Had the pleasure of meeting Tamati at the election prior to last, geez he’s a lovely man. Switched on and sincere, he’s the real deal. Thrilled he made it in to parliament.
Epic clip thanks for posting Grey, he does it well 🙂 Cracking up laughing.
The Eminem’s case:
“In a decision released today, the Court of Appeal allowed the National Party’s appeal – and reduced the damages payment down from $600,000 to $225,000.”
But of course they probably used the “Don’t you know who we are?” line. Born to Rule they think.
Bet you can’t guess Simon’s first question today?
“1. Hon SIMON BRIDGES to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all her statements and actions in relation to Karel Sroubek?”
Perseverance but really what else can the ring out of this?
Jacinda was asked again by Suzie this morning the same Sroubek questions mimicking Simon. Jacinda thought they were going to talk Climate change but instead the same tired questions with the same tired answers. Why?
Unlike the opposition well versed in verbal incontinence.
Perhaps Mark could offer some Verbal Contifit devices. A few Xmas pressies all round with personal fittings for Wodehouse, Mitchell, Bennett and Bridge-less
While most people see this as an overdone steak (or stake) it is far from that. As I have said a couple of times here, it has more legs than a centipede. That is why people like MS and myself remain interested. The issue of Hardcore’s text to Ardern is a red herring (a very small sardine actually) being used to politically discredit her, but the persistence with that aspect could well backfire. There are some much bigger issues behind the whole situation.
” The issue of Hardcore’s text to Ardern is a red herring”
You keep telling yourself that
“Newshub has made multiple requests of the Prime Minister’s Office under the OIA for details of official communications she’s had using personal email or messaging platforms. We have been stonewalled and refused every time.”
“The thing is she’s creating the rod for her own back here, if theres nothing in the text then just release them”
If, Pucky, Jacinda operates under the understanding that someone sending a text to her, and there must be scores and scores of them, can do so without fear of having that text and their identities revealed under pressure from National Party MPs, she would surely keep to that understanding/undertaking. If she betrays one member of the public, all will be affected. Do you see my point? Do you see Jacinda’s point (she’s explained it often enough).
The problem is this isn’t the first time Jacinda’s had issue with her phone so, like Sir John Key was hounded into releasing his texts, we need to see Jacindas phone records because theres a strong whiff of something quite unpleasant about this
Was pressure applied to Ian Lees Galloway to give a known drug dealer residency
‘Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway confirmed an error was made granting Karel Sroubek residency and it’s this technical aspect that the deportation liability now hinges on.’
Yes do keep telling yourself that @ vv (with ref to Nakibloke @4.2.1) because you are correct. There are some that were trying to warn I L-G he was being set up (via junior MPs) but it obviously didn’t quite get there in time if at all. There might have been a bit too much Chardonnay sipping going on.
Again, the only thing I L-G is guilty of is placing too much faith in the bureaucracy and processes (which we now know are “under review”).
And thank Christ INZ (and the Labour Inspectorate – sometimes known as the Labour Expectorant) are finally able to get off their chuffs and collect arsehole exploiters with the involvement of the Police (instead of trying to be their own little Police Force). And its a bloody shame the IAA still doesn’t seem to be up to the task.
Hipkins said, “I am not convinced that the university engaged sufficiently with the views of those stakeholders who should have their views considered.
… “The university council that sought the name change followed “well over a year of research, seeking advice from experts and discussion with staff, students, alumni and stakeholders, including a consultation period during which close to 2500 submissions were received”. “
It won’t be a matter for Hipkins regret. Right from the start, the VC gave every reason for the suspicion of duplicity. As for the reported consultation, it was a fiction as it pretty much excluded recognition of large numbers of those who opposed, including the staff.
I don’t think Hipkins will have anything to regret by this action.
From my, admittedly unscientific, observations I think allowing the Vice-Chancellor to have his way would have been far more damaging for Chippie.
I don’t know any faculty members or alumni who are in favour of the change. I know quite a lot of the academic staff and a lot of older alumni. They really do not want to see the change take place.
Perhaps the younger ones are in favour. I don’t know many of them.
Personally I would say “Good on Hipkins”. I didn’t know he had it in him.
Speaking of which, is it not about time that National Radio got yet another futile and stupid but expensive re-branding, which continues to leave it with a longer and less elegant name that its best and original one – ‘National Radio’?
(Still by far the best name, because we should not let the National Party steal and pervert the true meaning of ‘National’.)
But then he is the ex student union president at Vic, is still mates with them and they were the most vocally against the change, so maybe he just caved to pressure
Our Learned Friends from Crown Law (circa 2007) emerge smelling none too sweet.
Set the spooks onto victims and witnesses in a case involving abuse in State Care they did…(3.7)
“In the Inquiry’s view, surveillance by the government of a participant in a civil case is generally improper, or at least highly unusual and something that would require careful oversight and controls to assess and balance privacy interests.
The Solicitor General confirmed to the Inquiry that this is also her view and expectation.
This was reflected in Crown Law’s response to a journalist’s enquiry earlier this year, which stated the Crown would not instruct a private investigator to carry out surveillance of a witness. ”
@ Gabby, and their carbon emissions from their vehicles… and their pollution from their cruise ships… that are somehow exempt from the tiny tourism tax…
Also if they can build their own airport transfers, new roads and public transport needed, user pays for stadiums and stop stealing harbours for marinas like America’s cup and cruise ships that only seem to benefit the 1% (if that).
Tourism seems to be piggy backed on public spending and they are the priority for councils and government when their expansion subsidised by rates and taxes from residents for increasingly overseas owned or part owned tourism businesses.
wrong Savenz…please look at the numbers before you come out with this rubbish…tourism is major earner, employer and tax payer for Godzone, and not just GST but income and company tax.
I walk tracks near Wanaka where you never see a tourist.
You’re one of these idiots that sees a few people doing well because of something and calls it good but doesn’t look at the costs that something imposes.
That’s the trouble about tourism – look at the numbers. Because of the OTT drive to increase tourism for foreign earnings, the people actually living in this country are being denied their once high quality resources. The overseas earnings has to be gathered so that it balances the imports that we are so wedded to. Usually mport balances are higher than our foreign earnings.
We are on a treadmill and the more foreign tourists we get the more their
presence causes the country to be spoiled a little for everyone, after a survivable number has been researched and reached. And the more we are told we are well off and we borrow more personally, and our incomes remain low,then it is hard to pay off without a total change-around of lifestyle and expectation but this is the age of ‘She’ll be right’ and those who aren’t are no-hopers. Nice!
I think you will find that was in the past Bearded Git, you know when Kiwi based and born mums and dads owned restaurants, hotels and B&B’s and shops and Kiwi’s were workers in those businesses not migrant workers paying for the job in many cases.
Tourism like anything should be run sustainably, unfortunately in NZ it is not, just bums on seats, like many other areas like education, construction and so forth… NZ is unconcerned about quality, long term sustainability or compatibility to morality.
Placing more costs onto tourists (thus reducing costs for locals) should also help to slow the rate of growth. Giving us more time and funding to improve current infrastructure to meet demand going forward. Which should also help pacify growing local resentment.
With talk of peak room capacity coupled with a number of other media reports, it seems the country (well certain regions of it) is quickly reaching its capacity unless infrastructure is rapidly improved.
Another day and another revelation about Donald Trump.
A comedian and ex-Celebrity Apprentice staffer who claims to have worked with Donald Trump for six years has made shocking new accusations against the US President.
Noel Casler allegedly worked in talent logistics on the set of Celebrity Apprentice while Trump was host, and also worked on his Miss Teen Universe pageants.
In a stand-up show this month, Casler accused Trump of recreational drug use and said he acted inappropriately towards teenage beauty pageant contestants.
(Anyone get the idea that there seems to be heaps of non residents just going around ‘helping’ people get residency and then getting residency themselves somehow…) The Ponzi continues and will continue until the government actually makes a real criteria and decent time frame so that all these little scams are too hard to keep going over time as are people’s fleeting relationships and businesses operating here being used to aid residency applications need to be verified over a 10 – 20 years not 2 – 5 years by which time things clearly seem to change for most people…)
It’s all working as designed @SaveNZ. Industrialise Immigration, shoddy Private Tertiary Education that gives NZ Inc. a good earn, Labour Hire Companies and anyone else you choose to create a ‘skill shortage list’ for……. better still, let them also become Immigration Advisors on the side (why not vertically integrate for the purposes of efficiency and effectiveness).
And the good thing is that if you’re a complete arshole charlatan, the good will be lumped in with the bad. And you can even tinker and pretend by doing things like lifting IELTS 6.5 to IELTS 7, and you can even stand up in Parliament in all good ‘FAITH’, (not unlike the pompous Wodehouse) and feign the very greatest of concern about a fucking Sroubek
Meantime, NZ ends up with the average and the dross (including the likes of a Thiel), whilst the likes of Canada, a number of European countries, and even some in the Middle East get not only the talented, but the committed.
(Maybe a bit of quality control is needed, no wonder NZ jails are filling up and we can’t be bothered/no funds for rehabilitating our own criminals when we have so much sympathy and compassion for the overseas crims).
You’re not suggesting NZ Inc has fallen victim to UK failed/very average/complete muppet civil servants are you @ SaveNZ?
That idea would be oh so 1960s and 70s, but I suppose they do know better.
And they are of more monetary value (currency exchange-wise) than others.
They can probably even house themselves in luxury and enforce the rulz we’ve become accustomed to living by even if it might take a while to come to terms with a NuZull culcha.
Let’s good rid of the furrin devils who are costing us money. It is the cultural cringe – I think the ‘uman resources try and get overseas people because they expect more money and probably the agency gets a percentage. Moral hazard anyone, if that is the case. Everyone of any colour, creed or race has the potential to be a furrin devil because of the overcrowding our gummint has encouraged, facilitated actually.
The money-mad still want to be like Switzerland or Luxembourg but they aren’t clever and careful enough, our intellect is below Japanese crows, we behave like sheep and get milked like cows. We should try to be goats, they are much more lively and individualistic.
Interesting to see our ‘kind’ PM insulting the opposition leader with childish name calling, and getting a telling off by her protector Mallard. I’m sure all the socialists are laughing in the almond lattes …
Like the end of yet another explanation that Bridges seemed unable to understand she said,
“Its Simple Simon.”
I suppose Simple Simon sees himself as a great Debater but the lost cause is Simple Simon.
So, Marshy, you just proved unwittingly the silliness of your assertion that our very capable and assertive PM needs a ‘protector’. Firstly, she dealt capably and assertively, humorously, with Bridge’s boring and repetitive attempts to slur and smear, and secondly the man who you call her protector quite rightly required her to withdraw and apologise, as she was unparliamentary.
It was a bit funnier and certainly less malicious than Paula Bennett’s “Zip it , sweetie!” made to Ardern, thus exposing her truly “nasty, pathetic side.”
It is a truly hilarious comment. Never before in history have we had a Prime Minister who is such a master of stand-up comedy. She is far, far better than anything that David Lange ever managed.
Billy Connolly and Stephen Fry will be chastened. An amateur who is so vastly better than they ever were.
She has only one thing to learn. You should come out with your jokes as if they are spontaneous. It spoils it if you are so obviously reading it off a sheet of paper.
Still, it is the most marvellous attempt at humour that the current Government has managed. So much better than the bitter reactions to questions that are exhibited by so many of the Ministers when they are, as usual, caught out.
That was a wonderful display Cindy. Long may it be celebrated as the finest achievement of this woeful coalition.
alwyn, you forgot Oscar Wilde and George Bernard-Shaw. Please, lay it on properly.
Actually, Jacinda does not do this very often at all. But when she does it, it is simple and it sticks. Remember when Mike Hosking asked her if she had read his (award-winning?) article, and she asked back, “The satire?’
His silence spoke volumes.
She does it rarely, but well. Eat it.
Simple Simon met the PM
On the way to the fair
Said simple Simon to the PM
Show me that I’m right .
Show me your proof first said the PM
But simple Simon said I have none.
I hope our min of justice is taking note, especially given his comments this week.”Justice Minister Andrew Little disagrees.
“All the laws we have in place are the laws we’ve had in place for a few years now, and judges have to be left to do their decision,” he told Newshub.”
It is not a good look this case with the offender being given in some a light sentence by the appearance of displaying remorse, her subsequent actions appear to be contrary to this and I wonder how the judge is feeling perhaps being misled. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12178882
Any astronomers out there – I’m looking to get a telescope soon – have semi decided on a refractor sky watcher 100/900 computerised for astrophotography. Any thoughts appreciated.
“A report published in the New Zealand Journal of Ecology maps the wetland loss of the region (Southland) by comparing satellite images taken in 1990 and 2012.
It examined 32,814 hectares of wetland and found it was being lost at a rate of 157 hectares per year.
Since 1990, 3452ha of wetlands were no longer present in the landscape and a further 3943ha were at risk – amounting to 23 percent either lost or in a state of decline.
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage said more must be done to protect wetlands.”…
… Southland Ballance Farm Environment Awards committee chairman Bruce Allan said he hoped the report would prompt a painful, but necessary, change in farmer’s behaviour.
“I think it’s a wake up call. There’s been a long history of land development across the nation really, we’re probably going to see that slow down and there’s obviously moves to improve habitat,” Mr Allan said.
“There’s far greater awareness of the issues and there’s a lot more role models out there prepared to show leadership and talk about what they’re doing and pitch in with community initiatives such as catchment groups to turn this situation around and improve things.”
The thing that strikes me with this is that Yes minister we DO have to do more to protect wetlands – this is a no brainer so lets do it. And this ‘wake up call’ idea – surely the wake up has already occurred what we have now is the repeated hitting of the snooze button hoping it all goes away – it won’t go away.
Herodotus – It is unconstitutional for the Minister of Justice to be involved in this case at all so what is the point of your comment? Secondly, what is the relevance of the vague comment “…. her subsequent actions appear to be contrary to this ….”. Justice is based on evidence – not appearances. Finally, the Judge’s 8 pages of sentencing notes were uncharacteristically released to the public, so the thinking of the Judge is transparent. Yes, the petition was very well supported but if the prosecutor reviewed the case, consulted with the family of the deceased and was convinced there was a miscarriage of justice, then an appropriate application could/should have been made. If the Judge was mislead at sentencing, she was in a position to act on this when reviewing the case as was provided for went the defendant was sentenced. Agin, something that was uncharacteristic. This seems another situation where the social media justice system, backed by the mainstream media justice system is holding sway. Irrespective of the matters surrounding this case, as a society, we should really be deciding if we should have a criminal justice system. Of course, there is the alternative of relying on ‘trial by media’ to determine the guilt or innocence of alleged offenders and then sentences being imposed on the basis of what is gleaned from media sources.
Public comment, criticism or even outcry over perceived injustice is necessary from time to time so that the justice system in any given country can periodically course-correct so that it aligns with the country’s culture.
Otherwise laws would simply be set once, and never change.
Laws have to evolve over time, and to reflect what the society generally thinks is fair, whatever ‘fair’ means, otherwise the public will revolt.
While I am less than impressed with the politicians who have tried to take advantage of this situation, I think if it had been a poor brown boy killing a rich white girl, we all know where that brown boy would be right now, and that’s definitely not at home sleeping in his own bed with his Mum cooking him dinner.
Consistency is what is needed in order to build trust in any situation, and trust in the justice system is no different.
Chess Player – yes, “criticism or even outcry over perceived injustice is necessary from time to time” but it should be informed criticism. Also, as you say, “if it had been a poor brown boy killing a rich white girl, we all know where that brown boy would be right now”. Sentencing of such cases should not be a benchmark for consistency. Which is the greater problem, society’s ingrained prejudices which are manifested by what some perceive as an institutionally racist justice system, or is it a media incited call for blood on the basis of sentiments that are driven by the likes of the Sensible Sentencing Trust who have driven our incarceration rates ever closer to the worst in the world? What is needed is for the community at large to consider the wisdom of the likes of the Commissioner for Children or those whose knowledge of criminology adds research to the discourse, as opposed to ignorant rantings on social media.
I hope the Leader of the House at the beginning of business tomorrow rises and asks for clarification.
“Mr Speaker, is the word ‘simple’ not to be used in the house? Or if it is just not to be used following the time honoured tradition of no christian names, with a christian name? Is it able to be used with a surname. For example could I say to my colleague “It’s simple Mr Peters or it’s simple Mr Bridges?”
Technicality, Pete. Mallard picked up the obvious ‘Simple Simon’ barb, and acted correctly.
Despite some idiots claiming that he ‘protects’ the PM.
It seems to be Simon who needs protection..
Eco Maori has already stated as fact that with Aotearoa farming emmisions NO ONE was talking about the BIG elephant in the ROOM nitrogin is a big problem and since the 1990 our use of this soil and water poision has gone up x 1000% at least .The reason no one was talking about nitrogin is 2 big companys control the prouduction and importation of nitrogin and they use there money to suppress the facts of there enviromental killing prouduct . I back banning it but the humane side of me says phase it out over 10 years thats enught time for our farmers to switch to organic farming.
1it destroys our soils it speed up the natural cycle 1000 % and kills off the natural organism in our soils basicly we are stilling our grandchildren future soils using nitrogen.2it kill off our water ways causing alge growth to explode in our awa and tangaroa 3 it increeses climate warming 4 we burn carbon to suck it out of the air 5 its hard on the stocks health. There are many other negtive effects that nitrogen causes hecne how Eco Maori was flabbergasted that know one was talking about this stuff WITH FACTS last year.
There’s a hidden climate (and river) killer that drives the industrialisation of agriculture.
Synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. We have to ban it.
Synthetic nitrogen is one of the key industrial agricultural inputs. Pesticides, livestock feed, antibiotics, irrigation, are some of the others. These things are what drive the high input, high damage way of growing food.
Without the inputs, industrial agriculture does not work.
Luckily, the most fundamental input of all is synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. That means, when we get it banned, it will force the de-industrialisation of farming and pave the way for regenerative farming – the only way of farming that provides a glimmer of hope against climate breakdown.
What is synthetic nitrogen fertiliser?
It’s a product that is made in factories and then dumped onto farmland in vast quantities to make grass and other crops grow fast. It’s a bit like crack cocaine for plants, a departure from reality and, ultimately destructive.
It often comes in the form of ‘urea’ but it’s sold under lots of other names too.
Links below ka kite ano. P.S my computer is playing up again sandflys One has to be care full what video is used as some start out correct and at the end flips to be pro nitrogen the big buck’s at work distorting OUR reality
Eco Maori backs income equality and equality for all .
Wahine income being unequal to men is one of the main causes of child poverty wahine and tane start a whano and for some reason they split up most times the children are in the wahines care.Then the marrage settlement most times go in favour of the man{ whom’s got the best lawyer capitlist syndrom more money } so she end up with just enough money /putea to servive to top it off she will only beable to earn in a good situation 80% of what a man makes to try and provide for her children =DEPRIVED children
Global pay gap will take 202 years to close, says World Economic Forum
Gender equality has stalled, says WEF, as women globally are paid 63% of what men get
The global pay gap between men and women will take 202 years to close, because it is so vast and the pace of change so slow, according to the World Economic Forum.
The WEF, which organises the annual meeting of business and political leaders in Davos, said the global gender pay gap has narrowed slightly over the past year, but the number of women in the professional workplace has fallen. In 2017, the WEF estimated that it would take 217 years to close the pay gap.
“The overall picture is that gender equality has stalled,” Saadia Zahidi, the WEF’s head of social and economic agendas, said. “The future of our labour market may not be as equal as the trajectory we thought we were on.”
The WEF found that on average women across the world are paid just 63% of what men earn. There is not a single country where women are paid as much as men. Laos, in south-east Asia, is the closest to achieving parity with women earning 91% of what men are paid.
Gender pay gap: when does your company stop paying women in 2018?
Read more
Yemen, Syria and Iraq have the biggest pay gaps with women being paid less than 30% the level of mens’ wages. The WEF ranked the UK 50th out of 149 countries for gender pay, with women collecting 70% of that paid to men.
Ka kite ano links below. P.S I seen another wahine leader on The late Show with Stephen Colbert one of my favrourite actress Sandra Ballock we need more movies with wahine as the lead actor for equality to flouroush
Eco Maori see the big picture and backs Great Britain staying in the European Union It will be a bad move for most people if Britxit goes down as 99.9 % of people will lose .I say this was all started by the alt right neo librale captlist whom are all about the rich
EU friends of Britain say: we want you to stay
European Guardian readers share their sadnesses and frustrations regarding Brexit a recent German opinion poll, almost 80% of the people asked were against Brexit and would be more than happy if you remained. I am writing to you as a German citizen with a daughter who has grandparents in England and Germany. Although she is too young to fully understand the unprecedented destruction by Germany that Europe suffered, she does know about Britain’s important role in reinstating civilisation and humanity. My daughter is growing up with a deep belief in peace and freedom in Europe. Equal rights, solidarity with the vulnerable and a lively democracy are important to her.
The EU is grounded on these values, which developed out of the horror of the second world war. They are not the cause of the world’s problems but the solution. We need a united Europe, and a united Europe needs Britain.
Sign up to our Brexit weekly briefing
Read more
• There is no doubt about it: the Dear friends in Britain: maybe you are not aware of what Europe will miss when you leave. We will miss your refreshing views, as living on the continent can give a blinkered viewpoint. We will miss your international experience and networks. We will miss your calmness and pragmatism in an overheated world. We will miss your standing side by side against populists and anti-democrats. We will miss your long democratic experience in developing the future EU. Together we are strong! Please stay. We are waiting for you with open arms. Merry Christmas. Ka kite ano links below P.S I say a new vote on staying in the EU is needed to prevent a CATASTROPHE IN Britain
Kia ora Newshub many thanks to our goverment for razing the min wage as for simon and co they can go jump in there toilet employers will have to become inervative and incress prouductivity we wonder why our productivity is low by OECD standards well a low wage does not make anyone look for prouductivity gains.
MP’s being charged $55 per invoice is not on get it sorted.
That was a good ruling by the courts upping the jail time for that unscupulous lady selling her daugther for prostitution when the girl was a minor even if she was of age is not on .
That is not on having 3 rivers in Canterbry having E.coli I say we need more laws to protect our WAI it would be cool if in 3 years one could take a swim in any water way without worring about getting sick.???????????? after all tourism is our biggest export earner you know there is a lot of money suppresing those facts.
Eco Maori backs having city centra’s l banning cars and becoming pedestrian friendly and enviromentaly friendly
The Ebola in the African country Democratic Republic of Congo shows me that the west should put more funds into finding a cure for Ebola why man should no take health threats like Ebola forgranted as it could spread we don’t control nature she controls us put the money in to fix this I wounder who pulled funds out of fighting this ?????????????.
I say the rail line from Hamilton to Auckland is awsome it will take pressure off the roads. Rail all over NZ is needed It would be good to see Huntly gain from the move. I use to catch a train from Gisborne to Napier years ago it was a good scenic journey.
Ka kite ano
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by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh The recent statements made by the former FARC commander, Carlos Lozada (legal name Julian Gallo), where, from his seat in Congress, he praised the Colombian Army demonstrate how low the farianos have sunk. Lozada began by ...
A Woman’s Place is on the Podium was a public meeting in London on 10 July to discuss women’s sports and the impact of transwomen competing against women. The venue was sold out with a packed hall of 750 people. ...
Last month I talked about the no-fly movement: people who refuse to fly or limit it to absolute necessity to avoid destroying the climate. Now, that movement has a somewhat surprising new member: Dutch airline KLM:Dutch airline KLM has launched ...
In the 1960's, humanity faced a terrible threat: global thermonuclear war. Nuclear weapons were uniquely destructive and dangerous, and if more countries got them, the logic of MAD and the pre-emptive strike would put us on a hair-trigger to destruction. ...
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...
Matariki has been and gone, but this year we saw a couple of op-eds arguing that it should be a public holiday, replacing the foreign monarch's fake birthday. And now, New Zealand Republic - a group which campaigns for an ...
The discussion on the quality of economic advice, which we reported last week, has spilled over into a discussion about whether so many senior appointments should be of non-New Zealanders. Recall I discussed the failure to develop career paths within ...
When Nicky Hager revealed US footage of the Operation Burnham raid, obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act, one of the obvious questions was whether Ministers had seen it - and in particular, whether they'd been told that it ...
Northern Ireland is the Alabama of the UK: a backwards region where women and gay people are denied fundamental rights. But Westminster has just decided to fix that:MPs have voted resoundingly to extend same-sex marriage and access to abortion to ...
There's a problem with "synthetic cannabis", and not just the one you think. It's the name.We're in the midst of a wave of news stories that link synthetic drugs to serious harm, through deadly road accidents and accidental overdoses (which ...
Ranjit Kauri, The Dancing Maharani and Other Stories, Swansea, Head and Heart, 2019, £6.99; reviewed by Don Franks Working people are not the same country to country. Our struggles for a better life take place in surroundings of very different ...
Let's Do Them! All Jacinda Ardern has to do to clinch the 2020 General Election is frighten the bejesus out of the electorate by describing in the most graphic terms imaginable what will happen to all the positive beginnings her ...
It may be that we have all misinterpreted the somewhat surprising “bromance” between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. It has been all too easy to assume that it is Kim who is cosying up to Trump rather than the ...
by Michael Roberts So the full circle is completed. The corrupt pro-business conservative New Democracy party in Greece that was ousted by the anti-capitalist Syriza party in 2015 has been returned to office in yesterday’s general election, with an outright ...
When the Australian government passed a series of new spy laws over the last few years, they pinky-promised that they wouldn't use them to spy on journalists and subvert freedom of the press. They lied:The anti-encryption laws passed by the ...
From 1975 to 1989, the spy agencies of South America's right-wing military dictatorships cooperated in Operation Condor, a joint campaign of extermination against the continent's left. Roughly 400,000 people were imprisoned, 30,000 disappeared, and 60,000 murdered - kidnapped, tortured, executed, ...
When she was standing for office, Jacinda Ardern promised she would take abortion out of the Crimes Act. And to be fair, there was some early action on that, with an immediate referral of the issue to the Law Commission ...
When the government introduced the Zero Carbon Bill, people rightly asked what they planned to do to reduce transport emissions, which basicly had no policy at all other than the ETS. Today, they responded, announcing a "feebate" system which would ...
At almost every level, the problem with medicinal cannabis is a lack of good information. In the US, FDA regulations make it hard to research. Most doctors aren't familiar with what research there is and most patients don't know either. ...
Redline is critical of Corbyn for his political weaknesses, but he’s no anti-Semite. There is no substance to the McCarthyist witch-hunt being run by the right wing, and the pro-Israel lobby inside and outside the Labour Party in the UK. ...
The government's billion trees program is the sort of policy which could make a real difference to our emissions and the fight against climate change. But climate scientist Jim Salinger isn't convinced:The Forestry Minister Shane Jones' one billion trees won't ...
Last month the government was celebrating another surplus. Meanwhile, children are starving:One in five children are living in households where putting food on the table is a struggle, according to a new report from the Ministry of Health. It found ...
Show Me The Money! The alternative to state funding of infrastructure is, of course, to fund it by taking on massive amounts of private debt. On this issue, at least, Auckland mayoral challenger, Tamihere, has some solid points to make. ...
If we are to avoid making the earth uninhabitable, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to practically nothing over the next decade. But that will still leave us with the problem of the carbon we have already emitted, which ...
Former Waikato DHB CEO Nigel Murray allegedly misused public funds, spending more than $120,000 of public money on unjustified travel. He was forced to resign and the Serious Fraud Office began an investigation. But despite the SFO finding that the ...
Jeremy Corbyn, we are told, is being advised – not least by his deputy (as well as by some of his would-be successors) – that he must come “off the fence” on the Brexit issue if he wants to bolster ...
The End of Life bill has been read a second time and is now heading for the House for further debate. Personally, I support the proposal. I don't ever epect to take advantage of the Bill's provisions myself, but as ...
Before the substantive issue which this column is about – whether there has been a deterioration in the economic advice given to the government – a paragraph about the budget leaks.read more ...
Below is a translation of the editorial in the June 24 round of weekly workplace bulletins issued all over France by the revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvriere. Last Saturday, 8,000 people took to the streets of Belfort (eastern France) to ...
Why hasn't Parliament followed the lead set by our local authorities and declared a climate emergency? The answer is the National Party:The Prime Minister’s admission that she is open to the idea of declaring a climate change emergency is nothing ...
Back in May the government released its Zero Carbon Bill. While much of the bill was welcome, there was one big exception: it contained a secrecy clause, requiring the Climate Change Commission to maintain secrecy over practically everything it does. ...
by Phil Duncan This past week has marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Stonewall Inn riots in Christopher Street, New York, the event generally regarded as kicking off the gay liberation movement. Quite a few articles have ...
Southland - land of coal-burning dairy farmers - has become the first region in the country to explicitly vote against declaring a climate emergency. Their reason? They didn't want to "devalue" the word "emergency". Its an argument addressed powerfully in ...
New Zealand has a problem with police chases: officers going after fleeing drivers like rabid dogs, without any consideration for proportionality or public safety, often with fatal results. And according to an in-depth article in the Guardian today, the UK ...
Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...
Holly Lawford-Smith is a senior lecturer in political philosophy at the University of Melbourne. She’s currently writing a book about radical feminism. This article appeared on Feminist Current Academics should be standing together in defence of universities’ fundamental values: the ...
The Otago Daily Times has an in-depth article about the future of wind energy in New Zealand, and it is looking bright:The news that wind will play the leading role in New Zealand’s energy future was put up in lights ...
If the sight of schoolkids striking for a future has been filling you with hope, good news: they want you to join them on September 27:Students will take to the streets again demanding action on climate change, and this time ...
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...
The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...
I have been working my way through a 47,000 document tranche of declassified US government communications related to Argentina and the “Dirty War” of 1976-83. I grew up in Argentina in the period leading up to the March 24, 1976 ...
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...
Million-dollar start to gun collection eventsPolice Minister Stuart Nash says a solid start has been made to the gun buyback and amnesty after the first weekend of community collection events. “Gun owners will walk away with more than ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash has praised Police and gun owners after the first firearms collection event saw a busy turnout at Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch. “Police officers and staff have put a tremendous effort into planning and logistics for the ...
Seventy-eight new Police constables are heading out to the regions following today’s graduation of a new recruit wing from the Royal New Zealand Police College. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the record high number of new Police officers being recruited, ...
A new website has launched in response to recent RNZ reporting about Police in Dunedin unlawfully entering people’s homes and breath-testing them. “I was disgusted when I saw what they cops were doing in Dunedin. Their behaviour undermines all of ...
Hundreds of whanau and Maori leaders gathered at a hui in Mangere last weekend where they voted unanimously for an inquiry into Oranga Tamariki. The historic meeting called for a child welfare framework to be developed by Maori, for Maori. ...
The Head of the New Zealand Maori Council has called for the Government to hold an immediate investigation into the global cosmetics company Sephora after they were caught dumping waste hundreds and thousands of waste paper products embedded with ...
Simon Shepherd: The government says its agreement with farmers, that they should pay for agricultural emissions, is historic. But there's no agreement on how. One proposal says farmers should pay a 5 per cent emissions tax. Another suggests farmers ...
The O’Brien Institute for Public Health at Calgary University has just released their report on fluoridation. This institute has, up to now, been staunchly in favour of fluoridation. However, yesterday, with regards to fluoride’s effect on the brain, ...
July 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government is looking to tighten control and impose harsher penalties after the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed cracks in the country's stock management system. ...
Kia Anga Mua Ngā Hapū o Ngāpuhi (KAM) has reached a pivotal milestone following a hui yesterday at Waitangi with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the Government spent $133,530 on producing its ‘Wellbeing Budget’ document, a cost blowout largely driven by spending on graphic design and photography. The $133,530 price tag compares to $86,268 ...
Kahungunu Māori Language Awards. Nominations closed on 5 July 2019, and were judged by the Senior Management Team of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated. The judges wish to acknowledge the very high calibre of all nominations received making it a very ...
High Court of Australia Judge, Justice Stephen Gageler, will address recent criticism of court judgment delays in Australia, at the University of Canterbury (UC) on 23 July at 6.15pm. ...
This summary is provided to assist in the understanding of the Inquiry’s proceedings but does not constitute the official record. The full Minute is available at the link below. ...
The Tertiary Education Commission is laying charges under section 292A of the Education Act 1989 against three individuals for making a false representation for the purpose of receiving, or continuing to receive, free tertiary education from a tertiary education ...
New Zealand food businesses today welcomed a trio of new food safety tools, designed to make it faster, easier and more affordable to follow the rules and keep consumers safe. ...
AUT research shows that Māori children are almost four times more likely than those of European descent to be placed out of home by child protection services ...
The Government announced today that grants of up to $2,500 for energy efficient heaters are now available as part of the Government’s Warmer Kiwi Homes programme. ...
Fonterra’s use of coal has been the target of numerous grassroots campaigns in recent years. Last year 350 Aotearoa affiliated groups, Fossil Free Aoraki and 350 Nelson launched a petition dismissing the dairy giant’s initial target of no new ...
Information sessions on proposals for The Medicinal Cannabis Scheme take place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch over the next fortnight. The sessions are open to anyone with an interest in learning more about the proposed scheme. ...
“Our children are our most vulnerable, most innocent victims and we do not want to see any more children harmed by these ‘known sex offenders’. The safety of our community must be the paramount consideration.” ...
“The announcement that Fonterra will immediately stop installing any new coal boilers or increasing capacity to burn coal is the signal that the biomass fuel supply industry welcomes” said Brian Cox, Executive Officer of the Bioenergy Association. ...
18 July 2019-- Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA) today welcomed Fonterra’s commitment to build no new coal plants, a “no brainer” for the climate crisis the world faces. The group has been urging this transition for six years now and ...
The increase in demand for cage-free eggs is set to continue according to animal rights organisation SAFE, who says the egg industry should expect this and prepare. ...
Wellington, New Zealand – 350 Pacific made a formal submission to the New Zealand Government’s Environment Parliamentary Select Committee on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, led by the Pacific Climate Warriors (PCWs) based in ...
There used to be a school of thought on the centre right side of politics that the best way to neuter the Greens as a political force would be to let them have a spell in government. Then, according to ...
Today (18 July) is Nelson Mandela International Day when the United Nations highlights the importance of humane conditions of imprisonment. In New Zealand our prisons are overcrowded and understaffed. At 214 prisoners per 100,000 people, we have the fifth ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa will take legal action over the lengthy delay in implementing pay increases for teachers. Novopay announced yesterday that teachers would have to wait until 11 September to see pay increases that they won when they settled ...
EDS has filed its submission on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill. The Bill sets targets for greenhouse gas reductions, provides for the government to set a series of carbon budgets, and sets up a new, independent, Climate ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has identified an absurd case of mission creep at Wellington City Council: the decision to spend $21,750 on two Consumer NZ investigations into different brands of bike lights. ...
The Motor Trade Association is welcoming the release of the Government’s new draft road safety strategy. MTA Chief Executive Craig Pomare says the association is pleased to see vehicle safety has been made a priority in the Road to Zero ...
The Department of Conservation continue to repeat the same old story about attacks on staff and how it is affecting their role in protecting our precious wildlife. NZ herald https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12249704 ...
The government's silence on the fact that the country's second-largest milk processor is on the brink of becoming 25% Chinese Government owned has been deafening. ...
School Strike 4 Climate NZ welcomes the coalition Government’s endeavour to take action on reducing agricultural emissions but is disappointed at the weak stance that the Government has taken on the issue. ...
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has issued a formal warning under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act) to seven reporting entities within the Regus Management Limited (RNZML) designated business ...
The Northland Regional Council (NRC) has voted to exclude all GM/GE precautionary provisions in its regional plan, despite years of community engagement showing support for such protection. There is a sense of betrayal following the way the NRC Chairman ...
New Zealand’s ‘mission-driven’ charities working in international aid are showing early signs of changing the way they work, in particular prioritising building the capacity and resilience of local communities to do their own development. ...
Teachers will have to wait until 11 September for pay increases won as part of their collective agreement negotiations settled in June, according to an update sent to schools today from Novopay. ...
July 16 (BusinessDesk) - Energy Minister Megan Woods says the government “won’t die in a ditch” if its goal of 100 percent renewable electricity generation isn't reached by 2035. ...
The Electricity Networks Association (ENA) is welcoming the Government’s response to the Interim Climate Change Committee (ICCC) Report released today. Graeme Peters, chief executive of the ENA, said one of the key recommendations, endorsed by the ...
An article* published this month in the Journal of Health Organization and Management raises questions over the way health board members are elected and whether the boards are even needed. ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa's kindergarten teacher members will vote on a proposed settlement to their collective agreement after four days of negotiations with the Ministry of Education and kindergarten employers. ...
Vector has today welcomed the ICCC’s report on Accelerated Electrification . Vector agrees that accelerating the electrification of transport and process heat will play a major role in reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Initiatives to ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Porirua City Council to cancel its underwriting of a proposed Canadian-led privately owned adventure park slated for public land after a similar project created a huge liability for Christchurch ...
Youth climate change campaigners Generation Zero welcome the Interim Climate Change Committee’s (ICCC’s) reports: Accelerated Electrification and Action on agricultural emissions ; which were finally released by the Government today, almost three months ...
Fish & Game New Zealand notes the announcement today that the Government and the intensive agriculture leadership have reached a ‘historic consensus’ and are exploring using a formal sector-government agreement instead of bringing agriculture ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report on Accelerated Electrification was released today by the Minister for Energy and Resources, Hon Dr Megan Woods. ...
The independent Interim Climate Change Committee’s report Action on agricultural emissions was released today by the Minister for Climate Change, Hon James Shaw and the Minister of Agriculture, Hon Damien O’Connor. ...
Cave à Vin founder Zane Kelsall says he has been in ‘intense therapy’ following sexual misconduct claims in Halifax.Last week, The Spinoff published a story about Cave à Vin, a new wine bar on Auckland’s North Shore. The story hailed ...
Hundreds of artefacts connected with the lesbian community in New Zealand are displayed in a small volunteer-run museum in West Auckland.Charmaine always had crushes on girls. When she was head girl of Auckland Girls’ Grammar, she fell in love with ...
From a school for budding beekeepers to a street-side garden growing produce for locals, Auckland’s abuzz with projects making the city safer for pollinators.Auckland’s a hive of activity aimed at helping our pollinators and it’s all a part of For ...
After watching a mind-bending film about a dying magician that reminded him of Tickled, David Farrier interviewed the director, only to have his interview disappear.This has never happened before. I’ve never lost audio from an interview, and it’s the most ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk New Zealand’s unprecedented “internet-native mass shooting” attack on two mosques, the New Caledonia independence referendum, Fiji’s general election and news media responses are featured in the latest Pacific Journalism Review being published next week. Analysis ...
Aldous Harding is coming back to New Zealand. In the lead-up to her shows, she spoke to The Spinoff about live TV, maturity, and the weirder interpretations of her songs.Aldous Harding is calling from her home in Wales. Only a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Flannery, Planetary Scientist, Queensland University of Technology This weekend marks 50 years exactly since humans first walked on the Moon. It also marks Australia’s small but significant role in enabling NASA ...
The Lightbulb asks innovators and entrepreneurs how they turned their ideas into reality. This week we talk to Aaron Jones, founder of Christchurch-based reusable bag company Zerobag.First of all, give us your elevator pitch for Zerobag.Zerobag is a New Zealand-owned ...
Aaron Kreisler looks beyond the gags in this survey of an artist and his dogsat the Christchurch Art Gallery.“The dog really must love him, it’s so incredibly patient…”, a woman says to her daughter, punctuating a screening of Coin ...
‘He wants to sleep with you,’ a close friend had said. ‘Then you’ll be able to tell if it is going to lead anywhere’: a short story by New Plymouth author Elizabeth Smither. Photography by Peter Black. ...
Opinion - The leadership visits are more interesting in that they serve as a spotlight on the two countries - politically, and on policy issues, writes Brigette Morten. ...
Created by future ACT Party leader Richard Prebble after an epic reform bender in the 80s, NZ on Air has just marked its third decade. Duncan Greive relates its history and asks: is the funder still fit for purpose?It’s a ...
It helps that he played in the New Zealand cricket team when they lost the 1992 semi-final and went on to coach India, writes Georgie Wright, daughter of JohnMy dad has taught me a fair few things over my 25 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Professor Deep Saini discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan – one with a reduced pace, despite the 24 ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand, with the interview available as both audio and ...
Jacinda Ardern’s Melbourne trip wrapped up with nothing to show on longstanding trans-Tasman concerns, but was a potent reminder of her international appeal. ...
Pricing agricultural emissions first at the processor level - such as Fonterra - rather than right down at farm level stacks up as a gap measure says Catherine Leining. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne Orlando, Researcher: Children and Technology, Western Sydney University Instagram is running a social media experiment in Australia and elsewhere to see what happens when it hides the number of likes on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Cross, Research Fellow, Curtin University Sign up to the Beating Around the Bush newsletter here, and suggest a plant we should cover at batb@theconversation.edu.au. Billabongs in the northern Kimberley are welcome ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling You’ve probably heard that this week marks 50 years since humans first set foot on the Moon – a feat that still boggles the mind given ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis Gentilin, Adjunct Fellow, Macquarie University As strange as it might sound, whistleblowers in Australia have reason to rejoice – so long as they are in the private sector. Thanks to new ...
The fourth season of Queer Eye drops today on Netflix. Sam Brooks reflects on his difficult relationship with the show, and where it sits in mainstream culture.For depressingly many people, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was an introduction not just to ...
The collapse of a multi-billion dollar deal to sell AMP's life insurance division to a British company for $3.6 billion is the fault of the companies, according to the Reserve Bank. ...
A poem by Miramar poet Geoff Cochrane.Channel HoppingStupa or Stuka?Weet-Bix or Welsh rabbit?Galactic aerodrome or Matchbox truck?*I’m young in my dreams, still young.*Beautiful Keanu’s wearing shades—antique shades with iodine-coloured lenses.*I’m young in my dreams, still young,and I still have some ...
For the month of July, Josie Adams is taking on the challenge of being low-waste. That means minimising plastics, emissions, and even recyclables. Each week we release her diary. This is week two.Read week one here.I’ll be honest, week two ...
By Royson Willie in Port Vila Two Vanuatu Daily Post journalists were literally given a pat-down by the police criminal investigation unit yesterday over a story they had written about the vehicle of the Chairman of the Public Service ...
By Gorothy Kenneth in Port Moresby Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape will visit Australia this weekend for a week-long state visit and the Bougainville independence referendum in less than three months is expected to be high on ...
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...
Wtf did we just watch?That sound you heard was a million furries screaming in ecstasy as their fantasy and everyone else’s nightmare came to life in the form of the first trailer for the live action version of Cats.Is it ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Three Women by Lisa Taddeo (Bloomsbury, $35)Fucking ...
Tougher laws governing the movement of animals and harsher penalties for non-compliance are on the table under an overhaul of two key pieces of legislation. ...
As we mark the fiftieth anniversary the July 20th Moon landing Dr Nick Long reflects on what that's meant for New Zealand and considers the space 'gold rush' ahead. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Griebsch, Specialist and Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Medicine, University Veterinary Teaching Hospital Sydney, Sydney School of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney Recently reported cases of the often fatal bacterial infection ...
My selection of the eight best morning news links from here and overseas, along with eight lunchtime lean-back long reads. Also, the full list of links, including Jacinda Ardern's trip to Australia, the big emissions report, Fonterra's coal move and a new ...
Heaven is a place on earth, and June is saving the world one ’80s pop hit at a time. Tara Ward recaps season 4, episode 9 of The Handmaid’s Tale. Praise be, for there was a tiny bit of good news ...
Finance companies say they shouldn’t have to be ‘fit and proper’ even though in some cases they charge more than the planned clampdown on high cost lending. A group of finance companies that charges well over the government’s proposed cap on ...
An ANZ shareholder is demanding the bank disclose more information about the sale of an Auckland residential property to its former chief executive and his family. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentForeign Affairs and trade Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): The new, ...
Tara Ward sets out on a valiant quest to find the best apple in Aotearoa. The idea that every apple is a good apple is fake news. We’ve all got stories about shit experiences with apples, when it looked good on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Sarkissian, Operations Scientist, CSIRO The role Australia played in relaying the first television images of astronaut Neil Armstrong’s historic walk on the Moon 50 years ago this July features in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lyndal Sleep, Research Fellow, Griffith University In Australia’s social security laws, the “couple rule” is used to determine if a person is in a relationship, tying access to Centrelink payments to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Walker, Lecturer (Management), Victoria University of Wellington We live in a society obsessed with performance. For both young and old, competitions, awards and rankings are an inescapable feature of life. How ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan O’Connell, Honorary Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne One-third of all preschools may lack a qualified teacher in the next four years if nothing changes, my new modelling shows. Currently, half of ...
Open mike 18/12/2018 
37 mins ago
Much like Tuvalu, the manmade climate change Cult love to tell people the Maldives is almost totally underwater. In fact the dishonest Maldives Govt d on the same bandwagon, believing they would receive billions of dollars aid from other Countries ...12 hours ago
As the entry on Wikipedia shows (and no, one doesn’t necessarily have to regard Wikipedia as the be-all and end-all of truth, because it isn’t on a great many things, to agree with the following): “…a fallacious argument that concludes ...15 hours ago
by Daphna Whitmore The story of how the world awoke to a big injustice is starting to be told. The Pacific Games held this month in Samoa is another chapter. On the podium was Laurel Hubbard, the giant transgender weightlifter, ...23 hours ago
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...2 days ago
This week, in the wake of National's opposition to even talking about reducing agricultural emissions and Simon Bridges' refusal to recognise that there is a climate emergency, I've been saying that National is unfit to govern. And it looks like ...2 days ago
Something I missed: not only did Youth MPs declare a climate emergency; they also launched a campaign to lower the voting age to 16:Youth Parliament week in Parliament has seen the establishment of Make it 16, a campaign to ...2 days ago
I have been reading and listening to the aftermath of Trump’s comments about the four female first term Democratic representatives, all of whom are “people of color.” I found the US coverage interesting both as evidence of partisanship and the ...3 days ago
The proposed Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill treats biogenic methane emissions differently from all other carbon emissions. The latter are to be measured net so that emissions from fossil fuels can be offset by carbon stored in trees. ...3 days ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...4 days ago
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On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...5 days ago
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...5 days ago
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...1 week ago
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Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...3 weeks ago
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...3 weeks ago
The principle of one person, one vote doesn’t apply for local elections. In fact, you don’t even need to be a person to have voting rights. Welcome to the ratepayer roll. While the ratepayer roll accounts for less than 1% ...3 weeks ago
Image Credit: Blog Writing Tips. I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the ... 3 weeks ago
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...5 days ago
A new website has launched in response to recent RNZ reporting about Police in Dunedin unlawfully entering people’s homes and breath-testing them. “I was disgusted when I saw what they cops were doing in Dunedin. Their behaviour undermines all of ...22 hours ago
Cave à Vin founder Zane Kelsall says he has been in ‘intense therapy’ following sexual misconduct claims in Halifax.Last week, The Spinoff published a story about Cave à Vin, a new wine bar on Auckland’s North Shore. The story hailed ...2 hours ago
Hundreds of artefacts connected with the lesbian community in New Zealand are displayed in a small volunteer-run museum in West Auckland.Charmaine always had crushes on girls. When she was head girl of Auckland Girls’ Grammar, she fell in love with ...3 hours ago
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Oops sorry one of our magic elves slept in …
Needs another elf’s pointy green boot in the backside. And a few choice words in Elvish. Here is an old weather forecast in Elvish for a taster.
Had the pleasure of meeting Tamati at the election prior to last, geez he’s a lovely man. Switched on and sincere, he’s the real deal. Thrilled he made it in to parliament.
Epic clip thanks for posting Grey, he does it well 🙂 Cracking up laughing.
The Eminem’s case:
“In a decision released today, the Court of Appeal allowed the National Party’s appeal – and reduced the damages payment down from $600,000 to $225,000.”
But of course they probably used the “Don’t you know who we are?” line. Born to Rule they think.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12178849
Hopefully Eminem takes it to the Supreme Court and has it doubled from the original amount.
LOL – please, please.
Bet you can’t guess Simon’s first question today?
“1. Hon SIMON BRIDGES to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all her statements and actions in relation to Karel Sroubek?”
Perseverance but really what else can the ring out of this?
Jacinda was asked again by Suzie this morning the same Sroubek questions mimicking Simon. Jacinda thought they were going to talk Climate change but instead the same tired questions with the same tired answers. Why?
lmao, just checked that out too.
Who cares about the planet?
Actually who even cares about the average kiwi, seeing Sroubeks locked up and not a risk to anyone….
Not simon anyways.
Wonder how many climate change questions national has asked this year compared to Sroubek questions?
“It’s that simple . . . Simon.”
For which the PM had to stand, withdraw and apologise!
But the barb struck home – lol.
We’Ll bE a NeW kINd OF goVernMent
Unlike the opposition well versed in verbal incontinence.
Perhaps Mark could offer some Verbal Contifit devices. A few Xmas pressies all round with personal fittings for Wodehouse, Mitchell, Bennett and Bridge-less
Was super funny.
While most people see this as an overdone steak (or stake) it is far from that. As I have said a couple of times here, it has more legs than a centipede. That is why people like MS and myself remain interested. The issue of Hardcore’s text to Ardern is a red herring (a very small sardine actually) being used to politically discredit her, but the persistence with that aspect could well backfire. There are some much bigger issues behind the whole situation.
” The issue of Hardcore’s text to Ardern is a red herring”
You keep telling yourself that
“Newshub has made multiple requests of the Prime Minister’s Office under the OIA for details of official communications she’s had using personal email or messaging platforms. We have been stonewalled and refused every time.”
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/12/tova-o-brien-she-may-not-be-but-jacinda-ardern-looks-dodgy.html
Tova will find herself an unperson if shes not careful 🙂
“be the most open, most transparent Government that New Zealand has ever had”
The thing is shes creating the rod for her own back here, if theres nothing in the text then just release them
Mind you shes very careful to specify these texts, makes you wonder if there are any other texts…
“The thing is she’s creating the rod for her own back here, if theres nothing in the text then just release them”
If, Pucky, Jacinda operates under the understanding that someone sending a text to her, and there must be scores and scores of them, can do so without fear of having that text and their identities revealed under pressure from National Party MPs, she would surely keep to that understanding/undertaking. If she betrays one member of the public, all will be affected. Do you see my point? Do you see Jacinda’s point (she’s explained it often enough).
The problem is this isn’t the first time Jacinda’s had issue with her phone so, like Sir John Key was hounded into releasing his texts, we need to see Jacindas phone records because theres a strong whiff of something quite unpleasant about this
Was pressure applied to Ian Lees Galloway to give a known drug dealer residency
I suspect that the ‘strong whiff’ lies only in the nostril of the woofter.
He didn’t give him residency, he suspended deportation – different criteria for each.
Really, he didn’t grant him residency
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/109010045/judicial-review-looms-as-immigration-minister-iain-leesgalloway-confirms-error-when-granting-karel-sroubek-residency
‘Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway confirmed an error was made granting Karel Sroubek residency and it’s this technical aspect that the deportation liability now hinges on.’
Yes do keep telling yourself that @ vv (with ref to Nakibloke @4.2.1) because you are correct. There are some that were trying to warn I L-G he was being set up (via junior MPs) but it obviously didn’t quite get there in time if at all. There might have been a bit too much Chardonnay sipping going on.
Again, the only thing I L-G is guilty of is placing too much faith in the bureaucracy and processes (which we now know are “under review”).
And thank Christ INZ (and the Labour Inspectorate – sometimes known as the Labour Expectorant) are finally able to get off their chuffs and collect arsehole exploiters with the involvement of the Police (instead of trying to be their own little Police Force). And its a bloody shame the IAA still doesn’t seem to be up to the task.
Soozy didn’t ask her how she reckoned Woodlouse got hold of her texts. Wonder if anyone’s looking into that.
Hipkins may regret the heavy hand.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12178871
It won’t be a matter for Hipkins regret. Right from the start, the VC gave every reason for the suspicion of duplicity. As for the reported consultation, it was a fiction as it pretty much excluded recognition of large numbers of those who opposed, including the staff.
I don’t think Hipkins will have anything to regret by this action.
From my, admittedly unscientific, observations I think allowing the Vice-Chancellor to have his way would have been far more damaging for Chippie.
I don’t know any faculty members or alumni who are in favour of the change. I know quite a lot of the academic staff and a lot of older alumni. They really do not want to see the change take place.
Perhaps the younger ones are in favour. I don’t know many of them.
Personally I would say “Good on Hipkins”. I didn’t know he had it in him.
Indeed!
First World problems eh? A re-brand and re-image.
I can’t think of anything more important (/sarc)
Speaking of which, is it not about time that National Radio got yet another futile and stupid but expensive re-branding, which continues to leave it with a longer and less elegant name that its best and original one – ‘National Radio’?
(Still by far the best name, because we should not let the National Party steal and pervert the true meaning of ‘National’.)
Why don’t you just use its standard nickname?
Just call it “Red Radio”. Everyone will understand you.
That misnomer is the reserve of only the obtusely bigoted conservatives. You may well qualify as such, alwyn.
“I don’t know any faculty members or alumni who are in favour of the change.”
I do and it isn’t allowing the VC his way, it’s the university council.
They can still change it anyway in everything but legal name only.
Other uni’s like Stanford aren’t legally called Stanford. They just promote themselves as that
It was a dumb decision
I agree
Hipkins made a dumb move.
But then he is the ex student union president at Vic, is still mates with them and they were the most vocally against the change, so maybe he just caved to pressure
SSC report about spying on behalf of govt agencies: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/109409526/security-firm-spied-on-politicians-activists-and-earthquake-victims
Bedtime reading. Have hankie to hand.
https://www.ssc.govt.nz/sites/all/files/Report%20of%20the%20inquiry%20into%20the%20use%20of%20external%20security%20consultants%20by%20government%20agencies.pdf
Hey I have a few in the pile before that one. 🙂
Our Learned Friends from Crown Law (circa 2007) emerge smelling none too sweet.
Set the spooks onto victims and witnesses in a case involving abuse in State Care they did…(3.7)
“In the Inquiry’s view, surveillance by the government of a participant in a civil case is generally improper, or at least highly unusual and something that would require careful oversight and controls to assess and balance privacy interests.
The Solicitor General confirmed to the Inquiry that this is also her view and expectation.
This was reflected in Crown Law’s response to a journalist’s enquiry earlier this year, which stated the Crown would not instruct a private investigator to carry out surveillance of a witness. ”
Unfortunately, shit sticks.
The number of tourists visiting New Zealand is expected to grow to 5 million by 2024
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/q-and-a/clips/tourism-the-price-of-popularity
Are we comfortable with current tourist visiting numbers?
Are we happy with the expected rate of growth?
Do we need to consider a cap? And if so, at what number? Double the current rate?
Could they bring their own water and take their own shit home chairy?
@ Gabby, and their carbon emissions from their vehicles… and their pollution from their cruise ships… that are somehow exempt from the tiny tourism tax…
Also if they can build their own airport transfers, new roads and public transport needed, user pays for stadiums and stop stealing harbours for marinas like America’s cup and cruise ships that only seem to benefit the 1% (if that).
Tourism seems to be piggy backed on public spending and they are the priority for councils and government when their expansion subsidised by rates and taxes from residents for increasingly overseas owned or part owned tourism businesses.
wrong Savenz…please look at the numbers before you come out with this rubbish…tourism is major earner, employer and tax payer for Godzone, and not just GST but income and company tax.
I walk tracks near Wanaka where you never see a tourist.
Actually, it isn’t.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/89010426/its-not-easy-being-beautiful-new-zealand-tourism-boom-comes-at-a-cost-kiwis-say
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11842133
You’re one of these idiots that sees a few people doing well because of something and calls it good but doesn’t look at the costs that something imposes.
That’s the trouble about tourism – look at the numbers. Because of the OTT drive to increase tourism for foreign earnings, the people actually living in this country are being denied their once high quality resources. The overseas earnings has to be gathered so that it balances the imports that we are so wedded to. Usually mport balances are higher than our foreign earnings.
We are on a treadmill and the more foreign tourists we get the more their
presence causes the country to be spoiled a little for everyone, after a survivable number has been researched and reached. And the more we are told we are well off and we borrow more personally, and our incomes remain low,then it is hard to pay off without a total change-around of lifestyle and expectation but this is the age of ‘She’ll be right’ and those who aren’t are no-hopers. Nice!
I think you will find that was in the past Bearded Git, you know when Kiwi based and born mums and dads owned restaurants, hotels and B&B’s and shops and Kiwi’s were workers in those businesses not migrant workers paying for the job in many cases.
Tourism like anything should be run sustainably, unfortunately in NZ it is not, just bums on seats, like many other areas like education, construction and so forth… NZ is unconcerned about quality, long term sustainability or compatibility to morality.
Good point, SaveNZ. A lot of the benefits from growing tourism is heading offshore due to the dominance of offshore owned hotel chains, etc.
https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Bethselamin
would it not behove us just to start finally and build more toilets gabs ???
Yes we do. Each place available to then be auctioned off with proceeds going to the government.
To be determined through research of the amount that our infrastructure can handle and how many people the country can actually support.
Placing more costs onto tourists (thus reducing costs for locals) should also help to slow the rate of growth. Giving us more time and funding to improve current infrastructure to meet demand going forward. Which should also help pacify growing local resentment.
With talk of peak room capacity coupled with a number of other media reports, it seems the country (well certain regions of it) is quickly reaching its capacity unless infrastructure is rapidly improved.
Another day and another revelation about Donald Trump.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12178629
Another day another revelation on the Sroubek and his Russian wife that he helped gain residency for, and now in relationship with Natz .
Angry, desperate phone call from Sroubek to estranged wife released
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12178785
“Sroubek said Mitchell had failed to appreciate his former wife was a partner in the business which was used to import the MDMA drug.
“He calls me a ‘gangster’ but, ironically, blindly (and conveniently) defends my business partner.”
It was the same company he said he used to assist her in gaining residency after she found she didn’t qualify in her previous job.
He called it a “double standard” saying she “now manipulates the situation to expel me from the country I supported her gaining residency in”.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12177545
(Anyone get the idea that there seems to be heaps of non residents just going around ‘helping’ people get residency and then getting residency themselves somehow…) The Ponzi continues and will continue until the government actually makes a real criteria and decent time frame so that all these little scams are too hard to keep going over time as are people’s fleeting relationships and businesses operating here being used to aid residency applications need to be verified over a 10 – 20 years not 2 – 5 years by which time things clearly seem to change for most people…)
Wonder Who released that phone call and why?
Sounded as though Sroubek was angry that she had not kept to the deal made 2 weeks ago.
It’s all working as designed @SaveNZ. Industrialise Immigration, shoddy Private Tertiary Education that gives NZ Inc. a good earn, Labour Hire Companies and anyone else you choose to create a ‘skill shortage list’ for……. better still, let them also become Immigration Advisors on the side (why not vertically integrate for the purposes of efficiency and effectiveness).
And the good thing is that if you’re a complete arshole charlatan, the good will be lumped in with the bad. And you can even tinker and pretend by doing things like lifting IELTS 6.5 to IELTS 7, and you can even stand up in Parliament in all good ‘FAITH’, (not unlike the pompous Wodehouse) and feign the very greatest of concern about a fucking Sroubek
Meantime, NZ ends up with the average and the dross (including the likes of a Thiel), whilst the likes of Canada, a number of European countries, and even some in the Middle East get not only the talented, but the committed.
Whoar, I feel like a bit of Shania TwAng (not)
On another overseas criminal who NZ is now paying for a prison stay for.
Transport Ministry fraudster Joanne Harrison to be released from jail and deported to UK
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/109410669/ministry-of-transport-fraudster-joanne-harrison-to-be-released-from-jail-and-deported-to-united-kingdom
(Maybe a bit of quality control is needed, no wonder NZ jails are filling up and we can’t be bothered/no funds for rehabilitating our own criminals when we have so much sympathy and compassion for the overseas crims).
Yep we should send them off to the colonies – oh drat we’ve already done that…
Auckland Islands have potential…
I was thinking White island would be good, depending on their crimes some could take their hand cuffs off before they swim ashore.
Naki Man – I think you may have a career teaching, or guidance counselling.
You’re not suggesting NZ Inc has fallen victim to UK failed/very average/complete muppet civil servants are you @ SaveNZ?
That idea would be oh so 1960s and 70s, but I suppose they do know better.
And they are of more monetary value (currency exchange-wise) than others.
They can probably even house themselves in luxury and enforce the rulz we’ve become accustomed to living by even if it might take a while to come to terms with a NuZull culcha.
Let’s good rid of the furrin devils who are costing us money. It is the cultural cringe – I think the ‘uman resources try and get overseas people because they expect more money and probably the agency gets a percentage. Moral hazard anyone, if that is the case. Everyone of any colour, creed or race has the potential to be a furrin devil because of the overcrowding our gummint has encouraged, facilitated actually.
The money-mad still want to be like Switzerland or Luxembourg but they aren’t clever and careful enough, our intellect is below Japanese crows, we behave like sheep and get milked like cows. We should try to be goats, they are much more lively and individualistic.
Crows:
http://www.bbc.com/earth/storyoflife/player?clipID=20160713-crows-use-cars-to-crack-nuts
Interesting to see our ‘kind’ PM insulting the opposition leader with childish name calling, and getting a telling off by her protector Mallard. I’m sure all the socialists are laughing in the almond lattes …
Like the end of yet another explanation that Bridges seemed unable to understand she said,
“Its Simple Simon.”
I suppose Simple Simon sees himself as a great Debater but the lost cause is Simple Simon.
And yet another snide socialists falls into the trap of exposing their nasty pathetic side …
So, Marshy, you just proved unwittingly the silliness of your assertion that our very capable and assertive PM needs a ‘protector’. Firstly, she dealt capably and assertively, humorously, with Bridge’s boring and repetitive attempts to slur and smear, and secondly the man who you call her protector quite rightly required her to withdraw and apologise, as she was unparliamentary.
It was a bit funnier and certainly less malicious than Paula Bennett’s “Zip it , sweetie!” made to Ardern, thus exposing her truly “nasty, pathetic side.”
yep – it shows a PM with a sense of humour and kiwis LOVE IT.
It is a truly hilarious comment. Never before in history have we had a Prime Minister who is such a master of stand-up comedy. She is far, far better than anything that David Lange ever managed.
Billy Connolly and Stephen Fry will be chastened. An amateur who is so vastly better than they ever were.
She has only one thing to learn. You should come out with your jokes as if they are spontaneous. It spoils it if you are so obviously reading it off a sheet of paper.
Still, it is the most marvellous attempt at humour that the current Government has managed. So much better than the bitter reactions to questions that are exhibited by so many of the Ministers when they are, as usual, caught out.
That was a wonderful display Cindy. Long may it be celebrated as the finest achievement of this woeful coalition.
alwyn, you forgot Oscar Wilde and George Bernard-Shaw. Please, lay it on properly.
Actually, Jacinda does not do this very often at all. But when she does it, it is simple and it sticks. Remember when Mike Hosking asked her if she had read his (award-winning?) article, and she asked back, “The satire?’
His silence spoke volumes.
She does it rarely, but well. Eat it.
You, as a righty, cannot get humour so please don’t try – it makes you look silly al.
Simple Simon met the PM
On the way to the fair
Said simple Simon to the PM
Show me that I’m right .
Show me your proof first said the PM
But simple Simon said I have none.
So true/clever bwag.
Is it up on the parliamentary website yet?
I make have to amuse myself by posting it on auto play especially for the flavourless and humourless people like Mr Marshy.
Hey – I could make it always come up in a large full screen popup and playing for him and all people coming directly here from Kiwisilo and Whalescum.
I thought what she actually said was, “It’s simple Simon.”
It was elegant. The Speaker asked her to withdraw and apologise, which she did, but it was too late…
I hope our min of justice is taking note, especially given his comments this week.”Justice Minister Andrew Little disagrees.
“All the laws we have in place are the laws we’ve had in place for a few years now, and judges have to be left to do their decision,” he told Newshub.”
It is not a good look this case with the offender being given in some a light sentence by the appearance of displaying remorse, her subsequent actions appear to be contrary to this and I wonder how the judge is feeling perhaps being misled.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12178882
Any astronomers out there – I’m looking to get a telescope soon – have semi decided on a refractor sky watcher 100/900 computerised for astrophotography. Any thoughts appreciated.
Did you see the comet last night, Marty?
No but I do know where to look I think. At work over next few days but I believe in looking up even if fleetingly.
OOooh gotta have one of these!
“All I want for Christmas is a Trumpy Bear.”
“At least until someone makes a Trumpy voodoo doll.”
“A report published in the New Zealand Journal of Ecology maps the wetland loss of the region (Southland) by comparing satellite images taken in 1990 and 2012.
It examined 32,814 hectares of wetland and found it was being lost at a rate of 157 hectares per year.
Since 1990, 3452ha of wetlands were no longer present in the landscape and a further 3943ha were at risk – amounting to 23 percent either lost or in a state of decline.
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage said more must be done to protect wetlands.”…
… Southland Ballance Farm Environment Awards committee chairman Bruce Allan said he hoped the report would prompt a painful, but necessary, change in farmer’s behaviour.
“I think it’s a wake up call. There’s been a long history of land development across the nation really, we’re probably going to see that slow down and there’s obviously moves to improve habitat,” Mr Allan said.
“There’s far greater awareness of the issues and there’s a lot more role models out there prepared to show leadership and talk about what they’re doing and pitch in with community initiatives such as catchment groups to turn this situation around and improve things.”
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/378556/southland-wetlands-being-lost-at-rate-of-157ha-a-year
The thing that strikes me with this is that Yes minister we DO have to do more to protect wetlands – this is a no brainer so lets do it. And this ‘wake up call’ idea – surely the wake up has already occurred what we have now is the repeated hitting of the snooze button hoping it all goes away – it won’t go away.
Herodotus – It is unconstitutional for the Minister of Justice to be involved in this case at all so what is the point of your comment? Secondly, what is the relevance of the vague comment “…. her subsequent actions appear to be contrary to this ….”. Justice is based on evidence – not appearances. Finally, the Judge’s 8 pages of sentencing notes were uncharacteristically released to the public, so the thinking of the Judge is transparent. Yes, the petition was very well supported but if the prosecutor reviewed the case, consulted with the family of the deceased and was convinced there was a miscarriage of justice, then an appropriate application could/should have been made. If the Judge was mislead at sentencing, she was in a position to act on this when reviewing the case as was provided for went the defendant was sentenced. Agin, something that was uncharacteristic. This seems another situation where the social media justice system, backed by the mainstream media justice system is holding sway. Irrespective of the matters surrounding this case, as a society, we should really be deciding if we should have a criminal justice system. Of course, there is the alternative of relying on ‘trial by media’ to determine the guilt or innocence of alleged offenders and then sentences being imposed on the basis of what is gleaned from media sources.
Damn! This was supposed to be in response to Herodotus at 12 above.
Public comment, criticism or even outcry over perceived injustice is necessary from time to time so that the justice system in any given country can periodically course-correct so that it aligns with the country’s culture.
Otherwise laws would simply be set once, and never change.
Laws have to evolve over time, and to reflect what the society generally thinks is fair, whatever ‘fair’ means, otherwise the public will revolt.
While I am less than impressed with the politicians who have tried to take advantage of this situation, I think if it had been a poor brown boy killing a rich white girl, we all know where that brown boy would be right now, and that’s definitely not at home sleeping in his own bed with his Mum cooking him dinner.
Consistency is what is needed in order to build trust in any situation, and trust in the justice system is no different.
Chess Player – yes, “criticism or even outcry over perceived injustice is necessary from time to time” but it should be informed criticism. Also, as you say, “if it had been a poor brown boy killing a rich white girl, we all know where that brown boy would be right now”. Sentencing of such cases should not be a benchmark for consistency. Which is the greater problem, society’s ingrained prejudices which are manifested by what some perceive as an institutionally racist justice system, or is it a media incited call for blood on the basis of sentiments that are driven by the likes of the Sensible Sentencing Trust who have driven our incarceration rates ever closer to the worst in the world? What is needed is for the community at large to consider the wisdom of the likes of the Commissioner for Children or those whose knowledge of criminology adds research to the discourse, as opposed to ignorant rantings on social media.
I hope the Leader of the House at the beginning of business tomorrow rises and asks for clarification.
“Mr Speaker, is the word ‘simple’ not to be used in the house? Or if it is just not to be used following the time honoured tradition of no christian names, with a christian name? Is it able to be used with a surname. For example could I say to my colleague “It’s simple Mr Peters or it’s simple Mr Bridges?”
Technicality, Pete. Mallard picked up the obvious ‘Simple Simon’ barb, and acted correctly.
Despite some idiots claiming that he ‘protects’ the PM.
It seems to be Simon who needs protection..
First name verboten. Combination likely to cause disorder.
PM knew exactly what she was doing, as did every other MP – and the Speaker, hence the immediate response. They will waste no further energy on it.
Eco Maori has already stated as fact that with Aotearoa farming emmisions NO ONE was talking about the BIG elephant in the ROOM nitrogin is a big problem and since the 1990 our use of this soil and water poision has gone up x 1000% at least .The reason no one was talking about nitrogin is 2 big companys control the prouduction and importation of nitrogin and they use there money to suppress the facts of there enviromental killing prouduct . I back banning it but the humane side of me says phase it out over 10 years thats enught time for our farmers to switch to organic farming.
1it destroys our soils it speed up the natural cycle 1000 % and kills off the natural organism in our soils basicly we are stilling our grandchildren future soils using nitrogen.2it kill off our water ways causing alge growth to explode in our awa and tangaroa 3 it increeses climate warming 4 we burn carbon to suck it out of the air 5 its hard on the stocks health. There are many other negtive effects that nitrogen causes hecne how Eco Maori was flabbergasted that know one was talking about this stuff WITH FACTS last year.
There’s a hidden climate (and river) killer that drives the industrialisation of agriculture.
Synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. We have to ban it.
Synthetic nitrogen is one of the key industrial agricultural inputs. Pesticides, livestock feed, antibiotics, irrigation, are some of the others. These things are what drive the high input, high damage way of growing food.
Without the inputs, industrial agriculture does not work.
Luckily, the most fundamental input of all is synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. That means, when we get it banned, it will force the de-industrialisation of farming and pave the way for regenerative farming – the only way of farming that provides a glimmer of hope against climate breakdown.
What is synthetic nitrogen fertiliser?
It’s a product that is made in factories and then dumped onto farmland in vast quantities to make grass and other crops grow fast. It’s a bit like crack cocaine for plants, a departure from reality and, ultimately destructive.
It often comes in the form of ‘urea’ but it’s sold under lots of other names too.
Links below ka kite ano. P.S my computer is playing up again sandflys One has to be care full what video is used as some start out correct and at the end flips to be pro nitrogen the big buck’s at work distorting OUR reality
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/opinion/109207699/banning-new-zealands-hidden-climate-killer–synthetic-nitrogen-fertiliser
A video for my above post
Eco Maori Video .
Eco Maori backs income equality and equality for all .
Wahine income being unequal to men is one of the main causes of child poverty wahine and tane start a whano and for some reason they split up most times the children are in the wahines care.Then the marrage settlement most times go in favour of the man{ whom’s got the best lawyer capitlist syndrom more money } so she end up with just enough money /putea to servive to top it off she will only beable to earn in a good situation 80% of what a man makes to try and provide for her children =DEPRIVED children
Global pay gap will take 202 years to close, says World Economic Forum
Gender equality has stalled, says WEF, as women globally are paid 63% of what men get
The global pay gap between men and women will take 202 years to close, because it is so vast and the pace of change so slow, according to the World Economic Forum.
The WEF, which organises the annual meeting of business and political leaders in Davos, said the global gender pay gap has narrowed slightly over the past year, but the number of women in the professional workplace has fallen. In 2017, the WEF estimated that it would take 217 years to close the pay gap.
“The overall picture is that gender equality has stalled,” Saadia Zahidi, the WEF’s head of social and economic agendas, said. “The future of our labour market may not be as equal as the trajectory we thought we were on.”
The WEF found that on average women across the world are paid just 63% of what men earn. There is not a single country where women are paid as much as men. Laos, in south-east Asia, is the closest to achieving parity with women earning 91% of what men are paid.
Gender pay gap: when does your company stop paying women in 2018?
Read more
Yemen, Syria and Iraq have the biggest pay gaps with women being paid less than 30% the level of mens’ wages. The WEF ranked the UK 50th out of 149 countries for gender pay, with women collecting 70% of that paid to men.
Ka kite ano links below. P.S I seen another wahine leader on The late Show with Stephen Colbert one of my favrourite actress Sandra Ballock we need more movies with wahine as the lead actor for equality to flouroush
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/18/global-gender-pay-gap-will-take-202-years-to-close-says-world-economic-forum
Eco Maori see the big picture and backs Great Britain staying in the European Union It will be a bad move for most people if Britxit goes down as 99.9 % of people will lose .I say this was all started by the alt right neo librale captlist whom are all about the rich
EU friends of Britain say: we want you to stay
European Guardian readers share their sadnesses and frustrations regarding Brexit a recent German opinion poll, almost 80% of the people asked were against Brexit and would be more than happy if you remained. I am writing to you as a German citizen with a daughter who has grandparents in England and Germany. Although she is too young to fully understand the unprecedented destruction by Germany that Europe suffered, she does know about Britain’s important role in reinstating civilisation and humanity. My daughter is growing up with a deep belief in peace and freedom in Europe. Equal rights, solidarity with the vulnerable and a lively democracy are important to her.
The EU is grounded on these values, which developed out of the horror of the second world war. They are not the cause of the world’s problems but the solution. We need a united Europe, and a united Europe needs Britain.
Sign up to our Brexit weekly briefing
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• There is no doubt about it: the Dear friends in Britain: maybe you are not aware of what Europe will miss when you leave. We will miss your refreshing views, as living on the continent can give a blinkered viewpoint. We will miss your international experience and networks. We will miss your calmness and pragmatism in an overheated world. We will miss your standing side by side against populists and anti-democrats. We will miss your long democratic experience in developing the future EU. Together we are strong! Please stay. We are waiting for you with open arms. Merry Christmas. Ka kite ano links below P.S I say a new vote on staying in the EU is needed to prevent a CATASTROPHE IN Britain
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/18/eu-friends-of-britain-say-we-want-you-to-stay
Kia ora Newshub many thanks to our goverment for razing the min wage as for simon and co they can go jump in there toilet employers will have to become inervative and incress prouductivity we wonder why our productivity is low by OECD standards well a low wage does not make anyone look for prouductivity gains.
MP’s being charged $55 per invoice is not on get it sorted.
That was a good ruling by the courts upping the jail time for that unscupulous lady selling her daugther for prostitution when the girl was a minor even if she was of age is not on .
That is not on having 3 rivers in Canterbry having E.coli I say we need more laws to protect our WAI it would be cool if in 3 years one could take a swim in any water way without worring about getting sick.???????????? after all tourism is our biggest export earner you know there is a lot of money suppresing those facts.
Eco Maori backs having city centra’s l banning cars and becoming pedestrian friendly and enviromentaly friendly
The Ebola in the African country Democratic Republic of Congo shows me that the west should put more funds into finding a cure for Ebola why man should no take health threats like Ebola forgranted as it could spread we don’t control nature she controls us put the money in to fix this I wounder who pulled funds out of fighting this ?????????????.
I say the rail line from Hamilton to Auckland is awsome it will take pressure off the roads. Rail all over NZ is needed It would be good to see Huntly gain from the move. I use to catch a train from Gisborne to Napier years ago it was a good scenic journey.
Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute