Too many Labour MP’s abandon solidarity with the party when it conflicts with their own self interest as an electorate MP.
Samuels comments reflect this sort of thinking – as does that of Davis the current candidate. The same applies on the West Coast.
In the MMP environment they cost Labour party list votes in the electorate and nationwide.
The idea that whatever it takes to secure for themselves the electorate is doing their job is FPP era thinking. It is in the modern environment feathering their own nest by fouling it for the rest of the party.
What irony that National the party of individual advancement shows more loyalty to the common well being of the party than themselves. There is strength in being united in collective cause as the polls indicate.
The campaign is not looking like one to dislodge the government. If it was then accommodation should be made by Davis to ensure the left gains 3 or 4 more seats through Mana.
The goal is to remove Key. We should be doing whatever it takes.
I think it demonstrates the complete disconnect between the party and the traditional labour electorate.
I do wonder if this isn’t a planned shift, a move away from what Labour was, the physical tradesman type party to a more Woman focused party, the thinking being potential female 50% of the vote + liberal dandy types + gays and Labour could end up with a solid block of votes which could cement themselves as the core component of the Left block.
It’s a real polar shift but it would certainly be more reflective of what modern labour is all about.
No, it’s just that Samuels is more a man and a Northlander than loyal to the Labour Party. This shows he should never have been chosen to represent the party in the first place.
One can remain loyal to the party and say the obvious – it’s a surprise that some feminists think that women need to be protected from unwanted sex because they are so weak they are unable to clearly state they deny consent when this is not what they want. It’s a low opinion of other women that they need a legal protection to the point of placing all men at risk of court action for not getting consent in advance of having sex.
Yes some in the party with leadership aspirations will pander to factions within the party and caucus – thus the recent comments from Cunliffe and Little. That is nothing new, just that women are now one of those factions.
No, it’s just that Samuels is more a man and a Northlander than loyal to the Labour Party. This shows he should never have been chosen to represent the party in the first place.”
Once elected is a constituent MPs first responsibility to his political party, or to the voters who voted him in?
Er once elected he represents all constituents – even those who did not vote for him. Just as a government does at the national level.
But as a candidate for a party he will be voting to implement their manifesto – thus saying he disagrees with his party on some local policy to curry favour with voters at an election is a grand deception – a lie to voters. Because once elected he will be voting with his party.
The one think I do not like about MMP is the primary loyalty of MPs to the party rather than to their area/constituency. I do like tht it better rpresents the electorate as a whole..
In my view, the 60 constituent MPs do have a primary responsibility to the electors, (including those who did not vote them in) and the List MPs have a primary responsibility to the Party who listed them into Parliament.
So come election time, each group will be working primarily for the group who will get them into Parliament. Which, in my view is why the Labour MPs have no, or limited interest in helping the Greens or the IMP
Oh, SPC…..a can of passable Oz peaches last time I looked……off you’re Zionist Gaza gig and onto Dover in the Clover what ? Check around Matauri Bay……you’ll see how peachy they DON’T see the man. Even whanau bearing the name. Understandable. With whom did he once share the NZLP electorate office in Broadway Kaikohe ? You got it……Phoney Jonesy. Now there’s a man……!
Too many Labour MP’s abandon solidarity with the party when it conflicts with their own self interest as an electorate MP.
SPC
Today it seems that solidarity is an old fashioned word in the Labour Party as Labour flatly refuses to send an official spokesperson to the rally against the current war in Palestine.
The official spokesperson could be only one of three people – Cunliffe may still be on holiday with family. So it would be Shearer, or Goff or a spokesperson for disarmament Street, or her understudy.
Key will have finished his Maui briefings and will soon be returning, have you simply decided not to ever comment again on the issue of political interference ?
😆 i hear you Populuxe1 ! and agree wholeheatedly. 😆 t’was a conscious decision, based on the aesthetics of the phonetics, suggesting a modular, manufactured item rather than a big bouncy blob of bobblyness
Do you not realise what a fuck you make yourself look SSLands ?
“Labour also failed to send a spokesperson to the rally for peace in Midland Park in Wellington yesterday.”
Yeah, because demonstrably it wasn’t a ‘peace’ rally. A rally for the New Zealand “Friends of Israel” to stand in solemn solidarity with Zionist Israel’s Nazi Exceptionalism is what it was. Under a thin cover of a longing for ‘peace’. Where in fact ‘peace’ equals abject surrender by the Palestinians. Not to say their ranks don’t include a few honest, hoodwinked people unaware of the true Zionist agenda.
They stage one every time the shooting fish in a barrel recommences in Gaza. Seen them numerous times – mostly older upper middle class shuffling uncomfortably in their anoraks, fulsomely projecting tragic piety. The Foreign Ministry in Tel Aviv probably shouts Esquires coffee end of demo’.
You’re a deluded fool SSLands. To contemplate that anyone believes you anymore. Gave it away in the link for God’s Sake – “nzfoi” – NZ Friends of Israel.
Srylands, maybe you could have done us all a favour and invited a spokesperson from the Conservatives or even National, to your little zionist rally. Maybe, just maybe one or both would have been stupid enough to turn up. Since this country and the whole world is sick if not sickened of these racist butchers it would gift the election to the opposition in a landslide.
What a load of rubbish, BM. It’s Key who’s after the gay vote. Look at how he minces around with gay Tories at the Big Gay Out. He’s also dead against gay debauchery and strongly in favour of traditional Christian values, as shown by his sliming around a few Pasifika pastors in South Auckland.
Homophobic stereotyping much? Mincing? Really? The “gay vote”? “Gay debauchery”?
Gay men do not experience patriarchal or white privilege the way gender normative white men do.
Fuck you.
Ooops. I’ve upset a gay Tory. Bugger. A not very bright one by all accounts, but he is quick with his insults when he doesn’t understand what someone says. Which is most of the time.
Moran.
SPC 7.17
The way I see the situation re the two parties ‘ approaches.
I see National as being more authoritarian than Labour.
Labour is more widely idealistic and people-oriented than National, but if that idealism becomes dominating then authoritarianism grows in Labour too.
Labour individuals often follow their own particular belief system which involves higher principles than National of moral and fair behaviour, and these are individually varied and can lead to splintering of support into factions.
National tends to have one goal, self advancement but Labour can develop divisions and people forget that Labour needs to be cohesive as their goals are far more ambitious than Nationals, and harder to achieve without willingness to work together and compromise somewhat.
Ayman Mohyeldin, the NBC News correspondent who personally witnessed yesterday’s killing by Israel of four Palestinian boys on a Gazan beach and who has received widespread praise for his brave and innovative coverage of the conflict, has been told by NBC executives to leave Gaza immediately. According to an NBC source upset at his treatment, the executives claimed the decision was motivated by “security concerns” as Israel prepares a ground invasion, a claim repeated to me by an NBC executive. But late yesterday, NBC sent another correspondent, Richard Engel, along with an American producer who has never been to Gaza and speaks no Arabic, into Gaza to cover the ongoing Israeli assault (both Mohyeldin and Engel speak Arabic).
Mohyeldin is an Egyptian-American with extensive experience reporting on that region. He has covered dozens of major Middle East events in the last decade for CNN, NBC and Al Jazeera English, where his reporting on the 2008 Israeli assault on Gaza made him a star of the network. NBC aggressively pursued him to leave Al Jazeera, paying him far more than the standard salary for its on-air correspondents.
Yesterday, Mohyeldin witnessed and then reported on the brutal killing by Israeli gunboats of four young boys as they played soccer on a beach in Gaza City. He was instrumental, both in social media and on the air, in conveying to the world the visceral horror of the attack.
Mohyeldin recounted how, moments before their death, he was kicking a soccer ball with the four boys, who were between the ages of 9 and 11 and all from the same family. He posted numerous chilling details on his Twitter and Instagram accounts, including the victims’ names and ages, photographs he took of their anguished parents, and video of one of their mothers as she learned about the death of her young son. He interviewed one of the wounded boys at the hospital shortly before being operated on. He then appeared on MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes, where he dramatically recounted what he saw.
Doubly odd since they had originally replaced him with yet another journalist, but this time putting one on to the firing line one not as familiar with the region and who didn’t speak Arabic…
No phillip I think Manhire hits the nail on the head as usual.
Though I guess you could argue that Dotcom is giving Key the opportunity to resign by saying he is going to drop the bombshell on 15th September. Really this should be done on 2nd September as voting starts on 3rd September.
I’m loving this John Armstrong – “KDC should do this, KDC should do that – put up or shut up, prove beyond reasonable doubt, the time has come for this and the time has come for that, they should be told today, not tomorrow, not next week and certainly not when it is most politically advantageous for the Internet Mana leadership – Dotcom, Laila Harre and Hone Harawira…”
The right frothing because with KDC they lose the narrative – they lose control of the story, they don’t know how to spin it apart from impotent anger and threats.
He’s in the headlines because he is exposing the liar and that is definitely good for the left. Key’s tipping point will come and he’ll say some smartarse comment that doesn’t sit well with the ‘middle’ and then a groundswell could occur. That’s my hope anyway.
Seems a less risky strategy than waiting on labour…
Well no James, i have moved across from the Green Party to InternetMana and when the ‘roadshow’ reaches Wellington will be on hand to greet them which will be my first attendance at a specific Party event in a long long time,
i hope to get the chance not only to connect with fellow InternetMana-ites here in Wellington with a view to expanding at least the Mana Parties presence and activism here in the Capital, but, also to see if Hone can’t spend some effort here after the 2014 contest gathering together the thin strands of Mana support in the lower North Island into a cohesive entity that has the capability of delivering at least leaflet drops to whole electorates…
Armstrong is the antithesis of a journalist.
See Morrissey’s comment at 2 if you want to see evidence of real journalism…and how the owners of media deal with those independent enough to think for themselves.
“But Dotcom needs a change of government if he is to have any hope of avoiding extradition to the United States.”
So according to John Armstrong the courts no longer have a say in the matter? This is a massively disturbing concept for a journalist to espouse. Our government controls judicial process?
I was aware of that, and of the pinnacle of objectivity that is Gower, but it all points to the conclusion which only adds weight to the theory the National Government allowed Dotcom to stay because they plan to extradite him.
which only adds weight to the theory the National Government allowed Dotcom to stay because they plan to extradite him.
That makes no sense at all.
also
So according to John Armstrong the courts no longer have a say in the matter? This is a massively disturbing concept for a journalist to espouse. Our government controls judicial process?
No shock or surprise here. The Standard is read by a whole lot of people who never comment and sometimes things get written that is completely for their benefit. I presented it as a question because of the fait accompli Armstrong presented.
I thought the raids on his mansion was an abuse of process and law, so I was prepared to cut him a lot of slack. But my sympathy has gone. The sooner this nazi sympathising criminal is gone the better. And today I saw one ACT policy I can agree with! Politicians should stay clear of immigration decisions.
North agreeing with your opinion on the Israel/Palestine matter is not a test of whether the person is capable of taking a moral position or whether their opinion has any credibility on other matters.
One thing that brings disunity to the left is holding grudges against those who take another side on an issue – such as Samuels and others such as Tamihere who side with men when the Labour party addresses the concerns of women.
Tamihere never sided with me. I’m pretty sure I’m a man. The concerns of women are not orthogonal to the concerns of men, although they may be at variance with the concerns of knuckle dragging morans.
Sure, but those people will claim that Labour does not represent them when it addresses the concerns of women. Tamihere abused women in the Labour caucus (for being ranked ahead of him a Maori man who has cultural issues with women in leadership) and Samuels then says he will not vote Labour because of it.
He was a lovely bloke, Karol and absolutely committed to his union members. On one building project he was told that the bosses were being gifted portable TV’s as bonuses for achieving targets. He swiftly and successfully argued that it was his members that actually did the work that triggered the bonuses, so they should get them too.
He was quite a talker, always liked a good yarn, but had the knack of adapting his language to his audience. That is, he would explain the way he saw things in a way that meant that was the way you saw things too.
Would someone like to comment on nadis ‘snida’ comment on Con Devitt? I seem to remember the rusty hulk of BNZ building standing idle for ages. And the adent on concrete thereafter. What was the story?
I’ll reply for you. Personally I’m not anti union, in fact in my business I’m supportive of the clerical staff being union members, it actually makes my life easier as I don’t need to worry about negotiating conditions, salary etc while still leaving me the right to pay or provide more PIK to the really good staff who I want to encourage to stay. But the boilermakers union was the posterboy for every bad practice that gutted the union movement. Legendary practices like holding up the entire job for weeks while a single continuous weld was welded, not quite finished at knock off time, and then started again the next day. They were experts at finding little tasks that could hold up the entire project and then using that as leverage for newer and bigger demands. Requiring a two tradesmen and two assistants to perform task as simple as tightening a single screw on a hose clip.
What was really bizarre about this hard left union behaviour was the “if we can’t win we’ll burn down both our houses” attitude. A lot of the union leadership were “refugees” from the UK where their unions had withered and died because of infexibility in the face of european competition – a lot of these UK unionists came here pre-Thatcher as the heavy industries they had come from were devastated even before Thatcher attacked the public sector unions, those in the private sector were already broken pre-Thatcher due to the 70’s recession. I still can’t believe the attitude of a lot of theses guys, they did exactly the same things that didnt work in the UK in the face of exactly the same pressures that were redefining those traditional occupations here in NZ.
I was personally involved in a fair bit of stuff (strikes, meetings, table pounding about “management scum stealing from the working comrade” as a young union member of a trade related union at this time and then as a (very) junior salaried engineer who spent an awful lot of time sitting in the canteen reading the newspaper while one hour stop work meetings decamped to the pub for an entire day.
nadis can’t comment on Con, greywarbler. Clearly from his comment he didn’t actually know him, but he’s happy to post waffly smears about the boilermakers union as if they were his first hand experiences.
You’re a fool. I never claimed to know him or be associated in any way with the boilermakers union.
But the atrocious behaviour of the boilermakers union was/is very common knowledge as was the fact that the BNZ building was the last major commercial contract let in NZ that ever relied on boilermakers. In fact just google BNZ building, boilermakers union and you’ll find plenty.
It was great to work for companies that employed the boilermakers on heavy engineering jobs,
As a 16 year old i got a job with a small firm engaged in the construction of the then massive Todd Motors complex at Porirua,
This firm built all the heavy hangers which were then hung from the roof of the complex upon which all the car making equipment, spray machinery/welders etc were installed,
My job consisted of, once the platform was hung from the roof in the correct position to climb up to roof height and tighten the sixteen giant bolts that held the structure in place,
On the first day of this mammoth task it took me all of to morning smoko time to complete the task, being keen i hit the foreman up for the next task only to be told to find something interesting to do because the next platform wasn’t arriving until the following day,
That was the sum total of my daily toil, and, even as a labourer the pay was great thanks to the union awards,
Finding something interesting to do as per the instructions from the foreman proved a slightly harder task, one of these which had the whole site in fits was to kidnap passing labourers sloping off from other crews working on site and hold them down while welding their steel-caps together…
It seems that political journalists only do opinion pieces now. It must be too hard for them to compare and contrast policies. How much easier it is for them to indulge their own personal prejudices. See (or don’t bother to read) Tracy Watkin’s latest factless gossip-column standard opinion piece in Stuff.
The September election just went ‘Hot’, from Stuff.co.nz, Winston Peters is saying that if National pull Murray McCully from the East Coast Bays electorate He is well prepared to go head to head with Colon Craig for the seat,
i have been picking NZFirst(who along with Colon’s Conservatives are having a conference this weekend), to be ‘light’ of the 5% needed to get back into the Parliament in election 2014,
Should Peters contest East Coast Bays in a head to head with Craig tho, i think the publicity will not only push NZFirst over the 5% thresh-hold, but, Peters will actually win the seat…
Peters gives Labour a ‘hint’,also from Stuff.co.nz, speaking of the 2011 election where then Labour Leader Phill Goff campaigned upon raising the age of superannuation entitlement Winston Peters said, ”I think that cost them,(Labour), the election in 2011– later adding, ”Don’t they get it”,
Having banged on about the ‘Super issue’ endlessly here at the Standard i can inform Winston that ‘they’ sure as hell just ‘don’t get it’…
Yep. Not even banging on about it at the Labour Party conference in 2013 led many in the party to get it. Stuck in the neoliberal fiscal-balance the books paradigm, fully supported by data from Treasury.
Worse than that CV was David Parker ‘giving the game away’ with His recent comments on ‘future tax cuts’,(enough said, i am trying to keep my focus on a winning election 2014 mindset)…
To be clear, I was mentioning the condition on a purely figurative basis. My lack of impulse control on The Standard is entirely my own responsibility…
Actually, they weren’t so big on the death penalty. Biggest response when I told them to do more god. (Obviously, smacking is core policy for them already.)
Their average expenses are higher than the “average” income for full time workers. the State Services Commissioner has an itemised breakdown of expenses: includes a fair number of overseas visits to meet with “counter[arts”.
Expenses for 1 July 2013 – 30 June 2014
Domestic travel: $4,493.44
International travel: $25,796.68
Hospitality and entertainment given (including gifts): $1,145.83
Hospitality and entertainment received (including gifts): $29.00
Taxi (domestic and international): $2,192.31
Cell phone: $2,143.47
Kim Hill interviews one of America’s most vile propagandists
I listened in mounting fury to Kim Hill interviewing that smooth and vicious liar Alex Gibney this morning. It’s difficult to imagine a sleazier guest. I sent the following email in protest….
Alex Gibney is not fit to judge Lance Armstrong or anyone else
Dear Kim,
Alex Gibney lauds the cycling reporters who were “dedicated to telling the truth.” That’s dark irony, coming from Gibney, whose film We Steal Secrets was a Stalinist-style axe job on the most important truth-teller of our time, Julian Assange.
You really do seem to have a bizarre fixation with Morrissey Felix.
Perhaps if you concentrated as much of your focus on your musical musings you might rise to the equivalent heights that Morrisey has as a media critic.
Until you do put in the hard yards you’ll remain a fourth rate hack.
Colon Craig’s Conservatives are holding a conference this weekend, the Party manifesto rumored to be writ large on rolls of tinfoil and given to members as they enter the venue with instructions on how to use it as ‘a wrap’ is said by Winston Peters to have been plagarized from the NZFirst online policy manifesto,
Another rumor has it that Colon the Conservative had the ‘golden rules’ passed to Him from the space aliens after they had successfully carried Him off one night for a ‘probing’ which along with relieving Colon of 30% of His body weight also reversed His anatomical processes with the lower bowel functions now carried out above the neck,
Wee Matty Hooton, ever desperate for a starring role, with panhandler desperation, pretended? to be a chimp for the opening stanza of the Conservatives Conference held this weekend,
You have to wonder just how much money changed hands to enable Hooton the luxury of dribbling to a live audience of the politically committed, and here, the inquiry isn’t intended to imply that Colon the Conservative passed monies to wee Matty so He could waste space upon the stage,
Colons Conservatives are said to be having the first’ nationwide letterbox drop’ this weekend, people should be advised to burn these pamphlets at the letterbox as there may be some health risk if taken into the home…
Colon’s first print enema arrived in letterboxes today. It is mostly negative pandering to kid whackers etc in English only no reo here, and includes a reactionary quiz–e.g. “prisoners should be working–Yes, No.
Ah. Yeah. Most of the junk mail goes to my landlord’s street-side mail box – except the occasional one that slips through addressed to me personally at my street address. I fail to understand how some people just ignore my PO Box addy.
Some have to of course. Some IRD and NZTA stuff requires a street address.
The trick to a happy P.O.Box is remembering to pay the bill 🙂
Couple of years ago I missed an end of year quarterly payment and they closed and sold the box (I was away and missed their ‘closing box’ notices, but they had my phone number and never used it) I missed out getting a whole stack of Christmas stuff 🙁 One brother just sent the returned card the next year 🙂
@freedom
The bit about NZPost not contacting you about planning on selling your POBox number is one of the slack behaviours that have led to them losing their business. The internet etc is causing it to drop away yes, but if you seek to keep customer’s with you and keep them happy, this maintains the base.
It takes work and attention to detail and involves employing people who have the task as part of their job and are monitored as to how well they are doing it, with sacking for non-performance. It seems to underline the meme that governments end up being slack, careless and inefficient – hence clever private operators can carry out appendectomies on gummint services to relieve the blockage, and our purses!
If that had been the situation that disgraceful Queenstown situation would never have happened. And how much slackness has gone under the radar before, that it took such a doozy of a breakdown in service to come to notice?
The postal side is a mess for sure. Overworked poorly managed. The front-office here though do a really good job considering the broad rural & townie populace they service and also being a Kiwibank branch the demands on their time are intense.
The not ringing me bit is what I very calmly complained about because my number was right there in the Boxholder’s information. But… paying the bill on time was ultimately my responsibility which I failed to meet and on that they were 100% correct.
Nah. Always go to passive discouragement. Can’t get in the door. Can’t leave junk mail.
It is like changing the garage access. Adding a cardswipe from the garage to the stairwell stopped people leaving their cards in their cars. That meant that car thieve getting into the garage couldn’t find a card to drive out of the garage with a car. Car thefts dropped dramatically.
@lprent
The car thief problem is a good example of intelligent problem solving. Good thinking, identify problem, analyse causes, consider various solutions, choose one and check it is suitable and not onerous, and whether it works to solve or alternatively, decimate the problem stats.
Let’s have this approach applied to most problems. If there are cultural concerns for that particular group, or involved groups in the area, then widen the considerations and have numbers of meetings that keep presenting the problem and prioritising the best solutions, to ensure that thinking is kept productively on target and dissimulation does not limit targeted discussion time. Arrive at near consensus, with last minute concerns listened to and provided for.
Still amazes me that the government didn’t include junk mail in the anti-spam legislation. Both waste time and resources and yet junk mail seems to be considered valuable.
It does tho keep a whole industry going, Parts of which we would obviously like to clean up their river polluting ways,
From the trees cut in the forest, to the paper making mills of the Central North Island and onto various printing factories the stuff gets to employ thousands as well as those who continually stuff the (expletive deleted) letterbox with it,
From my letterbox, i being the only unpaid serf in the equation, walk it to my recycle wheelie bin where the paid employee of the City Council whips it via mechanical arm into the back of the dump truck and from there off to be sorted and sent off to a paper recycle facility where it is processed and becomes part of the magic circle,
i would put one of those, ”i am going to commit bodily harm on you if i catch you sticking junk mail in here” signs on my letterbox but the above reasons prevent me from curtailing anyone’s employment even in such a waste of resources junk industry such as the delivered advertising i seldom bother reading…
Which actually amounts to a public subsidy to that industry due to the fact that it is our rates that end up paying for the disposal foisted upon us by the advertisers – a subsidy that we would never choose to pay as no one likes, or wants, junk mail. If junk mail is allowed to continue solely to keep an industry going, especially one that causes so much waste, then we have a problem. Such waste is, by its very definition, uneconomical.
Really Draco, much the same could be said about ‘paper shuffling’ employees of both local and central Government,
So how are you going to achieve full employment again Draco,(that’s rhetorical please don’t answer as my laughter will likely be a danger to my health)…
You really are saying that people should be employed to dig holes and then fill them in. Actually, that would be better than keeping the junk mail option that you advocate.
Certainly Draco so long as they were paid the ‘living wage’ and a rooted tree was inserted into the hole befor the filling back in bit was accomplished…
the american sentencing commission has just voted to give federal judges the ability to radically reduce the sentences of those in america serving mega-sentences for cannabis ‘crimes’..
..when the time comes..we need to do this here..
..the latest obscenity around this here..
..is someone losing half of their house..
..because they had a (single-figure) number of cannabis plants..(!)
..f.f.s..!..how does that come within a bulls’-roar of anything even faintly resembling justice..?
go phil.
cannabis will be legalised in the next term .
At the momen tthe hold up is by justice industry who are making monopoly profits and institutional promotions by criminalising something that would be nothing if it were left to people to sort out for themselves.
the kid who walks out in front of traffic is the same kid who will use drugs just to annoy the authorities when they dont realise that they are just ensuring white collar employment at exorbitant salaries.
Well isn’t that just marvelous, i would assume seeing as you give out such advice that your well practiced in carrying out the same behavior as the norm on your Saturday night,
There are a lot of expletives that i would attach to anyone advising inflicting physical harm to their spouse deep throat, scum, being one that easily springs to mind,
My advice to you F off and engage in the behavior your user-name implies,( i would have reminded you not to foget to swallow but imagine your an expert at that as well)…
Great to get real data thanks Swordfish. Must be tough for the minor parties to see such a small share. And still they box on in spite of the adversity.
Let’s have more new coal mines, deep sea oil wells and frack where ever we can.
Let’s put up the age of Super to keep older folk working longer, and younger people out of jobs longer
Lets leave in place GST rises, and remove tax cuts for the low paid.
Let’s ignore the crisis in Palestine and turn down an invitation to have our representative to speak at the Auckland rally at 2pm in Aotea square today.
I wonder if the missile strike on MH17 would be construed as an attack on Malaysia. If so, we are obligated under the Five Power Defence Arrangements to have consultations with Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and the UK.
And to lose 2 airliners in 6 months? Something screwy is going on. Apparently the previous 10 MH-17 flights did not go over Eastern Ukraine, but cleared south of it.
I flew that Malaysian airliner Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur route once about 9 years ago and it flew way south of it. In fact it flew straight over Iraq and I remember thinking how weird it was that we where flying over a war zone safely.
“I flew that Malaysian airliner Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur route once about 9 years ago and it flew way south of it. In fact it flew straight over Iraq …”
Big whoop. The planned flight path of MH17 would have taken it to within a few hundred km of Iraq anyway if it hadn’t been shot down. If there was wind from a different direction, it might well have gone further south. The routes are not set in stone and they vary according to the conditions.
“You don’t test the water with both feet,” Peters told the Timaru RSA this week, adding that giving hints would weaken his negotiating position.
Although he has primarily targeted National since returning to Parliament following the 2011 election, attacking the Government on its asset sales programme, Peters said Labour was also promoting policies to which NZ First was strongly opposed.
Before the 2011 election, NZ First warned it could not support a Labour government proposing to raise the retirement age and to extend capital gains tax in the way it was proposing. Labour leader David Cunliffe has affirmed both policies going into the September 20 election.
“I think that lost them [Labour] the election [in 2011],” Peters said in an interview this week. “Don’t they get it?”
On the Need for a Media Shakeup once the Labour Left Coalition Wins the Election
By Martyn Bradbury / July 19, 2014
“With a survey out this week reminding us that 83% of all New Zealanders watch traditional television every day, it’s no wonder the media generated hate figure of Cunliffe results in poll ratings as low as they currently are.
I started the daily blog in the wake of the 2012 Labour Party conference. I was very close to Cunliffe at the time and had been pestering him constantly during the conference about whether or not he would push a challenge against David Shearer as the blogs had been advocating when the membership changed the voting rules. His response surprised me, it was a flat out no with a very impassioned, ‘I am a servant to the Party’ styled justification.
This was annoying and frustrating. Unfortunately for the blogger in me, there would be no scoop because David Cunliffe was far too principled to launch a coup against Shearer. The disappointment quickly evaporated into jaw dropping shock as I watched Patrick Gower manufacture a false narrative about a leadership coup and crucified Cunliffe on the 6pm News. I know there was no coup because I was the one sitting on Cunliffe’s elbow saying, “you should take out Shearer’ and Cunliffe was point blank refusing to do that.
Watching Cunliffe then get punished for that loyalty was a burning injustice that inspired my decision to gather together the best bloggers the left have and put them all on one site to review the news daily in an attempt to give the other side of the story to the one the mainstream media manufacture. If Gower could deliberately spike a story and twist it that far from reality, then what hope for a well informed citizenry to engage with the civic issues of our day?
This counter narrative seems more important to the NZ media landscape than ever before. The current level of negative bias being exhibited by the conservative corporate media towards David Cunliffe suggests National’s infamous Australian consultants, Crosby-Textor, have suddenly gained editorial staff positions on every branch of broadcasting….
…Voters who have written Cunliffe off based on the media generated bias will be forced to challenge those views when they see him in action on the campaign trail and in the all essential debates.
If their boy Key does fail to win a majority, watch how quickly the media will start proclaiming Cunliffe and Labour have no mandate to govern. Even if Labour win, they will never get a break from the rightwing media and they shouldn’t expect one.
If Cunliffe leads the country after September 20th, a better Public Broadcasting policy needs to be in his top 5 list”.
The State Services Commission has found that the Government’s restructuring of the Department of Conservation (DOC) is not working, the Green Party said today.
The report identifies that managerial roles which were eliminated by the National Government are returning in an ad-hoc way out of necessity. Staff are concerned about ongoing workplace stress and a concerning increase in injury rates. The report identifies two areas which are weak, 11 areas that need development, no areas where the department is strong and only three in which it is well placed.
National’s restructuring proven to have failed New Zealand – again.
Last year set records for high temperatures around the world, giving New Zealand its warmest winter, and Australia its hottest year since records began.
The warming climate also brought with it droughts, floods and storms – the only silver lining was that Kiwis were a bit less likely to get sunburnt.
Over the past two summers, the ozone hole was smaller, weaker and broke up sooner than in past years, according to the State of the Climate in 2013 report, published yesterday by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
[…]
Victoria University climatologist James Renwick, who collaborated on the report, said the conclusions showed the globe was continuing to heat up. While many Kiwis might take comfort in warmer winters, he warned such seasons came hand-in-hand with more severe storms, droughts, floods, and sea level rise.
“You hear about global warming of two or three degrees and you think that’s the difference between 9 o’clock in the morning and midday. But what we consider a warm year now will be considered a cold year in future.”
Renwick said last year’s North Island drought was a warning that the agricultural industry would increasingly feel the pinch. It was adaptable – farmers might swap cold-climate crops such as apples to dry-suited pineapples and bananas – but without significant emissions changes, it was unavoidable, he said.
No. Labour will be mocked mercilessly for a policy like that.
Remember “show me the money” last time? Unless Labour can put forward a comprehensive costing showing how they will fund it, then they will be toast. (again)
Chernobyling the Green and IMP vote to save some Labour MPs arses, is hadly a winning strategy.
IMP is a good enough reason for the “missing 800,000” to come out and vote, but I cant see them turning out on election day.
James-Peters could go with Labour on the proviso that both they Greens and IMP are kept out of the coalition. He would love that. He would also insist as a bottom line that the pension age remain at 65.
Meanwhile the Greens and IMP would have no option other than to support Labour/NZF on confidence and supply.
There is another option Bearded git, one which i quite like the thought of, both the Green Party and InternetMana if faced with a ‘lockout’ by a Labour/NZFirst bloc in the Parliament could simply offer nothing to anybody and trade support on an issue by issue basis to whichever bloc in the Parliament gives up to the Green/InternetMana bloc the most policy gains…
I think we may be seeing the start of a shift from having a government that is only a part of parliament to parliament being government. From there we get more democracy.
Mmmm your comments tho smacks of the recipe of the stuffed shirt, the last Labour/NZFirst and the current National/ACT Government were of course really really good at stability, delivering nothing less than poverty as the stable diet for far too many…
James, what Pop said. Winston’s been working with the Greens these last six years. He’s just given Cunliffe the excuse he’ll need to deny Hone/Annette/Laila a Cabinet Club seat.
They’ve heard of Ministers outside of Cabinet Club too, I expect.
From the Colon Craig Conservative Conference via the NZHerald, ”We Are Not Loonies” so spoke Conservative’s CEO Christine Rankin in Her opening words,
Phew, thank the various deity for that, we all really really needed to have that point clarified,
Christine the CEO and also candidate for the electorate of um? aah?,(ssssh its a secret), an unnamed electorate is pictured on the stage at the conference with Party Leader Colon,(again courtesy of the NZHerald), and, as every picture is either worth a 1000 words, or, tells a story,(yes its multi choice day),
i deduce from the picture accompanying the Herald story that (a) the look Colon is giving Christine says ”i know what your thinking”, or (b), ”you are in my power”,
Christine of course will have to forgive both myself and the Heralds photographer as the picture depicts Her remarkably looking like a ‘survivor’ from an early 1980’s NZ mental health institution having been released after having undergone ‘the full treatment’…
” the picture depicts Her remarkably looking like a ‘survivor’ from an early 1980′s NZ mental health institution having been released after having undergone ‘the full treatment’…”
She is such a survivor. Of WINZ. Or whatever it was called at the time. Recall how she fought like fuck through the courts for readmission. And failed. The judge got it right. There’s no institution in the western world can handle narcissistic entitlement like hers.
Moroney broke electoral law in Hamilton by putting up the wrong sized hoardings so now they’re all covered with chunks of white core flute to bring them down to the correct size.
I struggle to believe some one as experienced as Moroney didn’t know the rules and regs regarding this.
Labour have no money…and it looks like they will not be putting their leaders photo on the billboards which sort of tells me that they in a self preservation mode, as we see from Davis, Mallard and O’Connor.
Hoarding photos have been all over Facebook today. Did you not bother to check your facts before trotting out the Nats’ doom-and-gloom lines? http://instagram.com/p/qniLRAiAzi/
And now Rupert Murdoch is demanding that businesses have even more say in our democracies:
“Business is just as entitled to express its opinion as unions are,” the News Corporation executive chairman told the B20 summit of business leaders in Sydney.
“The trouble, I find, is usually unions represent hundreds of thousands of voters whereas a business represents just one.”
He obviously doesn’t like the one person, one vote nature of democracy.
@ Draco T Bastard 1.04
Just thinking of the quote you put above.
Hundreds of thousands of workers getting income at either existence level or declining wages own how much of the wealth which brings power, in the world?
One hugely wealthy businessman with huge assets, needed media and information infrastructure plus a megabyte full of assets : O- ! -oxo> how is the power balance unfair
to the wealthy one?
No matter how bad the news is for John Key and the NACTs, the polls and the MSM show that National are way ahead of Labour in the polls and the MSM can’t wait to have a go at Labour and David Cunliffe. This is not surprising when you look at who makes up the main body of the press/TV political scene.
The following people/organisations are National friendly but more importantly they are ANTI-LEFT:
NZ Herald
TV1
TV3
Talkback radio
John Armstrong
Vernon Small
John Roughan
Tracy Watkins
Claire Trevett
Fran O’Sullivan
Matthew Hooton
Bill Ralston & wife
Sean Plunket
Guyon Espiner
Susan Wood
Claire Robinson
Michelle Boag
Bob Jones
Audrey Young
David Farrar
Cameron Slater
Jane Clifton
Jim Mora
Kerry McIvor
Bryce Edwards.
These people/organisations can’t wait to have a go at the Left/David Cunliffe. They may not write positive pieces about the NACTs (lets face it, there aren’t many good things you can say about them) but they do something far worse – they are relentless in their critism of the left. The left have NO CHANCE they say, David Cunliffe should resign, they say, ad nauseum.
Opposing these forces you have a few who mostly support the left:
Rod Oram
Martyn Bradbury
Chris Trotter (when he is not criticising them as well)
Jose Pagani (ditto)
Mike Williams (ditto)
anyone else?
How does the left counter this fire power? I don’t know, but unless they do then this election is as good as lost right now. We can only hope that something happens that wakes the electorate out of it’s stupor and looks a little deeper and beyond the main headlines and soundbites.
I apologise up front for not being able to participate fully in any discussion arising from this comment but I am restricted by other commitments, sorry.
We do what the right are so good at – we collectivise. We get all left leaning political parties to have a weekly fee of $1 to $5 each to belong to the party. We then have it so that say 1/5th of that goes to a left journalist organisation that investigates and reports on what’s happening in politics and economics and is distributed through it’s own broadcast media and website. An organisation not dependent upon government because you can be sure that a National government will cut public broadcasting again.
all the left needs are micro pulse radio stations.they are low powered but work on line of sight.
one on the top of any Auckland volcano will cover the whole area.
its not fucking rocket science but the problem seems to be persuading some on the left who should know better to fork out!
How’s life [deleted] – always enjoy your random musings.
[lprent: No speculating on peoples in real life identities and especially trying to out them, unless they offer it themselves. I get irritated about it and it violates our policies. Banned 4 weeks.]
Um, free education and healthcare, public transport, near-universal enfranchisement (with the ugly exception of National’s stripping the right to vote from prison inmates), progressive taxation, power companies, Soviet era communism, no, wait…
And yet the nation has been going slowly more to the right over the last thirty years. The right-wing have been undermining society for that long because of their ownership of the MSM and their ruthless undermining of of state departments.
We need to stop that and the way to do it is to work together. Not as a single block but communicated out to the rest of the nation through a single channel that is not dependent upon state funds or advertisers.
Well no Draco, when ‘i’ have an idea ‘i’ usually take steps to see how much traction such an idea has in whatever community the idea is intended to benefit,
So, your idea will work or fail depending how much work, other than sitting on your posterior going tap tap tap on the computer, you personally put in to promoting it,
Good luck with trotting such an ‘idea’ round the various political parties i can really,(incoming sarc),see them all falling all over each other in a headlong rush to print out the $50–250 a year levy forms to tax their members,
i can also see ‘the mass movement’ leaping into action once your ‘idea’ became known to the various members of the various Parties, the mass movement out the door as they all canceled their memberships that is,
Hey its not all doom and gloom,(more incoming sarc), You could be installed as the editor and as Phillip fancies Himself as some sort of journalist He could be used to babble incoherently in a print version of His usual ravings from here,
Your editorials, with a few hundred dots inserted here and there could be disguised as incoherence, which would probably be a blessing, because if the Parties of the left adopted your collected ravings as a policy platform, along with having lost all the memberships via your ‘idea’ of an imposed levy, they would lose 99% of their actual voters…
Now how many years have you in particular Draco been sitting here going tap tap tap with your ‘discussions’,
The expectation that you seem to have that your effete efforts will have the slightest effect is tragically laughable,
i can well suppose that you think such ‘ideas’ that you periodically dredge from your nether regions will fire and inspire the ‘mass movement’ which only exists in your and other equally tragic minds,
The fact is Draco that the only mass being moved from your ruminations and lofty expounding of life on Planet Draco is from your poor tortured bowels in the direction of the device of ablutions,(unless you manage to get it into written form first that is)…
@bad
yoo have never had an idea in your life.
all you have done in life is what you have been told to do.
you have a desperate need to kiss arse and have your head patted by your betters for being a good little sickophant.
i would bother to disagree with you but find i cannot be bothered to engage with a sad arsehole that publicly advises people that they should get pissed and assault their spouses…
If you cant recognise irony then you must be pissed.
Besides any body who doesn’t capitalise the first person pronoun doesn’t think much of themselves anyway.
The inevitable result of too much alcohol.
It also induces sycophancy and reliance on others for self esteem.
You are the sad cat.
have another woody.
You just a really sad person.
I dont believe a word you say.
You dont seem to understand anything about the world except kissing tory arses so they will like you and throw a few crumbs in your direction.
You need to look inside yourself and ask yourself some questions about why you feel the way you do.
You obviously need the services of a shrink or a drunk counselor deep throat,(why didn’t you just cut to the chase and put up c**k-sucker as your user-name),
i could advise you of the name of some really bad ones, shrinks that is, but, i am sure a women hater/beater like you have made yourself appear to be tonight will sooner or later have one compulsorily applied to your (head)case by the courts so there is little need…
I see you are talking to yourself now.
that is maundering and a sure sign of alcoholism.
all you have done here tonight is cast slurs and demean everyone else without making one constructive argument for or against.
You are just a creep now fuck off.
Its time for my milo now and the sleep of the just.
so dont forget now.
Thats fuck off!
You know, bad, your anger issues (and related symptoms such as homophobia) can be addressed and changed for the better. The first step is to acknowledge to yourself that you need help. Check out these places or just try talking to a trusted friend. And, no, I’m not trying to wind you up.
TRP, so you have given up your position as the Liar in Chief,(such Lies covered up with glib false claims of mistakes made), in favor of the pretense of knowing whether or not any particular person is angry or not,
Such faux claims from the likes of you and the other tragic i have just had the displeasure of having a conversation with are laughable,(which is pretty much applied round here to anything you happen to publish on any given day),
Take your pretend analysis TRP,(stranger to the truth), and shove it up your arse, the day i take advice from you will be the day that hell freezes over,
Feel free to continue to whine tho, such exchanges are much appreciated round here for the laughter,at you, they provoke…
It’s ok, bad. Just check the websites out. You don’t have to tell anyone here you’ve done so and they really can help. Kirwin’s one is good too. All the best.
Brilliant list and so correct Kenny. Add to it on the right the Otago Daily Times, notably so-called political correspondent Dene McKenzie. Oh and the Dominion Post.
kenny-we all forgot John Campbell who is sympathetic to the left. I think Cunliffe should arrange go on Campbell’s show if possible. As part of this Cunliffe needs to get the male vote back-this is urgently needed given the polls showing falling male support. (This is not to criticise what he said about violence against women which has been taken out of context and twisted on purpose by the MSM).
If Cunliffe fishes, he should be seen fishing. If he hunts he should be seen hunting. A policy should be announced for the huntin/fishin /4WD brigade to latch on to-announce this live on Campbell’s show.
He also needs to be seen at the rugby etc etc.
We all know Cunliffe is clever but I also think Cunliffe needs to show some animal and come out fighting a bit more. Maybe some tub thumping street corner speeches. Something to break the mold of the devious MSM’s dialogue.
just received the first installment of colin craigs bummf in the mailbox.
more waste of paper.
felling forests and filling the rivers with chlorine bleach to make crap that people throw away.
thats progress I suppose.
He is not a christian.
He thinks he is Moses.
Jesus gives people the option.
Craig is disposed to TELLING people what to do.
Him and his crew have just confabulated a whole lot of guff and now they think they are christians.
nooooooooooo.
So much to talk about and respond to but not enough time!
I do have to say though driving, through Tawa earlier I noticed a very large professionally sign written sign attached to the fence of ITM.
“David
You may be sorry for being a man
BUT WE ARE NOT!!!
Toot if you’re a man”
What a freaking 🙄 moment that was. I will be writing to the manager of the Tawa store as well as the general manager for ITM New Zealand, and educate them on the meaning of David Cunliffe’s FULL statement at the Women’s Refuge conference and let them just how much that meant to me as a woman.
I wish there was some way I could get a photo of it up on TS. It would be fantastic if we could get some men speaking with ITM as well.
We don’t need idiotic crap like this in Ohariu, this is a seat Labour has to take from Dunne!
Oh crap. Thanks karol. Look’s like a counter campaign is needed. I won’t visit Kiwiblog or fail oil, I can only imagine what has been said.
On the plus side, in the hour that we were in close proximity to that area only one driver tooted their horn, but then again I see it was picked up by the herald on 14th July so maybe the locals are over their tooting.
@ karol 4.15
I see the words the necklace is far from charming on The Hairy site? What’s that? Is it left over from the last image that was there? Anybody explain? And that looks like a professionally painted sign. Definitely not the sort or size that I attempt at home.
It is sign writing by a skilled hand. No doubt about that. (An evaporating skill set)
There is an appropriate image lower down the page using the tag, so most likely a layout oversight from whenever the page was updated to include the toot image.
Being purposefully left to promote ‘jewellery is not manly’?
An unlikely stretch,
I hope 😕
well most tory voters have had the snip and they are just capons.
they are not men.
just frightened little boys fixated on toys and and any consumer goods that make them look like big shots.
I see the ABC’s are now reported as being pissed off with DC taking a holiday. Yeah, don’t you hate that work/life balance thing… or maybe public shows of disloyalty are what we should really hate. If these reports are true then Phil Goff, David Shearer and Anette King seem to be determined to screw things up for Labour.
The behaviour biases of the media are effecting the election being fair. The media are constantly branding political parties in one way or other except for National. Their obsession with National and the way they are framing questions to other parties is biased. They attack like a pack of rabid dogs and twist what others say constantly interrupting them with incorrect interpretations of what has been said.
How many times I am left wanting to say to the interviewer, “Shut up and let the person you are interviewing speak. Listen to what they are saying and stop putting your own spin on it.”
This is not journalism it is some get you game imported from overseas. I can make up my own mind about what the politician says, I don’t need you to put your own twist on it. Even panel members on Q+A like the Horton guy who is putting a negative quip about Cunliffe and the Greens or whatever in every answer he makes. Get him off. I want intelligent commentary from well informed unbiased people. Maybe the tv current affairs shows are so short of panel members they have to be constantly including people who are ex Act members or ultra conservative National members.
I’m thinking the whole political decision making may be better off without all this media contamination. Well certainly what is being dished up on TV and the papers.
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Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
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 ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
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. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
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Opinion: With maths understanding at 42 percent for Year 8 students, there’s no doubt something has to be done. But how? The post Financial literacy should be on all of us appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
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Too many Labour MP’s abandon solidarity with the party when it conflicts with their own self interest as an electorate MP.
Samuels comments reflect this sort of thinking – as does that of Davis the current candidate. The same applies on the West Coast.
In the MMP environment they cost Labour party list votes in the electorate and nationwide.
The idea that whatever it takes to secure for themselves the electorate is doing their job is FPP era thinking. It is in the modern environment feathering their own nest by fouling it for the rest of the party.
What irony that National the party of individual advancement shows more loyalty to the common well being of the party than themselves. There is strength in being united in collective cause as the polls indicate.
True and Correct.
The campaign is not looking like one to dislodge the government. If it was then accommodation should be made by Davis to ensure the left gains 3 or 4 more seats through Mana.
The goal is to remove Key. We should be doing whatever it takes.
But it seems that Davis is only out for Davis. And bugger the bigger picture too.
I think it demonstrates the complete disconnect between the party and the traditional labour electorate.
I do wonder if this isn’t a planned shift, a move away from what Labour was, the physical tradesman type party to a more Woman focused party, the thinking being potential female 50% of the vote + liberal dandy types + gays and Labour could end up with a solid block of votes which could cement themselves as the core component of the Left block.
It’s a real polar shift but it would certainly be more reflective of what modern labour is all about.
No, it’s just that Samuels is more a man and a Northlander than loyal to the Labour Party. This shows he should never have been chosen to represent the party in the first place.
One can remain loyal to the party and say the obvious – it’s a surprise that some feminists think that women need to be protected from unwanted sex because they are so weak they are unable to clearly state they deny consent when this is not what they want. It’s a low opinion of other women that they need a legal protection to the point of placing all men at risk of court action for not getting consent in advance of having sex.
Yes some in the party with leadership aspirations will pander to factions within the party and caucus – thus the recent comments from Cunliffe and Little. That is nothing new, just that women are now one of those factions.
“SPC 1.2.1
19 July 2014 at 9:42 am
No, it’s just that Samuels is more a man and a Northlander than loyal to the Labour Party. This shows he should never have been chosen to represent the party in the first place.”
Once elected is a constituent MPs first responsibility to his political party, or to the voters who voted him in?
Just wondering……
Er once elected he represents all constituents – even those who did not vote for him. Just as a government does at the national level.
But as a candidate for a party he will be voting to implement their manifesto – thus saying he disagrees with his party on some local policy to curry favour with voters at an election is a grand deception – a lie to voters. Because once elected he will be voting with his party.
I guess I didnt state my thoughts very well.
The one think I do not like about MMP is the primary loyalty of MPs to the party rather than to their area/constituency. I do like tht it better rpresents the electorate as a whole..
In my view, the 60 constituent MPs do have a primary responsibility to the electors, (including those who did not vote them in) and the List MPs have a primary responsibility to the Party who listed them into Parliament.
So come election time, each group will be working primarily for the group who will get them into Parliament. Which, in my view is why the Labour MPs have no, or limited interest in helping the Greens or the IMP
Oh, SPC…..a can of passable Oz peaches last time I looked……off you’re Zionist Gaza gig and onto Dover in the Clover what ? Check around Matauri Bay……you’ll see how peachy they DON’T see the man. Even whanau bearing the name. Understandable. With whom did he once share the NZLP electorate office in Broadway Kaikohe ? You got it……Phoney Jonesy. Now there’s a man……!
No man is an island, not even an electorate MP. They must go south and converge with others and form a team.
That means not identifying people by what issues they disagree on but by what united them as a team in the first place.
Spot on, North. What I saw was that he was almost despised in Matauri Bay, as someone who just wanted to line his own pockets.
Today it seems that solidarity is an old fashioned word in the Labour Party as Labour flatly refuses to send an official spokesperson to the rally against the current war in Palestine.
The official spokesperson could be only one of three people – Cunliffe may still be on holiday with family. So it would be Shearer, or Goff or a spokesperson for disarmament Street, or her understudy.
Good. Labour also failed to send a spokesperson to the rally for peace in Midland Park in Wellington yesterday.
http://www.nzfoi.org/events_categories/upcoming-event/
🙄 and again 🙄 ….
15 days now srylands, are you ever going to answer framu’s simple question ?
Key will have finished his Maui briefings and will soon be returning, have you simply decided not to ever comment again on the issue of political interference ?
Since when has hypocrisy stopped sspylands from making a comment?
you’d think someone had asked him to quantify pi using a jello abacus 😯
“Jelly” for god’s sake. We are not Americans yet.
😆 i hear you Populuxe1 ! and agree wholeheatedly. 😆
t’was a conscious decision, based on the aesthetics of the phonetics, suggesting a modular, manufactured item rather than a big bouncy blob of bobblyness
Do you not realise what a fuck you make yourself look SSLands ?
“Labour also failed to send a spokesperson to the rally for peace in Midland Park in Wellington yesterday.”
Yeah, because demonstrably it wasn’t a ‘peace’ rally. A rally for the New Zealand “Friends of Israel” to stand in solemn solidarity with Zionist Israel’s Nazi Exceptionalism is what it was. Under a thin cover of a longing for ‘peace’. Where in fact ‘peace’ equals abject surrender by the Palestinians. Not to say their ranks don’t include a few honest, hoodwinked people unaware of the true Zionist agenda.
They stage one every time the shooting fish in a barrel recommences in Gaza. Seen them numerous times – mostly older upper middle class shuffling uncomfortably in their anoraks, fulsomely projecting tragic piety. The Foreign Ministry in Tel Aviv probably shouts Esquires coffee end of demo’.
You’re a deluded fool SSLands. To contemplate that anyone believes you anymore. Gave it away in the link for God’s Sake – “nzfoi” – NZ Friends of Israel.
Srylands, maybe you could have done us all a favour and invited a spokesperson from the Conservatives or even National, to your little zionist rally. Maybe, just maybe one or both would have been stupid enough to turn up. Since this country and the whole world is sick if not sickened of these racist butchers it would gift the election to the opposition in a landslide.
http://aotearoaawiderperspective.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/arabs-dont-hate-jews-and-jews-dont-hate-arabs-or-why-you-should-go-to-auckland-to-demonstrate-against-the-genocide-in-gaza/
Labour can’t be seen to support target practice with live Palestinian targets, SSlands. Have you booked a seat at the Sderot cinema yet?
🙄
my thoughts exactly. The stereotyping amongst other things is so mind boggling in 2014
What a load of rubbish, BM. It’s Key who’s after the gay vote. Look at how he minces around with gay Tories at the Big Gay Out. He’s also dead against gay debauchery and strongly in favour of traditional Christian values, as shown by his sliming around a few Pasifika pastors in South Auckland.
Homophobic stereotyping much? Mincing? Really? The “gay vote”? “Gay debauchery”?
Gay men do not experience patriarchal or white privilege the way gender normative white men do.
Fuck you.
Have you ever tried reading anything in context, Pop?
Ooops. I’ve upset a gay Tory. Bugger. A not very bright one by all accounts, but he is quick with his insults when he doesn’t understand what someone says. Which is most of the time.
Moran.
+100 SPC
“What irony that National the party of individual advancement shows more loyalty to the common well being of the party than themselves”
Perfectly summed up. I think this is the only real advantage National have.
This isn’t just irony, it is irony to the power of irony.
SPC 7.17
The way I see the situation re the two parties ‘ approaches.
I see National as being more authoritarian than Labour.
Labour is more widely idealistic and people-oriented than National, but if that idealism becomes dominating then authoritarianism grows in Labour too.
Labour individuals often follow their own particular belief system which involves higher principles than National of moral and fair behaviour, and these are individually varied and can lead to splintering of support into factions.
National tends to have one goal, self advancement but Labour can develop divisions and people forget that Labour needs to be cohesive as their goals are far more ambitious than Nationals, and harder to achieve without willingness to work together and compromise somewhat.
+1
NBC News Pulls Veteran Reporter from Gaza After Witnessing Israeli Attack on Children
by GLENN GREENWALD,17 Jul 2014
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/07/17/nbc-removes-ayman-mohyeldin-gaza-coverage-witnesses-israeli-beach-killing-four-boys/
Ayman Mohyeldin, the NBC News correspondent who personally witnessed yesterday’s killing by Israel of four Palestinian boys on a Gazan beach and who has received widespread praise for his brave and innovative coverage of the conflict, has been told by NBC executives to leave Gaza immediately. According to an NBC source upset at his treatment, the executives claimed the decision was motivated by “security concerns” as Israel prepares a ground invasion, a claim repeated to me by an NBC executive. But late yesterday, NBC sent another correspondent, Richard Engel, along with an American producer who has never been to Gaza and speaks no Arabic, into Gaza to cover the ongoing Israeli assault (both Mohyeldin and Engel speak Arabic).
Mohyeldin is an Egyptian-American with extensive experience reporting on that region. He has covered dozens of major Middle East events in the last decade for CNN, NBC and Al Jazeera English, where his reporting on the 2008 Israeli assault on Gaza made him a star of the network. NBC aggressively pursued him to leave Al Jazeera, paying him far more than the standard salary for its on-air correspondents.
Yesterday, Mohyeldin witnessed and then reported on the brutal killing by Israeli gunboats of four young boys as they played soccer on a beach in Gaza City. He was instrumental, both in social media and on the air, in conveying to the world the visceral horror of the attack.
Mohyeldin recounted how, moments before their death, he was kicking a soccer ball with the four boys, who were between the ages of 9 and 11 and all from the same family. He posted numerous chilling details on his Twitter and Instagram accounts, including the victims’ names and ages, photographs he took of their anguished parents, and video of one of their mothers as she learned about the death of her young son. He interviewed one of the wounded boys at the hospital shortly before being operated on. He then appeared on MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes, where he dramatically recounted what he saw.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/07/17/nbc-removes-ayman-mohyeldin-gaza-coverage-witnesses-israeli-beach-killing-four-boys/
Shocking, yet so predictable.
It now looks like NBC may have agreed to put the journalist back on the job in Gaza, due to social media pressure…
Overall sucks though.
how odd, given their employerly concern for his safety
Doubly odd since they had originally replaced him with yet another journalist, but this time putting one on to the firing line one not as familiar with the region and who didn’t speak Arabic…
just a coincidence I guess 😉
What has the UN security council said
the herald/msm clearly has dotcom-jitters..
..their ‘mouth-pieces’/hacks’ are all lined-up..like whining/petulant/spoilt children..
..stamping their feet in unison..
..and getting quite hot and bothered that dotcom won’t play to their agenda/timetable/demands..
..on an audio level..it resembles a concerted high-pitched group-tantrum..
..heh..!
..even manhire seems to have lost his/any reason..and has joined in…(!)
No phillip I think Manhire hits the nail on the head as usual.
Though I guess you could argue that Dotcom is giving Key the opportunity to resign by saying he is going to drop the bombshell on 15th September. Really this should be done on 2nd September as voting starts on 3rd September.
i can see the argument for 2 sept…
..but as there is still a huge tranche of undecided-voters five days out..
..i can also appreciate the epic giant-killer drama/poss. outcomes from such timing..
..and of course.. the 2 sept argument is also further undermined by the clear heralding of this date/timing…
..and any undecideds can wait ’till they see just what it is that dotcom has..eh..?
for whose sake? Dotcom is fighting extradition, he hasno obligation to anyone else over his legal strategy andhow he deals with it.
bit of a mono-dimensional-view there..?
..and can you not see ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ in play here..
..even taking yr one-dimensional/(rightwing) view..
yea, having a mono dimensional view can make one myopic, obsessive and boring.
you get todays’ p.a-award..
..(passive-aggressive-award..
..are you a green..?..)
I’m loving this John Armstrong – “KDC should do this, KDC should do that – put up or shut up, prove beyond reasonable doubt, the time has come for this and the time has come for that, they should be told today, not tomorrow, not next week and certainly not when it is most politically advantageous for the Internet Mana leadership – Dotcom, Laila Harre and Hone Harawira…”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11295776
The right frothing because with KDC they lose the narrative – they lose control of the story, they don’t know how to spin it apart from impotent anger and threats.
Edit – snap phil
Is KDC in the headlines really serving any good for us on the left though. He is a distraction and preventing the positive message we have being told.
I for one am getting angry with this side show at such an important point in our history.
“..I for one am getting angry with this side show at such an important point in our history..”
many cd/wd say this about key/this corrupt/sell-out government..eh..?
Yes…which is why his removal is so important.
He’s in the headlines because he is exposing the liar and that is definitely good for the left. Key’s tipping point will come and he’ll say some smartarse comment that doesn’t sit well with the ‘middle’ and then a groundswell could occur. That’s my hope anyway.
Seems a less risky strategy than waiting on labour…
Heh…I can’t disagree with your last comment.
@ e.e on m.m..
..+ 1..
i could name another Party that seems to have taken on all the aspects of ‘a sideshow’, politeness at this stage though prohibits me from doing so…
I think there are a lot more people that are getting sick of him than hold him in admiration.
I think he could do untold damage to Mana for the long term.
Well no James, i have moved across from the Green Party to InternetMana and when the ‘roadshow’ reaches Wellington will be on hand to greet them which will be my first attendance at a specific Party event in a long long time,
i hope to get the chance not only to connect with fellow InternetMana-ites here in Wellington with a view to expanding at least the Mana Parties presence and activism here in the Capital, but, also to see if Hone can’t spend some effort here after the 2014 contest gathering together the thin strands of Mana support in the lower North Island into a cohesive entity that has the capability of delivering at least leaflet drops to whole electorates…
@ james..
..and the packed halls the harawira/harre/dotcom roadshow is getting up north..
..are indicitive of what..?..exactly..?
Armstrong is the antithesis of a journalist.
See Morrissey’s comment at 2 if you want to see evidence of real journalism…and how the owners of media deal with those independent enough to think for themselves.
“But Dotcom needs a change of government if he is to have any hope of avoiding extradition to the United States.”
So according to John Armstrong the courts no longer have a say in the matter? This is a massively disturbing concept for a journalist to espouse. Our government controls judicial process?
The Extradition Act 1999 says the Justice Minister can say no “for any other reason the Minister considers that the person should not be surrendered”.
Hopefully you’re not that naive to think he’s entered politics to “make NZ a better place”
Here’s an article by Patrick Gower that goes into more detail.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Opinion-Labour-Greens-willing-to-free-Dotcom/tabid/1382/articleID/331730/Default.aspx
I was aware of that, and of the pinnacle of objectivity that is Gower, but it all points to the conclusion which only adds weight to the theory the National Government allowed Dotcom to stay because they plan to extradite him.
How that plan was formulated …….?
That makes no sense at all.
also
Why the shock and surprise if you already knew?
No shock or surprise here. The Standard is read by a whole lot of people who never comment and sometimes things get written that is completely for their benefit. I presented it as a question because of the fait accompli Armstrong presented.
I thought the raids on his mansion was an abuse of process and law, so I was prepared to cut him a lot of slack. But my sympathy has gone. The sooner this nazi sympathising criminal is gone the better. And today I saw one ACT policy I can agree with! Politicians should stay clear of immigration decisions.
Yeah you were prepared to cut him some slack cos thats the kind of rational thinking guy you are… Rolleyes
OnceWasPete @ 5 – “nazi sympathising……” KDC ?
Consistency check please. Your relatively untroubled ‘moral comfort’ sitting alongside the IDF non-terrorists ?
North agreeing with your opinion on the Israel/Palestine matter is not a test of whether the person is capable of taking a moral position or whether their opinion has any credibility on other matters.
One thing that brings disunity to the left is holding grudges against those who take another side on an issue – such as Samuels and others such as Tamihere who side with men when the Labour party addresses the concerns of women.
Tamihere never sided with me. I’m pretty sure I’m a man. The concerns of women are not orthogonal to the concerns of men, although they may be at variance with the concerns of knuckle dragging morans.
Sure, but those people will claim that Labour does not represent them when it addresses the concerns of women. Tamihere abused women in the Labour caucus (for being ranked ahead of him a Maori man who has cultural issues with women in leadership) and Samuels then says he will not vote Labour because of it.
Is that the new flaccid equivalent of “I voted Labour once…”, so transparently insincere and feeble, much?
A nasty liar and propagandist is live on air right now
Tune into Radio NZ National if you can bear it
Right now (8:25 a.m.) Kim Hill is interviewing one of the sleaziest people in America, Alex Gibney. He’s one of the “liberal” scourges of Julian Assange….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-13072013/#comment-662336
I’ve never heard of this guy before – shows my lack of knowledge back in my younger days.
But he sounds quite an impressive guy – from the shipyards of Clydeside, to NZ Boilermakers Union. Sounds like a worthy life, now ended.
Con Devitt, RIP.
He was a lovely bloke, Karol and absolutely committed to his union members. On one building project he was told that the bosses were being gifted portable TV’s as bonuses for achieving targets. He swiftly and successfully argued that it was his members that actually did the work that triggered the bonuses, so they should get them too.
He was quite a talker, always liked a good yarn, but had the knack of adapting his language to his audience. That is, he would explain the way he saw things in a way that meant that was the way you saw things too.
Sad to see him go.
We so need more people to realise that. It’s not the management that does the work.
..and it shouldn’t be the poor wot gets the blame..
..and little else..
He did such good work with the BNZ building in Wellington. The last time boilermakers were ever used on a large building project in NZ.
He did such good work with the BNZ building in Wellington. The last time boilermakers were ever used on a large building project in NZ.
Would someone like to comment on nadis ‘snida’ comment on Con Devitt? I seem to remember the rusty hulk of BNZ building standing idle for ages. And the adent on concrete thereafter. What was the story?
I’ll reply for you. Personally I’m not anti union, in fact in my business I’m supportive of the clerical staff being union members, it actually makes my life easier as I don’t need to worry about negotiating conditions, salary etc while still leaving me the right to pay or provide more PIK to the really good staff who I want to encourage to stay. But the boilermakers union was the posterboy for every bad practice that gutted the union movement. Legendary practices like holding up the entire job for weeks while a single continuous weld was welded, not quite finished at knock off time, and then started again the next day. They were experts at finding little tasks that could hold up the entire project and then using that as leverage for newer and bigger demands. Requiring a two tradesmen and two assistants to perform task as simple as tightening a single screw on a hose clip.
What was really bizarre about this hard left union behaviour was the “if we can’t win we’ll burn down both our houses” attitude. A lot of the union leadership were “refugees” from the UK where their unions had withered and died because of infexibility in the face of european competition – a lot of these UK unionists came here pre-Thatcher as the heavy industries they had come from were devastated even before Thatcher attacked the public sector unions, those in the private sector were already broken pre-Thatcher due to the 70’s recession. I still can’t believe the attitude of a lot of theses guys, they did exactly the same things that didnt work in the UK in the face of exactly the same pressures that were redefining those traditional occupations here in NZ.
I was personally involved in a fair bit of stuff (strikes, meetings, table pounding about “management scum stealing from the working comrade” as a young union member of a trade related union at this time and then as a (very) junior salaried engineer who spent an awful lot of time sitting in the canteen reading the newspaper while one hour stop work meetings decamped to the pub for an entire day.
Very different world to now.
nadis can’t comment on Con, greywarbler. Clearly from his comment he didn’t actually know him, but he’s happy to post waffly smears about the boilermakers union as if they were his first hand experiences.
You’re a fool. I never claimed to know him or be associated in any way with the boilermakers union.
But the atrocious behaviour of the boilermakers union was/is very common knowledge as was the fact that the BNZ building was the last major commercial contract let in NZ that ever relied on boilermakers. In fact just google BNZ building, boilermakers union and you’ll find plenty.
Good to know that you haven’t got any first hand experience of the man, but you feel brave enough to run him down when he’s dead.
It was great to work for companies that employed the boilermakers on heavy engineering jobs,
As a 16 year old i got a job with a small firm engaged in the construction of the then massive Todd Motors complex at Porirua,
This firm built all the heavy hangers which were then hung from the roof of the complex upon which all the car making equipment, spray machinery/welders etc were installed,
My job consisted of, once the platform was hung from the roof in the correct position to climb up to roof height and tighten the sixteen giant bolts that held the structure in place,
On the first day of this mammoth task it took me all of to morning smoko time to complete the task, being keen i hit the foreman up for the next task only to be told to find something interesting to do because the next platform wasn’t arriving until the following day,
That was the sum total of my daily toil, and, even as a labourer the pay was great thanks to the union awards,
Finding something interesting to do as per the instructions from the foreman proved a slightly harder task, one of these which had the whole site in fits was to kidnap passing labourers sloping off from other crews working on site and hold them down while welding their steel-caps together…
It seems that political journalists only do opinion pieces now. It must be too hard for them to compare and contrast policies. How much easier it is for them to indulge their own personal prejudices. See (or don’t bother to read) Tracy Watkin’s latest factless gossip-column standard opinion piece in Stuff.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/10285813/Cunliffe-needs-us-to-like-trust-him
Won’t bother.
The corporate media in this country is not worth reading.
The September election just went ‘Hot’, from Stuff.co.nz, Winston Peters is saying that if National pull Murray McCully from the East Coast Bays electorate He is well prepared to go head to head with Colon Craig for the seat,
i have been picking NZFirst(who along with Colon’s Conservatives are having a conference this weekend), to be ‘light’ of the 5% needed to get back into the Parliament in election 2014,
Should Peters contest East Coast Bays in a head to head with Craig tho, i think the publicity will not only push NZFirst over the 5% thresh-hold, but, Peters will actually win the seat…
That’s for the heads up. This Stuff article.
The NZ Herald goes with Peters’ claim that Craig has stolen a load of NZF policies.
Peters gives Labour a ‘hint’,also from Stuff.co.nz, speaking of the 2011 election where then Labour Leader Phill Goff campaigned upon raising the age of superannuation entitlement Winston Peters said, ”I think that cost them,(Labour), the election in 2011– later adding, ”Don’t they get it”,
Having banged on about the ‘Super issue’ endlessly here at the Standard i can inform Winston that ‘they’ sure as hell just ‘don’t get it’…
Indeed.
Thanks for these which I didn’t see when I posted #19 below.
Yep. Not even banging on about it at the Labour Party conference in 2013 led many in the party to get it. Stuck in the neoliberal fiscal-balance the books paradigm, fully supported by data from Treasury.
Worse than that CV was David Parker ‘giving the game away’ with His recent comments on ‘future tax cuts’,(enough said, i am trying to keep my focus on a winning election 2014 mindset)…
yeah it’s hard to stay focussed, keeping that Tourette’s under control isn’t easy…
My how you must suffer CV, you should have told all the readers you suffered from such a debilitating disease long ago…
To be clear, I was mentioning the condition on a purely figurative basis. My lack of impulse control on The Standard is entirely my own responsibility…
and hooton was the conservatives guest speaker advising them to go big on
Smacking
death penalty
Religion
They cheered him roundly. I wonder how much he was paid to preach to the concerted on those topics
Actually, they weren’t so big on the death penalty. Biggest response when I told them to do more god. (Obviously, smacking is core policy for them already.)
I thought the smacking bit was compulsory
what did they pay you to tell them what they already knew?
So burning books about Darwin outside our schools then?
A new low for you, Matthew. The state killing its own citizens.
So much for your small govt liberalism, eh?
So heads of ministries are required to make public annual declarations of their expenses to June. This year’s have been uploaded to ministry websites, Stuff reports.
Their average expenses are higher than the “average” income for full time workers. the State Services Commissioner has an itemised breakdown of expenses: includes a fair number of overseas visits to meet with “counter[arts”.
Ian Fletcher’s expenses are not itemised. This is how he has publicly reported them:
Kim Hill interviews one of America’s most vile propagandists
I listened in mounting fury to Kim Hill interviewing that smooth and vicious liar Alex Gibney this morning. It’s difficult to imagine a sleazier guest. I sent the following email in protest….
Alex Gibney is not fit to judge Lance Armstrong or anyone else
Dear Kim,
Alex Gibney lauds the cycling reporters who were “dedicated to telling the truth.” That’s dark irony, coming from Gibney, whose film We Steal Secrets was a Stalinist-style axe job on the most important truth-teller of our time, Julian Assange.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
I commented on this vicious propagandist last year…..
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-13072013/#comment-662336
Casting a side eye at the cavalier trivialisation of rape culture. Fancy that.
Just been banned at Whaleoil
Damn! Should have been nicer….
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2014/07/whaleoil-general-debate-28/#comment-1491931972
You don’t appear to have been banned. Just told to pull your head in.
Yeah but he had to read it very quickly and only had time to jot down the gist of it.
He never said it was a literal report.
However his impression is guaranteed to be word perfect.
etc.
You really do seem to have a bizarre fixation with Morrissey Felix.
Perhaps if you concentrated as much of your focus on your musical musings you might rise to the equivalent heights that Morrisey has as a media critic.
Until you do put in the hard yards you’ll remain a fourth rate hack.
Fuck off Morrisey
lolz
chuckle
Colon Craig’s Conservatives are holding a conference this weekend, the Party manifesto rumored to be writ large on rolls of tinfoil and given to members as they enter the venue with instructions on how to use it as ‘a wrap’ is said by Winston Peters to have been plagarized from the NZFirst online policy manifesto,
Another rumor has it that Colon the Conservative had the ‘golden rules’ passed to Him from the space aliens after they had successfully carried Him off one night for a ‘probing’ which along with relieving Colon of 30% of His body weight also reversed His anatomical processes with the lower bowel functions now carried out above the neck,
Wee Matty Hooton, ever desperate for a starring role, with panhandler desperation, pretended? to be a chimp for the opening stanza of the Conservatives Conference held this weekend,
You have to wonder just how much money changed hands to enable Hooton the luxury of dribbling to a live audience of the politically committed, and here, the inquiry isn’t intended to imply that Colon the Conservative passed monies to wee Matty so He could waste space upon the stage,
Colons Conservatives are said to be having the first’ nationwide letterbox drop’ this weekend, people should be advised to burn these pamphlets at the letterbox as there may be some health risk if taken into the home…
Colon’s first print enema arrived in letterboxes today. It is mostly negative pandering to kid whackers etc in English only no reo here, and includes a reactionary quiz–e.g. “prisoners should be working–Yes, No.
funny how no one is lambasting craig for starting a party to make it legal to hit his children…
“Colons Conservatives are said to be having the first’ nationwide letterbox drop’ this weekend”
Return to Sender?
Whyte n Craig on the Nation today. Nutter vs nutter
ahhh the joy of P.O.Boxes __ no unsolicited junkmail 🙂
Ah. Yeah. Most of the junk mail goes to my landlord’s street-side mail box – except the occasional one that slips through addressed to me personally at my street address. I fail to understand how some people just ignore my PO Box addy.
Some have to of course. Some IRD and NZTA stuff requires a street address.
The trick to a happy P.O.Box is remembering to pay the bill 🙂
Couple of years ago I missed an end of year quarterly payment and they closed and sold the box (I was away and missed their ‘closing box’ notices, but they had my phone number and never used it) I missed out getting a whole stack of Christmas stuff 🙁 One brother just sent the returned card the next year 🙂
@freedom
The bit about NZPost not contacting you about planning on selling your POBox number is one of the slack behaviours that have led to them losing their business. The internet etc is causing it to drop away yes, but if you seek to keep customer’s with you and keep them happy, this maintains the base.
It takes work and attention to detail and involves employing people who have the task as part of their job and are monitored as to how well they are doing it, with sacking for non-performance. It seems to underline the meme that governments end up being slack, careless and inefficient – hence clever private operators can carry out appendectomies on gummint services to relieve the blockage, and our purses!
If that had been the situation that disgraceful Queenstown situation would never have happened. And how much slackness has gone under the radar before, that it took such a doozy of a breakdown in service to come to notice?
The postal side is a mess for sure. Overworked poorly managed. The front-office here though do a really good job considering the broad rural & townie populace they service and also being a Kiwibank branch the demands on their time are intense.
The not ringing me bit is what I very calmly complained about because my number was right there in the Boxholder’s information. But… paying the bill on time was ultimately my responsibility which I failed to meet and on that they were 100% correct.
interesting billboards in epsom
ACT have two, one for seymour and one with unclecousin for party. Internet mana for party, and john key for party vote. NO Goldsmith billboard.
ACT is saying TOUGHER ON CRIME , 🙂
The joy of having the letter boxes on the inside of the magnetically locked door at my apartment block. NZ Post has a card, the junk mailers do not.
I am picturing banks of scanners and laser sight cross hairs trained on junk-mail carriers 👿
Nah. Always go to passive discouragement. Can’t get in the door. Can’t leave junk mail.
It is like changing the garage access. Adding a cardswipe from the garage to the stairwell stopped people leaving their cards in their cars. That meant that car thieve getting into the garage couldn’t find a card to drive out of the garage with a car. Car thefts dropped dramatically.
@lprent
The car thief problem is a good example of intelligent problem solving. Good thinking, identify problem, analyse causes, consider various solutions, choose one and check it is suitable and not onerous, and whether it works to solve or alternatively, decimate the problem stats.
Let’s have this approach applied to most problems. If there are cultural concerns for that particular group, or involved groups in the area, then widen the considerations and have numbers of meetings that keep presenting the problem and prioritising the best solutions, to ensure that thinking is kept productively on target and dissimulation does not limit targeted discussion time. Arrive at near consensus, with last minute concerns listened to and provided for.
Still amazes me that the government didn’t include junk mail in the anti-spam legislation. Both waste time and resources and yet junk mail seems to be considered valuable.
It does tho keep a whole industry going, Parts of which we would obviously like to clean up their river polluting ways,
From the trees cut in the forest, to the paper making mills of the Central North Island and onto various printing factories the stuff gets to employ thousands as well as those who continually stuff the (expletive deleted) letterbox with it,
From my letterbox, i being the only unpaid serf in the equation, walk it to my recycle wheelie bin where the paid employee of the City Council whips it via mechanical arm into the back of the dump truck and from there off to be sorted and sent off to a paper recycle facility where it is processed and becomes part of the magic circle,
i would put one of those, ”i am going to commit bodily harm on you if i catch you sticking junk mail in here” signs on my letterbox but the above reasons prevent me from curtailing anyone’s employment even in such a waste of resources junk industry such as the delivered advertising i seldom bother reading…
Which actually amounts to a public subsidy to that industry due to the fact that it is our rates that end up paying for the disposal foisted upon us by the advertisers – a subsidy that we would never choose to pay as no one likes, or wants, junk mail. If junk mail is allowed to continue solely to keep an industry going, especially one that causes so much waste, then we have a problem. Such waste is, by its very definition, uneconomical.
Really Draco, much the same could be said about ‘paper shuffling’ employees of both local and central Government,
So how are you going to achieve full employment again Draco,(that’s rhetorical please don’t answer as my laughter will likely be a danger to my health)…
You really are saying that people should be employed to dig holes and then fill them in. Actually, that would be better than keeping the junk mail option that you advocate.
Certainly Draco so long as they were paid the ‘living wage’ and a rooted tree was inserted into the hole befor the filling back in bit was accomplished…
just like jellymeat.
think of all them poor nags.
two massive industrys producing utter meaningless crap and stinking up the planet.
““Colons Conservatives are said to be having the first’ nationwide letterbox drop’ this weekend”
In the middle of wind and rain! 🙂 I found one in my letter box and others which had blown down the street. A lot of money spent for very little.
Vicky
the american sentencing commission has just voted to give federal judges the ability to radically reduce the sentences of those in america serving mega-sentences for cannabis ‘crimes’..
..when the time comes..we need to do this here..
..the latest obscenity around this here..
..is someone losing half of their house..
..because they had a (single-figure) number of cannabis plants..(!)
..f.f.s..!..how does that come within a bulls’-roar of anything even faintly resembling justice..?
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/46k-drugs-prisoners-could-get-reduced-sentences-comment-ed-we-need-to-do-this-here/
You will be long in your box befor the ‘time comes here’ Phillip…
go phil.
cannabis will be legalised in the next term .
At the momen tthe hold up is by justice industry who are making monopoly profits and institutional promotions by criminalising something that would be nothing if it were left to people to sort out for themselves.
the kid who walks out in front of traffic is the same kid who will use drugs just to annoy the authorities when they dont realise that they are just ensuring white collar employment at exorbitant salaries.
Lolz, and i thought Phillip was the only one delusional enough to think that Marijuana will be decriminalized by the next Parliament,
Laughable, you should start communicating in … as well…so we could all recognize the brotherhood…as…we scroll down the page…
have a tui mate.
you’ll get over it.
maybe half a doz.
then sink a few woodies and go and beat your wife up coz she doesn’t look as good as pammie!
[lprent: Don’t advocate violence on this site even in some kind of perverted jest. Or I will demonstrate how banning operates here. ]
Well isn’t that just marvelous, i would assume seeing as you give out such advice that your well practiced in carrying out the same behavior as the norm on your Saturday night,
There are a lot of expletives that i would attach to anyone advising inflicting physical harm to their spouse deep throat, scum, being one that easily springs to mind,
My advice to you F off and engage in the behavior your user-name implies,( i would have reminded you not to foget to swallow but imagine your an expert at that as well)…
For those interested in the Minor parties, I’ve just set out details of their poll support this year, here…….http://sub-z-p.blogspot.co.nz/
Dasvidaniya.
Great to get real data thanks Swordfish. Must be tough for the minor parties to see such a small share. And still they box on in spite of the adversity.
thanks fish
‘
Boiling the Frog stuff.co.nz July 19, 2014
Let’s have more new coal mines, deep sea oil wells and frack where ever we can.
Let’s put up the age of Super to keep older folk working longer, and younger people out of jobs longer
Lets leave in place GST rises, and remove tax cuts for the low paid.
Let’s ignore the crisis in Palestine and turn down an invitation to have our representative to speak at the Auckland rally at 2pm in Aotea square today.
Let’s lose the election so we can bury the Left.
I wonder if the missile strike on MH17 would be construed as an attack on Malaysia. If so, we are obligated under the Five Power Defence Arrangements to have consultations with Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and the UK.
Ahhhh good questions.
And to lose 2 airliners in 6 months? Something screwy is going on. Apparently the previous 10 MH-17 flights did not go over Eastern Ukraine, but cleared south of it.
will it hinder the Malaysian bid for the Asian seat on the UN Security Council?
I flew that Malaysian airliner Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur route once about 9 years ago and it flew way south of it. In fact it flew straight over Iraq and I remember thinking how weird it was that we where flying over a war zone safely.
And your evidence for this other than the GPS chip the illuminati aliens inserted in your brain?
Evidence for what P? You’re deteriorating you know. You used to be funny once.
How did you know you were flying over Iraq? I hope you weren’t relying on the tiny little plane flying over the map on the screen…
And you’re calling me paranoid and a tin foil hat wearer?
If the tin foil hat fits….
Neh, It looks really good on you. 😆
No can do. It interferes with my bullshit detectors.
“I flew that Malaysian airliner Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur route once about 9 years ago and it flew way south of it. In fact it flew straight over Iraq …”
Big whoop. The planned flight path of MH17 would have taken it to within a few hundred km of Iraq anyway if it hadn’t been shot down. If there was wind from a different direction, it might well have gone further south. The routes are not set in stone and they vary according to the conditions.
Populux, Yep Mine too.
TRP. My point exactly. Your point?
Willie Jackson is on fire! Tuned in to watch Paul Henry and Michele Boag all set to demolish Kim Dot Com and Labour. After a dreary smug start from Michelle, Kaboom! Willie took over and rubbished the Henry/Boag position. Hilarious.
Start 17:35min
http://www.tv3.co.nz/THE-PAUL-HENRY-SHOW-Friday-July-18-2014/tabid/3692/articleID/101430/MCat/3901/Default.aspx
I wont watch paul henry but good to hear jackson doing a job on boag
paul who? Isn’t he famous in Australia?
Nah..can’t watch it. But all power to Willie.
This may be of interest to you all:
“You don’t test the water with both feet,” Peters told the Timaru RSA this week, adding that giving hints would weaken his negotiating position.
Although he has primarily targeted National since returning to Parliament following the 2011 election, attacking the Government on its asset sales programme, Peters said Labour was also promoting policies to which NZ First was strongly opposed.
Before the 2011 election, NZ First warned it could not support a Labour government proposing to raise the retirement age and to extend capital gains tax in the way it was proposing. Labour leader David Cunliffe has affirmed both policies going into the September 20 election.
“I think that lost them [Labour] the election [in 2011],” Peters said in an interview this week. “Don’t they get it?”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10285548/Peters-keeps-mum-on-who-he-d-back
(Hamish Rutherford)
My comment is awaiting moderation (apologies, I typed an incomplete name in the field).
On the Need for a Media Shakeup once the Labour Left Coalition Wins the Election
By Martyn Bradbury / July 19, 2014
“With a survey out this week reminding us that 83% of all New Zealanders watch traditional television every day, it’s no wonder the media generated hate figure of Cunliffe results in poll ratings as low as they currently are.
I started the daily blog in the wake of the 2012 Labour Party conference. I was very close to Cunliffe at the time and had been pestering him constantly during the conference about whether or not he would push a challenge against David Shearer as the blogs had been advocating when the membership changed the voting rules. His response surprised me, it was a flat out no with a very impassioned, ‘I am a servant to the Party’ styled justification.
This was annoying and frustrating. Unfortunately for the blogger in me, there would be no scoop because David Cunliffe was far too principled to launch a coup against Shearer. The disappointment quickly evaporated into jaw dropping shock as I watched Patrick Gower manufacture a false narrative about a leadership coup and crucified Cunliffe on the 6pm News. I know there was no coup because I was the one sitting on Cunliffe’s elbow saying, “you should take out Shearer’ and Cunliffe was point blank refusing to do that.
Watching Cunliffe then get punished for that loyalty was a burning injustice that inspired my decision to gather together the best bloggers the left have and put them all on one site to review the news daily in an attempt to give the other side of the story to the one the mainstream media manufacture. If Gower could deliberately spike a story and twist it that far from reality, then what hope for a well informed citizenry to engage with the civic issues of our day?
This counter narrative seems more important to the NZ media landscape than ever before. The current level of negative bias being exhibited by the conservative corporate media towards David Cunliffe suggests National’s infamous Australian consultants, Crosby-Textor, have suddenly gained editorial staff positions on every branch of broadcasting….
…Voters who have written Cunliffe off based on the media generated bias will be forced to challenge those views when they see him in action on the campaign trail and in the all essential debates.
If their boy Key does fail to win a majority, watch how quickly the media will start proclaiming Cunliffe and Labour have no mandate to govern. Even if Labour win, they will never get a break from the rightwing media and they shouldn’t expect one.
If Cunliffe leads the country after September 20th, a better Public Broadcasting policy needs to be in his top 5 list”.
.
– See more at: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2014/07/19/wow-the-press-gallery-really-felt-bitter-about-backing-grant-robertson-didnt-they/#sthash.jFefxXIH.dpuf
Yes, that about covers it.
Also Bradbury’s comment re the (alleged) left wing bias of the MSM.
DOC restructuring a failure
National’s restructuring proven to have failed New Zealand – again.
Well done Dr Smith no doubt at the command of Genius Joyce.
What we had was something to be proud of.
What we have now is shameful.
ah, joyce, the man who rubbished labours garage grants for a few days and then announced his own.
It would be nice to hear something from Labour’s spokesperson for the environment too.
Stuff has a broken link on the top of it’s main page. I found the original and still working link to the Dom Post article via google:
“Weather outlook, we’re warming up”
bookmark this one..!
..craig vs. whyte..on the nation..
..see whyte sulk his way thru the whole performance..
..at the same time so looking down his nose..
..he’ll likely need some chiropractic-treatment for his neck..
..it’s quite funny..bless him..!..eh..?
..whyte continues his stellar run of disasterous/laugh-out-loud media appearances..
..and knock me over with a feather..!
..i like one half of craigs’ tax-policy..(!)..(eek..!..)
..the first twenty grand tax-free part..
..it’s positively socialist..!
..and makes/shows labours’ non-efforts in this area as piss-weak as they actually are..
does anyone really think that if labour came out with a poverty-denting tax-free threshold..
..that they wd not see a jump in the polls..?
and of course..still flying that tattered/stained/rancid raising the pension age policy..
..that wouldn’t be having a negative effect on labours’ polling..?
..would it..?
(so..there ya go..!..ditch that useless flag..and dent that poverty..
..and then sit back and watch yr stocks rise..
..it is quite basic poltical-science..that formula..eh..?
..to not do both..will have the opposite effect..
..and for the raising the pension one especially..
..you are going to get hammered by national/crosby-textor..
..they will push the buttons of all those who only hear..’raising the pension-age’..
..and this will further hurt labour..
..does anyone really think it won’t..?
and why is labour so scared of the populism of their roots..?
..have they been away so long..they can’t find their way back..?
..labour needs to promise real change from this key govt..
..’we’re not quite as bad as them’..isn’t enough….
..it meeds to out-mana mana..
..it needs to out-green the greens..
..it needs to promise to end poverty..
..to take us to the new zealand most of us want..
..and then together with internet/mana..greens..
…to get that mandate to make those changes..
..and then to get cracking/on with it..
..shorthand:..labour needs to grow/show a set of (non-gender-specific) policy-balls..
..for many to start believing in them..again..
No. Labour will be mocked mercilessly for a policy like that.
Remember “show me the money” last time? Unless Labour can put forward a comprehensive costing showing how they will fund it, then they will be toast. (again)
Chernobyling the Green and IMP vote to save some Labour MPs arses, is hadly a winning strategy.
IMP is a good enough reason for the “missing 800,000” to come out and vote, but I cant see them turning out on election day.
“..Unless Labour can put forward a comprehensive costing showing how they will fund it..”
..financial transaction tax on the banksters..(treasury said that would raise as much as that tax that hurts the poorest most..gst..does..)
..and as part of a concerted effort to turn around the ever-yawning inequality. in new zealand…?
..a land tax wd be a good place to start..
sadly to get it you also get beating your children, ridiculous knee jerks criminal justice system and no decent sex and relationship ed in schools
not if labour do it..
Awesome news this morning. Just heard that Peters has ruled out working with Internet Mana.
Thats a good sign.
He hates the Greens, and now wont work with Kim’s party.
Not going to help the ‘left’ block at all.
If he gets past 5% and goes with the Nats – the left will be decimated.
James-Peters could go with Labour on the proviso that both they Greens and IMP are kept out of the coalition. He would love that. He would also insist as a bottom line that the pension age remain at 65.
Meanwhile the Greens and IMP would have no option other than to support Labour/NZF on confidence and supply.
There is another option Bearded git, one which i quite like the thought of, both the Green Party and InternetMana if faced with a ‘lockout’ by a Labour/NZFirst bloc in the Parliament could simply offer nothing to anybody and trade support on an issue by issue basis to whichever bloc in the Parliament gives up to the Green/InternetMana bloc the most policy gains…
mmm not really a recipe for stable government that.
I think we may be seeing the start of a shift from having a government that is only a part of parliament to parliament being government. From there we get more democracy.
Mmmm your comments tho smacks of the recipe of the stuffed shirt, the last Labour/NZFirst and the current National/ACT Government were of course really really good at stability, delivering nothing less than poverty as the stable diet for far too many…
funny to read someone on the right trusting winstons wors
Show me where it says Winston has ruled out working with the Greens?
He hasn’t.
James, what Pop said. Winston’s been working with the Greens these last six years. He’s just given Cunliffe the excuse he’ll need to deny Hone/Annette/Laila a Cabinet
Clubseat.They’ve heard of Ministers outside of Cabinet
Clubtoo, I expect.From the Colon Craig Conservative Conference via the NZHerald, ”We Are Not Loonies” so spoke Conservative’s CEO Christine Rankin in Her opening words,
Phew, thank the various deity for that, we all really really needed to have that point clarified,
Christine the CEO and also candidate for the electorate of um? aah?,(ssssh its a secret), an unnamed electorate is pictured on the stage at the conference with Party Leader Colon,(again courtesy of the NZHerald), and, as every picture is either worth a 1000 words, or, tells a story,(yes its multi choice day),
i deduce from the picture accompanying the Herald story that (a) the look Colon is giving Christine says ”i know what your thinking”, or (b), ”you are in my power”,
Christine of course will have to forgive both myself and the Heralds photographer as the picture depicts Her remarkably looking like a ‘survivor’ from an early 1980’s NZ mental health institution having been released after having undergone ‘the full treatment’…
Pretty good Bad !
” the picture depicts Her remarkably looking like a ‘survivor’ from an early 1980′s NZ mental health institution having been released after having undergone ‘the full treatment’…”
She is such a survivor. Of WINZ. Or whatever it was called at the time. Recall how she fought like fuck through the courts for readmission. And failed. The judge got it right. There’s no institution in the western world can handle narcissistic entitlement like hers.
Arabs Don’t Hate Jews And Jews Don’t Hate Arabs Or Why You Should Go To Auckland To Demonstrate Against The Genocide In Gaza!
Oops, here is why. My bad!
Oops looks like I may have to change this to:
Te Tai Tokerau Constituency
Green, Labour and Internet-Mana supporters Candidate Vote Hone Harawira
Epsom Constituency
Green, Labour and Internet-Mana supporters Candidate Vote National-Paul Goldsmith
East Coast Bays Constituency
Green, Labour and Internet-Mana supporters Candidate Vote NZF-Winston Peters
Ohariu Constituency
Green, Labour and Internet-Mana supporters Candidate Vote Labour-Virginia Andersen
Watch this space…
What’s Labour doing with hoardings this election?
All I’ve seen so far are the ones from 2011 with no pictures.
I hope they’re not seriously considering repeating that particular experiment.
Moroney broke electoral law in Hamilton by putting up the wrong sized hoardings so now they’re all covered with chunks of white core flute to bring them down to the correct size.
I struggle to believe some one as experienced as Moroney didn’t know the rules and regs regarding this.
Shiftiness or incompetence, neither a winner.
Labour hasnt any in epsom. ?. Yet…
ACT has seymour on one for electorate and unclecousin being tough on crime
Nats have the liar in chief working for nz inc but nothing gor goldsmith, biographer of don brash
Internet Mana party vote
Party vote Nats in Epsom! Goldsmith for the New Era!
Labour have no money…and it looks like they will not be putting their leaders photo on the billboards which sort of tells me that they in a self preservation mode, as we see from Davis, Mallard and O’Connor.
Hoarding photos have been all over Facebook today. Did you not bother to check your facts before trotting out the Nats’ doom-and-gloom lines?
http://instagram.com/p/qniLRAiAzi/
And so much for the MSM journos saying Cunliffe was holed up in Queenstown on holiday.
Hey Alex
Evidence?
Have you just made such a statement and sent it to the NZ Herald?
Another fecking liar. I have spent all day putting up vote positive billboards with David’s face on them …
And David was out campaigning today and helping with the billboard effort …
And now Rupert Murdoch is demanding that businesses have even more say in our democracies:
He obviously doesn’t like the one person, one vote nature of democracy.
@ Draco T Bastard 1.04
Just thinking of the quote you put above.
Hundreds of thousands of workers getting income at either existence level or declining wages own how much of the wealth which brings power, in the world?
One hugely wealthy businessman with huge assets, needed media and information infrastructure plus a megabyte full of assets : O- ! -oxo> how is the power balance unfair
to the wealthy one?
It’s not – it’s unfair to the workers and Murdoch wants to make it even more unfair to them.
how many unions spoke at the B20 Summit
roopit seems to have a case of raging megalomania that is in no way ameliorated by senile dementia.
Labour and the left have a big problem.
No matter how bad the news is for John Key and the NACTs, the polls and the MSM show that National are way ahead of Labour in the polls and the MSM can’t wait to have a go at Labour and David Cunliffe. This is not surprising when you look at who makes up the main body of the press/TV political scene.
The following people/organisations are National friendly but more importantly they are ANTI-LEFT:
NZ Herald
TV1
TV3
Talkback radio
John Armstrong
Vernon Small
John Roughan
Tracy Watkins
Claire Trevett
Fran O’Sullivan
Matthew Hooton
Bill Ralston & wife
Sean Plunket
Guyon Espiner
Susan Wood
Claire Robinson
Michelle Boag
Bob Jones
Audrey Young
David Farrar
Cameron Slater
Jane Clifton
Jim Mora
Kerry McIvor
Bryce Edwards.
These people/organisations can’t wait to have a go at the Left/David Cunliffe. They may not write positive pieces about the NACTs (lets face it, there aren’t many good things you can say about them) but they do something far worse – they are relentless in their critism of the left. The left have NO CHANCE they say, David Cunliffe should resign, they say, ad nauseum.
Opposing these forces you have a few who mostly support the left:
Rod Oram
Martyn Bradbury
Chris Trotter (when he is not criticising them as well)
Jose Pagani (ditto)
Mike Williams (ditto)
anyone else?
How does the left counter this fire power? I don’t know, but unless they do then this election is as good as lost right now. We can only hope that something happens that wakes the electorate out of it’s stupor and looks a little deeper and beyond the main headlines and soundbites.
I apologise up front for not being able to participate fully in any discussion arising from this comment but I am restricted by other commitments, sorry.
We do what the right are so good at – we collectivise. We get all left leaning political parties to have a weekly fee of $1 to $5 each to belong to the party. We then have it so that say 1/5th of that goes to a left journalist organisation that investigates and reports on what’s happening in politics and economics and is distributed through it’s own broadcast media and website. An organisation not dependent upon government because you can be sure that a National government will cut public broadcasting again.
+1
all the left needs are micro pulse radio stations.they are low powered but work on line of sight.
one on the top of any Auckland volcano will cover the whole area.
its not fucking rocket science but the problem seems to be persuading some on the left who should know better to fork out!
How’s life [deleted] – always enjoy your random musings.
[lprent: No speculating on peoples in real life identities and especially trying to out them, unless they offer it themselves. I get irritated about it and it violates our policies. Banned 4 weeks.]
Snigger,(only on planet Draco)…
It’s because of attitudes like yours that we on the left fail to do anything.
Um, free education and healthcare, public transport, near-universal enfranchisement (with the ugly exception of National’s stripping the right to vote from prison inmates), progressive taxation, power companies, Soviet era communism, no, wait…
We do plenty.
/facepalm
And yet the nation has been going slowly more to the right over the last thirty years. The right-wing have been undermining society for that long because of their ownership of the MSM and their ruthless undermining of of state departments.
We need to stop that and the way to do it is to work together. Not as a single block but communicated out to the rest of the nation through a single channel that is not dependent upon state funds or advertisers.
And perhaps not a single channel per se, as that is not resilient enough, but a network of lighter, smaller alternative media channels.
Add in digital broadcasting too (secured from GCHQ & other spying/manipulative attempts) – a project that can be led by IMP and KDC?
They could do that quite comfortably on just $750K of the $3M KDC gifted IMP.
Well no Draco, when ‘i’ have an idea ‘i’ usually take steps to see how much traction such an idea has in whatever community the idea is intended to benefit,
So, your idea will work or fail depending how much work, other than sitting on your posterior going tap tap tap on the computer, you personally put in to promoting it,
Good luck with trotting such an ‘idea’ round the various political parties i can really,(incoming sarc),see them all falling all over each other in a headlong rush to print out the $50–250 a year levy forms to tax their members,
i can also see ‘the mass movement’ leaping into action once your ‘idea’ became known to the various members of the various Parties, the mass movement out the door as they all canceled their memberships that is,
Hey its not all doom and gloom,(more incoming sarc), You could be installed as the editor and as Phillip fancies Himself as some sort of journalist He could be used to babble incoherently in a print version of His usual ravings from here,
Your editorials, with a few hundred dots inserted here and there could be disguised as incoherence, which would probably be a blessing, because if the Parties of the left adopted your collected ravings as a policy platform, along with having lost all the memberships via your ‘idea’ of an imposed levy, they would lose 99% of their actual voters…
Yep, as I thought – you’re an idiot.
This whole forum is a place to have such discussions.
Now how many years have you in particular Draco been sitting here going tap tap tap with your ‘discussions’,
The expectation that you seem to have that your effete efforts will have the slightest effect is tragically laughable,
i can well suppose that you think such ‘ideas’ that you periodically dredge from your nether regions will fire and inspire the ‘mass movement’ which only exists in your and other equally tragic minds,
The fact is Draco that the only mass being moved from your ruminations and lofty expounding of life on Planet Draco is from your poor tortured bowels in the direction of the device of ablutions,(unless you manage to get it into written form first that is)…
@bad
yoo have never had an idea in your life.
all you have done in life is what you have been told to do.
you have a desperate need to kiss arse and have your head patted by your betters for being a good little sickophant.
i would bother to disagree with you but find i cannot be bothered to engage with a sad arsehole that publicly advises people that they should get pissed and assault their spouses…
If you cant recognise irony then you must be pissed.
Besides any body who doesn’t capitalise the first person pronoun doesn’t think much of themselves anyway.
The inevitable result of too much alcohol.
It also induces sycophancy and reliance on others for self esteem.
You are the sad cat.
have another woody.
Women beaters like what you appear to be deep throat always find an excuse for their behavior when called upon it,
i do not drink, haven’t for a number of years so you had better do a quick change in your pretend analysis of me,
As above i suggest you F off and engage with someone in the behavior your user-name implies you to be an expert in…
You just a really sad person.
I dont believe a word you say.
You dont seem to understand anything about the world except kissing tory arses so they will like you and throw a few crumbs in your direction.
You need to look inside yourself and ask yourself some questions about why you feel the way you do.
You obviously need the services of a shrink or a drunk counselor deep throat,(why didn’t you just cut to the chase and put up c**k-sucker as your user-name),
i could advise you of the name of some really bad ones, shrinks that is, but, i am sure a women hater/beater like you have made yourself appear to be tonight will sooner or later have one compulsorily applied to your (head)case by the courts so there is little need…
I see you are talking to yourself now.
that is maundering and a sure sign of alcoholism.
all you have done here tonight is cast slurs and demean everyone else without making one constructive argument for or against.
You are just a creep now fuck off.
Its time for my milo now and the sleep of the just.
so dont forget now.
Thats fuck off!
🙄 have two 🙄 …
You know, bad, your anger issues (and related symptoms such as homophobia) can be addressed and changed for the better. The first step is to acknowledge to yourself that you need help. Check out these places or just try talking to a trusted friend. And, no, I’m not trying to wind you up.
http://www.angermanagement.org.nz/
http://aucklandtherapy.co.nz/Counselling+issues/Anger+management+counselling.htm
http://manalive.org.nz/
TRP, so you have given up your position as the Liar in Chief,(such Lies covered up with glib false claims of mistakes made), in favor of the pretense of knowing whether or not any particular person is angry or not,
Such faux claims from the likes of you and the other tragic i have just had the displeasure of having a conversation with are laughable,(which is pretty much applied round here to anything you happen to publish on any given day),
Take your pretend analysis TRP,(stranger to the truth), and shove it up your arse, the day i take advice from you will be the day that hell freezes over,
Feel free to continue to whine tho, such exchanges are much appreciated round here for the laughter,at you, they provoke…
It’s ok, bad. Just check the websites out. You don’t have to tell anyone here you’ve done so and they really can help. Kirwin’s one is good too. All the best.
This 🙄 is all your comments are worth TRP, a 🙄 couple of them to put you on a par with the previous lightweight…
Kim Hill?
Native Affairs
Andrea Vance?
Brilliant list and so correct Kenny. Add to it on the right the Otago Daily Times, notably so-called political correspondent Dene McKenzie. Oh and the Dominion Post.
And add Brian Gould on the left.
BG and the rest, unfortunately we need quick answers….
I forgot Helen Kelly and Robert Reid also.
kenny-we all forgot John Campbell who is sympathetic to the left. I think Cunliffe should arrange go on Campbell’s show if possible. As part of this Cunliffe needs to get the male vote back-this is urgently needed given the polls showing falling male support. (This is not to criticise what he said about violence against women which has been taken out of context and twisted on purpose by the MSM).
If Cunliffe fishes, he should be seen fishing. If he hunts he should be seen hunting. A policy should be announced for the huntin/fishin /4WD brigade to latch on to-announce this live on Campbell’s show.
He also needs to be seen at the rugby etc etc.
We all know Cunliffe is clever but I also think Cunliffe needs to show some animal and come out fighting a bit more. Maybe some tub thumping street corner speeches. Something to break the mold of the devious MSM’s dialogue.
just received the first installment of colin craigs bummf in the mailbox.
more waste of paper.
felling forests and filling the rivers with chlorine bleach to make crap that people throw away.
thats progress I suppose.
He is not a christian.
He thinks he is Moses.
Jesus gives people the option.
Craig is disposed to TELLING people what to do.
Him and his crew have just confabulated a whole lot of guff and now they think they are christians.
nooooooooooo.
“He is not a christian.
He thinks he is Moses.
Jesus gives people the option.
Craig is disposed to TELLING people what to do.”
Agreed!
Here are the first pics from the Demonstration against the Genocidal Israeli attack on Gaza held in Auckland!
So much to talk about and respond to but not enough time!
I do have to say though driving, through Tawa earlier I noticed a very large professionally sign written sign attached to the fence of ITM.
“David
You may be sorry for being a man
BUT WE ARE NOT!!!
Toot if you’re a man”
What a freaking 🙄 moment that was. I will be writing to the manager of the Tawa store as well as the general manager for ITM New Zealand, and educate them on the meaning of David Cunliffe’s FULL statement at the Women’s Refuge conference and let them just how much that meant to me as a woman.
I wish there was some way I could get a photo of it up on TS. It would be fantastic if we could get some men speaking with ITM as well.
We don’t need idiotic crap like this in Ohariu, this is a seat Labour has to take from Dunne!
Thanks Rosie, it’s already been picked up (in nasty and negative ways)
by the NZ Herald. Also by KB and WO.
Oh crap. Thanks karol. Look’s like a counter campaign is needed. I won’t visit Kiwiblog or fail oil, I can only imagine what has been said.
On the plus side, in the hour that we were in close proximity to that area only one driver tooted their horn, but then again I see it was picked up by the herald on 14th July so maybe the locals are over their tooting.
it seems its better to stand for nothing like dunne than apologise for some of the things done in the name of boys being boys
@ karol 4.15
I see the words the necklace is far from charming on The Hairy site? What’s that? Is it left over from the last image that was there? Anybody explain? And that looks like a professionally painted sign. Definitely not the sort or size that I attempt at home.
It is sign writing by a skilled hand. No doubt about that. (An evaporating skill set)
There is an appropriate image lower down the page using the tag, so most likely a layout oversight from whenever the page was updated to include the toot image.
Being purposefully left to promote ‘jewellery is not manly’?
An unlikely stretch,
I hope 😕
well most tory voters have had the snip and they are just capons.
they are not men.
just frightened little boys fixated on toys and and any consumer goods that make them look like big shots.
I see the ABC’s are now reported as being pissed off with DC taking a holiday. Yeah, don’t you hate that work/life balance thing… or maybe public shows of disloyalty are what we should really hate. If these reports are true then Phil Goff, David Shearer and Anette King seem to be determined to screw things up for Labour.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10287781/Skiing-holiday-puts-Cunliffe-on-slippery-slope
The behaviour biases of the media are effecting the election being fair. The media are constantly branding political parties in one way or other except for National. Their obsession with National and the way they are framing questions to other parties is biased. They attack like a pack of rabid dogs and twist what others say constantly interrupting them with incorrect interpretations of what has been said.
How many times I am left wanting to say to the interviewer, “Shut up and let the person you are interviewing speak. Listen to what they are saying and stop putting your own spin on it.”
This is not journalism it is some get you game imported from overseas. I can make up my own mind about what the politician says, I don’t need you to put your own twist on it. Even panel members on Q+A like the Horton guy who is putting a negative quip about Cunliffe and the Greens or whatever in every answer he makes. Get him off. I want intelligent commentary from well informed unbiased people. Maybe the tv current affairs shows are so short of panel members they have to be constantly including people who are ex Act members or ultra conservative National members.
I’m thinking the whole political decision making may be better off without all this media contamination. Well certainly what is being dished up on TV and the papers.