Think of it like this. Imagine three people wanting to look over a fence to see a parade: a short person, a middling person and a tall person. If we find a box of exactly the same size for each of them to stand on, then the short person still can’t see over the fence, and the tall person has a great view. That’s “fair” because we made sure each of them had the same size box — but the short person is left staring at the fence.
Then imagine if we gave two boxes to the short person, and the tall person just stood on the ground. Each person could see the parade because we made sure that we took their individual needs into account. That’s being fair, too.
So which sort of fairness is best? Treating everyone exactly the same or treating people according to their needs? The right of politics prefers people to be treated the same. The left thinks we ought to take some account of individual needs so everyone can get a fair go.
When you look at our tax system, you can tell what matters to New Zealanders. We don’t want to make everybody tall but we do want everybody to be able to see the parade.
Actually, on second thoughts, rather than a metaphor of everyone being able to watch the parade, I’d prefer everybody being able to participate in their local community – but it doesn’t create as clear an image as the parade one.
Didn’t someone say something along the lines of “From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs”? Seems to meet the idea of fair taxation……….
Except that to people who aren’t already sympathetic to leftwing ideas, it sounds like “you’re going to take away my stuff from me to give it to bludgers.” Rightwing ideas about individualism and “equal treatment” have become really ingrained in our political discourse, and we’re not going to overturn them by sticking to old school Marxist buzzwords.
Of course, it’s not actually their stuff in the first place. They’ve just managed to get it because our system is, effectively, a system of legalised theft.
Whoah. That’s too much truthiness there bro. Apparently the modern idea is that you can ‘overturn our current political discourse’ by carefully not presenting the kinds of ideas and speech which directly confront and challenge that political discourse with other alternatives.
I really don’t understand your comment. Deborah Russell’s article clearly does present important ideas which challenge rightwing ways of thinking. It sounds like your objection is that she’s just not doing it using the exact words you want her to, and therefore you’re happy to write off everything she’s said.
The old timey metaphor is superior to the one about looking over fences and I gave one reason why (brevity and concision). I haven’t read Russell’s article and have made no comment on it.
Well, first off it’s not a metaphor. And brevity is only an advantage if your audience are already familiar with the concepts you’re discussing – and as my first comment noted, if someone isn’t already familiar with Marxist ideas, they’re not going to properly understand a brief, context-free quote, however snappy it is.
Wrong. A husband raping his wife used to be perfectly legal and, most importantly, wasn’t called rape.
Just because something is legal doesn’t make it right.
The reason why our laws keep changing is because they’re not perfect. We have a few more laws that need cleaning up and the laws that allow people to benefit from other peoples work are amongst them.
Marx’s metaphor has lasted now into a third century because it embodies a compassionate vision of a different way of human relations that has stood the test of time. It is used even today because it shines new light on to those principles which have been deliberately extinguished in our society by corporate forces.
In contrast, I’m not sure that the fence peering metaphor you prefer will make it to the end of the year.
The thing about Marx’s ‘ideal truism’ or whatever you want to call it, is that it’s crap.
In reality there would be a battle line drawn between, on the one hand, those demanding that their ‘needs’ are met by those with the ‘ability’ to meet their needs for them, and those with the alleged ‘ability’ denying they have the ability to meet those needs and (probably and in addition) that those with ‘needs’ have the ‘ability’ or potential to realise the ability themselves.
Not disagreeing as Marx himself recognised that his saying would only apply in a world where labour and economic relations had already moved on from the existing capitalist one.
That is why it is so powerful – it implicitly embodies that change.
Having said that, Marx neither took into account the “psychosis of permanent war” that has been applied to western peoples, nor the phenomena of resource and energy depletion.
So we are still going to have to chart our own course forward…
Energy depletion is certainly looking to be a concern in the next few years:
The study found that the UK has just 5.2 years of oil, 4.5 years of coal and three years of gas before it completely runs out of fossil fuels, said the researchers at the Institute based at Anglia Ruskin University, in the East of England.
France is also in poor shape with less than a year’s worth of fossil fuels in reserve, and Italy has a single year of oil left and less than a year of gas and coal, but France unlike its southern neighbor generates almost 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power.
And I’m pretty sure that we’re not in much better shape.
And I don’t know why you think this has to be a competition. Marx’s language is strong and powerful and lasting, obviously. But, shocking though it may be to you, not everyone is a scholar of Marx, especially the readership of the New Zealand Herald.
Simplistic nonsense. Tax is not like giving somebody a leg up. It is like expecting the tall person to hold up the short person so they can attempt to see and then requesting they lift the person higher because they want a better view.
Not at all nonsense, Gosman. It all depends upon your view of what a community is, and how we should look after each other. And that, I believe, is where the right and left divide.
Taxation is this society’s method. It used to be the responsibility of the tribal leader, the paterfamilias, the church, the lord, the king. Now it is the state.
And there you go again gosman, exposing your naïve view of people and communities.
You think we are all individual with no connection. Fool, such a fool. Your view would mean that if you lived alone on the planet then you could live the life you do now – ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Fortunately there appears to be just one of you in the world, so everyone can continue to ignore you.
The fact we live in a community is not under discussion. What is under discussion is that fact should mean the people better off should be forced to provide more assistance to those less well off.
Gosman, yep, I agree. This is what our discussion is about.
This is what people who are better off do when they live in a community worth living in. Now, well adjusted people who know the meaning and practice of empathy would look after the poor and needy in their community but we all know that a proportion of any community are non-responsive to others’ needs. They need encouragement……….
Funnily enough, it seems that the better off people are, the less responsive they become- which is why we have taxation shelters, trusts, false income declarations, under table payments, and a whole generation of lawyers and accountants to service this greed and sociopathy.
If the community (however defined) was the economic unit, rather than the individuals within communities being cast as economic units, then almost all economic disparity would vanish.
The SOCIETY helped you get to be ‘better off’ by many individuals and state services giving YOU a little each. A caring state asks you to give a LITTLE back to society. You will STILL be better off anyway.
You COULDN’T have got to be “BETTER OFF’ all by yourself without any societal input, could you have? Imagine you living on earth as just one solitary individual/baby from the very beginning all by yourself.
Placing our faith in any one man, or woman, is tantamount to inviting defeat, as it is the entire corporate-political system of money, favours and careerism which is the problem.
How about we have some discussion about why some people are better off. Some reasons such as inheritance, legalised theft, bias in the justice system and enforced poverty by the state so that the rich can benefit. These things do need to be discussed and addressed.
My issue with your comment, TheContrarian, if I may express a contrary view, is with your word ‘generally’. First, how many are in this category? It’s bigger than you seem to want it to be. Secondly, those who do lack empathy and care for others tend to become more dominant than their mere numbers, and are especially to be found in positions of power and influence.
Care of others can often be found to be spread no further than family and close friends, and empathy has to be taught and acquired. My old education tutor at Training College I remember saying that most did not attain true adult maturity in terms of the psyche.
During the Great Depression, one third were impoverished, one third kept the same level of
matertial security and one third enriched themselves. A ‘generally’ empathetic and caring society should have done better.
During the Great Depression, one third were impoverished, one third kept the same level of
matertial security and one third enriched themselves. A ‘generally’ empathetic and caring society should have done better.
It’s what happens when you put bankers, financiers and asset speculators in charge of your society, and then exalt them as the ultimate example to follow.
It ain’t for nothing that the main targets of Christ’s wrath and condemnation were the moneychangers who had their tables overturned, and the wealthy who were told that their path to heaven was pretty skinny. Funnily enough, he also acknowledged the role of the state (‘render unto Caesar’) but also condemned rapacious state tax gathereres who fattened themselves- but not for the tax itself but for the extra they took for themselves.
Yesman money is about power over other people to you Yesman.
Just like your pathetic example above .
Just like short sighted neanderthal like yourself Gos needs a heart to stop being an emotionaly aloof intellectually barron cripple.
Your an intellectual and emotional pigmy that can,t see beyond his bank balance.
Spot on, mickysavage. Alas, the poverty of spirit which says that my wealth is my worth. I despair at its human cost to the greedy individual himself and become angered at the human cost to others.
It is like expecting the tall person to hold up the short person so they can attempt to see and then requesting they lift the person higher because they want a better view.
That happens every day between people who give a shit about each other, you fucking sociopath. Ever been to a Santa Parade, for example?
Nah, you think they should dump him immediately and get Shane Jones back. Or you think they should never have gotten rid of Shearer who was the only chance Labour had.
Stick to your script mate, you’re getting confused. Leave the revisions to the smart kids.
I agree. Labour need a stable leader, and removing Cunnliffe after Labour’s probable defeat this election will send Labour right back to square one again.
Key is liked more than Cunnliffe, which is a problem for Labour. Attacking Key direct for the last six years has not worked either. Change of strategy needed.
“They do when a large percentage of the population, the authoritarian right-wing to be specific, prefer it in their leaders.”
A large percentage of NZ’s voting public are authoritarian right-wing? Apart from the fact this has no basis in fact whatsoever if the majority prefer that then welcome to democracy, Draco.
Certainly haven’t noticed any authoritarians in my social or professional circles…the last CE I worked under was a little I guess, but not to any great degree.
There was an interesting discussion going on there until McGrath, i assume deliberately diverted it off its course,
The problem of inequality is simply one of the false use of various means to ‘value’ our labour,
In some forms of economic activity the measure is the value of the output of the individuals production helped along with the individualization of various companies that produce a particular good or service in an economy,
In other forms of industry the measure is the level of education which is the precursor to a decision on the level of remuneration to be paid to the individual,
There could be mounted an argument over who produces the most good from say a WINZ office on any given day, those who deliver customer services during the day or the lower paid cleaners who clear away the mess made by those workers,
Of course if the State owned all the profits of every business in theory all workers could be paid the same with the cleaner of the factory floor receiving no less than the CEO of the company in question,
In theory our economy generates enough profit to pay the average wage to everyone, cleaner to manager to solo parent, how such a system would be achieved is another story of course…
Not at all. I was just following on from BM’s comment, which I thought was interesting and a good idea. Dumping Cunnliffe I believe would be the wrong idea if Labour lose. I imagine that Key had low approval ratings as well while in opposition (though I could be incorrect on that score). With time, Cunnliffe could have approval ratings up round Key’s current level.
Yep your right, BM waved the conductors baton to divert the discussion and you as the chorus joined in,
Personal popularity contests as measured by opinion polls are only really of value to the right, Helen Clark was polling in those opinion polls 6% befor She become the Prime Minister so they are an indicator of nothing much really, simply a device for ‘wing-nuts’ to hang there hats upon which is again nothing much really,
The end result of the Stuff.co poll on the budget i did not get to see, BUT, at the point i viewed it, the story of the week, The Budget, had those who liked that budget polling 47.5%, those who disliked it 52.5%,
In a tight election contest it is numbers like that which indicate what the wider electorate is thinking,
i don’t have to even like David Cunliffe and have an expressed distaste for much of Labour’s policy platform, BUT, my votes will be cast to ensure that He becomes the next Prime Minister and Labour becomes the major Party of the next Government simply because there is at the moment no other alternative…
Pay equality is impractical and against human nature.
What can work better is having a maximum pay difference between the highest paid and lowest paid in an organisation. Say, Highest=50 x Lowest.
If the top guys are paid non job related perks such as shares, holidays etc, equivalent (at 50 times less value) shares/holidays should be paid in cash or kind to the lowest paid and other equivalent perks/value paid to those in between.
This system has more positives than negatives in my view.
John Key would have to be one of the most SPIN-DOCTORED politicians on the planet.
Which is why I am going to stand against him in Helensville – in order to help keep the BLOWTORCH on corruption (at both central and local government level).
funny how ralston got a position at tvnz notwithstanding his close training of the pm.
interesting to see the impact of nats catchphrases like tricky. showing you dont need facts just repeated memes. cunliffe doesnt have to change or if he did it would make no difference cos the labelling is not factually based.
key is thought of as arrogant… which is more interesting to me cos it shows the truth can seep through.
bm… you disappeared during judiths lying. how proud you must hsve been
Cunliffe, in his 8 short months, does not have the power or media exposure that Key has had for 6 long years. Hopefully he will get more media exposure in the coming months. At one time, before getting elected, Clark was at 11%.
In the comparative stats mentioned in the article, what was revealing to me was the fact that Key has a HIGHER negative rating than Cunliffe! 30 per cent negative for Key while Cunliffe has a lower negative rating at 25 per cent!
It is kind of ironic to see heaps of ‘advisers’ in the article and in the comments under the article advising Cunliffe that he should take less advice!
Former TVNZ political commentator turned media trainer Bill Ralston said Cunliffe came across like he “doesn’t know himself”…..
Cunliffe, who at times proved he had the ability to connect, was a thoughtful man who was likely to be over-analysing problems, he said. “He shouldn’t try to be anything else other than himself.”
Media trainer Brian Edwards, who has worked with Cunliffe, said the Labour leader was coming across poorly “which is curious because in the past he’s come across very well indeed. He doesn’t look relaxed, he doesn’t look spontaneous, he looks like he is reciting extended sound bites that he has been given by advisers.”
Where is the Cunliffe of old who could shoot from the hip and speak from the heart?
Brian Edwards says:
It seemed this had forced Cunliffe to over-prepare and use scripted responses at a time when it was better to wing it. “You can have this problem of too many voices. You’re given all this advice and you end up with scrambled brains.”
My advice to Cunliffe is, ditch the advice, go with your gut. After all you couldn’t do any worse.
God Bill Ralston is looking like an old ‘has been’ these days! (how does he come across these days!)…and as for Brian Edwards( much the same)…a touch of envy here?…..I would say Linda Clark is a far better, younger ‘up with the play’ media trainer!
Go David …you are doing just fine!…..next Prime Minister of New Zealand!…in coalition with the Greens, NZF and Mana/Dotcom!
Remember the better you get the more some will be squealing and trying to undercut you….Take it as a compliment and just get tougher and more determined…really TOUGH! (in this regard maybe get some advice from Helen Clark!)
I’d much rather Cunliffe performs a little better so he can just be in a coalition with the Greens.
If Mana goes ahead with the Internet Party, then any Dotcom scandal suddenly becomes relevant to a new Labour government if Mana is in government. And Winston will be a brake on any real left-wing policy.
Labour/Green majority is the best outcome. And unfortunately, we’re still probably 6-9% away from that.
The Buy back Assets sound bite appeals to the Left.
Keep Universal Super age at 65 appeals to the Right.
I think you’ll find that those appeal to the more conservative of the left and the right while also appealing to the more broadly left. The more libertarian right will absolutely hate the latter.
Keep Universal Super age at 65 appeals to the Right
Raising the retirement age = cutting benefits. Not raising the retirement age is a pure left wing policy. The reason it appeals to the Right is they know Labour is going to get smashed on it at the polls.
I reckon Bill Ralston and Brian Edwards have got the pip with Cunliffe because he chose the younger ‘up with the play’ Linda Clark to media train him.
And while I’m here:
Yesterday Redlogix called Fran O’Sullivan a trout. I suggested – in a tongue in cheek sort of way – that was a bit unfair. I wish to retract that comment! Redlogix is right. 🙂
Just seen her on Q&A and she looks like a trout, she acts like trout and she is a trout! What a shocking performance from both her and Bryce Edwards. They showed their true colours. Laila Harre had to shout over the top of them in order to get a word in edge-wise.
At one point O’Sulliavn is castigating Labour for a punitive CGT and a few minutes later she contradicts herself by saying it’s not going to have any effect anyway. Geez!!!
Jenny@4…………What ????????……Clearly none of these people watched DC on The Nation yesterday. He was faultless. Looked rested (unlike Key)…………..10 out of 10 Mr C.
We will win this election despite the likes of Stuff, Ralston, Fran, Claire etc etc.
of course not, its a cosy club of courtiers to the power elite, which one of the journalists in the press gallery would not like to be at least asked to become press secretary in the PMs office?
Glenn Greenwald: Zero evidence supporting claims Snowden jeopardised lives
Friday 16 May 2014
When Edward Snowden decided to leak top secret documents from the National Security Agency in the US, he contacted American journalist Glenn Greenwald. What followed was a series of events, straight out of the pages of a spy novel. The leaks revealed that the US was conducting a program of mass surveillance on a global scale Glenn Greenwald tells the story in his new book called “No Place To Hide”. He talks with Steve Cannane for his first Australian TV interview to promote the book.
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Right now, there are dozens of major U.S. cities that have already passed laws against feeding the homeless. As you will read about below, in some areas of the country you can actually be fined hundreds of dollars for just trying to give food to a hungry person. I know that sounds absolutely insane, but this is what America is turning into. Communities all over the country are attempting to “clean up the streets” by making it virtually illegal to either be homeless or to help those that are homeless. Instead of spending more money on programs to assist the homeless, local governments are bulldozing tent cities and giving homeless people one way bus tickets out of town. We are treating some of the most vulnerable members of our society like human garbage, and it is a national disgrace.
Yep Draco, and there was another article in the Herald last week about the ‘Ranui holiday Park’ out in West Auckland where Paula Bennett called a public meeting of its residents to cry faux tears over the amounts of money the owner is gouging from the State via its ‘end of the line’ tenants,
It appears that now Brown’s council has got in on the act and issued notices for a large number of the tenants to quit the place, their last refuge befor homlessness, because there are no resource consents in place for the ‘park’ to house permanent residents,
It gets even worse in what must be a total ”mind fuck” for the tenants who are deemed not to be permanent residents IF they are on the HousingNZ waiting lists,
Of course under the ”new rules” that govern the HousingNZ waiting lists none of the tenants can be placed on HousingNZ waiting lists because their current accommodation in the ‘holiday park’ is deemed by the rules put in place by Bennett and Nick Smith to be ‘suitably housed’ in such accommodation,
I used to have a bit of time for Mike Lee, but these days he doesn’t seem to do anything remotely good. He sticks to giving a civilised veneer to outrageously bad policies.
I think I mentioned to you some time ago that growing, cooking and giving away healthy free food was my thing, but leaving that aside, what a horrible world view some people have.
I don’t do lotto, but did notice the jackpot was $18m before Saturday, if it’s not gone I might luck in like Trevor from Te Kauwhata did, though I’m confident that in publicly pledging to give it away I wouldn’t suffer his publicised troubles.
Maybe if it gets to the must go draw at the very end I’ll risk the the minimum power ball option of four boards for $4.80 and along with my food farm, wind turbine, kitchens and free diner/restaurant I’ll fund a sports academy as home base for the cities amateur sports groups to operate out of, a free leisure centre for Hamilton South.
Not quite a DB9 with a sunlight powered hyper drive, but what ever floats your pod, as they say.
Besides, with the Green’s bank and kiwi ingenuity, we’ll be flying like in Futurama in no time. 😀
I don’t do lotto, but did notice the jackpot was $18m before Saturday, if it’s not gone I might luck in like Trevor from Te Kauwhata did
I’d reform Lotto into Socialist Lotto.
Instead of an $18M jackpot which might be shared out by a small handful of people, or even just one person, I would have the system geared to 36 x $500,000 prizes.
Enough to transform the life of 36 families in other words, not just give one or two families a shot at living it up like Hollywood stars.
Yip, definitely agree. If you look at the prizes by lotto, it is very very highly weighted to the top prizes.
2nd division lotto was $21,000 this last weekend – nothing to sneeze at, but not really going to be life-transforming for many. 3rd division was a paltry $660, which is probably the most the average lotto player could have a reasonable expectation to win once in their lifetime of buying tickets. Powerball 2nd division was only $25,000, although the 3rd division was a more satisfying $1,368.
I’ve started buying lotto tickets now, but only because I won’t miss the money and “if you don’t buy a ticket you have 0 chance of winning”. I only ever buy when they have one of their promotions of 100 additional prizes, eg the recent Easter and Mother’s Day promotions, and also when it goes to a “must be won” jackpot – not because I’m hoping to win 1st division, but because I’m hoping to win 2nd division and have no-one win 1st.
Ordinary Americans have a long and admirable traditions of personal generosity and community volunteering – and these new laws are very much at odds with that. Deeply so.
It is always worth keeping in mind that the USA is an astoundingly diverse nation – every possible variation and extreme of human value and experience is to be found there.
you mean like donating to their ivy league colleges to ensure a spot for their children no matter how stupid or registering their assets in georgetown and then donating to the usa.
ordinary americans are no more giving than the ordinary kiwis… its the very very wealthy who wait til their pillage has borne fruit then to perpetuate a personal image they donate… like owen glenn in nz
And it is shocking to think that Camden (which Hedges features prominently in his book Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt) is a mere 3 hour drive from the heart of empire, Washington DC. Hedges reports on companies who sole job it is to break down abandoned offices and houses and rip out anything worthy of scrap, load it on boats which then take it away to China and other places for melting down.
It really is the catabolic breakdown of western civilisation. Hedges calls these places the “sacrifice zones” of capitalism, and these zones are spreading.
In other words, when the American power elite is doing this to their own people down the road, do you think they really care one whit about anyone else further away.
In other words, when the American power elite is doing this to their own people down the road, do you think they really care one whit about anyone else further away.
Whatever makes you think that they ever cared about anyone else? There’s a very good reason why the original rich were called RobberBarons. It’s just a matter of time before we call them that again. In fact, we should already be doing so.
Ordinary Americans have a long and admirable traditions of personal generosity and community volunteering – and these new laws are very much at odds with that. Deeply so.
Yep. And one could make a case that Republican voting families and the Christian Right help out in their local communities even more so than most other Americans.
“And without a doubt, the need to help the homeless is greater than it ever has been before. Right now, there are 1.2 million public school students in America that are homeless. That number is an all-time record, and it has grown by 72 percent since the start of the last recession.
In addition, there are 49 million Americans that are dealing with food insecurity. Even in the midst of this so-called “economic recovery”, poverty is absolutely exploding.”
Welcome to America the land of the free and plenty.
PS: A reader posted below the article :
‘Better pull him over…..he looks like a Good Samaritan!’
CV “Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities”
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Yes. How is it possible that an authority we are part of goes and does this? I don’t understand. Does this mean that the majority of Aucklanders and Americans want to do this?
The Onehunga Business Association has more weight than a hundred thousand voters. It’s how the system works.
And in the US/UK, literally millions of people were opposed to the 2nd Iraq War. But the western power elite did what they wanted regardless. Which is not a surprise according to Dmitry Orlov quoting some recent Princeton research:
In case you missed it, the US is not a democracy. A Princeton University study by Gilens and Page performed a regression analysis on over a thousand public policy decisions, and determined that the effect of public opinion on public policy is nil. That’s right, nil. It doesn’t matter how you vote, it doesn’t affect the outcome in any measurable way. By extension, that also goes for protesting, organizing, dousing yourself with gasoline and setting yourself on fire on the steps of the US Senate, or whatever else you may get up to. It won’t influence those in power worth a damn.
Here’s the plot that shows the relationship: public support for any given issue may vary from 0% to 100%; the probability that public policy will follow remains stuck at 30%. It doesn’t matter whether or not you vote, you are throwing your vote away regardless. Or, if it makes you feel better, it is thrown away for you.
I don’t understand. Does this mean that the majority of Aucklanders and Americans want to do this?
Of course, you know that we do not live in a full democracy where each persons’ voice has equal weight, and what’s the bet that Auckland’s homeless were encouraged to speak or lobby for themselves about this proposal, in front of Council – nil or close to nil, right?
Maybe even a list of multistory buildings that are tsunami resistant could be good too. Video of the Fukushima earthquake showed that those who made it to the upper floors of such buildings also survived.
P.S. Also handy knowledge in the case of storm surge related to hurricanes, which due to climate change are expected to strike the North of the North Island within the next 20 – 30 years.
The storm surge that hit the city of Tacloban in the Philippines was 6 metres high.
“I was talking to the people of Tacloban,” said senior presidential aide Rene Alemendras. “They said ‘we were ready for the wind. We were not ready for the water.’
“We tried our very best to warn everybody,” he said. “But it was really just overwhelming, especially the storm surge.”
While the storm surge proved deadly, much of the initial destruction was caused by winds blasting at 235 kilometers per hour (147 mph) that occasionally blew with speeds of up to 275 kph (170 mph), howling like jet engines.
Because Bennett’s work and welfare policies aren’t based in reality, they’re based on ideology and (if we are more cynical) manipulation towards privatisation.
…and based on spreading right-wing propaganda. Because now we can say for sure that anyone without a job/without enough work is 100% to blame for choosing their own predicament.
After all, if the govt will give you 1000s and 1000s of dollars to go to Christchurch, and you don’t take them up on it, you must really really not want to work, right?
this is the woman who pretended to be dyed in the wool westie and has dumped them like a hot potato now she will stand for the wealthy of upper harbour. I hope that clarifies it for you.
Like you Phil I don’t rate Edwards at all. His opinion of David Parkers interview was quickly dismissed by Harrie as was Fran Wilde’s. Did you notice bumbling Bill English turn all insecure when he heard Parker was about to be asked to critique his lack luster budget. I had a chuckle when Parker burst into a hysteric belly laugh referring to snake oil being peddled by English and National. DP just firmed up any wavering swing voters minds watching, that National are vision less having very poor policy direction.
Have always rated Parker, liked his response to Dann over immigration being populist (‘what’s wrong with being populist’?)
Disappointing though to see him physically recoil at Dann’s suggestion the top tax rate could go to up to 45 cents, and repeat reassurances it won’t.
Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee English and Parker write New Zealand’s future.
President Barack Obama’s science advisor, Dr. John Holdren is the US equivalent of New Zealand’s Professor Peter Gluckman, science advisor to John Key.
This is what Dr Holdren says about climate change:
“The amount of rain coming down in heavy downpours is increasing. Drought in the West and South-West in the United States. The increase that has already occurred in heatwaves across the middle of the United States. All of these are phenomena are going to have a direct adverse affect on human well being on the different parts of this country…..
The 1st component is reducing carbon emissions in the United States.
The 2nd component is helping communities increase preparedness and resilience.
And the 3rd is global leadership, to get countries around the world to join us in emissions reductions that will slow the rate of climate change around the world and help cities like Miami that are particularly vulnerable…..
Dr Holdren’s comments strongly correlate with Professor Gluckman’s advice to our nation contained in the nzgovt. webpage on climate change; http://www.pmcsa.org.nz/climate-change/
“New Zealand is a small emitter by world standards – only emitting some 0.2% of global green house gases. So anything we do as a nation will have little impact on the climate – our impact will be symbolic, moral, and political”
Sir Peter Gluckman Chief Science adviser to Prime Minister Key
So how are New Zealand’s political leaders heeding the advice of science advisers like Dr Holdren and Professor Gluckman for global leadership?
New Zealand’s net greenhouse gas emissions increased 111 percent between 1990 and 2012. Total emissions increased 25 percent.
Statistics New Zealand nzgovt.
English and Parker call the shots:
Labour says views on mining close to Govt’s
Labour’s finance spokesman, David Parker, says his party’s policies on oil, gas and mineral extraction are close to those of the Government.
“I don’t think we are much different from National,” Parker said. “They’ve continued on with the programme that we started in respect to oil and gas,” he said yesterday after a breakfast for the Mood of the Boardroom survey in which chief executives expressed strong support for mining.
“We think that mining outside the Schedule 4 areas is appropriate.
“There need to be appropriate environmental controls around risk minimisation.”….
Parker was Energy Minister during the last Labour Government and said about $20 million was spent on seismic surveys to supply to big oil companies and entice them to New Zealand….
Finance Minister Bill English outlined six business-friendly growth initiatives, one of which was to bring in new rules for the country’s 200km exclusive economic zone.
“We believe that New Zealanders will support better use of our natural resources provided it is economically responsible,” English said.
The sooner these two sickly extreme Right sychophantic servants to the Polluters and Plutocrats, and traitors to the People and Planet, are removed from any and all positions of influence the better.
Blindly calling a BLANKET ban on RESPONSIBLE CONTROLLED mining or mineral and oil exploration, or blindly opposing TPPA even before knowing the details is stupid and sort of throwing a baby out with the bath water.
This does not preclude us in the meantime developing and starting NEW environmentally focused industries.
labour needs to pull him from epsom to avoid distraction. having such a high profile labour mp there is wrongly tell people to vote for him for electorate mp.
All the opposition party’s are are guilty of not playing MMP as you can, the Greens have put up Genter. I guess they could intend saying vote the Nat candidate as your electorate vote, or maybe go down as list only?
Julie Ann will in my opinion have done a good job in Epsom if the Green Party vote goes up again in that electorate, AND, the far too high in 2011 electorate vote for the Green Party candidate goes down,
The same i would suggest will be the measure of David Parker’s success or not in that electorate,
Between both Parties Labour/Green they have some 8000 electorate votes from the 2011 numbers, a quarter of which if either candidate is able to convince their supporters to vote for the National Party candidate will unseat ACT from the Parliament,
i would like to think that both David Parker and Julie Ann Genter are going to approach the 2014 election with the firm intentions of achieving exactly what i write above but have my doubts,
The Green Party are fully aware of the situation in Epsom having given the previous candidate there a spanking over the manner in which He campaigned in the electorate in 2011,
As far as David Parker goes tho i have serious doubts, with, from memory, around 5000 electorate votes from the Epsom electorate in 2011 He more than holds the key to ACT’s fate this election and therefor possibly the key to who Governs,
Hopefully Labour strategists have educated Parker in what is needed in this particular crucial electorate…
Yes and MP’s need to put their own egos aside and play MMP as they should. How many will vote the National candidate? I think the Mana candidate did and told his supporters there to do the same. My own family who live in Epsom have voted ACT/National in the last 2 elections but have abandoned them after watching mind the gap. They proudly confirm they are now Green supporters and intend giving 2 them 2 ticks, I will be turning their way of thinking soon, we need the likes of them to candidate vote national and party vote Green obviously. A campaign using this strategy may just work the oracle?
In saying all that, National through the budget played the ACT card which will be good for about 2% of party votes gifted to them. By this wolf in sheeps disguise, PR stunt, the rightwing of National-Act will pull 4%. If they get a third term they will piss on the lot of us till a spring bok tour revolt occurs. Thinking of going on a 2.5 year World holiday to places I’ve always wanted to see. Be back for the next election fight. Still think NACT will cop a hiding though.
The Q and A is no where near as good as in the earlier years.
Corin Dann is an irritating interviewer as he interrupts before the speaker has completed his point. Interrupting in the middle a speaker’s sentence is rude and stupid. Let the person at least COMPLETE a sentence man! Both English and Parker tried their best to answer the questions in spite of the crap attitude/manners of the interviewer.
The panel today was also irritating because the host not at all being in control, the panel members constantly interrupted each other like uneducated little unprofessional cretins.
The show should be about discussion and information for the audience and not become an ego exercise slot for the so called ‘journalists’ and ‘commentators’.
The ‘Nation’ does it much better I think.
I wonder why they no longer get the highly impressive, astute intellectual, the professional Colin James?
I wonder why they no longer get the highly impressive, astute intellectual, the professional Colin James?
I doubt he would want to lend his name to a second-rate, once over lightly and partisan programme like Q&A. The Nation would be a better place for him.
Btw, I agree about the panel scrapping and interrupting each other, but it should be noted the main culprits were Edwards and O’Sullivan talking down Harre every time she tried to say something. In the end, she joined in but that was the only way she could any points across.
why do we need panels. why do we need opinion pieces. its to tell us how to think and raise the financial stocks of the panelists and opinion writers.
duncan garner just commented on a piece about a young man with a terminal ilness ” what a great attitude to life”. had to be scripted cos he shows no understanding of bigger picture issurs beyong himself in his work. oh the irony.
It seems that some of the interviewers like Gluon are not interested in the answers, just in posing questions which so how sharp they are. The interview is to demonstrate their skills and to acquire some information that provides material for ongoing news, and so that they can score some point, spurious or note, against the interviewee. That’s my impression of late.
Gos its obvious that you have the same MO as Srylands.
So lesson 1 Democracy gave more power to everybody including the poorest.
They have a right to vote in a government that shares resources more evenly.
The Result is free education which gives more people a chance to make a good income and pay taxes to lower the burden on you selfish one.
Healthcare ensures more people are aloud to participate and keep working to lower the tax burden on you.selfish one.
Economic History shows that having a more equal society means having a more stable and vibrant economy much less prone to recession or depression.
Which means more people get to keep their wealth like selfish idiots like yourself.
Diseases spread are reduced hugely by having universal healthcare so when you visit your ladies of the night you are far less likely to end up with Aides tuberculosis stds excetera.
Education is good because I can get to read over 1,000 economics books for less than $100 .As the university students throw out their expensive books .
So my knowledge of economics is light years ahead of your pathetic propaganda that you repeat from your Act pamplet you selfish sorry little yesman.
In one of the most fiercely contested general elections, the right wing nationalist BJP (Bharathiya Janata Party) has won 282 seats, making it the only party to win single majority in the Lok Sabha since 1984. The total seats in the house=543+(2 nominated)=545. Needed for outright majority=272
This year’s Lok Sabha polls witnessed the highest-ever turnout with 66.38 per cent of an estimated 814 million voters exercising their franchise — the highest ever in the history of general elections. These elections saw a total of 8,241 candidates fighting it out for the 16th Lok Sabha and included 3,234 independents.
One of the facts that interested me was the absurdity and unfairness of the FPP system:
In terms of vote share, BJP is on top, with ONLY 31 % of votes. But this gave them 52% of the seats. 282 !
Followed by 19.3 per cent vote for the Congress party, but gave them only 8% of seats, a mere 44!
I am so glad we here chose a more democratic and a fairer system of representative government. MMP is any day way better than FPP.
India remains a remarkably unequal country; it still has a strong caste system still in place, and millions do not have reliable clean drinking water or sanitation although it has been improving. Over 600M Indians still defecate outside in open air arrangements, however.
Oh, and according to Forbes, India now has over 50 billionaires. Good on them.
To me the measure of success for India will be when every house in every town and village has a toilet, running water and electricity.
The very wealthy are very very filthily rich and the poor are sadly very very poor.
Corruption in every sphere of life is rampant. Greed, selfishness, pursuit of wealth, dowry, unfairness, parochialism, nepotism, religious extremism, intolerance and hardship is beyond the pale.
Hats off to innumerable good caring volunteers trying to make positive changes against huge odds where ever possible.
India has so many well educated wise, kind and good people too, but changing the traditional ingrained mentality and effecting a paradigm shift is a monumental task which even the very great Mahatma Gandhi was unable to fulfill.
Remains to be seen if the election of this far right party with its religious, nationalist and capitalist agenda will be good for that nation’s poor and ordinary people in the short and long term. I really wish them success, but I am very skeptical and fear for the minority Muslims and Christians.
i think the ‘wing-nuts’ use of that little divisive device relies upon what is then redistributed by Government’s via various programs from Working for Families, welfare benefits, Housing subsidies etc etc etc,
As a straight calculation of actual dollars paid in taxes by the various groups without subtracting amounts of monies given back by these various programs the story would i believe be entirely different,
Shown as taxation paid as a % of income the tale is then turned on its head to show those with the least income pay a greater % of that income as taxation than any other group…
See this article in the business section of today’s Sunday Star Times?
“In the business pages of the Sunday Star-Times today, anti-corruption campaigner Penny Bright points out that New Zealand is one of only a handful of countries NOT to have ratified the UN Convention on Corruption.”
(Thanks to Auckland Councillor Cathy Casey posting it on facebook).
How come NZ’s Minister of ‘Justice’ Judith Collins has not yet introduced her ‘Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Legislation Bill’ into the House?
This ‘Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Legislation Bill’ needs to be passed before NZ can ratify the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) .
Ratification of UNCAC is supposed to have been a priority for the last SIX years.
Perhaps if Judith Collins had been a bit more competent and focused in her publicly-funded role as Minister of Justice, instead of focusing on helping to organise private business ‘net-working’ and ‘profile-building’ opportunities for Oravida, which is owned by her very close friend ‘Stone’ Shi, and whose managing director is her very close friend Julia Xu, the other director being her HUSBAND David Wong Tung – then NZ would have a domestic anti-corruption legislative framework now in place?
(See pages 83 – 84 for the MFAT briefing on the pre-planned tour/visit of Oravida facilities by the MINISTER of Justice Judith Collins on 23 October 2013, and the photo STILL up on the Oravida website which proves this:
The time-frame for the introduction and passage of legislation is normally six months.
However – it is now 18 May 2014, and the last sitting day of this Parliament is 31 July 2014.
(I checked with the appropriate Parliamentary staff).
Minister of ‘Justice’ Judith Collins’ much vaunted ‘Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Legislation Bill’ has STILL yet to surface in the House …………..
Why is Judith Collins STILL a Minister – when she is obviously NOT ‘fit for duty’?
Because NZ PM John Key has been bending over backwards /forwards to also help promote Oravida, thus has difficulties holding her accountable to the ‘highest ethical standards’, when he appears to lack them himself?
“Oravida’s chairman plays golf with NZ Prime Minister”
Shocking display of National Party propaganda on the page 2 of the Sunday Star Times today.
They must be running close to being sued it’s so blatant.
Of course it’s yet another supposed survey about who is the best leader;Key or Cunliffe? And no prizes for guessing as to who came out of it smelling of roses!
It’s clearly a counter to the rave reviews David and Karen Cunliffe have been getting for their very authentic ‘at home with the leaders’ appearance with John Campbell.
I expect to see National declare that Mediaworks donation.If not,why not?
The ol’ invisible hand of the free market goes into spastic convolutions throwing out hundreds of thousands of new cars onto the world market with no buyers in sight.
Unfortunately for the free market, the hand may be invisible but its crazy handiwork is clearly visible on Google Earth
It is a sorry state of affairs and there is no answer to it, solutions don’t exist. So the cars just keep on being manufactured and keep on adding to the millions of unsold cars already sitting redundant around the world.
Below are parked tens of thousands of cars at Royal Portbury Docks, Avonmouth, near Bristol in the United Kingdom. If you look on Google Maps and scan around the area at say 200ft you will see nothing but parked up unsold cars. They are absolutley everywhere in that area practically every open space has unsold cars parked up on it.
Below is that same area in Avonmouth, UK, but zoomed out. Every gray space that you see is filled with unsold cars. Anyone want to hazard a guess at how many are there…
As it is, there are more cars than there are people on the planet with an estimated 10 billion roadworthy cars in the world today.
We literally cannot make enough of them. Below are seen just a few of the thousands of Citroen’s parked up at Corby, Northamptonshire in England. They are being added to daily, imported from France but with nowhere else to go once they arrive.
Tens of thousands of cars are still being made every week but hardly any of them are being sold. Nearly every household in developed countries already has a car or even two or three cars parked up on their driveway as it is.
I wonder how ACT would solve this problem of the market?
Lay off the auto workers?
Followed by the steel workers, then all the component manufacturers? Maybe slash any remaining workers wages?
This sounds like the sort of idiocy that ACT would resort too.
And what would be the result?
Tens of thousands of newly unemployed, who will not be buying any new cars, they will not be buying any old cars, they will not be able to afford to put petrol into the cars they already own, they will not be buying as much groceries and most definitely like all unemployed they will not be buying any luxuries, in fact they will not be able to spend money they no longer earn on anything. This gathering snowball of falling demand will see more factories of all sorts close. Tens of thousands of unemployed will balloon out into hundreds of thousands and then millions of unemployed, the recession will blow out into a full scale depression to rival the 1930s collapse.
So how did they get out of it?
Maybe even ACT would agree that it is time for just a little bit of government intervention?
The WWII solution.
State intervention writ large
Out the outbreak of war, by government decree, all private automobile production was stopped and all the car plants of the warring nations were converted within months and even weeks in some cases to churning out tanks and planes and other weapons of destruction to win the war against fascism.
Fortunately, (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it), we already have all the tanks and planes and drones and missiles and bombs and guns we can use, and their destructive power is exponentially greater.
What we don’t have is the wind turbines and solar collectors and smart grids necessary to win the war on climate change.
Here’s a taster: using the manufacturing capacity of our automotive industry enough wind turbines could be churned out to fully power all the electricity grids of the world, including all the electric cars not yet built within ten years. This is not to even to mention solar, which with molten salt heat storage technology can reliably deliver base load power 24/7 to fill in the gaps that come from intermittant wind generation. Even with out base load Solar. The wind is always blowing somewhere, with Super Grids the local intermittency of wind is largely overcome.
“A large-scale wind, water and solar energy system can reliably supply the world’s needs, significantly benefiting climate, air quality, water quality, ecology and energy security. As we have shown, the obstacles are primarily political, not technical.”
Scientific American
Interestingly the comments section has several critiques of the Wind Water Solar solution submitted by the Scientific American authors. Advocates of nuclear or bio fuels argue that their chosen solutions would better make the necessary changeover to zero emissions within the same ten year time frame. They don’t question the urgent necessity for making this changeover to zero emissions, or that it is possible, both these premises are taken as scientific givens.
Everyone needs to look at this article and pictures.
Great post. Thanks very much!
[lprent: Both the spam checkers and myself look for comments that look exactly like this one. As the link puts it “5: Comments full of adulation”. I’d suggest a different wording, as that one had my finger hovering over the spam button ]
Today the maximum power consumed worldwide at any given moment is about 12.5 trillion watts (terawatts, or TW), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The agency projects that in 2030 the world will require 16.9 TW of power as global population and living standards rise, with about 2.8 TW in the U.S. The mix of sources is similar to today’s, heavily dependent on fossil fuels.
If, however, the planet were powered entirely by WWS, with no fossil-fuel, nuclear or biomass fuels, intriguing savings occur. Global power demand would be only 11.5 TW, and U.S. demand would be 1.8 TW. The decline occurs because, in most cases, electrification is a more efficient way to use energy. For example, only 17 to 20 percent of the energy in gasoline is used to move a vehicle (the rest is wasted as heat), whereas 75 to 86 percent of the electricity delivered to an electric vehicle goes into motion.
Even if demand did rise to 16.9 TW, WWS could provide far more power. Detailed studies by us and others indicate that energy from the wind, worldwide, is about 1,700 TW. Solar, alone, offers 6,500 TW. Of course, wind and sun out in the open seas, over high mountains and across protected regions would not be available. If we subtract these and low-wind areas not likely to be developed, we are still left with 40 to 85 TW for wind and 580 TW for solar, each far beyond future human demand. Yet currently we generate only 0.02 TW of wind power and 0.008 TW of solar. These sources hold an incredible amount of untapped potential.
The other WWS technologies will help create a flexible range of options. Although all the sources can expand greatly, for practical reasons, wave power can be extracted only near coastal areas. Many geothermal sources are too deep to be tapped economically. And even though hydroelectric power now exceeds all other WWS sources, most of the suitable large reservoirs are already in use.
The Plan: Power Plants Required
Clearly, enough renewable energy exists. How, then, would we transition to a new infrastructure to provide the world with 11.5 TW? We have chosen a mix of technologies emphasizing wind and solar, with about 9 percent of demand met by mature water-related methods. (Other combinations of wind and solar could be as successful.)
51 percent of the demand, comes from 3.8 million large wind turbines (each rated at five megawatts) worldwide. Although that quantity may sound enormous, it is interesting to note that the world manufactures 73 million cars and light trucks every year.
40 percent of the power comes from photovoltaics and concentrated solar plants, with about 30 percent of the photovoltaic output from rooftop panels on homes and commercial buildings. About 89,000 photovoltaic and concentrated solar power plants, averaging 300 megawatts apiece, would be needed.
The rest includes 900 hydroelectric stations worldwide, 70 percent of which are already in place.
Only about 0.8 percent of the wind base is installed today. The worldwide footprint of the 3.8 million turbines would be less than 50 square kilometers (smaller than Manhattan). When the needed spacing between them is figured, they would occupy about 1 percent of the earth’s land, but the empty space among turbines could be used for agriculture or ranching or as open land or ocean. The nonrooftop photovoltaics and concentrated solar plants would occupy about 0.33 percent of the planet’s land.
If we stick with fossil fuels, demand by 2030 will rise to 16.9 TW, requiring 13,000 large new coal plants, which themselves would occupy a lot more land, as would the mining to supply them.
With all this going on, perhaps better forget the Internet Party also, given the personal drama, and the distress, and how the “mind” behind it will be too distracted to worry about politics in little New Zealand now:
Perhaps the “progressive” parties should get their acts together and now focus on fighting the election on their own, with their resources and manpower?
Mana also better rethink some “grandiose” ideas and plans. It is all over in my view, re Kim Dotcom, he is (rightly or wrongly) being “dismantled”.
According to Vikram Kumar who is in essence running the Internet Party on behalf of DotCom the breakup of the marriage will have no effect on the plans of the Internet Party,
My view is that Mana should continue discussing an alliance with the Internet Party, the latest Roy Morgan having the Mana Party polling 1% and Internet polling 1.5% would suggest such an alliance could reap 3–4% of the vote in September,
The Roy Morgan showed both Labour and the Green Parties to have also risen in their %’s of popular support in that poll as well, so its obvious that neither Mana or Internet are taking votes from either of those parties…
The security and surveillance state have succeeded in damaging KDC’s personal life and family even as they have not been able to win any final court battle over him. Even if he wins in the end, he still loses. Usual modus operandi of the power elite.
The life of a politician is a lot more demanding than that of a successful business tycoon. For one thing, you are expected to attend lots of public meetings often in the evenings or weekends, (when the prols can attend),
And you can barely afford to miss any of them. Especially a high profile public event organised and advertised by an important political ally.
This is the new Dotcom life.
And this is not to mention the horrendous strain of persecution by the most powerful and intrusive secret police force of all time, the NSA and their secretive global allies.
Kim Dotcom and the NSA are now in the end game. Dotcom’s move into politics is another chess piece n this game, and potentially a very powerful one.
Unfortunately and tragically something had to give, for Kim Dotcom it his family life.
When I was little my grandmother whose family was ruined during the depression used to tell me, “Where there is life, there is hope.” and while Dotcom still has his freedom anything is possible.
I wish him and all his loved ones all the best in this difficult time.
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
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 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
“..10 Biggest Pot Myths – Debunked by Science..
By any objective analysis –
cannabis and cannabinoids exceed the FDA’s existing standards for medicine..”
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/10-biggest-pot-myths-debunked-science
“..Four glasses of wine is enough to harm your health – scientists say.
..Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School –
found that a single alcohol binge can cause lasting damage to the body..”
(cont..)
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/four-glasses-of-wine-is-enough-to-harm-your-health-scientists-say-9390044.html
and of course..in a country with such a large alcohol problem as we do..
..a major positive from decriminalising/regulating/taxing cannabis..
..will be the corresponding harm-reduction drop in alcohol consumption..
..this is what has the booze-pushers running scared..
..and why they are putting do much pressure on those politicians they own outright.lock-stock-and barrel..like peter dung…
..and on those parties they ‘contribute’ to..to do nothing to change the status quo..
..(and that tactic seems to be working a treat for them..so far..)
..this is all about bottom-line/patch-protection for those booze-pushers..
..and couldn’t be clearer/sadder-for-us example of our gutless/’owned’ politicians..
Deborah Russell explains clearly and fairly briefly, the difference between left and right views on “fair tax”:
Actually, on second thoughts, rather than a metaphor of everyone being able to watch the parade, I’d prefer everybody being able to participate in their local community – but it doesn’t create as clear an image as the parade one.
struggling..with..weighty..metaphor….
..and i am looking forward to labours’ ‘big-box’ policy…
Didn’t someone say something along the lines of “From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs”? Seems to meet the idea of fair taxation……….
Yeah I think that old timey formula is the best…communicates the message in 90% less words…
Except that to people who aren’t already sympathetic to leftwing ideas, it sounds like “you’re going to take away my stuff from me to give it to bludgers.” Rightwing ideas about individualism and “equal treatment” have become really ingrained in our political discourse, and we’re not going to overturn them by sticking to old school Marxist buzzwords.
Of course, it’s not actually their stuff in the first place. They’ve just managed to get it because our system is, effectively, a system of legalised theft.
Whoah. That’s too much truthiness there bro. Apparently the modern idea is that you can ‘overturn our current political discourse’ by carefully not presenting the kinds of ideas and speech which directly confront and challenge that political discourse with other alternatives.
I have no idea how that works, but anyways.
I really don’t understand your comment. Deborah Russell’s article clearly does present important ideas which challenge rightwing ways of thinking. It sounds like your objection is that she’s just not doing it using the exact words you want her to, and therefore you’re happy to write off everything she’s said.
The old timey metaphor is superior to the one about looking over fences and I gave one reason why (brevity and concision). I haven’t read Russell’s article and have made no comment on it.
Well, first off it’s not a metaphor. And brevity is only an advantage if your audience are already familiar with the concepts you’re discussing – and as my first comment noted, if someone isn’t already familiar with Marxist ideas, they’re not going to properly understand a brief, context-free quote, however snappy it is.
+1 CV…spot on the mark.
plus fucking one
“they” are taking “our” jobs.
“giving” women the vote.
the biggest upheaval came when sectors of societies starting saying
“hey… share with us.”
Draco T Bastard:
‘Legalised theft’ is an oxymoron.
If it’s ‘theft’ then it isn’t legal. If it’s inside the law, then it isn’t theft.
Wrong. A husband raping his wife used to be perfectly legal and, most importantly, wasn’t called rape.
Just because something is legal doesn’t make it right.
The reason why our laws keep changing is because they’re not perfect. We have a few more laws that need cleaning up and the laws that allow people to benefit from other peoples work are amongst them.
Marx’s metaphor has lasted now into a third century because it embodies a compassionate vision of a different way of human relations that has stood the test of time. It is used even today because it shines new light on to those principles which have been deliberately extinguished in our society by corporate forces.
In contrast, I’m not sure that the fence peering metaphor you prefer will make it to the end of the year.
The thing about Marx’s ‘ideal truism’ or whatever you want to call it, is that it’s crap.
In reality there would be a battle line drawn between, on the one hand, those demanding that their ‘needs’ are met by those with the ‘ability’ to meet their needs for them, and those with the alleged ‘ability’ denying they have the ability to meet those needs and (probably and in addition) that those with ‘needs’ have the ‘ability’ or potential to realise the ability themselves.
Not disagreeing as Marx himself recognised that his saying would only apply in a world where labour and economic relations had already moved on from the existing capitalist one.
That is why it is so powerful – it implicitly embodies that change.
Having said that, Marx neither took into account the “psychosis of permanent war” that has been applied to western peoples, nor the phenomena of resource and energy depletion.
So we are still going to have to chart our own course forward…
Energy depletion is certainly looking to be a concern in the next few years:
And I’m pretty sure that we’re not in much better shape.
The fence/boxes metaphor is actually a pretty widely-used one, often accompanied by this image:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BeizXIfCUAAW1Xy.jpg
And I don’t know why you think this has to be a competition. Marx’s language is strong and powerful and lasting, obviously. But, shocking though it may be to you, not everyone is a scholar of Marx, especially the readership of the New Zealand Herald.
Simplistic nonsense. Tax is not like giving somebody a leg up. It is like expecting the tall person to hold up the short person so they can attempt to see and then requesting they lift the person higher because they want a better view.
Yes Gossie, or another way of putting it is the tall standing on the bodies of the short because that’s the way they think things should be run.
gossy would be more than happy.. to just stand on that metaphorical small person..
..if it gave him some economic-advantage..however micro..if he needed a ‘box’..
..and his motto is..
“..from each of the poor..as much as we can screw out of them..(higher g.s.t..!..cut welfare..!.plse..!..)
..to be funneled to each of the elite/already-rich…”
+111
Not at all nonsense, Gosman. It all depends upon your view of what a community is, and how we should look after each other. And that, I believe, is where the right and left divide.
Taxation is this society’s method. It used to be the responsibility of the tribal leader, the paterfamilias, the church, the lord, the king. Now it is the state.
The seeming preference of RWNJs is that we went back to having kings and lords – with them as the lords.
And there you go again gosman, exposing your naïve view of people and communities.
You think we are all individual with no connection. Fool, such a fool. Your view would mean that if you lived alone on the planet then you could live the life you do now – ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Fortunately there appears to be just one of you in the world, so everyone can continue to ignore you.
The fact we live in a community is not under discussion. What is under discussion is that fact should mean the people better off should be forced to provide more assistance to those less well off.
That is a hopeless response to the self-exposure of your incredibly idiotic views on how communities operate.
The matter under discussion is entirely about how we live as a community. Sheesh man.
Gosman, yep, I agree. This is what our discussion is about.
This is what people who are better off do when they live in a community worth living in. Now, well adjusted people who know the meaning and practice of empathy would look after the poor and needy in their community but we all know that a proportion of any community are non-responsive to others’ needs. They need encouragement……….
Funnily enough, it seems that the better off people are, the less responsive they become- which is why we have taxation shelters, trusts, false income declarations, under table payments, and a whole generation of lawyers and accountants to service this greed and sociopathy.
+1
If the community (however defined) was the economic unit, rather than the individuals within communities being cast as economic units, then almost all economic disparity would vanish.
The SOCIETY helped you get to be ‘better off’ by many individuals and state services giving YOU a little each. A caring state asks you to give a LITTLE back to society. You will STILL be better off anyway.
You COULDN’T have got to be “BETTER OFF’ all by yourself without any societal input, could you have? Imagine you living on earth as just one solitary individual/baby from the very beginning all by yourself.
clem..clem..the gossies of the world cannot see beyond their own wallets..
..they are rand-ites..
..self-interest..greed..and the poor/sick being ‘the unworthy’…are what drive them..what they believe in..
..in gossies’ ideal world..there would be no taxation..no going anywhere near gossies’ wallet..
..and that is just all long-hand for..just a greedy/uncaring prick..
..nothing more..nothing less..
gossie should go and live where all of his preferred-policies have been taken to their natural/inevitable conclusion..
..detroit…
..where you can see what the right has wrought..
I love this quote from Elizabeth Warren on that exact point:
http://front.moveon.org/the-elizabeth-warren-quote-every-american-needs-to-see/
gosmans head will explode if he bothers to read it.
i want elizabeth warren to be the next american president..
..she is eminently-qualified for the job..
Placing our faith in any one man, or woman, is tantamount to inviting defeat, as it is the entire corporate-political system of money, favours and careerism which is the problem.
yes..and i see in warren the best hope for some change..
..i sure as hell don’t see it/that in hillary clinton..
No disagreement from me there…
I don’t think phillip was advocating for everyone downing tools and joining the Cult of Warren, CV.
I am glad my twin, Liz thinks like me! (Joke)
Thanks for the lovely quote, Stephanie. Nice one!
How about we have some discussion about why some people are better off. Some reasons such as inheritance, legalised theft, bias in the justice system and enforced poverty by the state so that the rich can benefit. These things do need to be discussed and addressed.
“What is under discussion is that fact should mean the people better off should be forced to provide more assistance to those less well off.”
No people shouldn’t be forced – empathy and care for others is generally something that human beings posses naturally.
While that may be a sound approach for a community charity, Governments and nation states don’t provision themselves on such a basis.
My issue with your comment, TheContrarian, if I may express a contrary view, is with your word ‘generally’. First, how many are in this category? It’s bigger than you seem to want it to be. Secondly, those who do lack empathy and care for others tend to become more dominant than their mere numbers, and are especially to be found in positions of power and influence.
Care of others can often be found to be spread no further than family and close friends, and empathy has to be taught and acquired. My old education tutor at Training College I remember saying that most did not attain true adult maturity in terms of the psyche.
During the Great Depression, one third were impoverished, one third kept the same level of
matertial security and one third enriched themselves. A ‘generally’ empathetic and caring society should have done better.
It’s what happens when you put bankers, financiers and asset speculators in charge of your society, and then exalt them as the ultimate example to follow.
It ain’t for nothing that the main targets of Christ’s wrath and condemnation were the moneychangers who had their tables overturned, and the wealthy who were told that their path to heaven was pretty skinny. Funnily enough, he also acknowledged the role of the state (‘render unto Caesar’) but also condemned rapacious state tax gathereres who fattened themselves- but not for the tax itself but for the extra they took for themselves.
Yesman money is about power over other people to you Yesman.
Just like your pathetic example above .
Just like short sighted neanderthal like yourself Gos needs a heart to stop being an emotionaly aloof intellectually barron cripple.
Your an intellectual and emotional pigmy that can,t see beyond his bank balance.
Gossie prefers the maxim “from each according to their powerlessness, to each according to their greed”.
gossie finds factoring in human traits wrecks his pre program9med schpiel
Spot on, mickysavage. Alas, the poverty of spirit which says that my wealth is my worth. I despair at its human cost to the greedy individual himself and become angered at the human cost to others.
qed
reading is a skill
That happens every day between people who give a shit about each other, you fucking sociopath. Ever been to a Santa Parade, for example?
plus 1.
that speaks to quotas… to gender equity programmes…
everyone has the same finish line but start in different places.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10056542/How-we-really-rate-leaders
Huge ask for David Cunnliffe, took Clark 6+ years and lots and lots of media training before she was accepted by the NZ public
Expecting Cunnliffe who has had one year in charge to beat Key, the most popular prime minister in NZ history really is a bit ridiculous.
Like Clark he may eventually be accepted, but it certainly won’t be at this election.
Long road ahead for Cunnliffe, will Labour stick with him after this years election defeat?, I think they should.
Nah, you think they should dump him immediately and get Shane Jones back. Or you think they should never have gotten rid of Shearer who was the only chance Labour had.
Stick to your script mate, you’re getting confused. Leave the revisions to the smart kids.
BM
Read the same article and it just reminded me how biased and desperate the MSM has become.
I agree. Labour need a stable leader, and removing Cunnliffe after Labour’s probable defeat this election will send Labour right back to square one again.
Bought Media
Keep lying pride before the fall.
Helen Clark Muldoon Savage king dick seddon were all liked more than PinoKeyO.
Key is liked more than Cunnliffe, which is a problem for Labour. Attacking Key direct for the last six years has not worked either. Change of strategy needed.
and yet arrogance is now prominently associated with key according to the same article.
What the left see as arrogance, the rest see as confidence.
not by the left, by the article telling you what to think about our leaders. you briefly dropped your personna mcgrath.
in any event… the left account for about 44% of nzers.
Leaders perceived as arrogant do not have approval ratings in the high 40’s
They do when a large percentage of the population, the authoritarian right-wing to be specific, prefer it in their leaders.
“They do when a large percentage of the population, the authoritarian right-wing to be specific, prefer it in their leaders.”
A large percentage of NZ’s voting public are authoritarian right-wing? Apart from the fact this has no basis in fact whatsoever if the majority prefer that then welcome to democracy, Draco.
Who said it was undemocratic?
And yep large parts of NZ society are underpinned by what I would describe as an authoritarian mindset.
As a contrarian this can’t have escaped your notice.
Certainly haven’t noticed any authoritarians in my social or professional circles…the last CE I worked under was a little I guess, but not to any great degree.
Perhaps you should get out more?
Plenty of evidence
What makes you think it’s me who needs to get out more?
There was an interesting discussion going on there until McGrath, i assume deliberately diverted it off its course,
The problem of inequality is simply one of the false use of various means to ‘value’ our labour,
In some forms of economic activity the measure is the value of the output of the individuals production helped along with the individualization of various companies that produce a particular good or service in an economy,
In other forms of industry the measure is the level of education which is the precursor to a decision on the level of remuneration to be paid to the individual,
There could be mounted an argument over who produces the most good from say a WINZ office on any given day, those who deliver customer services during the day or the lower paid cleaners who clear away the mess made by those workers,
Of course if the State owned all the profits of every business in theory all workers could be paid the same with the cleaner of the factory floor receiving no less than the CEO of the company in question,
In theory our economy generates enough profit to pay the average wage to everyone, cleaner to manager to solo parent, how such a system would be achieved is another story of course…
Not at all. I was just following on from BM’s comment, which I thought was interesting and a good idea. Dumping Cunnliffe I believe would be the wrong idea if Labour lose. I imagine that Key had low approval ratings as well while in opposition (though I could be incorrect on that score). With time, Cunnliffe could have approval ratings up round Key’s current level.
Labour aren’t going to lose. Labour and the Greens will form the next government and start the process of taking this country back.
Yep your right, BM waved the conductors baton to divert the discussion and you as the chorus joined in,
Personal popularity contests as measured by opinion polls are only really of value to the right, Helen Clark was polling in those opinion polls 6% befor She become the Prime Minister so they are an indicator of nothing much really, simply a device for ‘wing-nuts’ to hang there hats upon which is again nothing much really,
The end result of the Stuff.co poll on the budget i did not get to see, BUT, at the point i viewed it, the story of the week, The Budget, had those who liked that budget polling 47.5%, those who disliked it 52.5%,
In a tight election contest it is numbers like that which indicate what the wider electorate is thinking,
i don’t have to even like David Cunliffe and have an expressed distaste for much of Labour’s policy platform, BUT, my votes will be cast to ensure that He becomes the next Prime Minister and Labour becomes the major Party of the next Government simply because there is at the moment no other alternative…
Pay equality is impractical and against human nature.
What can work better is having a maximum pay difference between the highest paid and lowest paid in an organisation. Say, Highest=50 x Lowest.
If the top guys are paid non job related perks such as shares, holidays etc, equivalent (at 50 times less value) shares/holidays should be paid in cash or kind to the lowest paid and other equivalent perks/value paid to those in between.
This system has more positives than negatives in my view.
Considering that Key doesn’t know anything about being a PM it can’t possibly be confidence. Which means it must be arrogance and hubris.
Everybody on the left, please leave Key alone.
Also, if you could focus all your energy back onto the Labour leadership that would be sweet.
Thanks,
Right-wing Fuckwits Everywhere.
If you read the statistics again you will also realize he is hated less too
Bollocks.
John Key would have to be one of the most SPIN-DOCTORED politicians on the planet.
Which is why I am going to stand against him in Helensville – in order to help keep the BLOWTORCH on corruption (at both central and local government level).
It should be FUN!
I’m looking forward to it 🙂
Penny Bright
funny how ralston got a position at tvnz notwithstanding his close training of the pm.
interesting to see the impact of nats catchphrases like tricky. showing you dont need facts just repeated memes. cunliffe doesnt have to change or if he did it would make no difference cos the labelling is not factually based.
key is thought of as arrogant… which is more interesting to me cos it shows the truth can seep through.
bm… you disappeared during judiths lying. how proud you must hsve been
Cunliffe, in his 8 short months, does not have the power or media exposure that Key has had for 6 long years. Hopefully he will get more media exposure in the coming months. At one time, before getting elected, Clark was at 11%.
In the comparative stats mentioned in the article, what was revealing to me was the fact that Key has a HIGHER negative rating than Cunliffe! 30 per cent negative for Key while Cunliffe has a lower negative rating at 25 per cent!
It is kind of ironic to see heaps of ‘advisers’ in the article and in the comments under the article advising Cunliffe that he should take less advice!
From Stuff.co.nz
I am no expert but….
Compare this: https://www.labour.org.nz/media/speech-dolphin-and-dole-queue
With this: http://thestandard.org.nz/david-cunliffe-on-the-standard/
I think that David has to be pretty careful about what he says because the media a waiting to pounce on any mis-step.
God Bill Ralston is looking like an old ‘has been’ these days! (how does he come across these days!)…and as for Brian Edwards( much the same)…a touch of envy here?…..I would say Linda Clark is a far better, younger ‘up with the play’ media trainer!
Go David …you are doing just fine!…..next Prime Minister of New Zealand!…in coalition with the Greens, NZF and Mana/Dotcom!
Remember the better you get the more some will be squealing and trying to undercut you….Take it as a compliment and just get tougher and more determined…really TOUGH! (in this regard maybe get some advice from Helen Clark!)
I’d much rather Cunliffe performs a little better so he can just be in a coalition with the Greens.
If Mana goes ahead with the Internet Party, then any Dotcom scandal suddenly becomes relevant to a new Labour government if Mana is in government. And Winston will be a brake on any real left-wing policy.
Labour/Green majority is the best outcome. And unfortunately, we’re still probably 6-9% away from that.
Winston’s policy on keeping the retirement age at 65 is pretty damn “left wing.” As is buying back the SOEs that National pawned off.
In fact, doesn’t that strike you as being far more left than Labour’s positions on those issues?
I think you should balance your thought with another thought and it is this:
Winston’s primary aim is to make sure he gets his 5% party vote threshold. He needs votes from both the left and the right.
The Buy back Assets sound bite appeals to the Left.
Keep Universal Super age at 65 appeals to the Right.
[Noise against Asians appeals to heaps of left, right and centre!
Besides, lots of lovely elderly still love their Winny]
I think you’ll find that those appeal to the more conservative of the left and the right while also appealing to the more broadly left. The more libertarian right will absolutely hate the latter.
Raising the retirement age = cutting benefits. Not raising the retirement age is a pure left wing policy. The reason it appeals to the Right is they know Labour is going to get smashed on it at the polls.
On second thoughts, yes, you are correct.
Problem is, once the votes are in, Winstone has a history of ignoring the platform that got him those votes in exchange for a few baubles.
True, but I also think he is in legacy building mode now.
I reckon Bill Ralston and Brian Edwards have got the pip with Cunliffe because he chose the younger ‘up with the play’ Linda Clark to media train him.
And while I’m here:
Yesterday Redlogix called Fran O’Sullivan a trout. I suggested – in a tongue in cheek sort of way – that was a bit unfair. I wish to retract that comment! Redlogix is right. 🙂
Just seen her on Q&A and she looks like a trout, she acts like trout and she is a trout! What a shocking performance from both her and Bryce Edwards. They showed their true colours. Laila Harre had to shout over the top of them in order to get a word in edge-wise.
At one point O’Sulliavn is castigating Labour for a punitive CGT and a few minutes later she contradicts herself by saying it’s not going to have any effect anyway. Geez!!!
” O’Sulliavn is castigating Labour for a punitive CGT ”
The lack of a CGT is punitive to those who earn money by wage and salary.
p.s. trout are in fact beautiful amazing creatures, so a different description needs to be found, which is old trout. Ever seen one?
Yes. “old trout” is more appropriate. 🙂
Jenny@4…………What ????????……Clearly none of these people watched DC on The Nation yesterday. He was faultless. Looked rested (unlike Key)…………..10 out of 10 Mr C.
We will win this election despite the likes of Stuff, Ralston, Fran, Claire etc etc.
john key media trainer bill ralston…
held posts with news orgs while media teaining pm… but no inquiries.
of course not, its a cosy club of courtiers to the power elite, which one of the journalists in the press gallery would not like to be at least asked to become press secretary in the PMs office?
yip… ralston… henry… hoskings… basically mosf of newstalk zb…. but thats ok.
evil linda clark. bad girl. baaaaad girl.
Glenn Greenwald: Zero evidence supporting claims Snowden jeopardised lives
Friday 16 May 2014
When Edward Snowden decided to leak top secret documents from the National Security Agency in the US, he contacted American journalist Glenn Greenwald. What followed was a series of events, straight out of the pages of a spy novel. The leaks revealed that the US was conducting a program of mass surveillance on a global scale Glenn Greenwald tells the story in his new book called “No Place To Hide”. He talks with Steve Cannane for his first Australian TV interview to promote the book.
http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-16/journalist-glenn-greenwald-says-there-is-zero/5458794
Transcript:
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1400350653.html
This article is an easy read starter for people that might know the headlines only, no heavy lifting required well researched and it encouraged me to look at some of the files Ed Snowden has released.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2014/05/edward-snowden-politics-interview
thanks for this
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-16/feeding-homeless-crime-increasingly-more-us-cities
And don’t forget that doing the same things here.
Let them eat cake
Damn, doing too many things at once 😳
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11112933
Go Len Brown
Yep Draco, and there was another article in the Herald last week about the ‘Ranui holiday Park’ out in West Auckland where Paula Bennett called a public meeting of its residents to cry faux tears over the amounts of money the owner is gouging from the State via its ‘end of the line’ tenants,
It appears that now Brown’s council has got in on the act and issued notices for a large number of the tenants to quit the place, their last refuge befor homlessness, because there are no resource consents in place for the ‘park’ to house permanent residents,
It gets even worse in what must be a total ”mind fuck” for the tenants who are deemed not to be permanent residents IF they are on the HousingNZ waiting lists,
Of course under the ”new rules” that govern the HousingNZ waiting lists none of the tenants can be placed on HousingNZ waiting lists because their current accommodation in the ‘holiday park’ is deemed by the rules put in place by Bennett and Nick Smith to be ‘suitably housed’ in such accommodation,
And Labour???, lets not even go there…
I used to have a bit of time for Mike Lee, but these days he doesn’t seem to do anything remotely good. He sticks to giving a civilised veneer to outrageously bad policies.
the land of the free…
I think I mentioned to you some time ago that growing, cooking and giving away healthy free food was my thing, but leaving that aside, what a horrible world view some people have.
I don’t do lotto, but did notice the jackpot was $18m before Saturday, if it’s not gone I might luck in like Trevor from Te Kauwhata did, though I’m confident that in publicly pledging to give it away I wouldn’t suffer his publicised troubles.
Maybe if it gets to the must go draw at the very end I’ll risk the the minimum power ball option of four boards for $4.80 and along with my food farm, wind turbine, kitchens and free diner/restaurant I’ll fund a sports academy as home base for the cities amateur sports groups to operate out of, a free leisure centre for Hamilton South.
Not quite a DB9 with a sunlight powered hyper drive, but what ever floats your pod, as they say.
Besides, with the Green’s bank and kiwi ingenuity, we’ll be flying like in Futurama in no time. 😀
I’d reform Lotto into Socialist Lotto.
Instead of an $18M jackpot which might be shared out by a small handful of people, or even just one person, I would have the system geared to 36 x $500,000 prizes.
Enough to transform the life of 36 families in other words, not just give one or two families a shot at living it up like Hollywood stars.
Yip, definitely agree. If you look at the prizes by lotto, it is very very highly weighted to the top prizes.
2nd division lotto was $21,000 this last weekend – nothing to sneeze at, but not really going to be life-transforming for many. 3rd division was a paltry $660, which is probably the most the average lotto player could have a reasonable expectation to win once in their lifetime of buying tickets. Powerball 2nd division was only $25,000, although the 3rd division was a more satisfying $1,368.
I’ve started buying lotto tickets now, but only because I won’t miss the money and “if you don’t buy a ticket you have 0 chance of winning”. I only ever buy when they have one of their promotions of 100 additional prizes, eg the recent Easter and Mother’s Day promotions, and also when it goes to a “must be won” jackpot – not because I’m hoping to win 1st division, but because I’m hoping to win 2nd division and have no-one win 1st.
@ viper..lotto-idea..
..plus one..
..i am also sure that would drive up their business…
..to have winner numbers increase..at the pot grows..
..and to have higher prizes for the minor winners..
..altogether more scaled..
Although the name “Socialist Lotto” probably needs some work 🙂
Ordinary Americans have a long and admirable traditions of personal generosity and community volunteering – and these new laws are very much at odds with that. Deeply so.
It is always worth keeping in mind that the USA is an astoundingly diverse nation – every possible variation and extreme of human value and experience is to be found there.
you mean like donating to their ivy league colleges to ensure a spot for their children no matter how stupid or registering their assets in georgetown and then donating to the usa.
ordinary americans are no more giving than the ordinary kiwis… its the very very wealthy who wait til their pillage has borne fruit then to perpetuate a personal image they donate… like owen glenn in nz
Yes and no. I agree with what you are saying about the extremely wealthy – but they are not the people I’m thinking of.
If you’ve spent time there – it’s a generosity found in places you’d least expect it.
I know who you mean. I see the same behaviour here. although nz is losing the volunteer mindset amongst what I call the us tv raised generations.
“you mean like donating to their ivy league colleges to ensure a spot for their children”
Or to a european art school so your daughter can spend 4 years taking selfies?
Then again you have this – if you have the stomach to read it. Especially recomended to Gosman:
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/apocalypse-new-jersey-a-dispatch-from-americas-most-desperate-town-20131211?print=true
chrs 4 that link redlogix..
Ah, libertarian heaven.
And it is shocking to think that Camden (which Hedges features prominently in his book Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt) is a mere 3 hour drive from the heart of empire, Washington DC. Hedges reports on companies who sole job it is to break down abandoned offices and houses and rip out anything worthy of scrap, load it on boats which then take it away to China and other places for melting down.
It really is the catabolic breakdown of western civilisation. Hedges calls these places the “sacrifice zones” of capitalism, and these zones are spreading.
In other words, when the American power elite is doing this to their own people down the road, do you think they really care one whit about anyone else further away.
Whatever makes you think that they ever cared about anyone else? There’s a very good reason why the original rich were called Robber Barons. It’s just a matter of time before we call them that again. In fact, we should already be doing so.
Yep. And one could make a case that Republican voting families and the Christian Right help out in their local communities even more so than most other Americans.
but it is conditional by those groups. I recall when habitat for humanity wouldnt build house for gay families. dont know if its still the case.
From that article :
“And without a doubt, the need to help the homeless is greater than it ever has been before. Right now, there are 1.2 million public school students in America that are homeless. That number is an all-time record, and it has grown by 72 percent since the start of the last recession.
In addition, there are 49 million Americans that are dealing with food insecurity. Even in the midst of this so-called “economic recovery”, poverty is absolutely exploding.”
Welcome to America the land of the free and plenty.
PS: A reader posted below the article :
‘Better pull him over…..he looks like a Good Samaritan!’
Tom Joad – Part 1
Tom Joad – Part 2
Mark Twain
The Ghost of Tom Joad
CV “Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities”
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Feeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US citiesFeeding the homeless now being criminalised in dozens of US cities
Im afraid that we do this over here as well. My first standard post was on how we were outlawing begging …
http://thestandard.org.nz/outlawing-begging/
Yes. How is it possible that an authority we are part of goes and does this? I don’t understand. Does this mean that the majority of Aucklanders and Americans want to do this?
The Onehunga Business Association has more weight than a hundred thousand voters. It’s how the system works.
And in the US/UK, literally millions of people were opposed to the 2nd Iraq War. But the western power elite did what they wanted regardless. Which is not a surprise according to Dmitry Orlov quoting some recent Princeton research:
No that can’t be right. How so kemosabe?
I refer to your comment
Of course, you know that we do not live in a full democracy where each persons’ voice has equal weight, and what’s the bet that Auckland’s homeless were encouraged to speak or lobby for themselves about this proposal, in front of Council – nil or close to nil, right?
hmmm of course. There are other things that are much more important …..
(tui ad)
‘
Time to relocate?
Tsunami evacuation maps with evacuation routes.
http://www.aucklandcivildefence.org.nz/community/tsunami-evacuation-maps/
Maybe even a list of multistory buildings that are tsunami resistant could be good too. Video of the Fukushima earthquake showed that those who made it to the upper floors of such buildings also survived.
P.S. Also handy knowledge in the case of storm surge related to hurricanes, which due to climate change are expected to strike the North of the North Island within the next 20 – 30 years.
The storm surge that hit the city of Tacloban in the Philippines was 6 metres high.
So if there is No Work why did Bennett announce $3k to Christchurch policy???
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/10052676/Tools-down-builders-told
Because Bennett’s work and welfare policies aren’t based in reality, they’re based on ideology and (if we are more cynical) manipulation towards privatisation.
…and based on spreading right-wing propaganda. Because now we can say for sure that anyone without a job/without enough work is 100% to blame for choosing their own predicament.
After all, if the govt will give you 1000s and 1000s of dollars to go to Christchurch, and you don’t take them up on it, you must really really not want to work, right?
this is the woman who pretended to be dyed in the wool westie and has dumped them like a hot potato now she will stand for the wealthy of upper harbour. I hope that clarifies it for you.
Perhaps when her “always been a Shore girl at heart” election hoardings go up, someone might want to redecorate them in Westie style.
could edwards-the-younger be more of a babbling rightwing-toad..?
Like you Phil I don’t rate Edwards at all. His opinion of David Parkers interview was quickly dismissed by Harrie as was Fran Wilde’s. Did you notice bumbling Bill English turn all insecure when he heard Parker was about to be asked to critique his lack luster budget. I had a chuckle when Parker burst into a hysteric belly laugh referring to snake oil being peddled by English and National. DP just firmed up any wavering swing voters minds watching, that National are vision less having very poor policy direction.
Ha ha *Fran O’ Sulliavn sorry
parker started ho-hum..but finished well..
.and he does that a lot..doesn’t get firing until the home straight..
..(maybe he needs to be prepared for interviews..like a prizefighter..?
..maybe he needs a professional ‘goader’ to travel with him..?
..he/she cd wind him up backstage..
..so he can start as he finishes..
(and cd someone take him to get some new glasses..?..f.f.s..!
..not ones that slide up and down his nose all the time..and a frame that doesn’t hide his eyes..
..viewers/voters like to look into politicians’ eyes..
..and with parker..instead of pupil..you get spectacle-frame..
..it may seem a little thing..but it counts..
Have always rated Parker, liked his response to Dann over immigration being populist (‘what’s wrong with being populist’?)
Disappointing though to see him physically recoil at Dann’s suggestion the top tax rate could go to up to 45 cents, and repeat reassurances it won’t.
http://www.weather.com/video/cyclones-hurricanes-on-the-move-48593?collid=/news/top-stories
http://www.weather.com/video/nasa-earth-past-point-of-no-return-48492?collid=/news/top-stories
Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee English and Parker write New Zealand’s future.
President Barack Obama’s science advisor, Dr. John Holdren is the US equivalent of New Zealand’s Professor Peter Gluckman, science advisor to John Key.
This is what Dr Holdren says about climate change:
Dr Holdren’s comments strongly correlate with Professor Gluckman’s advice to our nation contained in the nzgovt. webpage on climate change; http://www.pmcsa.org.nz/climate-change/
So how are New Zealand’s political leaders heeding the advice of science advisers like Dr Holdren and Professor Gluckman for global leadership?
English and Parker call the shots:
The sooner these two sickly extreme Right sychophantic servants to the Polluters and Plutocrats, and traitors to the People and Planet, are removed from any and all positions of influence the better.
there is that about parker..
..wherever he has been..after he has gone..
.you have to get out the vac..to clean up the coal-dust..
I am with Parker on this.
Blindly calling a BLANKET ban on RESPONSIBLE CONTROLLED mining or mineral and oil exploration, or blindly opposing TPPA even before knowing the details is stupid and sort of throwing a baby out with the bath water.
This does not preclude us in the meantime developing and starting NEW environmentally focused industries.
labour needs to pull him from epsom to avoid distraction. having such a high profile labour mp there is wrongly tell people to vote for him for electorate mp.
All the opposition party’s are are guilty of not playing MMP as you can, the Greens have put up Genter. I guess they could intend saying vote the Nat candidate as your electorate vote, or maybe go down as list only?
Julie Ann will in my opinion have done a good job in Epsom if the Green Party vote goes up again in that electorate, AND, the far too high in 2011 electorate vote for the Green Party candidate goes down,
The same i would suggest will be the measure of David Parker’s success or not in that electorate,
Between both Parties Labour/Green they have some 8000 electorate votes from the 2011 numbers, a quarter of which if either candidate is able to convince their supporters to vote for the National Party candidate will unseat ACT from the Parliament,
i would like to think that both David Parker and Julie Ann Genter are going to approach the 2014 election with the firm intentions of achieving exactly what i write above but have my doubts,
The Green Party are fully aware of the situation in Epsom having given the previous candidate there a spanking over the manner in which He campaigned in the electorate in 2011,
As far as David Parker goes tho i have serious doubts, with, from memory, around 5000 electorate votes from the Epsom electorate in 2011 He more than holds the key to ACT’s fate this election and therefor possibly the key to who Governs,
Hopefully Labour strategists have educated Parker in what is needed in this particular crucial electorate…
Yes and MP’s need to put their own egos aside and play MMP as they should. How many will vote the National candidate? I think the Mana candidate did and told his supporters there to do the same. My own family who live in Epsom have voted ACT/National in the last 2 elections but have abandoned them after watching mind the gap. They proudly confirm they are now Green supporters and intend giving 2 them 2 ticks, I will be turning their way of thinking soon, we need the likes of them to candidate vote national and party vote Green obviously. A campaign using this strategy may just work the oracle?
In saying all that, National through the budget played the ACT card which will be good for about 2% of party votes gifted to them. By this wolf in sheeps disguise, PR stunt, the rightwing of National-Act will pull 4%. If they get a third term they will piss on the lot of us till a spring bok tour revolt occurs. Thinking of going on a 2.5 year World holiday to places I’ve always wanted to see. Be back for the next election fight. Still think NACT will cop a hiding though.
pu +1
The Q and A is no where near as good as in the earlier years.
Corin Dann is an irritating interviewer as he interrupts before the speaker has completed his point. Interrupting in the middle a speaker’s sentence is rude and stupid. Let the person at least COMPLETE a sentence man! Both English and Parker tried their best to answer the questions in spite of the crap attitude/manners of the interviewer.
The panel today was also irritating because the host not at all being in control, the panel members constantly interrupted each other like uneducated little unprofessional cretins.
The show should be about discussion and information for the audience and not become an ego exercise slot for the so called ‘journalists’ and ‘commentators’.
The ‘Nation’ does it much better I think.
I wonder why they no longer get the highly impressive, astute intellectual, the professional Colin James?
I doubt he would want to lend his name to a second-rate, once over lightly and partisan programme like Q&A. The Nation would be a better place for him.
Btw, I agree about the panel scrapping and interrupting each other, but it should be noted the main culprits were Edwards and O’Sullivan talking down Harre every time she tried to say something. In the end, she joined in but that was the only way she could any points across.
that was mainly because smalley was meant to be adjudicating..
..with almost every appearance smalley just confirms her skills are purely around reading teleprompters..
..and what a mistake it was expecting more..
..her analytical-skills are nowhere to be seen..
..and she can’t interview..
..send her back to the news-reader chair..
why do we need panels. why do we need opinion pieces. its to tell us how to think and raise the financial stocks of the panelists and opinion writers.
duncan garner just commented on a piece about a young man with a terminal ilness ” what a great attitude to life”. had to be scripted cos he shows no understanding of bigger picture issurs beyong himself in his work. oh the irony.
QFT
It seems that some of the interviewers like Gluon are not interested in the answers, just in posing questions which so how sharp they are. The interview is to demonstrate their skills and to acquire some information that provides material for ongoing news, and so that they can score some point, spurious or note, against the interviewee. That’s my impression of late.
“..The Q and A is no where near as good as in the earlier years…”
dunno about that..
..they used to have jessica mutch…
..whoar..!
..what a relief it was when mutch was sent off to be the one who stands outside buckingham palace..
..sometimes i thought she was only there as an attempt to make the compere look better..
when pippa left breakfast did they clone her first? her replacement looks scarily like her…
Gos its obvious that you have the same MO as Srylands.
So lesson 1 Democracy gave more power to everybody including the poorest.
They have a right to vote in a government that shares resources more evenly.
The Result is free education which gives more people a chance to make a good income and pay taxes to lower the burden on you selfish one.
Healthcare ensures more people are aloud to participate and keep working to lower the tax burden on you.selfish one.
Economic History shows that having a more equal society means having a more stable and vibrant economy much less prone to recession or depression.
Which means more people get to keep their wealth like selfish idiots like yourself.
Diseases spread are reduced hugely by having universal healthcare so when you visit your ladies of the night you are far less likely to end up with Aides tuberculosis stds excetera.
Education is good because I can get to read over 1,000 economics books for less than $100 .As the university students throw out their expensive books .
So my knowledge of economics is light years ahead of your pathetic propaganda that you repeat from your Act pamplet you selfish sorry little yesman.
FPP style Indian Election:
In one of the most fiercely contested general elections, the right wing nationalist BJP (Bharathiya Janata Party) has won 282 seats, making it the only party to win single majority in the Lok Sabha since 1984. The total seats in the house=543+(2 nominated)=545. Needed for outright majority=272
This year’s Lok Sabha polls witnessed the highest-ever turnout with 66.38 per cent of an estimated 814 million voters exercising their franchise — the highest ever in the history of general elections. These elections saw a total of 8,241 candidates fighting it out for the 16th Lok Sabha and included 3,234 independents.
One of the facts that interested me was the absurdity and unfairness of the FPP system:
In terms of vote share, BJP is on top, with ONLY 31 % of votes. But this gave them 52% of the seats. 282 !
Followed by 19.3 per cent vote for the Congress party, but gave them only 8% of seats, a mere 44!
I am so glad we here chose a more democratic and a fairer system of representative government. MMP is any day way better than FPP.
Seats 282 (51.9%) 44 (8.1%) 37 (6.8%) 34 (6.2%) 0 (0.0%)
and the money he put into his campaign and the disproportionate coverage he got from privately owned media.
funny ghat its called democracy at all.
India remains a remarkably unequal country; it still has a strong caste system still in place, and millions do not have reliable clean drinking water or sanitation although it has been improving. Over 600M Indians still defecate outside in open air arrangements, however.
Oh, and according to Forbes, India now has over 50 billionaires. Good on them.
To me the measure of success for India will be when every house in every town and village has a toilet, running water and electricity.
The very wealthy are very very filthily rich and the poor are sadly very very poor.
Corruption in every sphere of life is rampant. Greed, selfishness, pursuit of wealth, dowry, unfairness, parochialism, nepotism, religious extremism, intolerance and hardship is beyond the pale.
Hats off to innumerable good caring volunteers trying to make positive changes against huge odds where ever possible.
India has so many well educated wise, kind and good people too, but changing the traditional ingrained mentality and effecting a paradigm shift is a monumental task which even the very great Mahatma Gandhi was unable to fulfill.
Remains to be seen if the election of this far right party with its religious, nationalist and capitalist agenda will be good for that nation’s poor and ordinary people in the short and long term. I really wish them success, but I am very skeptical and fear for the minority Muslims and Christians.
The Indian election put into perspective by John Oliver
Quite funny. Thanks.
I did not type the last line completely. Here it is.
% Votes, No.of Seats, % Seats, …..for various parties.
31.0%, 282, 51.9%
19.3%, 44, 8.1%
03.3%, 37, 6.8%
03.8%, 34, 6.2%
01.7%, 20, 3.6%
01.9%, 18, 3.3%
02.5%, 16, 2.9%
In his blog post today, Rob Salmond swiftly and concisely exposes Key’s blatant lie that the 12% of top earners in NZ pay 76% net tax.
http://polity.co.nz/content/key-pathalogical-liar-about-tax
i think the ‘wing-nuts’ use of that little divisive device relies upon what is then redistributed by Government’s via various programs from Working for Families, welfare benefits, Housing subsidies etc etc etc,
As a straight calculation of actual dollars paid in taxes by the various groups without subtracting amounts of monies given back by these various programs the story would i believe be entirely different,
Shown as taxation paid as a % of income the tale is then turned on its head to show those with the least income pay a greater % of that income as taxation than any other group…
Seen this on TV3 website.
For general info., Dr Ron Smith is an ACT sympathiser. He’s as Right as they come.
http://www.3news.co.nz/PM-should-keep-intelligence-quiet—expert/tabid/423/articleID/344721/Default.aspx
See this article in the business section of today’s Sunday Star Times?
“In the business pages of the Sunday Star-Times today, anti-corruption campaigner Penny Bright points out that New Zealand is one of only a handful of countries NOT to have ratified the UN Convention on Corruption.”
(Thanks to Auckland Councillor Cathy Casey posting it on facebook).
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152427139997889&set=a.482735077888.286059.596362888&type=1&theater
How come NZ’s Minister of ‘Justice’ Judith Collins has not yet introduced her ‘Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Legislation Bill’ into the House?
This ‘Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Legislation Bill’ needs to be passed before NZ can ratify the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) .
Ratification of UNCAC is supposed to have been a priority for the last SIX years.
Perhaps if Judith Collins had been a bit more competent and focused in her publicly-funded role as Minister of Justice, instead of focusing on helping to organise private business ‘net-working’ and ‘profile-building’ opportunities for Oravida, which is owned by her very close friend ‘Stone’ Shi, and whose managing director is her very close friend Julia Xu, the other director being her HUSBAND David Wong Tung – then NZ would have a domestic anti-corruption legislative framework now in place?
http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1405/020520141724330001.pdf
(See pages 83 – 84 for the MFAT briefing on the pre-planned tour/visit of Oravida facilities by the MINISTER of Justice Judith Collins on 23 October 2013, and the photo STILL up on the Oravida website which proves this:
http://www.oravida.com/lwl/newsen/ )
The time-frame for the introduction and passage of legislation is normally six months.
However – it is now 18 May 2014, and the last sitting day of this Parliament is 31 July 2014.
(I checked with the appropriate Parliamentary staff).
Minister of ‘Justice’ Judith Collins’ much vaunted ‘Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Legislation Bill’ has STILL yet to surface in the House …………..
Why is Judith Collins STILL a Minister – when she is obviously NOT ‘fit for duty’?
Because NZ PM John Key has been bending over backwards /forwards to also help promote Oravida, thus has difficulties holding her accountable to the ‘highest ethical standards’, when he appears to lack them himself?
“Oravida’s chairman plays golf with NZ Prime Minister”
http://www.oravida.com/lwl/newsen/
There is a LOT more to come on this story …..
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption / anti-privatisation Public Watchdog’
Shocking display of National Party propaganda on the page 2 of the Sunday Star Times today.
They must be running close to being sued it’s so blatant.
Of course it’s yet another supposed survey about who is the best leader;Key or Cunliffe? And no prizes for guessing as to who came out of it smelling of roses!
It’s clearly a counter to the rave reviews David and Karen Cunliffe have been getting for their very authentic ‘at home with the leaders’ appearance with John Campbell.
I expect to see National declare that Mediaworks donation.If not,why not?
will john minto ever be a knight?
He already is, you are a fool to think it requires a Queen to handle and put upon the sword. We are all “knights” in our own right, are we not?
Where’s ACT when you need them?
The ol’ invisible hand of the free market goes into spastic convolutions throwing out hundreds of thousands of new cars onto the world market with no buyers in sight.
Unfortunately for the free market, the hand may be invisible but its crazy handiwork is clearly visible on Google Earth
You really gotta see THIS!
I wonder how ACT would solve this problem of the market?
Lay off the auto workers?
Followed by the steel workers, then all the component manufacturers? Maybe slash any remaining workers wages?
This sounds like the sort of idiocy that ACT would resort too.
And what would be the result?
Tens of thousands of newly unemployed, who will not be buying any new cars, they will not be buying any old cars, they will not be able to afford to put petrol into the cars they already own, they will not be buying as much groceries and most definitely like all unemployed they will not be buying any luxuries, in fact they will not be able to spend money they no longer earn on anything. This gathering snowball of falling demand will see more factories of all sorts close. Tens of thousands of unemployed will balloon out into hundreds of thousands and then millions of unemployed, the recession will blow out into a full scale depression to rival the 1930s collapse.
So how did they get out of it?
Maybe even ACT would agree that it is time for just a little bit of government intervention?
The WWII solution.
State intervention writ large
Out the outbreak of war, by government decree, all private automobile production was stopped and all the car plants of the warring nations were converted within months and even weeks in some cases to churning out tanks and planes and other weapons of destruction to win the war against fascism.
Fortunately, (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it), we already have all the tanks and planes and drones and missiles and bombs and guns we can use, and their destructive power is exponentially greater.
What we don’t have is the wind turbines and solar collectors and smart grids necessary to win the war on climate change.
So here’s the plan: The war to Power 100 percent of the Planet with Renewables within ten years
(ironically behind a pay wall)
Here’s a taster: using the manufacturing capacity of our automotive industry enough wind turbines could be churned out to fully power all the electricity grids of the world, including all the electric cars not yet built within ten years. This is not to even to mention solar, which with molten salt heat storage technology can reliably deliver base load power 24/7 to fill in the gaps that come from intermittant wind generation. Even with out base load Solar. The wind is always blowing somewhere, with Super Grids the local intermittency of wind is largely overcome.
Interestingly the comments section has several critiques of the Wind Water Solar solution submitted by the Scientific American authors. Advocates of nuclear or bio fuels argue that their chosen solutions would better make the necessary changeover to zero emissions within the same ten year time frame. They don’t question the urgent necessity for making this changeover to zero emissions, or that it is possible, both these premises are taken as scientific givens.
WOW! Just astounding! What a mind opener!
Everyone needs to look at this article and pictures.
Great post. Thanks very much!
[lprent: Both the spam checkers and myself look for comments that look exactly like this one. As the link puts it “5: Comments full of adulation”. I’d suggest a different wording, as that one had my finger hovering over the spam button ]
Maybe Lynn if you don’t like people saying nice things about my contributions you could consider the LIKE button, like over at TDB.
And by the way this is only one comment not five.
And for the record I do not know clemgeopin, or solicit their comment.
PS. Thanks Clem,
From behind the pay wall.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-path-to-sustainable-energy-by-2030&page=2
With all this going on, perhaps better forget the Internet Party also, given the personal drama, and the distress, and how the “mind” behind it will be too distracted to worry about politics in little New Zealand now:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/relationships/news/article.cfm?c_id=41&objectid=11256967
Perhaps the “progressive” parties should get their acts together and now focus on fighting the election on their own, with their resources and manpower?
Mana also better rethink some “grandiose” ideas and plans. It is all over in my view, re Kim Dotcom, he is (rightly or wrongly) being “dismantled”.
According to Vikram Kumar who is in essence running the Internet Party on behalf of DotCom the breakup of the marriage will have no effect on the plans of the Internet Party,
My view is that Mana should continue discussing an alliance with the Internet Party, the latest Roy Morgan having the Mana Party polling 1% and Internet polling 1.5% would suggest such an alliance could reap 3–4% of the vote in September,
The Roy Morgan showed both Labour and the Green Parties to have also risen in their %’s of popular support in that poll as well, so its obvious that neither Mana or Internet are taking votes from either of those parties…
Why is that even news? You don’t see any one else’s breakups going in the news paper so why the hell is KDC’s?
“Why is that even news?”
Because it is MEGA news:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/internet/news/article.cfm?c_id=137&objectid=11257320
The security and surveillance state have succeeded in damaging KDC’s personal life and family even as they have not been able to win any final court battle over him. Even if he wins in the end, he still loses. Usual modus operandi of the power elite.
The life of a politician is a lot more demanding than that of a successful business tycoon. For one thing, you are expected to attend lots of public meetings often in the evenings or weekends, (when the prols can attend),
And you can barely afford to miss any of them. Especially a high profile public event organised and advertised by an important political ally.
This is the new Dotcom life.
And this is not to mention the horrendous strain of persecution by the most powerful and intrusive secret police force of all time, the NSA and their secretive global allies.
Kim Dotcom and the NSA are now in the end game. Dotcom’s move into politics is another chess piece n this game, and potentially a very powerful one.
Unfortunately and tragically something had to give, for Kim Dotcom it his family life.
When I was little my grandmother whose family was ruined during the depression used to tell me, “Where there is life, there is hope.” and while Dotcom still has his freedom anything is possible.
I wish him and all his loved ones all the best in this difficult time.
Kia kaha. Ka wha whai tonu Matou. Ake! Ake! Ake!