What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?
We may be about to find out.
A high-powered group of global oil and gas exploration companies, including Chevron and the Chinese national oil company, have converged on Wellington today for a targeted push to encourage new interest in the country’s under-explored frontier basins……
Facilitating discussion to “test drive” the NZPAM’s new competitive bid round process for awarding exploration rights is global oil industry strategic consultant Duncan Clarke, of Global Pacific & Partners, who also assisted in selecting attendees.
“From the New Zealand point of view, they are very open,” he told BusinessDesk. “They’re asking ‘what do we have to do to get you here?'”
To answer Duncan Clarke’s question:
We have to be prepared to prostrate ourselves before the oil giants.
We have to be prepared to kill.
We have to be prepared to sacrifice the environment.
We have to be prepared to curtail civil liberties.
We have to be prepared to impoverish the majority of the population so that a tiny minority of the local elite, can become the super rich sheiks of the South Pacific.
Look to Nigeria, look to Saudi Arabia, look to Bahrain, look to Iraq.
I would like to take this opportunity to tell Duncan Clarke and his clients, that New Zealand is the country that stopped the mighty US Navy in it’s tracks, and beware.
You do realise Pete that running a campaign to be elected as a representative in Dunedin requires more than just printing a few flyers and putting up some billboards?
Why dont you get yourself down there and see what it’s all about and then you can enlighten us all with a post and your opinion instead of those four lines of nothing.
i just went passed the campers in the octagon, its an utterly miserable day, wet, wind, freezing, & yep, they are all still there, they look comfortable & firm, im really proud of them.
I haven’t printed flyers and I haven’t put up any billboards yet. I’ll do a bit of that but I’m not running a traditional campaign. Expect some surprises.
I am getting myself down there, I have planned a visit at 5.15 today.
“Commitment” is traditional. You’ve heard of an open relationship? Pete has the world’s first open candidacy, where not even he knows whether he will vote for himself.
I’d say I’ve committed myself to a lot more than most here. I choose what I’ll comment on here – whatever I say I usually get attacked anyway so I select what suits me.
“I’ve always chosen on election day how to vote, and I don’t see why I should change that.”
So you don’t consider being the UF candidate sufficient reason to make up your mind before polling day? No wonder you can’t discuss policy;you can’t even commit to the party you represent!
I’m so looking forward to your hoardings, can I suggest something honest like this:
Hi, I’m Pete George and I’d like you to vote for United Future, because someone has to and I can’t be arsed.
You get criticised because your “commitment” usually revolves around a structure of “I strongly support the principle of X, but the [completely opposite] principle of Y needs to be taken into account, as well as the [completely irrelevent] principle of Z. We really need to discuss this more to try and find a common ground and realise that they are all shades of grey. Don’t hate me because I dare to unflinchingly defend the value of vague promises of compromise!”
Don’t get me wrong, such banalities might be good for a priest or a therapist, but the fact is that you chose to be a politician. Say WTF you are going to DO. This postmodern brand-is-all shite doesn’t play so well when times are tough, as the nats are beginning to find out, I suspect.
Case in point:
” I’ve always chosen on election day how to vote, and I don’t see why I should change that.
But you’d have to be very thick, or have a motive for promoting bullshit, not to figure it out.”
So on the one hand your mind is completely open and you haven’t yet made a decision – on the other hand it’s pretty obvious who you’ll vote for. Why not just dare to take a stand and say yes, come election time, you’ll actually vote for [shock, horror] yourself? And then take that new-found courage to your party so it can declare some policy specifics?
Sounds a bit like Groucho Marx. “Dear voter, I don’t want your vote because anyone who votes for me is too stupid for me to want to vote for me, myself included. Have a cigar instead.”
Trev – Your Sport Policy looks like another failure to think matters through.
Per the NZ Herald – Manoj Daji [Chief Executive – College Sport Auckland] gives a real-world view of your policy. He lists many reasons why it won’t work in the Super City of about 100,000 secondary students.
“With the sport spread across the week we are battling for venues and facilities. Having all sport on a given afternoon would not only cause major transportation issues for schools but also place extra pressure on limited facilities and reduce the ability to draw on community volunteers for coaching and officiating, whom we are are reliant on”
Well how is this for news. Key admits that the underclass is growing under his watch. And I thought he was going to fix the problem.
And at the same time that the underclass is growing the Herald reports that “the Government has slashed the number of food grants to needy families by 20 per cent, driving record numbers to seek food parcels from charities instead.”
The cause is said to be the change in policy to make people complete budgeting activities and show they have taken steps to increase their income or reduce their costs, before they can get more than two food grants a year. Obviously as far as the Government is concerned grinding policy is caused by a lack of budgeting skills not this Government’s actions.
I think budgeting advice and encouragement and incentives to improve ones situation are good – it’s easy to get in a poverty rut and to live inefficiently.
I don’t think benefits should be handed out indefinitely without question.
You’re being far to simplistic. It’s not an either or situation, it’s far more complex.
If Labour form a coalition after the election and we still have poverty in 2014 will they have failed?
Some poor people are responsible for their own poverty. Some are victims of circumstance. And most likely there’s a combination of both plus other factors.
Poverty is not due to Key failure. Government policies will have affected poverty levels, the extended economic downturn will have had a much greater effect, and previous government policies will also have had an effect.
So Greggy boy, there’s no simple political point scoring. If Labour’s third term had ended with zero poverty and a healthy economy, and then finances and food plummeted you might have a case. But it wasn’t like that so you don’t.
You see I recall clearly Key campaigning about the underclass and I thought then it was a glib PR job and that he would do nothing about it.
Then this morning it is not only confirmed but there is the added insult of a chance in policy to make things worse for the underclass, not better.
And I feel real anger about it.
But you show no anger either that you have been lied to or that the poor are getting hammered more. You seem to go away, construct a few words that you think represents a “middle point” and then post them.
And you keep on accusing me of “political point scoring” without irony when every comment you make is laiden with it. And you refuse to be drawn on anything specific.
So Pete baby what makes you angry? And what will you do to improve things?
BTW I am not sure why you refer to the third Labour Government and presume this is a display of ignorance. For your information there were about 20,000 unemployed at the time. The economy was in poor shape but only because of the first oil crisis that Labour had nothing to do with.
I don’t try and destroy threads, that’s a weird question. I contribute something different, if you don’t agree it doesn’t mean the thread has come to an end.
Your anger seems to be politically motivated. I don’t have that. I didn’t get angry at Labour (like many people did), and I don’t get angry about National.
Anger doesn’t help. Instead of getting angry I try to do something about things.
I have read your substandard contributions to this forum for a long time, and your contributions are almost always cynical and frivolous. You make a point of trying to make light of serious topics, much in the fashion of another right wing zealot, Paul Holmes on his risible Q&A programme.
I contribute something different
See above. That’s all you contribute.
Instead of getting angry I try to do something about things.
I’d have to agree you contribute something different, Pete. A complete lack of policy and no commitment to either yourself or your party must be a first in NZ politics for an aspiring candidate.
But all you do here is ask meaningless, distracting questions and at the end of the day, you are going to vote National anyway. My suspicion is that you post here because it’s the only political site that takes you even a little bit seriously. For a person ‘representing’ a party with one tenth of the Green’s support and one thirtieth of Labour’s, you do very well on the Standard. It’s just a shame that you get so much engagement here, but you still have nothing to say.
Should do what I do Ignore him totally don’t reply to any of his inane drivel. Because as we all know he strives to be the best he can be in UF, and that position being the chief comb holder!
I think social conscience advice and encouragement and incentives to improve everyone’s situation are good – it’s easy to get in a greed rut and to live elitely.
I don’t think bail-outs should be handed out indefinitely without question.
it’s easy to get in a greed rut and to live elitely.
And not just the rich and the poor.
It’s easy to get stuck in a consumerist rut and waste a lot of money. But if they stopped spending money on inneccesaries it would stuf the economy and people would lose jobs.
oh i get it now, In order to sustain an openly corrupt system we must ignore the actual day to day realities that the system presents us and mindlessly continue to sacrifice the future of our species, not to mention our planet. Nice one Pete.
Are you mind-buggeringly ignorant of the modern world or is it more that you possess a myopic view of the causality processes that lead to the social, fiscal and environmental poverty that you are so willing to lay at the feet of the poor ?
Cut benefits
Sell State Houses
Slash minimum wages
privatise health?
Because that is pretty much all the things that you have suggested.
People like you try to deny it, but the poverty has embedded itself in this country due to the 1991 budget and the Employment Contracts Act. In essence, they took money off workers and poor people, and destoryed the social wage.
My aim is to work at a community level to find solutions. It works bettter from the bottom up rather than Wellington down. One size fits all doesn’t work well, a local solutions to local problems is much better.
I was talking to a health related organisation last week, they are currently 62% government funded. They’d like more, but only up to a maximum of about 80% – they feel if they were fully funded they would be “owned” and would lose a lot of their flexibility and ability to innovate.
Trouble is, your beloved community health organisation wants the right to turn people away with only 80% funding. Our public health system has an obligation to treat people regardless of income. It can only do that with the top down one size fits all model you despise.
Your party will destory this universal health care system that is a taonga in this country.
You can actually fund any community organisation at 100% and still give them full freedom to function autonomously as suits their function within their community.
It all comes down to how you approach what a government actually does.
It is about fair and equitable sharing of resources. It is about respect.
It is about honesty. It is also about a long ago idea called trust.
These ideas may be foreign to you and your ilk as history only presents a ravenous hunger that has, for millenia, stripped the hearty flesh of humanity from the bones of our society. Replacing it with the tumours and festering sores that have evolved into the modern Industrial Military Corpocracy. And every single one of us are nothing but share-stock antibiotics for the beasts that own it all. If you want to believe otherwise Pete then you are choosing to ignore reality and are only discussing ideology. A practise that allows distraction to be deemed acheivemnet and never really contributes to the impetus required to construct real change.
For thousands of years the words of the common person has been an irritant that owners have had to silence. Your very apologies for their practises brand you an accomplise in their ongoing war against humanity.
They fundraise the rest to enable them to maintain some independence…
In other words, they waste time and money to get the money that they need. They could be fully government funded and still maintain independence so that’s just an excuse. Sure, they’d be accountable for that money but, then, they should be any way.
PG I raise funds for community organizations and its very hard raise any sort of money the sums required to fund a health system are humongous you idiot for instance $35million just to upgrade the A&E at Dunedin hospital I’d like to see you and your clowns even get to 1% funding. Unfettered Fairyland dreaming your just an idiot with nothing better to do than talk drivel no research based economics behind any of your diatribe .Free loading on the standard just like your boss free loading on the govt of the day!
No Pete, you arrest the crooks first. You control the potentiality of ongoing attacks. That is still the best and most direct way to help the victim. If a victim of a violent crime is secure in the knowledge that the attacker is behind bars they generally feel a bit more capable of facing the world and making the effort of rebuilding their life. But you will refuse to see the analogy. I pity the Occupy people that have to communicate with you during your very precisely scheduled visit. The only ray of sunshine that may break through your clouds of ignorance is the fact if the right person recognises you for what you are, your views will be demanded and put on record.
The “them bad, us good” religious type fervour is not going to work.
David Brooks (New York Times columnist), wrote last week, “It’s not about declaring war on some nefarious elite. It’s about changing behaviour from top to bottom.”
I see where Pete George gets that cast-iron smugness and complacency from—he not only reads the smooth but ridiculous cant of that smug and complacent zealot David Brooks, but he apparently takes him seriously!!!.
Those who have read Brooks will realize he is an American version of the notorious English poseur Nick Cohen or our own David Farrar, i.e., a shallow ideologue who writes well, but who is essentially anti-democratic, and not prepared to engage in debate seriously or respectfully. It’s a reflection on Pete George’s character and his moral seriousness (or lack thereof) that he quotes Brooks with evident approval.
Note how he solemnly insists that Brooks’s flim-flam is “worth pondering”.
MEMO PETE GEORGE:
We know you’re busy on that campaign trail, holding the leader’s comb, and so you won’t have time to do a lot of reading. So when you do find a spare hour or so, why don’t you pick up a BOOK by a serious writer (i.e., not by Nick Cohen or David Brooks or P.J. O’Rourke or Ian Wishart) but by a serious and intelligent thinker. Please. You owe it to yourself, as well as the denizens of this forum. It’s never too late to start.
PG it was united futures undermining of the greens that caused labour to cut a lot of climate change and environmental problems.The result is that UF have only .3% support but with the way you Rant on PG with your superiority complex you would think that you have something like 51% support you’ve probably been excluded from Kiwiblog because your blogs are so boring and contrived
We should start we the coalition borrowing and hoping aye a little Parental Guidance required before you leave home I predict an Unemployed Future for feather weight politicly naive idiot
I think pete wants to see hungry angry people prowling the streets and the police and the army hunting them down and killing them because they dont have a licence to live.
Pete will deny it, but randal’s grim futurist scenario is where it all ends when you have deserving and undeserving poor, high unemployement and people under pressure from all directions backed up by a surveillence state to ‘clampdown’ on resistance and fightbacks.
I know several farmers that would shoot ‘hungry angry people’ approaching their land rather than feed them. Societal breakdown is always closer than we think.
For Pete G
and others who refuse to see the trees because they are too busy clear cutting the forest.
One of these videos exposes the manipulative intent of the system you so tirelessly defend
the other is simply the reality of your greed is legal so let it happen ideology
they are both good TV, but one of them would never get near a TV broadcast
so with no policy no party and no commitment to anything but an irritating whine against poor people how exactly are you promoting change?
I may well be an idealist but i am not alone. I am one of the thousands and thousands of New Zealanders with practical game-changing ideas who have put in the effort to present real alternatives to complex problems. I did it as recently as last week.
You may recall the PM with his ‘put up or shut up’ call regarding plans for the Rena Oil. Unlike most people i did not write a couple of hundred words on the fact the PM said it, i just went to work and sent him an actual idea. I even went as far as to state I had no political motive in my sending it to him, which is true in this case. It was and is about the Oil and finding a real solution. I have no knowledge if he ever saw my idea, who knows. I sent it to every resource i could think of. From Governemnt sites to Party pages, even here and on FB.
The PM though said, on Monday’s Breakfast show, that despite his request for input, not a single person had come up with any ideas despite lots of talk about there being immediate solutions. I call bullshit and I say the same to you. Your platitudes of progressive action are weak kneed stammerings of someone at risk of losing a bar bet.
Thus we can be sure that the whole world, with the exception of those who are presently saved (the elect), are under the judgment of God, and will be annihilated together with the whole physical world on October 21, 2011, on the last day of the present five months period. On that day the true believers (the elect) will be raptured.
Elect???? don’t they mean Elite?? Well maybe it means the rich Elect will be raptured ie: taken off somewhere else(or like every other rapture in modern history usually means mass suicide.) And the annhilation?? well it would not be so bad if the present monetary system crashes.
Summary: The bottom line from the Iranian assassination caper = it’s already worked, further demonizing Iran’s image in the mind of the American public — maintaining support for the permanent war establishment of massive military/intel/homeland security spending and the slow erosion of our liberties. Of course it succeeded. Conducting information operations against America is the core competency of our defense apparatus.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister John Key announced that he was going to donate $50 million towards New Zealand’s growing debt crisis. Key said he’d decided to gift his fortune because of the help he had received from New Zealand as a child in the form of a state house, and it was “jush fair to gift sumtin back.”
Are there no depths the elite will plummet to in order to advantage their offspring? http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10759864
<blockquote>
A woman has admitted making calls claiming to be a sexual health worker in a bid to damage the reputation of a girl who was a rival to her daughter’s bid to study at two elite colleges.
The Queenstown 53-year-old appeared visibly shaken when she appeared on two charges in the Queenstown District Court yesterday.
Sergeant Ian Collin said the defendant applied to St Hilda’s Collegiate School and Columba College, both in Dunedin, in May for her daughter to be accepted next year.</blockquote>
Suffer little children for King John The Clueless of Charmalot has decreed that his beloved underclass shall grow and be hungry so the rich may have their tax cuts.
DOH! Missed Mr Savage’s earlier reference to this. Just couldn’t believe it when I read those stories one after the other. Hat tip New Zealand Fox News Herald for accident juxtaposition.
(NOTE TO SELF: Just because the trolls are being fed doesn’t mean you can ignore the leading comment.)
Back in July this year it was revealed that National creates jobs for their mates and pays them three times the going rate. When attempting to side step the issue, Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee started telling lies…
“”They are caught up in the same kind of mood as the other rating agencies where they ‘re putting any country with debt under the microscope. I see in the last few days they’ve just warned France or Italy or somebody,” he said.”
Seems like he’s suggesting it’s just teenage angst, or they got up on the wrong side of bed, or perhaps even PMS.
It also sounds like he doesn’t care any more. Hardly becoming the finance minister, I don’t think. At budget 2009 they were acting like the ratings agencies were their best mates and now they don’t want to know them or give them the time of day.
. . . “I see in the last few days they’ve just warned France or Italy or somebody,” he said . . .
France is in the softening up phase up for a review of its Aaa rating, while Italy has had its rating macheted down three notches to A2. WTF is Blinglish saying here?
Any more? He never cared at all. His sole job was to increase NZ’s borrowing so that him and his rich mates had a nice safe place to put their money collecting interest.
Nice column by Colin James in the ODT today. Talking about the delay in the government signing up to the bunker fuel damages convention:
“After Audit Office criticism of the Treasury’s costly mishandling of the guarantee to South Canterbury Finance, this failure of fiduciary duty to taxpayers looks bad. But even if Joyce had got a bill drafted the lax management of Parliament’s business would probably have left it low on the agenda like many other important bills.
Again, it is not a syndrome. But it does suggest the cabinet needs tighter management than Key’s devolved style. Which is more important: removing compulsory student unionism or doubling the fees for dodgy Greek shipping companies? “
“Again, it is not a syndrome. But it does suggest the cabinet needs tighter management than Key’s devolved style. Which is more important: removing compulsory student unionism or doubling the fees for dodgy Greek shipping companies?”
To be fair, it did take them a very very long time to get the SVM bill passed.
So much has happened that gives lie to the governments claim of being fiscally responsible:
A $2 billion dollar tax cut that wasn’t fiscally neutral
A $2 billion dollar cock-up with South Canterbury
$10 million marine insurance bungle.
$75, 000 to send McCully to Vannuatu
Can anyone add examples of fiscal mismanagement that are costing public servants jobs and government services to be cut?
The fiscal malfeasance being overseen by this John Key led National Ltd™ government is systemic, and it starts at the top of the bureaucratic jungle gym.
Brian Gaynor highlighted a serious macro-level issue which is throwing out all the government’s accounts and resulting in a belt-tightening cascade of reduced services as actual income falls so far below estimated income. By the time reality hits the chook house at Number 1 The Terrace, the government has gone ahead promising all sorts of wonderfulness only to find it has to scurry about last-minute with cap in hand while ordering government departments, again, to get the razors out. No chance for long-term strategic management when there’s an unexpected cash shortage every three months.
Treasury, “our leading government department” is responsible for this and is also in the shit for the way it has managed the Crown retail deposit guarantee scheme. Classic National Ltd™ – put economists in charge of running a country because, really, society is just like a business, don’t you see?
seeing as the Government and their supporters have pulled out the ‘global crisis is all because of household debt’ mantra, here is a picture saving us all a thousand words
( those with a keen eye will notice some of our PM’s handiwork amongst the detritus)
It’ll be in the archives somewhere, but someone posted that this is exactly what Key did tell a kid who asked what caused the financial crisis. Words to the effect of: ‘Your parents bought things they couldn’t afford’. Our glorious media didn’t find this suitably interesting to question him about – that it was all our fault according to Key.
Labour announces it’s employment policies today.
National try to deflect attention away from Labour with a Kiwisaver announcement that is vague, has no specifics, is not going to be detailed until after the election, and will only happen if they balance the books (fat chance of that happening!).
The political equivalent of vapourware.
And what did tv3 do tonight? They ran first up with the National’s sweet FA announcement.
I guess that’s what a $43 million soft loan gets ya.
William, National is the govt, and most punters expect them to be returned in a few weeks, hence this is most likely to beecome law. Labour on the other hand is quickly becoming a fringe party, struggling to get over 30% if the latest roy morgan is to be believed.
sweetD you have no political knowledge, National polled 23% only 10 years ago. Labour are doing fine in the left vote, National need to deliver to the swingers and they don’t have any ideas apart from smiles and waves, it all comes apart in the end. New Zealand will extend it’s socialist economy considerably in your lifetime in accordance with the swing back from private commercial incompetence.
Well no whimpy BB, actually, ya gotta pay attention to the November 26 poll, you know, where people get the big black marker pen out in the little cardboard booth.
September 26 – October 9, 2011. That’s the polling period, Bludge. A couple of weeks into the RWC through to a comfortable win over Argentina in the quarters. And before we knew Key’s Government had just helped coat the beaches of the BOP in oil. I hear the rugby finishes soon, btw.
I wonder what the Nats think amounts to corruption? Did anyone else notice that May Wang – a businesswoman with links to Jenny Shipley – is charged with corruption in Hong Kong? She was the lady who fronted the Chinese bid to buy the Crafar farms. Check out these links:
All I say is thank God for the Overseas Investment Commission! I wonder how she conducted her affairs around the Nats. What meetings did she have with the likes of Pansy Wong and Co?
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Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
The PSA have released a survey of 4000 public service workers showing that budget cuts are taking a toll on the wellbeing of public servants and risking the delivery of essential services to New Zealanders. Economists predict that figures released this week will show continued increases in unemployment, potentially reaching ...
The Prime Minister’s speech 10 days or so ago kicked off a flurry of commentary. No one much anywhere near the mainstream (ie excluding Greens supporters) questioned the rhetoric. New Zealand has done woefully poorly on productivity for a long time and we really need better outcomes, and the sorts ...
President Trump on the day he announced tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, unleashing a shock to supply chains globally that is expected to slow economic growth and increase inflation for most large economies. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 9 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 3Politics: New Zealand Government cabinet meeting usually held early afternoon with post-cabinet news conference possible at 4 pm, although they have not been ...
Trump being Trump, it won’t come as a shock to find that he regards a strong US currency (bolstered by high tariffs on everything made by foreigners) as a sign of America’s virility, and its ability to kick sand in the face of the world. Reality is a tad more ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
The Government’s welfare reforms are delivering results with the number of people moving off benefits into work increasing year-on-year for six straight months. “There are positive signs that our welfare reset and the return consequences for job seekers who don't fulfil their obligations to prepare for or find a job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kirsten Banks, Lecturer, School of Science, Computing and Engineering Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology Debris on the surface of Mars from the Perseverance mission, captured on April 19 2022. NASA/JPL-Caltech In his inauguration speech in January, United States President Donald Trump ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alix Woolard, Senior Research Fellow, The Kids Research Institute Australia Stock Unit/Shutterstock Have you ever asked someone how their day was, or been chatting casually with a friend, only to have them tell you a horrific story that has left you ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Quentin Grafton, Australian Laureate Professor of Economics, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The Roper RiverChris Ison/Shutterstock Water is now a contested resource around the world. Nowhere is this more evident than in the fight playing out over the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Graeme Turner, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Studies, The University of Queensland Matej Kastellic/ Shutterstock As we head towards the federal election, both sides of politics are making a point of criticising universities and questioning their role in the community. ...
Alex Casey examines the perils of having your period at a music festival. It was right after Clairo’s swooning set that Sarah* knew it was time. She was on the second day of her period at Auckland’s Laneway festival, and braved the portaloos to empty her menstrual cup and change ...
A battle between health officials and local councils is heating up, as one government party seeks to change the rules. The Bulletin’s Stewart Sowman-Lund explains. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
A global consultancy will lead the government's review of electricity markets, with a local firm offering advice and two groups of experts providing quality assurance. ...
New Public Service Minister Judith Collins is calling for a culture of saying 'yes', but being honest enough with ministers to "reconcile the vision with reality". ...
The future of nearly a third of all huts and tracks managed by the Department of Conservation is in limbo, as the agency faces a 30 percent shortfall in funding to maintain them. ...
Today I’ve had a bit on. I’m living in a 23.4 metre tug off the coast of Samoa and have been for a few weeks now. I’m on a top-secret mission to help save the planet from another potential environmental disaster.I’m currently tasked with looking out the window and making ...
The ‘loneliness epidemic’ is apparently spreading around the world, but what does it look like here in New Zealand? Rachel Judkins reports. It’s a beautiful summer evening in Cornwall Park, with families scattered on the grass and a live band playing a backing track to their laughter. Sprawled on a ...
The Act leader gets a telling-off from the principal and prime minister Christopher Luxon loses his cool in a heated question time. Echo Chamber is The Spinoff’s dispatch from the press gallery, recapping sessions in the House. Columns are written by politics reporter Lyric Waiwiri-Smith and Wellington editor Joel MacManus. ...
Opinion: It was the 10th anniversary of UNESCO’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science this week, the theme being ‘Unpacking STEM Careers: Her Voice in Science’. It is 2025, but we still need a lot more of her voices in science.In New Zealand, a 2021 survey found that ...
NewsroomBy Dr Jennifer Kruger and Dr Kelly Burrowes
A Government proposal to axe the only two jobs in New Zealand’s health sector of people who were working on a national strategy for palliative care has angered those in the sector, which is already under immense strain.It’s put another wedge between those who want terminally ill patients to live ...
The High Court isn’t the appropriate place to solve a South Island iwi’s claims over freshwater, the Crown says.Ngāi Tahu leaders, and the collective Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, are taking legal action against the Attorney-General, demanding to be involved in decision-making over freshwater. Iwi want the Crown to recognise ...
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COMMENTARY:By Sawsan Madina I watched US President Donald Trump’s joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week in utter disbelief. Not that the idea, or indeed the practice, of ethnic cleansing of Palestine is new. But at that press conference the mask has fallen. Recently, fascism ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will on Wednesday announce it is willing, as a last resort, to purchase the collapsed Rex Airlines, in its latest bid to prop up aviation services to regional and remote areas. As ...
Jotham Napat has been elected as the new prime minister of Vanuatu. Napat was elected unopposed in Port Vila today, receiving 50 votes with two void votes. He is the country’s fifth prime minister in four years and will lead a coalition government made up of five political parties — ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By A J Brown, Professor of Public Policy & Law, Centre for Governance & Public Policy, Griffith University Australia has turned the corner on its decade-long slide on Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), once again ranking in the top ten least ...
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http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5803533/Lethal-asbestos-found-in-rubble
Now have a look in the harbour.
What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?
We may be about to find out.
To answer Duncan Clarke’s question:
We have to be prepared to prostrate ourselves before the oil giants.
We have to be prepared to kill.
We have to be prepared to sacrifice the environment.
We have to be prepared to curtail civil liberties.
We have to be prepared to impoverish the majority of the population so that a tiny minority of the local elite, can become the super rich sheiks of the South Pacific.
Look to Nigeria, look to Saudi Arabia, look to Bahrain, look to Iraq.
I would like to take this opportunity to tell Duncan Clarke and his clients, that New Zealand is the country that stopped the mighty US Navy in it’s tracks, and beware.
NZ Herald
The mayor has given his approval, for a while. Ocupation Octagon continues.
The occupation has made a has made a bold statement, but what is it, how long will it stay and what does it really hope to achieve?
It’s a knarly day here in Dunedin, not great camping weather.
You do realise Pete that running a campaign to be elected as a representative in Dunedin requires more than just printing a few flyers and putting up some billboards?
Why dont you get yourself down there and see what it’s all about and then you can enlighten us all with a post and your opinion instead of those four lines of nothing.
i just went passed the campers in the octagon, its an utterly miserable day, wet, wind, freezing, & yep, they are all still there, they look comfortable & firm, im really proud of them.
I haven’t printed flyers and I haven’t put up any billboards yet. I’ll do a bit of that but I’m not running a traditional campaign. Expect some surprises.
I am getting myself down there, I have planned a visit at 5.15 today.
“I’ll do a bit of that but I’m not running a traditional campaign.”
Remember he’s not voting for himself or UF.
🙂 It’s non-traditional to string stupid comments like that along.
Actually it’s just a pretty salient example of your unwillingness to actually commit to anything concrete.
“Commitment” is traditional. You’ve heard of an open relationship? Pete has the world’s first open candidacy, where not even he knows whether he will vote for himself.
I’d say I’ve committed myself to a lot more than most here. I choose what I’ll comment on here – whatever I say I usually get attacked anyway so I select what suits me.
McFlock, I’ve always chosen on election day how to vote, and I don’t see why I should change that.
But you’d have to be very thick, or have a motive for promoting bullshit, not to figure it out.
I wonder who Paul Goldsmith and his electorate team will vote for.
“I’ve always chosen on election day how to vote, and I don’t see why I should change that.”
So you don’t consider being the UF candidate sufficient reason to make up your mind before polling day? No wonder you can’t discuss policy;you can’t even commit to the party you represent!
I’m so looking forward to your hoardings, can I suggest something honest like this:
Hi, I’m Pete George and I’d like you to vote for United Future, because someone has to and I can’t be arsed.
Or:
Pete George, Don’t Vote for Me, Vote for Meh.
PG will be to busy talking sweet nothings on our blog site to run a campaign
You get criticised because your “commitment” usually revolves around a structure of “I strongly support the principle of X, but the [completely opposite] principle of Y needs to be taken into account, as well as the [completely irrelevent] principle of Z. We really need to discuss this more to try and find a common ground and realise that they are all shades of grey. Don’t hate me because I dare to unflinchingly defend the value of vague promises of compromise!”
Don’t get me wrong, such banalities might be good for a priest or a therapist, but the fact is that you chose to be a politician. Say WTF you are going to DO. This postmodern brand-is-all shite doesn’t play so well when times are tough, as the nats are beginning to find out, I suspect.
Case in point:
” I’ve always chosen on election day how to vote, and I don’t see why I should change that.
But you’d have to be very thick, or have a motive for promoting bullshit, not to figure it out.”
So on the one hand your mind is completely open and you haven’t yet made a decision – on the other hand it’s pretty obvious who you’ll vote for. Why not just dare to take a stand and say yes, come election time, you’ll actually vote for [shock, horror] yourself? And then take that new-found courage to your party so it can declare some policy specifics?
Sounds a bit like Groucho Marx. “Dear voter, I don’t want your vote because anyone who votes for me is too stupid for me to want to vote for me, myself included. Have a cigar instead.”
Trev – Your Sport Policy looks like another failure to think matters through.
Per the NZ Herald – Manoj Daji [Chief Executive – College Sport Auckland] gives a real-world view of your policy. He lists many reasons why it won’t work in the Super City of about 100,000 secondary students.
“With the sport spread across the week we are battling for venues and facilities. Having all sport on a given afternoon would not only cause major transportation issues for schools but also place extra pressure on limited facilities and reduce the ability to draw on community volunteers for coaching and officiating, whom we are are reliant on”
Looks like another one of your half-baked ideas.
Well how is this for news. Key admits that the underclass is growing under his watch. And I thought he was going to fix the problem.
And at the same time that the underclass is growing the Herald reports that “the Government has slashed the number of food grants to needy families by 20 per cent, driving record numbers to seek food parcels from charities instead.”
The cause is said to be the change in policy to make people complete budgeting activities and show they have taken steps to increase their income or reduce their costs, before they can get more than two food grants a year. Obviously as far as the Government is concerned grinding policy is caused by a lack of budgeting skills not this Government’s actions.
I think budgeting advice and encouragement and incentives to improve ones situation are good – it’s easy to get in a poverty rut and to live inefficiently.
I don’t think benefits should be handed out indefinitely without question.
So Petey boy is poverty the poor’s fault? Or has Key failed?
You’re being far to simplistic. It’s not an either or situation, it’s far more complex.
If Labour form a coalition after the election and we still have poverty in 2014 will they have failed?
Some poor people are responsible for their own poverty. Some are victims of circumstance. And most likely there’s a combination of both plus other factors.
Poverty is not due to Key failure. Government policies will have affected poverty levels, the extended economic downturn will have had a much greater effect, and previous government policies will also have had an effect.
So Greggy boy, there’s no simple political point scoring. If Labour’s third term had ended with zero poverty and a healthy economy, and then finances and food plummeted you might have a case. But it wasn’t like that so you don’t.
Pete serious question.
Are you trying to destroy this thread?
You see I recall clearly Key campaigning about the underclass and I thought then it was a glib PR job and that he would do nothing about it.
Then this morning it is not only confirmed but there is the added insult of a chance in policy to make things worse for the underclass, not better.
And I feel real anger about it.
But you show no anger either that you have been lied to or that the poor are getting hammered more. You seem to go away, construct a few words that you think represents a “middle point” and then post them.
And you keep on accusing me of “political point scoring” without irony when every comment you make is laiden with it. And you refuse to be drawn on anything specific.
So Pete baby what makes you angry? And what will you do to improve things?
BTW I am not sure why you refer to the third Labour Government and presume this is a display of ignorance. For your information there were about 20,000 unemployed at the time. The economy was in poor shape but only because of the first oil crisis that Labour had nothing to do with.
I don’t try and destroy threads, that’s a weird question. I contribute something different, if you don’t agree it doesn’t mean the thread has come to an end.
Your anger seems to be politically motivated. I don’t have that. I didn’t get angry at Labour (like many people did), and I don’t get angry about National.
Anger doesn’t help. Instead of getting angry I try to do something about things.
I don’t try and destroy threads…
I have read your substandard contributions to this forum for a long time, and your contributions are almost always cynical and frivolous. You make a point of trying to make light of serious topics, much in the fashion of another right wing zealot, Paul Holmes on his risible Q&A programme.
I contribute something different
See above. That’s all you contribute.
Instead of getting angry I try to do something about things.
Arrant nonsense.
I’d have to agree you contribute something different, Pete. A complete lack of policy and no commitment to either yourself or your party must be a first in NZ politics for an aspiring candidate.
But all you do here is ask meaningless, distracting questions and at the end of the day, you are going to vote National anyway. My suspicion is that you post here because it’s the only political site that takes you even a little bit seriously. For a person ‘representing’ a party with one tenth of the Green’s support and one thirtieth of Labour’s, you do very well on the Standard. It’s just a shame that you get so much engagement here, but you still have nothing to say.
I think he’s probably not persuading anyone to vote UF, though. I guess we can thank him for that.
Should do what I do Ignore him totally don’t reply to any of his inane drivel. Because as we all know he strives to be the best he can be in UF, and that position being the chief comb holder!
Anger does help mate.
It focusses and energises.
Its also what TPTB are most afraid of. People shaking of their complacency and becoming angry at what is happening to them.
No you don’t, you contribute nothing at all. All you ever say is that we need to have a discussion about it but won’t actually join the discussion.
look at it another way Pete G
I think social conscience advice and encouragement and incentives to improve everyone’s situation are good – it’s easy to get in a greed rut and to live elitely.
I don’t think bail-outs should be handed out indefinitely without question.
it’s easy to get in a greed rut and to live elitely.
And not just the rich and the poor.
It’s easy to get stuck in a consumerist rut and waste a lot of money. But if they stopped spending money on inneccesaries it would stuf the economy and people would lose jobs.
Our world is far from simple.
oh i get it now, In order to sustain an openly corrupt system we must ignore the actual day to day realities that the system presents us and mindlessly continue to sacrifice the future of our species, not to mention our planet. Nice one Pete.
Are you mind-buggeringly ignorant of the modern world or is it more that you possess a myopic view of the causality processes that lead to the social, fiscal and environmental poverty that you are so willing to lay at the feet of the poor ?
Budgeting is all well and good, but at the end of the day, you cannot get blood out of a stone.
Tell me, are you comfortable with a level of homelessness and poverty in this country?
No.
And I’m also not comfortable with Labour’s lack of readiness to do anything worthwhile about it.
What would you do Squirrel-boy?
Cut benefits
Sell State Houses
Slash minimum wages
privatise health?
Because that is pretty much all the things that you have suggested.
People like you try to deny it, but the poverty has embedded itself in this country due to the 1991 budget and the Employment Contracts Act. In essence, they took money off workers and poor people, and destoryed the social wage.
I haven’t suggested any of those things.
My aim is to work at a community level to find solutions. It works bettter from the bottom up rather than Wellington down. One size fits all doesn’t work well, a local solutions to local problems is much better.
I was talking to a health related organisation last week, they are currently 62% government funded. They’d like more, but only up to a maximum of about 80% – they feel if they were fully funded they would be “owned” and would lose a lot of their flexibility and ability to innovate.
Trouble is, your beloved community health organisation wants the right to turn people away with only 80% funding. Our public health system has an obligation to treat people regardless of income. It can only do that with the top down one size fits all model you despise.
Your party will destory this universal health care system that is a taonga in this country.
Nonsense. They fundraise the rest to enable them to maintain some independence – and they don’t turn people away.
Community common sense can be far more effective than party political power.
news flash for PeteG
You can actually fund any community organisation at 100% and still give them full freedom to function autonomously as suits their function within their community.
It all comes down to how you approach what a government actually does.
It is about fair and equitable sharing of resources. It is about respect.
It is about honesty. It is also about a long ago idea called trust.
These ideas may be foreign to you and your ilk as history only presents a ravenous hunger that has, for millenia, stripped the hearty flesh of humanity from the bones of our society. Replacing it with the tumours and festering sores that have evolved into the modern Industrial Military Corpocracy. And every single one of us are nothing but share-stock antibiotics for the beasts that own it all. If you want to believe otherwise Pete then you are choosing to ignore reality and are only discussing ideology. A practise that allows distraction to be deemed acheivemnet and never really contributes to the impetus required to construct real change.
For thousands of years the words of the common person has been an irritant that owners have had to silence. Your very apologies for their practises brand you an accomplise in their ongoing war against humanity.
I’m not apologising for anyone, I’m not sure why you keep blaming me for some illdefined malady.
Now you have done Idealism 101 why don’t you try Reality 101.
In other words, they waste time and money to get the money that they need. They could be fully government funded and still maintain independence so that’s just an excuse. Sure, they’d be accountable for that money but, then, they should be any way.
PG I raise funds for community organizations and its very hard raise any sort of money the sums required to fund a health system are humongous you idiot for instance $35million just to upgrade the A&E at Dunedin hospital I’d like to see you and your clowns even get to 1% funding. Unfettered Fairyland dreaming your just an idiot with nothing better to do than talk drivel no research based economics behind any of your diatribe .Free loading on the standard just like your boss free loading on the govt of the day!
No Pete, you arrest the crooks first. You control the potentiality of ongoing attacks. That is still the best and most direct way to help the victim. If a victim of a violent crime is secure in the knowledge that the attacker is behind bars they generally feel a bit more capable of facing the world and making the effort of rebuilding their life. But you will refuse to see the analogy. I pity the Occupy people that have to communicate with you during your very precisely scheduled visit. The only ray of sunshine that may break through your clouds of ignorance is the fact if the right person recognises you for what you are, your views will be demanded and put on record.
The “them bad, us good” religious type fervour is not going to work.
David Brooks (New York Times columnist), wrote last week, “It’s not about declaring war on some nefarious elite. It’s about changing behaviour from top to bottom.”
It’s worth pondering that.
ponder this PeteG
I see where Pete George gets that cast-iron smugness and complacency from—he not only reads the smooth but ridiculous cant of that smug and complacent zealot David Brooks, but he apparently takes him seriously!!!.
Those who have read Brooks will realize he is an American version of the notorious English poseur Nick Cohen or our own David Farrar, i.e., a shallow ideologue who writes well, but who is essentially anti-democratic, and not prepared to engage in debate seriously or respectfully. It’s a reflection on Pete George’s character and his moral seriousness (or lack thereof) that he quotes Brooks with evident approval.
Note how he solemnly insists that Brooks’s flim-flam is “worth pondering”.
MEMO PETE GEORGE:
We know you’re busy on that campaign trail, holding the leader’s comb, and so you won’t have time to do a lot of reading. So when you do find a spare hour or so, why don’t you pick up a BOOK by a serious writer (i.e., not by Nick Cohen or David Brooks or P.J. O’Rourke or Ian Wishart) but by a serious and intelligent thinker. Please. You owe it to yourself, as well as the denizens of this forum. It’s never too late to start.
PG what utter bullshit just more boring political rhetoric from a johny come lately
PG it was united futures undermining of the greens that caused labour to cut a lot of climate change and environmental problems.The result is that UF have only .3% support but with the way you Rant on PG with your superiority complex you would think that you have something like 51% support you’ve probably been excluded from Kiwiblog because your blogs are so boring and contrived
We should start we the coalition borrowing and hoping aye a little Parental Guidance required before you leave home I predict an Unemployed Future for feather weight politicly naive idiot
I think pete wants to see hungry angry people prowling the streets and the police and the army hunting them down and killing them because they dont have a licence to live.
Pete will deny it, but randal’s grim futurist scenario is where it all ends when you have deserving and undeserving poor, high unemployement and people under pressure from all directions backed up by a surveillence state to ‘clampdown’ on resistance and fightbacks.
I know several farmers that would shoot ‘hungry angry people’ approaching their land rather than feed them. Societal breakdown is always closer than we think.
The British counter-intelligence agency MI5 has a saying: “Society is only ever four meals away from anarchy”.
For Pete G
and others who refuse to see the trees because they are too busy clear cutting the forest.
One of these videos exposes the manipulative intent of the system you so tirelessly defend
the other is simply the reality of your greed is legal so let it happen ideology
they are both good TV, but one of them would never get near a TV broadcast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pql2ETgegR4&feature=related
I’m not tirelessly defending any system, I’m working to initiate change.
Soon I will be an activist politician, or failing that a political activist.
so with no policy no party and no commitment to anything but an irritating whine against poor people how exactly are you promoting change?
I may well be an idealist but i am not alone. I am one of the thousands and thousands of New Zealanders with practical game-changing ideas who have put in the effort to present real alternatives to complex problems. I did it as recently as last week.
You may recall the PM with his ‘put up or shut up’ call regarding plans for the Rena Oil. Unlike most people i did not write a couple of hundred words on the fact the PM said it, i just went to work and sent him an actual idea. I even went as far as to state I had no political motive in my sending it to him, which is true in this case. It was and is about the Oil and finding a real solution. I have no knowledge if he ever saw my idea, who knows. I sent it to every resource i could think of. From Governemnt sites to Party pages, even here and on FB.
The PM though said, on Monday’s Breakfast show, that despite his request for input, not a single person had come up with any ideas despite lots of talk about there being immediate solutions. I call bullshit and I say the same to you. Your platitudes of progressive action are weak kneed stammerings of someone at risk of losing a bar bet.
Those pesky predictions:
…
Looks like the ABs will miss out on the RWC again – oh, well.
Edit: I know, that prediction was last year (hopefully).
Elect???? don’t they mean Elite?? Well maybe it means the rich Elect will be raptured ie: taken off somewhere else(or like every other rapture in modern history usually means mass suicide.) And the annhilation?? well it would not be so bad if the present monetary system crashes.
The Iranian assassination caper, a complete success.
Summary: The bottom line from the Iranian assassination caper = it’s already worked, further demonizing Iran’s image in the mind of the American public — maintaining support for the permanent war establishment of massive military/intel/homeland security spending and the slow erosion of our liberties. Of course it succeeded. Conducting information operations against America is the core competency of our defense apparatus.
The Value of Values: Soft Power Under Obama.
John Key to Donate Fortune
Yesterday, the Prime Minister John Key announced that he was going to donate $50 million towards New Zealand’s growing debt crisis. Key said he’d decided to gift his fortune because of the help he had received from New Zealand as a child in the form of a state house, and it was “jush fair to gift sumtin back.”
Heh, why stop there, his ‘bach’ could be gifted to local Hawaiians whose stolen land it is sitting on.
Today PLONKEY opened a wineries tour!
amd SLICKEY checked out some penguins!
Double DIP becomes Triple DIP
Are there no depths the elite will plummet to in order to advantage their offspring?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10759864
<blockquote>
A woman has admitted making calls claiming to be a sexual health worker in a bid to damage the reputation of a girl who was a rival to her daughter’s bid to study at two elite colleges.
The Queenstown 53-year-old appeared visibly shaken when she appeared on two charges in the Queenstown District Court yesterday.
Sergeant Ian Collin said the defendant applied to St Hilda’s Collegiate School and Columba College, both in Dunedin, in May for her daughter to be accepted next year.</blockquote>
Contrast and compare:
* – [John Key] said the Government had also done the best it could , in difficult times, to insulate people from the recession.
* – The Government has slashed the number of food grants to needy families by 20 per cent, driving record numbers to seek food parcels from charities instead.
Suffer little children for King John The Clueless of Charmalot has decreed that his beloved underclass shall grow and be hungry so the rich may have their tax cuts.
DOH! Missed Mr Savage’s earlier reference to this. Just couldn’t believe it when I read those stories one after the other. Hat tip New Zealand Fox News Herald for
accidentjuxtaposition.(NOTE TO SELF: Just because the trolls are being fed doesn’t mean you can ignore the leading comment.)
National’s Election Hoarding’s 5
Back in July this year it was revealed that National creates jobs for their mates and pays them three times the going rate. When attempting to side step the issue, Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee started telling lies…
Oh damn Double Dipton could become a Triple Dipton. And this aint no lottery.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/5808378/Fears-of-third-NZ-credit-downgrade
“”They are caught up in the same kind of mood as the other rating agencies where they ‘re putting any country with debt under the microscope. I see in the last few days they’ve just warned France or Italy or somebody,” he said.”
Seems like he’s suggesting it’s just teenage angst, or they got up on the wrong side of bed, or perhaps even PMS.
It also sounds like he doesn’t care any more. Hardly becoming the finance minister, I don’t think. At budget 2009 they were acting like the ratings agencies were their best mates and now they don’t want to know them or give them the time of day.
France is in the softening up phase up for a review of its Aaa rating, while Italy has had its rating macheted down three notches to A2. WTF is Blinglish saying here?
He’s a bit unsure of his facts and doesn’t want to embarrass himself. He got the information from Key who read it in any email.
Any more? He never cared at all. His sole job was to increase NZ’s borrowing so that him and his rich mates had a nice safe place to put their money collecting interest.
Nice column by Colin James in the ODT today. Talking about the delay in the government signing up to the bunker fuel damages convention:
“After Audit Office criticism of the Treasury’s costly mishandling of the guarantee to South Canterbury Finance, this failure of fiduciary duty to taxpayers looks bad. But even if Joyce had got a bill drafted the lax management of Parliament’s business would probably have left it low on the agenda like many other important bills.
Again, it is not a syndrome. But it does suggest the cabinet needs tighter management than Key’s devolved style. Which is more important: removing compulsory student unionism or doubling the fees for dodgy Greek shipping companies? “
“Again, it is not a syndrome. But it does suggest the cabinet needs tighter management than Key’s devolved style. Which is more important: removing compulsory student unionism or doubling the fees for dodgy Greek shipping companies?”
To be fair, it did take them a very very long time to get the SVM bill passed.
“…the cabinet needs tighter management than Key’s devolved style.”
What employer would tolerate an employee ignoring their work so they could swan around the world chasing photo-op?
The Business Round Table
Quantum Levitation?. Yup.
So much has happened that gives lie to the governments claim of being fiscally responsible:
A $2 billion dollar tax cut that wasn’t fiscally neutral
A $2 billion dollar cock-up with South Canterbury
$10 million marine insurance bungle.
$75, 000 to send McCully to Vannuatu
Can anyone add examples of fiscal mismanagement that are costing public servants jobs and government services to be cut?
The fiscal malfeasance being overseen by this John Key led National Ltd™ government is systemic, and it starts at the top of the bureaucratic jungle gym.
Brian Gaynor highlighted a serious macro-level issue which is throwing out all the government’s accounts and resulting in a belt-tightening cascade of reduced services as actual income falls so far below estimated income. By the time reality hits the chook house at Number 1 The Terrace, the government has gone ahead promising all sorts of wonderfulness only to find it has to scurry about last-minute with cap in hand while ordering government departments, again, to get the razors out. No chance for long-term strategic management when there’s an unexpected cash shortage every three months.
Treasury, “our leading government department” is responsible for this and is also in the shit for the way it has managed the Crown retail deposit guarantee scheme. Classic National Ltd™ – put economists in charge of running a country because, really, society is just like a business, don’t you see?
And it doesn’t help that the “economists” wouldn’t know an economy if they tripped over one.
seeing as the Government and their supporters have pulled out the ‘global crisis is all because of household debt’ mantra, here is a picture saving us all a thousand words
( those with a keen eye will notice some of our PM’s handiwork amongst the detritus)
It’ll be in the archives somewhere, but someone posted that this is exactly what Key did tell a kid who asked what caused the financial crisis. Words to the effect of: ‘Your parents bought things they couldn’t afford’. Our glorious media didn’t find this suitably interesting to question him about – that it was all our fault according to Key.
Slowly sinking in . . . . . . the consequences of theory slowly being undermined by the real world.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-hansen-clarke/congress-is-obsessed-with_b_912494.html
Labour announces it’s employment policies today.
National try to deflect attention away from Labour with a Kiwisaver announcement that is vague, has no specifics, is not going to be detailed until after the election, and will only happen if they balance the books (fat chance of that happening!).
The political equivalent of vapourware.
And what did tv3 do tonight? They ran first up with the National’s sweet FA announcement.
I guess that’s what a $43 million soft loan gets ya.
William, National is the govt, and most punters expect them to be returned in a few weeks, hence this is most likely to beecome law. Labour on the other hand is quickly becoming a fringe party, struggling to get over 30% if the latest roy morgan is to be believed.
sweetD you have no political knowledge, National polled 23% only 10 years ago. Labour are doing fine in the left vote, National need to deliver to the swingers and they don’t have any ideas apart from smiles and waves, it all comes apart in the end. New Zealand will extend it’s socialist economy considerably in your lifetime in accordance with the swing back from private commercial incompetence.
Gotta love that Roy Morgan aye.
59.5%
Well no whimpy BB, actually, ya gotta pay attention to the November 26 poll, you know, where people get the big black marker pen out in the little cardboard booth.
September 26 – October 9, 2011. That’s the polling period, Bludge. A couple of weeks into the RWC through to a comfortable win over Argentina in the quarters. And before we knew Key’s Government had just helped coat the beaches of the BOP in oil. I hear the rugby finishes soon, btw.
I wonder what the Nats think amounts to corruption? Did anyone else notice that May Wang – a businesswoman with links to Jenny Shipley – is charged with corruption in Hong Kong? She was the lady who fronted the Chinese bid to buy the Crafar farms. Check out these links:
– http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10759961
– http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10662262
All I say is thank God for the Overseas Investment Commission! I wonder how she conducted her affairs around the Nats. What meetings did she have with the likes of Pansy Wong and Co?