NZ Herald’s 50 coolest Kiwis is of passing interest, and says as much about the NZ Herald as it does about (allegedly) cool Kiwis – in some categories it seems being an Alpha male (or even an alpha female) gets a lot of applause. However, the politics category is pretty cool: the coolest MPs of all time – John A Lee, Marily Waring and Big Norm!.
As for having Jacinda Ardern as the only cool current MP 🙄 – except it seems Labour MPs are cooler than any others!
Yep although how they could miss out Michael Joseph Savage is beyond me. Marilyn Wearing is the only National MP I can think of who would have fitted perfectly well in the Labour Party.
That’s the weakness list articles, they’re reductive, lack context, and are basically just lazy clickbait. Good to see it feature John A Lee though whom younger readers especially are less likely to know than Savage. I suppose if coolness was defined as being a maverick, while still achieving a significant political legacy, than Lee would win over Savage in those stakes. Well, before he became reactionary and hawkish in his later years, anyway.
Lee on Savage:
”Joe sees socialism as piles of goods fairly equitably divided and work equitably divided. I am sure he never sees it as the opportunity to play football, get brown on the beach, dance a fox trot, lie on one’s back beneath the trees, enjoy the intoxication of verse, the perfume of flowers, the joys of a novel, the thrill of music.”
Whereas now, it would be quite enough to have Labour MPs who embrace the utilitarian tenets of socialism.
love the quote, and it sums up so much of what the current Labour party needs.
The 3 blokes in suits who contested the leadership contest were all impressive candidates, but they didn’t really have it or have been shared to show it. If they did they’d be keen to present a united front from with the Greens with Labour leading I’d say. But you need the saxophonists in the band, the guitarists….
Opportunity to have a life and have some love, not work for less than a life and live in a tiny house with no garden and no park nearby and no window to see the sun.
Was thinking about this- Savage gets all the press with that photo…hardly anyone would recognise Peter Fraser or Wally Nash who arguably left a much larger legacy….Though rebels and authors are always cool, I mean has MJS got a corner in Point Chev?
Cool current Mps…hmmm…not too many rebels or authors amongst any of them…
John Clarke is still one of the coolest Kiwis ever (not just in 1972). The fact that he’s lived in Australia for the past 30 years is a reflection on NZ, not on Clarke’s coolness.
New Zealand indirectly gets a mention when journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Ewen MacAskill hold a press conference in New York earlier this week after winning a Polk Award for their reporting on Edward Snowden and the NSA.
“GLENN GREENWALD: For me, the most significant revelation is the ambition of the United States government and its four English-speaking allies to literally eliminate privacy worldwide, which is not hyperbole. “
The Scottish Independence Referendum is on the 18th of September. The Yes Campaign of the SNP has Momentum and is closing the gap on the No team of Tories and Labour.
Some Labour people are deserting to the Yes side. This is what Iain Macwhirter of the Herald Scotland has to say:
“Labour allowed the SNP to become the party of the NHS, nuclear disarmament and free education, while it has become the party of the benefits cap, immigration controls and weapons of mass destruction. I sometimes have to mentally pinch myself to remember that this is actually the case. But it is. Last month, Labour MPs voted overwhelmingly for the Coalition’s arbitrary welfare cap – surely a defining moment in British politics.
Labour introduced university tuition fees when they promised they would not; they supported the renewal of the Trident missile system; they talk enthusiastically about limiting immigration. Indeed, UK Labour politicians spend most of their time apologising for “getting it wrong” on immigration. About the only party that has a good word to say about migrants – or the European Union – is the Scottish National Party, which, as anyone who has any knowledge of nationalist parties in the rest of Europe knows, is remarkable.”
I know I’m banned but this is more important…where the f**k is Val Adams!!! Shes not only cool (look at the confidence and attitude she has she knows shes better then everyone else and can prove it) shes also the best template I can think of for young kiwi girls (and young kiwi guys for that matter) to follow
Some on the left are prepared to confront the issues:
Does anyone know the whereabouts of that stalwart and courageous David Cunliffe who bore every insult that his enemies could hurl at him. The David Cunliffe who sat stoically on the back benches while his party fought for his return. The David Cunliffe who campaigned up and down the length of New Zealand for a rededication to Labour’s core values. The David Cunliffe who promised to rescue New Zealand from John Key’s “crony capitalism”. If anyone does know where he is could they please advise Moira Coatsworth and Tim Barnett immediately – he is sorely missed.
And sorely needed. Because, if that David Cunliffe is not found – and soon – the pallid and oh-so-timid fellow currently masquerading as the leader of the Opposition is going to lose the election. Not just for Labour, the Greens and Mana, but for every other New Zealander seeking a radical change in their country’s direction.
And before the usual, I don’t agree with everything Chris has said – for example the left could still ‘win’ the election despite Labour – but what’s quoted here is pertinent to Labour’s current predicament.
One problem here may be that people commenting on blogs are powerless bystanders, and sad truths can be unpalatable. It could be a long tough five months.
Pete it was one poll taken during the royal visit, Labour and the Greens went down and the right track wrong track rating went up by a similar amount to National’s increase. Wait for the next few polls and then have the discussion. Or do you think that we should cancel the election now and just let Key get on with it.
And do you always agree with Chris or just when he backs up your world views?
I don’t agree with Chris when I disagree with him. What about you?
I understand the political tradition of trying to act as if nothing is wrong. But I agree with Chirs on one thing – I think Labour has to get real and get radical. Piddly policy releases and unconvincing public performances – with too much pissiness – are not working.
Yes, it was just one poll. Amongst a string of just one polls. Labour in Roy Morgan polls this year:
33.5
33
30.5
31.5
32
28.5
Even if Labour bounces back to the low thirties that’s not flash, you must admit that. Cunliffe has as good as acknowledged that he is reliant on at least one and probably both of the next biggest parties.
I think Cunliffe said during the week about not sweating the small stuff. I don’t see the hard yards being done on the important stuff, that’s something else I agree with Chris on.
Cunliffe and Labour should do less things, far better. Who really cares about caravan registrations?
A “cluster-truck” (hat-tip Te Radar) masquerading as coherent transport policy.
Who buys the ‘buy Kiwi made” policy when most people buy Chinese because they know it’s a damn sight cheaper?
What Cunliffe and Labour are doing isn’t working, it isn’t inspiring. Sure they are in a media rut where every little thing is nitpicking, but this situation is of their own making.
Something significant needs to change and Labour needs to up it’s game or all it can hope for is an election Lotto where they share the prize with parties with settled leadership and much better defined aims.
Ok, Labour have allowed it to become of the media’s making.
Blaming the media won’t solve anything, if anything it will make things worse.
Politicians and parties have to earn credibility and positive coverage. It may be one step forward and five steps backwards but those steps forward have to be made by Labour, you can’t avoid that reality.
I want MPs and leaders who are human. I doubt that there is anything wrong with Cunliffe. He’s just in an impossible situation. I don’t agree with everything he does, and in that sense I’m part of the crowd waiting for the Big Sign from Labour. But that is not all Cunliffe’s fault, it’s about the whole situation.
The MSM think that their job is to tear people down, and if they survive then they’re be respected. I want to live in a world where leaders are supported to be the best they can. I don’t want to live in a world where the only leaders we have are those who have to survive the school of hard knocks (or have enough money or influence in the new boys network).
What is your point? (yes, everyone, I know I will regret asking that). You say that Cunliffe has to earn credibility and positive coverage, but you acknowledge that the MSM is fixated on tearing people down. How does that work apart from the MSM getting to dictact political culture in NZ?
And are you seriously arguing that because some MPs/parties are bullies that it’s ok for the MSM to be as well?
In an election year the job of the media is to present information about politics to the country so that people can be informed. They can analyse what is going on, and they can investigate things that are of high public interest. But that’s not what is going on now. It’s fucked, anti-democracy, and a very large part of why we’re in such a mess as a country.
And are you seriously arguing that because some MPs/parties are bullies that it’s ok for the MSM to be as well?
I didn’t argue that at all. MPs/parties and media often feed off each other, reliant on each for the attention they seek. That sometimes gets to a level of frenzied bullying. I don’t argue for that at all. I argue for more honesty and decency in politics and the media.
The challenge for Labour and the Greens is to have a policy that makes the voter, and media, go “wow”. If that doesn’t happen for the voter particularly, it’s the policy that misses the mark. In the absence of a policy convincing enough to make the centre voter swing to the left, the results shouldn’t be a surprise. Thinking that voters are idiots because they don’t agree with you, also doesn’t change their perception of a person or a policy that fails to resonate with them. Perhaps try a policy grand enough to change people’s opinion and the MSM might report it as such. Putting “kiwi” in front of everything doesn’t seen to be working either. Time will tell I guess.
I think the answer, Micky, is that Trotter and Pooter are both conservative bores, who reinforce each other. The rest of us are just going to get on with winning the election. Never mind the bollocks, eh.
MS, I have friends asking me where are Labour’s announcements about restoring the integrity and principles of our social welfare system, public health and public education systems.
About how Labour is going to put in place game changers to sort out poverty especially child poverty in NZ once and for all.
They want to see announcements like NZ Power which put National on the back foot and which force National to make uncomfortable excuses and compromises. And it’s not happening.
I think that I can safely presume that you have been fielding similar.
This is what NZers want to hear from the Labour leader, not speculations about whether or not the Royal Visit had elements of playing politics or other random Thorndon Bubble focussed commentary.
So what do we get this week? Labour releases transport policy around “making it easier to get a family holiday on the road.” My friends in the over-stretched Dunedin social services sector were tearing their hair out at this. Families in poverty can barely get on the road in the first place, let alone go for a nice road trip around the country. Even Transport Blog slammed the policies as a distraction saying that the policy release is “absolute rubbish with it seemingly designed just to target a handful of complainers.”
Then there was the recent Bowel Screening announcement. Bowel screening is important to be sure, but honestly NO VOTER in NZ was thinking of colon cancer as a Top Ten election issue. And none still do.
So it looks to me like PG has a point when he says that its going to be a long 5 months ahead. Yes, we should definitely wait for the next few polls to come out and discuss them as well. But by then it will be just 4 long months ahead.
Good analysis CV. Thank goodness we have thinking people analysing present political policy offerings and attempting to vitalise and lift the low angle of the sterile political scene.
It’s not a loop but link. Loops in transports systems are actually really inefficient.
Oh and I live in Levin so something about some jobs down here
What’s in Levin that makes jobs there viable?
What is it about jobs that people keep going on about them? We don’t need jobs, we need a viable distribution system the distributes the wealth of our economy properly.
An ever more productive economy results in ever fewer jobs – especially labouring jobs. It won’t be long before bus drivers are redundant. That may not sound like much but there’s tens of thousands of them. Thus we need to take those people who have been made redundant and retrain them into the non-labouring sector.
That means training them in R&D and arts and craft and getting them away from the financial sector which, as it stands, is easy work, doesn’t produce anything and is massively over-rewarded. And when I’m talking R&D I’m talking about a better mouse trap but materials science, automation, medical and biological tech, etc etc. Stuff that we’re not doing enough of now.
The future you are expecting is not going to materialise, DTB. For instance, automated vehicle navigation and driving is going to remain a googlelabs curio as economic and energy decline sets in even harder.
As private transport becomes less affordable, the number of bus drivers we need may increase, not decrease. Labouring will become more common as fossil fuel energy use becomes increasingly expensive, and we start to lose the ability to support highly specialised and expensive disciplines.
The future you are expecting is not going to materialise
Well, it won’t if we keep whinging about it being too hard. Don’t need fossil fuels to run buses or trains. Renewable electricity is great for them.
As private transport becomes less affordable, the number of bus drivers we need may increase, not decrease.
The point is that we don’t want to increase them. Having more bus drivers doesn’t do us any good. There’s much better things we can have those people doing.
If Labour really wanted to make an impact transport wise, then it would cancel the Holiday Highway and used the money saved to restore the cuts to rural road funding, and perhaps set a bold target of sealing all the remaining metal/gravel roads in the country by 2025 (or thereabouts). It would reach deep into National’s heartland, as farmers in, say, Pipiriki would be able to get their goods to market without going though a quagmire in the winter.
And beef up our navy to protect our coastal shipping.
Two things keep me from voting green – the feel good vagueness of much of their policy and their total disregard for our military needs.
The Green Party will:
Ensure that New Zealand has sufficient maritime surveillance capabilities, including airplanes, to properly monitor the waters around New Zealand, and to assist South Pacific island states.
Ensure that New Zealand has sufficient capabilities for peacekeeping, search and rescue, disaster relief, fisheries and border control tasks. We should phase out any equipment that are not optimal for such tasks.
Ensure that New Zealand has sufficient naval capacity to conduct appropriate patrols: around our coasts, into Antarctic waters, and to assist South Pacific islands states. The capacity could include some sea transport capacity, but from multi-purpose ships, not specialised transport ships. We welcome the introduction into our navy of a multi-role ship and new patrol boats as they will be useful for our border protection and South Pacific and Antarctic work. We will continue to ensure that New Zealand has adequate naval capacity for these tasks.
I think a far more rewarding bold action would be to scrap the Navy altogether.
Replace it with a Coastguard type service that is capable of patrolling all our waters from Antarctica to the Pacifica Islands. Supply them with aircraft, patrol vessels and sufficient crew trained for Rescue work. Much better use of money. We do not need a Navy
And beef up our navy to protect our coastal shipping
Government really helping the regions, the agricultural/horticultural sector as a whole, not just dairy. What a sound idea. I wonder when someone will think of that, and when gummint will act on it?
Someone in one of the boondock territories of rural NZ was complaining about the way that logging trucks create big problems of dust, destroying road surface, extra traffic, unpleasant industrial-type noise that is ongoing for much of the 24 hours. But there is not the money available to pave the roads, to maintain them, ie not extra from government, not in the cash-strapped local area suffering this abuse to its roads, and not from the users causing the problem, the logging companies.
A real farmers party would show some more care for the rural sector in every way. But the NACTs have hypnotised them into thinking that they should not ask for much from the government, that they are hardworking, smart, resilient etc. and free, strong, independent people not like the townies, those effete, chair-sitters, those lazy bludgers on the government tit living off money provided by the proud hard-working achievers of the country. Then they are horribly surprised that when disaster strikes them, that social welfare is so meanly given when they are on their bare bones. And still some of them feel it is beneath them to ask for help, because of all the years they have been absorbing the propaganda about the worthlessness of people on welfare.
The underlying attitude that is cultivated by farm leaders when comparing the agricultural sector to those in the metropolis is not far different from that shown in soviet posters with strong, proud figures with bulging muscular arms holding agricultural tools.
Actually the smaller farmers are being allowed to go to the wall.
Their farms are being amalgamated into giant units until they are a convenient size to make an attractive package to some rich overseas or city type swollen with money from gorging more than their share of the incomes paid out those working,
or just plotting financial coups.
Napier should have a good rail system for their products to feed them into the country, not just to the ports as fresh or manufactured food for the outsiders.
Give the regions what they need FGS to do business locally and for export, and take us away from borrowing money for dairy and imports which probably helps to shove up our exchange rate. If we have a period of adjustment while we have to pay more for petrol and oil and other imported goods then so be it. Face it now, and survive virtually intact though poorer, or have it dump on us in a smothering debacle that will likely ruin us.
The country being run down like an aged business beyond its maturity date is crap for wan..rs with MBAs who are learning how to become robber barons at some mercenary university.
I want NZ Post for one, to keep going 5 days a week, and for government to put its post through it. NZ as a country that has to pull together in this uncivil war against the people. Is that too much to ask? Don’t reply to that, just leave the question hanging in the air and fashion a society that means a positive answer.
We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.
attr. to Benjamin Franklin 1776, but Dryden said similar first in 1717
What about the manufacturing announcement CV? It feels like Labour is being criticised for not releasing policy, releasing minor policy and releasing major policy all at the same time!
What manufacturing announcement? They keep saying that they’re going to upgrade the economy and manufacturing but all I keep seeing from them is more tax breaks and government subsidies to the private sector.
Therein lies the problem on one day a mirth inducing “cluster truck” follow by a serious manufacturing policy immediately lost in the mirth of the previous policy.
It seems to me strategy wise nothing has changed since the last election. Doesn’t matter who the leader is or the ‘media bias’ if whoever is deciding on strategy is serving up lemons no amount of good intention will work. It quickly descending to farce. If you look left or right in terms of the greens or the nats strategy wise they are miles ahead….
Peter Dunne is a moral void. He has the power to ban the so called legal highs yet he does not.
He sees no conflict in the fact that he son’s income is derived from the sale of theses drugs that is bringing havoc to families.
Peter Dunne had the power to say that the government would not deal with Dunne Junior.
I bet Peter Dunne gets very very nice birthday presents from his very well paid son.
The discussion now needs to move to an alternative solution. Challenging as it is the wider community, medical fraternity, law makers and decision makers need to collaborate on the way forward. It is easy to simply view the “legalise dope” as the same old debate we have heard for the last 50 years accompanied by public smoke ups, dreadlocks and all the cliches. We have a different set of issues to address now and we need to put some intellectual grunt into the solutions. Legal highs have simply brought this debate to a head (pun intended).
I have been working on a series of practical pieces of work in the short term that may pave the way for a more regulated approach to the sale of legal highs which may make the future discussion on legal sale of marijuana more acceptable.
We cannot pretend that we can solve the issues by pushing them underground, the alternative is challenging but I think we are ready for the debate. The need to escape our day to day life via a variety of chemical substances is as old as humanity, lets get over the prejudice and on with finding a humane way forward.
I think this is the direction we need to be looking in. There’s a growing realisation that the Psychoactive Substances Act only addresses a part of the problem.
The cannabis elephant in the room needs to be confronted.
The way forward is the direction we need to look in. We must have the discussion in the future. Astonishingly insightful. No wonder you agree with it so equivocally.
Dunne has deeply damaged the credibility of the office of a minister.
All around the country kids are hearing that the Toxic Shot is legal and that it will not be banned by the minister, whose son is making a living out of selling the Toxic shit.
No wonder so many do not vote when they see such self serving bullshit.
Dear Standardistas. Do not engage with Peter George on the decriminalization of Cannabis. etc. It is a smoke screen for his hero Peter Dunne and his drug industry son, James.
“Peter Dunne is a moral void. He has the power to ban the so called legal highs yet he does not.
He sees no conflict in the fact that he son’s income is derived from the sale of theses drugs that is bringing havoc to families.
Peter Dunne had the power to say that the government would not deal with Dunne Junior.
I bet Peter Dunne gets very very nice birthday presents from his very well paid son”
Bollocks, Peter Dunne’s new law gives councils the power to put these shops out of business.
If Hamilton can use the new law to close down the puff shops then other lazy councils need to
get off their arse and start to earn their salary.
Dunne junior is an adult and there is no conflict in the fact that he like a lot of lawyer’s make a living from defending scum. What a feeble attempt of a smear
“Um the law allows Councils to regulate not ban”
The link says they have been banned, the point is they have been shutdown and they cant sell drugs. You can call it what ever you like
There’s been this bizarre disconnect between Pete George with his hat on as politicheck, for which I have been occasionally been impressed with some of the work, as I didn’t think he was capable of it.
Why? There’s Pete George the thread hijacker, line spinner and right wing blog personality, and in this case concern troll.
Not looking at the polls and looking at Cunliffe’s performances on camera as well as the co ordination of the party’s work and the appointments that have been made, the news has been all positive for Labour. If you are behind in a game and you rearrange your line up and make some subs, you don’t look at the score on the board now. You say ‘are we doing the basics right’ and ‘can we get some momentum going’. The answer to both of these is yes.
A cursory checking of the facts would tell you that Trotter is only on the left on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. This post was written on a Friday, when he is known to support the National Party.
But on Thursday evening, she said she had checked her notes and believed she had spoken to the ambassador about the dinner the following day and told him “nothing had occurred that was untoward and it was just a very private friendly dinner that was short”.
Why would she specifically say to the Ambassador that “nothing had occurred that was untoward” That has to be one of the strangest revelations so far. Why was she compelled to use those words. This is someone who knew at the time was skating on thin ice, had probably be warned by the Ambassador.
If Collins was trying to boost her husband’s company into a ‘preferred supplier’ or even ‘quasi-monopoly supplier’ to the massive China market, then this is dynamite.
We are getting into the good old ‘secret commissions’ area…and that is criminal.
Would be good to see this followed up.
And the PM as shill for Oravida….an interesting footnote which should not be neglected.
Yes, it was a disappointing and depressing poll prompting a sinking feeling, but I would like to see the next 4 polls (from Colmar Brunton, TV3 Reid, Herald Digi and Fairfax Ipsos) to see if this poll is consistent or not.
Exactly, you were supposed to feel disappointed and depressed by such polls, and the others to come from the TV channels and the print media, that’s why they publish these things,
Physical Action results in the endorphins in the body being stirred, stirring the bodies endorphins promotes psychological well being leading to a lack of disappointment and depression,
Contact the political party of your choice and ask them to be included on their list of pamphlet deliverers in your electorate,
Put aside an hour a day/night to pamphlet drop your electorate street by street…
i am surprised by all the Doom and Gloom, does everyone forget their lessons of history that easily,
Cast your minds back to 2011, the election with Phill Goff as Labour leader, now how many here actually supported poor old Phill, you could just about count such supporters on one finger,
The mantra from the right leading into the 2011 election,”National can Govern alone”),there is certainly no ”original thought” apparent this time round with the same old same old being promoted by the usual suspects,
Take out the 3 Maori Party MP’s this time round and i would suggest that it is going to be that close a contest,
Save the Doom and Gloom for after the vote if we don’t get at least a slightly left leaning Government…
Yes, bad 12, I get that and I do that, but I also had the general public in mind when I made the comment. My gut feeling tells me that the polls will shift towards the left block, but today’s interview by Turei on the Nation regarding the Green’s cabinet deputy PM ambitions/expectations, even before the voters have shown their hand, was a shocker.
Seem to me like she was carrying a blunt spade to naively dig the Left grave with her at that answer.
Didn’t see ‘the Nation’ this morning, you will perhaps like to explain further why you see Metiria as ‘digging the left’s grave’,
That from where i sit sounds like a very interesting comment,(at Labour),from Met’s, did it come across as a ”if the Green Party is not included in Labour’s thinking as being a large part of the next Government, Forget It!!!),
If the comment from Metiria was in fact in that vein, then, i would say ”nice one”, what point a Labour ”lead” Government including NZFirst in a cozy ”business as usual” combination which has the Green Party shut out,???,
That to me we have already had from the Clark Government, the best i can say about that from the position i got to view it is ”it wasn’t National”,
If Labour attempt this time round to ”shut out” the Greens i would suggest that along with Mana they take to the cross benches and ”extract” gains by horse trading on every piece of Legislation which would simply mean that Labour/NZFirst would have to enact a piece of Green/Mana Legislation for every one allowed by the bloc further to the left…
See what you think.
In politics, politicians have to be thoughtful on what one says in public. Some things are for private discussion. Big mouths can cause indigestion and give a sick feeling. Dumb.
Lolz, you are making a mountain out of a molehill, on the current numbers Labour have to negotiate NZFirst into a coalition which will also necessitate the Green Party being involved,
Your whole spew of abuse this morning contends not only that the Green Party should shut up and confine itself to a script set by Labour/NZFirst, it also gives the impression (unwritten of course), that you consider that the Green Party should just hand over support to ANY coalition that Labour negotiate including being outside of a minority Government of Labour/NZFirst,
The Green Party is free to give its supporters and potential voters an indication NOW of what it expects from a Labour/NZFirst coalition as far as Ministerial positions goes despite all Your mumbo jumbo trotting out of the Labour/NZFirst lines,
i would urge both Russell and Metiria to spell it out loudly and publicly what the Green Party and it’s Members expect from a Labour/NZFirst Government in both Ministerial positions and Policy gains for the Green Party should they agree to support a Labour/NZFirst Government,
Your comments this morning simply firm up my belief that this time round if Labour propose a Labour/NZFirst Government without a strong Green presence in MInisterial roles that the Greeen Party would better itself and its supporters by taking to the cross benches along with Mana and horse trading Policy gains Legislation by Legislation,
This i would suggest will provoke Labour/NZFirst into seeking National/ACT support in pushing through its Legislative progam thus showing you all the true colors of the relevant parties…
Labour will not shut out the Greens. Greens will be a large part of the next Labour led government, with cabinet posts. Cunliffe has already made that VERY clear just recently. Don’t understand why the Greens are spreading so much misinformation and unnecessary discord.
I do not agree with you at all. You are imagining things I did not say or imply re shutting Greens out etc. That Greens will be or may be shut out by Labour won’t happen nor is desirable. By making silly stance now about getting TWO deputy pm posts, aren’t these Greens trying to hamstring Labour already prior to the election and prior to the coalition discussions and agreements? In my mind, that is an arrogant, stupid, naive, cunning and crap attitude to take, besides planting discord among Labour and scaring away potential left supporters.
I am annoyed at the Greens now and I am calling it as I see it.
Those 4 you mention are all Right leaning polls Mainly ring Landlines only and have a strict list of leading questions. The best of the lot is Morgans poll
Even Morgan is suspect with the son of Roy being deeply involved in mining,(not that i would propose that this would deliberately skew a Morgan poll against the Greens, snigger)…
Those 4 you mention are all Right leaning polls Mainly ring Landlines only and have a strict list of leading questions. The best of the lot is Morgans poll
Phill you could start a legalize pot party, oh wait there is already one in operation, now how many votes have they achieved in total in how many elections again…
Good to see you back from the naughty corner Philip Ure! ……( and bad12 missed you too….he hasnt been the same without you…but i suggest you two play at the opposite ends of the sandpit for a while)
@ Bad12…..well legalise pot makes a lot of sense!….and criminalise the synthetic stuff…everyone around the country hates what the synthetic stuff is doing to young people….except Peter Dunne and son …and NACT of course….their entrepreneurs are probably selling it.
Yup, the sort of thing a 3rd term Government would do, legalize marijuana that is, oh except for the small fact that Labour have no intention of going anywhere near legalization,
So while Phill can gnash what’s left of His teeth down to the gums, a 10–15% Green Party are unlikely to convince Labour to move on the issue,and, on the present numbers NZFirst as well…
The Christchurch Press and all the local newspapers are full of horror stories about synthetic cannabis./party drugs …makes the real stuff seem positively harmless ( even some local police think so)
….this could be an Election Issue with not a few votes ….such is the anguish of parents whose kids are hooked and the kids themselves… with very bad side effects according to A@E doctors…..at very least Labour/Greens /Mana/NZF should overturn legalising the synthetic stuff and seriously consider make the real stuff legal
agreed they are making a lot of money!!! ….and they are despicable!!!!…this one could turn around and savagely maul NACT and Peter Dunne
…there are quite a few votes in this for making the synthetic stuff illegal and legalising the old ‘tried and true real stuff’ to those 18 and over…the precedent has been set in USA and other countries
Yes, I saw that too. I wonder why we still have guaranties for banks if they are doing so nicely? Besides, the rebuild in Christchurch does skewer the figures and the US financial wizkids do as usually have no clue but want to brush everybody with the same stroke.
Whilst the time frame of the rebuild in CCH is scandalous to keep it civilized, it is no New Orleans where people have to donate and beg to have a roof over their heads and meanwhile the Freddie’s jump out of the hat. As for the foreign investors in NZ, yes absolutely it needs to be curtailed as land is not something anyone can “produce”.
I can’t believe that the Green leaders are so arrogant, so politically naive and frankly a little stupid going by their previous Labour-Green pre election coalition stunt designed to help themselves and harm Labour and now this interview comment by Turei on the Nation today regarding her ambition on the deputy PM position in a Labour led coalition after the election.
She, like Norman, presumes too much even before the election, even before the voters have spoken! This is political naivity in the extreme, unbelievable arrogance and frankly stupid, in my opinion. I am afraid this sort of carry by these naive numpties may drive more people away from Labour/Greens. A very counter productive cocky stance to take.
Any coalition deals and terms need to be discussed in private between the parties and announced after the election, not before. Simple common sense politics 101. NZF and even National must be happily rubbing their luck once again.
It’s a message to the people who vote for the GP and who might vote for the GP. It’s not a message to people like you Clem.
I’m not sure if you are objecting to Norman and Turei wanting to be deputy PM, or if you are objecting to them saying so before the election. Myself, I prefer transparency.
Seems that Clem wants the Green Party to be silenced and adhere to a script being ”run” by Labour/NZFirst,
i would urge the Green Party to become more specific leading into this election as to exactly what Ministerial roles it expects to fill in a Labour/NZFirst Government along with pointing out Policy areas in which the Party will require a ”strong” say,
Other than that i would urge the Green Party leadership to begin devising a strategy of ”negotiating” from the cross benches…
You are ascribing various views implying they are mine! You are wrong. Greens can say what they want and show the public how stupid and arrogant the Greens are. What I am saying is that in my view, politically, they are being smug, silly, arrogant and stupid, damaging the left cause overall.
@ Clemogeopin,
It would be really good if you could take bad12 (or weka’s) comments as highlighting that what you are saying may be implying certain things that you don’t intend – rather than take the comments too personally.
I am interested in what you are saying and what weka and bad12’s (and others on previous threads) have responded. And also, if you take their responses seriously, how you would respond back to the points they make.
I think there is some real relevance to what you are saying – even if it is a ‘perception thing’ i.e. that the ‘Greens are radical’ seems to be a false idea that has been conjured up and seeded by the right with the aim of dividing and conquering – yet the discussion still needs to be had by the left because this propaganda technique appears to be taking hold of some people’s views and having done so, the discussion is very worthy because to work through it in a level-headed manner could assist in undermining the effects of the propaganda.
I sort of get what you are saying, but taking public stance on expected potential baubles etc is not being level headed of Greens and is counter productive to the left block in my view and that annoys me and probably does to a lot of other potential left inclined voters. I don’t want this kind of tactics to result in us snatching a stupid defeat. Watch for the right wing parties and the media use this premature pre-election comment to pound Labour and Greens even further now.
It is one thing to talk about party policies to gather more votes, but quite another to go bauble hunting before the election.
How will Norman, Turei, you and the green supporters feel if Cunliffe may not be be able to offer the plum deputy PM posts to the these two ambitious naive/cunning nitwits?
Clem
Russel Norman and Metiria Turei are not naive twits. I hope they are cunning or in parliament they’ll end up like bunnies facing ferrets. That may be nature but not the environment that Greens work in.
You seem to have a thing against the Greens. Can you try to think politically (politics being the art of the possible) and not think of the election as a sporting contest where there is usually a definite winner and loser, occasionally a draw or bye. In politics a Party can win, and not just the opposition will lose, but so may the whole country. A Party can achieve one good thing and yet most people not receive one positive improvement or advantage. What then is winning? The Greens are more important and steadfast for NZ than you give them credit for.
The actions of pollies directly affect my life and I want more understanding of the complex tasks that pollies need to do to be acknowledged. It’s not just simply aiming to get a ball in goal..
No, I am NOT against the Greens or their policies or them being in the government or the cabinet. I am against their stupid counter productive political stunts and statements I mentioned earlier which in my opinion harm the left aim of winning this election.
Why? Plenty of organisations have co-vice presidents, or more than one person at the second tier. The Greens have managed to make the co-leader structure work, there’s no practical reason for it to not work just as well at the Deputy PM level.
It would hardly be the most ridiculous Cabinet position ever invented to please a coalition partner (cough, Treasurer, cough).
I do like transparency too. But why do I get the feeling that those two are played and NZ1 has a role in all of this? Can’t say why but it’s like a stone in the show if you know what I mean.
I suspect the Greens see Labour as a hindering albatross, with more justification. Which party looks the most united and best organised and prepared?
I don’t see any problem with any party being up front about their preferences for any possible coalition deal. Shouldn’t voters know this in advance? I don’t buy the “let the voters decide” then parties do as they please approach. They have no idea what voters were thinking and wanting.
Turei as deputy PM this is hilarious, this is the same woman who called Fonterra and Sanitarium feeding the school kids “corporate welfare” There needs to be some sort of IQ test for this position.
That will really scare the horses.
Corporate welfare is a defined term. It refers to things like subsidies and tax breaks that are used to entice businesses or increase profit and compare them to welfare payments. The Rio Tinto situation for instance was an act of corporate welfare.
The idea is that governments who demonise welfare and beneficiaries often engage in corporate welfare and pick favourites and provide them with favourable tax breaks and subsidies. It’s welfare but for a much less deserving audience.
So, Turei really was wrong to refer to Fonterra feeding the kids initiative as “corporate welfare”. However, it is largely semantics. I can think of far more important tests to see whether someone should be Deputy Prime Minister.
I think Turei as DPM would probably do a decent job. It might make the media at least remember she’s a leader of the Green Party.
you’re right. It should only be the serious men with suits who are allowed to get government titles. Good to see that Turei will have to give up her playing at leader once Clem and his ilk fumble towards power.
Turei has been a strong politician- especially with her response to the attacks on her and the invitation of the press to her ‘castle’ worth an Auckland car park to see her wardrobe.
She provides a clear point of difference to the samey-ness across the leadership on the left- Cunliffe, Parker, Robertson, King, Jones, Adern, Cosgrove, Hipkins, Norman- she’s young, Maori, passionate and with a profile and doesn’t appear to be part of the careerist politicians who are careful to follow the party line. She seems to have a purpose about her entry to parliament and to me suggesting this kind of unorthodox arrangement that isn’t ‘common-sense’ like Peters, UF et al are…suggests why she is needed by the left.
Where did I say anything anything of the sort?
Why is that you and some others here do not actually understand the actual points I made in my posts? Read it again.
It would be good if bloggers when discussing an individual pollie gave their first name. It would make them sound like respected people, rather than pawns on the political chess board.
“Justice Minister Judith Collins has recovered her memory after telling Parliament she could not recall whether she had briefed New Zealand’s ambassador to Beijing about her Oravida dinner.
…..
In Parliament’s last session before a two-week recess, she again refused to identify the official she dined with, said she did not know of Oravida’s difficulties in the Chinese market before the dinner, and said she could not remember whether she had briefed ambassador to Beijing Carl Worker about the dinner.
She told the Weekend Herald she didn’t believe she had spoken about the dinner to Mr Worker beyond an initial discussion beforehand when he said he would not attend.
But on Thursday evening, she said she had checked her notes and believed she had spoken to the ambassador about the dinner the following day and told him “nothing had occurred that was untoward and it was just a very private friendly dinner that was short”.
She said Mr Worker had asked her on the day of the dinner to just let him know if there was anything that he needed to know about.
…….”
DUH?
Who ‘takes notes’ at a private dinner with friends?
In what capacity did Minister of Justice Judith Collins speak “.. to the ambassador about the dinner the following day and told him “nothing had occurred that was untoward and it was just a very private friendly dinner that was short”.
Did Minister of Justice Judith Collins speak to Carl Worker in his capacity as NZ Ambassador to China?
If so – then this can NOT have been a ‘private dinner’ for which Judith Collins had no Ministerial responsibility.
Who invited Carl Worker, (who just happens to be the NZ Ambassador to China) to this dinner?
WHY did Carl Worker, (who just happens to be the NZ Ambassador to China) decline to attend this dinner?
Is there some sort of parallel universe happening here – where it just so happens that these very important and influential people – are also close personal friends, so there is no clear line of demarcation between private lives and public duties?
Is that why, in my considered opinion, Minister of Justice Judith Collins HAS CROSSED THE LINE and is indeed no longer ‘fit for duty’?
What a DISGRACE.
National’s Minister of Justice Judith Collins is treating both Parliament and the public with total contempt.
But I can understand Prime Minister John Key’s reluctance to sack her from Parliament.
Do the maths.
National is a MINORITY government with only 59 MPs out of 121.
Judith Collins is an electorate MP.
(As are Peter Dunne and John Banks).
Oh dear …… whatever could happen next to this (in my considered opinion) COALITION OF THE CORRUPT?
No wonder while on Minister of Justice Judith Collins’ watch – New Zealand STILL has not yet ratified the UN Convention Against Corruption.
Which New Zealand political party is going to pick up the ball on this one, and announce that getting the legislative anti-corruption framework in place so that New Zealand can ratify the UN Convention Against Corruption will be a most URGENT political priority?
More on Dotcom, exposed by Spiegel TV, on German TV, but they have little sympathy for him, as they see well through him:
He has at least been working on the borderline of legality, and he will face justice soon. You Tube are not releasing recently released movies, but Mega Upload did. He got away with heaps, but his days are numbered, just many Kiwis are as dumb as ever, as they voted a money speculator into power, they have sympathy for a law breaker. Hah, wake up, idiots.
He cannot be deported now, as he has children here, just smartly organised, like some from other nations, who have off spring here, knowing it is the licence to welfare! Hah, bingo, here you go, TS, you love that, right?
Sorry, I wish I had never come back, I tried to make an end, but it did not work, so I just want to say, please fight on standardistas, I am no longer able to, I am too ill. The way things are it is terrible, we are as people on benefits told the help us but it is a lie same as the Nazis told lies.
I am too tired and sick, I will not communicate further, take care and try to fight the horrible policies and this minister that tells us the lies she “cares”. She should be bloody ashamed of herself!
I do not want to live in this country any more, it is not the country it once was.
Concentrate on finding a way forward xtasy. I hope you find a real solution soon. You are not alone and despite what the world is trying to tell people, many out there do care about others.
There are too many in similar positions where their health is failing as fast as the system that is meant to help them, but as the realities are too complex for the MSM to cram into a soundbite, too many are being left to battle their health problems alone.
But don’t give up on ‘ol kiwiland just yet. I also hate what NZ has become but refuse to believe it is too far gone to recover.
I always thought that NZers are prone to being take for a ride, and Kim Dotcom has taken you for a fucking ride, for sure, you silly fools, and the day he goes you will finally wake up from your “addiction”, and I know what addiction means, you are hooked, the ones that fall for this conman!
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – 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 (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
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 ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
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 ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
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 ...
This episode of A View From Afar was recorded LIVE on May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, May 5, 2024 at 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Taylor, Assistant Professor, Bond University Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures At the crux of the critical response to Luca Guadagnino’s new movie Challengers is one word: “sexy”. The film charts a love triangle between three up-and-coming tennis players: Tashi (Zendaya), ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Stewart, Professor of Public Policy, ADFA Canberra, UNSW Sydney For years, First Nations people have been telling governments they want to be listened to. In particular, they want more ownership of the programs and services that are supposed to help them. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Why do trees have bark? Julien, age 6, Melbourne. This is a great question, Julien. We are so familiar with bark on trees, that most of us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Nasser, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of Technology Sydney PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is an important ligament in the knee. It runs from the thigh bone (femur) to the shin bone (tibia) and helps stabilise ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne I covered the May 2 United Kingdom local government elections for The Poll Bludger. The Blackpool South parliamentary byelection was also held, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna Grant-Smith, Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast The federal government has announced a “Commonwealth Prac Payment” to support selected groups of students doing mandatory work placements. Those who are studying to be a teacher, nurse, midwife or social ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love a dark comedy: Bodkin (Netflix, May 9)An English podcaster, an Irish podcaster and American podcaster walk into a pub and…make a TV show? ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Pacific regionalism academic has called out New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS and says the security deal “raises serious questions for the Pacific region”. Auckland University of Technology academic Dr Marco de Jong ...
How worried should we be about the cloud? This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. I currently have a few thousand unread emails languishing in my inbox, mostly old marketing newsletters and piles of unread science journal press releases. I have a similar number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nuurrianti Jalli, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies College of Arts and Sciences Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication Studies, Northern State University Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian governments not only have to deal with the virus but also with the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Murakami Wood, Professor of Critical Surveillance and Securities Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa The skyline of Riyadh, the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.(Shutterstock) There is a long history of planned city building by both governments ...
The LIVE Recording of A View from Afar podcast will begin today at 12:45pm May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment of ...
The Boil Up’s Lucinda Bennett considers the oyster – from freshness to pearls to the joy of shucking your own. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. In Carmen Maria Machado’s short story ‘Eight Bites’, a woman begins her last supper before bariatric surgery with “a cavalcade ...
Asia Pacific Report A group of 65 Auckland University academics have written an open letter to vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater criticising the institution’s stance over students protesting in solidarity with Palestine. They have called on her administration to “support” the students who were denied permission to establish an “overnight encampment” by ...
The Student Volunteer Army is on the march, generating approximately 1.6 million hours of volunteering from roughly 35,000 secondary school students in just five years. For Rebekah Brown, the pathway to volunteering started with her singing coach. With a passion for the arts, the suggestion to volunteer at Acting Antics, ...
Keeping up with online communication can be exhausting, so Fran Barclay enlisted the help of Meta’s new ‘intelligent assistant’ to respond to all her messages. Could her mates tell the difference? For centuries, technology has ruled the ways in which we communicate. From the dawn of written language, to the ...
Jamie Arbuckle, a councillor who has become an member of parliament, says he has settled into having two roles so comfortably he's going to keep both pay cheques. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong Fifty years ago, Australian feminist Anne Summers denounced “the ideology of sexism” governing over so many women’s lives. Unfortunately, sexism is as lethal today as it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic and the hybrid work patterns it fostered have changed the way we think about office space, and central business districts in general. While fears ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dale Boccabella, Associate Professor of Taxation Law, UNSW Sydney There’s a good reason your local volunteer-run netball club doesn’t pay tax. In Australia, various nonprofit organisations are exempt from paying income tax, including those that do charitable work, such as churches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Deller, Casual Academic, Creative Writing and English Literature, Flinders University NetflixComedy is opening up spaces for silences to be broken and trauma stories to be told. In 2018, Hannah Gadsby started a revolution with Nanette, asking audiences to rethink ...
The workplace can be a minefield of bad comms and passive aggression. Kinksters can help you navigate it. A friend and colleague recently gave me a compliment I loved. They told me I’d always been good at emotional communication and making people feel comfortable. “But I feel like it’s really ...
Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...
Renowned musician, advocate, and proud born and raised daughter of Tauranga, Ria Hall, is announcing her candidacy for Mayor of Tauranga and Pāpāmoa Ward for the upcoming election on July 20th. ...
The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...
For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Monday 6 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
For the past 12 years, Georgia-Rose Brown has balanced on the brink of making an Olympic Games – but always landed gracefully on the wrong side. Reaching the Olympics is a dream the gymnast has harboured since she was a six-year-old; a dream that would dwindle every four years, yet ...
Late one afternoon in March 1860 a man in a thin green velveteen jacket and a wide-awake hat arrived on foot at a sheep station named Glenmark, about 65 kilometres north of Christchurch. The man was in his mid-fifties but he looked older. Several people who met him that day ...
If building one of Auckland’s possible waterfront stadiums was funded privately, it would need to hold a sold-out Ed Sherran concert every weekday for 25 years. That’s Rob Hamlin’s finding – he’s a senior marketing lecturer at the University of Otago. “It’s not going to happen; forget about it,” he ...
Comment: The debate over the future relationship between news and social media is bringing us closer to a long-overdue reckoning. Social media isn’t trying to kill journalism, because social media has never really cared about journalism. Social media is resolutely in the attention business. News propels some attention — perhaps ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A new Commonwealth Prac Payment will provide students with $319.50 a week when they are on clinical and professional placements. The payment will be means tested and start from July 1 next year, which ...
Asia Pacific Report About 500 people honoured Palestinian journalists in the heart of the New Zealand city of Auckland today for their brave coverage of Israel’s War on Gaza, now in its seventh month with almost 35,000 people killed, mostly women and children. Marking the annual May 3 World Press ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
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 ...
NZ Herald’s 50 coolest Kiwis is of passing interest, and says as much about the NZ Herald as it does about (allegedly) cool Kiwis – in some categories it seems being an Alpha male (or even an alpha female) gets a lot of applause. However, the politics category is pretty cool: the coolest MPs of all time – John A Lee, Marily Waring and Big Norm!.
As for having Jacinda Ardern as the only cool current MP 🙄 – except it seems Labour MPs are cooler than any others!
Yep although how they could miss out Michael Joseph Savage is beyond me. Marilyn Wearing is the only National MP I can think of who would have fitted perfectly well in the Labour Party.
That’s the weakness list articles, they’re reductive, lack context, and are basically just lazy clickbait. Good to see it feature John A Lee though whom younger readers especially are less likely to know than Savage. I suppose if coolness was defined as being a maverick, while still achieving a significant political legacy, than Lee would win over Savage in those stakes. Well, before he became reactionary and hawkish in his later years, anyway.
Lee on Savage:
”Joe sees socialism as piles of goods fairly equitably divided and work equitably divided. I am sure he never sees it as the opportunity to play football, get brown on the beach, dance a fox trot, lie on one’s back beneath the trees, enjoy the intoxication of verse, the perfume of flowers, the joys of a novel, the thrill of music.”
Whereas now, it would be quite enough to have Labour MPs who embrace the utilitarian tenets of socialism.
love the quote, and it sums up so much of what the current Labour party needs.
The 3 blokes in suits who contested the leadership contest were all impressive candidates, but they didn’t really have it or have been shared to show it. If they did they’d be keen to present a united front from with the Greens with Labour leading I’d say. But you need the saxophonists in the band, the guitarists….
Opportunity to have a life and have some love, not work for less than a life and live in a tiny house with no garden and no park nearby and no window to see the sun.
*scared
Was thinking about this- Savage gets all the press with that photo…hardly anyone would recognise Peter Fraser or Wally Nash who arguably left a much larger legacy….Though rebels and authors are always cool, I mean has MJS got a corner in Point Chev?
Cool current Mps…hmmm…not too many rebels or authors amongst any of them…
Jacinda Adern hardly makes a blip on the public radar…Labour really must get a better person to front against Paula Bennett!!!!
Doing our best to supply one but really its going to depend on the list rankings. If we dont get the list correct then we deserve all we get.
John Clarke is still one of the coolest Kiwis ever (not just in 1972). The fact that he’s lived in Australia for the past 30 years is a reflection on NZ, not on Clarke’s coolness.
New Zealand indirectly gets a mention when journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Ewen MacAskill hold a press conference in New York earlier this week after winning a Polk Award for their reporting on Edward Snowden and the NSA.
“GLENN GREENWALD: For me, the most significant revelation is the ambition of the United States government and its four English-speaking allies to literally eliminate privacy worldwide, which is not hyperbole. “
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2014/4/11/video_glenn_greenwald_laura_poitras_q
Yep. NZ has been part of the Five Eyes arrangement for almost 70 years now.
The Scottish Independence Referendum is on the 18th of September. The Yes Campaign of the SNP has Momentum and is closing the gap on the No team of Tories and Labour.
Some Labour people are deserting to the Yes side. This is what Iain Macwhirter of the Herald Scotland has to say:
“Labour allowed the SNP to become the party of the NHS, nuclear disarmament and free education, while it has become the party of the benefits cap, immigration controls and weapons of mass destruction. I sometimes have to mentally pinch myself to remember that this is actually the case. But it is. Last month, Labour MPs voted overwhelmingly for the Coalition’s arbitrary welfare cap – surely a defining moment in British politics.
Labour introduced university tuition fees when they promised they would not; they supported the renewal of the Trident missile system; they talk enthusiastically about limiting immigration. Indeed, UK Labour politicians spend most of their time apologising for “getting it wrong” on immigration. About the only party that has a good word to say about migrants – or the European Union – is the Scottish National Party, which, as anyone who has any knowledge of nationalist parties in the rest of Europe knows, is remarkable.”
I know I’m banned but this is more important…where the f**k is Val Adams!!! Shes not only cool (look at the confidence and attitude she has she knows shes better then everyone else and can prove it) shes also the best template I can think of for young kiwi girls (and young kiwi guys for that matter) to follow
[lprent: 😈 ]
If all fraud is equal, how come partners of benefit fraudsters get fined or locked up, meanwhile big time fraudsters’ partners
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/9958230/Wife-gets-900k-from-mansion-sale
There are separate rules for those who can afford a QC to represent them, don’t you know.
at around $600 an hour…
Some on the left are prepared to confront the issues:
From That Sinking Feeling: Labour’s urgent need for persuasive words and courageous deeds.
And before the usual, I don’t agree with everything Chris has said – for example the left could still ‘win’ the election despite Labour – but what’s quoted here is pertinent to Labour’s current predicament.
One problem here may be that people commenting on blogs are powerless bystanders, and sad truths can be unpalatable. It could be a long tough five months.
Pete it was one poll taken during the royal visit, Labour and the Greens went down and the right track wrong track rating went up by a similar amount to National’s increase. Wait for the next few polls and then have the discussion. Or do you think that we should cancel the election now and just let Key get on with it.
And do you always agree with Chris or just when he backs up your world views?
I don’t agree with Chris when I disagree with him. What about you?
I understand the political tradition of trying to act as if nothing is wrong. But I agree with Chirs on one thing – I think Labour has to get real and get radical. Piddly policy releases and unconvincing public performances – with too much pissiness – are not working.
Yes, it was just one poll. Amongst a string of just one polls. Labour in Roy Morgan polls this year:
33.5
33
30.5
31.5
32
28.5
Even if Labour bounces back to the low thirties that’s not flash, you must admit that. Cunliffe has as good as acknowledged that he is reliant on at least one and probably both of the next biggest parties.
I think Cunliffe said during the week about not sweating the small stuff. I don’t see the hard yards being done on the important stuff, that’s something else I agree with Chris on.
Cunliffe and Labour should do less things, far better. Who really cares about caravan registrations?
Who buys the ‘buy Kiwi made” policy when most people buy Chinese because they know it’s a damn sight cheaper?
What Cunliffe and Labour are doing isn’t working, it isn’t inspiring. Sure they are in a media rut where every little thing is nitpicking, but this situation is of their own making.
Something significant needs to change and Labour needs to up it’s game or all it can hope for is an election Lotto where they share the prize with parties with settled leadership and much better defined aims.
So they are in a media rut where every little thing is nitpicking but this situation is of their own making?
Funny I would have said that this was of the media’s making.
Ok, Labour have allowed it to become of the media’s making.
Blaming the media won’t solve anything, if anything it will make things worse.
Politicians and parties have to earn credibility and positive coverage. It may be one step forward and five steps backwards but those steps forward have to be made by Labour, you can’t avoid that reality.
🙄 and this 🙄 …
I want MPs and leaders who are human. I doubt that there is anything wrong with Cunliffe. He’s just in an impossible situation. I don’t agree with everything he does, and in that sense I’m part of the crowd waiting for the Big Sign from Labour. But that is not all Cunliffe’s fault, it’s about the whole situation.
The MSM think that their job is to tear people down, and if they survive then they’re be respected. I want to live in a world where leaders are supported to be the best they can. I don’t want to live in a world where the only leaders we have are those who have to survive the school of hard knocks (or have enough money or influence in the new boys network).
When they sense vulnerability, yes. But some MPs and parties do exactly the same, and they work with media to try and achieve it.
What is your point? (yes, everyone, I know I will regret asking that). You say that Cunliffe has to earn credibility and positive coverage, but you acknowledge that the MSM is fixated on tearing people down. How does that work apart from the MSM getting to dictact political culture in NZ?
And are you seriously arguing that because some MPs/parties are bullies that it’s ok for the MSM to be as well?
In an election year the job of the media is to present information about politics to the country so that people can be informed. They can analyse what is going on, and they can investigate things that are of high public interest. But that’s not what is going on now. It’s fucked, anti-democracy, and a very large part of why we’re in such a mess as a country.
I didn’t argue that at all. MPs/parties and media often feed off each other, reliant on each for the attention they seek. That sometimes gets to a level of frenzied bullying. I don’t argue for that at all. I argue for more honesty and decency in politics and the media.
🙄
Can you please explain exactly how National and Key earned their supposed credibility ?.What brilliant policies have they brought to the table?
+1 and not only the MSM it would appear here…
The challenge for Labour and the Greens is to have a policy that makes the voter, and media, go “wow”. If that doesn’t happen for the voter particularly, it’s the policy that misses the mark. In the absence of a policy convincing enough to make the centre voter swing to the left, the results shouldn’t be a surprise. Thinking that voters are idiots because they don’t agree with you, also doesn’t change their perception of a person or a policy that fails to resonate with them. Perhaps try a policy grand enough to change people’s opinion and the MSM might report it as such. Putting “kiwi” in front of everything doesn’t seen to be working either. Time will tell I guess.
I think the answer, Micky, is that Trotter and Pooter are both conservative bores, who reinforce each other. The rest of us are just going to get on with winning the election. Never mind the bollocks, eh.
“…it’s a swindle! A swindle!
MS, I have friends asking me where are Labour’s announcements about restoring the integrity and principles of our social welfare system, public health and public education systems.
About how Labour is going to put in place game changers to sort out poverty especially child poverty in NZ once and for all.
They want to see announcements like NZ Power which put National on the back foot and which force National to make uncomfortable excuses and compromises. And it’s not happening.
I think that I can safely presume that you have been fielding similar.
This is what NZers want to hear from the Labour leader, not speculations about whether or not the Royal Visit had elements of playing politics or other random Thorndon Bubble focussed commentary.
So what do we get this week? Labour releases transport policy around “making it easier to get a family holiday on the road.” My friends in the over-stretched Dunedin social services sector were tearing their hair out at this. Families in poverty can barely get on the road in the first place, let alone go for a nice road trip around the country. Even Transport Blog slammed the policies as a distraction saying that the policy release is “absolute rubbish with it seemingly designed just to target a handful of complainers.”
Then there was the recent Bowel Screening announcement. Bowel screening is important to be sure, but honestly NO VOTER in NZ was thinking of colon cancer as a Top Ten election issue. And none still do.
So it looks to me like PG has a point when he says that its going to be a long 5 months ahead. Yes, we should definitely wait for the next few polls to come out and discuss them as well. But by then it will be just 4 long months ahead.
And why are all our politicians still talking about achieving “economic growth” (green or otherwise)…
IMF and World Bank mantra. Happy Easter mate.
And to you, good Trooper.
Good analysis CV. Thank goodness we have thinking people analysing present political policy offerings and attempting to vitalise and lift the low angle of the sterile political scene.
So you try the big issues and leave the little shite till later
1: Social Policy what is Labour going to do about the shell shocked beneficiaries who have been used and abused for the last 6 years?
A: probably nothing.
2: Housing policy No one is listening.
3: Jobs
4: Sensible roading projects
5: Christchurch rebuild
6: Auckland Inner Rail Loop
7: Housing bubble.
8: the soaring Dollar
Oh and I live in Levin so something about some jobs down here, but first a CREDIBLE candidate would be nice!
It’s not a loop but link. Loops in transports systems are actually really inefficient.
What’s in Levin that makes jobs there viable?
What is it about jobs that people keep going on about them? We don’t need jobs, we need a viable distribution system the distributes the wealth of our economy properly.
You may not want to structure it as “jobs” but there will be no ‘wealthy economy’ without people turning up to do labour every day.
An ever more productive economy results in ever fewer jobs – especially labouring jobs. It won’t be long before bus drivers are redundant. That may not sound like much but there’s tens of thousands of them. Thus we need to take those people who have been made redundant and retrain them into the non-labouring sector.
That means training them in R&D and arts and craft and getting them away from the financial sector which, as it stands, is easy work, doesn’t produce anything and is massively over-rewarded. And when I’m talking R&D I’m talking about a better mouse trap but materials science, automation, medical and biological tech, etc etc. Stuff that we’re not doing enough of now.
The future you are expecting is not going to materialise, DTB. For instance, automated vehicle navigation and driving is going to remain a googlelabs curio as economic and energy decline sets in even harder.
As private transport becomes less affordable, the number of bus drivers we need may increase, not decrease. Labouring will become more common as fossil fuel energy use becomes increasingly expensive, and we start to lose the ability to support highly specialised and expensive disciplines.
Well, it won’t if we keep whinging about it being too hard. Don’t need fossil fuels to run buses or trains. Renewable electricity is great for them.
The point is that we don’t want to increase them. Having more bus drivers doesn’t do us any good. There’s much better things we can have those people doing.
“There’s much better things we can have those people doing.”
Maybe they actually like driving the bus
Well, I suppose we can keep a couple of old relics going for tourism.
Aside from the fact that quite a lot of our terraine isn’t suited to rail
I have NFI WTF that has to do with buses.
If Labour really wanted to make an impact transport wise, then it would cancel the Holiday Highway and used the money saved to restore the cuts to rural road funding, and perhaps set a bold target of sealing all the remaining metal/gravel roads in the country by 2025 (or thereabouts). It would reach deep into National’s heartland, as farmers in, say, Pipiriki would be able to get their goods to market without going though a quagmire in the winter.
Yep. And secure the future of our heavy transport rail lines and coastal shipping!
And beef up our navy to protect our coastal shipping.
Two things keep me from voting green – the feel good vagueness of much of their policy and their total disregard for our military needs.
https://www.greens.org.nz/policy/defence-and-peacekeeping-armed-services-policy
The Green Party will:
Ensure that New Zealand has sufficient maritime surveillance capabilities, including airplanes, to properly monitor the waters around New Zealand, and to assist South Pacific island states.
Ensure that New Zealand has sufficient capabilities for peacekeeping, search and rescue, disaster relief, fisheries and border control tasks. We should phase out any equipment that are not optimal for such tasks.
Ensure that New Zealand has sufficient naval capacity to conduct appropriate patrols: around our coasts, into Antarctic waters, and to assist South Pacific islands states. The capacity could include some sea transport capacity, but from multi-purpose ships, not specialised transport ships. We welcome the introduction into our navy of a multi-role ship and new patrol boats as they will be useful for our border protection and South Pacific and Antarctic work. We will continue to ensure that New Zealand has adequate naval capacity for these tasks.
I think a far more rewarding bold action would be to scrap the Navy altogether.
Replace it with a Coastguard type service that is capable of patrolling all our waters from Antarctica to the Pacifica Islands. Supply them with aircraft, patrol vessels and sufficient crew trained for Rescue work. Much better use of money. We do not need a Navy
defence and peacekeeping.
Government really helping the regions, the agricultural/horticultural sector as a whole, not just dairy. What a sound idea. I wonder when someone will think of that, and when gummint will act on it?
Someone in one of the boondock territories of rural NZ was complaining about the way that logging trucks create big problems of dust, destroying road surface, extra traffic, unpleasant industrial-type noise that is ongoing for much of the 24 hours. But there is not the money available to pave the roads, to maintain them, ie not extra from government, not in the cash-strapped local area suffering this abuse to its roads, and not from the users causing the problem, the logging companies.
A real farmers party would show some more care for the rural sector in every way. But the NACTs have hypnotised them into thinking that they should not ask for much from the government, that they are hardworking, smart, resilient etc. and free, strong, independent people not like the townies, those effete, chair-sitters, those lazy bludgers on the government tit living off money provided by the proud hard-working achievers of the country. Then they are horribly surprised that when disaster strikes them, that social welfare is so meanly given when they are on their bare bones. And still some of them feel it is beneath them to ask for help, because of all the years they have been absorbing the propaganda about the worthlessness of people on welfare.
The underlying attitude that is cultivated by farm leaders when comparing the agricultural sector to those in the metropolis is not far different from that shown in soviet posters with strong, proud figures with bulging muscular arms holding agricultural tools.
Actually the smaller farmers are being allowed to go to the wall.
Their farms are being amalgamated into giant units until they are a convenient size to make an attractive package to some rich overseas or city type swollen with money from gorging more than their share of the incomes paid out those working,
or just plotting financial coups.
Napier should have a good rail system for their products to feed them into the country, not just to the ports as fresh or manufactured food for the outsiders.
Give the regions what they need FGS to do business locally and for export, and take us away from borrowing money for dairy and imports which probably helps to shove up our exchange rate. If we have a period of adjustment while we have to pay more for petrol and oil and other imported goods then so be it. Face it now, and survive virtually intact though poorer, or have it dump on us in a smothering debacle that will likely ruin us.
The country being run down like an aged business beyond its maturity date is crap for wan..rs with MBAs who are learning how to become robber barons at some mercenary university.
I want NZ Post for one, to keep going 5 days a week, and for government to put its post through it. NZ as a country that has to pull together in this uncivil war against the people. Is that too much to ask? Don’t reply to that, just leave the question hanging in the air and fashion a society that means a positive answer.
attr. to Benjamin Franklin 1776, but Dryden said similar first in 1717
+1000 CV
What about the manufacturing announcement CV? It feels like Labour is being criticised for not releasing policy, releasing minor policy and releasing major policy all at the same time!
What manufacturing announcement? They keep saying that they’re going to upgrade the economy and manufacturing but all I keep seeing from them is more tax breaks and government subsidies to the private sector.
Why did they release that minor policy/comment re transport just prior to releasing the gruntier policy on manufacturing?
It appears that the minor policy grabbed the attention and diverted attention away from the more fundamental and substantial manufacturing policy. 🙁
Therein lies the problem on one day a mirth inducing “cluster truck” follow by a serious manufacturing policy immediately lost in the mirth of the previous policy.
It seems to me strategy wise nothing has changed since the last election. Doesn’t matter who the leader is or the ‘media bias’ if whoever is deciding on strategy is serving up lemons no amount of good intention will work. It quickly descending to farce. If you look left or right in terms of the greens or the nats strategy wise they are miles ahead….
@ Cricklewood,
Sadly, this is the opinion I am starting to form too
Peter Dunne is a moral void. He has the power to ban the so called legal highs yet he does not.
He sees no conflict in the fact that he son’s income is derived from the sale of theses drugs that is bringing havoc to families.
Peter Dunne had the power to say that the government would not deal with Dunne Junior.
I bet Peter Dunne gets very very nice birthday presents from his very well paid son.
Penny Hulse has some sensible things to say about synthetics and natural cannabis.
I think this is the direction we need to be looking in. There’s a growing realisation that the Psychoactive Substances Act only addresses a part of the problem.
The cannabis elephant in the room needs to be confronted.
🙄
The way forward is the direction we need to look in. We must have the discussion in the future. Astonishingly insightful. No wonder you agree with it so equivocally.
+1111
i would likely to add this, 🙄 …
To smoke or not to smoke is not the question.
Dunne has deeply damaged the credibility of the office of a minister.
All around the country kids are hearing that the Toxic Shot is legal and that it will not be banned by the minister, whose son is making a living out of selling the Toxic shit.
No wonder so many do not vote when they see such self serving bullshit.
Dear Standardistas. Do not engage with Peter George on the decriminalization of Cannabis. etc. It is a smoke screen for his hero Peter Dunne and his drug industry son, James.
That is blatantly untrue. Ignorance or malicious?
Drugs not demonstrably safe will be banned – or we’ve been had by the whole of Parliament.
And legal highs have been available for years.
🙄
“Peter Dunne is a moral void. He has the power to ban the so called legal highs yet he does not.
He sees no conflict in the fact that he son’s income is derived from the sale of theses drugs that is bringing havoc to families.
Peter Dunne had the power to say that the government would not deal with Dunne Junior.
I bet Peter Dunne gets very very nice birthday presents from his very well paid son”
Bollocks, Peter Dunne’s new law gives councils the power to put these shops out of business.
If Hamilton can use the new law to close down the puff shops then other lazy councils need to
get off their arse and start to earn their salary.
http://www.legalhighs.co.nz/synthetic-cannabis/six-hamilton-legal-highs-stores-closed/2014
Dunne junior is an adult and there is no conflict in the fact that he like a lot of lawyer’s make a living from defending scum. What a feeble attempt of a smear
Um the law allows Councils to regulate not ban naki.
“Um the law allows Councils to regulate not ban”
The link says they have been banned, the point is they have been shutdown and they cant sell drugs. You can call it what ever you like
PD and PG are the useful idiots the corporate elite need to run the world.
Sad really.
(this was my response to trotters’ piece..)
i welcome the separation of the greens from labour..
..labour can go and harvest those soft national votes..
..and the greens can get back to their knitting..
..(as long as they haven’t lost their balls..of wool..)
..i was finding that whole waltz-down-the-aisle-together/no-bottom-lines/lead-me-to-my-bmw!- routine..
..both alarming and tacky..
..and if the greens again find their balls..of wool..
..maybe they will also find some of those lost bottom-lines..?
..we live in hope..
..the total of that union was not greater than the sum of its’ parts..
..it was just pallid..and pallider..(you pick which was which..)
..whereas the opposite applies to mana/internet party..
..the total there is definitely greater than the sum of its’ parts..
..so the same reasons apply for the mana/internet coming together..
..and the labour party/green cleaving apart..
..funny that..!
(and we did a cartoon about that mana/internet sum total..)
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/original-whoar-cartoon-why-the-mana-party-and-the-internet-party-should-coalesce/
There’s been this bizarre disconnect between Pete George with his hat on as politicheck, for which I have been occasionally been impressed with some of the work, as I didn’t think he was capable of it.
Why? There’s Pete George the thread hijacker, line spinner and right wing blog personality, and in this case concern troll.
Not looking at the polls and looking at Cunliffe’s performances on camera as well as the co ordination of the party’s work and the appointments that have been made, the news has been all positive for Labour. If you are behind in a game and you rearrange your line up and make some subs, you don’t look at the score on the board now. You say ‘are we doing the basics right’ and ‘can we get some momentum going’. The answer to both of these is yes.
+10000
“Some on the left are prepared to confront the issues”
Passive-aggressive much?
A cursory checking of the facts would tell you that Trotter is only on the left on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. This post was written on a Friday, when he is known to support the National Party.
In the Herald today
But on Thursday evening, she said she had checked her notes and believed she had spoken to the ambassador about the dinner the following day and told him “nothing had occurred that was untoward and it was just a very private friendly dinner that was short”.
Why would she specifically say to the Ambassador that “nothing had occurred that was untoward” That has to be one of the strangest revelations so far. Why was she compelled to use those words. This is someone who knew at the time was skating on thin ice, had probably be warned by the Ambassador.
+1. Further Collins dissection required. The gift that goes on giving.
Good to see some penetrating questions in the House finally having an impact.
Originally, was this ‘private dinner’ not ‘maybe a cup of tea on the way to the airport’?
And is Collins’ husband really using her ministerial car as a commuter vehicle?
When he is apparently a well paid Oravida director/executive/owner…well Ms C, what is he exactly?
Oravida has other investments in NZ apart from fresh milk processing. These should be given wider airplay.
And let us hear again, how the PM’s photo appeared on an Oravida product wrapper? After all, he doesn’t need the money…
And precisely what role does Goodfellow play in all this? Bagman?
There is a nasty smell of corruption here, wafting right to the top.
The latest is this, which bears careful reading
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11240644
If Collins was trying to boost her husband’s company into a ‘preferred supplier’ or even ‘quasi-monopoly supplier’ to the massive China market, then this is dynamite.
We are getting into the good old ‘secret commissions’ area…and that is criminal.
Would be good to see this followed up.
And the PM as shill for Oravida….an interesting footnote which should not be neglected.
And why would she keep notes from a harmless dinner?
Yes, it was a disappointing and depressing poll prompting a sinking feeling, but I would like to see the next 4 polls (from Colmar Brunton, TV3 Reid, Herald Digi and Fairfax Ipsos) to see if this poll is consistent or not.
Exactly, you were supposed to feel disappointed and depressed by such polls, and the others to come from the TV channels and the print media, that’s why they publish these things,
Physical Action results in the endorphins in the body being stirred, stirring the bodies endorphins promotes psychological well being leading to a lack of disappointment and depression,
Contact the political party of your choice and ask them to be included on their list of pamphlet deliverers in your electorate,
Put aside an hour a day/night to pamphlet drop your electorate street by street…
and todays Gardening Tip
i am surprised by all the Doom and Gloom, does everyone forget their lessons of history that easily,
Cast your minds back to 2011, the election with Phill Goff as Labour leader, now how many here actually supported poor old Phill, you could just about count such supporters on one finger,
The mantra from the right leading into the 2011 election,”National can Govern alone”),there is certainly no ”original thought” apparent this time round with the same old same old being promoted by the usual suspects,
Take out the 3 Maori Party MP’s this time round and i would suggest that it is going to be that close a contest,
Save the Doom and Gloom for after the vote if we don’t get at least a slightly left leaning Government…
Yes, bad 12, I get that and I do that, but I also had the general public in mind when I made the comment. My gut feeling tells me that the polls will shift towards the left block, but today’s interview by Turei on the Nation regarding the Green’s cabinet deputy PM ambitions/expectations, even before the voters have shown their hand, was a shocker.
Seem to me like she was carrying a blunt spade to naively dig the Left grave with her at that answer.
Didn’t see ‘the Nation’ this morning, you will perhaps like to explain further why you see Metiria as ‘digging the left’s grave’,
That from where i sit sounds like a very interesting comment,(at Labour),from Met’s, did it come across as a ”if the Green Party is not included in Labour’s thinking as being a large part of the next Government, Forget It!!!),
If the comment from Metiria was in fact in that vein, then, i would say ”nice one”, what point a Labour ”lead” Government including NZFirst in a cozy ”business as usual” combination which has the Green Party shut out,???,
That to me we have already had from the Clark Government, the best i can say about that from the position i got to view it is ”it wasn’t National”,
If Labour attempt this time round to ”shut out” the Greens i would suggest that along with Mana they take to the cross benches and ”extract” gains by horse trading on every piece of Legislation which would simply mean that Labour/NZFirst would have to enact a piece of Green/Mana Legislation for every one allowed by the bloc further to the left…
http://www.3news.co.nz/Greens-aim-for-co-deputy-PM-role/tabid/1607/articleID/340726/Default.aspx
See what you think.
In politics, politicians have to be thoughtful on what one says in public. Some things are for private discussion. Big mouths can cause indigestion and give a sick feeling. Dumb.
Lolz, you are making a mountain out of a molehill, on the current numbers Labour have to negotiate NZFirst into a coalition which will also necessitate the Green Party being involved,
Your whole spew of abuse this morning contends not only that the Green Party should shut up and confine itself to a script set by Labour/NZFirst, it also gives the impression (unwritten of course), that you consider that the Green Party should just hand over support to ANY coalition that Labour negotiate including being outside of a minority Government of Labour/NZFirst,
The Green Party is free to give its supporters and potential voters an indication NOW of what it expects from a Labour/NZFirst coalition as far as Ministerial positions goes despite all Your mumbo jumbo trotting out of the Labour/NZFirst lines,
i would urge both Russell and Metiria to spell it out loudly and publicly what the Green Party and it’s Members expect from a Labour/NZFirst Government in both Ministerial positions and Policy gains for the Green Party should they agree to support a Labour/NZFirst Government,
Your comments this morning simply firm up my belief that this time round if Labour propose a Labour/NZFirst Government without a strong Green presence in MInisterial roles that the Greeen Party would better itself and its supporters by taking to the cross benches along with Mana and horse trading Policy gains Legislation by Legislation,
This i would suggest will provoke Labour/NZFirst into seeking National/ACT support in pushing through its Legislative progam thus showing you all the true colors of the relevant parties…
Labour will not shut out the Greens. Greens will be a large part of the next Labour led government, with cabinet posts. Cunliffe has already made that VERY clear just recently. Don’t understand why the Greens are spreading so much misinformation and unnecessary discord.
I do not agree with you at all. You are imagining things I did not say or imply re shutting Greens out etc. That Greens will be or may be shut out by Labour won’t happen nor is desirable. By making silly stance now about getting TWO deputy pm posts, aren’t these Greens trying to hamstring Labour already prior to the election and prior to the coalition discussions and agreements? In my mind, that is an arrogant, stupid, naive, cunning and crap attitude to take, besides planting discord among Labour and scaring away potential left supporters.
I am annoyed at the Greens now and I am calling it as I see it.
@ clem..re turei/deputy prime minister claim..
..i agree..
..who the hell is advising them on strategy..?
..both norman and tureu are coming across as having their eyes on ministerial-baubles..
..and little else..
..and i know we shouldn’t focus on the trivialities like clothing/choice of dress..
..but that white power-jacket turei sported for me just emphasised the apparent distance of the greens from their constituencies/who put them there..
..turei looked more at home in a russian doll set..along with the likes of collins/bennett..
..the greens..in their long/wholesale efforts not to offend..
..seem to have walked away from much of their traditional/long-term support..
..those wanting to end the blight of poverty..now have to look to mana..
..the pot-vote has to look to the internet party (?)..
..and those there for ‘green’/environmental-reasons will be in denial –
if not dismayed by normans’ recent ennunciations of ‘no bottom lines’..
..on pretty much everything..
..i’m sorry..but looking from out here..
..the greens seem lost/blinded by personal-ambitions/baubles..
..and tureis’ claim/assumptions on the deputy prime minister role..
..only reinforces that image..
..bottom-line:..the greens need to sack their current team of strategists/advisers..
..they are leading them towards irrelevancy..
..(or..this is just being driven by the elites/leadership/small group that runs the party..
..and if that is the case..they are digging their own graves of irrelevancy..)
..ourt here in the real world of poverty/prohibition..and the like..
..who gives a flying fuck who is ‘deputy-prime-minister’..?
..the green party/leadership..really need to get a fucken grip..
..they are/seem lost..somewhere on the road to that garage housing the ministerial-bmw’s..
Those 4 you mention are all Right leaning polls Mainly ring Landlines only and have a strict list of leading questions. The best of the lot is Morgans poll
Even Morgan is suspect with the son of Roy being deeply involved in mining,(not that i would propose that this would deliberately skew a Morgan poll against the Greens, snigger)…
Those 4 you mention are all Right leaning polls Mainly ring Landlines only and have a strict list of leading questions. The best of the lot is Morgans poll
I agree RM is the best. National on 48%, Labour imploding. Is it still your favourite?
there was an outbreak of reefer-madness yesterday..in the gen-debate thread..
..this unpacks the trigger/cause of that ‘reefer-madness’..
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/why-medias-fearmongering-marijuana-effects-brain-faulty
“..A neuroimaging study of the brains of marijuana smokers caused unwarranted frenzy..”
and of course..this is one of the main reasons the mana/any(?) party should swing in behind a decriminalise/regulate/tax policy on pot..
….all reasons that are obvious..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/18/weed-legalization_n_5169750.html
“..Ultimately, though, it will be a net public health “win” –
if rising pot consumption deters heavy drinking –
which does much more societal and personal damage..”
..and as per the mana party/pot-policy..my understanding is the party membership/younger members esp. –
..and it is the older members in power in the party..
..who are blocking that popular will amongst the party members..
..(and the general public..if that campbell live poll showing 84% support for the ending of cannabis prohibition is to be given any credence..)
Phill you could start a legalize pot party, oh wait there is already one in operation, now how many votes have they achieved in total in how many elections again…
Good to see you back from the naughty corner Philip Ure! ……( and bad12 missed you too….he hasnt been the same without you…but i suggest you two play at the opposite ends of the sandpit for a while)
@ Bad12…..well legalise pot makes a lot of sense!….and criminalise the synthetic stuff…everyone around the country hates what the synthetic stuff is doing to young people….except Peter Dunne and son …and NACT of course….their entrepreneurs are probably selling it.
Yup, the sort of thing a 3rd term Government would do, legalize marijuana that is, oh except for the small fact that Labour have no intention of going anywhere near legalization,
So while Phill can gnash what’s left of His teeth down to the gums, a 10–15% Green Party are unlikely to convince Labour to move on the issue,and, on the present numbers NZFirst as well…
The Christchurch Press and all the local newspapers are full of horror stories about synthetic cannabis./party drugs …makes the real stuff seem positively harmless ( even some local police think so)
….this could be an Election Issue with not a few votes ….such is the anguish of parents whose kids are hooked and the kids themselves… with very bad side effects according to A@E doctors…..at very least Labour/Greens /Mana/NZF should overturn legalising the synthetic stuff and seriously consider make the real stuff legal
…Seems like NACT and Peter Dunne have gone mad
@ chooky..
..and a lot of people..are making a lot of money..
..off of this crap..
..they are as bad as the tobacco/alcohol-pushers..
agreed they are making a lot of money!!! ….and they are despicable!!!!…this one could turn around and savagely maul NACT and Peter Dunne
…there are quite a few votes in this for making the synthetic stuff illegal and legalising the old ‘tried and true real stuff’ to those 18 and over…the precedent has been set in USA and other countries
On Stuff
“New Zealand’s economic boom is about to pop with dramatic results, the US business magazine Forbes reports today.”
The Forbes article
IF, the dairy auctions keep bringing in the rate of decline in prices paid on the current trend ”things” aint going to be pretty in a year or two,
We all know what occurs when the Western World’s economies go belly up, the field of battle is currently being defined by talks in Europe…
Ta,very interesting.That should make more than a few think.[why aren’t they]Makes you wonder why you would wont to govern.
Yes, I saw that too. I wonder why we still have guaranties for banks if they are doing so nicely? Besides, the rebuild in Christchurch does skewer the figures and the US financial wizkids do as usually have no clue but want to brush everybody with the same stroke.
Whilst the time frame of the rebuild in CCH is scandalous to keep it civilized, it is no New Orleans where people have to donate and beg to have a roof over their heads and meanwhile the Freddie’s jump out of the hat. As for the foreign investors in NZ, yes absolutely it needs to be curtailed as land is not something anyone can “produce”.
Greens are Labour’s hindering albatross.
I can’t believe that the Green leaders are so arrogant, so politically naive and frankly a little stupid going by their previous Labour-Green pre election coalition stunt designed to help themselves and harm Labour and now this interview comment by Turei on the Nation today regarding her ambition on the deputy PM position in a Labour led coalition after the election.
She, like Norman, presumes too much even before the election, even before the voters have spoken! This is political naivity in the extreme, unbelievable arrogance and frankly stupid, in my opinion. I am afraid this sort of carry by these naive numpties may drive more people away from Labour/Greens. A very counter productive cocky stance to take.
Any coalition deals and terms need to be discussed in private between the parties and announced after the election, not before. Simple common sense politics 101. NZF and even National must be happily rubbing their luck once again.
With friends like Greens, who needs enemies?
http://www.3news.co.nz/Greens-aim-for-co-deputy-PM-role/tabid/1607/articleID/340726/Default.aspx
It’s a message to the people who vote for the GP and who might vote for the GP. It’s not a message to people like you Clem.
I’m not sure if you are objecting to Norman and Turei wanting to be deputy PM, or if you are objecting to them saying so before the election. Myself, I prefer transparency.
Seems that Clem wants the Green Party to be silenced and adhere to a script being ”run” by Labour/NZFirst,
i would urge the Green Party to become more specific leading into this election as to exactly what Ministerial roles it expects to fill in a Labour/NZFirst Government along with pointing out Policy areas in which the Party will require a ”strong” say,
Other than that i would urge the Green Party leadership to begin devising a strategy of ”negotiating” from the cross benches…
You are ascribing various views implying they are mine! You are wrong. Greens can say what they want and show the public how stupid and arrogant the Greens are. What I am saying is that in my view, politically, they are being smug, silly, arrogant and stupid, damaging the left cause overall.
@ Clemogeopin,
It would be really good if you could take bad12 (or weka’s) comments as highlighting that what you are saying may be implying certain things that you don’t intend – rather than take the comments too personally.
I am interested in what you are saying and what weka and bad12’s (and others on previous threads) have responded. And also, if you take their responses seriously, how you would respond back to the points they make.
I think there is some real relevance to what you are saying – even if it is a ‘perception thing’ i.e. that the ‘Greens are radical’ seems to be a false idea that has been conjured up and seeded by the right with the aim of dividing and conquering – yet the discussion still needs to be had by the left because this propaganda technique appears to be taking hold of some people’s views and having done so, the discussion is very worthy because to work through it in a level-headed manner could assist in undermining the effects of the propaganda.
Hope that makes sense
I sort of get what you are saying, but taking public stance on expected potential baubles etc is not being level headed of Greens and is counter productive to the left block in my view and that annoys me and probably does to a lot of other potential left inclined voters. I don’t want this kind of tactics to result in us snatching a stupid defeat. Watch for the right wing parties and the media use this premature pre-election comment to pound Labour and Greens even further now.
It is one thing to talk about party policies to gather more votes, but quite another to go bauble hunting before the election.
Cheers for your post. Have a nice Easter.
lol I think perhaps I didn’t make a very clear point…possibly not entirely clear on it , I will have to think some more on that one.
I keep forgetting it is Easter, I wish you a good Easter too, cheers!
How will Norman, Turei, you and the green supporters feel if Cunliffe may not be be able to offer the plum deputy PM posts to the these two ambitious naive/cunning nitwits?
Clem
Russel Norman and Metiria Turei are not naive twits. I hope they are cunning or in parliament they’ll end up like bunnies facing ferrets. That may be nature but not the environment that Greens work in.
You seem to have a thing against the Greens. Can you try to think politically (politics being the art of the possible) and not think of the election as a sporting contest where there is usually a definite winner and loser, occasionally a draw or bye. In politics a Party can win, and not just the opposition will lose, but so may the whole country. A Party can achieve one good thing and yet most people not receive one positive improvement or advantage. What then is winning? The Greens are more important and steadfast for NZ than you give them credit for.
The actions of pollies directly affect my life and I want more understanding of the complex tasks that pollies need to do to be acknowledged. It’s not just simply aiming to get a ball in goal..
No, I am NOT against the Greens or their policies or them being in the government or the cabinet. I am against their stupid counter productive political stunts and statements I mentioned earlier which in my opinion harm the left aim of winning this election.
Well it was a bit ridiculous of Turei to suggest that she could be co-Deputy Prime Minister
Why? Plenty of organisations have co-vice presidents, or more than one person at the second tier. The Greens have managed to make the co-leader structure work, there’s no practical reason for it to not work just as well at the Deputy PM level.
It would hardly be the most ridiculous Cabinet position ever invented to please a coalition partner (cough, Treasurer, cough).
Or Minister of Foreign Affairs but not Trade and Outside Cabinet.
I do like transparency too. But why do I get the feeling that those two are played and NZ1 has a role in all of this? Can’t say why but it’s like a stone in the show if you know what I mean.
I suspect the Greens see Labour as a hindering albatross, with more justification. Which party looks the most united and best organised and prepared?
I don’t see any problem with any party being up front about their preferences for any possible coalition deal. Shouldn’t voters know this in advance? I don’t buy the “let the voters decide” then parties do as they please approach. They have no idea what voters were thinking and wanting.
I actually agree with that.
Turei as deputy PM this is hilarious, this is the same woman who called Fonterra and Sanitarium feeding the school kids “corporate welfare” There needs to be some sort of IQ test for this position.
That will really scare the horses.
How is Fonterra feeding the kids not corporate welfare?
It’s actually worse than corporate welfare. It’s corporate welfare with propaganda attached.
Corporate welfare is a defined term. It refers to things like subsidies and tax breaks that are used to entice businesses or increase profit and compare them to welfare payments. The Rio Tinto situation for instance was an act of corporate welfare.
The idea is that governments who demonise welfare and beneficiaries often engage in corporate welfare and pick favourites and provide them with favourable tax breaks and subsidies. It’s welfare but for a much less deserving audience.
So, Turei really was wrong to refer to Fonterra feeding the kids initiative as “corporate welfare”. However, it is largely semantics. I can think of far more important tests to see whether someone should be Deputy Prime Minister.
I think Turei as DPM would probably do a decent job. It might make the media at least remember she’s a leader of the Green Party.
AAA+++
If a fool like Bill English can be deputy PM then anyone can, even you Mad Naki..
lolz, thanks fender.
not so much ‘corporate welfare’..
..as them pushing their deeply unhealthy products on new generations..
..getting them hooked on the health-harming sugar/fat-laden muck they peddle..
Milk and Wheetbix you oaf
@ pops..
..yes..?..
..yr point..?
..(tho’ i withdraw the ‘sugar’..it is the cow bye-product that is the nasty in this combo..)
Is that you there Bomber?
Oh those evil Greens! With their… principles… and recognition that they are no longer a minor party.
Hi son! Wow! I had given up thinking we would never meet!
you’re right. It should only be the serious men with suits who are allowed to get government titles. Good to see that Turei will have to give up her playing at leader once Clem and his ilk fumble towards power.
Turei has been a strong politician- especially with her response to the attacks on her and the invitation of the press to her ‘castle’ worth an Auckland car park to see her wardrobe.
She provides a clear point of difference to the samey-ness across the leadership on the left- Cunliffe, Parker, Robertson, King, Jones, Adern, Cosgrove, Hipkins, Norman- she’s young, Maori, passionate and with a profile and doesn’t appear to be part of the careerist politicians who are careful to follow the party line. She seems to have a purpose about her entry to parliament and to me suggesting this kind of unorthodox arrangement that isn’t ‘common-sense’ like Peters, UF et al are…suggests why she is needed by the left.
Where did I say anything anything of the sort?
Why is that you and some others here do not actually understand the actual points I made in my posts? Read it again.
It would be good if bloggers when discussing an individual pollie gave their first name. It would make them sound like respected people, rather than pawns on the political chess board.
but warbler..in the main..they aren’t ‘respected people’..
..and they are just ‘ pawns on the political chess board’..most of them..
..is there anything more pathetic/useless to man or beast..
..than an opposition backbencher..?
..and remember..they are ranked below used car salesmen..
..(or their modern equivalent..the internet bye-product peddler..)
..by most of us mug-punters..
..so a sirname is more than the ‘hey you!’ most of them deserve..
..i remember farrar got his knickers quite knotted when i started doing that @ kiwiblog..
..he had an ‘it’s not polite!’ tizzy/hissy-fit…
..which was dutifully ignored..
The political hole deepens for Minister for Justice – Judith Collins …..
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11240640
“Justice Minister Judith Collins has recovered her memory after telling Parliament she could not recall whether she had briefed New Zealand’s ambassador to Beijing about her Oravida dinner.
…..
In Parliament’s last session before a two-week recess, she again refused to identify the official she dined with, said she did not know of Oravida’s difficulties in the Chinese market before the dinner, and said she could not remember whether she had briefed ambassador to Beijing Carl Worker about the dinner.
She told the Weekend Herald she didn’t believe she had spoken about the dinner to Mr Worker beyond an initial discussion beforehand when he said he would not attend.
But on Thursday evening, she said she had checked her notes and believed she had spoken to the ambassador about the dinner the following day and told him “nothing had occurred that was untoward and it was just a very private friendly dinner that was short”.
She said Mr Worker had asked her on the day of the dinner to just let him know if there was anything that he needed to know about.
…….”
DUH?
Who ‘takes notes’ at a private dinner with friends?
In what capacity did Minister of Justice Judith Collins speak “.. to the ambassador about the dinner the following day and told him “nothing had occurred that was untoward and it was just a very private friendly dinner that was short”.
Did Minister of Justice Judith Collins speak to Carl Worker in his capacity as NZ Ambassador to China?
If so – then this can NOT have been a ‘private dinner’ for which Judith Collins had no Ministerial responsibility.
Who invited Carl Worker, (who just happens to be the NZ Ambassador to China) to this dinner?
WHY did Carl Worker, (who just happens to be the NZ Ambassador to China) decline to attend this dinner?
Is there some sort of parallel universe happening here – where it just so happens that these very important and influential people – are also close personal friends, so there is no clear line of demarcation between private lives and public duties?
Is that why, in my considered opinion, Minister of Justice Judith Collins HAS CROSSED THE LINE and is indeed no longer ‘fit for duty’?
What a DISGRACE.
National’s Minister of Justice Judith Collins is treating both Parliament and the public with total contempt.
But I can understand Prime Minister John Key’s reluctance to sack her from Parliament.
Do the maths.
National is a MINORITY government with only 59 MPs out of 121.
Judith Collins is an electorate MP.
(As are Peter Dunne and John Banks).
Oh dear …… whatever could happen next to this (in my considered opinion) COALITION OF THE CORRUPT?
No wonder while on Minister of Justice Judith Collins’ watch – New Zealand STILL has not yet ratified the UN Convention Against Corruption.
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CAC/signatories.html
I for one, doubt that she has even read it.
Here – have a look for yourselves:
http://www.unodc.org/documents/treaties/UNCAC/Publications/Convention/08-50026_E.pdf
Which New Zealand political party is going to pick up the ball on this one, and announce that getting the legislative anti-corruption framework in place so that New Zealand can ratify the UN Convention Against Corruption will be a most URGENT political priority?
Penny Bright
Are you going to put up a Friday social post? I’ve got a good poetry piece for it.
Or what about an Easter break social post? How’s everyone going out there. We have sun, lovely weather for now.
Been working.
For all those thickoes that do not get it, where Kim Schmitz aka Dotcom comes from, get a translator and learn:
More on Dotcom, exposed by Spiegel TV, on German TV, but they have little sympathy for him, as they see well through him:
He has at least been working on the borderline of legality, and he will face justice soon. You Tube are not releasing recently released movies, but Mega Upload did. He got away with heaps, but his days are numbered, just many Kiwis are as dumb as ever, as they voted a money speculator into power, they have sympathy for a law breaker. Hah, wake up, idiots.
He cannot be deported now, as he has children here, just smartly organised, like some from other nations, who have off spring here, knowing it is the licence to welfare! Hah, bingo, here you go, TS, you love that, right?
Sorry, I wish I had never come back, I tried to make an end, but it did not work, so I just want to say, please fight on standardistas, I am no longer able to, I am too ill. The way things are it is terrible, we are as people on benefits told the help us but it is a lie same as the Nazis told lies.
I am too tired and sick, I will not communicate further, take care and try to fight the horrible policies and this minister that tells us the lies she “cares”. She should be bloody ashamed of herself!
I do not want to live in this country any more, it is not the country it once was.
Concentrate on finding a way forward xtasy. I hope you find a real solution soon. You are not alone and despite what the world is trying to tell people, many out there do care about others.
There are too many in similar positions where their health is failing as fast as the system that is meant to help them, but as the realities are too complex for the MSM to cram into a soundbite, too many are being left to battle their health problems alone.
But don’t give up on ‘ol kiwiland just yet. I also hate what NZ has become but refuse to believe it is too far gone to recover.
You are stronger than their lies xtasy,
Kia kaha
I always thought that NZers are prone to being take for a ride, and Kim Dotcom has taken you for a fucking ride, for sure, you silly fools, and the day he goes you will finally wake up from your “addiction”, and I know what addiction means, you are hooked, the ones that fall for this conman!
Remember to take a screenshot to put in with your expenses claim.
Now, who exactly here is addicted to Dotcom?