Great to amazon making it's shit TV in good old New Zealand, here is a clip from one of their upcoming delights… prefaced by quite a good comment about the clip, just so you have an idea of what you are letting yourself in for…
"No matter how cynical you might be about propagandistic American media, you are not prepared for how much watching this trailer is like snorting 100% pure John Bolton"
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish activist who has galvanized young people across the world to strike for more action to combat the impact of global warming, politely reminded them that she was a student, not a scientist – or a senator.
“Please save your praise. We don’t want it,” she said. “Don’t invite us here to just tell us how inspiring we are without actually doing anything about it because it doesn’t lead to anything.
“If you want advice for what you should do, invite scientists, ask scientists for their expertise. We don’t want to be heard. We want the science to be heard.”
In remarks meant for Congress as a whole, she said: “I know you are trying but just not hard enough. Sorry.”
… IN: How do you make sure that workers, and particularly workers of color and women, and other marginalized groups have a seat at the table?
NK: Right. I think it means that the green movement has to be taking on the supposedly green companies that are engaged in union busting, like Tesla, and fighting alongside unions to make sure that green jobs are good, unionized jobs.
It’s also in the text of the AOC, of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ed Markey’s resolution that there should be not only a jobs guarantee, but that workers should be guaranteed to be paid at the same level, same level of salary and benefits in their new jobs as they were in their older jobs. So that’s in the text of the resolution. These are protections that can and must be built into the transition…
…
NK: Right. When you look at polling around the momentum for climate action, it actually hews very closely to how well the economy is doing. So because the kinds of climate policies that have tended to be on the agenda have been these market-based solutions, like a carbon tax for instance, right, or cap and trade or maybe paying a little bit more for renewable energy, right, what often happens is that people will get scared about the science. A film like “An Inconvenient Truth” will come out. There’ll be a sense of “Yes, we have to do this.” And then there’ll be a recession, right. People will be struggling to hold on to their homes, they will be desperately looking for jobs and facing those daily crises in an economic emergency.
And then what happens is that interest in climate action goes down, because as they say in France, the gilet jaunes [yellow vest] movement, “You care about the end of the world. We care about the end of the month,” right. And so that’s what happened during the Obama years. There was this momentum, but as the recession really began to bite, the momentum, climate action came to be equated with a luxury that you couldn’t afford in a time of economic downturn…
…
IN: One passage in the book that particularly struck me was when you talked to a woman protesting, saying, “The hard truth is that the answer to the question ‘What can I, as an individual, do to stop climate change?’ is: nothing.” I wondered if you could talk a little bit more about that, because I think there is a growing tension between individual actions, like cutting out meat and driving less and trying to lobbying for giant corporations and governments to reduce their carbon emissions, even change their whole business models, to protect the environment.
NK: Well, I think that I don’t think anybody is arguing or I mean anybody serious is arguing that we are going to achieve the levels of emission reductions that we need through voluntary lifestyle changes. There’s no doubt that you can lower your own personal carbon footprint, right, by cutting out meat, by not flying, by not driving or driving electric [cars] powered by renewables. Most people don’t have these choices, and in order for this to add up to the level of change that we need, you would need every single person to voluntarily do it.
But that said, if we look at the historical precedence where we have seen massive societal change, whether it is the New Deal or whether it is the transformations of the American economy during the Second World War, it was absolutely critical that there was a perception of fairness. Meaning that it was not only working people who were being asked to make changes, to make sacrifices, that it was also massive corporations who were being dragged kicking and screaming to also make sacrifices, to also make changes, to also abide by new regulations that impacted their profits.
And that perception of fairness was absolutely critical in terms of people accepting the change. What we see in France with the gilet jaunes movement is that it is precisely the double standard, right, of seeing the tax breaks being given to big polluters and multimillionaires whose carbon footprints are sky high, while people who are already facing all of these stresses in a precarious economy are being asked to pay more.
I don’t think anybody serious seriously is saying voluntary lifestyle changes are going to do it. But I do think that you can make a serious argument that it’s important if you can, to change your lifestyle so that you can see and show others that actually it is possible to live well within our carbon budget. And that is an important kind of lived reality to be able to hold up in the face of all of this scaremongering that you’re going to get from the Fox Newses and all of the fossil fuel talking points that this is about just destroying people’s lives and so on, right. There are going to be sacrifices if we design this well.
We’re also going to have way better public transit. We can have better jobs and better working conditions, better services like for health care and education and a care economy. We can have a renaissance in public art. There are things that will improve. And yes, there are some things that will contract. We have to be honest about that.
So many environmental responses have just been minor tweaks to an economy based on endless consumption — take your electric car to the drive-through for an Impossible Burger and a Coke with a paper straw. Of course it’s better than the alternative. But it’s nowhere close to the depth of change required if we hope to actually pull our planet back from the brink. Restricting plastic straws is great. But we also need a ban on those significantly larger cylindrical sucking things. And electric cars are nice, if you can afford them. But what we really need is free, zero emissions public transit with energy-efficient non-market housing and health care steps away. We need new ways of thinking, beyond Trumpian temper tantrums or the dangerous incrementalism of the supposedly serious centrists.
Similar attempts at incrementalism is what makes submitting on consultation processes like Auckland Council's Climate Change framework so dispiriting. The framework itself is self-limiting in what it is looking at, and so, is limited in effective change. Anyone can provide feedback – even non-Aucklanders IIRC.
It's a pity she hasn't been heard from about the disgraceful cover-up that the Government has been running on the activities of their employee in Parliament isn't it?
The first article is basically a rehash of the party line. eg. She never claimed there was any sexual assault and so on.
The latter on, a couple of days ago, was one I hadn't seen. Mau has finally come out on the side of the victims. I hadn't seen this as I don't buy the printed Dom/Post any longer and I don't see everything they print.. It is really the first time though that she has broken her silence though isn't it? However yes I was wrong. She has finally come out of her shell. And about time.
Did you ever consider that the Labour panel might have simply described the truth. So far I haven't seen any evidence that indicates otherwise. For that matter when you read Alison Mau's articles closely, she is very cautious about saying talking about generalities rather than specifics.
Or is it just that you just have a pathological need to think that everyone involved in Labour will always just lie for the hell of it?
I think that your attitude says way way more about you than anyone else. Partisan and quite stupid.
Of course I did. After all I don't know they were told the things the victim says she told them. But if I believed the Party line I would have to believe that Ms Ardern didn't know anything about the claims of assault until a few days ago. No-one told her she says. Hmm.
I would have to believe she didn't even suspect anything might have gone on, despite the blogs have been full of the topic for a month and a half. Hmm.
However, what do I think is the likely situation? I really find it very difficult to accept that the victim was lying, and the Party representatives are telling the truth. Very, very difficult to see that as more than a very high odds. Perhaps more likely that winning Powerball but about on a par with winning Lotto.
Another question you ask is whether I think "Labour will always just lie for the hell of it". Of course I don't think that. They will lie if they think it is their interest to lie. That isn't the same thing. It is merely par for the course with politicians who have screwed things up. Good politicians don't actually lie of course. They just fool you into thinking they said something other than what they really did.
As far as your opinion of my attitude goes. I find your opinion quite silly. But everyone is entitled to some silly moments.
However, what do I think is the likely situation? I really find it very difficult to accept that the victim was lying, and the Party representatives are telling the truth. Very, very difficult to see that as more than a very high odds.
You must have observed politics for some time, right? What is the approved way to lie? After all you only have to look at the experts like Bennett, Farrar, or Collins (and some on the left as well). They prevaricate, obstrufacate, and divert.
What Simon Mitchell and co have done is to not do any of those things. What he said was that he never saw or heard anything to do with sexual assault allegations presented to him from the person who said that they had. He also pointed directly to the documents that he received and saw, apparently the same ones that a complainant referred to.
Good politicians don't actually lie of course. They just fool you into thinking they said something other than what they really did.
So point to something in the simple statement that Simon Mitchell put out as an example – show me the where he has said something that can’t be checked in the forensic record or from the other witnesses present.
Try to see any of the traditional political techniques in there for lying without getting caught. Basically I bet that
1. you haven’t tried.
2. you are probably too timid to do so because it would upset your personal bigotry.
Of course I don't think that. They will lie if they think it is their interest to lie.
So where exactly is Simon Mitchell's interest in lying? A volunteer who has no real economic stake in the Labour party and who lends himself to the thankless task of a volunteer on the NZ Council (and it is a thankless task).
This isn't a politician. Most of the time he runs essentially unopposed and probably secretly wishes some would oppose him.
Nigel Howarth is the same. I've run across him a few times. Mu guess is that he will be happy to get back to academia.
Which is EXACTLY why I think that you are an extremely stupid partisan dimwit who is too stupid to use your brains.
But everyone is entitled to some silly moments.
Yes – but you seem to have them all of the time when it comes to anything left-wing. You ever ask yourself why you believe such stupid ideas – because you are a simpleton bigot, Or are you just too lazy to think. Or just too stupid…
Or all three?
The only person I see lying around here is you – and I suspect that you’re mostly lying to yourself. It is cowardly and quite pathetic.
I do too, in life you come to realise that many things are often very simple but some can be elevated, or develop, into something more than they were. In work, business or family slight mismanagements, actions or misunderstandings can either reach good outcomes or outcomes, estrangements and divisions that can never, or often rarely, can be undone. Some media play that up for their own reasons and the National Party are relying on it as almost their only path back to government at this time.
Oh yes. I imagine the first time I met a Prime Minister was before you were born.
"Simon Mitchell". I believe he, and the other people on his panel did, to the best of their ability, do what they were supposed to. Find that nothing happened in other words. If he didn't happen to see something I don't believe that he would have hunted for it. That might have meant being forced to see something he didn't want to.
"(and it is a thankless task)".
Of course it is. However he will now find out the worst. The only thing that matters is to keep attention of the Leader. If you fail at that you will discover that you are expendable. I imagine that is what he is discovering now.
He doesn't really matter of course. The politicians thast have power matter and they are finding it very hard to escape scrutiny.
"The only person I see lying around here is you – and I suspect that you’re mostly lying to yourself. It is cowardly and quite pathetic."
Frankly I give a damn what you think. I don't see the world the way you do and therefore you are striking out with all your impotent rage.
McGregor too was found to have defamed Craig and had instituted her own legal proceedings against him.
The decision says this:
"The disputes between Mr Craig and Ms MacGregor were actually resolved in a confidential settlement in May 2015, with the help of two senior lawyers. That settlement was undone in material part by the involvement of a Mr Williams and a Mr Slater, both of whom have also been engaged in defamation proceedings with Mr Craig.
The defamation case raised the harrasemnt all over again
However Craig offered to settle with McGregor
"During 2018 he did make a number of open offers that both parties withdraw their claims and his last offer included an offer to pay $30,000 on account of costs. Ms MacGregor declined those offers.
Dont see the any reality for a 'poor woman dragged through the Courts' at all.
Dont see the any reality for a 'poor woman dragged through the Courts' at all.
Oh she was. In the cases with Craig against Williams it was perfectly evident that she didn't want to be there and had been compelled to be there.
Go and dig out the reports and the transcripts from the time.
As the Mau article stated…
In 2015, MacGregor had good reason to think the pain might be over. She had settled her sexual harassment case against Craig at the Human Rights Commission. The settlement was confidential, and MacGregor expected to be able to put the whole sorry experience behind her. No chance.
Craig went on to hold two media conferences, publish a pamphlet that went to 1.6 million Kiwi homes, and be interviewed in a sauna on the subject. It's those actions, and MacGregor's response to Craig's original harassment, that formed the nub of the High Court trial last year.
Effectively this particular episode has been through at least 5 legal rounds so far (not counting this one reported), and effectively only the first was initiated by McGregor – the one to the human rights about employment.
The rest of it has been by three complete arseholes – Craig, Williams and Slater using her as a witness pawn in their political and legal games. The High court case just concluded (and maybe its inevitable appeal) was a direct result of Craig breaking his previous agreement after Williams used material held by him in trust for safe-keeping.
Do you think that Craig could be trusted not to drag her into court again? He would in a heart beat as far as I can see. I wouldn’t trust any assurance from him – he doesn’t appear to be particularly aware of the concepts of having personal ethics or morals.
Reading that article, I think that the real problem was that she hadn’t been paid for months during the election campaign and that the Craig had loaned her money rather than paying her. Do you think that was a reasonable behaviour for an employer…
Perhaps you should try reading the articles you link to.
What you have to remember is that the only reason that this came to light again was because that despicable arsehole Jordan Williams gave documents that he was holding in trust for her to Cameron Slater to attack Colin Craig.
This has been well -established across multiple court cases. Perhaps you should try reading rather than playing with yourself and writing your misogynist grunts here.
He's leaving the option open that he could be dictated to by someone else. A political consultant, for instance. A suitable female with political aspirations may see the opportunity to become the power behind JT's throne as mayor. Acquiring whip & fishnet stockings, she may offer her services – to issue instructions in bondage sessions. A traditional lifestyle even before Lou Reed sang about it in the Velvet Underground (firstly in mid 1965, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_in_Furs_(song)).
Yeah, I know, bit of a stretch. Only normal for upper-class Englishmen. But you never know – stranger things have happened.
Chris Trotter giving John Tamihere his day in the court of outraged opinion over his Seig Heil riposte. Foolish and makes him appear to be all mouth and no trousers!
"Godwin has stated that he introduced Godwin's law in 1990 as an experiment in memetics." It worked: "In 2012, "Godwin's law" became an entry in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary."
"Coined by Leo Strauss in 1953, reductio ad Hitlerum borrows its name from the term used in logic, reductio ad absurdum (reduction to the absurd). According to Strauss, reductio ad Hitlerum is a form of ad hominem, ad misericordiam, or a fallacy of irrelevance. The suggested rationale is one of guilt by association. It is a tactic often used to derail arguments, because such comparisons tend to distract and anger the opponent."
So when a bunch of commentators here were busy likening Trump to Hitler (as recently as the year before last), I bet they didn't know they were exhibiting a syndrome identified more than sixty years ago!
fuck godwins law – and the faux-prohibition it attempts..
(and i say 'faux' because ti my mind it is bullshit..)
a nazi is a nazi..end of story..
and if the direct comparisons cannot be made between germany under hitler – and what trump is doing to immigrant families/children – clearly not enough attention is being paid..
and if you don't compare the barbaric behavior of trump – to the works of hitler..?
Won't disagree – I had the same stance all thro the '70s, all thro the '80s, all thro the '90s. Problem with growing old (with an open mind) is you gradually acquire a tolerance of other views. If empathic, you even end up seeing things from other points of view too.
So my generation of rebels called govts fascist (regardless of whether they were Labour or National, Democrat or Republican) when they acted accordingly, which was most of the time. Police brutality was normal, for instance. Left & right both enjoyed eliminating the civil rights of cannabis smokers – target a minority group, the establishment gets off on that shit.
So demonising Trump, who comes across as a clown rather than a fascist, seems more like missing the point to me. I don't defend his immigration policy, just point it out when folks misrepresent it. He's just doing what he was elected to do. Democracy.
But is it the same today> Everything warps over time and I guess that a syndrome does too, after all it's "a characteristic combination of opinions, emotions, or behaviour."
Hitler seems much closer now than 60 years ago and we understand from the numerous studies of 1930 – 1940s how he found his wormhole to power. I don't think that Godwin's law can be thrown at every mention of that name; perhaps we should update it and replace it with 'Douglas', I have thought that the moustache had a certain familiarity.
"So when a bunch of commentators here were busy likening Trump to Hitler (as recently as the year before last), I bet they didn't know they were exhibiting a syndrome identified more than sixty years ago!"
Except that Trump is trying to create a fascist state. There's been a large amount of political analysis of this. That's not invoking Godwin's Law. A commenter calling another commenter a Nazi is.
You really believe that? Must be a generational thing. Those of us who have had to live much of our lives threatened by the spectre of fascism know it when we see it.
As I pointed out last time this topic was seriously raised, Roger Donaldson would not have made Sleeping Dogs if it hadn't been in our cultural ambience at the time. But Muldoon merely talked tough. He didn't actually do fascism via govt policy. Where is the Wanganui computer now? Trash heap? I recall when it was promising us Orwell's 1984 made real in Aotearoa.
I get that Trump's style is Muldoon a little (but with a dose of LSD & speed thrown in, not to mention Alice in Wonderland). People have a right to see others as a threat, that's human nature, but it's a big political mistake to assume others will see it similarly.
Bolton got fired the other day. Too hardline, apparently. If Trump really was fascist, he wouldn’t have felt that way. To him, his political allies are as disposable as his political enemies. My way or the highway. Makes him more like Stalin than Hitler. But don’t let that comparison tempt you. The Don hasn’t shot anyone. Nor even employed thugs to eliminate irritants. Media libs would have been doing outrage about it if it had happened…
Did. Agree the connection to Roger Stone is worth knowing. "At a televised Trump rally in Miami, Florida, on February 18, 2019, Tarrio was seated directly behind President Trump wearing a "Roger stone did nothing wrong" tee shirt." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Stone
Violent fellow-travellers only, so far. Potential threat, sure. Only 3 years into it, so yet to withstand the test of time. Anti-porn & masturbation is the key – mental/emotional self-discipline as part of group ethos does make guys tough. One to watch…
For me, the big thing was the separation of kids with no intention of ever returning them to their parents. And the deaths in custody. If the deaths were a bureaucratic error, there would be bureaucracy for eventually reuniting the kids and the parents. But the system doesn't even regard immigrants as highly as livestock these days.
Which means his dehumanisation of immigrants wasn't just rhetoric, it was policy he was happy to watch implemented.
As far as he thinks about policy (which isn't much) Dolt45 is an isolationist nazi-adjacant. Bolton is an imperialist. That's why they were at odds. Hard line in different directions.
That he's trying to create an authoritarian state? Yes. Whether that will look like historical fascism or not I don't know. But it's not about my beliefs, there are plenty of people with experience in either studying and writing about fascism and how it arises, or with direct experience of fascism who are making these critiques about Trump. Including Jewish people btw.
"Makes him more like Stalin than Hitler. But don’t let that comparison tempt you. The Don hasn’t shot anyone. Nor even employed thugs to eliminate irritants. Media libs would have been doing outrage about it if it had happened…"
There was a point at which Stalin hadn't shot people yet, so I don't know what you are trying to say there. That the US isn't a fascist state in 2019? Sure, I'd agree with that. Fascism doesn't just spring up one day, so I'm more interested in what the process is.
Having owned and read at least two biographies of Stalin, my guess is that the point he hadn't yet shot anyone was when he was in the seminary, studying to be a priest, prior to his career in the Tsar's secret police.
Fascism is an ideology, historically, more than a behaviour. Trump has no evident ideology (too mercenary). It requires an organisation to give it political form and impact. The USA lacks that. The authoritarian state in that federation has been under attack from the right for a long time – he uses it as an operational convenience to achieve a suitable historical legacy.
As such, I see no evidence that he's any more than a conservative narcissist playing the radical (to steer the establishment away from global elite control).
Definitely. He was quite popular with conservatives in western democracies right up until the invasion of Poland. Even that only thinned out the numbers – took another couple of years for him to get beyond the pale.
"left wingers" who would vote for a guy who hated immigrants. Yeah nah.
He won because he was the loudest fuckwit in an uninspiring pool of primary candidates, and people tried to fight (and report) him like he was a competent politician. All the lying the repugs have done since the 1990s – ken starr, WMD, tea party – bit them in the arse and their anointed blandity (Bush 3) still tried to keep one foot in reality.
People need to figure out how to fight a reality vacuum. Calling it out in contempt seems to do better against bojo than tryinhg to debate with him like he’s a normal huiman being.
No, he's still doing both. I agree re Hitler not taken seriously. Don't agree re your denial of global elites &/or Trump's leading the rightist charge to rout them. Try learning from Brexit.
Try making a damned point about them, rather than just using random incantations.
If drumpf was such an opponent of the "global elites" (depending on how you even define that term), why are the career repugs fucking their own grandmothers' corpses to keep him in power?
Why aren't US billionaires (real ones) pulling funding from the repugs?
If he really is just playing "a conservative narcissist playing the radical (to steer the establishment away from global elite control)", he's not having much success at steering the "establishment". They're not doing anything they don't want to do. He's shitting golden turds for them – neutering the EPA, boosting drilling, firing money into the prison-industrial complex, selling weapons, and making immigrants more scared, powerless, and exploitable. That's why they like him.
As such, I see no evidence that he’s any more than a conservative narcissist playing the radical (to steer the establishment away from global elite control).
You missed one crucial word – “incompetent” is also one of his outstanding qualities. There are several others to do with his inability to work with competent people and his attraction for syncopathic vermin.
the only thing stopping trump from going ballistic against his own are the checks and balances on u.s. system..
but i have said before that trump hasn't invaded anyone (yet)..unlike his nobel peace prize winning predecessor – who was wasting libya about now in his presidency..
(one for those saying trump is no different to those who came before him..
it comes from the same source as his addiction-info – from a writer on the apprentice and the celebrity apprentice..(who i follow on twitter..)
'Trump in reality is far worse than most imagine. He has done horrible things over many decades to many victims. What he is doing to the US will be no different. It’s like living next door to Dahmer and ignoring the smell.'
Ah, I see my reply went into moderation limbo, probably too much quoting from Wikipedia. This bit from Trotter is worth pointing out: "Tamihere, in blurting “Sieg Heil to that”, wasn’t signalling his membership of some perverse right-wing fraternity. All he was doing was signalling his membership of something much less acceptable – the Maori working-class of West Auckland."
I suspect JT is actually making a play for rightist voters – if only to demonstrate that their own side are failing to front impressive contenders – but he could easily pull in all those offended by pc-conformism as well. Speaking the lingo of the land does actually produce a resonance of authenticity in folks' minds (not just `the Maori working-class of West Auckland').
I don't go along with this light attitude to Trump you take DF. Whether he is going to exhibit the right spots to enable the disease to be firmly stated to be fascism or not, what he is doing is serious.
So not a subject for learned unpicking or idle conjecture.
Bush Jr seemed worse. Reagan much worse. Nixon, very much worse. What do you call serious? His attitude on climate change? True, that's a serious problem. Would the USA do any different under a Democrat? Doubt it. History says no.
And Obama has gone down in history as achieving the largest arms trade deal ever. Just google Obama largest arms trade deal in history, you get plenty of sites reporting his track record. Pretty cool for the dude that won the Nobel Peace Prize.
I wasn't running a book on Trump v anybody. He is part of a filmset that has strayed from its desert setting with wide open spaces to roam and gone to the more mannered cityscape, and the actor-in-chief hasn't been tamed yet. Quite unsuitable for his task. I wonder when the people will realise that they are losing stuff they never appreciated and pull back?
Would I be right to say that our Immigration Department is full of white ants that are eating out the heart of NZ enterprise? Its lack of acumen and sensible targetting and systems affecting our businesses – in this case the harvesting of food which must be dealt with in timely fashion which can't wait until some squirts in Immigration and their anally retentive managers and CEO get wise to what we need and the applicants for entry deserve, is affecting our earnings and our standing in the world.
Immigration and social welfare seem to have captured all that is negative and backward in this country, transmogrified it, and turned it into sausages that pass as 'civil servants' up with the ways of the modern world.
I see the white ants among growers, who for decades have been getting cheap imported labour, without ever once even being asked to come up with a plan for harvesting their crops without bending the law. Why is that not part of a resource consent?
If immigration was anything like social welfare, the growers would be asked to come up with an action plan to end their dependence on the state, even a medium term one would do. But,…, nothing,….ever.
Nothing is to be done until it is an emergency. That is how NZ acts and manages isn't it – all else is like communism trying to plan ahead and stifle imagination and opportunities. The freemarket must reign and be bailed out when all the little businessmen and women who imagine themselves gods of business, rather than just beyond being bourgeois, need to have the road swept for them where it has become stony.
So to protect them and their businesses, they can blackmail government because we already have a slowdown in the economy. We neeNothing is to be done until it is an emergency. That is how NZ acts and manages isn't it – all else is like communism trying to plan ahead and stifle imagination and opportunities. The freemarket must reign and be bailed out when all the little businessmen and women who imagine themselves gods of business, rather than just beyond being bourgeois, need to have the road swept for them where it has become stony.
So to protect them and their businesses, they can blackmail government because we already have a slowdown in the economy. We need to help them now and do that other thing you mentioned Augustus. What was it? Plan for future requirements, resource management inadequacy, action to improve situation here – train and transport NZs, set them firmly into a seasonal workforce that pays adequately, enables them to keep their earnings and go back on the dole if that is where they are at (they need to be match-fit to do the seasonal work though). And the NZ seasonal workforce would merge with a Pacific Island one with permanent quotas so they can earn money here to enable improvements back home.
A win-win situation that would be cheered as an adept move better than a sporting maneouvre. And perhaps there should be a sporting fixture, with the visitors, a real friendly with no concussions etc if that is possible, before they go home and they can take half of the proceeds back with them plus goodwill.
Ms Dyson said Ms Barry's behaviour was particularly stark compared to what was an otherwise improving culture in Parliament.
Ms Barry is looking stressed. She feels deeply about not getting her own way in the euthanasia debacle which is so important because she knows she is right, and is backed up by a large number of pigeons who can be relied on to keep pecking at the 'No' door. Spoiler – snide remark coming up – the old saying about watching out or the wind will change Ms Barry and your lines and bags will get locked in place, applies.
(someone pointed out/i agreed) – the problem with the pro-euthanasia is that if people want to end their own lives – there are many ways to do this – (and you can't be prosecuted for it..)
so why must the state be brought into it..?..
why must the insistance be that someone else do it..?
..and with all the inbuilt potential for abuse by greedy relatives/benificiaries of any estate..
I'm confused by the pro-euthanasia crowd – I mean if they want to kill themselves – why don't they. No one is stopping them – no one. But like Phillip ure you gotta wonder why they want to bring the state in, and create situations where avarice becomes the new normal.
You really have to question why the pro-euthanasia crowd think it's OK to undermine the trust in doctors, ignore and put down disabled people's concerns, and generally bash anyone who opposes them.
But hey, why deal with underlying economic problems in society – when the baby boomers are jumping up and down demanding somthing for themselves again.
Dude, I don't support euthanasia. But at least I can see why in some cases a patient might need someone else to end the patient's life because the patient is unable to do so, or provide expert assistance while the patient does so. I just think that bureaucratising the process will be worse than the current situation. Think about it. Coma, some sort of locked in situation, fearful and anxious dementia, or constant pain and immobility leading to a 99.9% chance of a long but painful death… these are valid scenarios in this days and age that can be planned for in advance with living wills.
Just saying they can kill themselves is a mischaracterisation of the problem so gross that, if intentional, I think the description "straw man" could well apply.
FFS stop being sanctimonious the pair of you – reread how I said what I said. Let me lay it out for you – I was having a go at pro-euthanasia people for being sanctimonious – too soon?
As for sickening, you went to a real sick place with the comment
" or constant pain and immobility leading to a 99.9% chance of a long but painful death"
Just more of the usual dismissing the concerns of disabled to prove your point. People can live with constant pain, I have for 35 years, and diminishing mobility, so I'm going to die slowly and painfully – news flash – life is hard and dying is awful.
Here the thing – bugger this euthanasia bill and all the muppets supporting it, when people are living in cars, kids are getting preventable diseases and the bottom 30% keep getting poorer.
They end up being a bunch of sanctimonious prats who have no moral compass.
I did read the comment and quoted the bit I was referring to, which was the same argument as Phillip Ure's: that people supporting voluntary euthanasia legislation are promoting a state-run murder service for people too scared or too lazy to commit suicide. That's a blatant straw man, for the fairly obvious reason that McFlock pointed out above: it's actually for people who are no longer capable of committing suicide.
I didn't address your other point, that it's wrong to consider private member's bills before the government's achieved the goals you're interested in, because it's a silly point.
Why should the 'greedy relatives etc' be brought into the consideration. It is another matter entirely. The law should be straightforward so that the person leaves clear information about their wishes re property etc. The relatives are always interested in dealing with the artifacts of the person's life and that will be covered under what has been already considered and drawn up and used by people who have gone ahead without waiting for the pathetic bunch of pollies who want to wield power, but make only decisions that give them and their mates a boost in the pocketbook.
Some of you people who write here are so distant from the reality of what is needed in a well-run polity that you might as well be on your own island or planet.
I think you shouldn't make ridiculous statements about something you clearly don't have the facts on, so I suggest you read the bill and educate yourself a little.
I don't care whether you respond, or not, it won't stop me posting. If you want to admit defeat in advance, so be it.
The bit about ad homs is amusing considering your reply to PM above. Innocent victim you aint. lol
Its great to see The Rugby World Cup in Asia Japan.
Eco Maori lives with discrimination every day.
That's awesome to see hundreds of thousands of tangata in Australia joining The Climate Change strike today Kia Kaha to everyone around the Papatuanuku who joined in the strike.
That’s the way Andrew thanks for backing our youth to get to vote Ka pai.
Mullens tangi was today it looks like its a hakare for someone of his great Mana. It takes a great man to rise a good whanau in Te Maori Papatuanuku. He gave me a sore face quite a few times he will be missed in Aotearoa.
The more PEE getting taken off our streets is great the shit is poisoning Te tangata whenua.
Smart Environment solutions to monitoring our Wai show great innovation its great to see tangata caring for our Taonga Wai.
Its excellent to see the Wellington tangata supporting Te Reo Maori place names in Wellington.
The Rugby World Cup in Asia Japan is starting in a hour Ka pai. I tryed to sort my free subscription for the Rugby World Cup I could not get it sorted I think someone is stuffing with my subscription as my email address would not load up WTF.
Kia Kaha to all the Tangata Protesting to protect OUR FUTURE'S climate. THE NEANDERTHAL WILL learn to listen to our Rangatahi
Across the globe, millions join biggest climate protest ever
Young and old alike took to the streets in an estimated 185 countries to demand action
Millions of people demonstrated across the world yesterday demanding urgent action to tackle global heating, as they united across timezones and cultures to take part in the biggest climate protest in history.
In an explosion of the youth movement started by the Swedish school striker Greta Thunberg just over 12 months ago, people protested from the Pacific islands, through Australia, across-south east Asia and Africa into Europe and onwards to the Americas.
For the first time since the school strikes for climate began last year, young people called on adults to join them – and they were heard. Trade unions representing hundreds of millions of people around the world mobilised in support, employees left their workplaces, doctors and nurses marched and workers at firms like Amazon, Google and Facebook walked out to join the climate strikes.
Global climate strike: Greta Thunberg and school students lead climate crisis protest – as it happened
In the estimated 185 countries where demonstrations took place, the protests often had their individual targets; from rising sea levels in the Solomon Islands, toxic waste in South Africa, to air pollution and plastic waste in India and coal expansion in Australia.
But the overall message was unified – a powerful demand for an urgent step-change in action to cut emissions and stabilise the climate.
The demonstrations took place on the eve of a UN climate summit, called by the secretary general, António Guterres, to inject urgency into government action to restrict the rise in global temperatures to 1.5C, as agreed under the 2015 Paris agreement.
That's is. Cool the carved waharoa gifted to Japan for the Rugby World Cup.
The International Monetary Fund is correct Aotearoa is doing great. Our governments management of our economy is fine.
Some farmers are going to kick up a stink no matter what Our Coalition government does WHY because they are South Island national supporters.
Ka pai Te Papatuanuku biggest strike for OUR futures Climate Ka pai yes the pollies will have to bend the knee to the intelligent tangata striking for our future.
Hue great mahi helping native trees grow in Hinewai. I research that planting native trees they need to planted in a canopy to protect them from frost when they are young. We are going to plant Te Totara trees they grow fast no need to be treated easy to carve. Ka kite Ano
Cool that the Fisheries Minister has promised to look after the far north 90 mile Tangaroa shores environment to Te tangata whenua. I think tangata whenua need to be included in the mahi and wealth of the industry shear the lollies.
That's is not on its a breach of human rights locking 1200 people who have not been charged with a crime.
Using tangata whenua art to help heal tangata with mental health issues is a good idea Ka pai.
I… Henry we only get one body so it's correct that you took time off to let your injuries heal Kia Kaha.
I think it's great that Soap for Society Organisations are asking for sanitary products donations so they can give them to people who can not afford them
My alarm didn't go for the Allblack delayed game and I miss the 3 pm replay We were moderafiying our Wind Turbine.
That's is a good way to show how much Papatuanuku Warming is a Reality. The Swiss having A Tangi for their taonga Glacier Poziol it has lost 80 % of its mass
.Spark did its best to prove A good service. Its not there Fault that companies in other Countries dropped the BALL. Some people will use anything for leverage. This is all the more reasons to roll out 5 G Services.
Tangata Mental health wellbeing is a big thing as not everyone can figure out weather they have a problem or not. I think some educational program should be interduced to our tamariki about how their thought process actually works. I say the SURGE in Aotearoa mental health problems and rising suercide rates can be directly linked to A surge in PEE use over the last 20 years
Kume Amnesty International is a great organisation highlighting the problems around Papatuanuku the biggest problem we are going to face Human Caused Climate change.
The difference between Aotearoa is we have A Coalition Government that knows Climate change is Reality not like some pollies denies Global warming trying to gain putea. Kia Kaha to all the Tangata strikeing for Our future climate.
Aotearoa is a great position to mitergate climate change. We have a climate that has the fastest tree growth in the world. We have 80 % renewable energy already we have the best clean Sky for Solar power we actually get 20 % more power out of Solar than the manufacturer Stats. We have one of the Tawhirimate places on Papatuanuku great for Wind Turbine.We have great Geothermal resources that can provide back up power for Green Energy as well A Hydro power that can be used as back up power for Green Energy. The only reason why our Emissions have climb is because we have just kicked out a carbon pro Government that did everything to boost our carbon use. Big moterways canning Rail canning planned Wind turbine construction . Changing laws to alow the Cutting down of heaps of trees. ECT.
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
Great to amazon making it's shit TV in good old New Zealand, here is a clip from one of their upcoming delights… prefaced by quite a good comment about the clip, just so you have an idea of what you are letting yourself in for…
"No matter how cynical you might be about propagandistic American media, you are not prepared for how much watching this trailer is like snorting 100% pure John Bolton"
hilarious
Certainly illustrates the swinging door between the Pentagon, the CIA and Hollywood
Kid has more nous in her little finger than an entire legislature put together has.
https://twitter.com/Independent/status/1174367982107189248
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish activist who has galvanized young people across the world to strike for more action to combat the impact of global warming, politely reminded them that she was a student, not a scientist – or a senator.
“Please save your praise. We don’t want it,” she said. “Don’t invite us here to just tell us how inspiring we are without actually doing anything about it because it doesn’t lead to anything.
“If you want advice for what you should do, invite scientists, ask scientists for their expertise. We don’t want to be heard. We want the science to be heard.”
In remarks meant for Congress as a whole, she said: “I know you are trying but just not hard enough. Sorry.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/17/greta-thunberg-to-congress-youre-not-trying-hard-enough-sorry
On the topic of climate change, there is a good interview with Naomi Klein on Truthdig.
Naomi Klein also in a video on The Intercept:
"What's in a Trump Straw?"
Similar attempts at incrementalism is what makes submitting on consultation processes like Auckland Council's Climate Change framework so dispiriting. The framework itself is self-limiting in what it is looking at, and so, is limited in effective change. Anyone can provide feedback – even non-Aucklanders IIRC.
NK is very clear and clued up sounding.
Alison Mau is one of a group of women who formed a Trust in 2017, to help Rachel MacGregor meet the legal fees needed for a High Court trial.
Here's her report of the outcome just now published: Rachel MacGregor 1, Colin Craig 0.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/115912281/alison-mau-rachel-macgregors-win-is-one-for-all-workers
Is that what Ms Mau has been up to?
It's a pity she hasn't been heard from about the disgraceful cover-up that the Government has been running on the activities of their employee in Parliament isn't it?
So Alwyn, what is this, then? What cave you've been dwelling in? https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/115751933/labour-was-warned-it-had-a-major-problem-before-summer-camp-scandal?rm=a
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/115801937/when-people-speak-out-why-do-we-find-it-so-hard-to-believe
Alwrong is what hes known for.
The first article is basically a rehash of the party line. eg. She never claimed there was any sexual assault and so on.
The latter on, a couple of days ago, was one I hadn't seen. Mau has finally come out on the side of the victims. I hadn't seen this as I don't buy the printed Dom/Post any longer and I don't see everything they print.. It is really the first time though that she has broken her silence though isn't it? However yes I was wrong. She has finally come out of her shell. And about time.
Did you ever consider that the Labour panel might have simply described the truth. So far I haven't seen any evidence that indicates otherwise. For that matter when you read Alison Mau's articles closely, she is very cautious about saying talking about generalities rather than specifics.
Or is it just that you just have a pathological need to think that everyone involved in Labour will always just lie for the hell of it?
I think that your attitude says way way more about you than anyone else. Partisan and quite stupid.
Good call Iprent
"I think that your attitude says way way more about you than anyone else. Partisan and quite stupid."
Nice one
"Did I ever consider .."
Of course I did. After all I don't know they were told the things the victim says she told them. But if I believed the Party line I would have to believe that Ms Ardern didn't know anything about the claims of assault until a few days ago. No-one told her she says. Hmm.
I would have to believe she didn't even suspect anything might have gone on, despite the blogs have been full of the topic for a month and a half. Hmm.
However, what do I think is the likely situation? I really find it very difficult to accept that the victim was lying, and the Party representatives are telling the truth. Very, very difficult to see that as more than a very high odds. Perhaps more likely that winning Powerball but about on a par with winning Lotto.
Another question you ask is whether I think "Labour will always just lie for the hell of it". Of course I don't think that. They will lie if they think it is their interest to lie. That isn't the same thing. It is merely par for the course with politicians who have screwed things up. Good politicians don't actually lie of course. They just fool you into thinking they said something other than what they really did.
As far as your opinion of my attitude goes. I find your opinion quite silly. But everyone is entitled to some silly moments.
You must have observed politics for some time, right? What is the approved way to lie? After all you only have to look at the experts like Bennett, Farrar, or Collins (and some on the left as well). They prevaricate, obstrufacate, and divert.
What Simon Mitchell and co have done is to not do any of those things. What he said was that he never saw or heard anything to do with sexual assault allegations presented to him from the person who said that they had. He also pointed directly to the documents that he received and saw, apparently the same ones that a complainant referred to.
Good politicians don't actually lie of course. They just fool you into thinking they said something other than what they really did.
So point to something in the simple statement that Simon Mitchell put out as an example – show me the where he has said something that can’t be checked in the forensic record or from the other witnesses present.
Try to see any of the traditional political techniques in there for lying without getting caught. Basically I bet that
1. you haven’t tried.
2. you are probably too timid to do so because it would upset your personal bigotry.
So where exactly is Simon Mitchell's interest in lying? A volunteer who has no real economic stake in the Labour party and who lends himself to the thankless task of a volunteer on the NZ Council (and it is a thankless task).
This isn't a politician. Most of the time he runs essentially unopposed and probably secretly wishes some would oppose him.
Nigel Howarth is the same. I've run across him a few times. Mu guess is that he will be happy to get back to academia.
Which is EXACTLY why I think that you are an extremely stupid partisan dimwit who is too stupid to use your brains.
Yes – but you seem to have them all of the time when it comes to anything left-wing. You ever ask yourself why you believe such stupid ideas – because you are a simpleton bigot, Or are you just too lazy to think. Or just too stupid…
Or all three?
The only person I see lying around here is you – and I suspect that you’re mostly lying to yourself. It is cowardly and quite pathetic.
I echo Ianmac – another good call.
I do too, in life you come to realise that many things are often very simple but some can be elevated, or develop, into something more than they were. In work, business or family slight mismanagements, actions or misunderstandings can either reach good outcomes or outcomes, estrangements and divisions that can never, or often rarely, can be undone. Some media play that up for their own reasons and the National Party are relying on it as almost their only path back to government at this time.
"observed politics for some time, right".
Oh yes. I imagine the first time I met a Prime Minister was before you were born.
"Simon Mitchell". I believe he, and the other people on his panel did, to the best of their ability, do what they were supposed to. Find that nothing happened in other words. If he didn't happen to see something I don't believe that he would have hunted for it. That might have meant being forced to see something he didn't want to.
"(and it is a thankless task)".
Of course it is. However he will now find out the worst. The only thing that matters is to keep attention of the Leader. If you fail at that you will discover that you are expendable. I imagine that is what he is discovering now.
He doesn't really matter of course. The politicians thast have power matter and they are finding it very hard to escape scrutiny.
"The only person I see lying around here is you – and I suspect that you’re mostly lying to yourself. It is cowardly and quite pathetic."
Frankly I give a damn what you think. I don't see the world the way you do and therefore you are striking out with all your impotent rage.
While Craig has been highly unsavoury person.
McGregor too was found to have defamed Craig and had instituted her own legal proceedings against him.
The decision says this:
"The disputes between Mr Craig and Ms MacGregor were actually resolved in a confidential settlement in May 2015, with the help of two senior lawyers. That settlement was undone in material part by the involvement of a Mr Williams and a Mr Slater, both of whom have also been engaged in defamation proceedings with Mr Craig.
The defamation case raised the harrasemnt all over again
However Craig offered to settle with McGregor
"During 2018 he did make a number of open offers that both parties withdraw their claims and his last offer included an offer to pay $30,000 on account of costs. Ms MacGregor declined those offers.
Dont see the any reality for a 'poor woman dragged through the Courts' at all.
https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/cases/craig-v-mcgregor/@@images/fileDecision?r=923.114967511
Oh she was. In the cases with Craig against Williams it was perfectly evident that she didn't want to be there and had been compelled to be there.
Go and dig out the reports and the transcripts from the time.
Effectively this particular episode has been through at least 5 legal rounds so far (not counting this one reported), and effectively only the first was initiated by McGregor – the one to the human rights about employment.
The rest of it has been by three complete arseholes – Craig, Williams and Slater using her as a witness pawn in their political and legal games. The High court case just concluded (and maybe its inevitable appeal) was a direct result of Craig breaking his previous agreement after Williams used material held by him in trust for safe-keeping.
Do you think that Craig could be trusted not to drag her into court again? He would in a heart beat as far as I can see. I wouldn’t trust any assurance from him – he doesn’t appear to be particularly aware of the concepts of having personal ethics or morals.
That poor woman. She has had years of hell due to that vindictive man.
If Colin Craig had paid Ms McGregor more when she wanted it would the situation have run as it has and over so many years?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11708735
Reading that article, I think that the real problem was that she hadn’t been paid for months during the election campaign and that the Craig had loaned her money rather than paying her. Do you think that was a reasonable behaviour for an employer…
Perhaps you should try reading the articles you link to.
What you have to remember is that the only reason that this came to light again was because that despicable arsehole Jordan Williams gave documents that he was holding in trust for her to Cameron Slater to attack Colin Craig.
This has been well -established across multiple court cases. Perhaps you should try reading rather than playing with yourself and writing your misogynist grunts here.
Gee Jimmy you put that so well, you big soft-hearted thing.
"Tamihere says he won't be dictated to by the thought police." Often what politicians don't say is more significant that what they do say, and that could be the case here. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/middayreport/audio/2018713976/midday-news-for-19-september-2019
He's leaving the option open that he could be dictated to by someone else. A political consultant, for instance. A suitable female with political aspirations may see the opportunity to become the power behind JT's throne as mayor. Acquiring whip & fishnet stockings, she may offer her services – to issue instructions in bondage sessions. A traditional lifestyle even before Lou Reed sang about it in the Velvet Underground (firstly in mid 1965, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_in_Furs_(song)).
Yeah, I know, bit of a stretch. Only normal for upper-class Englishmen. But you never know – stranger things have happened.
Chris Trotter giving John Tamihere his day in the court of outraged opinion over his Seig Heil riposte. Foolish and makes him appear to be all mouth and no trousers!
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2019/09/jojo-tamihere-salutes-herr-goff.html
Godwin's law is almost thirty years old: "Promulgated by the American attorney and author Mike Godwin in 1990, Godwin's law originally referred specifically to Usenet newsgroup discussions. It is now applied to any threaded online discussion, such as Internet forums, chat rooms, and comment threads, as well as to speeches, articles, and other rhetoric where reductio ad Hitlerum occurs."
"Godwin has stated that he introduced Godwin's law in 1990 as an experiment in memetics." It worked: "In 2012, "Godwin's law" became an entry in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary."
"Coined by Leo Strauss in 1953, reductio ad Hitlerum borrows its name from the term used in logic, reductio ad absurdum (reduction to the absurd). According to Strauss, reductio ad Hitlerum is a form of ad hominem, ad misericordiam, or a fallacy of irrelevance. The suggested rationale is one of guilt by association. It is a tactic often used to derail arguments, because such comparisons tend to distract and anger the opponent."
So when a bunch of commentators here were busy likening Trump to Hitler (as recently as the year before last), I bet they didn't know they were exhibiting a syndrome identified more than sixty years ago!
fuck godwins law – and the faux-prohibition it attempts..
(and i say 'faux' because ti my mind it is bullshit..)
a nazi is a nazi..end of story..
and if the direct comparisons cannot be made between germany under hitler – and what trump is doing to immigrant families/children – clearly not enough attention is being paid..
and if you don't compare the barbaric behavior of trump – to the works of hitler..?
just who do you compare it to..?
(as i said – fuck godwins' law..)
Won't disagree – I had the same stance all thro the '70s, all thro the '80s, all thro the '90s. Problem with growing old (with an open mind) is you gradually acquire a tolerance of other views. If empathic, you even end up seeing things from other points of view too.
So my generation of rebels called govts fascist (regardless of whether they were Labour or National, Democrat or Republican) when they acted accordingly, which was most of the time. Police brutality was normal, for instance. Left & right both enjoyed eliminating the civil rights of cannabis smokers – target a minority group, the establishment gets off on that shit.
So demonising Trump, who comes across as a clown rather than a fascist, seems more like missing the point to me. I don't defend his immigration policy, just point it out when folks misrepresent it. He's just doing what he was elected to do. Democracy.
But is it the same today> Everything warps over time and I guess that a syndrome does too, after all it's "a characteristic combination of opinions, emotions, or behaviour."
Hitler seems much closer now than 60 years ago and we understand from the numerous studies of 1930 – 1940s how he found his wormhole to power. I don't think that Godwin's law can be thrown at every mention of that name; perhaps we should update it and replace it with 'Douglas', I have thought that the moustache had a certain familiarity.
It's not a syndrome if it's a thoughtful, reasoned comparison.
"So when a bunch of commentators here were busy likening Trump to Hitler (as recently as the year before last), I bet they didn't know they were exhibiting a syndrome identified more than sixty years ago!"
Except that Trump is trying to create a fascist state. There's been a large amount of political analysis of this. That's not invoking Godwin's Law. A commenter calling another commenter a Nazi is.
Trump is trying to create a fascist state
You really believe that? Must be a generational thing. Those of us who have had to live much of our lives threatened by the spectre of fascism know it when we see it.
As I pointed out last time this topic was seriously raised, Roger Donaldson would not have made Sleeping Dogs if it hadn't been in our cultural ambience at the time. But Muldoon merely talked tough. He didn't actually do fascism via govt policy. Where is the Wanganui computer now? Trash heap? I recall when it was promising us Orwell's 1984 made real in Aotearoa.
I get that Trump's style is Muldoon a little (but with a dose of LSD & speed thrown in, not to mention Alice in Wonderland). People have a right to see others as a threat, that's human nature, but it's a big political mistake to assume others will see it similarly.
Bolton got fired the other day. Too hardline, apparently. If Trump really was fascist, he wouldn’t have felt that way. To him, his political allies are as disposable as his political enemies. My way or the highway. Makes him more like Stalin than Hitler. But don’t let that comparison tempt you. The Don hasn’t shot anyone. Nor even employed thugs to eliminate irritants. Media libs would have been doing outrage about it if it had happened…
Yeah, look up the "proud boys" and their connections to the repugs some time.
Did. Agree the connection to Roger Stone is worth knowing. "At a televised Trump rally in Miami, Florida, on February 18, 2019, Tarrio was seated directly behind President Trump wearing a "Roger stone did nothing wrong" tee shirt." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Stone
Violent fellow-travellers only, so far. Potential threat, sure. Only 3 years into it, so yet to withstand the test of time. Anti-porn & masturbation is the key – mental/emotional self-discipline as part of group ethos does make guys tough. One to watch…
They're not the only ones.
For me, the big thing was the separation of kids with no intention of ever returning them to their parents. And the deaths in custody. If the deaths were a bureaucratic error, there would be bureaucracy for eventually reuniting the kids and the parents. But the system doesn't even regard immigrants as highly as livestock these days.
Which means his dehumanisation of immigrants wasn't just rhetoric, it was policy he was happy to watch implemented.
As far as he thinks about policy (which isn't much) Dolt45 is an isolationist nazi-adjacant. Bolton is an imperialist. That's why they were at odds. Hard line in different directions.
"You really believe that?"
That he's trying to create an authoritarian state? Yes. Whether that will look like historical fascism or not I don't know. But it's not about my beliefs, there are plenty of people with experience in either studying and writing about fascism and how it arises, or with direct experience of fascism who are making these critiques about Trump. Including Jewish people btw.
"Makes him more like Stalin than Hitler. But don’t let that comparison tempt you. The Don hasn’t shot anyone. Nor even employed thugs to eliminate irritants. Media libs would have been doing outrage about it if it had happened…"
There was a point at which Stalin hadn't shot people yet, so I don't know what you are trying to say there. That the US isn't a fascist state in 2019? Sure, I'd agree with that. Fascism doesn't just spring up one day, so I'm more interested in what the process is.
Having owned and read at least two biographies of Stalin, my guess is that the point he hadn't yet shot anyone was when he was in the seminary, studying to be a priest, prior to his career in the Tsar's secret police.
Fascism is an ideology, historically, more than a behaviour. Trump has no evident ideology (too mercenary). It requires an organisation to give it political form and impact. The USA lacks that. The authoritarian state in that federation has been under attack from the right for a long time – he uses it as an operational convenience to achieve a suitable historical legacy.
As such, I see no evidence that he's any more than a conservative narcissist playing the radical (to steer the establishment away from global elite control).
Forget the "global elite control" bs.
Is there any difference between a "conservative narcissist" and the radical you think he plays, once he's in office?
They're still doing the raids.
He still banned immigrants based on religion.
Right wing thugs are still marching with greater vigour.
And anyway did anyone say the same thing about hitler: that he's not really serious about it all? Probably.
Definitely. He was quite popular with conservatives in western democracies right up until the invasion of Poland. Even that only thinned out the numbers – took another couple of years for him to get beyond the pale.
he was also popular with left-wingers – 'cos of the strong domestic (socialist for want of a better word..) polices he instigated..
those 'family-support' domestic polices were what gained him the strong domestic support he had..
and if read without knowing the origin – many if those policies wd be applauded by current leftwingers..
(he didn't just come to power in a vacuum – there are reasons/explanations for the support he had..)
so contrary to what p.m said – many leftists/intellectuals in the west supported hitler – at first..
"left wingers" who would vote for a guy who hated immigrants. Yeah nah.
He won because he was the loudest fuckwit in an uninspiring pool of primary candidates, and people tried to fight (and report) him like he was a competent politician. All the lying the repugs have done since the 1990s – ken starr, WMD, tea party – bit them in the arse and their anointed blandity (Bush 3) still tried to keep one foot in reality.
People need to figure out how to fight a reality vacuum. Calling it out in contempt seems to do better against bojo than tryinhg to debate with him like he’s a normal huiman being.
No, he's still doing both. I agree re Hitler not taken seriously. Don't agree re your denial of global elites &/or Trump's leading the rightist charge to rout them. Try learning from Brexit.
Try making a damned point about them, rather than just using random incantations.
If drumpf was such an opponent of the "global elites" (depending on how you even define that term), why are the career repugs fucking their own grandmothers' corpses to keep him in power?
Why aren't US billionaires (real ones) pulling funding from the repugs?
If he really is just playing "a conservative narcissist playing the radical (to steer the establishment away from global elite control)", he's not having much success at steering the "establishment". They're not doing anything they don't want to do. He's shitting golden turds for them – neutering the EPA, boosting drilling, firing money into the prison-industrial complex, selling weapons, and making immigrants more scared, powerless, and exploitable. That's why they like him.
wot mcflock said..
(‘gplden turds’ comment..)
You missed one crucial word – “incompetent” is also one of his outstanding qualities. There are several others to do with his inability to work with competent people and his attraction for syncopathic vermin.
an adderal/cocaine addiction is also quite distracting..
the only thing stopping trump from going ballistic against his own are the checks and balances on u.s. system..
but i have said before that trump hasn't invaded anyone (yet)..unlike his nobel peace prize winning predecessor – who was wasting libya about now in his presidency..
(one for those saying trump is no different to those who came before him..
it comes from the same source as his addiction-info – from a writer on the apprentice and the celebrity apprentice..(who i follow on twitter..)
'Trump in reality is far worse than most imagine. He has done horrible things over many decades to many victims. What he is doing to the US will be no different. It’s like living next door to Dahmer and ignoring the smell.'
Ah, I see my reply went into moderation limbo, probably too much quoting from Wikipedia. This bit from Trotter is worth pointing out: "Tamihere, in blurting “Sieg Heil to that”, wasn’t signalling his membership of some perverse right-wing fraternity. All he was doing was signalling his membership of something much less acceptable – the Maori working-class of West Auckland."
I suspect JT is actually making a play for rightist voters – if only to demonstrate that their own side are failing to front impressive contenders – but he could easily pull in all those offended by pc-conformism as well. Speaking the lingo of the land does actually produce a resonance of authenticity in folks' minds (not just `the Maori working-class of West Auckland').
You *have to link if you are cutting and pasting from elsewhere. This has been a long standing policy, and I'm getting sick of reminding people.
I was commenting in response to 5.1, where the link was posted…
I don't go along with this light attitude to Trump you take DF. Whether he is going to exhibit the right spots to enable the disease to be firmly stated to be fascism or not, what he is doing is serious.
So not a subject for learned unpicking or idle conjecture.
Bush Jr seemed worse. Reagan much worse. Nixon, very much worse. What do you call serious? His attitude on climate change? True, that's a serious problem. Would the USA do any different under a Democrat? Doubt it. History says no.
History says Obama vetoed the Keystone pipeline, and the orange fuckwit resurrected it.
History says Obama entered into the Paris Accord, while fucko mcliesalot is getting out of it.
And Obama has gone down in history as achieving the largest arms trade deal ever. Just google Obama largest arms trade deal in history, you get plenty of sites reporting his track record. Pretty cool for the dude that won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Nice slide from climate change.
I googled "largest arms trade deal" and got one signed and largely negotiated by the current regime, much larger than the one proposed by Obama.
Play equivalence all you want, in most national interest objectives the current incumbent is one of the worst ever, light years below Obama.
I wasn't running a book on Trump v anybody. He is part of a filmset that has strayed from its desert setting with wide open spaces to roam and gone to the more mannered cityscape, and the actor-in-chief hasn't been tamed yet. Quite unsuitable for his task. I wonder when the people will realise that they are losing stuff they never appreciated and pull back?
Back to real considerations for a balanced left-wing blog!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/399107/growers-say-fruit-will-rot-unless-govt-speeds-up-migrant-worker-decision
Would I be right to say that our Immigration Department is full of white ants that are eating out the heart of NZ enterprise? Its lack of acumen and sensible targetting and systems affecting our businesses – in this case the harvesting of food which must be dealt with in timely fashion which can't wait until some squirts in Immigration and their anally retentive managers and CEO get wise to what we need and the applicants for entry deserve, is affecting our earnings and our standing in the world.
Immigration and social welfare seem to have captured all that is negative and backward in this country, transmogrified it, and turned it into sausages that pass as 'civil servants' up with the ways of the modern world.
I see the white ants among growers, who for decades have been getting cheap imported labour, without ever once even being asked to come up with a plan for harvesting their crops without bending the law. Why is that not part of a resource consent?
If immigration was anything like social welfare, the growers would be asked to come up with an action plan to end their dependence on the state, even a medium term one would do. But,…, nothing,….ever.
Nothing is to be done until it is an emergency. That is how NZ acts and manages isn't it – all else is like communism trying to plan ahead and stifle imagination and opportunities. The freemarket must reign and be bailed out when all the little businessmen and women who imagine themselves gods of business, rather than just beyond being bourgeois, need to have the road swept for them where it has become stony.
So to protect them and their businesses, they can blackmail government because we already have a slowdown in the economy. We neeNothing is to be done until it is an emergency. That is how NZ acts and manages isn't it – all else is like communism trying to plan ahead and stifle imagination and opportunities. The freemarket must reign and be bailed out when all the little businessmen and women who imagine themselves gods of business, rather than just beyond being bourgeois, need to have the road swept for them where it has become stony.
So to protect them and their businesses, they can blackmail government because we already have a slowdown in the economy. We need to help them now and do that other thing you mentioned Augustus. What was it? Plan for future requirements, resource management inadequacy, action to improve situation here – train and transport NZs, set them firmly into a seasonal workforce that pays adequately, enables them to keep their earnings and go back on the dole if that is where they are at (they need to be match-fit to do the seasonal work though). And the NZ seasonal workforce would merge with a Pacific Island one with permanent quotas so they can earn money here to enable improvements back home.
A win-win situation that would be cheered as an adept move better than a sporting maneouvre. And perhaps there should be a sporting fixture, with the visitors, a real friendly with no concussions etc if that is possible, before they go home and they can take half of the proceeds back with them plus goodwill.
Sorry don't know what I did to muck the above up so much. I hope some point shows up as useful.
wot augustus said..
"When has that ever happened though? When has there been a sensible, non-emotional discussion about the right numbers of people in this country?"
https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/101732/david-hargreaves-looks-new-temporary-work-visa-proposals-latest-broken-election
Politicians will continue to avoid this conversation like the plague
Naggie Barry [sick].
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/399108/labour-mp-ruth-dyson-accepts-apology-from-maggie-barry
Ms Dyson said Ms Barry's behaviour was particularly stark compared to what was an otherwise improving culture in Parliament.
Ms Barry is looking stressed. She feels deeply about not getting her own way in the euthanasia debacle which is so important because she knows she is right, and is backed up by a large number of pigeons who can be relied on to keep pecking at the 'No' door. Spoiler – snide remark coming up – the old saying about watching out or the wind will change Ms Barry and your lines and bags will get locked in place, applies.
(someone pointed out/i agreed) – the problem with the pro-euthanasia is that if people want to end their own lives – there are many ways to do this – (and you can't be prosecuted for it..)
so why must the state be brought into it..?..
why must the insistance be that someone else do it..?
..and with all the inbuilt potential for abuse by greedy relatives/benificiaries of any estate..
I'm confused by the pro-euthanasia crowd – I mean if they want to kill themselves – why don't they. No one is stopping them – no one. But like Phillip ure you gotta wonder why they want to bring the state in, and create situations where avarice becomes the new normal.
You really have to question why the pro-euthanasia crowd think it's OK to undermine the trust in doctors, ignore and put down disabled people's concerns, and generally bash anyone who opposes them.
But hey, why deal with underlying economic problems in society – when the baby boomers are jumping up and down demanding somthing for themselves again.
I'm confused by the pro-euthanasia crowd – I mean if they want to kill themselves – why don't they. No one is stopping them – no one.
Say, that's a mighty impressive straw man you have there – did you make it yourself?
have another try..eh..?
You'd like me to fight your straw man? That would be silly – it's made of straw.
Ahh the great bullshiter rises his head again, the year ban taught you nothing.
Dude, I don't support euthanasia. But at least I can see why in some cases a patient might need someone else to end the patient's life because the patient is unable to do so, or provide expert assistance while the patient does so. I just think that bureaucratising the process will be worse than the current situation. Think about it. Coma, some sort of locked in situation, fearful and anxious dementia, or constant pain and immobility leading to a 99.9% chance of a long but painful death… these are valid scenarios in this days and age that can be planned for in advance with living wills.
Just saying they can kill themselves is a mischaracterisation of the problem so gross that, if intentional, I think the description "straw man" could well apply.
FFS stop being sanctimonious the pair of you – reread how I said what I said. Let me lay it out for you – I was having a go at pro-euthanasia people for being sanctimonious – too soon?
As for sickening, you went to a real sick place with the comment
" or constant pain and immobility leading to a 99.9% chance of a long but painful death"
Just more of the usual dismissing the concerns of disabled to prove your point. People can live with constant pain, I have for 35 years, and diminishing mobility, so I'm going to die slowly and painfully – news flash – life is hard and dying is awful.
Here the thing – bugger this euthanasia bill and all the muppets supporting it, when people are living in cars, kids are getting preventable diseases and the bottom 30% keep getting poorer.
They end up being a bunch of sanctimonious prats who have no moral compass.
I did read the comment and quoted the bit I was referring to, which was the same argument as Phillip Ure's: that people supporting voluntary euthanasia legislation are promoting a state-run murder service for people too scared or too lazy to commit suicide. That's a blatant straw man, for the fairly obvious reason that McFlock pointed out above: it's actually for people who are no longer capable of committing suicide.
I didn't address your other point, that it's wrong to consider private member's bills before the government's achieved the goals you're interested in, because it's a silly point.
Why should the 'greedy relatives etc' be brought into the consideration. It is another matter entirely. The law should be straightforward so that the person leaves clear information about their wishes re property etc. The relatives are always interested in dealing with the artifacts of the person's life and that will be covered under what has been already considered and drawn up and used by people who have gone ahead without waiting for the pathetic bunch of pollies who want to wield power, but make only decisions that give them and their mates a boost in the pocketbook.
Some of you people who write here are so distant from the reality of what is needed in a well-run polity that you might as well be on your own island or planet.
'greedy'/impatient relatives is not a bloody minor problem..
it is the major problem as i see it..
and you really can't see the potential for wholesale abuse..?
as killing old people becomes normalised..?
Such ignorance on display 🙄 Have another try
Eligibility criteria in the bill
A person would be eligible for assisted dying if they:
i think there should be the option give them heroin…or heroin and cocaine..
let them enjoy that..
that will postpone thoughts of ending it all..for most..
(b.t.w. allen – this is the last time i respond to you if you include yr usual ad hom..mm-kay..?,,try and lift yr game..
your call…)
I think you shouldn't make ridiculous statements about something you clearly don't have the facts on, so I suggest you read the bill and educate yourself a little.
I don't care whether you respond, or not, it won't stop me posting. If you want to admit defeat in advance, so be it.
The bit about ad homs is amusing considering your reply to PM above. Innocent victim you aint. lol
A Labour MP says the way National's Maggie Barry shouted at her in Parliament was "totally inappropriate"
I guess Maggie mistook Ruth Dyson for one of her staff there for a moment…
Mindsets – mental health; addictions and triggers for prejudice and negative/positive leitmotifs (clowns and their faces bring strong reactions).
Alcohol addiction and its insidious deterioration of society from over-use.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018713955/elizabeth-elliott-fetal-alcohol-spectrum-disorders
and
Phobias about things such as seeing clowns/clown faces.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018713961/not-funny-will-it-spawn-more-clown-phobias
it is a proven formula..
if you want to stimulate/'save' an economy – you increase the incomes of the poorest..
'cos they spend it – it feeds straight back into the economy..
cd labour go against their neoliberal-incrementalist ethos..?
(and end/give a serious nudge to poverty at the same time..)
what is not to love about all that..?
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/09/economist-suggests-literally-giving-money-to-the-poor-to-save-the-economy.html
Muldoon used the phrase "the velocity of money"
Mark Richardsons question at the end is a real gem. Bless him.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/19/scaling-back-graduate-invents-plastic-alternative-from-fish-waste
Kia Ora Newshub.
Its great to see The Rugby World Cup in Asia Japan.
Eco Maori lives with discrimination every day.
That's awesome to see hundreds of thousands of tangata in Australia joining The Climate Change strike today Kia Kaha to everyone around the Papatuanuku who joined in the strike.
That’s the way Andrew thanks for backing our youth to get to vote Ka pai.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News
Mullens tangi was today it looks like its a hakare for someone of his great Mana. It takes a great man to rise a good whanau in Te Maori Papatuanuku. He gave me a sore face quite a few times he will be missed in Aotearoa.
The more PEE getting taken off our streets is great the shit is poisoning Te tangata whenua.
Smart Environment solutions to monitoring our Wai show great innovation its great to see tangata caring for our Taonga Wai.
Its excellent to see the Wellington tangata supporting Te Reo Maori place names in Wellington.
The Rugby World Cup in Asia Japan is starting in a hour Ka pai. I tryed to sort my free subscription for the Rugby World Cup I could not get it sorted I think someone is stuffing with my subscription as my email address would not load up WTF.
Ka kite Ano
Looks like the nation has been taken over by national supporters . Its not worth watching since Lisa left Ana to kai
Kia Kaha to all the Tangata Protesting to protect OUR FUTURE'S climate. THE NEANDERTHAL WILL learn to listen to our Rangatahi
Across the globe, millions join biggest climate protest ever
Young and old alike took to the streets in an estimated 185 countries to demand action
Millions of people demonstrated across the world yesterday demanding urgent action to tackle global heating, as they united across timezones and cultures to take part in the biggest climate protest in history.
In an explosion of the youth movement started by the Swedish school striker Greta Thunberg just over 12 months ago, people protested from the Pacific islands, through Australia, across-south east Asia and Africa into Europe and onwards to the Americas.
For the first time since the school strikes for climate began last year, young people called on adults to join them – and they were heard. Trade unions representing hundreds of millions of people around the world mobilised in support, employees left their workplaces, doctors and nurses marched and workers at firms like Amazon, Google and Facebook walked out to join the climate strikes.
Global climate strike: Greta Thunberg and school students lead climate crisis protest – as it happened
In the estimated 185 countries where demonstrations took place, the protests often had their individual targets; from rising sea levels in the Solomon Islands, toxic waste in South Africa, to air pollution and plastic waste in India and coal expansion in Australia.
But the overall message was unified – a powerful demand for an urgent step-change in action to cut emissions and stabilise the climate.
The demonstrations took place on the eve of a UN climate summit, called by the secretary general, António Guterres, to inject urgency into government action to restrict the rise in global temperatures to 1.5C, as agreed under the 2015 Paris agreement.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/21/across-the-globe-millions-join-biggest-climate-protest-ever
Kia Ora Newshub.
I will watch the Rugby on TV 1 .
That's is. Cool the carved waharoa gifted to Japan for the Rugby World Cup.
The International Monetary Fund is correct Aotearoa is doing great. Our governments management of our economy is fine.
Some farmers are going to kick up a stink no matter what Our Coalition government does WHY because they are South Island national supporters.
Ka pai Te Papatuanuku biggest strike for OUR futures Climate Ka pai yes the pollies will have to bend the knee to the intelligent tangata striking for our future.
Hue great mahi helping native trees grow in Hinewai. I research that planting native trees they need to planted in a canopy to protect them from frost when they are young. We are going to plant Te Totara trees they grow fast no need to be treated easy to carve. Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Cool that the Fisheries Minister has promised to look after the far north 90 mile Tangaroa shores environment to Te tangata whenua. I think tangata whenua need to be included in the mahi and wealth of the industry shear the lollies.
That's is not on its a breach of human rights locking 1200 people who have not been charged with a crime.
Using tangata whenua art to help heal tangata with mental health issues is a good idea Ka pai.
I… Henry we only get one body so it's correct that you took time off to let your injuries heal Kia Kaha.
Ka kite Ano
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
Kia Ora The Am Show.
I think it's great that Soap for Society Organisations are asking for sanitary products donations so they can give them to people who can not afford them
My alarm didn't go for the Allblack delayed game and I miss the 3 pm replay We were moderafiying our Wind Turbine.
That's is a good way to show how much Papatuanuku Warming is a Reality. The Swiss having A Tangi for their taonga Glacier Poziol it has lost 80 % of its mass
.Spark did its best to prove A good service. Its not there Fault that companies in other Countries dropped the BALL. Some people will use anything for leverage. This is all the more reasons to roll out 5 G Services.
Tangata Mental health wellbeing is a big thing as not everyone can figure out weather they have a problem or not. I think some educational program should be interduced to our tamariki about how their thought process actually works. I say the SURGE in Aotearoa mental health problems and rising suercide rates can be directly linked to A surge in PEE use over the last 20 years
Kume Amnesty International is a great organisation highlighting the problems around Papatuanuku the biggest problem we are going to face Human Caused Climate change.
The difference between Aotearoa is we have A Coalition Government that knows Climate change is Reality not like some pollies denies Global warming trying to gain putea. Kia Kaha to all the Tangata strikeing for Our future climate.
Aotearoa is a great position to mitergate climate change. We have a climate that has the fastest tree growth in the world. We have 80 % renewable energy already we have the best clean Sky for Solar power we actually get 20 % more power out of Solar than the manufacturer Stats. We have one of the Tawhirimate places on Papatuanuku great for Wind Turbine.We have great Geothermal resources that can provide back up power for Green Energy as well A Hydro power that can be used as back up power for Green Energy. The only reason why our Emissions have climb is because we have just kicked out a carbon pro Government that did everything to boost our carbon use. Big moterways canning Rail canning planned Wind turbine construction . Changing laws to alow the Cutting down of heaps of trees. ECT.
Ka kite Ano