nominating someone to be Member of the New Zealand Parliament.
Does it not have the potential to compromise NZ’s sovereignty?”
I know some Chinese, and Indian, BTW, people who would make excellent MP’s. However they are too honest, and community spirited, to make it in National.
It doesn’t sound like an ethnicity thing, more like being dishonest and personally motivated plus have cash to burn, buys you access and entry into NZ parliament these days to further feather your nest?
Quite a few honest and principled MP’s of all ethnicity already driven out by dirty politics and harassment, Cunliffe, Norman, Harawira… comes to mind.
Putting aside secret recordings and dramatic stories about dinners with rich donors – the donation returns from some National MPs are fascinating. MPs like Maggie Barry, Judith Collins, Chris Bishop and Jamie Lee Ross only list one donor: the National Party. pic.twitter.com/74mSKYDZFa— Reed Fleming (@reedfleming) October 17, 2018
[…]
Reed Fleming
My theory: the Nats have an opt-in system for MPs to host dinners or otherwise soliciting donations for their candidacy, and direct those donations to HQ which are then funnelled back to them – all for the purpose of ensuring we don’t find out who the donors are.
Reed Fleming
The key thing here is *candidates* have to disclose donations over $1500, but *head office* only disclose if over $15,000.
So, a candidate can hand it over to head office and avoid having to disclose – it’s still a breach of the law, but unless someone leaks it’s hard to catch.
Yeah, seems to be. The Nat/Lab duopoly seem to have required the lawyers who draft legislation to incorporate a mechanism that enables the establishment parties to get large donations in anonymously by subdividing them.
Currently, yeah, but wasn’t the Act legislated in ’89? If so, Labour did it. We could perhaps blame Sir GP, in which case he’d probably say “I just wrote an outline for the drafters, blame the public servant lawyers, not me”.
They had been tinkering a lot.
Electoral Amendment Act 2009
Electoral (Administration) Amendment Act 2010
Electoral (Disqualification of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Act 2010
Electoral (Finance Reform and Advance Voting) Amendment Act 2010
Electoral (Administration) Amendment Act 2011
Electoral Amendment Act 2014
The interesting bit is the current section
209B Offences relating to return of candidate donations
which was amended a few times
Section 209B: inserted, on 1 March 2009, by section 6 of the Electoral Amendment Act 2009 (2009 No 1).
Section 209B(1): replaced, on 25 March 2014, by section 37 of the Electoral Amendment Act 2014 (2014 No 8).
Section 209B(1A): inserted, on 25 March 2014, by section 37 of the Electoral Amendment Act 2014 (2014 No 8).
Notice how quick the new government in 2009 was to work on its priorities
It’s one thing raging against ‘buying’ influence (MPs, honours, status) but it’s another to stoke xenophobia. The EB have been trying to wield influence beyond their place & rights in our society for years, for example, and are still at it, with some success …
EB?? Some joking on the AM show: so the going rate to buy a couple of Nat MPs is 100K, let’s go get ourselves a Newshub MP in the National Party, via crowd-sourced funding. Could become contagious, eh?
Oh, of course. Seems to be an ongoing connection there. Aren’t that outfit big in Oz too? I suppose, from the Nats point of view, plausible deniability suffices: “Look, we just gotta have money. Don’t care who gives it to us. Donor identity doesn’t mean a thing. Fruitcakes are all over the place, not a problem.”
national did have a big overseas donation from a company supposedly based in the small tourist spot of Airlie beach Qld. The records are kept in Sydney though- where the Hales live who control the Plymouth Brethren
The only way to stop it is to end or tighten up donations and have a real penalty attached aka criminal record.
It seems pretty much an ‘intended loophole’ to avoid transparency when all anyone has to do is to split the cheque amounts to ‘pretty legally’ avoid declaring the donation and so many in the political groups are ‘asking’ ‘donors’ to do so.
Didn’t Peter Theil when he ‘bought’ citizenship here after 11 days, give a 1million donation to John Key’s personal ‘earthquake’ trust? Such a murkey world out there in NZ political system these days where MP’s seem to personally benefit from moneys when they bypass the normal systems but nobody says boo or takes them to court over it.
The law currently allows for “buying” politicians. Whether it is electoral donations, Directorships and other positions after politics, or favourable publicity and free advertising.
Time the whole issue was addressed. Maybe public funding only in the basis of party membership? With a limit on fees.
Amazing how National came out with “Democracy under attack” when Labour tried to restrict buying, the political results you want.
Or, maybe we should bring it all out in the open. require MP’s to wear their sponsors logos, as someone suggested for the USA.
Theres been a few false memes repeated lately ….. running from the ignorant to the outright slanderous and dishonest … essentially theres a bit of bullshit and nonsense which needs putting straight … I’ll start with the outright slanderous of this flamebait.
George Galloway …
I can understand why people may not like a politician like Galloway …. but why make up, or repeat, easily disprovable lies about the man.
But then again i have asked for an example of Galloway saying something offensive or outright wrong …… and got a big fat nothing back.
Instead its descended… recently Some dishonest poster wrote outright slander about Galloway …. real slander involving lies …. not like the false slander Wayne Mapp has warned me about,…. for telling the truth about Him.
The dishonest slur claimed against Galloway was he was “Saddams Buddy/Supporter” … We know this is a old outdated lie …. leveled at him by neo-con war criminals…. and refuted by records of Hansard among other evidence…. showing that from 1990 Galloway condemns the Saddam dictatorship ” in the most withering terms”.
…..
So ,,, a) Galloway is staunchly anti the death penalty under any circumstnces … and Saddam killed people on a whim /…..,
And b)Galloway has already refuted this neo-con bullshit … by pointing out he was an opponent of the Saddam dictatorship …. when the usa and Britian were selling him weapons … and gas.
Galloway was against the illegal war based on lies … that the Iraq invasion was…. meaning in 2018 pro war speak … Jenny or Wayne mapp would call him a Saddamist
Also the two neo-con pro war senators attempting to grill Galloway … seem to have been brought by Israel …
…”Following his reelection defeat, Coleman worked as a lobbyist on behalf of Saudi Arabia, during which he advocated for preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, a position also strongly shared by the RJC.”
carl Levin : • Vigorous support for State of Israel against Hamas in Gaza. (Nov 2012) Sponsored funding and supplying the Syrian rebels. (May 2013) … Voted YES on designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as terrorists. (Sep 2007
Anyway 8mins for the saddams buddy bullshit as Galloway battles the Israel lobby … aka the usa senate
Just listened to Melanie Reid and read her story. This is getting creepy.
There seems to be a particular faction of National, based in Auckland, identified with the likes of Slater, Collins, Lee-Ross – basically the dirty politics cabal in Auckland – that is utterly morally and ethically bereft, has a Mussolini level of machismo, and is full of pathologically aggressive and ambitious individuals who are utterly self-entitled and completely open to corruption.
The behaviour of Lee-Ross fits the pattern for this bunch of scarily dangerous people. The chances of National splitting with these guys going off to form a sort of toxic far right party built on imported Tea party/MAGA stuff like gun rights and fundy religion party must surely be getting more and more likely.
So this is what JLR is testing the waters for. Were he to be elected as an independent, then form a political party, he could end up with a few MPs in parliament. Looks as thought he is prepared to take the gamble on running in Botany.
Plan b would be Lusk forming a new political party if JLR is not elected as an independent.
I think there are going to be a lot of by elections in the current term, caused by the National MPs.
Wow, maureen pughs mum is emailing garner with info on how amazing she thinks her daughter is.
Good on mum for sticking up for her child, but unfortunately many many people in the West Coast/Tasman electorate don’t share your views. Especially those in Westland, where she was mayor and hiked their rates big big time.
And some people think maureen is gutless to let simon get away with what he said.
You do know her mum told a massive lie this morning when she said maureen has received the most votes of any national candidate in that electorate?
Do you know the ONLY reason maureen got an award was for being the first female mayor of westland?
Are you aware that maureen has, in the past made public, personal details of people in organisations who do not want people knowing where they live etc? Did you know when a particular organisation contacted her about this, expressing their concern and asking her to remove the info, that maureen didn’t reply to them.
maureen pugh who failed to attend many of the meet the candidates events.
This is the same woman that plunged Westland District Council into massive debt.
If your boss tells others you are fucken useless, what would you do, oh that’s ok your are forgiven. Yeah ok then. pugh is well know for being an agreeable puppet, and she loves loves her fancy new clothes and feeling important.
Crikey she finally makes headlines and for what… for being fucken useless. Currently everyone around these parts is talking about how useless she is, because they know.
Another piece of misinformation …. thats been repeated by those who should know better.
Is that Wiki leaks is bad ,,,, because it does not leak about corporations …. and it lowers trust and faith in Governments….
A normal person would respond ‘yeah ….the corrupt governments certainly lose trust when exposed’ …. john Key on the other hand would have liked a whole lot less fucking leaks … he got some slight staining on his knighthood from them.
And Using the wikileaks search function …quickly showed the first part of the claim is absolute bullshit . ,,,, there are hundreds of thousands of corporate leaks.
Perhaps those making the fantasy claims of “no corporate leaks from wikileaks” ,,,,, are ignorant of this thing called corporate media … and wikileaks lack of control over what those bent bastards publish
Bad things grow in the dark … sunlight is the best disinfectant
“The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings”…….
…..”we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day.
It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.
Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.”
Thanks for that reason i thought that statement sounded like a sockpuppet MSM talking point when TRP wrote it in one of his posts but i was too lazy to check myself
Thats the real takout of the recording of Bridges. he seems so indecisive and finding stuff ‘hard’. Thats what delegation is for – doesnt he have the main players he wants with him, like Paula and Gerry.
JLR has said that Bridges reneged on his promise for Ross and McClay his numbers guys to be leader in the House and Foreign Minister, when Gerry was supposed to go ‘rogue’ if he didnt get one of those jobs.
Best of all though is that, failing any real criminal behaviour on Bridges’ part, his caucus can’t get rid of him now without handing victory to JLR. So he stumbles on fatally wounded. The winners out of all this so far are Jacinda and Winston of course.
Yes – definitely a two-step process: purge JLR at the bye-election, then purge Bridges at a decent interval after that. Frankly I doubt that any of the serious contenders want the job before 2021 anyway, but if the Nat polling crashes under 40% someone will be required to jump in.
And Winston is the big winner – older conservatives worried by Chinese influence, a goldmine for the sly old fox. This I think is the biggest hit to National – their 2020 strategy was to drive NZ1 under 5% and then scaremonger about a ‘radical’ Lab/Grn government. The exposure of the extent of Chinese influence in National really damages that strategy.
Totally agree. Winston gets to spend the next 2 years reminding everyone about the National Party’s ‘relaxed’ attitude to selling candidate places on their list to donors.
yes , they are seeing polls which could mean an independent comes in second and with their preferential voting system then picks up a lot of the other votes and wins.
Even with a one seat majority lost wont mean an early election as other independents have said they support government on confidence and supply
Liberals have held Wentworth since the seat was created not long after Federation. Losing it would be a crippling blow to both the Federal and NSW State governments.
How would we know if we should be concerned when large political donations can be split up, thus fall under the threshold requiring public disclosure?
Jacinda Ardern photographed with Zhang at a Labour Party fundraiser in Auckland in the lead-up to last year’s election (see link below).
Her office said she had not received any personal donations from Zhang, and if the party had received any donations they would have been under the threshold, as none had been declared to the Electoral Commission.
Politics with benefits seem to follow the Natz around… from Wiki about Pugh
“While serving as mayor of Westland District Council, Pugh failed to declare a serious conflict of interest. Hokitika Airport was given a lease to operate a helicopter in the Franz Josef township, a decision which breached numerous council resolutions, whereas other local helicopter operators failed to gain leases and were forced to relocate. Pugh was at the time the director of Westland Holdings, of which Hokitika Airport Ltd is a subsidiary company. It was revealed that she had use her position as mayor to monopolise helicopter travel and tours in Franz Josef. Subsequently the Westland District Council was sued and third party legal reports were released condemning the actions of Pugh.[8] It has also since been revealed that Pugh had attempted to cover-up discussions by other councillors on Westland Holdings Ltd and council-controlled organisations.[9]”
Lmao, I printed that article out re the helicopter and taped it to her office door when her office was in Motueka, the public read it for about 3 weeks before maureen finally appeared and removed it.
Anyone with enough $$$ can be British these days it seems. You don’t actually have to invest anything buy money to buy citizenship… so NZ is not unique – however I don’t think $NZ 100k can get you into the UK parliament (or at least you would hope not!)
The rise in the sale of citizenship, no questions asked….
“Golden passports’ firm was consulted by government over investor visas
Henley & Partners among those consulted before rules were relaxed as ministers pursued global investment”
“Duncan Hames, director of policy at Transparency International, said between 2008 and 2015 there was a “blind faith” period during which 3,000 applicants were granted entry to the UK without checks on the source of their wealth being required.
“The changes lobbied for by law firms in 2010 which were eventually put into law by the government in 2011 made the UK Tier 1 Investor scheme more attractive both to those with legitimate wealth as well as those with illicit funds,” said Hames.”
It’s increasingly hard to understand how any National Party Sikh aspires to Mukti.
But then there are 2 Chinese that are apparently worth more than two Indians – specifically a Bakshi and a Parmar
The temptations appear more powerful than the virtues.
Ugly! very very ugly no matter how hard you dress yourselves up in the superficial
Heaping scorn and pouring filth on a political dissenter.
Jim Mora’s light chat gets ugly and depraved again. The Panel, RNZ National, Thursday 18 October 2018
Jim Mora, Stephen Franks, Lavina Good, Caitlin Cherry
Later in the program, Stephen Franks—an ex-ACT list MP and S.S. Trust supporter— bloviated about his great regard for investigative journalists and stoutly defended their right to secretly record what he called “liars” and “hypocrites.” Of course that was humbug: Franks doesn’t give a toss about free speech and finds the plight of the dissident Julian Assange an occasion for laughter. You can hear him guffawing, along with Jim Mora, during this ridiculing of Assange.
It was written up, obviously by the egregious Caitlin Cherry, on RNZ National’s website in the following sarcastic and flippant manner….
Story of the day for 18 October 2018
So Poor old Wikileaks founder Julian Assange – he’s clearly outstayed his welcome at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, they’re quite cross with him.
JIM MORA: Now, where am I? Oh, I know where I am! I’m about to say to Caitlin, “Story of the Day, please.”
CAITLIN CHERRY: Yeah, so POOR old Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, he’s CLEARLY outstayed his welcome at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, in fact they’re QUITE cross with him. He’s been there since 2012 as I said, and, ahhh, recently they cut off his internet access, ahhh, he IS getting it baa-a-a-aack, but they say it’s only if he cleans his bathroom, —
MORA: Hur, hur!
CAITLIN CHERRY: —- STOPS interfering in the internal affairs of OTHER STATES—
MORA: Hur hur!
STEPHEN FRANKS: Eh?
CAITLIN CHERRY: —AND, most imPORTANTLY, needs to take better care of his CAT. And if he doesn’t, it will be taken to an animal shelter.
MORA: REALLY? He’s been told to stop interfering in the affairs of other states?
CAITLIN CHERRY: And clean his bathroom.
MORA: And clean the bathroom.
CAITLIN CHERRY: Yeah, So, they were, they were QUITE cross with some of his behavior, and, um, if you think it sounds a bit like dealing with a teenager or a bad flatmate, YOU’D BE RIGHT. And so the Guardian has published a VERY informative piece which provides some advice, probably to the Ecuadorian embassy, entitled: “How to Get Rid of an Unwanted Housemate.”
MORA: Hmm! Hmm!
CAITLIN CHERRY: So in it the author, whose name is Juno Dawson, says: “Any of us who have survived the second year of university know the horror of the WRONG ROOM-MATE”—or as we say here, flatmate—“I mean, you could just ask them to leave, but it’s WAY more fun to make life so unBEARable that they’re convinced they’re going of their own volition.”
MORA: Like what?
CAITLIN CHERRY: Well, she has a five-step plan. Number ONE: Even if you’re not a morning person, become a morning person. Get up at six a.m.—
MORA: Hmm, hmm!
CAITLIN CHERRY: —and start using your JUICER!
MORA: Hmm, hmm, hmm!
CAITLIN CHERRY: Or I would use the, um—
STEPHEN FRANKS:[drily] Vacuum cleaner!
CAITLIN CHERRY: Ha ha, yeah, ha! Or the, the one where you make your, y’know, kale smoothie.
MORA: Ha! Ha!
CAITLIN CHERRY: The special noisy whiz! AND she suggests you WHISTLE! You know,
MORA: Oh, whistling! Yeah, that’s a GREAT idea!
CAITLIN CHERRY: Number two: get a PET. So she says Phoebe in the T.V. show Friends opted for a tarantula to try and scare Rachel out of living with Joey, ummmmm, but she says a PUPPY is quite effective because they pee, they howl, and they chew EVERYTHING.
MORA: That’s true. You wouldn’t like that tarantula, would you?
CAITLIN CHERRY: Aww no, tarantulas are gorgeous.
MORA: Oh really? You, you don’t like a white-tail but you’d love a tarantula.
CAITLIN CHERRY: Yeah, they’re kind of fluffy.
MORA: Okay.
CAITLIN CHERRY: Ahhhhh, get a LOVER at ONCE, she says. Ah, she says there’s nothing more repulsive than coming home from a hard day at work to find your flatmate canoodling on the sofa—-
MORA: Hmm!
CAITLIN CHERRY: —with their LOVE.
STEPHEN FRANKS: Hmm, hmm!
CAITLIN CHERRY: And she says, also push your bed up against the adjoining bedroom wall.
MORA: Oh, yes, I suppose, if you’re VERY Machiavellian.
CAITLIN CHERRY: Ye-e-e-e-esss. Ahhhhmmm, steal food from them, and then deny it, when confronted.
MORA: Oh THAT is SHOCKING!
CAITLIN CHERRY: Mmm, hmm.
MORA: That’s a SHOCKING thing to DO.
CAITLIN CHERRY: Aa-a-a-and then leave THEM passive-aggressive notes about stealing YOUR food, or ANYTHING ELSE. So, she says, infect every square inch of the house with your stuff, leave passive-aggressive notes and things like a roster on the fridge.
MORA: When’s it gonna become untenable, emotionally, for Julian Assange to STAY in the Ecuadorian embassy.
CAITLIN CHERRY: Oh look, I would’ve left a LONG time ago if I was him.
MORA: Oh well, he’s a bit SCARED to leave, isn’t he.
CAITLIN CHERRY: Yeah, well. [snort] Who wants to be stuck INSIDE, though, the whole time?
MORA: I know, it’s been a, how many YEARS has it been NOW?
CAITLIN CHERRY: Z[archly] I mean, he can’t HELP but interfere in the affairs of other states.
…..Silence for several seconds
MORA: Uh, a Wellington water slide, you’re getting ACCLAIM for this idea!
the nationals are filled with deceit, depravity and despair.
nothing they do is right.
they are getting drubbed in parliament too.
they are defeated and almost incoherent with bitterness and bile.
it isn’t nice.
and
so what is the cost of a list seat in the nationals party now.
how do they get rid of madame pugh to satisfy a buyer?
Kia ora The Am Show I say that a new Stadium is a good idea we need a great grand stadium for our Sports and Music Stars to shine brightly .
IT will still cost as the land under the old stadium is very valuable.
We have some of the best sports teams in the world they deserve a new stadium.
The concerns I have is global warming sea level rise they will have to include that into the design a environmentally friendly design with solar panels we have a chance to make it efficient wind turbines there are new design one could not even know they are turbines Tesla has some roofing tile that are solar panels . A wahine maori name for the new Stadium . Michael is correct one does not cast a vote for the stadium until they know what deal the business men want and you know they set it up so they always win and kiwis could lose tread lightly.
Its a sad tragedy with the helicopter crash is there something wrong with the machines design??????????.
The Banksy art it is a good way to promote art that know one who the artist is .
Theresa Gattung that’s a good idea SHECEO a wahine business angle fund funded by wahine for wahine I did not no wahine had a harder time getting funding for there business ideas.
Pay transparency is a must to get Equality pay for wahine and our minor cultures
transparency is a must for democracy
Michael Barnett that’s good facts on Stadiums non of them make money if they roof was solar with turbines it would be making money most of the time feeding power into our biggest power consumer Auckland city we would be telling the world we are going Green hard.
With the traffic the authority’s just need to test the 60 klm theory drive at sixty klm 15 mtrs apart its learning off insects we will see how well it works with the Japan Rugby World Cup. Ka kite ano . P.S Ross need support that’s why I am not kicking him
Aotearoa / New Zealand is in one of the best positions to take full advantage of the
Green Energy Revolution WHY Solar and Wind power generation need back up Green power generation and we all ready have those power supplies Hydro and Geothermal
All we need to do is build the solar wind power systems into our generation systems.
Ka kite ano
This is what I don’t get why we don’t grow more fruit and veges for export this say labour the old story is if you want people to work for you treat them fair and reward them . We have the Labour we just need to find the correct systems to produce this export earner Maori have strong links to growing fruit and veges we started the market’s in Aotearoa the government need to foster this .
When Cook first arrived in Turangi a Kiwa Uawa he and Banks were at awe at the sight of the huge gardens grown there there are many fertile soils and flats that could eazly turned in huge profitable organic gardens link is below.
The sandflys have eased up a bit since I last gave them a bit of a education on reality
But they are still following me around at a distance now they are scared of me .
I went to a shop yesterday I know the attendants know about Eco Maori and that the sandflys go and bully them they some time look like scared little birds easy as to see. Well I told one that I have the sandflys stuffed why because I’m Innocent or they would have arrested me a long time ago and also I’m not a STUPID IDIOT + I don’t go around ——- on other people I believe eventually that bad Kama /Wairua will come back and bite you on the—- this is what I teach my offspring treat everyone with respect and life will be ka pai . I say they will try and set me up so if I don’t post my post for more than 24 hours you will know the sandflys cheated .
Kia ora Newshub my mokos turn up sick partner been busy. One moko my treasure painted her face with lipstick lol.
Wellington a block in on the long weekend from truck crashes It looks suspicious to me I think that when there is a accident the investergating should be conducted as fast as possible to stop the stress it put on the public I have seen a road close for 4 hours over a small crash.?????
Its cool that the new surgeon units is up and running our new government is doing its best to correct all the wrong done our health systems.
Yes I have read about the satellite man made moon made in China they are going to use it instead of street lights technology is advancing quickly.
Made cow disease is a bad disease it doesn’t look to bad they must be checking regularly for it.
Its cool some in the World are becoming politically correct with EQUALITY
Ka kite ano. P.S our house has nine Mokopunas in it at the minute wow
The Crowd goes Wild Wairangi & Anna it’s cool that Joseph Parker has a fight line up in Christchurch Ka pai.
The youth Olympic game is cool they are going fine it looks like they won a few medals.
All the best to the New Zealand Breakers Ka kite ano P.S I was getting chewed on last night I just think % 99.9 of the time she fine
Here you some complling evedince that its all – – – – – in the wind when we have people crying foul about animal farming METHANE EMISSION.
The story does not state we should not be concerned about Methane from farm animals it does state that the mitergating effects stopping farm methane will have a minor effect on human caused climate change.
It states that we should consintrait on cutting our carbon emissions as fast as we can link below Ka kite ano P.S I’m quite good at smelling – – – – – – Kia kaha farmers
I have been waiting all day for these results Kerryn Phelph won the Wentworth by election ECO Maori congratulates you on your win this is a message to the pollies our Australian cousins are not taking human caused climate for granted unless they make some positive moves to combat HCCC find another JOB Kia kaha.
Ka kite ano P.S I have a music link for the occasion next post
Some ECO MAORI music for my post above I had this song picked a month ago Kia kaha to all the people who value a better future for OUR offspring link below Ka kite ano
It give me a sore face when I go to another city I can see the sandflys pass the batten in there relay game they play with themselves.
They play intimidation games it mite work on other but it doesn’t work on
ECO MAORI – – – – – Ana to kai
Here a link about the suppression order they are using against me what a SHAM
Eco Maori backs Jeremy Corbyn and Britain staying in the European Union I have made my point on the Britexit in my post to Newshub today links below
I back Jeremy because he is a person who wants to mitigate human caused climate change the oil barons don’t have him in there pockets like Mays party who are cutting green subsides
The redneck sandflys have been aloud to interfere in the treatment of my close whano
once again in Whakatane Hospital the doctor comes in the with a bad attitude and starts talking down to me I give him a Eco Maori serve putting him in line .
Back to the start she had a bad chest infection they gave her pain killers and antibiotics intravenously and discharged her this morning they gave her a prescription of antibiotics and know pain killers .
One would think a 75 year old ———doctor would be able to put his personal biased views on his patients aside and give the correct medication hes a puppet and his muppet m8 are still breaching my whano’s privacy ana to kai
Ka kite ano P.S this is why maori are not getting treated correctly the securityguard’s were following me around like a bad smell
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
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Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
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Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
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Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
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Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
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Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
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Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
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The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
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New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
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Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
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Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
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Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
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The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
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Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
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A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
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The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
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The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
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Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
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The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
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It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
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Sounds SNP are about to do a deal with May over Brexit.
George Galloway has tweeted.
“Heavy rumour at Westminster the the #SNP has done a deal to save the Tory Government over #Brexit by abstentions in exchange for #IndyRef2 Same old Tories, same old SNP.”
“Claytons Brexit” looks like eh?
…says Galloway. But hey, the replies are fun.
https://mobile.twitter.com/georgegalloway/status/1052561715852955648
Rubbish . The Brexit labour Mps will support her to get the numbers
I hope the Waitangi Tribunal have some very strong words in their report so that the inequity and suffering within the system for Māori is addressed.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/107679218/waitangi-tribunal-investigates-sick-racist-health-system-that-fails-maori
Seems the “NZ Herald” is back to earning it’s National Party stipend – naming JLR the “Botany Bag Man”
Yep. The strategy has been decided and that is to pile on to the whistle-blower, Jami Lee Ross, framing him as appalling, deranged, a jihadi, etc in the hope any further revelations are met with immediate scepticism and thereby elevating Bridges to higher ground.
The public are stupid, but not that stupid.
Ahh, they are that stupid. That’s why the Herald does it.
Correct and they’ll not recall the hypocrisy/double standards over the last incident of a similar nature.
Except unlike that classic DP smear this is from within with the alleged evidence for police yet granny stands behind the national party line.
An independent public broadcaster would dissect this for the spin it is. You can see why the nats refuse to regulate the media, it’s works just fine for them.
Some people just love kicking another person who’s down. Nobody will come out of this with clean hands and unscathed; even the
f-ing useless‘quiet’ MPs have been complacent if not complicit. Party loyalty and power & control above all and at all cost, it seems …Paula Bennet comments that she doesn’t know anything then 5:30, then in 20 seconds she knows that the money would go to national sometimes or sometimes not. Whole interview I don’t know then doesn’t throw but shovels dirt e.g. comments on how a married man should behave !!!
Hate to say it BUT PB appears more vicious than Collins.
JLR maybe his worst enemy, BUT the danger to his mental health is alarming
Learning from this Who would enter politics ? So we are left with missing out on great people to lead and support this country of ours.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/107903162/paula-bennett-hints-auditors-could-probe-donation-claim-and-suggests-jamilee-ross-to-blame
Jones’s comment about the using of personal MP behaviour being off limits included a reference to those who throw the mud (Bennett) should not be giving advice on marriage. (Paraphrased)Then he walked away. So is Paula being hypocritical?
What Jones actually said, “Marriage discussions in politics are a quagmire, and the notion that Paula, of all people, should be offering marital advice, is dangerous territory,” NZ First MP Shane Jones said.
The description fits him pretty well though, don’t you think? His job seems to have been to hoover up money from ethnic communities which were well-disposed to National in his part of Auckland.
I know there is the “my enemy’s enemies are my friends” rationale and all that but underneath it all JRL is the archetypal grubby Nat politician.
Starting to look that way, indeed. Check out this: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@politics/2018/10/17/281200/jami-lee-ross-four-women-speak-out
Yep saw that. Melanie Reid claims to have been working on that story for a year?
Yeah, she just told Duncan Garner that on-air. Gives it authenticity, for sure! So we aren’t in a good guy, bad guy scenario. More like worse & worser.
Melanie Reid is also a very good investigative journalist and has done some good stuff. She and other woman journos have been working on uncovering sexual harassment for a while now.
JLR is not a hero. He’s as nasty as Bennett, Bridges and Collins – but more brutally ruthless, and is working with a pretty nasty right wing strategist.
Yeah. The fact that Lusk is running things from the background should be alarming for all of us in here.
+1
“JLR is not a hero”.
Good to hear you say that…
“He’s as nasty as Bennett, Bridges and Collins”
That just undid what you said above and exposes your underlying bias by dragging Bennett, Bridges and Collins into it.
Putting politics aside you should be saying good on Bridges and co for confronting JLR.
See my further comments about Bridges and Bennett under Micky’s post today. Bridges and Bennett do not come out of this looking good. And the history of Collins and her associations with Lusk faction dirty politics don’t make her look that good.
Sounds like his unseemly behaviour was an open secret. and suddenly Bridges and co are to be congratulated for confronting him.
Oh do fuck off.
I remember the joe90 tv series it became something of a cult classic.
Ok so if it was an open secret, then why was Paula taken to task for “bringing MP’s personal lives into it”?
Micksavage post from yesterday
“There is an equivalent theory in politics, that you leave other MPs personal lives out of arguments because otherwise you could be subject to a comparable response. There are far too many skeletons in far too many political closets for this to be a viable option.”
joe90 you can’t have it both ways…
Again, done when it was politically expedient. They were quite happy to bury this same behaviour for months and years previously.
What a grubby, grubby political party.
The disingenuous toad was rightly taken to task for dragging Ross’s wife into the shitstorm.
And now we know that she dressed up her criticism of Ross’s appalling behaviour as an affront to his wife and marriage.
Yeah, both ways.
They didn’t confront him about his appalling behaviour towards the four women though did they? They didn’t do anything until it became useful to use his behaviour as a weapon in the broader scheme of things.
This exactly. Ross’ alleged behaviour was not sufficiently bad enough to warrant any action (in fact he was promoted to number seven) which might damage the image of stability and unity, until Ross himself began to damage the image of stability and unity.
Convenient that this is coming out now. Makes you wonder the depth of the rot in the National Party that when concerns about Ross were taken to the leadership nothing was done. Or that no-one said anything for fear of damaging the party.
I guess that’s what National’s famed discipline and rock solid unity looks like…
Now there’s some grist for the mill.
So soimon and Pullya were willing to sweep this under the carpet if JLR did as instructed ? Is this what he meant by natural justice ?
That’s some due process there mr ex crown prosecuter as one even states she brought it to senior party figures awhile back and it’s been going on for years.
Meanwhile back at the alleged electoral act breach……..
Think of the endless pressure on Labour when the Gisborne MP was accused of assault. Yet Simon and Paula seemed to be willing to hide Ross’s errors.
“So soimon and Pullya were willing to sweep this under the carpet if JLR did as instructed ? Is this what he meant by natural justice ?”
Maybe you need to have another coffee to wake up tc…If the women did not want to make official complaints there was no more Bridges could do than what he did. Make it clear to JLR he had no future with National.
Perhaps he could have tried not to promote Ross to the front bench.
…here was no more Bridges could do than what he did.
Make it clear to JLR he had no future with National.Keep hold of the information until such time as he needed a fall guy for some fuckup of his own…There FIFY
yeah right.
Bridges didnt act until 3 weks ago till he was pretty sure Ross was the leaker…meanwhile Melanie Reid has had some parts of her story for nearly a year.
So how was Reid to know all this stuff while Bennett or Bridges were all starry eyed and giving Ross some huge promotions
Bridges acted as soon as he was made aware of the allegations 3 weeks ago. JLR going to the back benches.
Even then he was not aware of just how bad it was until the women went public this morning. To which Bridges said JLR would have been booted out weeks ago.
Melanie Reid to her credit obviously sat on the story, until her sources gave the green light after watching JLR bullshit yesterday afternoon.
That’s not THE HERALD. It’s David Fisher who is one of the very good investigative journalists at NZ Herald.
I agree with what he has to say about Lusk’s long game.
Pay attention folks, or you will miss the overall direction Nats and client parties are going in. The enemy of my enemy is not my friend.
Totally agree with you, Carolyn_Nth. And interestingly, few people seem to be picking up on Lusk’s entry into all this. But I really do wonder whether JL Ross has bitten off more than he can handle ….. he HAS to win that by-election and the Nats will throw everything at it to make sure he doesn’t.
Peter Dunne is the latest to have a go at Paula Bennett. Whatever else happens I hope this awful woman is finished. She’s a nasty, nasty piece of work.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/content/tvnz/onenews/story/2018/10/17/dragging-jami-lee-ross-private-life-into-nationals-spat-a-new-lo.html
The nasty pieces of work party.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/10/17/281200/jami-lee-ross-four-women-speak-out
Yep.
It will interesting to see what damage has been done to National’s successful outreach programme with the Chinese and Indian communities in Auckland?
What identity politics drives… remove ‘fucking useless’ of the wrong ethnicity and from the provinces and instead put forward ethnicities who are more “valuable”.
Discussing party donations, the pair also talked about ethnicities of potential MPs.
“Two Chinese would be nice, but you then know would it be one Chinese and one Filipino, or you know, what do we do,” Mr Bridges said.
“Two Chinese would be more valuable than two Indians, I’d have to say,” Mr Ross said.”
“What is more surprising in the supposedly private conversation between Mr Ross and his Leader Mr Bridges, which has gone public now, is the audacity with which two politicians agree that two Chinese MP’s are better than two Indian MPs, and the fact that someone donating $100,000 to the party seems to have the discretionary right of nominating someone to be Member of the New Zealand Parliament.
Does it not have the potential to compromise NZ’s sovereignty?”
https://www.indianweekender.co.nz/Pages/ArticleDetails/7/9938/New-Zealand/What-Two-Chinese-MPs-are-more-valuable-than-two-Indian-MPs-What-makes-you-think
I know some Chinese, and Indian, BTW, people who would make excellent MP’s. However they are too honest, and community spirited, to make it in National.
It doesn’t sound like an ethnicity thing, more like being dishonest and personally motivated plus have cash to burn, buys you access and entry into NZ parliament these days to further feather your nest?
Quite a few honest and principled MP’s of all ethnicity already driven out by dirty politics and harassment, Cunliffe, Norman, Harawira… comes to mind.
The laundry party.
[…]
Reed Fleming
My theory: the Nats have an opt-in system for MPs to host dinners or otherwise soliciting donations for their candidacy, and direct those donations to HQ which are then funnelled back to them – all for the purpose of ensuring we don’t find out who the donors are.
Reed Fleming
The key thing here is *candidates* have to disclose donations over $1500, but *head office* only disclose if over $15,000.
So, a candidate can hand it over to head office and avoid having to disclose – it’s still a breach of the law, but unless someone leaks it’s hard to catch.
https://twitter.com/reedfleming/status/1052467582379352064
It’s all pretty legal, isn’t it?
Yeah, seems to be. The Nat/Lab duopoly seem to have required the lawyers who draft legislation to incorporate a mechanism that enables the establishment parties to get large donations in anonymously by subdividing them.
Think you’ll find that’s nationals tinkering with that evil EFA they were going to rescind if elected…..they tweaked it to suit their own ends.
Currently, yeah, but wasn’t the Act legislated in ’89? If so, Labour did it. We could perhaps blame Sir GP, in which case he’d probably say “I just wrote an outline for the drafters, blame the public servant lawyers, not me”.
I was wrong: 1993 for the Electoral Act. National under Bolger. Unless it has been modified since, blame them for the loophole.
They had been tinkering a lot.
Electoral Amendment Act 2009
Electoral (Administration) Amendment Act 2010
Electoral (Disqualification of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Act 2010
Electoral (Finance Reform and Advance Voting) Amendment Act 2010
Electoral (Administration) Amendment Act 2011
Electoral Amendment Act 2014
The interesting bit is the current section
209B Offences relating to return of candidate donations
which was amended a few times
Section 209B: inserted, on 1 March 2009, by section 6 of the Electoral Amendment Act 2009 (2009 No 1).
Section 209B(1): replaced, on 25 March 2014, by section 37 of the Electoral Amendment Act 2014 (2014 No 8).
Section 209B(1A): inserted, on 25 March 2014, by section 37 of the Electoral Amendment Act 2014 (2014 No 8).
Notice how quick the new government in 2009 was to work on its priorities
Oh Yes National – The 2nd Colonisation
Goodbye New Zealand
Hello China
It’s one thing raging against ‘buying’ influence (MPs, honours, status) but it’s another to stoke xenophobia. The EB have been trying to wield influence beyond their place & rights in our society for years, for example, and are still at it, with some success …
EB?? Some joking on the AM show: so the going rate to buy a couple of Nat MPs is 100K, let’s go get ourselves a Newshub MP in the National Party, via crowd-sourced funding. Could become contagious, eh?
The Exclusive Brethren.
Oh, of course. Seems to be an ongoing connection there. Aren’t that outfit big in Oz too? I suppose, from the Nats point of view, plausible deniability suffices: “Look, we just gotta have money. Don’t care who gives it to us. Donor identity doesn’t mean a thing. Fruitcakes are all over the place, not a problem.”
national did have a big overseas donation from a company supposedly based in the small tourist spot of Airlie beach Qld. The records are kept in Sydney though- where the Hales live who control the Plymouth Brethren
No it is the tip of an iceberg which hopefully will sink them.
The only way to stop it is to end or tighten up donations and have a real penalty attached aka criminal record.
It seems pretty much an ‘intended loophole’ to avoid transparency when all anyone has to do is to split the cheque amounts to ‘pretty legally’ avoid declaring the donation and so many in the political groups are ‘asking’ ‘donors’ to do so.
OK $30k for fake cafe job pa, $100k for nomination to be an MP here.
Better value for money, to buy the MP job.
A donation of equal value perhaps to both Labour and Natz to buy the New Zealand Order of Merit?
Where are the records of JKs donations. I know someone who gave him 10K. Sounds illegal.
Didn’t Peter Theil when he ‘bought’ citizenship here after 11 days, give a 1million donation to John Key’s personal ‘earthquake’ trust? Such a murkey world out there in NZ political system these days where MP’s seem to personally benefit from moneys when they bypass the normal systems but nobody says boo or takes them to court over it.
The law currently allows for “buying” politicians. Whether it is electoral donations, Directorships and other positions after politics, or favourable publicity and free advertising.
Time the whole issue was addressed. Maybe public funding only in the basis of party membership? With a limit on fees.
Amazing how National came out with “Democracy under attack” when Labour tried to restrict buying, the political results you want.
Or, maybe we should bring it all out in the open. require MP’s to wear their sponsors logos, as someone suggested for the USA.
Corruption is way too easy to get away with.
Theres been a few false memes repeated lately ….. running from the ignorant to the outright slanderous and dishonest … essentially theres a bit of bullshit and nonsense which needs putting straight … I’ll start with the outright slanderous of this flamebait.
George Galloway …
I can understand why people may not like a politician like Galloway …. but why make up, or repeat, easily disprovable lies about the man.
But then again i have asked for an example of Galloway saying something offensive or outright wrong …… and got a big fat nothing back.
Instead its descended… recently Some dishonest poster wrote outright slander about Galloway …. real slander involving lies …. not like the false slander Wayne Mapp has warned me about,…. for telling the truth about Him.
The dishonest slur claimed against Galloway was he was “Saddams Buddy/Supporter” … We know this is a old outdated lie …. leveled at him by neo-con war criminals…. and refuted by records of Hansard among other evidence…. showing that from 1990 Galloway condemns the Saddam dictatorship ” in the most withering terms”.
…..
So ,,, a) Galloway is staunchly anti the death penalty under any circumstnces … and Saddam killed people on a whim /…..,
And b)Galloway has already refuted this neo-con bullshit … by pointing out he was an opponent of the Saddam dictatorship …. when the usa and Britian were selling him weapons … and gas.
Galloway was against the illegal war based on lies … that the Iraq invasion was…. meaning in 2018 pro war speak … Jenny or Wayne mapp would call him a Saddamist
Also the two neo-con pro war senators attempting to grill Galloway … seem to have been brought by Israel …
…”Following his reelection defeat, Coleman worked as a lobbyist on behalf of Saudi Arabia, during which he advocated for preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, a position also strongly shared by the RJC.”
carl Levin : • Vigorous support for State of Israel against Hamas in Gaza. (Nov 2012) Sponsored funding and supplying the Syrian rebels. (May 2013) … Voted YES on designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as terrorists. (Sep 2007
Anyway 8mins for the saddams buddy bullshit as Galloway battles the Israel lobby … aka the usa senate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5u1skEoqLs
I admire Galloway.
A brave and courageous man who stood up to the warmongers over Iraq.
His political nous is strong.
This is just nuts.
Just listened to Melanie Reid and read her story. This is getting creepy.
There seems to be a particular faction of National, based in Auckland, identified with the likes of Slater, Collins, Lee-Ross – basically the dirty politics cabal in Auckland – that is utterly morally and ethically bereft, has a Mussolini level of machismo, and is full of pathologically aggressive and ambitious individuals who are utterly self-entitled and completely open to corruption.
The behaviour of Lee-Ross fits the pattern for this bunch of scarily dangerous people. The chances of National splitting with these guys going off to form a sort of toxic far right party built on imported Tea party/MAGA stuff like gun rights and fundy religion party must surely be getting more and more likely.
Slater isn’t a politician, Collin’s hasn’t even been mentioned and Ross from this
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/10/17/281200/jami-lee-ross-four-women-speak-out
Sounds like a very very “special” kind of guy.
So I don’t get how that makes either the entire National party evil, or in the realms of possible that Ross and Collin’s are going to form a new party
worth noting the incredibly convenient timing of such an article
So this is what JLR is testing the waters for. Were he to be elected as an independent, then form a political party, he could end up with a few MPs in parliament. Looks as thought he is prepared to take the gamble on running in Botany.
Plan b would be Lusk forming a new political party if JLR is not elected as an independent.
I think there are going to be a lot of by elections in the current term, caused by the National MPs.
Wow, maureen pughs mum is emailing garner with info on how amazing she thinks her daughter is.
Good on mum for sticking up for her child, but unfortunately many many people in the West Coast/Tasman electorate don’t share your views. Especially those in Westland, where she was mayor and hiked their rates big big time.
And some people think maureen is gutless to let simon get away with what he said.
Did you see Pugh’s response to Bridges apology? I would not classify her as gutless…quite the opposite.
Good on her mum for coming into to bat for her!
Maureen Pugh seems like a nice lady but her boss, Simon Bridges, thinks she is “fucking useless”.
What a lovely boss that Simon Bridges is…
It is possible to be both
Chuck, you do know her mum has dementia?
You do know her mum told a massive lie this morning when she said maureen has received the most votes of any national candidate in that electorate?
Do you know the ONLY reason maureen got an award was for being the first female mayor of westland?
Are you aware that maureen has, in the past made public, personal details of people in organisations who do not want people knowing where they live etc? Did you know when a particular organisation contacted her about this, expressing their concern and asking her to remove the info, that maureen didn’t reply to them.
maureen pugh who failed to attend many of the meet the candidates events.
This is the same woman that plunged Westland District Council into massive debt.
If your boss tells others you are fucken useless, what would you do, oh that’s ok your are forgiven. Yeah ok then. pugh is well know for being an agreeable puppet, and she loves loves her fancy new clothes and feeling important.
Crikey she finally makes headlines and for what… for being fucken useless. Currently everyone around these parts is talking about how useless she is, because they know.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast-Tasman
maureen has never received more votes than her national party predecessor.
Cinny, no I did not.
My point in this was when Bridges discussed Pugh as fucken useless it was in private. And Pugh’s reply was dignified.
However, Bridges assessment seems to be 100% correct with the local insight you have provided!
she may or may not be a nice person to some, but as an MP…. simon spoke the truth.
Pughs response was written by the wordsmiths in party/parliament HQ.
They would have a whole chapter on ‘lemons into lemonade’
I wouldnt be surprised they have bought back Mark Textor in for top level advice on this.
And Bridges thinks all he has to do is unreservedly apologise.
AND to think all of this came from expenses leaked 3 DAYS EARLY!!!!
“Gutless”
I’d hazard a guess she is afraid.
Tune for the day….I thought “Cocker” was apt….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCrlyX6XbTU
Although, ‘beetles’ works….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Oct1Qv8x0
Another piece of misinformation …. thats been repeated by those who should know better.
Is that Wiki leaks is bad ,,,, because it does not leak about corporations …. and it lowers trust and faith in Governments….
A normal person would respond ‘yeah ….the corrupt governments certainly lose trust when exposed’ …. john Key on the other hand would have liked a whole lot less fucking leaks … he got some slight staining on his knighthood from them.
And Using the wikileaks search function …quickly showed the first part of the claim is absolute bullshit . ,,,, there are hundreds of thousands of corporate leaks.
Perhaps those making the fantasy claims of “no corporate leaks from wikileaks” ,,,,, are ignorant of this thing called corporate media … and wikileaks lack of control over what those bent bastards publish
Wikileaks
Searching for british petroleum 16,076 results
IBM https://search.wikileaks.org/?q=IBM ………..12,797 results
https://search.wikileaks.org/?q=merrill+lynch 4,630 results
apple ……… 29,770 results
blackwater………. https://search.wikileaks.org/?q=blackwater …3,346 results
https://search.wikileaks.org/?q=Westpac …. 1,017 results
https://search.wikileaks.org/?q=Fonterra ……250 results
Bad things grow in the dark … sunlight is the best disinfectant
“The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings”…….
…..”we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day.
It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.
Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.”
― President John F. Kennedy
Comment of the day, reason.
Still waiting for this Current Mob to put their ‘transparent and open government’ spin into practice.
https://treasury.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2013-05/ris-moh-fcc-may13.pdf
How many of those are leaks from the search keyword, and how many are leaks from others (usually USG) about the search keyword.
There are lots of leaks about Russia in the diplomatic cables, for example, but how many of them are from Russia as well?
Thanks for that reason i thought that statement sounded like a sockpuppet MSM talking point when TRP wrote it in one of his posts but i was too lazy to check myself
Soper gets to the heart of it, which is just how fucking hopeless Bridges really is.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12144225
Thats the real takout of the recording of Bridges. he seems so indecisive and finding stuff ‘hard’. Thats what delegation is for – doesnt he have the main players he wants with him, like Paula and Gerry.
JLR has said that Bridges reneged on his promise for Ross and McClay his numbers guys to be leader in the House and Foreign Minister, when Gerry was supposed to go ‘rogue’ if he didnt get one of those jobs.
Best of all though is that, failing any real criminal behaviour on Bridges’ part, his caucus can’t get rid of him now without handing victory to JLR. So he stumbles on fatally wounded. The winners out of all this so far are Jacinda and Winston of course.
Yes – definitely a two-step process: purge JLR at the bye-election, then purge Bridges at a decent interval after that. Frankly I doubt that any of the serious contenders want the job before 2021 anyway, but if the Nat polling crashes under 40% someone will be required to jump in.
And Winston is the big winner – older conservatives worried by Chinese influence, a goldmine for the sly old fox. This I think is the biggest hit to National – their 2020 strategy was to drive NZ1 under 5% and then scaremonger about a ‘radical’ Lab/Grn government. The exposure of the extent of Chinese influence in National really damages that strategy.
Totally agree. Winston gets to spend the next 2 years reminding everyone about the National Party’s ‘relaxed’ attitude to selling candidate places on their list to donors.
Fairfax Australia is reporting that Canberra’s sudden (and surprising) decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move their embassy there, overturning decades of foreign policy may just have been an attempt to shore up the considerable Jewish vote in east Sydney ahead of Saturday’s by election in Wentworth.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/it-kicked-off-with-a-flurry-of-phonecalls-scott-morrison-s-dramatic-foreign-policy-u-turn-20181017-p50a70.html
yes , they are seeing polls which could mean an independent comes in second and with their preferential voting system then picks up a lot of the other votes and wins.
Even with a one seat majority lost wont mean an early election as other independents have said they support government on confidence and supply
Liberals have held Wentworth since the seat was created not long after Federation. Losing it would be a crippling blow to both the Federal and NSW State governments.
And the independent candidate in that by-election Dr Kerryn Phelps, who’s proving a real threat to Liberal hopes of retaining the seat, has been the victim of a particularly nasty smear. Emails have circulated telling voters she’s pulled out of the race because she has HIV.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-17/wentworth-by-election-fake-email-claims-kerryn-phelps-has-hiv/10382406
Libs dirty tricks
Well now
https://media.giphy.com/media/pUeXcg80cO8I8/giphy.gif
How would we know if we should be concerned when large political donations can be split up, thus fall under the threshold requiring public disclosure?
Jacinda Ardern photographed with Zhang at a Labour Party fundraiser in Auckland in the lead-up to last year’s election (see link below).
Her office said she had not received any personal donations from Zhang, and if the party had received any donations they would have been under the threshold, as none had been declared to the Electoral Commission.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@pro/2018/10/17/281366/question-of-china-influence-in-zhang-yikun-saga
Politics with benefits seem to follow the Natz around… from Wiki about Pugh
“While serving as mayor of Westland District Council, Pugh failed to declare a serious conflict of interest. Hokitika Airport was given a lease to operate a helicopter in the Franz Josef township, a decision which breached numerous council resolutions, whereas other local helicopter operators failed to gain leases and were forced to relocate. Pugh was at the time the director of Westland Holdings, of which Hokitika Airport Ltd is a subsidiary company. It was revealed that she had use her position as mayor to monopolise helicopter travel and tours in Franz Josef. Subsequently the Westland District Council was sued and third party legal reports were released condemning the actions of Pugh.[8] It has also since been revealed that Pugh had attempted to cover-up discussions by other councillors on Westland Holdings Ltd and council-controlled organisations.[9]”
Lmao, I printed that article out re the helicopter and taped it to her office door when her office was in Motueka, the public read it for about 3 weeks before maureen finally appeared and removed it.
What was Pughs connection to the helicopter company?
As mayor its a normal thing to be a director of the Council CCO Westland Holdings, Im sure shes replaced by current mayor or councillors
Anyone with enough $$$ can be British these days it seems. You don’t actually have to invest anything buy money to buy citizenship… so NZ is not unique – however I don’t think $NZ 100k can get you into the UK parliament (or at least you would hope not!)
The rise in the sale of citizenship, no questions asked….
“Golden passports’ firm was consulted by government over investor visas
Henley & Partners among those consulted before rules were relaxed as ministers pursued global investment”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/17/golden-passports-firm-was-consulted-by-government-over-investor-visas
“Duncan Hames, director of policy at Transparency International, said between 2008 and 2015 there was a “blind faith” period during which 3,000 applicants were granted entry to the UK without checks on the source of their wealth being required.
“The changes lobbied for by law firms in 2010 which were eventually put into law by the government in 2011 made the UK Tier 1 Investor scheme more attractive both to those with legitimate wealth as well as those with illicit funds,” said Hames.”
Good to see a few new faces amidst the institutional Usual Suspects in the PM’s new Business Advisory Council.
Note there is also a Small Business Advisory Council as well .
Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council members
Christopher Luxon (Chair) Air New Zealand
Peter Beck – Rocket Lab
Barbara Chapman – Professional director (started as Genesis Chair on 10 Oct)
Jacqui Coombes – Bunnings
Anna Curzon – Xero
Andrew Grant – McKinsey & Company
Miles Hurrell – Fonterra
Bailey Mackey – Pango Productions
David McLean – Westpac
Joc O’Donnell – HW Richardson
Gretta Stephens – Bluescope/NZ Steel
Rachel Taulelei – Kono
Fraser Whineray – Mercury
Britain fell for a neoliberal con trick – even the IMF says so | Aditya Chakrabortty
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/17/economic-lies-neoliberalism-taxpayers?CMP=share_btn_fb
Someone should tell National, and Labour!
It’s increasingly hard to understand how any National Party Sikh aspires to Mukti.
But then there are 2 Chinese that are apparently worth more than two Indians – specifically a Bakshi and a Parmar
The temptations appear more powerful than the virtues.
Ugly! very very ugly no matter how hard you dress yourselves up in the superficial
Heaping scorn and pouring filth on a political dissenter.
Jim Mora’s light chat gets ugly and depraved again.
The Panel, RNZ National, Thursday 18 October 2018
Jim Mora, Stephen Franks, Lavina Good, Caitlin Cherry
Later in the program, Stephen Franks—an ex-ACT list MP and S.S. Trust supporter— bloviated about his great regard for investigative journalists and stoutly defended their right to secretly record what he called “liars” and “hypocrites.” Of course that was humbug: Franks doesn’t give a toss about free speech and finds the plight of the dissident Julian Assange an occasion for laughter. You can hear him guffawing, along with Jim Mora, during this ridiculing of Assange.
It was written up, obviously by the egregious Caitlin Cherry, on RNZ National’s website in the following sarcastic and flippant manner….
JIM MORA: Now, where am I? Oh, I know where I am! I’m about to say to Caitlin, “Story of the Day, please.”
CAITLIN CHERRY: Yeah, so POOR old Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, he’s CLEARLY outstayed his welcome at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, in fact they’re QUITE cross with him. He’s been there since 2012 as I said, and, ahhh, recently they cut off his internet access, ahhh, he IS getting it baa-a-a-aack, but they say it’s only if he cleans his bathroom, —
MORA: Hur, hur!
CAITLIN CHERRY: —- STOPS interfering in the internal affairs of OTHER STATES—
MORA: Hur hur!
STEPHEN FRANKS: Eh?
CAITLIN CHERRY: —AND, most imPORTANTLY, needs to take better care of his CAT. And if he doesn’t, it will be taken to an animal shelter.
MORA: REALLY? He’s been told to stop interfering in the affairs of other states?
CAITLIN CHERRY: And clean his bathroom.
MORA: And clean the bathroom.
CAITLIN CHERRY: Yeah, So, they were, they were QUITE cross with some of his behavior, and, um, if you think it sounds a bit like dealing with a teenager or a bad flatmate, YOU’D BE RIGHT. And so the Guardian has published a VERY informative piece which provides some advice, probably to the Ecuadorian embassy, entitled: “How to Get Rid of an Unwanted Housemate.”
MORA: Hmm! Hmm!
CAITLIN CHERRY: So in it the author, whose name is Juno Dawson, says: “Any of us who have survived the second year of university know the horror of the WRONG ROOM-MATE”—or as we say here, flatmate—“I mean, you could just ask them to leave, but it’s WAY more fun to make life so unBEARable that they’re convinced they’re going of their own volition.”
MORA: Like what?
CAITLIN CHERRY: Well, she has a five-step plan. Number ONE: Even if you’re not a morning person, become a morning person. Get up at six a.m.—
MORA: Hmm, hmm!
CAITLIN CHERRY: —and start using your JUICER!
MORA: Hmm, hmm, hmm!
CAITLIN CHERRY: Or I would use the, um—
STEPHEN FRANKS: [drily] Vacuum cleaner!
CAITLIN CHERRY: Ha ha, yeah, ha! Or the, the one where you make your, y’know, kale smoothie.
MORA: Ha! Ha!
CAITLIN CHERRY: The special noisy whiz! AND she suggests you WHISTLE! You know,
MORA: Oh, whistling! Yeah, that’s a GREAT idea!
CAITLIN CHERRY: Number two: get a PET. So she says Phoebe in the T.V. show Friends opted for a tarantula to try and scare Rachel out of living with Joey, ummmmm, but she says a PUPPY is quite effective because they pee, they howl, and they chew EVERYTHING.
MORA: That’s true. You wouldn’t like that tarantula, would you?
CAITLIN CHERRY: Aww no, tarantulas are gorgeous.
MORA: Oh really? You, you don’t like a white-tail but you’d love a tarantula.
CAITLIN CHERRY: Yeah, they’re kind of fluffy.
MORA: Okay.
CAITLIN CHERRY: Ahhhhh, get a LOVER at ONCE, she says. Ah, she says there’s nothing more repulsive than coming home from a hard day at work to find your flatmate canoodling on the sofa—-
MORA: Hmm!
CAITLIN CHERRY: —with their LOVE.
STEPHEN FRANKS: Hmm, hmm!
CAITLIN CHERRY: And she says, also push your bed up against the adjoining bedroom wall.
MORA: Oh, yes, I suppose, if you’re VERY Machiavellian.
CAITLIN CHERRY: Ye-e-e-e-esss. Ahhhhmmm, steal food from them, and then deny it, when confronted.
MORA: Oh THAT is SHOCKING!
CAITLIN CHERRY: Mmm, hmm.
MORA: That’s a SHOCKING thing to DO.
CAITLIN CHERRY: Aa-a-a-and then leave THEM passive-aggressive notes about stealing YOUR food, or ANYTHING ELSE. So, she says, infect every square inch of the house with your stuff, leave passive-aggressive notes and things like a roster on the fridge.
MORA: When’s it gonna become untenable, emotionally, for Julian Assange to STAY in the Ecuadorian embassy.
CAITLIN CHERRY: Oh look, I would’ve left a LONG time ago if I was him.
MORA: Oh well, he’s a bit SCARED to leave, isn’t he.
CAITLIN CHERRY: Yeah, well. [snort] Who wants to be stuck INSIDE, though, the whole time?
MORA: I know, it’s been a, how many YEARS has it been NOW?
CAITLIN CHERRY: Z[archly] I mean, he can’t HELP but interfere in the affairs of other states.
…..Silence for several seconds
MORA: Uh, a Wellington water slide, you’re getting ACCLAIM for this idea!
CAITLIN CHERRY: Excellent!
MORA: Uh, from texters. …..
ad nauseam….
Five years ago, the hatchet-wielding producer was Susan Balducci:
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14062013/#comment-648511
Stalin’s henchmen used to laugh about the plight of dissidents in a similar fashion.
Utterly appalling.
Putting the boot in when someone’s down and attacking the dissident.
It would look good in Pinochet’s Chile.
As you correctly put it, depraved.
Mora, behind that jovial front, is just another self-serving narcissist.
BBC World Hardtalk interviewer Stephen Sackur constantly cutting over and drowning out Varoufakis and trying to frame the argument in his own terms!
27/9/2918
(https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2018/10/01/why-is-the-left-failing-in-continental-europe-while-doing-well-in-the-uk-under-jeremy-corbyn-what-is-diem25-proposing-for-the-may-2019-european-parliament-elections-across-europe-on-bbc-worlds-ha/
the nationals are filled with deceit, depravity and despair.
nothing they do is right.
they are getting drubbed in parliament too.
they are defeated and almost incoherent with bitterness and bile.
it isn’t nice.
and
so what is the cost of a list seat in the nationals party now.
how do they get rid of madame pugh to satisfy a buyer?
$50 000 per seat.
Cash for candidacy.
Roll up. Roll up.
Simon’s got a great deal for you…….
Kia ora The Am Show I say that a new Stadium is a good idea we need a great grand stadium for our Sports and Music Stars to shine brightly .
IT will still cost as the land under the old stadium is very valuable.
We have some of the best sports teams in the world they deserve a new stadium.
The concerns I have is global warming sea level rise they will have to include that into the design a environmentally friendly design with solar panels we have a chance to make it efficient wind turbines there are new design one could not even know they are turbines Tesla has some roofing tile that are solar panels . A wahine maori name for the new Stadium . Michael is correct one does not cast a vote for the stadium until they know what deal the business men want and you know they set it up so they always win and kiwis could lose tread lightly.
Its a sad tragedy with the helicopter crash is there something wrong with the machines design??????????.
The Banksy art it is a good way to promote art that know one who the artist is .
Theresa Gattung that’s a good idea SHECEO a wahine business angle fund funded by wahine for wahine I did not no wahine had a harder time getting funding for there business ideas.
Pay transparency is a must to get Equality pay for wahine and our minor cultures
transparency is a must for democracy
Michael Barnett that’s good facts on Stadiums non of them make money if they roof was solar with turbines it would be making money most of the time feeding power into our biggest power consumer Auckland city we would be telling the world we are going Green hard.
With the traffic the authority’s just need to test the 60 klm theory drive at sixty klm 15 mtrs apart its learning off insects we will see how well it works with the Japan Rugby World Cup. Ka kite ano . P.S Ross need support that’s why I am not kicking him
A youtube video clip on my idea of green power stadium we do need houses for the people first.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD2vpEKjCWI
Aotearoa / New Zealand is in one of the best positions to take full advantage of the
Green Energy Revolution WHY Solar and Wind power generation need back up Green power generation and we all ready have those power supplies Hydro and Geothermal
All we need to do is build the solar wind power systems into our generation systems.
Ka kite ano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSI_u8Wl0ww
This is what I don’t get why we don’t grow more fruit and veges for export this say labour the old story is if you want people to work for you treat them fair and reward them . We have the Labour we just need to find the correct systems to produce this export earner Maori have strong links to growing fruit and veges we started the market’s in Aotearoa the government need to foster this .
When Cook first arrived in Turangi a Kiwa Uawa he and Banks were at awe at the sight of the huge gardens grown there there are many fertile soils and flats that could eazly turned in huge profitable organic gardens link is below.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/107731637/many-ways-for-our-crop-growers-to-adapt-to-climate-change
The sandflys have eased up a bit since I last gave them a bit of a education on reality
But they are still following me around at a distance now they are scared of me .
I went to a shop yesterday I know the attendants know about Eco Maori and that the sandflys go and bully them they some time look like scared little birds easy as to see. Well I told one that I have the sandflys stuffed why because I’m Innocent or they would have arrested me a long time ago and also I’m not a STUPID IDIOT + I don’t go around ——- on other people I believe eventually that bad Kama /Wairua will come back and bite you on the—- this is what I teach my offspring treat everyone with respect and life will be ka pai . I say they will try and set me up so if I don’t post my post for more than 24 hours you will know the sandflys cheated .
Kia ora Newshub my mokos turn up sick partner been busy. One moko my treasure painted her face with lipstick lol.
Wellington a block in on the long weekend from truck crashes It looks suspicious to me I think that when there is a accident the investergating should be conducted as fast as possible to stop the stress it put on the public I have seen a road close for 4 hours over a small crash.?????
Its cool that the new surgeon units is up and running our new government is doing its best to correct all the wrong done our health systems.
Yes I have read about the satellite man made moon made in China they are going to use it instead of street lights technology is advancing quickly.
Made cow disease is a bad disease it doesn’t look to bad they must be checking regularly for it.
Its cool some in the World are becoming politically correct with EQUALITY
Ka kite ano. P.S our house has nine Mokopunas in it at the minute wow
The Crowd goes Wild Wairangi & Anna it’s cool that Joseph Parker has a fight line up in Christchurch Ka pai.
The youth Olympic game is cool they are going fine it looks like they won a few medals.
All the best to the New Zealand Breakers Ka kite ano P.S I was getting chewed on last night I just think % 99.9 of the time she fine
Got a whano function no time to day for ECO MAORI post
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GyPMc38Q5Bc
Here you some complling evedince that its all – – – – – in the wind when we have people crying foul about animal farming METHANE EMISSION.
The story does not state we should not be concerned about Methane from farm animals it does state that the mitergating effects stopping farm methane will have a minor effect on human caused climate change.
It states that we should consintrait on cutting our carbon emissions as fast as we can link below Ka kite ano P.S I’m quite good at smelling – – – – – – Kia kaha farmers
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@future-learning/2018/10/18/280618/cutting-methane-doesnt-buy-time-for-co2
I have been waiting all day for these results Kerryn Phelph won the Wentworth by election ECO Maori congratulates you on your win this is a message to the pollies our Australian cousins are not taking human caused climate for granted unless they make some positive moves to combat HCCC find another JOB Kia kaha.
Ka kite ano P.S I have a music link for the occasion next post
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2018/oct/20/wentworth-by-election-live-results-liberal-dave-sharma-kerryn-phelps-exit-poll-latest-news-updates
Some ECO MAORI music for my post above I had this song picked a month ago Kia kaha to all the people who value a better future for OUR offspring link below Ka kite ano
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE
It give me a sore face when I go to another city I can see the sandflys pass the batten in there relay game they play with themselves.
They play intimidation games it mite work on other but it doesn’t work on
ECO MAORI – – – – – Ana to kai
Here a link about the suppression order they are using against me what a SHAM
https://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/19/auditor-general-says-supression-order-left-him-unable-to-discuss-arms-deal-in-parliament&ved=0ahUKEwi3yPLR95XeAhVCpI8KHe38DhYQqQIIJCgBMAA&usg=AOvVaw2R9dgTbIkMfmpZjSw3YCb1
Eco Maori backs Jeremy Corbyn and Britain staying in the European Union I have made my point on the Britexit in my post to Newshub today links below
I back Jeremy because he is a person who wants to mitigate human caused climate change the oil barons don’t have him in there pockets like Mays party who are cutting green subsides
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/369112/hundreds-of-thousands-march-in-london-for-brexit-vote.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-20-10-2018/#comment-1539562
The redneck sandflys have been aloud to interfere in the treatment of my close whano
once again in Whakatane Hospital the doctor comes in the with a bad attitude and starts talking down to me I give him a Eco Maori serve putting him in line .
Back to the start she had a bad chest infection they gave her pain killers and antibiotics intravenously and discharged her this morning they gave her a prescription of antibiotics and know pain killers .
One would think a 75 year old ———doctor would be able to put his personal biased views on his patients aside and give the correct medication hes a puppet and his muppet m8 are still breaching my whano’s privacy ana to kai
Ka kite ano P.S this is why maori are not getting treated correctly the securityguard’s were following me around like a bad smell